Private Citizens Research Articles

Betterment capture for social redistribution: A developer obligation for touristic developments

This article presents the results of a research project on the design of a particular value capture instrument in the form of a development obligation. This has been modelled to capture part of the betterment engendered by tourism-oriented plans. The article subsequently explores the potential of applying this levy in the interest of social goals, thus complementing traditional municipal funding sources. The concept is applied to the Urban Zoning Plan of the Planning Unit 11 of the municipality of Lagoa, located in the Algarve, Portugal. It tries to overcome several gaps and contradictions identified in the literature and in the planning practices of different value capture instruments in diversified urban contexts. These shortcomings refer to: (i) uncertainties as to why the land value rises; (ii) undefined thresholds between betterment and profit; (iii) the classification of value capture whether as a tax or as an instrument of wealth redistribution; (iv) the application of the captured value; (v) dilemmas between private property rights and citizens’ rights over betterments due to public decisions; (vi) public regulation versus free market operation; (vii) responsibilities, benefits and obligations of private individuals in urban development; and (viii) the design, execution as well as the risks of capture instruments. This adds to the specific requirements enforced by the Portuguese Land Act regarding the economic and financial sustainability of urban development.This instrument is based on objective, reliable, and comparable data. This data is organised into a management information system which supports a flexible and continually updatable model to assess betterments engendered by public decisions. This model is easily generalizable to other urban contexts.Finally, the potential of the proposed instrument to achieve social goals is assessed against the background of factors such as the fiscal challenges currently faced by municipalities, the rising importance of increasingly diversified stakeholders and their awareness of issues of sustainability in urban development.

Medicines use in Italy. 2020 OsMed National Report.

The 2020 National Report "Medicines use in Italy", produced by the National Observatory on the Use of Medicines (OsMed) of the Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA), describes the Italian pharmaceutical assistance through different available information flows that allow to recompose pharmaceutical territorial and hospital assistance, concerning both the national health service and private citizens. In the Report the results of numerous analyzes, both general and focused on specific therapeutic categories and classes, relating to pharmaceutical expenditure and consumption, are reported, but it is also present an in-depth analysis about monitoring registries and conditional reimbursement agreements, and a comparison between the most relevant Italian data and those of nine other European countries.

School leadership development practices in Japan

ABSTRACT This study examines practices relating to four dimensions of leadership development (recruitment and selection, professional learning, autonomy, and evaluation) in Japan. Initial information was drawn from prior literature and websites of the national government (e.g., national legislation, policy documents, and national statistics) and BOEs at prefectures and ordinance-designated cities (ODC) (e.g., regional legislation, standards for principals, and PD documents) by searching for such words as “principal leadership” and “professional development.” Additionally, a survey on detailed information was sent to all the 47 prefectural and 20 ODC BOEs. Regional differences as well as a national trend were illuminated by triangulating a variety of sources mentioned above, while connections within and among dimensions are made clear by using legislation, policy documents and prior literature. It reveals (1) recruitment and selection overly dependent on seniority, and ambitious but unsuccessful reforms to attract private citizen principals, (2) inconsistent and undifferentiated professional learning opportunities, (3) limited principal autonomy over personnel and finance issues except for a few local governments, and (4) recent development of principal evaluation systems as separated from those for educators in general. Policymakers should carefully design policies that build the capacity for principals through a coherent, differentiated, and sustained leadership development opportunities.].

THEPROCURATOR CAMPANIAEAND THE ‘LANDS OF CAPUA’ ON CRETE

This paper presents a new edition of a boundary stone between Capua (on Crete) and Knossos. I identify the post of Publius Messius Campanus asprocurator Campaniaerather thanprocurator Caesaris. The appearance of theprocurator Campaniaeon Crete is linked to a dispute between the colony of Capua and a private citizen called Plotius Plebeius. This new reading has several important historical consequences: first, it is the earliest attestation of aprocurator Campaniae(and the first outside Italy); second, it offers a new interpretation of the juridical category of Knossian lands as part of theager vectigalisof the Italian colony of Capua in the form of apraefectura CampanaorCapuensis; third, it proposes a reinterpretation of the process of arbitration between a public entity (Capua) and a private owner.

50 Years of Mass-Fatality Terrorist Attacks: A Retrospective Study of Target Demographics, Modalities, and Injury Patterns to Better Inform Future Counter-Terrorism Medicine Preparedness and Response.

Terrorism-related deaths have fallen year after year since peaking in 2014, and whilst the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has disrupted terrorist organizations capacity to conduct attacks and limited their potential targets, counter-terrorism experts believe this is a short-term phenomenon with serious concerns of an escalation of violence and events in the near future. This study aims to provide an epidemiological analysis of all terrorism-related mass-fatality events (>100 fatalities) sustained between 1970-2019, including historical attack strategies, modalities used, and target selection, to better inform health care responders on the injury types they are likely to encounter. The Global Terrorism Database (GTD) was searched for all attacks between the years 1970-2019. Attacks met inclusion criteria if they fulfilled the three terrorism-related criteria as set by the GTD codebook. Ambiguous events were excluded. State-sponsored terrorist events do not meet the codebook's definition, and as such, are excluded from the study. Data analysis and subsequent discussions were focused on events causing 100+ fatal injuries (FI). In total, 168,003 events were recorded between the years 1970-2019. Of these, 85,225 (50.73%) events recorded no FI; 67,356 (40.10%) events recorded 1-10 FI; 5,791 (3.45%) events recorded 11-50 FI; 405 (0.24%) events recorded 51-100 FI; 149 (0.09%) events recorded over 100 FI; and 9,077 (5.40%) events recorded unknown number of FI.Also, 96,905 events recorded no non-fatal injuries (NFI); 47,425 events recorded 1-10 NFI; 8,313 events recorded 11-50 NFI; 867 events recorded 51-100 NFI; 360 events recorded over 100 NFI; and 14,130 events recorded unknown number of NFI. Private citizens and property were the primary targets in 67 of the 149 high-FI events (100+ FI). Of the 149 events recording 100+ FI, 46 (30.87%) were attributed to bombings/explosions as the primary attack modality, 43 (28.86%) were armed assaults, 23 (15.44%) hostage incidents, two (1.34%) were facility/infrastructure attacks (incendiary), one (0.67%) was an unarmed assault, seven (4.70%) had unknown modalities, and 27 (18.12%) were mixed modality attacks. The most common attack modality causing 100+ FI was the use of bombs and explosions (30.87%), followed by armed assaults (28.86%). Private citizens and properties (44.97%) were most commonly targeted, followed by government (6.04%), businesses (5.37%), police (4.70%), and airports and aircrafts (4.70%). These data will be useful for the development of training programs in Counter-Terrorism Medicine (CTM), a rapidly emerging Disaster Medicine sub-specialty.

Reflections on a hypothetical decentralized grassroots deployment solar geoengineering scenario

What if solar geoengineering were enacted not through careful intergovernmental deliberations or the actions of a rogue state, but by millions of private citizens taking matters into their own hands? This thought experiment—the subject of a scenario exercise at the Sixth International Geoengineering Governance Summer School—produced a range of critical reflections on international responses to such grassroots deployment as participant teams developed and critiqued governance proposals. Consideration of decentralized solar geoengineering, while unlikely, provides compelling insights for the governance of both irregular and more conventional geoengineering scenarios. Participants stressed that concerns with the collecting and reporting of data, hemispheric imbalances, and multidirectional questions of legitimacy are likely to arise in such contexts. Grassroots activity could further serve to galvanize wider state-led deliberations around geoengineering governance, forcing—but not necessarily deciding—the question of whether and how solar geoengineering should be implemented.

Trap-Neuter-Return: A Study of the Practice in Switzerland

Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) is well-established in many countries and increasingly considered to be the most effective and humane way to manage feral and stray cat populations. Nonetheless, it confronts major challenges everywhere it is practiced. Although Switzerland has an impressive TNR system carried out mainly by private, non-profit organizations and individual citizens, the management of feline overpopulation could be strengthened by improvements on a number of fronts, including legal and governance changes, education and modifications in mentality, and operational adjustments such as data management and analysis. TNR faces a number of common challenges worldwide, and given that it is still relatively young, lessons from one country can be valuable for another. Because little has been written about TNR in Switzerland, this article seeks to fill this gap by providing a preliminary analysis of the case through the prism of existing analytical work done on TNR in other countries.

Who are the users of national open access journals? The case of the Finnish Journal.fi platform

AbstractIn this paper we study the diversity of users of open access articles on the Finnish Journal.fi platform. This platform hosts around hundred open access journals from Finland publishing in different fields and mainly Finnish and English languages. The study is based on an online survey, conducted on 48 journals during Spring 2020, in which visitors were asked to indicate their background and allow their location and download behaviour be tracked. Among 668 survey participants, the two largest groups were students (40%) and researchers (36%), followed by private citizens (8%), other experts (7%) and teachers (5%). Other identified user categories include journalists, civil servants, entrepreneurs and politicians. While new publications attract a considerable share of the views, there is still a relatively large interest, especially among students, in older materials. Our findings indicate that Finnish language publications are particularly important for reaching students, citizens, experts and politicians. Thus, open access to publications in national languages is vital for the local relevance and outreach of research.

Willing, Caring and Capable: Gendered Ideals of Vernacular Preparedness in Finland

Abstract This article analyzes women’s own emergency preparedness courses within voluntary defense training Finland as a site of “vernacular security”. The article introduces a subcategory of vernacular security, “vernacular preparedness” to illustrate what woman citizens familiar with voluntary defense training make of security and defense policies where they are seen as key actors in producing grass-roots security, both as private citizens and when serving state institutions. The interviewees, both participants and course leaders, situate themselves within a gendered division of security labor characterized by male conscription. This produces a civic ideal of a psychologically resilient, altruistically caring, and physically capable civilian whose preparedness covers concerns ranging from emergencies and disasters to potential wartime efforts.

Review of *The Colonial Kangaroo Hunt* by Ken Gelder and Rachael Weaver

Ken Gelder and Rachael Weaver have accomplished an impressive feat of scholarship in collecting and curating a record of settler interaction with the kangaroo from 1770 to 1900. It is not a pretty picture, though many of the fine illustrations in the volume do their best to make it so. This sort of exploration of a well-defined – if small – area of colonial Australian experience has only been possible with the expansion of the Humanities in Australian universities in the last fifty years in addition to the philanthropy of private citizens. This elegantly published book comes from the Miegunyah Press, an imprint of Melbourne University Press, which is funded by bequests from Sir Russell and Lady Grimwade. The Humanities are now threatened by the present Australian Government’s current tertiary education policies which will make such research in the Humanities extremely difficult. This book exemplifies the character of research we will sadly lose as a result.

How COVID-19 Lockdown in Italy Has Affected Type of Calls and Management of Toxic Exposures: a Retrospective Analysis of a Poison Control Center Database From March 2020 to May 2020.

IntroductionBetween early March 2020 and the end of May 2020, Italy issued strict measures to limit further spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and became the first European country that imposed a lockdown on the population. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of these restricted conditions on the activity of the Poison Control Center (PCC) of Policlinico Umberto I Hospital-Sapienza University of Rome.MethodsThis was a retrospective analysis of calls received by the PCC during the lockdown period March 9, 2020 through May 31, 2020 compared to the same time period in year 2019 (reference).ResultsWe observed a reduction in calls from hospitals and emergency departments and an increase in calls from private citizens about exposures to products or intoxications during the lockdown. There were increases in unintentional exposures and exposures to hand and surface sanitizers among household and cleaning products. There was a decrease in calls concerning medications, which were mostly from hospitals and emergency departments. We observed increases in exposures requiring clinical observations among adults and referral to the emergency department among pre-school children.ConclusionsPublic health protection measures against COVID-19 to improve hygiene and maintain clean environments can increase exposures to hazardous products in the domestic environment. We observed an increase in unintentional exposures to household and cleaning products during the lockdown and an increase in ED referrals for pre-school children compared to the previous year. Our data suggest the need for improvements in public campaigns that promote safer handling of household products and prevent unnecessary exposures during a lockdown. The public health promotion activity can benefit the community after the pandemic and prepare the community for lockdowns in the future.

The FEWSION for Community Resilience (F4R) Process: Building Local Technical and Social Capacity for Critical Supply Chain Resilience

Local business leaders, policy makers, elected officials, city planners, emergency managers, and private citizens are responsible for, and deeply affected by, the performance of critical supply chains and related infrastructures. At the center of critical supply chains is the food-energy-water nexus (FEW); a nexus that is key to a community’s wellbeing, resilience, and sustainability. In the 21st century, managing a local FEW nexus requires accurate data describing the function and structure of a community’s supply chains. However, data is not enough; we need data-informed conversation and technical and social capacity building among local stakeholders to utilize the data effectively. There are some resources available at the mesoscale and for food, energy, or water, but many communities lack the data and tools needed to understand connections and bridge the gaps between these scales and systems. As a result, we currently lack the capacity to manage these systems in small and medium sized communities where the vast majority of people, decisions, and problems reside. This study develops and validates a participatory citizen science process for FEW nexus capacity building and data-driven problem solving in small communities at the grassroots level. The FEWSION for Community Resilience (F4R) process applies a Public Participation in Scientific Research (PPSR) framework to map supply chain data for a community’s FEW nexus, to identify the social network that manages the nexus, and then to generate a data-informed conversation among stakeholders. F4R was piloted and co-developed with participants over a 2-year study, using a design-based research process to make evidence-based adjustments as needed. Results show that the F4R model was successful at improving volunteers’ awareness about nexus and supply chain issues, at creating a network of connections and communication with stakeholders across state, regional, and local organizations, and in facilitating data-informed discussion about improvements to the system. In this paper we describe the design and implementation of F4R and discuss four recommendations for the successful application of the F4R model in other communities: 1) embed opportunities for co-created PPSR, 2) build social capital, 3) integrate active learning strategies with user-friendly digital tools, and 4) adopt existing materials and structure.

Rock slope stability evaluation using kinematic and kinetic methods along the Kamyaran-Marivan road, west of Iran

Interest in rock slope stability in mountainous regions has increased greatly in recent years. This issue has become a topic of major interest for geoscientists and engineering professionals, as well as for private citizens and local administrators, in many parts of the world. This paper evaluates the stability of seven rock slopes along the Kamyaran-Marivan tourist road, Kurdistan province, Iran, using various methods. The two main reasons for performing this research were to determine whether different methods of stability analysis provide the same results, and to determine how different factors such as the presence of water, tension cracks, and seismic forces affect the stability of these rock slopes. Firstly, field investigations were performed to obtain the engineering characteristics of the rock masses, discontinuities, and intact rocks of the slopes. Secondly, laboratory tests were carried out on rock samples obtained from the slopes, to determine the engineering properties of the intact rocks. Then for each rock slope, the contour diagram of discontinuities and slope face was drawn in the Dips v.5.1 software environment, and the failure mechanism was determined based on the kinematic or stereographic method. Next, the factors of safety of the rock slopes were calculated using the limit equilibrium method, based on the failure mechanisms resulting from the kinematic method. The accuracy of the results obtained by these two methods was investigated using SWedge v.4.0 software. The results indicated that four rock slopes have a potential for plane, wedge, and toppling failure, and three others are stable. Also, it was found that the stability of the studied rock slopes decreases greatly in the presence of water, tension cracks, and seismic forces.

Who wants to join a renewable energy community in Flanders? Applying an extended model of Theory of Planned Behaviour to understand intent to participate

Renewable energy communities (RECs) are citizens, SMEs or local governments who collectively invest, produce and use local renewable energy, with private citizens controlling a majority stake. As part of efforts to increase the share of sustainable energy production, RECs could play an important role. However, barriers to participation remain. Given their importance within RECs, it is of interest to understand what determines citizen’s intent to participate in a REC. Using an extended model of Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behaviour, we examined the impact of attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control on people’s intent to participate in a REC in Flanders, Belgium. We include several antecedents of both perceived behavioural control, attitude and intent, including economic, social, behavioural and attitudinal variables. Using structural equation modelling, data of 727 participants are analysed. Our results indicate that attitude and subjective norms are both strong predictors of intent, while perceived behaviour has a significant, but modest impact. We additionally find significant relationships between attitudes towards renewable energy, environmental concern, financial gain and willingness to change behaviour and attitude towards renewable energy communities. We discuss our results in light of previous work in this domain and formulate recommendations for increasing REC participation. • We evaluate willingness to participate in a renewable energy project in Flanders. • We apply an extended model of Theory of Planned Behaviour. • We expand on the current understanding of renewable energy particiation • Subjective norms and attitudes are strong predictors of intent.

Relationship between Citizen-Eyewitness Images and Audience Engagement with News

ABSTRACT This study explores the extent to which U.S. newspaper organizations incorporate images captured by private citizens into their news articles as an audience engagement strategy, and examines the relationship between the extent to which citizen-eyewitness images are incorporated in the news and audience news engagement. By conducting a machine-coding analysis of news images and analyzing user behavioral data on Twitter, this study found that U.S. newspapers tended to incorporate a rather small number of citizen-eyewitness images in their news reports. The findings also revealed that the extent to which a news organization incorporated citizen-eyewitness images in its news articles was positively related to audience engagement with its news.

The Relationship between Workplace Window and Seating Arrangement

The partnership of public and private sectors, civil society and citizens are required in the realization of the Envision 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Target number 8 goal is the main focus of this paper, by investigating the current work environment effects on its occupants. Office occupants spend most of their time in the work environment, hence it is appropriate to ensure a healthy environment is maintained. Presently, the workplace seating arrangement is mostly done neglecting the benefits of the window and view which provides a restorative effect to the occupants. A total of 267 respondents were involved in this study using a cross-sectional approach. The study was carried out in Kogi State Government offices in Nigeria. The study made use of a close-ended questionnaire. Subsequently, descriptive analysis and Structural Equation Modelling were used to obtain results. The results showed a valid model, the factors that are interrelated in the relationship between seating arrangement and window reveal a low overall regression weight. The low output suggests that urgent measures need to be put in place to sustain a healthy environment for occupants. The path diagrams reveal that seating arrangement to view satisfaction is significant. In practice, the findings of this study will serve as a useful indicator to provide positive solutions and enforce policies that will maintain a purposeful and effective workplace allocation for occupants. It is hoped that the study will give an insight into the enforcement of the Bill empowering Facility managers and other building stakeholders to effectively practice in public buildings, thereby promoting a healthy working environment.

Open Innovation via Crowdsourcing: A Digital Only Hackathon Case Study from Sweden

This paper explores HacktheCrisis, the Swedish hackathon that was a response to the COVID-19 pandemic to address the challenges that it brought up. The main aims of the research were to explore the feasibility of the digital only COVID-19 hackathon as an open innovation method and to uncover the major issues that emerged during the HacktheCrisis hackathon in Sweden. The process and outcomes were assessed, leading to the lessons and development of recommendations for future health hackathons as an innovation in health care. We have found that conducting the virtual hackathon for COVID-19 resulted in significant growth in the digital health community in Sweden. Governments should be as fast as the private actors and citizens to address these challenges and to undertake organizational adaptations. Not only the hackathons, but the projects and processes after the hackathons should also be planned. Matchmaking between individuals and private and public actors should be facilitated throughout the year. Technology companies should provide platforms that facilitate flow of process with nice structures and user-friendly tools. Organizations were not ready to utilize the outcomes of these hackathons. Compared to public organizations, private organizations were faster to join hackathons.

Knowledge Extraction on the Nexus Between Terrorism Criteria and Attacks on Private Citizens and Property

This study extracted knowledge on the association between terrorism inclusion criteria and one of the terrorism target/victim types known as “private citizens and property.” Three criteria determine what constitutes a terror attack: Criterion 1: the action is done with intention to attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal; Criterion 2: the action is done with the intention to coerce, intimidate or publicize to larger audience(s); Criterion 3: the action is outside international humanitarian law. Literally, all terror incidents satify Criterion 3. As for Criteria 1 and 2, the odds ratio was deployed on the global terrorism database, consisting of 170,350 records of terrorist attack incidents, to evaluate the nexus between each of these criteria and terror attacks on private citizens and property. The results showed that any terror attack on private citizens and property is 2.2 times more likely to have been perpetrated by a terror group in order to achieve Criterion 2 than to achieve Criterion 1. The implications of the outcome in counterterrorism are discussed.

The Problem of Police Nationalism

The Problem of Police Nationalism Jasson Perez (bio) The Capitol riot was a watershed moment for the United States. It exposed the extent to which the far right has become inseparable from the GOP and revealed the weaknesses of our electoral process under an undemocratic constitution. the violence at the Capitol also prompted another public reckoning with the purpose and function of policing in our society, which built on and contradicted the critique of policing advanced by the mass protests of 2020. In the days after January 6, many observed how differently police treated pro-trump and Black Lives Matter protesters. In response to those asking for more extensive surveillance and policing of white supremacists, abolitionists and other civil libertarians emphasized the limits of such an approach. It's clear we need political solutions to the conditions that made the Capitol riot possible. But the answer isn't just electoral reform, or policies to diminish economic and social inequality. We also need to deal with the politics of policing itself. The journalist Jeff Sharlet has given this politics a name: police nationalism. While Sharlet primarily refers to police nationalism as a right-wing project, rooted in an identity formed around "fantasizing punishment for others," there is a bipartisan political consensus that sees policing as the means to overcome the problems caused by inequality, reducing them to issues of crime and pathology. People on the left sometimes slip into this language, too, characterizing Capitol rioters, for instance, as criminal deviants who must be punished. Police nationalism is rooted in conservative ideas of law and order, expressed these days in the rhetoric of Blue Lives Matter, but it has also been sustained by decades of liberal police reform. the right sees the police as the "thin blue line" between order, stability, and security and illegitimate violence, chaos, and anarchy. Liberals instead emphasize the "law" in "law and order," appealing to proceduralism and increased professionalism as mechanisms of accountability to be strengthened so that police can serve the public good. Liberal police nationalism is inseparable from the right-wing version; the [End Page 96] Brooklyn Park police station in Minneapolis, which raised a thin blue line flag after an officer killed Daunte Wright in April, was the same police department that in 2020 was hailed as a model of liberal police reform. Looking at police nationalism help us understand the series of right-wing mobilizations that culminated in the Capitol riot. First were the anti-lockdown protests earlier in 2020; then came the counterprotests and violence aimed at Black Lives Matter protesters; finally, interwoven with both, were trump and GOP election rallies. In all these mobilizations, we could see a politics that contrasted the corruption of legal institutions with the simple justice of an order rooted in armed patriots–whether police or private citizens. these events were supported by right-wing donor networks. Violence against protesters on the left was encouraged at a high level, including legislative efforts to protect motorists who run over Black Lives Matter demonstrators. Some have pointed to the hypocrisy of pro-police rhetoric among people who violate pandemic lockdowns, or who confronted and injured police at the Capitol. It's more useful to look at how those moments are rationalized as an effort to "make policing great again," by discarding a liberal political elite who don't allow police to do their jobs and go after the real criminals. Once politicians–who are captured by a liberal elite–are no longer able to tell police what to do, they argue, we will no longer need to fight them. Right-wing police nationalists do not understand the police as a civilian force, accountable to a democratically elected government, but as a political force accountable to the vocal base of one party under a conservative and racist conception of law and order. Following the Capitol riot, hundreds of people were arrested and now face serious criminal charges. this effort seems to have had only a modest effect on trump's popularity within the GOP. Is this surprising? Confronting the rioters with legal retribution does nothing to challenge the ideological hold of white supremacy on the party. Meanwhile, around the country...

How Do Online Conflict Disclosures Support Enforcement? Evidence from Personal Financial Disclosures and Public Corruption

Public corruption is a major concern for democracies around the world. In the U.S., states have responded to this issue by publishing personal financial disclosures (PFD) for public officials online. PFD are a conflict-of-interest disclosure designed to relieve agency conflicts between private citizens and government officials by documenting overlaps between officials’ financial interests and public responsibilities. By adopting online PFD, states must weigh the potential benefits of transparency against costs to official privacy. In this paper, I explore whether and how online PFD supports the detection and prosecution of public corruption. I present a stylized model illustrating how online PFD might lead investigators to increase case referral volume and quality. Empirically, I find that online PFD for local officials is associated with increased referral rates and greater likelihoods of prosecution conditional on referral. I conduct 126 field interviews of federal prosecutors, journalists, and state ethics commissions to understand the mechanisms behind these results. I conclude that online PFD supports the enforcement of local corruption by reducing investigation costs and enhancing public awareness of official conflicts of interest.