Regulations In Italy Research Articles

There is plenty of asbestos at the bottom. The case of magnesite raw material contaminated with asbestos fibres

Although all six asbestos minerals (the layer silicate chrysotile and five chain silicate species actinolite asbestos, amosite, anthophyllite asbestos, crocidolite and tremolite asbestos) are classified as carcinogenic, chrysotile is still mined and used in many countries worldwide. Other countries, like Italy, impose zero tolerance for all asbestos species, but conflicting views repress the development of globally uniform treaties controlling international trade of asbestos-containing materials. Hence, countries with more severe legislations against the use of these hazardous materials lack of an international safety net against importation of non-compliant products. This research reports the first discovery of commercial magnesite raw materials contaminated with white asbestos (chrysotile). X-ray powder diffraction and thermogravimetric/thermodifferential measurements showed the presence of serpentine group minerals in both the semi-processed (powder) and quarried material. The univocal identification of chrysotile in the powders was confirmed by its peculiar Raman bands of the OH stretching vibrations between 3500 and 3800 cm−1, with an intense peak at ∼3695 cm−1 and a weak contribution at ∼3647 cm−1. Transmission electron microscope showed that chrysotile forms fibres up to a few microns long and up to 80 nm thick with a nanotube structure characterized by inner channels as large as 30–40 nm. Fibres size analysis obtained by scanning electron microscopy indicates mean length and diameter of 5.95 and 0.109 μm with medians of 2.62 and 0.096 μm, respectively; some among the fibres analysed exhibit the so-called “Stanton size” (i.e., asbestos fibres longer than 8 μm and thinner than 0.25 μm that are strongly carcinogenic). Quantitative analysis showed a chrysotile content around 0.01 wt% not allowed by current regulations in Italy and many other countries. More generally, our findings demonstrate that without shared policies aimed at regulating asbestos circulation on the global market, “asbestos-free” national policies will inevitably fail.

Risks of false accounting: Some reflections on the new regulation in Italy

International financial fraud, such as Enron, WorldCom, and Parmalat focused worldwide attention on the quality of accounting and in particular the accounting information fraud caused by a problem with corporate internal control. The authenticity of accounting information is the main content of accounting information quality. The purpose of this article is to analyze the current situation of Italian law on accounting information, following the latest reform on the quality of accounting information. In order to restore the punishment of the crime of false corporate communications, the Italian legislator intervened in 2015 on the issue with the Law No. 69/2015 of May 27, 2015, containing “Provisions on crimes against the public administration, mafia-type associations and false accounting”. This work aims to present the innovations introduced by this reform by identifying the new subjective and objective elements with regard to this type of crime, underlining the main differences from the previous legislation. The methodology used in this work is descriptive, as it analyzes in detail the new discipline highlighting the differences compared to the old legislation and the novelties of the new one, trying to highlight the various pitfalls that can be hidden in the financial statements. The paper is useful for senior management and fraud examiners in highlighting the areas most susceptible to fraud and the type of approach that can be taken to investigate cases of misconduct.

A step for geothermal heat-exchange regulation in Italy: the Ministerial Decree 30/09/2022

[In Italian]

ACADEMICS IN THE BOARDROOM: THE EFFECT OF A GENDER QUOTA REGULATION

In the framework of literature devoted to corporate governance and board composition, we take a peculiar viewpoint and focus on the presence of university professors in the governing body of Italian banks. In particular, we test whether the gender quota regulation increased the presence of female professors as directors. We find evidence of a relevant increase in the probability of designating women from the academia in the years immediately following the entry into force of the gender quota regulation in Italy, whereas no significant increase is in place for male professors over the same period. Our results suggest the need to enhance the career opportunities for women up the C-levels in order to fuel diversity in the boardrooms, not only in independent but also in executive roles. In light of the empirical evidence provided, a re-thinking of gender quota regulations would also be advisable in order to better pursue the desired outcomes.

The Institutional Tragedy of Pandemic Triage Regulation in Italy and Germany.

This article adopts a comparative approach exploring the reactions to the scarcity of resources resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic in Italy and Germany. Both countries showed a fragmented structure including individual hospitals, medical associations and recommendatory interdisciplinary bodies, such as ethics councils. Against this background, the authors use the different constitutional frameworks in which the healthcare systems are embedded to assess the legitimacy of the intervention by non-legislative bodies. It is demonstrated that, in both jurisdictions, a certain level of parliamentary involvement in establishing triage criteria or procedures is constitutionally required, as in situations of extreme scarcity the prioritisation decision cannot be determined by a mere clinical analysis but rather demands a normative choice.

Evidence-based practice among Italian osteopaths: a national cross-sectional survey

BackgroundWhile evidence-based practice (EBP) is widely accepted across healthcare professions, research investigating its implementation in manual therapy professions such as osteopathy is limited. The primary aim of this study was to investigate Italian osteopaths’ attitudes, skills, and use of EBP. A secondary purpose was to understand the obstacles and enablers to EBP adoption in the Italian osteopathic context.MethodsA cross-sectional national survey was conducted (April to June 2020) among a sample of Italian osteopaths. Eligible participants were invited to complete the Italian-translated Evidence-Based practice Attitude and Utilization Survey (EBASE) anonymously online using various recruitment strategies, including email and social media campaigns. In addition to the three EBASE sub-scores (attitudes, skills and use), the demographic characteristics of the sample were considered.ResultsA total of 473 osteopaths responded to the survey. The sample appeared to represent the Italian osteopathic profession. The majority of participants had a favorable attitude toward EBP. Eighty-eight percent of respondents agreed that EBP was necessary for osteopathy practice and that scientific literature and research findings were beneficial to their clinical scenario (95%). Perceived skill levels in EBP were rated as moderate, with the lowest scores for items relating to clinical research and systematic review conduct. Apart from reading/reviewing scientific literature and using online search engines to locate relevant research papers, participant engagement in all other EBP-related activities was generally low. Clinical practice was perceived to be based on a very small proportion of clinical research evidence. The primary obstacles to EBP implementation were a dearth of clinical evidence in osteopathy, and poor skills in applying research findings. The primary enablers of EBP adoption were access to full-text articles, internet connectivity at work, and access to online databases.ConclusionsItalian osteopaths were largely supportive of evidence-based practice but lacked basic skills in EBP and rarely engaged in EBP activities. The updating of osteopathic training curriculum and professional formal regulation in Italy could provide a suitable framework to improve EBP skills and use.

Safety at work, new risks and employer liability: prospects for post-Covid-19 regulation in Italy

The search for increasingly sophisticated prescriptive regulatory solutions regarding employer liability in the OHS system has led to several legislative interventions, as well as reflections and debates in doctrine and jurisprudence. However, against the background of new and emerging OHS risk factors such as COVID-19, less attention has been given to employer liability and company resilience. While the principle of “maximum technologically possible safety” is not new, the question of how it is to remain unvaried in the face of new multifactorial, ubiquitous, and transversal risks, without excessively penalising companies, has been controversial for some time. Given new risks, such as COVID-19, this paper will analyse employer liability in OHS as it relates to interpretative problems and the definition of its containment perimeter.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF FINTECH IN ITALY AND IN EUROPE

The author focuses on various aspects of the technological development of society and their impact on the legal sphere. Fintech, smart contracts, mechanisms of digital consulting on the securities market, shering technologies and other innovative components of modern legal realities have been reflected in comparative legal research of approaches to legal regulation in Italy and Europe.

A good scare is worth more than good advice: Educational regulations in Italy and Turkey after CoVid-19

Interrupting educational services due to the CoVid-19 outbreak can have serious and long-term consequences. This paper addresses the comparisons of the Educational Regulations in Italy and Turkey after CoVid-19 on in-service teacher training. The purpose of this cross-cultural research is to examine the content and the quality of training that is provided to Turkish and Italian teachers in service. In this study, the document scanning method was used. In-service teacher training activities within the two education structures had been investigated through document scanning. In general, despite the differences in the general framework of teacher training in these two countries, they both pay more attention to teacher training right after the CoVid-19 outbreak. Based on the findings of the study, suggestions are made about in-service training activities in Turkey and Italy.

The social debate about gambling regulation in Italy: an analysis of stakeholders’ arguments

ABSTRACT The Italian gambling market has been growing since the 1990s, becoming one of the world’s largest markets. However, since 2004, a number of municipalities have taken measures to limit the negative outcomes of gambling by introducing local regulations, especially ‘timing’ and ‘zoning’ measures aimed at reducing the number of Electronic Gambling Machines. This attempt to limit gambling has sparked strong reactions from the State and the industry. Drawing on data from three focus groups conducted in two Italian Regions involving 30 participants belonging to a broad variety of stakeholders, the present study aims to provide a picture of the current debate on gambling regulation. The study applies qualitative content analysis to examine the stakeholders’ different arguments and shows how the rhetorical strategies of the industry – namely confining the risks to specific vulnerable targets, negative impact on the labor market, increase in illegal gambling, ineffectiveness of local regulation in reducing problem gambling – play a major role in the social construction of the problem. Other stakeholders’ and social actors’ arguments are weak by comparison. To counteract the industry’s rhetoric, more studies of gambling policies and regulation are needed, while scientific evidence should be more effectively disseminated.

Is individual placement and support an "active" labor market policy?

The aim of this study was to propose individual placement and support (IPS) as an important component of modern labor market policies and as a paradigm to be considered while drafting and adopting them. Modern European labor market policies, termed activation policies, aim to support a personal commitment to seek employment by linking welfare benefits to active engagement in job search. In this essay, the authors describe European "activation policies," outline labor market regulations in Italy in the last 3 decades, and analyze core components of IPS in the light of labor policies. IPS, which provides individual psychological and practical support, has become a highly successful method for helping people with mental disorders to reach competitive employment in Italy. It has been effective in many countries, regardless of local employment conditions and market regulations. Its effectiveness may be greater in places with weaker employment protection legislation and integration efforts and less generous disability benefits, as is the case in Italy. Conclusions and Implications for Policies: Labor market policies should carefully balance financial benefits, integration efforts, and individual support. They should include IPS for people with mental disorders. Modified versions of IPS may also be beneficial to nonpsychiatric unemployed populations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Violazioni amministrative in campo forestale. Confronto fra normative regionali

The present work is proposed as a contribution to discussion about new Italian forest legislation and as a possible starting point for future policies. Some regional regulations have been compared for what concerns the administrative sanctioning rules applied in the sector. To give concreteness to the present argument, a specific case study has been carried out in the province of Cuneo (Piedmont, Italy). The istance has been chosen for its representativeness and high frequency, being its dendrometric parameters common in other regional contexts. Specifically, a pure meso-eutrophic beechwood has been analyzed. This has revealed a certain lack of homogeneity in the attribution of the form of forest management (coppice vs. highforest management systems). In fact there are different legal definitions of their dendrometric parameters. As a result, there are different silvicultural treatments to apply and very different levels of growing stock (in terms of number of trees, canopy cover area or tree volume) to be released. But it is above all the estimations of the allowable cut considered illegal (i.e. in stock volume and in number of trees), and even more the amounts of the administrative penalties that display the greatest differences. These differences would be even more relevant in the case of implementation of the European Union Regulation no. 995/2010, the so-called “Due Diligence”, which contrasts the trade of illegally sourced timber, and enumerates cases of law infringements strictly dependent on the configuration of the administrative offenses defined by regional regulations. The study carried out therefore highlights the opportunity to evaluate, in the appropriate areas of interinstitutional collaboration, the control algorithms for the best possible harmonization of the applicable regulations in Italy; the final goal should be the reduction of possible competitive imbalances between various companies operating in different regional contexts.

Healthcare professionals' perceptions about the Italian law on advance directives.

In the variegated legislative framework on advance directives, the first specific regulation in Italy on this issue came into force only in 2018. This qualitative study aimed to investigate the implications of the new Italian law on advance directives in clinical practice from the perspective of those who deal with this delicate ethical issue on an everyday basis, that is, Italian healthcare professionals. A qualitative research design using semi-structured audio-recorded interviews was adopted. The data collection and analysis were performed according to the Grounded Theory approach. Nineteen healthcare professionals (16 nurses, 3 physicians) working in a palliative care unit of a research and clinical institute in Italy. The study is part of the WeDistress HELL Project (WEllness and DISTRESS in HEalth care professionals dealing with end of Life and bioethicaL issues) approved by the Ethical Committee of ICS Maugeri - Institute of Pavia (Italy). The authors identified a main overall category, 'Pros and Cons of the Italian law on advance directives', composed of six constituent categories: Positive welcome, Self-determination and protection, Prompts for future betterment, Uncertainties, Lack of knowledge, and Neutrality and no suggestions. The Italian law n. 219/2017 on advance directives was seen as a legal instrument possessing both strengths and weaknesses, but able to guarantee the patient's self-determination and support healthcare professionals in providing care according to patients' wishes. An understanding of the healthcare providers' perspective may support the discussion on advance directives and bridge the gaps that currently persist in handling ethical issues.

REGULACJE PRAWNE DOTYCZĄCE WYKORZYSTYWANIA KOMÓREK MACIERZYSTYCH ORAZ HYBRYD CYTOPLAZMATYCZNYCH W WYBRANYCH KRAJACH EUROPEJSKICH

Przedmiotem publikacji jest analiza rozwiązań regulacji prawnych w wybranych państwach europejskich w zakresie badań przeprowadzanych przy użyciu komórek macierzystych o różnym pochodzeniu: z embrionów, hybryd cytoplazmatycznych oraz indukowanych pluripotencjalnych komórek macierzystych. Artykuł przedstawia obecną sytuację na gruncie polskiego ustawodawstwa, a następnie omawia zastosowane rozwiązania prawne we Włoszech, Hiszpanii, Niemczech, Austria, Republice Czeskiej, Bułgarii, Szwecji, Danii, Finlandii, Anglii, Francji oraz na Węgrzech. Wybrane kraje posiadają zróżnicowane prawo w zakresie możliwości przeprowadzania badań, począwszy od restrykcyjnych zakazów, poprzez warunkowe dopuszczenie wykorzystywania embrionów bądź cybryd albo indukowanych pluripotencjalnych komórek macierzystych, a kończąc na wprowadzeniu do porządku prawnego kompleksowych uregulowań.

Health protection and safety in physical activity and sport promotion: the continuous evolution of roles and regulations in Italy.

The promotion of physical activity is one of the main prevention strategies because of its fundamental role in reducing the risk of developing the major chronic diseases causing disability and death. Consistently with the approach of "health in all policies" for different age classes and health conditions, the Italian Ministry of Health identifies physical activity as a valid and economically sustainable instrument of prevention and health promotion for all the community. By highlighting the preventive role of physical activity, the Italian Government has recently inserted specific services regarding physical activity promotion among the Essential Levels of Care. The existing criticalities regarding the certification of physical fitness for sport practice, the use of defibrillator, and the transparency and safety criteria which should be guaranteed to the users of sport facilities are discussed in this article. The current debate among Italian Institutions may contribute to resolve these criticalities and to simplify the procedures, in order to make the practice of sport and physical activity even more accessible and safe for all citizens.

Ageing workforce and productivity: the unintended effects of retirement regulation in Italy

Making use of the quasi-natural experimental setting provided by the unexpected and sudden change in Italian retirement legislation at the end of 2011 (Fornero law), this article estimates the effect on productivity of a reduction of sorting mechanisms among older workers. The estimation uses provincial-level data. The increase of retirement age and restrictions on early retirement plans locked older employees into the workplace with a negative impact on productivity. Assessing the sorting effect contributes to the age-productivity debate, isolating more precisely the average effect of ageing on productivity.

Funding and School Accountability: The Importance of Private and Decentralised Public Funding for Pupil Attainment

AbstractWe discuss the issue of how schools should be financed, concentrating on the role of private funding and public funding via subnational governments as accountability mechanisms in the provision of educational services. The historical evolution of school regulation in Italy and Spain has created differences in the percentage of pupils who attend private schools, the percentage of private school funding coming from public and private sources and the percentage of public school funding that comes from central or local government sources. We take advantage of these institutional diversities rooted in history to estimate the disciplining role of these different sources of funding in the context of an educational production function using Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data. Our results provide support to both accountability mechanisms and point to the presence of an important interplay between them.

Reuse into housing: Italian and Dutch regulatory effects

PurposeThe need to speed up and simplify the practice of transformation and the topic of reuse is crucial in Italy. The purpose of this paper is to compare successful cases of reuse into housing in Italy and the Netherlands, in order to suggest improvements to the Italian situation.Design/methodology/approachPrevious research at the University of Pavia showed the need to change living standards for new residential buildings. This research focusses on existing buildings and gives a comparative analysis of the Italian and Dutch legislation for residential buildings. Interviews with professionals have been conducted in Italy and the Netherlands to better understand the differences and problems related to housing regulations. Good examples of reuse into housing have been studied to define common guidelines for intervention.FindingsThe findings describe the building regulations in Italy and the Netherlands concerning adaptive reuse, and reveals differences between the two countries. Furthermore, the possibilities and barriers for the reuse of existing buildings are highlighted.Practical implicationsLessons are drawn from both contexts, and finally suggestions for improvement of the regulatory system are made for Italy and the Netherlands.Originality/valueThis paper aims at revealing the opportunities and barriers of reuse in Italy and the Netherlands. So far, studies were performed to reveal the feasibility of adaptive reuse, though none of these focussed specifically on legal issues. No sufficient studies are performed so far on reuse into housing in Italy, and the comparison of the regulatory systems of the two countries is novel.

Regulatory Stability in the Energy Sector: The Italian Experience

Regulatory stability is usually depicted as the key factor to attract investments in any sector. If this is true, then the energy sector needs regulatory stability more than anything else: the transition toward low-carbon energy systems requires an exceptional level and pace of investments. However, this article argues that the goal of regulatory stability and the means to obtain it are sometimes represented in a misleading way. A case study of renewable energy regulation in Italy shows that regulatory stability cannot be equated with a ban on retrospective regulatory intervention and cannot be (only) achieved through national and international litigation. What is needed is a range of procedural and substantive regulatory measures allowing the States to credibly commit to a long-term strategy for renewable energy. The procedural measures hinge on the new National Energy and Climate Plans, to be adopted in the framework of Energy Union governance. The substantive measures include regional coordination of targets and support schemes, innovative financial instruments, and alternative ways to manage disputes.

La comunicazione odontoiatrica nell’era dei new media

ObjectivesThe evolution of health advertising regulations in Italy, the growing number of dental offices, the advent of franchise dental clinics, the new forms of personal communication thanks to internet and mobile technology developments, all of these require a revised marketing strategy from single dental offices intending to boost patient numbers and deal with the economic crisis begun in 2007. The emergence of the web, of new media and social networks provides the dentist with valuable tools to enhance the best ever promotion channel for dental practices, namely word of mouth upgrading to word of mouth 2.0. Materials and methodsWebsites, blogs, users review aggregator sites and social networks are platforms that have achieved a considerable development thanks to emerging digital technologies like personal computers, tablets and smartphones. Even now, web marketing tools are useful and effective ways to improve the visibility and reputation of the dentist himself and of his dental practice. Results and conclusionsThe web 2.0 and the growth of social media provide single dental offices with effective tools to boost their reputation on the web and in the local area. Through a well-structured website rich with interesting content, and through online comments and reviews, each dentist can raise awareness on the web about his expertise, professional profile and personal relationship skills. Therefore, the dental office can facilitate an increase in number of patients through careful web marketing and Web Reputation Management strategies.