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‘Don’t trust the experts!’: Analysing the use of populist rhetoric in the anti-vaxxers discourse in Italy
No full textThe contribution focuses on the pro-vax vs anti-vax debate around children’s mandatory vaccinations in Italy, a country where a populist government has used anti-vax arguments in order to generate consensus and consolidate its political power. A thematic analysis compares the main themes emerging from the comments to an online newspaper article published on Facebook about an anti-vax rally held in Italy in 2019 (organised by antivaxxers to protest against a new immunisation regime introduced in 2017) and those emerging from the main rhetoric used by populist political representatives in dealing with the topic of children’s immunisation (as retrieved from public interviews and newspaper articles). This chapter suggests that the distrust of experts heralded by populist parties and movements also supports and fuels the arguments used by laypeople to oppose official immunisation practices. It will be argued that the de-legitimising of experts is one the most troublesome traits of populist rhetoric, causing negative effects in society, especially in terms of decreasing immunisation levels and limiting popular awareness about fundamental facts about individual and general healthcare
Juvenile Delinquency and Criminal Justice in Italy
No full textThis article describes and analyse the phenomenon of juvenile deviance in Italy and the penal response to youth criminality, with a particular focus on the issue of foreign minors
Characterising the nutritional status of children with primary ciliary dyskinesia
No full textIntroduction: Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is a rare, heterogeneous genetic disorder where impaired mucociliary clearance is caused by dysfunctional motile cilia leading to bronchiectasis. There is limited evidence characterising the nutritional status of children with PCD, although lower body mass index (BMI) z-score has been associated with worse lung function (FEV1). Methods: All children (n = 43) with PCD, aged <16 years, from a single tertiary centre were prospectively enrolled. Information on clinical phenotype and nutritional status including bioelectrical impedance spectroscopy (BIS) phase-angle was collected. Results: There was a weak positive association between height-for-age z-score (HAZ) and FEV1 z-score (n = 28, r = 0.4, p = 0.049). Those with a low fat free mass index (<-2 z scores) had a lower BMI z score (-1.3 ± 1.2 vs. 0.8 ± 0.7, p = 0.0002). BIS phase angle identified more patients at nutritional risk than using moderate malnutrition cut-offs of either HAZ or BMI ≤ -2 z scores alone (21% vs. 4.6% vs. 6.9% respectively). PCD patients had a higher incidence of vitamin D insufficiency (<50 nmoL/L) (54%) and deficiency (<30 nmoL/L) (26%) than healthy children. Conclusions: We have characterised the nutritional phenotype of a cohort of children with PCD. Monitoring vitamin D levels is important in PCD patients. There is a weak association between lung function and nutritional status, and measures of BIS phase-angle. The use of BIS phase-angle may allow for early identification of at risk children and may therefore be of benefit for nutritional assessments in the clinical setting. These findings will help inform a future nutritional intervention strategy in children with PCD
Brief Report: Eyewitness identification in child witnesses on the autism spectrum:eyewitness identification in children with Autism
Get PDFBackground. Although there is increasing interest in the capabilities of children with autism at different stages of the criminal justice process, there is little research into how well this group perform when asked to identify perpetrators from identification lineups. This is despite theoretical and empirical literature suggesting that autistic children experience face recognition memory difficulties. Method. As part of a broader study into eyewitness memory skills, 50 children with autism and 162 children with typical development (TD) (all with IQs > 69) watched a mock crime event (either live or on a video) involving two male perpetrators. One week later, their eyewitness identification skills were compared, with children asked to identify the perpetrators from two ecologically valid video lineups. The children were also assessed on a standardised face memory task. Results. When asked to identify perpetrators in the video lineups, in many respects the autistic children performed at an equivalent level to the TD children. This was despite the TD children outperforming the autistic children on the standardized face memory task. Conclusions. These preliminary findings suggest that group differences between autistic and TD children may not always emerge on an ecologically valid, real world eyewitness identification lineup task, despite autistic children showing poorer performance on a standardized face memory task. However, as identification performance in both groups was low, it remains important for future research to identify how to scaffold eyewitness identification performance in both children with and without an autism diagnosis
Limitations of Trexit (Tourism Exit) as a Solution to Overtourism
Get PDFPurposeMany tourism destinations are now facing the problem of overtourism, and destination management organisations (DMOs) are in search of an effective and sustainable solution. With this as a foundation, the purpose of this study is to identify factors causing overtourism at popular tourism destinations and to propose an alternative solution to overcome this phenomenon.Design/methodology/approachThe research design is based on an inductive and a deductive approach. The paper draws its conclusion from secondary and tertiary data (literature review and online research).FindingsThe study shows that Trexit (tourism exit) is not a sustainable solution to overtourism and that an alternative strategy may be adopted to tackle this phenomenon. The overall outcome shows that if sociological factors, business factors, technological and economic factors are addressed, the effect of overtourism may be managed and controlled.Practical implicationsThe findings of this piece of research refer to a Just-in-Time strategy for managing overtourism. The findings could be useful to practitioners, as the study proposes an alternative means to overcome overtourism and manage destinations without affecting visitor flow and profitability.Originality/valueThis research fulfils an existing research gap, as it proposes an alternative solution to tackle overtourism. The proposed model also helps to provide a broader insight of the dynamics surrounding overtourism at tourism destinations. In so doing, it advances the existing body of knowledge by providing new inputs to a topic that has not been discussed, namely, Trexit or tourism exit
