53,980 research outputs found
Who benefits from promoting small and medium scale enterprises ? some empirical evidence from Ethiopia
No full textThe Addis Ababa Integrated Housing Development Program aims to tackle the housing shortage and unemployment that prevail in Addis Ababa by deploying and supporting small and medium scale enterprises to construct low-cost housing using technologies novel for Ethiopia. The motivation for such support is predicated on the view that small firms create more jobs per unit of investment by virtue of being more labor intensive and that the jobs so created are concentrated among the low-skilled and hence the poor. To assess whether the program has succeeded in biasing technology adoption in favor of labor and thereby contributed to poverty reduction, the impact of the program on technology usage, labor intensity, and earnings is investigated using a unique matched workers-firms dataset, the Addis Ababa Construction Enterprise Survey. The data are representative of all registered construction firms in Addis and were collected specifically for the purpose of analyzing the impact of the program. The authors find that program firms do not adopt different technologies and are not more labor intensive than non-program firms. There is an earnings premium for program participants, who tend to be relatively well-educated, which is heterogeneous and highest for those at the bottom of the earnings distribution.Labor Markets,Access to Finance,Economic Theory&Research,Microfinance,Labor Policies
L'autonomia privata nelle crisi di sistema
No full textSome rules introduced to deal with the Covid 19 pandemic changed the discipline of
contracts in progress. The paper studies whether contractual autonomy enjoys protection under the
Constitution.
The study examines the jurisprudence of the Italian Constitutional Court, thus avoiding biases
based on individual preferences.
The paper concludes that contractual autonomy does not enjoy constitutional protection
Seroepidemiology of hepatitis B virus in Addis Ababa Ethiopia: transmission patterns and vaccine control
No full textA community-based seroepidemiological survey of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia was conducted in 1994 to inform on the transmission dynamics and control of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Venous blood from 4736 individuals under 50 years of age from 1262 households, selected using stratified cluster-sampling, was screened for HBV markers using commercial ELISAs. HBsAg prevalence was 7% (95% CI 6–8), higher in males (9%; 7–10) than females (5%; 4–6). HBeAg prevalence in HBsAg positives was 23% (18–29), and less than 1% of women of childbearing age were HBeAg positive. Overall HBV seroprevalence (any marker), rose steadily with age to over 70% in 40–49 year olds, indicating significant childhood and adult transmission. Estimated instantaneous incidence was 3–4/100 susceptibles/year, higher in males than females in 0–4 year olds, and peaking in early childhood and young adults. The age at which 50% had evidence of infection was around 20 years, and the herd immunity threshold is approximated at 63–77%. Addis Ababa is of intermediate-high HBV endemicity, with negligible perinatal transmission. Our main findings are the identification of a significant difference between males and females in the age-acquisition of HBV infection, and marked differences between age groups in HBV incidence rates. These results should target future research studies of underlying risk factors. Furthermore, we generate a crude estimate of the level of coverage of HBV vaccine that would be required to eliminate the virus from the study population
Seroepidemiology of measles in Addis Ababa Ethiopia: implications for control through vaccination
No full textWe undertook a representative survey of measles antibodies in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 1994, to characterize immunity and transmission. Specific-antibody levels (IU/l) were determined by ELISA for 4654 sera from individuals aged 0–49 years (1805 <15 years) collected by stratified household-cluster sampling. The proportion seronegative (<100 IU/l) was 20% (95% CI : 16–25) in children 9–59 months old, declining to 9% (7–12) in 5–9 year olds, 5% (4–7) in 10–14 year olds, and <1% in adults. The proportion of children (<15 years old) with low-level antibody (100–255 IU/l) was 8% (7–10). Vaccination and an absence of a history of measles illness were strongly associated with low-level antibody. History of measles vaccination in 9 months to 14-year-old children was y80%. We estimate a primary vaccine failure rate of 21% (12–34) and continued high measles incidence of 22 per 100 susceptibles (19–24) per annum. Our data support the introduction of campaign vaccination in the city in 1998, although higher routine vaccine coverage is required to sustain the impact. The implications of a high prevalence of low-level antibody are discussed
IL CONTRATTO DI “PACCHETTO TURISTICO” NEI RAPPORTI TRA CODICE CIVILE, CODICE DEL TURISMO E CODICE DEL CONSUMO
No full textIl donation-based crowdfunding
No full textIl saggio mira a inquadrare il fenomeno del crowdfunding donativo. Raccordandolo con quello delle tradizionali raccolte fondi oblative o pubbliche sottoscrizioni svolte al di fuori del web, se ne mettono in luce linee di continuità (soprattutto strutturali e causali) e punti di discontinuità (prevalentemente legati al veicolo comunicativo del programma della raccolta), che consentono di ascriverlo al novero delle raccolte disciplinate dal codice civile senza con ciò sottovalutare i profili che ne fanno il punto di emersione di un nuovo modo di fare filantropia. Particolare attenzione è dedicata al problema del vincolo di destinazione allo scopo gravante sui fondi raccolti e all’istanza di trasparenza nell’informazione circa la destinazione perseguita e realizzata, quale elemento in grado di moralizzare le raccolte e accrescere la fiducia del pubblico.The essay aims to frame the phenomenon of donation-based crowdfunding, linking it with that of traditional fundraising carried out outside the web. Lines of continuity (especially from a structural and causal point of view) and points of discontinuity (mainly linked to the web as a means of communication of the program) are highlighted. In this perspective, the phenomenon may be ascribed to the category of fundraising regulated by the civil code, even though some aspects reveal a new way of doing philanthropy. Particular attention is paid to the problem of the destination constraint and the request for transparency about the destination of the funds, as an element capable of moralizing crowdfunding and thus increasing public trust
Sero-epidemiology of rubella in the urban population of Addis Ababa Ethiopia
No full textWe conducted a community-based cluster sample survey of rubella sero-epidemiology in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1994. Among 4666 individuals for whom complete data were available, rubella antibody prevalence was 91% (95% confidence interval: 90, 92). On multivariable analysis, seroprevalence was lower among individuals who were resident in Addis Ababa for 1 year or less. Approx. 50% seroprevalence was attained by age 4 years, and the estimated average age at infection was 5·2 years. The highest age-specific force of infection was estimated to occur in 5- to 9-year-olds. The early age at infection corresponded with a low estimated incidence of congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) of 0·3 per 1000 live births, equivalent to nine cases of CRS in 1994. The predicted critical level of immunity for elimination of rubella via vaccination was 85–91%, requiring 89–96% coverage with a vaccine of 95% effectiveness. Unless very high coverage of rubella vaccine could be guaranteed, the introduction of childhood vaccination could increase the incidence of CRS in Addis Ababa
Impact of fixation time on GeLC-MS/MS proteomic profiling of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues
No full textFormalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue banks represent an invaluable resource for biomarker discovery. Recently, the combination of full-length protein extraction, GeLC-MS/MS analysis, and spectral counting quantification has been successfully applied to mine proteomic information from these tissues. However, several sources of variability affect these samples; among these, the duration of the fixation process is one of the most important and most easily controllable ones. To assess its influence on quality of GeLC-MS/MS data, the impact of fixation time on efficiency of full-length protein extraction efficiency and on quality of label-free quantitative data was evaluated.As a result, although proteins were successfully extracted from FFPE liver samples fixed for up to eight days, fixation time appeared to negatively influence both protein extraction yield and GeLC-MS/MS quantitative proteomic data. Particularly, MS identification efficiency decreased with increasing fixation times. Moreover, amino acid modifications putatively induced by formaldehyde were detected and characterized.These results demonstrate that proteomic information can be achieved also from tissue samples fixed for relatively long times, but suggest that variations in fixation time need to be carefully taken into account when performing proteomic biomarker discovery studies on fixed tissue archives
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