1,720,995 research outputs found
Socioeconomic inequality in non-communicable diseases in Europe between 2004 and 2015: evidence from the SHARE survey
Full text linkBackground
The scope of this work was to investigate socioeconomic inequalities among European adults aged 50 or older in chronic diseases and behavioural risk factors for these diseases, namely, smoking habits, obesity and physical inactivity, between 2004 and 2015.
Methods
Data for this study were drawn from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement (SHARE) in Europe, which is a panel database of microdata on health, socioeconomic status and social and family networks of people aged 50 years or older, covering most of the European Union. The predicted number of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) was used to estimate the concentration index and to find the contributions of determinants to socioeconomic inequalities in chronic diseases.
Results
The inequality disfavoured the poor in both years, but the effect was stable from 2004 (C = −0.071) to 2015 (C = −0.081). Inequality was shown to be attributed mostly to physical inactivity and obesity and this contribution increased during the study period. Among socioeconomic status (SES) determinants, education and marital status were the most concentrated in both years, while physical inactivity and obesity were the most concentrated behavioural risk factors in both years.
Conclusions
To prevent chronic diseases, health policy should aim not only to improve individual health behaviours in the population, but also to reduce socioeconomic inequality. Our study suggests promoting a healthy lifestyle in the most disadvantaged socioeconomic classes as a strategy to improve the health conditions of the whole population
Demographic aspects of aging
No full textPopulation aging is occurring in almost all developed countries, albeit with differences in timing and intensity. This unprecedented phenomenon is evident not only in the change in the population age structure, but also in the impressive increase in the average length of life. After describing past, current, and future population trends, this contribution presents theories explaining the reasons for this long-term process that is completely reshaping the age structure of the population. It also describes the inequalities in aging (focusing in particular on the differences by gender, education, and cause of death), and introduces some measures of the individual health and economic consequences of population aging. The conclusions mention the main consequences of an aging society (e.g., problems related to the costs of health and pension programs for old people), and of an increase in individual life span (e.g., the effects on the well-being and life-styles of individuals, and on the social and economic lives of older people and their families)
Quality evaluation of grapes for mechanical harvest using vis NIR spectroscopy
Full text linkMechanical harvest of grapes is one of the operations that mostly influence the quality of the future wine. The shaking frequency of the harvesting machine is usually adjusted on the basis of the grape berry characteristics in order to limit grape juice production that is a potential cause of uncontrolled fermentations. These evaluations usually require time, personnel and laboratory analyses. The introduction of a vis NIR system to rapidly and reliably evaluate the berry properties in field before mechanical harvest could be a good alternative. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of applying vis NIR spectroscopy as a non-destructive technique on grapes cv. Syrah and Chardonnay to predict pedicel detachment force, pH and total soluble solids before mechanical harvest. The spectral acquisitions were performed using a portable vis NIR device (600-1000 nm). An Ordinary Least Square evaluation was applied to assess vis NIR prediction ability on grapes. The system gave excellent performance in predicting pH for both varieties (R 2 = 0.99), also confirmed by the indicators SECV/M and Bias/M respectively equal to 0.024 and 0.014 for cv. Syrah and 0.002 and -0.009 for Chardonnay. The vis NIR device showed satisfactory prediction ability even regarding total soluble solids (R 2 = 0.997 for Syrah and 0.9935 for Chardonnay) with SECV/M = 0.090, Bias/M = 0.071 for cv. Syrah and SECV/M = 0.00, Bias/M = -0.002 for Chardonnay. However, the results showed the low vis NIR ability to predict detachment force for Chardonnay grapes (R 2 = 0.85, SECV/M = 1.008; Bias/M = -0.834), and an acceptable one for Syrah grapes (R 2 = 0.87; SECV/M = 0.362; Bias/M = -0.109). Since detachment force has an enormous importance in grapes mechanical harvest, the possibility of applying vis NIR spectroscopy in field before harvest is very encouraging for cv. Syrah (red grapes) and needs to be improved for cv. Chardonnay (white grapes)
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Europe 2020: analisi multidimensionale a livello macro e micro per il confronto e il monitoraggio nel settore delle rinnovabili
Full text linkObiettivo generale del presente lavoro è proporre analisi statistiche di tipo multidimensionale finalizzate a valutare e monitorare gli effetti delle politiche Europee nel settore delle Fonti di Energia Rinnovabile (FER), con un focus specifico al monitoraggio della Europe2020 a livello regionale. La prima parte del lavoro presenta un panoramica storica dei principali atti legislativi con i quali è stata avviata concretamente la Politica Energetica sulle rinnovabili a livello Europeo. Alla luce delle informazioni così raccolte, la seconda parte della tesi ha avuto ad oggetto l’analisi dell’effetto, misurato in termini di Mega Watt installati, dei regimi di sostegno implementati da 11 Stati Membri UE nel settore fotovoltaico. I risultati ottenuti mediante l’applicazione del metodo STATIS e della Data Envelopment Analysis Window, hanno consentito di confermare sia l’ipotesi di armonizzazione from the bottom che si sta verificando in questo settore, nonchè il buon funzionamento di alcuni dei regimi considerati nel raggiungimento degli obiettivi della Europe 2020. La terza parte del lavoro, con l’obiettivo specifico di scendere a livello micro, ha avuto ad oggetto la creazione di un indice sintetico finalizzato al monitoraggio della Europe 2020 a livello regionale, con un focus sulle 20 regioni Italiane. L’indice (denominato IM_EU2020), costruito secondo il metodo di ponderazione e aggregazione dell’Adjusted Mazziotta Pareto Index, ha tenuto in considerazione tre dimensioni della strategia Europea: ambientale, energetica e sociale. Lo strumento sembra aver raggiunto lo scopo scientifico del lavoro, ovvero la scomposizione e analisi del contributo che ciascuna Regione Italiana sta apportando al raggiungimento del target 2020 a livello nazionale.General aim of this work is to propose multidimensional statistical analysis to assess and monitor the effects of European policies implemented in the Renewable Energy Sources (RES) sector, with a focus on the monitoring of Europe 2020 Strategy. The first section of the work, shows an historical review on the main legislative tools though which the European Union started its Renewable Energy Policy. According to the information in this way collected, the second part of the thesis has been addressed to the analysis of the effect, measured in terms of Mega Watt installed, arised from the implementation of RES support schemes in 11 EU Member States, in the Photovoltaic sector. The results, obtained through the application of the STATIS method together with the Data Envelopment Analysis (in the Window version), allowed to confirm both the hypothesis of a harmonization from the bottom and the good functioning of such kind of instruments to achieve Europe 2020 RES targets. With the specific objective to carry out a micro-level analysis, the third part of the work has seen the creation of a synthetic index aimed at monitoring the Europe 2020 at regional level, with a focus on the 20 Italian Regions. The index (called IM_EU2020), based on the weighting and aggregation methods of the Adjusted Mazziotta Parota Index, includes three dimensions of the European Strategy: environment, energy and social. The proposed index seems to have achieved the scientific scope of decomposing and analyzing the concrete contribution that each Italian Region is generating to allow the target fulfillment at National level
L'uso dei metodi di stima per piccole aree per l'analisi territoriale del mercato del lavoro.
Full text linkDispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
- …
