27 research outputs found
Gender budgeting in academia: A powerful tool for gender equality
No full textGender Budgeting (GB) represents an important tool to reach gender equality. The aim of this paper is to refer specifically to gender equality in Research performing organisations (RPOs) and to how GB can ensure Gender Equality Plans (GEPs) sustainability. GB can offer a financial perspective of Gender Equality balance and distribution of power within the RPO, unveiling hidden bias and discriminations. The paper outlines the origin of Gender Budgeting starting from 80s to nowadays and reflects on its first implementation in public entities, at governmental and territorial level and its current implementation within RPOs, wondering whether there may be a link between GB public administration and RPOs’ GEP experiences at territorial level due to the same local attention in gender equality. In this sense, the Italian case is analysed, since this country has a long tradition of local gender budgeting implementation that arises from 2002 (reagarding so far about 137 GB local projects) and a more recent but intense engagement in GB at RPOs’ level (about 30 projects). The experience in GB at local institutional level has in fact been very important to develop the GB methodology analysis by the LeTSGEPs European Project of which Unimore is Leading partner. Such methodology has been developed starting from the Account Based Approach and the Capability approach experimented in GB projects at local level in Italy. A powerful strategy to spread GB in Academia can be considered the presence of guidelines at national level, and again Italy can allow to test this hypothesis thanks to the recent production of guidelines by national level institutions and training activities. The GB methodology allows a budget reclassification as a dashboard to adopt an overall view on every RPO’s activity having a financial evidence. By adopting a gender mainstreaming and capability approach, the GB methodology allows to evaluate the intrinsic gender impact of the activities that have been funded and the male/female stakeholders involved at different levels. Together with analysing the Italian case, this paper illustrates the methodological framework and the GB process in the RPOs as described in the LeTSGEPs methodology
Classical control of a magnetorheological squeeze film damper
No full textAn adaptive squeeze film damper is one whose properties can be continuously adapted to minimize the amplitude of vibration of the rotor in any working condition. This paper concerns an adaptive squeeze film damper with a magnetorheological fluid (MR): a change of its apparent viscosity and stiffness is obtained by applying a magnetic field through the fluid. Electric coils generate the magnetic field and hence simply varying the electric current intensity in the coils can vary the damping effect of the device.
The device has been manufactured and preliminary tests have been carried out showing its susceptibility to be automatically controlled. The paper is focused on the study of the control chain of the rotor whirling orbit amplitude in the neighborhood of its critical speed.
The rotor is modeled as a flexible shaft supported at the ends with the rotor mass concentrated in the middle and with the damper journal mass close to one support. The damper reaction force is linearized so that the system dynamic equilibrium is described by a set of linear differential equations. Models with different combinations of springs and dashpots in series and parallel have been also considered and compared so as to have a better representation of the magnetorheological fluid behavior. Models of the power supply and of the measurement system are also taken into account.
A regulator classical synthesis is then performed to limit the shaft orbit amplitude keeping the damper journal displacement well within the range of the film thickness.
Finally simulation results are presented and discussed to show the validity of the proposed solution
Vulnerability to child maltreatment and neglect in Italy: A proposal of an indicator
No full textBackground: Child maltreatment and neglect is a significant social problem. Present work addresses the important issue of quantifying the vulnerability to child maltreatment and neglect, proposing the application in the Italian context of a new General Index on Vulnerability to Maltreatment and Neglect to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of this phenomenon. Methods: The paper presents the first findings of the vulnerability among Italian minors, obtained through the new General Index, based on a set of 65 indicators that already existed at the regional and national levels. Results: The General Index summarizes both the weaknesses of territory in terms of risk factors and its ability to react according to the policies and public services. A global index could be useful for allocating resources and monitoring progress. To understand and ensure the effectiveness of preventive interventions, it is essential to build both an overall picture at the national and regional levels. Conclusion: This new index could give policymakers information on where to direct their efforts to prevent child maltreatment
Well-Being Gender Budgets: italian local governments cases
No full textThis paper implements the methodological tools developed at regional and local governments level on gender budgets, using Sen and Nussbaum capability approach to design Well-Being Gender Budgets (WBGB). Following the methods first discussed in Addabbo, Lanzi and Picchio “On Sustainable Human Development: Gender Auditing in a Capability Approach” (2004), the framework used in this paper is an extended reproductive well-being macro approach that includes unpaid work, focuses on gender inequalities in well-being, and uses an analytical perspective which places the process of social reproduction of the population among the structural processes of the economic system and as a fundamental condition of its sustainability.The paper is divided into four sections. After the Introduction, in the first section the perspective and method of WBGB are presented. In the second, the recent experiences of WBGB adopted in Italy at provincial district and regional level are introduced and the Italian local governments institutional context is presented. In the third, a list of capabilities, based on the administrative structure of the local governments adopting the gender budget, is proposed. In fact, the structure of the different Departments (Health, Education, Transports, etc.) is seen as the result of an historical assumption of public responsibility towards specific dimensions of residents’ well-being, such as: being healthy, educated, mobile in the territory, carer of others, etc.. The context analysis is then designed to provide empirical information on a set of effective functionings that areused to assess gender inequalities in a specific well-being domain.In the fourth section, new tools (capabilities matrices) are introduced, drawn to help public policy actors to become aware of the implications of their choices on the multidimensional well-being of the women and men living in their territory. Moreover, some examples of budgeting monetary resources, taking into account well-being policy objectives are illustrated, with particular reference to the Piedmont Region and the Rome Provincial District.The results of different Italian local-government experiments in WBGB are proposed to share a different way of approaching the assessment of the gender impact of public policies and to open a discussion on their pros and cons. We think that their tools could become a key to policy integration and a basis for social participation in a public reasoning process on well-being, but they need to be discussed in a wider forum, and the possibility of their application to other countries and at different government levels also needs to be discussed
Fluorescence Assay and Screening of Epoxide Opening Reactions by Nucleophiles
No full textTerminal epoxides such as 1 react with nucleophiles (H2O, Cl-, Br-, N3-, and CN-) at the primary oxirane carbon to give mostly anti-Markovnikov-type regioisomers 5a-d. The opening products of epoxide (R)-1 with chloride (5a), bromide (5b) and azide (5c) undergo enantio- and chemoselective oxidation by horse liver alcohol dehydrogenase and NAD+ to give the corresponding ketones 7a-c, and subsequently umbelliferone 4 by beta-elimination, leading to a fluorescence increase at landa em = 460 ± 20 nm (landa ex = 360 ± 20 nm). The epoxide hydrolysis products give no signal. This enantio- and chemo-selective fluorogenic assay for epoxide opening was used to search for catalytic antibodies for nucleophilic epoxide opening raised against 1,2-azidoammonium hapten 8 as a mimic for epoxide opening by azide and against chloromethyl phosphonate hapten 9 as a mimic for the transition state of chlorohydrin formation
Valutazione dell’influenza della variabilità del materiale sul comportamento sismico di telai in acciaio con controventi eccentrici
No full textHow to select measures for gender equality plans
No full textAs recently announced by the European Commission, Gender Equality Plans (GEPs) will become an eligibility criterion in the future Horizon Europe programme (2021-2027) for every legal entity (public body, research center or higher education institution). The complex process of designing a GEP in a Research Performing Organization (RPO) involves different phases. In this paper, recalling the six steps process of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) GEAR tool for developing GEPs in research institutions, we focus on the third critical step of setting up a GEP. In particular, the EIGE recommendation for an effective GEP design is to get inspiration from measures implemented by other organisations and tailor them to the specific local institutional context. However, analysing other RPO’s GEP measures is a time-consuming effort requiring at least some experience and preparation to understand and evaluate the measures replicability, impact, effectiveness and sustainability. This analysis may be a very complicated task for organisations that are not experienced with GEPs. To address this issue, the paper presents a methodology that aims at supporting RPOs in the selection of measures to be included in the institutional GEP design. The proposed methodology has been defined in the context of the LeTSGEPs Horizon 2020 project and is based on a catalogue of GEPs measures that have been experimented by European RPOs so far. The LeTSGEPs methodology and related catalogue offer a classified guide of the GEP measures' gender impact through several factors, such as: the gender issues to be addressed, the target groups, the stakeholders to be involved, the different dimensions of staff organisational well being, the output and outcome indicators, the possible sustainability strategies. The proposed catalogue may represent a tool able to facilitate RPOs evaluation and selection of measures among those already experimented by other research institutions, offering useful indication on their appropriateness to solve specific issues. At a more general level, the catalogue also provides essential information on the main measures that have been experimented so far in implementing GEPs in European RPOs, the most common areas of interest, and the capabilities involved
Lightly reinforced concrete walls in formwork blocks for the combined seismic and energy retrofit of masonry structures
No full textIn recent years the interest is arising towards systems for the combined structural and energy retrofit of existing structures. In the present paper a retrofit system consisting in a lightly reinforced concrete wall realized within formwork blocks in expanded clay is proposed; the shape of the blocks allows the introduction of an insulation layer with high isolation capacity. The system is conceived to work in parallel with the existing masonry structure: the realized reinforced concrete wall acts as a shear panel devoted to carry on the horizontal seismic actions, being the existing masonry walls in still in force to sustain vertical loads. Opportune connections are realized in correspondence of the horizontal floors’ levels to transfer only the horizontal actions. Conceptual design, together with application to a real case study existing masonry building that allows to size and detail the panel, is presented. The results of experimental tests with horizontal forces on the proposed system are shown, as well as the calibration of a simple model able to estimate its dissipative performance as function of structural details and material properties
A Social-reproduction and Well-being Approach to Gender Budgets: Experiments at Local Government Level in Italy
No full textThis Chapter illustrates a new approach to gender budgets based on Sen and Nussbaum’s capability approach as experimented in Italy at local government level. Following the method first discussed in Addabbo, Lanzi and Picchio (2004), this chapter places public budgets in an extended reproductive well-being approach to the economic system (Picchio, 2003; Bakker, 2007). We consider this approach the most adequate to deal with gender inequalities because it includes unpaid work as a major component of the total work of women and men; it places the process of social reproduction of the population among the structural processes of the economic system as a condition of its sustainability, and it assesses gender inequalities in a well-being multiple space as defined by a list of the individual capabilities and effective functionings of women and men. We think that Well-Being Gender Budgets (WBGB) can also be applied to other countries and at different levels of government. They could in fact become a key to a greater coordination of policies and a basis for social participation in public debate on the very notion and actual experience of women’s and men’s well-being in a given territory.In the first section, we present the macro framework and the conversion process of means and services into individual and collective well-being; the following sections describe the tools used to apply WBGB, showing cases of their application by some local governments in Italy. The second section introduces the list of capabilities and the criterion followed to define it, while in the third section we discuss how to build a context analysis by using WBGB presenting a system of indicators. In Section 4 we show how WBGB can be applied to analyse the distribution of public expenditure. Lastly, in Section 5 we draw our conclusions.Addabbo, T. Lanzi, D. and Picchio, A. (2004) “On Sustainable Human Development: Gender Auditing in a Capability Approach”, Materiali di Discussione del Dipartimento di Economia Politica, No. 467, Settembre 2004.Bakker, I., 2007, “Social Reproduction and the Constitution of a Gendered Political Economy”, in New Political Economy, XII 4: 541–556.Picchio, A., ed. (2003), Unpaid Work and the Economy, London, Routledge, 2nd ed. 2006
Disposizioni in materia di apertura e regolazione dei mercati - Collegato lala legge di bilancio dlel'anno 2000. Un primo commento: profili giuridici, medico-legali ed assicurativi
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