308 research outputs found
Energy sustainability of Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC): A case study
No full textEnergy sustainability analysis and durability of Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) as energy source are necessary in order to move from the laboratory scale to full-scale application. This paper focus on these two aspects by considering the energy performances of an original experimental test with MFC conducted for six months under an external load of 1000 U. Energy sustainability is quantified using Energy Payback Time, the time necessary to produce the energy already spent to construct the MFC device. The results of experiment reveal that the energy sustainability of this specific MFC is never reached due to energy expenditure (i.e. for pumping) and to the low amount of energy produced. Hence, different MFC materials and architectures were analysed to find guidelines for future MFC development. Among these, only sedimentary fuel cells (Benthic MFCs) seem sustainable from an energetic point of view, with a minimum duration of 2.7 years. An energy balance approach highlights the importance of energy calculation. However, this is very often not taken into account in literature. This study outlines promising methodology for the design of an alternative layout of energy sustainable MFC and wastewater management systems
“Keep all the pieces in place” : narrativity in four contemporary American novels
Get PDFQuesto lavoro si occupa di quattro testi significativi della letteratura americana contemporanea, pubblicati tra il 2009 e il 2012. Si tratta dei romanzi Great House di Nicole Krauss, Let the Great World Spin di Colum McCann, A Visit from the Goon Squad, di Jennifer Egan, e Building Stories, una graphic novel di Chris Ware. Accumunati dalla presenza di narratori multipli che guardano alle esperienze traumatiche e di perdita della propria vita, i romanzi si compongono di blocchi narrativi allo stesso tempo autonomi e interconnessi, tenuti insieme da un elemento chiave che ne attraversa le vicende. Le singole narrazioni prendono forma combinando, attraverso la memoria,
presente e passato personale e storico dei personaggi. Ne risultano narrazioni che, pur scomponendo la linearità del racconto, tendono all’unità. Non solo i blocchi narrativi si completano a vicenda a formare il romanzo, ma attraverso la permeabilità tra passato e presente, i personaggi identificano l’immaginazione di sé. Attraverso l’analisi della trattazione del tempo nei testi, lo studio sostiene che in parte della letteratura americana contemporanea sia rintracciabile una corrente caratterizzata da un nuovo desiderio di narratività che, pur sperimentando con la forma e utilizzando la navigazione del tempo come tecnica narrativa e come tematica, mirano alla costruzione di un racconto coeso
Ospedale e territorio. I centri socio-sanitari.
Get PDFNel corso degli ultimi decenni l'invecchiamento della popolazione e la crescente esposizione a fattori di rischio ambientali e sociali hanno determinato in tutto il mondo un incremento delle malattie cronico-degenerative. La riconversione del sistema sanitario appare quindi una sfida irrinunciabile, come si evince anche da un recente documento stilato dall'associazione dei medici di famiglia britannici:"lo status quo non è più sostenibile. Se vogliamo soddisfare il bisogno di salute dei nostri pazienti negli anni a venire, dobbiamo produrre un cambiamento radicale nelle quantità, nell'organizzazione e nell'erogazione dei nostri servizi, a partire dall'assistenza primaria". Le nuove politiche assistenziali dovranno, quindi, seguire alcuni obiettivi fondamentali: integrazione tra ospedale e territorio, organizzazione multidimensionale dell'assistenza, presa in carico delle fragilità e della cronicità, prossimità e facilità di accesso ai servizi, empowerement dei pazienti nel processo di cura, monitoraggio dell'efficacia terapeutico-assistenziale. Inoltre, sarà necessario ridefinire l'approccio alle malattie croniche, passando da un metodo reattivo, basato sull'attesa dell'evento acuto, a un metodo pro attivo, improntato sulla prevenzione, per evitare o rinviare nel tempo il decorso della malattia
FRAGILE COUNTRIES AND THE 2008-2009 CRISIS.
Get PDFThis paper analyses the channels through which the economic and financial crisis of 2008-2009 is transmitted to fragile countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Trade stands out as the main direct channel, even though intra-Africa remittances play a relevant role, given that most migrants in Sub-Saharan Africa fragile countries cannot afford the cost of mi-grating to Europe or to the United States and stay close, remaining in the continent. Whether reduced aid flows also act as a crisis transmission channel remains an open question, even though preliminary estimates suggest that, at least in the medium run, OECD countries are likely to lower aid, with potentially very damaging effects on fragile countries. The paper also shows that fragile countries are characterised by very low re-silience and capacity to cope with shocks. It concludes, by highlighting how Sub-Saharan Africa fragile countries' policymakers' room for manoeuver is limited in periods of crisis because of low fiscal space and limited institutional capacity. It advocates that the right response to the crisis would be to mobilise domestic resources, although this will require functional institutions able to offset the potential trade-offs between adverse short-term shocks and a long-term perspective.financial crisis, Sub Saharan Africa, real transmission channels. JEL Classification F0 O1.
A “GRRR” Goal Orientation Process-Model: Workplace Long-Term Relationships Among Grit, Resilience and Recovery
No full textThe spark that ignites passion, tenacity and perseverance is defined as Grit. It encourages individuals to achieve long-term professional goals, especially when they become challenging. Over time, workers develop the main coping ability for reacting quickly to challenging situations: Workplace Resilience is a learnable skill that helps individuals to rebuild the personal resources needed for achieving long-term goals through Recovery strategies. These construct-relationships (i.e., Grit ➔ Resilience ➔ Recovery) are analyzed in the present contribution, with the aim of testing a model named “GRRR”, for the better understanding of workplace goal orientation processes. Model testing is based on a three-waves longitudinal data collection (12 months) in which a sample of 582 workers from five Italian companies have been surveyed. Results reveal a mediated relationship among these constructs and a progressive causal enhancement over time. The quasi-trait Grit predicts the development of Resilience, which in turn predicts the development of Recovery strategies. Results and contributions to the scientific literature are discussed in both the frameworks of WOP Psychology and the Personality development paradigm. Practical implications suggest strategies of interventions for enhancing goal orientation through the GRRR process-model
Fabbisogni e costi standard, un'occasione perduta
Get PDFThe paper relates to the introduction of the standard requirement and cost concepts in health care financing system. The author, after a reconstruction of the evolution of health service financing in Italy, highlights the criticality of the system. Finally, the author examines the possibility that the standard requirement and cost concepts obtain a different meaning from the original
How Meaningful work and sources of meaning changed during the pandemic: an exploratory study
Get PDFThe COVID-19 pandemic has affected many aspects of our life leading to a completely new world, increasingly complex and uncertain. This is also evident in the workplace, especially on how employees experience and perceive their work. Indeed, it is not surprising that current critical reflections in the study of work and organizations give attention on the challenges on individuals’ wish for meaningful experiences at work. The current debate focuses on how employees can get lost in terms of their sense of work in the face of job demands, responsibilities and working hours. From here, it is central that in the face of new working methods and conditions, organizations behave to guarantee the quality of work and the degree to which work can be a source of meaning. This study has exploratory purposes and intends to investigate the relationship between the dimensions of quality of work and the dimension of meaningful work in the context of the post-pandemic. The data were obtained with a pre-test–post-test design, i.e., before and after restrictions due to the pandemic, through a survey administered online to about 145 workers. We investigated (a) the level of quality at work considering the dimensions of training, safety and communication at work, and (b) the Meaning in Work construct and the related sources of coherence, significance, purpose and belonging. We analysed data via the Structural Equation Modelling to explore the predictive role of job quality for meaning in work dimensions. The results indicate that the latent variable of job quality, described by the observed dimensions of organizational safety and training resources, at time 1 affect meaning in work dimensions respectively at time 1 and time 2. The results of the present study are relevant both for directing further studies on the topic of meaningful work and for organisations wishing to foster meaningful work and link sources. In the context of top-down work redesign process, our results offer initial implications about the role of job quality for sustaining employees’ wish for meaning in their work. The present study represents one of the limited studies on the sources of meaningful work and posit initial insights on how to foster meaningful work. Moreover, this happens in the context of the post-pandemic, supporting initial comprehension about whether organizations can support individuals’ quest for meaning in this uncertain time
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