Città europee e mobilità urbana: impatto delle scelte modali

Tutte le strategie per combattere i cambiamenti climatici nell’ambito trasportistico puntano al miglioramento della mobilità urbana. Ormai da anni, la Comunità Europea invia continui segnali, dal libro verde ai piani di azione sulla mobilità urbana, per stimolare le autorità a livello locale ad adottare politiche integrate per un futuro sostenibile dei trasporti, interventi necessari per migliorare le condizioni di vita e di salute dei cittadini e lo stato ambientale delle nostre città. Il settore dei trasporti rappresenta, in Europa, una delle principali sorgenti dell’inquinamento atmosferico e le politiche volte a favorire l’uso di mezzi alternativi all’automobile hanno sicuramente migliorato le condizioni della qualità dell’aria e di vivibilità di diverse metropoli. In Europa uno spostamento urbano su 4 si compie a piedi, all’incirca 2 viaggi su 3, nei maggiori centri (capitali e città sopra i 550mila abitanti), avvengono senz’auto. In Italia, invece, circa il 60% degli spostamenti in ambito urbano sono effettuati con l’auto privata. Gli italiani potrebbero essere pronti per un cambio modale, infatti, il 40% vorrebbe utilizzare di meno l’automobile e il 49% si dice propenso a un maggior utilizzo del trasporto pubblico. E allora quali suggerimenti si possono attingere dalle città più virtuose in Europa per migliorare le condizioni dell’inquinamento nelle città italiane favorendo il cambiamento verso una mobilità alternativa più eco-sostenibile? Lo studio propone un confronto tra le città europee attraverso un approfondimento su: comportamenti in mobilità dei cittadini, livelli d’inquinamento e “stato dell’arte” di azioni politiche mirate. I dati, provenienti da diversi fonti (Eurostat, Eltis, Epomm-Tems, Isfort-Audimob, Ispra), costituiscono la base per la costruzione di indicatori che saranno analizzati per dimensione urbana. La ricerca prosegue verificando quanto le scelte modali sono influenzate da politiche programmate finalizzate a interventi per rendere il trasporto più sostenibile e quanto le condizioni di crisi economica influiscono sulla scelta del mezzo utilizzato per gli spostamenti. Nelle considerazioni finali è esposto il caso di Roma

Bidirectional associations between psychosocial well-being and body mass index in European children : longitudinal findings from the IDEFICS study

Background: The negative impact of childhood overweight on psychosocial well-being has been demonstrated in a number of studies. There is also evidence that psychosocial well-being may influence future overweight. We examined the bidirectional association between childhood overweight and psychosocial well-being in children from a large European cohort. The dual aim was to investigate the chronology of associations between overweight and psychosocial health indicators and the extent to which these associations may be explained by parental education. Methods: Participants from the IDEFICS study were recruited from eight countries between September 2007 and June 2008 when the children were aged 2 to 9.9 years old. Children and families provided data on lifestyle, psychosocial well-being, and measured anthropometry at baseline and at follow-up 2 years later. This study includes children with weight, height, and psychosocial well-being measurements at both time points (n = 7,831). Psychosocial well-being was measured by the KINDL (R) and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire respectively. The first instrument measures health-related quality of life including emotional well-being, self-esteem, parent relations and social relations while the second measures well-being based on emotional symptoms, conduct problems and peer-related problems. Logistic regression was used for modeling longitudinal associations. Results: Children who were overweight at baseline had increased risk of poor health-related quality of life (odds ratio (OR) = 1.23; 95 % confidence interval (CI): 1.03-1.48) measured 2 years later; this association was unidirectional. In contrast to health-related quality of life, poor well-being at baseline was associated with increased risk of overweight (OR = 1.39; 95 % CI: 1.03-1.86) at 2 year follow-up; this association was also only observed in one direction. Adjustment for parental education did not change our findings. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that the association between overweight and psychosocial well-being may be bidirectional but varies by assessment measures. Future research should further investigate which aspects of psychosocial well-being are most likely to precede overweight and which are more likely to be consequences of overweight

Crenças, aceitação e atitudes dos utentes perante os medicamentos genéricos: um estudo comparativo entre Portugal e Estónia

Medicamento genérico (MG) é definido como uma fiel imitação de um medicamento original, terapeuticamente equivalente apresentando a mesma forma farmacêutica, composição qualitativa e quantitativa destinado a ser intercambiável com o produto original. Os MGs só podem ser comercializados depois de todas as patentes e certificados complementares de protecção (SPCs) que cobrem o produto original terem expirado. O papel dos MGs tem sido providenciar medicamentos essenciais que são de boa qualidade e de preço acessível em toda a União Europeia e o seu uso aumentou a acessibilidade dos pacientes e proporcionou uma poupança económica significativa para os sistemas de saúde. À medida que as despesas totais em cuidados de saúde têm vindo a aumentar e a maioria dessas despesas é composta de custos fixos (nomeadamente os serviços hospitalares), a indústria farmacêutica tem sido um objectivo de poupança em todos os países da Europa, que têm reformulado os seus sistemas nacionais de saúde de modo a responder ao rápido crescimento dos gastos em saúde. Os governos preocupados com o aumento do custo de produtos farmacêuticos dentro dos seus orçamentos nacionais de saúde, estão a esforçar-se para promover a utilização de genéricos em relação aos produtos originais de preço mais elevado. Portugal e Estónia são dois países pertencentes à União Europeia. Existem algumas diferenças no sector da saúde entre os dois países, especialmente no que concerne a medicamentos, seus preços e reembolso pelos sistemas de seguro obrigatório de saúde e serviços nacionais de saúde, no entanto apresentam em comum a preocupação com o custo dos medicamentos, incentivando o uso de MGs. Actualmente a Estónia apresenta uma quota de mercado de MGs superior a Portugal, que ocupa uma posição inferior à média Europeia. À medida que os sistemas governamentais vão incentivando o uso de MGs e o seu consumo vai aumentando é importante perceber as opiniões que os consumidores têm acerca destes medicamentos. Este estudo teve como objectivo avaliar a aceitação e as crenças dos utentes sobre MGs em relação aos medicamentos de marca (MM), comparando resultados entre Portugal e Estónia

A CONDUCTOR’S ANALYSIS OF VELJO TORMIS’ \u3cem\u3eLOODUSPILDID\u3c/em\u3e

Estonian composer Veljo Tormis (1930-2017) is one of the most prolific in his country’s history. A significant portion of his writing has been for choirs. Tormis composed most of his works under Soviet rule. During this communist reign of Estonia, Tormis turned to using traditional music. The source material for a large portion of Tormis’ choral output is regilaul, a type of ancient Estonian folk song. In 1991, Estonia gained their independence, thereby allowing Tormis’ compositions to be more easily seen, heard, and performed around the world. This dissertation presents a conductor’s analysis of a set of choral cycles composed by Tormis between 1964 and 1969, Looduspildid, or Nature Pictures. A set of cycles representing all of the seasons and incorporating prominent Estonian poetry, Loodispuldid represents one of Tormis’ most important works. It illustrates Tormis’ maturing style as he utilized a variety of 20th Century techniques like extended tertian harmonies, modal scales, pandiatonicism, clusters, and mixed meters. Tormis also employs his own orchestrally-derived techniques of carefully constructed simultaneous articulations along with cumulative chording. Each cycle contains its own unique style and feel. Sügismaastikud is perhaps the most tonal of the four. Most movements are pandiatonic and one uses the whole tone scale. On a macro level, Sügismaastikud moves from soft in the earlier movements to a fff climax on the final chord of the last movement. Talvemustrid also begins at a very soft dynamic level on a unison D4, grows to multiple ff dynamics throughout, and ends back at a soft dynamic on Db. The cycle is more harmonically adventurous than Sügismaastikud, with consistent chromaticism, octatonic scale, and marked dissonance. Suvenmotiivid only contains three movements, but continues the harmonic and rhythmic complexity of Sügismaastikud. The first movement, Põualim, immediately begins on a tritone with octatonic scale. Different meters occur simultaneously during the second movement, which also moves quickly through 4 keys. The final movement ends with orchestral voicing and a 10-note chord cluster. Kevadkillud contains six very short movements, most of which are pandiatonic like Sügismaastikud. There is far less chromaticism and harmonic complexity than the middle two cycles, almost as if Tormis is bringing the set full circle. Moreover, the final movement of this cycle (and the entire set) is really just one major chord with embellishments. As a set, Loodispuldid represents a thorough perspective of Tormis’ mature style. The analyses done as a part of this paper reveal an incredible efficiency in his writing. Motives have purpose and context. Each movement possesses a well-defined harmonic language and rhythmic identity. A variety of formal structures exist, from binary to rondo. Even the many through-composed movements are expertly crafted with clear direction

Iron in the Middle Devonian aquifer system and its removal at Võru County water treatment plants, Estonia

Groundwater abstracted from the Middle Devonian aquifer system is the main source of drinking water in South Estonia. High iron and manganese concentrations in groundwater are the greatest problems in this region. The total iron concentrations up to 16 mg L–1 are mainly caused by a high Fe2+ content in water, pointing to the dominance of reducing conditions in the aquifer system. A pilot study was carried out to estimate the effectiveness of 20 groundwater purification plants with eight different water treatment systems (aeration combined with Manganese Greensand, Birm, Nevtraco, Hydrolit-Mn, Magno-Dol and quartz sand filters) in Võru County. The results demonstrate that in most cases the systems with pre-aeration effectively purify groundwater from iron, but only 13 out of 20 water treatment plants achieved a reduction of iron concentration to the level fixed in drinking water requirements (0.2 mg L–1). Manganese content decreased below the maximum allowed concentration in only 25% of systems and in cases where the filter media was Birm or quartz sand and pre-oxidation was applied. The study showed that the high level of iron purification does not guarantee effective removal of manganese

Preventing State-Led Cyberattacks Using the Bright Internet and Internet Peace Principles

The Internet has engendered serious cybersecurity problems due to its anonymity, transnationality, and technical shortcomings. This paper addresses state-led cyberattacks (SLCAs) as a particular source of threats. Recently, the concept of the Bright Internet was proposed as a means of shifting the cybersecurity paradigm from self-defensive protection to the preventive identification of malevolent origins through adopting five cohesive principles. To design a preventive solution against SLCAs, we distinguish the nature of SLCAs from that of private-led cyberattacks (PLCAs). We then analyze what can and cannot be prevented according to the principles of the Bright Internet. For this research, we collected seven typical SLCA cases and selected three illustrative PLCA cases with eleven factors. Our analysis demonstrated that Bright Internet principles alone are insufficient for preventing threats from the cyberterror of noncompliant countries. Thus, we propose a complementary measure referred to here as the Internet Peace Principles, which define that the Internet should be used only for peaceful purposes in accordance with international laws and norms. We derive these principles using an approach that combines the extension of physical conventions to cyberspace, the expansion of international cybersecurity conventions to global member countries, and analogical international norms. Based on this framework, we adopt the Charter of the United Nations, the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, Recommendations by the United Nations Group of Governmental Experts, the Tallinn Manual, and Treaty of the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and others as reference norms that we use to derive the consistent international order embodied by the Internet Peace Principles

The Published Choral Folk Songs of Cyrillus Kreek, Estonian Nationalist

This research will trace the development and productivity of Cyrillus Kreek (1889-1962) as a composer of choral folk songs and his influence on Estonian culture. The core of the study provides a chronological examination of Kreek’s published choral folk song arrangements. Kreek’s work is the summation of direct and indirect influences in his life, such as Estonian folk music and the Estonian national awakening that began in the late nineteenth century and flourished in the early decades of the twentieth century; conversely, his music, along with that of his contemporaries, impacted the process of defining what it meant to be Estonian. An outgrowth of this study has also illuminated the need for user-friendly, accessible editions of his choral folk songs so that other parts of the world may more fully enjoy the benefits of his work and the deep, rich tradition of Estonian choral folk music. Suggestions are given for understanding the context in which Kreek’s music was created and how that context affects its performance. A proposed sample edition and a pronunciation guide are included as appendixes. The document concludes with a discussion of the impact of Kreek’s music on the future of Estonian life and the international choral music scene