Re-Staging La Rasgioni: Lessons Learned from Transforming a Traditional Form of Conflict Resolution to Engage Stakeholders in Agricultural Water Governance

This paper presents an informal process inspired by a public practice of conflict mediation used until a few decades ago in Gallura (NE Sardinia, Italy), named La Rasgioni (The Reason). The aim is twofold: (i) to introduce an innovative method that translates the complexity of water-related conflicts into a “dialogical tool”, aimed at enhancing social learning by adopting theatrical techniques; and (ii) to report the outcomes that emerged from the application of this method in Arborea, the main dairy cattle district and the only nitrate-vulnerable zone in Sardinia, to mediate contrasting positions between local entrepreneurs and representatives of the relevant institutions. We discuss our results in the light of four pillars, adopted as research lenses in the International research Project CADWAGO (Climate Change Adaptation and Water Governance), which consider the specific “social–ecological” components of the Arborea system, climate change adaptability in water governance institutions and organizations, systemic governance (relational) practices, and governance learning. The combination of the four CADWAGO pillars and La Rasgioni created an innovative dialogical space that enabled stakeholders and researchers to collectively identify barriers and opportunities for effective governance practices. Potential wider implications and applications of La Rasgioni process are also discussed in the paper

Mitigating Insider Sabotage and Espionage: A Review of the United States Air Force\u27s Current Posture

The security threat from malicious insiders affects all organizations. Mitigating this problem is quite difficult due to the fact that (1) there is no definitive profile for malicious insiders, (2) organizations have placed trust in these individuals, and (3) insiders have a vast knowledge of their organization’s personnel, security policies, and information systems. The purpose of this research is to analyze to what extent the United States Air Force (USAF) security policies address the insider threat problem. The policies are reviewed in terms of how well they align with best practices published by the Carnegie Mellon University Computer Emergency Readiness Team and additional factors this research deems important, including motivations, organizational priorities, and social networks. Based on the findings of the policy review, this research offers actionable recommendations that the USAF could implement in order to better prevent, detect, and respond to malicious insider attacks. The most important course of action is to better utilize its workforce. All personnel should be trained on observable behaviors that can be precursors to malicious activity. Additionally, supervisors need to be empowered as the first line of defense, monitoring for stress, unmet expectations, and disgruntlement. In addition, this research proposes three new best practices regarding (1) screening for prior concerning behaviors, predispositions, and technical incidents, (2) issuing sanctions for inappropriate technical acts, and (3) requiring supervisors to take a proactive role

A Consent-based Workflow System for Healthcare Systems

In this paper, we describe a new framework for healthcare systems where patients are able to control the disclosure of their medical data. In our framework, the patient's consent has a pivotal role in granting or removing access rights to subjects accessing patient's medical data. Depending on the context in which the access is being executed, different consent policies can be applied. Context is expressed in terms of workflows. The execution of a task in a given workflow carries the necessary information to infer whether the consent can be implicitly retrieved or should be explicitly requested from a patient. However, patients are always able to enforce their own decisions and withdraw consent if necessary. Additionally, the use of workflows enables us to apply the need-to-know principle. Even when the patient's consent is obtained, a subject should access medical data only if it is required by the actual situation. For example, if the subject is assigned to the execution of a medical diagnosis workflow requiring access to the patient's medical record. We also provide a complex medical case study to highlight the design principles behind our framework. Finally, the implementation of the framework is outlined