Regulatory Constructivism: Application of Q Methodology in Italy and China

Conventional view holds that beliefs play an important role in the development of regulations but there is little evidence to support this claim. We use Comparative Q Methodology to systematically map out and compare the beliefs of public officers in China and Italy, two countries with contrasting sets of institutions but have both adopted similar ideas about integrated water resource management. We find some similarities and differences in the beliefs of public officers in both countries. In particular, we find that in both countries beliefs on the regulation of water utilities are diverse and fragmented on issues such as ownership structure of water utilities, how water infrastructure development should be funded, and how tariffs should be regulated. Our findings have two implications for theory, methods and practice. First, the Q methodology is a useful tool for systematically mapping out the beliefs of regulators and managers. Second, systematically mapping out beliefs will help facilitate the development of an alternative regime of regulation such as negotiated rule making. This alternative regime can provide substantial benefits such as more efficient rule making, more cost effective enforcement and compliance, and more equitable in terms of balancing the interests of stakeholders

AGN activity and the misaligned hot ISM in the compact radio elliptical NGC4278

The analysis of a deep (579 ks) Chandra ACIS pointing of the elliptical galaxy NGC4278, which hosts a low luminosity AGN and compact radio emission, allowed us to detect extended emission from hot gas out to a radius of \sim 5 kpc, with a 0.5--8 keV luminosity of 2.4x10^{39} erg/s. The emission is elongated in the NE-SW direction, misaligned with respect to the stellar body, and aligned with the ionized gas, and with the Spitzer IRAC 8\mum non-stellar emission. The nuclear X-ray luminosity decreased by a factor of \sim 18 since the first Chandra observation in 2005, a dimming that enabled the detection of hot gas even at the position of the nucleus. Both in the projected and deprojected profiles, the gas shows a significantly larger temperature (kT=0.75 keV) in the inner \sim 300 pc than in the surrounding region, where it stays at \sim 0.3 keV, a value lower than expected from standard gas heating assumptions. The nuclear X-ray emission is consistent with that of a low radiative efficiency accretion flow, accreting mass at a rate close to the Bondi one; estimates of the power of the nuclear jets require that the accretion rate is not largely reduced with respect to the Bondi rate. Among possibile origins for the central large hot gas temperature, such as gravitational heating from the central massive black hole and a recent AGN outburst, the interaction with the nuclear jets seems more likely, especially if the latter remain confined, and heat the nuclear region frequently. The unusual hot gas distribution on the galactic scale could be due to the accreting cold gas triggering the cooling of the hot phase, a process also contributing to the observed line emission from ionize gas, and to the hot gas temperature being lower than expected; alternatively, the latter could be due to an efficiency of the type Ia supernova energy mixing lower than usually adopted.Comment: 48 pages, submitted to Ap

Wheat Self-sufficiency in Different Policy Scenarios and Their Likely Impacts on Producers, Consumers, and the Public Exchequer

Every government faces a challenge to select an optimum policy to provide food supplies to the consumers at a reasonable price and maintain a reasonable nutritional standard. The alternative policy options available are an uninterrupted market, imports, input subsidies, price support, combined policy developed by the combination of input subsidy and price support, and investment on research and infrastructure development. This paper analyses the impact of these options on consumers’ and producers’ welfare, tax revenue, and foreign exchange requirement. The import and input subsidy give net return to the society while price support generates net loss. The triple combined policy option generates the highest net return to the society when each import and input subsidy component is combined with price support in the ratio of 40 and 20 percent, respectively. The best policies to provide higher wheat supplies at lower prices and to improve the welfare of consumers and producers were investment on agricultural research and development of irrigation infrastructure in the long run, but for the short run, the first and the second best option were respectively the combined and the input subsidy policy.

Relativistic model of hidden bottom tetraquarks

The relativistic model of the ground state and excited heavy tetraquarks with hidden bottom is formulated within the diquark-antidiquark picture. The diquark structure is taken into account by calculating the diquark-gluon vertex in terms of the diquark wave functions. Predictions for the masses of bottom counterparts to the charm tetraquark candidates are given.Comment: 6 page

An integrated cybernetic awareness strategy to assess cybersecurity attitudes and behaviours in school context

Digital exposure to the Internet among the younger generations, notwithstanding their digital abilities, has increased and raised the alarm regarding the need to intensify the education on cybersecurity in schools. Understanding the human factor and its influence on children, namely their attitudes and behaviors online, is pivotal to reinforce their awareness towards cyberattacks and to promote their digital citizenship. This paper aims to present an integrated cybersecurity and cyber awareness strategy composed of three major steps: (1) Cybersecurity attitude and behavior assessment, (2) self-diagnosis, and (3) teaching/learning activities. The following contributions are made: Two questionnaires to assess risky attitudes and behaviors regarding cybersecurity; a self-diagnosis to measure students’ skills on cybersecurity; a lesson plan addressing cyber awareness to be applied on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and citizenship education curricular units. Cybersecurity risky attitudes and behaviors were evaluated in a junior high school population of 164 students attending the sixth and ninth grades. The assessment focused on two main subjects: To identify the attitudes and behaviors that raise the risk of cybersecurity among the participating students; to characterize the acquired students’ cybersecurity and cyber awareness skills. Global and individual scores and the histograms for attitudes and behaviors are presented. The items in which we have observed significant differences between sixth and ninth grades are depicted and quantified by their corresponding p-values obtained through the Mann–Whitney non-parametric test. Regarding the results obtained on the assessment of attitudes and behaviors, although positive, we observed that the attitudes and behaviors in ninth-grade students are globally inferior compared to those attained by sixth-grade students. The deployed strategy for cyber awareness was applied in a school context; however, the same approach is suitable to be applied in other types of organizations, namely enterprises, healthcare institutions, and the public sector.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Modos de ocupación del bosque patagónico de la vertiente oriental de Los Andes: aportes desde la ecología isotópica

In this paper we discuss the contribution of stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen to the problem of human occupation of the forest on the eastern slope of the Andes. An initial characterization of forest isotopic ecology is presented on the basis of 58 plants and herbivores values and two human values. It is possible to discriminate isotopic signals of forest resources and to assess the degree of permanence and / or intensity of use of forest in the past.En este trabajo se discute el aporte de los isótopos estables del carbono y del nitrógeno al problema de los modos de ocupación humana del bosque de la vertiente oriental de los Andes. Se presenta una caracterización inicial de su ecología isotópica sobre la base de 58 valores de plantas y herbívoros y dos de restos óseos humanos, comprobándose que es posible discriminar señales isotópicas asociadas a recursos de bosque y evaluar el grado de permanencia y/o intensidad de empleo de este bioma en el pasado

Substrates based on composted sewage sludge for land recultivation

Increasing a large amounts of sewage sludge in Ukraine is an urgent environmental problem that requires the selection of an effective strategy for their disposal. The usage of sludge composting technology leads to the restoration of sludge as a resource and is cost-effective and environmentally sustainable compared to the method of landfilling. The purpose of this research is to carry out bioindication tests of growth substrates based on composted sewage sludge with the subsequent possibility of their usage in the technology of recultivation of landfills for municipal solid waste. The experiment was performed on four types of compost with different modifications of the natural sorbent - zeolite. During the experiment the average percentage of germination of polygamous ryegrass plants (Lolium perenne L.) was determined in the investigated substrates. The mass and length of the aboveground part of the plant and roots were also measured. The results showed that the addition of natural sorbent to substrates has a positive effect on growth and development of plants. This investigation was conducted in accordance with the current norms of national standards of Ukraine: DSTU 7369 (2013), "Wastewater. Requirements for wastewater and its sediments for irrigation and fertilization"; DSTU ISO 11269-1 (2004), "Soil quality. Determination of the effect of pollutants on soil flora. Part 1: Method for determining the inhibitory effect on a root growth"; DSTU ISO 11269-2 (2002), "Soil quality. Determination of the effect of pollutants on soil flora. Part 2: Effects of Chemicals on Germination and Growth of Higher Plants". The experiment was conducted on four types of compost with different modifications of the natural sorbent - zeolite in percentage amounts: 0; 2.5; 5; 7.5, dark-grey gilded soil was used as a control element. In the experiment, the average percentage of germination of polygamous ryegrass plants (Lolium perenne L.) on the studied substrates was determined. The mass and length of the aboveground part of the plant and roots were also measured. The first sprouts of ryegrass began to appear on the 7th day of the experiment. The highest average value on the seventh day of germination was 90% in the control sample with 5% of sorbent content and in K2 substrate in the sample with 7.5% sorbent content. However, the germination of plants in substrates K3 and K4 occurred later compared with substrates K1, K2, and control. For substrate K1 in the sample with a sorbent content of 5%, plant germination was the highest and was 100%. The highest average value of ryegrass stem length is observed in variant K4 in the sample with 0% zeolite content and in variant K1 in the sample without zeolite content the lowest average value of stem length was observed. The K3 and K4 variants have a more developed root system compared to other variants. Based on the obtained data it can be assumed that the most optimal universal component for creating a growth substrate is variant K3 (mixture of "newly picked" and "old" SS) which has not so developed aboveground part but has very branched root system that allows to adapt to various environmental factors and in combination with a small proportion of natural sorbents can be effective for the recultivation of MSW landfills, which in its turn minimizes the need to use a fertile soil layer