Climate and landscape composition explain agronomic practices, pesticide use and grape yield in vineyards across Italy

Context Worldwide, organic farming is being promoted as one of the main alternatives to intensive conventional farming. However, the benefits of organic agriculture are still controversial and need to be tested across wide environmental gradients. Objective Here, we carried out an observational study to test how agronomic practices, pest management, environmental impact and yield of conventional and organic vineyards changed along wide climatic and landscape gradients across Italy. Methods We used a block design with 38 pairs of conventional and organic vineyards across Italy. Results and conclusions Most agronomic practices did not differ between conventional and organic vineyards. By contrast, landscape composition and climate were strong predictors of management in both systems. First, increasing semi-natural areas around the vineyards reduced pesticide pressure and related environmental impacts, but was also associated with lower yield. Second, irrespective of the farming system, a warm and dry climate was associated with reduced fungicide pressure. Conventional farming had a yield gain of 40% in cold and wet climate compared to organic but the yield gap disappeared in the warmest regions. Significance In both farming systems, we observed a large variability in management practices that was mainly explained by climate and landscape composition. This large variability should be considered when evaluating the benefits and drawbacks of different farming systems under contrasting environmental contexts

Health-related quality of life in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus in the different geographical regions of Brazil : data from the Brazilian Type 1 Diabetes Study Group

Background: In type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) management, enhancing health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is as important as good metabolic control and prevention of secondary complications. This study aims to evaluate possible regional differences in HRQoL, demographic features and clinical characteristics of patients with T1DM in Brazil, a country of continental proportions, as well as investigate which variables could influence the HRQoL of these individuals and contribute to these regional disparities. Methods: This was a retrospective, cross-sectional, multicenter study performed by the Brazilian Type 1 Diabetes Study Group (BrazDiab1SG), by analyzing EuroQol scores from 3005 participants with T1DM, in 28 public clinics, among all geographical regions of Brazil. Data on demography, economic status, chronic complications, glycemic control and lipid profile were also collected. Results: We have found that the North-Northeast region presents a higher index in the assessment of the overall health status (EQ-VAS) compared to the Southeast (74.6 ± 30 and 70.4 ± 19, respectively; p < 0.05). In addition, North- Northeast presented a lower frequency of self-reported anxiety-depression compared to all regions of the country (North-Northeast: 1.53 ± 0.6; Southeast: 1.65 ± 0.7; South: 1.72 ± 0.7; Midwest: 1.67 ± 0.7; p < 0.05). These findings could not be entirely explained by the HbA1c levels or the other variables examined. Conclusions: Our study points to the existence of additional factors not yet evaluated that could be determinant in the HRQoL of people with T1DM and contribute to these regional disparities

Assessing the impacts of ICT-enabled services in the public sector: a participatory evaluation process to overcome the eGovernment paradox

This paper builds on an extensive review of literature and practice analysing the barriers hindering the adoptions of eGovernment services (Savoldelli, Codagnone and Misuraca, 2012), and on the measurement and evaluation of ICT impact in general and of selected public eServices, including eGovernment (Misuraca, Codagnone and Rossel, 2012). From these analyses it emerges that one of the critical factors for implementing successful eGovernment services seems to be the presence of a transparent and trustworthy policy-making process. Moreover, the lack of a structured evaluation methodology to assess the impact of eGovernment services hampers the possibility of designing and implementing valid measurement models, highlighting the need to test concepts and hypotheses underlying them at a more granular and micro level. In order to overcome such limitations, this paper provides first a comparison between selected eGovernment evaluation methodologies, and discusses their limitations with regard to the capability to capture and assess the impacts of ICT-enabled services with specific regard to the relationships with the policy-making process. Building on the findings from this comparison, the paper proposes a comprehensive methodological approach, the eGEP-2.0 model, to assess the impacts of ICT-enabled services in the public sector, describing how an eGovernment evaluation framework should be organized, which should be its key components and which could be the political, managerial and organizational implications for the policy-making process. Finally, in order to validate the findings of the analysis and the proposed methodological framework, the paper discusses the results of the application of such framework to the ex ante evaluation process of the eGovernment Information and Telecommunication Programme of the Regione Emilia-Romagna in Italy, for the period 2011-2013, where more than 30 eGovernment services have been assessed and are being implemented following the proposed evaluation methodology. The paper concludes with some indications on how to further apply and develop the proposed framework and methodology.JRC.J.3-Information Societ

Understanding the eGovernment paradox: learning from literature and practice on barriers to adoption

We have identified a paradox in the still low adoption of e-government after more than two decades of policy efforts and public investments for the deployment of online public services. Using as evidence the focus and evolution of this focus over the period 1994–2013 in a vast body of literature produced by academia, international organisations and practitioners, we show that: a) the deployment of e-government was for a long time concentrated on more technological and operational matters and that only more recently attention switched to broadly defined institutional and political issues (hypothesis 1a); and b) institutional and political barriers are one of themain factors explaining lack of e-government adoption (hypothesis 1b). A decision making process that is still unstructured, untrustworthy, and not fully leveraging the available evidence hinder the perception of public value and citizens' trust in government, which contribute to low level of e-government adoption.We conclude suggesting that a smart government producing public value is grounded in a triangle of good decision defined by politics, values, and evidence and that to achieve it public sector should go beyond the traditional concept of service innovation. It should rather introduce conceptual and systemic innovation pertaining to a new way of thinking and of interacting with stakeholders and citizens as sources of both legitimacy and evidence.JRC.J.3-Information Societ

Evaluating e-Government: A Comprehensive Methodological Framework to Assess Policy Impacts

The modernization of public services is high on the political agenda and the role of Information and Communication Technologies in this process has been increasingly recognized. In current practice, however, conventional services have just been "digitized" without any concern for their actual impact on society. After over twenty years of research and practical implementation it is now widely recognised by both the scientific and the practice communities that despite the potential of e-government, the evidence of its impact on society is still very limited and the promised productivity gains seem not having been achieved yet generating the so called “e-government paradox”. The chapter builds on recent work of the authors (Savoldelli, Codagnone, Misuraca, 2012) who have analysed which are the main barriers hindering the adoption of e-government services and suggested that, in most mature public administrations, the key barriers generating such paradox can be identified in an unstructured policy evaluation process and in the absence of effective stakeholders' engagement mechanisms. Starting from these findings, the chapter explores the existing relationship between measurement and trust on e-government decision making processes. The methodological approach underpinning the analysis is based upon a critical review of the most known and adopted e-government measurement frameworks. As a result of the analysis a proposal of a new framework capable of measuring the public value of e-government is presented and its application in a real context of usage provided by the Informatics and Telematics plan of the last three years of the Emilia Romagna region in Italy is discussed.JRC.J.3-Information Societ

Smart Cities Governance: the need for a holistic approach to assessing urban participatory policy making

Most of the definitions of 'smart city' make a direct or indirect reference to the improvement of city performance as one of the main objectives of initiatives which aim to make cities 'smarter'. Several evaluation approaches and models have been advanced in literature and practice to measure smart cities. However, they are often normative or limited to certain aspects of cities' 'smartness', and a more comprehensive and holistic approach seems to be missing. Thus, building on a review of the literature and practice in the field, this paper aims to discuss the importance of adopting a holistic approach to the assessment of smart city governance and policy decision-making. It also proposes a performance assessment framework that overcomes the limitations of existing approaches and contributes to filling the current gap in the knowledge base in this domain. One of the innovative elements of the proposed framework is its holistic approach to policy evaluation. It is designed to address the smart city’s specificities and its capacity to benefit from the active participation of citizens in assessing the public value of policy decisions and their sustainability over time. In so doing, we focus our attention towards the performance measurement of multi-stakeholders co-design, co-production and social innovation processes related to public value generation. More specifically we are interested in the assessment of both the citizen-centricity of smart cities’ decision-making, and the processes by which public decisions are implemented, monitored and evaluated in relation to their capability to develop truly “blended” value services which are at the same time socially inclusive, environmental friendly and economical sustainable.JRC.J.3-Information Societ

Un caso di Business Process Reengineering nella pubblica amministrazione: il processo degli acquisti della Regione dell’Umbria

Il lavoro esamina l'applicazione del Business Process reengineering al processo degli acquisti, anche attraverso l'uso di modelli di simulazione supportati da software