Female presence in lobbying careers in Europe: A comparison of women in the lobbying workforce in three national political systems and the EU

This paper investigates women in lobbying careers in Italy, the UK and France in comparison with the EU Parliament to verify the hypothesis that in political systems with a gender mainstreaming approach, it is easier for women to have access to political, institutional and politics-related careers. Given the differences between national and supranational political systems, the collected data display a fairer gender balance in the stock of registered lobbyists at the EU Parliament than in the national registers for lobbyists. The explanatory factors are the EU institutional approach towards gender mainstreaming and a fairer gender balance in EU top-political and administrative jobs. The paper argues that there is a spillover effect from fair-gendered political careers to the lobbying professions. EU lobbyists need to reflect the diversity of EU politicians and administrative staff. In this sense, the EU institutionalization of the gender mainstreaming approach goes beyond issues such as the descriptive and substantive political representation of women in politics while creating a more inclusive environment for equal opportunities in traditionally male-dominated jobs.Dieser Beitrag untersucht die Laufbahnen von Lobbyistinnen in Italien, Großbritannien und Frankreich sowie im EU-Parlament. Dabei soll die Hypothese überprüft werden, dass es in politischen Systemen mit einem Gender-Mainstreaming-Ansatz für Frauen leichter ist, Zugang zu politischen, institutionellen und politikbezogenen Karrieren zu erhalten. Angesichts der Unterschiede zwischen nationalen und länderübergreifenden politischen Systemen zeigen die erhobenen Daten ein ausgewogeneres Geschlechterverhältnis unter Lobbyist*innen im EU-Parlament als in den nationalen Lobbyregistern. Die Erklärung dafür wird in der institutionellen Herangehensweise der EU in Bezug auf Gender Mainstreaming und im ausgeglicheneren Verhältnis von Frauen und Männern in politischen und administrativen Führungspositionen in der EU gesehen. Es wird argumentiert, dass es einen Spillover-Effekt von gendergerechten politischen Karrieren auf die Lobbyberufe gibt. EU-Lobbyist*innen müssen der Diversität von EU-Politiker*innen und Verwaltungsmitarbeiter*innen gerecht werden. Daher geht die Institutionalisierung des Gender-Mainstreaming-Ansatzes in der EU über Fragen der deskriptiven und inhaltlichen politischen Repräsentation von Frauen in Politik und Beruf hinaus und schafft zudem ein integrativeres Umfeld für Chancengleichheit in traditionell männlich dominierten Berufen

Le piattaforme per la partecipazione digitale dei cittadini. Un'analisi basata sul modello di UE e Italia.

Il testo si propone di considerare e confrontare le esperienze europee e italiane di produzione, gestione, valutazione di piattaforme digitali per la partecipazione dei cittadini alle politiche pubbliche. Diversi obiettivi, modelli di costruzione, scelta delle finalità caratterizzano i due sistemi, europeo e italiano: il primo volto a sollecitare una partecipazione ideale verso il modello di Europa del futuro; il secondo è concretamente orientato all'esperienza di partecipazione, con participatory budget e allocazione di risorse per politiche pubbliche localizzate e con obiettivi tangibili (es. riqualificazione delle città). Dal confronto e dalla sintesi di queste due esperienze si possono trarre utili elementi teorici ed empirici per un ulteriore sviluppo delle piattaforme digitali per la partecipazione dei cittadini, in un contesto di crescente domanda partecipativa attraverso formati e strumenti non convenzionali.   The article proposes to consider and compare European and Italian experiences in the production, management and evaluation of digital platforms for citizens' participation in public policies. Different aims, models and goals characterize in different ways European and Italian systems. The first is aimed to promote an ideal participation coherently with the Europe vision for the future. On the contrary, the Italian one is concretely oriented towards the experience of direct participation, with specific budget and resources to support public policies with more tangible objectives (e.g. requalification of cities). From the comparison of these two experiences it is possible to derive some useful theoretical and empirical elements for the further development of digital platforms for citizen participation. This in a context of growing participatory demand through unconventional formats and tools.  Keywords: participatory platforms, EU, Italy, digital participation, citizens’ participatio

Le piattaforme per la partecipazione digitale dei cittadini. Un’analisi basata sul modello di UE e Italia

The paper aims to consider the UE and Italian experiences of production, management, evaluation of digital platforms for citizens' participation in public policies. Comparing tools and formats of the two models of developing civic participation through ICT platforms, the emerging analysis presents differences in objectives, in the construction models, in the choice of purposes. In the EU case, the system aims at soliciting an ideal civic participation towards the model of Europe of the future, progressively encompassing more and more citizens, while the Italian outline gears towards more concrete and localized experiences of participation, especially in city-level participatory budgets with tangible objectives of urban transformation. From the comparison and synthesis of these two experiences, some theoretical and empirical elements can be drawn, in order to sketch a further development of digital platforms for citizen participation, in a context of growing participatory demand through unconventional formats and tools

Occurrence of Tetracycline Resistance Gene TetA(P) in Apennine wolves (Canis lupus italicus) from different human-wildlife interfaces

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Raising awareness on gender issues: A path through physics, outreach and diversity.

When and where it is convenient to start working on raising awareness on gender issues? Our answer is that high school is definitely a good start, mainly if we think that outreach activities can have a role in the transition to an environment for learning, teaching and researching in physics that is equally attractive and supportive to all genders, at each stage of their education and career path. As researchers of INFN and CNR we promoted a school competition devoted to consider the role of women in science and particularly in Physics. Outreach activities can have the role of raising awareness, knowledge through an active involvement of students for changing the culture and removing stereotypes. In these years we organized 3 contests, with 226 videos, more than 100 high schools and a thousand of students involved. The idea was to try to understand the thinking and knowledge of young people on present and past gender issues connected to women and science, to know how they imagine the society of the future, to understand if they are unaware "carriers" of stereotypes and prejudices and if the cultural change can start from/with them. The students have been asked to produce a video on subjects regarding these questions. The article describes the contests, the evaluation process, the results of first analysis. The work started inside the EU-funded GENERA project, to which both research groups belong, and continues inside the GENERA Network. The collaboration among physicists and sociologists has been, and still is, fundamental in these years

Evaluation of Coaguchek®Pro II coagulation testing device performance to assess direct oral anticoagulant action. The DOAC-CHECK study

Direct oral anticoagulants (DOAC) measurement is recommended in specific conditions. A point-of-care testing should be used in emergency to qualitatively rule out relevant DOAC concentrations. The DOAC-CHECK Study aims to evaluate whether the use of CoaguChek® Pro II (Roche Diagnostics International Ltd, Rotkreuz, Switzerland) coagulation testing device can provide reliable information in patients treated with DOAC. The study was carried out in two FCSA (Italian Federation of Thrombosis Centers) centers. We choose 3 different concentration thresholds for our analysis (30, 50 and 100 ng/mL) and by ROC curves the ideal cut-off point was selected to be the one that yielded a sensitivity of at least 95% associated with the highest possible specificity. 512 patients were enrolled. For Edoxaban and Rivaroxaban, both CoaguChek® Pro II prothrombin time (PT) and activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) tests showed a sensitivity >95% corresponding to satisfying specificity values; negative predictive values resulted in the range 90-100%. At variance, CoaguChek® Pro II PT and aPTT tests did not seem to be useful for identifying Apixaban and Dabigatran concentrations higher than the pre-defined thresholds. Our results suggest that CoaguChek® Pro II coagulation testing device can be used to qualitatively identify relevant concentrations of Edoxaban or Rivaroxaban, but not of Apixaban or Dabigatran

The Apidulcis study

Optimal duration of anticoagulation in patients with a first venous thromboembolism (VTE) is still uncertain. Extended anticoagulant treatment beyond the first 3 to 6 months is recommended in patients with unprovoked VTE for their high risk of recurrence, provided the risk of bleeding during anticoagulation is not high. Recent meta-analyses indicated that only one-third of these patients have a recurrence 10 years after anticoagulation is stopped, whereas the risk of major bleeding is consistent and persistent during anticoagulation. We designed the prospective, multicenter Apidulcis study to test whether serial D-dimer measurements, using commercial assays with predefined sex-specific cutoffs (350 ng/mL and 500 ng/mL for men and women, respectively, for assays expressing results as fibrinogen equivalent units), may be useful to stratify patients for the risk of recurrence. Those presenting positive D-dimer results, considered at higher risk, will receive low dose Apixaban, 2.5 mg tablets BID for 18 months, whereas those with persistently negative D-dimer results, considered at lower risk, will remain without anticoagulant treatment. Outpatients with a first VTE (unprovoked or associated with weak risk factors), aged 18 to 74 years, who have already received anticoagulation for at least 12 months are eligible for the study

D-dimer and reduced-dose apixaban for extended treatment after unprovoked venous thromboembolism: the Apidulcis study.

D-dimer assay is used to stratify patients with unprovoked venous thromboembolism (VTE) for the risk of recurrence. However, this approach was never evaluated since direct oral anticoagulants are available. With this multicenter, prospective cohort study, we aimed to assess the value of an algorithm incorporating serial D-dimer testing and administration of reduced-dose apixaban (2.5 mg twice daily) only to patients with a positive test. A total of 732 outpatients aged 18 to 74 years, anticoagulated for ≥12 months after a first unprovoked VTE, were included. Patients underwent D-dimer testing with commercial assays and preestablished cutoffs. If the baseline D-dimer during anticoagulation was negative, anticoagulation was stopped and testing repeated after 15, 30, and 60 days. Patients with serially negative results (286 [39.1%]) were left without anticoagulation. At the first positive result, the remaining 446 patients (60.9%) were given apixaban for 18 months. All patients underwent follow-up planned for 18 months. The study was interrupted after a planned interim analysis for the high rate of primary outcomes (7.3%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 4.5-11.2), including symptomatic proximal deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or pulmonary embolism (PE) recurrence, death for VTE, and major bleeding occurring in patients off anticoagulation vs that in those receiving apixaban (1.1%; 95% CI, 0.4-2.6; adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 8.2; 95% CI, 3.2-25.3). In conclusion, in patients anticoagulated for ≥1 year after a first unprovoked VTE, the decision to further extend anticoagulation should not be based on D-dimer testing. The results confirmed the high efficacy and safety of reduced-dose apixaban against recurrences. This trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as #NCT03678506