Correctional nursing in Liguria, Italy: examining the ethical challenges

Introduction: Correctional nursing can involve significant ethical difficulties. This study examined ethical challenges encountered by correctional nurses in the Italian region of Liguria. Empirical data were analyzed in relation to relevant ethical standards. The former involved a study of 75 nurses and managers in the Ligurian correctional system, while the latter involved an analysis of the Italian Code of Ethics for Nurses and related standards for correctional practice. Methods: Quantitative and qualitative methods were used for the empirical study. Questionnaires were administered to collect data on participants' characteristics and care settings. The Measure of Job Satisfaction (MJS) was also administered. Five focus groups were conducted. Results: Quantitative Data: Respondents identified factors that mostly impacted on recruitment and retention. Unfavourable factors included: structural, organizational, and relational factors. Favourable factors included: nursing consultation, continuing education activities, and peer support. MJS results were equal to 'unsatisfied'. Qualitative Data: five themes were identified through thematic analysis of focus group data: Health needs of incarcerated persons; Negotiation of the boundaries between care and custody; Job satisfaction related to nursing in a correctional setting; Barriers to providing good care; and Security needs. Ten categories of norms were identified in the Code as areas of ethical standards relevant for the empirical data. Conclusions: Our empirical findings demonstrate that these nursing standards can be systematically compromised in correctional settings. Nurses feel compelled to provide ethically-problematic nursing services, with situations of moral distress. This research informs the development of needed policy, educational, and practice changes for nurses in correctional settings

AliEn - EDG Interoperability in ALICE

AliEn (ALICE Environment) is a GRID-like system for large scale job submission and distributed data management developed and used in the context of ALICE, the CERN LHC heavy-ion experiment. With the aim of exploiting upcoming Grid resources to run AliEn-managed jobs and store the produced data, the problem of AliEn-EDG interoperability was addressed and an in-terface was designed. One or more EDG (European Data Grid) User Interface machines run the AliEn software suite (Cluster Monitor, Storage Element and Computing Element), and act as interface nodes between the systems. An EDG Resource Broker is seen by the AliEn server as a single Computing Element, while the EDG storage is seen by AliEn as a single, large Storage Element; files produced in EDG sites are registered in both the EDG Replica Catalogue and in the AliEn Data Catalogue, thus ensuring accessibility from both worlds. In fact, both registrations are required: the AliEn one is used for the data management, the EDG one to guarantee the integrity and access to EDG produced data. A prototype interface has been successfully deployed using the ALICE AliEn Server and the EDG and DataTAG Testbeds.Comment: Talk from the 2003 Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics (CHEP03), La Jolla, Ca, USA, March 2003,4 pages, PDF, 2 figures. PSN TUCP00

Citizens observatories for effective Earth observations: the WeSenseIt approach

The WeSenseIt project defines citizen observatories as “A method, an environment and an infrastructure supporting an information ecosystem for communities and citizens, as well as emergency operators and policymakers, for discussion, monitoring and intervention on situations, places and events” . A collaborative approach has been taken to develop solutions that involve an exchange of information and expertise from all participants and where the focus is on arriving at practical solutions with a clear vision and direction. This has created a shared ownership scheme, and shifts power to the process itself rather than remaining within authorities, developers or decision-makers. The project’s emphasis is on delivering highly innovative technologies to support citizens, communities and authorities in developing a real-time situation awareness while ensuring all stakeholders play their part. Implementation has been through a combination of crowdsourcing, custom applications and dedicated web portals designed to foster collaboration, and which has created a shared knowledge base that facilitates decision-making processes and engages with communities. Data is captured via innovative sensors that are used directly by citizens, crowdsourcing from social networks (or by collective intelligence)

Assessment of knowledge, attitudes, and propensity towards HPV vaccine of young adult students in Italy

Background: Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is a common sexually transmitted infection (STI), representing the main cause of genital warts and cervical cancer. This cross-sectional study evaluated knowledge and attitudes about HPV infection, related diseases, and prevention and propensity towards HPV vaccine among undergraduate students. Methods: An online and written survey about HPV and its prevention, targeted to young adults of both genders, was addressed to students attending health sciences and other schools at Universities of Genoa and Bari. Results: The overall median knowledge and attitude scores were 56.3% (25\u201375 p = 40\u201368.8%) and four out of five (25\u201375 p = 4\u20135), respectively. In the multivariate analysis, attending a health sciences university, using social networks 642 h a day, a history of STI, having heard about HPV and HPV vaccine previously resulted as predictors of higher knowledge scores. Having heard about HPV previously also predicted a high attitude score, together with a perceived economic status as good. Having Italian and healthcare worker parents, being employed, and following a specific diet, instead, predicted lower attitude score. Conclusions: Poor knowledge and good attitudes were found among undergraduates about HPV. In order to increase HPV vaccine compliance and the counselling skills of future healthcare workers, the improvement of training on HPV is needed

HEP Applications Evaluation of the EDG Testbed and Middleware

Workpackage 8 of the European Datagrid project was formed in January 2001 with representatives from the four LHC experiments, and with experiment independent people from five of the six main EDG partners. In September 2002 WP8 was strengthened by the addition of effort from BaBar and D0. The original mandate of WP8 was, following the definition of short- and long-term requirements, to port experiment software to the EDG middleware and testbed environment. A major additional activity has been testing the basic functionality and performance of this environment. This paper reviews experiences and evaluations in the areas of job submission, data management, mass storage handling, information systems and monitoring. It also comments on the problems of remote debugging, the portability of code, and scaling problems with increasing numbers of jobs, sites and nodes. Reference is made to the pioneeering work of Atlas and CMS in integrating the use of the EDG Testbed into their data challenges. A forward look is made to essential software developments within EDG and to the necessary cooperation between EDG and LCG for the LCG prototype due in mid 2003.Comment: Talk from the 2003 Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics Conference (CHEP03), La Jolla, CA, USA, March 2003, 7 pages. PSN THCT00

Analysis of influenza vaccination coverage among the elderly in Genoa (Italy) based on a deprivation index, 2009-2013

Introduction. The elderly suffer the most influenza-related complications, and 90%of deaths due to influenza occur in older subjects. Consequently, the elderly are among the main targets of influenza vaccination campaigns. The use of deprivation indexes can help to identify subgroups with lower vaccination uptake. This study analyzed influenza vaccination coverage in elderly persons living in Genoa (Italy) in relation to a local Index of Socio-Economic and Health Deprivation (SEHDI) in order to identify population subgroups needing specific intervention to improve vaccination coverage. Methods. The study targeted subjects aged 65 65 years living in Genoa in the period 2009-2013. Information on vaccination coverage was provided by general practitioners and Local Health Units. A combination of linear regression, factor analysis and cluster analysis was used to construct the SEHDI at Census Tract (CT) level, on the basis of data from the 2011 Italian census. Results. In 2011, people aged 65 65 years accounted for the 27.7%of the population of Genoa. Most elderly subjects were assigned to either the medium (45.3%) or medium-high (32%) deprivation groups, while the percentages in the extreme tails were low (3.6%high deprivation; 1.3%low deprivation). Significant, nonlinear (p < 0.05 NL) relationships were observed in both sexes with regard to mortality due to all respiratory diseases (RD) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), with the highest Standardized Mortality Ratio (SMR) values in women in the high deprivation group of women (1.81, p < 0.05 RD; 1.79, p < 0.05 COPD). The SMRs for influenza and pneumonia showed a positive linear trend in women (p < 0.05) with the highest value in the high deprivation group (1.97, p < 0.05), while in men the trend was NL (p < 0.05). A positive linear trend (p < 0.05) was found with regard to vaccination coverage, which grew weakly as deprivation increased, up to the medium-high deprived group (from 34.6%to 44.4%). However, the high deprivation group showed the lowest value (33.3%). Conclusions. The results revealed a relationship between deprivation and influenza vaccination coverage in the elderly. This finding should be taken into account in the organization of vaccination campaigns and should prompt differentiated intervention in each local area