A CONFIGURAC\u327A\u303O INOVADORA DO PRINCI\u301PIO DA BOA ADMINISTRAC\u327A\u303O ENTRE PRIVADOS E AUTORIDADES PU\u301BLICAS NA UNIA\u303O EUROPE\u301IA

The right to good administration is one of the fundamental rights of the person, guaranteed with article 41 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which became legally binding with the entering into force in 2009 of the Lisbon Treaty. This right, as defined in the Charter, applies to the relationship between citizens and administrative authorities and includes several rights: impartiality and fairness; acting within a reasonable time; right to be heard, before any individual measure which would affect him or her adversely is taken; right to access to documents, while respecting the legitimate interests of confidentiality and of professional and business secrecy; the obligation of the administration to give reasons for its decisions; right to make good any damage caused by institutions or by servants of the European Union in the performance of their duties, in accordance with the general principles common to the laws of the Member States; right to communicate to the institutions of the Union in one of the languages of the Treaties. All these aspects of the right to good administration will be analyzed also with a view to ascertain their implications on the European and Italian legal order

Per una classe dirigente autonoma, performante e responsabile

Il saggio intende mettere in luce il filo conduttore del percorso riformatore, ormai trentennale, del nuovo modello di rapporti tra politica e amministrazione. Oggetto specifico dell’indagine sono il principio della distinzione delle funzioni di indirizzo e controllo politico-amministrativo e i principi correlati dell’autonomia, della valutazione della performance e della responsabilità dirigenziale. Vengono in particolare analizzate le cause che hanno finora impedito lo sviluppo di una classe dirigente realmente autonoma nelle decisioni (e resistente agli eventuali condizionamenti impropri della classe politica) e soprattutto performante e responsabile dei risultati che produce nell’interesse della comunità per migliorarne il benessere sociale ed economico. Le cause di questo insuccesso sono ricondotte a talune scelte discutibili del legislatore, ma anche all’assenza di una cultura condivisa tra politici e burocrati delle rispettive funzioni e responsabilità. Si riscontra poi nella prassi un’incapacità degli organi di governo e degli organi burocratici nell’individuare obiettivi da raggiungere, che siano chiari, sostenibili, impegnativi e migliorativi, nonché nel fornire risorse umane, finanziarie e strumentali, che risultino sufficienti ed adeguate rispetto agli obiettivi. Il corretto funzionamento di questo circuito virtuoso è invece determinante nel contesto delle trasformazioni in atto previste dal recente “Piano nazionale di ripresa e resilienza” (PNRR), che, in attuazione del noto programma europeo “Next Generation EU” (NGEU), promuove un’ambiziosa agenda di riforme anche per l’amministrazione, allo scopo di consentirle di realizzare in maniera efficiente ed efficace i progetti innovativi previsti dal Piano fornendo beni e servizi pubblici adeguati alle esigenze di cittadini e imprese.The purpose of this paper is to highlight the leitmotif of the reform process, now thirty years old, of the new relationship model between Politics and Public Administration. A particular focus of the analysis are the principle of distinction of political-administrative direction and control functions and related principles of autonomy, performance evaluation, and managerial accountability. Particular attention is given to the factors which have up to now prevented the development of a really autonomous Public Management capable of making decisions independently (and unaffected by improper conditioning by the political class) and, above all, capable of performing and accountable for the results it produces in the interest of the community to improve its social and economic well-being. The reasons for this failure can be traced to some questionable choices made by the legislator and to the lack of a shared culture between politicians and bureaucrats regarding their respective roles and accountabilities. Furthermore, the governing bodies and bureaucratic bodies do not seem to be able to identify clear, sustainable, demanding and improving targets, as well as to provide human, financial, and instrumental resources that are sufficient in meeting the targets. Instead, the proper functioning of this virtuous circuit is crucial in the context of the transformations under way envisioned by the recent "National Recovery and Resilience Plan" (PNRR). This Plan, by realizing the well-known European Program "Next Generation EU" (NGEU), carries out an ambitious reform agenda also for Public Administration to efficiently and effectively implement innovative projects to meet the needs of citizens and companies by providing public goods and services

Species Differences of Imperative Mood of Russian Verbs in the Linguodidactic Aspect

One of the most difficult topics to be learned by students of Russian as a foreign language is represented by the verb aspects at the imperative mood. In this paper, the authors underline the need to develop a new approach to explain the differences and the correct use of imperative aspects used at the imperative mood, starting from the analysis of the directive speech acts linguopragmatic characteristics and based on the algorithmic learning method. The authors here present their algorithm, the aim of which is to make it easier for students to choose either the imperfect or the perfect aspect of an imperative verb in different communicative situations. The structure of the algorithm is defined on the base of three main factors: (1) the presence of the word “ ne ” (do not) which makes the sentence negative; (2) situations when, due to the action nature (repetitive or long-term procedural action), only the imperfect aspect must be used; (3) situations when the choice of the aspect relies on the pragmatic characteristics of the causative action, the more relevant of which authors identified in the expectedness / unexpectedness of the causative action. The algorithm developed by the authors was successfully implemented during a pilot experiment held at the Insubria University (Como, Italy) with students of Russian as a foreign language. The results of the experiment showed that algorithmization is an optimal method to train students in the correct use of the imperative aspects, since it allows to take into account at once the totality of linguistic and extralinguistic communication factors and to structure and better control the mental steps students have to make towards the correct solution

Methodology for a mixed-methods multi-country study to assess recognition of and response to maternal and newborn illness

Background: Although maternal and newborn mortality have decreased 44 and 46% respectively between 1990 and 2015, achievement of ambitious Sustainable Development Goal targets requires accelerated progress. Mortality reduction requires a renewed focus on the continuum of maternal and newborn care from the household to the health facility. Although barriers to accessing skilled care are documented for specific contexts, there is a lack of systematic evidence on how women and families identify maternal and newborn illness and make decisions and subsequent care-seeking patterns. The focus of this multi-country study was to identify and describe illness recognition, decision-making, and care-seeking patterns across various contexts among women and newborns who survived and died to ultimately inform programmatic priorities moving forward. Methods: This study was conducted in seven countries\u2014Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, Nigeria, India, Indonesia, and Nepal. Mixed-methods were utilized including event narratives (group interviews), in-depth interviews (IDIs), focus group discussions (FDGs), rapid facility assessments, and secondary analyses of existing program data. A common protocol and tools were developed in collaboration with study teams and adapted for each site, as needed. Sample size was a minimum of five cases of each type (e.g., perceived postpartum hemorrhage, maternal death, newborn illness, and newborn death) for each study site, with a total of 84 perceived PPH, 45 maternal deaths, 83 newborn illness, 55 newborn deaths, 64 IDIs/FGDs, and 99 health facility assessments across all sites. Analysis included coding within and across cases, identifying broad themes on recognition of illness, decision-making, and patterns of care seeking, and corresponding contextual factors. Technical support was provided throughout the process for capacity building, quality assurance, and consistency across sites. Conclusion: This study provides rigorous evidence on how women and families recognize and respond to maternal and newborn illness. By using a common methodology and tools, findings not only were site-specific but also allow for comparison across contexts

Heart and Skeletal Muscle Inflammation of Farmed Salmon Is Associated with Infection with a Novel Reovirus

Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) mariculture has been associated with epidemics of infectious diseases that threaten not only local production, but also wild fish coming into close proximity to marine pens and fish escaping from them. Heart and skeletal muscle inflammation (HSMI) is a frequently fatal disease of farmed Atlantic salmon. First recognized in one farm in Norway in 1999[1], HSMI was subsequently implicated in outbreaks in other farms in Norway and the United Kingdom[2]. Although pathology and disease transmission studies indicated an infectious basis, efforts to identify an agent were unsuccessful. Here we provide evidence that HSMI is associated with infection with piscine reovirus (PRV). PRV is a novel reovirus identified by unbiased high throughput DNA sequencing and a bioinformatics program focused on nucleotide frequency as well as sequence alignment and motif analyses. Formal implication of PRV in HSMI will require isolation in cell culture and fulfillment of Koch's postulates, or prevention or modification of disease through use of specific drugs or vaccines. Nonetheless, as our data indicate that a causal relationship is plausible, measures must be taken to control PRV not only because it threatens domestic salmon production but also due to the potential for transmission to wild salmon populations

Network Analysis of Intrinsic Functional Brain Connectivity in Alzheimer's Disease

Functional brain networks detected in task-free (“resting-state”) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have a small-world architecture that reflects a robust functional organization of the brain. Here, we examined whether this functional organization is disrupted in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Task-free fMRI data from 21 AD subjects and 18 age-matched controls were obtained. Wavelet analysis was applied to the fMRI data to compute frequency-dependent correlation matrices. Correlation matrices were thresholded to create 90-node undirected-graphs of functional brain networks. Small-world metrics (characteristic path length and clustering coefficient) were computed using graph analytical methods. In the low frequency interval 0.01 to 0.05 Hz, functional brain networks in controls showed small-world organization of brain activity, characterized by a high clustering coefficient and a low characteristic path length. In contrast, functional brain networks in AD showed loss of small-world properties, characterized by a significantly lower clustering coefficient (p<0.01), indicative of disrupted local connectivity. Clustering coefficients for the left and right hippocampus were significantly lower (p<0.01) in the AD group compared to the control group. Furthermore, the clustering coefficient distinguished AD participants from the controls with a sensitivity of 72% and specificity of 78%. Our study provides new evidence that there is disrupted organization of functional brain networks in AD. Small-world metrics can characterize the functional organization of the brain in AD, and our findings further suggest that these network measures may be useful as an imaging-based biomarker to distinguish AD from healthy aging

Resting-State Multi-Spectrum Functional Connectivity Networks for Identification of MCI Patients

In this paper, a high-dimensional pattern classification framework, based on functional associations between brain regions during resting-state, is proposed to accurately identify MCI individuals from subjects who experience normal aging. The proposed technique employs multi-spectrum networks to characterize the complex yet subtle blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal changes caused by pathological attacks. The utilization of multi-spectrum networks in identifying MCI individuals is motivated by the inherent frequency-specific properties of BOLD spectrum. It is believed that frequency specific information extracted from different spectra may delineate the complex yet subtle variations of BOLD signals more effectively. In the proposed technique, regional mean time series of each region-of-interest (ROI) is band-pass filtered ( Hz) before it is decomposed into five frequency sub-bands. Five connectivity networks are constructed, one from each frequency sub-band. Clustering coefficient of each ROI in relation to the other ROIs are extracted as features for classification. Classification accuracy was evaluated via leave-one-out cross-validation to ensure generalization of performance. The classification accuracy obtained by this approach is 86.5%, which is an increase of at least 18.9% from the conventional full-spectrum methods. A cross-validation estimation of the generalization performance shows an area of 0.863 under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, indicating good diagnostic power. It was also found that, based on the selected features, portions of the prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, temporal lobe, and parietal lobe regions provided the most discriminant information for classification, in line with results reported in previous studies. Analysis on individual frequency sub-bands demonstrated that different sub-bands contribute differently to classification, providing extra evidence regarding frequency-specific distribution of BOLD signals. Our MCI classification framework, which allows accurate early detection of functional brain abnormalities, makes an important positive contribution to the treatment management of potential AD patients

Visual Personal Familiarity in Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment

BACKGROUND: Patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment are at high risk for developing Alzheimer's disease. Besides episodic memory dysfunction they show deficits in accessing contextual knowledge that further specifies a general concept or helps to identify an object or a person. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we investigated the neural networks associated with the perception of personal familiar faces and places in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment and healthy control subjects. Irrespective of stimulus type, patients compared to control subjects showed lower activity in right prefrontal brain regions when perceiving personally familiar versus unfamiliar faces and places. Both groups did not show different neural activity when perceiving faces or places irrespective of familiarity. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our data highlight changes in a frontal cortical network associated with knowledge-based personal familiarity among patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment. These changes could contribute to deficits in social cognition and may reduce the patients' ability to transition from basic to complex situations and tasks

Altered Connectivity Pattern of Hubs in Default-Mode Network with Alzheimer's Disease: An Granger Causality Modeling Approach

Background: Evidences from normal subjects suggest that the default-mode network (DMN) has posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and inferior parietal cortex (IPC) as its hubs; meanwhile, these DMN nodes are often found to be abnormally recruited in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients. The issues on how these hubs interact to each other, with the rest nodes of the DMN and the altered pattern of hubs with respect to AD, are still on going discussion for eventual final clarification. Principal Findings: To address these issues, we investigated the causal influences between any pair of nodes within the DMN using Granger causality analysis and graph-theoretic methods on resting-state fMRI data of 12 young subjects, 16 old normal controls and 15 AD patients respectively. We found that: (1) PCC/MPFC/IPC, especially the PCC, showed the widest and distinctive causal effects on the DMN dynamics in young group; (2) the pattern of DMN hubs was abnormal in AD patients compared to old control: MPFC and IPC had obvious causal interaction disruption with other nodes; the PCC showed outstanding performance for it was the only region having causal relation with all other nodes significantly; (3) the altered relation between hubs and other DMN nodes held potential as a noninvasive biomarker of AD. Conclusions: Our study, to the best of our knowledge, is the first to support the hub configuration of the DMN from the perspective of causal relationship, and reveal abnormal pattern of the DMN hubs in AD. Findings from young subject