Participatory justice and mediation toward a new model of justice

This paper provides a brief description of the model of participatory justice that is emerging in Europe and in North and South American States. Participatory justice promotes new forms of conflict resolution, as does mediation, based on voluntariness and confidentiality, as well as the participation of all parties in the management of conflict. In 2010, Italian legislators introduced mediation as an alternative form of dispute resolution in civil and commercial matters in order to reduce the burden of the Courts. This reform has not been successful so far because Italian lawmakers have introduced mediation into the civil justice system without reforming the framework of its underlying principles.El presente artículo tiene como propósito realizar una breve descripción teórica sobre el modelo de justicia participativa que está surgiendo en Europa y en los Estados del continente americano. La justicia participativa promueve métodos alternativos de resolución de conflictos, como la mediación, caracterizados por la voluntariedad, la confidencialidad y la participación de todas las partes en la gestión de conflictos que las dividen. En 2010 los legisladores italianos introdujeron la mediación en asuntos civiles y mercantiles para reducir la carga de los tribunales. La reforma, sin embargo, no tuvo éxito debido a que los legisladores italianos establecieron la mediación sin armonizar sus principios con los del modelo tradicional de justicia

Evaluating observer agreement of scoring systems for foot integrity and footrot lesions in sheep

Background: A scoring scale with five ordinal categories is used for visual diagnosis of footrot in sheep and to study its epidemiology and control. More recently a 4 point ordinal scale has been used by researchers to score foot integrity (wall and sole horn damage) in sheep. There is no information on observer agreement using either of these scales. Observer agreement for ordinal scores is usually estimated by single measure values such as weighted kappa or Kendall’s coefficient of concordance which provide no information where the disagreement lies. Modeling techniques such as latent class models provide information on both observer bias and whether observers have different thresholds at which they change the score given. In this paper we use weighted kappa and located latent class modeling to explore observer agreement when scoring footrot lesions (using photographs and videos) and foot integrity (using post mortem specimens) in sheep. We used 3 observers and 80 photographs and videos and 80 feet respectively. Results: Both footrot and foot integrity scoring scales were more consistent within observers than between. The weighted kappa values between observers for both footrot and integrity scoring scales ranged from moderate to substantial. There was disagreement between observers with both observer bias and different thresholds between score values. The between observer thresholds were different for scores 1 and 2 for footrot (using photographs and videos) and for all scores for integrity (both walls and soles). The within observer agreement was higher with weighted kappa values ranging from substantial to almost perfect. Within observer thresholds were also more consistent than between observer thresholds. Scoring using photographs was less variable than scoring using video clips or feet. Conclusions: Latent class modeling is a useful method for exploring components of disagreement within and between observers and this information could be used when developing a scoring system to improve reliability

Responsabilità: una virtù per l'era postmoderna

Sommario: 1. Un’ambigua virtù. – 2. Nuove metafore: la rete. – 3. Dal dovere alla responsabilità. – 4. Responsabilità semplice e complessa

Mediazione: oltre l'antico e il moderno

Perché la mediazione suscita perplessità e dubbi negli operatori del diritto e della giustizia? Potremmo dire perché è uno strumento nuovo che solo da un decennio o poco più si affaccia timidamente alle soglie delle aule del diritto (almeno in Italia), possiamo anche aggiungere che si tratta di una tecnica non disciplinata in alcun modo dal diritto che si occupa tuttavia, almeno in parte, dei problemi tradizionalmente regolati da questo, diremo invece che le maggiori riserve sollevate nei giuristi non riguardano né la novità dello strumento, né la mancata disciplina giuridica della mediazione, ma le idee guida che portano all’affermazione delle tecniche di mediazione nella gestione della conflittualità sociale. La prospettiva di una verità consensuale che si oppone alla verità processuale, di una responsabilità che non sfocia nella pena ma nella progettualità e condivisione delle scelte, l’assenza della figura giudicante, sostituita da una priva di autorità e potere che guida le persone verso la soluzione del conflitto, senza tuttavia imporne alcuna, richiama alla mente dei giuristi lo spettro della giustizia privata e dell’oblio di quelle garanzie su cui abbiamo edificato la nostra civiltà giuridica. In effetti, la mediazione, accanto al versante luminoso della valorizzazione della persona e delle sue risorse e potenzialità, ha anche una zona d’ombra in cui si annida il pericolo di forme paternalistiche di controllo sociale, esercitate senza le tutele e le responsabilità che la giustizia formale offre. Perciò è utile riflettere attentamente sulla proposta avanzata dalla mediazione e sulle imprescindibili risorse del diritto

Jonas, Hobbes e le forme della paura

This essay aims at clarifying the concept of Jonas’s heuristic of fear. Although it has been severely criticized, fear remains an aspect of his thought which has drawn little attention, particularly regarding the role it plays in the elaboration of the imperative of responsibility. Jonas elaborates a new concept of fear, moulded by the particular form of uncertainty brought about by the technological age. Although critics have interpreted Jonas’ attempt as an ethics founded on irrationality and emotion, the present analysis shows that Jonas affirms a cognitivist theory of fear. The concept of fear he discusses in The Imperative of Responsibility is not an emotion as an immediate physical and psychological reaction, but a form of evaluative thinking that is part of responsibility. In order to illustrate form and function of fear in Jonas thought, I will refer to the meanings of fear in Hobbes, an author Jonas himself refers to

Analysis of food supplement with unusual raspberry ketone content

In recent years food supplement market increased constantly, including slimming products and against obesity. The case of rasberry ketone (RK) is here reported. HPTLC and HPLC-DAD analyses on a marketed product containing raspberry juice evidenced an abnormal quantity of RK, not in accordance with the juice natural content. The reported data confirm the need of adequate controls on marketed food supplements and the necessity of a complete adherence between labelling and real constitution of the product. Practical Applications: Determining the natural origin and assuring the consumers' safety for raspberry-based food supplement

Evaluation of temporal surveillance system sensitivity and freedom from bovine viral diarrhea in Danish dairy herds using scenario tree modelling

BACKGROUND: The temporal sensitivity of the surveillance system (TemSSe) for Bovine Viral Diarrhea (BVD) in Danish dairy herds was evaluated. Currently, the Danish antibody blocking ELISA is used to test quarterly bulk tank milk (BTM). To optimize the surveillance system as an early warning system, we considered the possibility of using the SVANOVIR ELISA, as this test has been shown to detect BVD-positive herds earlier than the blocking ELISA in BTM tests. Information from data (2010) and outputs from two published stochastic models were fed into a stochastic scenario tree to estimate the TemSSe. For that purpose we considered: the risk of BVD introduction into the dairy population, the ELISA used and the high risk period (HRP) from BVD introduction to testing (at 90 or 365 days). The effect of introducing one persistently infected (PI) calf or one transiently infected (TI) milking cow into 1 (or 8) dairy herd(s) was investigated. Additionally we estimated the confidence in low (PLow) herd prevalence (<8/4109 infected herds) and the confidence in complete freedom (PFree) from BVD (< 1/4109). RESULTS: The TemSSe, the PLow, and the PFree were higher, when tests were performed 365 days after BVD introduction, than after 90 days. Estimates were usually higher for the SVANOVIR than for the blocking ELISA, and when a PI rather than a TI was introduced into the herd(s). For instance, with the current system, the median TemSSe was 64.5 %, 90 days after a PI calf was introduced into eight dairy herds. The related median PLow was 72.5 %. When a PI calf was introduced into one herd the median TemSSe was 12.1 %, while the related PFree was 51.6 %. With the SVANOVIR ELISA these estimates were 99.0 %; 98.9 %, 43.7 % and 62.4 %, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The replacement of the blocking ELISA with the SVANOVIR could increase the TemSSe, the PLow and PFree remarkably. Those results could be used to optimize the Danish BVD surveillance system. Furthermore, the approach proposed in this study, for including the effect of the HRP within the scenario tree methodology, could be applied to optimize early warning surveillance systems of different animal diseases

Rapid assessment of the viability of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis cells after heating using an optimized phage amplification assay.

Thermal inactivation experiments were carried out to assess the utility of a recently optimized phage amplification assay to accurately enumerate viable Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis cells in milk. Ultra-heat-treated (UHT) whole milk was spiked with large numbers of M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis organisms (10(6) to 10(7) CFU/ml) and dispensed in 100-μl aliquots in thin-walled 200-μl PCR tubes. A Primus 96 advanced thermal cycler (Peqlab, Erlangen, Germany) was used to achieve the following time and temperature treatments: (i) 63°C for 3, 6, and 9 min; (ii) 68°C for 20, 40, and 60 s; and (iii) 72°C for 5, 10, 15, and 25 s. After thermal stress, the number of surviving M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis cells was assessed by both phage amplification assay and culture on Herrold's egg yolk medium (HEYM). A high correlation between PFU/ml and CFU/ml counts was observed for both unheated (r(2) = 0.943) and heated (r(2) = 0.971) M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis cells. D and z values obtained using the two types of counts were not significantly different (P > 0.05). The D(68°C), mean D(63°C), and D(72°C) for four M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis strains were 81.8, 9.8, and 4.2 s, respectively, yielding a mean z value of 6.9°C. Complete inactivation of 10(6) to 10(7) CFU of M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis/ml milk was not observed for any of the time-temperature combinations studied; 5.2- to 6.6-log(10) reductions in numbers were achieved depending on the temperature and time. Nonlinear thermal inactivation kinetics were consistently observed for this bacterium. This study confirms that the optimized phage assay can be employed in place of conventional culture on HEYM to speed up the acquisition of results (48 h instead of a minimum of 6 weeks) for inactivation experiments involving M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis-spiked samples