Conceptions of Civil Society in International Lawmaking and Implementation: A Theoretical Framework

The last two decades have seen an unprecedented explosion in the number of civil society organizations seeking to influence national and international policy making and implementation. Global leaders, activists, scholars, and policy experts have increasingly called for the inclusion of civil society in international governance and in the national implementation of international commitments. Most recently, the wave of civil uprisings that swept the Middle East and North Africa has put fostering civil society participation high on the agenda of national governments and international organizations. Indeed, most international organizations have devised mechanisms to engage with civil society and regard civil society participation as contributing to their legitimacy, accountability, and effectiveness. The meaning of civil society, however, is deeply ambiguous. It has been interpreted in a variety of ways reflecting conflicting underlying normative values and commitments. International organizations have used the term civil society inconsistently, betraying this lack of consensus and clarity about its meaning. For example, in his address to the General Assembly urging international organizations to engage civil society in global governance, then U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali defined civil society as encompassing all nongovernmental entities, including business and industry. In contrast, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) excludes individual profit-oriented enterprises from its definition of civil society but includes business forums that aggregate and lobby on behalf of private, for-profit business interests. An official U.N. Report on United Nations-Civil Society relations (the Cardoso Report) adopts a narrower definition that excludes industry lobby groups and business federations. Some international organizations and supranational bodies, such as the World Health Organization, appear to use the terms civil society and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) interchangeably, and to favor the participation of nationally and internationally recognized NGOs in policy making and enforcement. Yet other international bodies, such as the World Bank, focus on the role of local civic associations in developing the capacity of citizens to participate in public life

Oii-web: An interactive online programming contest training system

In this paper we report our experience, related to the online training for the Italian and International Olympiads in Informatics. We developed an interactive online system, based on CMS, the grading system used in several major programming contests including the International Olympiads in Informatics (IOI), and used it in three distinct context: training students for the Italian Olympiads in Informatics (OII), training teachers in order to be able to assist students for the OII, and training the Italian team for the IOI. The system, that is freely available, proved to be a game changer for the whole italian olympiads in informatics ecosystem: in one year, we almost doubled the participation to OII, from 13k to 21k secondary school students. The system is developed basing on the Contest Management System (CMS, http://cms- dev.github.io/), so it is highly available to extensions supporting, for instance, the pro- duction of feedback on problems solutions submitted by trainees. The system is also freely available, with the idea of allowing for support to alternative necessities and developmen

HIV/AIDS Policy in Nicaragua: A Civil Society Perspective

Examines Nicaragua's HIV/AIDS epidemic in the context of socioeconomic, political, legal, and societal factors and the state of the health care system. Makes recommendations for improving policy implementation, monitoring, treatment, and legal protection

Characterization of the physical and structural changes undergone by a biological tissue during microwave thermal ablation procedures

The aim of the present doctoral project was to investigate the physical and structural changes occurring in biological tissue treated with microwave thermal ablation procedures, focusing the study on the evaluation and characterization of the shrinkage of the tissue, in correlation with the influence of the thermal changes. When the project started in 2013, few studies were conducted to comprehend the shrinking phenomenon (Diaz et al., 2008, Brace et al., 2009, Ganguli et al., 2008, Planché et al., 2013, Brace et al., 2010]. Nevertheless, the subject was of high interest for physicians and scientists involved in this field. The results reported from preliminary studies underlined that the volume occupied by the ablated tissue as measured at the end of the thermal ablation procedure is smaller than the volume occupied by the equivalent untreated tissue. Therefore, it resulted important to be able to adequately characterize the shrinkage of the tissue during a microwave thermal ablation procedure in order to correctly predict the true treatment volume; otherwise, the treatment safety as well as the efficacy can be compromised exposing peripheral structures to unwanted heating and affecting the assessment of the treatment’s technical success. The analysis and study of the thermally ablated tissue led mainly to perform extensive experimental investigations. Accordingly, ex vivo studies were conducted at four different laboratories: the Laboratory of the Division of Health Protection Technologies, ENEA Casaccia Research Centre, Rome (Italy); the Radiology Dept. of Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, Rome (Italy); the R&D laboratory of HS Hospital Service SpA, Aprilia (Italy); the Applied Radiology Laboratory of Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem (Israel), where I stayed for 6 months as visiting scholar. Moreover, thanks to the COST support, the laboratory of the Institute of Microbiology of the Academy of Sciences, Prague (Czech Republic), hosted me during a Short Term Scientific Mission (STSM) to conduct in vivo experiments of dielectric spectroscopy in the framework of a newborn joint scientific collaboration. In the present thesis, the conducted work is illustrated following the speculative project development. Specifically, the first chapter introduces the microwave ablation therapy, its operating principles, clinical and experimental applications and gaps; the second chapter concerns the used devices and the setups developed to conduct the experimental trials; and the third chapter illustrates the conducted experiments and their results. Finally, the outcomes are discussed in the conclusive chapter

Use of physical activity questionnaires in people with dementia: a scoping review

Physical activity questionnaires are an important means to assess habitual physical activity. It remains unclear what questionnaires are used and whether they are appropriate for people with dementia who have impaired information recall but are also often largely sedentary. This scoping review aimed to identify and quantify the use of physical activity questionnaires within a dementia population. Eighteen studies met the inclusion criteria for this review. The majority of studies used questionnaires that were validated for use within an older adult population (e.g., Modified Baecke Questionnaire for the Elderly), though none had specifically been validated for use in people with dementia. Interestingly, just over half of studies (N= 10, 55.6%) adapted the questionnaires from the original validated version by allowing a proxy to provide input into the responses. Future research needs to robustly validate the use of proxy-report measures of physical activity in people with dementia

O ISS e a lei complementar 116/03 : algumas considerações

Orientador: Prof. José Roberto VieiraMonografia (graduação) - Universidade Federal do Paraná,Setor de Ciências Jurídicas, Curso de Graduação em DireitoNo atual contexto, em que se propaga a necessidade de redução e otimização da carga tributária, tem se como objetivo estudar o imposto sobre serviços ("iss"), o qual, recentemente, sofreu algumas alterações em decorrência da publicação da lei complementar n°116/03. dessarte, pretende se analisar o referido tributo sistematicamente, por meio do estudo da ciência do direito positivo como um todo, ou seja, partindo do núcleo do arquétipo do iss fornecido pela constituição para, então, vislumbrar se algumas das recentes alterações promovidas em face do advento da lei complementar n°116/0

Dielectric Properties of Healthy Ex-Vivo Ovine Lung Tissue at Microwave Frequencies

Knowledge of dielectric properties of lung tissue is fundamental for the improvement of lung disease diagnostics and therapeutic solutions (e.g. microwave imaging and microwave thermal ablation treatment). Although lung disease rates are increasing, lung tissue remains one of the least characterized tissues due to its heterogeneity, variability in air content, and handling difficulties. In this work, dielectric properties of ex-vivo ovine lung tissue samples were measured in the frequency range 500 MHz – 8 GHz, together with measurements of sample density (air content). Different Cole-Cole models were applied to the measured dielectric properties values. The best fitting model was chosen, and results were compared with available literature. Furthermore, the dielectric property measurements were correlated with the air content of the samples. Updated Cole-Cole models for lung tissue of different density is provided in the 500 MHz – 8 GHz range. The existence of air content threshold in lung is shown. Below this limit, the properties begin to change drastically with the change in densit

Hydrides as high capacity anodes in lithium cells: an Italian “Futuro in Ricerca di Base FIRB-2010” project

Automotive and stationary energy storage are among the most recently-proposed and still unfulfilled applications for lithium ion devices. Higher energy, power and superior safety standards, well beyond the present state of the art, are actually required to extend the Li-ion battery market to these challenging fields, but such a goal can only be achieved by the development of new materials with improved performances. Focusing on the negative electrode materials, alloying and conversion chemistries have been widely explored in the last decade to circumvent the main weakness of the intercalation processes: the limitation in capacity to one or at most two lithium atoms per host formula unit. Among all of the many proposed conversion chemistries, hydrides have been proposed and investigated since 2008. In lithium cells, these materials undergo a conversion reaction that gives metallic nanoparticles surrounded by an amorphous matrix of LiH. Among all of the reported conversion materials, hydrides have outstanding theoretical properties and have been only marginally explored, thus making this class of materials an interesting playground for both fundamental and applied research. In this review, we illustrate the most relevant results achieved in the frame of the Italian National Research Project FIRB 2010 Futuro in Ricerca “Hydrides as high capacity anodes in lithium cells” and possible future perspectives of research for this class of materials in electrochemical energy storage devices

Adaptation of the DEMQOL-Proxy for routine use in care homes: a cross sectional study of the reliability and validity of DEMQOL-CH

Objective: To investigate the routine use of a measure of quality of life (QoL) in care homes and assess its psychometric properties when used by care staff Design: A cross-sectional two-phase study. Setting and participants: Data were collected from care staff in seven care homes in East Sussex, England. Method: Phase 1: The ability of care staff from two care homes to use the DEMQOL-Proxy without interviewer-administration was assessed using agreement analysis between a selfand interviewer-administered version of the instrument. Based on these findings, DEMQOLProxy was adapted into a new version, DEMQOL-CH, for use as a self-administered instrument in care homes. We assessed agreement between the new DEMQOL-CH and DEMQOL-Proxy to ensure DEMQOL-CH was used correctly. Phase 2: A preliminary assessment of the psychometric properties of DEMQOL-CH when used routinely was completed in a further five care homes. Results: Phase 1: Nineteen care staff from two care homes completed QoL measurements for residents. Systematic error was identified when staff self-completed the DEMQOL-Proxy without an interviewer. We modified the DEMQOL-Proxy to create DEMQOL-CH; this reduced the error, producing a version that could be used more accurately by care staff. Phase 2: Eleven care staff from five care homes rated resident QoL routinely. DEMQOL-CH showed acceptable psychometric properties with satisfactory reliability and validity and a clear factor structure. Conclusions: The research presents positive preliminary data on the acceptability, feasibility and performance of routine QoL measurement in care homes using an adapted version of DEMQOL-Proxy, the DEMQOL-CH. Results provide evidence to support the concept that routine measurement of QoL may be possible in care homes. Research is needed to refine and test the methodology and instrument further, and to explore the potential for benefits to residents, staff, and care homes in larger and more representative populations

Psychometric properties and feasibility of use of dementia specific quality of life instruments for use in care settings: a systematic review

Background: Over 400,000 people live in care home settings in the UK. One way of understanding and improving the quality of care provided is by measuring and understanding the quality of life (QoL) of those living in care homes. This review aimed to identify and examine the psychometric properties including feasibility of use of dementia-specific QoL measures developed or validated for use in care settings. Design: Systematic review. Methods: Instruments were identified using four electronic databases (PubMed, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and CINAHL) and lateral search techniques. Searches were conducted in January 2017. Studies which reported on the development and/or validation of dementia specific QoL instruments for use in care settings written in English were eligible for inclusion. The methodological quality of the studies was assessed using the COSMIN checklist. Feasibility was assessed using a checklist developed specifically for the review. Results: Six hundred and sixteen articles were identified in the initial search. After de-duplication, screening and further lateral searches were performed, 25 studies reporting on 9 dementia-specific QoL instruments for use in care home settings were included in the review. Limited evidence was available on the psychometric properties of many instruments identified. Higher-quality instruments were not easily accessible or had low feasibility of use. Conclusions: Few high-quality instruments of QoL validated for use in care home settings are readily or freely available. This review highlights the need to develop a well-validated measure of QoL for use within care homes that is also feasible and accessible