Non‑intact Families and Children’s Educational Outcomes: Comparing Native and Migrant Pupils

This study explores whether the association between living in a single-parent household and children’s educational outcomes differs by migration background through comparing natives with first- and second-generation migrant children from different areas of origin. While there is strong evidence of an educational gap between migrant and native pupils in Western countries—and particularly in Italy—the interaction with family structure has been under-investigated. We suggest that native children have more socioeconomic resources to lose as a consequence of parental breakups, and thus may experience more negative consequences from living in a single-parent household compared to migrant children, who tend to have poorer educational outcomes regardless of family disruptions. Moreover, for migrant children, family disruption could result from parents’ migratory project (transnationalism) rather than separation or divorce, thus not necessarily implying parental conflict and a deteriorating family environment. Empirical analyses of data from the ISTAT ‘Integration of the Second Generation’ survey (2015) show that native Italian pupils from single-parent households in lower secondary schools are more strongly penalised in terms of grades, and less likely to aspire to the most prestigious upper secondary tracks when compared to second- and, especially, first-generation children. Indeed, the latter have been found to experience virtually no negative consequences from parental absence. Contrary to expectations, we found no substantial differences in the non-intact penalty based on the reason for parental absence (transnationalism vs divorce), nor by migrants’ area of origin

Measuring Egyptian Farmers’ Attitude Towards Staying Organic

Organic agriculture (OA) in Egypt is well-developed and still fast growing. Improving the relation between organic farmers and the other agents in the chain can provide a positive contribution to the whole organic chain competitiveness. One possible approach to investigate the farmers’ perceived role and satisfaction within the organic system is to explore the factors influencing their decision to stay organic. In particular, the aim of the present study was to measure the farmers’ attitude towards staying organic. Organic agricultural experts and institutional stakeholders were interviewed to complete a literature review and to obtain information about the Egyptian context. The survey questionnaire was pre-tested (n = 13) and then administered to a different sample (n = 232). A split-half validation procedure was used to evaluate and then confirm the factor structure. Explorative and confirmatory factor analysis yielded a final 29-item measure consisting of 8 distinct factors showing how organic agriculture influences a broad range of farmers’ life dimensions (environmental, economic, social, psychological). The significant role played by psychological and social factors in defining the farmers’ decision to stay organic emerged as a relatively unexpected outcome. The study supports the sustainable development of small family farmers, providing a useful tool to support the growth of organic production and consumption, mostly in developing countries. By monitoring farmers’ attitudes and perception towards OA, the instrument proposed in the present study can support policy makers, farmers’ organizations, civil society organizations (NGOs) and organic chains focal companies when defining policies, advocating campaigns, and chain coordination strategies for farmers involved in the organic food system development

Rewriting for Monoidal Closed Categories

This paper develops a formal string diagram language for monoidal closed categories. Previous work has shown that string diagrams for freely generated symmetric monoidal categories can be viewed as hypergraphs with interfaces, and the axioms of these categories can be realized by rewriting systems. This work proposes hierarchical hypergraphs as a suitable formalization of string diagrams for monoidal closed categories. We then show double pushout rewriting captures the axioms of these closed categories

Rewriting modulo symmetric monoidal structure

String diagrams are a powerful and intuitive graphical syntax for terms of symmetric monoidal categories (SMCs). They find many applications in computer science and are becoming increasingly relevant in other fields such as physics and control theory.An important role in many such approaches is played by equational theories of diagrams, typically oriented and applied as rewrite rules. This paper lays a comprehensive foundation for this form of rewriting. We interpret diagrams combinatorially as typed hypergraphs and establish the precise correspondence between diagram rewriting modulo the laws of SMCs on the one hand and double pushout (DPO) rewriting of hypergraphs, subject to a soundness condition called convexity, on the other. This result rests on a more general characterisation theorem in which we show that typed hypergraph DPO rewriting amounts to diagram rewriting modulo the laws of SMCs with a chosen special Frobenius structure.We illustrate our approach with a proof of termination for the theory of non-commutative bimonoids

Design of annulene-within-an-annulene systems by the altanisation approach. A study of altan-[n]annulenes

The altanisation strategy, devised to design molecules with large and paratropic perimeter circulations, is applied to the family of [n]annulenes to give, altan-[n]annulenes, i.e. [n,5]coronenes. Analytical expressions are obtained for the eigenvalues of the Hückel Hamiltonian for altan-[n]annulenes, and used in conjunction with selection rules derived from the ipsocentric approach to predict patterns of global ring current in these systems. Density-functional calculations performed on seven altan-[n]annulenes, three neutral and four charged, give current-density maps in essential agreement with the predictions obtained at the unperturbed Hückel level. All but one of the systems show patterns with the tropicities expected for isolated annulenes, in line with the altanisation concept. The apparent exception is altan-[11]annulene−, the only singlet system with a well defined open-shell character in the studied set. The key role of open-shell character can be accommodated by appropriate choice of the occupation numbers of the initial Hückel molecular orbitals, where the anion altan-[11]annulene− is considered as an [11]annulene inside the [22]annulene anion

Decoherence Effects on Superpositions of Chiral States in a Chiral Molecule

The superposition of chiral states of chiral molecules, as delocalized quantum states of a many-particle system, can be used for the experimental investigations of decoherence theory. In this regard, a great challenge is the precise quantification of the robustness of these superpositions against environmental effects. The methods so far proposed need the detailed specification of the internal states of the molecule, usually requiring heavy numerical calculations. Here, by using the linearized quantum Boltzmann equation and by borrowing ideas employed for analyzing other quantum systems, we present a general and simple approach, of large applicability, which can be used to compute the dominant contribution to the decoherence rate for the superpositions of chiral states of chiral molecules, due to environmental scattering.Comment: 6 pages, 1 Figur

"Delirium Day": A nationwide point prevalence study of delirium in older hospitalized patients using an easy standardized diagnostic tool

Background: To date, delirium prevalence in adult acute hospital populations has been estimated generally from pooled findings of single-center studies and/or among specific patient populations. Furthermore, the number of participants in these studies has not exceeded a few hundred. To overcome these limitations, we have determined, in a multicenter study, the prevalence of delirium over a single day among a large population of patients admitted to acute and rehabilitation hospital wards in Italy. Methods: This is a point prevalence study (called "Delirium Day") including 1867 older patients (aged 65 years or more) across 108 acute and 12 rehabilitation wards in Italian hospitals. Delirium was assessed on the same day in all patients using the 4AT, a validated and briefly administered tool which does not require training. We also collected data regarding motoric subtypes of delirium, functional and nutritional status, dementia, comorbidity, medications, feeding tubes, peripheral venous and urinary catheters, and physical restraints. Results: The mean sample age was 82.0 \ub1 7.5 years (58 % female). Overall, 429 patients (22.9 %) had delirium. Hypoactive was the commonest subtype (132/344 patients, 38.5 %), followed by mixed, hyperactive, and nonmotoric delirium. The prevalence was highest in Neurology (28.5 %) and Geriatrics (24.7 %), lowest in Rehabilitation (14.0 %), and intermediate in Orthopedic (20.6 %) and Internal Medicine wards (21.4 %). In a multivariable logistic regression, age (odds ratio [OR] 1.03, 95 % confidence interval [CI] 1.01-1.05), Activities of Daily Living dependence (OR 1.19, 95 % CI 1.12-1.27), dementia (OR 3.25, 95 % CI 2.41-4.38), malnutrition (OR 2.01, 95 % CI 1.29-3.14), and use of antipsychotics (OR 2.03, 95 % CI 1.45-2.82), feeding tubes (OR 2.51, 95 % CI 1.11-5.66), peripheral venous catheters (OR 1.41, 95 % CI 1.06-1.87), urinary catheters (OR 1.73, 95 % CI 1.30-2.29), and physical restraints (OR 1.84, 95 % CI 1.40-2.40) were associated with delirium. Admission to Neurology wards was also associated with delirium (OR 2.00, 95 % CI 1.29-3.14), while admission to other settings was not. Conclusions: Delirium occurred in more than one out of five patients in acute and rehabilitation hospital wards. Prevalence was highest in Neurology and lowest in Rehabilitation divisions. The "Delirium Day" project might become a useful method to assess delirium across hospital settings and a benchmarking platform for future surveys