Note sulla "normalizzazione" della questione di fiducia

Il contributo affronta il tema dell’evoluzione dell’istituto della questione di fiducia nella prassi, la codificazione delle norme nei regolamenti parlamentari, le proposte di razionalizzazione per superare le degenerazioni dell’abbinamento “in simbiosi” con i maxi-emendamenti. Inquadrare giuridicamente lo strumento della questione di fiducia significa “varcare”, in un certo senso, il sottile crinale che separa le norme parlamentari e quelle costituzionali, in una problematica collocazione «tra ordine giuridico e sistema politico». Le regole che disciplinano la questione di fiducia hanno, infatti, la loro fonte nei Regolamenti delle Camere, ma gli effetti che ne derivano hanno natura costituzionale: incidono sui rapporti tra Parlamento e Governo, su quelli all’interno della maggioranza e, in senso più ampio, su quelli tra rappresentanza parlamentare e corpo elettorale. Dall’avvento del maggioritario l’istituto della questione di fiducia ha subito una vera e propria “normalizzazione”. Si può infatti figurativamente classificare: una “fiducia-necessitata” da scadenze costituzionali (conversione in legge di decreti-legge); una “fiducia-garanzia” come strumento per assicurare tempi certi di approvazione secondo il “cronoprogramma” di governo; una “fiducia-ricatto” come arma del Governo contro la propria maggioranza per imporre la linea su un determinato provvedimento; una “fiducia-collante”, a coesione e a tenuta di una maggioranza magari ampia ma non omogenea. La questione di fiducia ha così modificato in maniera progressiva e incisiva il procedimento legislativo, diventando da strumento speciale sempre più strumento normale dell'iter legis, indipendentemente dall'ampiezza e dal colore della maggioranza in Parlamento, come se intorno ad essa fosse subentrata una sorta di opinio iuris ac necessitatis. Il recente dibattito sull’approvazione della nuova legge elettorale per la Camera dei Deputati (c.d. Italicum, legge 6 maggio 2015, n. 52) induce dunque a una nuova riflessione sull’istituto

The Integration of Research and Practice in Clinical Psychology

One of the most significant debates in clinical psychology in the past decade has been focused on evidence-based practices (Berke, Rozell, Hogan, Norcross, & Karpiak, 2011). This debate occurs in clinic, research, academic, and administrative settings and currently represents a primary dimension of the training of future clinical psychologists. Melchert (2007) states that the intensity of this disagreement interferes with the recognition that scientific credibility has had on the overall success of professional psychology, as well as the recognition that the growth of psychology in general has been largely based on developments in professional psychology

Sviluppo di metodi fotochimici per la sintesi di particelle Janus con specifiche proprietà e capacità di auto-assemblaggio

L'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen

ATTENTION AND SCHOOL SUCCESS: The Long-Term Implications of Attention for School Success among Low-Income Children

This study examined the longitudinal associations between sustained attention in preschool and children’s school success in later elementary school within a low-income sample (N = 2,403). Specifically, two facets of sustained attention (focused attention and lack of impulsivity) at age 5 were explored as independent predictors of children’s academic and behavioral competence across eight measures at age 9. Overall, the pattern of results indicates specificity between the facets of attention and school success, such that focused attention was primarily predictive of academic outcomes while impulsivity was mainly predictive of behavioral outcomes. Both facets of attention predicted teacher ratings of children’s academic skills and approaches to learning, which suggests that they jointly influence outcomes that span both domains of school success. Patterns of association were similar for children above and below the poverty line. Implications of these findings for interventions targeting school readiness and success among at-risk children are discussed.sustained attention, academic achievement, behavioral competence, low-income children

Associations among Family Environment, Attention, and School Readiness for At-Risk Children

This study examined the developmental pathways from children’s family environment to school readiness within an at-risk sample (N = 1,701). Measures of the family environment (maternal parenting behaviors and maternal mental health) across early childhood were related to children’s observed sustained attention as well as to academic and behavioral outcomes at age 5 years. Results suggest specificity in the associations among attention and its correlates. Maternal parenting behaviors but not mental health explained individual differences in sustained attention, which in turn were associated with variability in children’s academic school readiness. Mediation tests confirmed that sustained attention partially accounted for the link between parenting behaviors and academic school readiness. While maternal mental health was associated with children’s behavioral school readiness, sustained attention did not play a mediating role. Findings indicate sustained attention as a potential target for efforts aimed at enhancing academic school readiness among predominantly poor and minority children.child development, educational success, parenting behaviors, school readiness, mental health

A Unified Framework for the H∞ Mixed-Sensitivity Design of Fixed Structure Controllers through Putinar Positivstellensatz

In this paper, we present a novel technique to design fixed structure controllers, for both continuous-time and discrete-time systems, through an H∞ mixed sensitivity approach. We first define the feasible controller parameter set, which is the set of the controller parameters that guarantee robust stability of the closed-loop system and the achievement of the nominal performance requirements. Then, thanks to Putinar positivstellensatz, we compute a convex relaxation of the original feasible controller parameter set and we formulate the original H∞ controller design problem as the non-emptiness test of a set defined by sum-of-squares polynomials. Two numerical simulations and one experimental example show the effectiveness of the proposed approach

Affective Perception of Disposable Razors: A Kansei Engineering Approach

AbstractIn recent decades, the market of consumer products has changed from the production-oriented point of view to a more market-focused, i.e. aiming to attend consumers’ expectations. Today, consumers turn their attention not only to the logical and rational aspects of the product, but increasingly symbolic and emotional factors have gained an important role in buying decision. Some methods have already been used to design emotional meaning in the products, such as the Kansei Engineering with reported results in literature. This study had as a goal to investigate affective aspects of disposable razors perceived by the users and how they relate to product features using Kansei Engineering. Thus, 40 disposable razors commonly found in the international market were evaluated in a virtual system through a variety of pictures (photographic representation) of the products. In order to identify the most relevant product features Morphological Analysis was performed. To evaluate the disposable razors, 321 male adults volunteered in this study. Semantic differential with 17 pairs of bipolar adjectives were employed to construct the semantic space in Kansei Engineering. The results showed no high correlation in the sample. Moderate correlations, however were found in 12 pairs of bipolar adjectives with 13 product features. Thus, it can be assumed that affective responses can be mildly related to product feature, considering limitation of statistic treatment

Autonomous Driving in Highway Scenarios through Artificial Potential Fields and Model Predictive Control

An approach for automated driving in highway scenarios in the context of a two levels hierarchical architecture is proposed. In particular, we define suitable artificial potential functions (APF) combinations that can effectively handle the most relevant maneuvers of highway driving, such as speed and distance tracking, lane keeping, overtaking and returning. Parameters of the APF functions are dynamically tuned according to the acquired scenario. The defined APF are included in the cost function of a Model Predictive Control (MPC) control problem to generate the path trajectory. A behavioral logic described by a finite state machine (FSM), based on sensor acquired data and suitable dynamic conditions is defined to select the most appropriate maneuver to realize. Extensive simulation tests are introduced to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach