The Impact of Speed Limits on Recreational Boating in the Lagoon of Venice

Speed limits were introduced in the Lagoon of Venice in 2002 to reduce wave motion, which damages environmentally sensitive areas in the broader Lagoon as well as buildings in the city of Venice. In this paper, we estimate the welfare losses experienced by recreational boaters as a result of the speed limits. We fit a single-site travel cost model to a sample of boaters intercepted as they depart from or arrive to marinas and launching ramps on the Lagoon. Our Poisson model is corrected for truncation and endogenous stratification. We construct three measures of the price per trip, which allow us to check the sensitivity of models and welfare estimates to possible measurement errors in the opportunity cost of time. Our results are robust to the measure of price used and conservatively peg the welfare losses of boaters to €7.7-9.6 million per year. Even under conservative assumptions, the welfare losses of boaters are sufficiently large that, given current monitoring and enforcement of the speed limits, we believe there is a strong incentive for boaters to disregard the limits.Travel cost method, Single-site model, Speed limits, Natural resources management

Examining Relationships and Sex Education through a child rights lens: an intersectional approach

Inspired by Audrey Osler’s call for the development of novel approaches to intersectionality in human rights education praxis, this article presents an undergraduate module on Children’s Rights, examining processes of teaching and learning about rights through the topic of Relationships and Sex Education (RSE). The module, designed for future educators, intersects elements of children’s rights education with the theoretical positions of queer studies and critical pedagogy. Drawing on data from two focus groups, consisting of students following the programme, the author analyses students’ views and attitudes to RSE, using Foucault’s overarching concept of problematisation and the concept of sites of struggle. Data analysis reveals tensions and potential clashes between the students’ professional selves, their personal values, and elements of the theoretical framework adopted in the course. These tensions are nevertheless constructive, highlighting the potential of children’s rights education to contribute to transformative human development

Combining Actual and Contingent Behavior to Estimate the Value of Sports Fishing in the Lagoon of Venice

This paper reports the results of a Travel Cost Method (TCM) study about the recreational use of the Lagoon of Venice for sports fishing. In April-July 2002, we conducted a mail survey of anglers with valid licenses fishing on the Lagoon of Venice to gather data on their fishing trips, behaviors and expenditures over the previous year. We also asked questions about trips that would be undertaken under hypothetical changes in the price of a trip and/or in the catch rate. Actual and hypothetical trips are combined to estimate single-site TCM demand function for trips. We propose several models to test whether it is acceptable to pool hypothetical and actual trip data, focusing on the respondent heterogeneity in the contingent behavior questions. Our models suggest actual and contingent behavior are driven by the same demand function, and can be pooled for estimation purposes. We use this estimated demand function, and its shift when the catch rate is improved, to compute angler surplus at the current catch rate and the change in surplus accruing from a 50% improvement in the catch rate. For the average angler in our sample, the former is about €1,700 a year, while the latter is about €2,800.Sports fishing value, Travel cost method, Environmental improvement

Magnetic Properties of a-Si films doped with rare-earth elements

Amorphous silicon films doped with Y, La, Gd, Er, and Lu rare-earth elements (a-Si:RE) have been prepared by co-sputtering and studied by means of electron spin resonance (ESR), dc-magnetization, ion beam analysis, optical transmission, and Raman spectroscopy. For comparison the magnetic properties of laser-crystallized and hydrogenated a-Si:RE films were also studied. It was found that the rare-earth species are incorporated in the a-Si:RE films in the RE3+ form and that the RE-doping depletes the neutral dangling bonds (D0) density. The reduction of D0 density is significantly larger for the magnetic REs (Gd3+ and Er3+) than for the non-magnetic ones (Y3+, La3+, Lu3+). These results are interpreted in terms of a strong exchange-like interaction, J RE-DB SRE SDB, between the spin of the magnetic REs and that of the D0. All our Gd-doped Si films showed basically the same broad ESR Gd3+ resonance (DHpp ~ 850 Oe) at g ~ 2.01, suggesting the formation of a rather stable RE-Si complex in these films.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure

Andreas Vesalius: Celebrating 500 years of dissecting nature

December 31st, 2014 marked the 500-year anniversary of the birth of Andreas Vesalius. Vesalius, considered as the founder of modern anatomy, had profoundly changed not only human anatomy, but also the intellectual structure of medicine. The impact of his scientific revolution can be recognized even today. In this article we review the life, anatomical work, and achievements of Andreas Vesalius

New life to Italian university anatomical collections: desire to give value and open museological issues. Cases compared

The anatomical museums are one of the most difficult categories of museums to deal with because the issues addressed and the stored materials are complex to communicate and often not suitable for all audiences. The history of medicine teaches us that the knowledge of our body is a fascinating topic that continues to be the subject of study and research. The Italian anatomical museums are mostly university property, often closed and with specimens in urgent need of restoration. Their rooms still house important collections of human biological samples, dry or in liquid, collected between the eighteenth and twentieth century: a historical heritage that testifies to the evolution of medical science and provides a searchable archive of biological and genetic data. The curator of such a museum must confront many issues \u2013 museological, legislative and ethical \u2013 many of which are unclear and incomplete. This article provides an overview of museological issues in the anatomical area in order to offer ideas and visions, from a comparison of three different examples: the Museum of Human Anatomy of the University of Pavia, the Museum of Pathological Anatomy at the University of Padua and the Gordon Museum of Pathology in London

Galileo Galilei: Science vs. faith

Galileo Galilei (1564\u20131642), professor of mathematics at the University of Padua from 1592 to 1610, was a pillar in the history of our University and a symbol of freedom for research and teaching, well stated in the university motto \u2018\u2018Universa Universis Patavina Libertas\u2019\u2019 (Total freedom in Padua, open to all the world).1 He invented the experimental method, based on evidence and calculation (\u2018\u2018science is measure\u2019\u2019) and was able, by using the telescope, to confirm the Copernican heliocentric theory, a challenge to the Bible. Bertrand Russell (1872\u20131970), in his book \u2018\u2018The Problems of Philosophy\u2019\u2019 stated: \u2018\u2018Almost everything that distinguishes modern world from earlier centuries is attributable to science, which achieved the most spectacular triumphs in the seventeenth century. Together with Harvey, Newton and Keplero, Galileo was a protagonist of this scientific revolution in the late Renaissance\u2019\u2019. His life was a continuous struggle to defend science from the influence of religious prejudices. He was catholic, forced by the Inquisition to deny his views, and was condemned to home arrest for the rest of his life. Here is the history of his life, a pendulum between science and religious beliefs

Occupational markers and pathology of the castrato singer Gaspare Pacchierotti (1740\u20131821)

Following the birth of modern opera in Italy in 1600, the demand for soprano voices grew up and the prepuberal castration was carried out to preserve the young male voice into adult life. Among the castrati, Gaspare Pacchierotti was probably one of the most famous. The remains of Pacchierotti were exhumed for the first time in 2013, for a research in the reconstruction of his biological profile, to understand the secrets behind his sublime voice and how the castration influenced the body. All the findings discovered, through anthropological and Computed Tomography analyses, are consistent both with the occupational markers of a singer and with the hormonal effects of castration. The erosion of cervical vertebrae, the insertion of respiratory muscles and muscles of the arms can be an effect of the bodily position and exercise during singing. The hormonal effect of castration were related to osteoporosis and to the disorders of spine

Mortalidade por melanoma cutâneo no Brasil: análise de tendência de 1996 a 2006.

Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Curso de Medicina. Departamento de Saúde Pública

Voice as Difference in Aristotelian Zoology

The Aristotelian treatment of animal voice reveals a significant wealth of philosophical issues and methodological approaches. The capability to emit voice, in fact, concerns different aspects of animal life, which Aristotle studies both from the point of view of the different aspects of the soul’s activity involved in phonation, and from the point of view of the bodily parts in control of voice emission and articulation. This paper attempts to provide a general survey of these issues.The Aristotelian treatment of animal voice reveals a significant wealth of philosophical issues and methodological approaches. The capability to emit voice, in fact, concerns different aspects of animal life, which Aristotle studies both from the point of view of the different aspects of the soul’s activity involved in phonation, and from the point of view of the bodily parts in control of voice emission and articulation. This paper attempts to provide a general survey of these issues