Temporary job protection and productivity growth in EU economies

The present study examines cross-national and sectoral differences in Total Factor Productivity (TFP) in fourteen European countries and ten sectors from 1995 to 2007. The main aim is to ascertain the role of employment protection of temporary contracts on TFP by estimating their effects with a “difference-in-difference” approach. Results show that deregulation of temporary contracts negatively influences the growth rates of TFP in European economies and that, within sectoral analysis, the role of this liberalization is greater in industries where firms are more used to opening short-term positions. By contrast, in our observation period, restrictions on regular jobs do not cause significant effects on TFP, whereas limited regulation of product markets and higher R&D expenses positively affect efficiency growth.

Temporary job protection and productivity growth in EU economies

The present study examines cross-national and sectoral differences in Total Factor Productivity (TFP) in fourteen European countries and ten sectors from 1995 to 2007. The main aim is to ascertain the role of employment protection of temporary contracts on TFP by estimating their effects with a “difference-in-difference” approach. Results show that deregulation of temporary contracts negatively influences the growth rates of TFP in European economies and that, within sectoral analysis, the role of this liberalization is greater in industries where firms are more used to opening short-term positions. By contrast, in our observation period, restrictions on regular jobs do not cause significant effects on TFP, whereas limited regulation of product markets and higher R&D expenses positively affect efficiency growth.productivity, labor regulation

Temporary job protection and productivity growth in EU economies

The present study examines cross-national and sectoral differences in Total Factor Productivity (TFP) in fourteen European countries and ten sectors from 1995 to 2007. The main aim is to ascertain the role of employment protection of temporary contracts on TFP by estimating their effects with a “difference-in-difference” approach. Results show that deregulation of temporary contracts negatively influences the growth rates of TFP in European economies and that, within sectoral analysis, the role of this liberalisation is greater in industries where firms are more used to opening short-term positions. By contrast, in our observation period, restrictions on regular jobs do not cause significant effects on TFP, whereas limited regulation of product markets and higher R&D expenses positively affect efficiency growth.productivity, labour regulation.

Developing HL7 CDA-Based Data Warehouse for the Use of Electronic Health Record Data for Secondary Purposes

Background The growing availability of clinical and administrative data collected in electronic health records (EHRs) have led researchers and policy makers to implement data warehouses to improve the reuse of EHR data for secondary purposes. This approach can take advantages from a unique source of information that collects data from providers across multiple organizations. Moreover, the development of a data warehouse benefits from the standards adopted to exchange data provided by heterogeneous systems. Objective This article aims to design and implement a conceptual framework that semiautomatically extracts information collected in Health Level 7 Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) documents stored in an EHR and transforms them to be loaded in a target data warehouse. Results The solution adopted in this article supports the integration of the EHR as an operational data store in a data warehouse infrastructure. Moreover, data structure of EHR clinical documents and the data warehouse modeling schemas are analyzed to define a semiautomatic framework that maps the primitives of the CDA with the concepts of the dimensional model. The case study successfully tests this approach. Conclusion The proposed solution guarantees data quality using structured documents already integrated in a large-scale infrastructure, with a timely updated information flow. It ensures data integrity and consistency and has the advantage to be based on a sample size that covers a broad target population. Moreover, the use of CDAs simplifies the definition of extract, transform, and load tools through the adoption of a conceptual framework that load the information stored in the CDA in the data warehouse

A medical device domain analysis model based on HL7 RIM

Clinical investigations (CIs) are carried out to demonstrate safety and efficacy of new Medical Devices (MDs). The presence of many stakeholders participating in CIs makes it necessary to develop a common standard language to achieve semantic interoperability among systems and organizations. In Italy the National Research Council is carrying out a project supported by Ministry of Health aiming to develop an information system (MEDIS) that manages MD clinical investigations. In order to develop a flexible and interoperable system, MEDIS design has been based on the application of HL7 (Health Level 7) v.3 standards. This paper presents the results of the MEDIS design: the MD DAM based on HL7 RIM

A system of concepts to support the integration of Health and social care and assistive domotics services: the Health@Home project.

The main objective of this work is to define a common shared conceptual model that describes the health care environment using the ContSys standard, harmonizing it with the social care and assistive domotics concepts. The development of this model supports the integration of services, the interoperability among systems and the continuity of care across domains.Starting from the identification and extraction of the portion of the ContSys model suitable for the healthcare part, the article provides the methodology adopted to extend it with social and home automation concepts and to integrate them in a unique framework that supports the continuity of care.The integrated model defined in this paper has been adopted in the design phase of an interoperable open platform, called Health@Home, that organizes the provision of a set of health, social and home automation integrated services provided at home.Our model is a starting point to analyze the various determinants of wellbeing able to guarantee a high-level individual's quality of life. At the moment the Health@Home system is at the implementation phase

Understanding petri nets in health sciences education. The health issue network perspective

Scarce literature exists as to the use of Petri Nets (PN) to model the dynamic evolution of health issues in a deterministic way. Starting from the HIN (Health Issue Network) approach, the paper aims at describing the suitability of PN in supporting the Case–Based Learning method for improving an educational simulation environment in which students can manage realistic clinical data related to the evolution of a patient's health state over time

The Enabling Technologies for a Quasi-Zero Emissions Commuter Aircraft

The desire for greener aircraft pushes both academic and industrial research into developing technologies, manufacturing, and operational strategies providing emissions abatement. At time of writing, there are no certified electric aircraft for passengers’ transport. This is due to the requirements of lightness, reliability, safety, comfort, and operational capability of the fast air transport, which are not completely met by the state-of-the-art technology. Recent studies have shown that new aero-propulsive technologies do not provide significant fuel burn reduction, unless the operational ranges are limited to short regional routes or the electric storage capability is unrealistically high, and that this little advantage comes at increased gross weight and operational costs. Therefore, a significant impact into aviation emissions reduction can only be obtained with a revolutionary design, which integrates disruptive technologies starting from the preliminary design phase. This paper reviews the recent advances in propulsions, aerodynamics, and structures to present the enabling technologies for a low emissions aircraft, with a focus on the commuter category. In fact, it is the opinion of the European Community, which has financed several projects, that advances on the small air transport will be a fundamental step to assess the results and pave the way for large greener airplanes