Policy making 2.0: From theory to practice

Government agencies are gradually moving from simpler towards more sophisticated and complex practices of social media use, which are characterized by important innovations at the technological, political and organizational level. This paper intends to provide two contributions to the current discourse about such advanced approaches to social media exploitation. The first is of practical nature and has to do with assessing the potential and the challenges of a centralized cross-platform approach to social media by government agencies in their policy making processes. The second contribution is of theoretical nature and consists in the development of a multi-dimensional framework for an integrated evaluation of such advanced practices of social media exploitation in public policy making from technological, political and organizational perspectives, drawing from theoretical constructs from different domains. The proposed framework is applied for the evaluation of a pilot consultation campaign conducted in Italy using multiple social media and concerning the large scale application of a telemedicine program.     

Alerting, orienting, and executive attention: developmental properties and sociodemographic correlates in an epidemiological sample of young, urban children

A computerized test of preparedness for effortful processing (alerting attention), response to orienting cues (orienting attention), and response to the interference of competing demands (executive attention) was administered to a diverse sample of 249 children (47% female, 4.96 to 7.27 years) to assess developmental properties and sociodemographic correlates of task performance. Older children and socially advantaged children demonstrated greater proficiency in overall accuracy and speed of responding. Boys and socially advantaged children improved more in response to alerting cues. Older children improved more in response to orienting cues. Older children, socially advantaged children, African American, and Hispanic children resisted the interference of competing demands better. Findings are discussed in the context of developmental and sociodemographic factors relevant to attention and executive functions.     

Bidirectional avoidance by mice as a function of CS,US, and apparatus variables

Acquisition of two-way avoidance by mice was slower with a light CS than with a buzzer CS, with punishment of intertrial responses than without punishment, and with a short CS-CS interval than with a long CS-CS interval (30 vs. 60 sec). Light-cued avoidance was little affected by shock level (.35–1.5 mA), whereas mice trained with the buzzer CS learned faster at 1.5 mA. Animals required to move away from light or toward light showed comparable rates of acquisition. Other CS, US, and apparatus variables (directionality of cue, maximal shock duration, and presence vs. absence of a central partition in the shuttlebox) interacted in a complex fashion with those already mentioned. This resulted in widely differing performances in what may superficially appear to be different versions of the same task. The differences in mouse and rat responses to some of the variables can contribute to an understanding of the interactions between organismic and test factors and the relative explanatory value of alternative avoidance models.     

The combined use of IRT and LDV for the investigation of historical thin vaults

Correct interventions on cultural heritage should have as their starting point an accurate diagnosis of its health, in order to design a compatible care. NDTs seem to offer a promising way in this sense. This paper deals with the combined use of IRT and LDV for the investigation of historical thin vaults made by timber arches, reeds, and plaster and it demonstrates that they can effectively support a deeper knowledge of these vaults as it concerns the presence of detached areas among the different mortar layers of the plaster and of detached areas among the mat of reeds and the nailed connection with the wooden bearing elements. This is a very important goal because these ND methodologies can be employed only on the lower surface of these vaults and sufficiently far from it, and they do not have any mechanical interaction with the historical, eventually frescoed or stuccoed, plaster, thus saving money and time.     

Effects of temperature and humidity excursions and wind exposure on the arch of Augustus in Aosta

This study presents the results of the microclimate monitoring of the Arch of Augustus. This is a monument from the Roman era, situated in an urban area in the Western Alpine region of Aosta Valley, Italy. Measurements were carried out on different monument positions, corresponding to the four faces and below the vault. The measurements refer to air and surface temperature, air relative humidity, wind speed and direction. The environmental conditions are described in order to underline the differences among the four faces of the monument and to explain the nature of the decay observed on the monument. The damage risk, caused by the occurrence of phenomena like freezing-thawing cycles, thermal stress and water condensation, is estimated by relating microclimatic conditions to the stone damage processes. The results are compared to the decay map and the correlation between damage and microclimate are finally discussed.     

Transplants: the reasons for rejection

Although organ transplants, especially of kidneys, are now widely practised surgical procedures, the problem of preventing rejection is still not solved. This article considers why — since organ transplantation is an entirely artificial process — the body nevertheless has a complex immunological mechanism for rejecting all intruding foreign implants.     

Searching for innovation knowledge: insight into KIBS companies

The paper analyses the activity of research for “innovation knowledge”—here defined as knowledge that can lead to the introduction of service innovations—by Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS) companies. It proposes a classification of the possible search approaches adopted by those companies based on two dimensions: the pro-activity of search efforts and the source primarily used. Such classification is then discussed on the basis of the findings of a multiple case-study investigation involving 15 Italian and Polish KIBS companies. The study confirms that KIBS firms follow various approaches to acquire knowledge for innovation: some companies adopt a passive behaviour (i.e. innovative ideas come as a kind of side effect of their daily business activities), while others an active one (namely, they actively search for new ideas originating from various sources); some rely more on internal resources (employees, in-house R&D, internal documents, etc.), while others on external sources (clients, suppliers, service providers, universities, etc.). The results of the study have implications both for research and management that are discussed in the conclusions.     

Math Performance and Academic Anxiety Forms,from Sociodemographic to Cognitive Aspects: a Meta-analysis on 906,311 Participants

Educational Psychology Review - The relationship between anxiety and mathematics has often been investigated in the literature. Different forms of anxiety have been evaluated, with math anxiety...