Reunion Patterns in the Still‐Face Paradigm as Predicted by Maternal Sensitivity and Dyadic Coordination

Previous studies have suggested that the reunion episode of the still‐face procedure has the potential to reveal the regulatory resources of the mother–infant dyad that appear to be predictive of future adaptation. Nevertheless, differences across dyads with respect to these resources have received little attention, as also have the factors that are responsible for such differences. This study addresses this gap in the literature by testing whether the dyad reunion patterns can be predicted by the mothers' sensitivity assessed 3 months earlier, and by the contingent degree of the matched states in the play episode. Three dyadic patterns were identified through cluster analysis, which were characterized by playful, neutrally matched, and disrupted interactions. Multinomial logistic regression shows that the mothers' sensitivity predicts membership to the playful group, and the matched states in the play episode predict membership to the neutrally matched and disrupted groups. These findings show that the vulnerability to disrupt an ongoing interaction after a temporary perturbation is seen for only some dyads; moreover, they support the view of early regulatory development as a multidetermined achievement. Overall, these findings have important theoretical implications related to the identification of early regulatory difficulties as precursors of later developmental outcomes.     

The Pointing–Vocal Coupling Progression in the First Half of the Second Year of Life

This study investigated the development of the pointing–vocal coupling system. We were interested in the infants’ behavior to attune prosody with pointing intentions. Twenty‐five children were involved at 12, 15, and 18 months of age in an experimental procedure devised to elicit imperative and declarative pointing. Pointing, vocality associated with pointing, and the prosody of that vocality were analyzed. A significant increase in the coupling of pointing and vocality was observed from 12 to 15 months, and in the ability to differentiate prosody with respect to the intention of the gesture from 15 to 18 months. Also, the infants who pointed declaratively at 12 months were likely to couple declarative pointing with vocality at 15 months, and the infants who coupled at 15 months were likely to differentiate prosody by the pointing intention at 18 months. Results suggest that the match between prosody and pointing intentions emerges gradually during the first half of the second year of life. They also show a relationship between earlier and later pointing–vocal coupling, and a role for declarative communication in promoting that progression. Overall, our study supports the view of intentional communication as a time‐based and context‐based developmental process.     

Ergonomics and design for all

The paper deals with research areas and actions thanks to which the theoretical and methodological content of the "Ergonomics in Design" project can give a concrete contribution to the "Design for All" project, in particular with regards to the assessment and design of environments, the design of everyday products.     

Agency costs of free cash flow,internal capital markets and unrelated diversification

This paper investigates whether free cash flow arguments or the internal capital market perspective better explains diversification decisions. Based on a unique panel of hand-collected data from listed and unlisted Italian firms for the 1980–2010 time period, the results of this study generally reveal the predominant role of the internal capital market arguments. The benefits of unrelated diversification, which include the avoidance of costly external financing, outweigh its costs, which involve opportunistic problems. Although the literature suggests two distinct forces concurrently affect diversification decisions, in the Italian context, financial benefits appear to be the prevailing motivation for unrelated diversification decisions. Furthermore, the internal capital market argument has a strong effect on decisions to engage in unrelated diversification, particularly with respect to firms that are sensitive to financial constraints.     

(IM)MIGRATION RESEARCH IN ITALY: A European Comparative Perspective

This article analyzes research on (im)migration in Italy since the early 1980s until the present as compared to research in other European receiving countries. Two periods are singled out. In the 1980s, the need to make sense of the dramatic Italian U-turn from an emigration to an immigration country prevails. Since the mid-1990s, some trends toward convergence emerge, following a number of theoretical and methodological challenges arising from North American research. Whereas for sociologist and anthropologist much of the debate is on social networks and transnationalism, in political science the gradual emerging of a policy approach to migration studies can be pointed out. However, despite the consolidating research infrastructure, there are still open questions and gaps in contemporary research on migration in Italy, for instance, second-generations, immigrants' associational and political participation, and last but not least, the impact of the European Union on Italian immigration and immigrant policy as well as policy making.     

Evaluating technical efficiency of human capital formation in the Italian university: Evidence from Florence

This paper models the human capital formation in the Italian university and utilizes a measure of technical efficiency to estimate the output-efficiency of human capital formation in the University of Florence, by using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) on a selected set of inputs and outputs. It uses the Program Evaluation (PE) procedure as well, in an attempt to attribute shares of the variation in efficiency to factors that are beyond the control and factors that are under the control of the graduates and faculties. The authors thank two anonymous referees for their valuable comments.     

Elderly-technology interaction: accessibility and acceptability of technological devices promoting motor and cognitive training

As the world population is ageing, studies on the socio-economic and health consequences are proliferating. Little has been done on the effectiveness and impact elderly may benefit from the use of technology in their everyday life. The pilot study, implemented within a funded project aimed at identifying sustainable actions to promote Seniors' quality of life, intended to investigate this kind of interaction in terms of accessibility and acceptability that senior citizen experience with technological devices promoting motor and cognitive training. In the hypothesis, interfaces and technological artifacts, that still take in little account the seniors' physical characteristics (e.g. physiological limitations in sight, hearing, movement) and cognitive processes (selective memory often driven by practical needs), can cause elderly to mistrust technology. Study participants were twenty over seventy-year-old people, who were observed and interviewed in context in a two-hour training session regarding the technological devices user experience. The results are presented with scenario-based techniques that help represent typologies of users in different use situations. Findings confirm the hypothesis, highlighting that elderly may accept technological artifacts when they perceive them as bringing benefits in terms of well-being and health.     

The emergency system for the town of Milano: evaluation of an help point

The article presents a complex work of which the author has been asked by the Municipality of Milan an its Service Company (AEM, now A2A) to apply Ergonomics to evaluate a product designed for asking information and emergency, with particular attention to vulnerable city users.     

Households and Territory. The Location of the Population of Rome in Relation to Housing Supply Characteristics

This study forms part of a general programme of research aimed at evaluating the quality of life in Rome. In particular, we have wished to analyse the way in which housing quality, measured with indicators of housing structure and utilization, intersects with the quality of urban livability, measured here only with indicators of social background, homogeneity and hardship referring to subjects living in the individual segments of the city. Groups of territorial areas, homogeneous by housing typology, were identified using multivariate data analysis and it was thus shown how particular typologies of household respond to this supply. From this emerged a particular model of development of the city in concentric bands, within which the originally differentiated households have tended over time to assume homogeneous characteristics.