Career Development in Middle Childhood: A Qualitative Inquiry

The purpose of this investigation was to explore childhood career development by examining 4th‐ and 5th‐grade students' career and self‐awareness, exploration, and career planning. Responses to written assignments provided qualitative data for analysis. Written narrative data were analyzed using consensual qualitative research methods as described by C. E. Hill, B. J. Thompson, and E. N. Williams (1997). Consistent with theory (D. Super, 1990), children's reflections on prominent career tasks and influences revealed 8 of the 9 (all but curiosity) dimensions of childhood career development as outlined by Super. In addition, participants described their conceptions of work, a domain not explicitly articulated by Super and worthy of further inquiry.     

Simultaneous confidence intervals on partial means of classes in the two-stage stratified sampling

Let’s consider a finite population of P units, each of them assumes a specific amount of the quantitative variable X. Moreover we assume that the range of values of X is subdivided into k classes and the sampling data come out from a two stage stratified sampling. The main purpose of the work is to determine the estimators, as well as their asymptotic distribution, of the partial means of classes, each of them is defined as a non linear function of the other parameters. Particularly, we are interested in determining the linear approximation estimators and, under convergence theorems, the asymptotic distribution. Afterwards we define the estimator of the vector of the partial means of classes and its asymptotic convergence to multivariate normal distribution is determined. These results are useful to develop simultaneous inferential procedures.     

The Use of Risk Assessment to Decide the Control Strategy for Bluetongue in Italian Ruminant Populations

The affiliation, assessment and management of risks is a traditional part of veterinary medicine. In the past, veterinary services involved in this type of activity usually assessed risks qualitatively. However, since the 1990s, quantitative methods have become increasingly important. The establishment of the World Trade Organization in 1994, and the promulgation of its Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (the "SPS Agreement") led to an increased application of import risk analysis and to significant improvements in the methodology of risk analysis as applied to international trade policy for animals and animal products. However, there was very little development of risk analysis in veterinary fields other than international trade and management of health risks to consumers of animal products and little has been published on its use in the choice and definition of control or prophylaxis strategies for animal diseases. This article describes a quantitative risk assessment, which was undertaken in Italy to help choose an appropriate national response strategy following an incursion of bluetongue, an infectious disease of sheep and goats. The results obtained in this study support the use of risk analysis as a tool to assist in choosing an appropriate animal disease management strategy. The use of risk analysis in the evaluation of disease management strategies also offers advantages in international trade. It makes easier the comparison of different strategies applied in the various countries, and thus facilitates the assessment of equivalence of the guarantees provided by different strategies.     

The role and effect of controlling shareholders in corporate governance

This paper examines two potentially contradictory effects of the presence of controlling shareholders. Controlling shareholders have been shown to be beneficial, as they generally have a long-term interest in the firm and are willing and able to monitor the actions of senior managers closely and decrease agency costs between shareholders and management (agency costs of Type I). However, they are also in a position to expropriate the firm’s assets, especially when they are actively involved in management (agency costs of Type II). More specifically, this article reviews how regulatory and legislative bodies have tried to curb the consumption of private benefits by controlling shareholders while preserving the beneficial aspects of their long-term interest and their monitoring role, the effect controlling shareholders on the application and effectiveness of corporate governance best practices as well as on the executive and board member remuneration.     

A New Relative Importance Index of Evaluation for Conjoint Analysis: Some Findings for CRM Assistant

Social Indicators Research - ELECTUS is an Italian multi-centre research project with the aim of reinforcing the relationship between the academic world and business. Through this project, it is...     

An Integrated Model of Cumulative Growth: Empirical Evidence for Nine OECD Countries, 1960-1990

ABSTRACT: This paper is an empirical analysis of the interaction between the dynamics of demand, productivity and employment in nine industrial countries: the United States, Canada, Japan, West Germany, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Belgium, 1960-1990. Its theoretical framework derives from the Kaldorian approach to cumulative growth in both its external and internal causation versions. The model we adopt is of an integrated kind, in which foreign demand is determined endogenously and domestic demand is divided into various component parts: exogenous for the public sector and endogenous for the private. More specifically, this is carried out by describing the way the dynamics of private consumption and private investments depend on economic variables located in the spheres of distribution and of technology, so that we can consider the operations of income compensation effects induced by technological change — via changes in income and its social distribution — as well as price compensation effects— the higher competitiveness of national products in foreign markets — mediated through the dynamics of exports.     

Single-cell antisense RNA amplification and microarray analysis as a tool for studying neurological degeneration and restoration

Neurodegenerative diseases typically affect subpopulations of neurons. Characterizing these vulnerable cells and identifying the factors that make them susceptible to damage while neighboring cells remain resistant are essential to the understanding of molecular pathogenesis that underlies neurodegenerative diseases. Classically, molecular analysis of the central nervous system involves the identification and isolation of an anatomic region of interest; next, the relevant tissue is pulverized, and the resulting homogenate is analyzed. Although this method provides useful data, its effectiveness diminishes when used in areas of high cellular diversity or in instances in which one cell type is lost as a consequence of selective cell death or quiescence. A technique that affords the ability to assess molecular events in a very precise anatomical site would provide a powerful tool for this research discipline. In this review, we discuss the amplification of messenger RNA from single neural cells and the subsequent use of the RNA to probe DNA microarrays in an effort to create cell-specific molecular profiles. Specifically, recent work in single-cell expression profiling in Alzheimer's and Huntington's diseases is discussed. We also review some new work with neural stem cells and their application to restorative neurobiology. Finally, we discuss the use of cell-specific molecular profiles to better understand the basics of neuronal cell biology.     

Validity and reliability of the Italian Gambling Functional Assessment–Revised

Problem gambling is a growing phenomenon in Italy, and there is increasing interest in studying the reasons for gambling in the Italian community. The Gambling Functional Assessment–Revised (GFA-R) was developed to assess two contingencies maintaining gambling behaviour: positive reinforcement and escape. The study hypothesized that the GFA-R could be translated and adopted in the Italian context. The main purpose of this study was to test the factor structure of the Italian version of the GFA-R by means of confirmatory factor analysis, its internal consistency and validity, in a sample of 667 Italian-speaking adults, recruited at universities, banks, of?ces, industries, markets, public parks and shops in five regions: Piemonte, Veneto, Lazio, Calabria and Puglia. The study found that the scale was internally consistent, and results showed that the original two-factor model fitted the data well. It also found moderate correlations between the GFA-R-I and both SOGS scores and GRCS scores. These results will allow Italian psychologists, educators and policymakers to identify specific contingencies maintaining gambling behaviour (positive reinforcement vs. escape) in the Italian community, detecting people more at risk of developing disordered gambling, with significant improvements in terms of prevention and clinical intervention.