Beyond Employment Rate: A Multidimensional Indicator of Higher Education Effectiveness

This paper proposes a multidimensional indicator of higher education effectiveness that aims at going beyond the limits of measuring university effectiveness merely through employment rates. The units of analysis are the study programmes. Eleven indicators related to external effectiveness are selected, and their reliability for and relevance to the representation of the concept of effectiveness are empirically evaluated. The data are drawn from a longitudinal survey administered to graduates of the University of Padua, Italy, from 2008 to 2011. From our analyses, effectiveness appears to be a multidimensional concept composed by professional empowerment, employability and personal fulfilment. The right time for collecting relevant data on educational outcomes varies according to the types of indicators: indicators of professional empowerment assessed 1 year after graduation are most suitable, while for personal fulfilment measurement both short- and long-term evaluation are relevant, and, for employability, data collected 3 years after graduation cannot discriminate among study programmes.     

Sexual Function in Women with Deep Endometriosis: Correlation with Quality of Life,Intensity of Pain,Depression, Anxiety,and Body Image

Objectives: We evaluated sexual function, quality of life and perceived body image of women with deep endometriosis in comparison to that of healthy women. Methods: The sample consisted of 41 women with deep endometriosis and 40 healthy women without endometriosis. Sexual, psychological and pain evaluation were performed. Results: The study evidenced that deep endometriosis has a significant impact on sexuality and body image. Conclusions: An integrated and patient-centered approach to medical and psychological and sexual issues is suggested.     

Behavioural Addictions in Adolescents and Young Adults: Results from a Prevalence Study

Our study aims to assess the prevalence of behavioural addictions in an adolescent population, evaluating the effects of gender and age, and to assess the correlations among different behavioural addictions. 2853 high school students were assessed in order to evaluate the prevalence of behavioural addictions such as Pathological Gambling (PG), Compulsive Buying (CB), Exercise Addiction (EA), Internet Addiction (IA), and Work Addiction (WA), in a population of Italian adolescents. The South Oaks Gambling Screen-Revised Adolescent (SOGS-RA), the Compulsive Buying Scale (CBS), the Exercise Addiction Inventory (EAI), the Internet Addiction Test (IAT), and the Work Addiction Risk Test (WART), were compiled anonymously by the students. Overall prevalence was 7.0% for PG, 11.3% for CB, 1.2% for IA, 7.6% for WA, 8.5% for EA. PG and EA were more common among boys, while gender had no effect on the other conditions. CB was more common among younger (<18 years old) students. The scores of all of these scales were significantly correlated. The strong correlation among different addictive behaviours is in line with the hypothesis of a common psychopathological dimension underlying these phenomena. Further studies are needed to assess personality traits and other clinical disorders associated with these problems behaviours.     

A permutation test for umbrella alternatives

There is a wide variety of stochastic ordering problems where K groups (typically ordered with respect to time) are observed along with a (continuous) response. The interest of the study may be on finding the change-point group, i.e. the group where an inversion of trend of the variable under study is observed. A change point is not merely a maximum (or a minimum) of the time-series function, but a further requirement is that the trend of the time-series is monotonically increasing before that point, and monotonically decreasing afterwards. A suitable solution can be provided within a conditional approach, i.e. by considering some suitable nonparametric combination of dependent tests for simple stochastic ordering problems. The proposed procedure is very flexible and can be extended to trend and/or repeated measure problems. Some comparisons through simulations and examples with the well known Mack & Wolfe test for umbrella alternative and with Page’s test for trend problems with correlated data are investigated.     

DESENSITIZING HERBERT BLUMER'S WORK ON RACE RELATIONS

Recent applications of Herbert Blumer's group position model to the study of contemporary race prejudice have misrepresented the ongoing process of definition and accommodation that, according to Blumer, mediates race relations. By conforming to the canons of research design and using standard sample surveys, public opinion polls, variables analysis, and statistical techniques to study perceptions of group threat, group hostility, and prejudicial attitudes, Blumer's dynamic social imagery, as well as the socially grounded methodology he sought to promote, are undermined. The result is a static depiction of race relations that has nothing to do with the variegated experiential complexities that Blumer claimed underlie all human group life.     

Public Health Institutions,Clinical Research and Protection System of Patients’ Rights: An Impact Evaluation of Public Policy

Public health institutions are involved in human experimentations, which is a specific phase of pharmaceutical industry’s production process. These medical centers collect clinical evidence about experimental treatments and, at the same time, they have to guarantee patients’ safety through appropriate Institutional Review Boards. Taking human experimentation into account, this work aims at estimating a public policy designed to reduce transaction costs that are related to the protection system of patients’ rights, with both a normative and positive approach. On the one hand, considering a sample of European countries as counterfactual, an empirical analysis is performed in order to estimate the impact of a national law aimed at harmonizing the procedure to obtain opinions on clinical trials. On the other hand, an alternative law, which might be able to favor the exchange between pharmaceutical companies and patients, is proposed.