Agriculture,Pesticide Use,and Economic Development: A Global Examination (1990–2014)

Modern agricultural production typically requires large quantities of chemical pesticides, a potential source of both environmental and human harm. Previous social science research has suggested that environmental problems such as those associated with pesticide use may begin to decline at higher levels of economic development. Using fixed effects models, we examine whether this possible relationship holds within nations and over time. This study draws on data from the World Bank as well as pesticide use data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to examine the relationship between pesticide use and economic development within nations from 1990 to 2014. The findings are considered from theoretical perspectives in environmental sociology on the drivers of environmental impacts: the treadmill of production theory, structural human ecology, ecological modernization theory, and the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis. The results of this study show a positive relationship between economic development and pesticide consumption over time, with no decline in use at higher levels of economic development. Thus, they generally support the claims made by treadmill of production and structural human ecology.     

Employment status and education/employment relationship of PhD graduates from the University of Ferrara

Two sample surveys of Post-Docs were planned and carried out at the University of Ferrara in 2004 and 2007 aimed at determining the professional status of Post-Docs, the relationship between their PhD education and employment, and their satisfaction with certain aspects of the education and research program. As part of these surveys, two methodological contributions were developed. The first concerns an extension of the non-parametric combination of dependent rankings to construct a synthesis of composite indicators measuring satisfaction with particular aspects of PhD programs [R. Arboretti Giancristofaro and L. Salmaso, Global ranking indicators with application to the evaluation of PhD programs, Atti del Convegno “Valutazione e Customer Satisfaction per la Qualità dei Servizi”, Roma, 8–9 Settembre 2005, pp. 19–22; R. Arboretti Giancristofaro, S. Bonnini, and L. Salmaso, A performance indicator for multivariate data, Quad. Stat. 9 (2007), pp. 1–29; R. Arboretti Giancristofaro, F. Pesarin, and L. Salmaso, Nonparametric approaches for multivariate testing with mixed variables and for ranking on ordered categorical variables with an application to the evaluation of PhD programs, in Real Data Analysis, S. Sawilowsky, ed., a volume in Quantitative Methods in Education and the Behavioral Sciences: Issues, Research and Teaching, Ronald C. Serlin, series ed., Information Age Publishing, Charlotte, North Carolina, 2007, pp. 355–385]. The procedure was applied to highlight differences in the interviewed Post-Docs’ multivariate satisfaction profiles in relation to two aspects: education/employment relationship; employment expectations; and opportunities. The second consists of an inferential procedure providing a solution to the problem of hypothesis testing, where the objective is to compare the heterogeneity of two populations on the basis of sampling data [G.R. Arboretti, S. Bonnini, and F. Pesarin, A permutation approach for testing heterogeneity in two-sample categorical variables, Stat. Comput. (2009) doi: 10.1007/S11222-008-9085-8.]. The procedure was applied to compare the degrees of heterogeneity of Post-Doc judgments in the two surveys with regard to the adequacy of the PhD education for the work carried out.     

Civilian Tradition and the Chinese Company Law

What is the role of company’s legislation in the Chinese transition? In the first paragraphs of the paper it will show the emergence, in a historical perspective, of some enterprise-related legal structures. These structures will be described by emphasizing model-function relations, and connecting them to the features of ‘different societies’ in which they developed. We will consider then, the role of status. The law, a legal structure as well, is used by China to manage its gradual and controlled, yet rapid, transition. By these means, it has been possible, for instance, to move status based distinctions among enterprises inside, at least formally, ‘equality’ based legal structures.     

Why communities of practice succeed and why they fail

A specific form of intra-organizational networks – a community of practice (COP) – is increasingly regarded as an important structure within organizations. This network structure is well suited for the development and sharing of knowledge and practices across divisions. Our research explores the most salient reasons for the success and failure of such networks. An investigation of 57 COPs from major European and US companies led to the discovery of 10 “commandments” that lead to the successful development and sharing of best practices. It also identified five main reasons for failure.     

Neurocognitive Effects in Welders Exposed to Aluminium: An Application of the NPC Test and NPC Ranking Methods

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of exposure to aluminium on the cognitive sphere in a group of welders. Given the intrinsic complexity of the neurocognitive sphere, three different psychomotor variables were used for its investigation allowing the resulting problem to be naturally modelized into a multivariate framework and solved by a nonparametric combination of permutation tests (NPC test). In order to make the treated and control groups comparable, we also stratified the samples on the basis of a risk index that estimates the combined action of biological age and exposure time. Despite the fact that studies in the literature have reached conflicting results, our study highlights a significant drop in attention and memory performances in individuals exposed to aluminium. Finally, we identify a global criterion that summarises the information on the neurocognitive state by applying the nonparametric combination of dependent rankings method (NPC ranking).     

A Bayesian non-parametric modeling to estimate student response to ICT investment†

This paper estimates the causal impact of investment in information and communication technologies (ICT) on student performances in mathematics as measured in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 for Spain. To do this we apply a new methodology in this context known as Bayesian Additive Regression Trees that has important advantages over more standard parametric specifications. Results indicate that ICT has a moderate positive effect on math scores. In addition, we analyze how this effect interacts with variables related to school features and student socioeconomic status, finding that ICT investment is especially beneficial for students from a low socioeconomic background.     

Intervention Research as Management Research in Practice: Learning from a Case in the Fashion Design Industry

Research in the field of management and organizational sciences has yielded a deeper understanding of many emerging business issues. However, the relevance of the contributions has been increasingly criticized, in both the academic and public spheres. We propose the intervention research approach – originally developed by the research group at Ecole des Mines de Paris – as a design science approach able to address both the relevance gap issue and the growing complexity of management practice. It is argued that increasing our understanding of management requires research that is more insightful, influential and immediately applicable. This in turn requires closer collaboration between management and researchers during the inquiry process, which is not always easy to achieve. An illustrative case study of an intervention research project focusing on creativity, conducted in Italy in collaboration with a fashion company, demonstrates how intervention research can be rigorous and relevant to practitioners, and how it can advance theoretical knowledge in management science.     

The Banking Industry in Egypt

This paper examines the structure and performance of the banking industry in Egypt during the period from 2002 to 2009. The Central Bank of Egypt undertook a major banking reform towards a more liberal system. This included the strengthening of bank supervision and regulation and the bank privatization, where it helped to improve market competitiveness and efficiency. Total registered banks’ deposits grew at a CAGR of 11.43% during 2002–2009, reaching LE 848.7 billion at the end of December 2009, while their total credit facilities increased at a CAGR of 10%, reaching LE 793.8 billion.     

Sociology of a Newcomer: Muslim Migration to Italy - Religious Visibility, Cultural and Political Reactions

The religious presence of Islam in Europe seems to have become an important issue in the public debate. This also relates to the religious visibility of Islam itself. Some considerations will be proposed on this subject. As in other countries of Europe, Islam has also become a significant religious presence in Italy. I will describe the main aspects of this presence, showing some important elements of the sociography of Islam in Italy, and proposing some interpretative criteria in order to understand the main dynamics at work. Finally, I will focus on how Islam and Muslims have become an object of debate in the Italian public space, particularly in political, religious and cultural circles, drawing attention to some aspects of the present, apparently conflictual situation.     

An empirical investigation into the effect of childbearing on economic wellbeing in Europe

This paper investigates the extent childbearing among couples in Europe affects their level of economic well being. We do so by implementing a propensity score matching procedure in combination with a difference-in-difference estimator. Using data from European Community Household Panel Survey (ECHP), we compare how the impact of childbearing on wellbeing varies among countries. We use several measures for wellbeing, including poverty status and various deprivation indices that take into account the multidimensionality of individuals‘ assessment of wellbeing. Not unexpected we find childbearing tend to worsen the economic wellbeing of households, but with important differences in magnitude across countries. In Scandinavian countries the effect is small and rarely significant, it is strong in the UK and also significant in Mediterranean countries. Depending on the measure of wellbeing, we find important differences among countries that are similar in terms of welfare provision.