Suchergebnisse

The current malnutrition epidemic calls for multiple solutions. The aim of the thesis is to identify the themes of the debate regarding the development of a single Front of-package nutrition label in the European Union. In order to reach the aim, a case study approach was used by looking at the positions of different stakeholders in Sweden, Italy as well as by looking at the debate inside of the European Commission and European Council of Ministries. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analysis of documents. The results show that the stakeholders are trying to influence the process towards contrasting outcomes. Different stakeholders argue for very different ideal labelling schemes, while still agreeing on the need for harmonization. Major disagreement arise on whether the label should be voluntary, based on portion or 100 g and on the ideal label design. The type of view depends on the stakeholder role and on its previous experience with this type of labelling. The political debate inside of the European Union is still at an early stage and no consensus has yet been reached, the divergences between the representatives of the Member Countries partially deal with arguments similar to those exposed by the stakeholders. The patterns that emerge from the analysis of the different point of views can facilitate the cooperation between stakeholders and policy-makers. ; Trots teknologisk utveckling har nuvarande livsmedelssystem inte förmått att uppnå livsmedelssäkerhet och folkhälsa för alla. Problemen i världens många livsmedessystem varierar i grad och fokus. I stunden är 17 % av barn som bor i Europa överviktiga, och givet dagens förutsättningar i livsmedelssystem och levnadsvanor förutspås 37 % av vuxna i Europa vara feta 2030. Denna situation är att betrakta som en epidemi, som drabbar vissa grupper i samhället mer än andra, och den är kopplad till många andra icke smittsamma sjukdomar. För individen kan övervikt leda till en lägre livskvalité och för samhället innebär det ökade hälso- och sjukvårdskostnader. Eftersom det är många faktorer som påverkar en individs matvanor ligger ansvaret både på individer och på samhälle för att skapa förutsättningar för en hälsosam livsstil vad gäller livsmedelskonsumtion. För att vägleda konsumenter i matrelaterade val har många länder i Europa en tradition som innebär att konsumenten får hälsorelaterad information om produkten på förpackningen. Det ger konsumenten möjlighet att göra konsumtionsval baserat på mer information. Traditionen inom EU att använda information, fakta och symboler, på livsmedelsprodukter skiljer sig dock mellan länder, och det leder till förvirring och politiska problem. Problemen har banat väg för att EU 2020 kommunicerade målet att skapa en harmoniserad form för information på livsmedelsprodukter som säljs i länder i EU. Detta löfte har skapat debatt och starka röster som ser väldigt olika lösningar på problemet. Syftet med projektet är att identifiera tema i debatten i EU om ett harmoniserat format för information på livsmedelsprodukter. Studien är en fallstudie i vilken debatten från två länders perspektiv, Italien och Sverige, är av speciellt intresse. Tillgängliga sekundärdata från EU och de två valda länderna, och semistrukturerade intervjuer utgör datainsamlingsmetod. En innehållsanalys genomfördes med utgångspunkt i intressent-, varumärkes- och standardutvecklingsbegrepp som hörnstenar för en förståelse för förändringsprocessen. Resultaten från studien visar att representanter för de valda organisationerna i studien förordar en harmonisering av regler för konsumentinformation. Synen på sättet på vilket det skall göras skiljer sig däremot åt. Återkommande tema i intervjuerna är frivillighet, som innebär att det är upp till livsmedelsproducenten att bestämma om produkten skall ha en symbol som visar övergripande näringsinformation eller detaljerad näringsinnehållsinformation. Olika intressenter arbetar på flera fronter för att frågan skall få en lösning. Medan EU samlar in data för att kartlägga alternativa metoder och traditioner arbetar Ministerrådet för att skapa politiska förutsättningar för dialog och samsyn i frågan. Grunden för att skapa ett harmoniserat system ligger i en samsyn på vetenskapliga bevis. Den politiska debatten pågår och kommer att kräva tid innan politiska beslut kan fattas. ; Nonostante il suo sviluppo tecnologico, l'attuale sistema alimentare non è stato in grado di garantire la sicurezza alimentare per tutti. I tipi di malnutrizione presenti variano considerevolmente a livello mondiale; al momento il 17% dei bambini europei è obeso o ovrappeso e, alle presenti condizioni, il 37% degli adulti sarà obeso nel 2030. Questa epidemia di malnutrizione colpisce le categorie svantaggiate in maniera sproporzionata ed è connessa con molte malattie non trasmissibili. La malnutrizione contribuisce a una minore qualità della vita e a una maggior pressione sul sistema sanitario. Ci sono molti fattori che influenzano la dieta delle persone e quindi la responsabilità di risolvere il problema è sia individuale sia collettiva. Negli anni, molti paesi Europei hanno creato sistemi di etichettatura nutrizionale fronte-pacco, con lo scopo di aumentare la comprensione della qualità nutrizionale dei prodotti da parte dei consumatori, così che questi possano fare scelte più consapevoli. In questi sistemi, le informazioni sono presentate sul lato del prodotto che i consumatori vedono al momento dell'acquisto, cosi da facilitarne l'utilizzo. I sistemi di etichettatura fronte-pacco in vigore nell'Unione Europea sono molto diversi tra loro, rappresentando una fonte di confusione per i consumatori e un ostacolo al commercio nel Mercato Unico. Nel 2020, la Commissione Europea ha espresso l'intenzione di adottare una singola etichetta fronte-pacco da utilizzare in tutti i Paesi Membri. L'annuncio ha provocato un grande dibattito, dove gli interessati argomentano soluzioni molto diverse tra loro. Lo scopo della tesi è identificare i temi del dibattito riguardante lo sviluppo di un'unica etichetta fronte-pacco all'interno dell'Unione Europea. Il case-study esplora il dibattito sull'etichetta in corso in Italia e Svezia. I dati sono stati raccolti tramite analisi di documenti e interviste semi-strutturate con stakeholder in entrambi i paesi e con la Commissione Europea. I dati sono quindi stati analizzati con l'aiuto delle teorie sugli stakeholder, sulle etichette, sugli standard e sulle transizioni. I risultati mostrano che, nonostante le organizzazioni selezionate siano in favore dell'armonizzazione, ci sono idee molto diverse rispetto quali caratteristiche l'etichetta comune dovrebbe avere. Temi del dibattito sono, per esempio, la volontarietà dell'etichetta o se questa debba presentare una valutazione complessiva del valore nutrizionale dell'alimento o solo il suo contenuto nutrizionale. Sia il ruolo sia il paese di origine degli intervistati influenzano il loro punto di vista, similarità e differenze di opinione possono essere viste lungo queste linee. Le organizzazioni investigate sono attive sia nel dibattito Europeo sia in quelli nazionali. Le istituzioni europee, responsabili del processo legislativo, sono attive sul tema in modo diverso. La Commissione Europea sta ancora raccogliendo le evidenze scientifiche riguardanti questo tipo di etichette e che serviranno per scrivere la Proposta. Il Consiglio dell'Unione Europea non ha ancora trovato una posizione comune e i Ministri partecipanti hanno posizioni molto differenti. Il dibattito politico interno al Consiglio ha a che fare, per la maggior parte, con i temi presentati dalle organizzazioni intervistate. A causa delle rilevanti differenze in termini di etichetta ideale si può supporre che il dibattito andrà avanti ancora per molto tempo e si evolverà mentre emergono nuove evidenze scientifiche e sono prese decisioni politiche.

Editorial I am delighted to announce the successful publication of Volume 26, 2020 of our esteemed journal, Lagos Notes and Records. This current edition is made up of thirteen well-researched articles across the various disciplines of the Humanities and Social Sciences namely History, Philosophy, Creative Arts, Language Studies, Literature, Communication Studies, and Linguistics. Lynn Schler in the first article, 'The Local and the Global in African Studies: An Essay in Honour of Prof. Ayodeji Olukoju @ 60', argues that in every geographic context, African studies evolved as an intersection between local and global flows of ideas, politics and capital. She concludes that the future of African studies requires scholars to view Africa as both a singular idea and a conglomeration of vastly diverse cultural contexts. Scholars must be aware of what is distinctive in local contexts and also take cognizance of global solutions. In the second article, 'Identity and Ideological Positioning in Popular Nigerian Ethnic Jokes', 'Rotimi Taiwo and David Dontele examine the discursive constructions of selected jokes to determine their expression of attitudinal and ideological dispositions of the ethnic groups within the multilingual/multicultural context of Nigeria. They argue that ethnic jokes in Nigeria construct stereotypes about linguo-cultural signs, and that the jokes have been stripped of their stigmatizing effects owing to the ability of Nigerians to laugh collectively at their perceived prejudices and stereotypes. In a related article, 'Impression Management and Face Sensitivities in Delta State Courtroom Interactions', Olasimbo Takpor and Felix Ogoanah investigate impression management and courtroom interactions in High Court proceedings in DeltaState of Nigeria within the theoretical framework of Rapport Management Model (Spencer Oatey). They conclude that to manage face sensitivities, courtroom interactions create diverse impressions of themselves or others by deploying impression management strategies such as self-promotion, intimidation, apologies, ingratiation and conformity as determined by the peculiarities of legal procedures and cultural norms, which mediate judicial proceedings, interpretations and decisions. Felix Ajiola's 'Colonial Capitalism and the Structure of the Nigerian Cocoa Marketing Board, 1947-1960' examines the origin, structure and impact of the Nigerian Cocoa Marketing Board (NCMB) from its inauguration in 1947 up to 1960. The author argues that the NCMB served various interests and purposes, which hardly benefitted cocoa producers, but rather exploited them through intolerable taxes, harmful price regulations and unfavourable grading policies. In another article, 'The Language Factor and Internet Penetration in Nigeria: A Practical Assessment', Olushola Are examines all the unstated assumptions behind quests for more language options on the internet with specific reference to Nigeria. The author concludes that the provision of Nigerian language options online would not significantly enhance internet penetration in the country without broader adjustments to the roles and status of indigenous languages as well as greater socio-economic and political reforms to fight general social exclusion for which linguistic exclusion of any form may be merely symptomatic. In the sixth article, 'Theatrical Intervention towards "Birth Preparedness and Complication Readiness"', Oluwatoyin Olokodana-James examines Birth Preparedness and Complication Readiness (BPCR) strategies. She argues that BPCR reduces the risks of complications in that it helps health practitioners to detect danger signs from both mother and the newborn early enough. Using qualitative research approach, the author employs theatre and dance as interventionist tools to educate women within Ifako-Ijaye LGA in Lagos State on the usefulness of BPCR. In a different article on 'Stress Patterning in Polysyllabic Words among Educated Yoruba Speakers of English in Lagos', Emmanuel Osifeso investigates one hundred (100) undergraduate and post-graduate students across Lagos State to underscore the role of stress patterning of polysyllabic words among educated Yoruba speakers of English in Lagos (EYSEL). He concludes that EYSEL have a propensity for shifting the main stress in English polysyllabic words rightward. Victor Ariole's article, 'Peul (Fulani) Worldview as seen in Ba's Work: A Critique', identifies the cultural integration constraints in Africa using Ba's discussion of the Peul/Fulani as a case study. He concludes that Ba's thought patterns are quite relevant in understanding the Peul's worldview which sees probity and constituents' responsibilities as inalienable with peaceful living or existence. Babatunji Adepoju in the ninth article, 'Cohesion in English Biblical Narratives: A Study of "The Prodigal Son"', examines the different methods that writers/speakers employ in making English narratives coherent. He discusses the reasons why many texts are considered disjointed/disorganised thereby making such texts lose the desired radiance. He concludes that the unity of a text is enhanced by adherence to the appropriate usage of grammatical and lexical ties in English narratives. Ayọdele Shotunde in 'A Discourse on the Nature of Crime and Punishment in the Administration of Social Justice in an African Culture' evaluates the nature of crime and punishment among the Yoruba of Nigeria. Adopting the critical and prescriptive methodology, he concludes that it is important to take an insightful look at the traditional Yoruba conception of crime and punishment given its embedded spirit of forgiveness because such has the potential of fostering better social ethics in contemporary Nigeria. In the next article, 'China-Hong Kong Dual System: Twenty-Three Years of Uncertainty and Broken Promises', Henry Ogunjewo argues that the relationship between China and Hong Kong in the last twenty-three years have been characterised by broken promises, failed covenants, unnecessary political meddling, judicial undercutting, press gagging and restrictions on freedom of expressions, leading to protests and political tension in Hong Kong. He concludes that the United Kingdom, former colonial administrator of Hong Kong, needed to bring international pressure on China to protect the interests of Hong Kong. Bisoye Eleshin's 'High-Toned Vowel Prefix in Yoruba' examines prefixation as it relates to gerund derivation in Yoruba. He uses the morpho-syntactic approach to establish the claim that there actually exists a high-toned vowel prefix i- in Yoruba and that the class of noun it derives is gerund. The last paper by Mosunmola Ogunmolaji and Oyinade Adekunle ''Madam Due Process': The Public Life of Obiageli Ezekwesili' is a biography of Obiageli Ezekwesili. The authors analyse the public life of Obiageli Ezekwesili providing insights into her lifestyle, especially the major forces that spurred her interest in politics and public administration. They conclude that Ezekwesili is an intellectual who has broken gender barriers in Nigeria. She possesses pragmatic understanding of the yearnings of Nigerians through deliberate identification of their problems, acquisition of necessary problem-solving tools, and swift responses to the problems whether or not she stepped on toes in the process. I hereby warmly recommend these articles to the academic community with the hope that scholars will find them interesting and useful. I congratulate the Editorial Team for a job well done despite the constraints of the COVID era! Professor Olufunkẹ Adeboye Dean, Faculty of Arts Editor-in-Chief

Guinea is one of the West African countries where fertility is still high and declining little, with a worrying health situation (maternal and infant mortality levels among the highest in the world). The level of demographic growth (2.5% per year on average) associated with the low level of socioeconomic development of the country seems difficult to reconcile with the satisfaction of the objectives of sustainable development and thus makes the control of fertility a major challenge.Despite the political will displayed since the early 1980s, the adoption of a national population policy declaration in 1992 and a reproductive health policy in 2001 and the Government's efforts to promote Family Planning (FP), unmet need for family planning still affects nearly one in four women, and Guinea's contraceptive prevalence rate remains among the lowest in the world in 2018.•Regardless of the group of women considered, knowledge of modern contraception and approval of FP (both from the woman and her partner if she is in union) are the two most important factors in the the explanation ofnot using modern contraception.Thus, taking into account the importance of the use of modern contraception in the process of fertility transition, on the one hand, and the low prevalence of modern contraceptive as well as the lack of in-depth research in this field in Guinea, on the other hand, the present study aims to analyze the levels and trends in the use of modern contraception between 1999 and 2018 and to identify the factors that significantly influence the non-use of modern contraception among Guinean women at risk of unwanted pregnancy. The study uses secondary data from demographic and health surveys (DHS) carried out in Guinea in 1999, 2005, 2012 and 2018. The analyzes focused on women actually exposed to the risk of pregnancy :women who, at the time of the surveys,are considered fit to conceive and are exposed to this risk.The analyzes were carried out at three levels. At the first level, trends in the proportion of women using a contraceptive method were analyzed by type of method. Confidence intervals associated with each proportion were used to judge the significance or otherwise of the observed variation in the proportionof modern contraceptive users from year to year. At the second level of analysis, the statistical link between each of the variables and whether or not to use modern contraception was analyzed using the khideux test. At the third level of analysis, all the variables significantly associated with whether or not to use modern contraception with a significance level of at most 10% were introduced into a binary logistic regression model to identify the factors that significantly influence the non-use of modern contraception.The following main results emerge from the analyzes:•Between 1999 and 2018, the proportion of modern contraceptive users decreased significantly among women studied, from 23.1% to 18.7% over this period. However, this tendency is very different among women in union and among women not in union. Indeed, while among women in union, the proportion of female users almost doubled (from 12.2% to 23.5%) over the period studied, this proportion fell by 28% among women not in union over the same period. However, the variations in the proportion of modern contraceptive users over the period 1999-2018 were neither uniform nor regular. ; La Guinée est un des pays de l'Afrique de l'Ouest où la fécondité est encore élevée et baisse peu,avec une situation sanitaire préoccupante (niveaux de mortalité maternelle et infantile parmi les plus élevés au monde). Le niveau de la croissance démographique (2,5%par an en moyenne) associé à un faible niveau de développement socioéconomique du pays paraît difficilement conciliable avec la satisfaction des objectifs de développement durable et fait ainsi de la maîtrise de la fécondité un défi majeur.Malgré une volonté politique affichée depuis le début des années 1980, l'adoption d'une déclaration nationale de politique de population en 1992 et d'une politique de santé de la reproduction en 2001et les efforts du Gouvernement à promouvoir la Planification Familiale (PF), les besoins non satisfaits en matière de planification familiale touchent encore près d'une femme sur quatre etle taux de prévalence contraceptive de la Guinée reste parmi l'un des plus faibles au monde en 2018.C'est ainsi que, prenant en compte l'importance de l'utilisation de la contraception moderne dans le processus de transition de la fécondité, d'une part, et la faible prévalence contraceptive moderne ainsi que le manque de recherches approfondies dans ce domaine en Guinée, d'autre part, la présente étude vise à analyser les niveaux et les tendances de l'utilisation de la contraception moderne entre 1999 et 2018 et d'identifier les facteurs qui influencent significativement la non-utilisation de la contraception moderne chez les femmes guinéennes exposées au risque de grossesse non désirée.L'étude utilise des données secondaires issues des enquêtes démographiques et de santé (EDS) réalisées en Guinée en 1999, 2005, 2012 et 2018. Les analyses ont porté sur les femmes effectivement exposées au risque de grossesse: femmes qui, au moment des enquêtes, sont jugées aptes à concevoir et sont exposées à ce risque.Les analyses ont été effectuées à trois niveaux. Au premier niveau, les tendances d'évolution de la proportion de femmes utilisant une méthode contraceptive ont été analysées par type de méthode. Les intervalles de confiance associés à chaque proportion ont été utilisés pour juger de la significativité ou non de la variation observée de la proportion d'utilisatrices de la contraception moderne d'une année à une autre. Au deuxième niveau d'analyse, le lien statistique entre chacune des variables et le fait d'utiliser ou non la contraception moderne a été analysé à l'aide du test du khideux. Au troisième niveau d'analyse, toutes les variables significativement associées au fait d'utiliser ou non la contraception moderne avec un niveau de signification d'au plus 10% ont été introduites dans un modèle de régression logistique binaire pour identifier les facteurs qui influencent significativement la non-utilisation de la contraception moderne.En effet, alors que chez les femmes en union, la proportion d'utilisatrices a presque doublé (passant de 12,2 % à 23,5 %) sur la période étudiée, cette proportion a baissé de 28 % chez les femmes non en union sur la même période. Cependant, les variations de la proportion d'utilisatrices de la contraception moderne sur la période 1999-2018 n'ont été ni uniformes ni régulières.•Quel que soit le groupe de femmes considéré, la bonne connaissance de la contraception moderne et l'approbation de la PF (aussi bien de la femme que celle de son conjoint si elle est en union) sont les deux facteurs les plus importants dans l'explication de la non-utilisation de la contraception moderne.

Die Nutzung neuer Technologien in der Landwirtschaft spielt eine entscheidende Rolle, um die durch exponentielles Bevölkerungswachstum bedingten Herausforderungen zu bewältigen. Seit der Grünen Revolution der 1960er Jahre haben Forscher Probleme und Herausforderungen, welche mit der Nutzung von neuen Technologien verbunden sind, eingehend untersucht. Diese Probleme sind in Entwicklungsländern aufgrund von Armut und mangelhaften landwirtschaftlichen Versicherungen noch komplexer. Landwirte mit niedrigem Einkommen, die risikoavers sind und eine hohe Diskontrate bevorzugen, nutzen selten innovative Technologien, wodurch sie in Armut gefangen bleiben. Eine erhöhte Aufmerksamkeit gilt in weiter entwickelten Ländern auch der Umweltzerstörung durch landwirtschaftliche Aktivitäten. Dementsprechend werden Landwirte als Produzenten unter Druck gesetzt, nachhaltige Landwirtschaft zu betreiben, besonders wenn sie umstrittene Nutzpflanzen wie Ölpalmen anbauen. Hohe Produktivität und niedrige Produktionskosten im Vergleich zu anderen Pflanzenölen haben dazu geführt, dass Palmöl den Weltmarkt dominiert. Einerseits erhöht die Palmölproduktion das Einkommen der Landwirte und verbessert ihre Ernährungssituation. Auf der anderen Seite bedroht sie Biodiversität und fördert die Abholzung des Regenwaldes. Mangelndes Bewusstsein für den Umweltschutz und mangelnde Informationen über dieses Thema stellen eine weitere Herausforderung dar. Diese Dissertation analysiert die Nutzung neuer Technologien unter Berücksichtigung von Risikoeinstellungen und Zeitpräferenzen. Die der Dissertation zu Grunde liegenden Studien wurden in Jambi durchgeführt, einer Provinz auf der indonesischen Insel Sumatra. Der Fokus liegt auf Kleinbauern, die Ölpalmen und/oder Kautschuk anbauen. Die Dissertation besteht aus drei Kapiteln, die folgende Themen behandeln: (1) Die Teilnahme von Landwirten an Palmölzertifizierung, was eine nachhaltige Produktion von Palmöl bedeutet; (2) Die Kultivierung neuer Nutzpflanzen durch Landwirte; (3) Die Risikoeinstellungen und Zeitpräferenzen von Landwirten, wofür wir Daten von Landwirten aus einem vergleichbaren Entwicklungsland, nämlich Indien, mit einbeziehen. Das erste Kapitel untersucht drei Politikszenarien, die die Teilnahme der Landwirte an Zertifizierungsprogrammen für Palmöl fördern sollen. Die Palmölzertifizierungsprogramme wurden eingeführt, um die Konflikte zwischen ökonomischen Vorteilen für Landwirte und negativen Umweltfolgen des Ölpalmenanbaus zu mindern, zum Beispiel die Abholzung von Regenwald. Bisher zeigen die Landwirte jedoch eine niedrige Beteiligung, obwohl die Zertifizierungsprogramme seit vielen Jahren existieren. In Anbetracht der wachsenden Besorgnis über die Umweltfolgen sind wirksame Interventionen erforderlich, um die Beteiligung der Landwirte an den Zertifizierungsprogrammen zu erhöhen. Um den Effekt der Politikszenarien zu evaluieren, haben wir ein soziales Dilemma-Experiment implementiert. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Preisaufschläge für zertifiziertes Palmöl und Informationen über Landnutzungsänderungen die Landwirte motivieren, den Wald zu erhalten. Das zweite Kapitel diskutiert die rasche Übernahme von Ölpalmenanbau durch die Landwirte, die der in der Literatur beschriebenen langsamen Übernahme neuer Technologien widerspricht. In Jambi ist Kautschuk seit vielen Generationen ein wichtiges Anbauprodukt. Die Landwirte bauen den Kautschuk sowohl in Agroforsten als auch in Monokultur an, wobei die Monokultur höhere Gewinne abwirft als der Agroforst. Demgegenüber wurde der Ölpalmenanbau später von der Regierung in Verbindung mit dem so genannten Transmigrationsprogramm um das Jahr 1900 initiiert. In diesem Programm erhielten die Landwirte Unterstützung von der Regierung für die erste Errichtung von Ölpalmenplantagen. Nach der Reduktion des Programms und der Unterstützung setzten die Landwirte die Einführung von Ölpalmen selbstständig fort. In der Literatur wird beschrieben, dass ein höherer Gewinn pro Kopf bei Ölpalmenplantagen und die Möglichkeit, das Einkommen durch außerlandwirtschaftliche Tätigkeiten zu erhöhen, einige Gründe für die schnelle Akzeptanz der Landwirte sind. Wenn sie jedoch nur höhere Profite anstreben als die, die sie mit den bisherigen Kautschuk-Agroforsten erzielen, sollte die teilweise Umwandlung in eine Kautschuk-Monokultur eine sicherere Wahl sein als die Umwandlung in Palmölplantagen. Kautschuk wird schon länger angebaut, und daher haben die Landwirte mehr Vorkenntnisse in dessen Anbau. Darüber hinaus hat die Kautschuk-Monokultur höhere Erträge pro Hektar als Ölpalmen. Es scheint also, dass die Akzeptanz auch durch die Absicht begründet ist, zwei Nutzpflanzen anzubauen. Wir analysieren die Wahl der Anbaukultur auf Grundlage der Hypothese, dass die Risikoeinstellungen und die Zeitpräferenzen der Landwirte die Diversifizierung des Anbaus beeinflussen. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen, dass risikoaverse Landwirte es vorziehen, beide Nutzpflanzen anzubauen. Kenntnisse über die Richtung und Ausprägung von Risikoeinstellungen und Zeitpräferenzen der Landwirte sind wichtig für die Einführung neuer Technologien. Politische Entscheidungsträger können dieses Wissen nutzen, um fundierte künftige Maßnahmen zur Unterstützung der Technologieübernahme zu planen. Risikoaversion und hohe Diskontraten hindern Landwirte, innovative Technologien anzuwenden und halten sie in Armut gefangen. Das dritte Kapitel analysiert die Risikoeinstellungen und Zeitpräferenzen von Landwirten in Indonesien und Indien und vergleicht sie. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen, dass indische Landwirte im Vergleich zu indonesischen Landwirten eine höhere Risikoaversion haben, jedoch sind Landwirte aus beiden Ländern sehr risikoavers im Vergleich zu Studienergebnissen in anderen Ländern. ; Technology adoption in agriculture plays a vital role in coping with exponential population growth. Since the Green Revolution in the 1960s, researchers have been extensively investigating issues and challenges in technology adoption. These issues are more complex in developing countries due to poverty and shortcomings in agricultural insurances. Poor farmers who are risk-averse and favor a higher discount rate tend to opt-out from adopting the innovations, causing poverty-traps. Emerging attention on environmental degradation from customers in more developed countries also gives pressure to farmers for practicing sustainable farming, especially when they grow controversial crops such as oil palm. High productivity and low production cost in comparison to other vegetable oils have led to palm oil dominating the world market. In one hand, the palm oil production increases farmers' welfare and improves their nutrition intake. In the other hand, palm oil production threatens biodiversity and promotes deforestation. However, achieving farmers' adoption of sustainable farming practices also meets challenges due to lack of awareness and information for environmental conservation. This dissertation proposes a topic of technology adoption under the consideration of risk attitudes and time preferences. The study was conducted in Jambi Province, Sumatra, Indonesia. We involved smallholder farmers (in later parts, we refer to them as "farmers"), who cultivated oil palm, rubber, and both. This dissertation consists of three papers covering: (1) farmers' adoption of palm oil certification that indicates sustainable palm oil production; (2) farmers' adoption of a new type of crops; (3) farmers' risk attitude and time preferences, where we broaden our observations by involving farmers from another comparable developing country, namely India. The first paper investigates three policy scenarios to support farmers' participation in palm oil certification. The certification programs were introduced to mediate the trade-offs between the economic benefits and environmental consequences of oil palm cultivation, for example, deforestation. However, farmers' participation rates remain low, even though the certification programs have been introduced since many years. Regarding the escalating concern for environment, effective policies to increase farmers participation in the certification programs are needed. To evaluate the effect of the policy scenarios, we utilized a social dilemma experiment. We found that price premiums for certified palm oil and information about land-use change motivate farmers to conserve the forest. The second paper discusses oil palm adoption by farmers, which happened relatively fast, contradicting the literature that mentions farmers' slow adoption. In Jambi, rubber was an important crop cultivated among generations. The farmers cultivate rubber in both agroforest and monoculture form, where the monoculture gives higher profits than agroforest. Meanwhile, farmers' oil palm cultivation was initiated later, coupled with the transmigration program around the year 1900. In this program, the farmers received supports from the government for early establishment of oil palm plantations. When the program and the support were gradually reduced, farmers continued the adoption independently. Previous literature mentions that higher profit per head of labour working in oil palm plantations and the possibility to add income from off farm activities are some reasons of the farmers' fast adoption. However, if farmers only seek for higher profits than what they already received from agroforest, converting part of the agroforest to a rubber monoculture should be a safer choice than establishing oil palm plantations. Rubber has been cultivated longer. Hence, the farmers have prior knowledge of rubber cultivation. Moreover, rubber monoculture has higher returns per hectare than oil palms. Thus, it seems that the adoption also reasoned by an intention to cultivate two crops. We analyze this crop adoption with the underlying hypothesis that farmers' risk attitudes and time preferences affect crop-diversification. Our findings show that risk-averse farmers prefer to cultivate both crops. Prior knowledge about the direction and strength of farmers' risk attitudes and discount rates is important in technology adoption. The policymaker can use this knowledge to plan informed future policies supporting technology adoption. Risk aversion and high discount rates inhibit farmers from participating in innovations and trap them in poverty. The third paper presents the risk attitudes and time preferences of farmers from India and Indonesia and compares them. Our finding shows that Indian farmers have a higher level of risk aversion compared to Indonesian farmers, but farmers from both countries show extremely high discount rates compared to results from studies in other countries. ; 2021-08-29

[eng] Understanding what drives individuals to vote for parties or individuals who have often used violent rhetoric toward women and minorities and enacted discriminatory laws is critical. At the same time, it is crucial to comprehend what tools these forces use to gain consensus and, even more relevant, the consequences of having these political forces in power. This thesis attempted to help provide answers to the points listed above. Using different empirical techniques and analyzing different European settings, I aimed to enlarge the knowledge on the causes and consequences of the political success of far-right parties, how the new media influence citizens' opinions, and which political parties have been advantaged (or harmed) from the recent paradigm shift in the communication process. The unifying theme of the chapters was the focus on immigration -- and, more specifically, on the relationship, analyzed in various aspects, between natives and immigrants. I started by asking whether the ability to access a potentially unlimited and relatively affordable medium of information -- the Internet -- changed the knowledge that natives have about migration patterns in their own country. Indeed, surveys and academic literature have found a strong misperception of natives, who vastly overestimate the number of foreigners in the country; besides, natives think immigrants are culturally and religiously more distant from them and are economically weaker -- less educated, more unemployed, and more reliant on and favored by government transfers -- than is the case. The second chapter of my thesis, Does the Internet change the attitude towards migrants? Evidence from Spain, showed that people exposed to the early Internet (from 2008 to 2012) are associated with a better knowledge of the (national) migration trends; additionally, the possibility to go online is responsible for an overall improvement in attitudes toward immigrants. The analysis, set in Spain, exploited a unique and confidential survey dataset and combined a difference-in-differences method with an instrumental variable approach. In the second part of the analysis, I demonstrated, using both survey data and real electoral outcome, that access to the Internet generates a decrease in the political support for the traditional Spanish right-wing party. Having extreme parties (or individuals) in power is no longer a remote possibility but a reality. This is the case both at the national and local levels. Understanding the effects on economic and social outcomes of these governments is both essential and underdeveloped in the literature. In the third chapter of my thesis, Do far-right mayors increase the probability of hate crimes? Evidence from Italy, I aimed to contribute to this emerging research area by focusing on the effect of electing local politicians on hate crimes against immigrants. Indeed, hate crimes are soaring in many countries, and many argue that a close relationship exists between the increased support for extremist parties and acts of violence toward immigrants and other minorities. Using an RD approach and focusing on the Italian context, where the presence of candidates belonging to anti-immigrant parties is significant and widespread in the territory, I showed that in municipalities where an extreme right-wing mayor is elected, the probability that a hate crime occurs is significantly higher. Municipalities with higher Internet access drive this effect; additionally, I demonstrated that the election of an extreme right mayor generates a change in behavior also in the surrounding municipalities. One element that many argue has contributed to the success of far-right parties is the recent refugee crisis that European countries have faced, primarily as a result of the Arab Springs and the violence that has resulted from them. Anti-immigrant parties have exploited this abnormal arrival of asylum seekers to increase the fear of natives and gain votes. However, this technique has not always proven successful. In the fourth chapter of this thesis, Is this the real-life or just fantasy? Refugee reception, extreme-right voting, and broadband internet, we studied the effect of a specific policy of relocation of asylum seekers in Italy (SPRAR) that involves opening medium-small centers and offering refugees the opportunity to interact with members of the local community. This micro-exposure to refugees had significant consequences on the voting choices of natives: using an instrumental variable approach, we showed that support for far-right parties is reduced in municipalities where a SPRAR center has been opened. However, this micro-exposure effect is smaller in higher macro-exposure areas to migrant news - i.e., in higher Internet exposure areas. There are some takeaways from this thesis. First, it is essential to point out how easily the Internet can convert from an information medium (Chapter 2) to an echo chamber that raises citizens' fears (Chapter 4) and pushes them to behave violently (Chapter 3). If this has been proven to be true for traditional media, such as newspapers and TV, this issue is even more delicate with the possibility of going online, considering the highly self-segregated news platform provided by the Internet. This opens the door to potential strands of research on the supply of extremist parties and the characteristics of their representatives. A natural question is why non-extremist parties have failed lately to offer equally charismatic leaders. Besides, since there is an emerging consensus that populists have pursued successful communication strategies, often via social media and the Internet, an additional related question is why mainstream parties are not able to follow suit. Second, as we expect more and more extremist parties to come to power in the near future, careful analyses of their governments' impact are crucial. These should focus on traditional economic outcomes, such as investments, trade, and wages; however, as demonstrated by the third chapter, these analyses should assess the effect of extremist governments on elements that ensure freedoms essential to democracies, such as the independence of media and judicial bodies and the quality of their bureaucrats. It is pivotal to monitor whether these administrations are responsible for discrimination in labor access, health care, and education. At the same time, future research should focus on how mainstream governments can defend themselves against the threat of the arrival of extremist parties. Lastly, a final thought on the management of refugees and, more generally, migration policies in Europe is necessary. The evidence suggests that the aggregate economic impact of immigration on receiving countries is likely to be positive. However, to dismantle extremist parties' rhetoric, which associates the presence of migrants with negative social repercussions related to crime, the drain of social welfare benefits, and cultural differences, two elements are necessary. First, increase the level of awareness among the local population. Second, as highlighted by chapter four, implement reception policies that generate integration and interaction between natives and immigrants.

[spa] Mediante la elaboración de una metodología operativa apropiada, la labor de investigación que aquí se presenta tiene por objeto cuestionar el papel de los think tanks en las sociedades contemporáneas mediante un marco general que combina principalmente enfoques epistemológico crítico, sociohistórico y empírico. Sin embargo, lo que constituye un fenómeno mundial, permaneció a las puertas del debate público en la mayoría de los países hasta principios de la década de 2000. Desde entonces, los think tanks se han convertido en actores centrales y familiares de la vida política. El innegable foco de atención del que son objeto ha ido acompañado también de una creciente institucionalización de su participación en los procesos de política pública y en el debate público, tanto a nivel nacional como europeo. Sin embargo, la sobreexposición mediática resultante ha contribuido en gran medida a desdibujar la comprensión que se puede tener de su naturaleza, funcionamiento y objetivos. Esto no está exento de problemas para la calidad del debate democrático, especialmente en el actual período de crisis de legitimidad política tanto a nivel nacional como europeo. Así, el análisis comparativo del papel de los think tanks franceses y españoles especializados en Asuntos europeos en el marco de la política de integración parece particularmente fructífero desde una perspectiva heurística. Una reflexión epistemológica sobre los problemas ligados a la definición del término que, en su forma idiomática o traducida, ha entrado en el lenguaje corriente sin que sus usos se cuestionen, cuestiona en consecuencia la posibilidad de llevar a cabo una investigación pertinente sobre estas organizaciones. Por otra parte, el análisis de las condiciones socio-históricas de su aparición y desarrollo a través del prisma del modelo estadounidense pone de relieve un tropismo neoliberal fuertemente ligado al progreso de la globalización y a la propia integración europea. En este sentido, el análisis del papel de los think tanks seleccionados para esta investigación en la política de integración europea, anclado en el periodo altamente estructurante para la construcción europea 2005-2016, facilita el acceso a sus principales repertorios de actuación, a saber: la producción de conocimientos especializados y la mediación desde su posición en el intersticio entre las esferas nacional y europea, y los campos políticos, económicos, mediáticos y académicos con los que interactúan. Lejos de ser neutrales, se deduce que estos colectivos intelectuales pro-mueven productos cognitivos que alineados con sus propios intereses y valores. ; [cat] Mitjançant l'elaboració d'una metodologia operativa apropiada, la tasca d'investigació que aquí es presenta té per objecte qüestionar el paper dels think tanks a les societats contemporànies mitjançant un marc general que combina principalment enfocaments epistemològic crític, sociohistòric i empíric. No obstant això, el que constitueix un fenomen mundial, va romandre a les portes de l'debat públic en la majoria dels països fins a principis de la dècada de 2000. Des de llavors, els think tanks s'han convertit en actors centrals i familiars de la vida política. El innegable focus d'atenció de què són objecte ha anat acompanyat també d'una creixent institucionalització de la seva participació en els processos de política pública i en el debat públic, tant a nivell nacional com europeu. No obstant això, la sobreexposició mediàtica resultant ha contribuït en gran mesura a desdibuixar la comprensió que es pot tenir de la seva naturalesa, funcionament i objectius. Això no està exempt de problemes per a la qualitat de l'debat democràtic, especialment en l'actual període de crisi de legitimitat política tant a nivell nacional com europeu. Així, l'anàlisi comparativa de el paper dels think tanks francesos i espanyols especialitzats en Assumptes europeus en el marc de la política d'integració sembla particularment fructífer des d'una perspectiva heurística. Una reflexió epistemològica sobre els problemes lligats a la definició de el terme que, en la seva forma idiomàtica o traduïda, ha entrat en el llenguatge corrent sense que els seus usos es qüestionin, qüestiona en conseqüència la possibilitat de dur a terme una investigació pertinent sobre aquestes organitzacions. D'altra banda, l'anàlisi de les condicions sociohistòriques de la seva aparició i desenvolupament a través de l'prisma de el model americà posa en relleu un tropisme neoliberal fortament lligat a el progrés de la globalització i de la pròpia integració europea. En aquest sentit, l'anàlisi de el paper dels think tanks seleccionats per a aquesta investigació en la política d'integració europea, ancorat en el període altament estructurant per a la construcció europea 2005-2016, facilita l'accés als seus principals repertoris d'actuació, que són: la producció de coneixements especialitzats i la mediació des de la seva posició en el interstici entre les esferes nacional i europea, i els camps polítics, econòmics, mediàtics i acadèmics amb què interactuen. Lluny de ser neutrals, es dedueix que aquests col·lectius intel·lectuals pro-mouen productes cognitius que alineats amb els seus propis interessos i valors. ; [eng] By developing an appropriate operational methodology, the research presented here aims to question the role of think tanks in contemporary societies through a general framework that mainly combines epistemological, socio-historical and critical empirical approaches. However, what constitutes a global phenomenon remained at the gates of public debate in most countries until the early 2000s. Since then, think tanks have become central and familiar actors in political life. The undeniable attention given to them has also been accompanied by a growing institutionalization of their participation in public policy processes and public debate, both at the national and European levels. However, the resulting media overexposure has largely contributed to a blurring of the understanding of their nature, functioning and objectives. This is not without problems for the quality of democratic debate, especially in the current period of crisis of political legitimacy at national and European level. Thus, the comparative analysis of the role of French and Spanish think tanks specialized in European affairs in the framework of integration policy seems particularly fruitful from a heuristic perspective. An epistemological reflection on the problems related to the definition of the term which, in its idiomatic or translated form, has entered everyday language without its uses being questioned, consequently questions the possibility of conducting relevant research on these organizations. On the other hand, the analysis of the socio-historical conditions of their emergence and development through the prism of the American model highlights a neoliberal tropism strongly linked to the progress of globalization and European integration itself. In this sense, the analysis of the role of the think tanks selected for this research in European integration policy, anchored in the highly structuring period of European construction 2005-2016, facilitates access to their main repertoires of action, namely: the production of specialized knowledge and mediation from their position in the interstice between the national and European spheres, and the political, economic, media and academic fields with which they interact. Far from being neutral, it follows that these intellectual collectives promote cognitive products that are in line with their own interests and values.

Bemühungen zur Integration der Patientenperspektive im Gesundheitswesen haben in Anbetracht des Spannungsfeldes zwischen medizinischer Kompetenzhoheit und der Rolle des Betroffenen als Koproduzent seiner Gesundheit eine Vorgeschichte, die so alt erscheint, wie die Medizin selbst. Jüngst wird die Integration der Patientenperspektive in Deutschland dem Jahr 2003 zugeordnet, in dem zum ersten Mal Informations-, Aufklärungs- und Integrationspflichten gegenüber Patienten gesetzlich vorgegeben wurden. So unterstützt die politische Verankerung der Patientenintegration die Effektivität des Gesundheitssystems im Sinne einer patientenorientierten Versorgung. Der Begriff der seltenen Erkrankungen subsumiert eine Vielzahl an Erkrankungen. Ausschlaggebend ist hier das Kriterium der teils landesspezifisch definierten Prävalenz. In der Europäischen Union spricht man von einer seltenen Erkrankung ab weniger als fünf Betroffenen je 10.000 Einwohner. In Deutschland sind demnach circa vier Millionen Menschen betroffen. Diese leiden meist unter chronischen Leiden mit genetischem Ursprung und schwerwiegendem Verlauf, deren Symptome und alltägliche Herausforderungen je nach Subpopulation variieren. Aus diesen Gründen wurden politische Maßnahmen implementiert, wie beispielsweise der Deutsche Nationale Aktionsplan für Menschen mit Seltenen Erkrankungen oder gesonderte Zulassungsverfahren für medizinische Interventionen, mit dem Ziel, der Unterdeckung wissenschaftlich belegter Versorgungsbedarfe entgegen zu wirken. Neue Versorgungsstrukturen bergen die Chance unter Berücksichtigung knapper Ressourcen eine besonders bedarfsgerechte Versorgung mit Hilfe der Integration der Patientenperspektive zu entwerfen. Gerade hier gilt es die Berücksichtigung der Patientenperspektive sowie die Verwendung angemessener Methoden wissenschaftlich zu begleiten und zu unterstützen. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist daher, aktuelle Entwicklungen zu untersuchen und fundierte, praxisorientierte Methoden der direkten und systematischen Integration von Patientenperspektiven aus Sicht der Gesundheitsökonomie exemplarisch für den Bereich der seltenen Erkrankungen aufzuzeigen. Diese kumulative Doktorarbeit umfasst neun Module. Modul 1 zeigt zunächst aktuelle Entwicklungen und methodische Alternativen der Integration der Patientenperspektive anhand des frühen Nutzenbewertungsverfahrens bei Arzneimitteln für seltene Erkrankungen. Im Anschluss werden Potentiale der Anwendung verschiedener Methoden der direkten und systematischen Integration der Patientenperspektive aus Sicht der drei gesundheitsökonomischen Ebenen, Mikro-, Meso- und Makroebene, vertiefend dargestellt. So zeigt Modul 2 zunächst auf Mikroebene die Bedeutung verschiedener Informationszugangswege für Betroffene seltener Erkrankungen und dass als erste Anlaufstelle die Internetinformation genutzt wird. Hier wird deutlich, dass die Berücksichtigung des in Modul 3 aufgezeigten Qualitätskriterienkataloges zur Einschätzung der Informationsqualität bei dürftiger Informationsbasis im Kontext seltener Erkrankungen als besonders relevant einzustufen ist. Im folgenden Schritt tritt die Interaktion mit dem Arzt in den Vordergrund. Mit Hilfe des Konzeptes der partizipativen Entscheidungsfindung können die durch Betroffene gesammelten Informationen im Versorgungskontext miteinfließen (Modul 4). Auf Mesoebene erweist sich das Analytic Hierarchy Process Konzept als besonders geeignet, um patientengetragene, transparente Entscheidungen im Versorgungskontext zu integrieren (Modul 5, 7). Bei der Wahl des Verfahrens ist insbesondere die Schwere der Krankheitslast zu berücksichtigen, da bei einem chronischen und schwerwiegenden Verlauf der seltenen Erkrankung die Zumutbarkeit des Verfahrens relevant ist (Modul 6). Auf Makroebene bestätigt sich am Beispiel eines Informationstelefons zu seltenen Erkrankungen der Nutzen qualitativer Verfahren zur Integration der Patientenperspektive bei der Konzeptionierung neuer Versorgungsstrukturen (Modul 8). Modul 9 zeigt wie quantitative Präferenzmessmethoden und qualitative Methoden ineinandergreifen können, um innovative Versorgungsstrukturen nahe am Bedarf der Betroffenen zu etablieren. Zusammenfassend lässt sich somit feststellen, dass bei der Integration der Patientenperspektive im Bereich der seltenen Erkrankungen gerade Patientenpräferenzen sowie die Patientenzufriedenheit bereits jetzt deutlicher Berücksichtigung finden könnten. Forschungsbemühungen können den politischen Verankerungsprozess weiter unterstützen. Bei der Zusammenfassung aufgezeigter Methoden als Teil von Methodenkatalogen gilt es, auch auf weitere Erhebungsmöglichkeiten und deren Vor- und Nachteile zu achten sowie prävalenzabhängiger Empfehlungen für den sinnvollen und zielorientierten Einsatz im Bereich seltener Erkrankungen zu etablieren. Die indikationsübergreifende Aktualität der Thematik der Integration der Patientenperspektive zeigt sich bei der Entwicklung und Implementierung neuer Versorgungsstrukturen unter Berücksichtigung steigender Finanzierungsbedarfe unter der Prämisse konstanter Beitragssätze. Im Rahmen einer wissenschaftlichen Begleitung und gesundheitsökonomischen Evaluation scheint es demnach von höchster Relevanz stets zu hinterfragen, ob die zielgerichtete Versorgungsstrukturausrichtung am Bedarf, der direkt am Patienten erhobenen wird, die Chance birgt, das Gesundheitssystem noch effizienter zu gestalten. ; Efforts to integrate patient perspectives into health care have a long history, seemingly as old as medicine itself, and include striking a balance between medical sovereignty and patients as co-producers of their own health. In Germany, a law was passed in 2003, requiring for the first time the integration of patient perspectives, including patient information, medical enlightenment and integration requirements. In this regard, the political anchorage of integrating the patient's perspective seeks to endorse the affectivity of health care systems in the sense of patient-centred care. The terminology of rare diseases summarizes a variety of diseases. The decisive criterion is the prevalence rate, partly defined at a country level according to a set prevalence standard. In the European Union, a disease is defined as rare when it affects less than five in 10,000 people. Therefore, in Germany, approximately four million people are affected by a rare disease. Those affected predominately suffer from chronic and severe diseases with a genetic origin, whose symptoms and daily challenges vary depending on the subpopulation. Thus, policy measures have been implemented; for example, the German National Action Plan for Rare Diseases, or specific approval procedures for medical interventions, which aim to counteract the deficit in scientifically revealed health care service needs. For this very reason, new health care structures provide the opportunity to conceptualize a particularly needs-oriented health care system with the help of patient integration. As such, the integration of patient perspectives and the utilization of appropriate methods need to be scientifically monitored and endorsed. Therefore, the aim of the underlying thesis is to examine recent developments and to point out profound, practice-oriented methods for the direct and systematic integration of patient perspectives from the perspective of health economics exemplary in the field of rare diseases. This cumulative doctoral thesis comprises nine modules. Module 1 highlights the recent developments and methodological alternatives regarding the integration of patient perspectives based on the example of the early benefit assessment process for pharmaceuticals used in the treatment of rare diseases. Further, the potential of different methodologies for the direct and systematic integration of patient perspectives are outlined in-depth from the standpoint of the three health economic levels, micro, meso, and macro level. In this regard, Module 2 presents the different information-access points for people affected by rare diseases, with information from the Internet as the first point of contact. It is at this point that the rendered quality criteria catalogue for the assessment of information quality, presented in Module 3, proves to be of particular relevance in the context of rare diseases. In the next step interactions with physicians come to the fore. With the help of the shared decision-making concept, the information collected from patients can be fed into the context of health care services (Module 4). At a meso level, the concept of the analytic hierarchy process shows to be particularly suitable for the direct integration of patient-supported transparent decisions (Modules 5, 7). When choosing a methodology, it is of particular importance to consider the severity of the disease, as in the case of a chronic and severe course of the rare disease the reasonableness of the approach is of relevance (Module 6). At a macro level, the example of a helpline for rare diseases validates the benefits of qualitative methods for the integration of patient perspectives into the development of innovative health care concepts (Module 8). Module 9 demonstrates how quantitative preference measurement methods and qualitative methodologies can engage with each other to establish innovative health care structures that are close to the needs of patients. In conclusion, it can be determined, that patient preferences and patient satisfaction as part of the integration of patient perspectives within the field of rare diseases could be integrated already clearer. Comprising the shown methods during the development of best practice handbooks, further survey methods and their pros and cons shall be examined, as well as prevalence-related recommendations for reasonable and targeted application in the field of rare diseases. The actuality of the topic indications of patient perspectives integration across various indications can be observed in the development of innovative health care structures, such as for example the latest online health coaches or health apps, while also considering the increasing financial requirements under the premise of retaining constant health insurance contribution rates. Within the scope of scientific monitoring and health economic evaluation, it therefore seems to be of highest relevance to always challenge whether the targeted health care structure alignment with the needs directly expressed by patients bears the chance to organize the health care system even more efficiently.

The goal of this thesis is to develop deep learning approaches to model and analyse 3D shapes. Progress in this field could democratize artistic creation of 3D assets which currently requires time and expert skills with technical software.We focus on the design of deep learning solutions for two particular tasks, key to many 3D modeling applications: single-view reconstruction and shape matching.A single-view reconstruction (SVR) method takes as input a single image and predicts the physical world which produced that image. SVR dates back to the early days of computer vision. In particular, in the 1960s, Lawrence G. Roberts proposed to align simple 3D primitives to the input image under the assumption that the physical world is made of cuboids. Another approach proposed by Berthold Horn in the 1970s is to decompose the input image in intrinsic images and use those to predict the depth of every input pixel.Since several configurations of shapes, texture and illumination can explain the same image, both approaches need to form assumptions on the distribution of images and 3D shapes to resolve the ambiguity. In this thesis, we learn these assumptions from large-scale datasets instead of manually designing them. Learning allows us to perform complete object reconstruction, including parts which are not visible in the input image.Shape matching aims at finding correspondences between 3D objects. Solving this task requires both a local and global understanding of 3D shapes which is hard to achieve explicitly. Instead we train neural networks on large-scale datasets to solve this task and capture this knowledge implicitly through their internal parameters.Shape matching supports many 3D modeling applications such as attribute transfer, automatic rigging for animation, or mesh editing.The first technical contribution of this thesis is a new parametric representation of 3D surfaces modeled by neural networks.The choice of data representation is a critical aspect of any 3D reconstruction algorithm. Until recently, most of the approaches in deep 3D model generation were predicting volumetric voxel grids or point clouds, which are discrete representations. Instead, we present an alternative approach that predicts a parametric surface deformation ie a mapping from a template to a target geometry. To demonstrate the benefits of such a representation, we train a deep encoder-decoder for single-view reconstruction using our new representation. Our approach, dubbed AtlasNet, is the first deep single-view reconstruction approach able to reconstruct meshes from images without relying on an independent post-processing, and can do it at arbitrary resolution without memory issues. A more detailed analysis of AtlasNet reveals it also generalizes better to categories it has not been trained on than other deep 3D generation approaches.Our second main contribution is a novel shape matching approach purely based on reconstruction via deformations. We show that the quality of the shape reconstructions is critical to obtain good correspondences, and therefore introduce a test-time optimization scheme to refine the learned deformations. For humans and other deformable shape categories deviating by a near-isometry, our approach can leverage a shape template and isometric regularization of the surface deformations. As category exhibiting non-isometric variations, such as chairs, do not have a clear template, we learn how to deform any shape into any other and leverage cycle-consistency constraints to learn meaningful correspondences. Our reconstruction-for-matching strategy operates directly on point clouds, is robust to many types of perturbations, and outperforms the state of the art by 15% on dense matching of real human scans ; L'objectif de cette thèse est de développer des approches d'apprentissage profond pour modéliser et analyser les formes 3D. Les progrès dans ce domaine pourraient démocratiser la création artistique d'actifs 3D, actuellement coûteuse en temps et réservés aux experts du domaine. Nous nous concentrons en particulier sur deux tâches clefs pour la modélisation 3D : la reconstruction à vue unique et la mise en correspondance de formes.Une méthode de reconstruction à vue unique (SVR) prend comme entrée une seule image et prédit le monde physique qui a produit cette image. SVR remonte aux premiers jours de la vision par ordinateur. Étant donné que plusieurs configurations de formes, de textures et d'éclairage peuvent expliquer la même image il faut formuler des hypothèses sur la distribution d'images et de formes 3D pour résoudre l'ambiguïté. Dans cette thèse, nous apprenons ces hypothèses à partir de jeux de données à grande échelle au lieu de les concevoir manuellement. Les méthodes d'apprentissage nous permettent d'effectuer une reconstruction complète et réaliste de l'objet, y compris des parties qui ne sont pas visibles dans l'image d'entrée.La mise en correspondance de forme vise à établir des correspondances entre des objets 3D. Résoudre cette tâche nécessite à la fois une compréhension locale et globale des formes 3D qui est difficile à obtenir explicitement. Au lieu de cela, nous entraînons des réseaux neuronaux sur de grands jeux de données pour capturer ces connaissances implicitement.La mise en correspondance de forme a de nombreuses applications en modélisation 3D telles que le transfert d'attribut, le gréement automatique pour l'animation ou l'édition de maillage.La première contribution technique de cette thèse est une nouvelle représentation paramétrique des surfaces 3D modélisées par les réseaux neuronaux. Le choix de la représentation des données est un aspect critique de tout algorithme de reconstruction 3D. Jusqu'à récemment, la plupart des approches profondes en génération 3D prédisaient des grilles volumétriques de voxel ou des nuages de points, qui sont des représentations discrètes. Au lieu de cela, nous présentons une approche qui prédit une déformation paramétrique de surface, c'est-à-dire une déformation d'un modèle source vers une forme objectif. Pour démontrer les avantages ses avantages, nous utilisons notre nouvelle représentation pour la reconstruction à vue unique. Notre approche, baptisée AtlasNet, est la première approche profonde de reconstruction à vue unique capable de reconstruire des maillages à partir d'images sans s'appuyer sur un post-traitement indépendant, et peut le faire à une résolution arbitraire sans problèmes de mémoire. Une analyse plus détaillée d'AtlasNet révèle qu'il généralise également mieux que les autres approches aux catégories sur lesquelles il n'a pas été entraîné.Notre deuxième contribution est une nouvelle approche de correspondance de forme purement basée sur la reconstruction par des déformations. Nous montrons que la qualité des reconstructions de forme est essentielle pour obtenir de bonnes correspondances, et donc introduisons une optimisation au moment de l'inférence pour affiner les déformations apprises. Pour les humains et d'autres catégories de formes déformables déviant par une quasi-isométrie, notre approche peut tirer parti d'un modèle et d'une régularisation isométrique des déformations. Comme les catégories présentant des variations non isométriques, telles que les chaises, n'ont pas de modèle clair, nous apprenons à déformer n'importe quelle forme en n'importe quelle autre et tirons parti des contraintes de cohérence du cycle pour apprendre des correspondances qui respectent la sémantique des objets. Notre approche de correspondance de forme fonctionne directement sur les nuages de points, est robuste à de nombreux types de perturbations, et surpasse l'état de l'art de 15% sur des scans d'humains réels

Oggi e oltremodo importante sperimentare metodologie didattiche innovative volte a facilitare l'acquisizione di una competenza comunicativa globale in Lingua Straniera (LS)/Lingua Seconda (L2), anche in considerazione delle piu recenti politiche linguistiche europee. L'ipotesi di partenza del presente lavoro di ricerca e che il coinvolgimento emotivo dell'apprendente e l'utilizzo di vari codici espressivi, in aggiunta al codice verbale, favoriscano risultati piu efficaci. Si vogliono pertanto dimostrare i vantaggi della glottodidattica teatrale in contesti specifici. Negli ultimi anni, abbiamo assistito, in tutta Italia, a significativi mutamenti dovuti da un lato alla globalizzazione e dall'altro, a livello "glocale", all'ondata migratoria che ha coinvolto l'intera nazione e che trova in Sicilia, vista la posizione geografica, uno sbocco obbligato. Si deve quindi ripensare ad una organizzazione del processo di insegnamento-apprendimento dell'Italiano L2 in chiave sociolinguistica, pragmatica e interculturale e prevedere percorsi inclusivi a piu ampio raggio che agiscano innanzitutto sulla motivazione e sull'abbassamento del filtro affettivo. Perche allora investigare sulla glottodidattica teatrale? Proprio perche quest'ultima risulta la combinazione vincente per conseguire obiettivi anche al di fuori delle scuole, in ambito sociale. Attraverso pratiche laboratoriali e strategie cooperative, si promuove una continuita educativa a spirale in termini di crescita e autonomia personale che si aggancia ai prerequisiti per ampliare e potenziare competenze trasversali in situazioni sempre nuove e differenziate. In ambienti educativi rilassanti si svolgono attivita dinamiche ed espressive a partire dal linguaggio del corpo e dalle azioni fisiche; contestualmente si attivano processi cognitivi e metacognitivi anche a stadi iniziali di interlingua. Si facilita cosi un piu rapido adattamento degli stranieri nel Paese di accoglienza. Il coinvolgimento fisico e plurisensoriale consente infatti una esperienza comunicativa intersemiotica che nell'uso della L2 significa apertura valoriale alla Cultura Seconda (C2) e confronto tra le peculiarita sociocomportamentali e pragmatiche delle due lingue in un'ottica di convivenza democratica. Il lavoro teorico prevede obiettivi generali e si concretizza in una serie di obiettivi specifici per i quali viene condotta un'analisi delle questioni in campo circoscrivendo infine la ricerca al territorio siciliano, precisamente quella parte della provincia di Messina che va da Capo d'Orlando a Milazzo. In particolare, si e voluta intraprendere una ricerca-azione sulle potenzialita del metodo Glottodrama in contesti migratori. ; Hoy es muy importante experimentar con métodos de enseñanza innovadores para facilitar la adquisición de una competencia comunicativa global en Lengua Extranjera (LE) / Lengua Segunda (L2), también en consideración de las políticas lingüísticas europeas más recientes. La hipótesis de partida de este trabajo de investigación es que la participación emocional del alumno y el uso de varios códigos expresivos, además del código verbal, consiguen multiplicar la eficacia de los resultados. Por lo tanto, nos proponemos demostrar las ventajas de la enseñanza de idiomas a través del teatro en contextos específicos. En los últimos anos, hemos asistido, en toda Italia, a significativos cambios debidos, por un lado, a la globalización y, por otro, a nivel "glocal", a la ola migratoria que ha implicado a toda la nación y que tiene su mayor impacto en Sicilia. La isla, por su posición geográfica se convierte en vía de paso para un número importante de inmigrantes. Por lo tanto, es necesario repensar una organización del proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje del italiano como L2 en clave sociolingüística, pragmática e intercultural, y prever caminos inclusivos más amplios que actúen principalmente sobre la motivación y la reducción del filtro afectivo. . ¿Por qué entonces investigar la enseñanza de idiomas a través del teatro? Precisamente porque esta última es la combinación ideal para lograr objetivos también fuera de las escuelas, en ámbito social. A través de prácticas de laboratorio y estrategias cooperativas, se promueve una continuidad educativa en espiral en términos de crecimiento personal y autonomía que integra los requisitos previos para expandir y fortalecer las habilidades transversales en situaciones siempre nuevas y diferenciadas. En entornos educativos relajantes, se realizan actividades dinámicas y expresivas a partir del lenguaje corporal y las acciones físicas; al mismo tiempo, los procesos cognitivos y metacognitivos se activan incluso en las etapas iniciales de la interlingua. Esto facilita una adaptación más rápida de los extranjeros en el país de acogida. La participación física y multisensorial permite una experiencia comunicativa Inter semiótica que, en el uso de la L2, significa apertura a los valores de la Cultura Segunda (C2) y comparación entre las peculiaridades pragmáticas y la realidad social de la que los dos idiomas se hacen portadores en una perspectiva de coexistencia democrática. El trabajo teórico prevé objetivos generales y se concretara en una serie de objetivos específicos para los cuales se quiere realizar un análisis de las cuestiones en el ámbito, circunscribiendo finalmente la investigación al territorio siciliano, precisamente esa parte de la provincia de Messina que va desde Capo d'Orlando a Milazzo. En particular, queríamos proceder aplicando una investigación-acción sobre las potencialidades del método Glottodrama en contextos migratorios. ; Nowadays it is extremely important to experiment innovative teaching methodologies aimed at facilitating the acquisition of a global communicative competence in a Foreign Language (FL)/ Second Language (L2), also taking into account the most recent European language policies. The starting hypothesis of this research work is that the learner's emotional involvement and the use of different expressive codes, in addition to the verbal code, promote more effective results. We therefore want to demonstrate the advantages of learning and teaching a language by using drama/theatre techniques in specific contexts. In recent years, we have witnessed, throughout Italy, significant changes due on the one hand to globalization and, on the other, at "glocal" level, to the migratory wave that has involved the whole nation e that finds in Sicily, because of its geographical position, a forced outlet. It is therefore necessary to rethink the organization of the learning-teaching process in Italian as L2, in a sociolinguistic, pragmatic and intercultural way and to plan inclusive and wider educational paths that act primarily on motivation and on the lowering of the affective filter. Why then investigate drama/theatre techniques applied to language teaching? Precisely because they represent the winning combination to achieve objectives even outside of schools, in the social sphere. Through laboratorial practices and cooperative strategies, a spiraling educational continuity is promoted in terms of growth and personal autonomy which are linked to the prerequisites for expanding and enhancing transversal skills in ever new and differentiated situations. Dynamic and expressive activities are carried out in relaxing educational environments, starting from body language and physical actions; at the same time, cognitive and metacognitive processes are activated even at early interlanguage stages. This facilitates a more rapid adaptation of foreigners in the host country. In fact, the multi-sensorial, physical involvement promotes an intersemiotic communicative experience which, related to the use of the L2, means opening to the Second Culture (C2) values and comparing the socio-behavioral and pragmatic peculiarities of the two languages in a perspective of democratic coexistence. Theoretical work includes general objectives and takes concrete form in a series of specific objectives by carrying out an analysis of the topics at issue, finally narrowing the research to the Sicilian territory, namely that part of the province of Messina which goes from Capo d'Orlando to Milazzo. In particular, it was decided to undertake action research on the potential of the Glottodrama Method in migratory contexts.

This research project examines a theoretical gap (impact of culture on entrepreneurial orientation EO) to try and mitigate a practical problem (unemployment) among graduates in three East African countries: Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Unemployment would be mitigated if only graduates embraced entrepreneurship by starting their own business projects, and many governments have encouraged their youth/graduates to do this. Unfortunately, graduate student interest in entrepreneurial activities in many countries in Africa is very low, and the three study countries are no exception to this trend. While many explanations have been advanced for this phenomenon, a key theoretical gap left unattended in entrepreneurship research is the way in which culture impacts upon EO and how this affects entrepreneurial intention (EI), yet EO is often considered the most important variable in the formative stage of a given project. A close look at how culture influences EO is important because EO is unexplainable without considering the socio-cultural framework in which it is embedded, since it can be supportive or a hindrance to entrepreneurship in different contexts. Thus the key question which this study tries to address is: "Does culture constrain the development of a strong EO, eventually leading to low start-up in this region?" Specifically, can the low graduate start-up in these countries be explained by the impact of five cultural orientation dimensions (ambiguity intolerance, power distance, masculinity, independence and interdependence) and ability perception variables (achievement motivation and learning goal orientation LGO) on two variables of EO namely risk taking and proactiveness? How does gender affect these relationships? Besides gender, this study also sought to know the level of prevalence in the study population of three other important culturally influenced variables in entrepreneurship literature namely experience, fear of failure and modernity in order to throw more light on the study problem In particular, given that individuals with a modern outlook are somehow liberated from firm cultural norms, this study sought to establish whether students with a more modern outlook differ from those with a less modern one in terms of the study variables. Further, does optimism another important culturally inclined characteristic of entrepreneurs moderate the relationship between EO and entrepreneurial intention? Some authors argue, however, that culture does not matter; rather, what matters are the entrepreneurial competencies of an entrepreneur. Hence another major question addressed in the current study is to what extent do entrepreneurial competencies (such as knowledge/networks) moderate the relationship between EO and entrepreneurial intention? Using the theory of planned behavior (TPB), upper echelons theory and image theory, this study seeks to address these questions based on a pragmatic paradigm and thus a mixed methods approach in two phases. Phase one of the study was qualitative consisting of non- structured interviews and conversations with various stake holders and is the basis upon which the study instrument was refined. Phase two was quantitative, utilizing a cross-sectional survey research design based on a non random sampling to gather data from finalists in business faculties in three public and two private universities in the study countries (N=1086) during their classes. Data analysis consisted of three phases, comprising ten steps. Phase one was more of a preliminary analysis and consisted of five steps: Generation of descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages, and normality tests in step 1, T-tests to gauge the prevalence of experience, fear of failure, and modernity as well as a MANOVA to gauge the prevalence of the cultural dimensions in each study country in step 2, Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) by Varimax/promax rotation to examine the factor structures of the study dimensions in step 3, followed by examination of validity (construct validity, discriminant validity) and reliability for all study instruments (alpha and composite reliability, CR) in Step 4, while step 5 confirmed the factor structure of the measures using confirmatory factor analysis CFA (Lisrel 8.8). The second phase utilized structural equation modeling (SEM) based on latent variables (using AMOS 23) to first estimate a CFA model, followed by a structural baseline model for all data combined (omnibus model) in step 6. This was followed by fitting the baseline model into each country data set in step 7. In step 8, data was divided by gender into male and female samples and by modernity into low and high modernity groups and the baseline model was fitted into each of these four data sets. This was followed by invariance tests between the gender sets and modernity sets as a basis for their meaningful comparison (step 9). The third phase utilized the process macro in SPSS (step 10) to conduct the moderation analysis. Study findings indicate that in all three countries, only 50% of the respondents had some sort of start-up experience. A third (31%) of the students in the three countries indicated that fear of failure would prevent them from starting a business, while the rest indicated that it would not. Further, students who do not regard fear of failure as a barrier to entrepreneurial activities scored significantly higher on proactiveness, knowledge, achievement motivation and modernity in all the three countries, while in at least two of these countries, these people scored significantly higher on risk taking, networking and learning goal orientation. This finding confirms that fear of failure is an important barrier to graduate entrepreneurship in this region. Turning to the structural models in SEM, findings indicate that the low start-up rate in these countries can be attributed to the negative impact of ambiguity intolerance (the most problematic variable), power distance, and lack of an optimistic bias as well as possible negative attitude towards those with an independent cultural orientation. However, Independence and Interdependence support EO, in agreement with researchers who assert that both cultural variables are good for entrepreneurship. Theoretically, the study makes an extension of the TPB since achievement motivation predicts intention in all study samples (apart from Kenya and Tanzania). In terms of gender, there are no significant differences on the reported levels of risk taking; however females score significantly higher on proactiveness. Further structural models indicate that males are more achievement oriented than females, while the low modernity group seems to be more entrepreneurial than the high modernity group. Lastly, networks and knowledge moderate the relationship between risk taking/proactiveness and intention, while optimism does not. The study calls for a revision of the curriculum to include tolerance for ambiguity, proactiveness and autonomy courses in entrepreneurship education as well as a change in the mode of delivery of this subject. A transformation in the education systems of the three countries is needed to produce critical thinkers and to introduce entrepreneurship early in the education system to make everyone appreciate entrepreneurship, thus nurturing an entrepreneurial culture.

In the cinematographic industry, the standard media formats changed from film to digital formats, but these changes are not located only in art territories. Nowadays, digitalization processes are increasingly part of our daily practices. We constantly need to deal with a large range of commonplace situations that demands us to be connected with softwares applications, implying that we produce and share a considerable amount of sounds and images. For some of us, especially the younger ones, born in the 2000s, used to dealing with gadgets since the early age, mechanical and analog processes may seem to be part of a very different world. The purpose of this essay is to discuss what we are calling "the pixel fever", this contemporary movement of our lives that merges our organic life with our digital trajectories, considering that to produce and discard digital data is already part of the routine of many of us. This essay is divided into three parts. Firstly, we aim to highlight some aspects of this entrance of digital gadgets in our lives. To do this, we start talking about the digitalization processes in the film industry focusing on the Brazilian public policy Cinema Near You, that supported this transition in movie theaters. Secondly, we move on to highlight some broader problems of this "pixel fever": the aesthetical risk, the digitalization of jobs, and the energy consumption derived from the handling of digital materials. Finally, we conclude thinking about some parallels between these problems emphasized and our contemporary lives. With these interdisciplinary ponderations, starting by some examples from audiovisual practices, we aim to contribute to the discussions about the contemporary social changes related to digitalization processes spread in several research areas. ; Le support standard utilisé par l'industrie cinématographique a été modifié du format film au format numérique, mais ces changements ne se situent pas seulement dans les territoires artistiques. De nos jours, les processus de digitalisation intègrent de plus en plus nos pratiques quotidiennes face à d'innombrables situations nécessitant l'utilisation d'applis. Ainsi, nous produisons et partageons à tout moment des quantités considérables de sons et d'images. Pour certains d'entre nous, en particulier les plus jeunes, nés dans les années 2000 et habitués aux gadgets depuis l'enfance, les processus mécaniques et analogiques constituent probablement un médium très différent. L'objectif de cet essai est donc de pondérer ce que nous appelons «la fièvre des pixels», un mouvement contemporain dans lequel la vie organique et les trajectoires numériques sont fusionnées, en considérant que la production et l'élimination des données numériques font déjà partie des routines de beaucoup d'entre nous. Nous avons divisé cet essai en trois parties. Dans la première, nous avons abordé certains aspects de l'entrée des gadgets numériques dans nos vies, traitant des processus de numérisation dans l'industrie cinématographique, en particulier la politique publique brésilienne Cinema Perto de Você, qui a contribué au processus de transition de l'analogique au numérique dans les salles de cinéma au Brésil. À la deuxième partie, nous mettons en évidence les problèmes plus larges de la fièvre des pixels, à savoir les risques esthétiques, la numérisation des emplois et la consommation d'énergie dérivée de la manipulation de matériels numériques. Enfin, dans la troisième partie, nous établissons des parallèles entre les problèmes posés par la fièvre des pixels et la vie actuelle. Nous visons avec ces considérations interdisciplinaires, construites à partir des pratiques audiovisuelles, à contribuer aux discussions sur les changements sociaux contemporains liés aux processus de numérisation propagés dans différents domaines de recherche. ; O suporte padrão utilizado pela indústria cinematográfica foi alterado da película para os formatos digitais, mas essas mudanças não estão localizadas apenas em territórios artísticos. Nos dias atuais, os processos de digitalização integram, cada vez mais, nossas práticas cotidianas ao lidarmos com inúmeras situações que demandam a utilização de aplicativos. Assim, produzimos e compartilhamos a todo instante quantidades consideráveis de sons e imagens. Para alguns de nós, especialmente os mais jovens, nascidos a partir dos anos 2000 e acostumados a lidar com gadgets desde a infância, os processos mecânicos e analógicos constituem, provavelmente, um meio bem diferente. O objetivo desse ensaio é, portanto, ponderar acerca do que estamos chamando de "a febre do pixel", movimento contemporâneo no qual amalgama-se vida orgânica e trajetórias digitais, considerando que produzir e descartar dados digitais já faz parte das rotinas de muitos de nós. Dividimos esse ensaio em três partes. Na primeira abordamos alguns aspectos da entrada dos gadgets digitais em nossas vidas, tratando dos processos de digitalização na indústria cinematográfica, especialmente a política pública brasileira Cinema Perto de Você, que auxiliou no processo de transição do analógico para o digital nas salas de cinema do Brasil. Na segunda parte, ressaltamos problemas mais amplos da febre do pixel, quais sejam, riscos estéticos, a digitalização dos empregos e o consumo de energia derivado do manuseio de materiais digitais. Finalmente, na terceira parte, traçamos paralelos entre os problemas decorrentes da febre do pixel e a vida na atualidade. Objetivamos com essas ponderações interdisciplinares, construídas a partir de práticas audiovisuais, contribuir com as discussões sobre as mudanças sociais contemporâneas relacionadas aos processos de digitalização propagados em diferentes áreas de pesquisa. ; El soporte estándar utilizado por la industria cinematográfica se ha cambiado del formato cinematográfico a formato digital, pero estos cambios no se localizan solamente en territorios artísticos. Hoy en día, los procesos de digitalización integran cada vez más nuestras prácticas diarias ante numerosas situaciones que requieren el uso de aplicativos. Por lo tanto, producimos y compartimos cantidades considerables de sonidos y imágenes a todo instante. Para algunos de nosotros, especialmente los más jóvenes, nacidos en la década de 2000 y acostumbrados a tratar con dispositivos desde la infancia, los procesos mecánicos y analógicos constituem probablemente un medio muy diferente. El propósito de este ensayo es, por lo tanto, pensar sobre lo que llamamos "la fiebre del pixel", movimiento contemporáneo en el que la vida orgánica y las trayectorias digitales se amalgaman, considerando que producir y descartar datos digitales ya forma parte de las rutinas de muchos de nosotros. Dividimos este ensayo en tres partes. En el primera nos acercamos de algunos aspectos de la entrada de los gadgets digitales en nuestras vidas, abordando los procesos de digitalización en la industria cinematográfica, especialmente la política pública brasileña Cinema Perto de Você, que ayudó a la transición de lo analógico a lo digital en cines de todo el país. En la segunda parte, destacamos problemas más amplios de la fiebre del pixel, a saber, los riesgos estéticos, la digitalización de puestos de trabajo y el consumo energético derivado del manejo de materiales digitales. Finalmente, en la tercera parte, trazamos paralelismos entre los problemas derivados de la fiebre del pixel y la vida actual. Apuntamos con estas consideraciones interdisciplinares, construidas a partir de prácticas audiovisuales, contribuir a las discusiones sobre los cambios sociales contemporáneos relacionados con los procesos de digitalización propagados en diferentes áreas de investigación.

Executive SummaryThe Take Kare Safe Space (TKSS) program is one of the functions of Stay Kind (formally, the Thomas Kelly Youth Foundation) established in response to concerns about the safety of young people at night. The program commenced operations at Town Hall in December 2014, Kings Cross in July 2015, and Darling Harbour in February 2017. It operates year-round from 10pm to 4am on Friday and Saturday nights. Recent funding cuts have forced the closure of the Darling Harbour Site and restricted operation of the Kings Cross Safe Space to Saturday nights.The NSW Government's Department of Justice provided funding to conduct an evaluation of the TKSS program. The evaluation was informed by the NSW Government's Program Evaluation Guidelines and included process, outcome and economic indicators. The evaluation relied on internal program-level data, routinely collected data; and, interview and survey data.Until recently, internal program level data was collected by TKSS ambassadors using pen and paper. Recent changes have seen the development of an app (through in-kind support from the University of Technology, Sydney), that will streamline the collection of data, improve the time lag for the reporting process as well as support a richer source of data collection. This analysis, however, relies on historical data collected using pen and paper. Over the period of interest, December 2014 – April 2019 (inclusive), records indicate that 66,455 people had been supported by the TKSS program with 62% of users being males and 66% aged between 18-25 years. Most users were perceived by the TKSS ambassadors to have a high level of intoxication (46%) with 8% perceived to be under the influence of drugs. Most users (66%) spent time at the safe space and 19% were supported in other ways (defined as incidents). The type of incidents recorded by ambassadors include minimising the risk of physical assault, sexual assault, theft or injury. Over the period of interest, ambassadors intervened to avert the risk of serious harm in 735 cases from a total of 3,633 incidents, 20% of all incidents.Routinely collected data sources used in this analysis included: crime, emergency department (ED) and ambulance data. Generalised linear models for time series counts were used to specify segmented regressions for data extracted over the period 2009-2018. The two main segments modelled were the introduction of the Liquor Amendment Act (LAA) and the start of the TKSS program. Given that TKSS and the introduction of LAA were implemented within 2 years (at most) of each other, the attributed effect to each intervention on rates of offences is difficult to discern since these interventions are combined with complex interactions over time and with dynamic population movements. For ED admissions, the results were unclear about the true effect of the TKSS program on either head-injury related admission or alcohol-related admissions. For the ambulance data analysis, similarly to the crime analysis data, the results were unable to discern a statistically significant reduction in assault-related or drug and alcohol-related ambulance dispatches. Reasons identified included low monthly counts, background noise and the relatively short time between LAA and TKSS. In summary, the analysis of routinely collected data sources was not able to disentangle the potential attribution of the TKSS program in reducing crime or ED admissions. Nevertheless, and although this analysis is only a retrospective observational study, Figure 11 shows assaults started to increase again from 2015 but not related Emergency Department presentations or related Ambulance call-outs, which might reflect the important point that a key function of TKSS program is the prevention of relatively serious harms (those that require emergency services) as opposed to preventing the occurrence of crimes per se.A questionnaire was developed to explore clients use and satisfaction with the Safe Spaces. Of the 157 participants, 61% were male, the average age was 23 years; 42% had completed tertiary education and 38% were employed full time. Ninety-four percent of participants consumed alcohol at hazardous levels and 23% had been professionally diagnosed with a mental health condition. Over a half of the participants accessed a Safe Space by themselves with the majority using the service to receive water, to sober up or charge their phones. Ninety percent of participants were extremely satisfied with the service and would recommend it to friends.Semi-structured interviews were conducted with stakeholders, including staff from NSW Police and Ambulance, St Vincent's, City of Sydney, licensed venues and clients of the program. All interviews were recorded (in audio or written form) with consent, transcribed and subjected to a thematic analysis which identified and explored salient themes within and across the data. The identified strengths of the TKSS program were various and routinely shared across stakeholder groups, serving to reinforce the validity of findings. The most salient strengths identified across the interview dataset were the program's role in filling a service gap in nightlife settings; improving efficiency and effectiveness of emergency services and other stakeholders operating in nightlife settings; and, the ambassadors' ability to de-escalate conflict and provide welfare services through the performance of early, proactive and non-judgmental, interventions. Perceived weaknesses of the TKSS program included: a lack of public awareness around the program; the ability of the program to service its current localities given staff and volunteer levels; and misunderstandings regarding the scope and function of the TKSS program by some stakeholders. Stakeholders, while noting the above challenges were universally satisfied with the performance of the program and felt that it was meeting its stated objectives.A benefit-cost analysis of the TKSS program was undertaken by comparing benefits and costs. Benefits included the value of serious harm averted and the social (community) value attached to lives saved through ambassador interventions. Costs included operating expenses and the market value of volunteer time. Several sensitivity analyses tested the robustness of results to changes in assumptions. Over the period December 2014 – April 2019 (inclusive), the benefits of the TKSS program are estimated at $7.46 million and operating costs at $2.79 million with a benefit-cost ratio of 2.67, suggesting that a $1 investment in the program results in $2.67 of benefits. When the TKSS program was fully operational in three sites (i.e., in 2016-17), the benefit-cost ratio increased to 3.83, suggesting that a $1 investment in the program results in $3.83 of benefits. These results are conservative and the return on investment is likely to be much higher given that the analysis does not quantify the full spectrum of benefits associated with the TKSS program such as: improved public safety and amenity; more efficient resource allocation for service providers; improved partnership, communication and resourcing to manage Sydney nightlife; and, the flow on effects for tourism and investment.The TKSS program has withstood several significant challenges since opening including sporadic funding, a variation to the modus operandi and, significant capital works within the boundaries of the program. Despite these challenges, the TKSS program has met it objective to provide a harm reduction service where vulnerable young people can access support and a safe place or a safe passage home. The benefits that could be quantified outweigh the cost of delivering the program suggesting that Safe Spaces are a good economic investment that should be supported with appropriate funding.

La Seguridad Jurídica en el Ecuador se encuentra reconocida como Derecho, Principio y Garantía. Como Derecho se encuentra estatuida en el Art. 82 de la Constitución de la República, la cual se fundamenta en el respeto a la Carta Fundamental y en la existencia de normas jurídicas previas, claras, públicas y aplicadas por las autoridades competentes (Asamblea Constituyente, 2008). Como Principio reconoce al legislativo como el encargado constitucionalmente de ser quien crea, modifica o deroga la normativa que involucre derechos constitucionales, y a la vez encarga a los juzgadores de dar certeza y confianza a los ciudadanos respecto de la correcta aplicación de la ley, pues, solamente de esta forma las personas pueden predecir los efectos y consecuencias de sus actos u omisiones. Y como Garantía, la Seguridad Jurídica es el mecanismo de carácter fundacional y común para todos los individuos, garantizado en la Carta Constitucional con la finalidad de tutelar los derechos individuales y colectivos de los habitantes del Estado. En el caso concreto, al ser las personas privadas de libertad integrantes del Estado ecuatoriano y reconocidos constitucionalmente como grupo de atención prioritaria gozan del derecho a la Seguridad Jurídica y demás derechos inherentes al ser humano, por lo que, el Consejo de la Judicatura al emitir la Resolución 085-2014 establece un nuevo requisito y modifica el procedimiento ya existente en la normativa de la materia para acceder al beneficio de Rebaja de Penas por Méritos, vulnerado la Seguridad Jurídica estatuida constitucionalmente, pues dicho requisito que varía el procedimiento no está revestido de Favorabilidad para el reo, sino que angustia la tramitación que deben seguir los privados de libertad que han cumplido los requisitos para obtener su libertad anticipada. Esta resolución también contraviene el Principio de Reserva de Ley, ya que el Consejo de la Judicatura es el órgano administrativo de la Función Judicial, mismo que únicamente puede reglamentar los derechos que se encuentren garantizados en la norma y que carezca de procedimiento, mas no, modificar negativamente los preexistente como en el presente caso, en el que por medio de la Resolución 085-2014 aumenta un requisito y cambia el procedimiento previamente establecido en el Código de Ejecución de Penas y Rehabilitación Social (Congreso Nacional, 2006), en el Reglamento sustitutivo del Reglamento General de Aplicación del Código de Ejecución de Penas y Rehabilitación Social (Función Ejecutiva, 2001) y en el Reglamento para la Concesión de Rebaja de Penas por Sistema de Méritos (Consejo Nacional de Rehabilitación Social, 2008). Con la aplicación de los instrumentos de recolección de información, se determinó que el Consejo de la Judicatura con la emisión de la Resolución 085-2014 vulnera el derecho a la Seguridad Jurídica, pues no es el facultado constitucionalmente para establecer mediante una resolución requisitos y procedimientos contrarios a los ya establecidos, pues con este cambio está generando disminución en los porcentajes de rebaja de penas por méritos de las personas privadas de libertad, pese a que los PPL han cumplido integralmente con los programas de capacitación, salud, trabajo social y comportamiento adecuado que ofrecen los Centros de Rehabilitación Social, perjudicando de esta forma al Derecho a la Libertad que se hacen acreedores los internos que han cambiado su conducta positivamente, generando además sobrepoblación carcelaria y vulneración de los demás derechos que gozan las personas privadas de libertad. ; Legal Security in Ecuador is recognized as Right, Principle and Guarantee. As Law, it is established in Art. 82 of the Constitution of the Republic, which is based on respect for the Fundamental Charter and on the existence of previous, clear, public legal norms applied by the competent authorities (Constituent Assembly, 2008). As a Principle, it recognizes the legislature as being constitutionally responsible for creating, modifying or repealing the regulations that involve constitutional rights, and at the same time, it charges the judges with giving certainty and confidence to the citizens regarding the correct application of the law, since, Only in this way can people predict the effects and consequences of their acts or omissions. And as a Guarantee, Legal Security is the foundational and common mechanism for all individuals, guaranteed in the Constitutional Charter in order to protect the individual and collective rights of the inhabitants of the State. In the specific case, since the persons deprived of liberty are members of the Ecuadorian State and constitutionally recognized as a group of priority attention, they enjoy the right to Legal Security and other rights inherent to the human being, therefore, the Council of the Judiciary when issuing Resolution 085-2014 establishes a new requirement and modifies the procedure already existing in the relevant regulations to access the benefit of Reduction of Penalties for Merits, violated the Legal Security constitutionally established, since said requirement that varies the procedure is not covered by Favorability for the inmate, but distressing the procedure that must be followed by those deprived of liberty who have fulfilled the requirements to obtain their early release. This resolution also contravenes the Principle of Reserve of Law, since the Council of the Judiciary is the administrative organ of the Judicial Function, which can only regulate the rights that are guaranteed in the norm and that lacks procedure, but not, negatively modify the pre-existing ones as in the present case, in which through Resolution 085-2014 increases a requirement and changes the procedure previously established in the Code of Execution of Penalties and Social Rehabilitation (National Congress, 2006), in the Regulations Substitute for the General Regulation of Application of the Code of Execution of Penalties and Social Rehabilitation (Executive Function, 2001) and in the Regulation for the Granting of Reduction of Penalties by Merit System (National Council of Social Rehabilitation, 2008). With the application of the information collection instruments, it was determined that the Judicial Council with the issuance of Resolution 085-2014 violates the right to Legal Security, since it is not constitutionally empowered to establish requirements and procedures through a resolution. contrary to those already established, because with this change it is generating a decrease in the percentages of reduction of penalties for merits of persons deprived of liberty, despite the fact that the PPLs have fully complied with training, health, social work, and appropriate behavior programs offered by the Social Rehabilitation Centers, thus harming the Right to Freedom that the inmates who have positively changed their behavior become creditors, also generating prison overcrowding and violation of the other rights enjoyed by persons deprived of liberty.

Introduction: the urinary tract infection is one of the most common bacterial infections in children (representing 7%), and it´s early diagnosis and treatment could impact in complications. That is the reason why the empirical antibiotic used for treatment, is directed to the most frequent microorganisms. In the antibiogram revision, Escherichia coli (E. coli) sensibility reported in 2002 in The Military Central Hospital was satisfactory (86%) to continue the same first line of treatment (cephalotin) in children with febrile urinary tract infections. In many national and international studies has been reported an increase in the resistance to first level cephalosporins, with consequent changes in first line treatment. However, the changes in the sensibility in the last years in our hospital is unknown, also, if there are hostage factors that affect this changes in the sensibility.Objective: determine the changes in bacterial sensibility in urinary infections and it´s relation with hostage factors in the pediatric patients of The Central Military Hospital between the years 2006-2012.Materials and methods: retrospective cross-section study, including children between 0 and 14 years since January 2006 and December 2012, with confirmed diagnosis of urinary tract infection with positive urine culture depending on the recollection method. Were excluded those with incomplete information, immune-compromised, with onco­logic or neurologic diseases. The data recollection included microorganism, sensibility and resistance to common antibiotics and hostage factors (age, gender, presence of fever, previous antibiotic treatment, obstructive diseases and urinary reflux).Results: there were 271 infections, 79,9% by E. coli whose resistance to first level cephalosporins was low (18%) and moderate to TMP-SMX and ampicillin. For E. coli infections, the risk factors with more probability of presenting urinary tract infections resistant to first level cephalosporins are: fever (OR: 3.2), below 1 year of age (OR: 2.6), previous antibiotic treatment (OR: 1.2), urinary reflux (OR 1.5); and the risk factors related to multi-restistant urinary tract infections are: fever (OR: 10), recurrent urinary tract infection (OR: 1.4), below 1 year of age (OR: 2), previous antibiotic treatment (OR: 2.2), obstructive uropathy (OR: 2.2) and urinary reflux (OR: 2).Conclusions: the global sensibility to first level cephalosporins is 82%, which is high. And following the risk factors analized we recomend: for febrile urinary tract infection we recommend first level cephalosporins. For unfebrile in­fections we recommend nitrofurantoin or nalidixic acid. If risk factors are present, program clinical control with urine culture to change or continue the treatment, because they have more risk for resistance. ; Introducción: La infección urinaria es la infección bacteriana más frecuente en los niños (representando el 7%), su diagnóstico y tratamiento temprano impactan en las complicaciones. Por esta razón, la escogencia empírica del antibiótico con el que se inicia el tratamiento, va dirigida a los microorganismos que más frecuentemente la producen. En la revisión de los antibiogramas, en 2002 en el Hospital Militar Central, se concluyó que la sensibilidad de la Escherichia coli (E. coli) a la cefalotina fue del 86% por lo cual continuó siendo la primera línea de manejo para los niños con infecciones urinarias febriles. En múltiples estudios a nivel nacional e internacional se ha reportado un aumento en la resistencia a las cefalosporinas de primera generación en los últimos años, lo que ha llevado a modificaciones en el manejo empírico. Los cambios en la sensibilidad bacteriana en los últimos años son desconocidos en el Hospital Militar Central, de la misma manera si existe algún factor del huésped que pueda afectar dichos cambios.Objetivos: determinar la sensibilidad bacteriana en la infección urinaria y su relación con los factores del huésped en la población pediátrica del Hospital Militar Central en el período 2006-2012.Materiales y métodos: se condujo un estudio retrospectivo de corte transversal, que incluyó todos los niños de 0-14 años (ambulatorios y hospitalizados), desde enero de 2006 a diciembre de 2012 con diagnóstico confirmado de infección urinaria por urocultivo positivo según la técnica de recolección. Se excluyeron aquellos con información incompleta, inmunocomprometidos, oncológicos o con enfermedades neurológicas. La recolección de datos incluye: el microorganismo, la sensibilidad a los antibióticos analizados en el antibiograma y los factores del huésped (edad, género, presencia de fiebre, tratamiento antibiótico previo, presencia de uropatía obstructiva o reflujo vesicoureteral).Resultados: De 271 infecciones urinarias el 79,9% se produjo por E.coli; la resistencia a las cefalosporinas de primera generación fue baja (18%). Para infecciones urinarias por E. coli, los factores de riesgo relacionados con el huésped que aumentan la probabilidad de presentar infecciones urinarias resistentes a cefalosporinas de primera generación son: fiebre (OR: 3.2), edad menor de 1 año (OR: 2.6), tratamiento antibiótico previo (OR: 1.2), reflujo vesicoureteral (OR 1.5); y los factores de riesgo para infecciones urinarias multirresistentes son: fiebre (OR: 10), infección urinaria recurrente (OR: 1.4), edad menor de 1 año (OR: 2), tratamiento antibiótico previo (OR: 2.2), uropatía obstructiva (OR: 2.2) y reflujo vesicoureteral (OR: 2).Conclusiones: La sensibilidad global para las cefalosporinas de primera generación es del 82%, continúa siendo alta y según los factores de riesgo analizados se realizan los siguientes lineamientos en el protocolo de manejo: en infecciones urinarias febriles, recomendamos las cefalosporinas de primera generación. En infecciones afebriles, recomendamos nitrofurantoina o ácido nalidíxico. Ante factores de riesgo, iniciar con cefalosporinas de primera generación, pero se recomienda realizar urocultivo a las 48 horas por mayor riesgo de resistencia. ; Introdução: A infecção do trato urinário é uma das infecções bacterianas mais comuns em crianças (representando 7%), é diagnóstico precoce e tratamento poderia ter impacto em complicações. Essa é a razão pela qual o antibiótico empírico é utilizado para o tratamento, é dirigida para os microorganismos mais freqüentes. Na revisão do antibio­grama, a sensibilidade de Escherichia coli (E. coli) relatada em 2002 no Hospital Militar Central foi satisfatória (86%) para continuar a mesma linha de tratamento (cefalotina) em crianças com infecções febris do tracto urinário. Em muitos estudos nacionais e internacionais tem sido relatado um aumento na resistência a cefalosporinas de primeiro nível, com as conseqüentes mudanças no tratamento de primeira linha. No entanto, as mudanças na sensibilidade nos últimos anos em nosso Hospital Militar Central é desconhecida também,Objetivo: Determinar as alterações na sensibilidade bacteriana em infecções urinárias e sua relação com fatores de reféns em pacientes pediátricos do Hospital Militar Central entre os anos 2006-2012.Materiais e métodos: Estudo retrospectivo de corte transversal, incluindo crianças entre 0 e 14 anos desde janeiro de 2006 e dezembro de 2012, com diagnóstico confirmado de infecção do trato urinário com cultivo de urina pos­itiva, dependendo do método de recolhimento. A recolha de dados incluiu microorganismo, sensibilidade e foram excluídos aqueles com informações incompletas, imunocomprometidos, com doenças oncológicas ou neurológicas. Resistência a antibióticos comuns e fatores residentes (idade, sexo, presença de febre, tratamento antibiótico prévio, doenças obstrutivas e refluxo urinário).Conclusões: A sensibilidade global para cefalosporinas de primeiro nível é de 82%, o que é alto. e seguindo os fatores de risco analisados recomendamos: para infecção febril do tracto urinário recomendamos cefalosporinas de primeiro nível. Para infecções não febris recomendamos nitrofurantoína ou ácido nalidíxico. Se houver fatores de risco, programe o controle clínico com cultura de urina para mudar ou continuar o tratamento, porque eles têm mais risco de resistência.

Problem setting. Modern science of public administration forms a theoretical basis for the study of national development and state-building processes. The urgency of the search for theoretical and methodological foundations of state linguistic policy in Ukraine is caused by unstable state linguistic policy both during the whole period of independence and in the historical perspective, by the unacceptable part of Ukrainian society of Ukrainian as a single state, by the non-formation of Ukrainian national identity for the use of language. society, in the hybrid war against Ukraine, which is no longer a potential but a real threat to Ukraine's existence as a state.In the normative legal acts of Ukraine, in particular in the Constitution of Ukraine, such a term as "Ukrainian nation" is not defined, although it is used together with the term "Ukrainian people", within which "citizens of Ukraine of all nationalities" are united. The researcher notes that at the time the Basic Law was enacted, the term "nation" contained mostly ethnic content (at least such a stereotype prevailed and, apparently, prevails in the mass consciousness), the concept of "nation" did not relate to the concept of citizenship. In this sense, the "Ukrainian nation" is primarily an ethno-cultural, linguistic community.Recent research and publications analysis. In scientific discourse, the nation in various contexts has been the subject of attention of researchers in various fields of science, including public administration, namely: B. Anderson, H. Yevsyeieva, V. Karlova, G. Kasianov, M. Kozlovets, I. Kresina, Yu. Kuts, I. Lopushinsky, L. Nagornaya, S. Rymarenko, O. Ryabchenko, V. Sychova, V. Starosolsky, M. Stepykо and others.Highlighting previously unsettled parts of the general problem. Despite the available research on theories of the nation, as well as the role of the linguistic factor of national genesis, there has been no study of the science of public administration of theories of the nation as a methodological basis of state language policy in Ukraine. The purpose of the article is to hypothesize that the theoretical foundations of nation-building are the methodological basis of the state language policy of Ukraine at the present stage of state formation, since language is one of the defining features of Ukrainian national identity and factors of creation of the Ukrainian nation under conditions of multiethnic society and external threats to the nation.Paper main body. There is neither a universal definition of a nation nor a stable set of features.Having analyzed the various theories of the nation, we conclude that such a set may consist of linguistic, cultural, territorial, economic, social, psychological and political characteristics, and none of them can be dominant in this list.Three constituents of the nation, which stand out in the theories of the nation and are decisive for the Ukrainian nation, are considered in the context of the chosen direction of research: the national linguistic picture of the world, national identity, national identity.Noteworthy is the scientific approach whereby language is recognized as a feature of the nation based on the study of the linguistic picture of the world as a sociocultural phenomenon that reflects a conceptual picture of the world.Each language reflects a particular way of perceiving and conceptualizing the world. The values reflected in it create a coherent system of views, a kind of collective outlook that becomes mandatory for all native speakers.The next constituent of the nation, we define the national consciousness. national consciousness means the collective or individual perception of the national identity of a person or community, the specific traits of one's own nation, national values, a shared historical past and a shared historical future.National consciousness is historically formed in the process of nationalization, through awareness of the ethnicity of its origin and organic connection with its cultural roots, recognition of the original character of the native culture, language, national peculiarities, mentality and sense of national solidarity.The next constituent of the nation that underlies its formation is national identity. We can give the following definition of national identity: it is the identification of oneself with a certain nation by the set of certain characteristics of a nation, the realization of oneself as part of the national community.Conclusions of the research and prospects for further studies. In spite of the methodological pluralism of the theories of the nation, the ambiguous interpretation of the concept of the nation and the instability of its features in many theories, language is regarded as a marker of national identity, a "symbol of social solidarity" (E. Sapir), a means of "transforming disparate individuals into a coherent, organized" Sorokin), "an external criterion by which one can know the existence of a nation" (V. Starosolsky), and others.Although language itself does not play a decisive role in the formation of a nation and national identity, it becomes meaningful when it is transformed into symbolic value and fulfills an integrative role.As constituents of the nation, the article deals with the national-linguistic picture of the world, national consciousness, national identity.The conducted research proves that belonging to a certain nation (national identity) is manifested in the national consciousness, which is formed, including through thinking and language, and is reflected in the national-linguistic picture of the world. In turn, the national-linguistic picture of the world reflects the peculiarities of the conceptual picture of the world of a social community united by certain factors (eg, territory, economy, history and/or modernity, language or metam, etc.).We believe that the process of forming the Ukrainian nation in the modern era was interrupted by a policy of "Sovietization", the creation of a new community, the "Soviet people", linguistic assimilation, and the simultaneous destruction in the 1930s of the Ukrainian intelligentsia and the Ukrainian peasantry as carriers of Ukrainian identity. The consequences of these political actions are still felt by Ukraine today, and it is too early to speak about the established national identity in Ukraine.Researchers agree that the core of the Ukrainian political nation is the ethnic core, whose constituent is language, and Ukraine bears the name of its titular nation and the largest of its indigenous ethnic groups – Ukrainian. This fact should be the starting point of nation-building and state-building and, accordingly, of state language policy, which is based on the model of "state Ukrainian language – languages of national minorities and indigenous peoples", which is in accordance with the Constitution of Ukraine. ; Досліджено теорії нації та виділено ті теорії, які можуть бути визначені як методологічна засада формування державної мовної політики в Україні. Для розгляду обрано такі конституєнти нації, як національномовна картина світу, національна свідомість, національна ідентичність. З'ясовано, що основою української політичної нації є етнічне ядро, складовою якого є мова, а Україна носить ім'я своєї титульної нації й найчисленнішого зі своїх корінних етносів – українського. Зазначено, що цей факт повинен бути основою державної мовної політики в Україні.