Suchergebnisse

La presente Tesis titulada "Modelo Metodológico de la Auditoría Financiera con Enfoque Integral para el Sistema Nacional de Control", es de carácter descriptivo y explicativo fundamentada en la experiencia profesional obtenida en el campo de la auditoría financiera y las investigaciones realizadas en torno a la labor de fiscalización y control que viene desarrollando el ente rector del Sistema Nacional de Control, en cumplimiento de lo establecido en los artículos 81° y 82° de la Constitución Política del Perú, y la atribución conferida en el artículo 22° literal f) de la Ley N° 27785 de 22.Jul.2002, Ley Orgánica del Sistema Nacional de Control y de la Contraloría General de la República. Actualmente, la Contraloría General de la República como ente técnico rector del Sistema Nacional de Control, viene modificando las normas de control gubernamental y procedimientos técnicos correspondientes al ejercicio del control gubernamental, de conformidad con el artículo 14° de la Ley N° 27785, Ley Orgánica del Sistema Nacional de Control y de la Contraloría General de la República; afectando directamente el enfoque metodológico de la auditoría financiera y otras auditorías, al haber aprobado las Normas Generales de Control Gubernamental (NGCG), a través del cual dejan sin efecto la aplicación de las Normas de Auditoría Gubernamental (NAGUs), el Manual de Auditoría Gubernamental (MAGU), la Guía de Planeamiento de Auditoría Gubernamental, y la Guía para la Elaboración del Informe de Auditoría Gubernamental. Posteriormente la Contraloría General de la República, aprobó el Manual de Auditoría Financiera Gubernamental, que es un documento normativo, de obligatorio cumplimiento, que define el proceso para el ejercicio de la auditoría a los estados financieros y presupuestales, y ha sido diseñado para su aplicación por las Sociedades de Auditoría, los Órganos de Control Institucional, así como la Contraloría General de la República en la ejecución de la auditoría financiera y presupuestaria, de conformidad con las normas de control gubernamental, concordado con las normas internacionales de auditoría vigentes. Sin embargo, pese a los cambios que viene realizando el ente rector del Sistema Nacional de Control, estos no resuelven el problema planteado en la Tesis titulada "Modelo Metodológico de la Auditoría Financiera con Enfoque Integral para el Sistema Nacional de Control", la misma que debe ser superado con el modelo metodológico que se propone en la Tesis, la misma que prioriza la validación integral de los actos y resultados de la gestión pública, el uso eficiente, eficaz y económico de los recursos y bienes del Estado, así como del cumplimiento de las normas legales y de los lineamientos de política y planes de acción establecidos por las entidades públicas en sus Planes Estratégicos. Por ello, señalamos que el Sistema Nacional de Control, no tiene un modelo metodológico de auditoría financiera que tienda a transparentar la información presupuestaria y financiera del Estado peruano, identificando los actos de corrupción y promoviendo la mejora continua de la gestión pública; asuntos que se superaría de aplicarse la metodología y herramientas modernas que proponemos, a través de la implantación y aplicación de la Auditoría Financiera Gubernamental con Enfoque Integral, la cual busca aplicar un control de advertencia o de prevención para que el administrador público conozca en tiempo real las inconsistencias detectadas en su gestión y proceda a subsanarlas, con lo finalidad de convertir a las entidades públicas en entes eficientes y eficaces, que cumplan con el fin último del control que es su mejoramiento continuo y modernización que asegure el cumplimiento de su misión, visión y objetivos en bien de los ciudadanos de nuestro país. Esta gran diferencia entre lo que se aplica en el Perú y lo que se aplica por ejemplo en Colombia, en materia de control gubernamental, ha conllevado a que se efectúe esta investigación que tiene por objetivo general, identificar y aplicar modernos enfoques de auditoría financiera integral que permita obtener resultados de la evaluación de gestión de las entidades públicas y promueva su mejora continua. Para llevar a cabo esta investigación se ha considerado tomar en cuenta el universo que conforman el Sistema Nacional de Control (empresas, entidades, ministerios y gobiernos regionales y locales) de los cuáles tomamos como muestra la información financiera auditada de 15 entidades: 05 Ministerios, 02 Universidades, 03 Gobiernos Regionales, 02 Gobiernos Locales, y 03 Empresas del Estado. Además, consideraremos entrevistarnos con 10 socios de firmas de auditores que auditaron esas entidades que representan la muestra de estudio, 10 funcionarios de entidades auditadas y 10 contadores públicos. Para cumplir con nuestro objetivo, se procedió a efectuar una encuesta a los participantes de nuestra muestra y cuyo principal dato obtenido es que el Sistema Nacional de Control actualmente no permite la evaluación integral de la gestión y sus efectos financieros y presupuestarios, plasmados en los estados financieros y estados presupuestarios; a fin de validar el uso eficiente, eficaz y económico de los recursos del Estado, por lo que es prioritario que la Auditoría Financiera Gubernamental con enfoque Integral, sea aplicada con prontitud, para lo cual deberá modificarse la normatividad actual vigente, que permita a la Contraloría General de la República, su modernización y aplicación herramientas tecnológicas y enfoques modernos de auditoría en las actividades y acciones de control que programe y ejecute en el ámbito del sector gubernamental. El enfoque de auditoría integral propuesto se fundamenta en el conocimiento integral de la entidad gubernamental a ser auditada en su entorno sistémico, el cual conlleva a evaluar la planificación de su gestión verificando el cumplimiento de su misión, visión y objetivos, a través de los documentos de gestión que generan, y su alineamiento con las políticas públicas del gobierno, asimismo, evaluar los resultados de la gestión a través de los procesos que desarrolla, identificando y proponiendo recomendaciones que superen los riesgos internos y/o externos que los hayan afectado. Este cambio metodológico se efectúa en cinco fases que explicamos ampliamente en este trabajo, el cual buscamos se formalice mediante normas que aseguren la reforma integral del Sistema Nacional de Control en el Perú. Palabras claves: Enfoque, Sistema, Auditoría, Integral, Control. ; --- This thesis titled "Model methodological of the audit financial with approach Integral to the National Control System", is character descriptive and explanatory grounded in professional experience obtained in the field of the financial audit and investigations around the work of control and control being developed by the governing body of the national system of Control in compliance with provisions in articles 81 ° and 82 ° of the Constitution politics in Peru, and attribution in article 22 literal ° f) of the Act N ° 27785 22.Jul.2002, organic law of the system National Control and the Comptroller General of the Republic. Actually, the General Comptroller of the Republic as a technical entity rector of the National Control System , it comes by modifying the rules of Government control and technical procedures for the exercise of Government control, in accordance with article 14 of the law N ° 27785, organic law of the system National Control and the Office of the Comptroller General; directly affecting the methodology of the financial audit and other audit approach, adopting general rules of governmental Control (NGCG), through which they leave without effect the application of the rules of audit Government (NAGUs) and Manual of governmental audit (MAGU), governmental audit planning guide, the Guide to the preparation of the report of audit Government. Subsequently the Office of the Comptroller-General approved the audit financial Government Manual, which is a normative, binding document, which defines the process for the exercise of the audit the financial and budget States, and has been designed for its application, audit companies, the institutional supervisory bodies, as well as the Comptroller General of the Republic in the implementation of the audit financial and budgetary in accordance with the rules of Government control, agreed with the international standards of audit. However, despite the changes being the governing body of the national system of Control, these do not solve the problem raised in the thesis entitled "Methodological model of auditing financial with comprehensive approach to national Control System", which should be overcome with the methodological model proposed in the thesis, which prioritises the comprehensive validation of acts and results of public management, the efficient, effective and economic use of the resources and assets of the State, as well as the compliance with legal norms and policy guidelines and action plans established by public entities in their plans Strategic. By this, we emphasize that the identified problems would be overcome to apply modern tools we propose, through the implementation and application of the governmental financial audit with Integral approach and methodology which it seeks to apply a warning or prevention control so the public administrator know real-time inconsistencies detected in its management and appropriate to remedy them, with the purpose of converting to public entities in efficient and effective, entities that comply with the ultimate aim of the control which is its continuous improvement and modernization that will ensure the fulfillment of its mission vision and goals for the good of the citizens of our country. This difference between what applies in the Peru and which applies for example in Colombia, in terms of Government control, has led to this investigation that general objective, identify and implement modern approaches to comprehensive financial audit that allows results of the evaluation of management of public entities and promote continuous improvement. To carry out this investigation has been considered taking into account the universe that make up the national system of Control (companies, institutions, ministries and regional and local governments) which we take as a sample 15 entities: 05 ministries, universities 02, 03 regional Governments, local government 02, and 03 State enterprises. In addition, we will consider interview 10 partners of firms of Auditors which trail those entities that represent the study sample, 10 officials from auditees and 10 public accountants. To achieve our objective, we proceeded to carry out a survey to participants in our sample and whose main retrieved data is that national Control system currently does not allow the comprehensive assessment of the management and their financial and budgetary, effects reflected in the financial statements and budget States; in order to validate the use of efficient, effective and economic resources of the State, so it is a priority that the governmental financial audit with Integral approach is applied promptly, for which need to modify the current regulations, which allow the Comptroller General of the Republic, its modernization and application technology tools and modern approaches of auditing activities and control actions that you schedule and execute in the scope of the sector government. The proposed comprehensive audit approach is based on the comprehensive understanding of the Government entity to be audited in their systemic environment, which leads to evaluate its management planning by verifying the fulfillment of its mission, vision and objectives, through documents management generated, and their alignment with the policies of the Government, also evaluate the results of management through processes that developed, identifying and proposing recommendations that exceed the internal and/or external risks that have affected them. This methodological change is carried out in five phases which widely explained in this work, which seek to formalize rules that ensure the comprehensive reform of the national system of Control in the Peru. Key words: approach, system, audit, comprehensive Control. ; Tesis

La presente Tesis titulada "Modelo Metodológico de la Auditoría Financiera con Enfoque Integral para el Sistema Nacional de Control", es de carácter descriptivo y explicativo fundamentada en la experiencia profesional obtenida en el campo de la auditoría financiera y las investigaciones realizadas en torno a la labor de fiscalización y control que viene desarrollando el ente rector del Sistema Nacional de Control, en cumplimiento de lo establecido en los artículos 81° y 82° de la Constitución Política del Perú, y la atribución conferida en el artículo 22° literal f) de la Ley N° 27785 de 22.Jul.2002, Ley Orgánica del Sistema Nacional de Control y de la Contraloría General de la República. Actualmente, la Contraloría General de la República como ente técnico rector del Sistema Nacional de Control, viene modificando las normas de control gubernamental y procedimientos técnicos correspondientes al ejercicio del control gubernamental, de conformidad con el artículo 14° de la Ley N° 27785, Ley Orgánica del Sistema Nacional de Control y de la Contraloría General de la República; afectando directamente el enfoque metodológico de la auditoría financiera y otras auditorías, al haber aprobado las Normas Generales de Control Gubernamental (NGCG), a través del cual dejan sin efecto la aplicación de las Normas de Auditoría Gubernamental (NAGUs), el Manual de Auditoría Gubernamental (MAGU), la Guía de Planeamiento de Auditoría Gubernamental, y la Guía para la Elaboración del Informe de Auditoría Gubernamental. Posteriormente la Contraloría General de la República, aprobó el Manual de Auditoría Financiera Gubernamental, que es un documento normativo, de obligatorio cumplimiento, que define el proceso para el ejercicio de la auditoría a los estados financieros y presupuestales, y ha sido diseñado para su aplicación por las Sociedades de Auditoría, los Órganos de Control Institucional, así como la Contraloría General de la República en la ejecución de la auditoría financiera y presupuestaria, de conformidad con las normas de control gubernamental, concordado con las normas internacionales de auditoría vigentes. Sin embargo, pese a los cambios que viene realizando el ente rector del Sistema Nacional de Control, estos no resuelven el problema planteado en la Tesis titulada "Modelo Metodológico de la Auditoría Financiera con Enfoque Integral para el Sistema Nacional de Control", la misma que debe ser superado con el modelo metodológico que se propone en la Tesis, la misma que prioriza la validación integral de los actos y resultados de la gestión pública, el uso eficiente, eficaz y económico de los recursos y bienes del Estado, así como del cumplimiento de las normas legales y de los lineamientos de política y planes de acción establecidos por las entidades públicas en sus Planes Estratégicos. Por ello, señalamos que el Sistema Nacional de Control, no tiene un modelo metodológico de auditoría financiera que tienda a transparentar la información presupuestaria y financiera del Estado peruano, identificando los actos de corrupción y promoviendo la mejora continua de la gestión pública; asuntos que se superaría de aplicarse la metodología y herramientas modernas que proponemos, a través de la implantación y aplicación de la Auditoría Financiera Gubernamental con Enfoque Integral, la cual busca aplicar un control de advertencia o de prevención para que el administrador público conozca en tiempo real las inconsistencias detectadas en su gestión y proceda a subsanarlas, con lo finalidad de convertir a las entidades públicas en entes eficientes y eficaces, que cumplan con el fin último del control que es su mejoramiento continuo y modernización que asegure el cumplimiento de su misión, visión y objetivos en bien de los ciudadanos de nuestro país. Esta gran diferencia entre lo que se aplica en el Perú y lo que se aplica por ejemplo en Colombia, en materia de control gubernamental, ha conllevado a que se efectúe esta investigación que tiene por objetivo general, identificar y aplicar modernos enfoques de auditoría financiera integral que permita obtener resultados de la evaluación de gestión de las entidades públicas y promueva su mejora continua. Para llevar a cabo esta investigación se ha considerado tomar en cuenta el universo que conforman el Sistema Nacional de Control (empresas, entidades, ministerios y gobiernos regionales y locales) de los cuáles tomamos como muestra la información financiera auditada de 15 entidades: 05 Ministerios, 02 Universidades, 03 Gobiernos Regionales, 02 Gobiernos Locales, y 03 Empresas del Estado. Además, consideraremos entrevistarnos con 10 socios de firmas de auditores que auditaron esas entidades que representan la muestra de estudio, 10 funcionarios de entidades auditadas y 10 contadores públicos. Para cumplir con nuestro objetivo, se procedió a efectuar una encuesta a los participantes de nuestra muestra y cuyo principal dato obtenido es que el Sistema Nacional de Control actualmente no permite la evaluación integral de la gestión y sus efectos financieros y presupuestarios, plasmados en los estados financieros y estados presupuestarios; a fin de validar el uso eficiente, eficaz y económico de los recursos del Estado, por lo que es prioritario que la Auditoría Financiera Gubernamental con enfoque Integral, sea aplicada con prontitud, para lo cual deberá modificarse la normatividad actual vigente, que permita a la Contraloría General de la República, su modernización y aplicación herramientas tecnológicas y enfoques modernos de auditoría en las actividades y acciones de control que programe y ejecute en el ámbito del sector gubernamental. El enfoque de auditoría integral propuesto se fundamenta en el conocimiento integral de la entidad gubernamental a ser auditada en su entorno sistémico, el cual conlleva a evaluar la planificación de su gestión verificando el cumplimiento de su misión, visión y objetivos, a través de los documentos de gestión que generan, y su alineamiento con las políticas públicas del gobierno, asimismo, evaluar los resultados de la gestión a través de los procesos que desarrolla, identificando y proponiendo recomendaciones que superen los riesgos internos y/o externos que los hayan afectado. Este cambio metodológico se efectúa en cinco fases que explicamos ampliamente en este trabajo, el cual buscamos se formalice mediante normas que aseguren la reforma integral del Sistema Nacional de Control en el Perú. Palabras claves: Enfoque, Sistema, Auditoría, Integral, Control. ; --- This thesis titled "Model methodological of the audit financial with approach Integral to the National Control System", is character descriptive and explanatory grounded in professional experience obtained in the field of the financial audit and investigations around the work of control and control being developed by the governing body of the national system of Control in compliance with provisions in articles 81 ° and 82 ° of the Constitution politics in Peru, and attribution in article 22 literal ° f) of the Act N ° 27785 22.Jul.2002, organic law of the system National Control and the Comptroller General of the Republic. Actually, the General Comptroller of the Republic as a technical entity rector of the National Control System , it comes by modifying the rules of Government control and technical procedures for the exercise of Government control, in accordance with article 14 of the law N ° 27785, organic law of the system National Control and the Office of the Comptroller General; directly affecting the methodology of the financial audit and other audit approach, adopting general rules of governmental Control (NGCG), through which they leave without effect the application of the rules of audit Government (NAGUs) and Manual of governmental audit (MAGU), governmental audit planning guide, the Guide to the preparation of the report of audit Government. Subsequently the Office of the Comptroller-General approved the audit financial Government Manual, which is a normative, binding document, which defines the process for the exercise of the audit the financial and budget States, and has been designed for its application, audit companies, the institutional supervisory bodies, as well as the Comptroller General of the Republic in the implementation of the audit financial and budgetary in accordance with the rules of Government control, agreed with the international standards of audit. However, despite the changes being the governing body of the national system of Control, these do not solve the problem raised in the thesis entitled "Methodological model of auditing financial with comprehensive approach to national Control System", which should be overcome with the methodological model proposed in the thesis, which prioritises the comprehensive validation of acts and results of public management, the efficient, effective and economic use of the resources and assets of the State, as well as the compliance with legal norms and policy guidelines and action plans established by public entities in their plans Strategic. By this, we emphasize that the identified problems would be overcome to apply modern tools we propose, through the implementation and application of the governmental financial audit with Integral approach and methodology which it seeks to apply a warning or prevention control so the public administrator know real-time inconsistencies detected in its management and appropriate to remedy them, with the purpose of converting to public entities in efficient and effective, entities that comply with the ultimate aim of the control which is its continuous improvement and modernization that will ensure the fulfillment of its mission vision and goals for the good of the citizens of our country. This difference between what applies in the Peru and which applies for example in Colombia, in terms of Government control, has led to this investigation that general objective, identify and implement modern approaches to comprehensive financial audit that allows results of the evaluation of management of public entities and promote continuous improvement. To carry out this investigation has been considered taking into account the universe that make up the national system of Control (companies, institutions, ministries and regional and local governments) which we take as a sample 15 entities: 05 ministries, universities 02, 03 regional Governments, local government 02, and 03 State enterprises. In addition, we will consider interview 10 partners of firms of Auditors which trail those entities that represent the study sample, 10 officials from auditees and 10 public accountants. To achieve our objective, we proceeded to carry out a survey to participants in our sample and whose main retrieved data is that national Control system currently does not allow the comprehensive assessment of the management and their financial and budgetary, effects reflected in the financial statements and budget States; in order to validate the use of efficient, effective and economic resources of the State, so it is a priority that the governmental financial audit with Integral approach is applied promptly, for which need to modify the current regulations, which allow the Comptroller General of the Republic, its modernization and application technology tools and modern approaches of auditing activities and control actions that you schedule and execute in the scope of the sector government. The proposed comprehensive audit approach is based on the comprehensive understanding of the Government entity to be audited in their systemic environment, which leads to evaluate its management planning by verifying the fulfillment of its mission, vision and objectives, through documents management generated, and their alignment with the policies of the Government, also evaluate the results of management through processes that developed, identifying and proposing recommendations that exceed the internal and/or external risks that have affected them. This methodological change is carried out in five phases which widely explained in this work, which seek to formalize rules that ensure the comprehensive reform of the national system of Control in the Peru. Key words: approach, system, audit, comprehensive Control. ; Tesis

Nel processo comunitario d'integrazione del mercato unico europeo che si svolge in tutti i campi, la libertà di stabilimento delle imprese, società e persone giuridiche in generale, assume un ruolo fondamentale. Data questa premessa, è assolutamente necessario per il completamento del mercato unico europeo favorire e tutelare la mobilità delle merci, dei capitali, dei servizi e, naturalmente, delle società. Le società interagiscono continuamente con l'ambiente economico che le circonda e pongono in essere sempre più spesso interrelazioni di diversa natura; relazioni tra società, dunque, che operano nello stesso mercato. Nell'ottica di un costantemiglioramento della sua competitività e dell'accrescimentodella sua influenza anche nell'ambito internazionale, l'impresa ricerca nuove forme di cooperazione ed integrazione in modo da poter occupare spazi di mercato sempre più importanti. A tal fine, la crescita dimensionale di una società attraverso legami di tipo patrimoniale con altre imprese e la partecipazione, con gradi diversi, al capitale di altre imprese diventa quasi un obbligo. Fra le modalità d'integrazione e cooperazione che le imprese hanno a loro disposizione, la fusione transfrontaliera di società è forse quella che meglio consente la razionalizzazione della gestione ed il miglioramento delle potenzialità che ciascuna società esprime. Questa operazione consente ad una società di raggiungere una dimensione adeguata, tale da poterle permettere di competere sul mercato internazionale in tempi nettamente più brevi rispetto a quelli richiesti da un ordinario iter "evolutivo" di miglioramento realizzabile all'interno della società stessa. Per tutto quanto detto in precedenza, è evidente che le fusioni di società appartenenti a Stati membri diversi potrebbero avereun'enorme importanza anche ai fini dell'integrazione del mercato unico. L'Unione Europea ne è stata consapevole già da molti anni. L'agevolazione delle operazioni transfrontaliere di concentrazione tra imprese era considerata una priorità già nel progetto al Trattato di Lisbona, tanto da assurgere a prima proposta del Piano d'azione della Commissione in materia di diritto societario. Tuttavia, la possibilità di realizzare una fusione transfrontaliera di società in ambito comunitario con successo era molto improbabile fino a tempi recenti. Due categorie di impedimenti la rendevano difficile, se non impossibile: da un lato, ostacoli alla libertà di stabilimento da parte degli ordinamenti giuridici degli Stati membri; dall'altro, ostacoli di Diritto internazionale privato. Oggi però la maggior parte di questi impedimenti sono stati superati grazie alla Corte di Giustizia con le sue pronunce nonché al legislatore comunitario con determinati atti di natura primaria. Da un lato, infatti, il progressivo riconoscimento da parte della Corte di Giustizia (sentenzeDaily Mail,Centros, Überseering) del diritto di stabilimento delle società ha prodotto la dichiarazione d'incompatibilità con i principi fondamentali del Diritto europeo di una grande quantità di misure restrittive adottate dagli Stati membri. Tale orientamento è stato confermato dalla sentenza Sevic, mediante la quale la Corte avrebbe cancellato ogni ostacolo alla realizzazione di fusioni transfrontaliere fra società di Stati membri diversi. Dall'altro lato, pochi mesi prima della sentenza Sevic è stata adottata la Direttiva 2005/56/CE relativa alle fusioni transfrontaliere di società di capitale, la quale ha confermato i principi della Sentenza. Questa Direttiva impone agli Stati membri una serie di norme minime di diritto materiale al fine di armonizzare la tutela degli interessi dei soggetti coinvolti più deboli (soprattutto i lavoratori e i soci). Allo stesso modo, la direttiva pone in essere una serie di norme di conflitto per risolvere la questione della legge applicabile alle fusioni transfrontaliere, lasciando così che certi aspetti rimangano disciplinati dalle leggi nazionali delle società che partecipano alla fusione o dalla legge nazionale della società derivante dall'operazione. Il presente lavoro si pone come obiettivo principale quello di esaminare le vicende giuridico-economiche (con particolare attenzione all'istituto della fusione transfrontaliera) delle società in un panorama da prima europeo (Capitolo I e Capitolo II) e in seguito di diritto internazionale privato italiano (Capitolo III) passando attraverso la valutazione delle pronunce della Corte di Giustizia e degli interventi del legislatore europeo volti ad impedire le restrizioni alle fusioni transfrontaliere di società nel territorio europeo. A tal fine, occorrerà evidenziare l'evoluzione dell'istituto della fusione intracomunitaria di società, nonché i suoi rapporti con alcune libertà garantite dal Diritto europeo e con il Diritto internazionale privato, al fine di rispondere alla domanda chiave circa la possibilità che siano state rimosse tutte le restrizioni alle fusioni transfrontaliere fra società europee. Il lavoro è strutturato come segue. Nel primo capitolo, prima di esaminare il concetto, caratteri e tipologie di fusione di società che si possono distinguere, lo studio si sofferma sulla rilevanza della fusione di società come strumento per favorire la mobilità delle imprese all'interno dell'Unione Europea. Si esaminano a tal scopo alcune libertà riconosciute e disciplinate dal diritto europeo e contenute in alcune disposizioni del TFUE: il diritto di stabilimento e il diritto alla libera prestazione di servizi. Di entrambe le figure vengono analizzati contenuto della disposizione, l'impatto che esse producono nel panorama europeo e i limiti che il legislatore europeo vi ha posto. In particolare, nel paragrafo dedicato al diritto di stabilimento, specifica attenzione viene attribuita ad una possibile espressione di tale libertà ovvero la volontà di ciascuna società di trasferire la propria sede in un paese diverso da quello di origine. Sul trasferimento all'estero della sede sociale si evidenzia l'utilità di tale istituto e la disputa sul concetto di sede sociale nelle sue differenti accezioni ed interpretazioni. Il capitolo prosegue con un terzo paragrafo dedicato specificatamente alle fusioni transfrontaliere come soluzione all'esigenza del trasferimento all'estero di società; si fornisce una definizione di fusione, i requisiti per la sua realizzazione e gli effetti che ad essa conseguono. In seguito, ci si occupa degli ostacoli alla realizzazione delle fusioni transfrontaliere,ostacoli di Diritto internazionale privato, quali la determinazione della lex societatis e della legge applicabile alle fusioni. Il problema fondamentale, infatti, sta nel dover decidere quale legislazione in materia di vicende societarie, tra cui anche la fusione, dover applicare nel caso in cui vengano in essere rapporti giuridici tra società le cui sedi si trovino in Stati membri differenti. Vengono esposte in questa sede due teorie tra loro contrapposte che sono state formulate al fine di individuare in modo univoco e definitivo la legge applicabile, con tutta la disciplina che essa comporterebbe, alle fusioni transfrontaliere. Facciamo riferimento alla teoria dell'incorporazione e alla teoria della sede reale, teorie che hanno, nel tempo, subito critiche e smentite da parte della dottrina. Questo dibattito teorico, con rilevanti risvolti pratici ai fini della regolamentazione degli aspetti societari, si è concluso, in fine, con una soluzione che risulta idonea e compatibile con gli obiettivi prefissati dal legislatore europeo. Nel secondo capitolo viene analizzata fondamentalmente la progressiva rimozione degli ostacoli alla libertà di stabilimento esistenti negli ordinamenti giuridici degli Stati membri, operata dalla Giurisprudenza della Corte di Giustizia dell' (allora)Comunità Europea sulla basedelle libertà fondamentali di stabilimento e di prestazione di servizi. Questo capitolo comincia con la spiegazione dell'evoluzione del diritto societario europeo attraverso le sue tappe fondamentali. In questo capitolo si presta attenzione alla giurisprudenza della Corte di Giustizia relativa alla determinazione della lex societatis e alla difesa della libertà di stabilimento, con sentenze anteriori all'adozione della Direttiva. In concreto, sono esaminate in ordine cronologico le sentenze dei casi Daily Mail, Centros eÜberseering per approdare, infine, alla rivoluzionaria sentenza Sevic mediante la quale la Corte riconosce la fusione transfrontaliera come vera modalità di esercizio del diritto di stabilimento. Il successivo paragrafo richiama altri interventi a livello internazionale mirati al riconoscimento delle persone giuridiche e delle loro capacità di interazione fino all'emanazione della Direttiva del Parlamento Europeo e del Consiglio, del 26 ottobre 2005 (2005/56/CE), relativa alle fusioni transfrontaliere delle società di capitali. La Direttiva contiene norme di diritto materiale così come di carattere internazionalprivatistico volte ad armonizzare le legislazioni nazionali e a sopprimere gli ultimi impedimenti alla realizzazione di tali operazioni di fusione. Segue una breve analisi delle finalità della norma, così come i suoi ambiti di applicazione oggettivo e soggettivo. Il capitolo continua con la discussione circa il rapporto tra la Direttiva e la sentenza Sevic, determinando in che misura sia pacifica la loro coesistenza. In seguito viene esaminato il contenuto (articolo per articolo) del Decreto legislativo n. 108 del 2008 con il quale il Parlamento italiano ha recepito e dato attuazione alla Direttiva europea, riprendendone rigorosamente la disciplina. Successivamente una serie di paragrafi sono dedicati alla descrizione di tutte le fasi che precedono il perfezionamento della procedura di fusione, con tutte le pratiche, formalità, controlli di legittimità ed effetti che la caratterizzano. A conclusione della procedura, ci si occupa delle regole di partecipazione dei lavoratori, precetto molto importante e novità della direttiva, e dunque del decreto, rispetto agli interventi normativi precedenti. Il terzo capitolo del presente lavoro sposta invece il quadro dell'analisi all'ambito più specifico e circoscritto del diritto internazionale privato italiano regolamentato dalla legge n. 218 del 1995. La legge dedica alle "Società ed altri enti" l'articolo 25 con i suoi tre paragrafi i quali vengono puntualmente esaminati nei loro contenuti con particolare attenzione all'ambito soggettivo di applicazione del disposto, al suo ambito oggettivo, dunque, l'elenco delle questioni investite dalla presente regolamentazione e, da ultimo, all'aspetto centrale del presente lavoro ovvero le fusioni di società alla luce della legge applicabile e dei criteri di collegamento utilizzati per individuarla. Nella lettura e analisi dell'articolo 25 emerge una discrepanza sull'individuazione della legge da applicare a seconda che si segua il criterio di collegamento previsto dal I comma o, a contrario, quello predisposto dal III comma. All'ampio dibattito dottrinale è stata poi posta una soluzione sulla base della distinzione della natura degli atti relativi alle vicende societarie. Da ultimo, il quarto capitolo prende in considerazione l'aspetto prettamente processualistico della materia societaria procedendo, difatti, all'analisi della giurisdizione nell'ambito di controversie civili e commerciali che vedano come parti processuali società e persone giuridiche in generale. Il conflitto che deve essere risolto attiene infatti all'individuazione di quale giudice e quindi, la lex fori, abbia giurisdizione e competenza qualora tra società di diversa nazionalità insorgano liti di stampo civile e commerciale. Il conflitto parrebbe risolto con l'indicazione dei criteri di collegamento a cui ricorrere forniti dall'allora Convenzione di Bruxelles del 1968, aggiornata e trasposta nel più recente Regolamento n.44 del 2001 il cd. Regolamento Bruxelles I nel quale sono per l'appunto predisposti un foro generale per le controversie, un foro speciale e da ultimo un foro esclusivo in materia societaria. Individuare in modo univoco il foro dotato di giurisdizione e competenza è, difatti, necessario al fine di garantire ai consociati, tanto persone fisiche quanto persone giuridiche, un alto grado di prevedibilità e certezza del diritto a cui appellarsi evitando così i possibili rischi di un "forum shopping" mediante il quale, in violazione del principio costituzionalmente garantito, del giudice naturale, si consentirebbe a chiunque adisse la giustizia, di scegliere arbitrariamente e secondo le proprie esigenze il foro all'interno del quale ottenere massima tutela. Di conseguenza, come criterio di collegamento generale, il Regolamento menziona il "domicilio" delle società, richiamando, però, allo steso tempo i dibattiti dottrinali che erano sorti sul concetto di "sede sociale" e già previamente analizzati e risolti nei precedenti capitoli. Al criterio del domicilio è stata poi proposta la sostituzione del criterio della residenza abituale della società, proposta fermamente respinta dal legislatore europeo a causa della sua difficile ricostruzione nozionistica. Un paragrafo viene poi dedicato più da vicino al tema processualistico di una particolare fase del procedimento di fusione transfrontaliera ovvero l'individuazione del foro competente per controversie relative alla fase di iscrizione e trascrizione dell'atto di fusione. Da ultimo il capitolo si chiude con un breve paragrafo sul riconoscimento delle sentenze e la loro esecuzione che oltre a richiamare la disciplina generale valida anche per le persone giuridiche, ne evidenzia, infine, i caratteri peculiari.

Mercurial, the metaphor for volatile unpredictable behavior, aptly reflects the complexities of one of the most insidiously interesting and scientifically challenging biogeochemical cycles at the Earth's surface. At the base of this toxic metal cycle there is the conversion between the different Hg chemical species, in which the balance between the reduced and oxidized forms depends primary on redox system conditions. The potential risks of human exposure to Hg, especially in the form of monomethylmercury (MMHg), particularly prenatally, and the potential deleterious ecological consequences from localized to global scale Hg pollution, have given much impetus to mercury studies and regulatory activities at international level. Much of this advancement has come since the early 1970s, and the growth in mercury research continues at breakneck pace. The menace of this item for environment and human health deserves further information concerning the geochemistry of mercury, especially in coastal marine system. The Augusta Bay is a semi-enclosed marine area, located in the SE of Sicily (southern Italy), well-known because of the high Hg pollution. The area indeed has experienced, since the early 60s, a significant industrialization phase that put in several chemical and petrochemical plants and oil refineries resulting in a severe pollution of the surrounding environment. In particular, the petrochemical district of Augusta Bay hosted one of the most important chlor-alkali plant in Italy, that produced chlorine and caustic soda by electrolysis of sodium chloride aqueous solution in electrolytic cells with a graphite anode and metallic mercury cathode. Uncontrolled chemical discharge of Hg occurred in the Augusta Bay until 1978, when restrictions were imposed by the Italian legislation. For this reason, in the last decade, several studies have provided detailed information on the pollution levels and risks for human health of resident populations of Augusta Bay. The effects of this indiscriminate Hg discharge include the alarming high concentrations of the element recently measured in sediments of the basin, prompting the Italian government to include the Augusta basin in the National Remediation Plan. The "Augusta case" menaces to not remain confined to a "local problem", but to became a large-scale threat. Indeed, the effects of meso-scale circulation of the Ionian Sea create a higher potential risk for HgT contamination of the basin, being affected by the transit and transformation of the major water masses, which regulate the general thermohaline circulation in the upper, intermediate and deep layers, respectively. Owing to the geographical location of the Augusta basin, its outflowing shelf waters are immediately intercepted by the surface Atlantic Ionian Stream (AIS) and mixed with the main gyres of the eastern Mediterranean Sea, thus representing a risk for the large-scale marine system. This complex water circulation system, together with the closeness with the steep continental slope (part of the Malta escarpment), make the area a potential point sources of mercury for the entire Mediterranean sea, as previously speculated by Sprovieri et al. (2011). All this features make the Augusta Bay an ideal natural laboratory for deeper insights on the biogeochemical cycle of mercury in a coastal marine environment and the need to investigate the large-scale effect of Augusta Bay pollution has become imperative! With the aim to fill this requirement, an integrated model on the biogeochemical cycle of Hg has been created. Hg cycle is a very articulated topic. Once introduced in the aquatic system environment the fate of Hg in the marine system is affected by sorption/ desorption processes onto suspended particulate matter and, based on associated kinetics, it may be partially transferred from surface waters to bottom sediments. Microorganisms, at the water/sediments interface such as sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB), mediate the transformation of inorganic Hg to MMHg with high rates of methylation favored by the presence of high content of organic matter under reducing environmental conditions. Therefore, sediments are considered key contributors of MMHg to the marine ecosystem. Clearly, this analysis stresses the necessity for better knowledge of the specificity of the mercury biogeochemical cycle in this particular environment through the gathering of more data on the distribution and fluxes among the various compartments including the water column, sediment, atmosphere and biota. This multidisciplinary approach offers a nice opportunity to explore the biogeochemical dynamic of mercury in highly complex coastal areas under important anthropic impact and the potential on larger scale diffusion. Multiple oceanographic cruises, realized during 2011-2012 period, permitted to collect samples of sediments, seawaters and fishes inside and outside the Augusta Bay. Furthermore in order to trace the entire chain, from sources (polluted sediments) to sink (man), analysis of Hg in fishes (the main route of Hg uptake for humans), and toxicological aspects have been addressed. Analysis of THg in muscles and liver of some pelagic, demersal and benthic species captured inside and outside the semi-enclosed area, has been analysed in order to explore the effects of HgT pollution on fish compartment and to assess the potential health risks associated with the consumption of contaminated fish. THg content of fishes shows a wide range of concentration (range: 0.02 - 2.71 μg g-1and 0.03 -9.72 μg g-1 in muscles and in livers respectively), with highest values measured in benthic species and the lowest in pelagic ones. This increasing trend along the habitat depth suggests an active release mechanism of mercury from polluted sediments to the water column, with consequent effects of bioaccumulation in the trophic web. Anomalous THg content measured in pelagic species captured in the external zone of the bay confirms the role of the Augusta marine environment as pollutant source of Hg for the surrounding area and underscores the crucial risk associated with contaminant transfer from the basin to the open sea. Finally, values of hazard target quotient (THQ) and estimated weekly intake (EWI) demonstrate that consumption of fishes caught inside the bay represents a serious risk for human health and suggests caution in consuming demersal and benthic fishes from outside the Augusta Bay, definitively demanding for appropriate social actions. Hg distribution in sediments (range: 1.77 - 55.34 mgKg-1; mean: 13.78 ±10.72 mgKg-1) clearly divides the area into three parts, with the lowest values recorded in the northern Augusta Bay, intermediate value in the center and the highest HgT concentrations recorded in the southern part of the Augusta basin (from the Pontile Cementeria down to the dam) with decreasing values from the coastline. Despite sequential extraction procedure (SEP) documented that the most part of HgT in sediments consists of strong complexes (~80% of HgT as strong complex, ~15% of Hg as less strong forms and ~ 2% of HgT as more soluble and bioavailable forms), some anaerobic microorganisms can manage these stable Hg trapped in minerals structures as substrate for their metabolism, making Hg more easily bioavailable for the environment. Analysis of THg and DHg content at different quote of the water column, provided significant information on Hg distribution along space and depth. The HgT distribution in seawaters (range: 0.45 - 129.27 ngL-1 and >0.01 - 21.3 ngL-1 for THg and HgD respectively), putted in light an evident increasing trend of Hg content toward the southern and more contaminated part of the Augusta Bay, where waste spillage from chlor-alkali plant occurred. A clear trend was also observed on the vertical, with Hg concentration increasing near the bottom and reducing in surface water, strengthening the role of Augusta sediments as sources for the overlying water. Moreover the unexpected THg concentrations measured in seawater outside the bay (range: 2.62-11.95 ng L-1; mean: 6.46±2.95 ngL-1), confirmed the hypothesis of transport of Hg from Augusta harbor to the open sea representing a vehicle of contamination for the entire Mediterranean basin through the complex circulating currents affecting the western Ionian. In this scenario, fluxes assessment at the interface sediments-seawater-air became crucial in order to create a mass balance of Hg in the study area and to determine the net outflow for the Mediterranean sea. Detailed information on the mobilization processes from sediment to seawater and consequent escape to the atmosphere has been investigated. For this reason, for the first time in this area, a benthic chamber and a dynamic accumulation chamber, have been employed in order to evaluate fluxes at the interfaces sediments/seawater and seawater/air and to recognize equilibrium of exchanges among phases. Using in situ accumulation chamber Bagnato et al., 2013 reported an estimated sea–air Hg evasion for the entire Augusta basin (~23.5 km2) of about 9.7 ± 0.1 g d-1 (~0.004 t yr-1), accounting for ~0.0002% of the global Hg oceanic evasion (2000 t yr-1). Simultaneously using in situ benthic chamber, a total flow from sediment to seawater for the whole Augusta Bay has been estimated in 0.22 kmol y-1 in 2011 (0.05 ty-1) and 0.38 kmol y-1 in 2012 (0.11 ty-1). The mass balance calculation permitted to estimate a HgT output from the Augusta basin to Ionian surface waters (O) corresponding to an average of 1.29 kmol y-1. Analysis of Hg isotopes in sediments and fishes of the Augusta Bay, provided unique information on Hg sources in the environment and processes influencing Hg cycling. The success of such an approach strongly depends on two factors. First, different natural and anthropogenic Hg sources must have analytically discernible Hg isotope signatures. Second, the processes that transport and transform emitted or discharged Hg into the environment must not obscure the original Hg source isotope signatures. This requires that fractionation of Hg isotopes after release is either small relative to source differences or is predictable enough to be corrected for, allowing estimation of the source isotopic composition. The magnitude of mass-dependent (MDF) and mass-independent fractionation (MIF) has been described primarily as δ 202Hg and Δ201Hg. The positive MIF fractionation in fishes, especially in pelagic one, demonstrated photochemical reaction of Hg(II) prior of the intake in the marine food web. Sediments isotopes fractionation demonstrated reaction of methylmercury production biological mediated. A geographic pattern in δ202Hg and Δ199Hg values suggests that the sources of Hg to the sediment are locally controlled. Hairs exhibit positive MIF fractionation, suggesting reaction of photochemical reduction of MeHg in presence of organic matter. The overlapping δ 202Hg values of both sediments and fishes suggested sediments represent the source of Hg for fish. The positive relationship obtained by plotting Δ201Hg vs. Δ199Hg of both hairs and sediments demonstrate fish consumption represents the first pathway of exposure for human. Difference of 2‰ between δ 202Hg in fishes and values, could be due to could suggest that substantial MDF takes place during MMHg human metabolism Rare Earth Elements (REEs) are important because their geochemical properties enable them to be powerful tracers of chemical processes. Their distribution has been investigated in seawater of the Augusta Bay in order to verify if anthropogenic sign can also transpire through the investigation of REE. The REEs distribution along the water column suggests that the high dissolved organic matter created ideal condition for an increasing of REE in dissolved phases, much to hide the negative Ce anomaly usually recorded in the oligothropic water. Gd anomaly, expressed as Gd/Gd*>1, suggests significant contributions of the petrochemical industries, using gadolinium, in the form of gadolinium oxide, as petroleum cracking catalyst. A common thread, started from the evaluation of Hg in the key component of the cycle, the study of fluxes at the interfaces, the evaluation of Hg isotopic fractioning and the REE distribution in water column, permitted to evaluate the fate of Hg in the Augusta Bay and the main processes rule the Hg biogeochemical cycle.

La cooperativa agraria de comercialización se presenta como una de las alternativas organizativas a disposición de los agricultores para operar en los mercados agrarios. Se trata de una organización particular, con un grado de integración intermedio entre la empresa productora-comercializadora (mayor grado de integración) y la venta directa en el mercado a través, por ejemplo, de alhóndigas (ningún tipo de integración). En esta fórmula, los socios son propietarios y controlan, una característica de la jerarquía, pero también son proveedores de producto, lo que otorga a la relación una característica de mercado. Así, la cooperativa agraria se aprovisiona casi en su totalidad de las producciones de sus socios, los cuales además son sus propietarios, usuarios de sus servicios y supervisores de una organización que distribuye al beneficio de forma igualitaria sobre la base del uso o volumen comercializado por el socio. Estas características confieren al análisis de la relación socio-cooperativa un papel muy relevante en el estudio de las cooperativas. Las cooperativas agrarias tienen que competir con otras formas de organización en unos mercados cada vez más competitivos, globales y desregulados, con frecuentes cambios legislativos, avances tecnológicos, y una demanda muy concentrada y con un gran poder de negociación. A esto se le unen los cambios en la demandas de los consumidores, con mayores exigencias en cuanto a calidad, seguridad, variedad y conveniencia. En este entorno, la capacidad para adaptarse a los nuevos cambios se presenta como un elemento capital para la supervivencia de cualquier operador, también los que se sitúan en el origen de la cadena, como es el caso de las cooperativas agrarias. Sin embargo, la cooperativa es en ocasiones criticada desde el plano teórico por su ineficiencia a la hora de conseguir recursos para financiar inversiones, recursos que tienen que provenir fundamentalmente de los socios. Se argumenta desde esta corriente teórica que las cooperativas son ineficientes dado que los propietarios (los socios) tienen los derechos sobre la propiedad vagamente definidos. Por ello, esta forma de gobierno presenta mayores dificultades a la hora de afrontar estrategias de cambio y adaptación para competir en el mercado. Por otro lado, en las cooperativas la heterogeneidad de los intereses de los miembros parece haber aumentado. En tanto que las cooperativas se orientan más hacia los consumidores, pasando de ser productores independientes de commodities hacia productores de productos específicos, necesitan de importantes inversiones, las cuales no favorecen por igual a todos sus miembros. La heterogeneidad de objetivos puede llevar a conflictos en los procesos de decisión, mermar la capacidad de coordinación y reducir el compromiso de los miembros y, con ello, su disposición a invertir en la cooperativa. Esta heterogeneidad se va también amplificada como consecuencia de los procesos de concentración empresarial que han tenido lugar en los últimos años. En nuestro país las instituciones también han hecho hincapié en la necesidad que tienen las cooperativas de alcanzar el tamaño necesario para contrarrestar la concentración de la demanda y adquirir una dimensión competitiva. Como respuesta a estas iniciativas, el sector cooperativo ha experimentado un proceso de concentración empresarial a través de fusiones, adquisiciones, formación de grupos, integración en cooperativas de segundo grado, etc. que ha tenido como resultado la existencia de un menor número de cooperativas, pero de mayor dimensión. Un problema asociado a estos procesos es que llevan aparejado un aumento de la heterogeneidad de la base social de las cooperativas, lo que hace aumentar los conflictos ya comentados asociados a las mismas. A pesar de que las cooperativas agrarias se enfrentan a los nuevos retos del mercado, a su supuesta ineficiencia para conseguir financiación y la heterogeneidad de sus bases sociales, éstas siguen operando en un número considerable y son muchos los ejemplos de éxito empresarial. Nos planteamos así como tesis del trabajo la existencia de factores en el ámbito de las relaciones de la cooperativa con su base social que contrarrestan estos problemas, factores pueden explicar la disposición de los socios a invertir y, en última instancia, el desempeño de la organización cooperativa. Objetivos Con todo ello, el objetivo principal de este trabajo es el de analizar los factores de la relación socio-cooperativa que influyen en la disposición a invertir de sus socios y el desempeño final de la cooperativa. En particular, nos planteamos como objetivos específicos los siguientes: • Analizar cómo influyen los problemas de los derechos de propiedad en la disposición a invertir de los miembros de la cooperativa. • Comprobar cómo la orientación al mercado de la base social explica su disposición a invertir y cómo su efecto puede estar moderado por la existencia de los problemas asociados a los derechos de propiedad. • Descubrir qué papel juega la heterogeneidad de los socios en su disposición a invertir en la cooperativa. • Estudiar cómo explica el oportunismo de los socios la disposición a invertir de los mismos y el desempeño de la cooperativa. • Determinar cómo influyen los mecanismos de gobierno de la relación socio-cooperativa sobre el oportunismo de los socios y el desempeño de la cooperativa. • Estudiar la influencia de la disposición a invertir de los socios en el desempeño de la cooperativa. Metodología Sobre una muestra de 249 cooperativas obtenida mediante encuestas online son testadas las hipótesis de investigación planteadas mediante regresiones lineales jerárquicas y análisis de modelos de ecuaciones estructurales. Resultados Los resultados permiten por un lado subrayar el efecto positivo que la orientación al mercado ejerce sobre la disposición a invertir de sus miembros y la moderación que ejercen los problemas de propiedad de las cooperativas limitando este efecto. Igualmente destacar el efecto de la heterogeneidad en la base social ejerce sobre esta disposición a invertir de los socios en su cooperativa, y el papel mediador y directo que desempeña también el oportunismo sobre ella. Y por otro lado, los resultados reconocen la bondad de varios mecanismos de gobierno para controlar el oportunismo y explicar el desempeño de la cooperativa. ABSTRACT Marketing cooperative's typology represents a moderate level of integration because farmers are in fact the owners of these organisations created to bargain for better prices and to handle, process, and sell their members' produce. Marketing cooperatives constitute a special type of vertical integration for farmers because the integration of their businesses, which still maintain their independence, is only partial, with a market element (the transaction relationship) and a hierarchical element (the control relationship). Additionally, unlike in other governance modes, farmers are not only owners but also users and controllers of a business that distributes benefits equitably based on use or patronage. Therefore, the economic literature has approached agricultural cooperatives as a form of vertical integration ('extension of the farm'), as an independent firm ('cooperative as a firm'), as a coalition of firms that act in a collective or collaborative manner ('the coalition approach'), or as a nexus of contracts. All of these perspectives, albeit treating the phenomenon under different lenses, share a common position on the analysis of the relationship established between the farmer or member firm and the marketing cooperative firm as a key matter of interest. These firms operate at different stages of the production and distribution chain, where market exchange is substituted by internal exchanges within the boundaries of the cooperative firm. Agricultural marketing cooperatives operate in the origin of the fresh fruit and vegetables supply chain. They have to compete against other alternative organizational forms in markets characterized by great demand's pressure caused by the high levels of the distributors' bargaining power and the increasing number of competition because of deregulation and the globalisation of the sources of supply for many of these products. These factors, along with the greater consumer's demands of variety, convenience and quality, as well as the changes on institutional and economic environment, face agricultural cooperatives to new challenges that force them to address adjustments and changing processes, whether they might be functional or organizational with the aim of increasing vertical coordination among all participants. Thus, the cooperative's innovation capabilities constitute a fundamental mean to achieve it. Nonetheless, some researchers question the efficiency of cooperatives and argue that cooperatives suffer from a host of problems unique to this specific form of governance. They are referred mainly to the relational dimension between the farmer-user-owner and the cooperative itself. This thesis is focused on this relational dimension. About this relationship, based primarily on the Property Rights Theory postulates, some authors have stressed the cooperatives' difficulties for raising equity, concluding that cooperatives are inefficient by nature. A further issue of interest is related to the issue of heterogeneity of the agricultural marketing cooperatives membership and their implications on the cooperatives' performance. Such an argument is used as another claim against the cooperatives ability to compete in nowadays markets. In particular, heterogeneity of cooperative's memberships has increased lately. In Spain, there has been a process of business concentration (less cooperatives, but bigger ones) in order to face the concentration of distributors and obtaining a competitive dimension. This has taken place through mergers, internal growth, acquisitions, groups' formation and adhesion to second-order cooperatives. These processes have resulted in a blending of different memberships (fusions, mergers and acquisitions) or the incorporation of new members (internal growth). In any case, the increase in members' heterogeneity might be causing conflicts, especially those related to gathering funds from members for equity raisings. Nevertheless, even though agricultural marketing cooperatives are faced to these new market challenges, its theoretical inefficiency and heterogeneity problems, they still coexists with investor owned firms, they hold a relevant share in agricultural markets, they have played an active role for a very long time, and they still appear as an alternative with a future. Objectives Consequently, we consider as thesis of this dissertation the existence of factors within the cooperatives relational environment established between the cooperative and its farmer-members that can offset these problems and explain the members' willingness to invest in the cooperative and, finally, the cooperatives' performance. In particular our specific objectives are: • To analyse how property rights problems affects to members' willingness to invest in the cooperative. • To check how the members' market orientation explains their willingness to invest and the impact of property rights problems on this relationship. • To find out how heterogeneity is affecting members' willingness to invest in the cooperative. • To study how perceptions about the membership general levels of opportunism explains the each member willingness to invest in the cooperative and the cooperative's performance. • To determine how governance mechanisms that rules the relationships between members and cooperative influence members' willingness to invest and cooperative's performance. • To study the effect of members' willingness to invest on cooperative's performance. Methodology We obtained data from 249 Spanish marketing agricultural cooperatives through an online survey. Several hierarchical regressions models and structural equation models were conducted in order to test the research hypotheses. Results The results have proven how certain factors inherent to the relationship between cooperatives and their members explain the members' willingness to invest and cooperative's performance. On one hand, we proved the positive effects of the membership market orientation on their willingness to invest. We have also observed the negative influence of the problems of property rights on the membership willingness to invest in the cooperative. Likewise, results showed that members' perception of opportunistic behaviours and some kinds of heterogeneity affect their willingness to invest. On the other hand, the results also showed that selection and socialisation governance mechanisms have power to control opportunism, which itself affects negatively to cooperative's performance. Likewise, selection mechanism and hostages in the form of specific investments have shown a direct effect on cooperative's performance.

Abstract. L'oggetto di ricerca della presente tesi di dottorato concerne la delicata questione della responsabilità del concorrente rispetto ad un reato diverso da quello originariamente voluto, cioè la responsabilità del "concorrente anomalo" di cui all'articolo 116 c.p. Secondo tale disposizione, infatti – espressamente rubricata « reato diverso da quello voluto da taluno dei concorrenti » –, « qualora il reato commesso sia diverso da quello voluto da taluno dei concorrenti, anche questi ne risponde, se l'evento è conseguenza della sua azione od omissione ». Classico è l'esempio dei due concorrenti che originariamente si organizzano per commettere un furto in abitazione (ritenuta al momento disabitata), ma dove poi uno dei due, per fronteggiare le resistenze dell'inaspettata vittima, commette in concreto una rapina. In questo caso, quindi, risponderà della rapina anche il concorrente che voleva realizzare esclusivamente il furto e che si è limitato a fare da "palo" rimanendo fuori dall'abitazione? Oppure sarà considerato responsabile della rapina solo il concorrente esecutore materiale della stessa? La risposta a questi quesiti sembra essere dettata esplicitamente nella lettera dell'articolo 116 c.p., secondo cui, come poc'anzi ricordato, del reato diverso (o più grave) effettivamente commesso da uno dei concorrenti risponde anche il concorrente che non lo ha voluto, ovvero il cosiddetto "concorrente anomalo". Tuttavia, contrariamente a quanto appare prima facie, l'individuazione concreta degli elementi costitutivi – oggettivi e soggettivi – di tale ipotesi concorsuale è tutt'altro che chiara, soprattutto alla luce dei principi costituzionali che devono informare tutto il diritto penale. In particolare, il nodo problematico non ancora risolto in maniera univoca, né in dottrina e in giurisprudenza, è quello della natura giuridica della responsabilità del concorrente anomalo. Secondo alcuni, infatti, quest'ultima è una chiara ipotesi di responsabilità oggettiva, in cui manca del tutto l'accertamento dell'elemento soggettivo della fattispecie; secondo altri, invece, è una tipica ipotesi di responsabilità dolosa; per la giurisprudenza dominante, viceversa, seguita anche da una cospicua parte della dottrina, il concorso anomalo rappresenta una particolare forma di responsabilità colposa, dove però l'elemento della colpa viene sostituito in concreto dal requisito della "prevedibilità". A tale proposito, in questo studio si cerca di evidenziare che, nonostante le innumerevoli interpretazioni proposte sia a livello accademico sia a livello giurisprudenziale, la disposizione dell'articolo 116 c.p. risulta tuttora in evidente contrasto con i fondamentali principi costituzionali su cui si basa l'attuale diritto penale del fatto, tra cui quelli della personalità della responsabilità penale (art. 27, comma 1, Cost.), della tipicità della fattispecie (art. 25, comma 2, Cost.), della funzione rieducativa della pena, nonché della proporzione della stessa rispetto al fatto concreto (artt, 27, comma 3, e 3 Cost.). Tuttavia, prima di analizzare approfonditamente la questione della natura giuridica della responsabilità del concorrente anomalo, questo lavoro si impegna di inquadrare in via sistematica la fattispecie dell'articolo 116 c.p. all'interno del contesto della disciplina del concorso di persone nel reato di cui agli articoli 110 e seguenti c.p. Difatti, solo partendo da una preliminare analisi della disciplina generale del concorso eventuale di persone nel reato, con una descrizione di tutti i suoi elementi costitutivi (di natura oggettiva e di natura soggettiva), si possono poi individuare le differenze e le eccezioni che alla stessa disciplina generale vengono poste con la peculiare disciplina del concorso anomalo. Di conseguenza, in primo luogo, la presente ricerca di dottorato si focalizza sulla disciplina generale del concorso di persone nel reato, nonché sulle opzioni dogmatiche e di politica criminale che con essa il legislatore del 1930 ha voluto soddisfare. Nel dettaglio, in via preliminare, si pone l'attenzione sulle diversità dei due possibili modelli di disciplina del concorso di persone nel reato, quello differenziato e quello unitario, sottolineando le ragioni che hanno condotto il legislatore dell'epoca a scegliere quest'ultimo modello. Inevitabilmente, quindi, si passano in rassegna i requisiti strutturali dell'ordinario concorso di persone nel reato, cosiddetto concorso eventuale di persone o fattispecie plurisoggettiva eventuale, per poi passare alla disciplina delle circostanze, nonché a quella particolare ipotesi di concorso di persone nel reato denominata cooperazione nel delitto colposo. Dopo aver fatto questa prima disamina sulla disciplina generale del concorso di persone, la trattazione si sposta funditus sull'argomento della responsabilità del concorrente anomalo, delineando tutti gli orientamenti interpretativi che si sono susseguiti nel tempo, a partire dall'entrata in vigore del codice penale Rocco del 1930. E precisamente, per quanto concerne la natura di tale responsabilità, vengono analizzati i lavori preparatori del codice penale per individuare se effettivamente la ratio legis era effettivamente quella di inserire nel concorso di persone una chiara ipotesi di responsabilità oggettiva, basata esclusivamente sul nesso di causalità materiale. Tuttavia, proprio dall'analisi dei lavori preparatori si percepisce che anche all'epoca della stesura del codice penale non vi era unanimità di vedute sulla natura della responsabilità del concorrente anomalo, anzi, nella relazione al progetto emergeva già in nuce un orientamento che riteneva sussistente l'elemento psicologico doloso nella fattispecie dell'articolo 116 c.p. Nonostante questa originaria incertezza dei lavori preparatori, successivamente in dottrina si è prevalentemente sostenuto che la responsabilità del concorrente anomalo rappresentasse un'ipotesi di responsabilità oggettiva, ove non occorre l'accertamento dell'elemento soggettivo, bensì è sufficiente il mero rapporto di causalità materiale. Questa interpretazione, però, se chiaramente in linea con il regime autoritario dell'epoca, non è più compatibile con l'odierno diritto penale costituzionalmente orientato, dove per la responsabilità di un fatto-reato necessita che questo sia attribuito all'individuo – come affermato anche dalle storiche sentenze 364 e 1085 del 1988 della Corte Cost. – sia dal punto di vista oggettivo che dal punto di vista soggettivo. In altri termini, sulla base del principio della personalità della responsabilità penale, una persona può essere ritenuta responsabile di un fatto-reato solo quando questo è ricollegabile alla stessa sia dal punto di vista del rapporto di causalità materiale che dal punto di vista dell'elemento psicologico, doloso o colposo. Così facendo, dunque, necessitano sempre gli elementi oggettivi e soggettivi della fattispecie, risultando incompatibili con l'attuale assetto costituzionale, in particolare con il principio della personalità responsabilità penale di cui all'art. 27, comma 1, Cost., tutte le ipotesi di mera responsabilità oggettiva, dove è sufficiente, per la punibilità, l'accertamento del solo nesso di causalità materiale. Orbene, per risolvere la questione della compatibilità costituzionale dell'art. 116 c.p., il cui testo sembrerebbe propendere proprio per la sufficienza dell'accertamento del solo rapporto causale, la Corte Cost. è intervenuta con una sentenza interpretativa di rigetto, la n. 42 del 1965, con la quale si esclude l'illegittimità costituzionale dell'attuale disciplina del concorso anomalo. Pertanto, per comprendere le ragioni del rigetto, prima si è analizzata la pronuncia della Consulta, per poi evidenziarne i punti critici che dalla stessa sono derivati. In sostanza, accanto al nesso di causalità materiale, la Corte ha affermato la necessaria presenza di un nesso di "causalità psichica" che sia in grado di rappresentare un indice di colpevolezza. Quest'ultimo, in particolare, viene ravvisato dalla Consulta nella prevedibilità dell'evento diverso e non voluto dal concorrente. Secondo le parole della Corte, l'evento diverso e più grave deve essere uno "sviluppo logicamente prevedibile" di quello voluto. Pertanto, solo se si accerta tale prevedibilità del fatto diverso e più grave si può affermare la responsabilità del concorrente ex art. 116 c.p. Con tale interpretazione adeguatrice – o correttiva –, mutuata dalla prevalente giurisprudenza di legittimità, la Corte costituzionale nega che l'art. 116 c.p. costituisca un'ipotesi di responsabilità oggettiva, come tale contraria all'art. 27, comma 1, Cost. Da questa sentenza, però, è scaturito un acceso dibattito sulla natura del requisito della prevedibilità, che può essere intesa in astratto o in concreto. Tuttavia, come emerge nel lavoro di ricerca, nonostante la teoria della prevedibilità in concreto sia ormai quella seguita dalla giurisprudenza attualmente prevalente, essa non è in grado di eliminare i dubbi di legittimità costituzionale della norma in esame. Ciò detto, rilevati gli orientamenti giurisprudenziali sul punto, si passano ad analizzare le diverse interpretazioni dottrinarie sull'elemento soggettivo nel concorso anomalo. Infatti, ancor prima della ricordata sentenza della Corte Cost., n. 42 del 1965, la dottrina ha cercato di ricostruire ab origine un elemento psicologico nella fattispecie dell'art. 116 c.p., negando così la sua natura di responsabilità oggettiva. Originariamente, infatti, non è mancato chi ha accolto la tesi della responsabilità a titolo di dolo. E tale orientamento è stato sostenuto facendo riferimento a diverse argomentazioni. Così come non è mancato chi ha sostenuto la natura sostanzialmente colposa del concorso anomalo. Invero, con la sentenza adeguatrice della Corte Costituzionale, come già detto, si introduce nell'art. 116 c.p. l'elemento della "prevedibilità", classico presupposto dell'imputazione soggettiva a titolo di colpa. Tuttavia, come afferma autorevole dottrina, si tratta di una colpa sui generis, perché manca un suo elemento caratterizzante: non si richiede, infatti, per la punibilità ex art. 116 c.p., la violazione di una regola oggettiva di diligenza diretta ad evitare quel determinato fatto concretamente realizzato. Ed a questa obiezione non si può replicare affermando che la violazione del dovere obiettivo di diligenza sarebbe rappresentato dall'imprudenza di essersi affidato, per la realizzazione del proposito criminoso, alla condotta altrui, come tale non controllabile. In tal modo, infatti, si crea solo una presunzione di colpa in capo ad ogni compartecipe che concorre con altri per commettere un reato, anche se poi in concreto viene realizzato un reato diverso e non voluto. In ogni caso, seppure si volesse accogliere la tesi della responsabilità a titolo di colpa, è evidente che saremmo di fronte ad una violazione del principio generale dell'art. 42, co. 2, c.p. Quest'ultimo, infatti, stabilisce che si può essere puniti a titolo di colpa solo se il reato è espressamente previsto dalla legge come colposo, cosa che invece non accade nell'art. 116 c.p. Di conseguenza, resta l'anomalia della responsabilità racchiusa nella norma in commento. Da un lato, perché non c'è una concreta violazione di un regola obiettiva di diligenza – a meno che non si voglia accogliere la tesi della presunzione di colpa –; dall'altro, perché non è espressamente prevista dalla norma la punibilità a titolo di colpa del concorrente anomalo. È evidente, quindi, che in tutte le ricostruzioni fornite non vi è altro che una mera presunzione dell'elemento psicologico, in concreto mai accertato. Peraltro, una responsabilità "apparentemente colposa", data la "prevedibilità" in concreto dell'evento diverso, viene punita a titolo di dolo, con evidente sproporzione della pena rispetto al grado di colpevolezza. Da queste semplici constatazioni sembra evidente come il problema della compatibilità dell'art. 116 c.p. con il principio della personalità della responsabilità penale – di cui all'art. 27 Cost. – è tutt'altro che risolto. Anzi, se la colpevolezza è il limite normativo oltre il quale non può andare la sanzione penale, applicare una pena a titolo di dolo per un fatto strutturalmente colposo – ma non previsto come tale dalla legge – rappresenta una violazione del su menzionato principio, oltre che del principio di legalità di cui all'art. 25, comma 2, Cost. Precisamente, si applicherebbe una sanzione – prevista per il reato doloso – sproporzionata rispetto all'elemento psicologico – colposo – effettivamente posseduto dal concorrente che non volle il reato diverso. Vi sarebbe, in altri termini, una sproporzione tra il fatto strutturalmente colposo e la sanzione – prevista per il reato doloso – concretamente applicata. Pertanto, oltre che con il principio delle personalità della responsabilità penale, si potrebbe configurare una violazione dell'art. 116 c.p. anche con i principi di ragionevolezza e di proporzione della sanzione penale, desumibili dall'art. 27 Cost., nonché dall'art. 3 Cost. In ultimo, per completezza di trattazione, dopo aver analizzato tutti i profili di compatibilità costituzionale dell'art. 116 c.p., il lavoro di ricerca si sofferma ad analizzare i più recenti progetti di riforma del codice penale per comprendere in che modo le diverse Commissioni di riforma hanno cercato di recuperare quella tanto auspicata dimensione costituzionale del concorso anomalo, richiesta dalla Consulta già con la sentenza 42 del 1965, ma allo stato non ancora realizzata.

Enrico Diecidue (" Dynamic Purchase Decisions Under Regret: Price and Availability ") is an associate professor of decision sciences at INSEAD (France) and holds a Ph.D. from the CentER (Center for Economic Research), Tilburg University, the Netherlands. Since 2001 he has been a resident faculty member at INSEAD, except for 2008-2009 when he was a visiting professor at Wharton and 2010-2011 when he was on sabbatical at the Erasmus School of Economics (the Netherlands). His main research interests are in individual decision making under uncertainty, health decisions, and experimental economics. He is interested in the role of regret, aspiration levels, and time in individual decisions. His current research is also addressing the role of groups in complex and ambiguous decisions. Enrico's research has appeared in leading journals in economics and management. He is an associate editor of Decision Analysis and on the editorial board of the Journal of Risk and Uncertainty. He teaches MBA, executive MBA, and executive participants on topics such as uncertainty, data and judgment; decision making under uncertainty, and management decision making. He has won teaching awards at INSEAD and Wharton. Address: INSEAD, Boulevard de Constance, 77305 Fontainebleau Cedex, France; email: enrico.diecidue@insead.edu . Seth Guikema (" Robust Adversarial Risk Analysis: A Level-k Approach ") is an assistant professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, a professor II (adjunct) in the Department of Industrial Economics, Risk Management, and Planning at the University of Stavanger (Norway), and a senior analyst with Innovative Decisions Inc. He received his Ph.D. in risk and decision analysis from Stanford University and a B.S., M.S., and M.E. in civil and environmental engineering. Address: Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering, 205 Ames Hall, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218; email: sguikema@jhu.edu . L. Robin Keller (" From the Editor: Decisions over Time (Exploding Offers or Purchase Regret), in Game Settings (Embedded Nash Bargaining or Adversarial Games), and in Influence Diagrams ") is a professor of operations and decision technologies in the Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine. She received her Ph.D. and M.B.A. in management science and her B.A. in mathematics from the University of California, Los Angeles. She has served as a program director for the Decision, Risk, and Management Science Program of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). Her research is on decision analysis and risk analysis for business and policy decisions and has been funded by NSF and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Her research interests cover multiple attribute decision making, riskiness, fairness, probability judgments, ambiguity of probabilities or outcomes, risk analysis (for terrorism, environmental, health, and safety risks), time preferences, problem structuring, cross-cultural decisions, and medical decision making. She is currently Editor-in-Chief of Decision Analysis, published by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). She is a Fellow of INFORMS and has held numerous roles in INFORMS, including board member and chair of the INFORMS Decision Analysis Society. She is a recipient of the George F. Kimball Medal from INFORMS. She has served as the decision analyst on three National Academy of Sciences committees. Address: Merage School of Business, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697-3125; email: lrkeller@uci.edu . Yijing Li (" A Framework for Solving Hybrid Influence Diagrams Containing Deterministic Conditional Distributions ") is a doctoral student in decision sciences/supply chain management in the School of Business at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Her research interests include inference in Bayesian networks and influence diagrams, and topics in supply chain management. She has taught courses such as introduction to supply chain management. She received her B.A. in economics and B.S. in mathematics from Wuhan University in China in 2005, and she completed her M.A. in economics from the University of Kansas in 2007. Address: School of Business, Summerfield Hall, University of Kansas, 1300 Sunnyside Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66045-7601; email: yjl@ku.edu . Steven A. Lippman (" Exploding Offers "; " Embedded Nash Bargaining: Risk Aversion and Impatience ") is Distinguished Professor and George Robbins Professor of Management at the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles. He received his B.A. in economics and statistics from the University of California, Berkeley and his Ph.D. in operations research from Stanford University. Professor Lippman has published more than 80 papers, some of which have appeared in Management Science, Operations Research, American Economic Review, the Bell Journal of Economics, and Econometrica. His research interests have included inventory theory, dynamic programming, queueing optimization, game theory, decision analysis, and microeconomics. He is best known for his work on the economics of search with John J. McCall as well as for his papers "On Dynamic Programming with Unbounded Rewards," "Uncertain Imitability: An Analysis of Interfirm Differences in Efficiency Under Competition" with Richard Rumelt, and "The Competitive Newsboy" with Kevin McCardle. He has taught negotiations analysis to M.B.A. students for the last 17 years. Address: Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles, 110 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1481; email: slippman@anderson.ucla.edu . John W. Mamer (" Exploding Offers ") is a professor at the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles. He received a B.S. degree in mathematics and a B.A. degree in economics from the University of California, Davis, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Haas School at the University of California, Berkeley. His research interests include decision making under uncertainty, applied probability, game theory, and optimization. His work has appeared in Management Science, Journal of Economic Theory, Mathematics of Operations Research, Naval Research Logistics, and INFORMS Journal on Computing. His teaching responsibilities include probability and statistics, which he has taught to M.B.A. students for the past 12 years. Address: Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles, 110 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1481; email: jmamer@anderson.ucla.edu . Kevin F. McCardle (" Embedded Nash Bargaining: Risk Aversion and Impatience ") is a professor of decisions, operations and technology management at the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research interest is in mathematical models of decision making. He and Steven Lippman have had a long and productive collaboration: their first jointly authored paper was published in 1987. Professor McCardle served on the faculty at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University from 1985 until 1999, when he joined the faculty at Anderson. His primary teaching responsibility has been to make the required course in probability and statistics palatable to M.B.A. students. For that effort he has won teaching awards at both Fuqua and Anderson. From 2007 to 2010 he was senior associate dean and director of the M.B.A. program at Anderson. He has been an associate editor at Operations Research, Management Science, and Decision Analysis, and he is currently area editor at Operations Research for decision analysis and on the editorial board of Decision Analysis. He serves as chair of the board of St. Joseph Center, a charitable social-service agency in west Los Angeles. Address: Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles, 110 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1481; email: kevin.mccardle@anderson.ucla.edu . Laura McLay (" Robust Adversarial Risk Analysis: A Level-k Approach ") is an assistant professor of statistical sciences and operations research at Virginia Commonwealth University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. Her research interests are in the field of operations research, with a particular focus on discrete optimization and algorithm design with application to homeland security and emergency response problems. Dr. McLay's research has been supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of the Army. She has authored or coauthored more than 30 publications in archival journals and refereed proceedings. Dr. McLay is the recipient of the Outstanding IIE Publication Award and has received one best paper award for coauthored proceedings papers to the IIE Annual Conference and Expo. She has been named a fellow in the NSF-sponsored program Enabling the Next Generation of Hazards and Disaster Researchers. Address: Department of Statistical Sciences and Operations Research, 4111 Harris Hall, Virginia Commonwealth University, 1015 Floyd Avenue, P.O. Box 843083, Richmond, VA 23284; email: lamclay@vcu.edu . Casey Rothschild (" Robust Adversarial Risk Analysis: A Level-k Approach ") is an economic theorist who studies applications of game theory, risk and insurance, and public economics. His research interests include the government's role in regulating private insurance markets, the optimal design of income tax systems, the evolution of cooperation and conflict, and terrorism risk. His articles have appeared in a variety of outlets, including the Journal of Public Economics, the Journal of Economic Theory, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Risk and Insurance, the Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, and the Journal of Theoretical Biology. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2006, and has since taught at Middlebury College, MIT, Columbia, and Wellesley College. Address: Department of Economics, PNE 414, Wellesley College, 106 Central Street, Wellesley, MA 02481; email: crothsch@wellesley.edu . Nils Rudi (" Dynamic Purchase Decisions Under Regret: Price and Availability ") is an associate professor of technology and operations management at INSEAD. His research is in operations management with overlap to information systems, marketing, psychology, and finance. He has been focusing on supply chain management and how one can use different strategies (e.g., variety postponement, real options, flexibility, financial hedging, and incentive structures) to better handle demand uncertainty. After high school, Nils worked for three years as a computer programmer of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems at Movex. He then formed Minard, specializing in decision support systems for forecasting and inventory management. Minard did an initial public offering and went public on the Oslo Stock Exchange (Norway) in 1996. Before joining INSEAD, Nils worked at the University of Rochester for six years. He holds a Ph.D. in operations management from the University of Pennsylvania. Address: INSEAD, 1 Ayer Rajah Avenue, 138676 Singapore; email: nils.rudi@insead.edu . Prakash P. Shenoy (" A Framework for Solving Hybrid Influence Diagrams Containing Deterministic Conditional Distributions ") is the Ronald G. Harper Distinguished Professor of Artificial Intelligence in the School of Business, University of Kansas at Lawrence. His research interests are in the areas of uncertain reasoning and decision analysis. He is the inventor of "valuation-based systems," an abstract framework for knowledge representation and inference that includes Bayesian probabilities, Dempster–Shafer belief functions, Spohn's kappa calculus, Zadeh's possibility theory, propositional logic, optimization using dynamic programming, Bayesian decision making, solving systems of equations, database retrieval, and other domains. He is also a coauthor (with Glenn Shafer) of the "Shenoy–Shafer architecture" for computing marginals of joint distributions using local computation. He received a B.Tech. in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India, in 1973, and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in operations research from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, in 1975 and 1977, respectively. Address: School of Business, Summerfield Hall, University of Kansas, 1300 Sunnyside Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66045-7601; email: pshenoy@ku.edu . Wenjie Tang (" Dynamic Purchase Decisions Under Regret: Price and Availability ") is assistant professor of quantitative methods at IE Business School and holds a Ph.D. from INSEAD. Her main research interests are individual decision making and supply chain management, both theoretically and experimentally. Professor Tang joined IE Business School in 2011, and has been teaching quantitative methods for the International M.B.A. program. Address: IE Business School, Calle de Maria de Molina, 13, 28002 Madrid, Spain; email: wenjie.tang@ie.edu .

Public transit systems differ from many other government enterprises in that they charge a fee, or fare, in much the way that private businesses charge for their services. Transit fares are typically of two sorts: flat or differentiated. For decades transportation scholars have argued in favor of flexible, differentiated transit fares, which vary by mode, distance, and/or time-of-day to reflect differences in the marginal costs of service provision (Cervero and Wachs 1982; Cervero 1981; Hodge 1995). Such fare policies, researchers contend, could greatly increase the efficiency, efficacy, and equity of transit service. Research on transit costs suggests that short, off-peak trips tend to be relatively inexpensive to provide, while longer, peak-period trips are more expensive (Taylor, Garrett, and Iseki 2000). Accordingly, varying fares to reflect these differences in costs would encourage passengers to consume more inexpensive-to-serve trips, and be more judicious in consuming more expensive-to-serve trips, thereby increasing the cost-effectiveness of transit service. Recent technological advances, particularly smart cards, have greatly reduced the operational and administrative obstacles to charging differentiated time- or distance-based fares. However, despite an established body of research on the potential benefits of flexible fares, relatively few transit agencies employ them, and over the past two decades many have actually moved away from variable fare structures and toward simpler fares by dropping zonebased fares. And while many U.S. transit agencies that have adopted smart card technology, very few of these adopting agencies have moved toward variable fares. The increasingly widespread implementation of smart farecards makes implementing variable pricing far easier and more reliable than in years past. As smart cards become more ubiquitous, will transit systems gradually reverse course and begin implementing differentiated fares? Will political and institutional resistance to variable pricing hold firm, suggesting that implementation was never the principal obstacle? Or have flat fares become so thoroughly inculcated in transit practice that most transit managers are unaware of the now decades old research on the benefits of differentiated fares? This report explores these questions. To better understand motivations for fare changes and the potential for implementing marginal cost pricing, we reviewed the literature on transit fares and pricing, conducted indepth interviews with California transit officials, and administered a nationwide survey of transit agency CEOs, planners and analysts, and board members on the goals that shape fare policies. Collectively, these interviews and survey find that, with respect to fare policies, transit agencies tend to be reactive to budgetary pressures and reluctant to change fare structures when changing fare levels. Despite this observed lack of strategic thinking with respect to fares, we do see in our survey data some, albeit limited, interest in distance- and time-based fares, especially among agencies that have or soon will introduce smart cards. But any opportunities to move toward differentiated fares created by smartcard adoption are constrained by an industry where simple, flat fares are the norm and were transit managers are risk-averse and seek to minimize public scrutiny and criticism. Smart cards, in other words, are a necessary but not sufficient means of fare innovation in public transit. Beyond this general observation, our interview and survey results collectively suggest three specific findings with respect to transit fare setting: 1. With respect to fare policies, transit agencies tend to be reactive to budgetary pressures and reluctant to change fare structures when changing fare levels. Our survey results find that systematic evaluations of fare policies are subject to and often displaced by the immediate needs of an agency's budget. Respondents indicated that the primary consideration for changing fares is budgetary need, implying a focus on near-term responses to fiscal shortfalls in setting fare policies. Changing fare policies to improve farebox recovery ratios, possibly through marginal cost pricing, which research suggests may improve a given agency's fiscal health over the long term received considerably less consideration. Rational (i.e., cost- or criteria-based) fare setting policies are viewed as important, but in practice the setting of transit fares appears to be almost exclusively budget-driven and fare increases are more often than not induced by fiscal crises. Because transit systems depend so heavily on subsidies, large swings in tax revenues – especially during the current, prolonged economic downturn – can make transit budgets volatile. When rising costs and/or cuts in subsidies threaten service, fare increases are often put on the table in conjunction with service cuts – at what some would argue is precisely the wrong time. While economists have long asserted the superiority of cost-based pricing on economic efficiency grounds, agency policy setting driven by near-term budgetary volatility almost certainly limits reflection on and adoption of such strategies. This finding also suggests that the crisis-induced and budget-driven fare setting processes may not themselves be the problem, but rather are a manifestation of unclear or contradictory goals. Clearly defined and congruent agency goals and objectives allow staff to work toward given objectives, and board members to defend their decisions in light of these v objectives. But given the often competing and contradictory goals for public transit (reduce congestion and emissions, serve the needs of the poor and disabled, keep subsidies low, provide quality employment for workers, keep fares low, etc.), goal-driven pricing of transit services has proven elusive. 2. There is some, albeit limited, interest in distance- and time-based fares, especially among agencies that have or soon will introduce smart cards. While scholars and researchers have long argued for transit pricing based on principles of economic efficiency, in practice, most agencies pursue fare policies that appear to favor administrative efficiency (e.g. keeping fare collection simple) and effectiveness (e.g. simple and low transit fares, unlimited use passes that reward frequent riders). Our survey results underscore that even with increasing technological ability to do so, a majority transit agencies are unlikely to implement distance-based or time-of-day pricing anytime in the near future. According to the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) (2012), 23 percent of transit operators nationwide currently employ some form of distance-based fare pricing and just 6 percent time of day pricing. While only 6 percent of the respondents to our survey who had recently adopted smart cards reported a move to time- or distance-based pricing as a result, nearly a quarter (24%) of those planning to adopt smart cards said that they expect to use them to implement some form of distance-based pricing, and fully 18 percent report the same for time-of-day pricing. This suggests that while resistance to variable pricing remains widespread, at least some of this resistance is likely due to the operational challenges of implementing differentiated pricing in the absence of smart cards. And as those operational vi challenges are reduced by smartcards, the longstanding trend away from differentiated fares may begin to reverse. 3. Transit agencies are risk-averse and seek to minimize public scrutiny of any fare changes. Our survey results emphasize that transit officials seek to ensure their actions avoid public scrutiny and negative publicity, which substantially inhibits implementing variable cost pricing for two reasons. First, implementing variable fare pricing in almost all cases would be a radical departure from the flat fare status quo, and would thus subject a transit agency to financial scrutiny, heightened media attention, and increased lawmaker inquiry – all of which transit officials report they seek to avoid. Secondly, the transit managers we surveyed report that any fare increases will subject their agency to public scrutiny. Concerns over the negative consequences of fare changes appear to be so embedded that transit managers report focusing far more on the riders they might lose from any fare changes than the riders they might gain by implementing, for example, variable fares. They are, in other words, highly loss averse. Finally, the transit agency representatives we interviewed collectively reported that they have generally not conducted market research on non-riders or on customer responses to alternative fare structures, and that they have little understanding of the likely ridership gains and losses that might accompany distance- or time-based pricing. But despite the many potential benefits of marginal cost-based transit pricing touted in the literature, our interviews found significant evidence of risk-aversion, goal obfuscation, and cost confusion among transit managers, as predicted by the literature on public administration. The interviews revealed, with sometimes surprising candor, how little some senior transit managers understand their costs of service provision and how they vary. This lack of cost comprehension may be the inevitable result of government agencies' mandate to maintain service without regard to cost or vice versa (Flam, Persson, and Svensson 1982). We hypothesize that transit agencies' mission ambiguity is a leading explanatory factor of the context in which a poor understanding of costs can persist. As has been argued in the literature, this lack of cost comprehension is manifest in the crude ways in which transit fares are set, despite advances in technology that can facilitate a movement away from costabstracted, flat, and uniform fares and toward the cost-specific fares that vary based that cost of service provided. Our findings also suggest that the crisis-induced and budget-driven fare setting processes may be not the cause, but the effect of unclear or altogether absent goals. Even when a de facto pursuit of transit fare pricing effectiveness is evident, the absence of explicit goals to which agency decision-makers can refer, can mean that necessary, routine incremental fare increases are deferred until a distracting and destructive budgetary crisis forces a much larger and more disruptive fare increase on riders. This research suggests that transit agencies could avoid the contentious, fraught, and high-stakes "crises" that currently is all but a sine qua non for raising fares, while offering "fairer" fares that could increase ridership and revenue. However, the transit agency officials we interviewed reported having little information about whether such practices actually affect transit's mode share. Several interviewees reported that they would expect to lose riders with any form of marginal-cost fare pricing, but had no idea whether or how they might gain additional riders under such a schema. Distance-based pricing, for example, could attract passenger for new, inexpensively priced short-trip riders who might have previously found $1.50 for a four block ride to be too much. The extent to which ridership would change depends on the urban context, economic conditions, traveler demographics, and so on; with information on these factors the ridership effects of fare structure changes could be estimated. Absent such information, any move to distance- or time-based pricing is a decidedly risky policy pursuit. Our interviewees also speculated that the larger the sources of operating and capital subsidies, the less likely it is that an agency's managers will focus on farebox recovery ratios. This argument, echoed in the literature (Vrooman 1978; Flam, Persson, and Svensson 1982; Pickrell 1989), suggests that public subsidies have the perverse effect of reducing costefficiency and promoting subsequent budgetary crises. Transit officials also report that in a world where driving is cheap and preferred, transit officials have little choice but to maintain low fares in order to encourage mode shift. Given this unlevel playing field, then, the non-pursuit of marginal cost pricing may be reasonable to expect. But it also suggests that transit officials should support pricing policies such as congestion tolling and parking pricing, which help to internalize the costs of driving. However, our survey results show that transit officials tend to oppose, or are at best lukewarm toward, efforts to pricing the externalities of automobile travel. Just four in 10 of those surveyed support market-rate pricing on on-street parking, and just 27 percent support high occupancy/ toll (HOT) lanes; this contrasts dramatically with seven in 10 who support increased carpooling.

10/28/2020 Professor Asao Inoue selected for top teaching award – Fresno State News www.fresnostatenews.com/2012/05/01/professor-asao-inoue-selected-for-top-teaching-award/ 1/6 PROFESSOR ASAO INOUE SELECTED FOR TOP TEACHINGAWARD Home | PRESS RELEASES | Professor Asao Inoue selected for top teaching award Previous  Next  Professor Asao Inoue, an associate professor of English, has beenawarded the top teaching honor at Fresno State. William A. Covino, provost and vice president for Academic A􀃠􎁡airs, namedInoue as recipient of the 2012 Excellence in Teaching Award. The Provost's Awards announced Tuesday, May 1, also honored: Amanda Adams, assistant professor of Psychology, recipient of theFaculty Service Award Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval, professor of Modern and ClassicalLanguages, Gradvuate Teaching and Mentoring Award William Bommer, professor of Management, Research, Scholarshipand Creative Accomplishment Award Bryan Berrett, associate professor of Communicative Disorders andDeaf Studies, Technology in Education Award.       Search . SECTIONS ACADEMICS  CAMPUS &COMMUNITY  RESEARCH  ALUMNI  PRESS RELEASES  FEATURED VIDEOS  NEWS SOURCES Fresno StateMagazine  CommunityNewsletter  Fresno State  The Collegian  Bulldog Blog  ACADEMICS CAMPUS & COMMUNITY RESEARCH ALUMNI ATHLETICS FEATURED VIDEOS  ABOUT PRESS RELEASES MEDIA GUIDE ARCHIVES10/28/2020 Professor Asao Inoue selected for top teaching award – Fresno State News www.fresnostatenews.com/2012/05/01/professor-asao-inoue-selected-for-top-teaching-award/ 2/6 Four faculty members received the Promising New Faculty award,recognizing exemplary achievements in teaching, research/creativeactivities and/or service among nontenured, tenure-track faculty. Thehonorees are: Juan-Carlos Gonzalez, assistant professor of Educational Researchand Administration. Elizabeth Payne, assistant professor of Theatre Arts. Jason Bush, assistant professor of Biology. Kim Youngwook, assistant professor of Electrical and ComputerEngineering. Asao Inoue , associate professor of English, receives the Excellence inTeaching Award. He has been at Fresno State since 2007. He approachesthe challenge of teaching high-level writing skills with an innovativepedagogy that emphasizes students' roles in their own education. Hefrequently asks students to evaluate and challenge traditionalinstructional environments and to examine alterna tive teaching methodsthat foster greater individual success. One important aspect of histeaching philosophy is getting students to talk about their writing inrhetorical and re􀃖􍙥exive ways. Inoue's on-campus service includes work asorganizer and facilitator for the Symposium on Remediation in Englishand as a committee member for the Improving Student Writing Initiative,Criterion As sessment Committee. His community service includes work ascurriculum designer, teacher, and program assessment coordinator forUniversity 20 (Academic Reading course), Summer Bridge Program, andthe Educational Opportunity Program. He has active memberships in theCon ference on College Composition and Communication, NationalCouncil of Teachers of English, Asian American Studies Association,Rhetoric Society of America, and Council of Writing ProgramAdministrators. In 2000, he received the Faculty Development SeminarAward. His national hon ors and awards include the Ford FoundationPredoctoral Fellowship for Minorities in 2003. Amanda Adams , assistant professor of Psychology, receives the FacultyService Award. She has been at Fresno State since 2006. Her passion forhelping families who have children with autism drives her to createopportunities for students' development, both as practitioners of appliedbehavior analysis and as researchers that disseminate new knowledge.She has worked tirelessly to develop and secure support for the CentralCalifornia Autism Center (CCAC) on campus. The center pro videsopportunities for students to learn to apply Applied Behavior Analysisprinciples, conduct research, and learn important professional skills.Adams provides important service to the local community by educatingpractitioners who treat autism, families who are a􀃠􎁥ected by autism, andpolicy makers who develop programs and provide 􀃕􍕮nancial support fortreating autism. For four years, she has worked with students to plan and Go Bulldogs  Videos  Social MediaDirectory  10/28/2020 Professor Asao Inoue selected for top teaching award – Fresno State News www.fresnostatenews.com/2012/05/01/professor-asao-inoue-selected-for-top-teaching-award/ 3/6 implement Autism Awareness Field Day. She is involved in otherawareness/fundraising events, including the CCAC Gala Fundraiser andannual golf tournament. She is a member of the California Chapter of theAssociation for Applied Behav ior Analysis and received the Provost'sAward for Promising New Faculty in 2009. Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval , professor of Modern and Classical Languagesand Literatures, receives the Graduate Teaching and Mentoring Award. Hehas been at Fresno State since 2000 and has a well-established record ofexceptional graduate teaching. Jiménez-Sandoval has been a driving forcein the development of the Spanish M.A. curriculum, personally developingand teaching 􀃕􍕶ve new seminars for the program. In his teaching, hestresses the basic human emotions of love, despair, and hope. He isdescribed as a proli􀃕􍕣c thesis director and has served on the Spanish M.A.exam com mittee each semester since his arrival. Jiménez-Sandovalbelieves in students' ability to push them selves and excel. His studentshave been accepted to Ph.D. programs at UCLA, Irvine, Berkeley, Stanford,Arizona, British Columbia, and Alberta. He was the recipient of the 2003-04 Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity Award. Through hisexemplary scholarship, he serves as a model of the teacher-scholar tostudents and faculty. His public lectures include the 2005 InternationalCo􀃠􎁥ee Hour presentation on the sacred role of poetry in Aztec culture,and his articles include his recent publication on the canonical Mexicancoming-of-age novel, Las batallas en el desierto William Bommer , professor of Management, receives the Research,Scholarship and Creative Ac complishments Award. He has been at FresnoState since 2008. Bommer uses his research on a regular basis in theclassroom. His research spans a number of topics in the 􀃕􍕥eld of manage -ment and applied psychology. Two primary areas of research for which heis known internationally are the areas of transformational leadership andorganizational citizenship. Widely published, his research is impressive.His work is commonly cited in college texts and is regularly assigned indoctoral-level seminars. In the past two years, he has been the principalinvestigator on three di􀃠􎀠 erent external grants. These grants have totaledmore than $600,000. His work has been used for doctoral training in the􀃕􍕥elds of management, psychology, marketing, education, andmanagement information systems. He also served as the outside experton two di􀃠􎁥erent dissertation committees in Australia. Bryan Berrett , associate professor of Communicative Disorders and DeafStudies, receives the Technology in Education Award. He has been atFresno State since 1998. In 2010, he was one of four CSU faculty to beawarded Sony's multimedia award. Berrett has demonstratedtremendous leadership in the use of technology at Fresno State,particularly in the development of online classes. He has established a10/28/2020 Professor Asao Inoue selected for top teaching award – Fresno State News www.fresnostatenews.com/2012/05/01/professor-asao-inoue-selected-for-top-teaching-award/ 4/6 remarkable track record of innovative and practical uses of technol ogy.For example, over the last several years, he has been the recipient ofmultiple Digital Campus grants to convert traditional classes into onlinecourse o􀃠􎁥erings. He coordinates the sign language interpreting program,which now has approximately 30 percent of its coursework o􀃠􎁥ered online.He also has integrated the use of audio and visual multimedia into theAmerican Sign Language computer lab. Most recently, Berrett has beenthe department's leader in converting the education graduate programinto an 80 percent online 20 percent face-to-face format. Promising New Faculty Awards 2011-2012 Juan-Carlos Gonzalez , assistant professor of Educational Research andAdministration, has been at Fresno State since 2009. A skilled professorand scholar, he has fully engaged in service to the university and thecommunity. He serves on multiple editorial boards for peer-reviewedjournals and as a proposal reviewer on a national level. He has beenactive in accreditation activities, chaired the International Committee, andorganized a faculty study trip to Costa Rica. Gonzalez has mentored aMcNair Scholar and worked with the Central California Children's Instituteon research projects. He is an enthusiastic participant in the life of theKremen School and the university as a whole. In addition to his regularcourses, he has taught classes in qualitative research methods and criticalrace theory in education. He has already published four articles andpresented at 23 conferences in the United States. He has also presentedin China and in Mexico. Gonzalez has received numerous awards andhonors, including the Dandoyd Research Award for spring 2012. Elizabeth Payne , assistant professor of Theatre Arts, has been at FresnoState since 2008. A highly tal ented designer, she continues to workprofessionally in theatre in New York and in television, where she hasconsulted on the Conan O'Brien Show. She brings to Fresno State herconsiderable skills in design, teaching, mentorship, and communityoutreach. She is a demanding teacher who has transformed the existingcostume design and technology courses and created new ones, such asCostume History and Design Focus on Film. Seamlessly integrating socialand political issues into her discussion of fashion, she demonstrates tostudents why broad cultural knowledge is crucial to successful designwork. Her classes bring together academics and practical, skill-basedtraining. Payne has also been proactive in generating grants, including aFresno State Enhancing Student Information Literacy Grant, which sheintegrated into her Costume History class. In the area of mentorship, shehas had considerable impact — her door is open to all. She is the recipientof the 2012 Fresno County Board of Education Artist in Residence Grant.10/28/2020 Professor Asao Inoue selected for top teaching award – Fresno State News www.fresnostatenews.com/2012/05/01/professor-asao-inoue-selected-for-top-teaching-award/ 5/6 By llarson | May 1st, 2012 | Categories: PRESS RELEASES | 3 Comments SHARE THIS STORY, CHOOSE YOUR PLATFORM!     RELATED POSTS Jason Bush , assistant professor of Biology, has been at Fresno State since2006. Bush has enriched the university environment through his serviceand demonstrated excellence and leadership within the Biol ogyDepartment, the College of Science and Mathematics, and the university,with service on the Cur riculum Committee and the Graduate ScholarshipCommittee. Bush is one of the leading researchers in cancer andproteomic research. He has made 31 presentations since his arrival.Through Dr. Bush's 20 national collaborations, he has been able to extendFresno State resources to develop a broader and resource-richenvironment for his students. He has received $1.5 million in nationalgrants from 􀃕􍕶ve externally funded proposals, including NIH, AmericanCancer Society, Keep-A-Breast Foundation, Susan G. Komen for the Cure,and CSUPERB. Bush was also a co-principal investigator in the $4.5 millionRIMI grant for the development of a research facility in the Central Valley.In addition to ex ternal funding, he has augmented his research with$120,000 in internal grants. He is a consultant and grant reviewer for theSusan G. Komen for the Cure, as well as an active member of theUniversity of California, San Francisco-Fresno Research Group. Youngwook Kim , assistant professor of Electrical and ComputerEngineering, has been at Fresno State since 2008, demonstrating hisdedication to high quality teaching, research and creative activities, andstudent involvement in his research. He has taught a wide repertoire ofundergraduate and graduate courses focusing primarily on highfrequency electronics. Through online methodology, he provides studentswith the opportunity to learn at their own pace. Kim's research focuses onelectromagnetics and the application of Doppler and ultra-wide bandradar systems to human detection applications, such as security,surveillance operations, and search-and-rescue missions. While at FresnoState, he has published several journal papers and six conference papers.His research totals $167,659 in external funding. Currently, Kim ispreparing a proposal on data fusion and target sensing models in wirelesssensor network environments. He is also serving as a grant developmentchair for the Untenured Faculty Organization and is a member of theProfessional Development Committee, the Honors Committee, and theResearch and Grant Review Committee within the Lyles College ofEngineering.10/28/2020 Professor Asao Inoue selected for top teaching award – Fresno State News www.fresnostatenews.com/2012/05/01/professor-asao-inoue-selected-for-top-teaching-award/ 6/6 SAÚL JIMÉNEZ-SANDOVALAPPOINTEDINTERIM PRESIDENTOF FRESNO STATE October 28th, 2020 | 0Comments TRANSPORTATIONINSTITUTE RELEASESPROMISINGFINDINGS OFCOVID-19 PUBLICTRANSIT STUDY October 28th, 2020 | 0Comments NURSING MUNIT CONTFREE HEALSERVICES OWEST FRES October 27th, Comments Fresno State News Hub isthe primary source ofinformation about currentevents a􀃠􎁥ecting CaliforniaState University, Fresno, itsstudents, faculty and sta􀃠􎀻;providing an archive ofnews articles, videos andphotos, as well as links tomajor resources on campusas a service to theuniversity community. CONTACT US CALIFORNIA STATEUNIVERSITY, FRESNO 5241 N. Maple Ave. Fresno, CA 93740 P: 559.278.4240 Email Us SECTIONS ACADEMICS  CAMPUS & COMMUNITY  RESEARCH  ALUMNI  PRESS RELEASES  FEATURED VIDEOS  Sign up for theCommunity Newsletter Fresno State NewsArchives Copyright 2012 - 2016 Avada | All Rights Reserved | Powered by WordPress | Theme Fusion       

IntroductionThe Report that the AIB has decided to publish starting from this year aims at presenting, even if synthetically, the main characteristics of an overview of Italian libraries, each time pointing out the questions, tendencies and some of the events that are of most interest to those who are interested in the development of the library service in our country.When it is proposed to describe a national picture of the situation of the libraries of the various types (public, university, state, scholastic, ecclesiastic, private, etc.) one finds oneself before the almost total absence of comparable and trustworthy organic information. Using the various sources available, it is possible to estimate with a certain approximation that the over 15,000 Italian libraries (in which approximately 20,000 people work) possess almost 200 million documents, that they acquire annually almost 7 million books, that their annual users are little less than 10 million and the loans made are around 65 million. It is believed that in the year 2001 the running costs exceeded 1000 billion lire, of which a little more than 10% were destined to the purchase of documents.LegislationThe year 2001 was rich in new details with regard to the sector of legislation for libraries. This was also due to the effect of the constitutional reforms and the new scenarios relative to the responsibilities and federalist arrangement of the State.Regulations of particular importance for libraries and indirectly linked to the overall institutional situation are those contained in the law of 28 December 2001, no. 448 (finance law 2002). This prescribes that the management of services aimed at the improvement of the public use and development of the artistic patrimony (and therefore also of the state libraries) can be entrusted to subjects other than those of the state. It also introduces an art. 113 bis in the sole text of the laws on the organization of local bodies (legislative decree 18 August 2000, no. 267), on the basis of which "local public services without industrial importance are managed through direct entrusting to: a) institutions; b) special businesses, including consortiums; c) joint-stock companies" and only as a residual solution (paragraph 2) "is economic management permitted when, due to the small dimensions or the characteristics of the service, it is not opportune to proceed to entrusting it to subjects as described in paragraph 1". Awaited on many sides as the chance to respond to a number of the age-old problems that have afflicted the sector of state public libraries for decades, the new organization regulations of the Ministry for cultural and artistic heritage, issued with the Presidential Decree of 29 December 2000, no. 441, actually only indicate, without solving, some fundamental questions that regard the sector, postponing their settlement, without any time limits, to subsequent second degree regulations.As regards the more strictly library themes of interest, the necessity to solve the problems of the legal deposit drove the AIB to revive the bill proposal, which had already been discussed and had arrived at the threshold of final approval in Parliament in the 13th legislature.During the year 2001, moreover, the European Parliament and the European Union Council finally approved the Directive 2001/29/CE, that aims at integrating the laws of the member countries regarding reproduction rights, rights of communication of works to the public and distribution rights, in reference to those works, on every kind of medium, including digital medium, subject to authors' rights. Art. 5 provides the faculty of member states to order exceptions and limitations to the above mentioned rights, to guarantee the right balance between authors' rights and other social interests. This article furthermore contains the "exceptions" that are to the advantage of libraries or of didactics and scientific research.Cooperation and consortiumsThe last two years have shown considerable progress in the field of cooperation activities, confirming also in Italy the current tendencies at international level. These developments generally - but with different nuances - regard various types of libraries and involve different sectors of activity, from those already established (such as cataloguing and purchases) to emerging activities, more directly linked with the diffusion of Internet (management and development of digital resources, etc.).Access to information and the development of electronic collections are surely the areas that are most involved in the new cooperation initiatives. The university sector is that which demonstrates most vitality in this area, but a certain recent enterprise of state and public libraries should be noted. The initiatives promoted by two large university computer consortiums should also be mentioned: the Cilea and Caspur.The CiBit project for digitalisation, archiving and networking, with a special research interface for Italian literature texts should be noted.In Italian universities, as in other developed countries, the idea of creating alternative models of academic electronic publishing is being increasingly encouraged: in this field mention must be made of the initiative of the University of Florence with the Firenze University Press project.On-line cataloguesThe catalogues of Italian libraries available through Internet number 420. For the year 2001 growth stabilized around 15% and mainly regarded the local body systems, the libraries of which cover municipal or provincial areas.The Italian university OPACs (On line Public Access Catalog) form approximately 40% of the total.National Library Service (SBN) and national projectsIn the last two years the SBN network has been established as the largest public network of libraries in Italy, both due to the number of libraries participating and to the considerable increase in the information in the catalogue: at the end of the year 2001 the libraries numbered approximately 1400, the size of the national collective catalogue was 5,500,000 titles (corresponding to approximately 12 million localizations, that is mentions of the presence of the works in the participating libraries). Daily hits, also as a result of the availability on Internet of the catalogue, are currently on average 160,000 on weekdays, with high points on some days of over 200,000 hits.Other cooperation projects are underway in the field of antique books and manuscripts.The Anagrafe delle biblioteche italiane (Registry of Italian libraries) data base, it too available for consultation on Internet, provides an instrument of general information on the patrimonies, services to the public and specializations of approximately 12,500 libraries.But it is "SBN on line" that has really marked a further step forward towards the improvement of the services: from a single access point, with identical modalities, users can consult catalogues of different institutions (libraries, archives, museums); they can compile a bibliography according to their own specific requirements by integrating information sources; they can also locate documents and ask for them on loan or in reproduced form.Formation, occupation and professionItaly also considers university formation as the basis for the initial preparation of librarians. In the nineties especially, the degree course in Preservation of Cultural Heritage was a source of considerable attraction among young people and in the year 2000/01 it ended up having over 23,000 students registered in the 17 universities offering the course as well as almost 3,000 registered in various related diploma courses (Operators of Cultural Heritage), for a total of 26,339 students. As a whole this is a small sector with respect to all university education (1.6% of the total of students, 2% of those enrolled, 0.6% of those graduated or having obtained diplomas), but a large group with respect to the degree or diploma "arts" group into which it is statistically inserted (16% of those registered, 23% of those enrolled and 7% of those graduated or having obtained diplomas).In the year 2000/01, the first year of the "3+2" university reform, among the 42 first level degree classes, that in Sciences of Cultural Heritage is at the 12th place as regards number of enrolled (9079) and is generally in the first place among the characteristic courses in the Arts Faculty (in the order Arts, Sciences and technologies of figurative arts, of music, entertainment and fashion, Philosophy, Historical Sciences). Sixty-six percent of the students in the degree courses in the archive-library field are female.As a whole the number of students registered is certainly greatly increased with the new courses (9079 enrolled in 2001/02 as against the 5920 of the previous year, +53%). The current offer is of 71 courses in 41 universities: among these, 9 (in a like number of universities) are specifically dedicated to the formation of librarians and archivists, while 33, 2 of which by distance-learning, have a general nature (18 with a specialization for librarians and archivists), and 29 regard other specific sectors (artistic, archaeological, musical, etc., heritage ). Overall, there are therefore at least 27 courses aimed at the formation of librarians, in 26 universities and with locations in 25 different cities.Those who graduated in Cultural Heritage have up to now obtained rapid and effective insertion into the world of work, initially above all with assistance initiatives or contract jobs but also with permanent employment, demonstrating among other things their capacity to temporarily or permanently exploit employment opportunities even in related fields (publishing, multimedia production, Web services, communications, etc.).Generally speaking, the offer of long-term employment in public administration is about 180 positions per year. The main employers are the local bodies, with 64%, followed by the Universities with 27%. Absent for years now is the Ministry for Cultural Heritage (except for two small competitions in 1998 and 1999); some offers come from the sector of research (institutions of the CNR and other bodies, for 7% in the three-year period under consideration), and exceptionally from other public bodies.From the point of view of geographic distribution, the vast majority of the jobs offered is in the North (72%, as against 11% in the Centre and 17% in the South and in the islands), and the percentage exceeds 80% for places in the local bodies: about half of the jobs offered by Italian local bodies are in the region of Lombardy; this is followed at a great distance by Emilia Romagna and then the Veneto region. In the universities, the distribution is a little less unbalanced, again with Lombardy in the first place but with a good offer also in regions of the Centre (Lazio) or of the South (Campania, Puglia).The offer of contract employment or with assistance positions is very active, both through competitions and screening for contract jobs in public administrations and through the search for assistants by service companies, mainly in the field of cataloguing, and of library structures: we can consider that through these forms of selection approximately 300 persons per year find temporary employment.The Italian Libraries Association and the Professional RegisterAn indicator of the dynamism of the profession is given also by the activity of the Italian Libraries Association (AIB) which, during the year 2000 extended to include all twenty Italian regions and considerably increased its number of members: 4407 members (+2% with respect to the previous year). This shows a much larger and clearer growth than that of employment in the sector, which therefore testifies to a greater group thrust, of "self-recognition" and identification, while a considerable number of occasional registrations remain: these are not renewed with any continuity.Since 1998, the AIB manages the Italian Professional Register of librarians, a private register that was established along the lines indicated by the European directives on the recognition of professional titles and by the bills on the unrecognised professions presented in the last legislatures but not yet approved. On 31 December 2001 the Register had 566 qualified librarians enrolled, 160 of which enrolled during the last year.The following persons co-operated to this work: Giovanni Solimine (Introduction); Luca Bellingeri, Gianni Lazzari (Law); Anna Maria Mandillo (Law, SBN and national projects); Gabriele Mazzitelli, Serafina Spinelli (Academic library systems); Tommaso Giordano (Cooperation and consortia); Antonella De Robbio (Italian OPACs); Vanni Bertini (Automation systems in Italy); Alberto Petrucciani (Training, employment and profession). ; Hanno collaborato alla redazione del Rapporto: Giovanni Solimine (Introduzione); Luca Bellingeri, Gianni Lazzari (Legislazione); Anna Maria Mandillo (Legislazione, SBN e progetti nazionali); Gabriele Mazzitelli, Serafina Spinelli (Sistemi bibliotecari di ateneo); Tommaso Giordano (Cooperazione e consorzi); Antonella De Robbio (OPAC italiani); Vanni Bertini (Sistemi di automazione in Italia); Alberto Petrucciani (Formazione, occupazione e professione).

and use and management measures have strong implications on environmental properties such as the quality of soil, water and air, and biodiversity, as well as on social and cultural values. This is also clearly indicated in the Swedish National Environmental Quality Goals where measures to meet quality criteria have been set. However, there are several question marks concerning relations between land management and environment, and in particular there are conflict situations where a specific management form might be positive for the environment in one respect, but negative in another. Although it is not the mandate of science to balance different needs, it is definitely its role to describe the environmental, social and cultural impacts, as well as the economic viability, including the use of environmental and sustainability assessment tools. In this way science enables decisions towards sustainable land use.The environmental, social and cultural impacts from land use might in the future be even bigger as the needs for food, feed, fibre and fuel are supposed to increase substantially. At the same time climate change and loss of natural resources will further limit our ability to meet the demands for food, feed, fibre and fuel. In short, we need to produce more under more difficult circumstances, with less available resources and with less (preferably not any) environmental negative impact. Thus, there is an urgent need to more accurately understand relations between environment and a number of land management measures. Towards this background, the aim of this project was to describe the state of art concerning land management and environment and to elucidate urgent knowledge gaps in order to enable prioritization of further research. The focus is on Swedish conditions, although globalization due to increased global trading and increased global environmental concerns necessitate a certain outlook beyond national boundaries.There is almost an unlimited amount of land use and management varieties. For this reason the study was restricted to some management forms that either concerns a large part of Sweden or, according to the present knowledge, may provide big consequences and/or big uncertainties. It was also restricted to terrestrial land use including wetlands, i.e. the use of water bodies, and fisheries are excluded. Included are complicated questions in forestry such as harvest of biomass in production forestry (c. 60% of all Swedish land), use of harvest residues, cutting forms, nitrogen fertilization, liming, choice of tree species and drained peat-land management. In agriculture we focused on fertilization, liming, cropping systems and tillage and crop-residue management. We decided not to evaluate the use of genetically modified organisms neither in agriculture nor in forestry as the large political and environmental uncertainties involved motivate a report by itself. Finally we also assess methods and consequences for energy forestry and, briefly, for reindeer grazing since about 40% of the Swedish land-area is used for reindeer grazing. If reindeer production is used as an alternative for intensive meat production it will be a measure to decrease emissions of greenhouse gases. Grazing by reindeer affects biodiversity, often positively, especially in areas that suffer from increased abundance of broad-leaved vegetation due to climatic changes. Conflicts are possible in future: the area that is suitable for reindeer grazing may decrease due to a warmer climate, but also due to demands for agricultural development. The report is organized in such a way that the management forms are discussed one by one, followed by a systems perspectives approach. We begin with summarizing conclusions .Systems perspective – How to read figures in the reportFor most chapters in the report there are one or two summarizing figures drawn from an environmental systems perspective. For most options described in the figures there is a reference state given in the figure caption (although not illustrated in the figure). When so, the figure must be read with the reference state in mind as e.g. an increase or decrease in biodiversity depends on that reference state. In the figures, boxes represent activities, and arrows either represent flows, or simply "leads to", when connecting two activity boxes. Green colour signifies avoided activities and related resource use and emissions. Grey colour signifies activities or flows that are likely to be of minor importance in the specific scenario. Oval shapes with dotted boundaries and open arrows at both ends represent activities which life cycles should be included in a systems perspectives for a full picture, but which are either beyond the scope of the report, or link to an earlier figure which is then given. In two figures life cycle data from the CPM (Center for environmental assessment of product and material systems) LCA database, 2011, is included. These date from 2005 and are included to give the reader an idea of the size of resource use and emissions involved.In the summaries below the pictures, the various effects, goal conflicts and the knowledge gaps discussed refer to environmental effects and ecosystem services. Conclusions on economic and social aspects are beyond the scope of this report. Summary and discussionTable 1 is a very condensed summary of the report. It must be read with the comparisons made in mind, i.e. a specific action is not necessarily positive or negative with regard to the chosen parameters generally speaking – only as compared to the reference states used in this report. The effect on climate change is either direct (source or sink of carbon dioxide) or indirect (via a substitution effect). In the case of fossil fuel substitution there is a delay in climate change mitigation; whereas the emission of CO2 from biomass burning is immediate, the uptake of CO2 in the trees that are replacing the cut trees is taking place over decades. Generally speaking, substitution for a construction material is more effective than substitution for fuel. Notably, the table says nothing of the size of the impacts discussed; for this we refer to the special chapters and the literature cited. Neither does the table, nor the report, say anything about how to measure the impact of the different actions. Let alone the report says something about how the various effects can be compared to each other. Most plausible, the answers to these questions will vary from case to case, but also between different actors in the field, depending on what is ascribed the highest importance – or value – in different situations (Haider & Jax 2007). Critical trade-offsIt can be seen from table 1 that many activities that have a positive effect on climate change through a stock or sink mechanism also have positive effects on biodiversity, whereas an increased substitution effect tend to conflict with biodiversity. Similar patterns are there for eutrophication and water regulation (when relevant). These patterns give rise to complex choices as it has to be considered how important harvest of biomass (substitution effect) is as compared to e.g. biodiversity or eutrophication. Except local and case specific aspects – social as well as ecological – there is also a time aspect involved. Our obligations to future generations also needs to be taken into consideration in management of natural resources (de-Shalit 1995; Dobson 1999).Notably, biodiversity, the nitrogen cycle and climate change (in that order) have been pointed out by Rockström et al. (2009) as the three most critical out of nine so called planetary boundaries. Crossing these boundaries is, according to the authors, associated with a risk of deleterious, possibly disastrous consequences for humans. This is pointed out to underline how critical land use measures are, and that the trade-offs between climate change, biodiversity and nitrogen cycle impacts are far from obvious. How do we determine what degree of climate change that corresponds to a given change of biodiversity? It can be argued that increased climate change will in the end affect biodiversity negatively, but on the other hand it can also be argued that higher biodiversity generally means more resilient ecosystems, and more resilient ecosystems cope better with climate changes. A few of the land use measures investigated are positive from climate change point of view as well as from a number of other perspectives. These measures include forest reservation (in the short term), wetland restoration, livestock production with ley (if compared to livestock production with only arable crops), and energy forests (if compared to agriculture). A switch to deciduous tree species may also fall into this category, although here there's a lack of knowledge regarding productivity as well as emissions associated with many tree species. Similarly, certain kinds of selective cutting may be positive from many points of view, but again there are uncertainties with regard to actual emissions. Such (potential) win-win solutions are usually only possible on small areas compared to the area subject to, e.g., conventional forestry, but may be highly significant for the preservation of threatened biodiversity and a number of other ecosystem functions. A national land use strategy aiming for (environmental) win-win options only will however not be possible. Tradeoffs between different environmental values will be necessary. Many of the parameters discussed through the report depend on site specific characteristics. Occurrence of species and site conditions such as soil properties, geology, hydrology, climate, deposition vary from one place to the other. In addition to this, people have different preferences, both at the individual level and at the cultural level. All of this, on top of the scientific difficulty of saying what is "best" when it comes to trade-offs between e.g. climate change and biodiversity, makes it impossible to recommend a "best land management option" on a general level; it will vary from one place to the other and over time, and a variety of options will be needed. A variety of options can be seen as a means of safeguarding a variety of values and ecosystem services, meeting different needs and preferences of people, and as a way of precautious risk spreading. The issue is further complicated when social and economic aspects, in terms of cultural ecosystem services are added. Briefly, cultural ecosystem services are "The non-material benefits people obtain from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation, and aesthetic experience, including, e.g., knowledge systems, social relations, and aesthetic values." (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2003, p 58). As an example, productivity may be somewhat lower for selective cutting than for clear-cut forestry as well as for deciduous forests compared to spruce stands. On the other hand, selective cutting and deciduous forests may enable cultural, aesthetic and recreational values that production forestry misses. At the same time, it is more plausible that the selective cutting-forests and the deciduous forests enable cultural and recreational activities such as fishing, picking wild berries and hunting. In the case the economic value of these activities is limited (such as in many high-income countries), it is reasonable to include them in the cultural ecosystem services as they contribute to the high cultural, aesthetic, social and health values of a biodiverse landscape (Norling 2001). The cultural ecosystem services are most plausible difficult to replace (Lisberg Jensen 2008). In many cases, then, trade-offs seem to be unavoidable not only between environmental aspects, but also between environmental aspects on the one hand and social and economical aspects on the other, especially if including the global situation in the reasoning (Dobson 2007). In these tradeoffs, science can give advice, but the decisions remain political, and dependent of valuations and preferences. Concerning preferences, there is e.g. a risk that many preferences that people have, are monotonous, short sighted, temporary or just unrealistic to an extent that will challenge environmental decision making, environmental policy and/or environmental ethics (Minteer, Corley & Manning 2004; Minteer &Miller 2011). Furthermore, there is an extensive discussion in environmental ethics about the importance of natural landscapes (Callicott 2001; Hettinger 2002). On the other hand, empirical studies show that naturalness is not crucial. On the contrary, cultivated landscapes obviously have the social, cultural, aesthetic and spiritual values that many people appreciate (Norling 2001).

According to the United Nations Population Fund, in October 2011 the world population reached 7 billion people, 3456.8 millions of whom are women.In the U.S.A, the total population is 313.1 million in 2011. Of those, 158.5 million are women, which means a little bit more than a half. In this country the people eligible to vote in 2008 reached more than 218 million, 55% of whom are women.The numbers are similar in Switzerland. With a total population of 7.7 million people, the country has 3.9 million of women – again, just a little bit more than the half –, and 54% of the Swiss eligible to vote are women (2010).However, the current representation of women in politics around the world does not reflect the population data. At parliamentary level worldwide, the percentage of women who occupies seats as deputies or senators is 19.2% and 17.8% respectively. These means that even though the historical representation of women in politics has been rising, the number of males representatives still is overwhelmingly higher.For reference only, the minimum percentage that is consider necessary for a fair and considerable representation of ideas that can influence the decision making is about 30%.In January 1918 the 19th Amendment of the USA Constitution was included in the political agenda for the discussion of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The president of USA, Woodrow Wilson, recognizing the woman's support to their country during the war, urged the politicians to vote in favor of the amendment. The Representatives passed the amendment on May 1919, and the Senate did the same on June. Thereafter, the approval was in hands of each state. More than twenty states ratified it within six months. Thirty six were needed to include the amendment into the Constitution, and Tennessee turned out to be the one which had the final decision. After a very close vote, just one of the legislators changed his opinion and the woman's right to vote was approved. Literally, the 19th amendment says: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation." With those two simple lines, the activist women of the USA, who had been fighting for their right to vote for more than seven decades, finally achieved their goal and the history of American women in politics change forever.On the other hand, Switzerland is the last European country that allowed its women to vote at national level. Many say that it was due to the decisions take longer to be taken in a direct democracy. But there, it took too long.The Swiss society can be consider as patriarchal, conservative, traditional and with marked streaks sexist, which is exemplifiedin the traditional perception of the woman's role as restricted to 'kinder, kirche und kuche' ('children, church and kitchen'), still valid specially in German-speaking regions.However, the active feminist movements exist since long time ago, and they fight not only for the woman's right to vote, but also for legal equality and the empowerment of women in all aspects.By 1962, with the intention to sign the European Convention of Human Rights, the government of Switzerland asked for an exception about the legal equality of genders – specifically for the women's right to vote -. Against this, the associations pro the female suffrage protested, and the commotion forced the authorities to review that posture. So, a referendum was decided by the government in 1968, and the public consultation took place in February 1971. Finally, the results were different. More than six hundred thousand (about 66%) Swiss men said YES to the women's right to vote, so since then all Swiss women are allowed to vote at national level.Furthermore, on October 31 of the same year, there was a parliamentary election in Switzerland, and eleven women were elected to be part of it.The United States of American and Switzerland differs in many aspects, such as size, population, traditions and history. However, both have also some things in common. They both took too long to allow their women to vote, granting with that a better political equality.Their political regime is pretty similar, both are democratic countries. In the process of getting the female suffrage the USA parliament, as well as the Swiss, played a key role since the decision of including the issue into the constitutional order should, in the first instance, be approved by the legislature. But after the parliament passed it, the next step was different within the two countries. USA led the final decision to the local governments, while in Switzerland was the people who had to finish the process. This means that in the European country the men citizens had the final word instead of the parliamentarians, who should represent the interest of all citizens, men and women. There is then, a social matter. Switzerland is a multicultural country with a big percentage of foreigners among its residents, four official languages, and a rich history of immigration. Nevertheless, the Swiss society is mostly conservative and traditional, in particular its regions of German´s descendants and residents, not so the French or Italians. The facts speak by themselves: in the referendum of 1959, only three cantons voted for allow the Swiss women to vote, all three were 'French'; while in the 'German' canton call Appenzell Innerrhoden, the amount of No votes was about 95%. Another point that can be considered as a difference within the two countries concerning the female struggle, are their leaders. Both, the American and the Swiss movement, had notorious female leaders. They were all active politicians and were deeply committed to the cause, which contributes to the organization of the movements and also to the well development of the activities.However, the American female leaders, although they were largely convinced of the injustice of gender inequality, none of them had high-level education. The abolitionist Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a writer, but she never took college studies. Lucretia Mott was a school teacher; and Susan B. Anthony just dedicated her entire life to the fight for women's rights. Except for Stanton (she was a lawyer's daughter), they didn't came from high educated families. Meanwhile, the most famous leader of the Swiss movement for women's right to vote, Josi Meier had a different background. Her real name was Josephine Johanna Meier, but was also known as the 'Grand Old Lady'. She died in 2006 at the age of eighty. Meier, who also came from a poor family, graduated as a lawyer in 1952, but had been defending women's right for a long time. When the right to vote for women was finally awarded in 1971, she became one of the members of the Lucerne cantonal parliament, and some month later she was among the eleven women elected as parliamentary representatives. Moreover, Meier took place in the Senate some years later and in 1991 became the first woman ever to be the Senate's speaker.It is worth comparing also the opposition that the movements had to face in both countries. The resistance to the women's right to vote, in USA as in Switzerland, had the objective of stop the progressive movements, defended the traditional order of the society and, as Nicole Herz (1992) describes, "'Antis' had to re-define the scope of woman's sphere and put government back into the male's sphere". Furthermore, the opposition in USA and in Switzerland used to use the same arguments to fight against the change. The religious beliefs were common among the opposition movements. The 'God word' and the biblical commandments that assure women were made to be men's support, good wives and exemplary mothers, dedicated to their homes and children, were some of the weapons of the anti-suffragist. Coming from conservative education, they believed that 'women belong to the kitchen' and there they must remain. Political issues were thought to be rude and complicated so only men should handle it, women would lose their femininity if they involved in politics. Other of the arguments was that the basis of the family, and therefore of society, was the women's homemakers, so if women get their right to vote, then they would had less time to do it and the families would lose their foundations, so the society would derail.Finally, there is one last fact that both, USA and Switzerland, had in common. It was the influence of an external factor into their government decision of do something about the right to vote for women. In the USA it was the World War I. In Switzerland, the Cold War.During the First World War (1914 – 1918) the American women began to be part of the work force of the country while the men went to fight in the battlefield. Doing this, women helped to sustain the USA economy developing their labor in traditional male occupations. After that, they used it as a weapon and strong argument for their struggle for suffrage right. If they were strong enough to work as men, their opinion should also be important enough in politics as men's. The men and the government must recognized it, and they had not any strong argument against the women's claim anymore. On the other hand, the Swiss government was afraid about the national security during the Cold War. Given the geopolitical situation and the small size of Switzerland, the Communist could saw it as a strategic war point. For that reason, the government thought in expand and strengthen its military force, including women into it. Again, the Swiss women, as the Americans, argued that the demand of their labor force should be compensated by granting the right that they had been fighting for. Moreover, in Switzerland there was also another factor that there was not in USA. The integration with the European region, materialized in the signing of the European Convention of Human Rights, needed the government to catch up its settings, so the legal equality should be guaranteed. The willing of being part of the region in such a difficult time as the Cold War, pushed the Swiss government to move forward in the woman's right to vote issue.The United States of America, as well as Switzerland, witnessed the long struggle for the female right to vote but, what are the current results of it? How much equality have today those countries in political terms? Have their women real participation in politics nowadays?According to the Interparliamentary Union ranking, in 2010 Switzerland was positioned as the 26th country with more women in parliamentary, while USA was in the 70th position with only 89 women among 532 legislators. Although some researchers suggest that the American women are more likely to participate in elections by making use of their right to vote than men; the USA politics still have a lot to improve in order to eliminate the gender gap in political area. On its part, Switzerland has less inequality in politics, but still is not absolutely equal. The Swiss Executive Branch is comprised of seven members, all with equal decision power, and one of them is named, by rotation, Federal President. The first woman elected as President was Ruth Dreifuss, who took place of the position in 1999.In 2010 for the first time, three women were occupying high political positions in the Swiss government simultaneously. Moreover, in September 22 of the same year, after one more woman was elected as minister, the Executive was composed by four women and three men, marking the first time ever that the Swiss government has a female majority. To sum up, unlike USA, which has never had a woman as President; Switzerland seems to be more progressive when it comes to high positions in politics nowadays. *Estudiante de la Licenciatura en Estudios Internacionales.FACS - Universidad ORT Uruguay

2008/2009 ; Le armi di distruzione di massa rappresentano uno degli aspetti più spaventosi degli sviluppi tecnologici che sono intercorsi nell'ultimo secolo. Sebbene alcuni effetti delle armi chimiche e biologiche fossero noti già da centinaia di anni, solamente nel ventesimo secolo si è assistito ad un vasto uso delle armi di distruzione di massa in diversi contesti bellici. La necessità di trovare armi "definitive", idonee a travalicare la forza ordinaria delle armi convenzionali ha spinto la scienza ad investigare sempre più nuovi strumenti in grado di annichilire l'avversario. Una parte di primissima rilevanza negli equilibri mondiali – e ancora oggi fonte di destabilizzazione in certi teatri regionali – è imputabile alle armi nucleari. La scoperta delle implicazioni belliche della fisica atomica ha semplicemente rivoluzionato il quadro militare mondiale, chiudendo la Seconda guerra mondiale e spalancando le porte della Guerra fredda. Basata in gran parte sull'equilibrio nucleare, questo tipo di guerra ha visto fronteggiarsi in primis due superpotenze dotate di arsenali nucleari tali da eliminare per sempre ogni tipo di forma vivente dalla faccia della Terra. Le armi di distruzione di massa sono oggi raggruppabili in diverse categorie: nonostante ogni nazione fornisca una propria definizione al riguardo, sostanzialmente questa tipologia di armi si articola su quattro tipologie diverse a seconda delle differenti sostanze di cui ognuna è composta. Esistono le armi nucleari, biologiche, chimiche e radiologiche: ognuna di esse presenta caratteristiche tattiche, strategiche e modi di funzionamento ben diverse. L'elemento che le accomuna è comunque la capacità, almeno potenziale, di arrecare una quantità di danni decisamente superiore a qualsiasi dispositivo militare convenzionale oggi presente negli arsenali. Seppure con modalità diverse, le armi di distruzione di massa hanno fatto la loro apparizione nei campi di battaglia soprattutto nel ventesimo secolo. Le prime ad essere utilizzate su vasta scala furono le armi chimiche, le quali apparvero come un mezzo per superare lo stallo della guerra di trincea. Durante la prima guerra mondiale la paura dei "gas" divenne un vero e proprio incubo per tutti i soldati, ed anche per i relativi stati maggiori, incapaci di provvedere contro questa nuova arma. Ma la vera svolta nel mondo delle armi di distruzione di massa arrivò nella Seconda guerra mondiale: dopo l'esplosione delle armi atomiche nei cieli giapponesi di Hiroshima e Nagasaki era chiaro che le superpotenze vincitrici della guerra non potevano prescindere dal possedere l'arma atomica. L'iniziale ritardo sovietico venne ben presto compensato, e nel 1949 Stalin poteva annunciare al mondo la parità militare con gli Stati Uniti. La bomba atomica venne poi seguita dalla bomba all'idrogeno, ultima frontiera degli sviluppi militari nucleari. Come noto, le ami atomiche ressero il confronto bipolare (e le sue certezze) fintantoché gli accordi SALT e START non cominciarono a ridurre il numero delle testate, ad oggi comunque presenti in molti arsenali. Le armi biologiche apparvero in seguito, soprattutto dopo gli sviluppi delle biotecnologie. La capacità militare di virus, batteri e tossine era già ben chiara ai giapponesi durante la seconda guerra mondiale: tuttavia i sovietici, grazie alla colossale impresa "Biopreparat" riuscirono a creare ed ad accumulare un'enorme quantità di agenti biologici. La fine del mondo bipolare poteva sembrare idonea a far diminuire i pericoli derivanti dalle armi di distruzione di massa: ma purtroppo eventi come gli attentati con il gas "sarin" nella metropolitana di Tokyo (1995) o l'uso di antrace negli Stati Uniti (2001) dimostrarono che inevitabilmente le armi di distruzione di massa rimanevano una minaccia costante per ogni Stato. Alle tre armi tradizionali si è affiancata una nuova categoria: le armi radiologiche, spesso indicate nel gergo giornalistico come "bombe sporche", consistenti nel diffondere elementi radioattivi mediante esplosioni convenzionali. Tale tipo di arma rischia di causare molti più danni grazie all'effetto mediatico che alla diffusione di materiali radioattivi: non tutti questi, infatti, hanno tempi di decadimento lunghi come l'uranio. La paura per quest'ultimo tipo di ordigni è cresciuta negli ultimi anni in quanto per un gruppo anche piccolo è relativamente semplice potersi procurare materiale radioattivo e farlo detonare in un centro urbano, contaminando tutta la zona. La preoccupazione per gli effetti delle armi di distruzione di massa si è concretata in una serie di trattati internazionali che progressivamente hanno disciplinato tutti i tipi di armi. La normativa in materia è costituita sia da trattati multilaterali che da trattati bilaterali: questi ultimi, pur essendo vincolanti solo per le due nazioni che li sottoscrivono, hanno comunque generato rilevanti effetti geopolitici nel pianeta. Subito dopo la seconda guerra mondiale l'Assemblea dell'Onu aveva cominciato a riflettere su un possibile contenimento delle armi nucleari, decisamente le più rilevanti a livello di effetti. Le ferite di Hiroshima e Nagasaki erano recenti, e l'Unione Sovietica stava sviluppando a tappe forzate il proprio programma nucleare. Nonostante le preoccupazioni della comunità internazionale, occorse aspettare la "Crisi dei missili" cubana del 1962 per poter vedere sviluppare delle prime forme di cooperazione internazionale per interdire, o quantomeno limitare, la minaccia dell'uso delle armi nucleari, sfiorata durante le tensioni cubane. A partire da quella data si succedettero diversi trattati internazionali e bilaterali in materia di armi nucleari, inizialmente legati alla limitazione del dispiegamento degli ordigni in determinati contesti, e, successivamente, rivolti alla riduzione del numero di vettori. Quest'ultimo ruolo fu particolarmente giocato dalla diplomazia americana e da quella sovietica, e conobbe un'autentica accelerata con l'arrivo delle presidenze Reagan-Gorbacev. È evidente che molte delle scelte compiute dalle due superpotenze influenzarono anche le rispettive coalizioni e le dottrine di impiego delle forze. Ma non tutte le iniziative regolamentari sortirono effetti positivi: ad oggi vi sono paesi, quali Israele, la Corea del Nord o il Pakistan che sono dotati di armamenti nucleari e non sono sottoscrittori del trattato NPT, cioè di non proliferazione nucleare. Questi stati sono inseriti in contesti regionali complessi e delicati, in cui spesso insistono interessi delle "potenze atomiche" legittimate in questo ruolo da una discutibile statuizione indicata nel trattato NPT. A fianco delle numerose iniziative svoltesi per disciplinare le armi nucleari sono state pure create delle Nuclear Weapons Free Zones, cioè aree del pianeta nelle quali gi stati membri si impegnano a non acquisire o usare armi nucleari. Tali iniziative hanno permesso di "liberare" dalla minaccia nucleare alcune aree (Antartide, Asia centrale, America del Sud, Asia del sud-est, Mongolia) e costituiscono un'iniziativa sinergica alle attività di contenimento e riduzione degli arsenali nucleari. Per le altre armi di distruzione di massa vi sono sicuramente stati meno trattati internazionali, ma non per questo essi sono stati meno importanti: è il caso delle armi chimiche, che possono vantare la prima proibizione in un protocollo del 1925. In tale settore è stata poi creata un'organizzazione internazionale idonea a verificare il rispetto della convenzione per la proibizione delle armi chimiche del 1993. Le armi biologiche presentano invece più difficoltà, ed al momento, secondo certa letteratura, sono identificate come un settore non ancora pienamente tutelato a livello internazionale. Se è vero che la convenzione sulle armi biologiche del 1972 vieta ogni tipo di arma biologica, la mancanza di una struttura internazionale di controllo e la velocità di sviluppo delle biotecnologie impauriscono gli stati, così come la mancata adesione di alcune importanti nazioni. In ogni modo, nonostante le critiche e le difficoltà, i trattati internazionali in materia di armi di distruzione di massa sono serviti per contenere e comunque evitare la diffusione di tali strumenti bellici attraverso le nazioni del pianeta: molto è ancora da fare, ma comunque le esperienze intraprese al momento sono tali da confermare questo cammino come valida via per limitare la diffusione di questa categoria di armamenti. Eppure il positivo processo di limitazione delle armi di distruzione di massa ha incontrato, soprattutto negli ultimi anni, alcuni limiti soprattutto in seguito alle azioni intraprese da alcune nazioni. In certi contesti regionali delicati alcuni stati vedono di buon occhio una propria capacità militare sostenuta da quella nucleare: il miraggio di entrare nel "club atomico", cioè nel ristretto numero di stati "armati" nuclearmente, è un miraggio che ha valenza sia di politica interna che di prestigio internazionale. I recenti casi della Corea del Nord e dell'Iran, ad esempio, indicano chiaramente come azioni di singoli paesi possano seriamente mettere a repentaglio anni di lavori e di incontri internazionali per limitare la diffusione di armi di distruzione di massa. Soprattutto l'arma nucleare rimane al centro del dibattito mondiale, in quanto i due paesi di cui sopra hanno deciso di dotarsene per questioni di prestigio e di politica interna. La Corea del Nord si è recentemente ritirata dal trattato NPT e ha fatto esplodere due ordigni nucleari, seppure di piccola capacità. Ciò che al momento preoccupa di più la comunità internazionale è l'isolamento dell'autocratica repubblica, le difficoltà nella transizione del potere ed infine il tentativo di acquisizione di capacità missilistica a lungo raggio. Negli ultimi mesi la Corea del nord ha ripetutamente condotto esperimenti missilistici che hanno notevolmente esacerbato la situazione regionale: in particolare destano la preoccupazione del Giappone, nel quale è in corso un dibattito sulla rivisitazione del ruolo delle forze armate, cosa decisamente avversata dalla Cina. Gli Stati Uniti, tradizionali difensori della Corea del Sud, potrebbero cogliere l'occasione per dispiegare i propri missili nucleari nel teatro, accrescendo così la militarizzazione dell'area e complicando il rapporto con le altre due potenze nucleari della regione, La Cina e la Russia. Allo stesso modo l'Iran sta attraversando una complessa fase di transizione a trenta'anni dalla rivoluzione del 1979. La granitica forma di governo teocratica è oggi minacciata da una fase economica non brillante e da difficoltà politiche interne: le recenti affermazioni del presidente iraniano Ahmadinejad hanno attirato l'attenzione del mondo sull'Iran, desideroso di accrescere il proprio peso nell'area. D'altra parte le affermazioni sulla scomparsa di Israele hanno notevolmente preoccupato il governo di Gerusalemme, il quale è in possesso di armi nucleari. Il rischio di un'escalation nucleare nella regione sarebbe un problema gravissimo, soprattutto considerando le difficoltà in cui si trovano diversi stati limitrofi, quali il Pakistan, l'Iraq o l'Afghanistan. Infine va considerato il problema del terrorismo internazionale. Non è detto che gruppi terroristi non possano essere ancora interessati all'acquisizione di armi di distruzione di massa: rispetto a quelle nucleari, più difficilmente acquisibili ed utilizzabili (occorre anche un vettore idoneo per trasportarle, stante il loro peso e le loro dimensioni) ipotesi come armi radiologiche, armi chimiche o armi biologiche rappresentano soluzioni ugualmente allettanti per spargere terrore e destabilizzazione nelle società da colpire. L'attenzione a tale riguardo si concentra soprattutto sul network di Al-Quaeda, in quanto struttura militare e militante più capace di possedere fondi tali da permettere l'acquisto di questo tipo di armi. Resta da chiedersi, in conclusione, quali risposte siano possibili a questo tipo di minaccia. La percezione della minaccia NBCR è differente a seconda dei paesi e dei contesti in cui gli stati sono inseriti: la riflessione più ampia sull'argomento è comunque quella americana, supportata da abbondante letteratura e servita addirittura come giustificazione ad un attacco preventivo (Iraq 2003). Allo stesso modo la Nato ha elaborato una propria posizione sulle armi di distruzione di massa, riconosciute dall'Alleanza come una minaccia concreta e tangibile, meritevole anche di risposte dal punto di vista operativo. Infine vi è il caso italiano, che concentra le competenze NBCR presso un'idonea struttura interforze, che opera in stretto raccordo con strutture civili dello Stato, a partire dei Vigili del Fuoco. Per terminare si può sostenere che le armi di distruzione di massa sono oggi una minaccia potenziale difficilmente eliminabile, ma tuttavia limitabile e controllabile tramite gli strumenti della diplomazia, della politica e del diritto internazionale, affiancata comunque da azioni delle attuali potenze dirette a limitare sempre più la diffusione e la proliferazione di questo tipo di armamenti. ; XXII Ciclo

In contrast to topical trends of mediatic discourse analysis (predominantly focused on newspapers from the 21st century), this thesis aims at analyzing the discourse of a French newspaper called Le Petit Comtois (1883-1944). Rooted in various fields of research, namely corpus linguistics, "discourse analysis from a historical viewpoint" (Robin, Maldidier, Guilhaumou), "textual analysis of discourse" (Adam, Heidmann) and lexical statistics (Lebart, Salem), this thesis questions the contributions of a new numerical philology (Rastier; Viprey).This work is based on two complementary axes of research: on the one hand, we worked on the constitution of a textual database with the aim of accurately editing, controlling and normalizing it in order to allow for a revival of interdisciplinary studies led on regional 19th century newspapers. Therefore, our point is to propose some methodological approaches in order to overcome technical obstacles which occur during the acquisition and the sharing of large volume of textual data. The construction and the normalization of the database condition the heuristic confrontation of points of views and the choice of textual sciences methods for the analysis.On the other hand, our objectives are to highlight the specificities of Le Petit Comtois discourse during the period 1883-1903. Exploring a 5.5 million-word corpus, we mainly use the textual statistical methods to produce the emergence of the linguistic, textual and discursive reliefs of the text itself in order to use them as clues for the continuation of the analysis, with the aim to overtake the traditional entrance of the vocabulary used in lexicometry and its ways to approach textuality. ; À la différence des tendances actuelles de l'analyse du discours médiatique, majoritairement tournée vers la presse nationale contemporaine, notre thèse vise un titre régional du XIX e siècle : Le Petit Comtois (1883-1944). Plongeant ses racines dans différents terreaux de recherche, à savoir la linguistique de corpus, l'analyse du discours du côté de l'histoire (Guilhaumou, Robin), la statistique textuelle (Lebart, Salem) et l'analyse textuelle du discours (Adam, Heidmann), cette thèse interroge les apports d'une nouvelle philologie numérique (Rastier; Viprey, Mayaffre) se fixant pour programme de renforcer l'accès aux matérialités discursives.Cette thèse articule ainsi deux axes de recherche complémentaires : d'une part, les conditions de la constitution d'une base de données textuelles finement établies, contrôlées et normalisées selon les recommandations XML-TEI, visant à favoriser le renouveau des lectures interdisciplinaires de la presse régionale de la Troisième République (chapitre II).Il s'agit, ce faisant, de proposer des pistes méthodologiques en vue de la levée des obstacles techniques pesant sur l'acquisition et le partage de grands volumes de données textuelles, dont dépendent les avancées des sciences du texte. Partant, on replacera ces pistes dans la perspective des débats théoriques contemporains en linguistique textuelle et linguistique de corpus.D'autre part, notre objectif est d'apporter un éclairage sur le discours du Petit Comtois sur la période 1883-1903 à partir d'un corpus de 5,5 millions de mots en articulant diverses méthodologies et niveaux d'analyse, de sorte à appréhender dans toute son hétérogénéité et sa complexité l'objet texte. Si notre recherche s'appuie principalement sur les outils de la statistique textuelle qui permettent de faire monter du corpus lui-même ses reliefs linguistiques, textuels, discursifs, envisagés comme des vecteurs d'exploration, elle vise à dépasser la traditionnelle entrée du vocabulaire sur laquelle se fonde la lexicométrie, et ses modes d'approche traditionnels sur cette entrée même.Parce qu'un texte est tout d'abord inscrit sur un support matériel signifiant, notre premier temps d'analyse textuelle du discours du Petit Comtois (chapitre III) est ainsi consacré à l'analyse de la mise en forme de l'information, telle qu'elle se donne à lire à travers l'organisation matérielle de l'aire scripturale (Peytard) et les niveaux d'organisation que sont le rubriquage et le système de titres du quotidien.Plus qu'un simple « chemin de fer » ayant pour fonction de catégoriser l'information, le rubriquage constitue un des ressorts principaux de la rédaction pour hiérarchiser l'information. Parce qu'il rend compte des catégories par lesquelles le quotidien découpe le monde, ce niveau constitue un lieu d'accès privilégié à l'identité du quotidien. Une analyse quantitative du rubriquage, mesurant la surface, l'emplacement topographique de chaque rubrique, sa fréquence moyenne, nous a permis d'observer, outre les thématiques principales du quotidien, les stratégies par lesquelles celui-ci hiérarchisait l'information. Ce volet d'analyse nous a permis d'observer que Le Petit Comtois, à l'instar de la presse quotidienne régionale de la Troisième République, fait la part belle aux événements de portée nationale et internationale, ainsi qu'à la vie politique de la Troisième République. Un examen linguistique des intitulés de rubrique du journal a pour sa part démontré la forte mise en valeur de la coïncidence de la temporalité de l'imprimé quotidien avec celle du monde, ainsi qu'une forte persistance des liens avec la matrice littéraire (Thérenty), perceptible notamment à travers la prédominance des intitulés de rubrique référant à l'écriture épistolaire.Notre intérêt s'est ensuite porté sur les titres du Petit Comtois, dont nous avons interrogé les caractéristiques linguistiques et fonctionnelles, les variations et les régularités en diachronie. Celles-ci ont été analysées à partir de l'étude d'un sous-corpus substantiel de 6910 titres, extrait d'une des rares rubriques comportant des titres de façon permanente de 1883 à 1903 : les « dépêches de nuit ». En premier lieu, au terme de l'analyse, a été dégagée la fonction de classification de l'information dans un horizon thématique, géographique ou historique assurée par les titres, au détriment d'une fonction d'annonce et de condensation de l'information principale de la dépêche. En second lieu, dans cette rubrique emblématique du journalisme d'information inscrite dans un quotidien revendiquant sa fonction d'organe porte-parole d'une sensibilité politique, les titres sont le lieu d'une coloration de l'information livrée par la voix du correspondant ou de l'agence Havas et donc des indices précieux de l'ethos discursif (Amossy) du quotidien : tout en exprimant sa lecture de l'actualité, Le Petit Comtois recourt à une parole railleuse et ludique, un certain franc-parler, visant à entretenir la connivence et la proximité avec son lecteur.Dans un second mouvement (chapitre IV), nous avons entrepris une série d'explorations dans le vocabulaire du Petit Comtois, entendues comme le socle d'un parcours objectivé du discours du journal. Une série de prise de vue sur le vocabulaire du Petit Comtois ont ainsi été constituées.L'index hiérarchique du corpus, analyse fort classique en lexicométrie, a livré une première indication sur la consistance lexico-thématique du corpus, en confirmant notamment l'ouverture du quotidien sur un horizon politique dont Paris est le cœur géographique et l'importance de la temporalité dans Le Petit Comtois.Une seconde analyse, tout aussi classique en lexicométrie, a consisté à examiner la ventilation du vocabulaire en diachronie (ou niveau macro-distributionnel) grâce aux méthodologies de l'AFC : celle-ci a pointé pour sa part une très nette division du corpus en deux séquences chronologiques distinctes : 1884-1896 d'une part, et 1897-1903 d'autre part. L'analyse des profils macro-distributionnels des items, associée à un mouvement de retour au texte, nous ont permis d'interpréter ce clivage comme l'opposition entre une première séquence marquée par un contexte colonialiste et revanchard ainsi que par les fameuses « affaires » politico-financières, et une séquence chronologique témoignant pour sa part d'un tournant radical et de l'intensification des débats autour de la question sociale.Nous nous sommes ensuite tournée vers l'analyse de la configuration fine du vocabulaire (niveau micro-distributionnel - Harris), mode d'accès privilégié à la textualité-texture, à ses dimensions non linéaires (tabulaires, réticulaires), encore insuffisamment exploitées et conceptualisées. L'analyse micro-distributionnelle du vocabulaire du Petit Comtois a ainsi suggéré que la configuration fine du vocabulaire s'organisait autour de quatre pôles isotropiques (Viprey), à consistance lexico-thématique voire rhétorico-stylistique, évoquant respectivement (1) les faits divers et leur passage en justice, (2) la vie législative, (3) les réseaux locaux de sociabilités, et enfin, (4) le vocabulaire du politique, voire de l'idée républicaine.Nous avons voulu observer l'évolution diachronique de cette configuration fine en diachronie. De façon très stimulante, si l'on tient compte des résultats livrés par l'examen du niveau macro-distributionnel et de la nature du discours étudié, la structure fine du vocabulaire se révèle extrêmement stable en diachronie. De rares items témoignent d'une évolution significative de leur co(n)texte d'une diachronie à une autre. Il est intéressant de remarquer que ceux-ci sont particulièrement emblématiques des évolutions socio-politiques dont prend acte la fin d'un très long XIXe siècle. C'est notamment le cas de la forme ouvriers, dont l'évolution très nette du profil collocatif marque celle de son sens. Dans un dernier temps, nous avons examiné les facteurs responsables de la stabilité du rubriquage observée : l'analyse des spécificités des rubriques a ainsi révélé une forte corrélation entre le niveau du rubriquage et celle de la structure fine du vocabulaire. L'invariance des « motifs » lexicaux et stylistiques du quotidien nous suggère donc que l'actualité et son essence présupposée « fluctuante », restent contrôlées et organisées par les pratiques routinières journalistiques, renvoyant tant à la sélection de l'information qu'à sa mise en scène comme événement. Enfin, un dernier temps de cette recherche (chapitre V) est dédié à la consolidation d'une méthode de typologie en corpus, appliquée au classement des rubriques, basée sur le niveau morphosyntaxique. À la recherche d'une typologie discursive des rubriques du Petit Comtois, ce volet d'analyse examine les vertus et les insuffisances d'un étiquetage automatique et explore les perspectives offertes par l'AFC en vue d'un dialogue continué avec les données. Devant être envisagé comme le préalable à une analyse linguistique des genres journalistiques qui croiserait le niveau du vocabulaire et le niveau de la morphosyntaxe tout en tenant compte du plan compositionnel du texte (Bakhtine) grâce à un encodage xml-tei, cet empan de nos recherches constitue une investigation méthodologique visant à se doter d'un protocole robuste et transparent d'analyse.À la suite des travaux pionniers de Douglas Biber, de nombreuses études de typologie textuelle convoquent aujourd'hui le niveau morphosyntaxique. La logométrie, telle que définie par D. Mayaffre, perçoit d'ailleurs dans les progrès de l'étiquetage automatique un renouvellement décisif de l'analyse des données textuelles. Cette position implique de s'accommoder du taux d'erreur intrinsèque aux données issues d'un étiquetage automatique, dont l'influence est supposée modérée par la méthodologie statistique utilisée. Une analyse du discours soucieuse de la matérialité du texte ne peut néanmoins se satisfaire de ce taux d'erreur : entendant l'annotation morphosyntaxique comme un véritable état du texte, elle implique au contraire un étiquetage fin du niveau morphosyntaxique. Or, l'expérience menée dans le cadre d'une entreprise typologique des rubriques du Petit Comtois montre que l'étiquetage automatique réalisé par Cordial est loin d'être suffisant pour répondre à cette prétention : l'étiquetage opéré reste un étiquetage « en langue », aux insuffisances duquel s'ajoutent les limites du lexique interne de Cordial. On regrettera par ailleurs la pertinence discutable des catégories statiques de la grammaire traditionnelle convoquée par ce logiciel.En raison de ces insuffisances et en attendant de mener une contre-expérimentation basée sur un étiquetage fin et contrôlé de nos données, il nous semble ainsi devoir prendre quelques précautions avec les résultats obtenus de notre analyse, fort stimulants au demeurant. En effet, notre analyse des variables morphosyntaxiques dans les rubriques du Petit Comtois met au jour des facteurs très discriminants, parmi lesquels, d'une part, des variables assez inattendues (à l'instar des déterminants définis) et d'autre part, des facteurs faisant écho aux critères génériques journalistiques. On peut interpréter la configuration typologique des rubriques obtenue comme étant notamment fortement structurée par l'opposition entre les productions discursives à énonciation impliquée et les productions caractérisées par un effacement énonciatif, configuration affinée par le degré de complexité des phrases et leur longueur. Le genre semble donc un « facteur » structurant de cette typologie, ce qui nous semble devoir être mis en lien avec la taille colossale du corpus étudié et la méthodologie statistique utilisé, puisque l'AFC donne une représentation synthétique des tendances lourdes voire structurelles d'un ensemble de données. En l'occurrence, le genre est cette tendance, qui, dans la lignée des postulats de l'analyse du discours, s'avère déterminant dans la typologisation des productions discursives journalistique du Petit Comtois.

The papers of the thesis are not available in Munin: 1. Anda EE, Nieboer E, Voitov AV, Kovalenko AA, Lapina YM, Voitova EA, Kovalenko LF, Odland JØ: «Implementation, quality control and selected pregnancy outcomes of the Murmansk County Birth Registry (Russia)», Int J Circumpolar Health. 2008; 67(4):318- 34 (publisher's restrictions). Available at http://www.ijch.fi/show_abstract.php?abstract_id=30 2. Anda EE, Nieboer E, Wilsgaard T, Kovalenko AA, and Odland JØ: «Perinatal mortality in relation to birthweight and gestational age: A registry-based comparison for Northern Norway and Murmansk County, Russia» (manuscript) 3. Anda EE, Nieboer E, Dudarev AA, Sandanger TM and Odland JØ: «Intra- and intercompartmental associations between levels of organochlorines in maternal plasma, cord plasma and breast milk, and lead and cadmium in whole blood, for indigenous peoples of Chukotka, Russia», Journal of Environmental Monitoring 2007; 9: 884–93 (Royal Society of Chemistry - publisher's restrictions). Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/b706717h 4. Sandanger TM, Anda EE, Dudarev AA, Nieboer E, Konoplev AV, Vlasov SV, Weber JP Odland JØ and Chashchin VP: «Case study of combining persistent organic pollutants (POPs) datasets in the context of a circumpolar environment-and-health study» (manuscript). Later published with altered title in Science of The Total Environment, Volume 407, Issue 19, 15 September 2009, Pages 5216-5222, available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2009.06.020 ; The Murmansk County Birth Registry (MCBR) was initiated on January 1. 2006. Currently (April 2009) the MCBR has registered over 26 000 births. The registry covers a geographical area known as the Kola Peninsula in Northwest Russia, which is almost entirely located above the Arctic Circle. Murmansk County is about half the size of Norway and had 857 000 inhabitants in 2008. All the 15 delivery departments in the county are involved and their locations stretch from Nikel in the Northwest to Kandalaksha in the south. The Registry Office is located in the city of Murmansk with a trusted staff of four. The MCBR annually registers over 99% of all deliveries in the region. Based on several measures such as quality control exercises and regional workshops, the registry seems to exhibit adequate validity. The registration of births in the MCBR is obligatory and embedded in regional legislation. It is a cooperative effort between the University of Tromsø and the Murmansk County Health Department. Together they have defined four major guidelines, or tasks for the registry: • Monitor the health condition of mothers and their newborn; • Monitor the availability of maternal and perinatal health care; • Develop standards and guidelines for maternal and perinatal health care; • Spawn new hypotheses and provide knowledge related to causal relationships for reproductive health risk factors. Comparisons of selected pregnancy outcomes from Murmansk County with the northern regions of other Nordic countries (Norway, Sweden and Finland) revealed several interesting differences. First of all, there was the divergence of the demographic composition of the respective delivering populations. The pregnant women were much younger in Murmansk County (about 3.5 years), and the percentage of teenage mothers was about twice that of Northern Norway and 5 times higher than in Northern Sweden. Further each woman tended to have fewer children in Murmansk County, the babies were lighter on average (about 200 g), and the proportion of children with a birth weight over 4500 g was 4.5 times higher in Northern Norway. A study comparing the birth weights, perinatal mortality and gestational ages between Northern Norway and Murmansk County disclosed valuable information. Based on WHO-guideline-calculations, the perinatal mortality among the women with a known gestational age was 11.0/1000 in Murmansk County (2006-2007) and 5.4/1000 in Northern Norway (2004-2006). The risk of perinatal mortality was higher at all gestational ages and at all birth weight increments in Murmansk County. There were large disparities between the two regions in the optimal perinatal-survival weights and the small-for-gestationalage 10 percent cut-off weight for term deliveries. Two further studies aimed to map out challenges related to the collection of human tissue samples in the Russian Arctic for the analyses of environmental contaminants. After all, a relevant and effective protocol is the core of any viable epidemiological study. It was concluded that relative to cord blood and breast milk, maternal plasma/blood is the most fundamental biomonitoring medium for organochlorines and toxic metals. Also, complicated statistical analyses will require a detection frequency of the individual contaminant levels in each sample to exceed 80%. And finally, the correlations between concentrations of different organochlorines in the body fluids (with a few exceptions) were sufficiently high so that measuring the levels of a few with high detection frequencies would give a suitable picture of the combined body burden of these contaminants. In conclusion, the MCBR constitutes an invaluable tool for reproductive health studies in the future such as the studies of adverse effects of environmental contaminants. ; Murmansk County Birth Registry (MCBR) ble offisielt startet 1. januar 2006. Frem til i dag (april 2009) har MCBR registrert over 26 000 fødsler. Registeret dekker et geografisk område som kalles Kola halvøya lokalisert i nordvest Russland. Nesten hele området ligger nord for polarsirkelen. Murmansk fylke (eller Murmansk regionen) er omtrent halvparten så stort som Norge og hadde 857 000 innbyggere i 2008. Det finnes 15 fødemottak i fylket som alle er involvert og leverer data til registeret. Fødemottakene strekker seg fra Nikel (ved norskegrensen) og ned til Kandalaksha, sør i fylket. Selve registerkontoret ligger i Murmansk by og har i dag fire ansatte. MCBR registrerer hvert år over 99% av alle fødsler i fylket og basert på resultater av flere kvalitetskontroller og plenumsmøter med alle involverte, ser registeret ut til å ha en validitet av tilfredsstillende omfang. Selve registreringen av fødsler er obligatorisk for alle kvinner og vedtatt gjennom regional lovgivning og er et samarbeidsprosjekt mellom Universitetet i Tromsø og helsedepartementet i Murmansk. Sammen har de definert flere retningslinjer og oppgaver som registeret skal oppfylle og utføre: • Overvåke mor og barns helse; • Overvåke tilgangen på helsetilbud; • Utvikle standarder og retningslinjer for mor/barn helse; • Generere nye hypoteser og frembringe kunnskap om kausale sammenhenger mellom risiko faktorer og perinatal helse. Sammenligninger av svangerskapsutfall fra Murmansk fylke med andre nordlige deler av de nordiske landene (Norge, Sverige og Finland) resulterte i mange interessante oppdagelser. For det første var den demografiske sammensetningen av de fødende kvinnene veldig forskjellig i disse ulike populasjonene. De gravide hadde en mye lavere gjennomsnittsalder in Murmansk fylke (omtrent 3.5 år), prosentandelen av tenåringsmødre var dobbel så høy som i Nord-Norge of fem ganger høyere enn i Nord-Sverige. Videre viste det seg at hver kvinne fikk færre barn gjennom livet i Murmansk fylke, de nyfødte hadde en lavere gjennomsnittlig fødselsvekt (omtrent 200 g) og andelen av barn med en fødselsvekt over 4500 g var fire og en halv gang høyere i Nord-Norge. Den ene studien som sammenlignet fødselsvekter, perinatal dødelighet og svangerskapslengder mellom Nord-Norge og Murmansk Fylke ga oss mer nyttig informasjon. Basert på WHO sine retningslinjer for utregninger av perinatal dødelighet bland kvinner med kjent svangerskapslengde ble det funnet at den perinatale dødeligheten var 11.0/1000 i Murmansk fylke (2006-2007) og 5.4/1000 in Nord-Norge (2004-2006). Risikoen for perinatal dødelighet var høyere ved alle svangerskapslengder og i alle fødselsvektkategorier i Murmansk fylke. Det var også store forskjeller i den optimale perinatale overlevelsesvekten og i det som kunne oppfattes som "liten for gestasjonsalder", spesielt for de som ble født på termin. To videre studier prøvde å finne løsninger på problemer relatert til innsamling av vevsprøver og miljøgifter i den arktiske delen av Russland. En skikkelig protokoll er tross alt hjørnesteinen i en hver ordentlig epidemiologisk studie. Det ble konkludert med at maternalt blod/plasma var det mest fundamentale bioovervåkningsmedium for organiske klorider og giftige metaller. Det viste seg også at avanserte statistiske utregninger krevde tilstedeværelse av målbare verdier av kontaminantene i over 80% av tilfellene. Til slutt ble det funnet at korrelasjonene mellom nivåene av de forskjellige organiske kloridene (med noen få unntak) var så høye at det å måle nivået av noen få av dem kunne gi et klart bilde av den kombinerte kroppsbelastningen av de respektive kontaminantene. Konklusjonen er at MCBR kan bli et viktig og uunnværlig instrument for perinatale helsestudier i fremtiden. ; Регистр родов Мурманской области (РРМО) был официально начат 1 января 2006 года. До настоящего времени (до апреля 2009 г.) в РРМО зарегистрировано свыше 26000 родов. Регистр охватывает географическое пространство, известное как Кольский полуостров, расположенный на Северо-западе России. Это пространство почти полностью находится за Полярным кругом. Мурманская область составляет почти половину территории Норвегии. В 2008 г. в ней проживало 857 000 жителей. В области насчитывается 15 родильных отделений. Все они поставляют данные для регистра. Родильные отделения расположены на территории, которая простирается от г. Никеля (находящегося у норвежской границы) на Северо-западе до г. Кандалакши на юге. Офис Регистра находится в г. Мурманске. Его персонал составляет 4 человека. Ежегодно в РРМО регистрируется свыше 99% всех родов области. Результаты различных измерений контроля качества, а также региональные семинары подтверждают надежность данных регистра. Регистрация родов в РРМО является обязательной, и это записано в региональном законодательстве. РРМО является плодом совместных усилий Университета Тромсё и Отдела Здравоохранения Мурманской области. Вместе они разработали четыре основные директивы, или задачи регистра: • контролировать состояние здоровья матерей и их новорожденных детей; • контролировать эффективность материнского и перинатального здравоохранения; • разработать стандарты и директивы для материнского и перинатального здравоохранения; • выдвинуть новые гипотезы и обеспечить знание о взаимосвязи между факторами риска и репродуктивным здоровьем. Сравнение некоторых исходов беременностей Мурманской области с данными северных регионов скандинавских стран (Норвегия, Швеция и Финляндия) показало некоторые интересные различия. Прежде всего, это расхождение в демографическом составе соответствующих групп рожающего населения. Беременные женщины в Мурманской области были гораздо моложе (разница около 3,5 лет). Процент матерей- подростков был почти в два раза выше, чем в Северной Норвегии и в 5 раз выше, чем в Северной Швеции. Каждая женщина Мурманской области склонна иметь меньше детей, младенцы в среднем легче на 200 грамм. Доля детей с весом при рождении свыше 4500 грамм в 4.5 раза выше в Северной Норвегии. Сравнение данных Северной Норвегии и Мурманской области по весу при родах, перинатальной смертельности и гестационному возрасту дало нам ценную информацию. На основе директивных расчетов ВОЗ перинатальная смертность среди женщин с известным гестационным возрастом в Мурманской области была 11.0/1000 (2006-2007 гг.) и 5.4/1000 в Северной Норвегии (2004-2006 гг.). Риск перинатальной смертности в Мурманской области был выше для всех гестационных возрастов и для любого веса при родах. Большое несоответствие в этих двух регионах было и по оптимальному перинатальному весу, при котором младенец выживал, и теми младенцами, которые были рождены в срок, но были рождены маленькими для своего гестационного возраста (10% ниже нормального веса). Целью двух других исследований было найти решение проблем, касающихся отбора проб тканей и загрязняющих веществ окружающей среды в Российской Арктике. Основой любого эпидемиологического изучения является эффективный протокол. Были сделаны выводы, что материнская плазма/кровь является самой основной средой для биомониторинга органохлоридов и токсичных металлов по сравнению с кровью из пуповины и грудным молоком. Также для сложного статистического анализа необходимо, чтобы частота обнаружения концентраций отдельного загрязняющего вещества в каждом образце превышала 80%. И в заключение, корреляции между концентрациями различных органохлоридов в биологических жидкостях (за некоторым исключением) были достаточно высокими. Т.о. определение концентрации только нескольких органохлоридов, тех, у которых высокая частота обнаружения, даст соответствующую картину комбинированной нагрузки на организм этих загрязняющих веществ. В заключение Будем надеяться, что РРМО даст бесценный инструмент для изучения в будущем репродуктивного здоровья, например инструмент для изучения неблагоприятного эффекта от веществ, загрязняющих окружающую среду.