scholarly journals Using Open Data to Monitor the Status of a Metropolitan Area: The Case of the Metropolitan Area of Turin

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-307
Author(s):  
Filippo Candela ◽  
Paolo Mulassano

Abstract The paper presents and discusses the method adopted by Compagnia di San Paolo, one of the largest European philanthropic institutions, to monitor the advancement, despite the COVID-19 situation, in providing specific input to the decision-making process for dedicated projects. An innovative approach based on the use of daily open data was adopted to monitor the metropolitan area with a multidimensional perspective. Several open data indicators related to the economy, society, culture, environment, and climate were identified and incorporated into the decision support system dashboard. Indicators are presented and discussed to highlight how open data could be integrated into the foundation's strategic approach and potentially replicated on a large scale by local institutions. Moreover, starting from the lessons learned from this experience, the paper analyzes the opportunities and critical issues surrounding the use of open data, not only to improve the quality of life during the COVID-19 epidemic but also for the effective regulation of society, the participation of citizens, and their well-being.

2021 ◽  
pp. 000313482199475
Author(s):  
Brett M. Chapman ◽  
George M. Fuhrman

The Covid-19 pandemic has provided challenges for surgical residency programs demanding fluid decision making focused on providing care for our patients, maintaining an educational environment, and protecting the well-being of our residents. This brief report summarizes the impact of the impact on our residency programs clinical care and education. We have identified opportunities to improve our program using videoconferencing, managing recruitment, and maintaining a satisfactory caseload to ensure the highest possible quality of surgical education.


2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 199-220
Author(s):  
Joseph A. Stramondo ◽  

Both mainstream and disability bioethics sometimes contend that the self-assessment of disabled people about their own well-being is distorted by adaptive preferences that are only held because other, better options are unavailable. I will argue that both of the most common ways of understanding adaptive preferences—the autonomy-based account and the well-being account—would reject blanket claims that disabled people’s QOL self-assessment has been distorted, whether those claims come from mainstream bioethicists or from disability bioethicists. However, rejecting these generalizations for a more nuanced view still has dramatic implications for the status quo in both health policy and clinical ethics.


2009 ◽  
Vol 24 (S1) ◽  
pp. 1-1 ◽  
Author(s):  
X.-L. Wang

Depression cases have been reported among workers in the financial industries. Occupations in this industry are considered among the most stressful ones. This study aimed to examine the impact of depressive symptoms of financial workers in China on their productivity and well-being. A survey was conducted using a convenient sample of 1024 financial workers recruited from three large-scale financial organizations located in the north and south of China. The result of Hierarchical Regression Analyses shows that depressive symptoms of workers significantly impaired their work-life quality. Severity of depressive symptoms had significant positive relationships with three behavioral manifestations at works. These are, in order of decreasing effect size, turnover intention, presenteeism, and absenteeism. Specifically, depressive symptoms had a larger effect on presenteeism compared to absenteeism, which implies the unawareness or insufficient recognition of Chinese workers towards depression as an illness in comparison with other physical illnesses. Moreover, a Univariate Analysis was conducted to study the moderating effect of emotional labor on the relationship between the severity of depressive symptoms and presenteeism. An aggravating effect was found, displaying a greater damage of depressive symptoms to psychosocial functions of workers. Besides, depressive symptoms of workers also impaired their quality of life in aspects such as interpersonal relationships, life situation, and so on. This study provides evidence of impairments of depression in the workplace, urging the management to pay more attention to its employees' mental health no matter whether it is for the sake of the company's benefit or the employees' well-being.


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Gregorčič

The article presents findings from a large-scale qualitative research study conducted as part of a three-year Erasmus+ project entitled Old Guys Say Yes to Community, which included partners from Slovenia, Portugal, Poland and Estonia. The project explored how inactive ageing affects the quality of life, health and well-being of men aged 60 years or more, and how (self-)exclusion from the community can lead to social and psychological ‘death’. The article highlights four interconnected themes which are inadequately, insufficiently, or simply not addressed by national institutions and often also the non-governmental sector in the researched countries. The themes – the pluralisation of transitions to retirement and ageing; absent bodies and invisible lives; hegemonic masculinity and gendered experiences; and community-based learning, action and spaces – are supported by well-defined issues and obstacles preventing men from integrating into the community and are completed with suggestions and recommendations to implement much-needed changes. In addition to these four themes, the article touches upon a series of subtopics and questions that should be addressed by further scientific research in the observed countries.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 546-546
Author(s):  
Nancy Hodgson ◽  
Darina Petrovsky

Abstract Irregular sleep-wake patterns are common in persons living with dementia (PLWD), pose a great burden to caregivers, and are the principal causes of distress and institutionalization of PLWD. A growing body of research supports the importance of activity-based interventions to reduce the frequency and intensity of sleep wake disruption, reduce neuropsychiatric symptoms, and improve quality of life. To date, there are no studies linking sleep disruption and well-being with the nature and timing of activity. This session focuses on lessons learned from the Healthy Patterns Study - a randomized trial of a home-based activity intervention in 200 dyads of PLWD and their caregivers (NCT03682185). Session 1 focuses on the main findings from the clinical trial. Session 2 focuses on the cultural adaptation of the timed activity protocol to improve quality of life (QOL), improve sleep and reduce neuropsychiatric symptoms in older Latinos Session 3 describes the community outreach efforts used over a one-year period to recruit a diverse sample of PLWD and their caregivers for the Healthy Patterns trial. Session 4 examine the relationship between caregiver mastery and neuropsychiatric symptoms in PLWD. Together these findings highlight the complex role of sleep and wake activity in promoting well-being in persons with dementia.


2007 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucia Athens

As a culture we hold dear social values such as public good, health and well-being, quality of life, diversity, and equity. The focus of this article is how Seattle's Central Library, a Silver LEED™ project, integrates social benefit into its design. While LEED provides credit opportunities for some social issues, many are not addressed by the LEED System. The Seattle project provides a rich example of how to integrate a broader range of social sustainability into green design thinking. Issues for consideration include: design to encourage social interaction, accessibility, economic development, cultural arts, and improved staff efficiency and ergonomics. This discussion searches for lessons learned that might inspire the emergence of new LEED credits.


Author(s):  
Jonathan Todres ◽  
Shani M. King

Significant progress has been made on implementing children’s rights and securing child well-being in the thirty years since the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Yet millions of children continue to suffer children’s rights violations. Looking forward, this concluding chapter of the volume focuses on two areas: cross-cutting themes in children’s rights and selected critical issues in children’s rights. First, the chapter argues that a core group of key themes are particularly relevant to children’s rights and require greater attention: the time-sensitive nature of children’s rights, the interrelated nature of children’s rights, autonomy’s application to children, child participation, and the need to mainstream both children and children’s rights. The second part of the chapter discusses pressing issues that have and will continue to have major impact on children’s rights, including large-scale human rights crises, the private sector, technology, genetic and related scientific advances, the rise in populism, violence against children, and climate change. Through the combination of these cross-cutting themes and current issues, the chapter maps an agenda for research and advocacy that can advance children’s rights law scholarship and help foster progress toward ensuring the rights and well-being of all children.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (23) ◽  
pp. 10067
Author(s):  
Paola Gullino ◽  
Enrico Pomatto ◽  
Walter Gaino ◽  
Marco Devecchi ◽  
Federica Larcher

The paper illustrates a holistic approach for restoring historic gardens in urbanized contexts, from the historic analysis, to the knowledge of the present values, to the proposal of guidelines for restoration and future sustainable management. The Royal Park of Moncalieri Castle (Turin metropolitan area, north-west Italy) was used as a case study. The evaluation of the current structure, analysis of the botanical component and the recognition of historical permanences were performed. Following the criteria of specific interest (forestry, botanical and compositional) and historical importance, invasive species and specific critical issue, selected trees were described and mapped. Identifying the historical compositional elements, including a system of preferential paths and botanical species to be safeguarded should be considered the first step for future management planning process. Our results could be of interest both for methodological purposes and for the restoration of historical gardens’ planning and management. During the restoration process, different critical issues exist. In this context, combining historical and compositional values with today’s needs and problems is a scientific challenge that involve all the community. Historic parks and gardens must be considered as patches of the urban green infrastructure, able to provide a wide set of ecosystem services. Promoting the return of historic parks to the public fruition is of primary importance for the citizen well-being.


Daedalus ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 141 (2) ◽  
pp. 10-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Greenstone ◽  
Adam Looney

Energy consumption is critical to economic growth and quality of life. America's energy system, however, is malfunctioning. The status quo is characterized by a tilted playing field, where energy choices are based on the visible costs that appear on utility bills and at gas pumps. This system masks the “external” costs arising from those energy choices, including shorter lives, higher health care expenses, a changing climate, and weakened national security. As a result, we pay unnecessarily high costs for energy. New “rules of the road” could level the energy playing field. Drawing from our work for The Hamilton Project, this paper offers four principles for reforming U.S. energy policies in order to increase Americans' well-being.


2007 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krishne Gowda ◽  
M.V. Sridhara

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to build up perspectives for the conservation and restoration of the various spoilt water bodies within the Bangalore metropolitan area.Design/methodology/approachThis paper describes how Bangalore city is typical of the features of peninsular India in that it is made up of ridges, valleys and undulating terrain. Monsoon rainfall is substantial and the tanks and lakes can receive and contain substantial amounts of water from rains. Only thing is to de‐clog the natural water flow routes and to restore the bunds of tanks and repair the spillways and put in place legal and administrative measures to preserve the interiors of tanks; free them from construction activities and launch suitable afforestation programs to contain soil erosion, improve the quality of subsoil water and raise if possible medicinal and ornamental trees so that Bangalore gains in its aesthetic appeal.FindingsThe study reveals that the existence of water bodies is an important asset to the environment of Bangalore. It has a beneficial impact on the microclimate of the city and serves as outdoor recreational areas, which are very much needed as a source of change and relief for the city dwellers. It is good for developing open spaces with greenery along the valleys. There is much scope for water‐front developments to enhance urban aesthetics in the surrounding areas. It is possible to improve the ground water table, so that there will be scope for tapping ground water through bore wells all through the year, particularly during summers.Practical implicationsThis work will draw the attention of government authorities as well as local residents, NGOs and experts to keep the tanks/lakes conserved in and around the BMA and to prevent silting of tanks by offshore development and large‐scale tree planting and also removal of encroachments within the study area.Originality/valueThis study will stimulate interest in recreation, conservation, open space beautification, pollution abatement and a myriad other ways to improve the quality of urban environment.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document