Bullying and Cyberbullying among Italian Adolescents: The Influence of Psychosocial Factors on Violent Behaviours.

BACKGROUND: The study of adolescents' behaviours and attitudes is crucial to define interventions for the containment of deviance and social discomfort. New ways of social interaction are crystallising violent behaviours which are moving more than ever on a virtual sphere. Bullying and cyberbullying share a common behavioural matrix that has been outlined through specific environmental and individual characteristics. METHODS: A survey carried out in Italy in 2019 on a statistical sample of 3273 students highlighted the influence of several social and individual variables on deviant phenomena. Risk and protective factors in relation to the probability of involvement in bullying and cyberbullying have been shown through a bivariate analysis and a binary logistic regression model. RESULTS: The study shows that presence of stereotypes and social prejudices, tolerance to violence and high levels of self-esteem have resulted as the main risk factors. On the other hand, low levels of tolerance related to the consumption of alcohol and drugs, high levels of trust towards family and friends and being female have been identified as protective factors. CONCLUSIONS: This research confirms the validity of several theories on bullying and cyberbullying phenomena. Furthermore, it identifies specific risk and protective factors and their influence on deviant behaviours, with a focus on environmental characteristics which appear as the key field of work to enhance adolescents' well-being.

MOCRA: a Monte Carlo code for the simulation of radiative transfer in the atmosphere.

This paper describes the radiative transfer model (RTM) MOCRA (MOnte Carlo Radiance Analysis), developed in the frame of DOAS (Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy) to correctly interpret remote sensing measurements of trace gas amounts in the atmosphere through the calculation of the Air Mass Factor. Besides the DOAS-related quantities, the MOCRA code yields: 1- the atmospheric transmittance in the vertical and sun directions, 2- the direct and global irradiance, 3- the single- and multiple- scattered radiance for a detector with assigned position, line of sight and field of view. Sample calculations of the main radiometric quantities calculated with MOCRA are presented and compared with the output of another RTM (MODTRAN4). A further comparison is presented between the NO2 slant column densities (SCDs) measured with DOAS at Evora (Portugal) and the ones simulated with MOCRA. Both comparisons (MOCRA-MODTRAN4 and MOCRA-observations) gave more than satisfactory results, and overall make MOCRA a versatile tool for atmospheric radiative transfer simulations and interpretation of remote sensing measurements.

The Moral Obligation of Nutrition and Hydration in the Tradition and Magisterium of the Catholic Church: A Look at the Debate in the United States of America.

The recent publication of the fifth edition of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services on November 17, 2009, by mandate of the United States bishops, witnessed the eruption of a controversy in the U.S. with regard to nutrition and hydration for the seriously ill and dying. Among the major philosophical and moral thinkers in the field, there are some on the one hand who-out of respect for the wishes of the patient as expressed in normal situations-see no need for nutrition and hydration if such are the patient's wishes, even though they may have been expressed before the patient became ill. On the other hand, there are those who-out of respect for human dignity and with the understanding that any act of euthanasia is morally unacceptable-do not see how the interruption of life support can be acceptable unless it comes to be a burden and no longer a benefit under end-of-life conditions. In light of all this, the present article aims to provide reflections on the nature of assisted nutrition and hydration (ANH) and the obligation to use it in cases where clinical evidence requires it, with a particular focus on the ongoing bioethical debate in the U.S.

Monitoring of atmospheric ozone and nitrogen dioxide over the south of Portugal by ground-based and satellite observations.

The SPATRAM (Spectrometer for Atmospheric TRAcers Monitoring) instrument has been developed as a result of the collaboration between CGE-UE, ISAC-CNR and Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and the Environment (ENEA). SPATRAM is a multi-purpose UV-Vis-scanning spectrometer (250 - 950 nm) and it is installed at the Observatory of the CGE, in Evora, since April 2004. A brief description of the instrument is given, highlighting the technological innovations with respect to the previous version of similar equipment. The need for such measurements automatically taken on a routine basis in south-western European regions, specifically in Portugal, has encouraged the development and installation of the equipment and constitutes a major driving force for the present work. The main features and some improvements introduced in the DOAS (Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy) algorithms are discussed. The results obtained applying DOAS methodology to the SPATRAM spectrometer measurements of diffused spectral sky radiation are presented in terms of diurnal and seasonal variations of nitrogen dioxide (NO(2)) and ozone (O(3)). NO(2) confirms the typical seasonal cycle reaching the maximum of (6.5 +/- 0.3) x 10(+15) molecules cm(-2) for the sunset values (PM), during the summer season, and the minimum of (1.55 +/- 0.07) x 10(+15) molecules cm(-2) for the sunrise values (AM) in winter. O(3) presents the maximum total column of (433 +/- 5) Dobson Unit (DU) in the spring season and the minimum of (284 +/- 3) DU during the fall period. The huge daily variations of the O(3) total column during the spring season are analyzed and discussed. The ground-based results obtained for NO(2) and O(3) column contents are compared with data from satellite-borne equipment (GOME - Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment; SCIAMACHY - Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric CHartographY; TOMS - Total Ozone Monitoring Spectrometer) and it is shown that the two data sets are in good agreement. The correlation coefficient for the comparison of the ground-based/satellite data for O(3) is of 0.97.

Off-axis measurements of atmospheric trace gases by use of an airborne ultraviolet-visible spectrometer.

An airborne UV-visible spectrometer, the Gas Analyzer Spectrometer Correlating Optical Differences, airborne version (GASCOD/A4pi) was successfully operated during the Airborne Polar Experiment, Geophysica Aircraft in Antarctica airborne campaign from Ushuaia (54 degrees 49' S, 68 degrees 18' W), Argentina in southern spring 1999. The instrument measured scattered solar radiation through three optical windows with a narrow field of view (FOV), one from the zenith, two from the horizontal, as well as actinic fluxes through 2pi FOV radiometric heads. Only a few airborne measurements of scattered solar radiation at different angles from the zenith are available in the literature. With our configuration we attempted to obtain the average line-of-sight concentrations of detectable trace gases. The retrieval method, based on differential optical absorption spectroscopy, is described and results for ozone are shown and compared with measurements from an in situ instrument as the first method of validation.