Search

Data for this study were obtained from a population-based follow-up study in 25 Italian Local Health Units (LHUs) to evaluate pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum care in Italy. A sample of 3534 women was recruited and interviewed within a few days of their giving birth and at 3, 6, and 12 months after delivery, by trained interviewers using questionnaires. The objective of the study was to evaluate changes in smoking behaviour from one interview to the next. Of 2546 women who completed the follow-up, smoking prevalences before and during pregnancy were 21.6% and 6.7%; smoking prevalences and smoking relapse at 3, 6, and 12 months were 8.1% and 18.5%, 10.3% and 30.3%, and 10.9% and 32.3%, respectively. Smoking during and after pregnancy was more likely among women who were less educated, single, not attending antenatal classes, employed, and not breastfeeding. The results show that women who are breastfeeding smoke less than not breastfeeding women, even after controlling for other predictors (i.e., smoking relapse at 12 months: OR=0.43, 95% CI: 0.19, 0.94). A low maternal mood increases the risk of smoking relapse within 6 months of about 73%. This study also suggests that prolonged breastfeeding reduces the risk of smoking relapse and that this reduction may be persistent in time. Interventions targeting breastfeeding promotion may also indirectly support smoking cessation, even in absence of specific interventions.

The semantic Web is a technology at the service of knowledge which is aimed at accessibility and the sharing of content; facilitating interoperability between different systems and as such is one of the nine key technological pillars of TIC (technologies for information and communication) within the third theme, programme specific cooperation of the seventh programme framework for research and development (7°PQRS, 2007-2013). As a system it seeks to overcome overload or excess of irrelevant information in Internet, in order to facilitate specific or pertinent research. It is an extension of the existing Web in which the aim is for cooperation between and the computer and people (the dream of Sir Tim Berners –Lee) where machines can give more support to people when integrating and elaborating data in order to obtain inferences and a global sharing of data. It is a technology that is able to favour the development of a “data web” in other words the creation of a space in both sets of interconnected and shared data (Linked Data) which allows users to link different types of data coming from different sources. It is a technology that will have great effect on everyday life since it will permit the planning of “intelligent applications” in various sectors such as education and training, research, the business world, public information, tourism, health, and e-government. It is an innovative technology that activates a social transformation (socio-semantic Web) on a world level since it redefines the cognitive universe of users and enables the sharing not only of information but of significance (collective and connected intelligence).

In this article the author sets out to compare and analyse models for e-learning that have evolved passing from the characteristics of Web 1.0 to those of Web 2.0, and to propose 2 possible applications: PLE or Personal Learning Environment and VLP or Virtual Learning Place. For each one, specific aspects and guidance are highlighted while recognising that the concept of E- learning has evolved in connection with Lifelong Learning in the programmes and actions of the European Commission.