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The symmetric shock of the Covid-19 pandemic has come with heterogeneous consequences across the world. Within the common institutional framework of the European Union, the outbreak has put under extreme stress governance and interplay between the national and supranational level. Under some coordination, responses have remained largely in the hands and on the shoulders of the Member States. In this context, the article classifies pandemic outbreaks and responses along the containment and fiscal support dimensions to uncover whether a common model for Covid-19 crisis management arises across the EU27 or rather different policy choices patterns emerge within the continent. Based on indicators covering the three dimensions derived from the Oxford Covid Government response tracker, the John Hopkins CSSE Covid-19 database and the European Commission Autumn Forecasts, the paper employs hierarchical cluster analysis to uncover response group across countries and characterize them by the outbreak, containment and fiscal support strengths, delineating as well the geographical distribution across and within the clusters. The findings present the heterogeneity of response models, robust to alternative specifications and timeframes across the first and the second wave, deriving broader implications for the outlook for the vaccine-roll out and exit from the crisis. The dynamics in 2020 are also considered in the context of the shortcomings of supranational governance within the EU and the current policy reform debate, highlighting the high stakes for the upcoming Conference on the Future of Europe. The contribution of the work is furthered by offering a systematic methodology and framework to study heterogeneities of pandemic responses within the EU paving the way for further analysis of contributing factors explaining decision-makers policy choices as well as performance concerning political, social and economic outcomes across the models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates whether or not Italian Certified B Corps® in the fashion industry achieved levels of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and financial performance that are comparable to listed companies in the same industry during the Covid-19 pandemic. After a review of the literature concerning B Corps, CSR and the circular economy, as well as some coverage of pandemic impacts, a quantitative approach is used to analyze the data empirically. Based on the data available, the study incorporated the entire population of Italian listed companies and B Corps in the fashion industry. Moreover, this study confirms the relationship between CSR and financial performance. The availability of sustainability documents other than the required social responsibility report does not directly affect a company's profitability, but they are necessary for the long term. The results also confirm the positive relationship between sustainability certification and higher financial performance, as the most sustainable companies were also the most profitable. Certified B Corps® declare their willingness to adopt circular economic principles to the same extent as non-certified listed companies. Moreover, the results show that consumers mainly remember the information disclosed on a company's homepage; therefore, managers should publish more there. However, they should not underestimate the importance of their sustainability report because it is an effective social communication tool, especially in the long term. Finally, obtaining the B Corp certification will allow companies to inform stakeholders of their social responsibility and achieve higher financial results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Objective: Personal exposure to airborne benzene is influenced by various outdoor and indoor sources. The first aim of this study was to assess the benzene exposure of a sample of urban inhabitants living in an inner-city neighborhood of Florence, Italy, excluding exposure from active smoking. The secondary objective was to differentiate the personal exposures according to personal usage patterns of the vehicles. Methods: A sample of 67 healthy non-smokers was monitored by passive samplers during two 4-weekday campaigns in winter and late spring. Simultaneously, benzene measurements were also taken for a subset of participants, inside and outside their houses. A 4-day time microenvironment activity diary was completed by each subject during each sampling period. Other relevant exposure data were collected by a questionnaire before the sampling. Additional data on urban ambient air benzene levels were also available from the public air quality network. The passive samplers, after automated thermal desorption, were analyzed by GC-FID. Results: Benzene personal exposure levels averaged 6.9 (SD=2.1) and 2.3 (SD=0.7) μg/m3 in winter and spring, respectively. Outdoor and indoor levels showed high correlation in winter and poor in spring. In winter the highest benzene personal exposure levels were for people traveling by more public transport, followed by users of only car and by users of only bus respectively. Conclusions: The time spent in-transport for work or leisure makes a major contribution to benzene exposure among Florentine non-smoking citizens. Indoor pollution and transportation means contribute significantly to individual exposure levels especially in winter season. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Web applications are among the most popular and relevant kinds of application. Most Web applications are developed using a content management framework (CMF). CMF helps to accelerate the publication of large amounts of information and the development of Web applications. However, developing Web applications through CMF is not exempt from cost and time overruns, as in traditional software projects. Currently, there is no estimation model able to adequately measure the effort of developing a Web application. This work presents a new methodology, called web framework points, to estimate the effort of Web applications developed with CMF. Web framework points is a hybrid methodology, composed of a sizing phase, which follows specific guidelines, and an effort estimation phase, obtained by applying a cost model to the size model of the project to estimate. The sizing of the project takes into account not only usual functional requirements, as in function points analysis, but also elements specific for developing a Web application through CMF. We also present the experimental validation of the proposed methodology, performed on a dataset of 29 real-world projects, of which 83% show an estimation error of less than 25%. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On October 2004, a sampling survey was carried out in Florence to estimate urban fine particle exposure concentrations inside commuting vehicles during workdays characterized by heavy traffic. Portable samplers were positioned inside four regularly scheduled diesel-powered buses and four taxis during eight weekdays. Each sampler consisted of a 2.5μm size pre-separator cyclone, a direct-reading data logging photometer (pDR-1200), and a 4Lmin−1 filter sampler for the determination of PM2.5 mass concentration. Based on reflectance analysis measurements, a PM2.5 Black Smoke Index was determined for each filter, and the elemental composition of the PM2.5 was analyzed by Particle Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE). PM2.5 mass concentrations inside the vehicles correlated well with the urban ambient air PM2.5 concentrations measured at the fixed-site monitoring stations. The PM2.5 excess above the urban ambient level was on average 32μgm− 3 (range: 22–52μgm− 3) and 20μgm− 3 (range: 11–29μgm− 3) in buses and taxis, respectively. The PM2.5-bound sulfur concentration was also higher in the buses than in the taxis. Based on daily Time-Microenvironment-Activity-Diary (TMAD) data, the Florentines spend on average 9.7% of their day in traffic, and the corresponding average exposure is approximately 12% of their daily PM2.5 personal exposure. The obtained data could be used to plan interventions to minimize the PM2.5 citizen exposures in commuting. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Air pollution and particulate matter in urban areas have been associated with increased mortality from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and increased cancer risk. Carcinogenic effects of particulate matter have been related to the contents of specific compounds, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The latter may form bulky DNA adducts, that may be considered as candidate markers of cancer risk. We have recently shown that traffic-exposed workers and the general population in Florence have divergent levels of DNA adducts, possibly related to different levels of exposure to genotoxic agents from vehicle emissions. In the current study, in a series of 214 Florence City healthy adults enrolled in a prospective study in the period 1993–1998 (152 residents / 62 traffic-exposed workers), we investigated the correlation between individual levels of DNA bulky adducts and PM10 exposure scores based on daily environmental measures provided by the local Environmental Protection Agency for the whole study period, by two types of urban monitoring stations (high- and low-traffic). We found that PM10 cumulative scores from high-traffic stations over the last 1–2 weeks prior to blood drawing significantly correlated (r =0.58, p =0.02) with DNA adduct levels among non-smoking traffic-exposed workers (but not among residents with no occupational exposure to vehicle emissions). A multivariate regression analysis adjusted for possible confounders confirmed these findings. PM10 scores from low-traffic stations did not show any correlation. These results show that DNA adduct levels in non-smoking workers reflect the average levels of exposure to PM10 in high-traffic urban areas experienced over a time period of 1–2 weeks. Since DNA adduct levels have been found predictive of lung cancer risk, our findings provide clues relevant to the reduction of genotoxic damage and possibly cancer risk among traffic-exposed urban workers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Prior to 2000 a network of conventional ozone (O3) analysers existed in the Province of Firenze (Tuscany, central Italy). Between 2000 and 2004 the network was extended to incorporate a newly designed bioindicator network of tobacco plants (Nicotiana tabacum Bel W3). The objective was to set-up an integrated monitoring system to obtain estimates of ground-level O3 concentrations over the whole study area (3513 km2) in order to fill data gaps and cover reporting requirements. The existing conventional monitors were purposefully located mainly in urban areas. A total of 45 biomonitoring sites were selected using a systematic design to cover the target area. Two to five additional biomonitoring sites were co-located with conventional O3 analysers for calibration purposes, and five more sites for independent validation of modelled O3 concentrations. Visible Leaf Injury Index (LII) on the tobacco plants was significantly correlated (P: 0.018÷0.0014) with a series of O3 exposure variables (mean of weekly 1-hour maxima, M1; mean of 7-hour means, M7; 24-hour mean, M24; and weekly AOT40). LII was found to be a significant predictor of weekly means of the O3 exposure variables with a standard error of estimates between 13.6 and 24.3 μg m−3 (absolute values). LII was mapped with an ad-hoc spatial model over the study area at a 2⁎2 km grid resolution, and mapped values were used to predict O3 concentrations by means of a first order linear model. Results showed that high estimates of O3 (up to 188 μg m−3 as mean of weekly maxima, M1) occurred more frequently in hilly and mountainous areas, with a spatial pattern changing on an annual basis. Predicted O3 concentrations were not significantly different from the measured concentrations (P: 0.34), although marked differences were observed for individual sites and years. The study provided evidence that integration of monitoring networks using different methods can be a viable option to obtain estimates of O3 concentrations over large areas. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The benzo[ a ]pyrene temporal trend was investigated in 11 towns where at least five annual means were available. The overall number of stations was 22, of which 12 were traffic-oriented, 6 background and 4 industrial. The trend was generally declining at traffic-oriented sites and roughly stable at background sites. The annual means in 2004 still exceeded the forthcoming European target value of 1 ng/m 3 in two towns (up to 1.9 ng/m 3 ). The background means (up to 1.4 ng/m 3 in 2004) accounted for approximately 40–90% of those at the traffic-oriented sites in the same town. The presence of a coke plant was incompatible with the attainment of the target value, while the adoption of technical measures on a carbon electrode plant was successful in attaining concentrations lower than the target value. In heavy traffic areas in Italy, the attainment of the target value hardly appears feasible under the current conditions of traffic congestion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]