Change management and new expertise in AEC firms: improvement in environmental competence

The aim of the paper is to provide an overview of the change management inherent Architecture, Engineering and Construction firms, focusing the attention on the transformation made by environmental issues and their related drivers. Over the last years, building sector has become increasingly complex, due to the heavy demand of a wide range of requirements and to the globalization of the market. This leads on one side the innovation of digital tools, as a result of the development of Information and Communication Technology – ICT, and on the other the division of labour in AEC firms, that is socially spread with an even more highly specialization. The fragmentation can take place in two directions: along what is conventionally defined as the vertical dimension of the process (i.e. the sequence of operations that proceed from inception to implementation phase) as well as along the horizontal dimension (i.e. operations occurring at any given stage). The paper shows the results of the analysis carried out on some of the AEC firms established at international level, highlighting the inner structure, organization, competences and tools used in practice. The configuration of the process structure and the consequent division of labour turn out to be established by a set of internal conditions, generated by the project itself as well as the available technology. Furthermore, the decision to structure internal firm hierarchies or to have external equipment (both experts and tools) depends on the cost that the firms should undertake in order to acquire knowledge, services or products that are external to their sphere of governance. The overview gives an evidence that the explosion of product/service options and the connected specialized systems for the whole building, from exterior cladding to computer-controlled HVAC, require even more a highly amount of knowledge and skills and the demand of new competences and expertise. In particular, the study shows the increasingly request in AEC firms of experts and tools, to deal with the challenging environmental topics. Firms themselves are taking advantage by the integration of environmental topics and goals, as proven by the fact that in the top ten global AEC firms seven of them are considered environmentally friendly (source: ENR). The paper highlights that many drivers are pushing effort in that direction: on one hand, policy and legislation at international and national level, incentive programs and also voluntary certification such as Green Building Rating System; and on the other hand design firms themselves, stimulated by competiveness or, in few case, by their philosophy

Internationalisation, cultural distance and country characteristics: a Bayesian analysis of SME's financial performance

Relying on the accounting data of a panel of 403 Italian manufacturing SMEs collected over a period of 5 years, we find results suggesting that multinationality per se does not impact on the economic performance of international small and medium sized firms. It is the characteristics of the country selected i.e. the political hazard, the financial stability and the economic performance that significantly influence SMEs financial performance. The management implication for small and medium sized firms selecting and entering new geographic markets is significant, since our results show that for SMEs it is the market selection process that really matters and not the degree of multinationality

A copula-based approach for the estimation of wave height records through spatial correlation

publisher: Elsevier articletitle: A copula-based approach for the estimation of wave height records through spatial correlation journaltitle: Coastal Engineering articlelink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.coastaleng.2016.06.008 content_type: article copyright: © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V

Large-scale response of the Eastern Mediterranean thermohaline circulation to African monsoon intensification during sapropel S1 formation

The formation of Eastern Mediterranean sapropels has periodically occurred during intensification of northern hemisphere monsoon precipitation over North Africa. However, the large-scale response of the Eastern Mediterranean thermohaline circulation during these monsoon-fuelled freshening episodes is poorly constrained. Here, we investigate the formation of the youngest sapropel (S1) along an across-slope transect in the Adriatic Sea. Foraminifera-based oxygen index, redox-sensitive elements and biogeochemical parameters reveal – for the first time – that the Adriatic S1 was synchronous with the deposition of south-eastern Mediterranean S1 beds. Proxies of paleo thermohaline currents indicate that the bottom-hugging North Adriatic Dense Water (NAdDW) suddenly decreased at the sapropel onset simultaneously with the maximum freshening of the Levantine Sea during the African Humid Period. We conclude that the lack of the “salty” Levantine Intermediate Water hampered the preconditioning of the northern Adriatic waters necessary for the NAdDW formation prior to the winter cooling. Consequently, a weak NAdDW limited in turn the Eastern Mediterranean Deep Water (EMDWAdriatic) formation with important consequences for the ventilation of the Ionian basin as well. Our results highlight the importance of the Adriatic for the deep water ventilation and the interdependence among the major eastern Mediterranean water masses whose destabilization exerted first-order control on S1 deposition

Large-scale response of the Eastern Mediterranean thermohaline circulation to African monsoon intensification during sapropel S1 formation

This study was supported by Shell International Exploration and Production Inc. We thank the R/V URANIA crew for at sea assistance. This is the ISMAR contribution n. 1914. We thank Dr. L. Capotondi and Dr. L. Vigliotti for their constructive comments on the first draft of the manuscript. We also thank Dr. Daria Pasqual (University of Padova, Dept. of Geosciences) for her assistance in XRF analyses. We thank two anonymous reviewers and the Editor H. Bauch for their constructive comments. We also acknowledge Prof. Gerhard Schmiedl (Universität Hamburg) and Associate Prof. Syee Weldeab (Earth Science, UC Santa Barbara) for providing published data used in this study.Peer reviewedPostprin

Intratumor Regulatory Noncytotoxic NK Cells in Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Previous studies support the role of natural killer (NK) cells in controlling hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) progression. However, ambiguity remains about the multiplicity and the role of different NK cell subsets, as a pro-oncogenic function has been suggested. We performed phenotypic and functional characterization of NK cells infiltrating HCC, with the corresponding nontumorous tissue and liver from patients undergoing liver resection for colorectal liver metastasis used as controls. We identified a reduced number of NK cells in tumors with higher frequency of CD56(BRIGHT)CD16(-) NK cells associated with higher expression of NKG2A, NKp44, and NKp30 and downregulation of NKG2D. Liver-resident (CXCR6(+)) NK cells were reduced in the tumors where T-bet(hi)Eomes(lo) expression was predominant. HCCs showed higher expression of CD49a with particular enrichment in CD49a(+)Eomes(+) NK cells, a subset typically represented in the decidua and playing a proangiogenic function. Functional analysis showed reduced TNF-alpha production along with impaired cytotoxic capacity that was inversely related to CXCR6(-), T-bet(hi)Eomes(lo), and CD49a(+)Eomes(+) NK cells. In conclusion, we identified a subset of NK cells infiltrating HCC, including non-liver-resident cells that coexpressed CD49a and Eomes and showed reduced cytotoxic potential. This NK cell subset likely plays a regulatory role in proangiogenic function