BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION: FROM A SUPPLY-DRIVEN TO A DEMAND-DRIVEN APPROACH IN THE EXPERIENCE OF CONSIP SPA

In Italy, the transformation of government procurement began in 2000 with the model developed by Consip SpA (a public company owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance) for all public agencies across the nation. The paper is aimed to reconstruct the path taken by the public procurement reform in Italy gradually evolving from a supply-driven to a demand-driven approach. The Italian procurement transformation has co-existed with two different approaches to reform, which are working in parallel and sometimes at cross-purposes. A supply-driven approach focuses on tightening the controls on spending to tap economies of scale. A demand-driven approach focuses on decentralization and development of Electronic Public Administration MarketPlace (MEPA). The paper discusses the role Consip has played and is still playing to centrally guide the decentralization of public e-procurement, and shows the results of a sample investigation aimed at analysing the level of satisfaction of small/medium firms participating in the MEPA

Evaluation and Expected Changes of Summer Precipitation at Convection Permitting Scale with COSMO-CLM over Alpine Space

There is an ongoing debate in the climate community about the benefits of convection-permitting models that explicitly resolve convection and other thermodynamical processes. An increasing number of studies show improvements in Regional Climate Model (RCM) performances when the grid spacing is increased to 1-km scale. Up until now, such studies have revealed that convection-permitting models confer significant advantages in representing orographic regions, producing high-order statistics, predicting events with small temporal and spatial scales, and representing convective organization. The focus of this work is on the analysis of summer precipitation over the Alpine space. More specifically, the driving data are downscaled using the RCM COSMO-CLM first at an intermediate resolution (12 km) over the European Domain of Coordinated Downscaling Experiment (EURO-CORDEX domain). Then, a further downscaling at 3 km, nested into the previous one, is performed over the Alpine domain to exploit the results over a complex orography context. Experiments of evaluation, historical and far future under the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) RCP8.5 scenario have been considered. Indices as mean precipitation, frequency, intensity, and heavy precipitation are employed in daily and hourly analyses. The results, observed from the analysis of 10 year-long simulations, provide preliminary indications, highlighting significant differences of the convection permitting simulations with respect to the driving one, especially at an hourly time scale. Moreover, future projections suggest that the convection permitting simulation refines and enhances the projected patterns, compared with the coarser resolution

Erratum to: The Myths of Health Care

n/

Managing TQM's soft side: an explorative study of social care multiservice organizations

Purpose: This paper explores total quality management (TQM) soft domain efficacy in social care organizations to determine the extent to which an organization's project success may stem from soft TQM critical success factors (CSFs). Design/methodology/approach: Non-structured interviews were conducted with 16 managers overseeing the prosthetic device regeneration project of the Italian local health unit (located in Salerno) to explore which soft factors could contribute to the success of a social care multifunctional organization. Findings: Organizations' handling of certain projects, such as pivoting on soft TQM issues, may allow them to be configured as multiservice organizations. Therefore, a conceptual model of a multiservice social care organization is proposed. Practical implications: From a managerial perspective, this study presents an interesting success case of a multiservice social care organization with a total annual expenditure of €20 million on prosthetic assistance. Preliminary data show a 13% reduction in public expenditure for Salerno's local health unit via a refurbishment project. Originality/value: The paper contributes to the soft TQM literature debate: although Italian local health professionals appear aware of soft TQM issues' implementation and consciously apply them in their organization and projects, this occurs more with specific CSFs emerging from the literature. Therefore, this article paves the way for further quantitative and theoretical investigations on the adoption of TQM soft issues in social care organizations' performance measurement

AM251 induces apoptosis and G2/M cell cycle arrest in A375 human melanoma cells

Human cutaneous melanoma is an aggressive and chemotherapy-resistant type of cancer. AM251 is a cannabinoid type 1 (CB1) receptor antagonist/inverse agonist with off-target antitumor activity against pancreatic and colon cancer cells. The current study aimed to characterize the in-vitro antimelanoma activity of AM251. The BRAF V600E mutant melanoma cell line, A375, was used as an in-vitro model system. Characterization tools included a cell viability assay, nuclear morphology assessment, gene expression, western blot, flow cytometry with Annexin V-FITC/7-AAD double staining, cell cycle analyses, and measurements of changes in intracellular cAMP and calcium concentrations. AM251 exerted a marked cytotoxic effect against A375 human melanoma cells with potency comparable with that observed for cisplatin without significant changes in the human dermal fibroblasts viability. AM251, at a concentration that approximates the IC50, downregulated genes encoding antiapoptotic proteins (BCL2 and survivin) and increased transcription levels of proapoptotic BAX, induced alteration of Annexin V reactivity, DNA fragmentation, chromatin condensation in the cell nuclei, and G2/M phase arrest.AM251 also induced a 40% increase in the basal cAMP levels, but it did not affect intracellular calcium concentrations. The involvement of GPR55, TRPA1, and COX-2 in the AM251 mechanism of action was excluded. The combination of AM251 with celecoxib produced a synergistic antitumor activity, although the mechanism underlying this effect remains to be elucidated. This study provides the first evidence of a proapoptotic effect and G2/M cell cycle arrest of AM251 on A375 cells. This compound may be a potential prototype for the development of promising diarylpyrazole derivatives to be evaluated in human cutaneous melanoma

Molecular beacon-decorated polymethylmethacrylate core-shell fluorescent nanoparticles for the detection of survivin mRNA in human cancer cells.

One of the main goals of nanomedicine in cancer is the development of effective drug delivery systems, primarily nanoparticles. Survivin, an overexpressed anti-apoptotic protein in cancer, represents a pharmacological target for therapy and a Molecular Beacon (MB) specific for survivin mRNA is available. In this study, the ability of polymethylmethacrylate nanoparticles (PMMA-NPs) to promote survivin MB uptake in human A549 cells was investigated. Fluorescent and positively charged core PMMA-NPs of nearly 60nm, obtained through an emulsion co-polymerization reaction, and the MB alone were evaluated in solution, for their analytical characterization; then, the MB specificity and functionality were verified after adsorption onto the PMMA-NPs. The carrier ability of PMMA-NPs in A549 was examined by confocal microscopy. With the optimized protocol, a hardly detectable fluorescent signal was obtained after incubation of the cells with the MB alone (fluorescent spots per cell of 1.90±0.40 with a mean area of 1.04±0.20µm2), while bright fluorescent spots inside the cells were evident by using the MB loaded onto the PMMA-NPs. (27.50±2.30 fluorescent spots per cell with a mean area of 2.35±0.16µm2). These results demonstrate the ability of the PMMA-NPs to promote the survivin-MB internalization, suggesting that this complex might represent a promising strategy for intracellular sensing and for the reduction of cancer cell proliferation