Strategic planning of New Product development process in line to customer’s strategy: the role of collaborative platforms.

Purpose: This study aims to investigate how the use of collaborative plat- forms favors the alignment between the strategic planning of NPD projects andcustomers’ strategic goals. The paper addresses the challenge risen in NPD liter- ature, especially in the co-development setting. Design/Methodology/approach: Rooted in the paradigm of pragmatic con- structivism, this paper conceptualizes a learning method through which actors can use collaborative platforms to align the strategic planning of NPD project with customers’ objectives. Empirical research on a multinational company op- erating in the semiconductor industry demonstrates the method in action. Findings: The results show that the use of a collaborative platform enabled the sharing of information on NPD process and customer’s requests during thedifferent phases of NPD process. This influences the planning of the develop- ment, which varies depending on the customer goals in the different phases of NPD process. The interactions lead to revise the planning of NPD project in line with the changes experienced by the customer. Our study displays how the col- laborative platforms favor the learning process and foster the communication across organizations. Implications/Limitations: The paper answers various calls for research on creating more insights into the studies on co-development projects focused on thecustomer’s strategic perspective, highlighting the role played by collaborative platforms in favoring the learning process. Originality/Value: This paper tries to conceptualize a method to analyze the learning process in innovative projects, examining how a well-crafted NPD strat- egy requires a continuous alignment with the strategic goals of the customer

The Bank Lending Process: Accounting Information Role in Constructing Realities or Illusions

In the last decades the Bank and finance literature have paid a growing attention to the bank lending process. Considering the different kinds of information, such as hard and soft information, involved in the risk evaluation, contributions to the bank lending literature have highlighted that small banks are better able to collect and act on soft information than large banks. In the bank lending process the risk can be assessed differently among actors, so the communication plays an important role in creating the firm rating evaluation. This paper aims to understand how the accounting information, as a language, could facilitate a successful functioning reality construction or an illusionary one. Drawing on the pragmatic constructivist perspective, which assumes the reality construction as the integration between facts, values, possibilities and communication, we try to understand how the actors integrate their different calculative cultures (calculative idealism and calculative pragmatism) in the bank lending process. In doing so, we carry out two case studies at two small banks operating in the South of Italy. The empirical evidences show how the presence of multiple calculative cultures has entailed disagreement, slowing down the lending process. The integration of the two calculative cultures has been showed underlining their complementarities. This paper contributes to highlight the useful role of the pragmatic constructivist approach to study the problem of the co-presence of different cultures within an organization, explaining how an integration can occur

Transient global amnesia: an atypical presentation of acute aortic dissection

Aortic dissection (AD) is a cardiovascular emergency whose most frequent symptom is chest pain. However, clinical presentation can also be varied and atypical. In the present study we report a case of painless AD, which resulted in a sudden memory loss at presentation. Physical examination and laboratory tests regarding the patient did not show any abnormal findings and a benign transient global amnesia was diagnosed. The day after being discharged, the patient came back to the emergency department because a recurrent episode of severe memory impairment occurred. This time, additional clinical and laboratory signs suggested clinical suspicion of AD. A chest computed tomography angiogram was performed and an extensive AD type A involving carotid and iliac arteries was found. Our case report shows that acute aortic dissection diagnosis can be difficult if clinical presentation is atypical and must be assessed in the light of various clinical signs and laboratory data

Preface of the 31st Italian Symposium on Advanced Database Systems

This volume contains the proceedings of the 31st Italian Symposium on Advanced Database Systems (SEBD - Sistemi Evoluti per Basi di Dati), held in Galzinagno Terme (Padua, Italy) from 2 to 5 July 2023.</p

Preface of the 31st Italian Symposium on Advanced Database Systems

This volume contains the proceedings of the 31st Italian Symposium on Advanced Database Systems (SEBD - Sistemi Evoluti per Basi di Dati), held in Galzinagno Terme (Padua, Italy) from 2 to 5 July 2023.</p

Common and rare variant association analyses in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis identify 15 risk loci with distinct genetic architectures and neuron-specific biology

A cross-ancestry genome-wide association meta-analysis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) including 29,612 patients with ALS and 122,656 controls identifies 15 risk loci with distinct genetic architectures and neuron-specific biology. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease with a lifetime risk of one in 350 people and an unmet need for disease-modifying therapies. We conducted a cross-ancestry genome-wide association study (GWAS) including 29,612 patients with ALS and 122,656 controls, which identified 15 risk loci. When combined with 8,953 individuals with whole-genome sequencing (6,538 patients, 2,415 controls) and a large cortex-derived expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) dataset (MetaBrain), analyses revealed locus-specific genetic architectures in which we prioritized genes either through rare variants, short tandem repeats or regulatory effects. ALS-associated risk loci were shared with multiple traits within the neurodegenerative spectrum but with distinct enrichment patterns across brain regions and cell types. Of the environmental and lifestyle risk factors obtained from the literature, Mendelian randomization analyses indicated a causal role for high cholesterol levels. The combination of all ALS-associated signals reveals a role for perturbations in vesicle-mediated transport and autophagy and provides evidence for cell-autonomous disease initiation in glutamatergic neurons

Analysis of shared common genetic risk between amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and epilepsy

Because hyper-excitability has been shown to be a shared pathophysiological mechanism, we used the latest and largest genome-wide studies in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (n = 36,052) and epilepsy (n = 38,349) to determine genetic overlap between these conditions. First, we showed no significant genetic correlation, also when binned on minor allele frequency. Second, we confirmed the absence of polygenic overlap using genomic risk score analysis. Finally, we did not identify pleiotropic variants in meta-analyses of the 2 diseases. Our findings indicate that amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and epilepsy do not share common genetic risk, showing that hyper-excitability in both disorders has distinct origins

Association of kidney disease measures with risk of renal function worsening in patients with type 1 diabetes

Background: Albuminuria has been classically considered a marker of kidney damage progression in diabetic patients and it is routinely assessed to monitor kidney function. However, the role of a mild GFR reduction on the development of stage 653 CKD has been less explored in type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) patients. Aim of the present study was to evaluate the prognostic role of kidney disease measures, namely albuminuria and reduced GFR, on the development of stage 653 CKD in a large cohort of patients affected by T1DM. Methods: A total of 4284 patients affected by T1DM followed-up at 76 diabetes centers participating to the Italian Association of Clinical Diabetologists (Associazione Medici Diabetologi, AMD) initiative constitutes the study population. Urinary albumin excretion (ACR) and estimated GFR (eGFR) were retrieved and analyzed. The incidence of stage 653 CKD (eGFR &lt; 60 mL/min/1.73 m2) or eGFR reduction &gt; 30% from baseline was evaluated. Results: The mean estimated GFR was 98 \ub1 17 mL/min/1.73m2 and the proportion of patients with albuminuria was 15.3% (n = 654) at baseline. About 8% (n = 337) of patients developed one of the two renal endpoints during the 4-year follow-up period. Age, albuminuria (micro or macro) and baseline eGFR &lt; 90 ml/min/m2 were independent risk factors for stage 653 CKD and renal function worsening. When compared to patients with eGFR &gt; 90 ml/min/1.73m2 and normoalbuminuria, those with albuminuria at baseline had a 1.69 greater risk of reaching stage 3 CKD, while patients with mild eGFR reduction (i.e. eGFR between 90 and 60 mL/min/1.73 m2) show a 3.81 greater risk that rose to 8.24 for those patients with albuminuria and mild eGFR reduction at baseline. Conclusions: Albuminuria and eGFR reduction represent independent risk factors for incident stage 653 CKD in T1DM patients. The simultaneous occurrence of reduced eGFR and albuminuria have a synergistic effect on renal function worsening