stakeholder engagement beyond the tension between idealism and practical concerns

This paper digs into the existing controversial literature on stakeholder engagement (SE) to understand and critically confront with ambivalence in the concept. This is done by exploring how SE is conceptually framed and pragmatically pursued in the representations of current business practices. The study is designed according to a qualitative interpretive approach based on depth interviews with a purposively selected theoretical sample of key informants with established expertise in stakeholder relationship management practices. According to our findings, SE appears torn between an idealistic impetus on the fringe of a utopian vision of the business, and its often trivial translation into practice urged by the pragmatic necessity to meet accountability requirements. This tension stems from corporate governance logics and organizational business models of firms, which are often not prone to guarantee the participatory and genuinely dialogic exchange between company and stakeholders advocated by the idealistic mandate of SE. In terms of contribution the paper provides a critical inductive reconstruction of current meanings and clashes embedded in enacting SE

Late histological findings in symptomatic COVID-19 patients: A case report

RATIONALE: Although there have been several studies describing clinical and radiographic features about the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infection, there is a lack of pathologic data conducted on biopsies or autopsies. PATIENT CONCERNS: A 56-year-old and a 70-year-old men with fever, cough, and respiratory fatigue were admitted to the intensive care unit and intubated for respiratory distress. DIAGNOSIS: The nasopharyngeal swab was positive for COVID-19 and the chest Computed Tomography (CT) scan showed the presence of peripheral and bilateral ground-glass opacities. INTERVENTIONS: Both patients developed pneumothoraces after intubation and was managed with chest tube. Due to persistent air leak, thoracoscopies with blebs resection and pleurectomies were performed on 23rd and 16th days from symptoms onset. OUTCOMES: The procedures were successful with no evidence of postoperative air-leak, with respiratory improvement. Pathological specimens were analyzed with evidence of diffuse alveolar septum disruption, interstitium thickness, and infiltration of inflammatory cells with diffuse endothelial dysfunction and hemorrhagic thrombosis. LESSONS: Despite well-known pulmonary damages induced by the COVID-19, the late-phase histological changes include diffused peripheral vessels endothelial hyperplasia, in toto muscular wall thickening, and intravascular hemorrhagic thrombosis

Prevalence, Outcome, and Prevention of Congenital Cytomegalovirus Infection in Neonates Born to Women with Preconception Immunity (CHILd Study)

Background: Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is the leading infectious cause of congenital disabilities. We designed a prospective study to investigate the rate, outcome, and risk factors of congenital CMV (cCMV) infection in neonates born to immune women, and the potential need and effectiveness of hygiene recommendations in this population. Methods: The study was composed of 2 sequential parts: an epidemiology (part 1) and a prevention (part 2) study. Performance of part 2 depended upon a cCMV rate >0.4%. Women enrolled in part 1 did not receive hygiene recommendations. Newborns were screened by HCMV DNA testing in saliva and cCMV was confirmed by urine testing. Results: Saliva swabs were positive for HCMV DNA in 45/9661 newborns and cCMV was confirmed in 18 cases. The rate of cCMV was. 19% (95% confidence interval [CI]:. 11-.29%), and 3 out of 18 infants with cCMV had symptoms of CMV at birth. Age, nationality, occupation, and contact with children were similar between mothers of infected and noninfected newborns. Twin pregnancy (odds ratio [OR]: 7.2; 95% CI: 1.7-32.2; P =. 037) and maternal medical conditions (OR: 3.9; 95% CI: 1.5-10.1; P =. 003) appeared associated with cCMV. Given the rate of cCMV was lower than expected, the prevention part of the study was cancelled. Conclusions: Newborns from women with preconception immunity have a low rate of cCMV, which appears to be mostly due to reactivation of the latent virus. Therefore, serological screening in childbearing age would be pivotal to identify HCMV-seropositive women, whose newborns have a low risk of cCMV. Clinical trials registration: www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT03973359)

Crowdsourcing water quality with the simile app

This paper aims at presenting the application for lake water quality monitoring which has been developed in the framework of SIMILE (Informative System for the Integrated Monitoring of Insubric Lakes and their Ecosystems) Interreg Italy-Switzerland project. The objective of SIMILE project is to facilitate the monitoring of the Maggiore, Como, and Lugano lakes through the integration of different techniques: in situ monitoring with buoys, remote sensing and citizen science. A mobile application has been designed in agreement with the project partners, who are also actors working for lake quality monitoring, such as CNR (Italian National Research Council) and ARPA (Agency for prevention and environmental protection). The developed application allows to collect data over the area of interest, such as pictures and parameters which can be acquired by visual inspection as well as with appropriate tools, depending on the user typology. The application has then been implemented with open source software to foster its use also for other projects with similar goals. In the paper, the design choices, the architecture and the implementation details are described

VGI VISUALISATION TO SUPPORT PARTICIPATORY LAKE MONITORING: THE CASE STUDY OF SIMILE PROJECT

This study focuses on the role of VGI visualization in encouraging participation to environmental Citizen Science, taking as a case study the mobile application developed within SIMILE (Informative System for the Integrated Monitoring of Insubric Lakes and their Ecosystems) project activities. The main project goal is the protection of water quality for Lugano, Maggiore and Como lakes through a geoinformatics coordination of existing monitoring systems with new data collection methods (satellite images, high frequency sensors and citizen science). This tool enables the producers to perform a community-based monitoring side by side with local authorities and research bodies improving the efficiency of the current protocols. Referring to ontologies of geospatial data, the VGI samples are analysed under different aspects as their quality, quantity, variety, granularity, spatial and temporal distribution, highlighting their temporary, moving and changing nature. This analysis shows the presence of potential contradictions existing between the application use and the perceived lake water quality, to be mitigated mainly working on the user interface of the map view. So, a study of existing conventions, especially in terms of colours, is compared with the results coming from the application of consolidated survey methodologies to this specific context. Reflections on markers, symbols and attributes of features and maps are presented introducing geovisual analytical solutions for dynamic phenomena. The design solutions adopted are finally presented and validated with a combination of different usability evaluation methods like heuristics and field tests

Palazzo Doghi Ponti

Vita.The overall goal of this investigation was to develop a methodology for incorporating crop drainage requirements into subsurface drainage design schemes. The methodology developed was linked to the North Carolina State University Water Management Model (Skaggs, 1976) and it provides a workable simple design procedure. The proposed crop response model is a simple linear expression based on the Stress-Day Index concept advanced by Hiler (1969) and the ideas presented by Sieben (1964). The expression indirectly takes into account the intensity of oxygen deficits caused by high water tables, as well as the relative sensitivity of the crop to oxygen deficits at different growth stages. Long term computer simulations were conducted using grain sorghum as the experimental crop and a Bladen soil (poorly drained) located in Greenville, North Carolina. The crop response model was used to evaluate the degree of crop damage for given drain depths and spacings for 24 growing seasons (1952-1975). These output data were analyzed by methods generally used in hydrologic frequency analysis. Six different design graphs each having probability versus crop damage with a family of straight lines representing different drain spacing values were developed to show how the procedure could be used practically. The methodology developed incorporates drainage requirements and drainage theory in a rational way and can be used for day-to-day design of subsurface drainage systems