Improving resilience in Critical Infrastructures through learning from past events

Modern societies are increasingly dependent on the proper functioning of Critical Infrastructures (CIs). CIs produce and distribute essential goods or services, as for power transmission systems, water treatment and distribution infrastructures, transportation systems, communication networks, nuclear power plants, and information technologies. Being resilient, where resilience denotes the capacity of a system to recover from challenges or disruptive events, becomes a key property for CIs, which are constantly exposed to threats that can undermine safety, security, and business continuity. Nowadays, a variety of approaches exists in the context of CIs’ resilience research. This dissertation starts with a systematic review based on PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) on the approaches that have a complete qualitative dimension, or that can be used as entry points for semi-quantitative analyses. The review identifies four principal dimensions of resilience referred to CIs (i.e., techno-centric, organizational, community, and urban) and discusses the related qualitative or semi-quantitative methods. The scope of the thesis emphasizes the organizational dimension, as a socio-technical construct. Accordingly, the following research question has been posed: how can learning improve resilience in an organization? Firstly, the benefits of learning in a particular CI, i.e. the supply chain in reverse logistics related to the small arms utilized by Italian Armed Forces, have been studied. Following the theory of Learning From Incidents, the theoretical model helped to elaborate a centralized information management system for the Supply Chain Management of small arms within a Business Intelligence (BI) framework, which can be the basis for an effective decision-making process, capable of increasing the systemic resilience of the supply chain itself. Secondly, the research question has been extended to another extremely topical context, i.e. the Emergency Management (EM), exploring the crisis induced learning where single-loop and double-loop learning cycles can be established regarding the behavioral perspective. Specifically, the former refers to the correction of practices within organizational plans without changing core beliefs and fundamental rules of the organization, while the latter aims at resolving incompatible organizational behavior by restructuring the norms themselves together with the associated practices or assumptions. Consequently, with the aim of ensuring high EM systems resilience, and effective single-loop and double-loop crisis induced learning at organizational level, the study examined learning opportunities that emerge through the exploration of adaptive practices necessary to face the complexity of a socio-technical work domain as the EM of Covid-19 outbreaks on Oil & Gas platforms. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches have been adopted to analyze the resilience of this specific socio-technical system. On this consciousness, with the intention to explore systems theoretic possibilities to model the EM system, the Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) has been proposed as a qualitative method for developing a systematic understanding of adaptive practices, modelling planning and resilient behaviors and ultimately supporting crisis induced learning. After the FRAM analysis, the same EM system has also been studied adopting a Bayesian Network (BN) to quantify resilience potentials of an EM procedure resulting from the adaptive practices and lessons learned by an EM organization. While the study of CIs is still an open and challenging topic, this dissertation provides methodologies and running examples on how systemic approaches may support data-driven learning to ultimately improve organizational resilience. These results, possibly extended with future research drivers, are expected to support decision-makers in their tactical and operational endeavors

Learning from incidents: A supply chain management perspective in military environments

Supply chain management (SCM) represents a crucial role in the military sector to ensure operation sustainability. Starting from the NATO handbook for military organizational learning, this paper aims at investigating the link between technical inconveniences and sustainable supply chain operations. Taking advantage of the learning from incidents (LFI) models traditionally used in the risk and safety management area, this paper proposes an information management system to support organizational learning from technical inconveniences in a military supply chain. The approach is discussed with reference to the Italian context, in line with international and national standards for technical inconvenience reporting. The results of the paper show the benefits of adopting a systematic LFI system for technical inconveniences, providing related exemplar business intelligence dashboards. Further implications for the generalization of the proposed information management system are presented to foster a healthy and effective reporting environment in military scenarios

EMDR and CBT for Cancer Patients: Comparative Study of Effects on PTSD, Anxiety, and Depression

This pilot study examined the efficacy of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) treatment compared with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in treating posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in oncology patients in the follow-up phase of the disease. The secondary aim of this study was to assess whether EMDR treatment has a different impact on PTSD in the active treatment or during the followup stages of disease. Twenty-one patients in follow-up care were randomly assigned to EMDR or CBT groups, and 10 patients in the active treatment phase were assigned to EMDR group. The Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) and Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) were used to assess PTSD at pretreatment and 1 month posttreatment. Anxiety, depression, and psychophysiological symptoms were also evaluated. For cancer patients in the follow-up stage, the absence of PTSD after the treatment was associated with a significantly higher likelihood of receiving EMDR rather than CBT. EMDR was significantly more effective than CBT in reducing scores on the IES-R and the CAPS intrusive symptom subscale, whereas anxiety and depression improved equally in both treatment groups. Furthermore, EMDR showed the same efficacy both in the active cancer treatment and during the follow-up of the disease

Fast MacMillan's Imidazolidinone-Catalyzed Enantioselective Synthesis of Polyfunctionalized 4-Isoxazoline Scaffolds

The enantioselective 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of nitrones and arylpropionaldehydes to generate highly functionalized scaffolds for application in drug discovery was herein investigated. The use of a second-generation MacMillan catalyst as hydrochloride salt consistently accelerated the reaction speed, allowing a decrease in the reaction time up to >100 times, still affording 4-isoxazolines with good to excellent enantiomeric ratios at room temperature. As a proof of concept, further functionalization of the isoxazoline core through Pd-catalyzed cross-coupling was performed, generating differently functionalized chemical architectures in high yield

Child-related characteristics predicting subsequent health-related quality of life in 8- to 14-year-old children with and without cerebellar tumors: a prospective longitudinal study

BackgroundWe identified child-related determinants of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in children aged 8–14 years who were treated for 2 common types of pediatric brain tumors. MethodsQuestionnaire measures of HRQoL and psychometric assessments were completed by 110 children on 3 occasions over 24 months. Of these 110, 72 were within 3 years of diagnosis of a cerebellar tumor (37 standard-risk medulloblastoma, 35 low-grade cerebellar astrocytoma), and 38 were in a nontumor group. HRQoL, executive function, health status, and behavioral difficulties were also assessed by parents and teachers as appropriate. Regression modeling was used to relate HRQoL z scores to age, sex, socioeconomic status, and 5 domains of functioning: Cognition, Emotion, Social, Motor and Sensory, and Behavior. ResultsHRQoL z scores were significantly lower after astrocytoma than those in the nontumor group and significantly lower again in the medulloblastoma group, both by self-report and by parent-report. In regression modeling, significant child-related predictors of poorer HRQoL z scores by self-report were poorer cognitive and emotional function (both z scores) and greater age (years) at enrollment (B = 0.038, 0.098, 0.136, respectively). By parent-report, poorer cognitive, emotional and motor or sensory function (z score) were predictive of lower subsequent HRQoL of the child (B = 0.043, 0.112, 0.019, respectively), while age at enrollment was not. ConclusionsEarly screening of cognitive and emotional function in this age group, which are potentially amenable to change, could identify those at risk of poor HRQoL and provide a rational basis for interventions to improve HRQoL

Steps towards sustainable solid phase peptide synthesis: use and recovery ofN-octyl pyrrolidone

The investigation of new green biogenic pyrrolidinones as alternative solvents toN,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) for solid phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) led to the identification ofN-octyl pyrrolidone (NOP) as the best candidate. NOP showed good performances in terms of swelling, coupling efficiency and low isomerization generating peptides with very high purity. A mixture of NOP with 20% dimethyl carbonate (DMC) allowed a decrease in solvent viscosity, making the mixture suitable for the automated solid-phase protocol. Aib-enkephalin and linear octreotide were successfully used to test the methodologies. It is worth noting that NOP, DMC and the piperidine used in the deprotection step could be easily recovered by direct distillation from the process waste mixture. The process mass intensity (PMI), being reduced by 63-66%, achieved an outstanding value representing a clear step forward in achieving green SPPS

Digestión asistida por radiación infrarroja como método simple y verde para el análisis multielemental de carne porcina por MIP OES

PósterEl objetivo de este trabajo es evaluar un procedimiento de digestión asistida por IR (IRAD) de carnes de cerdos, para conocer el valor nutritivo en las condiciones prevalecientes a nivel de la producción pampeana.EEA AnguilFil: Cora Jofre, Florencia. Universidad Nacional de La Pampa. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Ciencias de la Tierra y Ambientales de La Pampa; ArgentinaFil: Rivera Mendiola, Florencia. Universidad Nacional de La Pampa. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Cantelmi, Laura. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Química de San Luis; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de San Luis. Instituto de Química de San Luis; ArgentinaFil: Murcia, Vanina. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Anguil; ArgentinaFil: Savio, Marianela. Universidad Nacional de La Pampa. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Ciencias de la Tierra y Ambientales de La Pampa; Argentin

Inositols: From established knowledge to novel approaches

Myo-inositol (myo-Ins) and D-chiro-inositol (D-chiro-Ins) are natural compounds involved in many biological pathways. Since the discovery of their involvement in endocrine signal transduction, myo-Ins and D-chiro-Ins supplementation has contributed to clinical approaches in ameliorating many gynecological and endocrinological diseases. Currently both myo-Ins and D-chiro-Ins are well-tolerated, effective alternative candidates to the classical insulin sensitizers, and are useful treatments in preventing and treating metabolic and reproductive disorders such as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), and male fertility disturbances, like sperm abnormalities. Moreover, besides metabolic activity, myo-Ins and D-chiro-Ins deeply influence steroidogenesis, regulating the pools of androgens and estrogens, likely in opposite ways. Given the complexity of inositol-related mechanisms of action, many of their beneficial effects are still under scrutiny. Therefore, continuing research aims to discover new emerging roles and mechanisms that can allow clinicians to tailor inositol therapy and to use it in other medical areas, hitherto unexplored. The present paper outlines the established evidence on inositols and updates on recent research, namely concerning D-chiro-Ins involvement into steroidogenesis. In particular, D-chiro-Ins mediates insulin-induced testosterone biosynthesis from ovarian thecal cells and directly affects synthesis of estrogens by modulating the expression of the aromatase enzyme. Ovaries, as well as other organs and tissues, are characterized by a specific ratio of myo-Ins to D-chiro-Ins, which ensures their healthy state and proper functionality. Altered inositol ratios may account for pathological conditions, causing an imbalance in sex hormones. Such situations usually occur in association with medical conditions, such as PCOS, or as a consequence of some pharmacological treatments. Based on the physiological role of inositols and the pathological implications of altered myo-Ins to D-chiro-Ins ratios, inositol therapy may be designed with two different aims: (1) restoring the inositol physiological ratio; (2) altering the ratio in a controlled way to achieve specific effects