95 research outputs found
Meeting the challenges of the waste hierarchy: A performance evaluation of EU countries
The focus of this paper is to evaluate how well European countries are advancing towards a Circular Economy transition and to which extent they are fulfilling the European Union (EU) requirements in terms of municipal waste management. With this aim, an innovative composite indicator is devised by integrating the Goal Programming Synthetic Indicator (GPSI) methodology with the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The suggested methodology allows to encompass not only the guidelines provided by the EU directives and the EU Waste Hierarchy, but also the deviations from the EU thresholds. As a first step of the analysis, a dashboard of indicators is identified together with a set of targets that European countries are supposed to meet. Indicators, targets and their relative importance in the dashboard have been discussed and validated by a team of experts. Then, two Goal Programming Synthetic Indicators are computed taking into account two different perspectives. The first one rewards the countries with good performance in the higher level of the Waste Hierarchy, while the second one penalizes countries whose infringements are in the lower part of the Waste Hierarchy. Hence two different systems of aggregating weights are identified by means of the Analytic Hierarchy Process and accordingly two scenarios are explored. The analysis is performed using Eurostat data on 28 European countries from 2013 to 2018. For each year, countries are assessed in terms of their ability to keep the right waste management track delineated by the Waste Hierarchy principles. Countries’ ranking over time is first obtained and then interpreted in light of countries policies and achievements, deriving policy suggestions to improve waste management strategy able to reach the expected results
Environmental sustainability and service quality beyond economic and financial indicators: A performance evaluation of Italian water utilities
As water utilities operate as natural monopolists and they provide essential services for human life, their activities are regulated by public authorities. The sustainable use of water resources and a specific attention on social needs should be essential goals for this kind of firms, so that the evaluation of their business should go beyond their profitability and their financial solvency. Keeping pace with the new Circular Economy paradigm and the evolution of the water regulatory framework, in this paper we suggest a global composite indicator apt to evaluate in a novel way the water utilities performance, encompassing financial and economic indexes together with environmental sustainability and service quality measures. To show its empirical implementation we evaluate the performance of Italian water utilities. The operating context is also under scrutiny focusing on specific water utility features such as size, geographical location, degree of diversification and ownership. In this light, operating in the Center and being large are considered favourable background conditions, while the South and the medium size display a significant unfavourable influence on the water utility performance. Multi-utilities are more advantaged with respect to the mono-utilities and no significant distinction can be made among the different ownership models. ispartof: Socio-Economic Planning Sciences status: Published onlin
Caratterizzazione di pazienti con diagnostica discrepante per acromegalia e nuove acquisizioni sulla “micromegalia”
Background: sono descritti in letteratura pazienti con aumentati livelli di IGF1 in presenza di adeguata soppressione di GH (cosiddetti “micromegalici”), contraddistinti da clinica e comorbidità tipiche dell’acromegalia. Abbiamo descritto una grossa coorte di pazienti con queste caratteristiche e raccolto i dati sulla risposta al trattamento. Pazienti e metodi: abbiamo arruolato 86 pazienti (età media di 48±17 anni, 56 femmine e 30 maschi), afferiti all’UO di Endocrinologia del Policlinico di Milano tra il 2008-2022, che hanno mostrato IGF1 persistentemente aumentate e soppressione di GH < 0.4 ng/ml dopo carico glucidico, dividendoli in due gruppi in base alla presenza (G1, n. pazienti=28/86) o assenza (G2, 58/86) di segni clinici di acromegalia. Abbiamo eseguito una valutazione trasversale sia anamnestica che strumentale mirata allo screening delle complicanze acromegaliche (ecografia tiroidea per gozzo, colonscopia e/o SOF per polipi del colon, ecocardiografia per cardiopatia, polisonnografia e questionario ESS per OSAS). Abbiamo analizzato i dati biochimici dei pazienti dalla diagnosi all’ultimo follow-up disponibile. Infine, abbiamo raccolto i dati di un sottogruppo di pazienti che è stato selezionato per il trattamento.
Risultati: nel gruppo G1 (“micromegalici”) si apprezza una maggiore prevalenza di complicanze rispetto a G2 (mediana di 4 vs 3 comorbidità per paziente, p=0.001), specialmente gozzo (p=0.009), tunnel carpale (p=0.003) e neoplasie maligne (p=0.03). Durante un follow-up medio di 6±3 anni, i valori di IGF-1 e GH nadir non si sono modificati significativamente mentre è stato osservato un aumento dei valori di GH random nei pazienti del gruppo G1 vs G2 (p=0.03). Quattro pazienti con clinica fortemente suggestiva e numerose comorbidità sono stati selezionati per il trattamento: 2 sono stati posti in terapia medica con analoghi della somatostatina e 2 sono stati sottoposti a intervento di adenomectomia (1 micro e 1 macroadenoma). Tutti i pazienti trattati hanno mostrato normalizzazione dei valori di IGF1 e un soggettivo miglioramento del
quadro clinico.
Conclusioni: i nostri dati preliminari suggeriscono che i pazienti “micromegalici” presentano le comorbidità tipiche dell’acromegalia e possono beneficiare in termini clinici e biochimici di un trattamento mirato, sia medico che chirurgico
Water pollution in wastewater treatment plants: An efficiency analysis with undesirable output
The environmental efficiency of 96 Tuscan (Italian) wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is investigated taking into account the quality of the outgoing water in terms of pollutant. In this regard, the presence of the residual nitrogen in the outgoing treated water is considered as undesirable output. The efficiency analysis is performed by applying a novel integrated Analytic Hierarchy Process/Non-radial Directional Distance Function (AHP/NDDF) approach, combining the benefits of the two techniques. Similarly to the standard NDDF approach, the suggested model allows to include simultaneously inputs, desirable and undesirable outputs and not to overestimate the efficiency scores. At the same time, the AHP inclusion gives the possibility to directly take into account the decision maker preferences in the weighting system and to encompass some existing directional distance function models as special cases.The obtained results are then used to identify the efficiency explanatory variables: among them, the facilities' capacity, the percentage of wastewater discharged by the industrial and agricultural activities and the level of compliance with the pollutant concentration threshold set by the legislator have a significant impact on the WWTP performance. The integrated performance assessment allows the water authorities to combine the WWTP efficiency together with the environmental sustainability issue and it has the potential for further promising environmental inspections
IPO a ondate: Cluster temporali o cluster locali?
This paper investigates the relation between the success of initial public offerings in a given region and the subsequent volume of IPOs in the same region. We find that a high local performance of IPOs is able to trigger a local IPO wave due to private firms’ attempt to exploit the favorable local market conditions. Results are robust to the definition of local IPO success, which is addressed using several measures such as the average regional underpricing or the excess demand for newly issued securities. Empirical findings show that the well-documented temporal IPO waves are indeed local IPO waves
Family firm local involvement and the Local Home Bias phenomenon
Research has documented that most of retail and institutional investors exhibit a strong preference for stocks issued by nearby listed firms (i.e. Local Home Bias). This phenomenon shapes corporate market value and the cost of funding. In this paper, we investigate whether the Local Home Bias is enhanced in family firms as a consequence of their symbiotic connection with the local community. Using a dataset of 2,951 Italian firm-year observations (1,481 are family firms) over the period 1999e2011, we find that Local Home Bias is not a widespread phenomenon and mainly occurs in founding family firms where the founder serves as CEO. The Local Home Bias is absent in non-family firms or in family firms where the owner has acquired control through a market transaction. Overall, results suggest that locally committed family firms trigger investor preference for local stocks and, in doing so, exploit the dedicated local clientele which shrinks the cost of funding. Ultimately, we argue the social contributions of family firms to the local community could even have opportunistic traits and a non-trivial economic effect
Role of 1p/19q Codeletion in Diffuse Low-grade Glioma Tumour Prognosis
Background/Aim: In the latest 2021 WHO
classification of central nervous system tumours (CNS), gliomas
that present isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) mutations are
defined as diffuse low-grade gliomas (DLGGs). IDH mutations
are commonly observed in this tumour type. The Extent of
Resection (EOR) positively influence survival; however, it is still
debated whether the predictive value of EOR is independent of
the 1p/19q co-deletion. We carried out a retrospective analysis
on patients operated on for DLGG at the Sant’Andrea University
Hospital Sapienza University of Rome, correlating the outcome
with the presence of 1p/19q co-deletion and EOR. Patients and
Methods: The study examined 66 patients with DLGG who had
undergone surgery for tumour resection between 2008 and 2018.
Patients with DLGG were divided into two groups; diffuse
astrocytoma (DA) in which 1p/19q codeletion is absent and
oligodendroglioma (OG) in which 1p/19q codeletion is present.
According to EOR, both groups were divided into two
subgroups: subtotal resection (STR) and gross total resection
(GTR). Three end-point variables were considered: overall
survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS) and time to
malignant transformation (TMT). Results: In the DA group, the
GTR subgroup had an average OS of 81.6 months, an average
PFS of 45.9 months and an average TMT of 63.6 months. After
surgery, these patients had an average Karnofsky Performance
Score (KPS) of 83.4. The STR subgroup had an average OS of
60.4 months, PFS was 38.7 months, and TMT was 46.4 months,
post-operative KPS was 83.4. In contrast, in the OG group, the
GTR averagely had 101.7 months of OS, 64.9 months of PFS,
80.3 months of TMT and an average post-operative KPS of 84.2,
and the STR subgroup had an average of OS of 73.3 months,
PFS of 48.2 months, TMT of 57.3 and an average postoperative
KPS of 96.2. Conclusion: In patients affected by DLGGs, 1p/19q
codeletion is significantly associated with prolonged survival
and longer time-to-malignant transformation (TMT) compared
to the absence of 1p/19q codeletion. Also, the extent of surgical
resection (EOR) in DLGG patients has been confirmed as one
of the main prognostic factors. However, its predictive value is
substantially influenced by the presence of the 1p/19q codeletion
Combined search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying to a bb pair using the full CDF data set
We combine the results of searches for the standard model Higgs boson based
on the full CDF Run II data set obtained from sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV p-pbar
collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron corresponding to an integrated luminosity
of 9.45/fb. The searches are conducted for Higgs bosons that are produced in
association with a W or Z boson, have masses in the range 90-150 GeV/c^2, and
decay into bb pairs. An excess of data is present that is inconsistent with the
background prediction at the level of 2.5 standard deviations (the most
significant local excess is 2.7 standard deviations).Comment: To be published in Phys. Rev. Lett (v2 contains minor updates based
on comments from PRL
Circulating sCD14 Is Associated with Virological Response to Pegylated-Interferon-Alpha/Ribavirin Treatment in HIV/HCV Co-Infected Patients
Microbial translocation (MT) through the gut accounts for immune activation and CD4+ loss in HIV and may influence HCV disease progression in HIV/HCV co-infection. We asked whether increased MT and immune activation may hamper anti-HCV response in HIV/HCV patients.98 HIV/HCV patients who received pegylated-alpha-interferon (peg-INF-alpha)/ribavirin were retrospectively analyzed. Baseline MT (lipopolysaccharide, LPS), host response to MT (sCD14), CD38+HLA-DR+CD4+/CD8+, HCV genotype, severity of liver disease were assessed according to Early Virological Response (EVR: HCV-RNA <50 IU/mL at week 12 of therapy or ≥2 log(10) reduction from baseline after 12 weeks of therapy) and Sustained Virological Response (SVR: HCV-RNA <50 IU/mL 24 weeks after end of therapy). Mann-Whitney/Chi-square test and Pearson's correlation were used. Multivariable regression was performed to determine factors associated with EVR/SVR.71 patients displayed EVR; 41 SVR. Patients with HCV genotypes 1-4 and cirrhosis presented a trend to higher sCD14, compared to patients with genotypes 2-3 (p = 0.053) and no cirrhosis (p = 0.052). EVR and SVR patients showed lower levels of circulating sCD14 (p = 0.0001, p = 0.026, respectively), but similar T-cell activation compared to Non-EVR (Null Responders, NR) and Non-SVR (N-SVR) subjects. sCD14 resulted the main predictive factor of EVR (0.145 for each sCD14 unit more, 95%CI 0.031-0.688, p = 0.015). SVR was associated only with HCV genotypes 2-3 (AOR 0.022 for genotypes 1-4 vs 2-3, 95%CI 0.001-0.469, p = 0.014).In HIV/HCV patients sCD14 correlates with the severity of liver disease and predicts early response to peg-INF-alpha/ribavirin, suggesting MT-driven immune activation as pathway of HIV/HCV co-infection and response to therapy
Does the earnings quality matter? Evidence from a quasi-experimental setting
Investor preference for local stocks provides a quasi-experimental setting to investigate whether the market rewards firms that comply with generally accepted accounting principles. We show firms with low earnings quality trade at a premium compared to firms in compliance with accounting principles; the difference in values is greater when the role of local investor over-trading is stronger in stock price-formation, in other words for the more isolated firms. The value of the information not conveyed to the market through accounting disclosure accounts for 30% of the market-to-book. Results are robust to earnings quality definition, and show while non-local investors are sensitive to the quality of accounting information, local and better-informed investors are not. Overall, accounting quality matters. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier Inc
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