Small businesses in the global market: evidence from the fashion system of Vicenza province (Italy)

Relevance. The paper seeks to explore how small and medium handicrafts can successfully compete in the globalized market. It questions, in particular, the relevance of the territory, of industrial districts and of the use of information technology to create innovative approaches to production and marketing, and consolidate the territory’s competitive position in global value chains. It highlights actual viable strategies for small and medium businesses operating in particularly complex sectors like those that are part of the “fashion system”. Thus, the article deals with an important part of the national industry in the moment of world-wide crisis.  Research Objective. The article discusses successful strategies of small firms in clothing and fashion industry. Its purpose is to verify if and how handicrafts operating in the sectors particularly exposed to international competition succeed in competing effectively in international markets. The study tests the thesis that local dimension does not necessarily represent a disadvantage in the age of globalization and that even handicrafts can play at the international level. The study also verifies the role of territory in granting unique competitive advantage in the global market.Data and Methods. The methodological approach combines analysis of statistical data with four case studies. The work combines analytical and empirical approaches to highlight how a single business can reach levels of excellence in troubled markets.Results. The study demonstrates that handicrafts can find spaces for growth in such declining sectors as cloth production in developed countries, provided that they succeed in focusing on niche markets through process, product, and marketing innovations; in using up-to-date technology; and in exploiting territorially embedded values. In this context technology emerges as a strategic tool as it lowers transaction costs and entrance barriers, offers innovative opportunities for re-organizing production processes, and enlarges potential markets. Industrial districts, then, continue to represent a viable strategic advantage in terms of flexibility, know-how, and cooperation. Finally, the brand “made in Italy” confirms its status as an internationally recognized synonym of quality and fashionable design, opening companies the way to high level, luxury niches

Microfluidic for human health: a versatile tool for new progress in cancer diagnosis and contaminants detection

In the last ten years, interest in manipulating droplets in microchannels has emerged from two important motivations. The first arise from the desire to produce well controlled droplets for material science applications, for example in the pharmaceutical or food industries. In this context, microfluidics allows for producing such droplets in a controlled and reproducible manner, also allowing complex combinations to be designed and explored. A second motivation originates with the advent of the -omics era, which has a much need for being able to carry out experiments at the smallest possible scale (if possible single cells or molecules), on a massively parallel platform and with high throughput. In this case, droplets are viewed as micro-reactor in which samples are confined, and which offer a way to manipulate small volumes. Droplet microfluidics is the most powerful microfluidic technology used to produce and manipulate monodisperse droplets. This technique addresses the need for lower costs, shorter times, and higher sensitivities to compartmentalize reactions into picolitre volume, instead of the microlitre volumes commonly used with standard methods. Droplets can provide a well-defined environment into which individual cells can be compartmentalized in a controlled way. This coupled with the advantages of droplet microfluidics has allowed the development of several methods for single-cells analysis. In this work a microfluidics label-free approach for circulating tumor cells (CTCs) detection is presented. In the last decades, CTCs have received enormous attention as a new biomarkers for cancer study, for this reason their capture and retain represents a major challenge in cancer research. Many issues regarding the detection and characterization of CTCs are owing to their extremely rarity (one CTCs for 5 x 10^9 erythrocytes/mL and for 7 x 10^6 leucocytes /mL) and their heterogeneous nature (there is no unique biologic marker for CTCs identification). Although much promising progress has been made in CTCs detection, the robustness in distinguishing between healthy cells and CTCs, and the isolation of live CTCs need to be improved further. The method developed in this work exploits the so-called Warburg effect (WE): even in the presence of oxygen cancer cells limit largely their metabolism to glycolysis leading to increased production of lactate. Using droplet microfluidics, cancer cells are compartmentalized into a picolitre droplets and lactate secreted by cells are retained in the droplet. The secretion of lactate leads to a rapid increase in the concentration of acid in cell-containing droplets. CTCs are thus detected by monitoring the pH of the droplet using a pH- sensitive dye, without the need for surface-antigen labeling. A suspension of tumor cells (A549) mixed with white blood cells were emulsified in picoliter droplets, and it was observed a clear fraction of droplets with a reduced pH, leading to a distinct population of droplets containing a cancer cell from empty or WBC containing drops. With this method a very few number (up to 10) of tumor cells in a background of 200,000 white blood cells are detected, with average detection rates in the range of 60%. To demonstrate that this is a general method for detection of cancer cells, several cancer cell lines were tested, including ovarian TOV21G, breast MDA-MB 453, glioblastoma U231, colorectal HT-29, breast MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 and all showed acidification of droplets. With the method established, samples based on blood cancer patients with confirmed metastatic disease were tested. The results show clearly that numerous positive droplets are detected in the sample of metastatic patients. Moreover, this method is capable of retrieving live cells, opening up routes for further large scale investigation of the nature of CTCs. Another interesting area where droplet-based microfluidics is playing an increasingly important role is the synthesis of functional polymeric microparticles or microgels. They have been suggested as diagnostic tools for the rapid multiplexed screening of biomolecules, because of their advantages in detection and quantification. In the second part of this thesis, the synthesis of polymeric microparticles, functionalized with peptides, through droplet microfluidics is presented. Peptide was efficiently encapsulated into the polymeric microparticles in order to create a functional microparticles for selective protein detection in complex fluids. Protein binding occurred with higher affinity (K D 0.1-0.4 µM) than the conventional detection methods (K D 70 µM). Current work demonstrate easy and fast realization of functionalized monodisperse microgels using droplet microfluidic and how the inclusion of small molecules within polymeric network improve both the affinity and the specificity of protein capture. This work provides advances in gel particle functionalization and opens new possibilities for direct molecules detection in complex fluids. A possible application of this method was for label-free aflatoxin M 1 (AFM 1 ) detection. AFM 1 is the most toxic, carcinogenic, teratogenic and mutagenic class of aflatoxins (AFs) and can be present due to in a wide range of food and feed commodities, such as milk and dairy products, representing an important issue especially for developing countries. Currently, the detection methods used to quantify AFM 1 require complex and laborious sample pretreatments, expensive instruments and skilled operators, thus limiting their application. Driven by the need of overcoming some of these limits, poly(ethylene glycol) dyacrilate (PEGDA) functional microparticles were produced using microfluidics. Two novel peptides were synthesized for specific aflatoxin detection and encapsulated in PEGDA microparticles for AFM 1 detection. AFM 1 -binding peptides occurred with high affinity (K D 3.66-6.57 pM, respectively for the two sequences) and detection was achieved measuring AFM 1 innate fluorescence. The detection limit of this technique for AFM 1 was estimated to be 1.64 ng/Kg, with a dynamic detection range between 3.28 ng/Kg and 70 ng/Kg, which meets present legislative limits of 50 ng/Kg for AFM 1 in milk. Therefore, the developed systems provides a promising approach for rapid screening of food contaminates because it resulted to be simple, sensitive, specific, and with not need multiple separation steps, overcoming the limits of the traditional AFM 1 detection methods, which are expensive and time consuming. The use of microfluidics has allowed development of robust, label-free, sensitive and high-throughput platforms which may be used in the near future to improve the quality of life

Territorial distribution of economic activities and resilience in Vicenza’s jewelry industry

Relevance. The paper analyzes the development of Vicenza’s jewelry industry with a focus on the region’s resilience to external shocks and on the role that firms’ spatial concentration plays in the way territories respond to crises. The proposed analysis can provide entrepreneurs, managers, and public decision-makers with new insights into how firms’ location patterns influence economic development.Research Objectives. The purpose of this research is to test empirically the correlation between firms’ concentration, and resilience to external shocks.Data and Methods. The study uses the statistical data on the number of employees and active firms within the selected territory provided by Infocamere (Information Society of Italian Trade Chambers) over the last 20 years (2000-2021). These data are used to trace the localization of firms with the help of concentration indexes. By comparing the above-mentioned data, the study tests the correlation between firms’ concentration levels, the sector’s economic performance, and the reaction of territories to external shocks.Results Territories with high concentration levels of firms working in the same sector perform better than other territories. Moreover, territorial concentration increases during and after any adverse external shock. These results are consistent with the research evidence, stressing the relevance of Marshallian-like districts for sharing practices, technology, know-how, access to information, institutional links. These factors, in turn, enhance firms’ resilience to external shocks. Conclusions. The results provide a new understanding of how firms’ location schemes can affect sustainable territorial development

IMPLICATIONS OF PANNEXIN 1 AND PANNEXIN 3 IN KERATINOCYTE DIFFERENTIATION

Pannexin (Panx) 1 and Panx3 are integral membrane proteins with sequence homology to the invertebrate gap junctions, innexins, and are expressed in mammalian skin. Panxs form functional single-membrane channels but their importance in regulating cellular function is poorly understood. In this study, the expression of Panx 1 and Panx3 was assessed in mouse skin and the role of these Panxs in kératinocyte differentiation was investigated using differentiation-competent rat epidermal kératinocytes (REKs) engineered to over-express Panxl, Panxl-GFP or Panx3. Endogenous levels of a unique 70 kDa species of Panx3 increased in organotypic epidermis, while Panxl remained unchanged compared to monolayer REKs. Ectopic Panxl, Panxl-GFP and Panx3 predominantly localized to the cell surface in monolayer cultures, but re-localized to intracellular compartments in organotypic epidermis. Furthermore, ectopic Panxl in organotypic epidermis dysregulated cytokeratin 14 expression, disrupted the architecture of the epidermis and reduced the vital layer thickness while ectopic Panx3 had no effect on the epidermis. In summary, Panxl and Panx3 are co-expressed in mouse epidermis and play distinct roles in regulating kératinocyte differentiatio

A note on the incidence of soilborne fungi in six crops used in rotation with potatoes

L'incidence des champignons telluriques a été déterminée dans les tissus immédiatement sous la ligne de sol chez le trèfle (Trifolium hybridum et T. pratense), le pois (Pisum sativum), le soya (Glycine max), le ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum) cultivés en rotation avec les pommes de terre (Solanum tuberosum). Les légumineuses avaient une incidence significativement plus élevée de Verticillium albo-atrum, Colletotrichum coccodes et Fusarium solani que les graminées. Les pois avaient l'incidence la plus élevée de V. albo-atrum et de F. solani. Le C. coccodes a été isolé plus fréquemment du soya que du trèfle, des pois, du ryegrass, de l'orge ou du blé d'automne. Le Verticillium dahliae a été isolé de toutes les cultures, excepté le trèfle. Les graminées avaient une incidence significativement plus élevée de V. dahliae que les légumineuses. L'incidence du Fusarium sambucinum était plus élevée chez le soya que chez les autres cultures. Le Fusarium oxysporum a été isolé plus fréquemment du soya et de l'orge. L'incidence la plus élevée de Rhizoctonia solani a été trouvée chez le trèfle mais il a été également isolé plus fréquemment du blé d'automne et du ryegrass que du soya et de l'orge.The incidence of soilborne fungi was determined in tissue immediately below the soil line of clover (Trifolium hybridum and T. pratense), peas (Pisum sativum), soybean (Glycine max), ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum), barley (Hordeum vulgare), and winter wheat (Triticum aestivum) grown in rotation with potatoes (Solarium tuberosum). Legume crops had significantly higher incidence of Verticillium albo-atrum, Colletotrichum coccodes, and Fusarium solani than the gramineaceous crops. Peas had the highest incidence of V. albo-atrum and F. solani.C. coccodes was isolated more frequently from soybean than from clover, peas, ryegrass, barley, or winter wheat. Verticillium dahliae was isolated from all crops except clover. Gramineaceous crops had a significantly higher incidence of V. dahliae than legume crops. The incidence of Fusarium sambucinum was higher in soybeans than all other crops. Fusarium oxysporum was isolated most frequently from soybeans and barley. The highest incidence of Rhizoctonia solani was in clover, but it was also isolated more frequently from winter wheat and ryegrass than from soybean and barley

Малые предприятия в глобальном рынке: пример сектора моды провинции Виченца (Италия)

Received March 9, 2020; accepted May 5, 2020.Дата поступления 9 марта 2020 г.; дата принятия к печати 5 мая 2020 г.Relevance. The paper seeks to explore how small and medium handicrafts can successfully compete in the globalized market. It questions, in particular, the relevance of the territory, of industrial districts and of the use of information technology to create innovative approaches to production and marketing, and consolidate the territory’s competitive position in global value chains. It highlights actual viable strategies for small and medium businesses operating in particularly complex sectors like those that are part of the “fashion system”. Thus, the article deals with an important part of the national industry in the moment of world-wide crisis. Research Objective. The article discusses successful strategies of small firms in clothing and fashion industry. Its purpose is to verify if and how handicrafts operating in the sectors particularly exposed to international competition succeed in competing effectively in international markets. The study tests the thesis that local dimension does not necessarily represent a disadvantage in the age of globalization and that even handicrafts can play at the international level. The study also verifies the role of territory in granting unique competitive advantage in the global market. Data and Methods. The methodological approach combines analysis of statistical data with four case studies. The work combines analytical and empirical approaches to highlight how a single business can reach levels of excellence in troubled markets. Results. The study demonstrates that handicrafts can find spaces for growth in such declining sectors as cloth production in developed countries, provided that they succeed in focusing on niche markets through process, product, and marketing innovations; in using up-to-date technology; and in exploiting territorially embedded values. In this context technology emerges as a strategic tool as it lowers transaction costs and entrance barriers, offers innovative opportunities for re-organizing production processes, and enlarges potential markets. Industrial districts, then, continue to represent a viable strategic advantage in terms of flexibility, know-how, and cooperation. Finally, the brand “made in Italy” confirms its status as an internationally recognized synonym of quality and fashionable design, opening companies the way to high level, luxury niches.Актуальность. Статья посвящена изучению того, как малые и средние ремесленные изделия могут успешно конкурировать на глобализированном рынке. В ней рассмотрены, в частности, роль территории, промышленных районов и использования информационных технологий для создания инновационных подходов к производству и сбыту, а также для укрепления конкурентоспособности территории в глобальных цепочках создания стоимости. Освещены актуальные жизнеспособные стратегии для малого и среднего бизнеса, работающего в особенно сложных секторах, таких как те, которые являются частью «системы моды». Таким образом, статья посвящена важной части итальянской промышленности в момент мирового кризиса. Цель исследования. В статье рассматриваются стратегии малых фирм в индустрии одежды и моды. Цель исследования состоит в том, чтобы проверить, успешно ли эти фирмы конкурируют на международных рынках. В исследовании проверяется тезис о том, что размер фирмы не обязательно является недостатком в эпоху глобализации и что даже ремесленные фирмы могут эффективно играть на международном уровне. Статья также подтверждает роль территории в предоставлении уникального конкурентного преимущества на мировом рынке. Данные и методы. Методологический подход объединяет теоретическое обсуждение выбранной научной литературы и статистических данных с углублённым анализом четырёх фирм. Работа сочетает в себе аналитические и эмпирические подходы, чтобы подчеркнуть, успешные стратегии отдельных фирм. Результаты. Исследование показывает, что ремесленные фирмы могут найти пространство для роста в таких сокращающихся секторах, как производство одежды в развитых странах, при условии, что им удастся сосредоточиться на нишевых рынках с помощью инноваций в процессах, продуктах и маркетинге; в использовании современных технологий; и в использовании территориально заложенных ценностей. В этом контексте технология становится стратегическим инструментом, поскольку она снижает операционные издержки и входные барьеры, предлагает инновационные возможности для реорганизации производственных процессов и расширяет потенциальные рынки. Таким образом, промышленные районы продолжают представлять собой жизненно важное стратегическое преимущество с точки зрения гибкости, ноу-хау и сотрудничества. Наконец, бренд «Сделано в Италии» подтверждает свой статус признанного во всем мире синонима качества и модного дизайна, открывая компаниям путь к нишам класса люкс высокого уровня.The research was supported by the project “The Economy of Excellence. Italian Handicraft in the International Networks: Traditional Knowledge, Technological Innovation and Communication Strategies (19th – 20th Centuries)”, University of Padua (IT), Department of Historical, Geographical Sciences and of the Antiquity.Исследование было поддержано проектом «Экономика совершенства. Итальянское ремесло в международных сетях: традиционные знания, технологические инновации и коммуникационные стратегии (XIX – XX века)», Университет Падуи (ИТ), факультет исторических, географических наук и античности