Global responsibility and strategic risk management

The emergence of a global business risk, caused by a more intense companies’ strategic and organizational complexity, leads both the researchers and the enterprises to a concept of a global responsibility as a paradigm for effective relationships with all stakeholders. This global concept of responsibility must include the areas of legal, economic, social and environmental commitment and suggests an integrated approach to risk management. The aim of this article is to propose a theoretical framework about the relations among stakeholders’ expectations, responsibility areas and risk management. By means of a qualitative analysis, the authors intend to suggest some reflections about the approach of some meaningful global companies towards their potential risks and the relationships with their stakeholders

Identifying cold-water coral ecosystem by using benthic foraminiferal indicators: from active reefs to the geological record

Cold-water coral ecosystems dominated by the species Lophelia pertusa and Madrepora oculata, as well as cold-water coral carbonate mounds (fossils and/or active) occur worldwide and are especially developed along the European margin, from northern Norway to the Gulf of Cadiz and into the Alboran Sea. Their discovery is a major achievement of the last few decades and their widespread occurrence presents a challenge to understand their development, preservation and possible importance in the geologic record.On the Norwegian shelf active/living reefs are developed on elevated hard substrata. Along the Irish margin L. pertusa builds large fossil and/or active carbonate mounds. In the Gulf of Cadiz and in the Alboran Sea buried reefs and patch reefs are generally found in association with mud volcanoes.In modern oceans, they provide important ecological niches for the marine benthic fauna in the deep-sea. In comparison to the macrofauna the microfauna, particularly the foraminifera associated to these systems, are poorly known. We present here a detailed study based on quantitative analyses of benthic and planktonic foraminifera together with the statistical treatment of assemblage data collected along the Norwegian margin, in the Porcupine-Rockall region and in the Alboran Sea.The three regions were and/or are site of cold-water coral ecosystems settlements. Our study reveals that in the Porcupine/Rockall region benthic foraminiferal assemblages are strictly related to the distribution of facies. On the Norwegian margin, benthic foraminiferal habitats are weakly defined and grade one into the other preventing the sharp facies separation observed along the Irish margin (Margreth et al., 2009). In the Alboran Sea cold-water coral ecosystems and cold-water carbonate mounds are presently buried and corals are generally fragmented. However, benthic assemblages from coral-rich layers in the Alboran Sea and those from Porcupine/Rockall and Norway show remarkable similarities. In particular, epifaunal-attached species such as Discanomalina coronata, Cibicides refulgens, and Lobatula lobatula dominate the assemblages with D. coronata restricted to living cold-water coral reefs facies only and/or in co-occurrence with coral fragments. In conclusion, our data suggest that although cold-water coral ecosystems occur at different latitudes, the associated foraminiferal assemblages are consistent from Norway to the Western Mediterranean. Thus they can be used to identify these ecosystems even in the geologic record, when the corals are often strongly dissolved like in the Alboran Sea

The TNG Near Infrared Camera Spectrometer

NICS (acronym for Near Infrared Camera Spectrometer) is the near-infrared cooled camera-spectrometer that has been developed by the Arcetri Infrared Group at the Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory, in collaboration with the CAISMI-CNR for the TNG (the Italian National Telescope Galileo at La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain). As NICS is in its scientific commissioning phase, we report its observing capabilities in the near-infrared bands at the TNG, along with the measured performance and the limiting magnitudes. We also describe some technical details of the project, such as cryogenics, mechanics, and the system which executes data acquisition and control, along with the related software.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, compiled with A&A macros. A&A in pres

TAVI-in-homograft (TiH): open transcatheter aortic valve replacement in calcified aortic homograft case reports

Background Redo surgery in patient who underwent aortic valve replacement with an aortic homograft can result technically challenging because of the massive calcification of the conduit. Case presentation We present a case of a patient who underwent open surgery on cardiopulmonary bypass assistance to implant a standard transcatheter aortic bioprosthesis through aortotomy in an off-label procedure and we discuss its safety and feasibility. Conclusions The combination of open cardiac surgery and open trans-aortic implant of a transcatheter prosthesis may reduce the surgical risk shrinking the technical difficulties that the implantation of a standard surgical prosthesis would have given

Undiagnosed vertebral fractures influence quality of life in postmenopausal women with reduced ultrasound parameters.

Osteoporosis, a multifactorial systemic skeletal disease characterized by low bone mass and microarchitectural deterioration of bone tissue leading to increased bone fragility, is a worldwide public health problem. Vertebral fractures affect approximately 20% of postmenopausal women and are a hallmark of osteoporosis, but they may pass unnoticed, although they may lead to long-term immobility and disability. The aims of the present study were (1) to determine the prevalence and the severity of vertebral fractures in a large cohort of Italian women aged 60 years or older with reduced values of quantitative ultrasound parameters; and (2) to assess whether vertebral fractures and other variables may be associated with health-related quality of life. A total of 2450 women without back pain aged 60 years or older, after the completion of the Quality of Life Questionnaire of the European Foundation for Osteoporosis QUALEFFO, underwent quantitative ultrasound evaluation of the calcaneus; in those with a stiffness t-score of a parts per thousand currency sign -2 (n = 1194), radiographic evaluation of the thoracic and lumbar spine was carried out and then quantitative morphometry was performed by dedicated software (MorphoXpress). The radiographic analysis was carried out on 885 women who presented films of adequate quality. Multivariate regression was used to adjust for confounding variables. Of those who underwent radiographic analysis, 681 had no vertebral fractures, and 204 women (23.1%) had one or more previously undiagnosed vertebral fractures. The prevalence of previously undiagnosed vertebral fractures increased with advancing age with more than 30% of women older than 75 years having at least one fracture. Older age, body mass index, and severe vertebral fractures were independently associated with a worse total QUALEFFO score. We found that approximately one in four women showed evidence of undiagnosed vertebral fractures, and there was a strong age effect trend. Moreover, the severity grade of vertebral fractures, more than the number of fractures, was associated with a worsening of health-related quality of life as assessed by QUALEFFO. These findings confirm the clinical relevance of an early diagnosis of vertebral fractures and seem to support the usefulness of quantitative ultrasound measurements in the stratification of postmenopausal women at increased fracture risk

Efficacy of adalimumab as second-line therapy in a pediatric cohort of crohn’s disease patients who failed infliximab therapy: The Italian society of pediatric gastroenterology, hepatology, and nutrition experience

Background: Adalimumab (Ada) treatment is an available option for pediatric Crohn’s disease (CD) and the published experience as rescue therapy is limited. Objectives: We investigated Ada efficacy in a retrospective, pediatric CD cohort who had failed previous infliximab treatment, with a minimum follow-up of 6 months. Methods: In this multicenter study, data on demographics, clinical activity, growth, laboratory values (CRP) and adverse events were collected from CD patients during follow-up. Clinical remission (CR) and response were defined with Pediatric CD Activity Index (PCDAI) score ≤10 and a decrease in PCDAI score of ≥12.5 from baseline, respectively. Results: A total of 44 patients were consecutively recruited (mean age 14.8 years): 34 of 44 (77%) had active disease (mean PCDAI score 24.5) at the time of Ada administration, with a mean disease duration of 3.4 (range 0.3–11.2) years. At 6, 12, and 18 months, out of the total of the enrolled population, CR rates were 55%, 78%, and 52%, respectively, with a significant decrease in PCDAI scores (P<0.01) and mean CRP values (mean CRP 5.7 and 2.4 mL/dL, respectively; P<0.01) at the end of follow-up. Steroid-free remission rates, considered as the total number of patients in CR who were not using steroids at the end of this study, were 93%, 95%, and 96% in 44 patients at 6, 12, and 18 months, respectively. No significant differences in growth parameters were detected. In univariate analysis of variables related to Ada efficacy, we found that only a disease duration >2 years was negatively correlated with final PCDAI score (P<0.01). Two serious adverse events were recorded: 1 meningitis and 1 medulloblastoma. Conclusion: Our data confirm Ada efficacy in pediatric patients as second-line biological therapy after infliximab failure. Longer-term prospective data are warranted to define general effectiveness and safety in pediatric CD patients

Isolation of a Vibrio parahaemolyticus pandemic strain from a marine water sample obtained in the northern Adriatic

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Transmission curves and effective refraction indices of MKO near infrared consortium filters at cryogenic temperatures

We report transmission measurements at cryogenic temperatures for 4 broad-band filters of the Mauna Kea Observatories (MKO) near-infrared filter set and 5 narrow-band filters. The spectral scans were collected using the multi-mode IR instrument of the TNG telescope (NICS) in which these filters are permanently mounted and commonly used for astronomical observations. We determined the transmission curves at a temperature of 78K and found no significant red-leak up to 2.6 microns, the data are available in electronic form on the TNG web page. We also estimated the variation of the wavelength response with the incidence angle and found it compatible with an effective refractive index of about 2

The ATLAS barrel level-1 Muon Trigger Sector-Logic/RX off-detector trigger and acquisition board

The ATLAS experiment uses a system of three concentric layers of Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC) detector for the Level-1 Muon Trigger in the air-core barrel toroid region. The trigger algorithm looks for hit coincidences within different detector layers inside the programmable geometrical road which defines the transverse momentum cut. The on-detector electronics that provides the trigger and detector readout functionalities collects input signals coming from the RPC front-end. Trigger and readout data are then sent via optical fibres to the off-detector electronics. Six or seven optical fibres from one of the 64 trigger sectors go to one Sector-Logic/RX module, that later elaborates the collected trigger and readout data, and sends data respectively to the Read-Out Driver modules and to the Central Level-1 Trigger. We present the functionality and the implementation of the VME Sector-Logic/RX module, and the configuration of the system for the first cosmic ray data collected using this module