Planning to protect viability in macro-economic in stability contexts

The external shocks that have characterized the last years - covid, war in Ukraine and consequent increase of prices and business risks - involve the growing of the importance of planning tools to preserve the viability of the enterprises. External shocks, in fact, make forecasts even more necessary to map and understand what are the right choices to keep the company in equity, economic and financial balance. Paradoxically, however, the risk of error linked to the greater myopia of management reduces the time horizon on which reliable reasoning can be developed. In this context, corporate crises become more likely and almost structural at the global economic level precisely because external shocks impact in a way or another horizontally on every single business. In this paper the authors want to stress the importance of planning and the possibility of doing so even in macro-economic in-stability context

Corporate Governance in Downturn Times: Detection and Alert – The New Italian Insolvency and Crisis Code

In its life cycle, an enterprise may experience periods of crisis. If the crisis is monitored promptly and appropriate measures are taken, not only may the enterprise continue to operate but it may also be able to seize opportunities for growth. The Italian legislator is introducing a procedure aimed at supporting companies to detect the very first warning signs of a crisis. The supervisory board of auditors, the audit firm, and certain qualified creditors will have the right and duty to start the early warning procedure (“allerta”). The board of statutory auditors (Collegio Sindacale) plays a fundamental role: its ex-ante supervisory and control activities over management allow it to effectively play an important role as main recipient of any crisis warning signs. The new regulatory framework lays down certain indicators and critical thresholds, which may trigger the alert process. Initially, the Delegated Legislation (Bill No.3671-bis) sets forth certain specific financial indicators. The new bill (Crisis and Insolvency Code) on the contrary refers to a more complex and sector-specific system of indicators. The findings of an empirical research conducted by analysing a sample of more than 600 enterprises and testing the discriminating capacity of the indicators initially considered are presented herein

Corporate Governance in Downturn Times: Detection and Alert \u2013 The New Italian Insolvency and Crisis Code

In its life cycle, an enterprise may experience periods of crisis. If the crisis is monitored promptly and appropriate measures are taken, not only may the enterprise continue to operate but it may also be able to seize opportunities for growth. The Italian legislator is introducing a procedure aimed at supporting companies to detect the very irst warning signs of a crisis. The supervisory board of auditors, the audit irm, and certain qualiied creditors will have the right and duty to start the early warning procedure (\u201callerta\u201d). The board of statutory auditors (Collegio Sindacale) plays a fundamental role: its ex-ante supervisory and control activities over management allow it to efectively play an important role as main recipient of any crisis warning signs. The new regulatory framework lays down certain indicators and critical thresholds, which may trigger the alert process. Initially, the Delegated Legislation (Bill No.3671-bis) sets forth certain speciic inancial indicators. The new bill (Crisis and Insolvency Code) on the contrary refers to a more complex and sector-speciic system of indicators. The indings of an empirical research conducted by analysing a sample of more than 600 enterprises and testing the discriminating capacity of the indicators initially considered are presented herein

Corporate Governance and ERM for SMEs Viability in Italy

Family Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (Family SMEs) in Italy have been asked by the new Insolvency and Crisis Code (IC-Code) to establish organizational, management and accounting bodies and tools appropriate to their nature and size. They need to be able to face early warning of company’s crisis and potential loss of going concern and to be able to implement strategies provided by the law to recover viability. The peculiarity of the Italian System is the joint existence of two levels of controls. A “downstream” one carried out by Auditors in charge of the accounting control and an “upstream” one carried out by the Supervisory Board in charge for the surveillance of directors’ behaviour. The board of statutory auditors (Collegio Sindacale), which has been defined as the watchdog distinguishing Italian corporate governance system, plays a fundamental role in reaching the goal. Its supervisory activities are played ex-ante over directors and are set with independence and competence. Auditors, instead, operate when everything has already been decided or even implemented concentrating on the accounting issues. The IC-Code sets up new corporate governance rules for a huge number of Family SMEs requiring the appointment of independent control bodies, Board of Statutory Auditors and Auditors and demanding therefore for more attention to risk monitoring and managing

Moral Distress and Burnout in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Healthcare Providers: A Cross-Sectional Study in Italy

Moral distress (MD) in healthcare providers is widely recognized as a serious issue in critical care contexts. It has the potential to have negative impacts on both personal and professional wellbeing, the quality of care provided and staff turnover. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between MD and burnout among neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) healthcare professionals and identify the possible factors associated with its occurrence. Participants were asked to complete an online survey, which covered sociodemographic and professional information and included two self-report questionnaires (Italian Moral Distress Scale-Revised and Maslach Burnout Inventory). The sample comprised 115 healthcare providers (nurses and physiotherapists: 66.1%; physicians: 30.4%; healthcare assistants: 3.5%) working in four NICUs located within the province of Turin, Italy. The results revealed overall low levels of MD, with no significant differences between nurses/physiotherapists and physicians. Nurses/physiotherapists showed a statistically significant higher percentage of personal accomplishment burnout (32.9%) compared with physicians (8.6%; p = 0.012). MD was associated with the emotional exhaustion dimension of burnout. Spirituality and/or religiousness was shown to be a moderating variable. Further research is needed to deepen our understanding of the correlation between MD and burnout and the role of spirituality and/or religiousness as moderators

Multi-omics gut microbiome signatures in obese women: role of diet and uncontrolled eating behavior

Background: Obesity and related co-morbidities represent a major health challenge nowadays, with a rapidly increasing incidence worldwide. The gut microbiome has recently emerged as a key modifier of human health that can affect the development and progression of obesity, largely due to its involvement in the regulation of food intake and metabolism. However, there are still few studies that have in-depth explored the functionality of the human gut microbiome in obesity and even fewer that have examined its relationship to eating behaviors. Methods: In an attempt to advance our knowledge of the gut-microbiome-brain axis in the obese phenotype, we thoroughly characterized the gut microbiome signatures of obesity in a well-phenotyped Italian female cohort from the NeuroFAST and MyNewGut EU FP7 projects. Fecal samples were collected from 63 overweight/obese and 37 normal-weight women and analyzed via a multi-omics approach combining 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, and lipidomics. Associations with anthropometric, clinical, biochemical, and nutritional data were then sought, with particular attention to cognitive and behavioral domains of eating. Results: We identified four compositional clusters of the gut microbiome in our cohort that, although not distinctly associated with weight status, correlated differently with eating habits and behaviors. These clusters also differed in functional features, i.e., transcriptional activity and fecal metabolites. In particular, obese women with uncontrolled eating behavior were mostly characterized by low-diversity microbial steady states, with few and poorly interconnected species (e.g., Ruminococcus torques and Bifidobacterium spp.), which exhibited low transcriptional activity, especially of genes involved in secondary bile acid biosynthesis and neuroendocrine signaling (i.e., production of neurotransmitters, indoles and ligands for cannabinoid receptors). Consistently, high amounts of primary bile acids as well as sterols were found in their feces. Conclusions: By finding peculiar gut microbiome profiles associated with eating patterns, we laid the foundation for elucidating gut-brain axis communication in the obese phenotype. Subject to confirmation of the hypotheses herein generated, our work could help guide the design of microbiome-based precision interventions, aimed at rewiring microbial networks to support a healthy diet-microbiome-gut-brain axis, thus counteracting obesity and related complications

miRNA levels are associated with body mass index in endometrial cancer and may have implications for therapy

Endometrial cancer (EC) is the most prevalent gynecological cancer in high-income countries. Its incidence is skyrocketing due to the increase in risk factors such as obesity, which represents a true pandemic. This study aimed to evaluate microRNA (miRNA) expression in obesity-related EC to identify potential associations between this specific cancer type and obesity. miRNA levels were analyzed in 84 EC patients stratified based on body mass index (BMI; >= 30 or <30) and nine noncancer women with obesity. The data were further tested in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) cohort, including 384 EC patients, 235 with BMI >= 30 and 149 with BMI <30. Prediction of miRNA targets and analysis of their expression were also performed to identify the potential epigenetic networks involved in obesity modulation. In the EC cohort, BMI >= 30 was significantly associated with 11 deregulated miRNAs. The topmost deregulated miRNAs were first analyzed in 84 EC samples by single miRNA assay and then tested in the TCGA dataset. This independent validation provided further confirmation about the significant difference of three miRNAs (miR-199a-5p, miR-449a, miR-449b-5p) in normal-weight EC patients versus EC patients with obesity, resulting significantly higher expressed in the latter. Moreover, the three miRNAs were significantly correlated with grade, histological type, and overall survival. Analysis of their target genes revealed that these miRNAs may regulate obesity-related pathways. In conclusion, we identified specific miRNAs associated with BMI that are potentially involved in modulating obesity-related pathways and that may provide novel implications for the clinical management of obese EC patients