Applying Space Data to the Analysis of the Economic Impact of Covid-19 Restrictions

The objective of this research is to study the impact of Covid-19 restrictions on the Italian economy based on space data on representative Italian ports. We posit that port activity has a mediation effect on Covid-19 restrictions’ impact on the Italian economy. To study port activity we leverage space data and, in particular, earth observation AIS data, which provide different types of information describing a port’s activity, such as the number of ships in a port at different points in time and their type. We complement these data with other sources of data, including traffic and mobility data, as well official sources of information on port economics and on the more general trends of the Italian economy. To test our hypotheses, we focus on two large Italian ports, Genoa (Liguria) and Gioia Tauro (Calabria). Our empirical analyses confirm that port activity has a mediation effect on Covid-19 restrictions’ impact on the Italian economy. The mediation effect has been found to be partial, as Covid-19 restrictions direct impact on the Italian economy remains significant when port activity is added to the correlation model

Sudden Unexpected Deaths and Vaccinations during the First Two Years of Life in Italy: A Case Series Study

Background The signal of an association between vaccination in the second year of life with a hexavalent vaccine and sudden unexpected deaths (SUD) in the two days following vaccination was reported in Germany in 2003. A study to establish whether the immunisation with hexavalent vaccines increased the short term risk of SUD in infants was conducted in Italy. Methodology/Principal Findings The reference population comprises around 3 million infants vaccinated in Italy in the study period 1999–2004 (1.5 million received hexavalent vaccines). Events of SUD in infants aged 1–23 months were identified through the death certificates. Vaccination history was retrieved from immunisation registries. Association between immunisation and death was assessed adopting a case series design focusing on the risk periods 0–1, 0–7, and 0–14 days after immunisation. Among the 604 infants who died of SUD, 244 (40%) had received at least one vaccination. Four deaths occurred within two days from vaccination with the hexavalent vaccines (RR = 1.5; 95% CI 0.6 to 4.2). The RRs for the risk periods 0–7 and 0–14 were 2.0 (95% CI 1.2 to 3.5) and 1.5 (95% CI 0.9 to 2.4). The increased risk was limited to the first dose (RR = 2.2; 95% CI 1.1 to 4.4), whereas no increase was observed for the second and third doses combined. Conclusions The RRs of SUD for any vaccines and any risk periods, even when greater than 1, were almost an order of magnitude lower than the estimates in Germany. The limited increase in RRs found in Italy appears confined to the first dose and may be partly explained by a residual uncontrolled confounding effect of age

Evaluating the Economic Implications of Information Systems: A Formal Model of Information Processing Capacity

The choice of the pattern for cooperation is a traditional issue of the organizational debate on business process design, which typically compares alternative cooperation patters on the basis of cost variables. From an engineering perspective, costs should be contrasted against production capacity as a primary indicator of performance. This paper takes this perspective and proposes a formal model of information processing capacity to evaluate alternative cooperation patterns. Simulation results show how a capacity perspective delivers significantly different results from the cost-oriented organizational view. Traditional design principles for the selection of the most efficient organizational structure (i.e. degree of process networking, specialization, delegation and information overflow) are significantly complemented