67 research outputs found
How specific business angel makes his investment decision. An italian case study.
The main purpose of this article is to improve understanding of the decision-making process of Business Angels, regarding in particular the criteria used in the first stage of choice of the investment. Empirical results indicate that Business Angels play a key role in facilitating the development of a business because of the financial resources they can bring and the human capital that can effectively support the entrepreneur’s choices.
This article is based on an in-depth case study of an experienced Business Angel operating in Italy. Future research will continue to examine the factors characterizing the business angel’s investments. Moreover, using larger samples it will be possible to test the results of this exploratory study
Teneurins: Role in Cancer and Potential Role as Diagnostic Biomarkers and Targets for Therapy
Teneurins have been identified in vertebrates as four different genes (TENM1-4), coding for membrane proteins that are mainly involved in embryonic and neuronal development. Genetic studies have correlated them with various diseases, including developmental problems, neurological disorders and congenital general anosmia. There is some evidence to suggest their possible involvement in cancer initiation and progression, and drug resistance. Indeed, mutations, chromosomal alterations and the deregulation of teneurins expression have been associated with several tumor types and patient survival. However, the role of teneurins in cancer-related regulatory networks is not fully understood, as both a tumor-suppressor role and pro-tumoral functions have been proposed, depending on tumor histotype. Here, we summarize and discuss the literature data on teneurins expression and their potential role in different tumor types, while highlighting the possibility of using teneurins as novel molecular diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers and as targets for cancer treatments, such as immunotherapy, in some tumors
SAPERO: a new tool for safety analyses in advanced radiotherapy
Improving safety standards in advanced radiotherapy technologies, where historical experience is not sufficient due to
innovation aspects, raises the need to perform studies using new tools that follow a holistic view of the process chain. Such studies
are useful to identify additional critical elements compared to safety analyses carried out by classic tools. In this field, SAPERO (La
SicurezzA del PazientE: tecniche avanzate ed innovative per la valutazione del rischio di eventi indesiderati all’interno del percorso
assistenziale nel settore RadioterapicO) is a new assessment tool that allows to use integrated of Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA);
Failure Mode Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA); Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA); Human Error Assessment Reduction
Technique (HEART). The methodological approaches have been suitably modified to address their operating in the medical sector
under study. Some improvements have concerned the application of the fuzzy theory in FMECA and the use of a linguistic approach
in HEART. In this paper, SAPERO application on a case study related to treatment procedures in helical tomotherapy performed at
the radiotherapy department of ARNAS Civico hospital, Italy, is described. The results have allowed to provide suggestions aimed to improve the examined process
Vulnerability analysis of satellite-based synchronized smart grids monitoring systems
The large-scale deployment of wide-area monitoring systems could play a strategic role in supporting the evolution of traditional power systems toward smarter and self-healing grids. The correct operation of these synchronized monitoring systems requires a common and accurate timing reference usually provided by a satellite-based global positioning system. Although these satellites signals provide timing accuracy that easily exceeds the needs of the power industry, they are extremely vulnerable to radio frequency interference. Consequently, a comprehensive analysis aimed at identifying their potential vulnerabilities is of paramount importance for correct and safe wide-area monitoring system operation. Armed with such a vision, this article presents and discusses the results of an experimental analysis aimed at characterizing the vulnerability of global positioning system based wide-area monitoring systems to external interferences. The article outlines the potential strategies that could be adopted to protect global positioning system receivers from external cyber-attacks and proposes decentralized defense strategies based on self-organizing sensor networks aimed at assuring correct time synchronization in the presence of external attacks
Global variations in diabetes mellitus based on fasting glucose and haemogloblin A1c
Fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) are both used to diagnose
diabetes, but may identify different people as having diabetes. We used data from 117
population-based studies and quantified, in different world regions, the prevalence of
diagnosed diabetes, and whether those who were previously undiagnosed and detected
as having diabetes in survey screening had elevated FPG, HbA1c, or both. We developed
prediction equations for estimating the probability that a person without previously
diagnosed diabetes, and at a specific level of FPG, had elevated HbA1c, and vice versa.
The age-standardised proportion of diabetes that was previously undiagnosed, and
detected in survey screening, ranged from 30% in the high-income western region to 66%
in south Asia. Among those with screen-detected diabetes with either test, the agestandardised
proportion who had elevated levels of both FPG and HbA1c was 29-39%
across regions; the remainder had discordant elevation of FPG or HbA1c. In most low- and
middle-income regions, isolated elevated HbA1c more common than isolated elevated
FPG. In these regions, the use of FPG alone may delay diabetes diagnosis and
underestimate diabetes prevalence. Our prediction equations help allocate finite
resources for measuring HbA1c to reduce the global gap in diabetes diagnosis and
surveillance.peer-reviewe
Il sistema di pianificazione e controllo di gestione in azienda
La pianificazione strategica a supporto dei processi decisionali e l'utilizzo sistematico di strumenti
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