"Percorsi qualità: il Comune allo Specchio" Lo sviluppo di un progetto di autovalutazione

Lo scopo di questa tesi è quello di redigere un rapporto di autovalutazione sulla base del modello europeo CAF e di individuare i punti di forza e le aree di debolezza del Comune di Pisa

Students' opinions on teaching and services provided by the Italian Universities: a proposal for a new evaluation scheme

In Italy, the evaluation of the internal effectiveness of academic training courses has been substantiated, for over 20 years, in periodical surveys on students' opinions on teaching and related services. The first proposal to homogenize the various measurement methods adopted by the Universities was advanced by the former National Committee for the Evaluation of the University System in 2000 and it was the reference model until 2011, when the first Board of Directors of the National Evaluation of University and Research Agency (ANVUR) took over. The Agency's attempt, within the AVA (Self-assessment, Periodic Evaluation and Accreditation) methodological framework, to enrich and update the survey highlighted a number of critical issues, essentially linked to the ways and times of participation of students, compared to the modalities in which the training offers of the universities are organized. Taking a cue from these critical issues, the purpose of this paper is to propose a new, simpler and more rational evaluation model, which still maintains substantial continuity with the inspiring principles of the past plants, and tries to consolidate the monitoring efforts made by the universities to date

Integrating Survey and Administrative Data on Local Social Protection

Welfare systems can be observed according to two different perspectives. The former deals with the supply of social protection, i.e. with the funding and provision of social benefits and the production of social services and goods. The latter focuses on the demand of social protection, and particularly on the characteristics of people benefiting from social protection or asking for it. Typically, data on the supply of social benefits have an administrative nature (registers and budgets data) whereas data on beneficiaries come from sample surveys. In theory, administrative data, being census data, can be detailed by territory. On the contrary, sample surveys are usually planned to provide accurate estimates at the national level or for large sub-national areas. This chapter provides an example on the use of different data sets for the Old age and Family/children functions at the province level (LAU 1 in the EU nomenclature). Data on the supply of benefits derive from the SISSIM (Istat Survey on Interventions and Social Services of Individual and associated Municipalities) and from municipalities' budgets. Data on the demand of social protection come from EU-SILC (European Union - Statistics on Income and Living Conditions), a survey that is annually conducted by Istat in a comparable European framework. Earned benefits are estimated applying small area estimation methods, given that the sample size of the EU-SILC survey at the province level is small, so the traditional design-based estimators usually are unreliable. Results are analysed to understand whether administrative and sample survey data can be used to to compose a coherent picture of social protection delivered at the provincial level

Real-practice thromboprophylaxis in atrial fibrillation

This retrospective observational study was based on databases of the Local Health Authority of Treviso, Italy. It evaluated the prevalence and the effectiveness of oral anticoagulation treatment (OAT) for the management of nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) in everyday clinical practice. Out of 6,138 NVAF patients, only 3,024 received Vitamin K antagonist (VKA). Potential barriers decreasing the probability of being treated with VKA were female sex, older age, antiplatelet treatment and history of bleeding. In addition, VKA-treatment was not in line with current ESC and AIAC guidelines, since the patients at high or low risk of stroke were under-or over-treated, resp. Among VKAtreated patients, 73 % of subjects were not at target with anticoagulation. OAT resulted to be effective in reducing stroke risk. However, stroke events were significantly influenced also by previous stroke or transient ischemic attack (hazard ratio, HR = 2.99, p < 0.001) and by previous bleeding events (HR = 1.60, p < 0.001)

A Conventional Multiplex PCR Assay for the Detection of Toxic Gemfish Species (Ruvettus pretiosus and Lepidocybium flavobrunneum): A Simple Method to Combat Health Frauds

The meat of Ruvettus pretiosus and Lepidocybium flavobrunneum (gemfishes) contains high amounts of indigestible wax esters that provoke gastrointestinal disorders. Although some countries have banned the sale of these species, mislabeling cases have been reported in sushi catering. This work developed a simple conventional multiplex PCR, which discriminates the two toxic gemfishes from other potentially replaced species, such as tunas, cod, and sablefish. A common degenerate forward primer and three species-specific reverse primers were designed to amplify cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene regions of different lengths (479, 403, and 291 bp) of gemfishes, tunas, and sablefish, respectively. A primer pair was designed to amplify a fragment (193 bp) of the cytb gene of cod species. Furthermore, a primer pair targeting the 16S rRNA gene was intended as common positive control (115 bp). The method developed in this study, by producing the expected amplicon for all of the DNA samples tested (reference and commercial), provides a rapid and reliable response in identifying the two toxic species to combat health frauds

DNA barcoding reveals chaotic labeling and misrepresentation of cod (Xue) products sold on the Chinese market

The increasing rate of seafood frauds, especially in the case of highly priced species, highlights the need of verifying the identity of fish products. This paper describes the application of DNA barcoding to the identification of 52 products commercialized with the Chinese term 鳕 (Xue, Cod) in supermarkets (Nanjing and Shanghai) and in the online market. Considering the lack of harmonization around the definition of Cod, the mislabeling rate was assessed according to three increasingly stringent definitions: Cod meaning Gadiformes species; Cod meaning Gadus spp.; Cod not meaning any specific species, since a qualifier (“Atlantic”, “Pacific” or “Greenland”) should be added in order to refer to Gadus morhua, Gadus macrocephalus or Gadus ogac, respectively. Results highlighted a very high mislabeling rate, which exceeded 60% even with the less stringent definition. Interestingly, only 42.3% of the samples were Gadiformes, while the others were Perciformes, Pleuronectiformes or toxic Tetraodontiformes species. Economic, ecological and health issues arising from the misuse of the term Cod are discussed in the light of the leading role of China in the seafood worldwide industry and of the increased national consumption of marine species

Pentaplex PCR as screening assay for jellyfish species identification in food product

Salted jellyfish, a traditional food in Asian Countries, is nowadays spreading on the Western markets. In this work, we developed a Pentaplex PCR for the identification of five edible species (Nemopilema nomurai, Rhopilema esculentum, Rhizostoma pulmo, Pelagia noctiluca, and Cotylorhiza tuberculata), which cannot be identified by a mere visual inspection in jellyfish products sold as food. A common degenerated forward primer and five specie-specific reverse primers were designed to amplify COI gene regions of different lengths. Another primer pair targeted the 28SrRNA gene and was intended as common positive reaction control. Considering the high level of degradation in the DNA extracted from acidified and salted products, the maximum length of the amplicons was set at 200 bp. The PCR was developed using 66 reference DNA samples. It gave successful amplifications in 85.4% of 48 ready to eat products (REs) and in 60% of 30 classical salted products (CPs) collected on the market

cost of illness study of diabetes mellitus focus on patients with type 2 diabetes

ObjectiveThe aim of the study was to assess the cost of management of diabetic patients; moreover, for type 2 not insulin-dependent patients, also the durability of treatments was evaluated, in ord..

dapagliflozin as add on to metformin network meta analysis and budget impact analysis

n/