Knowledge, diffusion and interest towards blockchain technology in SMEs

Blockchain technology could can lead to radical changes by improving business model and process. Employing this technology in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) still represents a novel idea. Moreover, not much is actually known about the benefits brought by technology to SMEs. This research focuses on how SMEs perceive the new technology, in doing that we analyze the degree of knowledge, diffusion, and interest of the blockchain by SMEs. We designed and addresses a questionnaire to a sample of 300 SMEs in Italy. Results show that blockchain technology is quite well known, but the level of knowledge is quite limited. Moreover, the research reveals that the rate of adoption is very low. Regarding the interest to implement blockchain in the future results are optimistic

Strategie d'impresa e qualit\ue0 nel comparto degli oli extra - vergini di oliva molisani

Recent approaches about food quality have stressed the social processes by which \u201cquality conventions\u201d prevailing on the market are achieved. The present work investigates these conventions on the supply side, focusing on the \u201cstyles\u201d characterizing the management of a group of firms. More specifically, the research analyzes a group of oil-press plants localized in Molise, an Italian region the name of which is also the \u201cbrand-name\u201d of a PDO recently registered by EU. In the first part the essay outlines the scenario of both olive oil market and local context. In the second section the paper shows the results of a direct survey. Applying factorial analysis to the data collected in the survey, four main \u201cquality factors\u201d were identified: safety and health; localization and scale; product differentiation; technological heritage. On the basis of these factors it was possible to point out three main styles characterizing the sample firms: the \u201cendogenous\u201d, the local, and the \u201cfordistic\u201d one

Performance governance per la generazione di Valore Pubblico in sanità. Evidenze empiriche dalle aziende sanitarie dell’Emilia-Romagna

La finalizzazione del ciclo della performance delle aziende sanitarie verso il Valore Pubblico (VP) può rappresentare una via per superare il trade-off tra efficientamento e miglioramento degli impatti socio-sanitari. Il paper intende esplorare l’adeguatezza degli strumenti di sistematizzazione, programmazione e rendicontazione della performance delle aziende sanitarie, documentabile tramite la presenza di informazioni di performance utili a supportare la governance delle stesse verso la generazione di VP. I risultati dell’analisi documentale fotografano una presenza non ancora adeguata degli elementi di performance governance nei documenti di sistematizzazione, programmazione e rendicontazione delle performance di 13 aziende sanitarie della Regione Emilia-Romagna indagate e la necessità di approfondire il dibattito scientifico sul concetto di VP nella letteratura.The finalization of hospitals' performance cycle towards Public Value (PV) can represent a way to overcome the trade-off between efficiency and improvement of social and healthcare impacts. The paper exploits the adequacy of the systematization, programming and reporting tools of performance in hospitals, which can be documented through the presence of useful performance information to support their governance towards the generation of PV. The results of the documentary analysis show a lack of presence of performance governance elements in the systematization, programming and reporting documents of the 13 public hospitals investigated in the Emilia-Romagna Region and the need to deepen the scientific debate on the concept of PV in the healthcare secto

Influence of glutathione S-transferase polymorphisms on genotoxic effect induced by tobacco smoke

Genotoxicity of tobacco smoke has long been investigated and tobacco smoke is considered to be one of the principal human carcinogens. Although its role in DNA-damage induction and cancer development has been documented, the mechanisms by which this happens are not well understood. Many chemical constituents of tobacco smoke are enzymatically metabolized by phase-I and phase-II enzymes, but modifications in coding and regulating sequences of these genes could influence their ability to detoxify these compounds. In this work, we studied several enzymes involved in the metabolism of xenobiotics, viz. the glutathione S-transferases (GST) M1, T1, P1 and A1, with respect to their influence on the genotoxic effects induced by cigarette smoking. We assessed the genotoxic effects of tobacco smoke on peripheral blood lymphocytes of 72 healthy caucasians by use of the chromosomal aberration (CA) assay and the micronucleus (MN) test. Genotypes of GST M1, T1, P1 and A1 were determined by means of the polymerase chain reaction and methods based on restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). We found that smoke and gender are the two variables that most influence the DNA damage. In particular, we observed that female smokers seem to be more sensitive than male, smokers, having a significantly higher frequency of CAs. Moreover, a significant increase in frequency of micronuclei in bi-nucleated cells (BNMN) was found in smokers, but not in non-smokers. This increase seems to be influenced not only by age and gender, but also by genetic constitution. Subjects carrying GSTM1-null genotype seemed to have an higher susceptibility to DNA damage induced by tobacco smoke than GSTM1-positive ones. When considering a combination of GST genotypes, we found a lower BNMN frequency in subjects with GSTP1 variant allele plus GSTM1-positive genotypes, while the most damaged cells are found in subjects bearing GSTM1-null plus GSTP1-wild type. Our results suggest that investigation of the association between several gene polymorphisms and important endpoints of DNA damage could contribute to better understanding the role of gene-gene interactio

Molecular biomonitoring of a population of nurses handling antineoplastic drugs

Many antincoplastic drugs have been found to have carcinogenic, mutagenic and teratogenic activity and so hospital personnel handling these substances are potentially exposed to health risk. Understanding this risk derived from protracted occupational exposure has great relevance even if the workers normally adopt individual and environmental protective measures. To address this question we have studied the presence of DNA and chromosome damage in a population of nurses employed in Italian oncology units and in matched controls. We used the comet assay to evidence the presence of DNA strand breaks, due to both acute and chronic exposure, and the micronucleus (MN) test, which is a measure of clastogenic and aneugenic events. Furthermore, since the individual response to the exogenous insults may be genetically determined, we studied the possible influence of single nucleotide polymorphism in XRCC1 and XRCC3 DNA repair genes on induced genetic damage. We also considered the effects of confounding factors like smoking, age and gender. The results indicated that the exposed subjects had significantly high levels of genetic damage. Age and gender were associated with increased values in MN, both in control and in exposed groups; the smoking habit affects MN frequency in controls, but not in workers. Furthermore we found that exposed subjects bearing at least one XRCC1 variant allele (399Gln) show higher values of MN. The present data provide the evidence to show that occupational exposure to antineoplastic drugs, even if in safety controlled conditions, represents a serious health risk. Furthermore we have shown that the presence of XRCC1 genetic polymorphism could contribute to increase the genetic damage in susceptible individuals who are occupationally exposed to dangerous substance