Managing and enhancing the intangible heritage: the experience of “Literary Parks”

In recent years, the concept of cultural heritage has changed to include artistic, archaeological, architectural and environmental heritages, including intangible forms of these. The potential of intangible heritage has yet to be fully exploited, and there are many opportunities for its enhancement and protection still to explore. The meaning of intangible heritage in social development, and its social and cultural potential is described through a case study of the Literary Park circuit in Italy. The Italian experience shows that there is potential in setting up networks in remote areas, and in the process of recognizing and enhancing the intangible heritage of a country. Heritage, particularly intangible heritage, is an alternative approach to promoting a sense of belonging and active participation in a community. It can attract financial resources and boost social development of the local cultural ecosystem. Surveys and interviews are used to assess the limits and potential as well as strengths and weaknesses of Literary Parks

Managing and enhancing the intangible heritage: the experience of “Literary Parks”

In recent years, the concept of cultural heritage has changed to include artistic, archaeological, architectural and environmental heritages, including intangible forms of these. The potential of intangible heritage has yet to be fully exploited, and there are many opportunities for its enhancement and protection still to explore. The meaning of intangible heritage in social development, and its social and cultural potential is described through a case study of the Literary Park circuit in Italy. The Italian experience shows that there is potential in setting up networks in remote areas, and in the process of recognizing and enhancing the intangible heritage of a country. Heritage, particularly intangible heritage, is an alternative approach to promoting a sense of belonging and active participation in a community. It can attract financial resources and boost social development of the local cultural ecosystem. Surveys and interviews are used to assess the limits and potential as well as strengths and weaknesses of Literary Parks

Financing Sustainability in the Arts Sector: The Case of the Art Bonus Public Crowdfunding Campaign in Italy

This paper addresses the conditions that can facilitate the long-term effectiveness of civic crowdfunding fundraising strategies. While previous studies have provided a broad picture of the possible conditions for fostering effective fundraising strategies, most have considered the implications of fundraising only for management or only for cultural policy, neglecting an integrated approach that contemplates the needs of both. Thus, this work integrates cultural management and cultural policy perspectives by discussing a specific exploratory case study: Art Bonus, a cultural patronage tax incentive strategy introduced by the Italian government in 2014, which also includes civic crowdfunding features. To the best of our knowledge, Art Bonus is the first national civic crowdfunding platform supported by a national government. As an innovative and unique platform, its analysis is particularly relevant. This work analyzes the system’s functioning and the results obtained in its first years of operation (2014–2016) by accessing the public database relating to the donations transited through the platform. While the initiative effectively channeled more fundraising resources into the cultural sector, the results also illustrate potential points for improving such a system

Functional conservation of the grapevine candidate gene INNER NO OUTER for ovule development and seed formation

Seedlessness represents a highly appreciated trait in table grapes. Based on an interesting case of seedless fruit production described in the crop species Annona squamosa, we focused on the Vitis vinifera INNER NO OUTER (INO) gene as a candidate. This gene encodes a transcription factor belonging to the YABBY family involved in the determination of abaxial identity in several organs. In Arabidopsis thaliana, this gene was shown to be essential for the formation and asymmetric growth of the ovule outer integument and its mutation leads to a phenotypic defect of ovules and failure in seed formation. In this study, we identified in silico the V. vinifera orthologue and investigated its phylogenetic relationship to INO genes from other species and its expression in different organs in seeded and seedless varieties. Applying cross-species complementation, we have tested its functionality in the Arabidopsis ino-1 mutant. We show that the V. vinifera INO successfully rescues the ovule outer integument growth and seeds set and also partially complements the outer integument asymmetric growth in the Arabidopsis mutant, differently from orthologues from other species. These data demonstrate that VviINO retains similar activity and protein targets in grapevine as in Arabidopsis. Potential implications for grapevine breeding are discussed

Targeted cancer exome sequencing reveals recurrent mutations in myeloproliferative neoplasms

With the intent of dissecting the molecular complexity of Philadelphia-negative myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN), we designed a target enrichment panel to explore, using next-generation sequencing (NGS), the mutational status of an extensive list of 2,000 cancer-associated genes and microRNAs. The genomic DNA of granulocytes and in-vitro-expanded CD3+ T-lymphocytes, as a germline control, was target-enriched and sequenced in a learning cohort of 20 MPN patients using Roche 454 technology. We identified 141 genuine somatic mutations, most of which were not previously described. To test the frequency of the identified variants, a larger validation cohort of 189 MPN patients was additionally screened for these mutations using Ion Torrent AmpliSeq NGS. Excluding the genes already described in MPN, for 8 genes (SCRIB, MIR662, BARD1, TCF12, FAT4, DAP3, POLG, and NRAS), we demonstrated a mutation frequency between 3 and 8%. We also found that mutations at codon 12 of NRAS (NRASG12V and NRASG12D) were significantly associated, for primary myelofibrosis (PMF), with highest DIPSS-plus score categories. This association was then confirmed in 66 additional PMF patients composing a final dataset of 168 PMF showing an NRAS mutation frequency of 4.7%, which was associated with a worse outcome, as defined by the DIPSS plus score

Il confronto di performance economico-finanziarie nelle Università: un possibile modello di analisi per indici

In Europe and in Italy, Universities are pressured to increase their performance. As a matter of fact, recently, several national governments have introduced quasi-market mechanism, pursuing the aim of encourage competition among Universities, improving efficiency, effectiveness and increasing economic viability. In this scenario, the practice of benchmarking is becoming more important as it provides a realistic approach for assessing the performance in critical areas for learning from the experience of other organisations. However, the majority of performance indicators only refers to the two main core activities of University (research and teaching), underestimating the economical-financial performances. The idea is to provide managers with a multidimensional performance evaluation system, which also consider the accounting dimension as an essential element to support strategic decisions. The paper aims to define a set of balance sheet ratios, which take into account the peculiarity of University management, meanwhile developing data-benchmarking process for monitoring and compare economic and financial dynamic in higher education institutions

University Collections:Managing the artistic heritage behind the University ivory tower

The management of university museums and collections has been an issue for decades as they have played a crucial role in supporting the three missions of the higher education system: research, teaching and making academia’s resources available for public use. In this paper, we focus on the Italian case, where the enhancement, management and accessibility of university collections are all part of the evaluation system for universities. Our aim in this work is to propose a reconnaissance of university art collections in Italy and investigate the three managerial challenges defined by the Council of Europe: accessibility, financial sustainability and communication of university collections. The findings show that Italian universities hold an enormous cultural heritage, mainly undervalued, both in terms of number of artworks and in terms of the artworks’ economic value. In addition, Italian managerial approaches show significant critical issues regarding the three managerial challenges

Nutritional and metabolic rehabilitation for long-term cancer survivors: Give life the right weight

Introduction: Aim of this study is to focus on the metabolic and nutritional status of long-term cancer survivors, i.e. subjects with a previous diagnosis of cancer, but disease and treatment-free for at least 5 years. The study was designed to gain new insights into the issues of cancer survivorship; in January 2007 the Italian Ministry of Health has supported a national multicentric study, named Medical and Psychological Rehabilitation Program for Long Term Cancer Survivors. Within the Medical and Psychological Rehabilitation Program for Long Term Cancer Survivors, the subproject "nutritional and metabolic rehabilitation for long-term cancer survivors" was performed. Aim of this subproject was to collect data about the characteristics of cancer survivors in Italy and their nutritional status, and to evaluate the presence of metabolic and/or lifestyle changes and prescribed treatments (pharmacological, behavioral, or both). Materials and methods: A brief questionnaire was elaborated to collect data about lifestyle, dietary habits, metabolic imbalances, and possible treatments in Italian cancer survivors. Subjects were recruited by the participant oncologic groups, and the data collected were evaluated by our group. Results: From November 2009 to May 2011, 226 cancer survivors were recruited. Breast cancer accounted for 88.17% of cancers in the group of females and 79.2% in the total sample. Questionnaire analysis showed a high prevalence of the conditions of overweight and obesity; however, only 21.7% of the subjects received nutritional assessment and/or dietary interventions, only 22.5% of the patients modified their lifestyle, and only 32% modified their dietary habits. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that, at present, the lack of knowledge about cancer survivorship, leave the emerging needs of the growing population of cancer survivors largely unmet by the National Healthcare Plans. Cancer survivors need more answers about their health, including dietary and lifestyle changes. The analysis shows that in Italy the Mediterranean lifestyle model is scarcely adopted among cancer survivors. More research is needed to develop cost-effective strategies to improve both the quality and quantity of survivorship in these subjects. © 2013 SINPE-GASAPE

Il Piano Nazionale di Rilancio e Resilienza Opportunità e minacce per gli Enti locali: l’opinione degli esperti

La crisi derivante dalla pandemia da Covid-19 ha avuto un impatto profondissimo sull’assetto della pubblica amministrazione. Lo stress dovuto alla gestione dell’emergenza ha enfatizzato le tante problematicità che da anni affliggono le aziende pubbliche italiane. Il presente lavoro vuole mettere in luce, nell’opinione degli esperti, quali dovrebbero essere i principali aspetti su cui le amministrazioni pubbliche locali dovrebbero concentrarsi affinché gli obiettivi definiti dal Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza (PNRR) siano raggiunti. La ricerca si basa su un approccio qualitativo. Questionari, a domande chiuse e aperte, sono stati sottoposti ad accademici e consulenti, esperti di Pubblica Amministrazione, al fine di evidenziare le criticità e le opportunità del PNRR. L’analisi mostra indicazioni sui temi che i politici e i manager pubblici dovranno tenere in considerazione per raggiungere gli obiettivi prefissati, secondo le percezioni dei rispondenti. Un cambio di mentalità per passare da un’organizzazione per funzione a un’organizzazione per processo è percepito come essenziale. Il project management dovrà essere, nell’opinione degli esperti, la metodologia da applicare. Il “recruiting” del nuovo personale e la valutazione delle competenze saranno elementi fondamentali, insieme al ruolo che giocherà la consulenza esterna. Tutto ciò per limitare il rischio che prevalga la logica dello “spendere tutto”, piuttosto che dello “spendere bene”