A two-level Structural Equation Model for evaluating the external effectiveness of PhD

In recent years the number of PhDs in Italy has significantly grown and purposes of PhD courses have expanded from the traditional ones. The analysis of the contribution of PhD title for job placement and employment condition of PhDs is an important tool for evaluating the quality and the effectiveness of PhD courses. For this reason, knowledge of the employment status and career of PhDs becomes essential and can help to reduce the gap between academia and labour market. The aim of this paper is to estimate a two-level structural equation model with latent variables to assess the external effectiveness of PhD. The analysis is performed using data from the research "Current situation and employment prospects of PhDs", commissioned by National Committee for the Evaluation of the University System (CNVSU) to the Department of Statistics "G. Parenti" of the University of Florence. The proposed measure of "external effectiveness" is a latent variable obtained by evaluating the level of satisfaction with the employment status of PhDs who achieved the title in 2008. The opinion was expressed one year after obtaining PhD on a ten ordered point scale. External effectiveness indicators used are Consistency with studies, Utilization of the acquired skills and Compliance with the cultural interests

Impact of the 2008 and 2012 financial crises on the unemployment rate in Italy: an interrupted time series approach

One of the most widely recognized indicators of a recession is a rising unemployment rate. In Italy, from the late nineties this indicator continuously decreased over time until 2007. The aim of this paper is to study the immediate impact and persistence of the 2008 global financial crisis and the 2012 European sovereign debt crisis on the Italian unemployment rate by using a segmented regression analysis approach of interrupted time series. Quarterly data were collected from the website of the Italian National Institute of Statistics. In particular, the impact of the financial crises was evaluated across some subpopulations of interest by stratifying unemployment rate for age groups, in order to highlight the effects on youth unemployment, gender and macro-regions. Finally, to provide a more in-depth analysis, some information on the effects of the two economic recessions was also given about the people not engaged in Education, Employment or Trainin

Small area models for analysing job placement survey data of the STELLA consortium

Job placement is a very important issue in nowadays governance of universities and data on career of graduates in the labour market are crucial also for evaluating the performance of the courses of study. The University of Pisa is member of the STELLA consortium whose aim is to perform periodic sample and census surveys for investigating and monitoring the career of graduates on the labor market. In this paper the level of satisfaction for the coherence of the employment condition with the studies of graduates one year after the degree is analysed. Small Area Models (SAE) are used to obtain more accurate estimates for the unplanned domains defined by the course of study. Focus is on the Economics and Statistics master's of science or single-cycle degree courses of the University of Brescia and Pisa

Does water utilities' ownership matter in water pricing policy? An analysis of endogenous and environmental determinants of water tariffs in Italy

Owing to the growing importance of efficient water management, it has become crucial to understand water utilities' characteristics and the environmental factors affecting water pricing, so as to provide guidance to policy-makers. The analysis of factors influencing water tariffs is a challenging task in a context in which companies providing the service are characterized by different ownership features. Moreover, environmental factors and companies' characteristics may simultaneously influence both the decision to privatize the service and the water tariff level. Using a treatment effects model, where privatization is considered as an endogenous binary treatment variable, this paper analyzes whether and how certain relevant variables affect the tariffs levied by water utilities in Italy. The results show that higher tariffs are set in order to cover a greater amount of investments; furthermore, abundant water availability, measured by the average annual rainfall, significantly reduces prices. The data surprisingly show that tariffs are higher where the income level is lower. Significantly, after accounting for the endogeneity due to the fact that water firms are not randomly distributed between totally publicly or not totally publicly owned, our results seem to suggest that ownership does not influence the tariffs levied by water utilities

Quality service in banking: a longitudinal approach

The association between service quality and customer satisfaction represents one of the fundamental relationships in marketing research. Although cross-sectional analysis has been commonly applied in such a context, the shift to a more dynamic approach appears to be a worthwhile change. A broad range of statistical methods exist for the management of data that arises from longitudinal designs. Based on pseudo-panel data collected from the banking sector, a latent growth curve model is proposed for the analysis of service quality in order to capture both intra-individual and inter-individual changes in customer satisfaction over time. Results also describe the impact of reliability on overall satisfaction for different customers’ profile

Local Comparisons of Small Area Estimates of Poverty: An Application Within the Tuscany Region in Italy

The aim of this paper is to highlight some key issues and challenges in the analysis of poverty at the local level using survey data. In the last years there was a worldwide increase in the demand for poverty and living conditions estimates at the local level, since these quantities can help in planning local policies aimed at decreasing poverty and social exclusion. In many countries various sample surveys on income and living conditions are currently conducted, but their sample size is not enough to obtain reliable estimates at local level. When this happens, small area estimation (SAE) methods can be used. In this paper, a SAE model is used to compute the mean household equivalised income and the head count ratio for the 57 Labor Local Systems of the Tuscany region in Italy for the year 2011. The caveats of the analysis of poverty at the local level using small area methods are many, and some are still not so well explored in the literature, starting from the definition of the target indicators to the relevant dimensions of their measurement. We suggest in this paper that together with the universally recognized multidimensional, longitudinal and local dimensions of poverty, a new dimension must be considered: the price dimension, which should take into account local purchasing power parities to cor- rectly compare the poverty indicators based on income measures

ANALISI DEL METABOLISMO GLUCIDICO IN PAZIENTI CIRROTICI SOTTOPOSTI A TRAPIANTO EPATICO: RUOLO DELLA SECREZIONE BETA CELLULARE E DELL'INSULINORESISTENZA.

Impaired glucose metabolism is frequently described in cirrhotic patients. The pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus (DM) in this population is complex and not precisely known. Insulin resistance (IR) plays a central role in the glucose metabolism disturbance and it has been speculated that genetic and environmental factors and some etiologic agents in liver disease impair insulin secretion. Aim of the study: evaluate \u3b2 cell secretion and insulin sensitivity in a cohort of cirrhotic patients undergoing liver transplantation (LT). 107 cirrhotic patients (31 female e 76 male) were evaluated before LT. The patients who underwent LT were evaluated 3, 6, 12 months after surgery. To evaluate insulin resistance HOMA-IR was used. To assess the \u3b2 cell secretion, a state-of-art modelling of glucose/C-peptide curves during OGTT was used. Two outputs were provided: dynamic evaluation (1st phase) and proportional evaluation (2nd phase). Before LT the prevalence of DM and prediabetes (pre DM) were 50.5% and 31.8 % respectively. DM patients showed a lower insulin secretion (both 1st and 2nd phase) and tended to have higher HOMA-IR when compared to pre DM and non DM subjects. After LT glucose metabolism improved (impaired glucose metabolism: 6 months 61.1%, 12 months 65.6%). HOMA-IR was decreased (pre LT: 5.48\ub15.14, 3 months post LT: 2.17\ub11.62, 6 months post LT: 2.28\ub11.44, 12 months post LT: 2.36\ub11.73 P=0.0017). No differences in \u3b2 cell secretion was found. When the population who underwent LT was divided in 2 groups according to the improvement or not of glucose metabolism, higher insulin secretion was found in improved subjects (2nd phase). No differences in HOMA-IR, age, duration of hepatic disease, family history of type 2 DM, immunosuppressive therapy were observed. In conclusion IR and reduced insulin secretion was observed in cirrhotic diabetic patients. After LT an improved glucose metabolism was observed. Insulin sensitivity was increased in all patients and higher \u3b2 cell secretion was observed only in subjects with improved glucose metabolism

Cost-of-illness in systemic sclerosis: a retrospective study of an italian cohort of 106 patients

Aims: It is increasingly important to determine the economic consequences of diseases considering the policy of limited health–care budgets. In this study we evaluated the annual direct and indirect costs of Systemic Sclerosis (SSc) and we tried also to identify any cost predictors. Methods: We studied 106 patients (103 female, 3 male), 57 affected by Limited Systemic Sclerosis (LSSc) and 49 affected by Diffuse Systemic Sclerosis (DSSc). Mean age was 57 years (SD±13,8) and mean disease duration was 8,9 years (SD±7,2). Direct costs: data were calculated referring to DRG (Disease Related Group) expenses for the in-patients. We referred to national pharmacopoeia to calculate the pharmaceutical cost for the out-patients. Indirect costs: we estimated the expense comparing our cases to literature data. Intangible costs: these are attributable to pain and psychological suffering. It is very difficult to express the intangible costs in monetary terms and they are often conveyed as disability and poorer quality-of-life. We used the Health Assessment Questionnaire "HAQ" and the Short Form-36 "SF-36" to evaluate this issues. Results: Our study confirms, the extremely high costs caused by Systemic Sclerosis (total cost's 2001 year is € 1.173.842,93, and average yearly patient cost is € 11.073,99). Considering an estimated prevalence of 375 cases/106, the total yearly economic impact of SSc in Italy should be € 249.000.000,00. Intangible costs were calculated as modifications of the health status. Average value of the HAQ was significantly higher than the control population (0,94±0,72), average values in the SF-36 were significantly lower than the control population (49,99±19,16 for physical dimension and 58,42±27,71 for mental dimension). The diffuse form of SSc, positivity for anti-Scl 70 antibodies, high skin score and a poor health status (HAQ and SF-36) were found to be cost predictors. Conclusions: As reported in the literature, our study confirms, the extremely high costs for total and single patients caused by Systemic Sclerosis. The DSSc are more expensive than the LSSc approximately 11% (p=0,0067). The direct costs are 30% higher in the DSSc than the LSSc (p<0.001). The indirect and intangible costs are not significantly different. Moreover, our study shows also the possibility of identifying different cost predictors

Exogenous administration of gangliosides displaces GPI-anchored proteins from lipid microdomains in living cells

Exogenous application of gangliosides to cells affects many cellular functions. We asked whether these effects could be attributed to the influence of gangliosides on the properties of sphingolipid-cholesterol microdomains on the plasma membrane, also termed rafts. The latter are envisaged as lateral assemblies of sphingolipids (including gangliosides), cholesterol, and a specific set of proteins. Rafts have been implicated in processes such as membrane trafficking, signal transduction, and cell adhesion. Recently, using a chemical cross-linking approach with Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells permanently expressing a GPI-anchored form of growth hormone decay accelerating factor (GH-DAF) as a model system, we could show that GPI-anchored proteins are clustered in rafts in living cells. Moreover, this clustering was dependent on the level of cholesterol in the cell. Here we show that incubation of MDCK cells with gangliosides abolished subsequent chemical cross-linking of GH-DAF. Furthermore, insertion of gangliosides into the plasma membrane of MDCK GH-DAF cells renders GH-DAF soluble when subjected to extraction with Triton X-114 at 4 degrees C. Our data suggest that exogenous application of gangliosides displaces GPI-anchored proteins from sphingolipid-cholesterol microdomains in living cells