Factors Influencing the Use of the Balanced Scorecard: Evidence from a Regional Context in Italy

The balanced scorecard (BSC) has received considerable attention, by companies and researchers, for its potentiality in mitigating the limitations of traditional management accounting tools and supporting strategic management. Despite this interest, there is still little empirical evidence on the levels of BSC implementation and the contingency factors influencing it. This study explores whether company size and type of industry affect the BSC use and focuses on motivations of the BSC use (or non-use). A survey was conducted in a highly productive region, Northeast Italy, and quantitative analysis was carried out to assess the statistical significance of the association between the contingency factors and the BSC use. The results confirm prior studies showing that BSC use is biased towards larger companies. However, this holds in every industry except in manufacturing, where also small firms are prone to adopt it. A qualitative analysis integrates these results highlighting that the BSC is mainly used to align objectives and improve business processes and communication within organization

Infra-hissian Wenckebach phenomenon. A case report, with some reflection about slow conduction

We describe a case of Wenckebach periodicity in the distal conduction system. Our observation strengthens the concept that Wenckebach type block in surface ECG may reflect block in infra-hissian tissues, especially if there is a wide QRS complex in the conducted beats

Public engagement and dialogic accounting through social media during COVID-19 crisis: a missed opportunity?

Purpose – The purpose of this exploratory study is to investigate why and how public health agencies employed social media during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak to foster public engagement and dialogic accounting. Design/methodology/approach – The authors analysed the official Facebook pages of the leading public agencies for health crisis in Italy, United Kingdom and New Zealand and they collected data on the number of posts, popularity, commitment and followers before and during the outbreak. The authors also performed a content analysis to identify the topics covered by the posts. Findings – Empirical results suggest that social media has been extensively used as a public engagement tool in all three countries under analysis but–because of legitimacy threats and resource scarcity–it has also been used as a dialogic accounting tool only in New Zealand. Findings suggest that fake news developed more extensively in contexts where the public body did not foster dialogic accounting. Practical implications – Public agencies may be interested in knowing the pros and cons of using social media as a public engagement and dialogic accounting tool. They may also leverage on dialogic accounting to limit fake news. Originality/value – This study is one of the first to look at the nature and role of social media as an accountability tool during public health crises. In many contexts, COVID-19 forced for the first time public health agencies to heavily engage with the public and to develop new skills, so this study paves the way for numerous future research ideas

Pelvic Organ Prolapse Repair with and without Concomitant Burch Colposuspension in Incontinent Women: A Randomised Controlled Trial with at Least 5-Year Followup

The aim of this study was to reevaluate and update the followup of a previously published randomized controlled trial (RCT) on the impact of Burch Colposuspension (BC), as an anti-incontinence procedure, in patients with UI and POP, who underwent POP repair. Forty-seven women were randomly assigned to abdominal POP repair and concomitant BC (24 patients; group A) or POP repair alone without any anti-incontinence procedure (23 patients; group B). Median followup was 82 months (range 60–107); from over 47 patients, 30 reached 6-year followup. Two patients were lost at followup. In group A, 2 patients showed a stage I rectocele. In group B, 2 patients had a stage I rectocele and 1 a stage II rectocele. In group A, 13/23 (56.5%) were still incontinent after surgery compared with 9/22 patients (40.9%) in group B (P = 0.298). No significant changes were observed between the first and the current followup. The update of long-term followup confirmed that BC did not improve outcome significantly in incontinent women when they undergo POP repair

Secreted miR-210-3p as non-invasive biomarker in clear cell renal cell carcinoma

The most common subtype of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is clear cell RCC (ccRCC). It accounts for 70-80% of all renal malignancies representing the third most common urological cancer after prostate and bladder cancer. The identification of non-invasive biomarkers for the diagnosis and responsiveness to therapy of ccRCC may represent a relevant step-forward in ccRCC management. The aim of this study is to evaluate whether specific miRNAs deregulated in ccRCC tissues present altered levels also in urine specimens. To this end we first assessed that miR-21-5p, miR-210-3p and miR-221-3p resulted upregulated in ccRCC fresh frozen tissues compared to matched normal counterparts. Next, we evidenced that miR-210-3p resulted significantly upregulated in 38 urine specimens collected from two independent cohorts of ccRCC patients at the time of surgery compared to healthy donors samples. Of note, miR- 210-3p levels resulted significantly reduced in follow-up samples. These results point to miR-210-3p as a potential non-invasive biomarker useful not only for diagnosis but also for the assessment of complete resection or response to treatment in ccRCC management

The integration of 3D modeling and simulation to determine the energy potential of low-temperature geothermal systems in the Pisa (Italy) sedimentary plain

Shallow, low-temperature geothermal resources can significantly reduce the environmental impact of heating and cooling. Based on a replicable standard workflow for three-dimensional (3D) geothermal modeling, an approach to the assessment of geothermal energy potential is proposed and applied to the young sedimentary basin of Pisa (north Tuscany, Italy), starting from the development of a geothermal geodatabase, with collated geological, stratigraphic, hydrogeological, geophysical and thermal data. The contents of the spatial database are integrated and processed using software for geological and geothermal modeling. The models are calibrated using borehole data. Model outputs are visualized as three-dimensional reconstructions of the subsoil units, their volumes and depths, the hydrogeological framework, and the distribution of subsoil temperatures and geothermal properties. The resulting deep knowledge of subsoil geology would facilitate the deployment of geothermal heat pump technology, site selection for well doublets (for open-loop systems), or vertical heat exchangers (for closed-loop systems). The reconstructed geological-hydrogeological models and the geothermal numerical simulations performed help to define the limits of sustainable utilization of an area's geothermal potential

A Comparative Cost-Benefit Analysis of Conventional and Organic Hazelnuts Production Systems in Center Italy

In this study, the economic profitability of hazelnut production in central Italy using conventional and organic farming systems was evaluated using the cost–benefit analysis methodology. Viterbo’s province is the leading province in Italy in terms of quantity produced. Three indicators were calculated for both farming systems: net present value, payback time, internal rate of return. The analysis was conducted utilizing primary data collected by means of interviews and surveys with local farmers and organizations of producers. The collected production data refer to the decade 2008–2018; a global area of 100.34 ha and 6.14 ha were considered for conventional and organic cultivation, respectively. Sensitivity analysis was carried out considering different discount rates, price variability, and inflation rates. The net present value is equal to 92,800 €/ha and to 3778 €/ha, the payback time is 10.47 years and 42.94 years, while the internal rate of return is 12.2% and 1.1% for the conventional and organic production systems, respectively. The conventional production system performs significantly more remuneratively, considering that the price premium paid by the market for the organic product and the subsidies granted to organic farmers are not sufficient to balance the lower yield

New records of smallscale codlet, Bregmaceros nectabanus Whitley, 1941 (Gadiformes: Bregmacerotidae), in the Adriatic Sea

Six specimens of Bregmaceros nectabanus were collected during the acoustic survey MEDIAS in two consecutive years, off Termoli (Italy) in 2020 and in Albanian waters in 2021, during two night shallow hauls. We report the northernmost record of the alien species in the Mediterranean Sea (Northern Adriatic Sea, FAO fishing area 37.2.1) and one of the highest number of individuals caught in a single haul. This finding testifies a recent geographical spread to the eastern Mediterranean Sea from its distribution area in the Indo-Pacific Ocean and Red Sea, reaching the Adriatic Sea during the 2019. Our records support the hypothesis of a possible establishment of B. nectabanus in this basin

Silica Meets Tannic Acid: Designing Green Nanoplatforms for Environment Preservation

Hybrid tannic acid-silica-based porous nanoparticles, TA-SiO(2) NPs, have been synthesized under mild conditions in the presence of green and renewable tannic acid biopolymer, a glycoside polymer of gallic acid present in a large part of plants. Tannic acid (TA) was exploited as both a structuring directing agent and green chelating site for heavy metal ions recovery from aqueous solutions. Particles morphologies and porosity were easily tuned by varying the TA initial amount. The sample produced with the largest TA amount showed a specific surface area an order of magnitude larger than silica nanoparticles. The adsorption performance was investigated by using TA-SiO(2) NPs as adsorbents for copper (II) ions from an aqueous solution. The effects of the initial Cu(2+) ions concentration and the pH values on the adsorption capability were also investigated. The resulting TA-SiO(2) NPs exhibited a different adsorption behaviour towards Cu(2+), which was demonstrated through different tests. The largest adsorption (i.e., ~50 wt% of the initial Cu(2+) amount) was obtained with the more porous nanoplatforms bearing a higher final TA content. The TA-nanoplatforms, stable in pH value around neutral conditions, can be easily produced and their use would well comply with a green strategy to reduce wastewater pollution