Social responsibility reporting at group level in a mutual insurance company: the experience of ITAS Mutua Assicurazioni

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines state that a social responsibility re-port should provide information about 'all entities over which the reporting organisa-tion exercises control or significant influence'. A mutual insurance company which sells products through a network of insurance agents has to provide information about insurance agencies and about customers. ITAS is the first company to produce a so-cial responsibility report including data provided by the network of insurance agents, the customers and the shareholders. The paper illustrates the process used to collect and process information. Interestingly, the data collection process opened a channel of communication with both agents and customers/shareholders supplying ITAS with useful suggestions from the strategic and marketing point of view

Consumer's Attitude Towards Labeled and Unlabeled GM Food Products in Italy

Based on survey data collected on a sample of 500 Italian consumers, this paper evaluates the consumer's attitude towards foods obtained from the application of biotechnologies and foods labeled as "GM free". Results from the application of probit models shows that the probability to purchase GM products is lower for individuals more adverse to risk, older, with higher education and less confident in institutional guarantees. Willingness to Pay for GM free products is positively related to information, risk aversion, age, trust in institutional environment, negatively to the degree of agreement with the application of biotechnologies.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

A Partial Equilibrium Model of the Beef and Dairy Sector in Italy Under Imperfect Competition

In this paper we present a partial equilibrium model for the bovine sector (beef and dairy) in Italy, which can be used for simulation and forecasting. The structure of the model follows the vertical chain of the beef and dairy sector, allowing trade of both agricultural raw materials and final products. Since the processing and retailing stage is characterised by an imperfectly competitive structure, the model accounts for market power in modelling the price transmission mechanism. This provides further insights on the vertical transmission of shocks, both at the final level (i.e. the BSE crisis) and at the farm level (i.e. agricultural policy reform).simulation models, policy analysis, imperfect competition, beef, dairy, Livestock Production/Industries,

Personalized Web Search via Query Expansion based on User’s Local Hierarchically-Organized Files

Users of Web search engines generally express information needs with short and ambiguous queries, leading to irrelevant results. Personalized search methods improve users’ experience by automatically reformulating queries before sending them to the search engine or rearranging received results, according to their specific interests. A user profile is often built from previous queries, clicked results or in general from the user’s browsing history; different topics must be distinguished in order to obtain an accurate profile. It is quite common that a set of user files, locally stored in sub-directory, are organized by the user into a coherent taxonomy corresponding to own topics of interest, but only a few methods leverage on this potentially useful source of knowledge. We propose a novel method where a user profile is built from those files, specifically considering their consistent arrangement in directories. A bag of keywords is extracted for each directory from text documents with in it. We can infer the topic of each query and expand it by adding the corresponding keywords, in order to obtain a more targeted formulation. Experiments are carried out using benchmark data through a repeatable systematic process, in order to evaluate objectively how much our method can improve relevance of query results when applied upon a third-party search engin

Anesthesiologic effects of transperitoneal versus extraperitoneal approach during robot-assisted radical prostatectomy: results of a prospective randomized study

To compare the effects of CO(2) insufflation on hemodynamics and oxygen levels and on acid-base level during Robot-Assisted Radical Prostatectomy (RARP) with transperitoneal (TP) versus extra-peritoneal (EP) accesses

Disability manager o Disability management? Una prospettiva inclusiva per il mondo del lavoro

Il Disability management \ue8 finalizzato a promuovere il benessere e la salute e gestire in modo efficace i lavoratori in situazione di disagio creando anche un ambiente inclusivo per le persone con disabilit\ue0. L'articolo contribuisce al dibattito in corso presentando l'esperienza pluriennale del Centro Polifunzionale Don Calabria di Verona

A thiocarbonate sink on the enzymatic energy landscape of aerobic CO oxidation? Answers from DFT and QM/MM models of Mo–Cu CO-dehydrogenases

We present a theoretical investigation providing key insights on a long-standing controversial issue that dominated the debate on carbon monoxide oxidation by Mo–Cu CO-dehydrogenases. Previous investigations gravitate around the possible occurrence of a thiocarbonate intermediate, that was repeatedly reported to behave as a thermodynamic sink on the catalytic energy landscape. By using a hierarchy of quantum mechanical and hybrid quantum/classical models of the enzyme, we show that no such energy sink is present on the catalytic energy profile. Consequent perspectives for the definition of a novel mechanistic proposal for the enzyme-catalyzed CO-oxidation are discussed in light of the recent literature

Comparison of Knock Indexes Based on CFD Analysis

Abstract Recent trends in gasoline engines, such as downsizing, downspeeding and the increase of the compression ratio make knocking combustions a serious limiting factor for engine performance. A detailed analysis of knocking events can help improving the engine performance and diagnostic strategies. An effective way is to use advanced 3D Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation for the analysis and prediction of the combustion process. The effects of Cycle to Cycle Variation (CCV) on knocking combustions are taken into account, maintaining a \RANS\ (Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes) \CFD\ approach, while representing a complex running condition, where knock intensity changes from cycle to cycle. The focus of the numerical methodology is the statistical evaluation of the local air-to-fuel and turbulence distribution at the spark plugs and their correlation with the variability of the initial stages of combustion. \CFD\ simulations have been used to reproduce knock effect on the cylinder pressure trace. For this purpose, the \CFD\ model has been validated, proving its ability to predict the combustion evolution with respect to \SA\ variations, from non-knocking up to heavy knocking conditions. The pressure traces simulated by the \CFD\ model are then used to evaluate cylinder pressure-based knock indexes. Since the model is able to output other knock intensity tracers, such as the mass of fuel burned in knocking mode, or the local heat transferred to the piston, knock indexes based on the cylinder pressure trace can be related to parameters only available in a simulation environment, that are likely to be more representative of the actual knock intensity, with respect to the local pressure trace for the sensor position. The possibility of simulating hundredths of engine cycle allows using the methodology to compare the indexes quality (correlation with actual knock intensity) on a statistical base

Long-term continuous monitoring of the preterm brain with diffuse optical tomography and electroencephalography: A technical note on cap manufacturing

open12noDiffuse optical tomography (DOT) has recently proved useful for detecting whole-brain oxygenation changes in preterm and term newborns' brains. The data recording phase in prior explorations was limited up to a maximum of a couple of hours, a time dictated by the need to minimize skin damage caused by the protracted contact with optode holders and interference with concomitant clinical/nursing procedures. In an attempt to extend the data recording phase, we developed a new custom-made cap for multimodal DOT and electroencephalography acquisitions for the neonatal population. The cap was tested on a preterm neonate (28 weeks gestation) for a 7-day continuous monitoring period. The cap was well tolerated by the neonate, who did not suffer any evident discomfort and/or skin damage. Montage and data acquisition using our cap was operated by an attending nurse with no difficulty. DOT data quality was remarkable, with an average of 92% of reliable channels, characterized by the clear presence of the heartbeat in most of them.openopenAlfonso Galderisi; Sabrina Brigadoi; Simone Cutini; Sara Basso Moro; Elisabetta Lolli; Federica Meconi; Silvia Benavides-Varela; Eugenio Baraldi; Piero Amodio; Claudio Cobelli; Daniele Trevisanuto; Roberto Dell'AcquaGalderisi, Alfonso; Brigadoi, Sabrina; Cutini, Simone; BASSO MORO, Sara; Lolli, Elisabetta; Meconi, Federica; Silvia, Benavides-Varela; Baraldi, Eugenio; Amodio, Piero; Cobelli, Claudio; Trevisanuto, Daniele; Dell'Acqua, Robert