The Role of Pathological Method and Clearance Definition for the Evaluation of Margin Status after Pancreatoduodenectomy for Periampullary Cancer. Results of a Multicenter Prospective Randomized Trial

Simple SummaryThere is no clear evidence on the most effective method of pathological analysis and clearance definition (0 vs. 1 mm) to define R1 resection after pancreatoduodenectomy (PD). However, several studies showed that the R1 resection is a poor prognostic factor in patients that have undergone PDs for periampullary cancers. In this randomized clinical trial, specimens were randomized with two pathological methods, the Leeds Pathology Protocol (LEEPP) or the conventional method adopted before the study. The 1 mm clearance is the most effective factor in determining R1 rate after PD but only when adopting the LEEP, the R1 resection represents a significant prognostic factor.Background: There is extreme heterogeneity in the available literature on the determination of R1 resection rate after pancreatoduodenectomy (PD); consequently, its prognostic role is still debated. The aims of this multicenter randomized study were to evaluate the effect of sampling and clearance definition in determining R1 rate after PD for periampullary cancer and to assess the prognostic role of R1 resection. Methods: PD specimens were randomized to Leeds Pathology Protocol (LEEPP) (group A) or the conventional method adopted before the study (group B). R1 rate was determined by adopting 0- and 1-mm clearance; the association between R1, local recurrence (LR) and overall survival (OS) was also evaluated. Results. One-hundred-sixty-eight PD specimens were included. With 0 mm clearance, R1 rate was 26.2% and 20.2% for groups A and B, respectively; with 1 mm, R1 rate was 60.7% and 57.1%, respectively (p > 0.05). Only in group A was R1 found to be a significant prognostic factor: at 0 mm, median OS was 36 and 20 months for R0 and R1, respectively, while at 1 mm, median OS was not reached and 30 months. At multivariate analysis, R1 resection was found to be a significant prognostic factor independent of clearance definition only in the case of the adoption of LEEPP. Conclusions. The 1 mm clearance is the most effective factor in determining the R1 rate after PD. However, the pathological method is crucial to accurately evaluate its prognostic role: only R1 resections obtained with the adoption of LEEPP seem to significantly affect prognosis

Il Reporting del Capitale Intellettuale

In recent years there has been a need to identify new tools, that must be more advanced and that are able to provide certainty, partly because of the evolution of the market, the economic strength and volatility of stock prices that has caused the bursting of the speculative bubble of the New Economy in 2001 and the financial crisis of 2008. This phenomenon, not being concluded, requires new models of representation, evaluation and management, and therefore new educational approaches, at a university level too. In this sense an important role was reserved by the academic world, requested to give more concrete answers on the meaning and significance of Intellectual Capital and in general on the intangible within the factory system. As evidenced by the facts, the financial market punishes the uncertainty and lack of information on resources and critical business processes with effects on the variability of the stock and with a higher cost of capital. This work uses the methodology of the research report on the conceptual analysis of intellectual capital on the basis of European guidelines and the various projects undertaken nationally and internationally. In particular the study seeks to introduce new points of discussion by emphasizing the role played by intangible holdings and to identify indicators that can detect the resources perceived as invisible more than intangible

The performance of Italian conservatories: a methodological proposal

This paper aims to analyse the theme of management control in the Italian conservatories as cultural companies, using the financial statement analysis with ratios to measure and summarise the performances achieved. The analysis is structured into two stages: the first stage analyses the indicators for a better control management; the second one shows the data obtained from the application of these indicators. The research topic is developed into two levels: a qualitative one and quantitative one. In the first level, we analyse the existing ratios for the financial statement analysis of conservatories; in the second level, we examine the results of the financial statement analysis of the 15% of Italian conservatories. The paper proposes practical evidence to support the financial statement analysis as a management control tool for the conservatories. The approach taken for the development of performance reporting system is intended to detect the aggregate results through logical indexes

PiGame 2023: una escape room matematica

Questo articolo presenta una recente esperienza didattica rivolta a studenti delle scuole secondarie di primo e secondo grado italiane tramite la costruzione di una escape room virtuale. Tale esperienza ha coinvolto oltre 50 scuole e 1500 studenti nell’occasione del Pi Day 2023, la Giornata Internazionale della Matematica. L’articolo si concentra sull’idea progettuale dei problemi matematici presentati e sulle modalità di realizzazione di un contesto virtuale che riproduca fedelmente l’esperienza di gioco escape room

A fast and unbiased procedure to randomize ecological binary matrices with fixed row and column totals

A well-known problem in numerical ecology is how to recombine presence-absence matrices without altering row and column totals. A few solutions have been proposed, but all of them present some issues in terms of statistical robustness (i.e. their capability to generate different matrix configurations with the same probability) and their performance (i.e. the computational effort they require to generate a null matrix). Here we introduce the 'Babe Ruth algorithm', a new procedure that differs from existing methods in that it focuses rather on matrix information content than on matrix structure. We demonstrate that the algorithm can sample uniformly the set of all possible matrix configurations requiring a computational effort orders of magnitude lower than that required by available methods, making it possible to easily randomize matrices larger than 108 cells.JRC.H.3-Forest Resources and Climat

Quality of AIS Services for Wide-Area Maritime Surveillance

The paper presents the ship tracking capabilities in the Maritime Situational Picture (MSP) built from non-classified AIS (Automatic Identification System) data from up to 8 AIS satellites as well as terrestrial AIS. The results represent state-of-the-art of cooperative long-range capabilities. During 2011–2013, the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission has carried out two campaigns for counter-piracy surveillance under the name “Piracy, Maritime Awareness and Risks”(PMAR), each for 6-month; the first focussed on the seas off the Horn of Africa, the second on the Gulf of Guinea. The AIS performance was analysed in terms of the number of ships seen (up to 2,850 in the second campaign), the freshness (average maximum time gap between AIS messages over all ships was 4.4 hours), the fraction of ships that are updated every 3 hours (increased from 21% in January 2012 to 49% in March 2013), and other indicators. The marginal value when adding data sources was analysed. E.g., considering the data from the various AIS providers in March 2013, it is found that the average number of ships detected per day increased by 384 when increasing from one to two providers and by another 31 adding the third provider, whereas terrestrial AIS increased the number of ships with another 93. The average maximum time gap was reduced from 10.9 hours to 4.4 hours in steps of 1.9, 2.7 and 1.9 hours. These results enable choices on how many satellites or data sources to use for a certain required performance.JRC.G.3-Maritime affair

Data Fusion for Wide-Area Maritime Surveillance

The integration of vessel traffic monitoring systems, from coastal range to satellite based sensors, is vital to fulfill the requirements related to the safety of navigation and to fight maritime pollution, illegal immigration, illegal fishing, piracy and any other security threat. The paper is devoted to address the main data fusion issues arising from the building of a system able to: i) ingest ships' position reports from different sources (terrestrial and satellite AIS, LRIT), ii) track the vessels within a certain area of interest both in real-time and off-line, iii) provide the final user with a Maritime Situational Picture, and iv) associate non-cooperatively detected vessels to positions from cooperative reporting systems, aimed at the signaling of the presence of ships without any reported data from either AIS or LRIT. Finally, our contribution will show the behavior of the JRC’s prototype platform for maritime situation assessment on data collected within the PMAR (Piracy, Maritime Awareness and Risks) projects around the Horn of Africa and Gulf of Guinea.JRC.G.4-Maritime affair