The role of voluntary disclosure in listed company: an alternative model

The aim of this paper is to propose a model of social reporting that allows improving the communication of sociability and quantify the sociability. The research approach follows a qualitative methodology, applying a single method approach. The observations are the result of an empirical analysis carried out on the Italian-Stock-Exchange listed companies that have an independent social or sustainability balance sheet. The findings of this research are based, first, on collection of data about the sample, in order to identify the strong and weak points in terms of its management and economic evaluation, and secondly on the introduction of an alternative method of social accounting, with the objective of measuring the sociability of company communication

Clinical and Biochemical Features in a Patient With Mitochondrial Fission Factor Gene Alteration

Mitochondrial Fission Factor (MFF) is part of a protein complex that promotes mitochondria and peroxisome fission. Hitherto, only 5 patients have been reported harboring mutations in MFF, all of them with the clinical features of a very early onset Leigh-like encephalopathy. We report on an 11-year-old boy with epileptic encephalopathy. He presented with neurological regression, epileptic myoclonic seizures, severe intellectual disability, microcephaly, tetraparesis, optic atrophy, and ophthalmoplegia. Brain MRI pattern was compatible with Leigh syndrome. NGS-based analysis of a gene panel for mitochondrial disorders revealed a homozygous c.892C>T (p. Arg298*) in the MFF gene. Fluorescence staining detected abnormal morphology of mitochondria and peroxisomes in fibroblasts from the patient; a strong reduction in MFF protein levels and the presence of truncated forms were observed. No biochemical alterations denoting peroxisomal disorders were found. As reported in other disorders affecting the dynamics of intracellular organelles, our patient showed clinical features suggesting both mitochondrial and peroxisomal impairment. High levels of lactate in our case suggested an involvement of the energetic metabolism but without clear respiratory chain deficiency, while biomarkers of peroxisomal dysfunction were normal. We confirm that MFF mutations are associated with epileptic encephalopathy with Leigh-like MRI pattern

A Machine Learning Approach for Mortality Prediction in COVID-19 Pneumonia: Development and Evaluation of the Piacenza Score

Background: Several models have been developed to predict mortality in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia, but only a few have demonstrated enough discriminatory capacity. Machine learning algorithms represent a novel approach for the data-driven prediction of clinical outcomes with advantages over statistical modeling.Objective: We aimed to develop a machine learning-based score-the Piacenza score-for 30-day mortality prediction in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia.Methods: The study comprised 852 patients with COVID-19 pneumonia, admitted to the Guglielmo da Saliceto Hospital in Italy from February to November 2020. Patients' medical history, demographics, and clinical data were collected using an electronic health record. The overall patient data set was randomly split into derivation and test cohorts. The score was obtained through the naive Bayes classifier and externally validated on 86 patients admitted to Centro Cardiologico Monzino (Italy) in February 2020. Using a forward-search algorithm, 6 features were identified: age, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, PaO2/FiO(2) ratio, temperature, previous stroke, and gender. The Brier index was used to evaluate the ability of the machine learning model to stratify and predict the observed outcomes. A user-friendly website was designed and developed to enable fast and easy use of the tool by physicians. Regarding the customization properties of the Piacenza score, we added a tailored version of the algorithm to the website, which enables an optimized computation of the mortality risk score for a patient when some of the variables used by the Piacenza score are not available. In this case, the naive Bayes classifier is retrained over the same derivation cohort but using a different set of patient characteristics. We also compared the Piacenza score with the 4C score and with a naive Bayes algorithm with 14 features chosen a priori.Results: The Piacenza score exhibited an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.78 (95% CI 0.74-0.84, Brier score=0.19) in the internal validation cohort and 0.79 (95% CI 0.68-0.89, Brier score=0.16) in the external validation cohort, showing a comparable accuracy with respect to the 4C score and to the naive Bayes model with a priori chosen features; this achieved an AUC of 0.78 (95% CI 0.73-0.83, Brier score=0.26) and 0.80 (95% CI 0.75-0.86, Brier score=0.17), respectively.Conclusions: Our findings demonstrated that a customizable machine learning-based score with a purely data-driven selection of features is feasible and effective for the prediction of mortality among patients with COVID-19 pneumonia

Exploring Voluntary Disclosure: a social reporting perspective

Professional associations, public institutions and groups of companies have developed standards for the diffusion of information that are different from the traditional forms of communication. Among the mentioned representation models a very important role is assumed by the Social-Balance-Sheet. Companies that draw up a SBS may use different international standards and guidelines, because there aren’t defined regulations. In this direction, the purpose of this paper is to define the role of social balance sheet for contemporary companies in the knowledge economy, by providing an updated conceptualization of international standards and guidelines used to apply the voluntary disclosure

Social reporting and company evaluation

Contemporary companies have a growing social role and their responsibility requires the extension of the voluntary disclosure. According to the idea of triple bottom line (economic, social, environmental) (Elkington, 1998) the number of Social Balance Sheets (SBS) or others similar reports is increased. Moreover, particular attention is given to the definition of a “One Report” that provides both financial and social information to stakeholders (Eccles, Krzus, 2010). The financial and economic aspect of a company is highlighted by the balance sheet while for the social aspect the companies can use different standards, because there aren’t defined regulations. The financial and economic aspects of company are highlighted by the balance sheet, while for the social one in the lack of defined regulations we can use different standards

Pension fund's corporateand economic profiles

Il lavoro si propone di analizzare la correlazione fra Responsabilità sociale d’impresa e le scelte di investimento operate dai fondi pensione. Infatti, in Italia, il vuoto di welfare e la carenza di copertura previdenziale dovrebbe spingere le nuove generazioni ad aderire a forme pensionistiche complementari, ciò non sempre avviene per una serie di motivi che il lavoro analizza. Le aziende possono svolgere un ruolo attivo nel nuovo welfare integrato, ad esempio, garantendo la previdenza complementare. In tale logica, però, le imprese debbono avere un riconoscimento come quello di divenire, se giudicate socialmente responsabili, impresa target per gli investimenti dei fondi. Il lavoro esamina, dunque, la correlazione fra: Fondo pensione/rsi/impresa target/impresa socialmente responsabile. Ciò consentirebbe alle imprese di svolgere un ruolo attivo nel welfare e, nel contempo, di essere compensate dalla perdita di autofinanziamento conseguente alla obbligatorietà di “girare al fondo” il TFR maturando.This survey aims to analyze the relationship between corporate social responsibility and the investment decision of pension funds. In fact, in Italy, the absence of welfare and the lack of social security coverage should encourage the younger generation to join complementary pension form, but this does not always happen for many reasons analyzed by the survey. Companies can play an active role in the new integrated welfare, for example, by ensuring complementary pension form. In this way, however, companies must have a recognition like becoming, if judged socially responsible, target company for the investment of pension funds. This survey examines, therefore, the relationship among: Pension Funds, CSR, target company, company socially responsible. This would allow companies to play an active role in the welfare and at the same time, to be offset by the loss of cash flow resulting from the obligation to forward to the funds the growing TFR