The organizational effectiveness of third sector organizations: A dialogic-participatory action research in a regional food bank

The study of organizational effectiveness (OE) within nonprofit organizations is a well-established area of inquiry in international scholarly literature. This focus is particularly crucial in organizations where internal relational dynamics may sometimes be overshadowed by a strong mission- and values-driven identity. This article proposes a relational analysis of OE, employing this interpretive framework to examine the specific organizational context of food banks, complex entities operating at multiple levels with a specialized role in food recovery for charities addressing food poverty. Drawing on evidence from a dialogic-participatory action research conducted within an Italian regional food bank, the study pursued a dual objective. Firstly, it aimed to facilitate the collective construction of knowledge, promoting a cohesive environment for sharing and integrating knowledge to address real-world challenges effectively. Secondly, it sought to empower participants by providing them with opportunities for active engagement in effecting changes and improvements through participatory reflection, thus devising actionable strategies to enhance organizational effectiveness

Oltre il welfare mix: approcci al welfare plurale tra convergenza e differenziazione

The overcoming of the "welfare mix" model opens the way for the development of a plural welfare which is realized by expanding and promoting independent intermediate social spheres, recognizing their public function when oriented to act for the common good. In this path, the importance (at least nominal) of subsidiarity – understood here as a regulatory mechanism and method of coordination between the actors - has been strengthened. The hypothesis of the paper is that in Italy the prospects of the welfare system innovation go through a process of differentiation, which can be described by an ideal-typical typology emerging as a result of abstraction. In particular, the paper suggests the presence of four ideal-typical models of subsidiarity emerging from the "cultures of welfare" existing in Italy

Where do Chip and Dale come from? Origins of invasive populations of the Siberian chipmunk in Europe

Among invasive squirrels in Europe, the Siberian chipmunk Eutamias sibiricus, native to North-East Asia, shows the highest number of free-ranging populations in European countries, due to the intense pet trade it underwent between the 1960s and the 1980s. We describe 628-bp cytochrome b sequences from the Netherlands (N = 3), Belgium (N = 4) and Switzerland (N = 1), and through phylogenetic analysis show that they belong to the Korean subspecies. This confirms previous findings that the Korean subspecies (Eutamias sibiricus barberi) has been the most commonly introduced to Europe. Another subspecies (the Northern subspecies, Eutamias sibiricus sibiricus) has only been reported previously in an Italian free-living population. If the splitting of the Korean taxon as a proper species (Eutamias barberi) will be confirmed by analysis of nuclear markers, a revision of the European Regulation 1143/2014 should be conducted to explicitly ban the trade of newly identified taxa.Support to MM for this research (grant LCF/BQ/DR20/11790020) was provided by ‘La Caixa’ Foundation (ID 100010434)

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for COVID-19 and influenza H1N1 associated acute respiratory distress syndrome: a multicenter retrospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) has become an established rescue therapy for severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in several etiologies including influenza A H1N1 pneumonia. The benefit of receiving ECMO in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is still uncertain. The aim of this analysis was to compare the outcome of patients who received veno-venous ECMO for COVID-19 and Influenza A H1N1 associated ARDS. METHODS: This was a multicenter retrospective cohort study including adults with ARDS, receiving ECMO for COVID-19 and influenza A H1N1 pneumonia between 2009 and 2021 in seven Italian ICU. The primary outcome was any-cause mortality at 60 days after ECMO initiation. We used a multivariable Cox model to estimate the difference in mortality accounting for patients’ characteristics and treatment factors before ECMO was started. Secondary outcomes were mortality at 90 days, ICU and hospital length of stay and ECMO associated complications. RESULTS: Data from 308 patients with COVID-19 (N = 146) and H1N1 (N = 162) associated ARDS who had received ECMO support were included. The estimated cumulative mortality at 60 days after initiating ECMO was higher in COVID-19 (46%) than H1N1 (27%) patients (hazard ratio 1.76, 95% CI 1.17–2.46). When adjusting for confounders, specifically age and hospital length of stay before ECMO support, the hazard ratio decreased to 1.39, 95% CI 0.78–2.47. ICU and hospital length of stay, duration of ECMO and invasive mechanical ventilation and ECMO-associated hemorrhagic complications were higher in COVID-19 than H1N1 patients. CONCLUSION: In patients with ARDS who received ECMO, the observed unadjusted 60-day mortality was higher in cases of COVID-19 than H1N1 pneumonia. This difference in mortality was not significant after multivariable adjustment; older age and longer hospital length of stay before ECMO emerged as important covariates that could explain the observed difference. Trial registration number: NCT05080933, retrospectively registered. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13054-022-03906-4

The open abdomen, indications, management and definitive closure

The indications for Open Abdomen (OA) are generally all those situations in which is ongoing the development an intra-abdominal hypertension condition (IAH), in order to prevent the development of abdominal compartmental syndrome (ACS). In fact all those involved in care of a critically ill patient should in the first instance think how to prevent IAH and ACS. In case of ACS goal directed therapy to achieve early opening and early closure is the key: paradigm of closure shifts to combination of therapies including negative pressure wound therapy and dynamic closure, in order to reduce complications and avoid incisional hernia. There have been huge studies and progress in survival of critically ill trauma and septic surgical patients: this in part has been through the great work of pioneers, scientific societies and their guidelines; however future studies and continued innovation are needed to better understand optimal treatment strategies and to define more clearly the indications, because OA by itself is still a morbid procedure.Peer reviewe

Number magnitude to finger mapping is disembodied and topological

It has been shown that humans associate fingers with numbers because finger counting strategies interact with numerical judgements. At the same time, there is evidence that there is a relation between number magnitude and space as small to large numbers seem to be represented from left to right. In the present study, we investigated whether number magnitude to finger mapping is embodied (related to the order of fingers on the hand) or disembodied (spatial). We let healthy human volunteers name random numbers between 1 and 30, while simultaneously tapping a random finger. Either the hands were placed directly next to each other, 30 cm apart, or the hands were crossed such that the left hand was on the right side of the body mid-line. The results show that naming a smaller number than the previous one was associated with tapping a finger to the left of the previously tapped finger. This shows that there is a spatial (disembodied) mapping between number magnitude and fingers. Furthermore, we show that this mapping is topological rather than metrically scaled

Array analysis of seismic noise at the Sos Enattos mine, the Italian candidate site for the Einstein Telescope

The area surrounding the dismissed mine of Sos Enattos (Sardinia, Italy) is the Italian candidate site for hosting Einstein Telescope (ET), the third-generation gravitational wave (GW) observatory. One of the goals of ET is to extend the sensitivity down to frequencies well below those currently achieved by GW detectors, i.e. down to 2 Hz. In the bandwidth [1,10] Hz, the seismic noise of anthropogenic origin is expected to represent the major perturbation to the operation of the infrastructure, and the site that will host the future detector must fulfill stringent requirements on seismic disturbances. In this paper we describe the operation of a temporary, 15-element, seismic array deployed in close proximity to the mine. Signals of anthropogenic origin have a transient nature, and their spectra are characterized by a wide spectral lobe spanning the [3,20] Hz frequency interval. Superimposed to this wide lobe are narrow spectral peaks within the [3,8] Hz frequency range. Results from slowness analyses suggest that the origin of these peaks is related to vehicle traffic along the main road running east of the mine. Exploiting the correlation properties of seismic noise, we derive a dispersion curve for Rayleigh waves, which is then inverted for a shallow velocity structure down to depths of ≈≈ 150 m. This data, which is consistent with that derived from analysis of a quarry blast, provide a first assessment of the elastic properties of the rock materials at the site candidate to hosting ET