Evoluzione delle attivita di Delivery in relazione all'applicazione del Jobs Act

Obiettivo del presente lavoro è analizzare l’evoluzione delle principali attività svolte all’interno delle Agenzie per il lavoro in relazione all’applicazione del Jobs Act. Nel primo capitolo mi sono occupata del Jobs Act e delle sue caratteristiche. Ho effettuatato primariamente un excursus storico dei cambiamenti normativi connessi al mondo del lavoro nel contesto italiano. Questa analisi è stata effettuata per mettere in evidenza come tali cambiamenti non siano altro che il frutto dell’interazione tra il contesto storico, politico, religioso e sociale caratteristico del nostro Paese. Successivamente, ho spostato l’attenzione sui vari decreti legislativi che compongono la legge n. 183 del 2014. Da questa analisi, è emerso chiaramente come il Jobs Act sia riuscito a farsi strada in un momento in cui il problema del mercato del lavoro non poteva più essere accantonato e necessitava di soluzioni immediate. Dopo aver presentato un quadro generale delle innovazioni apportate nel mondo del lavoro con l’introduzione del Jobs Act, ho trattato in maniera più dettagliata il tema delle politiche attive previste da questo provvedimento. In relazione ad esse, possiamo dire che l’obiettivo principale del Governo Renzi sia stato quello di cercare di facilitare maggiormente l’incontro tra domanda e offerta di lavoro. Garantire servizi di orientamento e formativi per avvicinare i giovani al mondo del lavoro e percorsi di ricollocazione rivolti a coloro che, avendo perso la propria occupazione, cercano di reiserirsi. Per riuscire a fornire un risvolto pratico a queste iniziative, ho fatto riferimento alle Agenzie per il lavoro, che negli ultimi anni hanno ricoperto un ruolo sempre più centrale nel mercato del lavoro in relazione al tema dell’occupazione e del reinserimento lavorativo. Per parlarne accuratamente, è risultato necessario dedicare preliminarmente attenzione al tipo di rapporto che si instaura con l’introduzione dell’intermediazione lavorativa. Ci riferiamo qui ai contratti di lavoro in somministrazione. Nello specifico ho voluto analizzare il tipo di relazione che intercorre tra tre figure protagoniste (l’impresa somministratrice, il lavoratore e all’impresa utilizzatrice) e le modalità di concretizzazione del rapporto di lavoro tra di esse. Avendo dunque evidenziato il ruolo centrale delle Agenzie per il lavoro, nel quarto capitolo, ho analizzato dettagliatamente il caso concreto dell’Agenzia per il lavoro Gi Group. L’obiettivo è stato quello di esplicare il funzionamento di questa importantissima multinazionale, presentando la Mission aziendale, i valori e i principi etici di condotta condivisi al suo interno. Questa analisi ha permesso di rendere ancora più concreta l’idea di considerare Gi Group come una realtà fortemente strutturata e orientata ad offrire servizi di elevata qualità volti allo sviluppo del mercato del lavoro. Nel quinto capitolo infine, ho fornito un esempio concreto di come il Jobs Act abbia condizionato il modo di operare all’interno delle Agenzie per il lavoro. Ho presentato ed esplicato in che cosa consiste l’attività di Delivery all’interno di Gi Group. Con il termine Delivery, si identificano l’insieme delle attività che vanno dal processo di ricerca e selezione del personale, alle attività amministrative cosiddette “soft”. Attività dunque in cui la volontà di avvicinare la domanda e l’offerta di lavoro viene vista quotidianamente e in cui si cerca di guidare le persone verso una crescita personale e professionale. Per concludere, possiamo dire che questa analisi è stata compiuta per fornire un quadro d’insieme sui diversi cambiamenti che l’avvento del Jobs Act ha comportato, cambiamenti che hanno indubbiamente modificato il mondo del lavoro in Italia. Inoltre, è stato scelto il tema della Agenzie per il lavoro, proprio perché questa realtà manifesta in maniera lampante i significativi cambiamenti che la nuova normativa ha comportato. Esse hanno progressivamente accresciuto il loro ruolo nel mercato, favorendo sempre più lo sviluppo e la crescita del mercato del lavoro. Hanno progressivamente acquisito un ruolo centrale anche in relazione alle politiche attive, occupandosi dell’orientamento, della formazione e della ricollocazione delle persone nel mondo del lavoro

Similar neural pathways link psychological stress and brain-age in health and multiple sclerosis

Clinical and neuroscientific studies suggest a link between psychological stress and reduced brain health in health and neurological disease but it is unclear whether mediating pathways are similar. Consequently, we applied an arterial-spin-labeling MRI stress task in 42 healthy persons and 56 with multiple sclerosis, and investigated regional neural stress responses, associations between functional connectivity of stress-responsive regions and the brain-age prediction error, a highly sensitive machine learning brain health biomarker, and regional brain-age constituents in both groups. Stress responsivity did not differ between groups. Although elevated brain-age prediction errors indicated worse brain health in patients, anterior insula–occipital cortex (healthy persons: occipital pole; patients: fusiform gyrus) functional connectivity correlated with brain-age prediction errors in both groups. Finally, also gray matter contributed similarly to regional brain-age across groups. These findings might suggest a common stress–brain health pathway whose impact is amplified in multiple sclerosis by disease-specific vulnerability factors

Taguchi Loss Function for Varus/Valgus Alignment in Total Knee Arthroplasty

Methods of designing equipment to improve quality have been developed by Taguchi. A key feature of these methods is the development of loss function, which quantifies the financial cost (loss) resulting from deviations from target dimensions. Total knee arthroplasties can fail due to prosthetic component malalignment. A Taguchi loss function for varus/valgus alignment of the prosthesis and revision rates was developed. Six studies were identified from a comprehensive literature search. Varus and extreme valgus alignments correlated with an increased percentage of prosthetic failure. A loss function of L( y) = $326.80y2 , where y was deviation from ideal varus/valgus angle, was determined. The expected loss function was EL=$326.80y¯2+s2 , where y¯ was the mean deviance from the ideal varus/valgus angle and s2 was the variance in varus/valgus angle. This loss function was used to estimate the cost savings of using computer-assisted surgical navigation in total knee arthroplasty (TKA). The average savings of a navigated TKA versus a conventional TKA, based on the expected loss equation derived from the Taguchi loss function, was $2,304 per knee. The expected loss function derived here can serve as a tool for biomedical engineers seeking to use Taguchi quality engineering methods in designing orthopaedic devices

ERP evidence suggests executive dysfunction in ecstasy polydrug users

Background: Deficits in executive functions such as access to semantic/long-term memory have been shown in ecstasy users in previous research. Equally, there have been many reports of equivocal findings in this area. The current study sought to further investigate behavioural and electro-physiological measures of this executive function in ecstasy users. Method: Twenty ecstasy–polydrug users, 20 non-ecstasy–polydrug users and 20 drug-naïve controls were recruited. Participants completed background questionnaires about their drug use, sleep quality, fluid intelligence and mood state. Each individual also completed a semantic retrieval task whilst 64 channel Electroencephalography (EEG) measures were recorded. Results: Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) revealed no between-group differences in behavioural performance on the task. Mixed ANOVA on event-related potential (ERP) components P2, N2 and P3 revealed significant between-group differences in the N2 component. Subsequent exploratory univariate ANOVAs on the N2 component revealed marginally significant between-group differences, generally showing greater negativity at occipito-parietal electrodes in ecstasy users compared to drug-naïve controls. Despite absence of behavioural differences, differences in N2 magnitude are evidence of abnormal executive functioning in ecstasy–polydrug users

Future directions in managing aniridia-associated keratopathy

Congenital aniridia is a panocular disorder that is typically characterized by iris hypoplasia and aniridia-associated keratopathy (AAK). AAK results in the progressive loss of corneal transparency and thereby loss of vision. Currently, there is no approved therapy to delay or prevent its progression, and clinical management is challenging because of phenotypic variability and high risk of complications after interventions; however, new insights into the molecular pathogenesis of AAK may help improve its management. Here, we review the current understanding about the pathogenesis and management of AAK. We highlight the biological mechanisms involved in AAK development with the aim to develop future treatment options, including surgical, pharmacological, cell therapies, and gene therapies

Coverage, Continuity and Visual Cortical Architecture

The primary visual cortex of many mammals contains a continuous representation of visual space, with a roughly repetitive aperiodic map of orientation preferences superimposed. It was recently found that orientation preference maps (OPMs) obey statistical laws which are apparently invariant among species widely separated in eutherian evolution. Here, we examine whether one of the most prominent models for the optimization of cortical maps, the elastic net (EN) model, can reproduce this common design. The EN model generates representations which optimally trade of stimulus space coverage and map continuity. While this model has been used in numerous studies, no analytical results about the precise layout of the predicted OPMs have been obtained so far. We present a mathematical approach to analytically calculate the cortical representations predicted by the EN model for the joint mapping of stimulus position and orientation. We find that in all previously studied regimes, predicted OPM layouts are perfectly periodic. An unbiased search through the EN parameter space identifies a novel regime of aperiodic OPMs with pinwheel densities lower than found in experiments. In an extreme limit, aperiodic OPMs quantitatively resembling experimental observations emerge. Stabilization of these layouts results from strong nonlocal interactions rather than from a coverage-continuity-compromise. Our results demonstrate that optimization models for stimulus representations dominated by nonlocal suppressive interactions are in principle capable of correctly predicting the common OPM design. They question that visual cortical feature representations can be explained by a coverage-continuity-compromise.Comment: 100 pages, including an Appendix, 21 + 7 figure

Properties of Graphene: A Theoretical Perspective

In this review, we provide an in-depth description of the physics of monolayer and bilayer graphene from a theorist's perspective. We discuss the physical properties of graphene in an external magnetic field, reflecting the chiral nature of the quasiparticles near the Dirac point with a Landau level at zero energy. We address the unique integer quantum Hall effects, the role of electron correlations, and the recent observation of the fractional quantum Hall effect in the monolayer graphene. The quantum Hall effect in bilayer graphene is fundamentally different from that of a monolayer, reflecting the unique band structure of this system. The theory of transport in the absence of an external magnetic field is discussed in detail, along with the role of disorder studied in various theoretical models. We highlight the differences and similarities between monolayer and bilayer graphene, and focus on thermodynamic properties such as the compressibility, the plasmon spectra, the weak localization correction, quantum Hall effect, and optical properties. Confinement of electrons in graphene is nontrivial due to Klein tunneling. We review various theoretical and experimental studies of quantum confined structures made from graphene. The band structure of graphene nanoribbons and the role of the sublattice symmetry, edge geometry and the size of the nanoribbon on the electronic and magnetic properties are very active areas of research, and a detailed review of these topics is presented. Also, the effects of substrate interactions, adsorbed atoms, lattice defects and doping on the band structure of finite-sized graphene systems are discussed. We also include a brief description of graphane -- gapped material obtained from graphene by attaching hydrogen atoms to each carbon atom in the lattice.Comment: 189 pages. submitted in Advances in Physic

Activation of the PI3K/AKT Pathway in Merkel Cell Carcinoma

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a highly aggressive skin cancer with an increasing incidence. The understanding of the molecular carcinogenesis of MCC is limited. Here, we scrutinized the PI3K/AKT pathway, one of the major pathways activated in human cancer, in MCC. Immunohistochemical analysis of 41 tumor tissues and 9 MCC cell lines revealed high levels of AKT phosphorylation at threonine 308 in 88% of samples. Notably, the AKT phosphorylation was not correlated with the presence or absence of the Merkel cell polyoma virus (MCV). Accordingly, knock-down of the large and small T antigen by shRNA in MCV positive MCC cells did not affect phosphorylation of AKT. We also analyzed 46 MCC samples for activating PIK3CA and AKT1 mutations. Oncogenic PIK3CA mutations were found in 2/46 (4%) MCCs whereas mutations in exon 4 of AKT1 were absent. MCC cell lines demonstrated a high sensitivity towards the PI3K inhibitor LY-294002. This finding together with our observation that the PI3K/AKT pathway is activated in the majority of human MCCs identifies PI3K/AKT as a potential new therapeutic target for MCC patients