Retirement and work values. An analysis of work values characterizing postretirement activities.

Purpose Long life expectancy and work continuity after retirement are common phenomena in industrialized countries. Understanding the values and needs of retirees still involved in labour market or volunteer activities could improve knowledge about vocational ageing. The present work investigates the elderly people\u2019s work-related values and their factorial structure. Design/Methodology A sample of 533 active Italian retirees was administered a questionnaire comprehending the Work Values Scale (WIS). Both confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses were used to test and investigate the relationship between the work values characterizing individuals in retirement. Results Data analysis revealed that people in retirement do not conform to previously hypothesized models of work values; in particular they show a strong interest in \u201caltruism\u201d and a reduced interest in towards more material values. Nevertheless, a five-factor underlying structure can still be detected that aligns values along dimensions of \u201cindependence\u201d, \u201cindividual social interaction\u201d, \u201ccontextual social interaction\u201d, \u201cprofessional rewards\u201d, and \u201cself-determination\u201d. Limitations This work focuses just on North Italian participants Research/Practical Implications This research could stimulate studies based on work values within the life span paradigm (from full-time job to post-retirement work) Originality/Value Work values are especially studied in the work field yet few studies have applied the WIS questionnaire to active retirees. This contribution could help to understand both activities and choices made by the elderly during retirement

Entrepreneurial potential for Italian undergraduates

Choosing to be an entrepreneur can be an opportunity for young especially since they have difficulties in finding jobs. To detect the knowledge, the attitude, and the aptitude towards the entrepreneurial job; To understand the variables that are related with the entrepreneurial choice in young male and female. The instrument is a questionnaire (50 multiple-choices items / Cronbachs Alpha .849) that analyses: personal data; entrepreneurial network of acquaintances; image of future job; ideas about male and female entrepreneurs; information about bureaucracy and investments in creating enterprises; entrepreneurial aptitude; attitude toward entrepreneurship. 560 Italian humanities students were involved. The difficulties described in enterprise creation are: economic aspects, bureaucracy, partners/co-workers, and getting credit from banks. The image of the profile of male entrepreneurs is characterized by leadership and perseverance; while females show perseverance and a strong spirit of sacrifice. Students have little knowledge about start-up processes. Attitudes toward entrepreneurship/self-employment are characterized by the choice of the adjectives: wonderful, prestigious, active, energetic, satisfying, interesting, suitable, various and flexible. Networking is an important variable that has a positive and significant effect on the others: people with a family/social network with entrepreneurs have access to a lot of information; they have a more positive image of an entrepreneurial job; and they think about it, try and are able to be self-employed more than others. We consider this research a step that help to identify a model that integrates elements of the entrepreneurial project: gender, attitudes, aptitudes, networking, information, and social support

Gênese e gestão de um processo formativo ao empreendedorismo: desenvolvimento, avaliação e validação

Este artigo apresenta os primeiros passos de um projeto internacional financiado pelo Erasmus plus –Programa que trabalha com quatro países na realização de uma plataforma comum de desenvolvimento de competências empreendedoras. Aqui, nós relatamos as reflexões que estão conduzindo os idealizadores do projeto na construção de um processo não somente educacional mas também de avaliação e validação compartilhada por vários países para assegurar um processo de crescimento real, com normas comuns de formação e de avaliação. Por conseguinte, pretende-se trabalhar com um sumário das atuais orientações da Comunidade Europeia relativas à validação de competências, ao desenvolvimento de competências empreendedoras, ao mapeamento de competências empresariais na Europa e ao estabelecimento de programas de desenvolvimento dessas competências. Por fim, apresenta-se o projeto europeu House of Brain e as atividades que levaram os autores a questionar as ferramentas mais úteis para uma avaliação correta das competências para uma aprendizagem ao longo da vida

Multicentric Case-Control Study on Azathioprine Dose and Pharmacokinetics in Early-onset Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease

BACKGROUND: Early-onset inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is generally aggressive, with a high probability of complications and need of surgery. Despite the introduction of highly effective biological drugs, treatment with azathioprine continues to be important even for early-onset IBD; however, in these patients azathioprine response seems to be reduced. This study evaluated azathioprine doses, metabolite concentrations, and their associations with patients' age in children with IBD treated at 6 tertiary pediatric referral centers. METHODS: Azathioprine doses, metabolites, and clinical effects were assessed after at least 3 months of therapy in 17 early-onset (age 12 and <18 yrs, controls) patients with IBD. Azathioprine dose was titrated on therapeutic efficacy (response and adverse effects). Azathioprine metabolites and thiopurine methyltransferase activity were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography with ultra violet-vis detection (HPLC-UV) methods. RESULTS: Frequency of patients in remission was similar among early-onset and control groups, respectively (82% and 84%, P value = 0.72). Early-onset patients required higher doses of azathioprine (median 2.7 versus 2.0 mg\ub7kg\ub7d, P value = 1.1 7 10). Different doses resulted in comparable azathioprine active thioguanine nucleotide metabolite concentrations (median 263 versus 366 pmol/8 7 10 erythrocytes, P value = 0.41) and methylmercaptopurine nucleotide concentrations (median 1455 versus 1532 pmol/8 7 10 erythrocytes, P value = 0.60). Lower ratios between thioguanine nucleotide metabolites and azathioprine doses were found in early-onset patients (median 98 versus 184 pmol/8 7 10 erythrocytes\ub7mg\ub7kg\ub7d, P value = 0.017). Interestingly, early-onset patients presented also higher thiopurine methyltransferase activity (median 476 versus 350 nmol methylmercaptopurine/mg hemoglobin/h, P-value = 0.046). CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that patients with early-onset IBD present increased inactivating azathioprine metabolism, likely because of elevated activity of the enzyme thiopurine methyltransferase

Improvement of insulin sensitivity in diabetic and non diabetic patients with chronic hepatitis C treated with direct antiviral agents

The increased incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus among hepatitis C virus (HCV) infected patients is likely due to viral-induced insulin resistance (IR). Indeed, control of diabetes in these patients benefits of successful antiviral treatment; whether the same applies to subtler alterations of glucose metabolism is unknown. We aimed to fill this gap

5-Aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide ribonucleotide-transformylase and inosine-triphosphate-pyrophosphatase genes variants predict remission rate during methotrexate therapy in patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis

For children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) who fail to respond to methotrexate, the delay in identifying the optimal treatment at an early stage of disease can lead to long-term joint damage. Recent studies indicate that relevant variants to predict methotrexate response in JIA are those in 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide ribonucleotide-transformylase (ATIC), inosine-triphosphate-pyrophosphatase (ITPA) and solute-liquid-carrier-19A1 genes. The purpose of the study was, therefore, to explore the role of these candidate genetic factors on methotrexate response in an Italian cohort of children with JIA. Clinical response to methotrexate was evaluated as clinical remission stable for a 6-month period, as ACRPed score and as change in Juvenile Arthritis Disease score. The most relevant SNPs for each gene considered were assayed on patients' DNA. ITPA activity was measured in patients' erythrocytes. Sixty-nine patients with JIA were analyzed: 52.2 % responded to therapy (ACRPed70 score), while 37.7 % reached clinical remission stable for 6 months. ATIC rs2372536 GG genotype was associated with improved clinical remission (adjusted p value = 0.0090). For ITPA, rs1127354 A variant was associated with reduced clinical remission: (adjusted p value = 0.028); this association was present even for patients with wild-type ITPA and low ITPA activity. These preliminary results indicate that genotyping of ATIC rs2372536 and ITPA rs1127354 variants or measuring ITPA activity could be useful to predict methotrexate response in children with JIA after validation by further prospective studies on a larger patient cohort

Stress organizzativo: rischio o opportunità

L'articolo presenta una prospettiva differente riguardo al tema dello stress lavoro-correlato. Capire lo stress è anche capire l'organizzazione. L'organizzazione è un sistema complesso in cui gli individui che vi vivono e agiscono spesso possono trovarsi in condizioni di costrittività. Pensiamo che sia necessario, non solo eliminare lo stress lavoro-correlato dalle organizzazioni (causato anche da costrittività organizzativa), ma anche e soprattutto promuovere il benessere sul posto di lavoro con efficaci azioni di gestione delle risorse umane. Una forza lavoro che è positivamente impegnata e allineata con gli obiettivi organizzativi sarà così meno stressata e i costi organizzativi potranno essere ridotti. Questa prospettiva offre un modello integrato che va dalla riduzione dei costi all'aumento delle innovazioni con il coinvolgimento della forza lavoro, passando così da una cultura del controllo a una cultura della responsabilità

Competenze chiave per l’imprenditorialità: un modello per l’analisi e la validazione del capitale umano dell’imprenditore

Tra il 2009 e la 2010 è stato finanziato dalla Regione Veneto e realizzato dall’Università degli Studi di Verona il progetto: “Analisi delle Competenze dell’Imprenditore: dalla pratica alla certificazione” che ha come obiettivo finale lo sviluppo di modelli, strumenti e processi per analizzare e validare le competenze chiave legate o legabili all’ imprenditorialità. Il progetto ha visto la partecipazione attiva di molte realtà del terri-torio (quali: Servizio Nuova Impresa - Camera di Commercio di Verona, Ufficio Placement dell’Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia, Comuni di Verona, Bussolengo e Vescovana, Centro Professionale Salesiano, Associazione Industriali di Verona e Padova e diverse associazioni di categoria) ed è stato composto di due fasi: - Quantitativa: mappatura delle competenze imprenditoriali che ha visto la realizzazione di una ricerca indirizzata a 350 imprenditori veneti di prima generazione; - Qualitativa: applicazione sperimentale del modello emerso al fine di rilevare le competenze imprenditoriali possedute da 100 soggetti di diversa provenienza ed esperienza lavorativa

Potenziale imprenditoriale nei ricercatori dei laboratori universitari: una ricerca

Le università sono chiamate a contribuire allo sviluppo economico e il favorire brevetti, licenze e supporto nello spin-off degli scienziati/ricercatori in esse impiegati, è un modo di fare questo. Presso l'Università di Verona, sono presenti due centri che operano in questa dire-zione (il Centro Imprenditoria Giovanile e il Liaison Office) attraverso diverse iniziative: in questo capitolo descriviamo il primo passo di una ricerca/azione su un gruppo di quaranta scienziati che lavorano nei laboratori dell’ateneo. L'ipotesi è che il potenziale imprenditoriale e le intenzioni dei ricercatori che lavorano in laboratorio possano essere influenzate da diverse variabili quali il capitale umano / le competenze, la rete personale, le attitudine e le abilità (profilo imprenditoriale). Come vedremo, i risultati più significativi per i ricercatori con intenzioni imprenditoriali sono: un punteggio più alto nell’attitudine imprenditoriale (nei fattori Orientamento al Risultato e Leadership in particolare), un atteggiamento più positivo verso il lavoro autonomo, la percezione di avere competenze manageriali più elevate, e la maggiore attenzione sul desiderio di realizzarsi. Abbiamo anche trovato interessanti effetti sulla percezione delle proprie competenze manageriali e attitudine in relazione alla presenza di reti imprenditoriali tra le conoscenze (parenti, amici,...