Shorelines changes and human settlements dynamics in the Lagoon of Mistras- river Tirso coastal plane in the last 3 ky (Middle Bronze-High Middle Ages)

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Global overview of the management of acute cholecystitis during the COVID-19 pandemic (CHOLECOVID study)

Background: This study provides a global overview of the management of patients with acute cholecystitis during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: CHOLECOVID is an international, multicentre, observational comparative study of patients admitted to hospital with acute cholecystitis during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data on management were collected for a 2-month study interval coincident with the WHO declaration of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and compared with an equivalent pre-pandemic time interval. Mediation analysis examined the influence of SARS-COV-2 infection on 30-day mortality. Results: This study collected data on 9783 patients with acute cholecystitis admitted to 247 hospitals across the world. The pandemic was associated with reduced availability of surgical workforce and operating facilities globally, a significant shift to worse severity of disease, and increased use of conservative management. There was a reduction (both absolute and proportionate) in the number of patients undergoing cholecystectomy from 3095 patients (56.2 per cent) pre-pandemic to 1998 patients (46.2 per cent) during the pandemic but there was no difference in 30-day all-cause mortality after cholecystectomy comparing the pre-pandemic interval with the pandemic (13 patients (0.4 per cent) pre-pandemic to 13 patients (0.6 per cent) pandemic; P = 0.355). In mediation analysis, an admission with acute cholecystitis during the pandemic was associated with a non-significant increased risk of death (OR 1.29, 95 per cent c.i. 0.93 to 1.79, P = 0.121). Conclusion: CHOLECOVID provides a unique overview of the treatment of patients with cholecystitis across the globe during the first months of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The study highlights the need for system resilience in retention of elective surgical activity. Cholecystectomy was associated with a low risk of mortality and deferral of treatment results in an increase in avoidable morbidity that represents the non-COVID cost of this pandemic

L'ecosistema delle vocazioni attrattive di Milano

Definizione di un ecosistema delle vocazioni attrattive di una città per identificare gli integratori per la sua orchestrazione e le sfide per la sua gestione

L’infrastruttura formativa come dispositivo di sviluppo locale: le politiche della Regione Emilia-Romagna e la risposta delle imprese

Gli autori intendono esplorare il ruolo delle politiche pubbliche della Regione Emilia-Romagna in tema di sviluppo locale e formazione professionale, come queste si propongano di incidere sulla natura delle relazioni e sui modelli di comportamento delle istituzioni e dei soggetti economici privati (le imprese ma anche gli enti di formazione). In particolare, si indagheranno gli strumenti di politica che mirano ad intensificare la rete dei rapporti istituzionali e aumentare la propensione all’azione collettiva, promuovendo una nuova definizione della formazione come leva di sviluppo. Allo stesso tempo si proporranno – in modo dialogico - alcune riflessioni sui processi avviati all’interno del tessuto imprenditoriale manifatturiero. La metodologia utilizzata è di natura qualitativa: da una parte, l’analisi della documentazione amministrativa prodotta dalla Regione Emilia-Romagna sarà integrata con interviste ai dirigenti del Servizio Formazione; dall’altra, vengono utilizzate interviste in profondità a responsabili del personale o amministratori delegati di imprese manifatturiere, presenti sul territorio regionale, ad alta vocazione innovativa.The authors investigate the role of public policies in the field of local development and vocational training, in Emilia-Romagna Region. In particular, the focus is on the way in which these policies affect the nature of relationships and the behavioral patterns between the local actors, like the institutions and the firms. The authors analyze the policy tools that aim to intensify the network of institutional relations and to increase the propensity to collective action, toward a new definition of training as a collective driver for development. The analysis includes the feedback from local entrepreneurs. The methodology is qualitative. The analysis is built on administrative documentation produced by the Emilia-Romagna Region, interviews with public officials, in-depth interviews with HRM or CEO of local manufacturing firms

Condizioni di lavoro, retribuzioni e carriere nella cooperazione sociale.

La produzione di servizi sociali e di interesse collettivo è garantita da una molteplicità di soggetti istituzionali: pubblica amministrazione, organizzazioni no-profit e imprese for profit con ruoli almeno parzialmente sovrapposti. Alla pubblica amministrazione è demandato in misura crescente il ruolo di soggetto finanziatore e di detentore del controllo di ultima istanza sull’utilizzo delle risorse e sulla qualità dei servizi. Alle imprese private profit e no-profit fa capo l’erogazione diretta dei servizi. In questo contesto si è sviluppato in Italia il terzo settore e la cooperazione: in tutto il territorio si contano non meno di 5mila cooperative sociali. Nei soli settori dell’istruzione, della sanità e dell’assistenza sociale gli occupati nel terzo settore sono non meno di 45-50mila. Nelle pagine che seguono ci si occupa di una di queste imprese, una cooperativa sociale di tipo A, di dimensioni medio-grandi che opera nella provincia di Modena: Gulliver.Lo scopo del saggio è quello di fornire una prima descrizione della struttura dell’occupazione e del rapporto di lavoro in riferimento a un’impresa che, da molti punti di vista, può essere considerata rappresentativa del “terzo settore”. Gulliver è di particolare interesse perché è una cooperativa di produzione e lavoro, nella quale la maggioranza dei lavoratori sono anche soci, e che ha conosciuto uno sviluppo molto rapido. Un caso di successo in un settore, quello della cura alla persone, in forte espansione e in altrettanto rapida trasformazione

A framework for the assessment of online fashion retailers: the fashion shopper web empowerment index

The objectives of this paper are: 1. To understand customers’ value drivers in the on-line fashion shopping experience with regard to the perceived empowerment; 2. To analyze the key factors of an efficient web strategy in the fashion eretailing context; 3. To build an index for measuring the degree of empowerment provided by online fashion retailers; 4. To provide a rank of a sample of on-line fashion retailers based on their ability to offer high levels of empowerment to fashion web shoppers. The adopted methodology is based on an extensive literature review, an online survey distributed to a sample of web shoppers, the definition of an index based on a set of indicators weighted according to the survey results and the evaluation of a sample of website Keywords— On-line retailers, on-line fashion shopping, customers, purchase experience. 1. LITERATURE REVIEW a. On-line fashion retailers The globalization process and the extraordinary growth in the use of Internet is changing retail industry, especially fashion retail, and is creating new growth opportunities for firms [1]. In the actual changing retail environment, online channels are becoming increasingly important [25]. In addition, mobiles, tablets and social media are powering the opportunities for traditional retailers to go online [6, 7]. b. On-line purchase experience The concept of customer experience is valid, and even more relevant, in the online retail context [8]. Novak, Hoffman, and Yung [9] define online customer experience as the “cognitive state experienced during navigation”. Online customer experience is the cumulative outcome of different components of the website company’s offer [10] and is important to deeply understand what are these elements and how significant their role is in shaping the experience. When consumers make a purchase online they do not have perfect information about product quality because they cannot touch, smell or feel the product [11]. In particular, when we talk about fashion products, it can be more critical to present and sell on websites if compared to other types of products, because these are products/articles that need to be experienced, and their quality can only be fully determined after purchase [12, 13]. Thanks to the recent predominance of internet retailing, information available on web sites has become a strategic element to determine whether a company will success or fail in the electronic commerce [14]. c. Tools for web site benchmarking Several papers have been published on web site quality evaluation methodology [15-20]. Many of these publications offer frameworks containing groups of quality dimensions that are similar to the SERVQUAL (Service Quality) model proposed by Parasuraman [21]. Also some publications have proposes evaluation methodologies for specific web sites such as egovernment web sites [22, 23] hotel web sites [24], online library web sites [25, 26], and health care web sites [15, 27, 28]. Kuo [29] presented a new point of view by integrating quality function deployment aspects into web site quality assessment methodology. In a number of publications, quantitative methods for Web site quality evaluation are used. Statistical methods are the most widely used assessment tool [18, 20, 30, 31]. 2. OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY The baseline research hypothesis is that the information and services provided by online fashion retailers via the web are capable of enhancing shoppers’ empowerment in two key dimensions: information held by customers and control of the purchase process with respect to his/her needs. Starting from literature review, some features of the websites were selected to develop an indicato

A framework for the assessment of online fashion retailers: the fashion shopper web empowerment index

No abstract availabl

Commercial lipase immobilization on Accurel MP1004 porous polypropylene

Three commercial lipases (CLs), A Amano 6 (from Aspergillus;tiger), M Amano 10 (from Mucor javanicus), and R Amano (from Penicillium roqueforti) - called lipase A, M and R, respectively - were characterized in terms of carbohydrate content, protein content and enzymatic activity (p-nitrophenylacetate assay). All the CL preparations contained different proteins as observed from electrophoresis. Lipases were immobilized on Accurel MP1004 porous polypropylene by physical adsorption. The immobilization process caused a loss of enzymatic activity. The retained activity was similar for lipase M and R (about 15%). In contrast, lipase A retained only the 1.3% of the specific activity of the free lipase. The retained activity of lipases M and R seems to be due to a feature of the support, while the lower activity a of lipase A may be attributed to a strong structure distortion caused by lipase-support interaction

Characterisation of Accurel MP 1004 polypropylene powder and its use as a support for lipase immobilization

Accurel MP1004, a porous polypropylene powder, was characterised for lipase immobilisation. The particle size ranges between 40–80 mesh, corresponding to particle diameters of 177–420m. The pore distribution falls between macroporous and mesoporous domains. A crude lipase preparation from Mucor javanicus was immobilised on Accurel MP1004 by adsorption. During the adsorption process, by measuring the variation of pore volume and of pore size distribution of mesopores as a function of enzyme loading, a significant penetration of the enzyme molecules into the pores was found to occur. The various proteins in the crude lipase preparation are quickly adsorbed by the Accurel MP1004. However, they are progressively displaced by the lipase which shows a greater affinity for the support.Atransesterification reaction, between glycerol tricaprylate and 1-butanol in solvent-free conditions, was catalysed by the lipase before and after the immobilisation process. The immobilisation on Accurel MP1004 improves the lipase performance both in terms of activity and of substrate conversion