A framework to evaluate the effects of organizational resilience on service quality

Disruptions and unexpected turbulences characterize the contemporary service industry and pose greater criticalities to organizations that have concerns about both their survival and their business sustainability. The answer to this challenge is to design an organizational system aimed at enhancing so-called organizational resilience. The aim of this work is to present and test an assessment methodology based on a framework that links key static and dynamic characteristics of firms as resilient systems and relates these characteristics with service quality preservation after disruptions. The framework adopts a set of indicators, namely resilience dimensions, to comprehend the real effects of resilience characteristics with service quality dimensions. Through the analysis of a real case, we provided evidence of how the model can be applied in a backward perspective to understand fault modes of specific events. Results show how inadequacies in terms of resilience characteristics determine losses of service quality, and also how the model can be used as a predictive tool to determine in which area companies should intervene in order to improve resilience and service quality

Physical activity and cancer prevention: a review of current evidence and biological mechanisms

Objective. The main aim of this paper is to review the evidence available from the date of PubMed?s inception to May 2011 for a link between cancer and physical activity (PA) in both animal models and humans. Methods. We decided to select studies that comply with the scheme proposed by the American College of Sports Medicine/ American Heart Association (ACSM/AHA) that distinguish occupational physical activity (OPA) and leisure-time physical activity (LT-PA), further classified in three levels of intensity (low, moderate and heavy) based on the Metabolic Equivalent of Task (MET) index. Results. Considering animal models, there was strong evidence for an inverse association between voluntary wheel exercise and the risk of colon and breast cancer. Regarding human studies, we identified the following main results: 1) colorectum: LT-PA provided an overall colon risk reduction of 13-14%; 2) breast: significant reduction in the frequency of post-menopausal (PMP) cancers in women that practiced heavy and moderate LT-PA; 3) prostate: heavy OPA and LT-PA seemed to reduce the risk of advanced prostate cancers; 4) endometrium: strong protective effect of heavy/moderate LT-PA among overweight/ obese women; 5) lung: inverse relationship between heavy LT-PA and lung cancer in former or current smokers across all histologies. Conclusion. Increased LT-PA is associated with cancer prevention in several organs, but strong biases, such as body mass index (BMI), gender and age, make it difficult to assess which aspects of PA contribute most strongly to the reduced risk. Furthermore, we found few studies that indicated a protective role for OPA in cancer prevention when compared with LT-PA

Alexithymia, impulsiveness, and psychopathology in Nonsuicidal self-injured adolescents

Introduction: Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a multifaceted phenomenon and a major health issue among adolescents. A better understanding of self-injury comorbidities is crucial to improve our ability to assess, treat, and prevent NSSI. Purpose: This study aimed at analyzing some of the psychobehavioral correlates of NSSI: psychological problems, alexithymia, impulsiveness, and sociorelational aspects. Patients and methods: This was a case-control study. The clinical sample (n=33) included adolescents attending our unit for NSSI and other issues; the controls (n=79) were high-school students. Data were collected using six questionnaires: Youth Self-Report, Barratt\u2019s Impulsiveness Scale, Toronto Alexithymia Scale, Children\u2019s Depression Inventory, Symptom Checklist-90-R, and Child Behavior Checklist. Results: Cases scored significantly higher in all questionnaires. Habitual self-injurers scored higher on impulsiveness and alexithymia. The gesture\u2019s repetition seems relevant to the global clinical picture: habitual self-injurers appear more likely to seek help from the sociosanitary services. We found a difference between the self-injurers\u2019 and their parents\u2019 awareness of the disorder. Conclusion: Habitual self-injurers show signs of having difficulty with assessing the consequences of their actions (nonplanning impulsiveness) and the inability to manage their feelings. Given the significantly higher scores found for cases than for controls on all the psychopathological scales, NSSI can be seen as a cross-category psychiatric disorder, supporting the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders decision to include it as a pathological entity in its own right

A methodology for the assessment of experiential learning lean: The lean experience factory case study

Purpose \u2013 The purpose of this paper is to present a methodology to assess the experiential learning processes of learning lean in an innovative learning environment: the lean model factories. Design/methodology/approach \u2013 A literature review on learning and lean management literatures was carried out to design the methodology. Then, a case study methodology was used to test the framework. Findings \u2013 The methodology permitted to asses learning processes and course contents of educational dynamics carried out in model factories and to theoretically ground such learning processes. The test showed that learning lean management is supported through a complete coverage of the eight phases of the learning path. Research limitations/implications \u2013 The methodology contributes to the literatures of lean management and experiential learning, proposing a methodology of assessment. Part of the framework could also be applied to other disciplines. Practical implications \u2013 The methodology could be used for two purposes: to design training courses or to assess existing experiential learning courses. Originality/value \u2013 Due to its intrinsic complexity, learning literature presents few practical framework or tools. Among them, none have provided practical and theoretical-based advice on how to use experiential learning precepts to teach lean managemen

A Clostridium difficile outbreak in an Italian hospital: The efficacy of the multi-disciplinary and multifaceted approach

Introduction. We described an outbreak of C. difficile that occurred in the Internal Medicine department of an Italian hospital and assessed the efficacy of the measures adopted to manage the outbreak. Methods. The outbreak involved 15 patients and was identified by means of continuous integrated microbiological surveillance, starting with laboratory data (alert organism surveillance). Diarrheal fecal samples from patients with suspected infection by C. difficile underwent rapid membrane immuno-enzymatic testing, which detects both the presence of the glutamate dehydrogenase antigen and the presence of the A and B toxins. Extensive microbiological sampling was carried out both before and after sanitation of the environment, in order to assess the efficacy of the sanitation procedure. Results. The outbreak lasted one and a half month, during which time the Committee for the Prevention of Hospital Infections ordered the implementation of multiple interventions, which enabled the outbreak to be controlled and the occurrence of new cases to be progressively prevented. The strategies adopted mainly involved patient isolation, reinforcement of proper hand hygiene techniques, antimicrobial stewardship and environmental decontamination by means of chlorine-based products. Moreover, the multifaceted management of the outbreak involved numerous sessions of instruction/training for nursing staff and socio-sanitary operatives during the outbreak. Sampling of environmental surfaces enabled two sites contaminated by C. difficile to be identified. Conclusions. Joint planning of multiple infection control practices, together with effective communication and collaboration between the Hospital Infections Committee and the ward involved proved to be successful in controlling the outbreak

Critical involvement of calcium-dependent cytosolic phospholipase A2\u3b1 in aortic valve interstitial cell calcification

The involvement of calcium-dependent cytosolic phospholipase A2\u3b1 (cPLA2\u3b1) in aortic valve calcification is not exhaustively elucidated. Here, cPLA2\u3b1 expression in aortic valve interstitial cell (AVIC) pro-calcific cultures simulating either metastatic or dystrophic calcification was estimated by qPCR, Western blotting, and counting of cPLA2\u3b1-immunoreactive cells, with parallel ultrastructural examination of AVIC calcific degeneration. These evaluations also involved pro-calcific AVIC cultures treated with cPLA2\u3b1 inhibitor dexamethasone. cPLA2\u3b1 over-expression resulted for both types of pro-calcific AVIC cultures. Compared to controls, enzyme content was found to increase by up to 300% and 186% in metastatic and dystrophic calcification-like cultures, respectively. Increases in mRNA amounts were also observed, although they were not as striking as those in enzyme content. Moreover, cPLA2\u3b1 increases were time-dependent and strictly associated with mineralization progression. Conversely, drastically lower levels of enzyme content resulted for the pro-calcific AVIC cultures supplemented with dexamethasone. In particular, cPLA2\u3b1 amounts were found to decrease by almost 88% and 48% in metastatic and dystrophic calcification-like cultures, respectively, with mRNA amounts showing a similar trend. Interestingly, these drastic decreases in cPLA2\u3b1 amounts were paralleled by drastic decreases in mineralization degrees, as revealed ultrastructurally. In conclusion, cPLA2\u3b1 may be regarded as a crucial co-factor contributing to AVIC mineralization in vitro, thus being an attractive potential target for designing novel therapeutic strategies aimed to counteract onset or progression of calcific aortic valve diseases

State and trait characteristics of anterior insula time-varying functional connectivity.

The human anterior insula (aINS) is a topographically organized brain region, in which ventral portions contribute to socio-emotional function through limbic and autonomic connections, whereas the dorsal aINS contributes to cognitive processes through frontal and parietal connections. Open questions remain, however, regarding how aINS connectivity varies over time. We implemented a novel approach combining seed-to-whole-brain sliding-window functional connectivity MRI and k-means clustering to assess time-varying functional connectivity of aINS subregions. We studied three independent large samples of healthy participants and longitudinal datasets to assess inter- and intra-subject stability, and related aINS time-varying functional connectivity profiles to dispositional empathy. We identified four robust aINS time-varying functional connectivity modes that displayed both "state" and "trait" characteristics: while modes featuring connectivity to sensory regions were modulated by eye closure, modes featuring connectivity to higher cognitive and emotional processing regions were stable over time and related to empathy measures

Robust thalamic nuclei segmentation method based on local diffusion magnetic resonance properties.

The thalamus is an essential relay station in the cortical-subcortical connections. It is characterized by a complex anatomical architecture composed of numerous small nuclei, which mediate the involvement of the thalamus in a wide range of neurological functions. We present a novel framework for segmenting the thalamic nuclei, which explores the orientation distribution functions (ODFs) from diffusion magnetic resonance images at 3 T. The differentiation of the complex intra-thalamic microstructure is improved by using the spherical harmonic (SH) representation of the ODFs, which provides full angular characterization of the diffusion process in each voxel. The clustering was performed using the k-means algorithm initialized in a data-driven manner. The method was tested on 35 healthy volunteers and our results show a robust, reproducible and accurate segmentation of the thalamus in seven nuclei groups. Six of them closely matched the anatomy and were labeled as anterior, ventral anterior, medio-dorsal, ventral latero-ventral, ventral latero-dorsal and pulvinar, while the seventh cluster included the centro-lateral and the latero-posterior nuclei. Results were evaluated both qualitatively, by comparing the segmented nuclei to the histological atlas of Morel, and quantitatively, by measuring the clusters' extent and the clusters' spatial distribution across subjects and hemispheres. We also showed the robustness of our approach across different sequences and scanners, as well as intra-subject reproducibility of the segmented clusters using additional two scan-rescan datasets. We also observed an overlap between the path of the main long-connection tracts passing through the thalamus and the spatial distribution of the nuclei identified with our clustering algorithm. Our approach, based on SH representations of the ODFs, outperforms the one based on angular differences between the principle diffusion directions, which is considered so far as state-of-the-art method. Our findings show an anatomically reliable segmentation of the main groups of thalamic nuclei that could be of potential use in many clinical applications

VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL FORCES DURING CUTIING IN BASKETBALL UNDER DIFFERENT CONDITIONS

The purpose of this study is to evaluate ground reaction force responses in professional basketball athletes while executing this sport's typical cutting maneuver with and without ankle bracing: taping, aircast-type orthosis and basketball shoes. Eight athletes were dynamically analyzed during a basketball cutting maneuver with a force platform. We collected vertical and medial-lateral forces under these three conditions and analyzed force peaks of foot contact with the ground and propulsion and growth gradient for these forces. Results show that bracing did not significantly change Fymax1 and GCFymax1; significantly reduced Fymax2 and GG Fymax2. With respect to the medial-lateral component, there were no significant differences in relation to force magnitudes between the three study conditions. However, GG Fzmax1 was significantly greater for the sport shoe condition than for the taping condition. Bracing decreased ground reaction force at some instances, but increased in others