Organizational Change, Skill Formation, Human Capital Measurement: Evidence From Italian Manufacturing Firms

Basing on a job competition approach, in this paper we provide a labour demand-oriented measure of human capital as defined by the amount of specific skills a firm generates through work-based training (WBT) activities. By merging three rich firm-level datasets, we estimate the impact of a set of variables that are supposed to affect both the propensity to invest in WBT and the intensity of training within the Italian manufacturing industry over the period 2001-2005.The estimates show that the effects of innovation on WBT is higher when the introduction of new technologies is supported by organizational innovations. When looking at the nature of WBT, we investigate the different determinants of the firms' propensity to provide both in-house and outside training. Finally, we estimate training intensity in terms, respectively, of the number of training activities provided, private and total training costs and the share of trainees

Appalti verdi e codice dei contratti pubblici: i criteri ambientali minimi (cam) nell’attuazione delle direttive dell’Unione Europea sui contratti pubblici di quarta generazione e profili di diritto comparato

Il tema della tutela dell’ambiente rappresenta una delle aree tematiche più indicative delle dinamiche evolutive che hanno interessato negli ultimi anni l’impianto originario del diritto amministrativo in generale, così come, nello specifico, del codice dei contratti pubblici. Attraverso il prisma della nozione di ambiente come recepita nel tempo sul piano positivo e giurisprudenziale, sembra possibile per l’interprete acquisire quella base conoscitiva necessaria per cogliere l’evoluzione del diritto amministrativo, nonchè le coordinate ermeneutiche utili all’individuazione dell’attuale equilibrio del sistema ordinamentale. L’esame dei profili ambientali all’interno del microsistema degli appalti pubblici (c.d. appalti verdi o green public procurement) sottende la convergenza di più piani ed esprime tutta la tensione esistente tra favor naturae e favor libertatis, tra impostazione “massimalista” ed impostazione “migliorista” della protezione dell’ambiente, tra tutela dell’ambiente e promozione della concorrenza. Gli scopi dell’indagine sono quelli di registrare da un lato il dato storico e giuridico dell’evoluzione della c.d. governance contrattuale pubblica (c.d. government by contract) resasi necessaria quale particolare forma di regolazione a seguito del processo di privatizzazione (c.d. outsourcing) e realizzatasi nel contesto dell’ordinamento dell’Unione europea, così come nell’ambito di altri contesti ordinamentali , attraverso la progressiva integrazione delle c.d. politiche orizzontali (ambientali e sociali) nell’ambito degli appalti pubblici anche grazie al concetto di economia circolare dei modelli economici e dei modelli istituzionali e al tema dei cc.dd. beni comuni; dall’altro, di evitare la “tirannia” del diritto dell’ambiente nei confronti delle altre situazioni giuridiche costituzionalmente riconosciute che costituiscono complessivamente espressione della dignità della persona, risultato che di regola esiterebbe dalla aprioristica affermazione della primarietà assoluta del bene ambiente rispetto agli altri beni-interessi anch’essi costituzionalmente rilevanti. In tale contesto si posiziona il particolare dialogo tra valori ambientali e procedure ad evidenza pubblica , rappresentato dal tema dei criteri ambientali minimi (cam) oggetto della presente indagine, dove i principi sottesi alla protezione dell’ambiente e quelli che presiedono le procedure di gara (favor partecipationis, trasparenza, non discriminazione) possono trovare una non facile composizione, soprattutto in ragione della considerazione del rischio associato all’adozione di fattori regolativi del mercato che, fondati sulla promozione di sistemi di produzione a basso impatto ambientale, rischino di alterarne la tradizionale impostazione pro-concorrenziale e non discriminatoria

CRP Predicts Safe Patient Discharge after Colorectal Surgery. Reply

Reply: We would like to thank Aurelie´n Dupre`, Johan Gagnie´r, Heloı¨se Samba, Michel Rivoire, and Karem Slim for their comments about our article ‘‘Procalcitonin Reveals Early Dehiscence in Colorectal Surgery: The PREDICS Study.’’1 It is very rewarding to realize that this paper is stimulating so many observations, this means thatwe are talking about an interesting topic

A thrombotic snake in the thoracic aorta

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Increased requirement of replacement doses of levothyroxine caused by liver cirrhosis

Background: Since hypothyroidism is a fairly common dysfunction, levothyroxine (L-T4) is one of the most prescribed medications. Approximately 70% of the administered L-T4 dose is absorbed. The absorption process takes place in the small intestine. Some disorders of the digestive system and some medicines, supplements, and drinks cause L-T4 malabsorption, resulting in failure of serum TSH to be normal. Only rarely liver cirrhosis is mentioned as causing L-T4 malabsorption. Case report: In this study, we report increased requirement of daily doses of l-thyroxine in two patients with the atrophic variant of Hashimoto's thyroiditis and liver cirrhosis. In one patient, this increased requirement could have been contributed by the increased serum levels of the estrogen-dependent thyroxine-binding globulin (TBG), which is the major plasma carrier of thyroid hormones. In the other patient, we switched from tablet L-T4 to liquid L-T4 at the same daily dose. Normalization of TSH levels was achieved, but TSH increased again when she returned to tablet L-T4. Conclusion: Liver cirrhosis can cause increased L-T4 requirements. In addition to impaired bile secretion, the mechanism could be increased serum TBG. A similar increased requirement of L-T4 is observed in other situations characterized by elevation of serum TBG. Because of better intestinal absorption, L-T4 oral liquid formulation is able to circumvent the increased need of L-T4 in these patients

ISME trends: Autonomous surface and underwater vehicles for geoseismic survey

The paper presents the recent and ongoing activities of the Italian Center named ISME on the use of Autonomous Surface Crafts (ASCs) and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) for geoseismic survey. In particular, the paper will focus on the technologies and the algorithms developed in the framework of the H2020 European Project WiMUST

Listeria Infection during Biologic Therapy: An Update

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CTLA-4 and PD-1 ligand gene expression in epithelial thyroid cancers

The dysregulation of PD-1 ligands (PD-L1 and PD-L2) and CTLA-4 ligands (CD80 and CD86) represents a tumor strategy to escape the immune surveillance. Here, the expression of PD-L1, PD-L2, CD80 and CD86 was evaluated at mRNA level in 94 patients affected by papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) and 11 patients affected by anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC). Variations in the mRNAs in PTC patients were then correlated with clinicopathological features. The expression of all genes was deregulated in PTC and ATC tissues compared to normal tissues. In particular, the down-regulation of CD80 was observed in above all ATC. In addition, the increased expression of CD80 associated to longer disease-free survival in PTC. Higher expression of PD-L1 associated with the classical histological variant and with the presence of BRAFV600E mutation in PTC. The increased PD-L2 expression correlated with BRAFV600E mutation and lymph node metastasis, while its lower expression correlated with the follicular PTC variant. The latter was also associated with the CD80 down-regulation, which was also related to the absence of lymph node metastasis. In conclusion, we documented the overall dysregulation of PD-1 and CTLA-4 ligands in PTC and ATC tissues and a possible prognostic value for CD80 gene expression in PTC