Bilateral osteoma of the internal auditory canal: Case report and literature review

Osteomas of the external auditory canal tend to be rather common; those of the internal auditory canal (IAC) are much rarer, though, with less than twenty cases reported in literature up to this very day. Bilateral IAC osteomas, as in this case, are extremely unusual.These benign bone tumors grow very slowly and this implies that the patient is very often asymptomatic. The diagnosis is generally made relatively late and it is, in many cases, absolutely incidental, with Computed Thomography (CT) scans of the temporal bones performed for other reasons. The manuscript describe the case of a patient complaining with progressive bilateral hearing impairment, worsening in the course of many years; we would like to point out the benefits brought by CT in the diagnosis and therapeutic choice, which is, still today, not yet subject to unanimous consensus. (C) 2014 The College of Radiographers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

A Qualitative Evaluation of IoT-driven eHealth: Knowledge Management, Business Models and Opportunities, Deployment and Evolution

eHealth has a major potential, and its adoption may be considered necessary to achieve increased ambulant and remote medical care, increased quality, reduced personnel needs, and reduced costs potential in healthcare. In this paper the authors try to give a reasonable, qualitative evaluation of IoT-driven eHealth from theoretical and practical viewpoints. They look at associated knowledge management issues and contributions of IoT to eHealth, along with requirements, benefits, limitations and entry barriers. Important attention is given to security and privacy issues. Finally, the conditions for business plans and accompanying value chains are realistically analyzed. The resulting implementation issues and required commitments are also discussed based on a case study analysis. The authors confirm that IoT-driven eHealth can happen and will happen; however, much more needs to be addressed to bring it back in sync with medical and general technological developments in an industrial state-of-the-art perspective and to get recognized and get timely the benefits

Innovation Practices in Emerging Economies: Do University Partnerships Matter?

Enterprises’ resources and capabilities determine their ability to achieve competitive advantage. In this regard, the key innovation challenges that enterprises face are liabilities associated with their age and size, and the entry barriers imposed on them. In this line, a growing number of enterprises are starting to implement innovation practices in which they employ both internal/external flows of knowledge in order to explore/exploit innovation in collaboration with commercial or scientific agents. Within this context, universities play a significant role providing fertile knowledge-intensive environments to support the exploration and exploitation of innovative and entrepreneurial ideas, especially in emerging economies, where governments have created subsidies to promote enterprise innovation through compulsory university partnerships. Based on these ideas, the purpose of this exploratory research is to provide a better understanding about the role of universities on enterprises’ innovation practices in emerging economies. More concretely, in the context of Mexico, we explored the enterprises’ motivations to collaborate with universities in terms of innovation purposes (exploration and exploitation) or alternatives to access to public funds (compulsory requirement of being involved in a university partnership). Using a sample of 10,167 Mexican enterprises in the 2012 Research and Technological Development Survey collected by the Mexican National Institute of Statistics and Geography, we tested a multinomial regression model. Our results provide insights about the relevant role of universities inside enterprises’ exploratory innovation practices, as well as, in the access of R&D research subsidies

A spill over effect of entrepreneurial orientation on technological innovativeness:an outlook of universities and research based spin offs

partially_open5siBy shifting towards Romer’s (Am Econ Rev 94:1002–1037, 1986) economy and so the spread of knowledge economy, universities started to adopt a collaborative approach with their entrepreneurial ecosystem. They turn out to be risk taker, autonomous, proactive, competitive, and innovative. In a nutshell, they are entrepreneurial oriented with the aim to generate new innovative ventures, known as research-based spin offs. Doubly, this has induced an improvement of technology transfer and the degree of entrepreneurship in the current knowledge economy. However there still is a paucity of studies on the spill over effect of entrepreneurial orientated universities and research-based spin off on technology transfer need to be more explored. Therefore, the article investigates the link between entrepreneurial orientation and such spill overs by offering an outlook of two universities and two research-based spin offs in the United Kingdom. The scope is to provide a deep view of technological innovativeness in a research context, entrepreneurial oriented. Our research suggests that entrepreneurial attitude has become an imperative to succeed in the context where British institutions currently operate. Entrepreneurship brings the necessary technological innovation to the university and its students, which results in better positioning of the university at national and international levels, with the subsequent impact on their ability to attract not only new students and academics but also funding to conduct their research.openScuotto, Veronica; Del Giudice, Manlio; Garcia-Perez, Alexeis; Orlando, Beatrice; Ciampi, FrancescoScuotto, Veronica; Del Giudice, Manlio; Garcia-Perez, Alexeis; Orlando, Beatrice; Ciampi, Francesc

Social Bricolage and Social Business Model in Uncertain Contexts: First Insights from Minor Cultural Heritage

Most social entrepreneurship organizations (SEOs) face difficulty acquiring the resources they need to start and growth (Austin et al., 2006; Zahra et al., 2009). Bricolage has traditionally represented one of the most adopted option used by SEOs (Desa & Basu, 2013; Linna, 2013). Much of the previous research into the role of bricolage framework in SEOs explore how this process is developed (Di Domenico et al., 2010) and how it helps SEOs to achieve their social mission (Mair & Marti, 2009). Building on recent literature (Di Domenico et al., 2010; Desa & Basu, 2013; Bacq et al., 2015; Zollo et al., 2018), the recent concept of social bricolage is an entrepreneurial opportunity to address emergent social needs, in contexts characterized by resource scarcity, high levels of uncertainty in economic environments and the seasonality of activities (e.g. Langevang et al. 2012), such as minor (often abandoned and not fully exploited) cultural heritage. Cultural SEOs able to respond to the social need for a broader cultural heritage consumption, to make abandoned sites available to citizens and tourists, filling a welfare gap (Pol & Ville, 2009; Murray et al., 2010; Caulier-Grice et al., 2012). Special attention has been given to topics such as community engagement, stakeholder participation, and maintaining external legitimacy, all within the particularly resource-constrained area of SEOs (Gundry et al., 2011a; Gundry et al., 2011b). As known, a great part of the enormous Italian cultural heritage lacks a careful management and enhancement processes. The inadequacy of the public model and the non-profitability of the private one in the management and protection of the minor cultural heritage has triggered many organizations trying to defend and manage this heritage against from neglect. Despite the crisis of both public and private profit-driven models, in the last years, new initiatives arose, and new projects are designed to meet this social need, drawing on the domain of social entrepreneurship. Building on these considerations, this study aims to investigate the main features of social bricolage in cultural SEOs, the sustainability of this initiatives and the social dimensions able to produce social innovation. Our analysis is part of an ongoing research “Napoli Attiva Project” on new business model in the development of the so-called minor and abandoned cultural heritage in Naples (Italy)