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Symphonya. Emerging Issues in Management launches a new editorial line called 'Special Issue on' aimed at promoting Symphonya's specific vocation to maintaining a close link between the academic world and the business world through in-depth analyses of 'emerging issues' that managers are facing in global markets. This Special Issue is dedicated to the theme of the creation of new businesses. In today's competitive environment characterised by globalised markets, oversupply and a trend towards concentration in most sectors, innovation is a requisite factor for the survival of enterprises and the territories in which they operate. The Italian Start-up Act, introduced in late 2012 and incrementally enriched in subsequent years, is indeed a remarkable policy in a comparative context. Italian start-ups have been endowed with real, diverse and potentially high-impact instruments to find their own way to market and to success.

Clinical Image: A 35-year-old ex-smoker varnisher man presented at our attention for a few days history of left thoracic pain, low-grade fever, asthenia, swelling of both parotid glands and dry eyes. Once excluded cardiac diseases, we performed physical examination which only revealed enlargement of both parotid glands (this was also confirmed from ultrasonography of the parotid glands; (Figure 1) and bloodshot eyes (with uveitis, as stated by the Ophthalmologist). The chest radiograph (Figure 2) showed the presence of bilateral hilar lyphoadenopathy. We so performed computed tomography of the thorax which confirmed the presence of lymphoadenopathy in paratracheal, subcarinal and hylar station associated with bilateral interstitial tickening of lung parenchyma (Figure 3). We performed bronchoscopy with transbronchial needle aspiration (TBNA) (using a histologic 19 G needle) in subcarinal station (station number 7 according to IASCL lymph node map) and in right interlobar station (station R11). Pathological tissue demostrated the presence of non-caseating granulomas without necrosis (Figure 4). He was given a diagnosis of Heerfordt’s syndrome, a rare form of sarcoidosis (present only in 6% of the cases of sarcoidosis) charactherized by the presence of enlargement of the parotid gland associated with major symptoms as uveitis, facial paralysis (absent in our case) or fever [1,2]. He was started on 50 mg of prednisone daily, and at follow-up 15 days later, he was completely asymphtomatic (and the swelling and bloodshot eyes resolved).

Purpose This paper aims at reviewing the extant knowledge management (KM) research field within a strategic alliance context to understand the historical roots, its temporal progression, current state and potential future in a meaningful way. Design/methodology/approach Data for this study was retrieved from the Scopus database using a systematic literature search process. The bibliometric characteristics of 393 research documents were analyzed using bibliometric and structured network analysis. Findings The findings of the study suggest that the publication in the field have been growing with an average rate of 8.48%. This analysis also lists the most productive and impactful authors, main outlets, and the most impactful secondary and primary publication in the field. In addition, the conceptual and intellectual structure of the research field was constructed and discussed. Originality/value This paper uses an objective and quantitative approach by reviewing the related publications and virtually included all the relevant publications in the analysis, which was seen to be uneconomical when doing traditional literature reviews.

HBeAg is a marker of HBV-activity, and HBeAg-loss predicts a favorable clinical outcome. Here, we characterize HBeAg-levels across different phases of HBV infection, their correlation with virological/biochemical markers and the virological response to anti-HBV therapy. Quantitative HBeAg (qHBeAg, DiaSorin) is assessed in 101 HBeAg+ patients: 20 with acute-infection, 20 with chronic infection, 32 with chronic hepatitis and 29 with immunosuppression-driven HBV-reactivation (HBV-R). A total of 15/29 patients with HBV-R are monitored for &gt, 12 months after starting TDF/ETV. qHBeAg is higher in immunosuppression-driven HBV-R (median[IQR]:930[206–1945]PEIU/mL) and declines in chronic hepatitis (481[28–1393]PEIU/mL, p = 0.03), suggesting HBeAg production, modulated by the extent of immunological pressure. This is reinforced by the negative correlation between qHBeAg and ALT in acute infection (Rho = −0.66, p = 0.006) and chronic hepatitis (Rho = −0.35, p = 0.05). Interestingly, qHBeAg strongly and positively correlates with qHBsAg across the study groups, suggesting cccDNA as a major source of both proteins in the setting of HBeAg positivity (with limited contribution of integrated HBV-DNA to HBsAg production). Focusing on 15 patients with HBV-R starting TDF/ETV, virological suppression and HBeAg-loss are achieved in 60% and 53.3%. Notably, the combination of qHBeAg &gt, 2000 PEIU/mL + qHBsAg &gt, 52,000 IU/mL at HBV-R is the only factor predicting no HBeAg loss (HBeAg loss: 0% with vs. 72.7% without qHBeAg &gt, 52,000 IU/mL, p = 0.03). In conclusion, qHBeAg varies over the natural course of HBV infection, according to the extent of immunological pressure. In the setting of HBV-R, qHBeAg could be useful in predicting the treatment response under immunosuppression.

In this paper, we describe the design of a machine learning-based classifier, tailored to predict whether a water meter will fail or need a replacement. Our initial attempt to train a recurrent deep neural network (RNN), based on the use of 15 million of readings gathered from 1 million of mechanical water meters, spread throughout Northern Italy, led to non-positive results. We learned this was due to a lack of specific attention devoted to the quality of the analyzed data. We, hence, developed a novel methodology, based on a new semantics which we enforced on the training data. This allowed us to extract only those samples which are representative of the complex phenomenon of defective water meters. Adopting such a methodology, the accuracy of our RNN exceeded the 80% threshold. We simultaneously realized that the new training dataset differed significantly, in statistical terms, from the initial dataset, leading to an apparent paradox. Thus, with our contribution, we have demonstrated how to reconcile such a paradox, showing that our classifier can help detecting defective meters, while simplifying replacement procedures.

Take an AI learning algorithm and a human trainer with an experience in machine intelligence. Take piles of data, in the form of labeled examples. If you think that the task of training a machine that makes accurate decisions is easy as pie, you could not be further from reality. That is what has been missing from this story: getting off on the right foot. For a good start, crucial is the value of data which come large in quantity but low in quality. Beyond how we design our AI, fundamental is making our data valid for learning. We report here our experience in the creation of highly accurate training examples, based on the idea of filtering out all the impurities from a dataset containing 15 million water readings, provided by an Italian water supply company. This was accomplished allowing a human-machine collaboration, down to the implementation of an AI model capable to predict water meter failure.

International and local policymakers have repeatedly encouraged the development of clusters—a dense geographic concentration of interconnected businesses—to boost competitiveness at both the firm and regional levels, as well as foster innovation and new product development. Following this trend, many initiatives have started to provide services and infrastructure that can facilitate the establishment of formal and informal ties between firms, local institutions or research centres, as well as upgrade the stock of human and intellectual capital. In this scenario, the present study empirically documents the effects of an innovation network, established by a regional government institution, on the participating firms. In particular, firm-level primary data, derived from the participants of “Polo di Innovazione ICT - Abruzzo” in Italy, empirically support how the cognitive, structural and relational dimensions of the social capital developed within a cluster initiative affect the performance of participating firms, unveiling a negative moderation effect arising from firms' involvement in the cluster program.

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The aim of this paper is to illustrate the phenomenon of corporate universities from the perspective of the evaluation of their performance. Corporate universities have a hybrid nature that can be referred to both as a business unit and as a higher education institution. Having reviewed the literature on corporate universities and performance evaluation of these kind of entities, we present the results of a survey on Italian corporate universities. Results shows that an appropriate framework for the evaluation of corporate university performance need to distinguish among the different types of corporate universities that are actually in place according to their mission and degree of openness to the external environment.

The aim of this article is to analyse the effect of introducing voucher schemes in higher education context. In the first part, the main economic characteristics of educational vouchers are discussed, in order to identify their expected effects on efficiency and equity in tertiary education. The second part contains the results of a case study that documents the experience gained at the University of Bologna between 2003/04 and 2005/06. The results suggest that the main effects of vouchers are on (1) the effectiveness of public support, and (2) course prices (fees).

The aim of the study was to characterize the interferon sensitivity determining region (ISDR) mutation pattern and its changes at 4 weeks of treatment in a population of patients infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 1b receiving standard or PEG-IFN plus ribavirin (RBV), to find possible early correlates of therapy outcome.Forty-five patients with chronic hepatitis due to HCV 1b were treated by PEG-IFN-α2b (n=23) or IFN-α2b (n=22) plus RBV 1000–1200 mg/day. They were classified 24 weeks after stopping therapy as sustained responders (SR), relapsers (REL) or non-responders (NR). Sixteen patients were SR, 12 REL and 17 NR. ISDR mutations were evaluated by direct sequencing at baseline in all and after 4 weeks in patients with detectable viraemia (n=30).The frequency of the three ISDR types was 26.7% wild-type, 64.4% intermediate-type and 8.9% mutant-type, without significant difference in their frequency in SR, REL and NR, independent of IFN formulation. Average numbers of mutations in SR, REL and NR were 1.88 ±0.54, 1.33 ±0.33 and 0.94 ±0.25, respectively, P>0.05. The baseline number of ISDR mutations was not related to the extent of viral load decline in the first month of therapy. Sequence analysis of ISDR region performed 4 weeks after starting therapy revealed qualitative or quantitative changes of ISDR sequence in only seven patients, without correlation with response.Thus, in our patients the baseline pattern of ISDR was unrelated to treatment outcome. Selection towards a dominant IFN-resistant strain did not occur under standard or PEG-IFN plus RBV.

This paper examines the role of collaborative initiatives in local infrastructure projects. It seeks to establish that cooperation between local governments, utilities, and other stakeholders has the potential of reducing the transaction costs that hinder the early stages of infrastructure investments. Having developed a conceptual model of cooperation between local actors in infrastructure projects (CLAIP), a survey was designed to obtain evidence of the main benefits and costs of collaboration in the construction of local water and transport infrastructure. The findings that emerge from managers’ opinions confirm that one of the main benefits of collaborative initiatives is the opportunity to acquire and transfer know-how in areas of the project containing problems or risks. CLAIP may also prove useful as a means of strengthening project governance, and increasing public acceptance of the facilities involved. Among the respondents, the managers who are most positive about CLAIP are likely to work in small and privately-owned or public-private utilities.