Percieved Organizational Efficacy in Internationalized Companies: Application of Competing Values Approach and Collective Efficacy

This dissertation focuses on “organizational efficacy”, in particular on employees’ beliefs of organizational capacity to be efficacious. Organizational efficacy is considered from two perspectives – competing values approach and collective efficacy, and evaluated in internationalized companies. The dissertation is composed of three studies. The data were collected in thirteen Italian companies on different stages of internationalization for a total number of respondents is 358. In the first study the factorial validity of the competing values instrument (Rohrbaugh, 1981) was investigated and confirmed. Two scales were used to measure collective efficacy: a general collective efficacy scale (Bohn, 2010), and a specific collective efficacy scale, developed following suggestions of Borgogni et al. (2001), it evaluates employees’ beliefs of efficacy of organizations in the international market. The findings suggest that competing values and collective organizational efficacy instruments may provide a multi-faceted measurement of employees’ beliefs of organizational efficacy. The second study examined the relationship between organizational efficacy and collective work engagement. To measure collective work engagement the UWES-9 (Schaufeli & Bakker, 2003) was adapted at the group level; its factor structure and reliability were similar to the standard UWES-9. The findings suggest that organizational efficacy fully predicts collective work engagement. Also we investigated whether leadership moderates the relationship between organizational efficacy and collective work engagement. We operationalized leadership style with MLQ (Bass & Avolio, 1995); the results suggest that intellectual stimulation and idealized influence (transformational leadership) and contingent reward (transactional leadership) enhance the impact of organizational efficacy on collective work engagement. In the third study we investigated organizational efficacy and collective work engagement in internationalized companies. The findings show that beliefs of organizational efficacy vary across companies in different stages of internationalization, while no significant difference was found for collective work engagement. Limitations, practical implications and future studies are discussed in the conclusion.

Efficacia e sicurezza della profilassi anti-citomegalovirus rispetto alla strategia pre-sintomatica con valganciclovir in pazienti con trapianto di cuore trattati con everolimus o micofenolato

Il CMV è l’agente patogeno più frequente dopo trapianto (Tx) di cuore determinando sia sindromi cliniche organo specifiche sia un danno immunomediato che può determinare rigetto acuto o malattia coronarica cronica (CAV). I farmaci antivirali in profilassi appaiono superiori all’approccio pre-sintomatico nel ridurre gli eventi da CMV, ma l’effetto anti-CMV dell’everolimus (EVE) in aggiunta alla profilassi antivirale non è stato ancora analizzato. SCOPO DELLO STUDIO: analizzare l’interazione tra le strategie di profilassi antivirale e l’uso di EVE o MMF nell’incidenza di eventi CMV correlati (infezione, necessità di trattamento, malattia/sindrome) nel Tx cardiaco. MATERIALI E METODI: sono stati inclusi pazienti sottoposti a Tx cardiaco e trattati con EVE o MMF e trattamento antivirale di profilassi o pre-sintomatico. L’infezione da CMV è stata monitorata con antigenemia pp65 e PCR DNA. La malattia/sindrome da CMV è stato considerato l’endpoint principale. RISULTATI: 193 pazienti (di cui 10% D+/R-) sono stati inclusi nello studio (42 in EVE e 149 in MMF). Nel complesso, l’infezione da CMV (45% vs. 79%), la necessità di trattamento antivirale (20% vs. 53%), e la malattia/sindrome da CMV (2% vs. 15%) sono risultati significativamente più bassi nel gruppo EVE che nel gruppo MMF (tutte le P<0.01). La profilassi è più efficace nel prevenire tutti gli outcomes rispetto alla strategia pre-sintomatica nei pazienti in MMF (P 0.03), ma non nei pazienti in EVE. In particolare, i pazienti in EVE e strategia pre-sintomatica hanno meno infezioni da CMV (48 vs 70%; P=0.05), e meno malattia/sindrome da CMV (0 vs. 8%; P=0.05) rispetto ai pazienti in MMF e profilassi. CONCLUSIONI: EVE riduce significamene gli eventi correlati al CMV rispetto al MMF. Il beneficio della profilassi risulta conservato solo nei pazienti trattati con MMF mentre l’EVE sembra fornire un ulteriore protezione nel ridurre gli eventi da CMV senza necessità di un estensivo trattamento antivirale.

Valutazione dell'impatto della farmacogenetica in ambito di Sanità Pubblica. Analisi del polimorfismo genetico dell'enzima CYP2D6 metabolizzante xenobiotici.

Pharmacogenetic testing provides an outstanding opportunity to improve prescribing safety and efficacy. In Public health policy pharmacogenetics is relevant for personalized therapy and to maximize therapeutic benefit minimizing adverse events. CYP2D6 is known to be a key enzyme responsible for the biotransformation of about 25-30% of extensively used drugs and genetic variations in genes coding for drug-metabolizing enzymes might lead to adverse drug reactions, toxicity or therapeutic failure of pharmacotherapy. Significant interethnic differences in CYP2D6 allele distribution are well established, but immigration is reshaping the genetic background due to interethnic admixture which introduces variations in individual ancestry resulting in distinct level of population structure. The present thesis deals with the genetic determination of the CYP2D6 alleles actually present in the Emilia-Romagna resident population providing insights into the admixture process. A random sample of 122 natives and 175 immigrants from Africa, Asia and South America where characterized considering the present scenario of migration and back migration events. The results are consistent with the known interethnic genetic variation, but introduction of ethnic specific variants by immigrants predicts a heterogeneous admixed population scenario requiring, for drugs prescription and pharmacogenetics studies, an interdisciplinary approach applied in a properly biogeographical and anthropological frame. To translate pharmacogenetics knowledge into clinical practice requires appropriated public health policies, possibly guiding clinicians to evaluate prospectively which patients have the greatest probability of expressing a variant genotype.

Metaheuristics for Search Problems in Genomics - New Algorithms and Applications

In this thesis we made the first steps towards the systematic application of a methodology for automatically building formal models of complex biological systems. Such a methodology could be useful also to design artificial systems possessing desirable properties such as robustness and evolvability. The approach we follow in this thesis is to manipulate formal models by means of adaptive search methods called metaheuristics. In the first part of the thesis we develop state-of-the-art hybrid metaheuristic algorithms to tackle two important problems in genomics, namely, the Haplotype Inference by parsimony and the Founder Sequence Reconstruction Problem. We compare our algorithms with other effective techniques in the literature, we show strength and limitations of our approaches to various problem formulations and, finally, we propose further enhancements that could possibly improve the performance of our algorithms and widen their applicability. In the second part, we concentrate on Boolean network (BN) models of gene regulatory networks (GRNs). We detail our automatic design methodology and apply it to four use cases which correspond to different design criteria and address some limitations of GRN modeling by BNs. Finally, we tackle the Density Classification Problem with the aim of showing the learning capabilities of BNs. Experimental evaluation of this methodology shows its efficacy in producing network that meet our design criteria. Our results, coherently to what has been found in other works, also suggest that networks manipulated by a search process exhibit a mixture of characteristics typical of different dynamical regimes.

Veterinary drugs in drinking water used for pharmaceutical treatments in breeding farms

Water is susceptible to be used for numerous purposes, including edible, both for humans and animals. In the food animal production, drinking water is frequently used as a way to carry out the most common pharmacological treatments. In these cases, there are many variables which could degrade drugs dissolved in this mean, even when properly arranged pharmaceutical formulations are used. In fact, although a product obtains a Marketing Authorization through appropriate laboratory studies both drug stability and solubility, on the other hand the solubility of the same drug in natural water used as a drinking water is not documented. In the present study has been evaluated the dissolution kinetics (at 0 hours and 24 hours) of products, having oxytetracycline and tylosin as active ingredient, used in drinking water samples in order to see how the different physical and chemical factors that characterize the drinking water may affect therapeutic efficacy. In fact, multiple factors, also of little relevance if individually considered, are able to adversely affect the pharmacological treatment carried out in drinking water.

Development of strategies for vascular damage repair in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a progressive and rare disease with so far unclear pathogenesis, limited treatment options and poor prognosis. Unbalance of proliferation and migration in pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells (PASMCs) is an important hallmark of PAH. In this research Sodium butyrate (BU) has been evaluated in vitro and in vivo models of PAH. This histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDACi) counteracted platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-induced ki67 expression in PASMCs, and arrested cell cycle mainly at G0/G1 phases. Furthermore, BU reduced the transcription of PDGFRbeta, and that of Ednra and Ednrb, two major receptors in PAH progression. Wound healing and pulmonary artery ring assays indicated that BU inhibited PDGF-induced PASMC migration. BU strongly inhibited PDGF-induced Akt phosphorylation, an effect reversed by the phosphatase inhibitor calyculinA. In vivo, BU showed efficacy in monocrotaline-induced PAH in rats. Indeed, the HDACi reduced both thickness of distal pulmonary arteries and right ventricular hypertrophy. Besides these studies, Serial Analysis of Gene Expression (SAGE) has be used to obtain complete transcriptional profiles of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) isolated from PAH and Healthy subjects. SAGE allows quantitative analysis of thousands transcripts, relying on the principle that a short oligonucleotide (tag) can uniquely identify mRNA transcripts. Tag frequency reflects transcript abundance. We enrolled patients naïve for a specific PAH therapy (4 IPAH non-responder, 3 IPAH responder, 6 HeritablePAH), and 8 healthy subjects. Comparative analysis revealed that significant differential expression was only restricted to a hundred of down- or up-regulated genes. Interestingly, these genes can be clustered into functional networks, sharing a number of crucial features in cellular homeostasis and signaling. SAGE can provide affordable analysis of genes amenable for molecular dissection of PAH using PBMCs as a sentinel, surrogate tissue. Altogether, these findings may disclose novel perspectives in the use of HDACi in PAH and potential biomarkers.

Fruit ripening/scald relationship in apple

The ripening stage of apple fruits at harvest is the main factor influencing fruit quality during the cold storage period that lasts several months and give rise to physiological disorders in fruits of susceptible cultivars. In particular, superficial scald is connected to α-farnesene oxidation, leading to fruit browning. Therefore, the assessment of the optimal ripening stage at harvest is considered to be crucial to control the overall quality, the length of storage life and the scald incidence. However, the maturity indexes traditionally used in the horticultural practice do not strictly correlate with fruit maturity, and do not account for the variability occurring in the field. Hence, the present work focused on the determination of apple fruit ripening with the use of an innovative, non-destructive device, the DA-meter. The study was conducted on ‘Granny Smith’ and ‘Pink Lady’ cultivars, which differ in scald susceptibility. Pre- and post- harvest ripening behavior of the fruits was studied, and the influence of ripening stage and treatments with 1-MCP were evaluated in relation to scald development and related metabolites. IAD was shown to be a reliable indicator of apple ripening, allowing cultivar-specific predictions of the optimal harvest time in different growing seasons. IAD may also be employed to segregate apple fruits in maturity classes, requiring different storage conditions to control flesh firmness reduction and scald incidence. Moreover, 1-MCP application is extremely effective in reducing superficial scald, and its effect is influenced by fruit ripening stage reached at harvest. However, the relation between ethylene and α-farnesene was not entirely elucidated. Thus, ethylene can be involved in other oxidative processes associated with scald besides α-farnesene regulation.

Essays in policy evaluation

This dissertation consists of three empirical studies that aim at providing new evidence in the field of public policy evaluation. In particular, the first two chapters focus on the effects of the European cohesion policy, while the third chapter assesses the effectiveness of Italian labour market incentives in reducing long-term unemployment. The first study analyses the effect of EU funds on life satisfaction across European regions , under the assumption that projects financed by structural funds in the fields of employment, education, health and environment may affect the overall quality of life in recipient regions. Using regional data from the European Social Survey in 2002-2006, it resorts to a regression discontinuity design, where the discontinuity is provided by the institutional framework of the policy. The second study aims at estimating the impact of large transfers from a centralized authority to a local administration on the incidence of white collar crimes. It merges a unique dataset on crimes committed in Italian municipalities between 2007 and 2011 with information on the disbursement of EU structural funds in 2007-2013 programming period, employing an instrumental variable estimation strategy that exploits the variation in the electoral cycle at local level. The third study analyses the impact of an Italian labour market policy that allowed firms to cut their labour costs on open-ended job contracts when hiring long-term unemployed workers. It takes advantage of a unique dataset that draws information from the unemployment lists in Veneto region and it resorts to a regression discontinuity approach to estimate the effect of the policy on the job finding rate of long-term unemployed workers.