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Evaluating Wireless Vital Parameter Continuous Monitoring for Critically Ill Patients Hospitalized in Internal Medicine Units: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial
No full textBackground: Wireless Vital Parameter Continuous Monitoring (WVPCM) allows the continuous tracking of patient physiological parameters, facilitating the earlier detection of clinical deterioration, especially in low-intensity care settings. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of using WVPCM compared to the usual monitoring of critically ill patients hospitalized in Internal Medicine wards. An investigation of the attitude of health professionals towards the use of new technologies in daily practice to improve patient management was also carried out.
Methods: The LIght Monitor Study (LIMS) is a prospective, open-label, randomized, multi-center pilot trial comparing WVPCM and conventional nurse monitoring during the first 72 h of hospitalization. A central randomization unit used computer-generated tables to allocate patients to two different types of monitoring. The main outcome was the occurrence of major complications. The study planned to enroll 296 critically ill patients with a Modified Early Warning Score (MEWS) ≥ 3 and/or National Early Warning Score (NEWS) ≥ 5 across two Internal Medicine (IM) Units in Italy. The investigation of the attitude of nurses towards the use of WVPCM was carried out by using a questionnaire and a qualitative survey.
Results: Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the study was interrupted early and only 135 patients (WVPCM = 68; standard care = 67) were randomized. One patient in the control group was excluded from analysis because of drop-out, leaving 134 patients for intention to treat analysis. No statistically significant differences between standard care and WVPCM were observed in terms of major complications (37.5%, vs. 31.2% p = 0.475), in-hospital mortality (17.5% vs. 11.1%, p = 0.309), and median hospital length of stay (9 vs. 10 days, p = 0.463). WVPCM decreased nursing workload compared to the control, as the average time spent by nurses on the detection of vital signs per patient was 0 min per patient per day compared to 24.4 min (p < 0.001) observed in the control group. Twenty-two percent of patients in the WVPCM group (15/68) experienced discomfort with the device, resulting in its removal. The investigation of nurses involved 16 out of 18 people participating in the study. Opinions on the wireless device for patient monitoring were particularly favorable; most of them considered remote monitoring clearly superior to traditional in-person visits and easy to use after a brief practice period. All participants recognized the safety benefits of the system.
Conclusions: The reduced sample size of this pilot study does not allow us to draw any conclusions on the superiority of WVPCM compared to standard care in terms of clinical outcomes. However, we observed a positive trend in the reduction of major complications
The Impact of Humans vs. AI Recommendation on Consumer Reactions to Products Exposure
No full textThis study compares consumer reactions to product recommendations provided by AI versus expert human agents for search and experience products. Across three experimental studies, we propose that the effect of recommendation source and product type on intention to follow the recommendation is explained by recommendation source’s perceived transparency and credibility. We demonstrate that AI is perceived as more transparent and credible than a human expert when recommending search products, leading to a higher intention to follow the recommendation, while no difference emerges for experience products. However, when the human recommender is described as a Super Expert – highly experienced, reputable, and qualified – consumers show a preference for the human (vs. AI) source in the case of experience products, while the difference between the two recommendation sources became nonsignificant for search products. Furthermore, when recommendations come from a hybrid source combining a Super Expert and AI, this combination is evaluated less favorably than either source alone for search products, with no significant difference found for experience products. These results offer valuable insights for marketers on how to select, design and deploy effective touchpoints that enhance the willingness to follow recommendations, depending on the product type
The Legitimacy of Luigi Grassi: An Investigation into the Florentine Antiquarian’s Practices
No full textMaster of Arts in Art history -- John Cabot University, Fall 2025.This thesis will investigate Florentine antiquarian, Luigi Grassi’s professional conduct as an art dealer and collector by analyzing his international art dealings to prominent United States Institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the interplay of his relationships with Italian and German art professionals, as well as his participation in the illicit trafficking of art during Fascism and the Nazi Regime. By utilizing primary correspondence material, museumprovided artistic provenance, and legal investigate reports, Grassi is thoroughly investigated to better understand his actions as a dealer. Investigating Luigi Grassi sets the foundation for a larger discussion – museum transparency and accountability for researching into Nazi-era provenance in the twenty-first century. Grassi was investigated and implicated for his participation alongside German officials such as: Wilhelm von Bode, Andreas Hofer, Karl Haberstock, and Hermann Göhring, therefore contributing a large volume of art to the Göhring and Linz Museum Collections. Grassi was a dealer at the same time as Italian dealers, Stefano Bardini, Elia Volpi, and Alessandro Contini-Bonacossi, but remains understudied though he established himself as a prestigious dealer, often dealing Italian Renaissance paintings to an international, wealthy clientele. This thesis will overview artistic provenance with Grassi’s name as well as import and export documentation to further understand his ethical conduct. The Art Looting Investigation Unit found Grassi, Hofer, Haberstock, Göhring, and Contini-Bonacossi guilty for the participation of illicitly trafficking and storing art in Europe during the Nazi Regime. The opacity withheld by prominent dealers is one of the reasons as to why museums now prioritize transparency with their collections’ origins
Managing Governance and Capability Reconfiguration to Professionalize Scientific Associations: A Conceptual Framework
No full textScientific associations, traditionally grounded in voluntary academic governance, increasingly confront pressures that challenge the adequacy of their historical structures. Growing stakeholder expectations, the expansion of professional roles in the scientific community, digital transformation and new forms of societal engagement require associations to develop more formalized, professionally coordinated organizational models. Yet the professionalization of scientific associations remains theoretically underexplored. This conceptual article develops an integrated framework explaining how such associations transition from academically oriented volunteer structures to hybrid, professionally supported organizations. Drawing on institutional theory, organizational design, sociology of professions and capability-based perspectives, the framework identifies four interdependent mechanisms—strategic mission reframing, governance redesign, capability reconfiguration and institutional identity evolution—that collectively underpin professionalization. An integrated conceptual model is presented, highlighting the dynamic interactions among these mechanisms. The article contributes to research on hybrid organizing and nonprofit professionalization and offers association leaders a conceptual guide for navigating complex organizational transformations
Ettore De Maria Bergler’s Pictorial Cycle in the Villa Igiea: The Unfolding of Sicily’s International Identity through Stile Floreale
No full textThesis (B.A. in Art History, Minor in Marketing)--John Cabot University, Fall 2025.In the final decades of the nineteenth century, many European nations developed artistic styles specific of their fin-de-siècle nation-building context that were nonetheless internationalist and broadly pan-European. Italy defined its own in the Stile Floreale, where a national effort to communicate in an international language was made. The Sala degli Specchi stands as a case study for this: in Sicily, the painter Ettore De Maria Bergler expressed the complex relations of regionalism, nationalism and internationalism, in his program for the painted cycle of the Sala degli Specchi in the Grand Hotel Villa Igiea, Palermo, which he completed between 1899 and 1900. Although the various declensions of Stile Floreale–namely, Art Nouveau–have received substantial attention in international scholarship, Italian research remains uneven, particularly regarding its regional inflections and its capacity to articulate broader ideological concerns in the decades following political unification. The Villa Igiea decorations have largely been approached through the figure of the architect Ernesto Basile or through celebratory narratives of Bergler’s artistic “genius,” leaving underexplored the cultural ambitions of the Florio family, their industrial bourgeois taste that ultimately shaped the commission, and the circulation of European decorative language. This thesis, therefore, aims to broaden the understanding of Stile Floreale within the regional landscape of Sicily, the national fin-de-siècle Italian environment, and its international nature. A socio-political framework situates the cycle within post-Unification Italy, drawing on the questione meridionale to examine tensions between northern and southern Italy and to assess how Sicily’s cultural position informed the commission. This is complemented by iconographical analysis to elucidate how Bergler synthesised local motifs with European language of Art Nouveau. This integrated approach reveals a new iii interpretative model for understanding the Stile Floreale and provides a foundation for future comparative studies of regional modernisms within transnational turn of the century environments
What do we really mean by “purpose-driven businesses”?
No full textFrame of the research: The concept of Purpose-driven Businesses (PDBs) has emerged as a response to pressing global challenges, including climate change, social inequality, and biodiversity loss, which call for a fundamental rethinking of the role of businesses in addressing societal and environmental needs. While the term has gained significant traction, its precise meaning remains ambiguous, often overlapping with existing constructs in management literature, such as Corporate Social Responsibility and Shared Value Creation. This study operates at the intersection of these theoretical perspectives, aiming to provide a structured analytical framework for understanding how PDBs incorporate social and environmental values into their strategies and balance the diverse expectations of stakeholders.
Purpose of the paper: This paper is the end product of an extended conversation and debate between a number of business management scholars with a particular interest in the concept of Purpose. This concept has been increasingly used to characterise businesses which do not only have a conventional commercial purpose but also a social one. Despite the popularity of the term, the precise meaning of “purpose” remains somewhat unclear, especially when compared to the wide set of constructs which have already been used in business management literature to refer to similar types of business. A deeper analysis of the differences and similarities with other related concepts is thus needed. This paper summarizes the results of this discussion and provides a detailed definition of PDBs.
Methodology: This paper is the result of an open debate on the concept of Purpose, which began with a series of face-to-face and online discussions between management scholars with an interest in this area. Firstly, the group of scholars who participated identified the existing literature on purpose-driven businesses. Next, the theoretical approaches that were most closely aligned with this concept were identified and each one of them was assigned to the person with the most expertise in that area so that they could examine it in more detail for the purposes of this article. Finally, an agreed definition of PDBs was produced.
Findings: This paper sets out the differences between PDBs and other similar concepts. Further, we provide a list of characteristics that PDBs must have, may have, and cannot have.
Research limitations: This article discusses theoretical approaches and is the result of collaboration between a number of scholars who specialize in the field. Our theoretical findings may suggest a way forward for future empirical studies.
Practical implications: This paper provides a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of what is meant by PDBs, with practical implications for managers working at both day-to-day and strategic levels.
Originality of the paper: This analysis was the result of a process of discussion between scholars working in the area of PDBs. The checklist of the elements that characterise PDBs is intended to be a useful point of reference for scholars and professionals working in this field
The Makings of a Mission: The Social Foundations of The Jesuit Approach to the Ming Dynasty Elites
No full textThesis (B.A. in History)--John Cabot University, Spring 2025.The central topic of this thesis is to explore the missions undertaken by Jesuit missionaries in Ming Dynasty China between the 16th and 17th centuries. The focal point of this topic is the construction of the various approaches taken by the missionaries in order to access the nation and present the tenets of Christianity in a way that was palatable to the Chinese people and scholar class (also referred to as Mandarins or literati) rather than the success rate of the missions as a whole. Although it is a subject that has been researched extensively, much of the existing secondary literature regarding it takes a more biographical approach, acting as a retelling of the events rather than analyses of them. That is not to say that the literature has not been of great help to my research or of great importance to the academic community, however it is also true that the field would benefit from more focused research of these missions and the interactions between Western missionaries and advanced empires. For this reason, I find this topic to be an important one to study. In doing my research for this topic, I came to ask myself how the Jesuit missionary men came to find themselves associating so closely with the Chinese scholar class and how the more social aspects of their approach played into it; a question which I in turn decided to answer as the focal point of this thesis. My methodologies for completing this research consisted of an analysis based on the intertwining of cultural and intellectual history, seeking to understand the cultural exchanges that occurred to influence the Jesuits in their approach and the group of intellectuals that they found themselves associated with. The conclusion of my research led me to understand that, although in part purely coincidental, the nature of the Jesuits’ close association with the Mandarins links to the decisions the missionaries made in presenting themselves and their religion. The missionaries presenting themselves as scholarly men and their associating themselves with the sciences, as well as their efforts to shape iii Christianity in a way that appealed to the Confucianist traditions that were dominant in China at the time, paired with the missionaries’ efforts to befriend the Mandarins first and then focus on preaching to allow them to form close bonds with the literati as fellow academic brothers. In gaining this trust and relationship, however, the Jesuits in turn ended up “locking” themselves to the scholars and could not dedicate themselves fully to the other social classes
The purpose-driven crowdfunding and the growing potential of microlending
No full textFrame of the research: Crowdfunding has emerged as a transformative fintech solution, significantly changing the financing of new projects. Among the various forms of crowdfunding, purpose-driven platforms like Kiva transcend traditional financial transactions by emphasizing social and economic empowerment. Despite its potential, there remains a gap in understanding how borrowers’ narratives influence lenders’ decisions, particularly in contexts where social motivations are paramount. This research aims to bridge this gap by analyzing the narratives used by borrowers to describe their projects on the Kiva platform.
Purpose of the paper: This study seeks to explore and classify the different types of narratives employed by borrowers on Kiva to attract funding. By doing so, it aims to uncover the socio-economic impacts of these loans and the role of crowdfunding as a driver for social and economic empowerment. The research focuses on linking the intrinsic motivations of lenders and the narratives presented by borrowers.
Method: This study employs a topic modeling approach to analyze a dataset of Kiva- funded projects, focusing on borrowers’ narratives. The methodology includes data cleaning, visualization, and topic modeling using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) applied to text from the “use” and “description” sections of Kiva projects’ pages from 2005 to 2021.
Results: Our analysis uncovered eight distinct loan narratives, each associated with various types of entrepreneurial projects. These narratives range from agricultural advancements to educational pursuits, highlighting the diverse aspirations of borrowers. This diversity not only demonstrates the broad spectrum of entrepreneurial projects supported by crowdfunding, but also emphasizes the nature of these loans in meeting the specific needs and goals of individuals across different regions and sectors.
Limits: Our study’s scope is limited to data from the Kiva platform, affecting the extent of our conclusions. Future research should expand to include multiple crowdfunding sources to enhance the diversity and applicability of findings.
Practical implications: By comprehending the diverse entrepreneurial initiatives facilitated by Kiva loans, stakeholders can customize financial products and support services to better align with the requirements of borrowers. This insight is crucial for enhancing the efficacy of microfinance in fostering economic development and empowering underserved communities.
Originality of the paper: Through the identification of specific borrowers’ narratives, this research contributes to the broader discourse on financial inclusion, economic empowerment, and the role of crowdfunding in facilitating access to capital for underserved communities. This study not only provides a deeper understanding of the narratives that drive purpose-driven crowdfunding but also highlights the importance of aligning financial support with the socio- economic goals of borrowers to foster sustainable development and inclusive growth
Shattered Voices: Lacanian Psychoanalysis and the Literature of Survival: Mrs. Dalloway, The Bell Jar and The Other Truth: Diary of a Misfit
No full textThesis (B.A. in English Literature, Minors in Creative Writing and Communications)--John Cabot University, Spring 2025.This thesis looks at how the themes of psychological suffering, trauma, and identity construction are addressed in the writings of Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, and Alda Merini. The work asks how writing can become a tool of survival and resistance for female subjectivities marked by mental suffering and institutional exclusion. A psychoanalytic theoretical framework is used to build the analysis, specifically utilizing a Lacanian lens and its fundamental concepts of the Real, the Symbolic Order, and the fragmentation of the subject. The thesis is based on the idea that psychological distress is not simply an internal condition, but something shaped by larger forces—such as institutional systems, cultural expectations, and the limitations built into language itself. The first chapter focuses on Mrs. Dalloway, revealing how Clarissa’s identity is both defined and constrained by social obligations and Symbolic expectations. Her feeling of estrangement is interpreted as the result of a language system that is unable to express her interiority. The Bell Jar, which is discussed in the second chapter, interprets Esther Greenwood’s crisis as a reaction to the medicalization of deviation and the imposition of gender standards. Her silence and detachment from the outside world appear to be symptoms of a Symbolic exclusion. Lastly, The Other Truth: Diary of a Misfit, written by Alda Merini from inside the asylum experience, is examined in the third chapter. Her poetic and disjointed language is read as a tool for self-reappropriation and a critique of institutional violence. Ultimately, the thesis argues that in all three texts, writing does not aim to cure trauma but to give it form, making visible what dominant discourse tends to silence
Sovereignty Under Siege: Human Rights and the U.S. Quest for Dominance in Haiti
No full textMaster of Arts in International Affairs -- John Cabot University, Summer 2025.This thesis critically examines the use of human rights rhetoric by the United States in its foreign policy toward Haiti, exposing the selective deployment of "naming and shaming" tactics as a mechanism for geopolitical control rather than genuine human rights advocacy. Rather than representing a failure of idealism, this approach reflects a consistent pattern of strategic hypocrisy, where the U.S. dismisses its own domestic and international human rights obligations while weaponizing the concept to legitimize interventionist and self-serving foreign policies. By situating Haiti’s historical struggle for sovereignty, beginning with its revolutionary founding as the first Black republic, within a broader pattern of imperial and neocolonial interventions, the study reveals how the U.S. has alternated between direct support for authoritarian regimes and strategic disengagement, each time cloaked in humanitarian language. Through a comparative analysis of U.S. policy in Haiti, El Salvador, and Guatemala, the thesis illustrates a recurring prioritization of American economic and political interests over human rights, particularly when local reformist movements challenge U.S.-backed power structures. It further interrogates the role of Western media in shaping public opinion, reinforcing narratives of Haitian dysfunction while ignoring external responsibility for instability. The thesis calls for a decolonized framework of human rights advocacy, one that centers Haitian voices, embraces global accountability, and draws on international legal norms particularly the principle of self-determination as a meaningful reform. In doing so, it challenges the prevailing Global North-centric model and advances a vision of international solidarity rooted in equity and justice