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Verso la strategia territoriale metropolitana - 2014
No full textLa ricerca è un documento strategico e metodologico che individua le linee guida e fornisce alcuni elementi distintivi locali per avviare il percorso di elaborazione della strategia territoriale di medio-lungo periodo per l'area metropolitana torinese
Path-breaking directions of nanotechnology-based chemotherapy and molecular cancer therapy
No full textWP 01/14; A fundamental question is how to detect likely successful anticancer treatments based on nanotechnology. We confront this question here by analyzing the trajectories of nanotechnologies applied to path-breaking cancer treatments, which endeavour to pinpoint ground-breaking and fruitful directions in nanomedicine. Results tend to show two main technological waves of cancer treatments by nanotechnology applications. The early technological wave in the early 2000s was embodied in some types of chemotherapy agents with a broad spectrum, while after 2006, the second technological wave appeared with new nano-technological applications in both chemotherapy agents and molecular target therapy. The present study shows new directions of nanotechnology-based chemotherapy and -molecular cancer therapy in new treatments for breast, lung, brain and colon cancers. A main finding of this study is the recognition that, since the late 2000s, the sharp increase of several technological trajectories of nanotechnologies and anticancer drugs seems to be driven by high rates of mortality of some types of cancers (e.g. pancreatic and brain ones) in order to find more effectiveness anticancer therapies that increase the survival of patients. The study here also shows that worldwide leader countries in these vital research fields and in particular the specialization of some countries in applications of nanotechnology to treat specific cancer (e.g. Switzerland in prostate cancer, Japan in colon, China in ovarian and Greece in pancreatic cancer). These ground-breaking technological trajectories are paving new directions in biomedicine and generating a revolution in clinical practice that may lead to more effective anticancer treatments in a not-too-distant futur
Italy's New Requirements for Academic Careers. The New Habilitation and its Worthiness
No full textWP 03/14; The new habilitation, established in Italy in 2010 and commenced in 2012, was designed (outcomes released commencing December 2013). Its aim is to filter who will be eligible to apply for competitions for the two permanent level professor positions in the universities. The results of the first set of data are 20 scientific sectors representing more than 10% of all sectors analyzed to understand if the outcomes reflected in a worthy way the indicators of productivity and quality of scientific production of candidates. Some legal and statistical framework are fostered before the data analysis in order to have a better understanding of the reform and the context where it operates. The hypothesis of the worthiness is here addressed on the assumption that the current position held by a candidate should not play any role in the attainment of the habilitation. Splitting candidates into two roles and having controlled for age as a variable, the data was used to reveal that the indicators of quality of scientific production (H index for hard sciences and articles in top ranked journals for social sciences and humanities) are more frequently the best predictors. Though some limits of the present analysis are faced and illustrated, some critical points of this new institution are discusse
CTREATREG. Stata module for estimating dose-response models under exogenous and endogenous treatment
No full textWP 05/14; This paper presents ctreatreg, a Stata module for estimating a dose-response function when: (i) treatment is continuous, (ii) individuals may react heterogeneously to observable confounders, and (iii) selection-into-treatment may be endogenous. Two estimation procedures are implemented: OLS under Conditional Mean Independence, and Instrumental-Variables (IV) under selection endogeneity. A Monte Carlo experiment to test the reliability of the proposed command is finally set ou
Une expérience d'intégration entre analyse quantitative et qualitative. L'évaluation de la formation professionnelle en Région Piémont
No full textWP 13/14; Impact assessment, in public policy evaluation, faces two major challenges: on the one hand, the theme of impact measurement, on the other that of its explanation. Quantitative research techniques usually play a vital role in the measurement, while qualitative techniques are much more useful in explanation. In order to carry on a successful impact assessment is therefore necessary to integrate the first with the second, combining them in a balanced research design. The use of mixed methods in this direction, allows to overcome some criticism to quantitative approach, as well as to qualitative approach. But how is it possible to achieve an effective integration of qualitative and quantitative methods in impact assesment? The article attempts to answer this question. After a brief theoretical excursus on the use of mixed methods in evaluation research, with the presentation of three different theoretical options for use of mixed methods (sequential, concurrent, and transformative), the pap er describes a single experience of integration between qualitative and quantitative methods, based on the analysis of employment effects of vocational training, experienced in Piedmont Region, within the independent evaluation of the ESF Operational Programme. The paper explain the choices made in research design, discussing the positive and critica
I dati amministrativi per la valutazione delle politiche. Riscontri dall'esperienza piemontese sul FSE
No full textWP 16/14; Impact assessment is usually based on direct surveys of treated individuals. The net impact should be estimated observing untreated individuals which are very similar to the treated group. However, the high cost of implementation does not allow to use large samples, and therefore it is difficult to carry out statistically significant comparison at the local level. The open access to databases which were created for different purposes (e.g., tax, administrative, monitoring) could overcome these limitations with many advantages. In this article we present a validation exercise based on data records provided by the Italian law whenever a change in an employment contract occurs, i.e. the so called compulsory communications (COB). This was possible because of an exceptional access to two different data sources, with the aim to assess the impact in terms of employment of vocational training policies in Regione Piemonte (northwest Italy), that is the COB database and a direct survey performed on students one year after the course. We describe the major differences between indicators calculated on survey data and indicators calculated on COBs. Discrepancies are observed for 20% individuals in the sample analyzed. In addition, the change of source distorts the results of the net impact evaluation. In fact, both the determinants of the employment probability and the importance of the net impact do significantly vary across sources. Whenever an administrative database is used as a source for socio-economic analysis, it is essential to be cautious and critic, validating its reliability by comparison with different data sources. In the absence of such a preliminary validation process, which should take place in close collaboration with regional and national authorities managing the informational systems, researchers do not only risk to uncritically accept information that provide systematic distortions, but they prevent corrective procedures which are fundamental for the development and improvement of the whole syste
Making access to credit more democratic. Tools and practices between social innovation and old inequalities
No full textWP 20/14; The economic crisis highlights the problem of access to credit also from the point of view of families. The Italian banking industry has launched projects aimed at offering financial support to disadvantaged people, implementing new products for certain categories of customers normally excluded from credit due to the high risks involved. The information collected about each customer is an input in the decision-making process. Hence, it is crucial to investigate how it is selected, how it is (re)assembled, and how it is evaluated. Understanding how information about a customer is selected and processed helps us to identify what resources owned by households are translated into a positive score to access credit and into opportunities to enjoy additional goods and services, thus reconfiguring the trends of inclusion and exclusion within the financial syste
Terms of Reference for the trials
No full textRT 51; The aim of the report “Terms of Reference for the trials” is to carefully present the impact of malicious incidents, or natural ones, on the main layers of an electric system. The single components of the service, physical, communication and cyber layer have been described and a procedure for the estimation of the possible damage of an incident has been reported. Attacks might affect large portions of the European power system, make restoration difficult and cause huge societal impact. In fact, due to the interconnection of the networks, a blackout in one or more countries could derive from an attack directed to neighbouring countries facilities, Thus there is a need for establishing the economic and organisational impact of the implementation of emerging cyber security frameworks in Europe. Cyber security needs first of all to define tests to verify the impact of standard procedure or countermeasures designed to limit the consequences of incidents on each layer. The report presents the test in order to verify: the security criteria and calculate the operative costs; apply the emergency or attach scenario; apply standards and countermeasures and evaluate the standards and countermeasures. The objective of this project is to identify costs and benefits for industrial stakeholders and for the society on an objective basis, and outline organisational processes whereve beneficial. To do so, a general procedure has been designed and applied on two particular cases of cyber - attacks: a SCADA based Control System operated by a TSO; a control room of a thermal Power Plant, operated by a generation utility. Along the text of this report, the aspects related to the physical system are included only to have a global view of potential attacks and the standards and countermeasures that will potentially reduce the vulnerability of the systems or speed up the restoratio
La ricerca azione: un approccio per comprendere ed interagire con i processi delle dinamiche socio-economiche
No full textWP 26/14; This working paper give a frame work about action research as a research approach useful to understand and interact with social-economic dynamic processes. The paper underline also some critical aspects of the international debate about action research and focus on action research for the organization development and learning, describing a contribution given by a long Ceris action research project focused on finding innovative element
Politiques publiques et secteur agro-industriel. Le rôle du programme de développement rural en Piémont
No full textWP 14/14; This work aims to better understand the role played by the Rural Development Programme (RDP) to support the agro-food industry in Piedmont. The agro-food sector is the portion of the production chain dealing with food processing and characterised by the highest added value. Differently from other production sectors, it includes various types of businesses: large farming enterprises, cooperatives of producers, as well as processing industries. The effect of rural development policies is assessed by comparing the economic-financial performance of businesses receiving public support to that of businesses which are not supported through public funds. In order to do so, the sample under investigation comprises enterprises which received financing earmarked for the agro-food industry during the periods 2000-2006 and 2007-2013. Our purpose is to understand the role played by the RDP and how financing affects agro-food businesses, as well as to describe the features of beneficiary enterprise