Exploring Italian Wine Companies: A Study of Supply Chain Dynamics, Quality, and Promotion Strategies through Semi-Structured Interviews.

In Italy, the wine supply chain is a cornerstone of the national agri-food system and a driving force for the entire economy. The aim of this study is to map the profile of Italian wine companies through the analysis of multiple case studies. The study focuses specifically on companies in the Marche region, investigating their features and supply chain, with a specific focus on product and system certification adopted, marketing policies implemented, and the businesses' relationship with institutions. A total of 18 companies participated in the study. The primary data for the research was collected through semi-structured interviews lasting 1 h, based on an interview protocol. The results show that the supply chain for the wine sector is configured to be short, even when cooperatives act as an aggregator. The small size and limited financial resources make it particularly difficult to promote the wine outside its reference context, and there is a lack of a network strategy at the local level. Many companies consider organic certification a disadvantage since it tends to homologate production to the large wine industries, making the product's naturalness, typicality, and craftsmanship disappear.

Organizational and Supply Chain Impacts of 3D Printers Implementation in the Medical Sector.

3D printing application extends to various sectors, such as aerospace, construction, art, domestic, up to healthcare. It is in this domain that its adoption could offer technological solutions aimed at improving the individual life and guaranteeing organizational effectiveness. The aim of this study is to understand the way in which the adoption of medical 3D printers has introduced economic-business changes at the supply chain, organizational and environmental level within business processes considering the point of view of 3D printer manufacturers. A multiple case study has been developed, through the administration of a semi-structured interview to 7 Italian companies that design, manufacture and sell 3D printers offering additive technological solutions to the medical sector. The results show how companies believe that the organizational impact related to the adoption of this technology is quite significant, highlighting how it leads to the definition of a new organizational culture. Secondly, it emerges that the adoption of 3D printers within the medical sector also leads to a change in procedures and production activities. Finally, it also emerges that the impact at the supply chain level particularly affects the reduction in the number of players in the supply chain and product time to market.

Testing the Effectiveness of the Health Belief Model in Predicting Preventive Behavior During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of Romania and Italy.

We use a cultural psychology approach to examine the relevance of the Health Belief Model (HBM) for predicting a variety of behaviors that had been recommended by health officials during the initial stages of the COVID-19 lockdown for containing the spread of the virus and not overburdening the health system in Europe. Our study is grounded in the assumption that health behavior is activated based on locally relevant perceptions of threats, susceptibility and benefits in engaging in protective behavior, which requires careful attention to how these perceptions might be structured and activated. We assess the validity of the HBM in two European countries that have been relatively understudied, using simultaneous measurements during acute periods of infection in Romania and Italy. An online questionnaire provided a total of (N = 1863) valid answers from both countries. First, to understand individual difference patterns within and across populations, we fit a General Linear Model in which endorsement was predicted by behavior, country, their interaction, and a random effect for participants. Second, we assess the effect of demographics and health beliefs on prevention behaviors by fitting a multi-group path model across countries, in which each behavior was predicted by the observed health belief variables and demographics. Health beliefs showed stronger relationships with the recommended behaviors than demographics. Confirming previously reported relationships, self-efficacy, perceived severity, and perceived benefits were consistently related to the greater adoption of individual behaviors, whereas greater perceived barriers were related to lower adoption of health behaviors. However, we also point to important location specific effects that suggest that local norms shape protective behavior in highly contextualized ways.

Quantifying patterns of endocranial heat distribution: brain geometry and thermoregulation.

OBJECTIVES: The mechanisms involved in brain thermoregulation are still poorly known, and many disagreements still exist concerning the selective cooling capacity of the brain volume. This issue has also been discussed in human evolution and paleoneurology, speculating on possible changes associated with hominid encephalization. Although the vascular system is supposed to be the main component responsible for thermoregulation, brain geometry also plays an important role in the pattern of heat distribution. METHODS: In fossils, the only neuroanatomical evidence available for quantitative analyses is the endocranial form, molded by the brain morphology. Here, we present a quantitative method based on numerical simulations to quantify and localize variation in heat dissipation patterns associated with endocranial morphological changes, presenting a case-study on modern humans and chimpanzees. RESULTS: Thermic maps provide a graphic tool to visualize heat loading on the endocranial surface. The distribution of the values (thermic spectrum) supplies a quantification which can help describe and compare the patterns of heat distribution within and between groups. Absolute values are largely influenced by size differences. Normalized values suggest further differences associated with brain shape. CONCLUSIONS: Simulation and numerical modeling are useful to provide a descriptive and quantitative approach to endocranial thermoregulation, supplying a quantitative tool to investigate ontogenic and phylogenetic changes. This is particularly relevant in paleoneurology, considering the large shape and size differences described for fossil hominid brains.

On the relation between the Eigen model and the asexual Wright-Fisher model.

We show that the Eigen model and the asexual Wright-Fisher model can be obtained as two different limit cases of a single stochastic model. This result is used to enlighten the mathematical similarities and differences among these two models.The two key concepts introduced with the Eigen model, the error threshold and the quasispecies, are not invalidated by these differences, so that they are naturally present also in population genetics models. According to this fact, we use the classical diploid mutation-selection equation and the single peak fitness approximation to obtain the error threshold for sexual diploids. Finally, we perform the same analysis in the asexual case and compare the results.

Mutation-selection dynamics and error threshold in an evolutionary model for Turing machines.

We investigate the mutation-selection dynamics for an evolutionary computation model based on Turing machines. The use of Turing machines allows for very simple mechanisms of code growth and code activation/inactivation through point mutations. To any value of the point mutation probability corresponds a maximum amount of active code that can be maintained by selection and the Turing machines that reach it are said to be at the error threshold. Simulations with our model show that the Turing machines population evolve toward the error threshold. Mathematical descriptions of the model point out that this behaviour is due more to the mutation-selection dynamics than to the intrinsic nature of the Turing machines. This indicates that this result is much more general than the model considered here and could play a role also in biological evolution.

A stochastic version of the Eigen model.

We exhibit a stochastic discrete time model that produces the Eigen model (Naturwissenschaften 58:465-523, 1971) in the deterministic and continuous time limits. The model is based on the competition among individuals differing in terms of fecundity but with the same viability. We explicitly write down the Markov matrix of the discrete time stochastic model in the two species case and compute the master sequence concentration numerically for various values of the total population. We also obtain the master equation of the model and perform a Van Kampen expansion. The results obtained in the two species case are compared with those coming from the Eigen model. Finally, we comment on the range of applicability of the various approaches described, when the number of species is larger than two.

The evolution of the meningeal vascular system in the human genus: From brain shape to thermoregulation.

OBJECTIVES: The imprints of the middle meningeal vessels make it possible to analyze vascularization in fossil specimens. The association between changes in the cortical anatomy and vascular organization raises questions about the actual physiological meaning of these features, most of all when dealing with the origin of the modern human brain. Metabolism and thermoregulation may be relevant factors in influencing morphological adaptations between brain and vessels. This study is aimed at investigating the relationships between endocranial morphology and endocranial vessels in modern humans and to analyze the pattern of heat dissipation through the endocranial surface in fossil specimens. METHODS: Through angiotomography, it is possible to make an anatomical reconstruction of the meningeal and cerebral vessels, providing information on the morphology of the endocranial vascular system. At the same time, digital modeling can be performed to investigate the relationships between the endocranial geometry and physical properties such as heat dissipation patterns in extinct hominids. RESULTS: The middle meningeal network is largely independent from the cerebral vascular system. Furthermore, in adults, the medium and upper tracts of the middle meningeal artery shows scarce or absent blood flow. Parietal bossing in modern humans involves relative cooling of the cortical surface at the supramarginal gyrus. CONCLUSIONS: The evidence does not support a thermoregulatory role for the meningeal vascular network, at least in adult normal blood flow conditions. On the other hand, biomechanical protective functions (hydraulic skeleton for shock adsorption) cannot be ruled out.

Evolutionary model with Turing machines.

The development of a large noncoding fraction in eukaryotic DNA and the phenomenon of the code bloat in the field of evolutionary computations show a striking similarity. This seems to suggest that (in the presence of mechanisms of code growth) the evolution of a complex code cannot be attained without maintaining a large inactive fraction. To test this hypothesis we performed computer simulations of an evolutionary toy model for Turing machines, studying the relations among fitness and coding versus noncoding ratio while varying mutation and code growth rates. The results suggest that, in our model, having a large reservoir of noncoding states constitutes a great (long term) evolutionary advantage.

Embedded model control: application to web winding.

Embedded Model Control (EMC) methodology is applied to web-winding control problems. These require time-varying Embedded Model and adaptive control law, because of a variable winder radius; disturbance estimation and rejection, because of friction and variable web speed and acceleration; sensorless reel radius estimation; and robust stability and performance in the presence of web and gear vibrations. The goal is to solve these key issues in the framework of EMC, which amounts to (i) designing a time-varying Control Law capable of disturbance rejection, (ii) designing Noise Estimators capable of keeping live and accurate disturbance and radius estimates, and (iii) tuning their eigenvalues to guarantee stability and performance. Tuning takes advantage of an 'error loop' formulation, which explicitly relates neglected dynamics to eigenvalues, stability and performance. Simulated runs from a fine winder model are compared to published results.