Italian Family Research Articles

Family businesses and debt maturity structure: Focusing on family involvement in governance to explain heterogeneity

Understanding family firms’ debt maturity structure is important because it plays a key role in making strategic decisions and mitigating agency conflicts. This study investigates the relationship between family involvement in governance and debt maturity structure in family firms by drawing on governance literature and insights from the socioemotional wealth perspective. Based on a sample of non-financial Italian public family firms, comprising 383 firm-year observations, we find differences in the proportion of long-term debt depending on variations in components of family involvement in governance. In particular, later-generation involvement on the board is associated with a lower proportion of long-term debt. Furthermore, family ownership positively moderates this relationship such that the proportion of long-term debt is higher with high family ownership. This study contributes to literature by adding further nuance to our understanding of the heterogeneity of family firms, by considering the relationship between variations in family involvement in governance and debt structure. Our study has practical implications that may inform investors about factors related to family involvement in governance, which are likely to influence debt maturity structure, and thus long-term strategies of family firms.

Prevalence of a BRCA2 Pathogenic Variant in Hereditary-Breast-and-Ovarian-Cancer-Syndrome Families with Increased Risk of Pancreatic Cancer in a Restricted Italian Area

PVs and LPVs in BRCA1/2 genes are correlated to a high risk of developing breast cancer and/or ovarian cancer (Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer syndrome, HBOC); additionally, in recent years, an increasing number of BRCA 1/2 variants have been identified and associated with pancreatic cancer. Epidemiologic studies have highlighted that inherited factors are involved in 10% to 20% of PCs, mainly through deleterious variants of BRCA2. The frequency of BRCA1/2 germline alterations fluctuates quite a lot among different ethnic groups, and the estimated rate of PVs/LPVs variants in Italian HBOC families is not very accurate, according to different reports. The aim of our study is to describe the prevalence of a BRCA2 PV observed in a selected cohort of HBOC patients and their relatives, whose common origin is the eastern coast of Emilia Romagna, a region of Italy. This study provides insight into the frequency of the variant detected in this area and provides evidence of an increased risk of pancreatic and breast cancer, useful for genetic counseling and surveillance programs.

Genome-wide linkage and association study identifies novel genes and pathways implicated in polycystic ovarian syndrome.

Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is a complex heterogeneous condition that affects women of reproductive age, conferring increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The syndrome is characterized by oligomenorrhea, hyperandrogenism, and/or polycystic ovaries and is often associated with obesity and type 2 diabetes. Individuals are predisposed to PCOS by environmental factors and risk variants in genes mostly involved in ovarian steroidogenesis and/or insulin resistance. Genetic risk factors have been identified by both familial and genome-wide (GW) association studies. However, most genetic components are still unknown and missing heritability needs to be elucidated. To learn more about the genetic determinants of PCOS, we performed a GW study in genetically highly homogeneous peninsular families. We conducted the first GW-linkage and linkage disequilibrium (i.e., linkage + association) study in Italian families with PCOS. We identified several novel risk variants, genes, and pathways potentially implicated in the pathogenesis of PCOS. Specifically, we detected 79 novel variants with significant GW-linkage and/or -association with PCOS across 4 inheritance models (p < 0.00005), of which 50 variants were within 45 novel PCOS-risk genes. This is the first GW-linkage and linkage disequilibrium study performed in peninsular Italian families and reporting novel genes in PCOS.

Novel Risk Variants in the Oxytocin Receptor Gene (OXTR) Possibly Linked to and Associated with Familial Type 2 Diabetes

The oxytocin system is well-known for its role in social bonding and reproduction. Recently, the oxytocin system was found to play other metabolic roles such as regulation of food intake, peripheral glucose uptake, and insulin sensitivity. Variants in OXTR gene have been associated with overeating, increased cardiovascular risk, and type 2 diabetes (T2D). We tested 20 microarray-derived single nucleotide polymorphisms in the OXTR gene in 212 Italian families with rich family history for T2D and found four novel and one previously reported variant suggestively significant for linkage and association with the risk of T2D. Our study has shed some light into the genetics of susceptibility to T2D at least in Italian families.

An Application of the Life Satisfaction Approach (LSA) to Value the Land Consumption and Ecosystem Services

Land systems combine land use and land cover, considering that their changes have important consequences for the local environment and human well-being and are pervasive factors of regional and global environmental change. More specifically, land consumption (LC), due to the occupation of originally agricultural, natural, or semi-natural areas, implies a progressive loss of key environmental resources and ecosystem services (ESs), reducing the individual well-being. Furthermore, policy makers need data on the benefits of public goods in monetary terms to support well-being-oriented decision-making. This work seeks to demonstrate that life satisfaction approach (LSA) can be applied to a practical assessment goal with the intention to give a monetary value to the LC and consequently to a loss of important ESs. The Italian case study is investigated with the help of a national survey database reporting the subjective well-being index (SWBI) subsequently grouped by regions. The overall intent is to make explicit to the policymakers that biodiversity and ESs are valuable to society and that their further degradation will result in irreversible damages to local communities. Using nationally representative data from the Multi-Purpose Survey on Italian Families in Italy over 2012–2016, results suggest that the national average annual income willingness to accept (WTA) related to consumed land is equal to −0.0827 €/m2 on average, while the social cost for LC and the loss of related ESs affects 0.01% of the Italian GDP per year. Finally, the possibility of estimating and comparing the WTA with the land market values brings the method presented here closer to cost-based estimates overcoming the limitations of contingent valuation methods.

Memories of a Gay Catholic Boyhood: Coming of Age in the Sixties by John D’Emilio

Reviewed by: Memories of a Gay Catholic Boyhood: Coming of Age in the Sixties by John D’Emilio Mary Ellen O’Donnell Memories of a Gay Catholic Boyhood: Coming of Age in the Sixties. By John D’Emilio. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2022. 208pp. $29.95. Renowned LGBTQ scholar John D’Emilio describes the worlds that shaped him as a thinker, activist, and historian in his memoir Memories of a Gay Catholic Boyhood: Coming of Age in the Sixties. Readers will know his trailblazing work in LGBTQ studies, but in this intimate story, they discover the private moments of an insular Italian-American Catholic childhood, a world-widening Jesuit education, and the personal impact of the culturally destabilizing 1960s. With the acumen of a careful historian, D’Emilio provides access to a crucial time in American history through the lens of one Catholic New Yorker struggling with his sexual identity. Divided into three parts, the book opens with his early childhood in an Italian working-class family, whose abundant love provides for an idyllic upbringing in a 1950s Bronx neighborhood, where deep friendships were forged on the streets and playgrounds. Trips to his grandfather’s Italian food store and grandma’s weekly Sunday dinner convey a characteristically ethnic Catholic experience of mid-twentieth century New York. His parochial school education includes a range of teachers, from kind and nurturing to strict and punishing. Like most Catholic school students reared during this historical period, he was learning to read and write at the same time he was learning the reality of sin and threat of hell. Part Two depicts his unlikely move to Manhattan’s selective Jesuit Regis High School. Emerging from a family with little interest in reading, as he describes it, D’Emilio fulfills his mother’s hopes for him to break that mold by earning a spot at the prestigious school. There he discovers the thrill of intellectual engagement in his classrooms and the competitive field of speech and debate. He also encounters the cosmopolitan universe of Manhattan and establishes a newfound family of friends. As he discovers life apart from the confines of his family’s housing project, he stumbles upon a world of sexual encounters that [End Page 89] leads to a dual life. Struggling between the Catholic sensibility that stresses the sinfulness of his sexual urges and the daily subway rides to school that provided access to a gay subculture in 1960s New York, D’Emilio encounters the personal conflict at the heart of the book. In the last section, readers follow the author into his college years, which bring a new level of challenge. He explains, “My faith, my intellect, my sense of who I was in the world: all were in constant turmoil almost from the moment I set foot on campus” (121). As a first-generation college student bucking the trend of fellow Regis alums, D’Emilio lands not at a Catholic institution, but at Columbia University. Just as he is trying to come to terms with his sexual identity in the 1960s, he must not only rise to the academic challenge of his courses, but he must also discern his place among civil rights activists and Vietnam War protestors. These life-altering factors place irreparable strain on his faith. Part One tends toward the nostalgic, painting a rosy picture of life in the Parkchester project. In this, D’Emilio’s memoir reflects broader patterns of American Catholic pre-Vatican II mid-twentieth century remembrance. But the narrative gains personal power as D’Emilio expresses vulnerability in his sexual self-discovery. He offers a textured understanding of life as a closeted gay adolescent and young adult during this time in New York City. Yet as he narrates this emerging sexual identity, he does not connect it to the Catholicism that so imprinted his childhood. Apart from a shame-inducing rant by Sister Perpetua in first grade for kissing a little girl, D’Emilio shares little about what Catholic authorities taught about sex. Reflecting on his early teenage experimentation with girls, he acknowledges a problem but leaves it there: “. . . kissing Arlene only made me more interested in playing with myself in the...

The usefulness of accounting information for decision-making purposes in an Italian company from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century

Introduction: Accounting history research on cost accounting theory and practice is still at an early stage in Italy for two main reasons. The first relates to the im-portance that the double-entry bookkeeping technique assumes in Italy, charac-terised by a typical financial focus, and the second to the delay with which Italy en-tered the industrialisation process. Aim: The main aim of this study is to investigate the bookkeeping accounting sys-tems of an established, southern Italian family and long-lived firm, namely Amarelli, still operating in the liquorice industry, from the late nineteenth to the early twen-tieth century to unveil whether accounting information was used by Amarelli man-agers for control and decision-making purposes. Methodological approach: We used document analysis of the reports related to the Amarelli bookkeeping system and semi-structured interviews with one of the present-day owners. Main findings: The findings highlight that the different reports in which Amarelli's bookkeeping system was articulated, and specifically the reports related to Ama-relli's industrial activity, can be regarded as a response to the necessity to calcu-late and control the ‘cost' of the different ‘processes' as well as the specific ‘per-formance' of any single activity of Amarelli, together with the overall ‘perfor-mance' of the Amarelli factory. Originality: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that investigates the accounting systems used by a food industry firm in southern Italy, an under-developed territorial area, from an industrialised point of view during 1875-1925.

Between research and revival. Emerging trends among highly religious young Catholics in Italy

AbstractResearch shows that Italians’ religiosity is in constant decline. Religious literacy, individual and collective practice, participation in rituals, faith’s transmission and symbols’ sharing seem to be following a slow but inexorable downward trend. Catholic communities are being depopulated and churches are emptying out. These phenomena, already emerging in those generations born during the economic boom, seem to have a greater impact on younger generations: the decline of Catholicism as a socio‐cultural phenomenon is characterising our era. Despite those general trends, young generations are not merely abandoning their faith. Even if faith has lost its social function, young Catholics in Italy often cultivate it on an individual level, between the autonomous search for their own spiritual path and the reproduction of forms of high religiosity derived from the family. In some cases, the younger generations show a renewed religiosity, stronger and more secure than that of their parents, which may sometimes involve them in a path of Catholicism’s rediscovery. The article presents and discusses results on highly religious young Catholics deriving from empirical research on intergenerational religious transmission in Italian families, which has been conducted through focus groups and in‐depth interviews between 2020 and 2022.

Me río de la mafia. Los Cubrepileta y la sátira mafiosa en la Argentina

In this essay, the mafia appears as a cultural object when analyzed from a humorous program broadcast in the 1990s in Argentina. It is Los Cubrepileta, a sketch that was part of Cha Cha Cha starring Alfredo Casero, Fabio Alberti, Diego Capusotto, Vivian El Jaber, Jorge Takashima, Alejandra Flechner, among others. Cha Cha Cha was a crazy, surreal and absurd program broadcast during 1993 and from 1995 to 1997 on América TV. Although the space was never massive, it is interesting to observe and analyze the way in which the sketch dedicated to an Italian family (Los Cubrepileta) parody the mafia with gags, jokes and set phrases inspired by movies and novels as well as the stereotype from the Italian mobster. To this is added another interesting fact, the reproduction of the sketches on YouTube, the visualizations and the comments on them.

NEFL-Related Charcot-Marie Tooth Disease due to P440L Mutation in Two Italian Families: Expanding the Phenotype and Defining Modulating Factors

Introduction: Mutations in the neurofilament polypeptide light chain (NEFL) gene account for <1% of all forms of Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) diseases and present with different phenotypes, including demyelinating, axonal and intermediate neuropathies, and with diverse pattern of transmission, with dominant and recessive inheritance being described. Methods: Here, we present clinical and molecular data in two new unrelated Italian families, affected with CMT. Results: We studied fifteen subjects (11 women, 4 men), age range 23–62 year. Onset of symptoms was mainly in childhood, with running/walking difficulties; some patients were pauci-asymptomatic; almost all shared variably distributed features of absent/reduced deep tendon reflexes, impaired gait, reduced sensation, and distal weakness in the legs. Skeletal deformities were seldom documented and were of mild degree. Additional features included sensorineural hearing loss in 3 patients, underactive bladder in 2 patients, and cardiac conduction abnormalities, requiring pacemaker implantation, in one child. Central nervous system (CNS) impairment was not documented in any subject. Neurophysiological investigation disclosed feature suggestive of demyelinating sensory-motor polyneuropathy in one family and resembling an intermediate form in the other. Multigene panel analysis of all known CMT genes revealed two heterozygous variants in NEFL: p.E488K and p.P440L. While the latter change segregated with the phenotype, the p.E488K variant appeared to act as a modifier factor being associated with axonal nerve damage. Conclusions: CMT related to P440L mutation in NEFL is associated with a mild, childhood-onset phenotype, showing prevalently sensory distal limbs involving and with motor impairment predominantly involving anterolateral leg muscles, in the absence of CNS involvement. Additional findings, never reported so far in patients with NEFL mutation, are cardiological and urinary dysfunctions. Our study expands the array of clinical features associated with NEFL-related CMT.

Building an Outward-Oriented Social Family Legacy: Rhetorical History in Family Business Foundations

Scholars have recently paid growing attention to the transfer of family legacies across generations, but existing work has been mainly focused on an inward-oriented, intra-family, perspective. In this article, we seek to understand how family firms engage in rhetorical history to transfer their social family legacy to external stakeholders, what we call “outward-oriented social legacy.” By carrying out a 12-months field study in three Italian family business foundations, our findings unveil three distinctive narrative practices— founder foreshadowing, emplacing the legacy within the broader community, and weaving family history with macro—history—that contribute to transferring outward-oriented social legacies.

A Novel DLG1 Variant in a Family with Brugada Syndrome: Clinical Characteristics and In Silico Analysis

Brugada syndrome (BrS) is an inherited primary channelopathy syndrome associated to sudden cardiac death. Overall, variants have been identified in eighteen genes encoding for ion channel subunits and seven genes for regulatory proteins. Recently, a missense variant in DLG1 has been found within a BrS phenotype-positive patient. DLG1 encodes for synapse associated protein 97 (SAP97), a protein characterized by the presence of multiple domains for protein-protein interactions including PDZ domains. In cardiomyocytes, SAP97 interacts with Nav1.5, a PDZ binding motif of SCN5A and others potassium channel subunits. To characterize the phenotype of an Italian family with BrS syndrome carrying a DLG1 variant. Clinical and genetic investigations were performed. Genetic testing was performed with whole-exome sequencing (WES) using the Illumina platform. According to the standard protocol, a variant found by WES was confirmed in all members of the family by bi-directional capillary Sanger resequencing. The effect of the variant was investigated by using in silico prediction of pathogenicity. The index case was a 74-year-old man with spontaneous type 1 BrS ECG pattern that experienced syncope and underwent ICD implantation. WES of the index case, performed assuming a dominant mode of inheritance, identified a heterozygous variant, c.1556G>A (p.R519H), in the exon 15 of the DLG1 gene. In the pedigree investigation, 6 out of 12 family members had the variant. Carriers of the gene variant all had BrS ECG type 1 drug induced and showed heterogeneous cardiac phenotypes with two patients experiencing syncope during exercise and fever, respectively. The amino acid residue #519 lies near a PDZ domain and in silico analysis suggested a causal role for the variant. Modelling of the resulting protein structure predicted that the variant disrupts an H-bond and a likelihood of being pathogenic. As a consequence, it is likely that a conformational change affects protein functionality and the modulating role on ion channels. A DLG1 gene variant identified was associated with BrS. The variant could modify the formation of multichannel protein complexes, affecting ion channels to specific compartments in cardiomyocytes.

The mineralocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C2) is linked to and associated with polycystic ovarian syndrome in Italian families.

Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is a complex heterogeneous disorder characterized by hyperandrogenism, irregular menses, and subfertility and often accompanied by other related comorbid disorders such as insulin resistance, obesity, and type 2 diabetes. Several genetic risk factors predispose to PCOS, but most are still unknown. Up to 30% of women with PCOS may have hyperaldosteronism. Blood pressure and the ratio of blood levels of aldosterone to renin are higher in women with PCOS compared to healthy controls, even if still in the normal range; and the aldosterone antagonist spironolactone has been used as therapy for PCOS, mainly due to its antiandrogenic activity. Thus, we aimed to investigate the potential pathogenetic role of the mineralocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C2) as the encoded NR3C2 product binds aldosterone and plays a role in folliculogenesis, fat metabolism, and insulin resistance. Within 212 Italian families with T2D and phenotyped for PCOS, we analyzed 91 single nucleotide polymorphisms in the NR3C2 gene. We tested the NR3C2 variants for linkage and linkage disequilibrium to the PCOS phenotype by using parametric analysis. We found 18 novel risk variants significantly linked to and/or associated with the risk of PCOS. We are the first to report NR3C2 as a risk gene in PCOS. However, our findings need to be replicated in other ethnic groups in order to reach more solid conclusions.

Promoting physical activity for children: an audit among Italian family pediatricians

This survey aimed to investigate the perception of Italian Pediatricians regarding the promotion of physical activity. From January to May 2015, a survey was conducted among family pediatricians working in Puglia, interviewed by a standardized questionnaire, that investigated demographic information, participation in sporting activity by the pediatrician, opinion on obesity and the promotion of physical activity, and attitude towards enquiring about the physical activity of patients with and without chronic diseases. We collected 200 questionnaires (35.7% of target population): 51.5% of enrolled pediatricians stated that they were participating in sporting activities at the time of the survey. The average opinion regarding the relevance of the obesity was 9±1.4/10 and about the promotion of physical activity 9.6±0.8. All enrolled pediatricians asked for their patients' physical activity and encouraged inactive children to begin an appropriate activity. Pediatricians who took part in sport had a high probability of encouraging physical activity, among patients affected by chronic diseases. Family pediatricians declared a good attitude regarding the promotion of physical activity for their patients according to national and international recommendations. The main concern emerging from our results is the risk of an "inappropriate interdiction" of physical activity in children affected by chronic diseases, in particular physicians that have never participated in a sport.

Parental attitude toward children's oral health during COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study in Italy.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, restrictive rules were imposed around the world to limit the spread of the virus. The present study aims to investigate how the pandemic and the consequent restrictions have affected the lives and oral health of Italian families with children aged 0-14 years. Through a questionnaire distributed online from December 2020 to March 2021 the following aspects were investigated: family income during the pandemic, fear of the pandemic, dietary habits, perceived risk of infection in a dental practice and perceived children oral health status during the pandemic. The pandemic has not drastically changed the socio-economic conditions, the dietary habits and the oral health condition of most Italian children. Nevertheless, the pandemic seems to have highlighted significant macro-regional differences regarding the satisfaction with the response of the regional health services to the pandemic. The continuation of the pandemic and the possible socio-economic effects could favour new changes in lifestyles, oral health and discrepancies regarding health care access, which deserve to be the subject of further investigation.

In-depth genetic and molecular characterization of diaphanous related formin 2 (DIAPH2) and its role in the inner ear.

Diaphanous related formins are regulatory cytoskeletal protein involved in actin elongation and microtubule stabilization. In humans, defects in two of the three diaphanous genes (DIAPH1 and DIAPH3) have been associated with different types of hearing loss. Here, we investigate the role of the third member of the family, DIAPH2, in nonsyndromic hearing loss, prompted by the identification, by exome sequencing, of a predicted pathogenic missense variant in DIAPH2. This variant occurs at a conserved site and segregated with nonsyndromic X-linked hearing loss in an Italian family. Our immunohistochemical studies indicated that the mouse ortholog protein Diaph2 is expressed during development in the cochlea, specifically in the actin-rich stereocilia of the sensory outer hair cells. In-vitro studies showed a functional impairment of the mutant DIAPH2 protein upon RhoA-dependent activation. Finally, Diaph2 knock-out and knock-in mice were generated by CRISPR/Cas9 technology and auditory brainstem response measurements performed at 4, 8 and 14 weeks. However, no hearing impairment was detected. Our findings indicate that DIAPH2 may play a role in the inner ear; further studies are however needed to clarify the contribution of DIAPH2 to deafness.

Whites Only: Race and Mobility in Kym Ragusa's The Skin Between Us: A Memoir of Race, Beauty, and Belonging and Claudia Rankine's Citizen: An American Lyric

Whites Only: Race and Mobility in Kym Ragusa's <i>The Skin Between Us: A Memoir of Race, Beauty, and Belonging</i> and Claudia Rankine's <i>Citizen: An American Lyric</i>

Dean Martin: King of Cool“Sammy and Dino,” You Must Remember This

Dean Martin: King of Cool“Sammy and Dino,” <i>You Must Remember This</i>

Indagine sulla terapia a lungo termine con iniezioni di benzilpenicillina nei bambini italiani

Secondary prophylaxis of rheumatic fever recurrence with intramuscular benzylpenicillin seems to be the most widely used therapy in young Italian patients. Its duration may vary from several years to decades. Pain and subsequent discomfort related to benzylpenicillin administration are poorly detected and addressed in our country. We present here a survey in which 49 Italian families participated, with children receiving benzylpenicillin therapy every 3 to 4 weeks. Procedural pain, treatment setting, information and communication emerge as critical issues for families. The long course of treatment of these young patients needs to be more explored, reviewed, and likely reorganized, with the aim of limiting and managing, with every applicable measure, the criticality of pain and supporting proper information and communication, equally important aspects of care.

Novel linkage and association of the mineralocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C2) with familial type 2 diabetes and depression and their comorbidity

IntroductionThe mineralocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C2) appears to modulate stress and cognitive performance in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). In addition, abnormalities in NR3C2 are associated in rodents with type 2 diabetes (T2D) and in humans with features of metabolic syndrome. Of note, NR3C2 antagonists are approved treatments in heart failure and chronic kidney disease with T2D. The NR3C2 gene is therefore a candidate gene for studying T2D-MDD comorbidity. To our knowledge, no study has so far reported risk variants in the NR3C2 gene with either MDD and/or T2D. Materials and methodsIn 212 multigenerational Italian families with enriched family history of T2D and with MDD, we analyzed 86 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the NR3C2 gene for parametric linkage to and/or linkage disequilibrium (LD) with T2D and MDD. ResultsWe identified a total of 7 independent SNPs significantly linked to/in LD with MDD only, 20 SNPs significantly linked to/in LD with T2D only, and 9 SNP significantly linked to/in LD with both T2D and MDD. The SNPs were statistically significant across different models. Two sets of LD blocks were MDD-specific, and one set was T2D-specific. In silico analysis of the risk variants predicted 3 variants with potential functional effects. ConclusionsThis is the first study to report NR3C2 as a novel risk gene in T2D and MDD comorbidity. However, our results need to be replicated in other ethnicities.