Guendalina Capece

This study evaluated the short-term effectiveness of an innovative gamified educational program based on the principles of the Italian Legislative Decree 81/2008 in improving occupational health and safety (OHS) knowledge among Italian secondary school students. A cluster-randomized controlled field trial was conducted in Italy from September 2024 to June 2025. Classes were randomized into experimental (EG) and control groups (CG). The intervention combined a seminar with three structured games (role-playing, board, and card games). Knowledge was assessed using a 15-item questionnaire (Q81) at baseline (T0) and post-intervention (T1). The primary endpoint was the between-group difference in Q81 score at post-intervention (T1). Of 930 eligible students, 927 participated (99.7%), 694 completed the study (74.6%), including 187 middle school and 507 high school students (N _EG = 356; N _CG = 338). Baseline Q81 scores were comparable between groups (EG: 5.6 ± 3.3 vs CG: 5.4 ± 2.9), whereas at T1, mean Q81 scores were significantly higher in the EG compared to the CG (9.0 ± 3.1 vs. 5.2 ± 2.9, P < 0.001; Cohen’s d = 1.26). Within-group analysis showed a significant improvement in the EG ( P < 0.001), but not in the CG. Reliability analysis yielded alpha = 0.804, indicating good internal consistency. Gamification training improved OHS knowledge among secondary school students and may represent an effective educational strategy for early safety education. These findings support the integration of gamified OHS training into secondary school curricula to strengthen early safety education in line with the principles of Legislative Decree 81/2008. . Future studies should include larger samples, address item-level weaknesses and explore long-term behavioural outcomes.

Background. Traditional health and safety training often fail to engage workers effectively. Gamification has emerged as a promising strategy to enhance motivation and learning outcomes. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of a gamified training course in improving occupational health and safety knowledge. Methods. A randomized controlled field trial was conducted with 77 participants. Participants were divided into two groups: an experimental group (EG) and a control group (CG). The intervention, titled “Let's play to 626!” consists of a one-day course comprising a seminar and gaming session. The participants were assessed using an internally validated Q626 questionnaire at baseline (T0) and after the intervention (T1), with a knowledge score was computed ranged from to 0-15. Descriptive statistics, paired sample tests, and regression analyses were used to analyse the data. Results: The internal reliability of the Q626 tool was moderate, with Cronbach's α of 0.723. The results indicated a significant improvement in Q626 scores for both the experimental group (EG) and the control group (CG) at T1 compared to T0 (p<0.001; meanEGT1=10.8, SD=1.9; meanCGT1=10.0, SD=2.7). Discussion: The gamification session showed a positive effect on knowledge enhancement. Indeed, gamified training in occupational health and safety not only enhances learning retention and engagement but also represents a cost-effective solution to reduce the probability of workplace incidents. Future studies should explore the long-term impact of gamified learning on occupational health and safety training.

The rapid development of Large Language Models (LLMs), such as GPT-3 and GPT-4, has transformed corporate functions, yet their integration raises critical privacy concerns. These models require vast amounts of training data, often including sensitive corporate information, which increases risks of data breaches and unauthorized access. This systematic review explores privacy challenges, model privacy strategies, and ethical considerations. By identifying key legal frameworks such as the GDPR and the AI Act, this paper aims to provide insights into corporate compliance and the responsible eployment of LLMs.

At the end of 2019, a new coronavirus was reported in the form of unknown pneumonia: It was the beginning of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. It is crucial to develop the strategies to manage this new pandemic in order to improve their effectiveness, as opposed to the ones adopted in 2003 during the SARS pandemic. In 17 years, new digital technologies and tools have been created; therefore, we can take advantage of them in the social management of the pandemic. The aim of our paper is to evaluate how blockchain technology can be used and what advantages it brings in managing an emergency situation such as of the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, the effects of the adoption of this technology will be assessed when applied both to the management of the information flow between health infrastructures, and to track monetary, technical, and medical supply donations to hospital structures. We therefore propose a high-level, decentralized architecture that assists in administrating large-scale information and stores the gathered data in a blockchain supervised by the authorities. The distrust suffered by institutions today, the fear experienced in the last year due to the pandemic, and the birth of a technology that allows for the creation of reliable networks, pose thoughtful challenges to be faced to recover trust and hope for the future again.

As a consequence of the Sars-CoV-2 pandemic, the causative agent of the COVID-19 coronavirus, the world is currently witnessing profound changes in everyday life. The infection and the resulting death number forecasts generate an increasing threat to the lives of people and the economics of countries. As the acute phase of the pandemic ends, the greatest challenge that most governments are currently undergoing is the lack of tools to certify the immunity status of citizens and the related infection risk of the spread of the COVID-19 virus. To mitigate this challenge, this study proposes an innovative approach to implement a set of IT tools, here named VPassport, that assist large-scale test execution/result management in a distributed way and store the results of all tests made through all channels in a blockchain under country authority control. The proposed approach aims to produce an effective system able to support governments, health authorities, and citizens to take informed decisions on which services and social activities can be accessed respecting policies and rules set by the authorities. This aims to allow a controlled restart of the activities of the country, giving to all citizens the possibility to manage their immunity tests while allowing the authorities to manage the reopening of services and social activities. The proposed model helps in managing this phase and, therefore, the resulting outcome can be used to authorize possible behaviors (e.g., going to the office, production plants, public transportation, theaters, cinemas, etc.). The knowledge of being infected or not in a secure and not modifiable way that can be shown in a simple way, accessible to all, will be the real change in managing the coexistence with the virus until a vaccine will be available for all people.

Health protection has always been a primary concern for mankind. Despite its important social role, current systems for managing the health records are slow, complicated, sometimes expensive and exposed to human errors and misunderstandings. In the health sector, the Medicalchain project seems to have the potential to become a new standard for managing health records using blockchain technology as a platform. In this paper, we propose a new model consisting of a permissioned blockchain to manage and store the electronic health records (EHR) of registered patients. This system guarantees transparency and especially immutability, which are essential for secure management and storage, ensuring a system that is efficient both for doctors and patients and, hopefully, bringing about renewed trust in the public health system. Our aim is that our work may contribute to gain momentum on the application of the blockchain technology to EHR and stimulate further discussion with health institutions to fully exploit the potential of the technology.

University certificates can have a significant impact on people’s lives: they can help people get the job they want or allow companies to decide whether a candidate for a job has the appropriate skills. Despite their important social role, current systems for certifying academic achievements are slow, complicated, expensive, and vulnerable to forgery. In the education field, the Blockcerts project, an open source project launched by MIT and Learning Machine in 2016, seems to have the potential to become a new standard for issuing certificates using the Blockchain technology as a platform. It enables students to quickly and easily get a verifiable, tamper-proof version of their diploma. Additionally, the infrastructure provides permanence, convenience, and a level of security appropriate to the importance of the record, guaranteeing the legitimacy of the diploma. The University of Rome “Tor Vergata” started a pilot program in 2018 adopting the Blockcerts framework to issue digital diplomas. In this paper, we describe the whole process from a technical perspective and analyze the impact that a broad adoption of the Blockcerts standard might have, as compared to the current way of issuing diplomas at the University of “Tor Vergata”. Our aim is that our work might contribute to building momentum for the application of the Blockchain technology to digital certificates and stimulate further discussion with other institutions to fully exploit the potential of the technology.

Companies now depend on the internet for internal and external communications, however the web is not necessarily neutral. The multitude of company websites within the global system present varying linguistic, cultural and communication characteristics, which determine different experiences depending on the local culture of the user. The design of culturally appropriate websites is viewed as essential to communication, mainly for marketing. This article therefore aims at analysing the impact of cultural characteristics on web design and marketing communication. China presents a vast market and internet population, with specific cultural characteristics, and for these reasons is the subject chosen for study. The study develops a methodology based on an adaptation of Hofstede’s and Hall’s cultural dimensions for purposes of analysing website content. The methodology makes it possible to measure the projection of underlying cultural characteristics in website design.The content analysis of 75 websites Chinese companies quoted on the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock markets reveals that their design reflects local cultural characteristics. Furthermore, the analysis of the Chinese and English versions of the websites reveals that there the latter provide virtually no adaptation to an international clientele, particularly as concerns the indicators of Collectivism, Uncertainty Avoidance and Long Term Orientation.