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Employing the sensemaking perspective, this paper aims to study the relationship between social innovation and resilience. The study highlights how sensemaking of social innovation is a process that takes place within existing social and economic representations. This study has a qualitative nature and is based on multiple case studies, which is the methodology best suited to highlight the drivers of social phenomena in specific socioeconomic contexts and which characteristics they manifest. The paper contributes to the literature along three different lines. First, it describes social innovation as the resilient outcome of sensemaking or the result of a capacity for collective reorganization following environmental, political, economic, and social disruptions. Second, it provides policymakers with a model to use to establish the intensity of social pressure and the openness of baseline social representations to change. Third, it allows policymakers to jointly observe and analyze the relationship between social representation and economic representation, highlighting the central role of firms in achieving social innovation. Although this paper presents the findings of a wide theoretical analysis, the developed model needs to be empirically tested by firms and policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report four patients (mean age 65 yr; range 40–77 yr) affected by acquired pure red cell aplasia (PRCA) complicating chronic lymphoid disorders and treated with anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody rituximab. Three out of four patients were given packed red cell transfusion. Steroids and recombinant erythropoietin (r-Epo) were also administered as first-line therapy without response. After a mean time of 57 d (range 23–62 d) from PRCA diagnosis, all patients received rituximab at a dosage of 375 mg/m2/wk for four consecutive weeks. First injection side effects of rituximab were minimal. All patients showed an increase in hemoglobin levels in response to rituximab, in one patient just after the first dose, in another patient after the second and in two other patients after the third dose. Three patients (75%) were considered in complete remission (CR) and one patient (25%) in partial remission 4 wk after the last rituximab infusion, despite a CR was obtained later (16 wk following the beginning of the therapy). Finally, at the last follow-up (mean 18.5 months, range 2–60 months), all patients were alive and in continue CR. Despite very limited in number, these results suggest that rituximab is very effective in the treatment of PRCA complicating B-cell chronic lymphoproliferative disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary. Thirteen patients with low-to-intermediate risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) received recombinant erythropoietin (r-EPO) at the single, weekly dose of 40·000 U for at least 8 weeks. Five patients (38·4%) achieved a major erythroid response (increased haemoglobin levels > 2 g/dl and/or transfusion independence), which is currently maintained after 3–11 months, without modification of r-EPO dose. This study suggests that 40·000 U r-EPO given once a week may be at least as effective as the more frequent (daily or three times a week) administrations of the drug usually employed in MDS patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thirty-seven anaemic subjects with low-to-intermediate risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) received the highly glycosylated, long-acting erythropoiesis-stimulating molecule darbepoetin-alpha (DPO) at the single, weekly dose of 150 microg s.c. for at least 12 weeks. Fifteen patients (40.5%) achieved an erythroid response (13 major and two minor improvements, respectively, according to International Working Group criteria). Such results are currently maintained after 7-22 months in 13 of the responders, one of whom required iron substitutive therapy during the treatment. One patient relapsed after 4 months. Another responder died after 5 months because of causes unrelated to the treatment. No relevant side-effects were recorded. At multivariate analysis, significant predictive factors of response were baseline serum levels of endogenous erythropoietin <100 IU/l, absent or limited transfusional needs, no excess of blasts and hypoplastic bone marrow. This study suggests that DPO, at the dose and schedule used, can be safely given in low-intermediate risk MDS and may be effective in a significant proportion of these patients.