The souvlaki connection: some reflections on the Greek public debt crisis.

After the subprime credit crisis of 2007, the world is no longer what we thought. An unprecedented crisis of confidence was combined with a credit crunch, and the G20 countries had to enact massive public spending programmes to save the economy and at least buffer the inevitable hard landing. In 2010 this excessive public spending produced the first public debt crisis in the wake of the subprime crisis: Greece reported that in 2009 it had run an unprecedented deficit of 15.4 per cent of GDP, and that its public debt had skyrocketed to 126.8 per cent. The Greek crisis is the product of years of recession, the sluggish economic environment and poor productivity – but above all it is the product of the mismanagement of the public finances and of unsatisfactory reporting practices. In this essay we analyse this crisis in the context of the era of financial derivatives and underscore a number of crucial effects that have been largely ignored in both academic discussion and public debate

L’offerta formativa e la ricerca

Nel nostro paese la formazione e l’educazione sono in gran parte gestiti dallo Stato, coerentemente con la sua struttura e organizzazio- ne interna.La riforma Gelmini riorganizza gli atenei e introduce criteri di valutazione della ricerca ma non tratta dell'offerta formativa

Metodologie della ricerca scientifica in Economia: la crisi della teoria della Finanza

Al fine di introdurre il tema della metodologia della ricerca è necessario prendere le mosse da una serie di utili definizioni, che verranno utilizzate anche nell’ambito degli altri contributi present in questo volume. la teoria della finanza moderna è in forte crisi a seguito della crisi globale originata nei mutui subprime

Le icone in processione

Si discute il rapporto tra immagini e la liturgia processionale e stazionale nella Roma del Medioev

Core microbiome and bacterial diversity of the Italian Mediterranean river buffalo milk

Milk is one of the most nutritionally complete foods and plays an important role in the human diet. Buffalo milk represents 15% of worldwide milk production and is an important source of bioactive compounds. Buffalo milk has a great market in the Mediterranean area, and dairy products, such as Mozzarella and Ricotta di Bufala Campana, obtained with the Italian Mediterranean buffalo milk, are acknowledged with the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO). This study aimed to characterize, using high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene, the milk core microbiome of water buffalo rises in the Amaseno Valley included in the Mozzarella PDO region. The principal features of the core and the auxiliary buffalo milk microbiome are the predominance of Firmicutes and Lactococcus, one of the most important lactic acid bacteria (LAB) taxa in the dairy industry. The comparative analysis of the core microbiomes indicated that the milk of the Italian Mediterranean Buffalo and other mammals share the presence of Streptococcus-affiliated OTUs (operational taxonomic units). Our data also demonstrated that the core microbiome of milk samples collected from PDO and non-PDO regions differ in the number and type of taxa. KEY POINTS: • Buffalo milk and their derivate products are becoming more popular worldwide. • Dairy locations and practice management affect the structure of the milk microbiota. • Next-generation sequencing (NGS) analysis allows to identify the features of the Italian Buffalo milk microbiome.6n

Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) as a tool for studying thermal properties of a crude cellulase cocktail

Abstract: Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used as an efficient and rapid tool in studying the conformational transitions between the folded and unfolded structures of cellulolytic enzymes. The thermal properties of two crude hydrolytic enzyme cocktails containing extracellular cellulases from Trichoderma longibrachiatum DIBAF-10 were analyzed and compared with three commercial cellulase preparations. Differences in the thermal behavior of fungal cellulases in the liquid phase, freeze-dried state, liquid formulations in sodium citrate buffer (pH 4.8), and contact with cellulose, carboxymethyl cellulose, and cellobiose were evaluated. DSC profiles of cellulases from the DIBAF-10 strain provided important thermodynamic information about the thermal stability of the included proteins. Crude enzyme cocktails underwent a reproducible and irreversible exothermic aggregation phenomenon at 52.45 ± 0.90 °C like commercial β-glucosidase. Freeze-dried and resuspended in a sodium citrate buffer, cellulases from T. longibrachiatum showed an endothermic peak dependent on buffer and enzyme concentration. In the enzyme-substrates systems, a shift of the same peak was recorded for all substrates tested. The thermal analysis of freeze-dried cellulase samples in the range of 20–150 °C gave information on the denaturation process. In conclusion, we demonstrated that DSC is a cost-effective tool for obtaining "conformational fingerprinting" of crude fungal cellulase preparations. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.].6n

The customer’s preference in light cannabis: an Italian perspective

Nowadays, the light hemp is promoted by different stakeholders and the customer’s preference due to the different use of crop products. The aim of this chapter was to discuss the Italian perspectives concerning the utilization of light hemp connected to customer’s preferences. It is discussed the sustainability of hemp crop to produce wellness products in Italy. It is applied as a cost model based on empirical data from hemp farmers. Customers’ preferences on light cannabis wellness products are analyzed through an online survey in Italy and other six European countries. A general misunderstanding about the differences between psychoactive hemp and nonpsychoactive hemp (light cannabis) makes the demand unstable. Light hemp business in Italy is new and there are a few studies that help entrepreneurs in assessing the attractiveness of certain investment analyzing the demand for such a product. Demand for CBD-based products indicates interest, but customers’ confusion highlights a lack of regulation and transparency about CBD-cannabis.4n

Abrasive fluidized bed finishing of additive manufactured cobalt-chrome parts: effects on surface morphology and fatigue behavior

The possibility of processing cobalt-chrome parts by additive manufacturing opens the way to the production of complex net-shaped parts able to withstand high loads and at the same time resist the corrosive environment or thermal loads. However, the surface morphology typical of additive manufactured parts could be detrimental to the fatigue life, and finishing operations become necessary. In this paper, the adoption of abrasive fluidized bed (AFB) processing as a finishing solution is explored, and the effect of the main process parameters, namely the abrasive type, treatment time, and rotational speed, on morphological features and fatigue life is investigated. Field emission gun-scanning electron microscopy and contact gauge profilometry showed an improvement in sample finishing due to the AFB process. The advantages in surface properties were related to an increase in fatigue life. The experimental results show that AFB has a beneficial effect both on the finishing and fatigue behavior of additively manufactured components; a smoother surface was obtained, and the crack initiation during fatigue tests was retarded.n

Alberto Maria De Agostini nella letteratura di viaggio italiana

Il saggio analizza tre romanzi italiani pubblicati tra il 2011 e il 2019 in cui il padre Alberto Maria De Agostini è considerato autorevole compagno di viaggio, una guida (non solo spirituale) per affrontare il lungo cammino verso le estreme propaggini della Terra del Fuoco.n