Effects of political-economic integration and trade liberalization on exports of Italian Quality Wines Produced in Determined Regions (QWPDR)

The aim of this work is to explain the magnitude of the trade flows for high quality wine from Italy to its main importing countries. This objective has been reached by establishing an appropriate econometric model derived from an extended form of the “Gravity Model”. This model has been broadly applied to the analysis of international trade because it provides robust estimates. The results obtained and the model itself are useful in forecasting potential trends in the exportation of high quality Italian wines. In particular, these estimates give a quantitative evaluation of the export gains that could result from the enlargement of the EU and from an increasing liberalization in international trade. Moreover, it is possible to identify the growing markets where Italian ventures could exploit certain promotional and communication strategies.Italy, Exports, QWPDR, Integration, Gravity Model

Agritourism flows to Italy: an analysis of determinants using the gravity model approach

Tourism represents one of the most important income sources for Italy. In recent years, apart from “traditional” destinations, tourism supply is widely changing in order to satisfy the customers “love for variety” and valorise marginal resources, then new formulas are emerging (e.g. agritourism). This work aims to elaborate and estimate an econometric model able to adequately explain the size of agritourists flows to Italy from main partner countries using the gravity model approach that has been broadly applied to the analysis of international flows. In this work, the “basic” model has been enlarged and improved with the introduction of other explicative variables. The results has allowed to confirm empirical validity of the gravity model in studying international flows of any nature. Furthermore, the estimated econometric model represents a useful analytical instrument to describe, and, eventually, predict demand of foreign visitors for agritourist vacations in Italy.Gravity Model, Agritourism, Rural tourism, Tourism flows, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

New challenges and opportunities for Italian exports of table wines and high quality wines

Competition in international wine market has recently become more intense because of several factors and, in particular, the progressive reduction in world-wide consumption, the addition of new producing countries such as Australia, Chile, the USA and South Africa (the so called New World wine producers) and the increasing trade liberalization. In order to achieve a competitive advantage in the international marketplace, it is very important to identify which markets are characterized by bigger attractiveness. In particular, the ability of a producer, a region or a country to provide effective communication and promotion actions towards more profitable local markets is strategic in international trade. Italy, one of the first wine producing country in the world, exports its wines to almost all countries of the five continents. However, the five greater importing countries account for 70 percent of Italy’s total wine exports (the USA, Germany, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Canada) and so Italy shows only a moderate market diversification. In this paper, an econometric model able to explain the size of wine export flows from Italy to its main importing countries was elaborated and estimated. This model provides useful information that can help to identify the main growing markets where all participants in the wine supply-chain, such as private wineries, joint-ventures, regional and national agencies, and producers’ associations, can unite to concentrate product communication and promotional efforts. The model is an extended version of the “gravity model” that many economists believe a very powerful tool for international trade analysis. In fact, at the empirical level, the gravity model gives very robust estimates and provides a good fit to the observed data. The basic concept of the gravity model for trade analysis borrows the gravity equation from physics: the volume of trade between two countries is proportional to their economic “mass” and inversely proportional to their respective distance. In this work, the investigation about the features of Italian wine export flows is conducted through the estimation of two different econometric models; the first one is related to QWPDR and second one is related to table wine category. Both models derive from an extended version of the basic gravity model where dummies for groups of countries have been added. An important result is that Italy should increase the production of high quality wine because there are favorable conditions in place which would increase exportation. At the same time, Italy should decrease the production of table wine because its international demand is declining. Moreover, estimation results show that both QWPDR and table wine exportations are income elastic. Hence, if Italian wine producers intend to expand their exportations, it is natural to look at those countries where income growth is high but also constant and solid. It is interesting to highlight that, among countries with the highest income growth rates, there are three very big countries, China, Russia and India, where expansion possibilities for Italian wine exports are very attractive. Currently, these countries import less than 1% of total exports of Italian wine. At the same time, it is important to highlight that the main countries importing Italian wine (the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Canada, Japan and almost all western European countries) show a moderate but stable income growth and therefore it would be strategic to defend and consolidate Italian market shares against any possible aggressions by the new wine producing countries. The recent enlargement of the EU could represent a great opportunity for the exporters of Italian wine. In particular, it is interesting to note that all new EU members and, in particular, the Baltic Republics (Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania) show high income growth rates. In addition, as widely known, there are no customs barriers within the European Union but instead there is a common external tariff applied to imports from non-EU countries. Therefore, these countries represent very interesting, and as yet untapped, markets even if, in the next years, there are real possibilities to expand mainly table wine exports because the income, although rapidly increasing, remains still moderate.Italian Wine; Trade; Gravity model; Exports

Suitability of ground-based SfM-MVS for monitoring glacial and periglacial processes

Photo-based surface reconstruction is rapidly emerging as an alternative survey technique to lidar (light detection and ranging) in many fields of geoscience fostered by the recent development of computer vision algorithms such as structure from motion (SfM) and dense image matching such as multi-view stereo (MVS). The objectives of this work are to test the suitability of the ground-based SfM-MVS approach for calculating the geodetic mass balance of a 2.1km2 glacier and for detecting the surface displacement of a neighbouring active rock glacier located in the eastern Italian Alps. The photos were acquired in 2013 and 2014 using a digital consumer-grade camera during single-day field surveys. Airborne laser scanning (ALS, otherwise known as airborne lidar) data were used as benchmarks to estimate the accuracy of the photogrammetric digital elevation models (DEMs) and the reliability of the method. The SfM-MVS approach enabled the reconstruction of high-quality DEMs, which provided estimates of glacial and periglacial processes similar to those achievable using ALS. In stable bedrock areas outside the glacier, the mean and the standard deviation of the elevation difference between the SfM-MVS DEM and the ALS DEM was-0.42 \ub1 1.72 and 0.03 \ub1 0.74 m in 2013 and 2014, respectively. The overall pattern of elevation loss and gain on the glacier were similar with both methods, ranging between-5.53 and + 3.48 m. In the rock glacier area, the elevation difference between the SfM-MVS DEM and the ALS DEM was 0.02 \ub1 0.17 m. The SfM-MVS was able to reproduce the patterns and the magnitudes of displacement of the rock glacier observed by the ALS, ranging between 0.00 and 0.48 m per year. The use of natural targets as ground control points, the occurrence of shadowed and low-contrast areas, and in particular the suboptimal camera network geometry imposed by the morphology of the study area were the main factors affecting the accuracy of photogrammetric DEMs negatively. Technical improvements such as using an aerial platform and/or placing artificial targets could significantly improve the results but run the risk of being more demanding in terms of costs and logistics

Inhibition of G Protein-coupled Receptor Kinase Subtypes by Ca2+/Calmodulin

G protein-coupled receptor kinases (GRKs) are implicated in the homologous desensitization of G protein-coupled receptors. Six GRK subtypes have so far been identified, named GRK1 to GRK6. The functional state of the GRKs can be actively regulated in different ways. In particular, it was found that retinal rhodopsin kinase (GRK1), but not the ubiquitous betaARK1 (GRK2), can be inhibited by the photoreceptor-specific Ca2+-binding protein recoverin through direct binding. The present study was aimed to investigate regulation of other GRKs by alternative Ca2+-binding proteins such as calmodulin (CaM). We found that Gbetagamma-activated GRK2 and GRK3 were inhibited by CaM to similar extents (IC50 approximately 2 microM), while a 50-fold more potent inhibitory effect was observed on GRK5 (IC50 = 40 nM). Inhibition by CaM was strictly dependent on Ca2+ and was prevented by the CaM inhibitor CaMBd. Since Gbetagamma, which is a binding target of Ca2+/CaM, is critical for the activation of GRK2 and GRK3, it provides a possible site of interaction between these proteins. However, since GRK5 is Gbetagamma-independent, an alternative mechanism is conceivable. A direct interaction between GRK5 and Ca2+/CaM was revealed using CaM-conjugated Sepharose 4B. This binding does not influence the catalytic activity as demonstrated using the soluble GRK substrate casein. Instead, Ca2+/CaM significantly reduced GRK5 binding to the membrane. The mechanism of GRK5 inhibition appeared to be through direct binding to Ca2+/CaM, resulting in inhibition of membrane association and hence receptor phosphorylation. The present study provides the first evidence for a regulatory effect of Ca2+/CaM on some GRK subtypes, thus expanding the range of different mechanisms regulating the functional states of these kinases

The expression of the thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) receptor and the cAMP-dependent protein kinase RII beta regulatory subunit confers TSH-cAMP-dependent growth to mouse fibroblasts.

TSH activates its specific receptor in thyroid cells and induces cAMP, a robust stimulator of thyroid cell proliferation. Conversely, cAMP is a potent inhibitor of growth in mouse fibroblasts. To dissect the signals mediating cAMP-dependent growth, we have expressed in mouse fibroblasts the human thyrotropin receptor (TSHR) or a constitutively active mutant, under the control of the tetracyclin promoter. Both TSHR and cAMP levels were modulated by tetracyclin. In the presence of serum, activation of TSHR by TSH induced growth arrest. In the absence of serum, cells expressing TSHR stimulated with TSH, replicated their DNA, but underwent apoptosis. Co-expression of cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) regulatory subunit type II (RIIbeta) inhibited apoptosis and stimulated the growth of cells only in the presence of TSH. Expression of RIIbeta-PKA, in the absence of TSHR, induced apoptosis, which was reversed by cAMP. Growth, stimulated by TSHR-RIIbeta-PKA in mouse fibroblasts, was also dependent on Rap1 activity, indicating cAMP-dependent growth in thyroid cells. As for the molecular mechanism underlying these effects, we found that in normal fibroblasts, TSH induced AKT and ERK1/2 only in cells expressing TSHR and RII. Similarly, activation of TSHR increased cAMP levels greatly, but was unable to stimulate CREB phosphorylation and transcription of cAMP-induced genes in the absence of RII. These data provide a simple explanation for the anti-proliferative and proliferative effects of cAMP in different cell types and indicate that RII-PKAII complements TSHR action by stably propagating robust cAMP signals in cell compartments

Regulation of G protein-coupled receptor kinase subtypes by calcium sensor proteins

AbstractG protein-coupled receptor homologous desensitization is intrinsically related to the function of a class of S/T kinases named G protein-coupled receptor kinases (GRK). The GRK family is composed of six cloned members, named GRK1 to 6. Studies from different laboratories have demonstrated that different calcium sensor proteins (CSP) can selectively regulate the activity of GRK subtypes. In the presence of calcium, rhodopsin kinase (GRK1) is inhibited by the photoreceptor-specific CSP recoverin through direct binding. Several other recoverin homologues (including NCS 1, VILIP 1 and hippocalcin) are also able to inhibit GRK1. The ubiquitous calcium-binding protein calmodulin (CaM) can inhibit GRK5 with a high affinity (IC50=40–50 nM). A direct interaction between GRK5 and Ca2+/CaM was documented and this binding does not influence the catalytic activity of the kinase, but rather reduced GRK5 binding to the membrane. These studies suggest that CSP act as functional analogues in mediating the regulation of different GRK subtypes by Ca2+. This mechanism is, however, highly selective with respect to the GRK subtypes: while GRK1, but not GRK2 and GRK5, is regulated by recoverin and other NCS, GRK4, 5 and 6, that belong to the GRK4 subfamily, are potently inhibited by CaM, which had little or no effect on members of other GRK subfamilies

Successful treatment of cerebral arterial gas embolism following uneventful TBNA

Fibrobronchoscopy is commonly considered a safe procedure with a low major complication rate not including cerebral arterial gas embolism (CAGE) a severe life threatening iatrogenic complication. Several cases of transbronchial needle aspiration (TBNA) has been related with CAGE when patient happens to have the high airway pressure that exceeds the pressure of the pulmonary veins allowing the air to enter the systemic circulation through the left heart. HBOT is the only effective treatment available for CAGE that provides 100% oxygen at high pressure, which accelerates nitrogen reabsorption and improves oxygenation of ischemic tissue. We reported a case of successful treatment with full recovery after early Hyperbaric Oxygen therapy of CAGE induced by an uneventful transbronchial biopsy during fibrobronchoscopy