Euro area money demand and international portfolio allocation: a contribution to assessing risks to price stability

The long-run relationship between money and prices in the euro area embedded in traditional money demand models with income and interest rates broke down after 2001. We develop a money demand model where investors hold a diversified portfolio with money, domestic and foreign stocks and long-term bonds in which, in addition to the classical wealth effect, also a size and an international portfolio allocation effects arise. The estimated model identifies three cointegrating vectors stable over the sample 1980-2007: a long-run money demand, which depends on income and all risky assets' returns, and two equilibria for the euro area and the US financial markets. Steady state equilibrium of nominal M3 growth is estimated to be about 7% in 2007 with large standard errors mainly due to uncertainty in asset prices. The gap between actual euro area M3 growth and model-based fitted or predicted values helps forecast euro area inflation. JEL Classification: E41, E44, E52, G11, G15Euro area money demand, Inflation forecasts, monetary policy, portfolio allocation

The New Transverse-Facial Artery Musculomucosal Flap for Intraoral Reconstructions

With the bilateral progression of the 2 pedicled flaps, we were able to successfully restore both form and function of the soft palate, with a single-stage straightforward procedure, preserving at the same time the natural course of the facial arteries. Both flaps healed uneventfully. Six days after operation, the patient was placed on a liquid diet with no velopharyngeal insufficiency. This is to our knowledge the first extensive palatal reconstruction carried out with intraoral flaps onl

Key Indistinguishability vs. Strong Key Indistinguishability for Hierarchical Key Assignment Schemes

A hierarchical key assignment scheme is a method to assign some private information and encryption keys to a set of classes in a partially ordered hierarchy, in such a way that the private information of a higher class can be used to derive the keys of all classes lower down in the hierarchy. In this paper we analyze the security of hierarchical key assignment schemes according to different notions: security with respect to key indistinguishability and against key recovery, as well as the two recently proposed notions of security with respect to strong key indistinguishability and against strong key recovery. We first explore the relations between all security notions and, in particular, we prove that security with respect to strong key indistinguishability is not stronger than the one with respect to key indistinguishability. Afterwards, we propose a general construction yielding a hierarchical key assignment scheme offering security against strong key recovery, given any hierarchical key assignment scheme which guarantees security against key recovery

A New Approach in the Management of Triangular Fossa Auricular Defects: The Posterior Auricular Artery Perforator Antihelix-Conchal Flap (PAAP Flap).

Background: The reconstruction of extensive scapha or triangular fossa defects to the ear still represents a challenge considering the lack of local simple surgical procedures. Objective: To present a new perforator flap which is a modification of the Elsahy and Ladocsi chondrocutaneous rotation flaps. Patients and Methods: Ten patients, in whom the oncological resection to the triangular fossa did not include cartilage, but skin and perichondrium. Defects no larger than 3 cm in diameter were treated. The dissection of the flap was carried out from lateral to medial on the anterior subperichondral plane. The flap was thus raised without the cartilage component but with the anterior perichondrium branched with the perforating vessels. Results: All flaps survived and treated patients presented good aesthetic results. Conclusions: We think that this procedure represents a valuable option to be considered in reconstructing well selected composite defects to upper ear

B cell depletion in diffuse progressive systemic sclerosis: safety, skin score modification and IL-6 modulation in an up to thirty-six months follow-up open-label trial

INTRODUCTION: An over-expression of CD19 has been shown in B cells of systemic sclerosis (SSc) and B cells are thought to contribute to the induction of skin fibrosis in the tight skin mouse model. The aim was to define the outcome on safety and the change in skin score after rituximab therapy in SSc patients and to correlate the clinical characteristics with the levels of interleukin (IL)-6 and with the immune cell infiltrate detected by immunohistochemistry. METHODS: Nine patients with SSc with mean age 40.9 +/- 11.1 years were treated with anti-CD20, 1 g at time 0 and after 14 days. Skin biopsy was performed at baseline and during the follow-up. B-cell activating factor (BAFF) and IL-6 levels were also determined at the follow-up times. RESULTS: After 6 months patients presented a median decrease of the skin score of 43.3% (range 21.1-64.0%), and a decrease in disease activity index and disease severity index. IL-6 levels decreased permanently during the follow up. After treatment, a complete depletion of peripheral blood B cells was observed in all but 2 patients. Only 3 patients presented CD20 positive cells in the biopsy of the involved skin at baseline. CONCLUSIONS: Anti-CD20 treatment has been well tolerated and SSc patients experienced an improvement of the skin score and of clinical symptoms. The clear fall in IL-6 levels could contribute to the skin fibrosis improvement, while the presence of B cells in the skin seems to be irrelevant with respect to the outcome after B cell depletion

Provably-Secure Time-Bound Hierarchical Key Assignment Schemes

A time-bound hierarchical key assignment scheme is a method to assign time-dependent encryption keys to a set of classes in a partially ordered hierarchy, in such a way that each class can compute the keys of all classes lower down in the hierarchy, according to temporal constraints. In this paper we design and analyze time-bound hierarchical key assignment schemes which are provably-secure and efficient. We consider both the unconditionally secure and the computationally secure settings and distinguish between two different goals: security with respect to key indistinguishability and against key recovery. We first present definitions of security with respect to both goals in the unconditionally secure setting and we show tight lower bounds on the size of the private information distributed to each class. Then, we consider the computational setting and we further distinguish security against static and adaptive adversarial behaviors. We explore the relations between all possible combinations of security goals and adversarial behaviors and, in particular, we prove that security against adaptive adversaries is (polynomially) equivalent to security against static adversaries. Afterwards, we prove that a recently proposed scheme is insecure against key recovery. Finally, we propose two different constructions for time-bound key assignment schemes. The first one is based on symmetric encryption schemes, whereas, the second one makes use of bilinear maps. Both constructions support updates to the access hierarchy with local changes to the public information and without requiring any private information to be re-distributed. These appear to be the first constructions for time-bound hierarchical key assignment schemes which are simultaneously practical and provably-secure

Assessment of urinary deoxynivalenol biomarkers in UK children and adolescents

© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Deoxynivalenol (DON), the mycotoxin produced mainly by Fusarium graminearum and found in contaminated cereal-based foodstuff, has been consistently detected in body fluids in adults. Available data in children and adolescents are scarce. This study assessed urinary DON concentrations in children aged 3–9 years (n = 40) and adolescents aged 10–17 years (n = 39) in the UK. Morning urine samples were collected over two consecutive days and analysed for free DON (un-metabolised form), DON-glucuronides (DON-GlcA), deepoxy deoxynivalenol (DOM-1), and total DON (sum of free DON, DON-GlcA, and DOM-1). Total DON was detected in the urine of > 95% of children and adolescents on both days. Mean total DON concentrations (ng/mg creatinine) were 41.6 and 21.0 for children and adolescents, respectively. The greatest total DON levels were obtained in female children on both days (214 and 219 ng/mg creatinine on days 1 and 2, respectively). Free DON and DON-GlcA were detected in most urine specimens, whereas DOM-1 was not present in any sample. Estimation of dietary DON exposure suggested that 33–63% of children and 5–46% of adolescents exceeded current guidance regarding the maximum provisional tolerable daily intake (PMTDI) for DON. Although moderate mean urinary DON concentrations were shown, the high detection frequency of urinary DON, the maximum biomarker concentrations, and estimated dietary DON exposure are concerning

Optimization and validation of a LC-HRMS method for aflatoxins determination in urine samples

Mycotoxins’ exposure by inhalation and/or dermal contact can occur in different branches of industry especially where heavily dusty settings are present and the handling of dusty commodities is performed. This study aims to explore the possible contribution of the occupational exposure to aflatoxins by analysing urine samples for the presence of aflatoxins B1 and M1 and aflatoxin B1-N7-guanine adduct. The study was conducted in 2017 on two groups of volunteers, the workers group, composed by personnel employed in an Italian feed plant (n = 32), and a control group (n = 29), composed by the administrative employees of the same feed plant; a total of 120 urine samples were collected and analysed. A screening method and a quantitative method with high-resolution mass spectrometry determination were developed and fully validated. Limits of detections were 0.8 and 1.5 pg/mLurine for aflatoxin B1 and M1, respectively. No quantitative determination was possible for the adduct aflatoxin B1-N7-guanine. Aflatoxin B1 and its adduct were not detected in the analysed samples, and aflatoxin M1, instead, was found in 14 samples (12%) within the range 1.9–10.5 pg/mLurine. Only one sample showed a value above the limit of quantification (10.5 pg/mLurine). The absence of a statistical difference between the mean values for workers and the control group which were compared suggests that in this specific setting, no professional exposure occurs. Furthermore, considering the very low level of aflatoxin M1 in the collected urine samples, the contribution from the diet to the overall exposure is to be considered negligible