The Atlantic bluefin tuna: structure and competitiveness of Italian fishing in the international trade

In this paper after showing the productive and international trade background of the Atlantic bluefin tuna, we analyze the competitive position of Italy, important producer and exporter on world scale, compared with the main trade partners, carried out through competitiveness indexes based on trade data. The results highlight Italy's good competitive performance above all with Japan, which represents the main world reference market for the Italian product, but also with the United States, Malta and Turkey The Italian competitive advantage with these countries is stronger for the product taken into account. On the other hand, we can notice a competitive disadvantage with the traditional markets supplying bluefin tuna, and with Spain in particular The same is reckoned with the Southern Mediterranean countries which, in the last years, have contributed to increasing the world supply thanks to the spread of mariculture systems. In this background, the increasing interest in the Italian Atlantic bluefin tuna, by the United States in particular and by some Mediterranean countries and by Central Western Europe as well, could open new opportunities to the Italian trade

Uniqueness of the minimum of the free energy of the 2D Yang-Mills theory at large N

There has been some controversies at the large $N$ behaviour of the 2D Yang-Mills and chiral 2D Yang-Mills theories. To be more specific, is there a one parameter family of minima of the free energy in the strong region, or the minimum is unique. We show that there is a missed equation which, added to the known equations, makes the minimum unique.Comment: 8 pages,Late

The role of internal resources in the competitive positioning of Sicilian wine cooperatives

The paper is an original article that uses accounting frameworks to determine what creates a competitive advantage in a cooperative business model. In particular, it investigates the influence of tangible, intangible and financial resources on the business performance of cooperatives operating in the Sicilian wine industry, with the RBV of the firms as a theoretical background. Using a linear regression model, our results show that tangible and financial resources are a source of a sustained competitive advantage. This study fills the gap existing in the strategic management literature related to the role of resources, tangible and intangible, in the cooperative system, providing both theoretical and practical implications

Quality certifications’ impact on wine industry assets performance

This study analyses the impact of third-party voluntary certifications on the asset of wineries operating in the Southern Italian regions. The study carried out both quantitative and qualitative approaches, with data extracted from the AIDA Bureau van Dijk International Database (including performance indicators). The analysed sector belongs to 11.02 ‘Manufacture of wine from grape’ of the Statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community (NACE). The econometric elaboration (regression) was carried out by means of STATA software 14. Comparing certified and no certified wineries, results show a better asset performance of certified wineries, confirmed by a positive relationship between higher revenues and bigger size. The adoption of voluntary certifications requires the presence of highly qualified people, capable of managing innovations of product or process. Wine managers should consider that the expected impacts of the adoption of voluntary certification are not independent from both targeted business scopes and institutional context where the winery operates, being strictly linked to specific market and seller strategic decisions, including customer centricity approaches. For what in our knowledge, this work is the first attempt in investigating the impact of voluntary certifications in the Sicilian wine industries. Results are thus of relevant importance and originality and able to suggest new insights on business assets management for the wine industry, enabling managers to better approach the decision to get certified through sustainable standards

Prior test experience produces changes of t-patterns spatial distribution in the elevated plus maze test

Aim of present research was to investigate in male Wistar rats whether a prior elevated plus maze experience modifies the temporal structure of the behavioral response following a retest applied after 24h. Video files were coded by means of a software coder and event log files generated for each subject were analyzed by means of a specific software for temporal pattern analysis (Theme). Present research shows a clear reduction of the number of t-patterns from trial one to trial two. This reduction is provoked by the disappearance of t-patterns consisting of behavioral elements occurring in the unprotected zones of the maze. The results suggest that the previous experience in the maze causes learning-dependent behavioral changes inducing a more clear-cut response to environmental anxiogenic conditions

How Organizational Resources and Managerial Features Affect Business Performance: An Analysis in the Greek Wine Industry

Despite the growing interest of the wine industry in quality and environmental certifications and the influence of these standards on positioning in international markets, scholarly research has paid proportionally limited attention to the link between winery export intensity and the adoption of internationally recognized standards. This study aims to analyze which factors make an organizational model performant, and to verify the impact of the adoption of third-party certifications on the export performance by using the resource-based view (RBV) theory as a theoretical lens. Findings show that younger wineries are more oriented towards the adoption of voluntary quality and environmental certifications, and they achieve the best economic performance, expressed in terms of overall turnover on the market. On the contrary, the better export performance is achieved by the largest group of wineries, which make the greatest effort in promotion and advertising activities and sell their products through intermediaries, while showing a low adoption of certifications. Our results have a number of theoretical and practical implications

Modulation of NRF2/KEAP1 Signaling in Preeclampsia

Placentation is a key and tightly regulated process that ensures the normal development of the placenta and fetal growth. Preeclampsia (PE) is a hypertensive pregnancy-related disorder involving about 5–8% of all pregnancies and clinically characterized by de novo maternal hypertension and proteinuria. In addition, PE pregnancies are also characterized by increased oxidative stress and inflammation. The NRF2/KEAP1 signaling pathway plays an important role in protecting cells against oxidative damage due to increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels. ROS activate NRF2, allowing its binding to the antioxidant response element (ARE) region present in the promoter of several antioxidant genes such as heme oxygenase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase and superoxide dismutase that neutralize ROS, protecting cells against oxidative stress damages. In this review, we analyze the current literature regarding the role of the NRF2/KEAP1 pathway in preeclamptic pregnancies, discussing the main cellular modulators of this pathway. Moreover, we also discuss the main natural and synthetic compounds that can regulate this pathway in in vivo and in vitro models

Tkachenko modes and quantum melting of Josephson junction type of vortex array in rotating Bose-Einstein condensate

Using path integral formalism, we show that the Abrikosov-Tkachenko vortex lattice may equivalently be understood as an array of Josephson junctions. The Tkachenko modes are found to be basically equivalent to the low energy excitations (Goldstone modes) of an ordered state. The calculated frequencies are in very good agreement with recent experimental data. Calculations of the fluctuations of the relative displacements of the vortices show that vortex melting is a result of quantum fluctuations around the ordered state due to the low energy excitations (Tkachenko modes)and occurs when the ratio of the kinectic energy to the potential energy of the vortex lattice is 0.001.Comment: revised paper 11 pages with 2 figures, all in Pdf forma