Jacob Viner and Gottfried von Haberler, two theories of Custom Union, a precise answer for the European Union

Treballs Finals del Grau d'Economia, Facultat d'Economia i Empresa, Universitat de Barcelona, Curs: 2016-2017 , Tutor: Javier San Julián ArrupeJacob Viner and Gottfried von Haberler were two experts in International trade at the beginning of the twentieth century. In their works, they described the characteristics a customs union should fulfill, although they had somewhat different opinions on the matter. Taking as a reference the creation of a custom union in Europe, the aim of this paper is to study which of these two prominent economists succeeded in describing better the actual characteristics of the European custom union. In order to identify the results on trade of the European custom union we analyze two approaches of trade flow: a) the imports, including the Eastern countries and without them; b) the exports, through an econometric analysis of panel data and dummies including the 28-EU countries. The results suggest that Viner’s theory is more accurate for the European Custom Union

3D beam-column finite element under non-uniform shear stress distribution due to shear and torsion

The paper discusses the application of a 2-node, three-dimensional (3D) beam-column finite element with an enhanced fiber cross-section model to the inelastic response analysis of concrete members. The element accounts for the local distribution of strains and stresses under the coupling of axial, flexural, shear, and torsional effects with an enriched kinematic description that accounts for the out-of-plane deformations of the cross-section. To this end the warping displacements are interpolated with the addition of a variable number of local degrees of freedom. The material response is governed by a 3D nonlinear stress-strain relation with damage that describes the degrading mechanisms of typical engineering materials under the coupling of normal and shear stresses. The element formulation is validated by comparing the numerical results with measured data from the response of two prismatic concrete beams under torsional loading and with standard beam formulations

THE IMPACT OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION AND FINANCIAL GLOBALIZATION ON PRUDENTIAL SUPERVISION

As a result of the financial market globalization during the last two decades, the conventional barriers between financial activities have diminished. This led to the emergence of financial holdings that operate both in the banking sector and on the stockmodels of prudential supervision, consolidated supervision, traditional supervision, central bank

Resveratrol in Parts of Vine and Wine Originating from Bohemian and Moravian Vineyard Regions

Chemically, resveratrol is a substance of a polyphenolic character from the group of phytoalexins - 3,5,4´- trihydroxystilbene - and exists in cis and trans-isomer forms. In natural sources trans-isomer is more common. As a natural polyphenolic substance, it shows a whole range of biological activities, such as anti-oxidizing and anti-microbial features (namely anti-fungal activities), the ability to absorb free radicals, affects blood sedimentation rate etc. Recently, trans-resveratrol has also been attributed anti-mutagen and chemo-protective features against cancer proliferation. It is assumed that resveratrol could be one of the active substances contributing to the health benefits, namely it decreases the risk of cardiovascular diseases through a reasonable consumption of red wine. Grapes of Vitis vinifera and especially red wine represent its main source in human diet. Grape peels contain about 0.5 to 2.0 mg of resveratrol/g of dry weight and the average concentration in red wines of world provenience fluctuates between 1.0 and 3.0 mg/l. Resveratrol was determined by HPLC method with electrochemical detection after direct injection of wine or plant extracts. As expected, red wines from vines originating in the Bohemian and Moravian vineyard regions appeared to contain relatively high levels of resveratrol (from 1.3 to 15.4 mg/l) and trans/cis ratio ranged from 0.5 to 4.8, excess of cis-resveratrol to trans-isomer was typical for red wine growing in Most region (northern Bohemia) where vineyards are exposed to higher environmental stress due to frequent air pollutions in this area. In addition, resveratrol determined in different parts of grapevine (leaves, rachis) varied from 6 to 490 mg/kg of the dry matter. Cluster stems were found as the richest source of resveratrol

Haemostasis in Oral Surgery with Blue-Violet Light

BACKGROUND: The invasive dental procedures usually result in wounds accompanied by physiological bleeding. Even though the bleeding is easily manageable, it is still one of the major concerns of the patients and a reason for their subjective discomfort. Recently, a novel approach with light-emitting diode (LED) was introduced to control the bleeding. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of the irradiation with blue-violet light LEDs on the haemostasis.MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study included 40 patients with an indication for tooth extraction, divided into two groups: examination group (n = 30) and a control group (n = 10). The site of the extraction socket in the examination group was irradiated with LED (410 nm) until the bleeding stopped. The patients from the control group were treated by conventional gauze pressure to stop the bleeding (control group). The duration of irradiation and gauze pressure was measured and compared. The statistical analysis was performed with Student T-test.RESULTS:  The examination group showed the shorter duration of bleeding compared to the control group for 13.67 seconds and 156 seconds, respectively. The most of the cases in the examination group were irradiated in 10 seconds (70%), followed by irradiation of 20 seconds (23.3%) and 30 seconds (6.6%). In the control group, the average time to stop the bleeding by the conventional method was 156 second.CONCLUSION: The blue-violet LED light shortens the bleeding time from the extraction socket after tooth extraction and may be a promising method for achieving haemostasis

Russian Icons from Transylvania. Exhibition Catalogue

This publication is part of the project “Ricontrans – Visual Culture, Piety and Propaganda. Transfer and Reception of Russian Religious Art in the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean (16th to Early 20th Century)”, funded from the European Research Council (erc) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 818791). The book contains the catalogue of the exhibition of Russian icons from Transylvania, Romania, organized in Alba Iulia in June-August 2023, together with a series of studies by Ana Dumitran, Ilya Borovikov, Dumitrița-Daniela Filip, Atanasia Văetiși and Cristina Cojocaru, on the transfer of Russian mass icons to Romanian territories and on their restoration

A STUDY ON THE CORROSION RESISTANCE OF BRONZES COVERED WITH ARTIFICIAL PATINA

In recent years, due to increased air pollution, bronze objects exposed in urban areas suffer continuous degradation. Therefore, it is important to find efficient methods to protect them against corrosion. The present work aims to investigate the corrosion resistance of various artificial patina currently used in bronze sculpture. Once formed, the patina is relative stable and acts as a protective coating of the bronze object under many exposure conditions. The protective effect of different artificial patinas was comparatively investigated by electrochemical and non-electrochemical methods

Cloud Service Management System for Innovative Clusters. Application for North-West Region of Romania

In order to stimulate and optimize the organization and management ofinnovative clusters from value chain perspective and guide their planning activitiestowards a differentiation strategy in which cluster members cooperate, we proposea Cloud Service Management System (CSMS) that provides IT services for theseinnovative clusters companies that can be customized for both enterprises with theassociated clusters.Within such a system, actors begin to depend one on another and to take advantageof the local knowledge base. Each cluster is designed to have a different profile whichwill integrate all the companies mapped with it, with the objective of keeping theprofile and data for each company. For the existing companies the idea is to migratetheir services into the related cluster for integration within CSMS. Thus, our proposedCSMS will consider and meet different quality of services (QoS) parameters ofeach individual enterprise and service which will be included in specific Service LevelAgreements (SLAs), after the negotiation between the cloud service provider and theCSMS. Realizing that technological progress is at the heart of regional developmentand decision-makers could support the development of technology clusters towardstransforming them into regional innovative clusters, the application of our proposalaims to overcome existing bottlenecks in terms of business strategies and regionaldevelopment policies in the North-West region of Romania

Assessment of metabolic syndrome components in newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes

Metabolic syndrome (MS) consists of multiple cardiometabolic risk factors that tend to aggregate in an individual more often than only by chance. It frequently coexists with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The aim of the present study is to characterize the prevalence of MS and its traits, as well as the modalities of clustering of the components, in 1111 (49.6% female, 50.4% male; mean age of 59 years) newly diagnosed T2DM patients from an outpatient diabetes clinic. According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF)'s definition, the abdominal obesity is one of "any three of five characteristics" in a person with MS. As all our patients were diabetics, in order to be defined as having MS they must have had a waist circumference ≥ 94 cm for men and ≥80 cm for women and at least one of any of the following factors: elevated triglycerides: ≥150 mg/dL or specific treatment for this lipid abnormality; decreased HDL-cholesterol: 100 mg/dL. Metabolic syndrome incidence was high, no matter what definition was used: 89.7% (IDF's definition), 92.3% (the 2009 harmonized definition with a cut-off value for waist of 80 cm in women and 94 cm in men) and 88.6% (the 2009 harmonized definition with a cut-off value for waist of 88 cm in women and 102 cm in men). The concordance between the three definitions was 85.3% (higher in women). Most of the patients with MS fulfilled four of the criteria. Beside hyperglycemia, the decreasing frequency of MS traits was: increased waist circumference (96.4%), high blood pressure (84.8%), low HDL cholesterol (63.9%) and high triglycerides (57.9%). Among patients with MS, the increased waist and low HDL cholesterol were more frequent findings in women than in men, while hypertriglyceridemia was more frequent in men. Mean value for both systolic and diastolic pressure were higher in women. In sum, the results underline the high prevalence of MS among subjects with newly diagnosed T2DM and in majority of cases, four components are clustering. The clustering appears to be dependent on excess of visceral adipose tissue and has a different pattern depending on gender.Adipobiology 2012; 4: 91-96