Fairness Properties of Constrained Market Equilibria

This paper studies the notion of fairness in pure exchange economies involving uncertainty and asymmetric information. We propose a new concept of coalitional fair allocation in order to solve the tension that may exist between efficiency and envy-freeness when the equity of allocations is evaluated at the {\it interim} stage. Some characterizations of constrained market equilibria are derived extending the analysis to economies that have both an atomic and an atomless sector.Mixed markets, coalitional fairness, envy, efficiency, asymmetric information

Development of phenol-enriched olive oil with phenolic compounds extracted from wastewater produced by physical refining

While in the last few years the use of olive cake and mill wastewater as natural sources of phenolic compounds has been widely considered and several studies have focused on the development of new extraction methods and on the production of functional foods enriched with natural antioxidants, no data has been available on the production of a phenol-enriched refined olive oil with its own phenolic compounds extracted from wastewater produced during physical refining. In this study; we aimed to: (i) verify the effectiveness of a multi-step extraction process to recover the high-added-value phenolic compounds contained in wastewater derived from the preliminary washing degumming step of the physical refining of vegetal oils; (ii) evaluate their potential application for the stabilization of olive oil obtained with refined olive oils; and (iii) evaluate their antioxidant activity in an in vitro model of endothelial cells. The results obtained demonstrate the potential of using the refining wastewater as a source of bioactive compounds to improve the nutraceutical value as well as the antioxidant capacity of commercial olive oils. In the conditions adopted, the phenolic content significantly increased in the prototypes of phenol-enriched olive oils when compared with the control oil

High-frequency QRS analysis compared to conventional ST-segment analysis in patients with chest pain and normal ECG referred for exercise tolerance test

Background: The novel analysis of high-frequency QRS components (HFQRS-analysis) has been proposed in patients with chest pain (CP) and normal electrocardiography (ECG) referred for exercise tolerance test (ex-ECG). The aim of the study was to compare the diagnostic value of ex-ECG with ex-HFQRS-analysis. Methods: Patients with CP and normal ECG, troponin, and echocardiography were consid­ered. All patients underwent ex-ECG for conventional ST-segment-analysis and ex-HFQRS-analysis. A decrease ≥ 50% of the HFQRS signal intensity recorded in at least 2 contiguous leads was considered an index of ischemia, as ST-segment depression ≥ 2 mm or ≥ 1 mm and CP on ex-ECG. Exclusion criteria were: QRS duration ≥ 120 ms and inability to exercise. End-point: The composite of coronary stenosis ≥ 70% or acute coronary syndrome, revascu­larization, cardiovascular death at 3-month follow-up. Results: Three-hundred thirty-seven patients were enrolled (age 60 ± 15 years). The percent­age of age-adjusted maximal predicted heart rate was 89 ± 10 beat per minute and the maximal systolic blood pressure was 169 ± 23 mm Hg. Nineteen patients achieved the end-point. In multivariate analysis, both ex-ECG and ex-HFQRS were predictors of the end-point. The ex-HFQRS-analysis showed higher sensitivity (63% vs. 26%; p < 0.05), lower specificity (68% vs. 95%; p < 0.001), and comparable negative predictive value (97% vs. 96%; p = 0.502) when compared to ex-ECG-analysis. Receiver operator characteristics analysis showed the incremental diagnostic value of HFQRS (area: 0.655, 95% CI 0.60–0.71) over conventional ex-ECG (0.608, CI 0.55–0.66) and CP score (0.530, CI 0.48–0.59), however without statistical significance in pairwise comparison by C-statistic. Conclusions: In patients with CP submitted to ex-ECG, the novel ex-HFQRS-analysis shows a valuable incremental diagnostic value over ST-segment-analysis

Late-Onset Hepatic Veno-Occlusive Disease after Allografting: Report of Two Cases with Atypical Clinical Features Successfully Treated with Defibrotide

Hepatic Veno-occlusive disease (VOD) is a potentially severe complication of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Here we report two patients receiving an allogeneic HSCT  who developed late onset VOD with atypical clinical features. The two  patients presented with only few risk factors, namely, advanced acute leukemia, a myeloablative busulphan-containing regimen and received grafts from an unrelated donor. The first patient did not experience painful hepatomegaly and weight gain and both  patients showed only a mild elevation in total serum bilirubin level. Most importantly, the two patients developed clinical signs beyond day 21 post-HSCT. Hepatic transjugular biopsy confirmed the diagnosis of VOD. Intravenous defibrotide was promptly started leading to a marked clinical improvement. Based on our experience, liver biopsy may represent a useful diagnostic tool when the clinical features of VOD are ambiguous. Early therapeutic intervention with defibrotide  represents a crucial issue for the successful outcome of patients with VOD

ON A NOTION À LA GABSZEWICZ OF FAIRNESS IN COALITIONAL ECONOMIES

This paper studies the notion of fairness in coalitional pure exchange economies involving uncertainty and asymmetric information. We propose a new concept of coalitional fair allocations and study the relationships with the notions of competitive equilibria. Finally we compare individual and coalitional models

Targeting Integrins in Cancer

Interactions between cancer cells and their surrounding cells are essential to determining tumor fate. Integrins, present on the surface of tumor and stromal cells, including endothelial cells, have a profound impact on the ability of cells to survive, expand, migrate, invade, and metastasize. Moreover, integrins facilitate tumor cell malignancy/stemness and resistance to therapeutic drugs by modulating intracellular signaling pathways through the recruitment and activation of specific kinases and signaling intermediates. Understanding how integrin expression and function are regulated during progression of tumor malignancy will enable the development of new therapeutic approaches to treating tumors and suppressing their metastatic phenotype. In this review, we discuss the role of integrins and their network of partner proteins in cancers. We also discuss major integrin-specific therapeutic advances that have been made over the past few years in targeting tumorigenesis and angiogenesis