Does the logistics sector gain from manufacturing internationalisation? An empirical investigation on the Italian case

The present paper deals with the impact of manufacturing internationalisation, in the forms of international trade, cooperation agreement and FDI, on the logistics sector. Some descriptive statistics are provided for the Italian macro-areas and the logistics employment and an econometric analysis is carried out at the "regional-industry" level (20 NUTS2 regions and 11 logistics sub-sectors) with reference to the Italian case in the period 1996-2001. Results show that export and FDIs positively affect the logistics employment variation in 1996-2001, while import and cooperation agreements display a negative or not significant impact.logistics, employment, internationalisation, trade, FDI, cooperation agreement.

Does the transport industry gain from manufacturing internationalization? An empirical investigation on the Italian regions

The present paper deals with the impact of manufacturing internationalisation, in the forms of international trade, cooperation agreements – measured by inward and outward processing trade (IPT and OPT, respectively) - and FDI, on the transport industry employment. Descriptive statistics and econometric analysis are carried out at the “regional-industry” level (20 NUTS2 regions and 8 transport sub-industries) with reference to Italy in the period 1996-2001. Results show that export, FDI and the components of IPT (temporary import and re-export) positively affect the transport employment variation in 1996-2001, while import and the components of OPT (temporary export and re-import) display a negative impact

Myogenic induction of adult and pluripotent stem cells using recombinant proteins

Met Activating Genetically Improved Chimeric Factor 1 (Magic-F1) is a human recombinant protein, derived from dimerization of the receptor-binding domain of hepatocyte growth factor. Previous experiments demonstrate that in transgenic mice, the skeletal muscle specific expression of Magic-F1 can induce a constitutive muscular hypertrophy, improving running performance and accelerating muscle regeneration after injury. In order to evaluate the therapeutic potential of Magic-F1, we tested its effect on multipotent and pluripotent stem cells. In murine mesoangioblasts (adult vessel-associated stem cells), the presence of Magic-F1 did not alter their osteogenic, adipogenic or smooth muscle differentiation ability. However, when analyzing their myogenic potential, mesoangioblasts expressing Magic-F1 differentiated spontaneously into myotubes. Finally, Magic-F1 inducible cassette was inserted into a murine embryonic stem cell line by homologous recombination. When embryonic stem cells were subjected to myogenic differentiation, the presence of Magic-F1 resulted in the upregulation of Pax3 and Pax7 that enhanced the myogenic commitment of transgenic pluripotent stem cells. Taken together our results candidate Magic-F1 as a potent myogenic stimulator, able to enhance muscular differentiation from both adult and pluripotent stem cells. publisher: Elsevier articletitle: Myogenic induction of adult and pluripotent stem cells using recombinant proteins journaltitle: Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications articlelink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbrc.2015.07.022 content_type: article copyright: Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. ispartof: Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications vol:464 issue:3 pages:755-61 ispartof: location:United States status: publishe

The recurrence pattern following delayed breast reconstruction after mastectomy for breast cancer suggests a systemic effect of surgery on occult dormant micrometastases

The purpose of this study was to characterize the recurrence dynamics in breast cancer patients after delayed reconstruction. We hypothesized that surgical reconstruction might stimulate dormant micrometastases and reduce time to recurrence. All mastectomy breast cancer patients with delayed surgical reconstruction at Haukeland University Hospital, between 1977 and 2007, n = 312, were studied. Our control group consisted of 1341 breast cancer patients without reconstruction. For each case, all patients in the control group with identical T and N stages and age ±2 years were considered. A paired control was randomly selected from this group. 10 years after primary surgery, 39 of the cases had relapsed, compared to 52 of the matched controls. The reconstructed group was analyzed for relapse dynamics after mastectomy; the first peak in relapses was similarly timed, but smaller than for the controls, while the second peak was similar in time and size. Second, the relapse pattern was analyzed with reconstruction as the starting point. A peak in recurrences was found after 18 months, and a lower peak at the 5th–6th year. The height of the peak correlated with the extent of surgery and initial T and N stages. Timing of the peak was not affected, neither was the cumulative effect. The relapse pattern, when time origin is placed both at mastectomy and at reconstruction, is bimodal with a peak position at the same time points, at 2 years and at 5–6 years. The timing of the transition from dormant micrometastases into clinically detectable macrometastases might be explained by an enhancing effect of surgery.publishedVersio

The association of other autoimmune diseases in patients with Graves’ disease (with or without ophthalmopathy): Review of the literature and report of a large series

Graves’ disease (GD) and autoimmune thyroiditis (AT) are the two main clinical presentations of AITD, and their clinical hallmarks are thyrotoxicosis and hypothyroidism, respectively. GD, and AT, can be associated with other organ specific, or systemic autoimmune diseases in the same patient. However discordant results have been reported in the literature about the possible associations. Here, we review the association of GD and other autoimmune syndromes. Furthermore, we report the results of our prospective study that investigated the prevalence of other autoimmune disorders in 3209 GD patients (984 with Graves’ ophthalmopathy), with respect to 1069 healthy controls, or 1069 patients with AT, or 1069 with multinodular goiter (matched by age, gender, coming from the same area, with a similar iodine intake). On the whole, 16.7% of GD patients had another associated autoimmune disease; and the most frequently observed were: vitiligo (2.6%), chronic autoimmune gastritis (2.4%), rheumatoid arthritis (1.9%), polymyalgia rheumatica (1.3%), multiple sclerosis (0.3%), celiac disease (1.1%), diabetes (type 1) (0.9%), systemic lupus erythematosus and sarcoidosis (<0.1%), Sjogren disease (0.8%). Moreover, 1.5% patients with GD had three associated autoimmune disorders. Interestingly, patients with Graves’ ophthalmopathy (GO) had another autoimmmune disorder more frequently (18.9%), with respect to GD patients without GO (15.6%). However the pattern of the associated autoimmune disorders in GD was not significantly different from that observed in AT patients. In conclusion, we suggest GD patients who are still sick, or who develop new unspecific symptoms (even if during an appropriate treatment of hyperthyroidism) should be appropriately screened for the presence of other autoimmune disorders

Serum TSH Levels Normalisation in Patients Affected by Autoimmune Atrophic Gastritis, After the Switch From Oral L-T4 in Tablet Form to L-T4 in Liquid Formulation

Abstract Patients affected by autoimmune atrophic gastritis could have some issues in L-thyroxine (L-T4) absorption, due to drug malabsorption, induced by the increased gastric pH. Different factors influence L-T4 absorption, such as dietary habits, interference with other drugs, absorption kinetics, age of the patient, adherence to therapy, and others. We enrolled 36 patients affected by autoimmune atrophic gastritis with high serum thyrotropin (TSH) levels under therapy with L-T4 in the tablet formulation. L-T4 tablets were changed to an oral liquid L-T4 preparation, maintaining the same dose. The switch from L-T4 in tablet formulation to the liquid one, at the same L-T4 dosage, led to the normalisation/reduction of circulating TSH levels. Then 14 patients, who were switched back again to receive L-T4 in tablets (with the same dose), had a worsening of TSH values, falling in the hypothyroid range. In conclusion, our findings led to hypothesize that the pH alteration issue caused by autoimmune atrophic gastritis could be overcome by the oral L-T4 liquid formulation administration

p53 status identifies triple negative breast cancer patients who do not respond to adjuvant chemotherapy

Genomic analysis and protein expression assimilate triple-negative breast cancers (TNBC) with basal-like breast tumors. TNBCs, however, have proved to encompass also tumors with normal-like phenotype and known to have favorable prognosis and to respond to chemotherapy. In a recent paper, we have provided evidence that p53 status is able to subdivide TNBCs into two distinct subgroups with different outcome, and consistent with basal- and normal-like phenotypes. Based on this finding, we explored the contribution of p53 status in predicting the response to adjuvant CMF or CMF followed doxorubicin chemotherapy of a group of TNBC patients. Results indicated that TNBC patients with a p53-positive tumor had a shorter relapse-free and overall survival than patients carrying a p53-negative TNBC, corroborating our hypothesis about the relationship between TNBC phenotype (basal-like versus normal-like) and p53 status as predictor of response to antracycline/CMF-based chemotherapy

The association of other autoimmune diseases in patients with autoimmune thyroiditis: Review of the literature and report of a large series of patients

We have evaluated prospectively the prevalence of other autoimmune disorders in outpatient clinic in 3069 consecutive patients with diagnosed chronic autoimmune thyroiditis (AT), with respect to two age- and sex-matched control groups: a) a control group of 1023 subjects, extracted from a random sample of the general population without thyroid disorders; b) 1023 patients with non-toxic multinodular goiter extracted from the same random sample of the general population, with similar iodine intake. The results of our study demonstrate a significant increase of the prevalence of autoimmune disorders in AT patients (with respect to both controls), for the following diseases: chronic autoimmune gastritis (CAG), vitiligo (Vit), rheumatoid arthritis, polymialgia rheumatica (Polym), celiac disease, diabetes, sjogren disease, multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, sarcoidosis, alopecia, psoriathic arthritis, systemic sclerosis, and HCV-related cryoglobulinemia. While the statistical analysis reached near the significance for Addison's disease and ulcerative colitis. Interestingly, the association of three autoimmune disorders was observed almost exclusively in AT patients, and the most frequent associations were AT+CAG+Vit and AT+CAG+Polym. We suggest that patients with AT who remain unwell, or who develop new not specific symptoms (despite adequate treatment) should be screened for other autoimmune disorders, avoiding the delay in the diagnosis of these disorders

Increased incidence of autoimmune thyroid disorders in patients with psoriatic arthritis: a longitudinal follow-up study

Contrasting results have been reported about the prevalence of thyroid autoimmunity (AT) and dysfunction (TD) in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA). In this study, we pointed to evaluate the incidence of new cases of clinical and subclinical TD in a broad group of patients with PsA versus a control group, matched by age and gender belonging to the same geographic area. PsA patients with TD were excluded firstly, and new cases of thyroid disorders were evaluated in 97 PsA patients and 97 matched controls, who had comparable iodine intake (median follow-up of 74 months in PsA versus 92 in controls). A raised rate of new cases of hypothyroidism, TD, positive antithyroid peroxidase (AbTPO) antibodies, and appearance of a small hypoechoic thyroid pattern in PsA, especially in female gender, compared to controls has been evidenced. Risk factors in female gender for the development of TD are thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) within the normal range but at the higher limit, positive AbTPO, and small thyroid volume. To sum up, thyroid function follow-up and suitable treatments should be performed regularly in female patients at high risk (TSH within the normal range but at the higher limit, positive AbTPO, hypoechoic and small thyroid)