Perspectives on East-Asian Monetary Integration

Increasing trade interdependence among East-Asian countries suggests the urge to design some monetary arrangement to stabilize the macroeconomic framework of an extremely heterogeneously growing area. The paper reviews the literature and analyses several directions of East-Asian integration process, especially in relation to the European model. We argue that a more comprehensive economic and political world-scenario should be considered and a multi-speed policy approach should be implemented in the area. Around the pivotal role of China, a wide agreement should be reached for an Asian single-currency, which might be rapidly issued and provide a reference target for other East-Asian countries.trade, East-Asian countries, East-Asian integration process, European model, Asian singlecurrency

Global Governance: Adjustment or Reform of the International Monetary System?

Global public goods and the contrast to global public bads require a dramatic change in the international monetary system, enforcement capacity, democratic legitimation, the return to regionalism and multilateralism. Pending the emergence of a more equitable global reserve and payments system, an increased use of the Special Drawing Rights, channeled through Multilateral Development Banks, may help managing the transition towards the provision of such global public goods. This would also provide a guidance for the reduction of Central Banks’ balance sheets, the financialization of the economy and an increase of real investment, thus anchoring the whole international economy to a less vulnerable and volatile monetary structure

Locally decentralised responses to the European recovery: exploring the role of the Euratom Treaty and the ESM

The pandemic stressed the key role of sustainable consumption and production patterns and highlighted the role of local systems as key actors of a recovery aiming at enhanced resilience to endogenous and exogenous shocks. Although the Recovery Plan marked a radical shift in the attitude of the EU towards crisis management and allowed for an unprecedented joint financial effort, it might not be enough for tackling the challenges ahead. In this paper we suggest that two instruments should be further explored for this purpose: the Euratom Treaty and the European Stability Mechanism

Histamine in cancer: the dual faces of the coin.

Commentary to:The role of histamine in human mammary carcinogenesis: H3 and H4 receptors as potential therapeutic targets for breast cancer treatment.Vanina Medina, Maximo Croci, Ernesto Crescenti, Nora Mohamad, Francisca Sanchez-Jimenez, Noelia Massari, Mariel Nunez, Graciela Cricco, Gabriela Martin, Rosa Bergoc, Elena River

Does the combination with handgrip increase the sensitivity of dipyridamole-echocardiography test?

The aim of this study was to assess the possibility of increasing the sensitivity of dipyridamole-echocardiography testing (DET:2-D echo monitoring during dipyridamole infusion) by combining this procedure with handgrip testing. Dipyridamole-handgrip test (DHT) was therefore performed in 24 patients with rest/effort angina, negative DET, and negative handgrip-echo (without dipyridamole pretreatment). DHT consisted of 4.5 min of sustained 25% maximum grip strength, started 4 min after the end of dipyridamole infusion (0.56 mg/kg for 4 min). Interpretable studies were obtained in all patients. Of the 24 patients tested (10 without and 14 with significant coronary artery disease, CAD), only one CAD patient had a positive DHT, which indicates an increased sensitivity of 7% versus DET alone. In conclusion, DHT is feasible in all patients and--if compared to DET--has the same specificity. However, in spite of the theoretical premises, it provides only a modest step up in sensitivity

Surface-acoustic-wave counterflow micropumps for on-chip liquid motion control in two-dimensional microchannel arrays.

Fully controlled liquid injection and flow in hydrophobic polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) two-dimensional microchannel arrays based on on-chip integrated, low-voltage-driven micropumps are demonstrated. Our architecture exploits the surface-acoustic-wave (SAW) induced counterflow mechanism and the effect of nebulization anisotropies at crossing areas owing to lateral propagating SAWs. We show that by selectively exciting single or multiple SAWs, fluids can be drawn from their reservoirs and moved towards selected positions of a microchannel grid. Splitting of the main liquid flow is also demonstrated by exploiting multiple SAW beams. As a demonstrator, we show simultaneous filling of two orthogonal microchannels. The present results show that SAW micropumps are good candidates for truly integrated on-chip fluidic networks allowing liquid control in arbitrarily shaped two-dimensional microchannel arrays

Short-term reproducibility of dipyridamole-echocardiography test.

The aim of this study was to assess the short-term reproducibility of dipyridamole-echocardiography test (DET) consisting of two-dimensional echo monitoring during dipyridamole infusion (up to 0.84 mg/kg in 10 min). The diagnostic end-point of the test is the detection of new onset or worsening regional asynergy. A group of 87 patients with rest and/or effort angina performed two DETS on two consecutive days. All 60 patients with a positive DET had a positive repeat test, and the 27 negative DETs were also negative on the following day. The timing of the asynergy was also very similar between the two tests, both in patients with angina on effort (r = .93, p less than 0.01) and at rest (r = .92, p less than 0.01). In conclusion, DET has a very high short-term reproducibility regarding the presence and timing of asynergy