Perverse cross-subsidization in the credit market

We show how asymmetric information and borrowers' heterogeneity in wealth may produce equilibria in which, due to decreasing absolute risk aversion, hard working poor borrowers subsidize richer borrowers. In particular, a model of adverse selection and moral hazard in a competitive credit market is developed with private information on borrowers' wealth. Because of the ambiguous effect of decreasing risk aversion on the willingness to post collateral, both separating and pooling equilibria are possible in principle. Under separation the poor borrowers bear the cost of separation in terms of excessive risk taking. In a more likely pooling equilibrium poor hard-working borrowers subsidize richer ones

Emerging Role of microRNAs in Stroke Protection Elicited by Remote Postconditioning

Remote ischemic conditioning (RIC) represents an innovative and attractive neuroprotective approach in brain ischemia. The purpose of this intervention is to activate endogenous tolerance mechanisms by inflicting a subliminal ischemia injury to the limbs, or to another “remote” region, leading to a protective systemic response against ischemic brain injury. Among the multiple candidates that have been proposed as putative mediators of the protective effect generated by the subthreshold peripheral ischemic insult, it has been hypothesized that microRNAs may play a vital role in the infarct-sparing effect of RIC. The effect of miRNAs can be exploited at different levels: (1) as transducers of protective messages to the brain or (2) as effectors of brain protection. The purpose of the present review is to summarize the most recent evidence supporting the involvement of microRNAs in brain protection elicited by remote conditioning, highlighting potential and pitfalls in their exploitation as diagnostic and therapeutic tools. The understanding of these processes could help provide light on the molecular pathways involved in brain protection for the future development of miRNA-based theranostic agents in stroke

Improving Compliance With Preventive Care: Cooperation in Mutual Health Insurance

Preventive care should be subsidized in traditional insurance contracts since policyholders ignore the benefit of their prevention choice on the insurance premium (Ellis and Manning, 2007 JHE). We study participating policies as risk-sharing agreements among policyholders who decide how much to invest in secondary prevention. We explore under which conditions these policies allow partial or even full internalization of prevention benefits in an environment with repeated interactions between policy holders. Welfare generated by the risk-sharing agreement is increasing with the size of the pool, but at the same time the pool size must not be too large for cooperation to sustain the internalization benefits.

On the social (sub)optimality of divisionalization under product differentiation

We revisit the interplay between differentiation and divisionalization in a duopoly version of Ziss (Econ Lett 59:133\u2013138, 1998). We model divisionalization as a discrete problem to prove that (i) firms may choose not to become multidivisional; and (ii) there may arise asymmetric outcomes in mixed strategies, due to the existence of multiple symmetric equilibria. If industry-wide divisionalization is the unique equilibrium, it can be socially efficient provided goods are almost perfect substitutes. Even small degrees of differentiation may suffice to make industry-wide divisionalization socially desirable because of the prevalence of consumers\u2019 taste for variety over the replication of fixed costs

VOICe THeRApy FOR LARyNgeAL HeMIpLegIA: THe ROLe OF TIMINg OF INITIATION OF THeRApy

Objective: Laryngeal hemiplegia, also known as vocal fold paralysis, causes severe communicative disability. Although voice therapy is commonly considered to be beneficial for improving the voice quality in several voice disorders, there are only a few papers that present scientific evidence of the effectiveness of voice therapy in treating the disabilities of laryngeal hemiplegia. The aim of this study was to evaluate the outcomes of voice therapy in patients with laryngeal hemiplegia and to evaluate the role of the time gap between onset of laryngeal hemiplegia and initiation of therapy. Design: A prospective study comparing subjects treated either within or more than 3 months after the onset of laryngeal hemiplegia. Subjects: The study involved 30 laryngeal patients with hemiplegia (16 males, 14 females, age range 15–80 years). Methods: All patients underwent videolaryngostroboscopy, maximum phonation time measurement, GIRBAS perceptual evaluation, Voice Handicap Index self-assessment and Multi-Dimensional Voice Program voice analysis before and after therapy. Results: In all tests, there were significant improvements in voice quality, both in the group treated within 3 months after the onset of laryngeal hemiplegia and in the group treated after this time. Conclusion: Voice therapy is effective in treating laryn geal hemiplegia even if treatment is delayed by more than 3 months from onset of laryngeal hemiplegia

The hypoxia sensitive metal transcription factor MTF-1 activates NCX1 brain promoter and participates in remote postconditioning neuroprotection in stroke

Remote limb ischemic postconditioning (RLIP) is an experimental strategy in which short femoral artery ischemia reduces brain damage induced by a previous harmful ischemic insult. Ionic homeostasis maintenance in the CNS seems to play a relevant role in mediating RLIP neuroprotection and among the effectors, the sodium-calcium exchanger 1 (NCX1) may give an important contribution, being expressed in all CNS cells involved in brain ischemic pathophysiology. The aim of this work was to investigate whether the metal responsive transcription factor 1 (MTF-1), an important hypoxia sensitive transcription factor, may (i) interact and regulate NCX1, and (ii) play a role in the neuroprotective effect mediated by RLIP through NCX1 activation. Here we demonstrated that in brain ischemia induced by transient middle cerebral occlusion (tMCAO), MTF-1 is triggered by a subsequent temporary femoral artery occlusion (FAO) and represents a mediator of endogenous neuroprotection. More importantly, we showed that MTF-1 translocates to the nucleus where it binds the metal responsive element (MRE) located at −23/−17 bp of Ncx1 brain promoter thus activating its transcription and inducing an upregulation of NCX1 that has been demonstrated to be neuroprotective. Furthermore, RLIP restored MTF-1 and NCX1 protein levels in the ischemic rat brain cortex and the silencing of MTF-1 prevented the increase of NCX1 observed in RLIP protected rats, thus demonstrating a direct regulation of NCX1 by MTF-1 in the ischemic cortex of rat exposed to tMCAO followed by FAO. Moreover, silencing of MTF-1 significantly reduced the neuroprotective effect elicited by RLIP as demonstrated by the enlargement of brain infarct volume observed in rats subjected to RLIP and treated with MTF-1 silencing. Overall, MTF-dependent activation of NCX1 and their upregulation elicited by RLIP, besides unraveling a new molecular pathway of neuroprotection during brain ischemia, might represent an additional mechanism to intervene in stroke pathophysiology

Printing zno inks: From principles to devices

Solution-based printing approaches permit digital designs to be converted into physical objects by depositing materials in a layer-by-layer additive fashion from microscale to nanoscale resolution. The extraordinary adaptability of this technology to different inks and substrates has received substantial interest in the recent literature. In such a context, this review specifically focuses on the realization of inks for the deposition of ZnO, a well-known wide bandgap semiconductor inorganic material showing an impressive number of applications in electronic, optoelectronic, and piezoelectric devices. Herein, we present an updated review of the latest advancements on the ink formulations and printing techniques for ZnO-based nanocrystalline inks, as well as of the major applications which have been demonstrated. The most relevant ink-processing conditions so far explored will be correlated with the resulting film morphologies, showing the possibility to tune the ZnO ink composition to achieve facile, versatile, and scalable fabrication of devices of different natures

Risk factors for HBV/HIV/HCV in drug addicts: a survey of attendees of a Department of Pathological Dependence

Introduction. This study aims to determine risk factors for the acquisition of HIV, HBV and HCV infections among Injection Drug Users (IDUs) who attended the out-patient clinic of the Department of Pathological Dependence at Bari Hospital in Bari Province (Italy). Methods. The study was conducted in the year 2008 using the information available in the out-patient files of 291 drug addicts who were undergoing treatment. Results. Their average age was 29.3 and 133 (45.7%) of them were affected by HIV/ HBV/ HCV. The use of injected heroin, being separated or divorced, and having committed a crime were found to be risk factors for infection by HIV/ HBV/ HCV, while having a school diploma or a university degree and the use of cannabinoids were negatively associated with the infective diseases. Discussion and conclusions. While the data from the Italian Departments of Pathological Dependence concerning HIV diffusion in treated patients have been showing a reduction in the number of cases of seropositivity, drug addiction in industrialized countries is still the second most important risk factor, after promiscuous sexual behaviour, for infection by parenteral transmission. Correct risk assessment is essential for the planning of effective strategies for primary and secondary prevention

The velo-uvulo-pharyngeal lift or "roman blinds" technique for treatment of snoring: a preliminary report

Snoring is caused by vibrating anatomical structures in the upper aerodigestive tract. It can be treated surgically and non-surgically, although resective procedures are associated with high postoperative morbidity and failure rate. We describe a new non-resective surgical procedure called the velo-uvulo-pharyngeal lift in which the soft palate is lifted, shortened, advanced and stiffened by means of permanent threads anchored to fibro-osseous attachments at the level of the posterior nasal spine and both pterygoid hamuli. Four adult patients (median age 44.5 years; range 42-65) affected by snoring and mild obstructive sleep apnoea-hypopnoea syndrome (apneoa-hypopnoea index, AHI < 20) requiring septal surgery under general anesthesia also underwent velo-uvulo-pharyngeal lift. There were no significant intra- or post-operative complications, and all of the patients reported immediate snoring relief. The main complaints were slight pain and a sensation of local fullness, both of which spontaneously disappeared within two days. The subjective clinical improvement in snoring was confirmed during post-operative follow-up (median 15.5 months; range 6-25), as was the stable reshaping of the soft velo-uvulo-pharyngeal tissues and enlargement of the mesopharyngeal space. There was also a decrease in daytime sleepiness. Our preliminary results suggest that velo-uvulo-pharyngeal lift is a simple, cost-effective and minimally invasive means of widening the mesopharyngeal space in snoring patients with or without mild sleep apnoea-hypopnoea syndrome. The widening of the mesopharyngeal space prevents contact-induced wall vibrations and its inspiratory obstruction causing hypopnoea and apnoea. It can also be combined with other procedures if indicated