Crisis, sectoral and geographical factors : financial dynamics of Italian cooperatives

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the financial structure of Italian cooperatives in the period before and during the crisis (2004-2013), in relation to two discriminating factors. At this end, it focuses on two research questions: What financial dynamics the Italian cooperatives have involved before, during and after the 2008 crisis, that is, in the decade 2004/2013? Are there statistically differences between business sectors and geographic area? Design/methodology/approach: Secondary data on AIDA database have been used. The financial structure is assessed using two ratios: the financial leverage ratio and quick ratio. The final sample consists of 1,446 cooperatives. The trend and exploratory analysis, analysis of variance and Tukey-Kramer post-hoc test have been used. Findings: The financial structure of cooperatives has not been substantially affected by the crisis in any geographic area and business sector, by virtue of resilience of their business model. Moreover, these two factors produce statistically significant differences in the financial structure of cooperatives. Research limitations/implications: The study takes into account only the cooperatives that survived the crisis, so, presumably, the strongest. Moreover, another and more ratios should be considered at the end to have a more complete view on the financial dynamics. Originality/value: The literature on resilience of cooperatives is still not very rich. Moreover, this work analyses and integrates aspects and approaches that are not usually considered together

Cooperatives and crisis : economic dynamics in Italian context

This paper focuses on the situation in Italy with specific reference to cooperatives. It aims to analyse their economic situation - represented by two profitability ratios (ROI, ROE) - during the decade 2004-2013. It aims to tests the impact of crisis, geographical area and belonging business sector. Starting from secondary data on AIDA database (at the end 1,446 cooperatives), the trend analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA) have been used. The findings show, first of all, that the profitability of cooperatives strongly affected by crisis. Secondly, only the business sector affects the level of profitability. The analysis is interesting because the income has a special meaning in cooperatives: it should, in fact, be added to benefiting members that are accounted for as \u201cpeculiar\u201d management costs

La stima del campo di gravità da dati GOCE: i risultati finali dell’approccio space-wise

In questo lavoro vengono presentati i risultati finali del processamento dati della missione GOCE tramite l’approccio space-wise, da oltre vent’anni studiato ed implementato presso il Politecnico di Milano. In particolare sono stati elaborati i dati di tutta la missione, da novembre 2009 ad ottobre 2013, corrispondente ad oltre cento milioni di epoche. Questo periodo include sia la fase iniziale, durata quasi 3 anni, con il satellite all’altezza nominale di 255 km, sia la fase finale di abbassamento dell’orbita nella quale il satellite è stato lentamente portato fino a 224 km passando attraverso periodi intermedi di misura a quota costante. La fase di preprocessamento dati per la ricerca e la correzione di outlier è stata svolta in modo semi-automatico con una supervisione continua da parte dell’operatore e per questo motivo è stata molto onerosa; tuttavia l’eliminazione degli outlier, presenti in maggior numero nell’ultima fase di abbassamento dell’orbita, è cruciale per il raggiungimento di un risultato soddisfacente, indipendentemente dal metodo di analisi successivamente utilizzato. L’approccio space-wise è sostanzialmente un approccio iterativo di collocazione, che richiede la modellizzazione sia della correlazione temporale dell’errore di misura del gradiometro a bordo del satellite, sia della correlazione spaziale del segnale di gravità che si vuole recuperare. In particolare, l’idea base di questo approccio è quella di ridurre l’enorme mole di dati lungo orbita su una griglia globale all’altezza del satellite applicando la collocazione su aree locali, ciascuna caratterizzata da una covarianza del segnale adattata localmente. In questo modo il livello del filtraggio del dato risulta controllato localmente, diversamente da quanto avviene negli approcci diretto e time-wise dove viene applicata una regolarizzazione globale alla stima ai minimi quadrati dei coefficienti delle armoniche sferiche. Il risultato di questo processamento consiste quindi in griglie globali di derivate seconde del potenziale gravitazionale a una risoluzione spaziale di 0.2°x0.2°. Da queste griglie si deriva un modello globale in armoniche sferiche attraverso integrazione numerica. Sia per le griglie che per i coefficienti armonici viene fornita una stima dell’errore calcolata tramite un’opportuna simulazione Monte Carlo. Il contenuto informativo dei prodotti space-wise è stato valutato confrontandoli con altre griglie e altri modelli globali disponibili. Questo confronto mette in rilievo l’ovvia debolezza della collocazione locale nella stima dei gradi medio-bassi del campo gravitazionale, ma anche la sua miglior capacità di recuperare i più alti degree, ovvero i dettagli del campo. In questo senso l’approccio space-wise può fornire un risultato complementare a quello degli altri due approcci ufficiali all’analisi dati GOCE

A shared database of underground utility lines for 3D mapping and GIS applications

For the purpose of facility management it is very important to have detailed and up-to-date databases of underground utility lines, but such data are not always available with adequate accuracy. Hence, the need of collecting and organizing suitable information on underground services is a fundamental issue when dealing with urban data. Besides, by analyzing the process of designing and laying new underground infrastructures it is possible to implement an efficient and cost-effective approach to integrate and update existing maps by exploiting the surveying required for the installation of new facilities. It is also important to underline that collecting all the data in a unique integrated database (and GIS) gives the possibility to share (at least at a local level) the cartographic and thematic information for an optimal management of underground networks. In this paper, a database (DB) model for archiving the underground lines data is presented. The structure of the DB has been designed by following the standard methodology for the modelling of a relational DB, going through successive phases and originating the external, conceptual and logical model. Finally, preliminary tests have been carried on for parts of the DB to verify quality parameters

Tadalafil modulates aromatase activity and androgen receptor expression in a human osteoblastic cell in vitro model

Purpose Phosphodiesterase type-5 inhibitor (PDE5i) tadalafil administration in men with erectile dysfunction is associated with increased testosterone/estradiol ratio, leading to hypothesize a potential increased effect of androgen action on target tissues. We aimed to characterize, in a cellular model system in vitro, the potential modulation of aromatase and sex steroid hormone receptors upon exposure to tadalafil (TAD). Methods Human osteoblast-like cells SAOS-2 were chosen as an in vitro model system since osteoblasts are target of steroid hormones. Cells were tested for viability upon TAD exposure, which increased cell proliferation. Then, cells were treated with/without TAD for several times to evaluate potential modulation in PDE5, aromatase (ARO), androgen (AR) and estrogen (ER) receptor expression. Results Osteoblasts express significant levels of both PDE5 mRNA and protein. Exposure of cells to increasing concentrations of TAD (10−8–10−7 M) decreased PDE5 mRNA and protein expression. Also, TAD inhibited ARO mRNA and protein expression leading to an increase in testosterone levels in the supernatants. Interestingly, TAD increased total AR mRNA and protein expression and decreased ERα, with an increased ratio of AR/ER, suggesting preferential androgenic vs estrogenic pathway activation. Conclusions Our results demonstrate for the first time that TAD decreases ARO expression and increases AR protein expression in human SAOS-2, strongly suggesting a new control of steroid hormones pathway by PDE5i. These findings might represent the first evidence of translational actions of PDE5i on AR, which leads to hypothesize a growing relevance of this molecule in men with prostate cancer long-term treated with TAD for sexual rehabilitation. Keywords Tadalafil · Osteoblasts · Aromatase · Androgen receptor · Estrogen recepto

Components of Purity to Describe the Polarimetric State of a 3-D Field Within the Reverberating Chamber

Reverberating chambers (RCs) are electrically large microwave enclosures in which a random electromagnetic 3-D, i.e., nonplanar, field is generated. To characterize such 3-D fields, a proper polarimetric decomposition is requested. In this article, a new set of parameters, namely the components of purity (CP), first proposed to the electromagnetic compatibility community, is presented. The CP parameters, which stem for the so-called trivial decomposition, are able to classify any 3-D polarimetric field into two states: regular and nonregular. Such characterization is of practical relevance, e.g., for RC isotropy testing

On the Trade-Off Between Enhancement of the Spatial Resolution and Noise Amplification in Conical-Scanning Microwave Radiometers

The ability to enhance the spatial resolution of measurements collected by a conical-scanning microwave radiometer (MWR) is discussed in terms of noise amplification and improvement of the spatial resolution. Simulated (and actual) brightness temperature profiles are analyzed at variance of different intrinsic spatial resolutions and adjacent beams overlapping modeling a simplified 1-D measurement configuration (MC). The actual measurements refer to Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) data collected using the 19.35 and the 37.00 GHz channels that match the simulated configurations. The reconstruction of the brightness profile at enhanced spatial resolution is performed using an iterative gradient method which allows a fine tuning of the level of regularization. Objective metrics are introduced to quantify the enhancement of the spatial resolution and noise amplification. Numerical experiments, performed using the simplified 1-D MC, show that the regularized deconvolution results in negligible advantages when dealing with low-overlapping/fine-spatial-resolution configurations. Regularization is a mandatory step when addressing the high-overlapping/low-spatial-resolution case and the spatial resolution can be enhanced up to 2.34 with a noise amplification equal to 1.56. A more stringent requirement on the noise amplification (up to 0.6) results in an improvement of the spatial resolution up to 1.64

Biosynthesis and oligosaccharide structure of human CD8 glycoprotein expressed in a rat epithelial cell line.

The biosynthesis, post-translational modifications, and oligosaccharide structure of human CD8 glycoprotein have been studied in transfected rat epithelial cells. These cells synthesized and expressed on the plasma membrane high amounts of CD8 in a homodimeric form stabilized by a disulfide bridge. Three different CD8 forms were detected by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis analysis after metabolic labeling and immunoprecipitation: a newly synthesized, unglycosylated 27-kDa (CD8u), a palmitylated and initially O-glycosylated 29-kDa (CD8i), and the mature, terminally glycosylated 32-34-kDa doublet (CD8m). CD8i is a transient intermediate form between CD8u and CD8m: characterization of carbohydrate moiety of [3H]glucosamine-labeled CD8i showed that it comprises for the vast majority non-elongated O-linked GalNAc closely spaced on the peptide backbone. Structural analysis of oligosaccharides released by mild alkaline borohydride treatment from the [3H]glucosamine-labeled CD8 34-kDa form showed that the neutral tetrasaccharide Gal beta 1,4GlcNAc beta 1,6(Gal beta 1,3)GalNAcOH, and an homologous monosialylated pentasaccharide, predominate; the disialylated NeuAc2,3Gal beta 1,3(NeuAc alpha 2,6) GalNAcOH tetrasaccharide appeared to be poorly present. In the CD8 32-kDa form the neutral tetrasaccharide was by far the prominent O-linked chain, and no disialyloligosaccharides were identified. These results indicate that the maturation of CD8 glycoprotein in transfected rat epithelial cells results in the formation of branched O-linked oligosaccharides and that a higher degree of sialylation is responsible for the production of the heavier 34-kDa form

Fetal-Perinatal Exposure to Bisphenol-A Affects Quality of Spermatozoa in Adulthood Mouse

Bisphenol-A (BPA) is considered an endocrine disruptor with estrogenic activity. It is described as an environment-polluting industrial chemical whose adverse effects on the male reproductive system depend on the period of exposure (i.e., fetal, prepubertal, or adult life). We exposed male mice to BPA during the fetal-perinatal period (from 10 days post coitum to 31 days post partum) and investigated the impact of this early-life exposure on gamete health in adulthood animals at 78 days of age. Both in control and BPA-exposed mice, viability and motility of spermatozoa, as well as sperm motility acquisition and chromatin condensation of spermatozoa, have been evaluated. Results reveal harmful effect of BPA on viability and motility of sperm cells as well as on chromatin condensation status during epididymal maturation of spermatozoa. In particular, BPA exposure interferes with biochemical mechanism useful to stabilize sperm chromatin condensation, as it interferes with oxidation of thiol groups associated to chromatin