The Implementation of the Global Minimum Tax (GloBE): The Need for an Effective Dispute Prevention and Resolution Mechanism

The successful implementation of the Global Anti-Base Erosion (GloBE) rules on aglobal scale cannot be achieved without an international effective dispute prevention and reso-lution mechanism. However, the development of a dispute prevention and resolution frameworkfor the GloBE rules faces significant challenges. This article offers two possible options for aneffective dispute prevention and resolution mechanism: a model based on reciprocal domesticlegislations and the multilateral convention model

Casual Mediation Analyses with Structural Mean Models

We represent a linear structural mean model (SMM)approach for analyzing mediation of a randomized baseline intervention\u27s effect on a univariate follow-up outcome. Unlike standard mediation analyses, our approach does not assume that the mediating factor is randomly assigned to individuals (i.e., sequential ignorability). Hence, a comparison of the results of the proposed and standard approaches in with respect to mediation offers a sensitivity analyses of the sequential ignorability assumption. The G-estimation procedure for the proposed SMM represents an extension of the work on direct effects of randomized treatment effects for survival outcomes by Robins and Greenland (1994) (Section 5.0 and Appendix B) and on treatment non-adherence for continuous outcomes by TenHave et al. (2004). Simulations show good estimation and confidence interval performance under unmeasured confounding relative mediation approach. Sensitivity analyses of the sequential ignorability assumption comparing the results of the two approaches are presented in the context of two suicide/depression treatment studies

Metric entropy in linear inverse scattering

The role of multiple views and/or multiple frequencies on the achievable performance in linear inverse scattering problems is addressed. To this end, the impact of views and frequencies on the Kolmogorov entropy measure is studied. This way the metric information that can be conveyed back from data to the unknown can be estimated. For the sake of simplicity, the study deals with strip scatterers and the cases of discrete angles of incidence and/or frequencies.&nbsp

Decomposition and temperature sensitivity of fine root and leaf litter of 43 mediterranean species

Aims: Data on the decomposition of fine roots are scarce for the Mediterranean basin. This work aims to compare chemical traits, decomposition rate, and temperature sensitivity (Q10) for root and leaf litter of 43 Mediterranean species. Methods: We carried out a two-years litterbag decomposition experiment using 43 fine roots litter and leaf litter types incubated in laboratory conditions at three different temperatures, i.e. 4 °C, 14 °C, and 24 °C. Litter was characterized for carbon (C), nitrogen (N), lignin and cellulose concentration, C/N, and lignin/N ratios. Results: Fine root litter had lower N content but higher lignin concentration, lignin/N, and C/N ratios compared to leaf litter. The decay rate of fine root litter was slower than leaf litter. For both tissues, the decay rate was negatively associated with lignin concentration, lignin/N, and C/N ratios but positively with N concentration. Q10 was higher for fine root than leaf litter, with a positive correlation with lignin while negative with N concentration. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate a higher Q10 accompanied by a slower decomposition rate of fine root litter compared to leaf litter in Mediterranean ecosystems. These results must be considered in modeling organic C at the ecosystem scale

Remote Sensing of Freshwater Bacterial Populations Using Spectral Analysis of Satellite Imagery

Remote sensing of bacterial populations in small and large bodies of water can significantly enhance our ability to understand fresh water ecosystems and monitor water quality. Although the identification of individual species is still unfeasible, the detection of certain bacterial groups and the likelihood of occurrence would be very valuable. Spectral analysis of satellite imagery is currently used to determine water parameters like temperature, turbidity, phytoplankton and dissolved organic matter. In order to establish a correlation between some of these parameters and the presence of microorganisms, we collected water samples from several locations in the Lake Ontario Rochester Embayment and Irondequoit Bay that were imaged by the new Landsat 8 OLI and TIRS sensors. Using bacterial 16S rRNA, we mapped the diversity and distribution of microorganisms isolated from the samples and then linked this information to the bio-optical properties of the water. Our results represent an early attempt to develop a method for the remote detection of bacteria. A comprehensive understanding of the factors affecting the conditions favoring the establishment of the various colonies will require a library of seasonal ground truth sampling and remote sensing observations to assess potential probability and geographic distributions of the bacterial populations

Genotoxicity assessment of three nutraceuticals containing natural antioxidants extracted from agri-food waste biomasses

Grapes and apples are the most cultivated fruits in the Mediterranean basin and their agricultural processing is responsible for the production of a large amount of bio-waste. The reuse of this food biomass would increase the volume of recyclable/renewable biomaterial and lower the environmental impact due to the increasing demand for these biological products. To this purpose, agri-food waste from grape and apple processing have become an important source of phytochemicals, and many pharmaceutical industries are using it as starting material to produce dietary supplements, functional foods, and food additives for human consumption. In virtue of the chemical diversity and complexity of agri-food biowaste, developers and producers of nutraceuticals are advised to assess the safety of their final nutraceutical products, in compliance with European Food Safety Authority regulation. Here, we use the Ames test to assess the mutagenicity of three nutraceuticals obtained from agri-food waste biomasses: Taurisolo® from grape pomace of Vitis vinifera L. cv 'Aglianico', AnnurComplex® from Malus pumila M. cv 'Annurca' and Limoncella Apple Extract from Malus domestica B. cv 'Limoncella'. The results showed that all three nutraceuticals were non-mutagenic

Cardioprotective Effects of Taurisolo® in Cardiomyoblast H9c2 Cells under High-Glucose and Trimethylamine N-Oxide Treatment via de Novo Sphingolipid Synthesis

In addition to high plasma glucose, increased levels of trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) have been found in obese subjects, where are considered as a novel risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of a novel nutraceutical formulation based on grape polyphenols (registered as Taurisolo®) in counteracting TMAO- and high glucose (HG)-induced cytotoxicity in cardiomyoblast H9c2 cells. Cell damage was induced with HG (HG-H9c2) and HG+TMAO (THG-H9c2); both experimental cell models were, thus, incubated for 72 h in the presence or absence of Taurisolo®. It was observed that Taurisolo® significantly increased the cell viability and reduced lactate dehydrogenase and aspartate transaminase release in both HG- and THG-H9c2 cells. Additionally, through its antioxidant activity, Taurisolo® modulated cell proliferation via ERK activation in THG-H9c2. Furthermore, Taurisolo® was able to induce autophagic process via increasing the expression of LC3II, a protein marker involved in formation of autophagosome and ex novo synthesis of sphingomyelin, ceramides, and their metabolites both in HG- and THG-H9c2 cells. Finally, Taurisolo® reduced hypertrophy and induced differentiation of HG-H9C2 cells into cardiomyocyte-like cells. These data suggest that Taurisolo® counteracts the toxicity induced by TMAO and HG concentrations increasing autophagic process and activating de novo sphingolipid synthesis, resulting in a morphological cell remodeling. In conclusion, our results allow speculating that Taurisolo®, combined with energy restriction, may represent a useful nutraceutical approach for prevention of cardiomyopathy in obese subjects

A framework to identify structured behavioral patterns within rodent spatial trajectories

Animal behavior is highly structured. Yet, structured behavioral patterns—or “statistical ethograms”—are not immediately apparent from the full spatiotemporal data that behavioral scientists usually collect. Here, we introduce a framework to quantitatively characterize rodent behavior during spatial (e.g., maze) navigation, in terms of movement building blocks or motor primitives. The hypothesis that we pursue is that rodent behavior is characterized by a small number of motor primitives, which are combined over time to produce open-ended movements. We assume motor primitives to be organized in terms of two sparsity principles: each movement is controlled using a limited subset of motor primitives (sparse superposition) and each primitive is active only for time-limited, time-contiguous portions of movements (sparse activity). We formalize this hypothesis using a sparse dictionary learning method, which we use to extract motor primitives from rodent position and velocity data collected during spatial navigation, and successively to reconstruct past trajectories and predict novel ones. Three main results validate our approach. First, rodent behavioral trajectories are robustly reconstructed from incomplete data, performing better than approaches based on standard dimensionality reduction methods, such as principal component analysis, or single sparsity. Second, the motor primitives extracted during one experimental session generalize and afford the accurate reconstruction of rodent behavior across successive experimental sessions in the same or in modified mazes. Third, in our approach the number of motor primitives associated with each maze correlates with independent measures of maze complexity, hence showing that our formalism is sensitive to essential aspects of task structure. The framework introduced here can be used by behavioral scientists and neuroscientists as an aid for behavioral and neural data analysis. Indeed, the extracted motor primitives enable the quantitative characterization of the complexity and similarity between different mazes and behavioral patterns across multiple trials (i.e., habit formation). We provide example uses of this computational framework, showing how it can be used to identify behavioural effects of maze complexity, analyze stereotyped behavior, classify behavioral choices and predict place and grid cell displacement in novel environments