Abuse of Dominance Enforcement under Latin American Competition Laws

The spread of competition laws in Latin America has been accompanied, as in Central and Eastern Europe, by warnings against over-enforcement, and in particular against enforcement of provisions against the "abuse of a dominant position" in a market that may discourage legitimate, pro-competitive actions and strategies. We examine all instances of competition agency findings of abuse of dominance for eight Latin American countries over the period 2001-2003. We find a) that there have been relatively few such rulings in most countries, b) that roughly half of such rulings have been in traditionally "regulated industries", which suggests that the number of rulings may fall as sectoral regulatory agencies gain more capability and experience, c) that many rulings have arguably targeted government-imposed restrictions on competition as well as privately imposed restrictions, and d) that a majority of rulings have attacked exclusionary rather than exploitative abuses.

Industrial Localisation and Economic Development. A Case Study

The research described in this paper is consisting of an indepth study of an important area of the Italian Mezzogiorno: the province of Salerno. The aim of the paper is twofold. The first was to identify, by means of cluster analysis, specialization of industrial areas in this province For that, some methodological points are previously selected from the current approach to development economics, that focuses both on genesis and evolution of local systems, by emphasising, among other aspects, the role of the immaterial resources and institutions. The results depict a variegated territory comprising both areas of closed economy, where the purpose of economic activity is to satisfy basic needs (food and housing), and areas that display a certain degree of economic openness towards the outside markets. Many clusters with high indexes of manufacturing specialization are classified as areas of sub furniture or as areas born by an exogenous intervention. The second aim of the research is to measure the social conditions that should foster the growth of new industrial districts within different areas of productive specialization, just identified by the cluster analysis. The approach used was the simple correspondence analysis of a set of qualitative variables surveyed, by a questionnaire given to 462 businesses in the province of Salerno.industrialization; local labour market; regional and urban analysis; correspondence analysis

INFLUENZA DEI VALORI DI COLESTEROLO-LDL SULLA SCLEROSI VALVOLARE AORTICA ED ATEROSCLEROSI CAROTIDEA IN UNA POPOLAZIONE DI PAZIENTI CON IPERCOLESTEROLEMIA FAMILIARE E MUTAZIONI DEL GENE DEL RECETTORE DELLE LDL

L’Ipercolesterolemia familiare è una patologia autosomica, codominante, prevalentemente causata da mutazioni del gene del recettore delle LDL (LDL-R). Lo scopo del nostro studio è stato valutare il ruolo dei valori di Col-LDL sul profilo di rischio cardiovascolare in una popolazione di pazienti affetti da ipercolesterolemia familiare. Sono stati arruolati 66 pazienti (56,1% donne; età media 42± 14 anni), con le caratteristiche cliniche di FH (Simone Brome Register Criteria), in assenza di diabete mellito o altri disordini metabolici. Sono stati considerati i valori di Colesterolo totale, Col-LDL, Col-HDL e trigliceridi prima di iniziare la terapia dietetica o farmacologica. Tutti i 66 pazienti, affetti da ipercolesterolemia familiare, presentavano allo screening effettuato, mutazioni del gene del LDLR, identificando 22 differenti mutazioni in eterozigosi e 6 differenti mutazioni in doppia eterozigosi. Il sequenziamento diretto del promotore del gene LDLR rilevava una mutazione in omozigosi. L’attività funzionale residua del recettore delle LDL (LDLRa) è stata valutata in un sottogruppo di 41 pazienti, ed è risultata inversamente correlata ai valori di Col-LDL (r =0.455) La mediana del Chol-LDL (303 mg/dl) è stata utilizzata come surrogato del LDLRa per analizzare il profilo cardiovascolare nell’intera popolazione di 66 pazienti. Tutti i pazienti sono stati sottoposti ad un EcocolorDoppler carotideo ed a un Ecocardiogramma trans toracico standard. La prevalenza di storia di eventi cardiovascolari era significativamente maggiore nel gruppo con Col-LDL più alto confrontato con quello con Col-LDL più basso indipendentemente dall’età (35,3% vs 12,5%) (p= 0,031). I pazienti con Col-LDLmaggiore del valore della mediana hanno presentato una più elevata prevalenza di ispessimento medio-intimale, presenza di placche carotidee e grado di stenosi carotidee più severo (>50%) indipendentemente dall’età, dal genere, dall’ipertensione arteriosa e dalle malattie cardiovascolari (p=0.002). L’analisi condotta nei due gruppi ha evidenziato inoltre, un’aumentata prevalenza di sclerosi della valvola aortica di grado moderato e severo in questi pazienti, indipendentemente dall’età, dal genere e dalla presenza di ipertensione arteriosa (p=0.048), ma questa associazione è risultata ai limiti della significatività statistica quando corretta per eventi cardiovascolari (p=0.06). Questo studio ha identificato un sottogruppo tra i pazienti affetti da Ipercolesterolemia familiare ad alto rischio cardiovascolare, confermando il ruolo dei livelli di Col-LDL come marker diaterosclerosi diffusa e severa. Inoltre abbiamo osservato una forte associazione tra i livelli di Col-LDL e l’aterosclerosi carotidea, indipendentemente dai principali fattori di rischio. Ulteriori studi con un maggior numero di partecipanti dovrebbero essere condotti per valutare la relazione, il tipo di mutazione del LDLR, l’attività funzionale residua ed i parametri ecocardiografici, nei pazienti affetti da Ipercolesterolemia familiare eterozigote

On the Geometrical Non-Linearities of the Ship Load Expressions

In the structural analysis a fundamental rule is played by the internal forces and moments: they are the only variables on which the study for the primary level of the ship structural response is based, in accordance with beam theory. First of all, based on the usual decomposition of loads general expressions for the distributed still water, inertial and restoring loads have been revisited. Additionally, the influence of the non-linearity arising from the hull geometry on loads has been studied. Particular attention has been also given to the evaluation of loads due to the dynamic pressure in wave. Finally, two numerical examples have been carried out in order to verify the aforementioned influence on loads. The results obtained have been particularly discussed

Non-thermal photons and H2 formation in the early Universe

The cosmological recombination of H and He at z \sim 1000 and the formation of H2 during the dark ages produce a non-thermal photon excess in the Wien tail of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) blackbody spectrum. Here we compute the effect of these photons on the H- photodetachment and H2+ photodissociation processes. We discuss the implications for the chemical evolution of the Universe in the post-recombination epoch, emphasizing how important a detailed account of the full vibrational manifold of H2 and H2+ in the chemical network is. We find that the final abundances of H2, H2+, H3+ and HD are significantly smaller than in previous calculations that neglected the effect of non-thermal photons. The suppression is mainly caused by extra hydrogen recombination photons and could affect the formation rate of first stars. We provide simple analytical approximations for the relevant rate coefficients and briefly discuss the additional effect of dark matter annihilation on the considered reaction rates.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figures, 1 table; accepted for publication in MNRA

Introduction

This special issue addresses contemporary representations of “vulnerable” bodies in transit in Anglophone literature and culture and explores their strategies of resistance. The use of the expression “bodies in transit” in this issue has to be understood both as a reference to the materiality of diasporic, exiled, migrating, trafficked bodies, and as an allusion to the metaphorical transition of these marginalized subjects from alienation to regeneration in multiple contexts. The interdisciplinary contributions in this special issue tackle vulnerability as a marginal(ized) and potentially enabling condition entailing the crossing of bodily, sexual, mental, ethical, cultural, and national borders. Ranging from literature to cinema, theatre and media, the articles address literary and cultural representations of historical, as well as racial, medical, and neo-liberal violence, in order to explore individual and collective forms of resilience emerging from vulnerability and marginalization

Unlabeled Semen Analysis by Means of the Holographic Imaging

The morphology, the motility, and the biochemical structure of the spermatozoon have often been correlated with the outcome of in vitro fertilization and have been shown to be the sole parameters of the semen analysis in predicting the success of intracytoplasmic sperm injection and intracytoplasmic morphologically selected sperm injection. In this context, digital holography has demonstrated to be an attractive technique to perform a label-free, noninvasive, and high-resolution technique for characterization of live spermatozoa. The aim of this chapter is to summarize the recent achievements of digital holography in order to show its high potentiality as an efficient method for healthy and fertile sperm cell selection, without injuring the specimen and to explore new possible applications of digital holography in this field

A Case Study of a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Plant on Board a Cruise Ship

The work is a case study of a cruise ship supplied by liquefied natural gas (LNG) and equipped with a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). It is supposed that a 20 MW SOFC plant is installed on-board to supply hotel loads and assisting three dual-fuel (DF) diesel/LNG generator sets. LNG consumption and emissions are estimated both for the SOFC plant and DF generator sets. It results that the use of LNG-SOFC plant in comparison to DF generator sets allows to limit significantly the SOx, CO, NOx, PM emissions and to reduce the emission of CO2 by about 11%. A prediction of the weight and volume of the SOFC plant is conducted and a preliminary modification of the general arrangement of the cruise ship is suggested, according to the latest international rules. It results that the SOFC plant is heavier and occupies more volume on board than a DF gen-set; nevertheless, these features do not affect the floating and the stability of the cruise ship

Ship stability in wave: a proposal method for dynamic behaviour evaluation

Recent IMO activities are addressed to a renewal process about Intact Stability code. The new generation of stability criteria should be developed in order to be as close as possible to the real physics. The aim of this research work is to develop and validate a tool, intended for displacement vessels, capable to evaluate the ship response to wave actions and its effect on stability