Structural reforms in the Europena Union. What is new after the crisis?

This study analyses how individual countries in the European Union have to react to the recent global crisis by significantly changing their policy priorities, in different ways and to a different extent, in order to implement a plan of structural reforms aiming at effectively relaunching their process of economic growth in the new post-crisis scenario. The paper argues that three factors turn out to be particularly relevant: (i) vulnerabilities in public finance, especially in a number of Eurozone countries; (ii) the tendency towards widespread and growing income inequalities threatening social cohesion and negatively affecting long-term economic growth; (iii) the persisting cyclical weakness of certain important areas of the European Union

Structural reforms in the european union after the global crisis: problems and prospects

In the perspective of a successful exit from the recent global crisis, the debate on the long-term programmes of structural reforms in the EU countries has gradually revived. However, similarly to the pre-crisis experience, the path of structural reforms continues to appear fraught with difficulties. On the basis of the extensive literature grounded on the political economy and public choice approaches, this paper analyses why the decision-making process of structural reforms is usually very difficult even though they lead to a more efficient allocation of resources and boost long-run growth. Finally, the paper points out how the progress of a country’s structural reforms may be strongly influenced by political, institutional and economic factors contributing to define the framework in which policy makers interact with the national community in its various forms, the lobbies and more in general the organized special interest groups

Obstructing left sided colorectal cancer. A retrospective single center study.

Background: In recent years, with population aging, there has been an increased number of colorectal cancer cases in elderly patients with severe occlusion symptoms. About 75% of obstructions due to malignant colorectal cancer (10-30%) occur distal to splenic flexure. Methods: The authors evaluated the best surgical therapeutic strategy to be used in cases of left-sided colorectal carcinoma in patients over 65 years old, especially considering the emergency condition, age of patients and efficacy in terms of postoperative morbidity, mortality and 5 years survival rate. Results: The management of left-sided obstructing colorectal carcinoma is controversial. Hartmann’s procedure is the best therapeutic choice in elderly patients. However, resection with intraoperative colonic wash-out and primary anastomosis has favorable outcome in low risk patients. Conclusions: A review of the literature reveals that primary resection and anastomosis for left-sided obstructing CRC is the correct therapeutic strategy in low risk patients with localized, resectable carcinoma, without peritonitis; Hartmann’s procedure should be adopted in doubtful cases and in high risk patients

Consumo de vegetales y contenido de óxido nítrico en sangre

El estrés oxidativo es causado por un desequilibrio entre la producción de especies reactivas del oxígeno y la capacidad de un sistema biológico de destoxificar rápidamente los reactivos intermedios o reparar el daño celular resultante. Todas las formas de vida mantienen un entorno reductor dentro de sus células, desbalances en este estado normal causan efectos tóxicos a través de la producción de radicales libres que dañan a los componentes de la célula, como lípidos, proteínas y ADN. En el ser humano, el estrés oxidativo está involucrado en muchas enfermedades, como la aterosclerosis, la enfermedad de Parkinson, la enfermedad de Alzheimer, cáncer y también puede ser importante en el envejecimiento

An online method for estimating grazing and rumination bouts using acoustic signals in grazing cattle

The growth of the world population expected for the next decade will increase the demand for products derived from cattle (i.e., milk and meat). In this sense, precision livestock farming proposes to optimize livestock production using information and communication technologies for monitoring animals. Although there are several methodologies for monitoring foraging behavior, the acoustic method has shown to be successful in previous studies. However, there is no online acoustic method for the recognition of rumination and grazing bouts that can be implemented in a low-cost device. In this study, an online algorithm called bottom-up foraging activity recognizer (BUFAR) is proposed. The method is based on the recognition of jaw movements from sound, which are then analyzed by groups to recognize rumination and grazing bouts. Two variants of the activity recognizer were explored, which were based on a multilayer perceptron (BUFAR-MLP) and a decision tree (BUFAR-DT). These variants were evaluated and compared under the same conditions with a known method for offline analysis. Compared to the former method, the proposed method showed superior results in the estimation of grazing and rumination bouts. The MLP-variant showed the best results, reaching F1-scores higher than 0.75 for both activities. In addition, the MLP-variant outperformed a commercial rumination time estimation system. A great advantage of BUFAR is the low computational cost, which is about 50 times lower than that corresponding to the former method. The good performance and low computational cost makes BUFAR a highly feasible method for real-time execution in a low-cost embedded monitoring system. The advantages provided by this system will allow the development of a portable device for online monitoring of the foraging behavior of ruminants.Fil: Chelotti, Jose Omar. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Investigación en Señales, Sistemas e Inteligencia Computacional. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias Hídricas. Instituto de Investigación en Señales, Sistemas e Inteligencia Computacional; ArgentinaFil: Vanrell, Sebastián Rodrigo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Investigación en Señales, Sistemas e Inteligencia Computacional. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias Hídricas. Instituto de Investigación en Señales, Sistemas e Inteligencia Computacional; ArgentinaFil: Martínez Rau, Luciano Sebastián. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Investigación en Señales, Sistemas e Inteligencia Computacional. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias Hídricas. Instituto de Investigación en Señales, Sistemas e Inteligencia Computacional; ArgentinaFil: Galli, Julio Ricardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias Agrarias de Rosario. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias Agrarias de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Planisich, Alejandra. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias; ArgentinaFil: Utsumi, Santiago A.. Michigan State University; Estados UnidosFil: Milone, Diego Humberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Investigación en Señales, Sistemas e Inteligencia Computacional. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias Hídricas. Instituto de Investigación en Señales, Sistemas e Inteligencia Computacional; ArgentinaFil: Giovanini, Leonardo Luis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Investigación en Señales, Sistemas e Inteligencia Computacional. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias Hídricas. Instituto de Investigación en Señales, Sistemas e Inteligencia Computacional; ArgentinaFil: Rufiner, Hugo Leonardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Investigación en Señales, Sistemas e Inteligencia Computacional. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias Hídricas. Instituto de Investigación en Señales, Sistemas e Inteligencia Computacional; Argentin

Influence of Food and lifestyle in Oxidative Stress

Las enfermedades crónicas no transmisibles (ECNT) han sido identificadas por la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) como las causales de cáncer, diabetes, enfermedades cardiovasculares y respiratorias crónicas. Los cuatro factores de riesgo más importantes de las ECNT son los hábitos alimentarios inadecuados, el uso de tabaco, el sedentarismo y el abuso de alcohol, todos ellos determinantes sociales evitables y prevenibles. Las ECNT son la primera causa de muerte en Argentina al igual que en el resto del mundo

Influencia de la alimentación y el estilo de vida en el estrés oxidativo

Cuando se comenzó con el proyecto de estrés oxidativo, 2012-2013, no había en nuestra región estudios sobre estrés oxidativo en humanos y su relación con el consumo de alimentos, comparando grupos omnívoros, ovo lacto vegetarianos y vegetarianos estrictos y el estilo de vida. Por ello el objetivo fue determinar la influencia de la alimentación y el estilo de vida en el estrés oxidativo. Para lograr lo propuesto se seleccionaron personas cuyas edades están comprendidas entre 18 años y 65 años, de ambos sexos, cuya dieta sea omnívora, ovo lácteo vegetariana y vegetariana estricta, a las cuales se les realizan estudios antropométricos, nutricionales, psicológicos, bioquímicos y encuestas de estilo de vida, que tienen en cuenta factores externos tales como sedentarismo, tabaquismo, edad, estados fisiológicos, entre otros. Respecto a las encuestas psicológicas se pasó de un test a tres pruebas que son más representativas del estado de stress psicológico de la persona al momento de realizar el análisis. De cada participante se obtienen 57 datos que se relacionan con el programa estadístico SPSS. Hasta el presente se han evaluado 120 participantes

Evolving trends in the management of acute appendicitis during COVID-19 waves. The ACIE appy II study

Background: In 2020, ACIE Appy study showed that COVID-19 pandemic heavily affected the management of patients with acute appendicitis (AA) worldwide, with an increased rate of non-operative management (NOM) strategies and a trend toward open surgery due to concern of virus transmission by laparoscopy and controversial recommendations on this issue. The aim of this study was to survey again the same group of surgeons to assess if any difference in management attitudes of AA had occurred in the later stages of the outbreak. Methods: From August 15 to September 30, 2021, an online questionnaire was sent to all 709 participants of the ACIE Appy study. The questionnaire included questions on personal protective equipment (PPE), local policies and screening for SARS-CoV-2 infection, NOM, surgical approach and disease presentations in 2021. The results were compared with the results from the previous study. Results: A total of 476 answers were collected (response rate 67.1%). Screening policies were significatively improved with most patients screened regardless of symptoms (89.5% vs. 37.4%) with PCR and antigenic test as the preferred test (74.1% vs. 26.3%). More patients tested positive before surgery and commercial systems were the preferred ones to filter smoke plumes during laparoscopy. Laparoscopic appendicectomy was the first option in the treatment of AA, with a declined use of NOM. Conclusion: Management of AA has improved in the last waves of pandemic. Increased evidence regarding SARS-COV-2 infection along with a timely healthcare systems response has been translated into tailored attitudes and a better care for patients with AA worldwide

Alcune riflessioni sull'approccio monetario alla determinazione del tasso di cambio

Analisi del contributo teorico dell' 'approccio monetario' alla comprensione dell'influenza che i mercati monetari e finanziari e le aspettative che su di essi si determinano esercitano sulla dinamica della bilancia deipagamenti e del tasso di cambi