Financial Market Integration and Economic Growth in the EU

The diversity in the current degree of financial development across the EU can be a great opportunity at a time where this area is poised to become increasingly financially integrated. Integration should accelerate the development of the most backward financial markets, and allow companies from these countries to access more sophisticated credit and security markets. In line with a large recent literature, it is reasonable to expect that financial integration will have a "growth dividend" in Europe. This paper attempts to quantify this growth dividend, using both industry and firm-level data to estimate the empirical relationship between financial market development and growth, and to gauge how it will distribute itself across countries and sectors.Financial integration, financial development, growth

Financial Market Integration, Corporate Financing and Economic Growth

This study provides a thorough assessment of the likely effects of financial market integration on the ability of European countries to grow faster and on how the possible benefits will be distributed among the Community countries and industries. It achieves several conclusions strongly supportive of the idea that promoting financial market integration is an important step in promoting economic growth in Europe.financial development, financial integration, national financial markets, economic growth, corporate financing, Giannetti, Guiso, Jappelli, Padula, Pagano

Overcoming Plaumann : Environmental NGOs and access to justice before the CJEU

Defence date: 05 December 2022Examining Board : Professor Joanne Scott, (European University Institute, supervisor); Professor Claire Kilpatrick, (European University Institute); Professor Áine Ryall, (University College Cork); Professor Scott Cummings, (University of California, Los Angeles)Since the early ‘90s, environmental NGOs have been fighting to be granted standing in actions for annulment. Direct access to the EU judiciary is hindered by the narrow interpretation given by the Court of the ‘individual concern’ requirement laid down under Article 263(4) TFEU. This narrow interpretation is known as ‘the Plaumann test’. By drawing from the literature on legal mobilisation and combining doctrinal and qualitative methods of analysis, the present dissertation explores how the European environmental movement has mobilised to overcome Plaumann in the last thirty years. In this regard, this thesis provides an empirical and theoretical contribution to the study of strategic litigation in the environmental domain. This by shedding light on the NGOs’ understanding of the legal opportunity structure in the EU, as well as on NGOs’ resources and legal strategies deployed to overcome Plaumann. This dissertation shows the relevance of networks membership in EU environmental litigation and argues that the lack of internal legal expertise does not necessarily prevent environmental organisations from resorting to legal mobilisation. Furthermore, this dissertation holds that, despite Plaumann, NGOs’ achievements are remarkable. In particular, the new Aarhus Regulation is expected to bring more legal mobilisation in Europe and deliver more disputes on the ‘science’ underlying EU environmental measures. Conversely, in the climate domain, NGOs are building what I conceptualised in terms of ‘transnational incremental judicial comfort’. The spreading of ‘judicial comfort’ in the climate context casts shadows on the CJEU, which looks increasingly ‘obsolete’ in the eyes of climate litigants. Finally, this dissertation argues that there is a demand within the European environmental movement for a different kind of EU environmental justice, which does not settle for administrative review of EU acts, but that rather strives for a more substantive judicial review of EU policy measures (including legislative acts)

Neutrophilic Cell-Free Exudate Induces Antinociception Mediate by the Protein S100A9

Calcium-binding protein S100A9 (MRP-14) induces antinociceptive effect in an experimental model of painful sensibility and participates of antinociception observed during neutrophilic peritonitis induced by glycogen or carrageenan in mice. In this study, the direct antinociceptive role of the protein S100A9 in neutrophilic cell-free exudates obtained of mice injected with glycogen was investigated. Mice were intraperitoneally injected with a glycogen solution, and after 4, 8, 24, and 48 hours, either the pattern of cell migration of the peritoneal exudate or the nociceptive response of animals was evaluated. The glycogen-induced neutrophilic peritonitis evoked antinociception 4 and 8 hours after inoculation of the irritant. Peritoneal cell-free exudates, collected in different times after the irritant injection, were transferred to naive animals which were submitted to the nociceptive test. The transference of exudates also induced antinociceptive effect, and neutralization of S100A9 activity by anti-S100A9 monoclonal antibody totally reverted this response. This effect was not observed when experiments were made 24 or 48 hours after glycogen injection. These results clearly indicate that S100A9 is secreted during glycogen-induced neutrophilic peritonitis, and that this protein is responsible by antinociception observed in the initial phase of inflammatory reaction. Thus, these data reinforce the hypothesis that the calcium-binding protein S100A9 participates of the endogenous control of inflammatory pain

Huge Pituitary Adenomas: Dedicated Surgical Technique and Indications for Extent of Tumour Removal in the Modern Era

Transsphenoidal surgery is the most indicated approach not only for small and large pituitary adenomas but also for huge ones. A modified transsphenoidal technique to remove huge pituitary adenomas with marked suprasellar extension (4–8 cm of maximum diameter) resulted very useful in authors’ experience. The technique allowed avoiding the occurrence of a precocious descent of the suprasellar cisternal plane into the sellar plane during tumor removal and its related dangerous consequences. Technique was performed opening at the beginning only the lateral parts of peritumoral dura mater, and after removal of lateral parts of the tumor, the central part of peritumoral dura mater was opened and the central intrasellar and suprasellar parts of the tumor were removed. Comparing the results to similar patients operated by the same authors with standard surgical technique, we observed that total removal was accomplished in 64% of patients treated with modified technique than 45% of patients treated with standard transsphenoidal surgery. Moreover, better results were achieved concerning intraoperative CSF leak, postoperative CSF fistula, and average time of postoperative stay in hospital. For invasive dumbbell-shaped pituitary adenomas, particular therapeutic plans are necessary

Non-hyperbolic boundary equilibrium bifurcations in planar Filippov systems: a case study approach

Boundary equilibrium bifurcations in piecewise smooth discontinuous systems are characterized by the collision of an equi- librium point with the discontinuity surface. Generically, these bi- furcations are of codimension one, but there are scenarios where the phenomenon can be of higher codimension. Here, the possible col- lision of a non-hyperbolic equilibrium with the boundary in a two- parameter framework and the nonlinear phenomena associated with such collision are considered. By dealing with planar discontinuous (Filippov) systems, some of such phenomena are pointed out through specific representative cases. A methodology for obtaining the corresponding bi-parametric bifurcation sets is developed

Unraveling the CMB lack-of-correlation anomaly with the cosmological gravitational wave background

Since the very first observations, the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) has revealed on large-scales unexpected features known as anomalies, which challenge the standard $\Lambda$ cold dark matter ($\Lambda$CDM) cosmological model. One such anomaly is the ``lack-of-correlation'', where the measured two-point angular correlation function of CMB temperature anisotropies is compatible with zero, differently from the predictions of the standard model. This anomaly could indicate a deviation from the standard model, unknown systematics, or simply a rare realization of the model itself. In this study, we explore the possibility that the lack-of-correlation anomaly is a consequence of living in a rare realization of the standard model, by leveraging the potential information provided by the cosmological gravitational wave background (CGWB) detectable by future gravitational wave (GW) interferometers. We analyze both constrained and unconstrained realizations of the CGWB to investigate the extent of information that GWs can offer. To quantify the impact of the CGWB on the lack-of-correlation anomaly, we employ established estimators and introduce a new estimator that addresses the ``look-elsewhere'' effect. Additionally, we consider three different maximum multipoles, denoted as $\ell_{\rm max}$, to account for the anticipated capabilities of future GW detectors ($\ell_{\rm max} = 4, 6, 10$). Summarizing our findings for the case of $\ell_{\rm max} = 4$, we identify the angular range $[63^\circ - 180^\circ]$ as the region where future observations of the CGWB maximize the probability of rejecting the standard model. Furthermore, we calculate the expected significance of this observation, demonstrating that 98.81% (81.67%) of the GW realizations enhance the current significance of the anomaly when considering the full-sky (masked) Planck SMICA map as our CMB sky

label free fluorescence detection of kinase activity using a gold nanoparticle based indicator displacement assay

A straightforward fluorescence indicator-displacement assay (IDA) has been developed for the quantitative analysis of ATP→ADP conversion