International Transmission Via Trade Links: Theoretically Consistent Indicators of Interdependence for Latin America and South-East Asia

The empirical work on the role of trade linkages in the transmission of economic disturbances has been limited to tests on the significance of variables of simple trade shares of partners, both bilateral and in common markets. This approach ignores additional elements deriving from the new open economy macroeconomics, such as country size, the pricing policy of exporters and the substitutability of exports. It also only considers the “first victim” country as the one transmitting the crisis to the others, leaving out the action of all other intra-regional links. This paper bridges this gap by producing theoretically-backed indicators of vulnerability due to trade linkages in a multilateral setting. These indicators are then used to compare the size of trade linkages in Latin America and in South-east Asia, two regions that were affected by financial crises in the 1990s. The proposed indexes show that Latin America is much less vulnerable than Asia to an international transmission of economic disturbances from a country in the same region. This is due to the relatively smaller size of Latin American countries, to the higher share of raw materials in their exports and the lower degree of similarity both of the manufactures exported inside their region and of those exported to their common industrial markets. Moreover, South-east Asian countries are more likely than Latin American ones to transmit economic disturbances to industrial countries due to the higher substitutability of their manufactured exports with those of more advanced economies.trade linkages, currency crises

How to interpret the CPIS data on the distribution of foreign portfolio assets in the presence of sizeable cross-border positions in mutual funds. Evidence for Italy and the main euro-area countries

The data collected by the IMF in the Coordinated Portfolio Investment Survey (CPIS) provide a unique source for foreign portfolio asset holdings, with details on the breakdown by instrument and counterpart country. In the presence of sizeable cross-border positions in mutual funds, which are indistinctly classified as equity assets, the economic interpretation of the instrument and geographic composition of a country’s foreign assets might be distorted. The instrument composition tends to be skewed towards equity assets; the geographical one tends to be biased towards the countries hosting the mutual funds. This is the case of Italy, whose position in Irish and Luxembourgian mutual funds represents more than half of its entire foreign portfolio equity assets. France, Germany and Spain are in a similar, yet less disproportionate, situation. The paper proposes a correction method in order to ‘pierce the veils’ introduced by positions in foreign mutual funds.CPIS, asset allocation, mutual funds, index of foreign bias

Openness and Income Dispaities: Does Trade Explain the 'Mezzogiorno' Effect?

Many theoretical models show that trade openness has positive welfare implications. Yet, openness might affect different social groups and regions asymmetrically, even within a given country. We use Italian regional data to answer the question whether trade openness affects within-country income differentials. In Italy, the more affluent regions are internationally more open than poorer ones not only with respect to trade in goods, but also with respect to FDI and international migration. Prima facie, there is a positive correlation between openness and per capita income. Studying this relationship empirically requires taking into account the endogenous component of openness. We apply panel cointegration and instrumental variables techniques to account for the endogeneity of trade. Our results show a positive link between trade openness and the level of income per capita.Openness, growth, regional income disparities, Italian regions

Caratteristiche e mutamenti della specializzazione delle esportazioni italiane

This paper examines the product specialisation of Italian exports over the period 1985-2001 to identify the roots of Italy’s sluggish export performance with respect to world trade in the second half of the 1990s. In particular, the analysis focuses on the role of product specialisation in relation to world trade growth and competition from emerging countries. With regard to the first aspect, the paper finds that Italy’s export specialisation contributed to depressing total export growth because world demand for traditional and specialised suppliers products expanded at a slower pace in the 1990s than that for products in which Italy had a comparative disadvantage. With regard to the second aspect, confirming previous findings, the paper shows that only a small share of Italy’s exports in the 1990s competed directly with those of emerging countries, since on average they were of better quality. The analysis finds evidence of quality upgrading, a possible reaction to competitive pressures from low-cost goods exported by emerging countries that were able to exploit labour cost advantages in low-tech products. Quality upgrading has been an Italian as well as a European phenomenon, as data relative to the other three main euro-area countries indicate.specializzazione commerciale,qualità, paesi emergenti

Trade's Impact on the Labor Share: Evidence from German and Italian Regions

Has the labor share declined? And what is the impact of international trade? These questions are not only relevant in an international context they also matter for understanding the regional distribution of incomes in a given country. In this paper, we study two regions with trade exposures that differ from the rest of the country, and which display distinct changes in the labor share. East German and Southern Italian regions have a degree of international openness which is below the countries’ averages. At the same time, there has been a more pronounced decline in the labor share in East Germany than in West Germany. In Southern Italy, the labor share has increased in recent years. We show that increased trade openness is not the main culprit behind changing labor shares.labor share, trade, regions

A new subfamily of fungal subtilases: structural and functional analysis of a Pleurotus ostreatus member

Pleurotus ostreatus produces several extracellular proteases which are believed to be involved in the regulation of the ligninolytic activities of this fungus. Recently, purification and characterization of the most abundant P. ostreatus extracellular protease (PoSl) have been reported. The sequence of the posl gene and of the corresponding cDNA has been determined, allowing the identification of its pre- and pro-sequences. A mature protein sequence has been verified by mass spectrometry mapping, the N-glycosylation sites have been identified and the glycosidic moieties characterized. Mature PoSl shows a cleaved peptide bond in the C-terminal region, which remains associated with the catalytic domain in a non-covalent complex. Reported results indicate that this enzyme is involved in the activation of other P. ostreatus secreted proteases, thus suggesting its leading role in cascade activation mechanisms. Analyses of the PoSl sequence by homology search resulted in the identification of a DNA sequence encoding a new protease, homologous to PoSl, in the Phanerochaete chrysosporium genome. A new subgroup of subtilisin-like proteases, belonging to the pyrolysin family, has been defined, which includes proteases from ascomycete and basidiomycete fungi

TP63 mutations are frequent in cutaneous melanoma, support UV etiology, but their role in melanomagenesis is unclear

In contrast to TP53, cancer development is rarely associated with mutations in the TP63 and TP73 genes. Recently, next generation sequencing analysis revealed that TP63 mutations are frequent, specifically in cutaneous melanomas. Cutaneous melanoma represents 4% of skin cancers but it is responsible for 80% of skin cancer related deaths. In the present study, we first determined whether all three members of the P53 family of transcription factors were found mutated in cutaneous melanomas by retrieving all TP53, TP63 and TP73 mutations from cBioPortal (http://www.cbioportal.org/). TP53 and TP63 were frequently mutated [15.0% (91/605) and 14.7% (89/605), respectively], while TP73 [1.5% (9/605)] was more rarely mutated (p<0.0001). A UV-mutation fingerprint was recognized for TP63 and TP73 genes. Then, we tried to evaluate the potential role of TP63 mutations as drivers or passengers in the tumorigenic process. In the former case, the amino acid substitutions should cause significant functional consequences on the main biochemical activity of the P63 protein, namely transactivation. The predicted effects of specific amino acid substitutions by two bioinformatics tools were rather different. Using a yeast-based functional assay, the observed hotspot mutant R379CP63 protein exhibited a substantial residual activity compared to the wild-type (>70%). This result does not support a major role of the mutant P63 protein in melanomagenesis while it is still consistent with the TP63 gene being a recorder of UV exposure. The TP63 mutation spectrum from cutaneous melanomas, when compared with that observed at the germinal level in patients affected by P63-associated diseases [ectodermal dysplasia syndromes, (EDs)], revealed significant differences. The TP63 mutations were more frequent at CpGs sites (p<0.0001) in EDs and at PyPy sites (p<0.0001) in cutaneous melanomas. The two spectra differed significantly (p<0.0001). We conclude that TP63 mutations are frequent in cutaneous melanoma, support UV etiology, but their role in melanomagenesis is unclear

Chemically modified β-cyclodextrins useful in developing biosensors of agricultural and food relevance

β-cyclodextrin (β-CD), a natural, non-toxic cycloeptaamilose macrocycle, is a useful biomatrix for immobilizing enzymes on a biosensor surface because of the affinity of its cavity for hydrophobic guest molecules (e.g., aminoacids). In this work β-CD has been successfully modified with different poly-carboxylic acids (PCAs) including 1,2,3,4-butanetetracarboxylic acid. Time activation, pH, pressure and stoichiometry were optimized in order to achieve selected substitutions on the macrocycle hydroxy groups. The modified β-CDs, prepared under mild conditions, are completely water-soluble and could be grafted on a biosensor surface

Polynucleotide: Adenosine glycosidase is the sole activity of ribosome-inactivating proteins on DNA

Polynucleotide: adenosine glycosidases (PNAG) are a class of plant and bacterial enzymes commonly known as ribosome-inactivating proteins (RIP). They are presently classified as rRNA N-glycosidases in the enzyme nomenclature [EC 3.2.2.22]. Several activities on nucleic acids, other than depurination, have been attributed to PNAG: in particular modifications induced in circular plasmids, including linearisation and topological changes, and cleavage of guanidinic residues. Here we describe a chromatographic procedure to obtain nuclease-free PNAG by dye-chromatography onto Procion Red derivatized Sepharose®. Highly purified enzymes depurinate extensively pBR322 circular, supercoiled DNA at neutral pH and exhibit neither DNase nor DNA glycolyase activities, do not cause topological changes, and adenine is the only base released from DNA and rRNA, even at very high enzyme concentrations. A scanning force microscopy (SFM) study of pBR322 treated with saporin-S6 confirmed that (i) this PNAG binds extensively to the plasmid, (ii) the distribution of the bound saporin-S6 molecules along the DNA chain is markedly variable, (iii) plasmids already digested with saporin-S6 do not appear fragmented or topologically modified. The observations here described demonstrate that polynucleotide:adenosine glycosidase is the sole enzymatic activity of the four ribosome-inactivating proteins gelonin, momordin I, pokeweed antiviral protein from seeds and saporin-S6. These proteins belong to different families, suggesting that the findings here described may be generalized to all PNAG

Power considerations towards a sustainable pan-european network

Energy savings are observed and quantified in the Pan-European network using transparent optical network technology. The network was dimensioned, using realistic traffic predictions of the optical networking roadmap of the European project BONE