Financial Markets and Firm Dynamics

Recent studies have shown that the dynamics of firms (growth, job relocation and exit) are negatively associated with the firm's size. In this paper we analyze whether financial factors are important in generating this negative relation. We develop a model in which, at each point in time, firms are heterogeneous in the amount of equity, and the equity affects their financing decision. The production and investment behavior of small and large firms differs substantially, and the model replicates many of the key features of industry evolution: smaller firms experience faster growth, higher rates of job creation and destruction and lower survival rates

Financial Markets and Firm Dynamics

Recent studies have shown that the dynamics of firms (growth, job relocation and exit) are negatively associated with the firm's size. In this paper we analyze whether financial factors are important in generating this negative relation. We develop a model in which, at each point in time, firms are heterogeneous in the amount of equity, and the equity affects their financing decision. The production and investment behavior of small and large firms differs substantially, and the model replicates many of the key features of industry evolution: smaller firms experience faster growth, higher rates of job creation and destruction and lower survival rates

Testing the Dispersion of Nanoparticles in a Nanocomposite with an Ultra-Low Fill Content Using a Novel Non-Destructive Evaluation Technique

A non-destructive evaluation (NDE) technique capable of testing the dispersion of nanoparticles in a nanocomposite would be of great use to the industry to check the quality of the products made and to ensure compliance with their specifications. Very few NDE techniques found in the literature can evaluate the level of dispersion of the nanoparticles in the whole nanocomposite. Here, a recently developed NDE technique based on pulsed phase thermography (PPT) in transmission mode was used to assess the particle dispersion in ultra-low, less than 0.05 wt%, Ag enriched polymeric based nanocomposite manufactured with an innovative nano-coating fragmentation technique. The phasegrams obtained with the presented technique clearly showed clusters or bundles of Ag nanoparticles when present, down to the size of 6 µm. Therefore, the new NDE approach can be applied to verify that the expected levels of dispersion are met in the production process

A Virtual PEP for Web Optimization over a Satellite-Terrestrial Backhaul

The availability of network softwarization and virtualization technology in the field of telecommunications has opened the door to a radical review of the applications, protocols, and deployment models. In this evolving framework, old assumptions and constraints specific to satellite communications must be carefully re-assessed. To this aim, we revisit the role of the performance enhancing proxy (PEP), replaced by a chain of custom virtual network functions properly enabled to optimize common web traffic performance over a backhaul dynamically enabled with a supplementary satellite link. The resulting virtual PEP (vPEP) is compliant with the breakthrough virtualization and slicing paradigms and can fruitfully exploit the advanced features of the most recent IETF technologies such as QUIC and MPTCP

Abiraterone acetate in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer after chemotherapy. A retrospective “Real Life” analysis of activity and safety

Abiraterone acetate (AA) is a potent, selective androge (CYP17) biosynthesis inhibitor, which showed to improve overall survival (HR = 0.646) in mCRPC patients progressing after docetaxel. In this retrospective analysis we assessed the safety and efficacy of AA in patients affected with mCRPC progressing after chemotherapy, treated in the normal clinical practice, in several Italian Oncologic Units, after the approval of the drug from the Italian Drug Agency (AIFA)

IBIS/PICsIT in-flight performances

PICsIT (Pixellated Imaging CaeSium Iodide Telescope) is the high energy detector of the IBIS telescope on-board the INTEGRAL satellite. PICsIT operates in the gamma-ray energy range between 175 keV and 10 MeV, with a typical energy resolution of 10% at 1 MeV, and an angular resolution of 12 arcmin within a \~100 square degree field of view, with the possibility to locate intense point sources in the MeV region at the few arcmin level. PICsIT is based upon a modular array of 4096 independent CsI(Tl) pixels, ~0.70 cm^2 in cross-section and 3 cm thick. In this work, the PICsIT on-board data handling and science operative modes are described. This work presents the in-flight performances in terms of background count spectra, sensitivity limit, and imaging capabilities.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication on A&A, special issue on First Science with INTEGRA

Abiraterone acetate in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer after chemotherapy. A retrospective analysis of progression-free (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in the “Real Life”

Background: Abiraterone acetate (AA) is a potent, selective androgen (CYP17) biosynthesis inhibitor, which showed to improve overall survival (HR = 0.646) in mCRPC patients progressing after docetaxel. In this retrospective analysis we assessed the PFS and OS safety in patients affected with mCRPC progressing after chemotherapy, treated in the normal clinical practice, in several Italian Oncologic Units

Looking at NB-IoT over LEO Satellite Systems: Design and Evaluation of a Service-Oriented Solution

The adoption of the NB-IoT technology in satellite communications intends to boost Internet of Things services beyond the boundaries imposed by the current terrestrial infrastructures. Apart from link-level studies in the scientific literature and preliminary 3GPP technical reports, the overall debate is still open. To provide a further step forward in this direction, the work presented herein pursues a novel service-oriented methodology to design an effective solution, meticulously stitched around application requirements and technological constraints. To this end, it conducts link-level and system-level investigations to tune physical transmissions, satellite constellation, and protocol architecture, while ensuring the expected system behavior. To offer a real smart agriculture service operating in Europe, the resulting solution exploits 24 Low Earth Orbit satellites, grouped into 8 different orbits, moving at an altitude of 500 km. The configured protocol stack supports the transmission of tens of bytes generated at the application layer, by also counteracting the issues introduced by the satellite link. Since each satellite has the whole protocol stack on-board, terminals can transmit data without the need for the feeder link. This ensures communication latencies ranging from 16 minutes to 75 minutes, depending on the served number of terminals and the physical transmission settings. Moreover, the usage of the Early Data Transmission scheme reduces communication latencies up to 40%. These results pave the way towards the deployment of an effective proof-of-concept, which drastically reduces the time-to-market imposed by the current state of the art