A Comparative Analysis of the Meat Sector in Hungary and Emilia-Romagna: Performance and Efficiency

In the last years, a lot of important changes occurred inside the European Union after the entering of 12 new member States. The rate of economic growth of the new member States has been higher the other EU members. In Hungary, particularly, the growth level has reached an intermediate position, placing itself at 4% GDP per capita. Comparative analysis are needed to better understand the process of catching-up and to evaluate how the integration between EU regions and countries is going on. The aim of this paper is to compare the economic and efficiency performance of firms in Hungary and Emilia-Romagna, considering a specific sector, meat processing and storage, of the food industry). We will investigate if in the last years the integration process has ultimately led to narrow the gap in the economic performances and efficiency of the firms. The choice of meat processing industry is due to the fact that in Hungary theres a remarkable animal production, whereas in the Emilia-Romagna region the meat industry reflects an organizational structure based on the concentration and specialization in agri-food districts. This paper compares the financial-economic performances and the technical efficiency of firms involved in the industry of meat processing in Hungary and in an Italian region, Emilia-Romagna. We will also discuss and compare the different results obtained throughout governance and structure of meat industry. We will underline the main role of the industrial districts in Emilia-Romagna, and how the Hungarian entrepreneurial system could handle the competition in the global market.Firms financial-economic performances, stochastic production function, agri-food districts, meat processing industry, Hungarian and Emilia-Romagna food industry, Livestock Production/Industries,

Off-equilibrium confined dynamics in a glassy system with level-crossing states

We study analytically the dynamics of a generalized p-spin model, starting with a thermalized initial condition. The model presents birth and death of states, hence the dynamics (even starting at equilibrium) may go out of equilibrium when the temperature is varied. We give a full description of this constrained out of equilibrium behavior and we clarify the connection to the thermodynamics by computing (sub-dominant) TAP states, constrained to the starting equilibrium configuration.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures; longer version with appendi

Tempi di adattamento in elettropalatografia: primi dati articolatori, acustici e percettivi

Sommario:L\u2019obiettivo di questo lavoro \ue8 quello di descrivere l\u2019impatto che provoca sul parlato la presenza di un palato artificiale. Saranno considerate tre prospettive diverse: articolatoria, acustica e percettiva. Ci\uf2 che si vuole individuare \ue8 la presenza di un tempo minimo di adattamento al palato, necessario a produrre speech normale e di conseguenza realizzare un protocollo per la preparazione dei parlanti alle sessioni di registrazioni elettropalatografiche. Nelle varie ricerche che utilizzano l\u2019elettropalatografo (EPG) come strumento di indagine, il tempo indicato come \u201cadattamento\u201d al palato artificiale varia sensibilmente da ricercatore a ricercatore; si possono leggere indicazioni ad indossare il palato per non pi\uf9 di 20 minuti, fino a vere prescrizioni di preparazioni lunghe anche 3 giorni prima di ogni registrazione. La nostra analisi si incentra su un unico parlante, che ha effettuato 10 ripetizioni di nonparole del tipo VCV, dove V \ue8 sempre la vocale /a/ e C varia fra occlusive alveolari /t d/, occlusive velari /k g/, laterale /l/ e fricativa alveolare /s/. In questo lavoro si \ue8 scelto di concentrare l\u2019attenzione sulle sole due consonanti alveolari /t/ e /s/ e ci riserviamo per uno studio pi\uf9 approfondito l\u2019analisi completa delle altre consonanti. Sono state fatte sessioni di registrazione a 8 intervalli temporali e nel periodo che precede ogni sessione di raccolta dati, il parlante viene fatto dialogare in modo da consentire un maggiore adattamento al palato stesso. Da questo studio sembra emergere che l\u2019adattamento al palato \ue8 un fenomeno altamente correlato alla specifica consonante e/o alla specifica prospettiva di analisi, ovvero non \ue8 possibile determinare un unico tempo di adattamento indipendentemente dalla consonante investigata ed indipendentemente dal punto di vista da cui parte l\u2019analisi. Da questi primi risultati appare una sostanziale differenza fra le dinamiche relative all\u2019analisi articolatoria e quelle relative all\u2019analisi acustica. In particolare dal punto di vista articolatorio gi\ue0 a tempi brevi dall\u2019inserimento del palato si ha un buon livello di adattamento, mentre per la prospettiva acustica si hanno grandi difficolt\ue0 a determinare un protocollo attendibile anche per tempi considerevolmente lunghi

Vowel variability and contrast in Childhood Apraxia of Speech: acoustics and articulation

none5noPhoneme production may be affected by limited speech motor control in Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS), with a general instability of acoustic targets across multiple repetitions of speech stimuli. This acoustic and Ultrasound Tongue Imaging (UTI) study shows that increased variability and reduction of contrast in vowel production is found in native Italian speakers with CAS, particularly as far as the height dimension is concerned. The data suggest that vowel production should play a major role in CAS diagnosis and treatment. Moreover, this study shows that a combined acoustic and articulatory approach allows direct observation of lingual dynamics together with an estimation of changes in the acoustic dimension. The two dimensions are shown not to correspond in a straightforward way in the speech of children with CAS, and encourage consideration of articulatory compensation strategies aimed at saving the acoustic identity of vowels.openLenoci, Giovanna; Celata, Chiara; Ricci, Irene; Chilosi, Anna; Barone, VincenzoLenoci, Giovanna; Celata, Chiara; Ricci, Irene; Chilosi, Anna; Barone, Vincenz

Disulfide-linked allosteric modulators for multi-cycle kinetic control of DNA-based nanodevices

Nature employs sulfur switches, that is, redox-active disulfides, to kinetically control biological pathways in a highly efficient and reversible way. Inspired by this mechanism, we describe herein a DNA-based synthetic nanodevice that acts as a sulfur switch and can be temporally controlled though redox regulation. To do this, we rationally designed disulfide DNA strands (modulators) that hybridize to a ligand-binding DNA nanodevice and act as redox-active allosteric regulators inducing the nanodevice to release or load its ligand. Upon reduction, the allosteric modulator spontaneously de-hybridizes from the nanodevice and, as a result, its effect is transient. The system is reversible and has an unprecedented high tolerance to waste products and displays transient behavior for over 40 cycles without significant loss of efficiency. Kinetic control of DNA-based ligand-binding nanodevices through purely chemical reactions paves the way for temporal regulation of more complex chemical pathways

Mosquito/microbiota interactions: from complex relationships to biotechnological perspectives.

To date around 3500 different species of mosquito have been described, several tens of which are vectors of pathogens of remarkable interest in public health. Mosquitoes are present all around the world showing a great ability to adapt to very different types of habitats where they play relevant ecological roles. It is very likely that components of the mosquito microbiota have given the mosquito a great capacity to adapt to different environments. Current advances in understanding the mosquito-microbiota relationships may have a great impact in a better understanding of some traits of mosquito biology and in the development of innovative mosquito-borne disease-control strategies aimed to reduce mosquito vectorial capacity and/or inhibiting pathogen transmission

Effects of onabotulintoxinA on habituation of laser evoked responses in chronic migraine

Onabotulintoxin A (BontA) is an efficacious preventive treatment for chronic migraine, though the specific mechanism of action is still under discussion. The study aims: (1) To evaluate pain processing modifications in chronic migraine patients (CM) under single BontA administration in pericranial muscles, by means of CO2 Laser Evoked Potentials (LEPs) obtained by the stimulation of the skin over the right frontal and trapezius injection sites and hand dorsum, in a double blind placebo controlled crossover design. (2) To correlate main LEPs findings with clinical outcome after one year of BontA treatment. Twenty refractory CM patients were included in the analysis. The LEPs were recorded in basal conditions and seven days after BontA (PREEMPT protocol) and saline solution injection. The N1, N2 and P2 amplitude and latencies and N2P2 habituation index were evaluated and correlated with the percent change of headache frequency after one year of toxin treatment. After seven days of BontA treatment, a normalization of the trigeminal habituation index was observed, which was correlated with the clinical outcome after one year of BontA therapy. Patients displaying trigeminal LEPs facilitation at T0 time showed a more efficient therapeutic outcome. Neurotoxin may exert a modulating effect on trigeminal nociception, normalizing central neurotransmission