Access to capital markets and the geography of productivity leaders and laggards

This paper examines whether access to the capital market of convertible and nonconvertible bonds affects total factor productivity (TFP) for the population of Italian joint stock manufacturing companies, based in highly segmented local financial markets, between 2007 and 2017. The hypothesis, well grounded in the literature, is that long-term capital favors investment in intangibles and other risky assets necessary for productivity growth. To identify this effect, we exploit the exogenous shock of the Italian banking deregulation of the mid-1990s as an instrument for firm-level access to capital, interacted with distance from logistic networks. These reforms changed the distribution of the type of branches at the local level, increasing the share of joint stock banks, which have high connections to international capital markets. This geographical reallocation of banking activities ultimately affected firms' financial structure, favouring their access to capital, even when based in peripheral financial areas. Firms which issued instruments of market debt achieved higher levels of productivity and a higher probability to reach top percentiles of productivity distribution

X-ray spectrum of a pinned charge density wave

We calculate the X-ray diffraction spectrum produced by a pinned charge density wave (CDW). The signature of the presence of a CDW consists of two satellite peaks, asymmetric as a consequence of disorder. The shape and the intensity of these peaks are determined in the case of a collective weak pinning using the variational method. We predict divergent asymmetric peaks, revealing the presence of a Bragg glass phase. We deal also with the long range Coulomb interactions, concluding that both peak divergence and anisotropy are enhanced. Finally we discuss how to detect experimentally the Bragg glass phase in the view of the role played by the finite resolution of measurements.Comment: 13 pages 10 figure

Monte Carlo Dynamics of driven Flux Lines in Disordered Media

We show that the common local Monte Carlo rules used to simulate the motion of driven flux lines in disordered media cannot capture the interplay between elasticity and disorder which lies at the heart of these systems. We therefore discuss a class of generalized Monte Carlo algorithms where an arbitrary number of line elements may move at the same time. We prove that all these dynamical rules have the same value of the critical force and possess phase spaces made up of a single ergodic component. A variant Monte Carlo algorithm allows to compute the critical force of a sample in a single pass through the system. We establish dynamical scaling properties and obtain precise values for the critical force, which is finite even for an unbounded distribution of the disorder. Extensions to higher dimensions are outlined.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Influence of the frying process on the real fat intake

As shown in the former presentation, one fact about repeated frying is that there comes a moment, when the oil used is no longer suitable for frying, that is discarded. The amount may be quite large depending, among other factors, on the composition of the oil itself and on that of the foodstuffs fried. This can be of practical significance for the total lipid intake, since the unsuitable oil is no longer ingested. It is difficult to know the amount of oil discarded for this reason and there is no scientific information in the literature on this subject. In this paper we try to know the quantitative and qualitative importance of the oil proceeding of repeated frying (RF) which normally is discarded in relation to the total fat intake (Fl) in Madrid, as well at domestic level (96 families) as in catering (hospitals, restaurants and schools). For this purpose discarded oils proceeding of the frying of food were collected in the usual quantity, variety and conditions (only olive and sunflower oils were used), both in the households and in the institutions. In the oils, raw and discarded, we also determined their composition in fatty acids. Our results show that at domestic level, although the dispersion is big, the average values of the discarded oil are the 19.3 ± 18.4% of the inventoried oil. However, in the institutional frying, in which, of course, industrial fryer are utilised, the proportion of discarded oil was much bigger, some time doubling the quantity discarded at domestic level. Curiously, the discarded oils proceeding either from the households or from catering do not show significative differences regarding their composition in fatty acids with respect to raw oil. The reason is that the oils are discarded due to subjective reasons, although they probably might be utilised again. At this moment, we are trying to confirm this last statement. In conclusion, if you do not take into consideration this percentage of losses, when utilising the inventory as measure technique of the intake of an individual person or a collective, you would overestimate the consumption approximately in 19-20%, and this error would be bigger when some meals are consumed in catering. This obviously would have a repercussion on the estimation of the fat intake, and therefore, of caloric intake and of the indices related to it, as shown in this presentation

Frying process in the relation fat/degenerative diseases.

Among the various components of the diet, fat receives very dose attention because of its relationship to several chronic degenerative diseases (CDD). Currently most of the available information on these relationships is derived from epidemiologic or experimental studies in which lipid intake is calculated using food composition tables. In most of these tables the quoted lipid content is that of raw food, whereas most foods are usually consumed only after being subjected to several culinary processes. Often there is no indication of the type of fat used in food processing in general or in frying in particular. But as it known, in the course of these processes the lipid content undergoes important qualitative and quantitative changes and not keeping them in mind may be the underlying cause of the difficulties an the confounding results in studies trying to establish the relationship between lipid intake an health. In the Mediterranean diet, about 50% of total dietary fat is derived not from the food itself but from the cooking fat, of which only a small fraction is eaten raw (as dressings) and the greatest proportion is used in thermal culinary processes, mainly deep-frying. The scientific study of the process whereby fat penetrates into fried foods has shown the benefits of this cooking method. If the process is correctly carried out, the amount of fat ingested with fried foodstuffs is not greater than when other procedures involving fat are used (for example, sautening, stewing or canning in oil). Very schematically deep-frying is a technique that replaces a fraction of the water content of food by cooking fat. Consecuently, the fat composition of the fried lean foods will be the same as that cooking fat. The process is more complex with fatty foods, and there are not great changes in the total quantity of fat in the fried food before and after frying. However, there are notable quality changes and these depend on the concentration gradients between frying oil and food. In deep-frying the cooking fat is usually used more than once, and there comes a moment when one considers subjectively that the oil is not longer suitable for frying and is discarded. This can be of practical significance for the total lipid intake, since a not determined quantity of oil is discarded and is not ingested. Consecuently the theoretical lipid intake has been decreased and, at the same time, some compounds, included saturated fats, are eliminated from diet whit the discarded oil. For example, the lipid composition of meats is substantially improved because of the highly favorable monounsaturated fatty acids penetration into them from the frying olive oil. In of the most important features is the possibility of manipulating fat intake by reducing it and improving the quality of the fat really consumed, this is of special interest in the possible relation to degenerative diseases. These changes in the fatty acids composition of oils and foods are repeatedly seen in laboratory experiments. However, their interpretation is not easy, in part because of the complexity of the deep-frying process used in the test. On the other hand, you would have to see the results obtained in the laboratory coincide with the results at practical level as well in the households as in catering, and, in this sense, some of the first results which we are obtaining in the population of Madrid are presented in the second part of this report

Efficacy and safety of darunavir and etravirine in an antiretroviral multi-experienced youth with vertically HIV-1 infection

Multiclass-drug resistance, often caused by poor treatment compliance, is a challenging problem in all categories of HIV-infected patients. Selective pressure is higher in youth for both biological and behavioral reasons. We report the case of a 15-year-old Caucasian male, with vertically acquired HIV-1 infection, who failed several lines of antiretroviral therapy and was successfully treated with darunavir/ritonavir and etravirine

On Quantum Lie Algebras and Quantum Root Systems

As a natural generalization of ordinary Lie algebras we introduce the concept of quantum Lie algebras ${\cal L}_q(g)$. We define these in terms of certain adjoint submodules of quantized enveloping algebras $U_q(g)$ endowed with a quantum Lie bracket given by the quantum adjoint action. The structure constants of these algebras depend on the quantum deformation parameter $q$ and they go over into the usual Lie algebras when $q=1$. The notions of q-conjugation and q-linearity are introduced. q-linear analogues of the classical antipode and Cartan involution are defined and a generalised Killing form, q-linear in the first entry and linear in the second, is obtained. These structures allow the derivation of symmetries between the structure constants of quantum Lie algebras. The explicitly worked out examples of $g=sl_3$ and $so_5$ illustrate the results.Comment: 22 pages, latex, version to appear in J. Phys. A. see http://www.mth.kcl.ac.uk/~delius/q-lie.html for calculations and further informatio

Predominant polarity and polarity index of maintenance treatments for bipolar disorder: A validation study in a large naturalistic sample in Italy

Background and Objectives: Predominant polarity (PP) may be a useful course specifier in at least a significant proportion of patients with Bipolar Disorder (BD), being associated with several clinically relevant correlates. Emerging evidence suggests that the concept of PP might influence the selection of maintenance treatments, based on a drug polarity index (PI) which measures the greater antidepressive vs. antimanic preventive efficacy of mood stabilizers over long-term maintenance treatment. In this study, we aimed to validate the PI in a large sample of Italian BD patients with accurate longitudinal characterization of the clinical course, which ensured a robust definition of the PP. Materials and Methods: Our sample is comprised of 653 patients with BD, divided into groups based on the predominant polarity (manic/hypomanic predominant polarity—MPP, depressive predominant polarity—DPP and no predominant polarity). Subsequently we calculated the mean total polarity index for each group, and we compared the groups. Results: When we examined the mean PI of treatments prescribed to individuals with DPP, MPP and no predominant polarity, calculated using two different methods, we failed to find significant differences, with the exception of the PI calculated with the Popovic method and using the less stringent criterion for predominant polarity (PP50%). Conclusions: Future prospective studies are needed in order to determine whether the predominant polarity is indeed one clinical factor that might guide the clinician in choosing the right mood stabilizer for BD maintenance treatment

On the fluctuations of jamming coverage upon random sequential adsorption on homogeneous and heterogeneous media

The fluctuations of the jamming coverage upon Random Sequential Adsorption (RSA) are studied using both analytical and numerical techniques. Our main result shows that these fluctuations (characterized by $\sigma_{\theta_J}$) decay with the lattice size according to the power-law $\sigma_{\theta_J} \propto L^{-1/ \nu}$. The exponent $\nu$ depends on the dimensionality $D$ of the substrate and the fractal dimension of the set where the RSA process actually takes place ($d_f$) according to $\nu = 2 / (2D - d_f)$.This theoretical result is confirmed by means of extensive numerical simulations applied to the RSA of dimers on homogeneous and stochastic fractal substrates. Furthermore, our predictions are in excellent agreement with different previous numerical results. It is also shown that, studying correlated stochastic processes, one can define various fluctuating quantities designed to capture either the underlying physics of individual processes or that of the whole system. So, subtle differences in the definitions may lead to dramatically different physical interpretations of the results. Here, this statement is demonstrated for the case of RSA of dimers on binary alloys.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figure

ADVANCED DEEP LEARNING COMPARISONS FOR NON-INVASIVE TUNNEL LINING ASSESSMENT FROM GROUND PENETRATING RADAR PROFILES

Innovative, automated, and non-invasive techniques have been developed by scientific community to indirectly assess structural conditions and support the decision-making process for a worthwhile maintenance schedule. Nowadays, machine learning tools are in the spotlight because of their outstanding capabilities to deal with data coming from even heterogeneous sources and their ability to extract information from the structural systems, providing highly effective, reliable, and efficient damage classification tools. In the current study, a supervised multi-level damage classification strategy has been developed regarding Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) profiles for the assessment of tunnel lining conditions. In previous research, the authors firstly considered a convolutional neural network (CNN), adopting the quite popular ResNet-50, initialized through transfer learning. In the present work, further enhancements have been attempted by adopting two configurations of the newest state-of-art advanced neural architectures: the neural transformers. The foremost is the original Vision Transformer (ViT), whose core is an encoder entirely based on the innovative self-attention mechanism and does not rely on convolution at all. The second is an improvement of ViT which merges convolution and self-attention, the Compact Convolution Transformer (CCT). In conclusion, a critical discussion of the different pros and cons of adopting the above-mentioned different architectures is finally provided, highlighting the actual powerfulness of these technologies in the future civil engineering paradigm nevertheless