Investing in Italy: Key legal issues for investors in the Gulf

Recent market data and press reports seem to confirm a growing interest, including from the Gulf, for investments in private and listed companies in Italy. In taking advantage of the opportunities presented by the Italian market (including the disposal plans announced and in part already enacted by the Italian government), investors should be aware of some key legal issues and practical factors. This article briefly outlines some of these key legal issues and factors as they may apply to investors from the Gulf region. It first addresses some of the disclosure and mandatory tender offer obligations that may be triggered in connection with investments in companies listed in Italy. It then provides some legal and practical insights regarding shareholders’ agreements, including certain related merger control considerations. It also provides a general overview of the new foreign investment control regime applicable to investments in the sectors of defense and national security, and in certain assets in the sectors of energy, transport and communications. Finally, it makes brief reference to the potential regulatory-specific approvals that may be required for investments in certain sectors and industries or in respect of certain assets. This article condenses the presentations and discussions that took place at the seminars hosted on this topic by Cleary Gottlieb in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in May 2014

Separation of Time Scales in a Quantum Newton’s Cradle

We provide detailed modeling of the Bragg pulse used in quantum Newton’s-cradle-like settings or in Bragg spectroscopy experiments for strongly repulsive bosons in one dimension. We reconstruct the postpulse time evolution and study the time-dependent local density profile and momentum distribution by a combination of exact techniques. We further provide a variety of results for finite interaction strengths using a time-dependent Hartree-Fock analysis and bosonization-refermionization techniques. Our results display a clear separation of time scales between rapid and trap-insensitive relaxation immediately after the pulse, followed by slow in-trap periodic behavior

Exigências nutricionais de mudas de bananeira tipo prata submetidas à deficiência de nutrientes.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar a produção de matéria seca de mudas de banana tipo prata submetidas a omissão de macronutrientes em solução nutritiva. Um experimento foi conduzido em casa de vegetação no Campus JK da UFVJM, no delineamento experimental inteiramente casualizado, com três repetições com uma planta por vaso em solução nutritiva. Os tratamentos foram: Completo (macro e micronutrientes) e a omissão de um nutriente por vez (-N, -P, -K, -Ca, -Mg , -S, -B, -Cu, -Fe, -Mn e -Zn) em solução nutritiva e dois genótipos (Prata-Ana e seu híbrido PA42-44). A adubação no tratamento completo consistiu de: 210,1 mg de N, 31 mg de P, 234,6 mg de K, 200,4 mg de Ca, 48,6 mg de Mg, 64,2 mg de S, 500 ?g de B, 20 ?g de Cu, 648 ?g de Cl, 5.022 ?g de Fe, 502 ?g de Mn, 11 ?g de Mo e 50 ?g de Zn por litro. O período experimental foi de 100 dias e foram avaliadas as seguintes características: área foliar, peso de massa seca da parte aérea e de raízes. O genótipo Prata-Anã é mais exigente em N e Ca e é menos exigente em K e Mg e micronutrientes do que o genótipo PA42-44, tendo a mesma exigência em P, S e B

Macromolecular and electrical coupling between inner hair cells in the rodent cochlea

Inner hair cells (IHCs) are the primary receptors for hearing. They are housed in the cochlea and convey sound information to the brain via synapses with the auditory nerve. IHCs have been thought to be electrically and metabolically independent from each other. We report that, upon developmental maturation, in mice 30% of the IHCs are electrochemically coupled in ‘mini-syncytia’. This coupling permits transfer of fluorescently-labeled metabolites and macromolecular tracers. The membrane capacitance, Ca2+-current, and resting current increase with the number of dye-coupled IHCs. Dual voltage-clamp experiments substantiate low resistance electrical coupling. Pharmacology and tracer permeability rule out coupling by gap junctions and purinoceptors. 3D electron microscopy indicates instead that IHCs are coupled by membrane fusion sites. Consequently, depolarization of one IHC triggers presynaptic Ca2+-influx at active zones in the entire mini-syncytium. Based on our findings and modeling, we propose that IHC-mini-syncytia enhance sensitivity and reliability of cochlear sound encoding

Surgical resection is superior to TACE in the treatment of HCC in a well selected cohort of BCLC-B elderly patients—A retrospective observational study

Simple Summary Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary liver malignancy. Liver transplantation (LT) and surgical resection (SR) are currently the primary treatments with curative intent. Nevertheless, more than two-thirds of patients are elderly and, therefore, excluded from LT; while, according to the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) system, SR should only be offered to a small group of patients with early stage HCC. The identification in stage B of an intermediate subgroup of patients that fulfill the criteria for surgery may play an important role in the implementation of potentially curative treatments. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) usually develops in cirrhotic liver, with high recurrence rates. However, considering its increasing detection in non-cirrhotic liver, the choice of treatment assumes particular relevance. This study aimed to investigate outcomes of patients among BCLC stages and enrolled for surgical resection (SR) according to a more complex evaluation, to establish its safety and efficacy. A total of 186 selected HCC patients (median age 73.2 yrs), submitted to SR between January 2005 and January 2021, were retrospectively analyzed. Of which, 166 were staged 0, A, B according to the BCLC system, while 20 with a single large tumor (>5 cm) were classified as stage AB. No perioperative mortality was recorded; complications occurred in 48 (25.80%) patients, and all but two were Clavien-Dindo grade I-II. Median follow-up was 9.2 years. Subsequently, 162 recurrent patients (87,1%) were selected for new treatments. Comparable overall survival rates (OS) were observed at 1, 3, 5, and 10 years in 0, A, B and AB stages (p = 0.2). Eventually, the BCLC-B group was matched to 40 BCLC-B patients treated (2015-2021) with TACE. Significant differences in baseline characteristics (p <0.0001) and in OS were observed at 1 and 3 years (p <0.0001); a significant difference was also observed in oncological outcomes, in terms of the absence, residual, or relapse of disease (p <0.05). Surgery might be a valid treatment in HCC for patients affected by chronic liver disease in a condition of compensation, up to BCLC-B stage. Surgical indication for liver resection in case of HCC should be extensively revised

From the sinh-Gordon field theory to the one-dimensional Bose gas: exact local correlations and full counting statistics

We derive exact formulas for the expectation value of local observables in a one-dimensional gas of bosons with point-wise repulsive interactions (Lieb-Liniger model). Starting from a recently conjectured expression for the expectation value of vertex operators in the sinh-Gordon field theory, we derive explicit analytic expressions for the one-point K-body correlation functions \u27e8(\u3a8\u2020)K(\u3a8)K\u27e9 in the Lieb-Liniger gas, for arbitrary integer K. These are valid for all excited states in the thermodynamic limit, including thermal states, generalized Gibbs ensembles and non-equilibrium steady states arising in transport settings. Our formulas display several physically interesting applications: most prominently, they allow us to compute the full counting statistics for the particle-number fluctuations in a short interval. Furthermore, combining our findings with the recently introduced generalized hydrodynamics, we are able to study multi-point correlation functions at the Eulerian scale in non-homogeneous settings. Our results complement previous studies in the literature and provide a full solution to the problem of computing one-point functions in the Lieb Liniger model