THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION IN THE CAP DECISION MAKING: A CASE STUDY ON THE SUGAR REFORM

This paper represents the first step of a wider research project on the relation between the EU institutional settings and the policy outcome. We specifically tackle the CAP definition process and the role of the Commission inside consultation procedure, proposing a case study on the sugar CMO reform of 2006. Using and adapting the theoretical framework proposed by Putnam (1988) we first check the suitability of sugar for such analysis than we reconstruct the various phases of the sugar CMO definition process evaluating qualitatively, the main issue in discussion, MSs position in relation also to the final outcome and the role played by the Commission in this context. The analysis is carried out as a documental study in which we collected and evaluate the documents produced by different bodies during the reform process together with interviews with commission internals in order to validate our hypothesis. The objective is to point out winners and losers of the reform process, highlighting the circumstances in which the Commission could have acted in order to compensate losers. Moreover, understand how such compensations could have helped the Commission in safeguarding the guidelines for the reform it supports.CAP Reform, Sugar reform, Institutional settings, Consultation procedure, CMO, Agricultural and Food Policy, Political Economy, Q10, Q18.,

The European Policy for Food Quality and the Fischlers Reform

Fischlers Reform of the Cap has introduced economic support to reinforce the range of instruments aimed at promoting food quality. Before the Reform, European Union market intervention for food quality was confined to the regulatory ground. The paper discusses the economic justifications for financial aid in the case of quality improvement and in the case of information circulation and provision of assurance to consumers. The possibility to add new Quality Schemes at the existing ones is criticized because of the information overcrowding. Furthermore, it is argued that a race to the bottom mechanism could be enforced as a result of the introduction of the possibility to settle Quality Schemes on a national basis. The paper also shows that the unsatisfactory functioning of existing Quality Schemes could be better faced by simplification of the whole quality certification system; by a communication effort at a general level and not only for single Quality Schemes; and by a better coordination of the different strategies of the different stakeholders in the food chains.Quality Schemes, Cap Reform, Information, Reputation, Economic Support, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Efficient abstraction of clock synchronization at the operating system level

Distributed embedded systems are emerging and gaining importance in various domains, including industrial control applications where time determinism – hence network clock synchronization – is fundamental. In modern applications, moreover, this core functionality is required by many different software components, from OS kernel and radio stack up to applications. An abstraction layer devoted to handling time needs therefore introducing, and to encapsulate time corrections at the lowest possible level, the said layer should take the form of a timer device driver offering a Virtual Clock to the entire system. In this paper we show that doing so introduces a nonlinearity in the dynamics of the clock, and we design a controller based on feedback linearization to handle the issue. To put the idea to work, we extend the Miosix RTOS with a generic interface allowing to implement virtual clocks, including the newly designed controller that we call FLOPSYNC-3 after its ancestor. Also, we introduce the resulting virtual clock in the TDMH [20] real-time wireless mesh protocol

Uniqueness of Invariant Lagrangian Graphs in a Homology or a Cohomology Class

Given a smooth compact Riemannian manifold $M$ and a Hamiltonian $H$ on the cotangent space $T^*M$, strictly convex and superlinear in the momentum variables, we prove uniqueness of certain ergodic invariant Lagrangian graphs within a given homology or cohomology class. In particular, in the context of quasi-integrable Hamiltonian systems, our result implies global uniqueness of Lagrangian KAM tori with rotation vector $\rho$. This result extends generically to the $C^0$-closure of KAM tori.Comment: 20 pages. Version published on Ann. Sc. Norm. Super. Pisa Cl. Sci.(5) Vol. 8, no. 4, 659-680, 200

Coordination Mechanisms along the Supply Chain: a Key-Factor for Competitiveness

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the role of relationships between stakeholders in the supply chain as a potential source of competitive advantage. In the case study, we focus on the wine industry in the Lazio Region (Italy). We observe a significant loss of competitiveness in this industry and we suggest that a higher level of communication and different coordination mechanisms among stakeholders could help in recovering a better market position. We focus on the linkages between farmers and the other food chain stakeholders through the perspective of Institutional Economics and Economics of Organization, in order to identify the key factors that determine the competitiveness of the supply chain’s product. The Lazio wine supply chain is investigated through the analysis of official data, integrated with primary data, collected through in-person interviews and questionnaires addressed to producers and experts. It emerges that the wine supply chain in the Lazio Region is characterized by a serious decline, suggested by a sharp decrease in production and sales, low reputation among experts, widespread negative consumers perception. We interpret this turn-down through the structural features of the market and through the low level of communication and coordination between the agents. This leads to the identification of potential instruments able to deal with the difficulties highlighted. We emphasize the role of public institutions in fostering communication and cooperation among firms and suggest the potential role of a web portal, in linking sellers and buyers in a common network

Strengthening Farmers’ Bargaining Power in the New CAP

The food supply chain plays a substantial role in the European economy. Agricultural markets are highly interdependent and competition at different stages of the supply chain matters for the overall functioning of the entire food sector. Welfare and distributional implications of competition at any stage of the food supply chain concern several ‘weak subjects’ such as small farmers and consumers who negotiate with “strong subjects” operating in more concentrated (industrial and retailing) sectors. In order to balance power across the EU agro-food supply chain and achieve a more sustainable distribution of value-added, the main instruments featuring the new paradigm of market organisation proposed by the CAP reform are Producer Organisation, Association Producer Organisation and Inter-Branch Organisation. We employ a simple bargaining model aimed to identify the determinants of the bargaining power in the food supply chain; the model is used to assess the capability of POs to strengthen farmers’ bargaining power. The results show that, under certain conditions, the joint selling and production planning can be effective tools for rebalancing power in the agro-food system. We also concluded that requiring a minimum size for POs may improve their effectiveness. Such requirement should be calibrated on the structure of the downstream (upstream) relevant market: more consolidated buyer (seller) industries call for larger POs

Interferon free antiviral treatment of chronic hepatitis C in patients affected by β-thalassemia major

Chronic hepatitis C (CHC) significantly affects the prognosis of liver disease [1] and health related quality of life (HRQOL) in patients with β-thalassemia major [2, 3]. CHC cure is a crucial event in the prognosis of the disease, since prevents fibrosis progression, decreases the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and improves survival. Standard antiviral therapy with Pegylated Interferon (PEG-IFN) and Ribavirin (RBV) has long been the standard of care, despite its limited efficacy and increased ribavirin induced hematological adverse events in thalassemic patients [4]. Recently, several novel highly effective direct antiviral agents (DAAs) have been approved for HCV treatment, with impressive cure rates, higher than 90%, after 8–12 weeks of therapy and mild adverse events [5], but there are no published reports documenting the efficacy, safety and impact on QOL of available interferon-free antiviral regimens in patients with βthalassemia majo

Brain Networks and Cognitive Impairment in Parkinson's Disease

: Aim: The aim of the present study is to investigate the relationship between both functional connectivity and brain networks with cognitive decline, in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Introduction: PD phenotype is not limited to motor impairment but, rather, a wide range of non-motor disturbances can occur, with cognitive impairment being one of the most common. However, how the large-scale organization of brain activity differs in cognitively impaired patients, as opposed to cognitively preserved ones, remains poorly understood. Methods: Starting from source-reconstructed resting-state magnetoencephalography data, we applied the phase linearity measurement (PLM) to estimate functional connectivity, globally and between brain areas, in PD patients with and without cognitive impairment (respectively PD-CI and PD-NC), as compared with healthy subjects (HS). Further, using graph analysis, we characterized the alterations in brain network topology and related these, as well as the functional connectivity, to cognitive performance. Results: We found reduced global and nodal PLM in several temporal (fusiform gyrus, Heschl's gyrus, and inferior temporal gyrus), parietal (postcentral gyrus), and occipital (lingual gyrus) areas within the left hemisphere, in the gamma band, in PD-CI patients, as compared with PD-NC and HS. With regard to the global topological features, PD-CI patients, as compared with HS and PD-NC patients, showed differences in multi-frequencies bands (delta, alpha, gamma) in the Leaf fraction, Tree hierarchy (Th) (both higher in PD-CI), and Diameter (lower in PD-CI). Finally, we found statistically significant correlations between the Montreal Cognitive Assessment test and both the Diameter in delta band and the Th in the alpha band. Conclusion: Our work points to specific large-scale rearrangements that occur selectively in cognitively compromised PD patients and are correlated to cognitive impairment. Impact statement In this article, we want to test the hypothesis that the cognitive decline observed in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients may be related to specific changes of both functional connectivity and brain network topology. Specifically, starting from magnetoencephalography signals and by applying the phase linearity measurement (PLM), a connectivity metric that measures the synchronization between brain regions, we were able to highlight differences in the global and nodal PLM values in PD patients with cognitive impairment as compared with both cognitively unimpaired patients and healthy subjects. Further, using graph analysis, we analyzed alterations in brain network topology that were related to cognitive functioning

Identification of lumped stiffness parameters for a motorcycle model in investigating weave and wobble

In motorcycle dynamics, great importance is attributed to the study of the weave and wobble vibration modes and, in particular, to the effects of the flexibility of structural components on their stability. Therefore, appropriate motorcycle models for studying weave and wobble should include flexible elements for describing the flexural behavior of components such as the main frame, front assembly, and rear swingarm. Different approaches are possible formodeling flexibilities: the most common among them are the lumped stiffness and the flexible multibody approaches. While the latter certainly provides higher accuracy, the former has advantages in terms of computational load, but, above all, it makes it easier to understand in the design phase how technical parameters, such as torsional and bending stiffness of a given structural component, can influence the stability of weave and wobble. The accuracy of lumped stiffness models strongly depends on parameter identification. In this study, a general method is proposed to determine appropriate lumped stiffness parameters for any given motorcycle component. The proposed method is tested and validated by comparing the weave and wobble modal behavior with the results of flexible multibody analysis. The lumped stiffness model is then adopted to carry out a sensitivity analysis aimed at identifying the effects on the weave and wobble stability of the torsional and bending stiffness of specific structural components of the motorcycle to optimize their design

Glucocorticoid receptor signalling activates YAP in breast cancer

The Hippo pathway is an oncosuppressor signalling cascade that plays a major role in the control of cell growth, tissue homoeostasis and organ size. Dysregulation of the Hippo pathway leads to aberrant activation of the transcription co-activator YAP (Yes-associated protein) that contributes to tumorigenesis in several tissues. Here we identify glucocorticoids (GCs) as hormonal activators of YAP. Stimulation of glucocorticoid receptor (GR) leads to increase of YAP protein levels, nuclear accumulation and transcriptional activity in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, we find that GCs increase expression and deposition of fibronectin leading to the focal adhesion-Src pathway stimulation, cytoskeleton-dependent YAP activation and expansion of chemoresistant cancer stem cells. GR activation correlates with YAP activity in human breast cancer and predicts bad prognosis in the basal-like subtype. Our results unveil a novel mechanism of YAP activation in cancer and open the possibility to target GR to prevent cancer stem cells self-renewal and chemoresistance