Finance, Market, Globalization: Lessons from the 2007-09 Crisis

Never before has finance been regarded with the suspicion of these past three years. Yet money and credit are part of what enabled human beings to overcome the barbarism of immanence, the savagery of a life ruled by consumption for survival. The critical rethinking of finance involves the very notion of market economy and the globalized dimension it has reached. Who failed in this crisis, the State or the Market? The State, although by virtue of a paradox. Is globalization the culprit? No. A different financial system must emerge from the 2007-09 crisis: freed from the "idolatry of laissez-faire", but not thrown back into obsolete technologies or permanently restrained by anachronistic "real socialism" bridles.Financial Crises, Financial Systems, Bank Supervision, Crisis Management, Liberalism, Globalization, Regulation

Finance, Market, Globalization: Lessons from the 2007-09 Crisis

Never before has finance been regarded with the suspicion of these past three years. Yet money and credit are part of what enabled human beings to overcome the barbarism of immanence, the savagery of a life ruled by consumption for survival. The critical rethinking of finance involves the very notion of market economy and the globalized dimension it has reached. Who failed in this crisis, the State or the Market? The State, although by virtue of a paradox. Is globalization the culprit? No. A different financial system must emerge from the 2007-09 crisis: freed from the “idolatry of laissez-faire”, but not thrown back into obsolete technologies or permanently restrained by anachronistic “real socialism” bridles

From custom to law, an economic rationale behind the black lettering

This article employs the number of rule recipients in order to explain the transformation of some customs into laws. The publication of rules may mark the reaching of the threshold number beyond which the spontaneous rule leaves room for the State intervention. In addition, the publication resolves a couple of questions that Hayek left unresolved. Examples are provided from ancient merchant customs and contemporary international law

Midfrontal theta transcranial alternating current stimulation modulates behavioural adjustment after error execution

Cognitive control during conflict monitoring, error processing, and post-error adjustment appear to be associated with the occurrence of midfrontal theta (MFϴ). While this association is supported by correlational EEG studies, much less is known about the possible causal link between MFϴ and error and conflict processing. In the present study, we aimed to explore the role of band-specific effects in modulating the error system during a conflict resolution. In turn, we delivered transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) at different frequency bands (delta δ, theta θ, alpha α, beta β, gamma γ) and sham stimulation over the medial frontal cortex (MFC) in 36 healthy participants performing a modified version of the Flanker task. Task performance and reports about the sensations (e.g. visual flickering, cutaneous burning) induced by the different frequency bands, were also recorded. We found that online θ-tACS increased the response speed to congruent stimuli after error execution with respect to sham stimulation. Importantly, the accuracy following the errors did not decrease because of speed-accuracy trade off. Moreover, tACS evoked visual and somatosensory sensations were significantly stronger at α-tACS and β-tACS compared to other frequencies. Our findings suggest that theta activity plays a causative role in modulating behavioural adjustments during perceptual choices in a stimulus-response conflict task. © 2018 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Lt

A One-Pot Synthesis of "K(hfa) glyme" Adducts: Effect of the Polyether Length on the Ion Coordination Sphere

AbstractPotassium complexes are starting to gather more and more interest from academia and industry because of their intriguing application possibilities. Novel adducts of potassium hexafluoroacetylacetonato [K(hfa)] with polyethers (monoglyme, diglyme, triglyme, and tetraglyme) were synthesized through a single step reaction and characterized through FT‐IR spectroscopy as well as 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy. Single crystal X‐ray diffraction studies enabled the identification of fascinating K coordination polymeric networks

Robot Assisted 3D Shape Acquisition Optical Systems

In this chapter, a short description of the basic concepts about optical methods for the acquisition of three-dimensional shapes is first presented. Then two applications of the surface reconstruction are presented: the passive technique Shape from Silhouettes and the active technique Laser Triangolation. With both these techniques the sensors (telecameras and laser beam) were moved and oriented by means of a robot arm. In fact, for complex objects, it is important that the measuring device can move along arbitrary paths and make its measurements from suitable directions. This chapter shows how a standard industrial robot with a laser profile scanner can be used to achieve the desired d-o-f. Finally some experimental results of shape acquisition by means of the Laser Triangolation technique are reported

Basal cell carcinoma: 10-year experience with electrochemotherapy

BACKGROUND: Electrochemotherapy (ECT), by combining manageable cytotoxic agents with short electric pulses, represents an effective palliative skin-directed therapy. The accumulated evidence indicates that ECT stands out as a safe and well-tolerated alternative treatment for patients with multiple or large basal cell carcinoma (BCC), who are not suitable for conventional treatments. However, long-term data and shared indications are lacking. METHODS: In this observational study, we retrospectively analyzed 84 prospectively collected patients with multiple, recurrent or locally advanced BCC who were not candidate for standard therapies and received bleomycin-based ECT according to the European Standard Operative Procedures of ECT, from 2006 to 2016. RESULTS: Disease extent was local, locally advanced and metastatic in 40 (48%), 41 (49%) and 3 (3%), respectively. Forty-four (52%) individuals had multiple BCCs. Grade 3 skin toxicity after ECT was observed in 6% of cases. Clearance rate was 50% (95% CI 39-61%). Primary presentation (p = 0.004), tumor size <3 cm (p < 0.001), well-defined borders (p = 0.021), absence of tumor ulceration (p = 0.001), non-aggressive BCC histology (p = 0.046) and age 6469 years were associated with higher complete response rate. In patients with local BCC, the clearance rate was 72.5 and 85% after one or two ECT cycles, respectively. In the laBCC group, 32 patients (78%) achieved an objective response. Five-year recurrence rate for local and laBCC was 20 and 38%, respectively (p 64 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: One or two ECT cycles with bleomycin may be a valuable palliative treatment in well-selected patients with multiple BCCs and favorable tumor features. Validation of predictive factors will be imperative to match patients with optimal ECT treatment modalities. Management of laBCC with ECT warrants further investigation. Trial registration ISRCTN14633165 Registered 24 March 2017 (retrospectively registered)

Chapter A Techno Social Collaborative Platform to Manage Optimize and Crowdfund Cultural Heritage Initiatives

This paper presents the first results of HERIBITS, a research project co-funded by the Tuscany Region Government, under the Operative Regional Program FESR POR 2014-2020. The project proposes an innovative methodology as well as advanced technology platform enabling a new paradigm for bottom-up and top-down management of cultural heritage initiatives. The techno-social platform integrates collaborative tools for CrowdSourcing, as well as analysis tools for rating project ideas and evaluate socio-economic impact, to propose best practices and to detect similar initiatives in order to avoid project duplications. The platform provides also social network capabilities and integrates an ad-hoc CrowdFunding shop

Robot assisted 3D shape acquisition by optical systems

In this chapter, a short description of the basic concepts about optical methods for the acquisition of three-dimensional shapes is first presented. Then two applications of the surface reconstruction are presented: the passive technique Shape from Silhouettes and the active technique Laser Triangolation. With both these techniques the sensors (telecameras and laser beam) were moved and oriented by means of a robot arm. In fact, for complex objects, it is important that the measuring device can move along arbitrary paths and make its measurements from suitable directions. This chapter shows how a standard industrial robot with a laser profile scanner can be used to achieve the desired d-o-f. Finally some experimental results of shape acquisition by means of the Laser Triangolation technique are reported