Airlines' Privatisation in Europe: Fully versus Partial Divestiture

We study the experience of the three fully privatised European airlines: British Airways, Lufthansa and Iberia. All airlines have undergone a deep restructuring much before (and in view of) the privatisation, with the state bearing most of the related financial cost (especially in the cases of Lufthansa and British Airways), and have taken over (before, after or in the same year of the privatisation) their main domestic competitors. Following full privatisation, labour productivity (particularly for Iberia and Lufthansa) and profitability increase compared to other major European state-controlled airlines; production capacity grows compared to the pre-privatisation period, as well as average salaries (though reflecting the increased labour productivity). Preliminary evidences from stock returns show that investors do not seem require a premium for political risk to invest in shares of fully privatised airlines. In general, these results imply that government ownership in the airline industry can be detrimental, at least to firms’ efficiency, while full privatisation does not seem to expose private shareholders to significant political risk.

A comparison of fuzzy approaches for training a humanoid robotic football player

© 2017 IEEE. Fuzzy Systems are an efficient instrument to create efficient and transparent models of the behavior of complex dynamic systems such as autonomous humanoid robots. The human interpretability of these models is particularly significant when it is applied to the cognitive robotics research, in which the models are designed to study the behaviors and produce a better understanding of the underlying processes of the cognitive development. From this research point of view, this paper presents a comparative study on training fuzzy based system to control the autonomous navigation and task execution of a humanoid robot controlled in a soccer scenario. Examples of sensor data are collected via a computer simulation, then we compare the performance of several fuzzy algorithms able to learn and optimize the humanoid robot's actions from the data

A self-immolative linker for the pH-responsive release of amides

The administration of therapeutics using bioconjugation has been mainly limited to drugs containing amine, alcohol, or thiol functional groups. Here, we report a general procedure for the preparation of benzylic N-acyl carbamates suitable for masking the amide group in important drugs such as Linezolid, Enzalutamide, or Tasimelteon in good to acceptable yields. These N-acyl carbamates appear to be stable in plasma, while a qualitative analysis of further drug uncage demonstrates that, at pH values of 5.5, a classical 1,6-benzyl elimination mechanism takes place, releasing more than 80% of the drug in 24 h. © 2023 by the authors

Involvement of bovine lactoferrin metal saturation, sialic acid and protein fragments in the inhibition of rotavirus infection

Although the antiviral activity of lactoferrin is one of the major biological functions of this iron binding protein, the mechanism of action is still under debate. We have investigated the role of metal binding, of sialic acid and of tryptic fragments of bovine lactoferrin (bLf) in the activity towards rotavirus (intestinal pathogen naked virus) infecting enterocyte-like cells. The antiviral activity of bLf fully saturated with manganese or zinc was slightly decreased compared to that observed for apo- or iron-saturated bLf. The antiviral activity of differently metal-saturated bLf towards rotavirus was exerted during and after the virus attachment step. The removal of sialic acid enhanced the anti-rotavirus activity of bLf. Among all the peptidic fragments obtained by tryptic digestion of bLf and characterised by advanced mass spectrometric methodologies, a large fragment (86-258) and a small peptide (324-329: YLTTLK) were able to inhibit rotavirus even if at lower extent than undigested bLf. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

RRAML: Reinforced Retrieval Augmented Machine Learning

The emergence of large language models (LLMs) has revolutionized machine learning and related fields, showcasing remarkable abilities in comprehending, generating, and manipulating human language. However, their conventional usage through API-based text prompt submissions imposes certain limitations in terms of context constraints and external source availability. To address these challenges, we propose a novel framework called Reinforced Retrieval Augmented Machine Learning (RRAML). RRAML integrates the reasoning capabilities of LLMs with supporting information retrieved by a purpose-built retriever from a vast user-provided database. By leveraging recent advancements in reinforcement learning, our method effectively addresses several critical challenges. Firstly, it circumvents the need for accessing LLM gradients. Secondly, our method alleviates the burden of retraining LLMs for specific tasks, as it is often impractical or impossible due to restricted access to the model and the computational intensity involved. Additionally we seamlessly link the retriever's task with the reasoner, mitigating hallucinations and reducing irrelevant, and potentially damaging retrieved documents. We believe that the research agenda outlined in this paper has the potential to profoundly impact the field of AI, democratizing access to and utilization of LLMs for a wide range of entities

TOF Sensor Network for AAL Monitoring Services

AbstractThe main goal of Ambient Assisted Living solutions is to provide assistive technologies and services in smart environments allowing to elderly people to have high quality of life. Since Time-Of-Flight vision technologies are increasingly investigated as monitoring solution able to outperform traditional approaches, in this work a monitoring framework based on a Time-Of-Flight sensor network has been investigated with the aim to provide a wide-range solution suitable in several assisted living scenarios. Detector nodes are managed by a low-power embedded PC to process Time-Of-Flight streams and extract features related with person's activities. The feature level of detail is tuned in an application-driven manner in order to optimize both bandwidth and computational resources. The event detection capabilities were validated by using data collected in real-home environments

Capsule impaction presenting as acute small bowel perforation: a case series

INTRODUCTION: Perforation caused by capsule endoscopy impaction is extremely rare and, at present, only five cases of perforation from capsule endoscopy impaction are reported in the literature. CASE PRESENTATION: We report here two cases of patients with undiagnosed small bowel stenosis presenting with acute perforation after capsule endoscopy. Strictures in the small bowel were likely the inciting mechanism leading to acute small bowel obstruction and subsequent distension and perforation above the capsule in the area of maximal serosal tension. Case 1 was a 55-year-old Italian woman who underwent capsule endoscopy because of recurrent postprandial cramping pain and iron deficiency anemia, in the setting of negative imaging studies including an abdominal ultrasound, upper endoscopy, colonoscopy and small bowel follow-through radiograph. She developed a symptomatic bowel obstruction approximately 36 hours after ingestion of the capsule. Emergent surgery was performed to remove the capsule, which was impacted at a stenosis due to a previously undiagnosed ileal adenocarcinoma, leading to perforation. Case 2 was a 60-year-old Italian man with recurrent episodes of abdominal pain and diarrhea who underwent capsule endoscopy after conventional modalities, including comprehensive blood and stool studies, computed tomography, an abdominal ultrasound, upper endoscopy, colonoscopy, barium enema and small bowel follow-through, were not diagnostic. Our patient developed abdominal distension, acute periumbilical pain, fever and leukocytosis 20 hours after capsule ingestion. Emergent surgery was performed to remove the capsule, which was impacted at a previously undiagnosed ileal Crohn’s stricture, leading to perforation. CONCLUSIONS: The present report shows that, although the risk of acute complication is very low, the patient should be informed of the risks involved in capsule endoscopy, including the need for emergency surgical exploration

Disinfection by-Products and Ecotoxic Risk Associated with Hypochlorite Treatment of Tramadol

In recent years, many studies have highlighted the consistent finding of tramadol (TRA) in the effluents from wastewater treatment plants (WTPs) and also in some rivers and lakes in both Europe and North America, suggesting that TRA is removed by no more than 36% by specific disinfection treatments. The extensive use of this drug has led to environmental pollution of both water and soil, up to its detection in growing plants. In order to expand the knowledge about TRA toxicity as well as the nature of its disinfection by-products (DBPs), a simulation of the waste treatment chlorination step has been reported herein. In particular, we found seven new by-products, that together with TRA, have been assayed on different living organisms (Aliivibrio fischeri, Raphidocelis subcapitata and Daphnia magna), to test their acute and chronic toxicity. The results reported that TRA may be classified as a harmful compound to some aquatic organisms whereas its chlorinated product mixture showed no effects on any of the organisms tested. All data suggest however that TRA chlorination treatment produces a variety of DBPs which can be more harmful than TRA and a risk for the aquatic environment and human health

Rare earth elements in human and animal health: State of art and research priorities

"Background: A number of applications have been developed using rare earth elements (REE), implying several human exposures and raising unsolved questions as to REE-associated health effects. Methods: A MedLine survey was retrieved from early reports (1980s) up to June 2015, focused on human and animal exposures to REE. Literature from animal models was selected focusing on REE-associated health effects. Results: Some REE occupational exposures, in jobs such as glass polishers, photoengravers and movie projectionists showed a few case reports on health effects affecting the respiratory system. No case-control or cohort studies of occupational REE exposures were retrieved. Environmental exposures have been biomonitored in populations residing in REE mining areas, showing REE accumulation. The case for a iatrogenic REE exposure was raised by the use of gadolinium-based contrast agents for nuclear magnetic resonance. Animal toxicity studies have shown REE toxicity, affecting a number of endpoints in liver, lungs and blood. On the other hand, the use of REE as feed additives in livestock is referred as a safe and promising device in zootechnical activities, possibly suggesting a hormetic effect both known for REE and for other xenobiotics. Thus, investigations on long-term exposures and observations are warranted. Conclusion: The state of art provides a limited definition of the health effects in occupationally or environmentally REE-exposed human populations. Research priorities should be addressed to case-control or cohort studies of REE-exposed humans and to life-long animal experiments. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

PULCHER – Pulsed Chemical Rocket with Green High Performance Propellants: Project Overview

PulCheR is a research project co-funded by the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n°313271, officially started as of January 1st, 2013. The project is mainly aimed at demonstrating the feasibility of a pulsed propulsion system in which the propellants are fed in the combustion chamber at low pressure and the thrust is generated by means of high frequency pulses, reproducing the defence mechanism of a notable insect: the bombardier beetle. The suitable design of the feeding lines, comprehensive of the injectors, allows the low pressure injection of the correct amount of propellants into the combustion chamber: the decomposition or combustion reaction increase the chamber pressure that rises to values much higher than the one at which the propellants are stored, exploiting the advantages of quasi constant volume combustion. The combustion products are accelerated through a convergent-divergent nozzle generating the thrust pulse and once the pressure inside the combustion chamber decreases under the injection pressure, the cycle can be repeated. The feasibility of this new propulsion concept will be investigated at breadboard level in both mono and bipropellant configurations through the design, realization and testing of a platform of the overall propulsion system including all its main components. In addition, the concept will be investigated using green propellants with potential similar performance to the current state-of-the-art for monopropellant and bipropellant thrusters. The present paper aims at presenting the main objectives and the current status of the PulCheR project