Regional business competitiveness : medium and low-technology production systems in Northern Greece

Successful regional integration in global competitive networks depends more than ever before on regional capacities for technological absorption and diffusion. Regional development inequalities are the outcome of different levels of technological adjustment and innovativeness in the regional business sector. This paper explores the technological adjustment capacity of the industrial regions of Northern Greece, which are characterised by traditional manufacturing specialisation – for long now declining due to global competition and currently, due to the recent crisis. The determinants of regional business competitiveness and economic performance are explored. The analysis substantiates that even in industrial agglomerations of traditional specialisation, competitiveness lies in technological advancement and not in labour cost compression.peer-reviewe

A rare case of multiple congenital malformations in a piglet

Περιγράφεται η περίπτωση ενός αρσενικού χοιριδίου φυλής Landrace που παρουσίασε συγγενή πολλαπλή διαμαρτία διάπλασης Οι συγγενείς διαμαρτίες διάπλασης περιγράφονται πιο συχνά στο χοίρο από τα άλλα κατοικίδια ζώα. Το χοιρίδιο γεννήθηκε από μια χοιρομητέρα ηλικίας 17 μηνών, μαζί με άλλα 5 χοιρίδια. Στη χοιρομητέρα κατά τη διάρκεια της εγκυμοσύνης δεν είχε δοθεί κανένα φάρμακο ή ορμόνη. Η διατροφή της επίσης ήτανε ισορροπημένη. Κλινικά το χοιρίδιο παρουσίαζε αρθρογρύπωση των οπισθίων άκρων. Οι μύες του αριστερού οπίσθιου άκρου ήτανε ατροφικοί. Παρουσίαζε επίσης βραχυγναθία άνω γνάθου. Σταδιακά άρχισε να μειώνεται η όρεξη και να καθυστερεί η ανάπτυξη του μέχρι της ηλικίας των 50 ημερών που ψόφησε. Παρουσίαζε έλκη κατάκλισης στο πρόσωπο και στον αριστερό καρπό, ενώ η ουρά είχε νεκρωθεί. Σε ακτινογραφία των οπισθίων άκρων παρατηρήθηκε απλασία του αριστερού λαγονίου ενώ το αριστερό ισχιακό και το ηβικό ήτανε πολύ μικρότερα από του δεξιού ημιμορίου. Επίσης το αριστερό μηριαίο και η κνήμη ήτανε μικρότερα από τα αντίστοιχα δεξιά. Στη νεκροψία τα εσωτερικά μονοφυή όργανα ήτανε φυσιολογικά ενώ τά διφυή ήτανε ανισομεγέθη. Οι θηλές αριστερά ήτανε 7 και δεξιά 9. Τα ευρήματα από το σκελετό ήσαν: Στο κεφάλι παρατηρήθηκε μόνο βραχυγναθία άνω γνάθου. Οι αυχενικοί σπόνδυλοι ήτανε 7, οι θωρακικοί 16. Ο 11ος θωρακικός είχε δύο εγκάρσια τρήματα αριστερά. Ο 16ος θωρακικός δεν είχε εγκάρσιο τρήμα δεξιά. Οι οσφυϊκοί ήτανε 6. Οι αριστερές εγκάρσιες αποφύσεις ήτανε μικρότερες από τις δεξιές. Ο 5ος και 6ος οσφυϊκός δεν είχαν εγκάρσιες αποφύσεις. Το Ιερό οστούν αποτελείτο από 4 σπονδύλους. Οι κοκκυγικοί ήτανε μόνο 6 γιατί οι υπόλοιποι είχαν νεκρωθεί. Το στέρνο αποτελείτο από 10 τμήματα. Οι πλευρές ήτανε 8 ζεύγη αληθείς και 8 ζεύγη ψευδείς. Οι αριστερές πλευρές ήτανε κοντότερες από τις δεξιές. Όλα τα οστά του αριστερού οπισθίου άκρου ήτανε μικρότερα από του δεξιού. Ο βαθμός αρθρογρύπωσης του αριστερού οπισθίου άκρου ήτανε μεγαλύτερος από του δεξιού άκρου. Τα δεδομένα μας δεν είναι αρκετά για να διερευνηθεί αν το αίτιο που προκάλεσε αυτή την πολλαπλή δυσπλασία είναι κληρονομικό ή αποτέλεσμα περιβαλλοντικών παραγόντωνIt is described a case of multiple congenital malformations in a Landrace male piglet which lived for 50 days. It showed brachygnathia superior, arthrogryposis of hind limbs, malformations of the lumbar vertebrae and the sacrum, aplasia of the left ilium and of the muscles of the lift thigh and femur. Also all the bones of the left hind limb were shorter than the right ones. Malformations of the sternum and the ribs were present. The left ribs were shorter than the right ones The left lung, kidney and testicle were much shorter than the right ones. The causative agent was unknowh

THE EFFECT OF A GOAL SETTING EXERCISE PROGRAM ON IMPROVING UPPER BODY STRENGTH, LOWER EXTREMITY STRENGTH, BALANCE AND COMMITMENT TO EXERCISE OF PATIENTS WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA

The purpose was to examine the effect of goal setting on improving upper body strength, lower extremity strength and balance of individuals with schizophrenia and to monitor the effect of goal setting toward commitment to exercise of schizophrenia patients. The sample consisted of four patients with schizophrenia, aged 48 to 58 years old, all randomly selected and separated into two groups (control and experiment). All patients were already involved in exercising twice per week of 45 minutes each session, within psychiatry hospital premises. Additional goals for experimental group individuals included two extra 10-15 minutes of workout per week to improve post measure results. Instruments used prior and after the application of the goal setting intervention program included the Five times sit to stand test, the Arm curl test and the Time up and go test. Results showed that participants of the experiment group improved their performance in all post measures while control group individuals also improved their scores in two out of the three tests used in this study. Although no generalizations can be made due to the small sample of this study, goal setting seems to have the potential to promote exercise commitment and adoption in patients with schizophrenia.  Article visualizations

Hedge Fund Returns under Crisis Scenarios: A Holistic Approach

The assets of the hedge fund industry are nearly equivalent to the GDP of the UK. The industry, which claims returns independent of markets conditions and has been blamed for economic crises, has attracted the interest of a wide range of financial and political players and academics. This paper, using monthly series performance data since January 1995, at a fund strategy level and S&P500, and a holistic and a developed dynamic correlation quantitative approach, aims to challenge the allegations and the claims, which have been made on rather incomplete research grounds. Statistically, the results strongly reject the claims of the vast majority of fund strategies, excluding the case of the macro and short strategies, over the crisis periods, suggesting that they cannot protect their investors like S&P500. Regarding the allegations, it is inferred that Hedge Funds are used in most cases as a scapegoat rather than actually being the cause of the crises

Rhodosporidium toruloides cultivated in NaCl-enriched glucose-based media: adaptation dynamics and lipid production

In the present report and for the first time in the international literature, the impact of the addition of NaCl upon growth and lipid production on the oleaginous yeast Rhodosporidium toruloides was studied. Moreover, equally for first time, lipid production by R. toruloides was performed under non-aseptic conditions. Therefore, the potentiality of R. toruloides DSM 4444 to produce lipid in media containing several initial concentrations of NaCl with glucose employed as carbon source was studied. Preliminary batch-flask trials with increasing amounts of NaCl revealed the tolerance of the strain against NaCl content up to 6.0% (w/v). However, 4.0% (w/v) of NaCl stimulated lipid accumulation for this strain, by enhancing lipid production up to 71.3% (w/w) per dry cell weight. The same amount of NaCl was employed in pasteurized batch-flask cultures in order to investigate the role of the salt as bacterial inhibiting agent. The combination of NaCl and high glucose concentrations was found to satisfactorily suppress bacterial contamination of R. toruloides cultures under these conditions. Batch-bioreactor trials of the yeast in the same media with high glucose content (up to 150 g/L) resulted in satisfactory substrate assimilation, with almost linear kinetic profile for lipid production, regardless of the initial glucose concentration imposed. Finally, fed-batch bioreactor cultures led to the production of 37.2 g/L of biomass, accompanied by 64.5% (w/w) of lipid yield. Lipid yield per unit of glucose consumed received the very satisfactory value of 0.21 g/g, a value amongst the highest ones in the literature. The yeast lipid produced contained mainly oleic acid and to lesser extent palmitic and stearic acids, thus constituting a perfect starting material for “second generation” biodiese

Thermal Stability of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 (HIV-1) Receptors, CD4 and CXCR4, Reconstituted in Proteoliposomes

BACKGROUND: The entry of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) into host cells involves the interaction of the viral exterior envelope glycoprotein, gp120, and receptors on the target cell. The HIV-1 receptors are CD4 and one of two chemokine receptors, CCR5 or CXCR4. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We created proteoliposomes that contain CD4, the primary HIV-1 receptor, and one of the coreceptors, CXCR4. Antibodies against CD4 and CXCR4 specifically bound the proteoliposomes. CXCL12, the natural ligand for CXCR4, and the small-molecule CXCR4 antagonist, AMD3100, bound the proteoliposomes with affinities close to those associated with the binding of these molecules to cells expressing CXCR4 and CD4. The HIV-1 gp120 exterior envelope glycoprotein bound tightly to proteoliposomes expressing only CD4 and, in the presence of soluble CD4, bound weakly to proteoliposomes expressing only CXCR4. The thermal stability of CD4 and CXCR4 inserted into liposomes was examined. Thermal denaturation of CXCR4 followed second-order kinetics, with an activation energy (E(a)) of 269 kJ/mol (64.3 kcal/mol) and an inactivation temperature (T(i)) of 56°C. Thermal inactivation of CD4 exhibited a reaction order of 1.3, an E(a) of 278 kJ/mol (66.5 kcal/mol), and a T(i) of 52.2°C. The second-order denaturation kinetics of CXCR4 is unusual among G protein-coupled receptors, and may result from dimeric interactions between CXCR4 molecules. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our studies with proteoliposomes containing the native HIV-1 receptors allowed an examination of the binding of biologically important ligands and revealed the higher-order denaturation kinetics of these receptors. CD4/CXCR4-proteoliposomes may be useful for the study of virus-target cell interactions and for the identification of inhibitors