IMPORTING JOBS AND EXPORTING FIRMS? ON THE WAGE AND EMPLOYMENT IMPLICATIONS OF ITALY’S TRADE AND FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT FLOWS

International economic integration is often blamed for the deteriorating fortunes of unskilled workers in industrial countries. We look at the labor market impact of trade and foreign direct investment in the case of Italy. Our empirical framework allows for trade, technology and factor supply effects. We find that international trade did not contribute to Italy’s labor market problems. Indeed, given that Italy holds quite a distinct pattern of trade specialization, compared to other industrialized countries, international integration as reflected in falling import prices may have boosted the demand for labor there. We also argue that the inability of the Mezzogiorno’s economy to adjust to the changing international environment is one of the main stumbling blocks in Italy’s economy. Finally, we find that greater firm’s mobility may have weakened the power of trade unions and contributed to wage moderation.international trade, foreign direct investment,wages, employment

Out-of-home eating frequency, causal attribution of obesity and support to healthy eating policies from a cross-European survey

Background: The relation between the increased out-of-home food consumption and the rising of overweight and obesity prevalence rates has been widely assessed, and the a key role played by the catering sector in ensuring healthy food choices has been recognised. Governments’ healthy eating policies have a wide range of action, influencing consumer behavior, and the socioeconomic and  food environments, with specific actions for the catering sector. Information on the public support for these policies could help policy makers in planning decisions. This study aims to investigate the relationship of out-of-home eating frequency with beliefs about obesity causes, support to healthy eating policies, and with socio-demographic factors. Methods: Data on 3003 individuals from Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Poland and United Kingdom, of both sexes, aged ≥16 years, were employed, from the European survey on policy preferences (Eatwell). Data were analysed through Chi-square test and logistic regression analysis. Results: Out-of-home eating varied with gender, age, marital status, education, BMI, and by country. Convenience food consumption was positively associated with obesity attribution to genetics, and inversely associated with attribution to lack of willpower. Attributions of obesity to lack of time, and to lack of self-control were associated with increased likelihood to consume fast-food and ready-prepared food respectively. Out-of-home eating people expressed higher support for information-based prevention, and actions aimed at healthier out-of-home eating, and lower support for restrictions and regulations of the food supply environment. Conclusion: Future research on out-of-home food consumers and their support towards public interventions for the catering sector, could have important implications for effective strategies to promote healthy eating

Design for Cultural Heritage at the University of Ferrara

Alongside Teaching and Research, Italian universities are also committed to Public Engagement activities featuring teaching and cultural initiatives for a non-academic audience. At the University of Ferrara, this commitment was translated into an exhibition in April 2019, originating from a virtuous union of cultural heritage and teaching activities. The creation of the “Natura Naturata” exhibition involved the synthesis of taught courses and research by the University of Ferrara's Industrial Product Design students together with their teachers, in collaboration with librarians. In the Product Design 2 Workshop, students develop exhibition projects, starting from the curatorial concept, through the construction, up to the graphic-communicative aspects and the creation of information and teaching tools. The exhibition was created based on the study of rules used to properly protect library assets so that students could gain specific skills for the preparation of bibliographic exhibitions. It took shape in the Chemistry and Life Sciences Library Santa Maria delle Grazie to emphasize the importance of the University's tangible and intangible cultural heritage with the intention of conveying the 'world' of library collections – and also the University's historical and architectural heritage - to students, scholars, and citizens.Bernabè, A.; Contarini, M.; Manfra, M.; Turrini, D. (2020). Design for Cultural Heritage at the University of Ferrara. En 6th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'20). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. (30-05-2020):455-463. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAd20.2020.11085OCS45546330-05-202

Impact of γ-chain cytokines on EBV-specific T cell cultures

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Recent preclinical adoptive immunotherapy studies in murine models prompt to employ "proper" rather than "as many as possible" antigen-specific T cells to gain better therapeutic results. Ideally, "proper" T cells are poorly differentiated <it>in vitro</it>, but retain the capacity to fully differentiate into effector cells <it>in vivo</it>, where they can undergo long-term survival and strong proliferation. Such requirements can be achieved by modifying culture conditions, namely using less "differentiating" cytokines than IL-2.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>To evaluate this issue in human T cell cultures, we exploited a well characterized and clinical-grade protocol finalized at generating EBV-specific CTL for adoptive immunotherapy. In particular, we studied the impact of IL-7, IL-15 and IL-21 compared to IL-2 on different aspects of T cell functionality, namely growth kinetics, differentiation/activation marker expression, cytokine production, and short-term and long-term cytotoxicity.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Results disclosed that the culture modifications we introduced in the standard protocol did not improve activity nor induce substantial changes in differentiation marker expression of EBV-specific CTL.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our data indicated that the addition of γ-chain cytokines other than IL-2 for the generation of EBV-specific T cell cultures did not produce the improvements expected on the basis of recent published literature. This fact was likely due to the intrinsic differences between murine and human models and highlights the need to design <it>ad hoc </it>protocols rather than simply modify the cytokines added in culture.</p

Exploiting the Interplay between Innate and Adaptive Immunity to Improve Immunotherapeutic Strategies for Epstein-Barr-Virus-Driven Disorders

The recent demonstration that immunotherapeutic approaches may be clinically effective for cancer patients has renewed the interest for this strategy of intervention. In particular, clinical trials using adoptive T-cell therapies disclosed encouraging results, particularly in the context of Epstein-Barr-virus- (EBV-) related tumors. Nevertheless, the rate of complete clinical responses is still limited, thus stimulating the development of more effective therapeutic protocols. Considering the relevance of innate immunity in controlling both infections and cancers, innovative immunotherapeutic approaches should take into account also this compartment to improve clinical efficacy. Evidence accumulated so far indicates that innate immunity effectors, particularly NK cells, can be exploited with therapeutic purposes and new targets have been recently identified. We herein review the complex interactions between EBV and innate immunity and summarize the therapeutic strategies involving both adaptive and innate immune system, in the light of a fruitful integration between these immunotherapeutic modalities for a better control of EBV-driven tumors

Non-PAMAM amino acids-modified dendrimers nanoparticles for enhancing water-solubility of insoluble bioactive molecules: our state of the art

Non-PAMAM amino acids-modified dendrimers nanoparticles for enhancing water-solubility of insoluble bioactive molecules: our state of the art Silvana Alfei,* Andrea Spallarossa, Silvia Catena, Federica Turrini, Guendalina Zuccari, Anna Pittaluga, Raffaella Boggia Dipartimento di Farmacia, Universit\ue0 di Genova, Viale Cembrano 4, I-16148 Genova, Italy E-mail: [email protected] ABSTRACT Water-solubility is essential for GIT absorbability or parenteral administration of drugs, therefore it is a key parameter to achieve the systemic drug concentration necessary for an effective therapeutic activity. Unfortunately, low aqueous solubility is the major problem with bioactive chemical entities (BCEs), in fact, more than 40% BCEs developed in pharmaceutical industry are practically water-insoluble. As a consequence, great are the research efforts focused on the development of new techniques aiming at enhancing it. Toxic excipients and harmful solubilizing agents were also extensively used for solubilizing and delivering non water-soluble drugs, despite the resulting unpleasant side effects complained of by patients. Nowadays, safer strategies, such as drugs physicochemical modifications or particle size reduction, crystal engineering, salt formation, solid dispersion, use of surfactant and complexation are being exploited. As far as what regards dispersion/complexation techniques, nanoparticles, including dendrimers, are intensely utilized for this purpose, thus in parallel achieving drugs protection from early degradation, more efficient target delivery into cells and tissues and lower systemic toxicity. Synthetic thiocarbamate (O-TC 1) (Fig. 1) is a non-nucleoside HIV-1 reverse transcriptase inhibitor [1] while Ellagic Acid (EA 2) (Fig. 2) is a polyphenol present in some fruits, nuts and seeds endowed with strong antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and other several healthy properties. Unfortunately, both of them are practically insoluble (Table 1), non orally bioavailable, non parenteral administrable, then non usable for therapeutic purposes in their free forms. Fig. 1: Structure of O-TC 1 Fig. 2: Structure of EA 2 Fig. 3: Examples of hydrophilic (left) and amphiphilic (right) dendrimers structure During the last year, these problems have been addressed and successfully resolved by us, and in this communication, the reached promising outcomes have been summarized and the current state of the art provided. Afar from commercially high cytotoxic PAMAM, five non cells-damaging amino acid-modified hydrophilic (3, 4) [2] and amphiphilic (5-7) [3] dendrimers (Fig. 3) have been synthetized and then used as polymer nano-containers to improve 1 and 2 water-solubility. Five (8-12) [4] and two (13, 14) [5] structurally different drugs-loaded nanodispersions (DPXs) were obtained respectively. The structures were confirmed by FT-IR and NMR analysis and all the samples have resulted in being endowed with very good Drug Loading (DL %). Compound 1, totally insoluble except for in highly diluted DMSO when free, once entrapped in dendrimers, shown to be well soluble both in water and in ethanol. In the case of 2, water-solubility was increased even up to 1000 times compared to the free form. For the prerogatives demonstrated in the performed routine analyses, the prepared DPXs could be considered eligible for biomedical and therapeutic applications thus allowing to exploit 1 and 2 pharmacological properties. REFERENCES: 1. A. Spallarossa et al., Eur. J. Med. Chem., 44, 2190 (2009). 2. S. Alfei &amp; S. Catena, Polym. Advan. Technol., 29, 2735 (2018). 3. S. Alfei &amp; S. Catena, Polym. Int., 67, 1572 (2018). 3. S. Alfei et al., Eur. J. Pharm. Sci., 124, 153 (2018). 4. S. Alfei et al., New J. Chem., 2019, DOI: 10.1039/c8nj05657a

Characterization data of water-soluble hydrophilic and amphiphilic dendrimers prodrugs for delivering bioactive chemical entities otherwise non soluble.

More than 40% of bioactive chemical entities (BCEs) developed in pharmaceutical industry are almost water-insoluble, poorly orally bioavailable and/or not via parenteral administrable, and this strongly limits their clinical applications. Drug Delivery (DD) is an engineered technology dealing with the development of delivery systems (DDSs) able to solubilize, transport, target release and maintain therapeutic drugs concentration where needed for long periods. DD frequently makes use of nanosized carriers, often positive charged, including dendrimer such as commercially available and strongly cationic PAMAM and PEI. Nowadays, uncharged dendrimer scaffolds modified with amino acids-modified in their cationic form, are preferred because a more controlled number of nitrogen atoms causes less damage to cells. Then, two hydrophilic (1, 2) [1] (Fig. 1) and three amphiphilic (3-5) [2] (Fig. 2) water-soluble dendrimers were prepared and completely characterized. Once established through proper routine investigations, that these materials could work well as DDSs, they have been used to physically entrap two completely insoluble BCEs i.e. the thiocarbamate (O-TC) 6 [3] and Ellagic Acid (EA) 7 (Fig. 3) with the aim at improving their solubility and in parallel at protecting them from early degradation, at promoting their fast cellular up-take and thus reducing eventual systemic toxicity. Without resorting to toxic excipients and harmful solubilizing agents often used despite the resulting unpleasant side effects, five structurally different nanodispersions (DPXs) loaded with 6 [4] and two with 7 [5] were achieved and completely characterized to confirm their structure and to evaluate their potentiality in biomedical applications

HIV-1 transcriptional silencing caused by TRIM22 inhibition of Sp1 binding to the viral promoter

Background: Intracellular defense proteins, also referred to as restriction factors, are capable of interfering with different steps of the viral life cycle. Among these, we have shown that Tripartite motif 22 (TRIM22) suppresses basal as well as phorbol ester-induced HIV-1 long terminal repeat (LTR)-mediated transcription, independently of its E3 ubiquitin ligase activity, nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-kB) binding to the U3 region and Tat interaction with the TAR region of the HIV-1 LTR. As basal HIV-1 transcription is driven by the transcription factor specificity protein 1 (Sp1), we have investigated whether TRIM22 could interfere with Sp1-driven transcriptional activation of the HIV-1 LTR. Findings: 293T cells, devoid of endogenous TRIM22 expression, were transfected with a TRIM22-expressing plasmid together with reporter plasmids driven by the HIV-1 LTR promoter either containing or lacking Sp1 binding sites or with reporter plasmids driven by non-viral promoter sequences either containing or lacking the three Sp1 binding sites from the HIV-1 LTR. These reporter assays showed that TRIM22 efficiently inhibited Sp1-driven transcription. Knocking down TRIM22 expression in the CD4+ SupT1 T cell line increased the replication of Sp1-dependent HIV-1 variants. TRIM22 did not interact with Sp1, but prevented binding of Sp1 to the HIV-1 promoter, as demonstrated in protein-DNA pull down and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays. Conclusion: TRIM22 acts as a suppressor of basal HIV-1 LTR-driven transcription by preventing Sp1 binding to the HIV-1 promoter

Microdispersions of ellagic acid and pomegranate extracts as new potential nutraceutical ingredients

The health properties attributed to several fruits (i.e. pomegranates, raspberries, strawberries, blackberry, chestnuts, walnuts, pecan), herbs (tea) and seeds (berries seeds) are attributed to an important group of natural polyphenols classified as hydrolysable tannins (HT) named Ellagitannins (ETs), that have shown in vitro multi-target biological properties relevant to the treatment of several human diseases. In vivo, ETs are rather not absorbed, and they are hydrolysed providing mainly Ellagic acid (EA). EA is endowed with the same biological properties of ETs and it could be considered as the responsible of their health benefits. Unfortunately, EA cannot be exploited for in vivo applications because of its poor water solubility (9.7 \u3bcg/mL) and accordingly low bioavailability. At first, aiming to increase EA solubility, an EA solid microdispersion (EA-md) was realized by employing only water and low methoxylated pectin, as a food compatible excipient, by applying spray drying technology. EA-md showed a 22% (w/w) Drug Loading (DL), a 30 times improved water solubility maintaining a remarkable radical scavenging activity [1]. It has been analytically characterised and used for in vivo pharmacological treatments in order to evaluate it as potential nutraceutical ingredient. Adult (3-6 months old) and old (20-22 old months) male mice were chronically administered EA-md dissolved in the drinking water (about 150 mg / Kg) for 14 days. During this period, animals were monitored for the spontaneous motor activity and for curiosity before, during and at the end of the EA-md treatment. Adult and old mice were then sacrificed for \u201cex vivo, in vitro\u201d analysis to test the efficiency of noradrenaline release from cortical nerve endings. It is known that noradrenaline exocytosis from cortical nerve endings is significantly impaired during ageing. We found that the chronic administration of EA-md did not alter the noradrenaline exocytosis from cortical nerve endings of adult mice, but significantly recovered the reduced noradrenaline overflow in aged mice. Further investigations are needed to explore the cellular cascade of events accounting for the beneficial effect. In a second step, pomegranate, as a natural source of EA, has been considered to similarly prepare and investigate an analogous formulation. Since pomegranate fruit is recognized as one of the most important sources of ETs, mainly localized in the by-products obtained after industrial juice squeezing, a method to convert the squeezing marcs into a potential nutraceutical ingredient has been explored. In particular, Pulsed Ultrasound-Assisted Extraction (PUAE), using just water as solvent, resulted to be suitable for extracting the water-soluble bioactive molecules (PEx), whose content in hydrolysable tannins, standardized in EA, has been determined. Furthermore, the already mentioned spray drying microdispersion has been employed to formulate and to stabilize it over time. This last formulation (PEx-md) will be subjected to the already mentioned pharmacological experiments in order to study its nutraceutical properties too. [1] S. Alfei, F. Turrini, S. Catena, P. Zunin, B. Parodi, G. Zuccari, A.M. Pittaluga, R. Boggia, New J. Chem, 43, 2438-2448 DOI: 10.1039/C8NJ05657