Firing at Subcontractors? Spillover Employment Effects of Offshoring in Italy

Using firm-level data for Italy, we address the employment consequences of international production offshoring. We concur with previous literature that offshoring firms’ individual employment performances are no worse than at matching non-offshoring firms. However, offshoring might impart negative spillover effects on subcontracting firms, and this indirect effect might be felt particularly in Italy’s industrial structure (small-sized networked enterprises). To study this, we group firms within their typical subcontracting clusters, identify high offshoring clusters and compare them with a matching low offshoring sample. The evidence that employment performances worsen in the productive clusters with high offshoring supports our conjecture.International outsourcing, multinational firms, employment effects, propensity

Urban and Regional Built-up Analysis (URBA): Higher resolution (2.5m) of built-up detection GHSL Europe wall-to-wall coverage

Mapping and analyzing settlements in Europe is an on-going research project performed in collaboration with the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO). The work described in this technical report, summarizes the customization and improvements of the GHSL technology towards a wall-to-wall, gap-free coverage of Europe. The output of this work has been published under the European Environment Agency portal in December 2014 as the European Settlement Map (ESM). This map represents human settlements in Europe at 100m of resolution. The report details the GHSL workflows as they evolved from 2013 to 2014, towards the publication of the European Settlement Map, as well as specific problems in the extraction of information from the SPOT 5 and SPOT 6 satellite imagery; data gaps due to cloud coverage or otherwise missing data, and how these issues were addressed and resolved before the publication of the European Settlement Map.JRC.E.1-Disaster Risk Managemen

«Children go touch»: note sulle pratiche di appropriazione delle tecnologie («touch») dei più piccoli (0-10 anni) e sulla necessità di una didattica digitalmente aumentata

Our paper is divided into three parts: the first, analyzing the results of a recent report of the Academy of Sciences of France concerning the interactions between children and touch-screens, clarifies the epistemological-evolutionary background within which we develop our research about the way children manage this kind of technology. The second part begins with an analysis of the digital revolution impact on the macro-economic scenarios in order to better understand the following review of the most recent international and Italian researches concerning the use of touch-technology by children (0-10) in informal contexts such as family and peers. This review aims to demonstrate how the age of children access to technology in general – and especially to smartphone and tablet based on touch-screen interfaces – has significantly lowered. The third is concerned with understanding how and why the new educational models culturally enhanced by digital technology can't ignore the new informal touch-culture of children

On the topological centre of the algebra LUC(G)∗ for general topological groups

AbstractWe consider the Banach algebra LUC(G)∗ for a not necessarily locally compact topological group G. Our goal is to characterize the topological centre Zt(LUC(G)∗) of LUC(G)∗. For locally compact groups G, it is well known that Zt(LUC(G)∗) equals the measure algebra M(G). We shall prove that for every second countable (not precompact) group G, we have Zt(LUC(G)∗)=M(Gˆ), where Gˆ denotes the completion of G with respect to its right uniform structure (if G is precompact, then Zt(LUC(G)∗)=LUC(G)∗, of course). In fact, this will follow from our more general result stating that for any separable (or any precompact) group G, we have Zt(LUC(G)∗)=Leb(G), where Leb(G) denotes the algebra of uniform measures. The latter result also partially answers a conjecture made by I. Csiszár 35 years ago [I. Csiszár, On the weak∗ continuity of convolution in a convolution algebra over an arbitrary topological group, Studia Sci. Math. Hungar. 6 (1971) 27–40]. We shall give similar results for the topological centre Λ(GLUC) of the LUC-compactification GLUC of G. In particular, we shall prove that for any second countable (not precompact) group G admitting a group completion, we have Λ(GLUC)=Gˆ (if G is precompact, then Λ(GLUC)=GLUC). Finally, we shall show that every linear (left) LUC(G)∗-module map on LUC(G) is automatically continuous whenever G is, e.g., separable and not precompact

Sampling Almost Periodic and Related Functions

We consider certain finite sets of circle-valued functions defined on intervals of real numbers and estimate how large the intervals must be for the values of these functions to be uniformly distributed in an approximate way. This is used to establish some general conditions under which a random construction introduced by Katznelson for the integers yields sets that are dense in the Bohr group. We obtain in this way very sparse sets of real numbers (and of integers) on which two different almost periodic functions cannot agree, which makes them amenable to be used in sampling theorems for these functions. These sets can be made as sparse as to have zero asymptotic density or as to be t-sets, i.e., to be sets that intersect any of their translates in a bounded set. Many of these results are proved not only for almost periodic functions but also for classes of functions generated by more general complex exponential functions, including chirps or polynomial phase functions

A similar 24‐h blood pressure control is obtained by zofenopril and candesartan in primary hypertensive patients

Objective. To compare the antihypertensive effect of treatment with zofenopril vs candesartan by office and ambulatory blood pressure (BP). Design and methods. Following a 2‐week wash‐out from previous treatment, 236 grade I–II primary hypertensive patients were randomized double‐blind to 12 weeks treatment with zofenopril 30 mg or candesartan 8 mg od. After 4 weeks, treatment was doubled in responder non‐normalized (office systolic BP⩾140 mmHg and office diastolic BP reduction ⩾10 mmHg) or non‐responder patients (office systolic BP⩾140 mmHg and office diastolic BP reduction <10 mmHg). Following a further 4 weeks, non‐responder or non‐normalized patients were withdrawn. Results. In the intention‐to‐treat population, office systolic BP and diastolic BP reductions after 12 weeks of treatment were similar between the two groups (zofenopril: 21±11/15±8 mmHg, n = 114 vs C: 20±11/15±7 mmHg, n = 122; p = NS). In the 163 patients of the per‐protocol population, office BP dropped by 22±11/15±8 mmHg (zofenopril) an..

Increasing stability of water-soluble PQQ glucose dehydrogenase by increasing hydrophobic interaction at dimeric interface

BACKGROUND: Water-soluble quinoprotein glucose dehydrogenase (PQQGDH-B) from Acinetobacter calcoaceticus has a great potential for application as a glucose sensor constituent. Because this enzyme shows no activity in its monomeric form, correct quaternary structure is essential for the formation of active enzyme. We have previously reported on the increasing of the stability of PQQGDH-B by preventing the subunit dissociation. Previous studies were based on decreasing the entropy of quaternary structure dissociation but not on increasing the interaction between the two subunits. We therefore attempted to introduce a hydrophobic interaction in the dimeric interface to increase the stability of PQQGDH-B. RESULTS: Amino acid residues Asn340 and Tyr418 face each other at the dimer interface of PQQGDH-B, however no interaction exists between their side chains. We simultaneously substituted Asn340 to Phe and Tyr418 to Phe or Ile, to create the two mutants Asn340Phe/Tyr418Phe and Asn340Phe/Tyr418Ile. Furthermore, residues Leu280, Val282 and Val342 form a hydrophobic region that faces, on the other subunit, residues Thr416 and Thr417, again without any specific interaction. We simultaneously substituted Thr416 and Thr417 to Val, to create the mutant Thr416Val/Thr417Val. The temperatures resulting in lose of half of the initial activity of the constructed mutants were increased by 3–4°C higher over wild type. All mutants showed 2-fold higher thermal stability at 55°C than the wild-type enzyme, without decreasing their catalytic activities. From the 3D models of all the mutant enzymes, the predicted binding energies were found to be significantly greater that in the wild-type enzyme, consistent with the increases in thermal stabilities. CONCLUSIONS: We have achieved via site-directed mutagenesis the improvement of the thermal stability of PQQGDH-B by increasing the dimer interface interaction. Through rational design based on the quaternary structure of the enzyme, we selected residues located at the dimer interface that do not contribute to the intersubunit interaction. By substituting these residues to hydrophobic ones, the thermal stability of PQQGDH-B was increased without decreasing its catalytic activity

Platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio in the setting of liver transplantation for hepatocellular cancer. A systematic review and meta-analysis

AIM: To perform a systematic review and meta-analysis on platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) as a risk factor for post-transplant hepatocellular cancer (HCC) recurrence. METHODS: A systematic literature search was performed using PubMed. Participants of any age and sex, who underwent liver transplantation for HCC were considered following these criteria: (1) studies comparing pre-transplant low vs high PLR values; (2) studies reporting post-transplant recurrence rates; and (3) if more than one study was reported by the same institute, only the most recent was included. The primary outcome measure was set for HCC recurrence after transplantation. RESULTS: A total of 5 articles, published between 2014 and 2017, fulfilled the selection criteria. As for the quality of the reported studies, all the investigated articles presented an overall high quality. A total of 899 cases were investigated: 718 cases (80.0%) were males. Three studies coming from European countries and one from Japan presented HCV as the main cause of cirrhosis. On the opposite, one Chinese study presented a greater incidence of HBV-related cirrhotic cases. In all the studies apart one, the PLR cut-off value of 150 was reported. At meta-analysis, high PLR value was associated with a significant increase in recurrence after transplantation (OR = 3.33; 95%CI: 1.78-6.25; p &lt; 0.001). A moderate heterogeneity was observed among the identified studies according to the Higgins I 2 statistic value. CONCLUSION: Pre-transplant high PLR values are connected with an increased risk of post-operative recurrence of hepatocellular cancer. More studies are needed for better clarify the biological mechanisms of this results

La Classe di Bayes: note metodologiche, epistemologiche ed operative per una reale digitalizzazione della didattica nella scuola italiana *

Bayes' Classroom: Methodological, Epistemological and Operational Notes for a Real Digitalization of Teaching in the Italian School System The gap between the new «digital natives» learning styles and teaching strategies and practices – still very traditional in Italy – is wide. We need to radically re-think the teaching and learning setting, at least, with regard to three fundamental issues: (a) the physical spaces of education; (b) the methodological approaches; (c) the technologies involved in the learning process. The aim is to sketch a possible design for the new digitally augmented education, based on a social-constructivist approach. The analysis of data and evidence related to behavioral and cognitive styles of the younger generations have led us to identify the logic of scientific discovery (in this case, understood in terms of Bayesian epistemology) as the best suited cultural matrix to develop a model of augmented education. In order to illustrate our proposal, we first describe how and why the brain-frame of «digital natives» is different when compared to our Gutenberg-based way of teaching. The second part describes the design of our methodological and technological proposal, and outlines its three step-structure: tool box, cooperative problem-solving, and situation room. The third part provides some remarks on the impact of this approach on the concept of democratic citizenship