New era of cystic fibrosis: full mutational analysis and personalized therapy

Despite its apparently simple genetics, cystic fibrosis (CF) is a rather complex genetic disease. A lot of variability in the steps of the path from the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR ) gene to the clinical manifestations originates an uncertain genotype - phenotype relationship. A major determinant of this uncertainty is the incomplete knowledge of the CFTR mutated genotypes, due to the high number of CFTR mutations and to the higher number of their combinations in trans and in cis. Also the very limited knowledge of functional effects of CFTR mutated alleles severely impairs our diagnostic and prognostic ability. The final phenotypic modulation exerted by CFTR modifier genes and interactome further complicates the framework. The next generation sequencing approach is a rapid, lowcost and high-throughput tool that allows a near complete structural characterization of CFTR mutated genotypes, as well as of genotypes of several other genes cooperating to the final CF clinical manifestations. This powerful method perfectly complements the new personalized therapeutic approach for CF. Drugs active on specific CFTR mutational classes are already available for CF patients or are in phase 3 trials. A complete genetic characterization has been becoming crucial for a correct personalized therapy. However, the need of a functional classification of each CFTR mutation potently arises. Future big efforts towards an ever more detailed knowledge of both structural and functional CFTR defects, coupled to parallel personalized therapeutic interventions decisive for CF cure can be foreseen

Money and Keynesian Uncertainty

Keynes’s theory of a monetary economy and his liquidity preference theory of investment will be examined in order to highlight the essential properties of money under the conditions of uncertainty, which inevitably prefigures the existence of involuntary unemployment and could – within a laissez faire, deregulated financial system – induce phases of endemic financial instability and crises.uncertainty, money, liquidity preference, crisis, investment

Cognitive Capitalism as a Financial Economy of Production

The structural changes that occurred in the last 30 years have substantially modified the capitalistic organization of society, both at national and international level. A new regime of accumulation devoid of a stable mode of regulation and centred on financial valorisation of new socio-economic growth perspectives has been consolidating. Conditions imposed by financial markets in order to create the shareholder's value consisted of promoting downsizing, reengineering, outsourcing and M&A processes. The flexibilization of labour force and precarization of existence has thus been the result of the established valorization norm. But why should the corporate restructuring sustain the enterprise value by creating income stock ? The definition of a new regime of accumulation involves a research on the criteria of valorisation and the prevailing technological paradigm. The main changes of new capitalism concern mainly two spheres: the role played by knowledge in the new technological paradigm and valorisation process and the importance of finance. The dominant technological paradigm and the role played by knowledge within it are not enough to explain the evolution of the accumulation regime. It is needed to introduce further elements necessary to explain the expectations that sustain the investment choices made by capitalists; these are the conventions or collective beliefs. Then, after describing the main features of the accumulation paradigm that many scholars have not hesitated to name as Cognitive Capitalism , we shall attempt to provide a theoretical framework of it intended as a financial economy of production. We shall therefore proceed to the reformulation of the schemes of monetary circuit (Graziani 2003).

Cognitive Capitalism as a Financial Economy of Production

The structural changes that occurred in the last 30 years have substantially modified the capitalistic organization of society, both at national and international level. In order to understand the evolution of social and economic systems it is necessary to focus on the relations of production, that is on those social relationships that explain the valorisation process. Since the economic crisis of the 1970's until the late 1990's the structure of production in the developed countries has been characterised by the development of highly flexible forms of production. The organizational revolution that occurred within production activity has been achieved through introducing new information technologies and restructuring of production within increasingly wider territories. A new regime of accumulation devoid of a stable mode of regulation and centred on financial valorisation of new socio-economic growth perspectives has been consolidating. Conditions imposed by financial markets in order to create the shareholder's value consisted of promoting downsizing, reengineering, outsourcing and Merger & Acquisitions processes. The flexibilization of labour force and precarization of existence has thus been the result of the established valorization norm. But why should the corporate restructuring sustain the enterprise value by creating income stock ? In order to answer this question it is necessary to analyse the importance of knowledge in the production process. For this purpose, we shall use some categories of the so called French Regulation School. The definition of a new regime of accumulation involves a research on the criteria of valorisation and the prevailing technological paradigm. The main changes of new capitalism concern mainly two spheres: the role played by knowledge in the new technological paradigm and valorisation process and the importance of finance. The dominant technological paradigm and the role played by knowledge within it are not enough to explain the evolution of the accumulation regime. It is needed to introduce further elements necessary to explain the expectations that sustain the investment choices made by capitalists; these are the conventions or collective beliefs. Then, after describing the main features of the accumulation paradigm that many scholars have named as Cognitive Capitalism , we shall attempt to provide a theoretical framework of it intended as a financial economy of production. We shall therefore proceed to the reformulation of the schemes of monetary circuit.Cognitive Capitalism; French Regulation School; Monetary Circuit; Knowledge; Crisis; Financial Convention.

A model of Cognitive Capitalism: a preliminary analysis

The aim of this paper is to present a first theoretical macro-modelling of cognitive capitalism, by utilizing the French regulation theory approach. With regard to the supply side analysis, we shall emphasize the role played by productivity dynamics: it is mainly affected by two types of dynamics: scale economics, based on learning processes and network activity. Turning to demand-side aspects, aggregate demand takes in account also the role played by distribution effects of financial markets, which operates as a distorsive income multiplier. As, on the one side, it depends upon the trade-off between learning processes diffusion and intellectual property rights and, on the other, upon income polarization (due to precariousness and limited access to capital gains) and demand growth stability. The stability of the system cannot be guaranteed. The need for new rules concerning income distribution process (i.e. basic income policy) will be taken in consideration.Cognitive Capitalism, Knowledge, Learning Processes, Network Economies, General Intellect, Capital Gains, Basic Income

Basic income sustainability and productivity growth in cognitive capitalism: a first theoretical framework

This paper aims at proposing a first theoretical framework for studying the basic income sustainability. We consider the basic income not only as a tool of a policy to improve living standards and social well-being but, mostly, as the essential requisite to introduce a new stable compromise between capital and labour. Following the French Regulation School approach, we assert that the social compromise between capital and labour is founded on the redistribution of the productivity gains. Therefore we try to trace living standards and social well being problems back to their origins, i.e. the productivity growth. We think that describing the dynamics of productivity means understanding the main features of the contemporary capitalistic production. We first present a survey about BI in economic literature. We then focus on the socio-economic transformation of western countries and propose the term cognitive capitalism (CC) to describe the economic system after the Fordism paradigm crisis, highlighting the strong links between the exploitation of knowledge and the accumulation of surplus. Therefore we investigate the presence of a new type of Kaldor-Verdoorn law in cognitive capitalism (a virtuous circle among BI, increasing productivity - via knowledge and network externalities - output and employment). As a result, we first point out the ambiguous growth circle of the contemporary capitalism. Secondly we highlight that BI is compatible with the new way of accumulation, based on the exploitation of dynamic scale economies. BI increases productivity, through network (externalities) and learning processes and, at the same time, demand, via consumption level. This double result is not always guaranteed. It depends, on one side, on how much BI positively affects productivity, and the greater this probability, the lower the role played by intellectual property rights and the higher the diffusion of network economies (general intellect and social cooperation); on the other side, it depends on the way BI is financed. These results also depend on the assumption of closed economy, in which financial markets play no role at all.basic income, productivity, cognitive capitalism, crisis, Regulation School; Fordism; Post-fordism; knowledge; learning; externalities;, Kaldor-Verdoorn law; general intellect

Speed-scaling with no Preemptions

We revisit the non-preemptive speed-scaling problem, in which a set of jobs have to be executed on a single or a set of parallel speed-scalable processor(s) between their release dates and deadlines so that the energy consumption to be minimized. We adopt the speed-scaling mechanism first introduced in [Yao et al., FOCS 1995] according to which the power dissipated is a convex function of the processor's speed. Intuitively, the higher is the speed of a processor, the higher is the energy consumption. For the single-processor case, we improve the best known approximation algorithm by providing a $(1+\epsilon)^{\alpha}\tilde{B}_{\alpha}$-approximation algorithm, where $\tilde{B}_{\alpha}$ is a generalization of the Bell number. For the multiprocessor case, we present an approximation algorithm of ratio $\tilde{B}_{\alpha}((1+\epsilon)(1+\frac{w_{\max}}{w_{\min}}))^{\alpha}$ improving the best known result by a factor of $(\frac{5}{2})^{\alpha-1}(\frac{w_{\max}}{w_{\min}})^{\alpha}$. Notice that our result holds for the fully heterogeneous environment while the previous known result holds only in the more restricted case of parallel processors with identical power functions

Investors’ behaviour in the Chinese Stock Exchanges: Empirical Evidence in a Systemic Approach

This paper investigates the Chinese mainland Stock Exchanges and their following interconnecting features: savers’ attitude towards stock investments, investors’ trading behaviour and stock returns explanations. We evaluate the effectiveness of the recent efforts made by the Chinese authorities to improve the level of legal protections for shareholders and the opening-up of the Chinese Stock Markets to foreign investors. The whole analysis is carried out through a system of simultaneous equations. The main results are that Chinese shareholders and stock markets are mostly driven by emotional behaviour. Stock market returns are barely influenced by the overall Chinese economic booming, but reveal the presence of speculative influences. Investors’ behaviour, as well as general trading activities, hardly seems to be affected by the legal framework introduced by the national Authorities.Chinese Stock Exchanges, shareholders’ rights, corporate governance, investors’ behaviour, system of simultaneous equations