One-point statistics and intermittency of induced electric field in the solar wind

The interplanetary induced electric field e=vxb is studied, using solar wind time series. The probability distribution functions (PDFs) of the electric field components are measured from the data and their non-gaussianity is discussed. Moreover, for the first time we show that the electric field turbulence is characterized by intermittency. This point is addressed by studying, as usual, the scaling of the PDFs of field increments, which allows a quantitative characterization of intermittency.Comment: Accepted for publication on Europhysics Letters, April 22th, 200

Agri-food exports and the enlarged european union

This paper explores agri-food export dynamics in New Member States (NMS) and Old Member States (OMS) of the European Union during the enlargement process. A quality-oriented survey is conducted by developing an original analytical framework which combines information from trade similarity analysis with elements from the sophistication literature. Country and sector specific features seem to emerge, revealing a more complex picture than that produced by aggregated trade analysis. While for some NMS agri-food exports, patterns converge towards OMS with regard to size, competitiveness and quality improvement process, for other NMS, a low-quality trap seems to prevail.Agri-food sector, export dynamics, EU enlargement, quality upgrading

Modified margin convergence: over-under lacing suture technique

The principle of margin convergence can be applied to rotator cuff repair to enhance the security of fixation by decreasing the mechanical strain at the margins of the tear. We describe a suture technique, over-under lacing, that reproduces the same margin convergence, with equal tissue tension across the entire surface area of the cuff. A consecutive series of patients affected by massive U-shaped rotator cuff tears were treated by this repair technique. Preoperative diagnosis, tear assessment, and grading of fatty infiltration of the cuff muscles were based on arthro-computed tomography evaluation. The technique passes 2 sutures from the medial to lateral margin of the tear, with a knotless suture anchor for tendon-to-bone fixation. The proposed technique seems to reduce tensile strain on the repaired tendon, can reconstruct the rotator cuff cable, and can attain the balanced pull of the tendon in a medial-to-lateral fashion. The over-under lacing suture technique is both simple and reproducible. This technique may achieve the goals of margin convergence with satisfactory preliminary clinical results for patients with massive rotator cuff tears

Reverse shoulder prosthesis in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a systematic review

PURPOSE: To obtain detailed information on the outcomes of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) undergoing reverse shoulder arthroplasty (RSA) METHODS: A literature search was conducted for studies reporting on the use of RSA in RA patients from 1990 to 2014. The inclusion criteria were a report of sufficient information on pre-operative status and surgical outcome allowing evaluation of the therapeutic potential of RSA in RA. The literature search resulted in 586 hits, but only five studies that met the inclusion criteria were assessed. RESULTS: There were 100 shoulders that had been operated on, of which 87 were followed for a mean of 55.4 months, the longest follow-up being 11.9 years Most patients had glenohumeral erosive lesions of Larsen Grade III or IV. The Delta III prosthesis was implanted in most cases and in three studies bone graft was used for severe glenoid lesions. The main outcome measures employed were the Constant score (Cs) and ASES questionnaire. The mean increase in Cs and ASES score after surgery was 42.4 and 54 points, respectively. The mean post-operative forward elevation was 120.6°, the average increment being 51° and the mean increase of abduction was 58.5°. The mean prevalence of scapular notching was 35.4 %. The rate of adverse events was 31 %, but the vast majority were of minor severity. Eight prostheses underwent revision, due to infection in four. CONCLUSIONS: RSA implanted in RA patients would appear to give similar results to those obtained in massive cuff tears with or without arthropathy

The Solar Wind as a Turbulence Laboratory

In this review we will focus on a topic of fundamental importance for both astrophysics and plasma physics, namely the occurrence of large-amplitude low-frequency fluctuations of the fields that describe the plasma state. This subject will be treated within the context of the expanding solar wind and the most meaningful advances in this research field will be reported emphasizing the results obtained in the past decade or so. As a matter of fact, Helios inner heliosphere and Ulysses' high latitude observations, recent multi-spacecrafts measurements in the solar wind (Cluster four satellites) and new numerical approaches to the problem, based on the dynamics of complex systems, brought new important insights which helped to better understand how turbulent fluctuations behave in the solar wind. In particular, numerical simulations within the realm of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence theory unraveled what kind of physical mechanisms are at the basis of turbulence generation and energy transfer across the spectral domain of the fluctuations. In other words, the advances reached in these past years in the investigation of solar wind turbulence now offer a rather complete picture of the phenomenological aspect of the problem to be tentatively presented in a rather organic way

Sign Singularity of the Magnetic Helicity from in Situ Solar Wind Observations

Some turbulent signed measures show a singularity related to extreme oscillations in sign, the scaling behavior of cancellations between positive and negative contributions being characterized by the cancellation exponent κ. Using in situ observations of magnetic fluctuations in the solar wind, we show that magnetic helicity is sign singular, a property that underlies the dominance of a single sign of polarization of fluctuations at small scales. We recover a statistical correlation between κ and the bulk solar wind speed when any correlation has been found between κ and the distance from the Sun. Even if the usual models of magnetic fluctuations based on random phases are able to reproduce (in a statistical sense) the gross features of helicity fluctuations, they cannot reproduce the behavior of sign singularity

Sophistication and Performance of Italian Agri‐food Exports

Nonprice competition is increasingly important in world food markets. Recently, the expression ‘export sophistication’ has been introduced in the economic literature to refer to a wide set of attributes that increase product value. An index has been proposed to measure sophistication in an indirect way through the per capita GDP of exporting countries (Lall et al., 2006; Haussmann et al., 2007).The paper applies the sophistication measure to the Italian food export sector, moving from an analysis of trends and performance of Italian food exports. An original way to disentangle different components in the temporal variation of the sophistication index is also proposed.Results show that the sophistication index offers original insights on recent trends in world food exports and with respect to Italian core food exports

Kinematic analysis of reaching movements of the upper limb after total or reverse shoulder arthroplasty

Studies have analyzed three-dimensional complex motion of the shoulder in healthy subjects or patients undergoing total shoulder arthroplasty (TSA) or reverse shoulder arthroplasty (RSA). No study to date has assessed the reaching movements in patients with TSA or RSA. Twelve patients with TSA (Group A) and 12 with RSA (Group B) underwent kinematic analysis of reaching movements directed at four targets. The results were compared to those of 12 healthy subjects (Group C). The assessed parameters were hand-to-target distance, target-approaching velocity, humeral-elevation angular velocity, normalized jerk (indicating motion fluidity), elbow extension and humeral elevation angles. Mean Constant score increased by 38 points in Group A and 47 in Group B after surgery. In three of the tasks, there were no significant differences between healthy subjects and patients in the study groups. Mean target-approaching velocity and humeral-elevation angular velocity were significantly greater in the control group than in study groups and, overall, greater in Group A than Group B. Movement fluidity was significantly greater in the controls, with patients in Group B showing greater fluidity than those in Group A. Reaching movements in the study groups were comparable, in three of the tasks, to those in the control group. However, the latter performed significantly better with regard to target-approaching velocity, humeral-elevation angular velocity and movement fluidity, which are the most representative characteristics of reaching motion. These differences, that may be related to deterioration of shoulder proprioception after prosthetic implant, might possibly be decreased with appropriate rehabilitation

The “Sophistication” of Agri-food International Trade: Switching the Concept to Imports

The aim of the paper is twofold. First, it introduces a new index (called Consy) for measuring the sophistication of traded goods looking at the importers’ side. The index is defined and then its sophistication content is assessed based on a simple regression model. Second, an empirical exercise is carried out focused on agri-food imports for a set of 46 selected items. This empirical analysis brings evidences on the kind of outcome provided by the index, but it also sheds light on recent trends in agri-food trade where demand of food imports in emerging countries is enlarging and it is more quality-oriented. Results can help stakeholders in better defining and implementing their exporting strategies, especially orienting business towards promising markets and enhancing the quality features for their exports to be delivered to more demanding consumers. Policymakers and sector analysts may also be interested in acknowledging how agri-food international trade is re-shaping in recent years in order to be able to govern the related processes.The Consy values of agrifood products indicate that rich countries are major world importers. Furthermore, the Consy ranking shows that higher value-added and more complex items are imported mainly by richer countries. The time trend of the Consy index is also studied and results show that, in the studied period, the was an increase of import shares of food items for final consumption of higher quality from poorer countries