A Similarity Graph-based Approach to Study Social Representations of the Economic Crisis: A Comparison between Italian and Greek Social Groups

In order to analyse the common sense theories about the economic thinking and acting, this research has been conducted with the theoretical framework of the Social Representation Theory. By interviewing Italian and Greek participants belonging to different social groups, we examined how expert and lay people face this phenomenon. Inspired by the Structural Approach, which considers SRs as constituted of two parts (a structure and a content), data were collected through specific strategies and were created ad hoc: hierarchized evocations, characterization and multiple choice questionnaires. Four groups of participants (N=120 for each country; n=30 for each group; gender balanced) were employed: university students (second/third year; Faculty of economics), mid-level bank clerks, shopkeepers, and laypeople. Obtained data were treated with rang/frequency and similarity/ network analysis, as well as mono and bivariate statistical analysis. The main findings demonstrate culture and group membership differences in the ways participants define and foresee strategies to face the crisis. In particular, in both Italian and Greek samples, differences between expert and lay groups are clear. Methodological implications associated with combining qualitative and quantitative methods, in SRT’s Structural Approach, are presented and discussed

Coordination Mechanisms along the Supply Chain: a Key-Factor for Competitiveness

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the role of relationships between stakeholders in the supply chain as a potential source of competitive advantage. In the case study, we focus on the wine industry in the Lazio Region (Italy). We observe a significant loss of competitiveness in this industry and we suggest that a higher level of communication and different coordination mechanisms among stakeholders could help in recovering a better market position. We focus on the linkages between farmers and the other food chain stakeholders through the perspective of Institutional Economics and Economics of Organization, in order to identify the key factors that determine the competitiveness of the supply chain’s product. The Lazio wine supply chain is investigated through the analysis of official data, integrated with primary data, collected through in-person interviews and questionnaires addressed to producers and experts. It emerges that the wine supply chain in the Lazio Region is characterized by a serious decline, suggested by a sharp decrease in production and sales, low reputation among experts, widespread negative consumers perception. We interpret this turn-down through the structural features of the market and through the low level of communication and coordination between the agents. This leads to the identification of potential instruments able to deal with the difficulties highlighted. We emphasize the role of public institutions in fostering communication and cooperation among firms and suggest the potential role of a web portal, in linking sellers and buyers in a common network

Men, Women, and Economic Changes: Social Representations of the Economic Crisis

The current economic crisis has been a new and unexpected phenomenon; it is part of the capitalist banking and economic system that has been known until 2008. The crisis has led to banks, states, international institutions, as well as common people, changing profoundly their representations about the economy. In this scenario, some questions arise: how do men and women of different social status face the complex and unknown phenomenon of the economic crisis? Do gender and social status justify the different meanings attributed to the crisis, to its causes and its consequences? When confronted with an external threat like the economic crisis, people draw on social representations to provide meaning to that unfamiliar situation. Through media and interpersonal communication, social groups produce naive theories that improve familiarity with an unexpected and distressing phenomenon. In order to analyze these lay theories elaborated though daily economic thinking and acting, this research has been conducted using Social Representation Theory and its methodological approaches. This theory, in fact, contributes to our understanding of the societal process of sense making when an unexperienced external shock affects society. It offers a way to understand economic phenomena’s impact on social groups. Social representations (SRs) serve the purpose of making the unfamiliar become familiar, and the unusual become usual, as well as to provide orientation in times of change. In this sense, in this article, social representations theory is used to examine the role of gender and educational status in the production of representations of the crisis. Presented findings came from a survey carried out in Southern Italy (N = 120) revealing status and gender differences in the ways people define the crisis and cope with it. Participants were asked to order the first most important five statements and the first least important statements, among a list of 15 (according to the rule of a multiple of 3) to code every item with a score of 1 (less characteristic), 3 (more characteristic), or 2 (not chosen). Every Questionnaire of Characterization was created starting from social descriptions and explanations of the crisis, identified in a previous study. They covered every sub-dimension of the content (complementary to the structure) of the social representation of the crisis, such as: cognitive-evaluative aspects about the representation’s structure (central and peripheral elements); descriptive-defining aspects of the representation; informative sources and interaction networks; level of involvement/implication with the object; relationship between representation and social practices; perceptions, attributions and categorizations (causes, responsibilities, duration/evolution, solutions, positive implications, the EU’s role). In this paper, we will only consider the answers related to the following dimensions: crisis definitions, strategies to tackle the crisis and social practices related to the crisis. The analysis of the data was carried out primarily using Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA). In this analysis, in order to uncover the objectification and anchoring processes, we considered the interaction of status and gender as an illustrative variable. These findings were further substantiated with the use of Discriminant analysis. The social anchoring of social representations of the economic crisis is influenced by gender and social status. Nevertheless, the difference in status modifies the stereotypical dimensions, also coherently with predictions derived from gender role theory about the reduction of the impact of gender stereotypes when men and women occupy similar social positions. On the one hand, high-status participants defined the crisis in more abstract terms than low-status participants. On the other hand, high-status men hold a more proactive style of coping with the crisis than other participants, especially women. The discussion focuses on the role of social representations theory in understanding the relationships between gender, status and economic behavior, providing insights into how gender equality might be improved

Men, Women, and Economic Changes: Social Representations of the Economic Crisis

The current economic crisis has been a new and unexpected phenomenon; it is part of the capitalist banking and economic system that has been known until 2008. The crisis has led to banks, states, international institutions, as well as common people, changing profoundly their representations about the economy. In this scenario, some questions arise: how do men and women of different social status face the complex and unknown phenomenon of the economic crisis? Do gender and social status justify the different meanings attributed to the crisis, to its causes and its consequences? When confronted with an external threat like the economic crisis, people draw on social representations to provide meaning to that unfamiliar situation. Through media and interpersonal communication, social groups produce naive theories that improve familiarity with an unexpected and distressing phenomenon. In order to analyze these lay theories elaborated though daily economic thinking and acting, this research has been conducted using Social Representation Theory and its methodological approaches. This theory, in fact, contributes to our understanding of the societal process of sense making when an unexperienced external shock affects society. It offers a way to understand economic phenomena’s impact on social groups. Social representations (SRs) serve the purpose of making the unfamiliar become familiar, and the unusual become usual, as well as to provide orientation in times of change. In this sense, in this article, social representations theory is used to examine the role of gender and educational status in the production of representations of the crisis. Presented findings came from a survey carried out in Southern Italy (N = 120) revealing status and gender differences in the ways people define the crisis and cope with it. Participants were asked to order the first most important five statements and the first least important statements, among a list of 15 (according to the rule of a multiple of 3) to code every item with a score of 1 (less characteristic), 3 (more characteristic), or 2 (not chosen). Every Questionnaire of Characterization was created starting from social descriptions and explanations of the crisis, identified in a previous study. They covered every sub-dimension of the content (complementary to the structure) of the social representation of the crisis, such as: cognitive-evaluative aspects about the representation’s structure (central and peripheral elements); descriptive-defining aspects of the representation; informative sources and interaction networks; level of involvement/implication with the object; relationship between representation and social practices; perceptions, attributions and categorizations (causes, responsibilities, duration/evolution, solutions, positive implications, the EU’s role). In this paper, we will only consider the answers related to the following dimensions: crisis definitions, strategies to tackle the crisis and social practices related to the crisis. The analysis of the data was carried out primarily using Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA). In this analysis, in order to uncover the objectification and anchoring processes, we considered the interaction of status and gender as an illustrative variable. These findings were further substantiated with the use of Discriminant analysis. The social anchoring of social representations of the economic crisis is influenced by gender and social status. Nevertheless, the difference in status modifies the stereotypical dimensions, also coherently with predictions derived from gender role theory about the reduction of the impact of gender stereotypes when men and women occupy similar social positions. On the one hand, high-status participants defined the crisis in more abstract terms than low-status participants. On the other hand, high-status men hold a more proactive style of coping with the crisis than other participants, especially women. The discussion focuses on the role of social representations theory in understanding the relationships between gender, status and economic behavior, providing insights into how gender equality might be improved

CMB Polarization can constrain cosmology better than CMB temperature

We demonstrate that for a cosmic variance limited experiment, CMB E polarization alone places stronger constraints on cosmological parameters than CMB temperature. For example, we show that EE can constrain parameters better than TT by up to a factor 2.8 when a multipole range of l=30-2500 is considered. We expose the physical effects at play behind this remarkable result and study how it depends on the multipole range included in the analysis. In most relevant cases, TE or EE surpass the TT based cosmological constraints. This result is important as the small scale astrophysical foregrounds are expected to have a much reduced impact on polarization, thus opening the possibility of building cleaner and more stringent constraints of the LCDM model. This is relevant specially for proposed future CMB satellite missions, such as CORE or PRISM, that are designed to be cosmic variance limited in polarization till very large multipoles. We perform the same analysis for a Planck-like experiment, and conclude that even in this case TE alone should determine the constraint on $\Omega_ch^2$ better than TT by 15%, while determining $\Omega_bh^2$, $n_s$ and $\theta$ with comparable accuracy. Finally, we explore a few classical extensions of the LCDM model and show again that CMB polarization alone provides more stringent constraints than CMB temperature in case of a cosmic variance limited experiment.Comment: 14 pages, 16 figure

Assessment of telomere length during post-natal period in offspring produced by a bull and its fibroblast derived clone

Objective: To investigate the telomere length in bovine offspring produced by a cloned and control bull, and the telomerase activity in embryos produced with the same technology. Methods: Five daughters of a control and five daughters of a bull cloned using a fibroblast of the control were produced by IVF using sperm of the two bulls. Blood samples of the offspring were collected at 2, 6, and 12 months of age and the relative telomere length (RTL) was assessed by flow cytometry. At same time the body growth, hematological profile, and clinical biochemistry of the same progeny was extensively surveyed, and results have been reported in a previous work. Thereafter, the telomerase activity was assessed using a real time PCR quantitative assay in groups of embryos produced with the same technology. Results: The offspring of the clone exhibited a modest, but significant (P<0.05), shortening of the telomeres (21.36%, 20.56% and 20.56%) compared to that of the control (23.78%, 23.53% and 22.43%) as mean values determined at 2, 6 and 12 months, respectively. Shortening of telomeres in respect to the age was not significant. No statistical difference was reported between telomerase activity assessed in 144 cloned (3.4−03 ± 2.4−03 amoles/μL) and 80 control (2.1−03 ± 1.8−03 amoles/μL) embryos. Conclusions: The results have revealed a moderate shortening of telomeres in the offspring of the clone with respect to control. However, this study did not evidence differences in the two progenies that suggest welfare problems during the first year of life

Tuberculosis and HIV co-infection in children

HIV is the top and tuberculosis is the second leading cause of death from infectious disease worldwide, with an estimated 8.7 million incident cases of tuberculosis and 2.5 million new HIV infections annually. The World Health Organization estimates that HIV prevalence among children with tuberculosis, in countries with moderate to high prevalence, ranges from 10 to 60%. The mechanisms promoting susceptibility of people with HIV to tuberculosis disease are incompletely understood, being likely caused by multifactorial processes. Paediatric tuberculosis and HIV have overlapping clinical manifestations, which could lead to missed or late diagnosis. Although every effort should be made to obtain a microbiologically-confirmed diagnosis in children with tuberculosis, in reality this may only be achieved in a minority, reflecting their paucibacillary nature and the difficulties in obtain samples. Rapid polymerase chain reaction tests, such as Xpert MTB/RIF assay, are increasingly used in children. The use of less or non invasive methods of sample collection, such as naso-pharyngeal aspirates and stool samples for a polymerase chain reaction-based diagnostic test tests and mycobacterial cultures is promising technique in HIV negative and HIV positive children. Anti-tuberculosis treatment should be started immediately at diagnosis with a four drug regimen, irrespective of the disease severity. Moreover, tuberculosis disease in an HIV infected child is considered to be a clinical indication for initiation of antiretroviral treatment. The World Health Organization recommends starting antiretroviral treatment in children as soon as anti-tuberculosis treatment is tolerated and within 2- 8 weeks after initiating it. The treatment of choice depends on the child’s age and availability of age-appropriate formulations, and potential drug interactions and resistance. Treatment of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in HIV-infected children follows same principles as for HIV uninfected children. There are conflicting results on effectiveness of isoniazid preventive therapy in reducing incidence of tuberculosis disease in children with HIV. CONCLUSION: Data on HIV/TB co-infection in children are still lacking. There are on-going large clinical trials on the prevention and treatment of TB/HIV infection in children that hopefully will help to guide an evidence-based clinical practice in both resource-rich and resource-limited settings

A new catechol-functionalized polyamidoamine as an effective SPION stabilizer

A synthetic strategy was established for decorating and stabilizing superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) with a zwitterionic linear polyamidoamine (PAA). The strategy was successfully tested with a PAA coded ISA23 previously found endowed with interesting biological properties, such as biocompatibility, degradability in aqueous media and stealth-like properties when injected in test animals. A post-synthetic functionalization with catechol-bearing moieties of a preformed PAA was successfully carried out. ISA23 was obtained by polyaddition reactions of methyl-piperazine and 2,2-bis(acrylamidoacetic) acid. It was functionalized using nitrodopamine and 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide as coupling agent, to randomly form amide bonds with 17% of ISA23 carboxylic groups (ISA23-ND). SPIONs were prepared by a thermal decomposition synthesis in 1-octadecene with oleic acid, and then transferred in water by two distinct ligand exchange procedures: i) the direct displacement of oleate molecules from SPION surface by ISA23 in a biphasic (n-hexane/water) environment; ii) the two-step method involving an intermediate small molecule, tetramethylammonium hydroxide, used as a transient transfer agent, which was in turn exchanged with ISA23-ND in a second exchange step occurring in water. The two-step procedure provided a SPION@PAA nanocomposite more stable than that obtained by the one-step procedure in the presence of an applied external magnetic field. ATR-FTIR spectroscopy, \u3b6-potential and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) showed the presence of the ISA23 on the SPION surface. In particular, TGA showed that the ISA23-ND amount on the NPs accounted for 26% of the overall nanocomposite mass. The nanocomposite size was determined by both TEM (21.1\ub12.9 nm) and DLS measurements (hydrodynamic size 100\ub128 nm). SPION@ISA23-ND were re-suspended after lyophilization reverting to their pristine dimensions. The SPION@ISA23-ND adsorption of BSA in water, considered as the first stage of phagocytosis, was very low, suggesting that ISA23 could impart stealthiness to SPION@ISA23-ND. 1H-NMR relaxivity measurements showed an r2 value of 158 s-1 mmol-1 L (vs 100 s-1 mmol-1L for Endorem\uae) at relevant clinical fields for magnetic resonance imaging (from 0.2 to 1.5 T). SPION@ISA23-ND was tested on HeLa cells and their internalization was visualized by reflectance microscopy. Finally, with the aim of prepare a new dual magneto-optical system, a synthetic procedure to decorate SPION@ISA23-ND with a fluorescent dye was devised, even though the emission intensity of the resultant conjugate was lower than expected, possibly due to luminescence quenching caused by the closeness of emitting moieties to the SPION surface