THE IMPACT OF EU AND US AGRO-FOOD NON TARIFF MEASURES ON EXPORTS FROM DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Aim of the paper is to appraise the impact of EU and US non tariff measures on agro-food exports from African, Asian and South-American developing countries. After an inventory description of these measures, a gravity model is estimated. The results offer a measure of the impact of the different type of technical (i.e. labeling and standard requirement for both safety and non safety matters) and non-technical (i.e. import licensing and authorization requirements) provisions and of the different degree of application of the same measures, on the agro-food export from developing countries.International Relations/Trade,

THE IMPACT OF TECHNICAL BARRIERS ON US-EU AGRO-FOOD TRADE

Controversial aspects exist in the current debate on the application of Non Tariff Measures (NTMs) on agro-food trade. This study intends to offer an evaluation of the trade impact of both non-technical and technical NTMs on the US-EU bilateral trade, the two major players in WTO negotiations. The results show two main structural differences between the EU and US borders: technical NTMs are preferred in the US, while in the EU the opposite is true; agro-food imports in the US face a number of NTMs more than double that of the EU. Gravity model estimates confirm the negative impact of NTMs on trade. However, safety technical requirements seem to have a positive effect on trade, probably as a consequence of lower transaction, monitoring and enforcing costs.International Relations/Trade,

The NAFTA Agreement and Market Integration Among Canada, US and Mexico: The Role of Non-Tariff Measures

The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of non-tariff measures (NTM) on NAFTA agro-food trade comparing the measures implemented at the borders of participating countries, Canada, United States and Mexico, and evaluating the impact of those NTM still implemented within the NAFTA area on agro-food market integration by estimating different gravity models for the agro-food industry as a whole and for particularly relevant product categories. The overall results from the gravity model offer a measure of the impact of the different types of technical provisions and of the different degree of application of the same measure, on the agro-food trade in the NAFTA area. The picture emerging from the estimates is quite complex: overall, a net trade creation effect seems to prevail, even though the results cannot be unambigously generalized, because they are conditional to product groups and country-specific measures.International Relations/Trade,

5g and Iot digital era: the transformation of mobile network operators into end-to-end solution providers

The forthcoming 5G and IoT large-scale implementation reveals new business opportunities in completely new sectors that mobile network operators should seize. This survey paper wants to identify the necessary transformations such operators must undergo to build a sustainable competitive advantage in the future industry. A qualitative research composed of semi-structured interviews incumbents’stronger intent of diversification and creates the base for strategic recommendations.A sample of recent actions carried out by mobile network operators to improve their position in the 5G and IoT environments is shown at the end of the work

Price efficiency and speculative trading in cocoa futures markets

In recent years a number of market participants called into question the efficiency of the price discovery mechanism in commodity futures markets. They believe that speculators move commodity futures markets away from their fundamentals by distorting prices and exacerbating volatility. The smoking gun of these allegations is the empirical observation that speculative buying (selling) precedes movements in the cocoa futures markets. Among soft commodities, the cocoa futures market represents an interesting case study. In the last decades, speculators open interest is increased by nearly 4 times, fuelling the apprehension of practitioners and market analysts. This paper evaluates the efficiency of the price discovery mechanism in cocoa futures markets. Results show that the price discovery mechanism in both LIFFE and NYBOT cocoa futures markets is efficient. In addition, they rule out the existence of any casual relationship between speculative activity and cocoa prices (i.e. level and volatility) at the least for the NYBOT. This evidence supports the hypothesis that successful speculators are reacting quicker than any other market participant to new information emerging from the market. That is why profitable speculative buying (selling) occurs just before the market makes a move.futures markets, efficient market hypothesis, speculation, Marketing,

p53-dependent chemokine production by senescent tumor cells supports NKG2D-dependent tumor elimination by natural killer cells

The induction of cellular senescence is an important mechanism by which p53 suppresses tumorigenesis. Using a mouse model of liver carcinoma, where cellular senescence is triggered in vivo by inducible p53 expression, we demonstrated that NK cells participate in the elimination of senescent tumors. The elimination of senescent tumor cells is dependent on NKG2D. Interestingly, p53 restoration neither increases ligand expression nor increases the sensitivity to lysis by NK cells. Instead, p53 restoration caused tumor cells to secrete various chemokines with the potential to recruit NK cells. Antibody-mediated neutralization of CCL2, but not CCL3, CCL4 or CCL5, prevented NK cell recruitment to the senescent tumors and reduced their elimination. Our findings suggest that elimination of senescent tumors by NK cells occurs as a result of the cooperation of signals associated with p53 expression or senescence, which regulate NK cell recruitment, and other signals that induce NKG2D ligand expression on tumor cells

Price efficiency and speculative trading in cocoa futures markets

In recent years a number of market participants called into question the efficiency of the price discovery mechanism in commodity futures markets. They believe that speculators move commodity futures markets away from their fundamentals by distorting prices and exacerbating volatility. The smoking gun of these allegations is the empirical observation that speculative buying (selling) precedes movements in the cocoa futures markets. Among soft commodities, the cocoa futures market represents an interesting case study. In the last decades, speculators' open interest is increased by nearly 4 times, fuelling the apprehension of practitioners and market analysts. This paper evaluates the efficiency of the price discovery mechanism in cocoa futures markets. Results show that the price discovery mechanism in both LIFFE and NYBOT cocoa futures markets is efficient. In addition, they rule out the existence of any casual relationship between speculative activity and cocoa prices (i.e. level and volatility) at the least for the NYBOT. This evidence supports the hypothesis that successful speculators are reacting quicker than any other market participant to new information emerging from the market. That is why profitable speculative buying (selling) occurs just before the market makes a move

Cardiopatch impiantabili e idrogel iniettabili per il trattamento dell’infarto miocardico

L'infarto miocardico rappresenta al giorno d'oggi una delle principali cause di moralità in tutto il mondo e le tradizionali strategie terapeutiche non risultano essere particolarmente efficienti ed efficaci nel ripristinare la funzionalità del miocardio infartuato. In alternativa alle tradizionali terapie, le innovative strategie terapeutiche, quali cardiopatch impiantabili e gli idrogel iniettabili, garantiscono ottimi standard in termini di proprietà meccaniche, elettroconduttive, vitalità e proliferazione cellulare. Sebbene entrambi gli approcci risultino particolarmente efficaci, l'applicazione di un singolo sistema potrebbe portare ad una efficacia terapeutica limitata. Una possibile soluzione, in ottica futura, potrebbe essere quella di combinare entrambe le terapie e ottenere così i vantaggi di entrambi i sistem

Development and testing of a digital health assistant for pediatric asthma patients

Asthma is the most relevant chronic respiratory disease worldwide, affecting millions of children and adolescents both in low-middle-income countries and high-income countries. In low-resource settings, the level of asthma control for children and young adolescents is dramatically low, because of their poor medication adherence and insufficient disease monitoring. Alex is a digital health assistant (DHA) for longitudinal telemonitoring of asthma, able to provide children with a personal coach assistant interface and an innovative data-collecting platform, that will record multiple asthma biomarkers coming from different active and passive monitoring devices. This study focused on the development of an innovative spirometer collector, to be embedded in Alex’s longitudinal monitoring: by exploiting an innovative user interface, the application aims to increase pediatric asthma patients’ motivation when performing spirometry tests, to mitigate their insufficient disease monitoring. Alex also aims to improve the poor medication adherence of pediatric asthma patients: by utilizing an open-source smart inhaler sensor, to detect whenever patients use their therapeutic inhaler during the day. So, this study focused also on the design, 3D-print, and testing of three distinct fixation systems, that aim to fix the smart inhaler sensor used by Alex DHA on three different types of inhalers between 10 and 19 years old