Tourism productivity: incentives and obstacles to fostering growth

This paper intends firstly to estimate tourism productivity in 208 countries in the years 1990, 1995, 2000 and 2004. Secondly, it analyzes if the differential of productivity across countries could be due to some structural characteristics of the countries themselves. The study uses a stochastic production frontier approach and a technical efficiency model to analyze the determinants of efficiency across countries. Private capital and labour result to be more influential than public capital on the number of arrivals. The results suggest that the tertiary school enrolment, the level of communication technologies, the country openness to international trade all significantly contribute to efficiency.Tourism productivity; Economic growth; Labor; Public capital; Private capital

Trading Cultural Goods in the Era of Digital Piracy

The issue of digital piracy is a hot button among governments around the world. Piracy rates may significantly affect both internal and international trade of cultural goods. This paper aims to empirically assess the effect of digital piracy on bilateral trade in cultural goods. We focus on trade in music, films and media. Analysing an 11-year panel of 25 countries, we find that piracy does affect bilateral trade, but to varying extents.trade; trade; cultural goods; piracy; spatial filtering; network autocorrelation

Trading Cultural Goods in the Era of Digital Piracy

The issue of digital piracy as violation of intellectual property rights is a hot button among many governments around the world. Until now, nor legislation or its enforcement have managed to keep up with the most recent technologies facilitating piracy. Piracy rates may significantly affect both internal demand and international trade of cultural goods. This paper aims to empirically assess the effect of digital piracy on bilateral trade in cultural goods. We focus on trade in music and media. Analysing an 11-year panel of 25 countries, we find that piracy does affect negatively bilateral trade, although to a varying extent.trade; cultural goods; piracy; spatial filtering; network autocorrelation

Plasma wind tunnel testing of UHTC coated components for hypersonic applications

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在籍生徒の当校選択意識とその実態 : 不適応生徒発生の一条件として

Objective To determine whether the mode of delivery is associated with the risk of celiac disease (CD) in a cohort of children genetically predisposed to CD prospectively followed from birth. Study design By telephone interview, we recorded information on the mode of delivery of children participating in the Risk of Celiac Disease and Age at Gluten Introduction study, a multicenter, prospective intervention trial that compared early and delayed introduction of gluten in infants with at least 1 first-degree relative affected with CD. The human leukocyte antigen genotype was determined at 15 months of age, and serologic screening for CD was performed at 15, 24, and 36 months of age and at 5, 8, and 10 years of age. Patients with positive serologic findings underwent intestinal biopsy. The primary outcome of the current study was the prevalence of CD autoimmunity and overt CD at 5 years of age, according to the mode of delivery. Results The study-group included 553 children at CD risk because of positivity for human leukocyte antigen-DQ2, -DQ8, or both. We obtained data on the mode of delivery from 431 of 553 children; 233 of 431 children were born by vaginal delivery (54%). At 5 years of age, the prevalence of CD autoimmunity or overt CD was not different between children born by cesarean or vaginal delivery (24% and 19%, P=.2; 19% and 14%, P=.2 respectively, by the log-rank test). Conclusions In this cohort of children genetically predisposed to CD, the mode of delivery did not influence the risk of developing CD

Effects of environmental cocaine concentrations on COX and caspase-3 activity, GRP-78, ALT, CRP and blood glucose levels in the liver and kidney of the European eel (Anguilla anguilla)

Abstract Cocaine is one of the most widely used illicit drugs in the world, and as a result of incomplete removal by sewage treatment plants it is found in surface waters, where it represents a new potential risk for aquatic organisms. In this study we evaluated the influence of environmental concentrations of cocaine on the liver and the kidney of the European eel (Anguilla anguilla). The eels were exposed to 20 ng L−1 of cocaine for fifty days, after which, three and ten days after the interruption of cocaine exposure their livers and kidneys were compared to controls. The general morphology of the two organs was evaluated, as well as the following parameters: cytochrome oxidase (COX) and caspase-3 activities, as markers of oxidative metabolism and apoptosis activation, respectively; glucose-regulated protein (GRP)78 levels, as a marker of endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-stress; blood glucose level, as stress marker; serum levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), as a marker of liver injury and serum levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), as a marker of the inflammatory process. The liver showed morphologic alterations such as necrotic areas, karyolysis and pyknotic nuclei, while the kidneys had dilated glomeruli and the renal tubules showed pyknotic nuclei and karyolysis. In the kidney, the alterations persisted after the interruption of cocaine exposure. In the liver, COX and caspase-3 activities increased (COX: P = 0.01; caspase-3: P = 0.032); ten days after the interruption of cocaine exposure, COX activity returned to control levels (P = 0.06) whereas caspase-3 activity decreased further (P = 0.012); GRP78 expression increased only in post-exposure recovery specimens (three days: P = 0.007 and ten days: P = 0.008 after the interruption of cocaine exposure, respectively). In the kidney, COX and caspase-3 activities increased (COX: P = 0.02; caspase-3: P = 0.019); after the interruption of cocaine exposure, COX activity remained high (three days: P = 0.02 and ten days: P = 0.029 after the interruption of cocaine exposure, respectively) whereas caspase-3 activity returned to control values (three days: P = 0.69 and ten days: P = 0.67 after the interruption of cocaine exposure, respectively). Blood glucose and serum ALT and CRP levels increased (blood glucose: P = 0.01; ALT: P = 0.001; CRP: 0.015) and remained high also ten days after the interruption of cocaine exposure (blood glucose: P = 0.009; ALT: P = 0.0031; CRP: 0.036). These results suggest that environmental cocaine concentrations adversely affected liver and kidney of this species

PRIMA SEGNALAZIONE DI ALCUNI FUNGI E MYCETOZOA INTERESSANTI PER LA BASILICATA E/O LA PUGLIA

Investigations carried out over the past six years in some territories of Basilicata and Apulia (southern Italy), allowed to discover for the first time the following taxa of Fungi and Mycetozoa: Basilicata - Ascomycota: Ascocoryne sarcoides, Helvella leucomelaena, Hymenoscyphus conscriptus, Hypomyces chrysospermus, H. lateritius, H. luteovirens, Poronia punctata, Xylaria polymorpha; Basidiomycota: Clavaria vermicularis var. vermicularis, Clavulinopsis corniculata var. bispora, Cyathus olla, Hebeloma radicosum, Inonotus hispidus, Myriostoma coliforme, Panellus stypticus, Pluteus thomsonii, Scleroderma bovista, Xerocomus badius; Mycetozoa: Arcyria incarnata, Didymium clavus, Leocarpus fragilis, Lycogala epidendrum and Stemonitis axifera; Puglia - Ascomycota: Daldinia concentrica; Basidiomycota: Amanita codinae, Ceriporia purpurea, Dichomitus campestris, Perenniporia rosmarini, Polyporus arcularius, Scleroderma meridionale, Stereum subtomentosum and Tulostoma brumale. Finally, new natural stations of Amanita vittadini, Bisporella citrina, Coltricia perennis, Geastrum triplex, Gyromitra esculenta, Macrotyphula fistulosa, Morchella conica, Pycnoporus cinnabarinus, Sarcoscypha coccinea, and Xylaria hypoxylon were also found in Basilicata and, in some instances, also in Apulia

Cell wall traits as potential resources to improve resistance of durum wheat against Fusarium graminearum

Background: Fusarium graminearum, one of the causal agents of Fusarium Head Blight (FHB, scab), leads to severe losses in grain yield and quality due to the production of mycotoxins which are harmful to human and livestock. Different traits for FHB resistance in wheat were identified for common wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) while the sources of FHB resistance in durum wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. Durum), one of the cereals most susceptible to F. graminearum infection, have not been found. New lines of evidence indicate that content and composition of cell wall polymers affect the susceptibility of the wall to degrading enzymes produced by pathogens during infection and can play a role in the outcome of host-pathogen interactions. The objective of our research is to identify potential cell wall biochemical traits linked to Fusariosis resistance to be transferred from a resistant common wheat to a susceptible durum wheat line. Results: A detailed analysis of cell wall composition in spikes isolated from a highly resistant common wheat accession "02-5B-318", a breeding line derived from the FHB-resistant Chinese cv. Sumai-3 and a high susceptible durum wheat cv. Saragolla was performed. Significant differences in lignin monolignols composition, arabinoxylan (AX) substitutions and pectin methylesterification were found between resistant and susceptible plants. We isolated and characterized a pectin methylesterase gene WheatPME1, which we found being down regulated in the FHB-resistant line and induced by fungal infection in the susceptible wheat. Conclusions: Our results indicate cell wall traits differing between the FHB sensitive and resistant wheat genotypes, possibly related to FHB-resistance, and identify the line 02-5B-318R as a potential resource of such traits. Evidence suggests that WheatPME1 is involved in wheat response to F. graminearum

Impact of Host Genes and Strand Selection on miRNA and miRNA* Expression

Dysregulation of miRNAs expression plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of genetic, multifactorial disorders and in human cancers. We exploited sequence, genomic and expression information to investigate two main aspects of post-transcriptional regulation in miRNA biogenesis, namely strand selection regulation and expression relationships between intragenic miRNAs and host genes. We considered miRNAs expression profiles, measured in five sizeable microarray datasets, including samples from different normal cell types and tissues, as well as different tumours and disease states. First, the study of expression profiles of “sister” miRNA pairs (miRNA/miRNA*, 5′ and 3′ strands of the same hairpin precursor) showed that the strand selection is highly regulated since it shows tissue-/cell-/condition-specific modulation. We used information about the direction and the strength of the strand selection bias to perform an unsupervised cluster analysis for the sample classification evidencing that is able to distinguish among different tissues, and sometimes between normal and malignant cells. Then, considering a minimum expression threshold, in few miRNA pairs only one mature miRNA is always present in all considered cell types, whereas the majority of pairs were concurrently expressed in some cell types and alternatively in others. In a significant fraction of concurrently expressed pairs, the major and the minor forms found at comparable levels may contribute to post-transcriptional gene silencing, possibly in a coordinate way. In the second part of the study, the behaved tendency to co-expression of intragenic miRNAs and their “host” mRNA genes was confuted by expression profiles examination, suggesting that the expression profile of a given host gene can hardly be a good estimator of co-transcribed miRNA(s) for post-transcriptional regulatory networks inference. Our results point out the regulatory importance of post-transcriptional phases of miRNAs biogenesis, reinforcing the role of such layer of miRNA biogenesis in miRNA-based regulation of cell activities