Efficiency and Capital Structure in the Italian Cereal Sector

Farm capital structure may have contrasting effects on farm efficiency as a strand of the farm efficiency literature as pointed out ( for a review see for example Davidova and Latruffe 2007). Farmers often use external funding both to cover productions costs and to finance investments (machinery, equipment, buildings) to enhance farm economic performance. The debt is necessary to maintain or improve farm productivity and competitiveness by adopting technological innovation needed to increase farm efficiency. At the same time leverage may affects farm efficiency by influencing farm production decision constrained by lower farm expenditure capacity. In this case, farms response may rely on reducing the necessary expenditures to maintain the production assets with negative consequences on farm productivity, growth and efficiency. Finally, farm leverage may affects the farms capacity to react to market shocks adopting the needed strategic adjustments to maintain productivity, efficiency and competitiveness. A relevant case study for assessing this last effect would be the recent surge in price volatility that affected European and world cereal markets starting from 2008.The objective of this paper is to provide new empirical evidence on the relationship between farm capital structure and farm efficiency. In particular we will try to answer the following research question: does higher leverage lead to better performance? The food price volatility that has affected the cereal market from 2008 onwards is a possible stress for cereal farms that must adapt to the rapid drop in prices such as the one observed in 2010. Our research provide a first insight on the evolution of the cereal farms debt-technical efficiency relationship in times of high price volatility

Data Protection, Digital Forensics and Encryption in Mobile Devices in European Union

Nowadays cryptography has been used to increase trust in confidentiality of many sources of information. Indeed, such technologies are helpful in protecting data from illegal accesses, yet drawbacks arise if they have to be enforced by investigative authorities to collect evidence. Balancing investigative powers and fundamental rights \u2013 most importantly, privacy \u2013 is difficult, especially when decryption keys are provided by human fingerprints or other biological traits. In this paper we focus on Digital forensics of encrypted mobile devices in the EU legal framework

The impact of financial leverage on farm technical efficiency during periods of price instability

The main purpose of this work is to provide empirical evidence on the relationship between capital structure and technical efficiency for Italian cereal farms during the 2008 – 2014 period. Emphasis is given in the understanding of the relationship between the level of financial leverage for cereal farms and their production performance. The methods employed in this research article are based on non-parametric techniques in order to derive technical efficiency estimates for a sample of Italian cereal farms based on available Farm Accountancy Data Network data to explore in depth the relationship amongst the financial exposure of the sector and the capacity to utilise an efficient and effective production technology. Furthermore, subsidies are considered in the model as a non-discretionary variable and therefore, as an input that farmers cannot directly influence within the production function. Hence, the non-discretionary Data Envelopment Analysis model is a more appropriate framework since it is not penalising farms at a lower level of Pillar I payments when benchmarked with farms that receive higher level of payments. The results show that significant improvements could be achieved for most of the farms in the sample by improving production and management practices. Furthermore, results provide an empirical support of the adjustment theory by showing a negative impact of debt to asset ratio to technical efficiency. This research article provides a first insight on the evolution of the Italian cereal farms debt-technical efficiency relationship in periods where high price instability has been observed

Existence and stability of weak solutions of the Vlasov--Poisson system in localized Yudovich spaces

We consider the Vlasov--Poisson system both in the repulsive (electrostatic potential) and in the attractive (gravitational potential) cases. In our first main theorem, we prove the uniqueness and the quantitative stability of Lagrangian solutions $f=f(t,x,v)$ whose associated spatial density $\rho_f=\rho_f(t,x)$ is potentially unbounded but belongs to suitable uniformly-localized Yudovich spaces. This requirement imposes a condition of slow growth on the function $p \mapsto \|\rho_f(t,\cdot)\|_{L^p}$ uniformly in time. Previous works by Loeper, Miot and Holding--Miot have addressed the cases of bounded spatial density, i.e., $\|\rho_f(t,\cdot)\|_{L^p} \lesssim 1$, and spatial density such that $\|\rho_f(t,\cdot)\|_{L^p} \sim p^{1/\alpha}$ for $\alpha\in[1,+\infty)$. Our approach is Lagrangian and relies on an explicit estimate of the modulus of continuity of the electric field and on a second-order Osgood lemma. It also allows for iterated-logarithmic perturbations of the linear growth condition. In our second main theorem, we complement the aforementioned result by constructing solutions whose spatial density sharply satisfies such iterated-logarithmic growth. Our approach relies on real-variable techniques and extends the strategy developed for the Euler equations by the first and fourth-named authors. It also allows for the treatment of more general equations that share the same structure as the Vlasov--Poisson system. Notably, the uniqueness result and the stability estimates hold for both the classical and the relativistic Vlasov--Poisson systems

Existence and stability of weak solutions of the Vlasov-Poisson system in localized Yudovich spaces

We consider the Vlasov-Poisson system both in the repulsive (electrostatic potential) and in the attractive (gravitational potential) cases. In our first main theorem, we prove the uniqueness and the quantitative stability of Lagrangian solutions $f=f(t,x,v)$ whose associated spatial density $\rho_f=\rho_f(t,x)$ is potentially unbounded but belongs to suitable uniformly-localized Yudovich spaces. This requirement imposes a condition of slow growth on the function $p \mapsto \|\rho_f(t,\cdot)\|_{L^p}$ uniformly in time. Previous works by Loeper, Miot and Holding--Miot have addressed the cases of bounded spatial density, i.e., $\|\rho_f(t,\cdot)\|_{L^p} \lesssim 1$, and spatial density such that $\|\rho_f(t,\cdot)\|_{L^p} \sim p^{1/\alpha}$ for $\alpha\in[1,+\infty)$. Our approach is Lagrangian and relies on an explicit estimate of the modulus of continuity of the electric field and on a second-order Osgood lemma. It also allows for iterated-logarithmic perturbations of the linear growth condition. In our second main theorem, we complement the aforementioned result by constructing solutions whose spatial density sharply satisfies such iterated-logarithmic growth. Our approach relies on real-variable techniques and extends the strategy developed for the Euler equations by the first and fourth-named authors. It also allows for the treatment of more general equations that share the same structure as the Vlasov-Poisson system. Notably, the uniqueness result and the stability estimates hold for both the classical and the relativistic Vlasov-Poisson systems

The \uabQuality of Information\ubb Challenges in IoT Forensics: An Introduction

IoT technologies pose serious challenges to digital forensics. The acquisition of digital evidence is hindered by the number and extreme variety of IoT items, often lacking of physical interfaces, connected in unprotected networks, feeding data to uncontrolled cloud services. In this paper we introduce the main issues of \uabinformation quality\ubb in this field. After a short introduction, we provide an overview on digital forensics approach to preserve the \uabchain of custody\ubb, then we detect relevant IoT features in order to analyse main concerns in digital forensics. At the end, we propose a formula for benchmarking forensics trustworthiness (Information Quality Assessment)

Estudo microanatômico dos ramos corticais distais da artéria cerebral anterior

Os ramos corticais distais da artéria cerebral anterior são habitualmente as artérias orbito-frontal (AOf), fronto-polar (AFp), frontais internas anterior (AFIA), média (AFIM) e posterior (AFIP), do lóbulo paracentral (ALP), parietais internas superior (APIS) e inferior (APII) e artéria calosomarginal (ACm) . A distribuição destes ramos e suas variações têm importância clínica no tratamento das lesões vasculares da região inter-hemisférica. Foram estudados os ramos distais da ACA em 38 cérebros injetados com látex e dissecados sob magnificação. Os diâmetros e distâncias entre a origem dos vasos corticais distais e a ACoA foram analisados estatisticamente. O diâmetro médio da ACA após sua origem da ACoA foi de 2,61±0,34 mm e as médias dos diâmetoros das artérias corticais variou de 0,79±0,27 mm a 1, 84±0, 3 mm. As distâncias médias entre as origens de vários vasos e a ACoA variou de 7,68±3,91 mm (órbito-frontal) a 112,6±11,63 mm (parietal interna inferior). Variações anatômicas foram encontradas neste estudo: uma ACA ázigos estava presente em um caso e uma terceira ACA em 3. Em 26,3% dos casos, ramos cruzados da ACA distal suprindo o hemisfério contralateral foram encontrados. A presença de ramos cruzados da ACA distais à ACoA (artéria comunicante anterior) em 26,3% dos casos indica a importância desta variação anatômica quando se considera o diagnóstico e tratamento das lesões envolvendo a ACA. Nenhuma diferença estatisticamente significante foi encontrada entre os lados direito e esquerdo no padrão de ramificação, na distância entre a origem dos vasos e a ACoA e no calibre dos vasos.The distal branches of the ACA (anterior cerebral artery) are usually the orbitofrontal, frontopolar, anterior, middle and posterior internal frontal, paracentral lobe, the superior and inferior internal parietal arteries and the calosomarginal. The distribution of these branches and their variations have significant clinical importance in the treatment of vascular lesions of the interhemispheric region. The distal branches of the ACA in 38 brains injected with latex and dissected under magnification. The diameters and the distances between the origin of the distal cortical vessels and the anterior communicating artery were recorded and statistically analyzed. The average diameter of the ACA at origin was 2.61±0.34 mm and the average cortical branches diameter ranged from 0.79±0.27 mm to 1.84±0.3 mm. The average distances between the origin of the various vessels and the ACoA (anterior communicating artery) ranged from 7.68±3.91 mm (orbitofrontal) to 112.6±11.63 mm (inferior internal parietal). Anatomical variations were found in this study: an azigos ACA was present in one case anda triplicate ACA in 3. In 26.3% of the cases crossing branches of the distal ACA supplying the contralateral hemisphere were found. The presence of crossing branches of the ACA distal to the ACoA in 26.3% of the cases indicates the importance of this anatomic variation when considering the diagnosis and treatment of lesions involving the ACA. No statistically significant differences were found in the branching pattern, distance between the origin and the ACoA and caliber between the left and right sides