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Issues of policy effectiveness and policy neutrality are widespread in the economic literature. They have been raised in a number of specific contexts over the past 20 years, most notably with reference to monetary policy. However, the general conditions which ensure the non-neutrality of any or all the policy instruments available to a policymaker in a strategic context still remain to be derived. To do that, this paper provides a generalization of the classical theory of economic policy developed by Tinbergen, Theil and others to a strategic environment. Computational algorithms, so that neutrality and controllability can be tested in practice, are given. We show that many of the standard policy neutrality propositions of monetary theory and in wage bargaining models then drop out as special cases of our encompassing approach but with much simpler interpretations.

This paper generalizes the classical theory of economic policy developed by Tinbergen and Theil to a static LQ-strategic context between n players. We show how this generalized version of controllability can profitably be used to deal with policy ineffectiveness issues and Nash equilibrium existence.

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the coalitional behavior in an open-loop LQ-differential game for the EMU. The interaction of monetary and fiscal policies is a crucial issue in a highly integrated economic area like the EU. It is shown that when the coalition formation game is played without communication among the policy-makers, cooperation is either impossible or limited. In the simulation, the focus is on the priorities and bargaining power distribution of the policy-makers. It is assumed that both governments' priority is real output stabilization while the European Central Bank is mainly concerned about price stabilization. It is found that when the policy-makers can communicate, full cooperation becomes possible in equilibrium, whereas complete noncooperation is not sustainable in equilibrium. This contrast provides broad support for the view that institutions and international forums for discussion can play a crucial role in achieving international cooperation, even when these institutions are not endowed with enforcement powers.

Item does not contain fulltext The EMU is an highly integrated economic area where externalities occur. Therefore, in this context interaction of monetary and fiscal policies is a crucial issue. This paper fo-cuses on how coalitions among policy-makers are formed and what are their effects on the stabilization of output and price. We emphasize the role played by the institutional design of "cooperation forums" (as, e.g., the ECOFIN). If the coalition formation game is played without communication among the policy-makers full cooperation is either impossible or limited. On the other hand, if policy-makers can communicate, full cooperation becomes a possible equilibrium, while the complete non-cooperative solution is, in general, not a sustainable equilibrium. This contrast begins to provide broad support for the view that in-stitutions and international forums for discussions can play a crucial role in achieving in-ternational cooperation even when these institutions are not endowed with enforcement powers. 24 p.

Recently, the principles of density gradient cell separation have been transferred to the marrow fractionation, and the Ficoll technique by using a COBE 2991 blood cell processor has been developed and widely employed as well. This method is particularly useful in view of a chemical antineoplastic purging intended for autologous marrow transplantation. Forty marrows, which derived from patients suffering with leukemia and lymphoma, were fractionated with Ficoll on a COBE machine and in vitro purged with Mafosfamide at a dose of 50 micrograms/ml/1 x 10e7 MN cells. The density gradient separation enables to reduce the initial volume to 10%, the contaminating RBC to less than 1%, the total nucleated cells to 25% (greater than 80% of MNC) sparing about 80% of the CFU-GM. After purging, the surviving hemopoietic progenitor cells were 2.5%. The clinical effects of the fractionated purged cells were studied in 11 autotransplanted patients and compared with 14 transplants performed with untreated buffy-coat marrow derived cells. Ficoll cells produced less adverse effects at the time of reinfusion, while, as expected, the time of hematopoietic recovery was delayed in these patients (mafosfamide treated cells). These results confirm the usefulness of the gradient density cell separation to reduce the side effects of the DMSO and to make reliable the Mafosfamide purging manoeuvre, preventing the interference of contaminating RBC aldehyde dehydrogenase.

Ten patients who underwent autologous blood-derived stem cell transplantation (APBSCT) were studied retrospectively to determine the frequency and outcome of transplant associated infections during the hemopoietic reconstitution. Six patients developed an infection after transplant. Severe bacterial infections were unfrequent and mostly caused by gram-positive cocci. In no case pneumonia was observed and this scarce morbility of infection could be the result of early engraftment. None of them died for infection. The frequency of infections in APBSCT patients appears lower than the one observed in autologous bone marrow transplant patients.

Although committed progenitor cells have been harvested during the standard plateletpheresis, only few experiences were specifically carried out in normal donors. The major drawback is the very low number of circulating haemopoietic stem cells and, besides a donor manipulation, a good harvesting technology is a fundamental prerequisite. To verify the effectiveness of an automate system, twenty normal volunteer donors were randomly assigned to four protocols of simultaneous PBSC and platelet collection. A Baxter separator CS 3000 was employed and we compared the yields and the efficiency of the modified Program 1 plus isoradial chamber (Protocol A), the modified Program 1 plus granulo chamber (Protocol B), the standard Program 3 plus isoradial chamber (Protocol C) and the standard Program 3 plus granulo chamber (Protocol D). The absolute yields for WBC (x10(9)), MNC (x10(9)), platelets (x10(11)) and CFU-GM (x10(4)) were respectively: 10.4, 10.1, 6.5 and 29.5 for Protocol A; 10.1, 9.9, 5.2 and 14.7 for Protocol B; 10.0, 9.9, 5.2, 14.7 for Protocol C, and 12.7, 12.4, 6.8 and 57.4 for Protocol D. The best CFU-GM efficiency was achieved with Protocol D (33%) vs. Protocol A (27.5%), Protocol B (14.5%) and Protocol C (27%). The above differences, although remarkable, were not statistically significant. Though preliminary, this study demonstrates the feasibility of a combined platelet and PBSC collection in normal donors.

We investigated Prednisone (PRD) and Folinic Acid (FA) ability to recruit stem cells (CFU-S) into the circulating compartment, evaluating CFU-GM, BFU-E and CFU-GEMM count increases in peripheral blood (PB). Fifteen healthy donors were administered 75 mg PRD in one trial, and 15 mg FA p.o. through 5 consecutive days in another trial. We observed a significant expansion for BFU-E and CFU-GEMM compartments, though not parallelled by CFU-GM expansion. FA determined a significant increase in CFU-GM on the 5th day of administration, as well as in BFU-E on day 7. It fails to raise CFU-GEMM. The authors suggest a less empiric persuing for such attempts to optimize the use of non-chemotherapic drugs to recruit hemopoietic precursors into PB, so that these can suit to meet stem cell needs for autologous and allogeneic transplantations.

OBJECTIVES The Sutureless and Rapid-Deployment Aortic Valve Replacement International Registry (SURD-IR) was established by a consortium of 18 research centres-the International Valvular Surgery Study Group (IVSSG)-to overcome limitations of the literature and provide adequately powered evidence on sutureless and rapid-deployment aortic valves replacement (SURD-AVR). METHODS Data from 3343 patients undergoing SURD-AVR over a 10-year period (2007-2017) were collected in the registry. The mean age of the patients was 76.8 ± 6.7 years, with 36.4% being 80 years or older. The average logistic EuroSCORE was 11.3 ± 9.7%. RESULTS Isolated SURD-AVR was performed in 70.7% (n = 2362) of patients using full sternotomy (35.3%) or less invasive approaches (64.8%). Overall hospital mortality was 2.1%, being 1.4% in patients who had isolated SURD-AVR and 3.5% in those who had concomitant procedures (P

The article discusses the following topics: a) Local integration of immigrants in Italy froma a "macro" perspective: the decade-long research experience of the Cnel; b) Local aspects of integration: account of a "micro" experience; c) The contribution of local councils on immigration for the purposes of assessing levels of integration.

The article discusses the following topics: a) Italian legislation on citizenship and long-term residents; b) Acquisition of citizenship and naturalisation: from the regulation on migration statistics to the Zaragoza Declaration; c) Other indicators of active citizenship: situation and prospects in the case of Italy.

The article discusses the following topics: a) Definitional issues of second generation of immigrants; b) From the definitions to the examination of the categories of interest in the main statistical sources; c) Foreign student at school: indicators of educational outcomes and achievement; d) Local and prospective experiences for measuring school inclusion.

The article describes the emergence of the concept of integration between North America and Europe