Abstract
Italy has introduced a special new tax regime for individuals, whether Italian or foreign nationals, who transfer their residence to Italy. This special regime, which is optional and aimed ...at attracting HNWIs, provides for a fixed 100,000 Euro annual tax on foreign income and gains, irrespective of their amount, and additional benefits, including the exemption of foreign assets from wealth taxes and inheritance and gift tax. This special regime is effective for up to 15 years and may be voluntarily extended to one or more family members by paying an additional 25,000 Euro per family member benefitting from the regime.
Bribing the Self Gneezy, Uri; Saccardo, Silvia; Serra-Garcia, Marta ...
Games and economic behavior,
03/2020, Letnik:
120
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Expert advice is often biased in ways that benefit the advisor. We demonstrate how self-deception helps advisors be biased while preserving their self-image as ethical and identify limits to ...advisors' ability to self-deceive. In experiments where advisors recommend one of two investments to a client and receive a commission that depends on their recommendation, we vary the timing at which advisors learn about their own incentives. When advisors learn about their incentives before evaluating the available investments, they are more likely to be biased than when they learn about their incentives only after privately evaluating the investments. Consistent with self-deception, learning about the incentive before evaluating the options affects advisors' beliefs and preferences over the investments. Biased advice persists with minimal justifications but is eliminated when all justifications are removed. These findings show how self-deception can be constrained to improve advice provision.
Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) doped with poly(styrene sulfonate) anions (PEDOT:PSS) is a polymer widely used in organic optoelectronic devices as a hole transport material. This polymer is ...transparent, flexible, easy to process, and exhibits high resistance to degradation. However, the (PEDOT:PSS) can present low electrical conductivity, and subsequent treatment with a dopant material, such as Dimethyl Sulfoxide (DMSO), is often necessary to improve its performance as an electrode. In this work, the effect of the DMSO on PEDOT:PSS was studied and its relation with the deposition method, such as spin coating and roll-to-roll, was analyzed. To optimize their performance as an electrode, both films were post-treated several times using DMSO via the same deposition method until it has the highest value of conductivity. Optical, morphological, and electrical properties are reported as a function of deposition method and solvent treatment. It has been demonstrated that the films formed by both methods present high transparency in the visible spectrum, electrical conductivity and morphological characteristics suitable for use in optoelectronic devices. Also, the roll-to-roll deposition method proved to be promising for the development of large-scale conductive transparent films.
•Generosity under Consumer Elective Pricing (CEP) is context-dependent.•Language that highlights the social nature of CEP can increase contributions.•Field experiments show that subtle changes in the ...phrasing of a CEP appeal increase generosity in commercial and fundraising settings.•Financial constraints might hinder the effect of social-cueing on payments.
Consumer elective pricing (CEP)—allowing each consumer to decide how much to pay for a product or service—is becoming widespread. Organizations using this pricing scheme for both commercial and non-profit purposes have adopted a wide variety of phrasings to communicate it. In this paper, we propose that seemingly negligible differences in the phrasing of CEP can increase payments and donations. In three field experiments in both charitable and commercial marketplaces, we vary the language used to describe a CEP appeal to either highlight the social aspect of the exchange or not. Our findings show that CEP phrasing that cues the social nature of the transaction elicits socially oriented considerations and nudges generosity in both non-profit and for-profit markets. Follow-up online studies shed light on consumers’ perceptions under different CEP phrasing and establish a potential boundary condition.
Wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM) is a process that removes material from conductive workpieces by using sequential electrical discharges. The morphology of the craters formed by these ...discharges is influenced by various process parameters and affects the quality and efficiency of the machining. To understand and optimize the WEDM process, it is essential to identify and characterize single craters from microscopy images. However, manual labeling of craters is tedious and prone to errors. This paper presents a novel approach to detect and segment single craters using state-of-the-art computer vision techniques. The YOLOv8 model, a convolutional neural network-based object detection technique, is fine-tuned on a custom dataset of WEDM craters to locate and enclose them with tight bounding boxes. The segment anything model, a vision transformer-based instance segmentation technique, is applied to the cropped images of individual craters to delineate their shape and size. Geometric analysis of the segmented craters reveals significant variations in their contour and area depending on the energy setting, while the wire diameter has minimal influence.
Abstract Objective The aim of this study was to assess the effects of changes in plasma selenium on the outcome of critically ill children. Methods Plasma selenium was prospectively measured in 99 ...children with acute systemic inflammation. The exposure variables were selenium level on admission and on day 5 of stay in the intensive care unit (ICU) and the difference in selenium concentrations between day 5 post-admission and the ICU admission (delta selenium). Selenium was given only as part of enteral diets. Age, malnutrition, red cell glutathione peroxidase-1 activity, serum C-reactive protein, Pediatric Index of Mortality 2, and Pediatric Logistic Organ Dysfunction scores were analyzed as covariates. The outcome variables were ventilator-free days, ICU-free days, and 28-d mortality. Results Plasma selenium concentrations increased from admission (median 23.4 μg/L, interquartile range 12.0–30.8) to day 5 (median 25.1 μg/L, interquartile range 16.0–39.0; P = 0.018). After adjustment for confounding factors, a delta selenium increase of 10 μg/L was associated with reductions in ventilator days (1.3 d; 95% confidence interval CI, 0.2–2.3; P = 0.017) and ICU days (1.4 d; 95% CI, 0.5–2.3; P < 0.01). Delta selenium >0 was associated with decreased 28-d mortality on a univariate model (odds ratio, 0.67; 95% CI, 0.46–0.97; P = 0.036). The mean daily selenium intake (6.82 μg; range 0–48.66 μg) was correlated with the increase in selenium concentrations on day 5. Conclusions An increase in plasma selenium is independently associated with shorter times of ventilation and ICU stay in children with systemic inflammation. These findings raise the hypothesis that selenium supplementation could be beneficial in children with critical illnesses.
Background
The excellent surgical results obtained with transnasal endoscopic approach to the anterior skull base (ASB) are universally recognized; less is known about the quality of life of patients ...after surgery.
Objective
The aim of this study is to analyze the quality of life of patients after endoscopic transnasal surgery for the treatment of neoplasms of the ASB.
Methods
We conducted a retrospective review of patients who underwent transnasal endoscopic surgery for treatment of ASB tumors at the Tertiary Referral Center University Hospital of Verona. All patients were asked to complete the Anterior Skull Base Questionnaire (ASBQ), the Skull Base Inventory (SBI), and the Sino-nasal Outcome Test – 22 Items (SNOT-22) after surgical treatment. The study population was divided into subgroups; a statistical analysis of the overall results and of the different questionnaire domains was performed.
Results
51 patients were enrolled in this study. The average score was 3.04 for ASBQ, 4.05 for SBI and 28.88 for SNOT-22. Analysis of the overall results for the ASBQ showed a lower quality of life in patients after recurrent surgery and in female patients. The SBI showed similar results in relation to recurrent surgery and radiotherapy. Similarly, the results for SNOT-22 highlighted the negative impact of recurrent surgery and radiotherapy.
Conclusion
Our results confirmed that the endoscopic transnasal approach shows excellent results not only in terms of surgical outcome, but also for the possibility of ensuring a good QoL after treatment. Recurrent surgery and radiation treatments were the most important negative prognostic factors.
Abstract
This contribution explains the different income tax regimes that may apply to trusts in Italy. In particular, for Italian tax purposes, trusts can be treated as disregarded, transparent, or ...opaque. The author comments also on the notion of disregarded trusts in the light of the administrative guidelines and of recent unpublished case law, highlighting the different approaches followed so far by tax officers and first-degree courts.
Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a relapsing, chronic cutaneous inflammatory disease with onset, in general, in early childhood. Chronic skin inflammation is associated with overproduction of reactive ...oxygen species (ROS) such as superoxide and hydrogen peroxide. Oxidative stress, an imbalance between the production of free radicals and antioxidant defense, results in tissue inflammation due to the upregulation of genes that encode inflammatory cytokines. This condition plays an important role in the pathogenesis of AD.
To compare the antioxidant defense in children and adolescents with AD with that of healthy individuals and to verify the association of antioxidant defense with disease severity and nutritional status.
Cross-sectional study that evaluated 48 children and adolescents with AD and 25 controls for nutritional assessment (body mass index z score BMIZ and height for age z score HAZ) and levels of vitamins A, C, E, and D, zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase SOD, catalase CAT, glutathione peroxidase GPx), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin 33 (IL-33).
There was no significant difference in the comparison between AD and control groups for serum levels of vitamins (A, D, C, and E), copper, and antioxidant enzymes. Serum zinc levels were higher in the AD group (β = 24.20; 95% CI 13.95-34.91; P < 0.001) even after adjusting the BMIZ, HAZ, gender, IL-33, and CRP. Children and adolescents with moderate or severe AD compared to mild AD (SCORAD - 36.7±17.4 vs 11.8 ± 3.9; P < 0.001) had lower values of the vitamin E/total lipid ratio (3.68 0.29;12.63 vs 5.92 3.27;17.37; P = 0.013).
Children and adolescents with AD had higher concentrations OF elevated levels of zinc compared to controls, a fact not observed for other biomarkers of antioxidant defense. AD in moderate or severe forms presented lower concentrations of vitamin E, a potent antioxidant fat soluble.
Programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) seems to rely on close relations between neoplastic and immune cells in the tumor microenvironment. Tumor to stroma ratio (TSR) has been associated with ...prognosis in different malignancies. The aims of this exploratory investigation were to analyze for the first time the: (i) association between TSR, PD-L1 expression and other clinical−pathological features in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) biopsies and paired surgical specimens; (ii) prognostic and predictive role of TSR and PD-L1. TSR, PD-L1 expression (in terms of combined positive score CPS), and other clinical−pathological features were analyzed in biopsies and surgical specimens of 43 consecutive LSCC cases. A CPS < 1 evaluated on surgical specimens was associated with a low TSR (stroma rich) on both biopsies and surgical specimens (p = 0.0143 and p = 0.0063). Low TSR showed a significant negative prognostic value when evaluated on both biopsies and surgical specimens (HR = 8.808, p = 0.0003 and HR = 11.207, p = 0.0002). CPS ≥ 1 appeared to be a favorable prognostic factor (HR = 0.100, p = 0.0265). The association between bioptic and surgical specimen TSR and PD-L1 expression should be further investigated for a potential impact on targeted treatments, also with regard to immunotherapeutic protocols.
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