1,722,344 research outputs found
Current Issues in Economic Integration. Can Asia Inspire the "West"?
No full textThe current economic crisis has called into question the long term viability of the decoupling between multinational firms and the banking system. It has also cast serious doubts on the US dollar-centred monetary system, and invited reassessment of the long term viability of US-China economic relations based on a US current account deficit absorbed by Chinese financial institutions. It is also an opportunity to analyse the rise in property prices, particularly in fast-growing economies. Long term food security is also an issue, bringing to the fore the multinational firms from emerging economies (such as China and India) and calling into question the response strategies of multinational firms from the West and Japan. This book engages these key issues within the broad theme of integration, to give an up-to-date consideration of the subject, opening debate on the future stimulating role that Asia could play vis-à-vis the West, particularly the European Union. © Bernadette Andreosso-O'Callaghan and M. Bruna Zolin 2010. All rights reserved
EU enlargement: the impact on agricultural and food exports from selected Asian countries to the EU market - A gravity approach
Full text linkThe process of EU economic integration took place gradually. The 5th enlargement in 2004 was the largest expansion of the EU. It affected the agricultural sector notably due to the economic structure of the new members from Central and Eastern Europe. This chapter aims to examine the effect of the 5th enlargement on exports of agricultural and food products from 8 major Asian countries toward the EU market. The refined gravity model is employed, using annual data during 1999 to 2015 with 12 product groups. The empirical findings reveal that the total exports of agricultural and food products from Hong Kong and Korea reduce, whereas exports from Indonesia increase. There was no significant change in exports of total agricultural products and food from China, India, Japan, Malaysia and Thailand. However, changes in exports of certain products in various countries are found
Overall Conclusion of the Book
Full text linkIn many Asian countries, the questions of limits to growth and the challenges of overcoming such limits are clearly at work today. Japan is facing quickly an ageing and shrinking population, a situation that South Korea is bound to face in the near future too. China is facing the problem of the exhaustion of its export-led growth model based on low factor prices, as well as the unprecedented problem of environmental degradation. Food supply is still of concern in most Asian countries and, over the long run, climate change is projected to diminish the agricultural productivity growth potential. A paramount issue is thus the environmental constraint and the transition of these countries to energy-saving methods of production. China is shifting quickly to the use of electric cars whereas Japan still faces uncertainty in terms of its nuclear energy programme. Some of these challenges can be analysed and tackled at the micro-economic level,—the level of the firm—, whereas other challenges are better apprehended at the nation specific level, while many other still are to be tackled at the international level, particularly as far as international relationships are concerned
Big data for a rare disease: complexity and usefulness
No full textIntroduction: Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is a genetic rare disease, but the concerted actions of medical personnel, researchers and patients allowed the institution of the European Cystic Fibrosis Society Patient Registry (ECFSPR) to collect information on a large number of patients from different European countries in a common format [1].
Objectives: The aim is to show the complexity of the ECFSPR that deals with the management and analysis of a large amount of data and the usefulness of such information for the care of CF patients.
Methods: The ECFSPR collects information on CF European patients (diagnosis, genetics, lung function, growth, complications, microbiology, therapy and transplantation) collated annually by national CF registries and individual CF centres since 2003 (cross-sectional data till 2007, longitudinal data from 2008): it includes data of about 30,000 patients from 22 countries [2]. In order to identify and solve problems, a team that daily works on the ECFSPR was set up ‘service desk’ together with an executive committee and a steering group composed by national representatives that define the major activities of the ECFSPR (data protection legislation, use of data). The research activity is supervised by a scientific committee that identifies major research areas and approves the external data requests.
Results: The critical aspects encountered in the institution of the ECFSPR (definition of the population under study, of inclusion criteria, of what to measure and how) were dealt with a definition group whose members have different expertise and a long experience in CF in creation of healthcare databases.
Assessment of whether patients registered meet the inclusion criteria, data quality controls and data management, handling of missing data, maintaining patient confidentiality and dissemination of data are activities that need to be carried out daily. The assessment of the compliance of the inclusion criteria is responsibility of the national CF registries and individual CF centres since the information sent to ECFSPR are not enough to decide if patients can be included or not. The experience and the expertise of each member of the data quality control group allowed creation of a complete and shared list of data quality controls that are performed by all national registry data managers before sending the data to the ECFSPR. The data management and the handling of missing data are the main activities of the working group: from the uploading of the data to the freezing of the database through the process of correction of the inconsistencies found in the data, the registry coordinator, the service desk and the statistician work in close contact with the national and centres representatives. Maintaining patients confidentiality is one of the crucial aspects in order to reassure patients that decide to give the consent of the use of their data. With a clear language, the ECFSPR gives the necessary information to the patient in order to ensure that security measures meet data protection legislation and are updated if necessary.
The availability of the information on a large number of patients affected by a rare disease allows the study of the epidemiology of the CF [3, 4], also focusing on CF atypical patients. The availability of this information allows also the identification of group of patients eligible for clinical trials that, otherwise, could not be carried out if only a small number of patients were involved. Pharmacovigilance is a potential aspect that can be investigated in order to record adverse events following the use of treatments.
Monitoring care services in the European countries and, for future, planning adequate CF centres are other activities that the availability of a large amount of information makes possible [5]. Giving an answer to a clinical request needs to take into account that these are registry data and they are not collected with ad hoc studies. However, studies on registry data can have an explorative nature and ad hoc studies can be carried out starting from the first results obtained by the ECFSPR.
Conclusions: The complexity of the ECFSPR is magnified by the international setting: agreement on all the aspects of the involvement into the ECFSPR is not easily reached in a short time. However the usefulness of information for the care of CF patients that can be obtained from a European registry for a rare disease is inestimable, therefore all the difficulties are faced and overcome.
References
[1] Viviani L, Zolin A, Mehta A, Olesen HV. The European Cystic Fibrosis Society Patient Registry: valuable lessons learned on how to sustain a disease registry. Orphanet J Rare Dis. 2014 Jun 7;9(1):81. doi:10.1186/1750-1172-9-81.
[2] Zolin A, McKone EF, van Rens J et al. ECFSPR Annual Report 2010, 2014, accessed on 15th May 2015.
[3] Kerem E, Viviani L, Zolin A, MacNeill S, Hatziagorou E, Ellemunter H, Drevinek P, Gulmans V, Krivec U, Olesen H on behalf of the ECFS Patient Registry Steering Group. Modifiers of pulmonary function in cystic fibrosis: analysis of the data of the ECFS Patient Registry. Eur Respir J. 2014 Jan;43(1):125-33. doi: 10.1183/09031936.00166412.
[4] De Boeck K, Zolin A, Cuppens H, Olesen HV, Viviani L. The relative frequency of CFTR mutation classes in European patients with cystic fibrosis. J Cyst Fibros. 2014 Jul;13(4):403-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jcf.2013.12.003.
[5] Burgel PR, Bellis G, Olesen HV, Viviani L, Zolin A, Blasi F, Elborn JS; ERS/ECFS Task Force on The Provision of Care for Adults with Cystic Fibrosis in Europe. Future trends in cystic fibrosis demography in 34 European countries. Eur Respir J. 2015 Mar 18. pii: ERJ-01963-2014
Introduction: Sustainable Economic Integration in the Asia Context
No full textThe present introductory chapter discusses what makes economic integration sustainable and what are the prerequisites for sustainable economic integration. A financial safety net is without any doubts an important prerequisite, as it would allow crisis-stricken EU countries to rely on financial resources for recovery. Other prerequisites are the more even distribution of the gains arising from high growth rates, in particular of wages , and the introduction of clean energy and innovation. Other aspects analyzed include: the focus on food security and investment in land; the transfer of human resources and the impact of non-tariff barriers between the EU and Asian countries
Asian Palm oil production and european vegetable oil market: what we can learn in terms of sustainability
Full text linkPalm oil production has had an extraordinary evolution since 2000, especially in Southeast Asian countries. Its profitability is related to lower market prices due to it having the cheapest production costs, compared to the other EU oils. Market forces have stimulated its production and trade, with a shift in the use of land in tropical countries (particularly in Southeast Asia). Palm oil has a high smoke point for its saturated fatty acid content, which is much healthier than the performance of conventional oils produced and used in Europe (corn, sunflower and peanut oil). The controversy of which palm oil has been the subject is linked to the environmental sustainability aspects of the production process. According to the European Commission, palm oil cultivation over the past 20 years has been the cause of 20% of global deforestation. However, our results highlighted that the price trends of selected vegetable oils are related to their variations. This allows the advancing of some hypotheses. On the supply side, the production costs (decisively in favour of palm oil) and the environmental constraints are affecting the vegetable oil market. On the demand side, the number and price, on the one hand of substitute products, and on the other hand of the complementary good as well as consumer taste and preference, all influence consumer behaviour. Consumer income and its distribution and, in both cases, public policies affect the various choices to be made. Public action should therefore consider these variables. A single policy may not be sufficient to steer the market in the right direction, especially in the logic of market globalisation
Unexpected and growing interest in land investments? The Asian case
No full textThe aim of this chapter is to provide an Asian perspective on land investments with particular reference to the European position in terms of land acquisition. At first, the paper recalls the relevance that land holds as a distinct factor of production and consumption. Then, it investigates the different ways employed to define the recent phenomenon of land-grabbing in the increasing literature review. In order to contribute to the discussion on the issue, the second part of the paper is devoted to the examination of the Asian case. Furthermore, it analyses both the direct and the indirect role played by the European Union in influencing and enhancing the phenomenon of land-grabbing in Asia. The chapter concludes with observations and proposals on the impact of land-grabbing
Armonizzazione legislativa e prodotti di cacao: il caso della sostituzione del burro di cacao nei prodotti di cioccolato
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Gli accordi UE e ACP tra globalizzazione e instabilità dei redditi da esportazione
No full textAgribusiness, Paesaggio e Ambient
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