Regulating risks in pharmaceutical law : the need of an optimal interplay between products safety and products liability

Published online: 7 June 2011The aim of this paper is to call for the need of a theoretical model of pharmaceutical products safety in which the two systems of regulation and liability operate complementarily. The question is why two legal tools that are meant to achieve and protect the same goal (protection of consumers) are shaped in a way that hinders, instead of promoting, a positive interaction between the two. At present we have two separate sets of rules that operate independently: pre-marketing regulation with post-marketing surveillance duties, and ex-post facto liability, linked to the pre-marketing available knowledge. Since the key issue in both regulatory and liability assessments related to pharmaceuticals is the one of “relevant knowledge”, we claim that the legal framework should be shaped in the way that better promotes the availability of such a knowledge. In the effort of identifying a global paradigm of pharmaceutical safety (coherent with the global nature of the relevant market), a comparison of the legal frameworks in force in the two major “regional” drug markets (US and EU) is not only necessary, but valuable in order to identify the shortcomings of “local” solutions, and their inconsistencies vis à vis the transnational nature of the issue. The fact that the two scenarios present substantial institutional differences does not hinder such a value. If we consider that the market is globalized at both the stage of production and at the one of distribution, the construction of a global governance of pharmaceutical safety has to confront with legal and institutional diversities

Tuning the Drude weight of Dirac-Weyl fermions in one-dimensional ring traps

We study the response to an applied flux of an interacting system of Dirac-Weyl fermions confined in a one-dimensional (1D) ring. Combining analytical calculations with density-matrix renormalization group results, we show that tuning of interactions leads to a unique many-body system that displays either a suppression or an enhancement of the Drude weight - the zero-frequency peak in the ac conductivity - with respect to the non-interacting value. An asymmetry in the interaction strength between same- and different-pseudospin Dirac-Weyl fermions leads to Drude weight enhancement. Viceversa, symmetric interactions lead to Drude weight suppression. Our predictions can be tested in mixtures of ultracold fermions in 1D ring traps

Optimal Persistent Currents for Interacting Bosons on a Ring with a Gauge Field

We study persistent currents for interacting one-dimensional bosons on a tight ring trap, subjected to a rotating barrier potential, which induces an artificial U(1) gauge field. We show that, at intermediate interactions, the persistent current response is maximal, due to a subtle interplay of effects due to the barrier, the interaction and quantum fluctuations. These results are relevant for ongoing experiments with ultracold atomic gases on mesoscopic rings.Comment: 5 pages + supplemental material, 6 figure

The Role of Sustainable Entrepreneurs within Sustainable Energy Action Plans

Sustainable entrepreneurs are assumed to have a catalytic role in sustainable development, new ventures in the early stages and incumbent firms in the following stages. However, some studies argue that such radical shifts are unlikely to succeed without parallel political actions. This is particularly suiting in the case of energy sector and the transition to a low- carbon economy through renewable energy. Therefore, another stream of literature suggests to study sustainable entrepreneurship in a wider context with encompasses socio-ecological system. Then, there can be rooms for policy influencing new sustainable ventures with the aim of developing sustainable corporate cultures from the outset. Our study on the role of sustainable entrepreneurs within Sustainable Energy Action Plans show that incumbents firms are engaged in sustainable development in early stages as well as new ventures and that there is a mutual interplay between sustainable entrepreneurs and public institutions towards sustainable development. In other words either firms have an active role in triggering transition to sustainable development (i.e. institutional push) or are beneficiaries of public policies aimed at reshaping the local context towards sustainable development (institutional pull)

Field Performance Evaluation of ORC Geothermal Power Plants Using Radial Outflow Turbines

This paper, after a brief description of the radial outflow turbine and of its main features, discloses the field performances evaluation of two operating geothermal ORC (Organic Rankine Cycle) plants installed by Exergy Spa in Turkey. The work describes the test procedure, the measurements and calculation methods used to obtain the turbine efficiency as well as overall power cycle performance from the set of available experimental data