Estimating the spread of SARS-CoV-2 infection in communities is critical. We surveyed 2244 stratified random sample community members of the Gardena valley, a winter touristic area, amidst the first expansion phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe. We measured agreement between Diasorin and Abbott serum bioassay outputs and the Abbott optimal discriminant threshold of serum neutralisation titres with recursive receiver operating characteristic curve. We analytically adjusted serum antibody tests for unbiased seroprevalence estimate and analysed the determinants of infection with non-response weighted multiple logistic regression. SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence was 26.9% (95% CI 25.2–28.6) by June 2020. The bioassays had a modest agreement with each other. At a lower threshold than the manufacturer's recommended level, the Abbott assay reflected greater discrimination of serum neutralisation capacity. Seropositivity was associated with place and economic activity, not with sex or age. Symptoms like fever and weakness were age-dependent. SARS-CoV-2 mitigation strategies should account for context in high prevalence areas.

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) began in China in early December 2019 and rapidly has spread to many countries around the globe, with the number of confirmed cases increasing every day. An epidemic has been recorded since February 20 in a middle province in Northern Italy (Lodi province, in the low Po Valley). The first line hospital had to redesign its logistical and departmental structure to respond to the influx of COVID-19-positive patients who needed hospitalization. Logistical and structural strategies were guided by the crisis unit, managing in 8 days from the beginning of the epidemic to prepare the hospital to be ready to welcome more than 200 COVID-19-positive patients with different ventilatory requirements, keeping clean emergency access lines, and restoring surgical interventions and deferred urgent, routine activity.

Special needs patients often require specific dental treatments and modified restorative materials that reduce clinical discomfort. Starting from glass ionomer cements (GICs), some different fillers were added to improve their mechanical and clinical performances. The effect of nanohydroxyapatite, antibiotic, and mucosal defensive agent on the mechanical and thermal properties of GICs was investigated. Compressive tests, calorimetric analysis, and morphological investigation were conducted. The middle percentages of fillers increased the elastic modulus while the highest decreases are recorded for highest percentages. Filler and environment also influence the compressive strengths and toughness. The introduction of fillers led to a reduction of the enthalpy with a maximum decrease with the middle percentage. The morphological characterization showed a good dispersion of the fillers. The filler percentages should be selected with a compromise between the elastic modulus, the compressive strength, and the curing time. Obtaining new materials with good clinical and mechanical properties can represent an innovative aspect of this work with positive implication in clinical practice, mainly in uncollaborative patients in which the use of traditional protocols is problematic.

This article deals with the exclusion of non-profit-making entities from the right of freedom of establishment of Articles 49 and 54 TFEU. It analyses the historical reasons for this exclusion. It is argued that the exclusion from freedom of establishment is no longer justified on the basis of two elements. Firstly, the development of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice in the fields of competition law, free movement of capital and tax law makes such exclusion systematically no longer tenable. Secondly, a law and economics treatment of non-profit firms as organisations that efficiently provide services in alternative to for-profit firms weakens the reasons for the exclusion. The article proposes a uniform, European notion of non-profit entity based on a law and economics analysis of this type of firm for the purposes of Article 54 TFEU as opposed to possible different national notions. This is followed by a brief analysis of the hypothesis of regulatory competition among jurisdictions for the law regulating the corporate governance of non-profit entities.

Commission Regulation (EC) No 2273/2003 regulates price stabilisation activities for equity initial public offerings (IPOs) in Europe as a form of permitted market manipulation. To test the actual practices and effects of stabilisation we empirically analyse the support provided by underwriters of 141 Italian IPOs from 2000 through to 2008. We find that underwriters support the share prices not only by short covering, but also by posting pure stabilisation bids. Pure short covering is mostly used by more reputable underwriters for IPOs with higher institutional participation and more secondary shares in the offer, whereas the opposite is true for pure stabilization IPOs. We try to identify some patterns in underwriters' aftermarket activities and analyse the extent to which the stabilisation activity, permitted for four weeks after trading begins, produces temporary or permanent effects on share prices.

In the Cartesio decision of December 2008, the European Court of Justice has legitimated the real seat theory for those Member States that require the presence of the administrative seat and the statutory seat in their territories as a condition for a company's valid formation. The Court, by an obiter dictum, has also put forward the idea that the transnational conversion is included in the freedom of establishment of Articles 43 and 48 as a form of international mobility. This article analyses the possible consequences of the Court's decision for regulatory competition in company law in Europe, taking into consideration both aspects.

We apply the paradigm of the firm as a nexus of contracts to the debate on regulatory competition vs. unification of law as an alternative way of regulating the business corporation. This approach views the business corporation as a set of coordinated contracts among different parties. Agency problems and related agency costs are the result of this interaction. The economic analysis of corporate law, securities regulation and bankruptcy law identifies law as a means to minimise such agency costs. In this paper, we develop a model where companies are heterogeneous in their preferences about the legal regulation of contractual relationships. We then compare a regime of regulatory competition with one of single supply of regulation and we analyse their relative costs and benefits.

This article analyses, from a comparative law and economics perspective, the regulatory regimes for the stabilisation of share prices during IPOs in the United States and the European Union. Pure stabilisation, which is the principal form of stabilisation forms the focus of this study. With respect to ancillary stabilisation, i.e., the overallotment facility and greenshoe option, Germany and Italy are taken as examples for describing the concrete functioning of the discipline in Europe as compared to the United States. First, the article argues that the economic rationality of pure stabilisation may cast doubt on its effective use because of its high potential costs. Furthermore, a credible commitment problem of the syndicate's intervention may lead to a possible discrepancy between the ratio legis of the prospectus disclosure discipline and the ratio legis of the pure stabilisation activity. Second, the article shows that the judgement on the proper working of ancillary stabilisation crucially depends on the binding or non-binding character of investors' adhesions with respect to the final price setting, i.e., on something that is regulated by European law and national contract law.

Starting from the latest decision of the European Court of Justice on the freedom of establishment for companies that are active in the European single market, this article develops an economic and comparative framework to answer the question which level (federal or national) should have competence to decide conflict of law rules for companies operating in the entire single market.