Inflation shocks and interest rate rules

Recent empirical evidence by Fair (2002, 2005) and Giordani (2003) shows that a positive inflation shock with the nominal interest rate held constant has contractionary effects. These results cannot be reconciled with the standard "New Synthe- sis" literature. This paper reconsiders the effects of inflation shocks in a simple New Keynesian framework extended to include wealth effects. It is demonstrated that, following an inflation shock, the decline of output coupled with passive interest rate rules is not puzzlin

Fixing the Climate with Experimentalist Governance? How?

Official climate data tell us with a very low degree of uncertainty that global temperatures for the months of September and October 2023 represent the highest anomaly ever recorded. The challenge before us, of large and timely phasing out of greenhouse gas emissions is enormous in scale and complexity. There appear to be no ready and fast solutions but there is a need for profound technological changes in several different production sectors. Finally, these solutions must be adopted quickly and promptly to reduce the magnitude of irreversible changes to the planet’s climate. The good news, the most reputable studies tell us, is that the technical knowledge available to us allows us to have real solutions. In the latest International Energy Agency report, World Energy Outlook 2023 released just a few days ago, institute director Fatih Birol writes in the preface that ‘[t]oday, solar power, wind power, efficiency and electric cars are all well established and readily available. We have at our disposal the lasting solutions to today’s energy dilemmas.’ We can thus truly aspire to have the opportunity to be the first generation to have transformed their lifestyles into fully sustainable modes. On October 26, 2023, the Law department of Roma Tre University hosted a special event within the ‘Inequality in Rome Seminar Series’, hosting Prof. Charles Sabel of Columbia University School of Law to discuss his new volume Fixing the Climate: Strategies for an Uncertain World, co-authored with Prof. David Victor of the University of California San Diego. This special event was organized in collaboration with the Forum Disuguaglianze and Diversità, an Italian organization that brings together researchers and civil society members to design and advocate for public policies that aim at reducing the levels of inequality in the country. Sabel and Victor’s book proposes an innovative method that can work in the context of radical and pervasive uncertainty about the solutions to be undertaken to make the energy and ecological transition more affordable. How? The core of the book lies in the model of global governance of climate change that it promotes. The overall premise is clear – no response to climate change will succeed without international cooperation (p. 153).The problem is what type of cooperation international law should embrace. The answer is, according to the authors, ‘experimentalist governance’ (hereinafter EG), a system that goes beyond the Paris Agreement (2015). They argue that such Agreement has failed to achieve its goals. The book instead puts forward the model of governance endorsed by the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer – a history of success, as the Authors rightly maintain (see pp. 4 to 7 and Ch 2). The book forcefully suggests that we need to reward those who innovate and destabilize the status quo and penalize those who do not want to change through experimental and concrete processes of collaboration between business, between State, business, and citizens, and between States. The states should set ambitious standards and broad goals that are able to incentivize economic agents to act. Moreover, those who set standards interact with those who must solve problems on the ground and implement solutions, following an iterative process of mutual correction of the roadmap and concrete goals to achieve. Such solutions aim at complementing classical marketbased approaches. Indeed, the experimentalist governance approach operates in a decentralized manner, coordinating myriads of individuals, institutions, and economic agents just as happens in markets but not by means of prices, but by setting standards that are continually revised by accumulating new information, if necessary, through deliberative and discussion processes. A form of deliberation that uses doubt, disagreement, and a peer review process to advance the technological frontier even in an environment of profound uncertainty. In this article, we propose the main issues and questions that were raised during the seminar by the panelists Prof. Barbara Annicchiarico, Prof. Roberto Baratta, Prof. Tommaso di Marcello, as well as from the coordinator Prof. Salvatore Morelli. Prof. Charles Sabel provides his responses in turn

Novel transglutaminase 1 mutations in patients affected by lamellar ichthyosis

Lamellar Ichthyosis (LI) is a form of congenital ichthyosis that is caused by mutations in the TGM1 gene that encodes for the transglutaminase 1 (TG1) enzyme. Functional inactivation of TG1 could be due to mutations, deletion or insertions. In this study, we have screened 16 patients affected by LI and found six new mutations: two transition/transversion (R37G, V112A), two nonsense mutations and two putative splice site both leading to a premature stop codon. The mutations are localized in exons 2 (N-terminal domain), 5, 11 (central catalytic domain), and none is located in the two beta-barrel C-terminal domains. In conclusion, this study expands the current knowledge on TGM1 mutation spectrum, increasing the characterization of mutations would provide more accurate prenatal genetic counselling for parents at-risk individuals

e-Tools: an agent coordination layer to support the mobility of persons with disabilities

This paper outlines the development and integration of an agent coordination layer with a robotic platform to support senior citizens or persons with disabilities. This platform is situated in a given context (such as a Hospital) and it is intended to enhance user's mobility and autonomy. This objective is performed in a safe and sound fashion that meets the sets of laws, norms or protocols which rule the selected context.IFIP International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Theory and Practice - Agents 2Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

I-Support: A robotic platform of an assistive bathing robot for the elderly population

In this paper we present a prototype integrated robotic system, the I-Support bathing robot, that aims at supporting new aspects of assisted daily-living activities on a real-life scenario. The paper focuses on describing and evaluating key novel technological features of the system, with the emphasis on cognitive human–robot interaction modules and their evaluation through a series of clinical validation studies. The I-Support project on its whole has envisioned the development of an innovative, modular, ICT-supported service robotic system that assists frail seniors to safely and independently complete an entire sequence of physically and cognitively demanding bathing tasks, such as properly washing their back and their lower limbs. A variety of innovative technologies have been researched and a set of advanced modules of sensing, cognition, actuation and control have been developed and seamlessly integrated to enable the system to adapt to the target population abilities. These technologies include: human activity monitoring and recognition, adaptation of a motorized chair for safe transfer of the elderly in and out the bathing cabin, a context awareness system that provides full environmental awareness, as well as a prototype soft robotic arm and a set of user-adaptive robot motion planning and control algorithms. This paper focuses in particular on the multimodal action recognition system, developed to monitor, analyze and predict user actions with a high level of accuracy and detail in real-time, which are then interpreted as robotic tasks. In the same framework, the analysis of human actions that have become available through the project’s multimodal audio–gestural dataset, has led to the successful modeling of Human–Robot Communication, achieving an effective and natural interaction between users and the assistive robotic platform. In order to evaluate the I-Support system, two multinational validation studies were conducted under realistic operating conditions in two clinical pilot sites. Some of the findings of these studies are presented and analyzed in the paper, showing good results in terms of: (i) high acceptability regarding the system usability by this particularly challenging target group, the elderly end-users, and (ii) overall task effectiveness of the system in different operating modes

Climate change challenges for central banks and financial regulators

The academic and policy debate regarding the role of central banks and financial regulators in addressing climate-related financial risks has rapidly expanded in recent years. This Perspective presents the key controversies and discusses potential research and policy avenues for the future. Developing a comprehensive analytical framework to assess the potential impact of climate change and the low-carbon transition on financial stability seems to be the first crucial challenge. These enhanced risk measures could then be incorporated in setting financial regulations and implementing the policies of central banks