Mirror Energy Differences and nuclear structure in 1f7/2f_{7/2} nuclei

Experimental mirror energy differences (MED) for nuclei lying in the middle and the second part of $1f_{7/2}$ shell are compared with shell model calculations in the $1f_{7/2}$ and in the full $pf$ configuration spaces, as well as with CSM calculations. MED plots are fully consistent with the description which emerges from the interpretation of SM calculations: i.e. the band crossing of the gs band with high-$K$ bands in $A$=51 and 50 mirror pairs, as well as the seniority-3 quasi band-termination at $I^\pi$=19/2$^-$ in $A$=49. Rotational alignment effects are excluded, contrarily to what even recently proposed. Some inconsistencies, as well as definition improprieties, are pointed out in the topical literature.Comment: 10 pages 11 figure

On applying synthetic indices of multidimensional well-being: health and income inequalities in selected EU countries

The multidimensional view of well-being is receiving growing attention, both in academic research and policy-oriented analysis. This paper examines empirical strategies to measure poverty and inequality in multiple domains, concentrating on two problems in the use of synthetic multidimensional indices: the weighting structure of different functionings and the functional form of the index. These problems are illustrated by comparing inequality and deprivation in income and health in the four largest countries of the EU: France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.inequality, poverty, multidimensional analysis, capability approach

A remark on the radial minimizer of the Ginzburg-Landau functional

Denote by $E_\epsilon$ the Ginzburg-Landau functional in the plane and let $\tilde u_\varepsilon$ be the radial solution to the Euler equation associated to the problem $\min \left\{E_\varepsilon(u,B_1): \>\left. u\right\vert _{\partial B_{1}}=(\cos \vartheta,\sin \vartheta)\right\}$. Let $\Omega\subset \R^2$ be a smooth, bounded domain with the same area as $B_1$. Denoted by $$\mathcal{K}=\left\{v=(v_1,v_2) \in H^1(\Omega;\R^2):\> \int_\Omega v_1\,dx=\int_\Omega v_2\,dx=0,\> \int_\Omega |v|^2\,dx\ge \int_{B_1} |\tilde u_\varepsilon|^2\,dx\right\},$$ we prove $$ \min_{v \in \mathcal{K}} E_\varepsilon (v,\Omega)\le E_\varepsilon (\tilde u_\varepsilon,B_1). $

The Well-Being of Italians: A Comparative Historical Approach

The paper describes the evolution of the well-being of the Italians during the 150 years since the country's unification. The progress in material standard of living was substantial, with GDP per capita growing 13 times between 1861 and 2010 and hours of work (and hence effort) falling considerably, but was roughly in line with that experienced by most other European countries. By relying on a novel database on household budgets, the paper shows that economic growth was accompanied by a long-run reduction of inequality that appears however to have been reversed in the last two decades. Progress was not limited to the economic domain: educational attainment improved considerably, although less than in other countries; on the other hand, the increase in life expectancy was spectacular and brought Italians to lead the international ranking.Italian history, human progress, income inequality

Multifactor Productivity and Labour Quality in Italy, 1981-2000

We investigate how the evidence for Italy from simple growth accounting exercises is modified by more accurate measurements of inputs. We describe the dynamics of total factor productivity in the last 20 years in Italy, and review theoretical and measurement issues that complicate the picture emerging from this simple exercise. We adjust the labour input for its composition and verify its impact on estimated multifactor productivity in the whole economy. We replicate the labour-quality adjustment for the industrial sector together with corrections for hours worked and capital utilisation. We find that a sizeable part of the observed growth of total factor productivity vanishes when these adjustments are applied. They are not sufficient, however, to overturn the evidence of a productivity slowdown in the Italian economy in the second half of the 1990s.growth accounting, Solow residual, quality-adjusted labour input

On the lifting and approximation theorem for nonsmooth vector fields

We prove a version of Rothschild-Stein's theorem of lifting and approximation and some related results in the context of nonsmooth Hormander's vector fields for which the highest order commutators are only Holder continuous. The theory explicitly covers the case of one vector field having weight two while the others have weight one.Comment: 46 pages, LaTeX. Minor changes in Section

Sharp rate of average decay of the Fourier transform of a bounded set

We prove that the spherical mean of the Fourier transform of the characteristic function of a bounded convex set (without any additional assumptions) or a bounded set with a C^{3/2} boundary decays at infinity at the same rate as the Fourier transform of the characteristic function of the ball.Comment: 10 pages. GAFA (to appear