Intangible Capital and Economic Growth

Published macroeconomic data traditionally exclude most intangible investment from measured GDP. This situation is beginning to change, but our estimates suggest that as much as $800 billion is still excluded from U.S. published data (as of 2003), and that this leads to the exclusion of more than$3 trillion of business intangible capital stock. To assess the importance of this omission, we add capital to the standard sources-of-growth framework used by the BLS, and find that the inclusion of our list of intangible assets makes a significant difference in the observed patterns of U.S. economic growth. The rate of change of output per worker increases more rapidly when intangibles are counted as capital, and capital deepening becomes the unambiguously dominant source of growth in labor productivity. The role of multifactor productivity is correspondingly diminished, and labor's income share is found to have decreased significantly over the last 50 years.

Sustainability, stakeholders and business. Editorial

Over the past 20 years, there has been an increasing attention on the drivers of value in organizations. Both the strategic management literature and practice have remarked the importance for managers to be aware of the impact of firm activities, products and services on either the external and internal environment and, more generally, on all firm stakeholders. The emergence of the notions of “sustainable development” and “sustainability” reflects a profound change in global thinking, which forces firms to move beyond trade-offs between business and society

Waterborne GPR survey for estimating bottom-sediment variability: A survey on the Po River, Turin, Italy

We conducted an integrated geophysical survey on a stretch of the river Po in order to check the GPR ability to discriminate the variability of riverbed sediments through an analysis of the bottom reflection amplitudes. We conducted continuous profiles with a 200-MHzGPR system and a handheld broadband EM sensor.Aconductivity meter and a TDR provided punctual measurements of water conductivity, permittivity, and temperature. The processing and interpretation of the GEM-2 and GPR data were enhanced by reciprocal results and by integration with the punctual measurements of the EM properties of the water. We used a processing flow that improved the radargram images and preserved the amplitude ratios among the different profiles and the frequency content at the bottom reflection signal.We derived the water attenuation coefficient both from the punctual measurements using the Maxwell formulas and from the interpretation of the GPR data, finding an optimal matching between the two values. The GPR measurements provided maps of the bathymetry and of the bottom reflection amplitude. The high reflectivity of the riverbed, derived from the GPR interpretation, agreed with the results of the direct sampling campaign that followed the geophysical survey. The variability of the bottom-reflection-amplitudes map, which was not confirmed by the direct sampling, could also have been caused by scattering phenomena due to the riverbed clasts which are dimensionally comparable to the wavelength of the radar pulse

Migration, agriculture and rurality: dynamics, experiences and policiesin Europe

The themes of migration and mobility have become particularly relevant with respect to the analysis of the transformation of rural areas and agriculture in the European context, in the light of demographic and socio-economic dynamics, which have drawn new maps of development, inequalities and disintegration, also with relevant political repercussions (e.g. in terms of the growth of right-wing populist movements), but also of moments of crisis that have imprinted new rhythms to the trends in place and have produced new scenarios. The economic and financial crisis of 2007-2008, the socalled “refugee crisis” of 2015 and the Covid-19 pandemic from 2020 have in fact produced important consequences not only on employment, but also on residential dynamics and mobility, both nationally and in Europ

Fatigue tests of welded plate girders in bending

This thesis describes fatigue tests of two welded plate girders subjected to pure bending. The purpose of the tests was to examine the fatigue behavior of slender webs in plate girders and to determine whether or not large lateral web deflections have any affect on the fatigue life of such members

Osteoporosis and rheumatic diseases.

Numerous rheumatic diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, systemic lupus erythematosus, systemic sclerosis, dermatomyositis/polymyositis and vasculitis are characterized by osteoporosis and fragility fractures. Inflammatory cytokines, glucocorticoid treatment, immobilization and reduced physical activity due to painful joints and muscle weakness are considered the main risk factors that cause low body mass density values in these diseases. Emerging evidence highlights the role of inflammatory cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-1, IL-6, IL-7 and IL-17, in the regulation of the bone homeostasis. In fact, chronic inflammation is often characterized by an imbalance between bone formation and bone resorption with a net prevalence of osteoclastogenesis, which is an important determinant of bone loss in rheumatic diseases

Reply to Dr. Zucca Matthes et al.

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