Towards metropolitan regionalism. Stuttgart and Rome: two models in comparison

The process of “metropolisation” that has characterized the development of urbanization in contemporary cities over the last few decades, is being subjected to a transformation process oriented towards “regionalization” dynamics, where metropolitan regions become the engines of economic development and competitiveness on an international scale. The objective of a comparison between the experience of the Stuttgart region and that of metropolitan Rome, the largest municipality in Europe, is to contrast an example of an efficient, democratic and dynamic regional government with the difficulties in administering a territory as complex as Rome, in an institutional and political framework that does not tend to foster chances of constituting new government models at a supra-municipal scale

Weather Variability and the Tourism Industry: A Panel Data Analysis

Increasing weather variability around the world has led to many researchers examining the impacts of weather variability on vulnerable industries. For example, the tourism industry can make up a large portion of an economy’s growth, with some of the most dependent countries relying on tourism for over 40% of GDP (World Travel & Tourism Council 2014). In an attempt to better understand the relationship between weather variability and the tourism industry at the country level, this study employs a series of fixed effects panel regression models to analyze the impact of rainfall and temperature on tourism levels and growth rates among 194 countries. Variations of the model allow for the exploration of the differential impacts sustained by island and non-island countries to help determine whether island countries are more vulnerable to weather variations due to the large contribution of tourism to their economies (Uyarra et al. 2005). Results suggest that using a yearly average measure of the temperature and rainfall data does not yield useful results, while using seasonal temperature and seasonal rainfall averages appears to explain the different impacts across island and non-island countries with more consistency

Here comes the sun: the promise of solar energy

George Harrison, the youngest Beatle, wrote the classic “Here Comes the Sun” in 1969 after spending a glorious day walking around his friend Eric Clapton’s garden. Today, Harrison’s refrain, “And I say, ‘It’s All right’,” accords well with a solar power industry that has grown more than 30 percent in the past six years and received tax-favorable legislative approval in 2006

Investigating the structure of expansions and recessions in US business cycle: a modified recursive partitioning approach

In this paper the problem of identifying the structure of expansions and recessions in the US economy is placed in the framework of recursive partitioning and discriminant analysis. The classification provided by the National Bureau ofEconomic Research (NBER) is considered. Using as covariates themain variables and indicators deemed useful to predict the business cycle, a modified recursive partitioning approach isproposed at each step (tree node) the method identifies the linear combination of the covariates that discriminates the mostbetween being in and out of a recession this new covariate is then used to split the data. The application to the case of the US business cycle and the comparison with classical logisticregression shows the merits of the proposed approach that represents a useful to tool to identify and to interpret thestructure of expansionsand recessions.Business-cycle indicators

Multiple Stellar Populations in Globular Clusters

Globular Clusters (GCs) exhibit star-to-star variations in specific elements (e.g., He, C, N, O, Na, Al) that bare the hallmark of high temperature H burning. These abundance variations can be observed spectroscopically and also photometrically, with the appropriate choice of filters, due to the changing of spectral features within the band pass. This phenomenon is observed in nearly all of the ancient GCs, although, to date, has not been found in any massive cluster younger than 2~Gyr. Many scenarios have been suggested to explain this phenomenon, with most invoking multiple epochs of star-formation within the cluster, however all have failed to reproduce various key observations, in particular when a global view of the GC population is taken. We review the state of current observations, and outline the successes and failures of each of the main proposed models. The traditional idea of using the stellar ejecta from a 1st generation of stars to form a 2nd generation of stars, while conceptually straight forward, has failed to reproduce an increasing number of observational constraints. We conclude that the puzzle of multiple populations remains unsolved, hence alternative theories are needed.Comment: To appear in Annual Reviews of Astronomy and Astrophysics (volume 56). Author's own version. Please see the journal website for the final published version: http://www.annualreviews.org/journal/astr

Conservation and modern architecture. Fortune and misfortune of the School of Mathematics at Rome University (G. Ponti, 1932-1935)

The framework of the Italian restoration doctrine is based on the reception and transmission of the memory of the past. However, interventions in modern architecture represent a radical drift in the sense that they mostly consist of reconstructions, refurbishments, and renovations. Such work disregards the sense of value acknowledgment that is implicit in architectural conservation and neglects the importance of material conservation. The un even fortune of the School of Mathematics at Rome's University Campus illustrates this situation. This predicament is similar to that of many other modern buildings that have been declared “monuments” by mouth but are actually bent to listless and insensible use, mistreated, and hardly maintained. The recent work carried out at the School of Mathematics proves that interventions on modern buildings are mostly insensitive to their true significance and are often carried out in extreme urgency for mere practical reasons, if not for political opportunities. Modern buildings can be true architectural monuments that express great esthetic potentials and retain notable historical weight in the history of architecture; therefore, they should be regarded as highly representative of our recent past and maintained as such

The trade impact of the integration of the Central and Eastern European Countries on the European Union

This paper analyses the determinants of trade patterns between the CEECs and the OECD countries since the latter began their processes of transition and opening-up within the framework of the Association Agreements with the EU, with the ultimate aim of helping to anticipate the trade impact of their accession to the EU. To this end, we estimate an empirical model for a set of countries formed by the EU states, the CEECs and -by way of a control area- the other members of the OECD. Thus, we obtain new evidence about the determinants of the trade shares of the countries analysed. In addition, by using the corresponding dummies, we confirm that the Association Agreements have led to a preferential expansion of the exchanges between the EU and CEECs.