Ageing and pensions in the Euro Area Survey and projection results

Population ageing will impose a significant burden on European fiscal balances, in particular through pay-as-you-go pension systems. This study presents an independent estimate of this burden for the euro area, and quantifies the impact of two reform scenarios. Based on widely used, but optimistic assumptions, the present value of future pension deficits through 2050 is estimated at 51percent of GDP, adding to the current average explicit debt stock of around 67 percent of GDP. In this calculation, the deficits currently incurred by many pension systems as revenues fall short of expenditures, are not included. Viable parametric reforms represent no durable solution to alleviate the burden sufficiently, as they can balance pension systems at best temporarily. A comprehensive reform, including reforms of current systems, and a move towards partial funding, is found to ensure permanent financial viability of the public pension system.Pensions&Retirement Systems,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Stabilization

Macroeconomic policy interactions in the European Monetary Union

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DXN039512 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Auto-calibration with Stability Margins for Active Damping Control in Electric Drivelines

The torsional oscillations of the driveline represent a well-known issue in electric powertrains. In order to dampen such oscillations, active damping control is usually employed to suitably modulate the requested torque. However, on the one hand, the modelling inaccuracies due to the presence of nonlinear elements in the driveline system might lead to an ineffective model-based calibration. On the other hand, model-free iterative data-driven calibration overcomes the above problem at the cost of possible safety issues. In fact, unsafe controllers might be tested producing potential system failures. This paper presents a safe model-free calibration framework based on Bayesian optimization, aiming at optimizing the latent objective function while minimizing the risk-in a probabilistic manner-of critical explorations. Results on a full-fledged vehicle simulator shows that the performance is improved as compared to model-based calibration, while at the same time the experimental effort is concentrated in safe operating regions

Modeling and analysis of a bicycle equipped with in-wheel suspensions

This paper studies the application of in-wheel suspensions and airless tires to bicycles. The paper analyzes the in-wheel suspension solution in two interwoven directions: a model-based study and an experimental analysis. On the one hand, a multi-body simulator allows for detailed dynamic and design sensitivities analyses. On the other hand, the proposed architecture is experimentally compared to a classical bicycle with pneumatic tires. The analysis, mainly focusing on the in-plane dynamics, shows that the suspension system improves comfort (road filtering) of more than 20% on all tested road surfaces (with the exception of cobblestone), but at the same time reduces the vehicle efficiency of about 14%. The loss of efficiency is due to the periodic compression and extension of the rotating suspension assembly

Active Preference Learning for Vehicle Suspensions Calibration

In control system design, the parameters of the feedback action are often computed as the solution of an optimization problem, in which the objective function is defined a priori by the end user. However, in many vehicle control applications, the driver preferences are subjective and hard to mathematically model, thus hours of driving are often needed for end-of-line (EoL) calibration. In this brief, we propose a purely model-free design strategy for vehicle suspensions based on active preference learning (APL). In this method, the controller is tuned only via few dedicated experiments, corresponding to different calibrations and the related user preferences. Since the lack of formal performance metrics might raise concerns about the optimality of the approach, a validation procedure is also proposed, in which an interpretable performance index weighting vertical acceleration and pitch rate is learned from data. This latent index is used to compare the proposed approach with state-of-the-art data-driven optimization

Un estudio contrastivo del léxico político español e italiano

Sommario. Questo libro, di cui siamo anche curatori, è stato scritto in collaborazione con colleghi spagnoli ed italiani. Il nostro lavoro (capitolo II) sviluppa in modo più ampio l'articolo “Señoras y Señores diputados/ ‘Onorevoli deputati’. Un estudio contrastivo del léxico político español/italiano”, pubblicato sulla rivista internazionale di traduzione 'Translation Journal' nel 2010. Anche qui vengono applicati i postulati della lessicologia contrastiva di Robert Lado allo studio del linguaggio politico spagnolo ed italiano. I termini proposti provengono principalmente dal 'Diario de Sesiones del Congreso de los Diputados' e dai quotidiani spagnoli più importanti; ad ogni termine segue una traduzione italiana. In questo capitolo si è cercato di fornire, al ricercatore ed allo studioso di Scienze Politiche, gli strumenti necessari per poter riconoscere i falsi amici ‘evidenti’ e soprattutto gli ‘illusori’ tra il linguaggio politico italiano e spagnolo. Inoltre si è approfondito, in una prospettiva non solo didattica, lo studio delle parole composte, alterate e con prefisso giacché il meccanismo di trasferimento da una lingua all’altra non è sempre così automatico. Infatti, tra due lingue simili si può parlare di omologia ma non di identità.Abstract. In this article the postulates of Robert Lado's lexicon are applied to the study of Italian and Spanish political language. Most terms proposed are extracted from the Italian translation of Diario de Sesiones del Congreso de los Diputados. Thus, this study tries to provide the researcher of Political Sciences with some of the needed tools to identify the 'false friends' (most of all the 'illusory' ones) between the Spanish and the Italian political languages. In addition, it intends to demonstrate how the transfer mechanism from one language to another of compound words, modified or with prefix, is not automatic, since when talking about two similar languages, one can refer to homology but not to identity.Resumen. En este trabajo se aplican los postulados de la lexicología contrastiva de Robert Lado al estudio del lenguaje político español e italiano. Los términos propuestos provienen principalmente del Diario de Sesiones del Congreso de los Diputados, a ellos siguen las traducciones italianas. En este estudio se intenta, pues, dotar al investigador de Ciencias Políticas de las herramientas necesarias para el reconocimiento de los falsos amigos 'evidentes' y sobre todo de los 'ilusorios' entre el lenguaje político italiano y español. Además se le quiere demostrar que el mecanismo de transferencia de un idioma a otro de las palabras compuestas, alteradas y con prefijo no es siempre automático ya que entre dos lenguas semejantes se puede hablar de homología y no de identidad

Presurgical window of opportunity trial design as a platform for testing anticancer drugs: Pros, cons and a focus on breast cancer

The high attrition rate is a major issue in anticancer drug development. Among the alternative trial designs, presurgical window of opportunity trials envision a short course treatment in the time window between diagnostic biopsy and surgery in a moderately-sized patient population. This approach allows testing therapeutics when pre- and post-treatment tumor tissues are available for comprehensive molecular analyses. The emerging evidence may help define the ability of a given agent to modulate its target(s) and help obtain a broader picture of the molecular changes operated by the treatment. The resulting gain may outweigh the potential harms for patients in the early disease setting. Window of opportunity trials have been extensively applied to breast cancer. Overall, a wider use of these trial designs might lead to the identification of potential responders, ineffective drugs or combinations, and ultimately contribute to enhance the efficiency of the clinical developmental process. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved