The return of Keynes

Skidelsky’s last work « The Return of the Master” gives a new perspective to his previous studies about J.M. Keynes. In this new light, he studies the Keynesian theories, no longer in the historical context in which they were developed, but using them to explain and to try to find a solution to modern economy. This work almost represents a denunciation towards the new economic theory system that loses sight of the importance of the uncertainty, and overestimated the value of currency, and have not considered other values such as ethics and morals.the return of Keynes's Theory

From SHIW to IT-SILC: construction and representativeness of the new CAPP_DYN first-year population

This paper describes the construction of the initial population in CAPP_DYN and illustrates the degree of representativeness of the Italian population in 2006. While the previous version of the model was constructed using the Bank of Italy Survey on Household Income and Wealth, the current version is based on the new ISTAT Survey on Income and Living Conditions. The first part of the paper discusses the reasons that led us to this switch. It also provides full details on the operations carried out on the original dataset in order to obtain a sample that can be used as the first year population of the Dynamic Simulation Model. In the second part of the paper, the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the initial population sample are compared with information coming from other sources, such as administrative archives, national accounts and Labour Force Surveys. This exercise is crucial in assessing the capability of CAPP_DYN to represent the population's characteristics at the starting point.Dynamic micro-simulation, model validation, income distribution, pensions and social security

ATP mediates both activation and inhibition of K(ATP) channel activity via cAMP-dependent protein kinase in insulin-secreting cell lines.

The single-channel recording technique was employed to investigate the mechanism conferring ATP sensitivity to a metabolite-sensitive K channel in insulin-secreting cells. ATP stimulated channel activity in the 0-10 microM range, but depressed it at higher concentrations. In inside-out patches, addition of the cAMP-dependent protein kinase inhibitor (PKI) reduced channel activity, suggesting that the stimulatory effect of ATP occurs via cAMP-dependent protein kinase-mediated phosphorylation. Raising ATP between 10 and 500 microM in the presence of exogenous PKI progressively reduced the channel activity; it is proposed that this inactivation results from a reduction in kinase activity owing to an ATP-dependent binding of PKI or a protein with similar inhibitory properties to the kinase. A model describing the effects of ATP was developed, incorporating these two separate roles for the nucleotide. Assuming that the efficacy of ATP in controlling the channel activity depends upon the relative concentrations of inhibitor and catalytic subunit associated with the membrane, our model predicts that the channel sensitivity to ATP will vary when the ratio of these two modulators is altered. Based upon this, it is shown that the apparent discrepancy existing between the sensitivity of the channel to low ATP concentrations in the excised patch and the elevated intracellular level of ATP may be explained by postulating a change in the inhibitor/kinase ratio from 1:1 to 3:2 owing to the loss of protein kinase after patch excision. At a low concentration of ATP (10-20 microM), a nonhydrolyzable ATP analogue, AMP-PNP, enhanced the channel activity when present below 10 microM, whereas the analogue blocked the channel activity at higher concentrations. It is postulated that AMP-PNP inhibits the formation of the kinase-inhibitor complex in the former case, and prevents phosphate transfer in the latter. A similar mechanism would explain the interaction between ATP and ADP which is characterized by enhanced activity at low ADP concentrations and blocking at higher concentrations

Hedonic Pricing Evaluation on Agritourism Activity in Italy: Local Culture-based or Facility-based?

This paper focused on how and what diversified activities influence the price level of agritourism. A hypothesis that contrasts two directions was examined: facility-based and local culture-based activities. First, from the conceptual consideration, we defined that agritourism based on local cultural resources can internalize positive externalities, which are accompanied by local cultural resources, into income, unlike facility-based activity that has no connection with local cultural resources. Second, the results of estimations from the price determinant ordered logit model clarified that owning a swimming pool was the most common and influential factor in enhancing the price level while regional diversity was observed in terms of local cultural resource-based activities such as restaurants, world heritage sites and DOC wines. These findings indicate that hardware-based evolution is more effective in the short term than evolution based on software aspects. Nevertheless, this hardware-based evolution of agritourism is implicitly based on the assumption of continuously growing demand and sufficient financial capability for the fixed investment. When growth in demand becomes stagnant, facility installation can be a heavy burden on operators. Consequently, for the sustainable development of agritourism it will be necessary to harness locality to create a balance between facility-based services and local culture-based services.agritourism, local cultural heritage, hedonic pricing, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Labor and Human Capital,

Multi-Qubit Joint Measurements in Circuit QED: Stochastic Master Equation Analysis

We derive a family of stochastic master equations describing homodyne measurement of multi-qubit diagonal observables in circuit quantum electrodynamics. In the regime where qubit decay can be neglected, our approach replaces the polaron-like transformation of previous work, which required a lengthy calculation for the physically interesting case of three qubits and two resonator modes. The technique introduced here makes this calculation straightforward and manifestly correct. Using this technique, we are able to show that registers larger than one qubit evolve under a non-Markovian master equation. We perform numerical simulations of the three-qubit, two-mode case from previous work, obtaining an average post-measurement state fidelity of $\sim 94\%$, limited by measurement-induced decoherence and dephasing.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures. Comments welcom

Risk Assessment of a Wind Turbine: A New FMECA-Based Tool With RPN Threshold Estimation

A wind turbine is a complex system used to convert the kinetic energy of the wind into electrical energy. During the turbine design phase, a risk assessment is mandatory to reduce the machine downtime and the Operation & Maintenance cost and to ensure service continuity. This paper proposes a procedure based on Failure Modes, Effects, and Criticality Analysis to take into account every possible criticality that could lead to a turbine shutdown. Currently, a standard procedure to be applied for evaluation of the risk priority number threshold is still not available. Trying to fill this need, this paper proposes a new approach for the Risk Priority Number (RPN) prioritization based on a statistical analysis and compares the proposed method with the only three quantitative prioritization techniques found in literature. The proposed procedure was applied to the electrical and electronic components included in a Spanish 2 MW on-shore wind turbine

Income inequality and the quality of imports

This paper investigates how income inequality affects the quality of imported products. In a heterogeneous-firms trade model, I show that higher inequality increases total expenditure leading to a reduction in unit value and quality of imported goods. To test this prediction, I employ detailed firm-level trade data for the period 2001- 2006. I empirically document that higher inequality is associated with lower unit value and lower quality of imported products. This negative relation is due to firm-level heterogeneous responses to variations in total expenditure. Incumbent firms react to an increase in total expenditure caused by higher inequality lowering unit values, while firms entering the same market for the first time supply goods of lower quality

La mobilità sostenibile: il contributo del porto di Civitavecchia, leader italiano delle Autostrade del Mare

L’attuale domanda di mobiltà è, pertanto, indipendente dalla produ¬zione e va sostenuta in modo radicale attraverso la realizzazione di sup¬porti articolati sia in legislazione sia in infrastrutture che richiedono vari interventi: importante e significativo è il contributo del governo italiano (unico in Europa) consistente nel c.d. “ECOBONUS”. Ma non basta. È necessario elaborare dispositivi legislativi in grado di sostenere la modalità marittima che appare l’unica in grado di sopportare l’attua¬le domanda di mobilità delle merci nel mediterraneo. La Pianificazione contenuta nel Piano Regolatore Portuale di Civitavecchia comprende la realizzazione di una nuova darsena per le “Autostrade del Mare”. Detta nuova infrastruttura rappresenta il naturale programma evolutivo del ca¬botaggio – “Autostrade del Mare” nello scalo laziale. La ex darsena petroli, costituita dalle banchine nn. 18, 20, 21, è stata rapidamente trasformata in un terminale per la ricezione di traffico ro/ro per naviglio veloce di ter¬za generazione con lunghezza superiore ai 225 metri lineari. In realtà, la capacità attuale non è sufficiente a coprire il mercato, viceversa, la nuova darsena ubicata nell’area nord dello scalo potrà soddisfare la domanda e si troverà direttamente all’entrata del Porto con enormi vantaggi in ordine all’alta velocità navale che costituisce un’ulteriore spinta alla competizio¬ne del mercato del cabotaggio

Equation of motion approach to black-box quantization: taming the multi-mode Jaynes-Cummings model

An accurate modeling of a Josephson junction that is embedded in an arbitrary environment is of crucial importance for qubit design. We present a formalism to obtain a Lindblad master equation that describes the evolution of the system. As the qubit degrees of freedom oscillate with a well-defined frequency $\omega_q$, the environment only has to be modeled close to this frequency. Different from alternative approaches, we show that this goal can be achieved by modeling the environment with only few degrees of freedom. We treat the example of a transmon qubit coupled to a stripline resonator. We derive the parameters of a dissipative single-mode Jaynes-Cummings model starting from first principles. We show that the leading contribution of the off-resonant modes is a correlated decay process involving both the qubit and the resonator mode. In particular, our results show that the effect of the off-resonant modes in the multi-mode Jaynes-Cummings model is perturbative in $1/ \omega_q$.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure