La “filosofia architettonica” di Frei Otto: i concetti di forma, estetica ed etica e la loro ricezione

Form(-finding), aesthetics and ethics are key concepts in the philosophy of architect Frei Otto. Several of his ideas currently appear to be experiencing a renaissance. This is especially true for his concept of “form-finding” which frequently features in contemporary architectural discourse – albeit often with one of two common misconceptions: in the first, the term is used, or misused, as a catch-all for every imaginable approach to form, while in the second misconception “form-finding” is often presented simply as the genesis of form in a process of experimentation overlooking its inseparably intertwined theoretical background. For these reasons, this paper comprehensively examines Frei Otto’s own position on the meaning of these key concepts. Two cases demonstrate exemplarily the wider dissemination of his ideas: in the work and writings of Swiss architect Lisbeth Sachs from the 1970s, and, more currently, in the buildings and urban planning of Zaha Hadid with the theoretical underpinning of her professional partner, Patrick Schumacher

Regional differences in outpatient antibiotic consumption in Switzerland

This paper investigates regional variations in outpatient antibiotic use and provides a first empirical analysis based on Swiss data. We compare Swiss antibiotic consumption with antibiotic use in other European countries and present descriptive statistics at cantonal level. Preliminary findings show that Switzerland exhibits relatively low levels of consumption. There are significant differences among cantons both in the per capita antibiotic sales and Defined Daily Doses per 1000 inhabitants per day (DID). Regression analysis suggests that demographic factors, density of pharmacies and medical practices, income and the incidence of infections are significantly related to antibiotic consumption

Water ingestion decreases cardiac workload time-dependent in healthy adults with no effect of gender

Ingestion of water entails a variety of cardiovascular responses. However, the precise effect remains elusive. We aimed to determine in healthy adults the effect of water on cardiac workload and to investigate potential gender differences. We pooled data from two controlled studies where blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) were continuously recorded before and after the ingestion of 355 mL of tap water. Additionally, we calculated double product by multiplying systolic BP with HR and evaluated spectral parameters referring to vagal tone. All parameters were investigated for potential differences based on gender. In response to water, HR, systolic BP, and double product decreased significantly during the first 30 min. However, these effects were attenuated for HR and double product and even abolished for systolic BP over the subsequent 30 min. Over the entire post-drink period (60 min), decreases in HR and double product (all P < 0.05) were observed. Spectral markers for vagal tone increased with the on-set of the water drink and remained elevated until the end (P < 0.005). No significant gender difference in cardiac workload parameters was observed. We provide evidence that drinking water decreases, in a time-dependent fashion, cardiac workload and that these responses appear not to be influenced by gender

Métamorphoses numériques des Bibliobus de Genève: pistes et axes de développement

L’objectif de ce travail est de définir des pistes de développement d’une offre numérique dans les Bibliobus de Genève. Pour ce faire, nous commencerons ce travail par un bref panorama des enjeux liés au numérique en bibliothèque et des diverses formes existantes de bibliobus en Europe et aux Etats-Unis. Nous verrons ensuite quelles offres numériques développer dans les Bibliobus de Genève, que ce soit en termes de collection ou d’accès aux ressources. Une troisième partie sera enfin consacrée aux implications que suscitera cette nouvelle offre, pour notre public et pour nous-même. Il s’agit ici d’un travail théorique, définissant des stratégies de développement possibles pour le Bibliobus, et non pas d’un mode d’emploi destiné à la mise en œuvre de ces stratégies

Predicting perceptions of the lexical richness of short French, German, and Portuguese texts using text-based indices

We investigated how well readers’ perceptions of the lexical richness of short texts can be predicted on the basis of automatically computable indices of the texts’ lexical properties. 3,060 French, German and Portuguese texts (between 9 and 284 words long) written by 8- to 10-year-olds were rated for their lexical richness by between 3 and 18 uninstructed raters, and over 150 indices were derived from these texts. We found that the ratings could to a substantial degree be predicted on the basis of these indices and that the accuracy with which the ratings of shorter texts could be predicted was comparable to that of longer texts. For French and German, the greatest predictive power was attained by opaque models with scores of predictors, but models with fewer predictors based on a 6-dimensional framework of lexical richness perception or even with a single, easily computed predictor, Guiraud’s index, fared only slightly worse

Sales internationalization of Swiss luxury watchmakers in China and Hong Kong

The Swiss luxury watch industry has been the market leader since the 1990’s. From the beginning of the 21st century they have enjoyed a tremendous increase in exports worldwide. Recently, starting 2014, the market has been dropping. Decreasing sales in China and Hong Kong and mostly to Chinese consumers are to blame. The slowdown of the Chinese economic growth, increasing taxes imposed on luxury products are some of the few reasons for this slowdown. My first step for this research was to analyze the Chinese market in order to verify if this downward trend is lasting or if there is growth potential in the country. This meant identifying the current challenges Swiss watchmakers are facing and whether there are still potential customers in China. My findings showed that Chinese are still very eager to purchase Swiss brand name watches. They also showed that large groups of Chinese consumers have been left out by brands whose stores do not yet reach them. These groups are the new middle class and upper-middle class citizens that are rapidly growing in Tier 2 and 3 cities all across China. Watchmakers have indeed focused almost all their presence in China’s major cities but have remained absent in smaller ones. To note there are currently over 100 cities in China with over 1 million citizens. My second step was to find the most effective way for watch brands to reach this spread out population of potential customers. In the slowing watch market, investing in physical presence and stores is a risky and financially heavy decision for brands. The alternative is to develop online advertisement and sales. China is an extremely well developed ecommerce country which has embraced online purchasing. Online platforms such as Tmall and WeChat have largely surpassed the western Amazon and Facebook and user accounts often exceed half a billion. They offer companies varied services for online sales and advertising. While partnering with these companies’, Swiss watch brands will be able to access their current sales and distribution systems as well as benefiting from their vast knowledge of consumer behavior in China. I have therefore concluded that although there are threats to selling online, such as counterfeiting, there is a concrete opportunity for Swiss watchmakers to increase their sales once again. Many watch producers still argue today that the internet is no such place for sales of luxury watches. Nevertheless, the evidence is compelling that ecommerce is a very effective and promising way to reach Chinese consumers. They must decide if they want to follow this market evolution and hop on board the “E-wagon”

Conditioning the information in asset pricing

This thesis analyzes different theoretical and empirical aspects related to the use of the information in asset pricing. As a main innovation I extend the asset pricing literature proposing a new highly flexible technique for the estimation of the markets subjective distribution of future returns. Applying this technique to different problems I answer to some long-lasting puzzles present in literature. The contribution of this project to the literature is two-fold: first, in line with the new findings of Ross (2015) but from a fully different prospective I propose a new technique to estimate the market's subjective distribution of future returns using, jointly, stock and options data. Second, after studying the theoretical reason behind the superiority of the proposed technique, I use it for different empirical applications