Reconsidering the Role of Money for Output, Prices and Interest Rates

New Keynesian models of monetary policy assign no role to monetary aggregates, in the sense that the level of output, prices, and interest rates can be determined without knowledge of the quantity of money. We evaluate the empirical validity of this prediction by studying the effects of shocks to monetary aggregates using an identified VAR. Shocks to monetary aggregates are isolated by means of identifying restrictions suggested by this class of models. Contrary to the theoretical predictions, shocks to broad monetary aggregates have substantial and persistent effects on output and prices.New-Keynesian models; LM shocks; VAR; Block-exogeneity

Practice-dependent political theory and the boundaries of political imagination

It is often claimed that in normative political theory political imagination should remain unaffected by real-world contingencies: our idea of how the world “ought to be” should be independent from how the world “actually is”. According to the practice-dependent thesis, instead, “[t]he content, scope, and justification of a conception of justice depends on the structure and form of the practices that the conception is intended to govern” (Sangiovanni 2008). This methodological approach conceives the relationship between theory and practice as an interplay: normative theory applies to practice, but practices are also able to affect the content of normative theory. In this paper, I argue that the interplay between theory and practices that the practice-dependent method generates has not been fully understood. Though it may – at a superficial look – appear as a method compliant with the status quo, I will show that this method implies an idea of political theory as an activity of continuous critical engagement. Given an extended account of the method, political imagination has boundaries but these are not fixed nor easilydefinable: the real-world fact that constrains practice-dependent principles is the point and purpose of the practice they are meant to apply to, but this fact in itself is partly shaped and critically assessed by the theorist

Caratterizzazione della qualità dell'aria per la conservazione degli affreschi del Camposanto Monumentale di Pisa: monitoraggio di composti organici volatili

Dato il cattivo stato di conservazione delle opere custodite al Camposanto Monumentale di Pisa è stata effettuata un’indagine per caratterizzare la qualità dell’aria interna al monumento. In particolare questo studio ha riguardato il monitoraggio di composti organici volatili, mediante l’impiego di fibre SPME e cartucce a carbone attivo

The burden of deliberate self-harm on the critical care unit of a peri-urban referral hospital in the Eastern Cape: A 5-year review of 419 patients

Background. Buffalo City Municipality (BCM) in the Eastern Cape (EC) has the highest susceptibility to deliberate self-harm (DSH) of any South African city. The EC also has a shortage of critical care beds.Objective. This study reviewed DSH admissions over 5 years to the critical care unit (CCU) of Cecilia Makiwane Hospital (CMH), a large peri-urban hospital in the EC. It also examined the financial burden that DSH exerts on public-sector critical care.Methods. DSH cases admitted to CMH’s CCU between January 2006 and December 2010 were retrospectively reviewed. Patients under 13 years of age were excluded. Age, gender, admission duration, agent used,  outcome and toxicology results were recorded. Cost was estimated using the Department of Health 2012 fee schedule.Results. A total of 419 patients, comprising 17% of total CCU admissions, were included in the study. Cholinesterase inhibitors (CIs) were the most common agents ingested (55%). Compared with non-CI groups, CI patients where admitted for twice as long from admission to discharge (p<0.0001), but had a lower mortality rate (p=0.0344). No significant difference was found between gender and survival (p=0.5725) and between the yearly DSH CCU admission means (p=0.052). CI cases cost a minimum of R15 966.29 per admission and DSH CCU cases cost over R1 million per annum.Conclusion. DSH imposes an appreciable burden on the CCU services in the EC. There is a need to better control the unregulated availability of CIs (and related public education) as well as to improve psychiatric and psychological services in the EC rural areas

Il Parco Centrale di Cisanello a Pisa. Progetto di una Clinica neuropsichiatrica infantile

La tesi ha come tema la valorizzazione del cosiddetto Parco Centrale, uno degli ambiti incompiuti nel cuore del quartiere Cisanello a Pisa. Il tema viene affrontato sia dal punto di vista urbanistico che architettonico. Dopo la ricostruzione della genesi insediativa del quartiere, la valutazione delle previsioni urbanistiche e l’analisi dello stato attuale, viene proposto un progetto urbanistico che si pone l’obiettivo di risolvere le criticità riscontrate e di dare attuazione, con attitudine critica, alle previsioni vigenti. Il progetto include la Clinica neuropsichiatrica infantile, che il Regolamento Urbanistico prevede nella porzione sudorientale dell’area: tale tema viene sviluppato con un approfondimento della progettazione a scala architettonica

Continental degassing of helium in an active tectonic setting (northern Italy): the role of seismicity

In order to investigate the variability of helium degassing in continental regions, its release from rocks and emission into the atmosphere, here we studied the degassing of volatiles in a seismically active region of northern Italy (MwMAX = 6) at the Nirano-Regnano mud volcanic system. The emitted gases in the study area are CH4–dominated and it is the carrier for helium (He) transfer through the crust. Carbon and He isotopes unequivocally indicate that crustal-derived fluids dominate these systems. An high-resolution 3-dimensional reconstruction of the gas reservoirs feeding the observed gas emissions at the surface permits to estimate the amount of He stored in the natural reservoirs. Our study demonstrated that the in-situ production of 4He in the crust and a long-lasting diffusion through the crust are not the main processes that rule the He degassing in the region. Furthermore, we demonstrated that micro-fracturation due to the field of stress that generates the local seismicity increases the release of He from the rocks and can sustain the excess of He in the natural reservoirs respect to the steady-state diffusive degassing. These results prove that (1) the transport of volatiles through the crust can be episodic as function of rock deformation and seismicity and (2) He can be used to highlight changes in the stress field and related earthquakes

Psychosocial Competencies and Risky Behaviours in Peru

The authors use a unique longitudinal dataset from Peru to investigate the relationship between psychosocial competencies related to the concepts of self-esteem, self-efficacy and aspirations, and a number of risky behaviours at a crucial period of transition between adolescence and early adulthood. First, the researchers document a high prevalence of risky behaviours, with one in two individuals engaging in at least one risky activity by the age of 19, and a dramatic increase between the ages of 15 and 19. Second, the document finds a pronounced pro-male bias and some differences according to area of residence, particularly in the consumption of alcohol, which is more prevalent in urban areas. Third, the report finds a negative correlation (robust to a number of specifications) between early self-esteem and later risky behaviours. Further, aspiring to higher education at the age of 15 is found to be correlated with a lower probability of drinking and of engaging in criminal behaviours at the age of 19. Similarly, such aspirations protect girls from risky sexual behaviours

Putting Followership On The Map: Examining Followership Styles and Their Relationship With Job Satisfaction and Job Performance

The legitimacy of followership, as an area of research within organizational psychology is beginning to become more accepted. This study was designed to examine followership styles and their relationship with job satisfaction and job performance. This non-experimental study employed a quantitative survey design with a set of surveys returned representing 131 employees at a Midwestern automotive engineering and manufacturing company. The three standardized instruments used in this study include the Followership Questionnaire (Kelley, 1992), the Job in General Scale (Ironson, Smith, Brannick, Gibson, & Paul, 1989), and the Organizational Citizenship Behaviors scale (Williams & Anderson, 1991). Findings indicate that a significant positive relationship exists between followership styles and the two organizational variables job satisfaction and job performance. The findings enhance the theoretical study of followership by providing empirical evidence needed to validate further research

Chesed Children’s Clinic: A nonprofit, paediatric primary care outreach clinic in the Eastern Cape created by junior doctors and volunteers

No Abstract

Chemical and isotopic signature of groundwater in the Santa Ninfa karst system and possible inferences on neotectonics

The Santa Ninfa karst system is an area strongly controlled by tectonics, whose intense fracturing gave rise to the formation of a large number of cavities that foster the drainage of water. The hydrogeochemical characters of groundwater circulating in this aquifer, together with its isotopic signature, were investigated in detail. The chemistry of groundwater reflects the nature of the rocks hosting the aquifers, constituted by primary and diagenetic selenitic gypsum, salts, and gypsum- arenite, whose dissolution is responsible of the geochemical fingerprint of the quasi-totality of the samples. A single site (CAM) is characterised by a different chemical composition, indicating a mixing between Ca-sulphate, Ca-bicarbonate and a NaCl-rich water. From the chemical point of view, no evidence of interaction between shallow groundwater and deep fluids has been detected. Conversely, isotopic fluctuations highlight mixing processes between surficial (evaporated) runoff and groundwater. Different mixing proportion among these endmembers can be reflected in variations of the chemical character of the sampled springs. Changes in mixing proportions can be the effect of differential permeability variations, in turn produced by local stress field changes during seismogenic processes. In this scenario the geochemical monitoring of the Santa Ninfa karst aquifer could be of relevant interest in the study of seismogenic processes in this area, with particular reference to the relationship between seismic and geochemical transients