“Social Return and Financing of Urban Regeneration Policiesâ€

This paper analyses an alternative measurement framework capable of capturing the return on investment of urban regeneration projects through a cost-benefit analysis. Financial returns on investment are calculated as the ratio between the benefits accruing from the performance of a given project and the funds involved in their implementation. Both, benefits and funds, must be named in monetary terms. However in urban regeneration projects, due to their dual economic and social nature, is more difficult to quantify the profits generated because most of them are subjective (greater quality of life, better community welfare, etc.). There is a wide array of value taking place in a urban regenerative process (economic value, blended value, social value) some of which are measurable in a traditional Investment/Return framework (with its implicit economic returns assumption) and more of which are not so that they remain partially hidden from stakeholders. Based on the foregoing, the purpose of this study is twofold: to go deeply on the cost-effectiveness ratio of urban regeneration projects through consideration of social impacts and to analyze some new alternative funding formulas that arise particularly in a time of financial constraint. The papers argues that the SROI (Social Return On Investment) method appears as the most appropriate measurement tool to capture the full public benefit as well as the Tax Increment Financing and the Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas –Jessica, seem to be two innovative financing formulas based on a market approach.

On the solitons of the Chern-Simons-Higgs model

Several issues concerning the self-dual solutions of the Chern-Simons-Higgs model are addressed. The topology of the configuration space of the model is analysed when the space manifold is either the plane or an infinite cylinder. We study the local structure of the moduli space of self-dual solitons in the second case by means of an index computation. It is shown how to manage the non-integer contribution to the heat-kernel supertrace due to the non-compactness of the base space. A physical picture of the local coordinates parametrizing the non-topological soliton moduli space arises .Comment: 27 pages, 3 figures, to appear in The European Physical Journal

Self-Dual Vortices in Abelian Higgs Models with Dielectric Function on the Noncommutative Plane

We show that Abelian Higgs Models with dielectric function defined on the noncommutative plane enjoy self-dual vorticial solutions. By choosing a particular form of the dielectric function, we provide a family of solutions whose Higgs and magnetic fields interpolate between the profiles of the noncommutative Nielsen-Olesen and Chern-Simons vortices. This is done both for the usual $U(1)$ model and for the $SU(2)\times U(1)$ semilocal model with a doublet of complex scalar fields. The variety of known noncommutative self-dual vortices which display a regular behaviour when the noncommutativity parameter tends to zero results in this way considerably enlarged

On the spectrum of nonrelativistic AdS/CFT

We develop a Hamiltonian picture for a family of models of nonrelativistic AdS/CFT duality. The Schrodinger group is realized via the conformal quantum mechanics of De Alfaro, Fubini and Furlan in the holographic direction. We show that most physical requirements, including the introduction of harmonic traps, can be realized with exact AdS metrics, but without any need for exotic matter sectors in the bulk dynamics. This Hamiltonian picture can be used to compare directly with many-body spectra of fermions at unitarity on harmonic traps, thereby providing a direct physical interpretation of the holographic radial coordinate for these systems. Finally, we add some speculations on the dynamical generation of mass gaps in the AdS description, the resulting quasiparticle spectra, and the analog of `deconfining' phase transitions that may occur.Comment: 20 pages and 1 figure; typos corrected, references added; references added, minor changes matching published versio

The translatability of metaphor in LSP: application of a decision-making model

The pragmatic approach to translation implies the consideration of translation as a useful test case for understanding the role of language in social life. Under this view this article analyses the decision-making stage translators go through in the course of formulating a TT. Hence this article contributes both to enhance the status of translation theory and to explain some of the decisions taken by the Spanish translators of three English Manuals of Economics. In short, we have argued that the use of a 'maximax' strategy for translating English metaphors as Spanish similarity-creating metaphors can be attributed to subjective factors, especially to the translators' cognitive system, their knowledge bases, the task specification, and the text type specific problem space. As a result, we have also claimed that proposals for translating microtextual problems —for example, metaphors — can benefit from the study of the above-mentioned subjective factors since they allow or inhibit the translators' choices in the decision-making stage of the translation process

Contractors Perspective on the Selection of Innovative Sustainable Technologies for Achieving Zero Carbon Retail Buildings

The use of innovative sustainable technologies (IST) has been regarded as an effective approach to enhancing energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions of buildings. However, contractors face significant challenges in the selection of IST. The reported challenges in the literature include: lack of skills and knowledge, uncertainties, risks and the rapid development of a large number of technological alternatives and decision criteria. The selection process emerges as a multi-attribute, value-based task that includes both qualitative and quantitative factors, which are often assessed with imprecise data and human judgments. This paper aims to establish the decision criteria for the selection of IST for achieving low carbon existing retail buildings with a focus on the main contractor’s perspective. The arguments are informed by the combination of literature review and an in-depth case study with a UK leading contractor. Five broad decision criteria are identified systematically drawing on the contractor’s practice. The established criteria are weighted and ranked using the analytic hierarchy process and expert opinions; with ‘margin opportunity’ being the most important, followed by ‘repeat business’, ‘investment costs’, ‘differentiation’ and then ‘transferability’. The findings should facilitate the integration of various facets of the selection process and stimulate contractors to use IST

Numerical issues in threshold autoregressive modelling of time series

This paper analyses the contribution of various numerical approaches to making the estimation of threshold autoregressive time series more efficient. It relies on the computational advantages of QR factorizations and proposes Givens transformations to update these factors for sequential LS problems. By showing that the residual sum of squares is a continuous rational function over threshold intervals it develops a new fitting method based on rational interpolation and the standard necessary optimality condition. Taking as benchmark a simple grid search, the paper illustrates via Monte Carlo simulations the efficiency gains of the proposed tools