Instabilit\ue0 dei mercati, propensione al rischio e politiche di intervento: effetti dell'incertezza indotta dai cambiamenti strutturali nei mercati globali

La crisi corrente solleva ampie problematiche economiche e politiche. Oltre all\u2019esigenza di porre sotto controllo le turbolenze finanziarie e di sostenere una rapida ripresa, c\u2019\ue8 la necessit\ue0 di focalizzare l\u2019attenzione sulle incoerenze nei mercati e sulle politiche di regolamentazione/supervisione, per ridurre la probabilit\ue0 di eventi simili nel futuro. L\u2019articolo offre un\u2019analisi di alcuni aspetti chiave su due ambiti tematici. (1) Rischi interpretativi e di regolamentazione, ruolo delle agenzie di rating. La crisi ha avuto un\u2019ampia diffusione nell\u2019economia, imponendo elevati costi economici e ispirando varie proposte di riforma delle regolamentazioni. La mancanza di una diagnosi condivisa pu\uf2 creare rischi di scelte politiche inefficienti. Particolare attenzione viene dedicata al problema di un possibile ruolo inadeguato delle agenzie di rating. (2) Incertezza sistemica, premio al rischio e politica monetaria. Si discute come la non adeguata comprensione della dinamica dei cambiamenti nell\u2019economia globale ed dei riallineamenti nel potere economico riduca la capacit\ue0 degli investitori di gestire i rischi e possa indurre la conduzione politica a scelte improprie

A battery-operated, stabilized, high-energy pulsed electron gun for the production of rare gas excimers

We report on the design of a new type of electron gun to be used for experiments of infrared emission spectroscopy of rare gas excimers. It is based on a filament heated by means of a pack of rechargeable batteries floated atop the high-voltage power supply. The filament current is controlled by a feedback circuit including a superluminescent diode decoupled from the high voltage by means of an optical fiber. Our experiment requires that the charge injection is pulsed and constant and stable in time. This electron gun can deliver several tens of nC per pulse of electrons of energy up to $100\,$keV into the sample cell. This new design eliminates ripples in the emission current and ensures up to 12 hrs of stable performance.Comment: 1o pages, 8 figures, to be submitted to Review of Scientific Instrument

An experimental apparatus for measuring the Casimir effect at large distances

An experimental set-up for the measurement of the Casimir effect at separations larger than a few microns is presented. The apparatus is based on a mechanical resonator and uses a homodyne detection technique to sense the Casimir force in the plane-parallel configuration. First measurements in the 3-10 micrometer range show an unexpected large force probably due to patch effects.Comment: Proceedings of the workshop On the 60 Years on Casimir Effec

Recenti tendenze nei flussi di investimento estero delle economie emergenti. Sovereign wealth funds, imprese globali ed effetti per i paesi sviluppati

L\u2019articolo analizza le caratteristiche principali dei recenti flussi di investimento diretto estero realizzati dalle economie emergenti. In primo luogo, si approfondiscono le determinanti macroeconomiche alla base della disponibilit\ue0 di capitali presso tali paesi, esaminando in particolare il ruolo cruciale e controverso svolto dai sovereign wealth funds. Vengono poi discusse le determinanti istituzionali e strutturali degli investimenti esteri dalla prospettiva delle imprese degli stessi emergenti. Infine, l\u2019analisi viene completata focalizzando l\u2019attenzione sul caso particolare della politica pubblica della Cina nei riguardi degli investimenti diretti verso l\u2019estero, in particolare verso l\u2019Europa e l\u2019Italia

The COVID-19 recession might increase discriminating attitudes toward LGBT people and mental health problems due to minority stress

This letter to the Editor points the attention to the fact that the foreseen economic downturn related to the COVID 19 Crisis may lead to an increase to the discrimination of the lgbtiq+ population. This may lead to an increase to the minority streess experienced by this population and, consequently, to mental health difficulties. It supports this warning analysing and reporting data from he first survey on discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation and ethnicity was performed by the Italian National Institute of Statistics in 2011 (ISTAT, 2015) on a sample of about 8,000 individuals aged 18-74 years

New isogenic wild types in N. crassa

New isogenic wild types in N. crass

Chronic pelvic pain: comorbidity between chronic musculoskeletal pain and vulvodynia.

Chronic pelvic pain (CPP) is a common condition that has a major impact on the quality of life of both men and women. Male CPP is usually attributable to well-defined urogenital conditions (most frequently infectious/non infectious prostatic diseases) or musculoskeletal or bowel diseases, whereas the features of female CPP are much more complex and are of particular clinical and epidemiological importance. It is a multifactorial syndrome that can be due to diseases of the urogenital, gastrointestinal, or musculoskeletal systems, or to neurological or neuropsychiatric disorders. It is not always easy to identify its predominant pathogenesis, although it often occurs as a central sensitization syndrome triggered by an initial stimulus which is no longer detectable and only manifests itself clinically through pain. In this respect, there are some very interesting relationships between vulvodynia and fibromyalgic syndrome, as identified in a preliminary study of women with chronic musculoskeletal pain in which it was demonstrated that vulvar pain plays an important role, although it is often overlooked and undiagnosed

CAPE-based Curricula for the Improvement of Chemical Plants

Chemical engineering is a complicated combination of skills that depends on the curricula, teachers, and teaching environment and it requires huge resources to prepare skilled personnel for chemical and related industries. Chemical plant specialists face new challenges as digital and energy transition, new products and processes, circularity paradigm, etc. All these need awareness of new trends and the capability to solve related industrial problems. This paper presents a computer-aided process engineering-based (CAPE-based) curricula development that supports continuous improvements of chemical plants and speeds up the application of upto- date knowledge directly to industrial practice. The approach is based on the interplay of engineers, plant managers and university professors in solving the real industrial problem. The procedure is supported by a cloud-based CAPE environment for teaching, training, and producing the project results. The industrial problems are identified by the plant personnel and appropriate engineers are assigned by managers. The specific structure of the curricula presumes face-to-face, online and hybrid training and consulting in a triangle engineer, plant supervisor, and professor to solve a problem in the chemical and petrochemical industry. The pool of university professors is adjusted to cover all necessary tasks, provide up-to-date knowledge, and give a new paradigm to engineering thinking. The fellows improve in machine learning, data science, communication skills, presentation skills, economic assessment, etc., to increase the importance of the company. As the real results of one of the case studies, the steam consumption of the petrochemical plant was reduced by 64 % and the yield of the production unit was increased. Eleven case studies were solved covering energy and resource efficiency, wastewater treatment, by-product recycling, new product development and other issues. As the final project results the mechanical specification of the equipment, new plant layout and economic efficiency were assessed