The evolution of income inequality and relative poverty in Italy: 1987-2010

In this paper we study the evolution of poverty and inequality in Italy in the period 1987-2010. Our data are from the Bank of Italy Survey of Household Income and Wealth and the variable of interest is real income (reference year is 2009), defined using price indexes that are allowed to vary by region and that allow us to make comparisons in levels of real incomes. We construct relative poverty and inequality indexes using equivalent income obtained by applying two types of equivalence scales widely used in the literature (square root of the number of household members and ISEE scale) in order to verify how our measures of poverty and inequality are sensitive to the adoption of the equivalence scale. While we do not intend to be innovative in the measurement of poverty or inequality (we rely on widely used indexes), our aim is to depict a complete picture of the evolution of poverty and inequality with a particular attention to their determinants. By using decomposable inequality and poverty indexes we look at five decompositions: by gender, geographical areas (North West, North East, Centre and South), class age (less than 30, between 30 and 40, 40 and 50, 50 and 60 and over 60), education (compulsory school or less, upper secondary and tertiary education) and employment condition (employee, self-employed and unemployed). Given the definition of non- overlapping groups we examine-as far as inequality is concerned- the relative weights of the “within” and of the “between” components while, for poverty, we look at “poverty risks”. These analyses allow us to understand weather inequality originates mostly from differences within each group or from differences across groups and how each group influences overall poverty (measured using both the headcount ration and the average squared normalised poverty gaps that embeds the poverty gap and its distribution among the poor). Finally we consider some counterfactual exercises as to find out the effect of the changes during the analysed period of the demographic composition of the groups, of the subgroups’ mean incomes (only for inequality) and of the subgroups’ specific inequality or poverty indexes. The results show that the main determinants of the inequality and poverty evolution in Italy can be traced to geographical and educational grouping, with the age grouping relevant for poverty only.JRC.J.3-Information Societ

INNOREG: A Comprehensive Dataset on Government Policies Affecting Innovation

The purpose of this report is to describe the methodology used to develop a comprehensive dataset, denominated INNOREG, which provides information on several potential drivers and barriers to firms’ innovation activity. All the examined drivers and barriers depend, in a more or less direct way, upon the decisions taken by national policy makers. By merging INNOREG with data on ICT use, innovation, productivity and employment it will be possible to investigate the effect of several policies (mainly concerning labour market and taxation) and of the efficiency of bureaucracy on measures of economic performance such as production, employment, innovation etc.. The data are of three main types: 1. reforms of labour market regulation, computed using the EU Commission LABREF database, and which gives us information on the direction and intensity of reforms affecting the labour markets of 27 EU countries from 2000 to 2012 (LABREF_DRF.DTA); 2. generosity of the tax treatment for R&D, as measured by the B-Index over the period 1990-2013 (not all years are available) for a set of EU countries (B_INDEX.DTA); 3. indices of business regulation, as measured by various indicators taken by the Wordbank DoingBusiness project, reported annually from 2004 to 2014 for all EU countries (DOINGBUSINESS.DTA). For each of the above three topics, we developed a specific dataset (name in parenthesis). The three resulting datasets were then merged to form the comprehensive INNOREG dataset (INNOREG.dta). In this report we also provide summary statistics on the three types of data mentioned above.JRC.B.4-Human Capital and Employmen

On the impact of body material properties on neuroevolution for embodied agents

Artificial agents required to perform non-trivial tasks are commonly controlled with Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), which need to be carefully fine-tuned. This is where ANN optimization comes into play, often in the form of Neuroevolution (NE). Among artificial agents, the embodied ones, are characterized by a strong body-brain entanglement, i.e., a strong interdependence between the physical properties of the body and the controller. In this work, we aim at characterizing said interconnection, experimentally evaluating the impact body material properties have on NE for embodied agents. We consider the case of Voxel-based Soft Robots (VSRs), a class of simulated modular soft robots which achieve movement through the rhythmical contraction and expansion of their modules. We experiment varying several physical properties of VSRs and assess the effectiveness of the evolved controllers for the task of locomotion, together with their robustness and adaptability. Our results confirm the existence of a deep body-brain interrelationship for embodied agents, and highlight how NE fruitfully exploits the physical properties of the agents to give rise to a wide gamut of effective and adaptable behaviors

On the Mutual Influence of Human and Artificial Life: an Experimental Investigation

Our modern world is teeming with non-biological agents, whose growing complexity brings them so close to living beings that they can be cataloged as artificial creatures, i.e., a form of Artificial Life (ALife). Ranging from disembodied intelligent agents to robots of conspicuous dimensions, all these artifacts are united by the fact that they are designed, built, and possibly trained by humans taking inspiration from natural elements. Hence, humans play a fundamental role in relation to ALife, both as creators and as final users, which calls attention to the need of studying the mutual influence of human and artificial life. Here we attempt an experimental investigation of the reciprocal effects of the human-ALife interaction. To this extent, we design an artificial world populated by life-like creatures, and resort to open-ended evolution to foster the creatures adaptation. We allow bidirectional communication between the system and humans, who can observe the artificial world and voluntarily choose to perform positive or negative actions towards the creatures populating it; those actions may have a short- or long-term impact on the artificial creatures. Our experimental results show that the creatures are capable of evolving under the influence of humans, even though the impact of the interaction remains uncertain. In addition, we find that ALife gives rise to disparate feelings in humans who interact with it, who are not always aware of the importance of their conduct

Clinical Features of Pediatric Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension and Applicability of New ICHD-3 Criteria

Idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) is characterized by intracranial pressure >28 cmH2O in the absence of identifiable causes. Aim of this paper is to describe the clinical phenotype of pediatric IIH and to analyze the applicability of ICHD-3 criteria in comparison to the ICHD-2. We conducted a retrospective analysis of full clinical data of pediatric patients diagnosed with IIH between January 2007 and June 2018. Diagnostic evaluation included neuroimaging (all patients) and ultrasound-based optic nerve sheath diameter measurement (9 patients). Diagnosis of IIH was verified according to both ICHD-2 and ICHD-3 criteria for headache attributed to IIH, to verify the degree of concordance. We identified 41 subjects with suspected IIH; 14 were excluded due a diagnosis of secondary IH or lack of data. We therefore selected 27 subjects (age 4-15 years, mean 11). All patients presented with headache and bilateral papilloedema. Headache was daily in 22% cases, with diffuse gravative pain in 41%. In 4%, pain was exacerbated by cough, stress or tension. The most common presentation symptoms, in addition to headache, were blurred vision or diplopia (70%), vomiting (33%), and dizziness (15%). Twenty patients (74%) were obese. In 6 patients (22%) neuroimaging showed empty sella. Optic nerve sheath distension was detected in 6 out of 9 patients. Regarding the applicability of the ICHD-2 criteria, 18/27 (71%) patients have criterion A; 24/27 (89%) criterion B; 27/27 (100%) criterion C; 27/27 (100%) criterion D. When the ICHD-3 criteria were used, 27/27 (100%) fitted criterion A; 24/27 (89%) criterion B; 27/27 (100%) criterion C; and 27/27 (100%) criterion D. Our study suggests that, as compared with the ICHD-2, the new ICHD-3 criteria for headache attributed to IIH are better satisfied by pediatric patients with IIH. This is mainly due to the fact that qualitative headache characteristics are no longer considered in ICHD-3. Although the risk of under-rating the symptom of headache in IIH should not be disregarded, in pediatric population headache characteristics are usually less defined than in adults and obtaining a precise description of them is often very difficult

PALAVRAS DO EDITOR

Esse primeiro fascículo de 2016 de Estudos Kantianos, periódico que pelo quarto ano consecutivo compõe o cenário de revistas brasileiras consagradas ao pensamento de Kant, exibe um rico dossiê “Kant e Fichte” preparado por Giorgia Cecchinato e Federico Ferraguto – cuja introdução apresenta cada um dos seis estudos que o compõem –, além de quatro outros artigos respectivamente dedicados à rejeição de Kant ao uso de explicações fisiológicas no âmbito de sua antropologia, aos opúsculos kantianos sobre o terremoto de Lisboa e o sublime dinâmico da terceira Crítica, às particularidades da leitura rawlsiana de Kant e à interpretação de Giuseppe Zamboni do filósofo de Königsberg

Efficient Biginelli Synthesis of 2-Aminodihydropyrimidines under Microwave Irradiation

A practical and general method for the Biginelli cyclocondensation of guanidine with aldehydes and \u3b2-dicarbonyl compounds is described and illustrated with the synthesis of a set of 26 functionalized 2-amino-3,4-dihydropyrimidines. The simple protocol involves the \uadmicrowave-mediated reaction of a twofold excess of guanidine hydrochloride with the required reaction partners in an alcohol at 120 \ub0C. Yields are generally good, with short reaction times and a simple workup. The scope is considerably wider than that of similar reactions \uadcarried out under conventional heating

correlation between renal histopathology and renal ultrasound in dogs

Abstract Fifty-three privately owned dogs were included in the study. Ultrasonography of the kidneys was performed ante mortem. All the dogs died or were euthanized for reasons unrelated to this study. Histopathology of both kidneys was performed, and a degeneration and an inflammation score ranging from zero to two was assigned by consensus between two pathologists. A numerical score based on a three level semi-quantitative scale (0, 0.5, 1) was assigned by consensus between two of the authors to the following ultrasonographic abnormalities: cortico-medullary definition, echogenicity of the renal cortex, echogenicity of the medulla, renal shape, cysts, scars, mineralizations, subcapsular perirenal fluid accumulation, pyelectasia. The scores deriving from the consensus were summed to create a summary index called renal ultrasound score (RUS). Statistically significant differences in cortico-medullary definition, echogenicity of the renal cortex, echogenicity of the medulla, renal shape, scars and pyelectasia were evident between the degeneration score groups. There were significantly different distributions of cortico-medullary definition, renal shape and scars between the inflammatory score groups. There were statistically significant differences in the RUS between the degenerative score groups (F = 24.154, p-valu