Fundamental and non-fundamental equilibria in the foreign exchange market. A behavioural framework.

Equilibrium; Exchange; Foreign exchange; Framework; Market; Working;

PTV-Stream: A simplified particle tracking velocimetry framework for stream surface flow monitoring

Abstract Particle tracking velocimetry (PTV) is a promising image-based approach for remote streamflow measurements in natural environments. However, most PTV approaches require highly-defined round-shaped tracers, which are often difficult to observe outdoors. PTV-Stream offers a versatile alternative to cross-correlation-based PTV by affording the identification and tracking of features of any shape transiting in the field of view. This nearest-neighbor algorithm is inherently thought for estimating surface flow velocity of streams in outdoor conditions. The procedure allows for reconstructing and filtering the trajectories of features that are more likely to pertain to actual objects transiting in the field of view rather than to water reflections. The procedure is computationally efficient and is demonstrated to yield accurate measurements even in case of downsampled image sequences

La valutazione economica dei Piani Urbani della Mobilità Sostenibile. Il caso di Milano

La tendenza emergente nella pianificazione dei trasporti a livello urbano è quella che adotta l’approccio dei PUMS, cioè i Piani Urbani della Mobilità Sostenibile. Essi superano l’approccio tradizionale di piano, introducendo, oltre ai concetti di sostenibilità, anche quelli di una pianificazione integrata e della valutazione delle politiche di trasporto adottate. Il presente articolo intende fornire un contributo relativamente all’integrazione delle tecniche di valutazione socio-economica, quali l’Analisi Costi Benefici, nei PUMS, cioè in strumenti di programmazione complessi e formati da politiche ed azioni molto eterogenee e di articolata modellizzazione. L’articolo discute inizialmente in termini generali la complessità legata all’integrazione tra piani e valutazione, per poi mostrare i contenuti di un recente esempio, cioè il PUMS della città di Milano. Attraverso esso si discuteranno i modi con cui si è operata l’integrazione del modello di simulazione con lo strumento per l’Analisi Costi Benefici, e verranno presentati alcuni strumenti innovativi di rappresentazione dei risultati, utili alla comunicazione dei contenuti tecnici dell’analisi al più ampio pubblico dei decisori e dei cittadini

Leader as Policy Device: The Hybridization of Head Teachers in Italy

The aim of this article is to show how educational policies in Italy in the last 15 years have conceived headship as a «lever of change», producing a sort of «subjection» which implies a remarkable hybridization of the role. The ongoing pressures on policymaking by «noneducational» actors are depicted as a feature of the Italian policies on the restructuring of school governance and headship. The topics presented are based on researches carried out in recent years and focusing on the training, selection and evaluation of Italian head teachers. The article is structured as follows. Firstly, we present the theoretical framework based on the conceptual tools of discourse and governance. Secondly, we offer a brief outline on how head teachers were «formed» as educators before the 1997 Autonomy Reform. In the final section, some tensions that emerge during the discussions on headship are presented by analysing a particular set of «technologies» such as training, selection and evaluation that aim to «S-Objectivate» specific head teachers. The analysis will allow us to shed light on what we think of as an invisible and politically remarkable dilemma that is at stake here: «headship as a managerialist device to ‘control’ education policies»

Privatising education policy-making in Italy: New governance and the reculturing of a welfarist education state

Philanthropies and private foundations are increasingly acting as key nodes of the policy assemblages through which neoliberal and neomanagerialist policies are entering the field of education in Italy. In a country where public school 'ineffectiveness' and 'resistance to innovation' are taken for granted nowadays, policy philanthropists-entrepreneurs are attempting to lead the way in re-thinking education according to the new globalised economic imperatives. Starting from the ongoing 'evaluation turn' of the Italian education system, the article unravels the complexities of those processes of policy influence. The analysis addresses multiple foci: the emergence of new discourses of education reform and the networks of social interaction they are rooted in; the generative effects such discourses can have on producing new positions, subjectivities, opportunities; and the structural selectivities influencing education policy-making. The article highlights the first moves of a peculiar process of 'policy privatisation' whose main potential outcomes are both a process of education policy-making privatisation and a reculturing of education according to a new private-business ethos. Keywords: policy privatisation, philanthropy, education governance, neoliberalism, NPM, Italy (Published: 16 September 2013) Citation: Education Inquiry (EDUI) 2013, 4 , 22615, http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/edui.v4i3.2261

Study of pressure effect on the magnetic penetration depth in MgB2_2

A study of the pressure effect on the magnetic penetration depth $\lambda$ in polycrystalline MgB$_{2}$ was performed by measuring the temperature dependence of the magnetization under an applied pressure of 0.15 and 1.13 GPa. We found that $\lambda^{-2}$ at low temperature is only slightly affected by pressure [$\frac{\Delta \lambda^{-2}}{\lambda^{-2}} = 1.5(9)$], in contrast to cuprate superconductors, where, in the same range of pressure, a very large effect on $\lambda^{-2}$ was found. Theoretical estimates indicate that most of the pressure effect on $\lambda^{-2}$ in MgB$_2$ arises from the electron-phonon interaction.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Per un pugno di opere

La svolta decisa dal governo per le infrastrutture medie e piccole dovrebbe essere adottata anche per quelle grandi, abbandonando così l’idea che le opere “strategiche” generino una forte domanda. Altrimenti, dovremo rassegnarci ai cantieri “stop and go”. E al moltiplicarsi dei costi

Tav e grandi opere: non è solo un problema di costi

Le grandi opere non solo costano tanto, ma sono spesso inutili. Per giustificarle ci si affida a previsioni di aumento del traffico poco realistiche. Sono necessarie analisi costi-benefici terze, indipendenti e interamente riproducibili