A Note On The Use Of Quantile Regression In Beta Convergence Analysis

We discuss how to interpret conflicting results obtained by the use of quantile regression methods in growth regression tests of I̊2-convergence hypothesis and the results obtained by nonparametric methods. We show that the assumption of linearity may cause the non-rejection of the I̊2-convergence hypothesis by quantile regression. We also show that using a nonparametric form of quantile regression, we can reject the hypothesis of I̊2-convergence and confirm the results of divergence and formation of convergence clubs. We illustrate the discussion by using the conflicting results on convergence found in the dataset of per-capita income of Brazilian municipalities between 1970 and 1996.352Andrade, E., Laurini, M.P., Madalozzo, R., Valls Pereira, P.V., Convergence clubs among Brazilian municipalities (2004) Economics Letters, 83 (2), pp. 179-184Andrade, E., Laurini, M.P., Madalozzo, R., Valls Pereira, P.V., Testing convergence across municipalities in Brazil using quantile regression (2003) In Proceedings of 18 Meeting of European Economic AssociationAzariadis, C., Drazen, A., Threshold externalities in economic development (1990) Quarterly Journal of Economics, 105 (2), pp. 501-526Barreto, R.A., Hughes, A.W., Under performers and over achievers: A quantile regression analysis of growth (2004) Economic Record, 80, pp. 17-35Barro, R., Economic growth in a cross-section of countries (1991) Quarterly Journal of Economics, 106 (2), pp. 407-443Bernard, A., Durlauf, S., Interpreting tests of the convergence hypothesis (1996) Journal of Econometrics, 71, pp. 161-173Bosch, R.J.Y., Ye, Y., Woodworth, G.G., A Convergent algorithm for the quantile regression with smoothing splines (1995) Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, 19, pp. 613-630Durlauf, S., Johnson, P., Temple, J., Handbook of Economic Growth, chap (2005) Growth econometrics, pp. 5-41. , North-HollandFan, J., Yao, Q., (2003) Nonlinear Time Series: Nonparametric and Parametric Methods, , SpringerFan, J., Zhang, C., Zhang, J., Generalized likelihood ratio statistics and Wilks phenomenon (2001) The Annals of Statistics, 29, pp. 153-193Friedman, M., Do old fallacies ever die? (1992) Journal of Economic Literature, 30, pp. 2129-2132Hardle, W., (1990) Applied Nonparametric Regression, , Cambridge University PressKoenker, R., Basset, G., Regression quantiles (1978) Econometrica, 46, pp. 33-50Koenker, R., Galton, Edgeworth, Frisch, and prospects for quantile regression in econometrics (2000) Journal of Econometrics, 95, pp. 347-374Koenker, R., (2005) Quantile Regression, , Cambridge University PressLaurini, M.P., Andrade, E., Valls Pereira, P.V., Income convergence clubs for Brazilian Municipalities: A non-parametric analysis (2005) Applied Economics, 37 (18), pp. 2099-2118Lucas, R., On the mechanics of economic development (1988) Journal of Monetary Economics, 22 (1), pp. 3-42Mello, M., Novo, A., (2002) The new empirics of economic growth: Quantile regression estimation of growth equations, , Unpublished Working PaperMello, M., Perrelli, R., Growth equations: A quantile regression exploration (2003) The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, 43 (4), pp. 643-667Miles, W., Human capital and economic growth: A quantile regression approach (2004) Applied Econometrics and International Development, 2Nelsen, R., (1999) An Introduction to Copulas, , Lectures Notes in Statistics, Springer VerlagQuah, D., Galton's fallacy and tests of convergence hypothesis (1993) Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 95 (4), pp. 427-443Quah, D., Empirics for growth and distribution: Stratificiation, polarization and convergence clubs (1997) Journal of Economic Growth, 2, pp. 27-59Romer, P., Increasing returns and long run growth (1986) Journal of Political Economy, 94 (5), pp. 1002-1037Solow, R., A contribution to the theory of economic growth (1956) Quarterly Journal of Economics, 70, pp. 65-94Swan, T., Economic growth and capital accumulation (1956) Economic Record, 32, pp. 334-36

Shortest path with acceleration constraints: complexity and approximation algorithms

We introduce a variant of the Shortest Path Problem (SPP), in which we impose additional constraints on the acceleration over the arcs, and call it Bounded Acceleration SPP (BASP). This variant is inspired by an industrial application: a vehicle needs to travel from its current position to a target one in minimum-time, following pre-defined geometric paths connecting positions within a facility, while satisfying some speed and acceleration constraints depending on the vehicle position along the currently traveled path. We characterize the complexity of BASP, proving its NP-hardness. We also show that, under additional hypotheses on problem data, the problem admits a pseudo-polynomial time-complexity algorithm. Moreover, we present an approximation algorithm with polynomial time-complexity with respect to the data of the original problem and the inverse of the approximation factor ϵ. Finally, we present some computational experiments to evaluate the performance of the proposed approximation algorithm

Cationic carbosilane dendrimers and oligonucleotide binding: an energetic affair

GENERATION 2 CATIONIC CARBOSILANE DENDRIMERS HOLD GREAT PROMISE AS INTERNALIZING AGENTS FOR GENE THERAPY AS THEY PRESENT LOW TOXICITY AND RETAIN AND INTERNALIZE GENETIC MATERIAL AS OLIGONUCLEOTIDE OR SIRNA. IN THIS WORK WE CARRIED OUT A COMPLETE IN SILICO STRUCTURAL AND ENERGETICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF THE INTERACTIONS OF A SET OF 2G CARBOSILANE DENDRIMERS, SHOWING DIFFERENT AFFINITY TOWARDS TWO SINGLE STRAND OLIGONUCLEOTIDE (ODN) SEQUENCES IN VITRO. OUR SIMULATIONS PREDICT THAT THESE FOUR DENDRIMERS AND THE RELEVANT ODN COMPLEXES ARE CHARACTERIZED BY SIMILAR SIZE AND SHAPE, AND THAT THE MOLECULE-SPECIFIC ODN BINDING ABILITY CAN BE RATIONALIZED ONLY CONSIDERING A CRITICAL MOLECULAR DESIGN PARAMETER: THE NORMALIZED EFFECTIVE BINDING ENERGY \u394GBIND,EFF/NEFF I.E., THE PERFORMANCE OF EACH ACTIVE INDIVIDUAL DENDRIMER BRANCH DIRECTLY INVOLVED IN A BINDING INTERACTIO

Robust Statistical Processing of Long-Time Data Series to Estimate Soil Water Content

The research presented in this paper aims at providing a statistical model that is capable of estimating soil water content based on weather data. The model was tested using a long-time series of field experimental data from continuous monitoring at a test site in Oltrepò Pavese (northern Italy). An innovative statistical function was developed in order to predict the evolution of soil–water content from precipitation and air temperature. The data were analysed in a framework of robust statistics by using a combination of robust parametric and non-parametric models. Specifically, a statistical model, which includes the typical seasonal trend of field data, has been set up. The proposed model showed that relevant features present in the field of experimental data can be obtained and correctly described for predictive purposes

PREFACE

Abstract. Simply defined, a Smart City is a city overlaid by a digital layer, which is used for the governance of the city. A Smart City uses intelligent technology to enhance our quality of life in urban environments, bringing together people and data from disparate sources such as sensors, demographics, topographic and 3D mapping, Building Information Models and many more. Increasingly, Smart Cities use this data in a variety of ways, to address key challenges related to transportation, communications, air quality, noise, well-being of the citizens, decision making relating to education and health and urban planning, as well as in relation to initiatives such as startups and fostering economic growth and employment within the city. As more data becomes available, the challenges of storing, managing and integrating such data are also multiplied.The first Urban Data Management Symposium (UDMS) was held in 1971 in Bonn, Germany, made the choice of hosting the 6th international conference on Smart Data and Smart Cities (SDSC) in Stuttgart a very natural one. SDSC was established in 2016 as the successor of the UDMS, and this year we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the series of symposia and conferences. The SDSC 2021 will be part of the scientific week on intelligent cities at HFT Stuttgart. Together four events were held during the week of 14th – 17th September 2021, and alongside SDSC participants were invited to attend the "Energy, water and food for the cities of the future" conference, the "LIS-City – liveable, intelligent, and sustainable City" workshop, and the mobility day Stuttgart. Participant interaction – and the ability to attend sessions across the four events – was particularly encouraged. SDSC 2021 itself was organised by the Urban Data Management Society (UDMS www.udms.net), ISPRS and HFT Stuttgart (the University of Applied Science Stuttgart), and Professor Volker Coors Chaired the SDSC committee.As in previous years, three key conference themes were proposed to represent the Smart Cities: Smart Data (sensor network databases, on-the-fly data mining, geographic and urban knowledge modeling and engineering, green computing, urban data analytics and big data, big databases and data management), Smart People (volunteered information, systems for public participation) and Smart Cities (systems of territorial intelligence, systems for city intelligence management, 3D modeling of cities, internet of things, social networks, monitoring systems, mobility and transportation, smart-city-wide telecommunications infrastructure, urban knowledge engineering, urban dashboard design and implementation, new style of urban decision-making systems, geovisualization devoted to urban problems, disaster management systems).This volume consists of 18 papers, which were selected from 41 submissions on the basis of peer review. These papers present novel research concerning the use of spatial information and communication technologies in Smart Cities, addressing different aspects relating to Smart Data. Selected papers tackle different aspects of Smart Cities: transport, sustainable mobility; dashboards and web GIS; citizen engagement and participation; sensors; urban decision making.The editors are grateful to the members of the Scientific Committee for their time and valuable comments, which contributed to the high quality of the papers. Reviews were contributed by: Alias Abdul-Rahman, Giorgio Agugiaro, Ken Arroyo Ohori, John Barton, Martina Baucic, Filip Biljecki, Lars Bodum, Pawel Boguslawski, Azedine Boulmakoul, Matteo Caglioni, Caesar Cardenas, Eliseo Clementini, Volker Coors, Youness Dehbi, Abdoulaye Abou Diakité, Adil El Bouziri, Claire Ellul, Tarun Ghawana, Gesquiere Gilles, Didier Grimaldi, Ori Gudes, Stephen Hirtle, Martin Kada, Lamia Karim, Robert Laurini, Christina Mickrenska-Cherneva, Christopher Petit, Alenka Poplin, Ivana Racetin, Dimos Pantazis, Preston Rodrigues, Camilo Leon Sanchez, Genoveva Vargas Solar, Nils Walravens, Parag Wate, Besri Zineb, Sisi Zlatanova. We are also grateful to the work of the local organising committee at HFT Stuttgart, without whom this conference would not have been possible

PREFACE

Abstract. Simply defined, a Smart City is a city overlaid by a digital layer, which is used for the governance of the city. A Smart City uses intelligent technology to enhance our quality of life in urban environments, bringing together people and data from disparate sources such as sensors, demographics, topographic and 3D mapping, Building Information Models and many more. Increasingly, Smart Cities use this data in a variety of ways, to address key challenges related to transportation, communications, air quality, noise, well-being of the citizens, decision making relating to education and health and urban planning, as well as in relation to initiatives such as startups and fostering economic growth and employment within the city. As more data becomes available, the challenges of storing, managing and integrating such data are also multiplied.The first Urban Data Management Symposium (UDMS) was held in 1971 in Bonn, Germany, made the choice of hosting the 6th international conference on Smart Data and Smart Cities (SDSC) in Stuttgart a very natural one. SDSC was established in 2016 as the successor of the UDMS, and this year we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the series of symposia and conferences. The SDSC 2021 will be part of the scientific week on intelligent cities at HFT Stuttgart. Together four events were held during the week of 14th – 17th September 2021, and alongside SDSC participants were invited to attend the "Energy, water and food for the cities of the future" conference, the "LIS-City – liveable, intelligent, and sustainable City" workshop, and the mobility day Stuttgart. Participant interaction – and the ability to attend sessions across the four events – was particularly encouraged. SDSC 2021 itself was organised by the Urban Data Management Society (UDMS www.udms.net), ISPRS and HFT Stuttgart (the University of Applied Science Stuttgart), and Professor Volker Coors Chaired the SDSC committee.As in previous years, three key conference themes were proposed to represent the Smart Cities: Smart Data (sensor network databases, on-the-fly data mining, geographic and urban knowledge modeling and engineering, green computing, urban data analytics and big data, big databases and data management), Smart People (volunteered information, systems for public participation) and Smart Cities (systems of territorial intelligence, systems for city intelligence management, 3D modeling of cities, internet of things, social networks, monitoring systems, mobility and transportation, smart-city-wide telecommunications infrastructure, urban knowledge engineering, urban dashboard design and implementation, new style of urban decision-making systems, geovisualization devoted to urban problems, disaster management systems).This volume consists of 14 papers, which were selected from 41 submissions on the basis of double blind review, with each paper being reviewed by a minimum of three reviewers. These papers present novel research concerning the use of spatial information and communication technologies in Smart Cities, addressing different aspects of Smart Data and Smart Citizens. The selected papers tackle different aspects of Smart Cities: 3D; Citizen Engagement; transport, sustainable mobility; dashboards and web GIS; citizen engagement and participation; sensors; urban decision making.The editors are grateful to the members of the Scientific Committee for their time and valuable comments, which contributed to the high quality of the papers. Reviews were contributed by: Alias Abdul-Rahman, Giorgio Agugiaro, Ken Arroyo Ohori, John Barton, Martina Baucic, Filip Biljecki, Lars Bodum, Pawel Boguslawski, Azedine Boulmakoul, Matteo Caglioni, Caesar Cardenas, Eliseo Clementini, Volker Coors, Youness Dehbi, Abdoulaye Abou Diakité, Adil El Bouziri, Claire Ellul, Tarun Ghawana, Gesquiere Gilles, Didier Grimaldi, Ori Gudes, Stephen Hirtle, Martin Kada, Lamia Karim, Robert Laurini, Christina Mickrenska-Cherneva, Christopher Petit, Alenka Poplin, Ivana Racetin, Dimos Pantazis, Preston Rodrigues, Camilo Leon Sanchez, Genoveva Vargas Solar, Nils Walravens, Parag Wate, Besri Zineb, Sisi Zlatanova. We are also grateful to the work of the local organising committee at HFT Stuttgart, without whom this conference would not have been possible

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3D AND 4D MODELLING IN BUILDING SITE WORKING CONTROL

The purpose of this contribution is to describe the use of the HBIM method for the management of the restoration building site applied to a historic building in the heart of the historic center of L'Aquila. The construction is located in a densely constructed area and it is characterized by a high spatial complexity with various types of limitations including: small external and internal spaces and interferences due to neighboring construction sites. The proposed method involves a particularly detailed organization of the construction site, simultaneously planning both the development of the working and the safety in order to have more transparency and more control of the information shared among stakeholders. This method consists in planning the Gantt diagram from general to detailed level, according to certain parameters that will be cross-examined and checked regurarly. A screening step has been carried out regarding the current situation, the proceedings to be undertaken and the stakeholders to be included. Thank to this, it has been possible to have automated processes to control not only geometrical interferences but also the ones related to the completion of the work in the interest of enhancing the risk management. Due to a 3D and 4D BIM modelling, there are been found advanced layouts and some timeliners that have allowed a rigourus control of the building process, particularly in the case of precise working and potencial changes that are common in building sites of this type