Profunctors, Open Maps and Bisimulation

This paper studies fundamental connections between profunctors (i.e., distributors, or bimodules), open maps and bisimulation. In particular, it proves that a colimit preserving functor between presheaf categories (corresponding to a profunctor) preserves open maps and open map bisimulation. Consequently, the composition of profunctors preserves open maps as 2-cells. A guiding idea is the view that profunctors, and colimit preserving functors, are linear maps in a model of classical linear logic. But profunctors, and colimit preserving functors, as linear maps, are too restrictive for many applications. This leads to a study of a range of pseudo-comonads and how non-linear maps in their co-Kleisli bicategories preserve open maps and bisimulation. The pseudo-comonads considered are based on finite colimit completion, ``lifting'', and indexed families. The paper includes an appendix summarising the key results on coends, left Kan extensions and the preservation of colimits. One motivation for this work is that it provides a mathematical framework for extending domain theory and denotational semantics of programming languages to the more intricate models, languages and equivalences found in concurrent computation. But the results are likely to have more general applicability because of the ubiquitous nature of profunctors

SOC(HE)-Italy: a classification for graduate occupations

This paper presents an application to the Italian labour force of the British SOC(HE)2010 classification for graduate occupations, thereby creating a statistical tool for exploration of the Italian graduate labour market. In order to achieve this goal, the classification is replicated, using methodology that differs slightly to take account of differences in existing Italian data, to construct SOC(HE)-Italy. This classification allocates each of the official 800 Italian occupational categories to four groups distinguishing between ‘graduate’ and ‘non-graduate’ groups on the basis of their relative levels of knowledge and skills requirements. It is then validated using the Rilevazione Continua sulle Forze di Lavoro (RCFL ISTAT) data and the AlmaLaurea (AL) data and used to analyze changes in the Italian occupational structure that occurred before and after the financial crisis that took place in 2008. We also compare the Italian structural trends in the graduate labour market with similar trends in Britain. This analysis reveals that the decrease in the utilization of highly qualified labour in the Italian labour market started before the beginning of the ongoing recession, which contradicts the findings of analyses reported in earlier literature

Assessing the incidence and wage effects of overeducation among Italian graduates using a new measure for educational requirements

This paper investigates three dimensions of overeducation: incidence, impact on earnings and possible determinants. The analysis focuses on Italian graduates and refers to the cohort that graduated in 2007 using data from the AlmaLaurea survey on graduates' career paths. A new measure of overeducation is introduced and it is jointly examined along with other pre-existing measures based on workers' self-assessment. The analysis is carried out by comparing the different results obtained adopting the two different measures of overeducation. Results show that the newly introduced measure can deal with the biases affecting workers' self- assessment measures

Work Flexibility and Workplace Training in Italy Before and After the Jobs Act Reform

This paper analyses the complex relationship between work flexibility strategies and workplace training at the firm level, thus filling a gap in the relative literature that only takes into account supply-side factors and fails to discriminate between on- and off- the job training. To achieve this purpose, we discuss the implications of two different theoretical frameworks grounding on human capital theory and systemic flexibility, respectively, and go on developing alternative hypotheses on the association between the presence of temporary and part-time workers at firm-level and training investments, both off-the-job and on-the-job. By using data on Italian firms, we get different results according to the type of non-standard contract and training. Part-time and temporary contracts carry out distinct functions with respect to off-the-job and on-the-job training, respectively. The former is more consistent with the human capital approach, whereas the latter is in line with the strategic management approach. These results are discussed in view of a structural labour market reform enacted by the Italian government in 2015, the so-called “Jobs Act”.

Trasformazioni eterogenee atipiche e limiti all'autonomia privata

The Italian Civil Code provided for the change of companies’ form (“trasformazione”) ever since it was enacted in 1942. In particular, the law regulated the modification of partnerships (“società semplice” and “società in nome collettivo”) into corporations (“società per azioni” and “società a responsabilità limitata”). Despite the silence of the law, the modification of corporations into partnerships was also admitted. Back in 2003, Italian corporate law was deeply reformed. As to the change of companies’ form, the new law has granted the possibility of modifying partnerships and corporations into other legal entities, including non-profit organizations (e.g., foundations, associations, etc.). The new regulation calls for a new approach by corporate scholars. This work aims at studying in depth the implications brought by the new regulation, devoting attention to the extent of the “same-entity principle” (“principio di continuità”) and addressing the issue of those modifications of form that are not specifically envisaged by the law

Educational mismathc in Italian an European labour markets (starting from the UK)

The present doctoral thesis is structured as a collection of three essays. The first essay, “SOC(HE)-Italy: a classification for graduate occupations” presents the conceptual basis, the construction, the validation and the application to the Italian labour force of the occupational classification termed SOC(HE)-Italy. I have developed this classification under the supervision of Kate Purcell during my period as a visiting research student at the Warwick Institute for Emplyment Research. This classification links the constituent tasks and duties of a particular job to the relevant knowledge and skills imparted via Higher Education (HE). It is based onto the SOC(HE)2010, an occupational classification first proposed by Kate Purcell in 2013, but differently constructed. In the second essay “Assessing the incidence and wage effects of overeducation among Italian graduates using a new measure for educational requirements” I utilize this classification to build a valid and reliable measure for job requirements. The lack of an unbiased measure for this dimension constitutes one of the major constraints to achieve a generally accepted measurement of overeducation. Estimations of overeducation incidence and wage effects are run onto AlmaLaurea data from the survey on graduates career paths. I have written this essay and obtained these estimates benefiting of the help and guidance of Giovanni Guidetti and Giulio Pedrini. The third and last essay titled “Overeducation in the Italian labour market: clarifying the concepts and addressing the measurement error problem” addresses a number of theoretical issues concerning the concepts of educational mismatch and overeducation. Using Istat data from RCFL survey I run estimates of the ORU model for the whole Italian labour force. In my knowledge, this is the first time ever such model is estimated on such population. In addition, I adopt the new measure of overeducation based onto the SOC(HE)-Italy classification

Estimation of the local convective heat transfer coefficient in pipe flow using a 2D thermal Quadrupole model and Truncated Singular Value Decomposition

The techniques for solving the Inverse Heat Conduction Problem represent useful tools for designing heat transfer apparatuses. One of their most challenging applications derives from the necessity of catching what happens inside a heat transfer apparatus by monitoring the temperature distribution on the external wall of the device, possibly by means of contactless experimental methodologies. The research presented here deals with the application of a solution strategy of the Inverse Heat Conduction Problem (IHCP) aimed at estimating the local heat transfer coefficient on the internal wall surface of a pipe, under a forced convection problem. The solution strategy, formulated for a 2D model, is based on the Quadrupole Method (QM) coupled to the Truncated Singular Value Decomposition approach, used to cope with the ill-conditioning of the problem. QM presents some advantages over the more classical domain or boundary discretization methods as for instance the fact that, being meshless, brings to a reduction of the computational cost. The analytical model, built under the QM, is validated by means of numerical simulations and the numerical outputs are then used as synthetic data inputs to solve the IHCP. The estimation methodology is also applied to experimental data regarding a forced convection problem in coiled pipes. Moreover, the adopted solution technique is compared to other two well-known and consolidated approaches: Finite Element Method coupled to the Tikhonov Regularization Method and Gaussian Filtering Technique. The comparison highlights that, for the problem here investigated, the Quadrupole Method coupled to the Truncated Singular Value Decomposition and Finite Element Method coupled to the Tikhonov Regularization Method perform better than the Gaussian Filtering Technique when the noise level is low, while, for higher noise level values, their efficiency is almost comparable, as it happens in the considered experimental study case

Experimental estimation of local heat-transfer coefficient in coiled tubes with corrugated wall

The present paper presents the application of an inverse analysis approach to experimental infrared temperature data with the aim of estimating the local convective heat transfer coefficient for forced convection flow in coiled pipe having corrugated wall. The estimation procedure here adopted is based on the solution of the inverse heat conduction problem within the wall domain by adopting the temperature distribution on the external coil wall as input data of the inverse problem: the unwanted noise in filtered out from the infrared temperature maps in order to make feasible the direct calculation of its Laplacian, embedded in the formulation of the inverse heat conduction problem in which the convective heat transfer coefficient is regarded to be unknown. Preliminary results are presented and discussed

Inverse estimation of the local heat transfer coefficient in curved tubes: a numerical validation

Wall curvature represents one of the most used passive techniques to enhance convective heat transfer. The effectiveness of wall curvature is due to the fact that it gives origin to the centrifugal force: this phenomenon induces local maxima in the velocity distribution that locally increase the temperature gradients at the wall by then maximizing the heat transfer. This fact brings to a significant variation of the wall temperature and of the wall heat flux along the circumferential coordinate. The convective heat transfer coefficient is consequently not uniformly distributed along the tube's perimeter and is characterized by higher values at the extrados wall surface in comparison to the ones at the intrados wall surface. Therefore, for predicting the overall performance of heat transfer apparatuses that involve the use of curved tubes, it becomes important to know the local distribution of the convective heat transfer coefficient not only along the axis of the heat transfer section, but also on the internal tube's surface along the cross section circumference. The present paper is intended to the assessment of a procedure developed to evaluate the local convective heat transfer coefficient, along the circumferential coordinate, at the internal wall of a coiled pipe

Individual Listening Zone with Frequency-Dependent Trim of Measured Impulse Responses

Acoustic Contrast Control (ACC) has been widely used to achieve individual audio delivery in shared environments. The effectiveness of this method is reduced when the control is performed in reverberant environments. Even if control filters are computed using measured transfer functions, the robustness of the system is affected by the presence of reverberation in the plant matrix. In this paper a new optimization method is presented to improve the ACC algorithm by applying a frequency-dependent windowing of the measured impulse response used for the filter computation, thus removing late reflections. The effects of this impulse response optimization are presented by means of sound zoning results obtained from experimental measurements performed in a car cabin