Human capital, technology intensity and growth in a regional context

This paper contributes to the vast literature on the regional application of endogenous growth theory. A well-known feature of capitalist growth and development is the vast and persistent divergence in per capita income growth between regions. These differences have been explained theoretically and empirically using neoclassical approaches emphasising increasing returns at a regional level, with reference, for example, to the development of industrial districts. The new economics of urban and regional growth look at the \u2018local\u2019 dimension focussing on the role of the so-called knowledge economy as an explanation for uneven development across regions. Within this heterogeneity, the operation of human capital and knowledge spillovers play roles in differentiating growth rates. The study of the concentration of a specific mix of economic activities and human capital, with a \u2018fine grain\u2019 focus at the local level, is a useful tool to understand growth and spatial differentials. In this study, we develop an empirical analysis of the pattern of growth in the Veneto region, focusing mainly on the role played by human capital employed in sectors with different technological intensities. To do so, we built up an original dataset by merging data available at a very local level (Local Labour Systems-LLS), which was produced by the National Institute of Statistics, with our elaborations on data from an employee-employer dataset made available by the Local Labour Agency (Veneto Lavoro). The latter dataset included all employment spells in the Veneto region. Our new dataset allows both definition of the human capital content of every worker and classification of firms according to their technological intensity. This dataset is used to estimate growth equations for the cross-section of the Venetian LLSs and to test the validity of different growth models. The results underline how growth in the Veneto region is positively affected by human capital employed not in high to medium-high technology industries, but in medium to medium-low ones

SCERPA Simulation of Clocked Molecular Field-Coupling Nanocomputing

Among all the possible technologies proposed for post-CMOS computing, molecular field-coupled nanocomputing (FCN) is one of the most promising technologies. The information propagation relies on electrostatic interactions among single molecules, overcoming the need for electron transport, significantly reducing energy dissipation. The expected working frequency is very high, and high throughput may be achieved by introducing an efficient pipeline of information propagation. The pipeline could be realized by adding an external clock signal that controls the propagation of data and makes the transmission adiabatic. In this article, we extend the Self-Consistent Electrostatic Potential Algorithm (SCERPA), previously introduced to analyze molecular circuits with a uniform clock field, to clocked molecular devices. The single-molecule is analyzed by ab initio calculations and modeled as an electronic device. Several clocked devices have been partitioned into clock zones and analyzed: the binary wire, the bus, the inverter, and the majority voter. The proposed modification of SCERPA enables linking the functional behavior of the clocked devices to molecular physics, becoming a possible tool for the eventual physical design verification of emerging FCN devices. The algorithm provides some first quantitative results that highlight the clocked propagation characteristics and provide significant feedback for the future implementation of molecular FCN circuits

Maritime Transport - Report 1: Review of the Measurement of External Costs of Transportation in Theory and Practice

In the last years public concerns regarding the environmental impacts of maritime transport have been increasing. This is due to the fact that, despite the better environmental performance of this mode of transport with respect to other modes, its overall impacts will be out weighted by the expected increase in the volume of ship movements. In order to define effective measures to internalise the external costs of maritime transport it is necessary to assess these costs and find adequate methodologies to evaluate them. Besides external costs estimation, it is important to understand the degree of internalization of such costs, so as to give some insights on how to apply policy instruments that should be informed by efficiency and equity principles. This report summarizes the state of the art in evaluation of transport externalities. Different transport modes have been considered through a comprehensive review of theoretical and empirical studies, by carrying out both EU funded research and national studies. the analytical approach adopted to assess environmental costs (with particular reference to those relating to air emissions) in order to be applicable to maritime transport have to be adjusted to consider the following aspects. 1. The existing literature on climate change external costs focus on shadow price of CO2. However, in maritime transport other GHGs, such as NOx, are relevant. As a consequence, a shadow price for NOx needs to be defined; 2.Health effects of ship emissions depend on exposure to pollutants. Of course this occurs only for activities at ports, whilst health effects of other activities (like cruising) could turn to be negligible to the absence of exposure. Dose response function should consider this aspect.JRC.H.4-Transport and air qualit

Ga+ Ion Irradiation-Induced Tuning of Artificial Pinning Sites to Control Domain Wall Motion

Domain-wall-based devices are considered one of the candidates for the next generation of storage memories and nanomagnetic logic devices due to their unique properties, such as nonvolatility, scalability, and low power consumption. Field or current-driven domain walls require a regular and controlled motion along the track in which they are stored in order to maintain the information integrity during operation. However, their dynamics can vary along the track due to film inhomogeneities, roughness of the edges, and thermal fluctuations. Consequently, the final position of the domain walls may be difficult to predict, making difficult the development of memory and logic applications. In this paper, we demonstrate how Ga+ ion irradiation can be used to locally modify the material properties of the Ta/ CoFeB/MgO thin film, creating regions in which the domain wall can be trapped, namely motion barriers. The aim is to push the domain wall to overcome thin-film inhomogeneities effects, while stopping its motion at artificially defined positions corresponding to the irradiated regions. Increasing the driving force strength, the domain wall can escape, allowing the shifting between consecutive irradiated regions. In this way, the correct positioning of the domain walls after the motion is ensured. The study shows that the driving force strength, namely current density or magnetic field amplitude, needed to overcome the irradiated regions depends on the ion dose. These results show a reliable approach for domain wall manipulation, enabling a precise control of the domain wall position along a track with synchronous motion

Preliminary In-Line Microwave Imaging Experimental Assessment for Food Contamination Monitoring

Food producers must deal with contaminants (wood, plastic, glass) inside packaged products that could lead to customer dissatisfaction. The assessed technologies fail to detect some of these contaminants, leading to the need for new technologies with different signal qualities, such as microwave sensing. This paper presents a preliminary result of a microwave imaging system designed for industrial applications. The measurement system was designed for and works on an industrial conveyor belt where packaged products are scanned. The scanned signals are processed to obtain an accurate 3D image of the size and position of the contaminant inside the food package. In addition to the results, we describe the implemented system and some considerations on data acquisition

Development of an EM Device for Cerebrovascular Diseases Imaging and Hardware Acceleration for Imaging Algorithms within the EMERALD Network

This paper is presenting the first months of research activities within the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network “EMERALD” developed by the Politecnico di Torino group. Our research work is related to the development of an electromagnetic device for cerebrovascular diseases imaging and to the hardware acceleration of the implemented imaging algorithms via field-programmable gate arrays or application-specific integrated circuits coupled with regular multicore central processing units and even graphics processing unit

Multilayer Nanomagnet Threshold Logic

Nanomagnet logic (NML) uses dipolar magnetic coupling between nanomagnets to efficiently perform nonvolatile logical operations. As the basis logic element, the three-input minority gate is the simplest threshold logic function. Recent work has explored the potential for increased logical expressivity with a nanomagnet threshold logic family that reduces area, delay, and energy costs. However, as such previous work was limited to a single layer of nanomagnets, only negative input weights could be provided, thus limiting circuit expressivity and efficiency. This article therefore, proposes multilayer nanomagnet threshold logic systems that provide both positive and negative weights by leveraging multilayer structures that produce both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic dipolar coupling. The availability of both positive and negative weights drastically increases logical expressivity, and the feasibility of the proposed multilayer nanomagnet threshold logic system is demonstrated through micromagnetic simulations. A single seven-input gate is shown to perform more than 86 distinct logic functions, reducing the number of gates and clock cycles required for complex logic circuits by as much as 67%

A low-complexity microwave scanner for cerebrovascular diseases monitoring

This work gathers the pathway from the design to the experimental testing of a microwave imaging prototype to monitor brain stroke in real-time conditions, approaching thus the electromagnetic inverse problem of retrieving a dielectric temporal variation within the head. To this end, it presents a low-complexity device consisting of twentytwo custom-made radiating elements working with a linear imaging algorithm based on distorted Born approximation and a truncated singular value decomposition, able to localize, identify and track the stroke evolution. The system is prototyped using a compact two-ports vector analyzer and electromechanical switching matrix. It is assessed experimentally via a mimicked hemorrhagic condition, demonstrating the system’s capabilities to follow up centimetric confined variations, retrieving 3-D maps of the studied cases in real-time

Microwave imaging device prototype for brain stroke 3D monitoring

This paper summarizes the development and the experimental testing of a scanning device, in the microwave range, to monitor brain stroke. The device comprehends 4 main sections: a sensors helmet, a switching matrix, a data acquisition part, and a control/processing core. The sensors in the helmet are 22 custom-made flexible antennas working around 1 GHz, placed conformally to the upper head part. A first validation of the system consists in the detection of a target in the head region. Experimental testing is performed on a single-cavity head phantom, while the target is a balloon mimicking the stroke. The shape of the balloon and phantom are extracted from medical images, and tissues properties are emulated with liquids that resemble their dielectric properties. A differential measurement approach senses the field on the antennas in two different situations, and from their difference computes a 3-D image through a singular value decomposition of the discretized scattering operator obtained from an accurate numerical model. The results verify the capabilities of the system on detecting and monitoring stroke evolution