HUMAN CAPITAL AND DEVELOPMENT: SOME EVIDENCE FROM EASTERN EUROPE

The concept of development is not only referred to the level or to the growth rate of GDP of a country, but it concerns different aspects of individual life. Development leads to a changing of values, behaviours and attitudes of people interested in it and in the well-being of the whole society. \\r\\nSince the second part of the last century, more and more economists always assert that human capital is a fundamental asset to promote economic growth and development. Health and education are the two principal ingredients of human capital. There is a strong positive bidirectional relationship between education and health; in fact, it is statistically supported that the two variables move together, so healthy people are more likely to achieve an higher level of education rather than sick people and, vice-versa, more educated people are more likely to enjoy good health status. This generates a virtuous cycle that can lead to greater development. Indeed, health increases people's capabilities allowing achievement in their well-beings, since healthy people can work longer and with higher productivity than poor health people. For this reason individuals' income rises allowing them major choices in terms of consumption, savings and investments. Considering the economic benefits that start from health and education, not only at microeconomic level but also for a country, it is important to pay attention to the role of this two variables in the economic development process. There are several channels through which health and education can be associated with better enhancement in economic results. They can be find in the labour market and in the participation in the labour market; worker productivity; human capital investments; saving capacity; availability of save to invest in physical and intellectual capital; fertility choices and structure of population.\\r\\nThe present paper analyzes the two-way linkage between education and health and their relationship with economic development identifying the conditions of some Eastern European countries. The methodology through which the results are obtained is the multidimensional scaling method which allows to define relations between countries in terms of proximity/distance with respect to the considered indicators, providing a spatial representation of themhuman capital, education, health, economic development, multidimensional scaling

Old Masterpieces, New Mistress-pieces: Cindy Sherman\u27s Reinterpretations of Renaissance Portraits of Women

This thesis examines a selection of eight photographs in the History Portraits series by American photographer, Cindy Sherman, produced from 1989 to 1990. The photographs are based on Renaissance paintings of biblical and secular women painted by old master artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, and Raphael. Sherman focused on the female types of Biblical mother and femme fatale, as well as wives and models. These types are defined in their relation to men and are depicted by men. In Sherman’s reinterpretations of their portraits, she retells the stories of these women in ways that reaffirm their independence and power that have been shrouded in a history told and controlled by men. With herself as her model, she altered aspects of the images, using the technique of caricature for humor as well as critique. Sherman subverts the idealization of the Renaissance portraits of women by exaggerating features and eliminating aspects of the original portraits to reassert the women’s individuality

Diseño de un edificio educativo bajo el concepto de envolvente térmica eficiente

Práctica Supervisada (IC)--FCEFN-UNC, 2018Propone refuncionalizar una estructura de hormigón armado preexistente en el predio de la facultad para que la misma puede alojar nuevas aulas y laboratorios. La propuesta desarrollada y elegida consta de 3 laboratorios en planta baja, 5 aulas en el primer piso y 4 aulas en el segundo piso. El edificio contará con baños en cada nivel equipados para personas con movilidad reducida y se instalarán escaleras de emergencias en el lado exterior Este, del edifici

Biological activity of some essential oils and their constituents on Myzus Persicae

Nonostante il grande interesse sviluppatosi negli ultimi tempi intorno all’agricoltura urbana, sono ancora pochi gli studi che prendono in considerazione tecniche di difesa specifiche per sistemi di piccole dimensioni. L’uso massiccio dei composti chimici di sintesi a cui si è ricorso negli ultimi decenni per la difesa delle colture e che ha creato problemi ambientali, sanitari e di equilibrio degli agroecosistemi viene sempre più messo in discussione. Un nuovo modo di fare agricoltura va facendosi strada. Tutto questo però ha bisogno di un lavoro di ricerca che abbia come fine anche l’individuazione di nuovi prodotti che all’efficacia uniscano la bassa tossicità per l’uomo e per gli organismi utili e che siano poco persistenti nell’ambiente. I prodotti chimici estratti dalle piante rappresentano un promettente settore su cui vale la pena indagare. L’attività di ricerca di questi tre anni è stata condotta con lo scopo di valutare l’efficacia insetticida di alcuni oli essenziali e loro componenti nei confronti dell’afide verde del pesco. Il protocollo sperimentale messo a punto è stato individuato per simulare le condizioni di campo. Gli oli scelti per le prove sono stati utilizzati da soli e in combinazione tra loro per valutare eventuali effetti sinergici. Inoltre sono stati testati i singoli componenti predominanti delle diverse essenze, sia singolarmente che miscelati tra loro. I risultati ottenuti mostrano che l’efficacia dei prodotti testati è modesta se confrontata con gli insetticidi di sintesi attualmente in uso. Ciò nonostante è opportuno proseguire le ricerche data l’enorme patrimonio vegetale dal quale estrarre gli oli essenziali.Despite the great interest in recent times around urban agriculture, there are still few studies that take into account the specific pest control techniques for small cropped areas in urban environment. The massive use of chemicals that have been used recently on several crops caused health and environmental problems; therefore, a new sustainable approach to farming is needed. The identification of new products combining effectiveness and low toxicity to human and beneficials is of paramount importance. The plant extracts are a promising sources of new compounds in which it is worth investigating. The present study was carried out in order to evaluate the insecticidal activity of some essential oils and their constituents against the green peach aphid. An experimental protocol was developed to simulate field conditions. The essential oils chosen for the tests were used alone and in combination to evaluate potential synergistic effects. Moreover, the dominant components of essential oils were tested, either individually or mixed. The results showed that the activity of the products is significantly lower in comparison with conventional insecticides. Nevertheless, because of the huge botanical diversity, a number of further studies could be carried out to assess the effectiveness of different essential oils

La letteratura e la cultura italiana in Ungheria nel primo decennio del XXI secolo

I must admit that the Hungarian period was a particularly important and prolific time for me, perhaps the most important of my entire career. This was the case not only from a professional point of view, with the conception and realization of over a thousand cultural events throughout the Hungarian territory, and, in collaboration, for various projects, with the Italian and local cultural institutions of the coordinated institutes in the other countries involved, but it can be considered also important and intense regarding my creative and critical activity, with the publication of various works inspired by Hungary and considering its extraordinary cultural and literary tradition. Overlooking the University of Szeged, the collaboration with the Department of Italian was very fruitful, in particular, with Prof. József Pál, who is certainly one of the most important Hungarian Italianists and comparatists of recent decades, but also a very active organizer of projects and of Italian-Hungarian cultural events, in Szeged and elsewhere, as director of the University's Italian Department and of the Italian Cultural Center, as well as Honorary Consul of the Italian government in his city

Organocatalytic Enantioselective Aminoalkylation of Pyrazol-3-ones with Aldimines Generated in Situ from α‐Amido Sulfones

Herein, an efficient asymmetric aminoalkylation of pyrazolones with α-amido sulfones catalyzed by a quinine-derived squaramide in dichloromethane/aqueous media has been established. A variety of chiral amines were obtained with high yields (up to 98%) and excellent enantioselectivities (up to 99% ee). The corresponding products are transformed into optically active acetylated pyrazoles after treatment with Ac2O/Et3N, because of the instability of some adducts. The reaction tolerates a wide range of α-amido sulfones and different pyrazolones

Scaling laws for Hall thrusters: statistical versus machine learning-based approach

In recent years, Hall Thrusters are used in most of missions involving putting satellites into orbits around Earth. The advantages of using this type of propulsion technology must be found in the longer lifetime that ensures longer mission duration, in the high thrust-to-power ratio and the better efficiency. In addition, the versatility of these thrusters allows them to be used in a wide range of power levels, from microsatellites to larger space probes. Despite the many studies carried out on the inner workings of the thruster, some physical processes that influence thruster performance still need explanation. This means that building a thruster from scratch is very complex and some methodologies were developed during the years to help the engineers in this purpose. The methodologies used so far are all based on finding some physical relation between the parameters involved in the thrust processes. Thanks to these ones, it’s possible to find some proportional scaling laws that give an idea of how one parameter varies with respect to the other and allows to determine the characteristics that a new thruster must have if it has to satisfy some requirement in terms of thrust, power and specific impulse. This dissertation initially validates a scaling methodology with the help of a well-constructed database, based on tests data of 59 thrusters, showing how to determine the characteristics (in particular the diameter, the height and the length of the channel) using the various laws that relate the parameters. After, an innovative approach has been studied based on the use of supervised Machine Learning tools. This approach starts with the use of basic machine learning as linear regression to predict the thrust having as inputs the parameters of the thruster. After, more advanced supervised ML models were analysed, looking for the best one to use on the database. In this section also the specific impulse was added as parameter to be predicted together with the thrust and a differentiation in terms of several propellants used (Xenon, Kripton, Argon) was made. The performances of the models were analysed according to the mean absolute error between the actual values and the values predicted by the model. As a final result, the Gradient Boosting Regressor was indicated as the best model. Once the best model for the specific database was found, the problem of determine the inputs knowing the values of the outputs (thrust and specific impulse) was addressed. Two different approaches are presented: the first one, graphical, is based on the construction of graphs with the help of the database and the ML model used (GBR). This method allows to visualize on graphs, differentiated by the type of propellant used, all the parameters involved in the thrust process and used to train the model in the prediction of the two outputs. In this way, choosing a point on the graph, it’s possible to determine in a first approximation the characteristics that a new thruster should have in terms of mass flow rate, voltage discharge, geometrical features and magnetic field. The second approach, analytical, is based on an algorithm of optimization: the desired outputs in terms of thrust and specific impulse are indicated. The Gradient Boosting model predicts the two outputs as usual and the optimization algorithm moves the inputs in such a way that the two outputs predicted by the model are as close as possible to the desired outputs, minimizing the error. The two approaches can therefore used in synchrony to have an estimation of the characteristics of the new thruster

Descentralización y desarrollo económico local: estudio de caso de la ciudad de Córdoba, Argentina

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