The Italian Pension Gap: a Stochastic Optimal Control Approach

We study the gap between the state pension provided by the Italian pension system pre-Dini reform and post-Dini reform. The goal is to fill the gap between the old and the new pension by joining a defined contribution pension scheme and adopting an optimal investment strategy that is target-based. We find that it is possible to cover, at least partially, this gap with the additional income of the pension scheme, especially in the presence of late retirement and in the presence of stagnant career. Workers with dynamic career and workers who retire early are those who are most penalised by the reform. Results are intuitive and in line with previous studies on the subject

A Model for Configuration Management of Open Software Systems

The article proposes a model for the configuration management of open systems. The model aims at validation of configurations against given specifications. An extension of decision graphs is proposed to express specifications. The proposed model can be used by software developers to validate their own configurations across different versions of the components, or to validate configurations that include components by third parties. The model can also be used by end-users to validate compatibility among different configurations of the same application. The proposed model is first discussed in some application scenarios and then formally defined. Moreover, a type discipline is given to formally define validation of a configuration against a system specificationComment: 13 page

Some findings on the applications of ERTS and Skylab imagery for metropolitan land use analysis

The author has identified the following significant results. Work undertaken on a three-sensor land use data evaluation for a portion of the Phoenix area is reported. Analyses between land use data generated from 1970 high altitude photography and that detectable from ERTS and Skylab, especially in terms of changes in land use indicate that ERTS and Skylab imagery can be used effectively to detect and identify areas of post-1970 land use change, especially those documenting urban expansion at the rural-urban fringe. Significant preliminary findings on the utility of ERTS and Skylab data for metropolitan land use analysis, substantiated by evaluation with 1970 and 1972 ground control land use data are reported

Highly labor-intensive public works in Madagascar : issues and policy options

High labor intensive (HIMO) public works programs have been very popular in recent years in Madagascar. They have been one of the most common safety net programs used in Madagascar to address poverty and vulnerability. The objectives of these programs are to provide income support to the poor after natural disasters and during seasonal agricultural employment slack period (soudure), and to improve much needed local infrastructures. This paper assesses the effectiveness of HIMO interventions in addressing the needs of poor and vulnerable households using the data from 15 projects implemented between 2006 and 2008 by several agencies. The main finding of this study is that despite their great potential, HIMO projects have shown the following limitations in the Madagascar context: a) lack of coordination among projects implemented by different agencies; b) ineffective targeting and poor selection of projects; c) lack of monitoring and supervision. The paper identifies four areas for improvement: a) better harmonization and coordination of HIMO projects to ensure consistency of approaches among interventions; b) better geographical targeting and selection of projects; c) setting the wage rate according to the local socio-economic conditions to promote self selection of the poor; and d) better collection of information for monitoring and evaluation of the impact of projects.Housing&Human Habitats,Rural Poverty Reduction,Population Policies,,Poverty Monitoring&Analysis

Towards modular verification of pathways: fairness and assumptions

Modular verification is a technique used to face the state explosion problem often encountered in the verification of properties of complex systems such as concurrent interactive systems. The modular approach is based on the observation that properties of interest often concern a rather small portion of the system. As a consequence, reduced models can be constructed which approximate the overall system behaviour thus allowing more efficient verification. Biochemical pathways can be seen as complex concurrent interactive systems. Consequently, verification of their properties is often computationally very expensive and could take advantage of the modular approach. In this paper we report preliminary results on the development of a modular verification framework for biochemical pathways. We view biochemical pathways as concurrent systems of reactions competing for molecular resources. A modular verification technique could be based on reduced models containing only reactions involving molecular resources of interest. For a proper description of the system behaviour we argue that it is essential to consider a suitable notion of fairness, which is a well-established notion in concurrency theory but novel in the field of pathway modelling. We propose a modelling approach that includes fairness and we identify the assumptions under which verification of properties can be done in a modular way. We prove the correctness of the approach and demonstrate it on the model of the EGF receptor-induced MAP kinase cascade by Schoeberl et al.Comment: In Proceedings MeCBIC 2012, arXiv:1211.347

Urban and regional land use analysis: CARETS and Census Cities experiment package

The author has identified the following significant results. Areas of post 1970 and 1972 land use changes were identified solely from the Skylab imagery from comparisons with 1970 land use maps. Most land use changes identified involved transition from agriculture to single family residential land use. The second most prominent changes identified from the Skylab imagery were areas presently under construction. Post 1970 changes from Skylab were compared with the 1972 changes noted from the high altitude photographs. A good correlation existed between the change polygons mapped from Skylab and those mapped from the 1972 high altitude aerial photos. In addition, there were a number of instances where additional built-up land use not noted in the 1972 aerial photo as being developed were identified on the Skylab imagery. While these cases have not been documented by field observation, by correlating these areas with the appearance of similar land use areas whose identity has been determined, we can safely say that we have been able to map further occurrences of land use change beyond existing high altitude photo coverage from the Skylab imagery. It was concluded that Skylab data can be used to detect areas of land use change within an urban setting

Foreign Migrant Workers in Mediterranean Intensive Farming: Labour Relations in a Quality Labelled Commodity Production (Haute-Corse, France)

International audienceThe paper analyses impacts of certification schemes on workforce recruitment and working relations in intensive farming. It discusses how migrants’ competence may be an argument to the recruitment of a foreign group, whereas foreign migrants are rather usually seen as odd-job men in intensive farming. In the context of a quality policy applied to French Corsican clementine farming, Moroccan labour migrations’ patterns were partly reshaped: farmers managed to obtain a dispensation for Moroccans recruitment, putting forward as a pretext their skills, acquired within long-lasting labour relations. Moroccan migrations participated to Corsican Eastern Plain’s agrarian development, by linking the quality of a labelled commodity into the context of its production, i.e. in relying on Moroccans’ skills, be these so-called or not, hard or soft. This case has thus compelling implications for further research on labour relations studies in intensive farming contexts. It suggests that forms of labour domination could be found and / or explained by a ‘quality turn’ within labelling policies applied to the intensive farming production of a commodity, rather than by productivist logics, as often stated in dominant literature. This research is based on different evidences from a fieldwork carried out in Corsica, France, from 2008 to 2010