Game complete analysis for financial markets stabilization

The aim of this paper is to propose a methodology to stabilize the financial markets using Game Theory and in particular the Complete Study of a Differentiable Game, introduced in the literature by David Carfì. Specifically, we will focus on two economic operators: a real economic subject and a financial institute (a bank, for example) with a big economic availability. For this purpose we will discuss about an interaction between the two above economic subjects: the Enterprise, our first player, and the Financial Institute, our second player. The only solution which allows both players to win something, and therefore the only one desirable, is represented by an agreement between the two subjects: the Enterprise artificially causes an inconsistency between spot and future markets, and the Financial Institute, who was unable to make arbitrages alone, because of the introduction by the normative authority of a tax on economic transactions (that we propose to stabilize the financial market, in order to protect it from speculations), takes the opportunity to win the maximum possible collective (social) sum, which later will be divided with the Enterprise by contract.Financial Markets; Game Theory; Stabilization of Financial Markets; arbitrages

Modelling long-term impacts of the transport supply system on land use and travel demand in urban areas

It is commonly accepted that there is a two-way relationship between land use and transport in urban areas. Land use affects transport, conditioning travel demand. Conversely, transport affects land use, conditioning spatial distribution of activities and land market. The problem of simulating mutual interactions between land use and transport has been tackled by socalled Land Use Transport Interaction (LUTI) models. Different modelling approaches are present in literature, which are generally grouped into three main categories: spatial micro-economic, spatial interaction and spatial accounting models. The paper presents a spatial accounting LUTI model, which relies on Multi-Regional-Input-Output (MRIO) framework. The model has two main interacting components: an activity model and a transport model, which allow to endogenously estimate activities generation and location, land prices, travel demand and transport accessibility. The proposed LUTI model has been specified and applied in an urban area, more particularly to the town of Reggio Calabria (Italy). The objective of the application is the estimation of long-term impacts on land use and passenger travel demand patterns when interventions on transport facilities and services are planned at a strategic scale. The results confirm that MRIO framework offers the potentialities to bring activity location, land use in line within travel demand modelling

First principles study of adsorbed Cu_n (n=1-4) microclusters on MgO(100): structural and electronic properties

We present a density functional study of the structural and electronic properties of small Cu_n (n=1,4) aggregates on defect-free MgO(100). The calculations employ a slab geometry with periodic boundary conditions, supercells with up to 76 atoms, and include full relaxation of the surface layer and of all adsorbed atoms. The preferred adsorption site for a single Cu adatom is on top of an oxygen atom. The adsorption energy and Cu-O distance are E_S-A = 0.99 eV and d_S-A = 2.04 Angstroems using the Perdew-Wang gradient corrected exchange correlation functional. The saddle point for surface diffusion is at the "hollow" site, with a diffusion barrier of around 0.45 eV. For the adsorbed copper dimer, two geometries, one parallel and one perpendicular to the surface, are very close in energy. For the adsorbed Cu_3, a linear configuration is preferred to the triangular geometry. As for the tetramer, the most stable adsorbed geometry for Cu_4 is a rhombus. The adsorption energy per Cu atom decreases with increasing the size of the cluster, while the Cu-Cu cohesive energy increases, rapidly becoming more important than the adsorption energy.Comment: Major revision, Latex(2e) document, 23 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in J. of Chem. Phys., paper available at http://irrmawww.epfl.ch/vm/vm_wor

The North-South Divide in Italy: Reality or Perception?

lthough the literature about the objective socio-economic characteristics of the Italian North-South divide is wide and exhaustive, the question of how it is perceived is much less investigated and studied. Moreover, the consistency between the reality and the perception of the North-South divide is completely unexplored. The paper presents and discusses some relevant analyses on this issue, using the findings of a research study on the stated locational preferences of entrepreneurs in Italy. Its ultimate aim, therefore, is to suggest a new approach to the analysis of the macro-regional development gaps.What emerges from these analyses is that the perception of the North-South divide is not consistent with its objective economic characteristics. One of these inconsistencies concerns the width of the ‘perception gap’, which is bigger than the ‘reality gap’. Another inconsistency concerns how entrepreneurs perceive in their mental maps regions and provinces in Northern and Southern Italy. The impression is that Italian entrepreneurs have a stereotyped, much too negative, image of Southern Italy, almost a ‘wall in the head’, as also can be observed in the German case (with respect to the East-West divide)

Universal Grammar and the Acquisition of Semantic Knowledge: An Experimental Investigation into the Acquisition of Quantifier-Negation Interaction in English

This dissertation explores the way in which English-speaking children acquire the meaning of sentences containing negation and quantified noun phrases (QNPs). This investigation is based on a series of psycholinguistic experiments designed to assess children’s comprehension of sentences like ‘Every horse didn’t jump over the fence’ or ‘Cookie Monster didn’t eat two slices of pizza’ among others. The major finding is that children around the age of 5 do not interpret these sentences the way adult speakers of English do. This finding raises the following questions (a) How and why do children’s interpretations of sentences containing negation and quantified noun phrases differ from those of adults? (b) How do children manage to converge onto the adult system of interpretation? Regarding the first question, it appears that children’s non-adult interpretations are nevertheless systematic, i.e. governed by principle. Specifically, children (unlike adults) are found to map overt syntactic relations between QNPs and negation and their relative semantic interpretation isomorphically. This, however, is just a descriptive generalization. The observation of isomorphism is treated as an epiphenomenon, derived from the interplay between a universally encoded dichotomy splitting the class of QNPs and learnability considerations. Regarding the second question, I show that children can move from their system of interpretation to the adult system solely on the basis of positive evidence and thus, that the observed difference does not create a learnability problem. In summary, this dissertation uncovers a new area where the linguistic behavior of children and adults diverge: the comprehension of sentences containing negation and quantified noun phrases. The rest of the dissertation is a methodological statement, namely that it is not only desirable but also possible to account for the observed difference between children and adults without invoking any differences between the two groups beyond minimal conceptual necessity. To the extent that this goal is achieved, the present investigation emphasizes the role played by the theory of Universal Grammar and language learnability in helping us understand language development and its biological basis

Stereoselective synthesis of enantiomerically pure cis-2,5-disubstituted-2,5-dihydropyrrole system from glycals

Multisubstituted 2,5-dihydropyrroles are recognized as valuable heterocycles systems because they could be advantageously used as starting materials for the preparation of many pharmaceutically relevant compounds. The possibility of the construction of an enantiomerically pure cis-2,5-disubstituted-2,5-dihydropyrrole system starting from D-allal and D-galactal-derived vinyl N-mesyl aziridines, when subjected to appropriate reaction conditions, was examined. The reaction of N-mesyl aziridines with metal enolates derived from active methylene compounds, as dimethyl malonate and dibenzoyl methane, afforded, through a rearrangement process implying an opening-closing process with contemporary ring contraction of the initially obtained 1,4-addition product (primary reaction product), the corresponding cis-2,5-disubstituted-2,5-dihydropyrrole (the secondary reaction product) in a completely regio- and stereoselective fashion. Subsequently, the possibility of substituting the N-mesyl group of aziridine with an easily removable protecting-activating-group was checked in the same rearrangement process. In this framework N-nosyl group turned out to be sufficiently efficient for the rearrangement process to 2,5-dihydropyrroles and easy to be removed by the simple PhSH/K2CO3 protocol to give corresponding 2,5-dihydropyrroles bearing the free NH group. Preliminary studies were also carried out on the new N-Cbz and N-TFA substituted aziridines in order to check the possibility of using these alternative N-protections in glycosylation reactions of alcohols taken as a simple and appropriate model reaction