Synthesis of Statistical Indicators to Evaluate Quality of Life in the Italian Provinces

This work remarks the need to carefully evaluate the real importance of each variable used in a multivariate analysis context, with particular regard to cases when an overall performance ranking is the main final purpose. In particular, both a preliminary transformation of variables – aimed at reducing asymmetry and variability of their variation ranges – and the evaluation of their intrinsic explicative power – through redundancy analysis and weighting methods – are proposed. Theoretical and empirical considerations are developed in the frame of quality of life evaluation, carried out at the Italian provinces level on the basis of a yearly survey managed by the Italian economic newspaper "Il Sole24ore". A particular emphasis is given to some normalisation criteria and the case when original variables are grouped "a priori" into logical blocks. A final comparison between the actual ranking method and a series of alternatives is proposed as well.multivariate analysis, principal components analysis, ranking, redundant variable, weighing system.

The distribution of employees’ labour earnings in the European Union: Data, concepts and first results

This paper studies the distribution of labour earnings among employees within the EU using data from Wave 2007-1 of the Community Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EUSILC). The review of available information and the comparisons with external sources show that the EU-SILC data are not exempt from problems, particularly in some countries, yet can be fruitfully used to study the distribution of earnings in the EU; they also allow researchers to assess the sensitivity of results to various concepts of labour earnings. The ranking of countries by median full-time equivalent monthly gross earnings shows Eastern European nations at the bottom and Luxembourg at the top; earnings differences are sizeable, both across and within countries. Taking the euro area and the EU-25 (excluding Malta, for which data are unavailable) as a whole, inequality is higher when earnings are measured in euro at market rates rather than at purchasing power parities. The wage distribution is wider in the EU-25 than in the euro area, which is not surprising given that the former includes the poorer Eastern European countries that joined the Union in 2004. The higher inequality observed in the EU-25 is largely attributable to differences between countries, which are essentially due to the returns to individual attributes rather than to a different composition of the workforce with respect to these attributes.wage inequality, EU and euro area labour markets.

Experimental tests on a pre-heated combustion chamber for ultra micro gas turbine device: air/fuel ratio evaluation

Current portable power generators are mainly based on internal combustion engine since they present higher values of efficiency comparing to other engines; the main reason why internal combustion engine is not convenient for micro power generation (5 - 30 kW) is because of their heaviness. Micro and ultra micro gas turbine devices, based on a micro compressor and a micro turbine installed on the same shaft, are more suitable for this scope for several reasons. Micro turbine systems have many advantages over reciprocating engine generators, such as higher power density (with respect to size and weight), extremely low emissions and few, or just one, moving part. Those designed with foil bearings and air-cooling operate without oil, coolants or other hazardous materials. Micro turbines also have the advantage of having the majority of their waste heat contained in their relatively high temperature exhaust. Micro turbines offer several potential advantages compared to other technologies for small-scale power generation, including: a small number of moving parts, compact size, lightweight, greater efficiency, lower emissions, lower electricity costs, and opportunities to utilize waste fuels. The object of this study is the experimental tests on a stand-alone gas turbine device with a pre-heated combustion chamber (CC), to validate the fuel consumption reduction, compared to an actual and commercial device, used on air models

Monetary policy and the output gap

Para una adecuada conducción de la política monetaria en una economía pequeña y abierta como la colombiana, debe tenerse en cuenta tanto el trilema de la política monetaria, como el ancla nominal de la economía. En este contexto, el papel del banco central es el de decidir cuál es el ancla nominal para la economía. Sin embargo, existe simultáneamente una estrecha relación entre la política monetaria y la brecha del producto. El objetivo de este estudio es ilustrar esta dinámica a través de un modelo de política monetaria. Los resultados muestran la relación dinámica entre el comportamiento de la tasa de interés como función de la inflación subyacente y la brecha del producto. Una de las principales características de la solución es que la restricción de no negatividad sobre la tasa de interés es obligatoria para bajos niveles de brecha del producto y bajas tasas de inflaciónTo develops an adequate an monetary policy, in a small open economy like the Colombian, must take in to account, the Trilema of monetary policy and the nominal anchor of the economy, in this context, the central bank role is that the decide which is the nominal anchor to the economy, however exist simultaneously a close relationship between the monetary policy and the gross domestic product gap, the goal of this study is to illustrate this dynamic thought of an monetary policy model, the results show that the behavior of an optimal interest rate like a function of the subjacent inflation and the gross domestic product gap, one of the principal characteristics of the solutions is that the restrictions of no negativity over the interest rate is necessary to lowers levels of gross domestic product gap and lowers rates of inflatio

A Smartphone-Based System for Outdoor Data Gathering Using a Wireless Beacon Network and GPS Data: From Cyber Spaces to Senseable Spaces

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and mobile devices are deeply influencing all facets of life, directly affecting the way people experience space and time. ICTs are also tools for supporting urban development, and they have also been adopted as equipment for furnishing public spaces. Hence, ICTs have created a new paradigm of hybrid space that can be defined as Senseable Spaces. Even if there are relevant cases where the adoption of ICT has made the use of public open spaces more “smart”, the interrelation and the recognition of added value need to be further developed. This is one of the motivations for the research presented in this paper. The main goal of the work reported here is the deployment of a system composed of three different connected elements (a real-world infrastructure, a data gathering system, and a data processing and analysis platform) for analysis of human behavior in the open space of Cardeto Park, in Ancona, Italy. For this purpose, and because of the complexity of this task, several actions have been carried out: the deployment of a complete real-world infrastructure in Cardeto Park, the implementation of an ad-hoc smartphone application for the gathering of participants’ data, and the development of a data pre-processing and analysis system for dealing with all the gathered data. A detailed description of these three aspects and the way in which they are connected to create a unique system is the main focus of this paper.This work has been supported by the Cost Action TU1306, called CYBERPARKS: Fostering knowledge about the relationship between Information and Communication Technologies and Public Spaces supported by strategies to improve their use and attractiveness, the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under the ESPHIA project (ref. TIN2014-56042-JIN) and the TARSIUS project (ref. TIN2015-71564-C4-4-R), and the Basque Country Department of Education under the BLUE project (ref. PI-2016-0010). The authors would also like to thank the staff of UbiSive s.r.l. for the support in developing the application

The role of nonlinear optical absorption in narrow-band difference frequency terahertz-wave generation

We present a general analysis of the influence of nonlinear optical absorption on terahertz generation via optical difference frequency generation, when reaching for the quantum conversion efficiency limit. By casting the equations governing the process in a suitably normalized form, including either two-photon- or three-photon-absorption terms, we have been able to plot universal charts for phase matched optical-to-terahertz conversion for different values of the nonlinear absorption coefficients. We apply our analysis to some experiments reported to date, in order to understand to what extent multiphoton absorption could have played a role and also to predict the maximum achievable conversion efficiency at higher peak pump intensities.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures. Some correction and some explanation adde

Universal charts for optical difference frequency generation in the terahertz domain

We present a universal and rigorous approach to study difference frequency generation in the terahertz domain, keeping the number of degrees of freedom to a minimum, through the definition of a suitable figure of merit. The proposed method relies on suitably normalized charts, that enable to predict the optical-to-terahertz conversion efficiency of any system based on wave propagation in quadratic nonlinear materials. The predictions of our approach are found to be in good agreement with the best experimental results reported to date, enabling also to estimate the d22 nonlinear coefficient of high quality GaSe.Comment: 3 pages in 2 columns format, 3 figures. GaSe analysis has been corrected. Fig. 3 has been replace

Targeting SUMO E1 to ubiquitin ligases: a viral strategy to counteract sumoylation.

SUMO-1 (small ubiquitin-related modifier-1) is a ubiquitin-like family member that is conjugated to its substrates through three discrete enzymatic steps, activation (involving the E1 enzyme (SAE1/SAE2)), conjugation (involving the E2 enzyme), and substrate modification (through the cooperation of the E2 and E3 protein ligases). The adenoviral protein Gam1 inactivates E1, both in vitro and in vivo, followed by SAE1/SAE2 degradation. We have shown here that Gam1 possesses a C-terminal SOCS domain that allows its interaction with two cellular cullin RING (really interesting new gene) ubiquitin ligases. We demonstrate that Gam1 is necessary for the recruitment of SAE1/SAE2 into Cul2/5-EloB/C-Roc1 ubiquitin ligase complexes and for subsequent SAE1 ubiquitylation and degradation. The degradation of SAE2 is not tightly related to Gam1 but is a consequent effect of SAE1 disappearance. These results reveal the mechanism by which a viral protein inactivates and subsequently degrades an essential cellular enzyme, arresting a key regulatory pathway