Resources and Economic Dynamics, Technology and Rents

The essay investigates non producible (natural) resources and rent from three points of views: stylized facts, quantitative economics and economic theory. Taking the first point of view, the author discusses how economic growth can be represented in terms of never-ending tension between scarcity and technical progress. At least since the onset of modern economic growth, whenever scarcity produced a slowdown of growth, technical progress followed and scarcity was thereby removed. Scarcity, in a long-run perspective, has always been of the «relative» type, while absolute scarcity never set in. This essay consider this problem from many points of view. First of all it considers the point of view of quantitative economics like those of Simon Kuznets and Wassily Leontief who emphasized the relative character of scarcity and the importance of keeping the relationship between scarcity and innovation into account (this is especially true of Kuznets). Secondly the essay considers the contribution of economic theory. In this connection, the author points out that both the macroeconomic and multi-sectoral models developed since the 1930s overlooked the investigation of scarce natural resources and rent, as well as their relationship with technical progress. Only Piero Sraffa examined non producible resources and rent but he has done it in a single-period model. The author of this essay investigated the same issues in a more general analytical set-up starting with a contribution published in 1967 followed by many others. Later on, Quadrio Curzio and Pellizzari, especially in the 1996 volume, analyzed the general relationships among production, prices, income distribution, technical progress and growth when scarce resources play a significant role. Those contributions also investigated the nature of technological rents, which are an important feature of modern economic growth in the presence of technical progress. At the same time Quadrio Curzio, in collaboration with Marco Fortis and Roberto Zoboli, analysed historical, quantitative and qualitative aspects of economic dynamics, and the way in which natural resources and raw materials exert an influence on economic growth and more generally economic dynamics. Those aspects are not fully considered in the present essay, but they represent its fundamental background. Finally in 2008 Quadrio Curzio, Pellizzari and Zoboli outlined in a valuable encyclopaedic dictionary a compact synthesis of the above approach to the economic analysis of raw materials and primary commodities. The essay takes a point of view which is not typical of the «post- Keynesian» approach, yet it belongs to a post-classical perspective that is closely connected to the Italian-Cambridge tradition of political economy as a social discipline. Tradition on which Alberto Quadrio Curzio, especially researching with Roberto Scazzieri, focused his attention in many essays from a methodological point of view.natural resources; technological innovation; relative scarcity; investments; rent;

Rilevamento geologico della Grotta della Spipola

Il rilievo geologico della dolina e grotta della Spipola, in località Croara, San Lazzaro (Bologna) è stato realizzato combinando ai metodi classici di campagna il rilievo in grotta. L’intera zona esaminata è soggetta ai fenomeni di carsismo attivo nella Formazione della Gessosa-Solfifera posta sul fronte montano bolognese. Dal rilievo in grotta sono emerse strutture come antiformi, joints, vene e piccole faglie normali associate all’avanzamento della zona di danneggiamento di una fault propagation fold. Inoltre, consideriamo che la zona di danneggiamento possa giocare un ruolo significativo sulle infiltrazioni di fluidi nel sottosuolo e nella speleogenesi. Osservando le fratture aperte a basso angolo rispetto alla stratificazione, si è ipotizzato che esse siano prodotte dallo scivolamento lungo strato di tipo normale che si concentra negli intervalli pelitici. Infine, dall’aggiornamento della carta geologica con annesse sezioni geologiche è stato possibile mettere in luce la probabile presenza di un regime estensionale che influenza le strutture dell’area. Nel complesso, si è verificato come un’attività di rilievo in grotta possa essere utile per integrare le conoscenze sulla geologia di un’area caratterizzata da fenomeni carsici ottenute da un rilievo di campagna classico

Resources and Technologies

This Working Paper joint two previous articles by the authors: The economic theory of exhaustible natural resources, in “Enciclopedia degli Idrocarburi”, vol. IV, Istituto della Enciclopedia Treccani, Roma, 2008, pp. 3-10;Technological innovation, relative scarcity, investments, in “Enciclopedia degli Idrocarburi”, vol. IV, Istituto della Enciclopedia Treccani, 2008, pp. 11-22. In the first one (cap. 1-4), we consider the contribution of economic theory (partly through a reevaluation of history) in order both to interpret and predict events, and to identify economic policies; this happens especially when the world economy feels the significant constraints imposed by some natural resources and raw materials, partly due to the rapid growth of a number of developing countries, and when there is an urgent need to increase resources rapidly to ensure continuing availability. Even if the problem of scarce resources (of which natural resources are the most obvious category) has been central to analysis for centuries, natural resource economics is contradictory. The main reason for this is that economic theory is out of step with prevailing economic conditions, as a consequence of the varying concern for a crucial phenomenon in the dynamics of economic systems: the opposition-coexistence of the scarcity of natural resources and the producibility of commodities. Natural resource economics can be summarized by dividing it into three main lines of thought: the theory of producibility and scarcity developed by classical economists; the theory of general and natural scarcities developed by marginalists and neoclassicals; the theory of dynamics with and without natural scarcities developed by macroeconomists, structuralists and empirical stylizers. Using this three-way subdivision, which is not clearly codified in economic theory, the basic features of each approach will be examined with special attention to its early exponents. The historical starting point is the second half of the Eighteenth century, although we will ignore contributions such as those made by the Physiocrats who, during the same period, developed a theory of production based on the surplus generated by agriculture. In the second one (cap. 5-6), we consider that the role of technological innovation for resources use and conservation is often measured by empirical indicators of intensity or efficiency which express the evolution of resource use in relation to variables such as population and GDP. The historical evolution of these indicators tends to indicate a process of decoupling – in other words, a decrease in the energy/emissions intensity of economic activity or an increase in the efficiency/productivity of resource use. These empirical regularities have led to the proposition of stylized facts representing the relationships between resource-use efficiency and economic growth known as environmental Kuznets curves. However, the economic interpretations of the innovation mechanisms underlying the progress suggested by efficiency indicators, nonetheless, remain open and complex at the very time when there is increasing demand for further substantial advances in resource-use efficiency. We will survey the empirical evidence on the medium- and long-term dynamics of these indicators and will discuss their significance. This will be followed by an analysis of the possible role played by economic factors (especially resource prices and markets) and institutional factors (especially climate policy) in triggering and supporting progress in the use efficiency of energy resources.natural resources; technological innovation; relative scarcity; investments

PADDLE: Proximal Algorithm for Dual Dictionaries LEarning

Recently, considerable research efforts have been devoted to the design of methods to learn from data overcomplete dictionaries for sparse coding. However, learned dictionaries require the solution of an optimization problem for coding new data. In order to overcome this drawback, we propose an algorithm aimed at learning both a dictionary and its dual: a linear mapping directly performing the coding. By leveraging on proximal methods, our algorithm jointly minimizes the reconstruction error of the dictionary and the coding error of its dual; the sparsity of the representation is induced by an $\ell_1$-based penalty on its coefficients. The results obtained on synthetic data and real images show that the algorithm is capable of recovering the expected dictionaries. Furthermore, on a benchmark dataset, we show that the image features obtained from the dual matrix yield state-of-the-art classification performance while being much less computational intensive

Last generation instrument for agriculture multispectral data collection

In recent years, the acquisition and analysis of multispectral data are gaining a growing interest and importance in agriculture. On the other hand, new technologies are opening up for the possibility of developing and implementing sensors with relatively small size and featuring high technical performances. Thanks to low weights and high signal to noise ratios, such sensors can be transported by different type of means (terrestrial as well as aerial vehicles), giving new opportunities for assessment and monitoring of several crops at different growing stages or health conditions. The choice and specialization of individual bands within the electromagnetic spectrum ranging from the ultraviolet to the infrared, plays a fundamental role in the definition of the so-called vegetation indices (eg. NDVI, GNDVI, SAVI, and dozens of others), posing new questions and challenges in their effective implementation. The present paper firstly discusses the needs of low-distance based sensors for indices calculation, then focuses on development of a new multispectral instrument specially developed for agricultural multispectral analysis. Such instrument features high frequency and high resolution imaging through nine different sensors (1 RGB and 8 monochromes with relative band-pass filters, covering the 390 to 950 nm range). The instrument allows synchronized multiband imaging thanks to integrated global shutter technology, with a frame rate up to 5 Hz; exposure time can be as low as 1/5000 s. An applicative case study is eventually reported on an area featuring different materials (organic and non-organic), to show the new instrument potential. Last generation instrument for agriculture multispectral data collection. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317596952_Last_generation_instrument_for_agriculture_multispectral_data_collection [accessed Jul 11, 2017]

The tumor microenvironment and its contribution to tumor evolution toward metastasis

Cancer cells acquire cell-autonomous capacities to undergo limitless proliferation and survival through the activation of oncogenes and inactivation of tumor suppressor genes. Nevertheless, the formation of a clinically relevant tumor requires support from the surrounding normal stroma, also referred to as the tumor microenvironment. Carcinoma-associated fibroblasts, leukocytes, bone marrow-derived cells, blood and lymphatic vascular endothelial cells present within the tumor microenvironment contribute to tumor progression. Recent evidence indicates that the microenvironment provides essential cues to the maintenance of cancer stem cells/cancer initiating cells and to promote the seeding of cancer cells at metastatic sites. Furthermore, inflammatory cells and immunomodulatory mediators present in the tumor microenvironment polarize host immune response toward specific phenotypes impacting tumor progression. A growing number of studies demonstrate a positive correlation between angiogenesis, carcinoma-associated fibroblasts, and inflammatory infiltrating cells and poor outcome, thereby emphasizing the clinical relevance of the tumor microenvironment to aggressive tumor progression. Thus, the dynamic and reciprocal interactions between tumor cells and cells of the tumor microenvironment orchestrate events critical to tumor evolution toward metastasis, and many cellular and molecular elements of the microenvironment are emerging as attractive targets for therapeutic strategie

Computational modeling of shear forces and experimental validation of endothelial cell responses in an orbital well shaker system

Vascular endothelial cells are continuously exposed to hemodynamic shear stress. Intensity and type of shear stress are highly relevant to vascular physiology and pathology. Here, we modeled shear stress distribution in a tissue culture well (R = 17.5 mm, fill volume 2 ml) under orbital translation using computational fluid dynamics with the finite element method. Free surface distribution, wall shear stress, inclination angle, drag force, and oscillatory index on the bottom surface were modeled. Obtained results predict nonuniform shear stress distribution during cycle, with higher oscillatory shear index, higher drag force values, higher circular component, and larger inclination angle of the shear stress at the periphery of the well compared with the center of the well. The oscillatory index, inclination angle, and drag force are new quantitative parameters modeled in this system, which provide a better understanding of the hydrodynamic conditions experienced and reflect the pulsatile character of blood flow in vivo. Validation experiments revealed that endothelial cells at the well periphery aligned under flow and increased Kruppel-like Factor 4 (KLF-4), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) phosphorylation. In contrast, endothelial cells at the center of the well did not show clear directional alignment, did not induce the expression of KLF-4 and COX-2 nor increased eNOS phosphorylation. In conclusion, this improved computational modeling predicts that the orbital shaker model generates different hydrodynamic conditions at the periphery versus the center of the well eliciting divergent endothelial cell responses. The possibility of generating different hydrodynamic conditions in the same well makes this model highly attractive to study responses of distinct regions of the same endothelial monolayer to different types of shear stresses thereby better reflecting in vivo conditions