This book presents the multifaceted aspects of rare earth elements (REEs), focusing on both their potential benefits and adverse health effects. The adverse impacts of REEs on human and environmental health raise a growing concern not only in the scientific community but also among a number of stakeholders, potentially including students, media workers, and decision makers. The recognized and potential benefits arising from REE-related technological applications may envisage their further advantages. A limited number of books have been devoted so far to REEs, and they mainly focus on REE-related chemistry, mineralogy, economy, and developing technologies for these elements. This book presents recent research achievements in REE-associated health effects, which have been mostly confined to journal reports on individual laboratory studies so far. It is an updated and balanced approach to REE research and technology. It provides novel yet established information as stated in the title "At the Crossroads between Toxicity and Safety," with particular emphasis on the hormesis phenomenon.
This book presents the multifaceted aspects of rare earth elements (REEs), focusing on both their potential benefits and adverse health effects. The adverse impacts of REEs on human and environmental health raise a growing concern not only in the scientific community but also among a number of stakeholders, potentially including students, media workers, and decision makers. The recognized and potential benefits arising from REE-related technological applications may envisage their further advantages. A limited number of books have been devoted so far to REEs, and they mainly focus on REE-related chemistry, mineralogy, economy, and developing technologies for these elements. This book presents recent research achievements in REE-associated health effects, which have been mostly confined to journal reports on individual laboratory studies so far. It is an updated and balanced approach to REE research and technology. It provides novel yet established information as stated in the title "At the Crossroads between Toxicity and Safety," with particular emphasis on the hormesis phenomenon.
Outstanding selection of tales include the celebrated "Cavalleria Rusticana" (Rustic Chivalry), "Nedda," "L'amante di Gramigna" (Gramigna's Mistress), "Reverie," "Jeli the Herdsman," "Nasty Redhead," and 6 others. Introduction. Notes.
The Macroeconomics of Developing Countries provides a comprehensive discussion of the exogenous factors and macroeconomic policies that affect the business cycle, long term growth, and distribution of income in developing countries. It examines countries dependent on natural resources and affected by supply rigidities in agriculture. They also feature dualistic markets, a large informal sector, rapid population growth, a vulnerable export sector, and chronic dependence on a volatile global finance. The Macroeconomics of Developing Countries uses these examples to analyse the impact of stablization and adjustment politices on growth, inequality, and poverty. Despite the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals there is little consensus on how macroeconomic policies can be consistent with these objectives. The Macroeconomics of Developing Countries demonstrates that a critical application of standard models to developing countries can generate erroneous results and induce the adoption of incorrect policy. In order to address this, it discusses the key structural differences between advanced and developing countries in order to justify the construction of alternative models.
This paper evaluates the global welfare impact of China's trade integration and technological change in a quantitative Ricardian-Heckscher-Ohlin model implemented on 75 countries. We simulate two alternative productivity growth scenarios: a "balanced" one in which China's productivity grows at the same rate in each sector, and an "unbalanced" one in which China's comparative disadvantage sectors catch up disproportionately faster to the world productivity frontier. Contrary to a well-known conjecture (Samuelson, 2004), the large majority of countries in the sample, including the developed ones, experience an order of magnitude larger welfare gains when China's productivity growth is biased towards its comparative disadvantage sectors. We demonstrate both analytically and quantitatively that this finding is driven by the inherently multilateral nature of world trade. As a separate but related exercise we quantify the worldwide welfare gains from China's trade integration.
This book presents the evolution of the international monetary system from the gold standard to the monetary system in force today. It adopts a political economy approach, emphasizing the economic and political conditions under which an international monetary system can come into existence and be maintained over time. This approach highlights how the gradual transition in the international context from commodity money to fiat money has been led by the need for greater elasticity of money supply and smooth adjustments. This transition, however, raises the issue of how to guarantee, over time, the value of a money devoid of intrinsic value. By presenting a historical evolution, the book explains how the existence of an international monetary system based on money without intrinsic value can only occur when a particular balance of power exists at the international level that allows for the production of trust in a fiat money. The book is a must-read for scholars, researchers, and students in the fields of economic history and international monetary economics, interested in better understanding the evolution of the international monetary system.
This book provides the conceptual framework and a comprehensive guide to the principles, methods and tools for managing organizations. The authors introduce “New Knowledge” by presenting a methodology, 'The Decalogue’, that portrays a genuinely systemic approach for managing complexity in organizations and Value Chains through focusing on the management of a leverage point called constraint (Theory of Constraints) and the understanding of variation (Theory of Profound Knowledge). This systemic approach leverages the intrinsic process and project-based nature of the work of organizations. Functional hierarchy is replaced by a network-like structure, driven by the goal of the system and governed by a new design of the organization called “Network of Projects”. The transition towards the Network of Projects requires a cognitive shift in the way we view and put to good use human talent and ingenuity as well as a powerful algorithm to orchestrate and synchronize individual competencies. The authors discuss at length this algorithm, how the Theory of Constraints helps in the cognitive challenges of this shift and also how technology can be used fruitfully to assist with the operational implications. The target audience for this book is made up of leaders and managers of organizations as well as researchers and practitioners in the field of management and organizational design.
In 150 years Italy transformed itself from a poor and backward country into one where living standards are among the highest in the world. In Measuring Wellbeing, Giovanni Vecchi provides an innovative analysis of this change by drawing on family accounts that provide engaging insights into life and are the "micro" data that create the foundations for the "macro" picture of variations and fluctuations in the development of Italy. Vecchi provides a nuanced account of the changes. He emphasizes that the concept of wellbeing is multidimensional and must include non-monetary aspects of life: nutrition, health and education, as well as less tangible elements such as freedom or the possibility to exercise one's political rights. The book deals with this polyhedral nature of wellbeing. Among the insights are that Italians succeeded in combining growth with equity, but that the gap between the North and South did not narrow; the while longevity has increased, education has not improved as much as it could have; and that for close to three decades, Italy's virtuous path has come to a halt: the wellbeing of the Italian people is at the crossroads between progress and decline. Measuring Wellbeing engagingly combines a unique dataset and an innovative statistical method that can be adapted to other countries.
The paper makes an analytical contribution to the revived discussion about the euro area’s institutional setup. After significant progress during the euro crisis, the drive to complete Europe’s Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) had stalled, and the way forward will benefit from an in-depth look at the conceptual issues raised by the evolution and architecture of Europe, and the tradeoffs involved. A thorough look at the underlying economic issues suggests that in the long run, EMU will benefit from progressing along three mutually supporting tracks: introduce more fiscal risk sharing, helping to make the sovereign “no bailout” rule credible; complementary financial sector reforms to delink sovereigns and banks; and more effective rules to discourage moral hazard. This evolution would ensure that financial markets provide incentives for fiscal discipline. Introducing more fiscal union comes with myriad legal, technical, operational, and political problems, raising questions well beyond the remit of economics. But without decisive progress to foster fiscal risk sharing, EMU will continue to face existential risks.
The paper analyzes the effects of informational asymmetries on the market structure of the banking industry in a multi-period model of spatial competition. All lenders face uncertainty with regard to borrowers’ creditworthiness, but, in the process of lending, incumbent banks gather proprietary information about their clients, acquiring an advantage over potential entrants. These informational asymmetries are an important determinant of the industry structure and may represent a barrier to entry for new banks. The paper shows that, in contrast with traditional models of horizontal differentiation, the steady-state equilibrium is characterized by a finite number of banks even in the absence of fixed costs.
The Conference OC Bologna 2000: Structure of the Nucleus at the Dawn of the CenturyOCO was devoted to a discipline which has seen a strong revival of research activities in the last decade. New experimental results and theoretical developments in nuclear physics will certainly make important contributions to our knowledge and understanding of Nature's fundamental building blocks. The interest aroused by the Conference among the scientific community was clearly reflected in the large number of participants. These represented the most important nuclear physics laboratories in the world. The Conference covered five major topics of modern nuclear physics: nuclear structure, nucleusOConucleus collisions, hadron dynamics, nuclear astrophysics, and transdisciplinary and peaceful applications of nuclear science. It reviewed recent progress in the field and provided a forum for the discussion of current and future research projects. Contents: Quark and GluonOCoPlasma Phase Transition and Relativistic Heavy-Ion Reactions; LiquidOCoGas Phase Transitions in Nuclear Matter; Nuclear Caloric Curve and Thermodynamics of Heavy Ion Collisions; Statistical and Dynamics Aspects of Fragmentation; Intermediate Energy Heavy-Ion Reactions; Reaction Mechanisms around the Barrier. Fusion and Fission in Heavy-Ion Reactions. Readership: Nuclear physicists.
Discover the utility of four popular electromagnetic geophysical techniques In GeoRadar, FDEM, TDEM, and AEM Methods, accomplished researchers Fabio Giannino and Giovanni Leucci deliver an in-depth exploration of the theory and application of four different electromagnetic geophysical techniques: ground penetrating radar, the frequency domain electromagnetic method, the time domain electromagnetic method, and the airborne electromagnetic method. The authors offer a full description of each technique as they relate to the economics, planning, and logistics of deploying each of them on-site. The book also discusses the potential output of each method and how it can be combined with other sources of below- and above-ground information to create a digitized common point cloud containing a wide variety of data. Giannino and Leucci rely on 25 years of professional experience in over 40 countries around the world to provide readers with a fulsome description of the optimal use of GPR, FDEM, TDEM, and AEM, demonstrating their flexibility and applicability to a wide variety of use cases. Readers will also benefit from the inclusion of: A thorough introduction to electromagnetic theory, including the operative principles and theory of ground penetrating radar (GPR) and the frequency domain electromagnetic method (FDEM) An exploration of hardware architecture and surveying, including GPR, FDEM, time domain electromagnetic method (TDEM), and airborne electromagnetic (AEM) surveying A collection of case studies, including a multiple-geophysical archaeological GPR survey in Turkey and a UXO search in a building area in Italy using FDEM /li> Discussions of planning and mobilizing a campaign, the shipment and clearance of survey equipment, and managing the operative aspects of field activity Perfect for forensic and archaeological geophysicists, GeoRadar, FDEM, TDEM, and AEM Methods will also earn a place in the libraries of anyone seeking a one-stop reference for the planning and deployment of GDR, FDEM, TDEM, and AEM surveying techniques.
An overview of the causes and consequences of speculative attacks on domestic currency and international financial turmoil. It provides a comprehensive treatment of the existing theories of exchange rate crises and of financial market runs.
This book presents research on immigrants in South America and Caribbean Colombia and their relationship with the birth and development of the city of Barranquilla. As such, it explores elements that make evident customs and cultural beliefs that have influenced behavior in these regions. It discusses how these practices are reflected in the characteristics of housing, art, and cultural exhibitions, among others. Most societies in these areas have flourished in an uneven and often unequal manner. However, this book will serve to reconcile such cultural groups and create bonds of shared responsibility.
This book aims to present a pedagogical and self-consistent treatment of the canonical approach to Quantum Gravity, starting from its original formulation to the most recent developments in the field.We start with an innovative and enlightening introduction to the formalism and concepts on which General Relativity has been built, giving all the information necessary in the later analysis. A brief sketch of the Standard Cosmological Model describing the Universe evolution is also given alongside the analysis of the inflationary mechanism. After deepening the fundamental properties of constrained dynamic systems, the Lagrangian approach to the Einsteinian Theory is presented in some detail, underlining the parallelism with non-Abelian gauge theories. Then, the basic concepts of the canonical approach to Quantum Mechanics are provided, focusing on all those formulations which are relevant for the Canonical Quantum Gravity problem. The Hamiltonian formulation of General Relativity and its constrained structure is then analyzed by comparing different formulations. The resulting quantum dynamics, described by the Wheeler-DeWitt equation, is fully discussed in order to outline its merits and limits. Afterwards, the reformulation of Canonical Quantum Gravity in terms of the Ashtekar-Barbero-Immirzi variables is faced by a detailed discussion of the resulting Loop Quantum Gravity Theory. Finally, we provide a consistent picture of canonical Quantum Cosmology by facing the main features of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation for the homogeneous Bianchi models and then by a detailed treatment of Loop Quantum Cosmology, including very recent developments.
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