A mixed methods inquiry into the political economy of agriculture and rural areas in Lebanon

The present work, then, is concerned with the forgotten elements of the Lebanese economy, agriculture and rural development. It investigates the main problematic which arose from these forgotten components, in particular the structure of the agricultural sector, production technology, income distribution, poverty, food security, territorial development and local livelihood strategies. It will do so using quantitative Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) modeling and a qualitative phenomenological case study analysis, both embedded in a critical review of the historical development of the political economy of Lebanon, and a structural analysis of its economy. The research shows that under-development in Lebanese rural areas is not due to lack of resources, but rather is the consequence of political choices. It further suggests that agriculture – in both its mainstream conventional and its innovative locally initiated forms of production – still represents important potential for inducing economic growth and development. In order to do so, Lebanon has to take full advantage of its human and territorial capital, by developing a rural development strategy based on two parallel sets of actions: one directed toward the support of local rural development initiatives, and the other directed toward intensive form of production. In addition to its economic returns, such a strategy would promote social and political stability.

Identified primary hadron spectra with the TOF detector of the ALICE experiment at LHC

In this thesis the analysis to reconstruct the transverse momentum p_{t} spectra for pions, kaons and protons identified with the TOF detector of the ALICE experiment in pp Minimum Bias collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV was reported. After a detailed description of all the parameters which influence the TOF PID performance (time resolution, calibration, alignment, matching efficiency, time-zero of the event) the method used to identify the particles, the unfolding procedure, was discussed. With this method, thanks also to the excellent TOF performance, the pion and kaon spectra can be reconstructed in the 0.5c range, while the protons can be measured in the interval 0.8c. To prove the robustness of these results, a comparison with the spectra obtained with a $3\sigma$ cut PID procedure, was reported, showing an agreement within 5%. The estimation of the systematic uncertainties was described. The reported spectra provide very useful information to tune the Monte Carlo generators that, as was shown, are not able to describe $\pi$, $K$ and $p$ production over the full momentum range. The same limitation for the theoretical models in describing the data was observed when comparing with the Monte Carlo predictions the $K/\pi$ and $p/\pi$ ratios, as obtained with the TOF analysis. Finally, the comparison between the TOF results and the spectra obtained with analyses that use other ALICE PID detectors and techniques to extend the identified spectra to a wider $p_{t}$ range was reported, showing an agreement within 6\%.