The gender wage gap in developing and transition countries

The aim of my dissertation is to study the gender wage gap with a specific focus on developing and transition countries. In the first chapter I present the main existing theories proposed to analyse the gender wage gap and I review the empirical literature on the gender wage gap in developing and transition countries and its main findings. Then, I discuss the overall empirical issues related to the estimation of the gender wage gap and the issues specific to developing and transition countries. The second chapter is an empirical analysis of the gender wage gap in a developing countries, the Union of Comoros, using data from the multidimensional household budget survey “Enquete integrale auprès des ménages” (EIM) run in 2004. The interest of my work is to provide a benchmark analysis for further studies on the situation of women in the Comorian labour market and to contribute to the literature on gender wage gap in Africa by making available more information on the dynamics and mechanism of the gender wage gap, given the limited interest on the topic in this area of the world. The third chapter is an applied analysis of the gender wage gap in a transition country, Poland, using data from the Labour Force Survey (LSF) collected for the years 1994 and 2004. I provide a detailed examination of how gender earning differentials have changed over the period starting from 1994 to a more advanced transition phase in 2004, when market elements have become much more important in the functioning of the Polish economy than in the earlier phase. The main contribution of my dissertation is the application of the econometrical methodology that I describe in the beginning of the second chapter. First, I run a preliminary OLS and quantile regression analysis to estimate and describe the raw and conditional wage gaps along the distribution. Second, I estimate quantile regressions separately for males and females, in order to allow for different rewards to characteristics. Third, I proceed to decompose the raw wage gap estimated at the mean through the Oaxaca-Blinder (1973) procedure. In the second chapter I run a two-steps Heckman procedure by estimating a model of participation in the labour market which shows a significant selection bias for females. Forth, I apply the Machado-Mata (2005) techniques to extend the decomposition analysis at all points of the distribution. In Poland I can also implement the Juhn, Murphy and Pierce (1991) decomposition over the period 1994-2004, to account for effects to the pay gap due to changes in overall wage dispersion beyond Oaxaca’s standard decomposition.

Dalla città alla casa, dalla casa alla città: la mutevole ricerca di un Piano per il ben-essere urbano

La ricerca si propone di definire le linee guida per la stesura di un Piano che si occupi di qualità della vita e di benessere. Il richiamo alla qualità e al benessere è positivamente innovativo, in quanto impone agli organi decisionali di sintonizzarsi con la soggettività attiva dei cittadini e, contemporaneamente, rende evidente la necessità di un approccio più ampio e trasversale al tema della città e di una più stretta relazione dei tecnici/esperti con i responsabili degli organismi politicoamministrativi. La ricerca vuole indagare i limiti dell’urbanistica moderna di fronte alla complessità di bisogni e di nuove necessità espresse dalle popolazioni urbane contemporanee. La domanda dei servizi è notevolmente cambiata rispetto a quella degli anni Sessanta, oltre che sul piano quantitativo anche e soprattutto sul piano qualitativo, a causa degli intervenuti cambiamenti sociali che hanno trasformato la città moderna non solo dal punto di vista strutturale ma anche dal punto di vista culturale: l’intermittenza della cittadinanza, per cui le città sono sempre più vissute e godute da cittadini del mondo (turisti e/o visitatori, temporaneamente presenti) e da cittadini diffusi (suburbani, provinciali, metropolitani); la radicale trasformazione della struttura familiare, per cui la famiglia-tipo costituita da una coppia con figli, solido riferimento per l’economia e la politica, è oggi minoritaria; l’irregolarità e flessibilità dei calendari, delle agende e dei ritmi di vita della popolazione attiva; la mobilità sociale, per cui gli individui hanno traiettorie di vita e pratiche quotidiane meno determinate dalle loro origini sociali di quanto avveniva nel passato; l’elevazione del livello di istruzione e quindi l’incremento della domanda di cultura; la crescita della popolazione anziana e la forte individualizzazione sociale hanno generato una domanda di città espressa dalla gente estremamente variegata ed eterogenea, frammentata e volatile, e per alcuni aspetti assolutamente nuova. Accanto a vecchie e consolidate richieste – la città efficiente, funzionale, produttiva, accessibile a tutti – sorgono nuove domande, ideali e bisogni che hanno come oggetto la bellezza, la varietà, la fruibilità, la sicurezza, la capacità di stupire e divertire, la sostenibilità, la ricerca di nuove identità, domande che esprimono il desiderio di vivere e di godere la città, di stare bene in città, domande che non possono essere più soddisfatte attraverso un’idea di welfare semplicemente basata sull’istruzione, la sanità, il sistema pensionistico e l’assistenza sociale. La città moderna ovvero l’idea moderna della città, organizzata solo sui concetti di ordine, regolarità, pulizia, uguaglianza e buon governo, è stata consegnata alla storia passata trasformandosi ora in qualcosa di assai diverso che facciamo fatica a rappresentare, a descrivere, a raccontare. La città contemporanea può essere rappresentata in molteplici modi, sia dal punto di vista urbanistico che dal punto di vista sociale: nella letteratura recente è evidente la difficoltà di definire e di racchiudere entro limiti certi l’oggetto “città” e la mancanza di un convincimento forte nell’interpretazione delle trasformazioni politiche, economiche e sociali che hanno investito la società e il mondo nel secolo scorso. La città contemporanea, al di là degli ambiti amministrativi, delle espansioni territoriali e degli assetti urbanistici, delle infrastrutture, della tecnologia, del funzionalismo e dei mercati globali, è anche luogo delle relazioni umane, rappresentazione dei rapporti tra gli individui e dello spazio urbano in cui queste relazioni si muovono. La città è sia concentrazione fisica di persone e di edifici, ma anche varietà di usi e di gruppi, densità di rapporti sociali; è il luogo in cui avvengono i processi di coesione o di esclusione sociale, luogo delle norme culturali che regolano i comportamenti, dell’identità che si esprime materialmente e simbolicamente nello spazio pubblico della vita cittadina. Per studiare la città contemporanea è necessario utilizzare un approccio nuovo, fatto di contaminazioni e saperi trasversali forniti da altre discipline, come la sociologia e le scienze umane, che pure contribuiscono a costruire l’immagine comunemente percepita della città e del territorio, del paesaggio e dell’ambiente. La rappresentazione del sociale urbano varia in base all’idea di cosa è, in un dato momento storico e in un dato contesto, una situazione di benessere delle persone. L’urbanistica moderna mirava al massimo benessere del singolo e della collettività e a modellarsi sulle “effettive necessità delle persone”: nei vecchi manuali di urbanistica compare come appendice al piano regolatore il “Piano dei servizi”, che comprende i servizi distribuiti sul territorio circostante, una sorta di “piano regolatore sociale”, per evitare quartieri separati per fasce di popolazione o per classi. Nella città contemporanea la globalizzazione, le nuove forme di marginalizzazione e di esclusione, l’avvento della cosiddetta “new economy”, la ridefinizione della base produttiva e del mercato del lavoro urbani sono espressione di una complessità sociale che può essere definita sulla base delle transazioni e gli scambi simbolici piuttosto che sui processi di industrializzazione e di modernizzazione verso cui era orientata la città storica, definita moderna. Tutto ciò costituisce quel complesso di questioni che attualmente viene definito “nuovo welfare”, in contrapposizione a quello essenzialmente basato sull’istruzione, sulla sanità, sul sistema pensionistico e sull’assistenza sociale. La ricerca ha quindi analizzato gli strumenti tradizionali della pianificazione e programmazione territoriale, nella loro dimensione operativa e istituzionale: la destinazione principale di tali strumenti consiste nella classificazione e nella sistemazione dei servizi e dei contenitori urbanistici. E’ chiaro, tuttavia, che per poter rispondere alla molteplice complessità di domande, bisogni e desideri espressi dalla società contemporanea le dotazioni effettive per “fare città” devono necessariamente superare i concetti di “standard” e di “zonizzazione”, che risultano essere troppo rigidi e quindi incapaci di adattarsi all’evoluzione di una domanda crescente di qualità e di servizi e allo stesso tempo inadeguati nella gestione del rapporto tra lo spazio domestico e lo spazio collettivo. In questo senso è rilevante il rapporto tra le tipologie abitative e la morfologia urbana e quindi anche l’ambiente intorno alla casa, che stabilisce il rapporto “dalla casa alla città”, perché è in questa dualità che si definisce il rapporto tra spazi privati e spazi pubblici e si contestualizzano i temi della strada, dei negozi, dei luoghi di incontro, degli accessi. Dopo la convergenza dalla scala urbana alla scala edilizia si passa quindi dalla scala edilizia a quella urbana, dal momento che il criterio del benessere attraversa le diverse scale dello spazio abitabile. Non solo, nei sistemi territoriali in cui si è raggiunto un benessere diffuso ed un alto livello di sviluppo economico è emersa la consapevolezza che il concetto stesso di benessere sia non più legato esclusivamente alla capacità di reddito collettiva e/o individuale: oggi la qualità della vita si misura in termini di qualità ambientale e sociale. Ecco dunque la necessità di uno strumento di conoscenza della città contemporanea, da allegare al Piano, in cui vengano definiti i criteri da osservare nella progettazione dello spazio urbano al fine di determinare la qualità e il benessere dell’ambiente costruito, inteso come benessere generalizzato, nel suo significato di “qualità dello star bene”. E’ evidente che per raggiungere tale livello di qualità e benessere è necessario provvedere al soddisfacimento da una parte degli aspetti macroscopici del funzionamento sociale e del tenore di vita attraverso gli indicatori di reddito, occupazione, povertà, criminalità, abitazione, istruzione, etc.; dall’altra dei bisogni primari, elementari e di base, e di quelli secondari, culturali e quindi mutevoli, trapassando dal welfare state allo star bene o well being personale, alla wellness in senso olistico, tutte espressioni di un desiderio di bellezza mentale e fisica e di un nuovo rapporto del corpo con l’ambiente, quindi manifestazione concreta di un’esigenza di ben-essere individuale e collettivo. Ed è questa esigenza, nuova e difficile, che crea la diffusa sensazione dell’inizio di una nuova stagione urbana, molto più di quanto facciano pensare le stesse modifiche fisiche della città.

Modellazione multibody di veicoli ferroviari: sviluppo ed implementazione di modelli innovativi per l'analisi del contatto ruota - rotaia

The wheel - rail contact analysis plays a fundamental role in the multibody modeling of railway vehicles. A good contact model must provide an accurate description of the global contact phenomena (contact forces and torques, number and position of the contact points) and of the local contact phenomena (position and shape of the contact patch, stresses and displacements). The model has also to assure high numerical efficiency (in order to be implemented directly online within multibody models) and a good compatibility with commercial multibody software (Simpack Rail, Adams Rail). The wheel - rail contact problem has been discussed by several authors and many models can be found in the literature. The contact models can be subdivided into two different categories: the global models and the local (or differential) models. Currently, as regards the global models, the main approaches to the problem are the so - called rigid contact formulation and the semi – elastic contact description. The rigid approach considers the wheel and the rail as rigid bodies. The contact is imposed by means of constraint equations and the contact points are detected during the dynamic simulation by solving the nonlinear algebraic differential equations associated to the constrained multibody system. Indentation between the bodies is not permitted and the normal contact forces are calculated through the Lagrange multipliers. Finally the Hertz’s and the Kalker’s theories allow to evaluate the shape of the contact patch and the tangential forces respectively. Also the semi - elastic approach considers the wheel and the rail as rigid bodies. However in this case no kinematic constraints are imposed and the indentation between the bodies is permitted. The contact points are detected by means of approximated procedures (based on look - up tables and simplifying hypotheses on the problem geometry). The normal contact forces are calculated as a function of the indentation while, as in the rigid approach, the Hertz’s and the Kalker’s theories allow to evaluate the shape of the contact patch and the tangential forces. Both the described multibody approaches are computationally very efficient but their generality and accuracy turn out to be often insufficient because the physical hypotheses behind these theories are too restrictive and, in many circumstances, unverified. In order to obtain a complete description of the contact phenomena, local (or differential) contact models are needed. In other words wheel and rail have to be considered elastic bodies governed by the Navier’s equations and the contact has to be described by suitable analytical contact conditions. The contact between elastic bodies has been widely studied in literature both in the general case and in the rolling case. Many procedures based on variational inequalities, FEM techniques and convex optimization have been developed. This kind of approach assures high generality and accuracy but still needs very large computational costs and memory consumption. Due to the high computational load and memory consumption, referring to the current state of the art, the integration between multibody and differential modeling is almost absent in literature especially in the railway field. However this integration is very important because only the differential modeling allows an accurate analysis of the contact problem (in terms of contact forces and torques, position and shape of the contact patch, stresses and displacements) while the multibody modeling is the standard in the study of the railway dynamics. In this thesis some innovative wheel – rail contact models developed during the Ph. D. activity will be described. Concerning the global models, two new models belonging to the semi – elastic approach will be presented; the models satisfy the following specifics: 1) the models have to be 3D and to consider all the six relative degrees of freedom between wheel and rail 2) the models have to consider generic railway tracks and generic wheel and rail profiles 3) the models have to assure a general and accurate handling of the multiple contact without simplifying hypotheses on the problem geometry; in particular the models have to evaluate the number and the position of the contact points and, for each point, the contact forces and torques 4) the models have to be implementable directly online within the multibody models without look - up tables 5) the models have to assure computation times comparable with those of commercial multibody software (Simpack Rail, Adams Rail) and compatible with RT and HIL applications 6) the models have to be compatible with commercial multibody software (Simpack Rail, Adams Rail). The most innovative aspect of the new global contact models regards the detection of the contact points. In particular both the models aim to reduce the algebraic problem dimension by means of suitable analytical techniques. This kind of reduction allows to obtain an high numerical efficiency that makes possible the online implementation of the new procedure and the achievement of performance comparable with those of commercial multibody software. At the same time the analytical approach assures high accuracy and generality. Concerning the local (or differential) contact models, one new model satisfying the following specifics will be presented: 1) the model has to be 3D and to consider all the six relative degrees of freedom between wheel and rail 2) the model has to consider generic railway tracks and generic wheel and rail profiles 3) the model has to assure a general and accurate handling of the multiple contact without simplifying hypotheses on the problem geometry; in particular the model has to able to calculate both the global contact variables (contact forces and torques) and the local contact variables (position and shape of the contact patch, stresses and displacements) 4) the model has to be implementable directly online within the multibody models 5) the model has to assure high numerical efficiency and a reduced memory consumption in order to achieve a good integration between multibody and differential modeling (the base for the local contact models) 6) the model has to be compatible with commercial multibody software (Simpack Rail, Adams Rail). In this case the most innovative aspects of the new local contact model regard the contact modeling (by means of suitable analytical conditions) and the implementation of the numerical algorithms needed to solve the discrete problem arising from the discretization of the original continuum problem. Moreover, during the development of the local model, the achievement of a good compromise between accuracy and efficiency turned out to be very important to obtain a good integration between multibody and differential modeling. At this point the contact models has been inserted within a 3D multibody model of a railway vehicle to obtain a complete model of the wagon. The railway vehicle chosen as benchmark is the Manchester Wagon the physical and geometrical characteristics of which are easily available in the literature. The model of the whole railway vehicle (multibody model and contact model) has been implemented in the Matlab/Simulink environment. The multibody model has been implemented in SimMechanics, a Matlab toolbox specifically designed for multibody dynamics, while, as regards the contact models, the CS – functions have been used; this particular Matlab architecture allows to efficiently connect the Matlab/Simulink and the C/C++ environment. The 3D multibody model of the same vehicle (this time equipped with a standard contact model based on the semi - elastic approach) has been then implemented also in Simpack Rail, a commercial multibody software for railway vehicles widely tested and validated. Finally numerical simulations of the vehicle dynamics have been carried out on many different railway tracks with the aim of evaluating the performances of the whole model. The comparison between the results obtained by the Matlab/ Simulink model and those obtained by the Simpack Rail model has allowed an accurate and reliable validation of the new contact models. In conclusion to this brief introduction to my Ph. D. thesis, we would like to thank Trenitalia and the Regione Toscana for the support provided during all the Ph. D. activity. Moreover we would also like to thank the INTEC GmbH, the society the develops the software Simpack Rail, with which we are currently working together to develop innovative toolboxes specifically designed for the wheel rail contact analysis.

Measurement of top quark pairs production cross-section in the semi-leptonic channel with the ATLAS experiment

This thesis is about three major aspects of the identification of top quarks. First comes the understanding of their production mechanism, their decay channels and how to translate theoretical formulae into programs that can simulate such physical processes using Monte Carlo techniques. In particular, the author has been involved in the introduction of the POWHEG generator in the framework of the ATLAS experiment. POWHEG is now fully used as the benchmark program for the simulation of ttbar pairs production and decay, along with MC@NLO and AcerMC: this will be shown in chapter one. The second chapter illustrates the ATLAS detectors and its sub-units, such as calorimeters and muon chambers. It is very important to evaluate their efficiency in order to fully understand what happens during the passage of radiation through the detector and to use this knowledge in the calculation of final quantities such as the ttbar production cross section. The last part of this thesis concerns the evaluation of this quantity deploying the so-called "golden channel" of ttbar decays, yielding one energetic charged lepton, four particle jets and a relevant quantity of missing transverse energy due to the neutrino. The most important systematic errors arising from the various part of the calculation are studied in detail. Jet energy scale, trigger efficiency, Monte Carlo models, reconstruction algorithms and luminosity measurement are examples of what can contribute to the uncertainty about the cross-section.

Three essays in industrial organization

This dissertation comprises three essays on the topic of industrial organization. The first essay considers how different intellectual property systems can affect the incentives to invest in R&D when innovation is cumulative. I introduce a distinction between plain and sophisticated technological knowledge, which plays a crucial role in determining how different appropriability rules affect the incentives to innovate. I argue that the positive effect of weak intellectual property regimes on the sharing of intermediate technological knowledge vanishes when technological knowledge is sophisticated, as is likely to be the case in many high tech industries. The second essay analyzes a two-sided market for news where advertisers may pay a media outlet to conceal negative information on the quality of their own product (paying positive to avoid negative) and/or to disclose negative information on the quality of their competitors products (paying positive to go negative). It is shown that whether advertisers have negative consequences on the accuracy of media reports or not, ultimately depends on the extent of correlation among advertisers products. The third essay considers the role of social learning in the diffusion of a new technology. A population of agents can choose between two risky technologies: an old one for which they know the expected outcome, and a new one for which they have only a prior. Different environments are confronted. In the benchmark case agents are isolated and can perform costly experiments to infer the quality of the new technology. In the other cases agents are settled in a network and can observe the outcomes of neighbors. We observe that in expectations the quality of the new technology may be overestimated when there is a network spread of information.

Exact Algorithms for Different Classes of Vehicle Routing Problems

We deal with five problems arising in the field of logistics: the Asymmetric TSP (ATSP), the TSP with Time Windows (TSPTW), the VRP with Time Windows (VRPTW), the Multi-Trip VRP (MTVRP), and the Two-Echelon Capacitated VRP (2E-CVRP). The ATSP requires finding a lest-cost Hamiltonian tour in a digraph. We survey models and classical relaxations, and describe the most effective exact algorithms from the literature. A survey and analysis of the polynomial formulations is provided. The considered algorithms and formulations are experimentally compared on benchmark instances. The TSPTW requires finding, in a weighted digraph, a least-cost Hamiltonian tour visiting each vertex within a given time window. We propose a new exact method, based on new tour relaxations and dynamic programming. Computational results on benchmark instances show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the state-of-the-art exact methods. In the VRPTW, a fleet of identical capacitated vehicles located at a depot must be optimally routed to supply customers with known demands and time window constraints. Different column generation bounding procedures and an exact algorithm are developed. The new exact method closed four of the five open Solomon instances. The MTVRP is the problem of optimally routing capacitated vehicles located at a depot to supply customers without exceeding maximum driving time constraints. Two set-partitioning-like formulations of the problem are introduced. Lower bounds are derived and embedded into an exact solution method, that can solve benchmark instances with up to 120 customers. The 2E-CVRP requires designing the optimal routing plan to deliver goods from a depot to customers by using intermediate depots. The objective is to minimize the sum of routing and handling costs. A new mathematical formulation is introduced. Valid lower bounds and an exact method are derived. Computational results on benchmark instances show that the new exact algorithm outperforms the state-of-the-art exact methods.

Fingerprint Recognition: Enhancement, Feature Extraction and Automatic Evaluation of Algorithms

The identification of people by measuring some traits of individual anatomy or physiology has led to a specific research area called biometric recognition. This thesis is focused on improving fingerprint recognition systems considering three important problems: fingerprint enhancement, fingerprint orientation extraction and automatic evaluation of fingerprint algorithms. An effective extraction of salient fingerprint features depends on the quality of the input fingerprint. If the fingerprint is very noisy, we are not able to detect a reliable set of features. A new fingerprint enhancement method, which is both iterative and contextual, is proposed. This approach detects high-quality regions in fingerprints, selectively applies contextual filtering and iteratively expands like wildfire toward low-quality ones. A precise estimation of the orientation field would greatly simplify the estimation of other fingerprint features (singular points, minutiae) and improve the performance of a fingerprint recognition system. The fingerprint orientation extraction is improved following two directions. First, after the introduction of a new taxonomy of fingerprint orientation extraction methods, several variants of baseline methods are implemented and, pointing out the role of pre- and post- processing, we show how to improve the extraction. Second, the introduction of a new hybrid orientation extraction method, which follows an adaptive scheme, allows to improve significantly the orientation extraction in noisy fingerprints. Scientific papers typically propose recognition systems that integrate many modules and therefore an automatic evaluation of fingerprint algorithms is needed to isolate the contributions that determine an actual progress in the state-of-the-art. The lack of a publicly available framework to compare fingerprint orientation extraction algorithms, motivates the introduction of a new benchmark area called FOE (including fingerprints and manually-marked orientation ground-truth) along with fingerprint matching benchmarks in the FVC-onGoing framework. The success of such framework is discussed by providing relevant statistics: more than 1450 algorithms submitted and two international competitions.

L'efficienza degli indici azionari: un'analisi empirica

La studio dell’efficienza di un indice azionario ha accresciuto la propria importanza nell’industria dell’asset management a seguito della diffusione dell’utilizzo di benchmark e investimenti indicizzati. Il presente lavoro valuta il livello di efficienza dei principali indici del mercato azionario statunitense, dell’Area Euro e italiano. Lo studio empirico ricorre a quattro misure di efficienza: il GRS, un test small-sample multivariato fondato sul CAPM; il test large sample di Wald, implementato tramite una simulazione bootstrap; il test GMM, che è stato applicato in una cornice non-gaussiana attraverso una simulazione block bootstrap; la misura di efficienza relativa di Kandel e Stambaugh. I risultati empirici forniscono una prova evidente della superiore efficienza degli indici equiponderati. Questa conclusione è interpretata sulla base della letteratura scientifica esistente, analizzando le diverse cause di ordine teorico ed empirico che sono state proposte.

Essays on Regional Development and Internationalisation

This collection of essays examines various aspects of regional development and the issues of internationalization. The first essay investigates the implications of the impressive growth of China from a rural-urban perspective and addresses the topic of convergence in China by employing a non-parametrical approach to study the distribution dynamics of per capita income at province, rural and urban levels. To better understand the degree of inequality characterizing China and the long-term predictions of convergence or divergence of its different territorial aggregations, the second essay formulates a composite indicator of Regional Development (RDI) to benchmark development at province and sub-province level. The RDI goes beyond the uni-dimensional concept of development, generally proxied by the GDP per capita, and gives attention to the rural-urban dimension. The third essay “Internationalization and Trade Specialization in Italy. The role of China in the international intra-firm trade of the Italian regions” - deals with another aspect of regional economic development: the progressive de-industrialisation and de-localization of the local production. This essay looks at the trade specialization of selected Italian regions (those regions specialized in manufacturing) and the fragmentation of the local production on a global scale. China represents in this context an important stakeholder and the paper documents the importance of this country in the regional intra-firm trade.

Employing Distances in Design-based Spatial Estimation

In the last couple of decades we assisted to a reappraisal of spatial design-based techniques. Usually the spatial information regarding the spatial location of the individuals of a population has been used to develop efficient sampling designs. This thesis aims at offering a new technique for both inference on individual values and global population values able to employ the spatial information available before sampling at estimation level by rewriting a deterministic interpolator under a design-based framework. The achieved point estimator of the individual values is treated both in the case of finite spatial populations and continuous spatial domains, while the theory on the estimator of the population global value covers the finite population case only. A fairly broad simulation study compares the results of the point estimator with the simple random sampling without replacement estimator in predictive form and the kriging, which is the benchmark technique for inference on spatial data. The Monte Carlo experiment is carried out on populations generated according to different superpopulation methods in order to manage different aspects of the spatial structure. The simulation outcomes point out that the proposed point estimator has almost the same behaviour as the kriging predictor regardless of the parameters adopted for generating the populations, especially for low sampling fractions. Moreover, the use of the spatial information improves substantially design-based spatial inference on individual values.

Heuristic algorithms for the Capacitated Location-Routing Problem and the Multi-Depot Vehicle Routing Problem

The Capacitated Location-Routing Problem (CLRP) is a NP-hard problem since it generalizes two well known NP-hard problems: the Capacitated Facility Location Problem (CFLP) and the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP). The Multi-Depot Vehicle Routing Problem (MDVRP) is known to be a NP-hard since it is a generalization of the well known Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP), arising with one depot. This thesis addresses heuristics algorithms based on the well-know granular search idea introduced by Toth and Vigo (2003) to solve the CLRP and the MDVRP. Extensive computational experiments on benchmark instances for both problems have been performed to determine the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms. This work is organized as follows: Chapter 1 describes a detailed overview and a methodological review of the literature for the the Capacitated Location-Routing Problem (CLRP) and the Multi-Depot Vehicle Routing Problem (MDVRP). Chapter 2 describes a two-phase hybrid heuristic algorithm to solve the CLRP. Chapter 3 shows a computational comparison of heuristic algorithms for the CLRP. Chapter 4 presents a hybrid granular tabu search approach for solving the MDVRP.

On the Efficiency of the Benchmarks Used in the Asset Management

In this work we studied the efficiency of the benchmarks used in the asset management industry. In chapter 2 we analyzed the efficiency of the benchmark used for the government bond markets. We found that for the Emerging Market Bonds an equally weighted index for the country weights is probably the more suited because guarantees maximum diversification of country risk but for the Eurozone government bond market we found a GDP weighted index is better because the most important matter is to avoid a higher weight for highly indebted countries. In chapter 3 we analyzed the efficiency of a Derivatives Index to invest in the European corporate bond market instead of a Cash Index. We can state that the two indexes are similar in terms of returns, but that the Derivatives Index is less risky because it has a lower volatility, has values of skewness and kurtosis closer to those of a normal distribution and is a more liquid instrument, as the autocorrelation is not significant. In chapter 4 it is analyzed the impact of fallen angels on the corporate bond portfolios. Our analysis investigated the impact of the month-end rebalancing of the ML Emu Non Financial Corporate Index for the exit of downgraded bond (the event). We can conclude a flexible approach to the month-end rebalancing is better in order to avoid a loss of valued due to the benchmark construction rules. In chapter 5 we did a comparison between the equally weighted and capitalization weighted method for the European equity market. The benefit which results from reweighting the portfolio into equal weights can be attributed to the fact that EW portfolios implicitly follow a contrarian investment strategy, because they mechanically rebalance away from stocks that increase in price.

Novel Synthetic Procedures in Organocatalysis

The main aim of my PhD project was the design and the synthesis of new pyrrolidine organocatalysts. New effective ferrocenyl pyrrolidine catalysts, active in benchmark organocatalytic reactions, has been developed. The ferrocenyl moiety, in combination with simple ethyl chains, is capable of fixing the enamine conformation addressing the approach trajectory of the nucleophile in the reaction. The results obtained represent an interesting proof-of-concept, showing for the first time the remarkable effectiveness of the ferrocenyl moiety in providing enantioselectivity through conformational selection. This approach could be viably employed in the rational design of ligands for metal or organocatalysts. Other hindered secondary amines has been prepared from alkylation of acyclic chiral nitroderivatives with alcohols in a highly diastereoselective fashion, giving access to functionalized, useful organocatalytic chiral pyrrolidines. A family of new pyrrolidines bearing sterogenic centers and functional groups can be readily accessible by this methodology. The second purpose of the project was to study in deep the reactivity of stabilized carbocations in new metal-free and organocatalytic reactions. By taking advantage of the results from the kinetic studies described by Mayr, a simple and effective procedure for the direct formylation of aryltetrafluoroborate salts, has been development. The coupling of a range of aryl- and heteroaryl- trifluoroborate salts with 1,3-benzodithiolylium tetrafluoroborate, has been attempted in moderate to good yields. Finally, a simple and general methodology for the enamine-mediated enantioselective α-alkylation of α-substituted aldehydes with 1,3-benzodithiolylium tetrafluoroborate has been reported. The introduction of the benzodithiole moiety permit the installation of different functional groups due to its chameleonic behaviour.

Search for the MSSM Neutral Higgs Boson in the mu+mu- final state with the CMS experiment at LHC

In this thesis, my work in the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment on the search for the neutral Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) Higgs decaying into two muons is presented. The search is performed on the full data collected during the years 2011 and 2012 by CMS in proton-proton collisions at CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The MSSM is explored within the most conservative benchmark scenario, m_h^{max}, and within its modified versions, m_h^{mod +} and m_h^{mod -}. The search is sensitive to MSSM Higgs boson production in association with a b\bar{b} quark pair and to the gluon-gluon fusion process. In the m_h^{max} scenario, the results exclude values of tanB larger than 15 in the m_A range 115-200 GeV, and values of tanB greater than 30 in the m_A range up to 300 GeV. There are no significant differences in the results obtained within the three different scenarios considered. Comparisons with other neutral MSSM Higgs searches are shown.

Partial Discharge Phenomena in Converter and Traction Transformers: Identification and Reliability

After the development of power electronics converters, the number of transformers subjected to non-sinusoidal stresses (including DC) has increased in applications such as HVDC links and traction (electric train power cars). The effects of non-sinusoidal voltages on transformer insulation have been investigated by many researchers, but still now, there are some issues that must be understood. Some of those issues are tackled in this Thesis, studying PD phenomena behavior in Kraft paper, pressboard and mineral oil at different voltage conditions like AC, DC, AC+DC, notched AC and square waveforms. From the point of view of converter transformers, it was found that the combined effect of AC and DC voltages produces higher stresses in the pressboard that those that are present under pure DC voltages. The electrical conductivity of the dielectric systems in DC and AC+DC conditions has demonstrated to be a critical parameter, so, its measurement and analysis was also taken into account during all the experiments. Regarding notched voltages, the RMS reduction caused by notches (depending on firing and overlap angles) seems to increase the PDIV. However, the experimental results show that once PD activity has incepted, the notches increase PD repetition rate and magnitude, producing a higher degradation rate of paper. On the other hand, the reduction of mineral oil stocks, their relatively low flash point as well as environmental issues, are factors that are pushing towards the use of esters as transformer insulating fluids. This PhD Thesis also covers the study of two different esters with the scope to validate their use in traction transformers. Mineral oil was used as benchmark. The complete set of dielectric tests performed in the three fluids, show that esters behave better than mineral oil in practically all the investigated conditions, so, their application in traction transformers is possible and encouraged.