Optimal Consumption and Portfolio Choice: The Impact of Health and Health Risk

This paper investigates the effect of health and health risk on households’ optimal consumption and portfolio allocations over the life cycle. The simulation results show that consumption, savings in bonds, and savings in stocks all increase in health. Compared with poor health households, the healthy households consume 49% higher, invest 27% and 39% more in bonds and in stocks, respectively. The risky portfolio share, which is the ratio of stocks to the total financial assets is positively related with health for most of the lifetime. Regarding the age profile, it demonstrates the same tendency for both health levels: at the very young age, the risky portfolio share is relatively high. Starting from the middle age, this share falls significantly and keeps steady until the end of life. These results emphasize the importance of health and its associated risk in consumption and portfolio decisions. With all other things equal, households’ consumption and investment behaviors are heterogenous across health. It also provides significant policy applications: by promoting health and reducing health risk, it would largely improve households’ well-being: higher consumption, and more savings in financial assets.

Optimal Investment and Consumption for Multidimensional Spread Financial Markets with Logarithmic Utility

We consider a spread financial market defined by the multidimensional Ornstein–Uhlenbeck (OU) process. We study the optimal consumption/investment problem for logarithmic utility functions using a stochastic dynamical programming method. We show a special verification theorem for this case. We find the solution to the Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman (HJB) equation in explicit form and as a consequence we construct optimal financial strategies. Moreover, we study the constructed strategies with numerical simulations.

ISOLATION OF HUMIC ACIDS FROM THE TOP PEAT OF THE PRIMORSKY DISTRICT OF THE ARKHANGELSK REGION

В работе предложена модифицированная методика выделения гуминовых кислот из верхового торфа Приморского района Архангельской области. Методика обеспечивает высокий выход гуминовых кислот при оптимальном расходе экстрагирующего реагента. В выделенных препаратах гуминового комплекса определен ряд физико-химических характеристик: влажность, зольность, элементный состав, функциональный состав. Показана эффективность применения модифицированной методики для извлечения ГК из верхового торфа с увеличенным практическим выходом. In this paper, we propose a modified method for the isolation of humic acids from the upper peat of the Primorsky district of the Arkhangelsk region. The method provides a high yield of humic acids with an optimal consumption of the extracting reagent. In the isolated preparations of the humic complex, a number of physical and chemical characteristics were determined: humidity, ash content, elemental composition, and functional composition. The efficiency of using the modified technique for HA extraction from top peat with increased practical yield is shown.

Mediterranean Diet Adherence in a Sample of Italian Adolescents Attending Secondary School—The “#facciamoComunicAzione” Project

Our aim was to assess adherence to the Mediterranean diet in a group of 726 secondary school students (336 girls, 390 boys) who completed the web-based Medi-Lite questionnaire simultaneously, during school hours, at the “Istituto Professionale per l’Enogastronomia e l’Ospitalità Alberghiera Marco Polo” in Genoa, Italy. The mean adherence score was 9.28 ± 2.29, with significantly (p = 0.017) higher values in girls (9.5 ± 2.2) than boys (9.1 ± 2.4). As to the individual food components of the Medi-Lite score, 84% of students reported non-optimal consumption (i.e., the choice that yielded ≤ 1 point) of meat and meat products, and over 50% reported non-optimal consumption of vegetables, legumes, dairy products, and fish. Significant differences between girls and boys were observed for fruit (p = 0.003), cereals (p < 0.001), meat and meat products (p < 0.001), and dairy products (p = 0.003). By conducting a principal component analysis, we observed that Medi-Lite items on the consumption of some animal products (meat and meat products and dairy products) and some plant products (fruit, vegetables, and legumes) generated contrasting patterns of responses, denoting excessive consumption in the first case and underconsumption in the second. This result suggests the need for effective actions to promote healthy eating habits in young people.

Building Systems Based on Foamed Modified Polymers

Systems of floor insulation on the ground, isolation of roads and shallow foundations suggest the use of heat-insulating products resistant to moisture, the minerals contained in it, having low heat conductivity and water absorption and relatively high strength for compressive loads.The aim of the research was to study the possibility of using mineral substances containing crystalline water as a dispersed component. Firstly, such compounds as a reinforcing component increase the strength characteristics of products. Secondly, being flame retardants, they contribute to increasing the fire safety of materials and building systems in which these materials are used. To achieve this goal, two particular tasks were set: determination of the optimal consumption of mineral modifying additives; assessment of exploitative stability of the received products. It was found that the introduction of a mineral modifying additive can significantly increase the compressive strength by 10% deformation of samples from extruded polystyrene foam. The exploitative stability of products with a mineral additive varies slightly and depends on its consumption and uniform distribution in the product matrix. The effect of additive consumption on the change in the thermal conductivity of products has not been established. A nomogram has been built which allows one to evaluate the properties of products and determine the optimal consumption of a modifying additive.Systems of using products from modified extruded polystyrene foam in monolithic foundations with insulation for buildings erected on problem soils are considered.