Are microtargeted campaign messages more negative and diverse? An analysis of Facebook Ads in European election campaigns

Concerns about the use of online political microtargeting (OPM) by campaigners have arisen since the Cambridge Analytica scandal hit the international political arena. In addition to providing conceptual clarity on OPM and explore the use of such techniques in Europe, this paper seeks to empirically disentangle the differing behaviours of campaigners when they message citizens through microtargeted rather than non-targeted campaigning. More precisely, I hypothesise that campaigners use negative campaigning and are more diverse in terms of topics when they use OPM. To investigate whether these expectations hold true, I use text-as-data techniques to analyse an original dataset of 4,091 political Facebook Ads during the last national elections in Austria, Italy, Germany and Sweden. Results show that while microtargeted ads might indeed be more thematically diverse, there does not seem to be a significant difference to non-microtargeted ads in terms of negativity. In conclusion, I discuss the implications of these findings for microtargeted campaigns and how future research could be conducted

Dimensional hyper-reduction of nonlinear finite element models via empirical cubature

We present a general framework for the dimensional reduction, in terms of number of degrees of freedom as well as number of integration points (“hyper-reduction”), of nonlinear parameterized finite element (FE) models. The reduction process is divided into two sequential stages. The first stage consists in a common Galerkin projection onto a reduced-order space, as well as in the condensation of boundary conditions and external forces. For the second stage (reduction in number of integration points), we present a novel cubature scheme that efficiently determines optimal points and associated positive weights so that the error in integrating reduced internal forces is minimized. The distinguishing features of the proposed method are: (1) The minimization problem is posed in terms of orthogonal basis vector (obtained via a partitioned Singular Value Decomposition) rather that in terms of snapshots of the integrand. (2) The volume of the domain is exactly integrated. (3) The selection algorithm need not solve in all iterations a nonnegative least-squares problem to force the positiveness of the weights. Furthermore, we show that the proposed method converges to the absolute minimum (zero integration error) when the number of selected points is equal to the number of internal force modes included in the objective function. We illustrate this model reduction methodology by two nonlinear, structural examples (quasi-static bending and resonant vibration of elastoplastic composite plates). In both examples, the number of integration points is reduced three order of magnitudes (with respect to FE analyses) without significantly sacrificing accuracy.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Unemployment and Time Use: Evidence from the Spanish Time Use Survey

In this paper we use a time use approach to analyze the average effect of aggregate unemployment on the daily life of individuals, focusing on the relationship between reduced market work and additional household production of unemployed individuals. Using the Spanish Time Use Survey 2002-2003, we find that, in general, the unemployed devote most of the reduced market time to additional leisure, and only a small proportion of time is devoted to household production activities. However, we find that the relationship between market work and household production with unemployment of individuals depends on regional unemployment rates, since in areas with high unemployment rates reduced market work is made up by additional time spent in household production. Our paper sheds light on the relationship between individuals’ time allocation decisions and aggregate macroeconomic variables.Unemployment, Time Use, Aggregate Unemployment, Enjoyment Data

Optimal location of car wreck adjusters

Su origen es difícil de determinar debido a las diversas restauraciones que se han llevado a cabo, los datos más antiguos son del siglo XVIII, aunque su origen es sin duda anterior. Junto a la Capilla se habilitó un hospital y asilo de transeúntes. Presenta planta rectangular, de una sola nave cubierta con una artesa de yeso y el presbiterio con bóveda de arista. Tiene una espadaña con campana y veleta de forja. En la puerta podemos encontrar un azulejo polícromo del siglo XVIII con la imagen de la Virgen de los Remedios. En el Interior, en el altar mayor, observamos una imagen de la Virgen de los Remedios, titular de la Capilla y Patrona del pueblo desde 1964. En el presbiterio, dentro de dos retablos neoclásicos, se encuentran las imágenes de San Isidro Labrador y de la Divina Pastora. Desde comienzos del siglo XXI la capilla ha estado cerrada ya que presentaba un elevado estado de deterioro. Debido a esto las imágenes fueron trasladadas a la Iglesia Parroquial. En el año 2012, dicho edificio fue restaurado quedando nuevamente abierto al público

Virtual Laboratory of Industrial Scenarios for Training in the Areas of Automation and Contrtol

An article written in part by Jorge-Alberto Ortega-Moody and published in the November 2016 issue of DYNA Journal, pages 1-7