Innovation and Advertising: Theory and Evidence.

Advertising and innovation are two engines for firms to escape competition through a better attraction power toward consumers or quality advantage. We propose a model that encompasses both the static and dynamic interactions between R&D, advertising and competitive environment. This model provides two main predictions. First, for a given competitive environment, quality leaders spend more in advertising in order to extract maximal rents; thus, lower costs of ads may favor R&D. Second, more competition pushes Neck and Neck firms to advertise more to attract a larger share of consumers on their products or services. Empirical evidence from a large panel of 59,000 French firms over 1990-2004 supports these two properties.Advertising, Innovation, Competition, Lerner.

Room Temperature Organic Superconductor?

The electron--phonon coupling in fullerene C28 has been calculated from first principles. The value of the associated coupling constant lambda/N(0) is found to be a factor three larger than that associated with C60. Assuming similar values of the density of levels at the Fermi surface N(0) and of the Coulomb pseudopotential for C28-based solids as those associated with alkali-doped fullerides A3C60, one obtains Tc(C28) \approx 8 Tc(C60).Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure

The Youth Ecological-Resilience Scale : a partial validation

Abstract: Purpose: In South Africa, the field of scale development and utilisation in social work is referred to as ‘ecometrics’, i.e. the measurement of ecological constructs. There is, however, a lack of ecometric tools available for use by social workers, particularly in the area of measuring strengths or resilience. Given the high vulnerability of South African youth, this paper describes the design and validation of a youth resilience measure. Method: The Youth Ecological-Resilience Scale (YERS), a multidimensional, summated rating scale that measures youth resilience within an ecological framework, was designed and validated with a diverse sample of 575 young people, using ecometric techniques. Results: The YERS shows good levels of reliability and validity. Conclusions: The YERS is suitable for group administration and research, and also for assessment of individuals when triangulated with other assessment methods. Several studies of youth transitions using the YERS are described, as well as suggestions for its use in social work practice

Resorting to non euclidean plane geometries to develop deductive reasoning an onto-semiotic approach

The main idea behind this work is the study of the potential of resorting to other models of Plane Geometry (e.g. Hyperbolic Geometry, Taxicab Geometry) to help students to progress towards a proper/better understanding of what a mathematical proof is about. A teaching experiment carried out with students of 15 to 17 years-old attending the 10th and11thgrade (the two first years of secondary school) of a Portuguese school. The experience started in the10th grade and lasted in the 11thgrade. Our main focus is the analysis of primary and secondary relationships of geometric objects involved in argumentation and proof (in the sense of Godino et al. and Gutiérrez et al.) activated by the students during production of arguments

Особенности попередельного способа калькуляции себестоимости продукции в перерабатывающем производстве

We are interested in the asymptotic stability of equilibria of structured populations modelled in terms of systems of Volterra functional equations coupled with delay differential equations. The standard approach based on studying the characteristic equation of the linearized system is often involved or even unattainable. Therefore, we propose and investigate a numerical method to compute the eigenvalues of the associated infinitesimal generator. The latter is discretized by using a pseudospectral approach, and the eigenvalues of the resulting matrix are the sought approximations. An algorithm is presented to explicitly construct the matrix from the model coefficients and parameters. The method is tested first on academic examples, showing its suitability also for a class of mathematical models much larger than that mentioned above, including neutral- and mixed-type equations. Applications to cannibalism and consumer\u2013resource models are then provided in order to illustrate the efficacy of the proposed technique, especially for studying bifurcations

Cultivares e sistemas de cultivo de cebola no verão.

O presente trabalho foi realizado em São José do Rio Pardo. com o objetivo de avaliar o comportamento de cultivares de cebola Alfa Tropical, Alfa São Francisco e Mercedes em quatro sistemas de cultivo no verão. O experimento foi conduzido no delineamento de blocos casualizados, com quatro repetições e arranjo em parcelas subdivididas. Muda's de cebola produzidas em canteiros ou em bandejas de 200 células foram transplantadas em sistema convencional e direto na palha. A interação entre sistemas de cultivo e ,cultivares foi significativa na produtividade e incidência do mal-das-sete-voltas. A produtividade total variou entre 0.7 e 55.1 t ha-1. sendo as mais baixas produtividades obtidas com a cultivar Mercedes em todos os sistemas de cultivo. Foi observado que a produtividade e a precocidade de colheita foram maiores ou a incidência do mal-das-sete-voltas menor com as mudas de bandejas/ Em geral, a produtividade ou a precocidade de colheita tenderam a aumentar com a redução do preparo do solo. O transplantio direto na palha de mudas de bandejas é uma opção viável para a produção de cebola com sustentabilidade ambiental no verão.Suplemento. Edição dos resumos expandidos do 46. Congresso Brasileiro de Olericultura, Goiânia, ago. 2006

Spiral-like star-forming patterns in CALIFA early-type galaxies

Based on a combined analysis of SDSS imaging and CALIFA integral field spectroscopy data, we report on the detection of faint (24 < {\mu}$_r$ mag/arcsec$^2$ < 26) star-forming spiral-arm-like features in the periphery of three nearby early-type galaxies (ETGs). These features are of considerable interest because they document the still ongoing inside-out growth of some local ETGs and may add valuable observational insight into the origin and evolution of spiral structure in triaxial stellar systems. A characteristic property of the nebular component in the studied ETGs, classified i+, is a two-radial-zone structure, with the inner zone that displays faint (EW(H\alpha)$\simeq$1{\AA}) low-ionization nuclear emission-line region (LINER) properties, and the outer one (3{\AA}<EW(H\alpha)<~20{\AA}) HII-region characteristics. This spatial segregation of nebular emission in two physically distinct concentric zones calls for an examination of aperture effects in studies of type i+ ETGs with single-fiber spectroscopic data.Comment: Accepted to A&A, 5 pages, 1 figur

Influência de cultivares de feijão-caupi no crescimento populacional de Callosobruchus maculatus (FABR., 1775) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Bruchinae).

Na região Nordeste do Brasil a cultura do feijão-caupi tem grande importância socioeconômica, exercendo função no suprimento das necessidades nutricionais e fixação de mão-de-obra. Dentre as pragas que atacam os grãos de feijão-caupi durante o armazenamento, destaca-se Callosobruchus maculatus, por provocar perdas quantitativas e qualitativas. O controle deste inseto é feito principalmente com inseticidas sintéticos, no entanto, com os problemas decorrentes da intoxicação de aplicadores e seleção de insetos resistentes, formas alternativas de controle têm sido buscadas. Neste contexto, o objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar a influência de cultivares de caupi no crescimento populacional de C. maculatus. Para realização do experimento utilizou-se cultivares de caupi provenientes da Embrapa Semiárido: BRS Guariba, BRS Maratoã, BRS Milênio, BRS Paraguaçu e BRS Pujante, além da testemunha Sempre Verde. Realizou-se teste sem chance de escolha, avaliando-se número de insetos emergidos e a taxa instantânea de crescimento populacional. A cultivar BRS Pujante apresentou os melhores resultados em relação aos parâmetros biológicos testados, apresentando possivelmente resistência do tipo antibiose.CONAC 2012. Disponível em: http://www.conac2012.org/resumos/pdf/241a.pdf. Acesso em: 08 ago. 2013

Spectroscopic aperture biases in inside-out evolving early-type galaxies from CALIFA

Integral field spectroscopy studies based on CALIFA data have recently revealed the presence of ongoing low-level star formation (SF) in the periphery of ~10% of local early-type galaxies (ETGs), witnessing a still ongoing inside-out galaxy growth process. A distinctive property of the nebular component in these ETGs, classified i+, is a two-radial-zone structure, with the inner zone displaying LINER emission with a H\alpha equivalent width EW~1{\AA}, and the outer one (3{\AA}<EW<~20{\AA}) showing HII-region characteristics. Using CALIFA IFS data, we empirically demonstrate that the confinement of nebular emission to the galaxy periphery leads to a strong aperture (or, redshift) bias in spectroscopic single-fiber studies of type i+ ETGs: At low redshift (<~0.45), SDSS spectroscopy is restricted to the inner (SF-devoid LINER) zone, thereby leading to their erroneous classification as "retired" galaxies (systems lacking SF and whose faint emission is powered by pAGB stars). Only at higher z's the SDSS aperture can encompass the outer SF zone, permitting their unbiased classification as "composite SF/LINER". We also demonstrate that the principal effect of a decreasing aperture on the classification of i+ ETGs via standard BPT emission-line ratios consists in a monotonic up-right shift precisely along the upper-right wing of the "seagull" distribution. Motivated by these insights, we also investigate theoretically these biases in aperture-limited studies of inside-out growing galaxies as a function of z. To this end, we devise a simple model, which involves an outwardly propagating SF process, that reproduces the radial extent and two-zone EW distribution of i+ ETGs. By simulating on this model the spectroscopic SDSS aperture, we find that SDSS studies at z<~1 are progressively restricted to the inner LINER-zone, and miss an increasingly large portion of the H\alpha-emitting periphery.Comment: Accepted to A&A, 6 pages, 4 figure