1,812 research outputs found
Ethnic Persistence, Assimilation and Risk Proclivity
The paper investigates the role of social norms as a determinant of individual attitudes by analyzing risk proclivity reported by immigrants and natives in a unique representative German survey. We employ factor analysis to construct measures of immigrants' ethnic persistence and assimilation. The estimated effect of these measures on risk proclivity suggests that adaptation to the attitudes of the majority population closes the immigrant-native gap in risk proclivity, while stronger commitment to the home country preserves it. As risk attitudes are behaviourally relevant, and vary by ethnic origin, our results could also help explain differences in economic assimilation of immigrants.Risk attitudes, ethnic persistence, assimilation, second generation effects, gender
Native-Migrant Differences in Risk Attitudes
This paper questions the perceived wisdom that migrants are more risk-loving than the native population. We employ a new large German survey of direct individual risk measures to find that first-generation migrants have lower risk attitudes than natives, which only equalize in the second generation.Risk attitudes, Ethnicity, Native-migrant differences, Gender differences, Secondgeneration effects
RAO-II: an AUV for underwater inspection
AIRSUB is a research project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science
and Technology whose aim is to explore the industrial applications of
underwater robots. The Systems, Robotics and Vision Group (SRV) from
the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) is responsible for the subproject
of cable/pipeline inspection [1]. To this purpose, an Autonomous
Underwater Vehicle (AUV) is under development as a platform to test the
vision algorithms, control strategies and software architectures devised
in the last years. This paper describes the main characteristics of the new
platform, which is based on a commercial Remotely Operated Vehicle
(ROV). The original vehicle has been deeply modifi ed in structure as well
as in its electric, electronic and sensorial facets to obtain fully autonomous
operation
Geographic Mobility in the European Union: Optimising its Economic and Social Benefits
One of the founding principles of the European Union is the freedom of movement of workers (Article 39 of the Treaty establishing the European Community). The free movement of workers is essential for the creation of an area without internal frontiers, and for the strength-ening of economic and social cohesion and active citizenship.Taking an economic perspective, geographic mobility can have major positive effects by bringing about economic growth in countries with labour deficits and prosperity in countries with labour surplus. Hence, the diffusion of skills through occupational and geographic mo-bility is a central factor to enhance the productive capacity of firms and put regions or na-tional economies on a higher growth path. Taking a social perspective, geographical mobility has the potential of fostering social-cultural integration in the European Union, and strength-ening European identity and inter-cultural networks
Replacement of lead stabilizer in electroless nickel-boron baths : synthesis and characterization of coatings from bismuth stabilized bath
Atom interferometry measurement of the electric polarizability of lithium
Using an atom interferometer, we have measured the static electric
polarizability of Li m atomic units with a 0.66% uncertainty. Our experiment, which
is similar to an experiment done on sodium in 1995 by D. Pritchard and
co-workers, consists in applying an electric field on one of the two
interfering beams and measuring the resulting phase-shift. With respect to D.
Pritchard's experiment, we have made several improvements which are described
in detail in this paper: the capacitor design is such that the electric field
can be calculated analytically; the phase sensitivity of our interferometer is
substantially better, near 16 mrad/; finally our interferometer is
species selective it so that impurities present in our atomic beam (other
alkali atoms or lithium dimers) do not perturb our measurement. The extreme
sensitivity of atom interferometry is well illustrated by our experiment: our
measurement amounts to measuring a slight increase of the atom
velocity when it enters the electric field region and our present
sensitivity is sufficient to detect a variation .Comment: 14 page
Ethnic persistence, assimilation and risk proclivity
This paper investigates whether immigrants adapt to the attitudes of the
majority population in the host country by focusing on the effect of ethnic
persistence and assimilation on individual risk proclivity. Employing
information from a unique representative German survey, we find that
adaptation to the host country closes the existing immigrant-native gap in
risk proclivity by reducing immigrants’ risk aversion and explains the
systematic variation in the observed risk attitudes across immigrants of
different origins. Our analysis of the adaptation behavior of immigrants
suggests that acquisition of social norms is an essential factor in the
formation of individual attitudes
Report No. 19: Geographic Mobility in the European Union: Optimising its Economic and Social Benefits
Joint expertise with NIRAS Consultants and AMS for the European Commission, Bonn 2008 (159 pages)
Attosecond tracking of light absorption and refraction in fullerenes
The collective response of matter is ubiquitous and widely exploited, e.g. in
plasmonic, optical and electronic devices. Here we trace on an attosecond time
scale the birth of collective excitations in a finite system and find distinct
new features in this regime. Combining quantum chemical computation with
quantum kinetic methods we calculate the time-dependent light absorption and
refraction in fullerene that serve as indicators for the emergence of
collective modes. We explain the numerically calculated novel transient
features by an analytical model and point out the relevance for ultra-fast
photonic and electronic applications. A scheme is proposed to measure the
predicted effects via the emergent attosecond metrology.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, accepted in Phys. Rev.
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