Short Employment Spells in Italy, Germany and the UK: Testing the Port of Entry Hypothesis

This paper looks at short employment spells in three European countries: Great Britain, whose labour market is considered the most flexible in the EU; Italy, regarded as the least flexible; and Germany, tightly regulated, but characterised by a deservedly famous apprenticeship system. In particular, it aims to assess whether young people in short-lived jobs stand a better chance of finding a 'good job' compared to their older colleagues. The increasingly held belief that - in modern economies - a 'bad job' at the beginning of one's career is the 'port-of-entry' to stable employment and to upward mobility, makes this assessment particularly relevant; ie it matters greatly if short-duration jobs are entry ports into better employment or become long term-traps. The lack of accepted benchmarks makes it difficult to reach strong conclusions in regard to the 'efficiency' of labour markets, however, this study should help to highlight the effect of different labour market institutions on mobility and on the soundness of the 'port-of-entry' hypothesis.

Influence of space allowance on the welfare of weaned buffalo (Bubalus Bubalis) calves

Twenty weaned female buffalo calves were used to evaluate the effect of space allowance in relation to their body surface area on a range of behavioural and physiological parameters. Body surface area in m2 was calculated as 0.12 body weight0.60. Ten calves received 50% of body surface as space allocation (Group 50), 10 others received 90% of body surface area (Group 90). Animals in Group 50 lay with a lower number of outstretched legs than calves in Group 90. Buffaloes from Group 50 were observed standing more frequently than animals from Group 90 ( P < 0.001). The proportions of idling ( P < 0.01) and lying idle observations ( P < 0.001) were higher for Group 90 than for Group 50. Group 90 performed a higher number of non-agonistic interactions than Group 50 ( P < 0.01), whereas the opposite was observed for the number of agonistic interactions ( P < 0.01). When exposed to open field testing, Group 50 animals displayed an increased duration of movement, number of galloping events and more vocalisation. Neither immune responses to phytohemagglutinin and ovalbumin nor the cortisol response to exogenous ACTH were affected by treatment. It was concluded that 50% of body surface area may be an inadequate space allowance for weaned calves

Point-free Ultrametric Spaces and the Category of Fuzzy Subsets

Some attempts to establish a link between point-free geometry and the categorical approach to fuzzy set theory is exposed. In fact, it is possible to find functors between the category of fuzzy sets as defined by Höhle in [4] and a category whose objects are the pointless ultrametric spaces

Didattica del ragionamento: un esempio di deduzione logica in ambiente Mathematica

Si mostra come, in un ambiente adeguato per il calcolo simbolico, si possano introdurre elementi di programmazione logica, “traducendo” una teoria in un insieme di definizioni di funzioni. Dal punto di vista didattico, tale riduzione della programmazione logica a programmazione funzionale risulta utile per l’ampliamento dell’uso di strumenti informatici all’ambito della logica matematica. Inoltre, un ulteriore obiettivo è quello di facilitare, attraverso tali strumenti, lo sviluppo di competenze non solo nell’ambito del calcolo numerico-algebrico ma anche in quello dell’ informazione di tipo assertivo-logico. Il nostro punto di vista è che nella sperimentazione didattica sia possibile riferirsi alla logica non solo per quanto riguarda il calcolo proposizionale ma anche al suo aspetto deduttivo. E’ necessario evidenziare come il metodo assiomatico sia presente nella vita di tutti i giorni. Nozioni come quelle di “sistema di assiomi” e di “teorema” devono essere interpretate in termini di informazione disponibile, (in generale non completa) circa situazioni della vita reale, e di conseguenze che si possono ricavare a partire da tale informazione

Primary teachers’ beliefs and emotional disposition towards mathematics and its teaching

As researches in mathematics education and as teacher educators we are strongly interested in facing the question “what is necessary for teaching mathematics effectively”. The main directions of research emphasize the cognitive side of the answer to this question. In our view, attention from a purely cognitive dimension has to shift to a wider view encompassing also an affective plane, focusing on teachers’ beliefs, emotions and attitudes. We conducted a study to investigate the attitude towards mathematics and its teaching of 189 primary school pre-service teachers. We used as tool a questionnaire composed by questions focused on the three components of attitude (emotional disposition, view, perceived competence), declined along the two dimensions of mathematics and its teaching, according to the TAMT-model. In this paper we discuss some of the results regarding the relationships among the different components of the model with a particular attention to the links among past experiences as students, present, and future perspectives as future teachers

BIOMEX (Biology and Mars Experiment): Preliminary results on Antarctic black cryptoendolithic fungi in ground based experiments

The main goal for astrobiologists is to find traces of present or past life in extraterrestrial environment or in meteorites. Biomolecules, such as lipids, pigments or polysaccharides, may be useful to establish the presence of extant or extinct life (Simoneit, B et al., 1998). BIOMEX (Biology and Mars Experiment) aims to measure to what extent biomolecules, such as pigments and cellular components, preserve their stability under space and Mars-like conditions. The experiment has just been launched in the space and will be exposed on EXPOSE-R payload to the outside of the International Space Station (ISS) for about 2 years. Among a number of extremophilic microorganisms tested, the Antarctic cryptoendolithic black fungus Cryomyces antarcticus CCFEE 515 was included in the experiment. The fungus, living in the airspaces of porous rocks, was already chosen in previous astrobiological investigation for studying the interplanetary transfer of life via meteorites. In that context, the fungus survived 18 months of exposure outside of the ISS (Onofri al., 2012); for all these reasons it is considered an optimal eukaryotic model for astrobiological exploration. Before launch dried samples were exposed, in ground based experiments, to extreme conditions, including vacuum, irradiation and temperature cycles.Upon sample re-hydration and survival analysis, including colony forming ability, Propidium MonoAzide (PMA) assay-coupled quantitative PCR (Mohapatra and La Duc, 2012) all the test systems survived, neither any DNA damage was detectable. Our analyses focused also on mineral-microorganisms interactions and stability/degradation of typical fungal macromolecules, in particular melanin, when exposed to space and simulated Martian conditions, contributing to the development of libraries of biosignatures in rocks, supporting future exploration missions

The hidden costs of livestock environmental sustainability: The case of Podolian Cattle

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is currently one of the most widely used methods for assessing the environmental impacts and performance of livestock products. According to this procedure, intensification of animal production is generally advocated to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions compared with extensive grazing systems due to the use of selected breeds, with enhanced productivity, and the significant reductions in CH4 emissions consequent to the use of concentrates rather than forages. In addition, the impact of intensive systems on land use is much lower. However, free-ranging Podolian cattle show a number of positive environmental effects, such as increased climate stability, improved soil functionality, water quality and footprint and preservation from fires along with maintaining an economically active social community in otherwise unproductive, marginal areas. Other beneficial effects of extensive Podolian farming system include low competition with human nutrition and high level of animal health and welfare. An economic evaluation of these non-commodity outputs should be indirectly estimated by the avoided costs (e.g. reduced veterinary interventions and therapy treatments) or the lack of profits (e.g. direct payments for the enhancement of environmental performance) that would have incurred in their absence. These economic evaluations should be used in order to allocate them as further outputs to be included in the LCA in order to achieve a more accurate estimation of the impact of the Podolian farming system