What Causes Gender Differences in the Participation and Intensity of Lifelong Learning?

We use recent advances in the statistical analysis of Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions for non-linear models to analyse the contribution of individual variables to total gender differences in participation and duration of training. Results suggest that effects stemming from the intra-household division of labour contribute significantly to gender differences, but that segregation of the labour market as well as differences in the access to training by tenure, age, occupation, profession and sectors are more important

Notes on some Catoptria Hübner, 1825 (Crambidae, Lepidoptera) from the Central Apennines (Italy), with the descriptions of Catoptria samnitica sp. nov. and the male of Catoptria apenninica Bassi, 2017

Material collected in recent expeditions by staff of the Tiroler Landesmuseen, Innsbruck, allows an update of some high elevation Catoptria of the Central Italian Apennines. Catoptria samnitica sp. nov. and the male of Catoptria apenninica Bassi are described from morphology and DNA barcodes, and adults and genitalia are illustrated. Both species are considered as regional endemics of the Central Apennines

ECG Beat Representation and Delineation by Means of Variable Projection

Objective: The electrocardiogram (ECG) follows a characteristic shape, which has led to the development of several mathematical models for extracting clinically important information. Our main objective is to resolve limitations of previous approaches, that means to simultaneously cope with various noise sources, perform exact beat segmentation, and to retain diagnostically important morphological information. Methods: We therefore propose a model that is based on Hermite and sigmoid functions combined with piecewise polynomial interpolation for exact segmentation and low-dimensional representation of individual ECG beat segments. Hermite and sigmoidal functions enable reliable extraction of important ECG waveform information while the piecewise polynomial interpolation captures noisy signal features like the baseline wander (BLW). For that we use variable projection, which allows the separation of linear and nonlinear morphological variations of the according ECG waveforms. The resulting ECG model simultaneously performs BLW cancellation, beat segmentation, and low-dimensional waveform representation. Results: We demonstrate its BLW denoising and segmentation performance in two experiments, using synthetic and real data. Compared to state-of-the-art algorithms, the experiments showed less diagnostic distortion in case of denoising and a more robust delineation for the P and T wave. Conclusion: This work suggests a novel concept for ECG beat representation, easily adaptable to other biomedical signals with similar shape characteristics, such as blood pressure and evoked potentials. Significance: Our method is able to capture linear and nonlinear wave shape changes. Therefore, it provides a novel methodology to understand the origin of morphological variations caused, for instance, by respiration, medication, and abnormalities