936 research outputs found
Labour Market and Social Policy in Italy: Challenges and Changes. Bertelsmann Policy Brief #2016/02
vEight years after the outbreak of the financial crisis, Italy has still to cope with and
overcome a plethora of economic and social challenges. On top of this, it faces an
unfavourable demographic structure and severe disparities between its northern and
southern regions. Some promising reforms have recently been enacted, specifically
targeting poverty and social exclusion. However, much more remains to be done on
the way towards greater economic stability and widely shared prosperity
Life history of the coppertail skink (Ctenotus taeniolatus)in southeastern australia
© 2020. David A. Pike All Rights Reserved. —The global decline of reptiles is a serious problem, but we still know little about the life histories of most species, making it difficult to predict which species are most vulnerable to environmental change and why they may be vulnerable. Life history can help dictate resilience in the face of decline, and therefore understanding attributes such as sexual size dimorphism, site fidelity, and survival rates are essential. Australia is well-known for its diversity of scincid lizards, but we have little detailed knowledge of the life histories of individual scincid species. To examine the life history of the Coppertail Skink (Ctenotus taeniolatus), which uses scattered surface rocks as shelter, we estimated survival rates, growth rates, and age at maturity during a three-year capture-mark-recapture study. We captured mostly females (>84%), and of individuals captured more than once, we captured 54.3% at least twice beneath the same rock, and of those, 64% were always beneath the same rock (up to five captures). Our growth model estimated that males can reach sexual maturity in as few as 8 mo, whereas females delay maturity until they reach 17 or more months of age. The large body size of females in our population suggests that many individuals were three or more years old. Average monthly survival rate was 86%, which is within the range reported for lizard species in other families. We now have a baseline with which to compare the life histories of other populations of this widespread species, which ranges from temperate to tropical environments. These findings also provide a baseline for examining effects of disturbance or environmental change on life-history traits
A cross validation of Consumer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE) with Private Labels in Spain
Molinillo,S., Ekinci, Y., Japutra, A. (2014)'A cross validation of Consumer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE) with Private Labels in Spain'. in MartÃnez-López, Gázquez-Abad, J.C. and Sethuraman, R. J.A. (eds.) Advances in National Brand and Private Label Marketing. Second International Conference, 2015. Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, pp. 113-125In recent years a number of Consumer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE) models and measurement scales have been introduced in the branding literature. However, examinations of brand equity in Private Labels (PL) are rather limited. This study aims to compare the validity of the two prominent CBBE models those introduced by Yoo and Donthu (2001) and Nam et al. (2011). In order to test the models and make this comparison, the study collected data from 236 respondents who rated private labels in Spain. A list of 30 different fashion and sportswear PL was introduced to respondents. These brands do not make any reference to the retail store in which they are sold. Research findings suggest that the extended CBBE model introduced by Nam et al. (2011) and Ciftci et al. (2014) is more reliable and valid than Yoo and Donthu’s model for assessing PL. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications are discussed.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional AndalucÃa Tech
Evaluation of two interaction techniques for visualization of dynamic graphs
Several techniques for visualization of dynamic graphs are based on different
spatial arrangements of a temporal sequence of node-link diagrams. Many studies
in the literature have investigated the importance of maintaining the user's
mental map across this temporal sequence, but usually each layout is considered
as a static graph drawing and the effect of user interaction is disregarded. We
conducted a task-based controlled experiment to assess the effectiveness of two
basic interaction techniques: the adjustment of the layout stability and the
highlighting of adjacent nodes and edges. We found that generally both
interaction techniques increase accuracy, sometimes at the cost of longer
completion times, and that the highlighting outclasses the stability adjustment
for many tasks except the most complex ones.Comment: Appears in the Proceedings of the 24th International Symposium on
Graph Drawing and Network Visualization (GD 2016
A comparison of the galaxy peculiar velocity field with the PSCz gravity field-- A Bayesian hyper-parameter method
We constructed a Bayesian hyper-parameter statistical method to quantify the
difference between predicted velocities derived from the observed galaxy
distribution in the \textit{IRAS}-PSC redshift survey and peculiar
velocities measured using different distance indicators. In our analysis we
find that the model--data comparison becomes unreliable beyond 70 \hmpc
because of the inadequate sampling by \textit{IRAS} survey of prominent,
distant superclusters, like the Shapley Concentration. On the other hand, the
analysis of the velocity residuals show that the PSC gravity field provides
an adequate model to the local, \le 70 \hmpc, peculiar velocity field. The
hyper-parameter combination of ENEAR, SN, A1SN and SFI++ catalogues in the
Bayesian framework constrains the amplitude of the linear flow to be
. For an rms density fluctuations in the PSC galaxy
number density , we obtain an estimate of the
growth rate of density fluctuations ,
which is in excellent agreement with independent estimates based on different
techniques.Comment: 14 pages, 32 figures, MNRAS in press, matched the MNRAS published
versio
Cosmic Flows on 100 Mpc/h Scales: Standardized Minimum Variance Bulk Flow, Shear and Octupole Moments
The low order moments, such as the bulk flow and shear, of the large scale
peculiar velocity field are sensitive probes of the matter density fluctuations
on very large scales. In practice, however, peculiar velocity surveys are
usually sparse and noisy, which can lead to the aliasing of small scale power
into what is meant to be a probe of the largest scales. Previously, we
developed an optimal ``minimum variance'' (MV) weighting scheme, designed to
overcome this problem by minimizing the difference between the measured bulk
flow (BF) and that which would be measured by an ideal survey. Here we extend
this MV analysis to include the shear and octupole moments, which are designed
to have almost no correlations between them so that they are virtually
orthogonal. We apply this MV analysis to a compilation of all major peculiar
velocity surveys, consisting of 4536 measurements. Our estimate of the BF on
scales of ~ 100 Mpc/h has a magnitude of |v|= 416 +/- 78 km/s towards Galactic
l = 282 degree +/- 11 degree and b = 6 degree +/- 6 degree. This result is in
disagreement with LCDM with WMAP5 cosmological parameters at a high confidence
level, but is in good agreement with our previous MV result without an
orthogonality constraint, showing that the shear and octupole moments did not
contaminate the previous BF measurement. The shear and octupole moments are
consistent with WMAP5 power spectrum, although the measurement noise is larger
for these moments than for the BF. The relatively low shear moments suggest
that the sources responsible for the BF are at large distances.Comment: 13 Pages, 7 figures, 4 tables. Some changes to reflect the published
versio
The role of the alloy structure in the magnetic behavior of granular systems
The effect of grain size, easy magnetization axis and anisotropy constant
distributions in the irreversible magnetic behavior of granular alloys is
considered. A simulated granular alloy is used to provide a realistic grain
structure for the Monte Carlo simulation of the ZFC-FC curves. The effect of
annealing and external field is also studied. The simulation curves are in good
agreement with the FC and ZFC magnetization curves measured on melt spun Cu-Co
ribbons.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, submitted to PR
Consistently Large Cosmic Flows on Scales of 100 Mpc/h: a Challenge for the Standard LCDM Cosmology
Peculiar velocity surveys have non-uniform spatial distributions of tracers,
so that the bulk flow estimated from them does not correspond to that of a
simple volume such as a sphere. Thus bulk flow estimates are generally not
strictly comparable between surveys, even those whose effective depths are
similar. In addition, the sparseness of typical surveys can lead to aliasing of
small scale power into what is meant to be a probe of the largest scales. Here
we introduce a new method of calculating bulk flow moments where velocities are
weighted to give an optimal estimate of the bulk flow of an idealized survey,
with the variance of the difference between the estimate and the actual flow
being minimized. These "minimum variance" estimates can be designed to estimate
the bulk flow on a particular scale with minimal sensitivity to small scale
power, and are comparable between surveys. We compile all major peculiar
velocity surveys and apply this new method to them. We find that most surveys
we studied are highly consistent with each other. Taken together the data
suggest that the bulk flow within a Gaussian window of radius 50 Mpc/h is 407
km/s toward l=287 and b=8. The large-scale bulk motion is consistent with
predictions from the local density field. This indicates that there are
significant density fluctuations on very large scales. A flow of this amplitude
on such a large scale is not expected in the WMAP5-normalized LCDM cosmology,
for which the predicted one-dimensional r.m.s. velocity is ~110 km/s. The large
amplitude of the observed bulk flow favors the upper values of the WMAP5
error-ellipse, but even the point at the top of the WMAP5 95% confidence
ellipse predicts a bulk flow which is too low compared to that observed at >98%
confidence level.Comment: 19 Pages, 7 Figures, MNRAS in Press. Added some references and text
to reflect post proofs manuscrip
Captive reptile mortality rates in the home and implications for the wildlife trade
The trade in wildlife and keeping of exotic pets is subject to varying levels of national and international regulation and is a topic often attracting controversy. Reptiles are popular exotic pets and comprise a substantial component of the live animal trade. High mortality of traded animals raises welfare concerns, and also has implications for conservation if collection from the wild is required to meet demand. Mortality of reptiles can occur at any stage of the trade chain from collector to consumer. However, there is limited information on mortality rates of reptiles across trade chains, particularly amongst final consumers in the home. We investigated mortality rates of reptiles amongst consumers using a specialised technique for asking sensitive questions, additive Randomised Response Technique (aRRT), as well as direct questioning (DQ). Overall, 3.6% of snakes, chelonians and lizards died within one year of acquisition. Boas and pythons had the lowest reported mortality rates of 1.9% and chameleons had the highest at 28.2%. More than 97% of snakes, 87% of lizards and 69% of chelonians acquired by respondents over five years were reported to be captive bred and results suggest that mortality rates may be lowest for captive bred individuals. Estimates of mortality from aRRT and DQ did not differ significantly which is in line with our findings that respondents did not find questions about reptile mortality to be sensitive. This research suggests that captive reptile mortality in the home is rather low, and identifies those taxa where further effort could be made to reduce mortality rate
- …