5,140 research outputs found
Innovation, imitation and policy inaction
The paper deals with the controversial issue of intellectual property rights. We deal with an optimization problem to model the optimal government's behavior in presence of dynamic uncertainty and intervention costs. More specifically, we search for the optimal strategies to be implemented by a policy maker to optimally balance the number of innovators and imitators. The problem is first tackled from a purely theoretical perspective and then by implementing extensive numerical simulations on the basis of empirical data. By the theoretical perspective, we obtain a rigorous proof that optimal strategies depend on the initial value of the number of imitators and not on the initial ratio between innovators and imitators, whereas the simulations provide us with intuitive insights from an economic point of view, along with a validation of the theoretical results. The results support the evidence that governments choose the possible widest bandwidth and minimize the size of interventions so as to curb intervention costs
Olfactory dysfunction in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps is associated with clinical-cytological grading severity
Chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) is a common inflammatory disorder, affecting about 4% of the worldwide population and strongly impacting the quality of life. CRSwNP is still a challenge for ENT specialists in terms of its unknown pathogenesis, difficulty in management and frequent relapse. Olfactory impairment frequently affects CRSwNP patients. We tested the hypothesis that clinical-cytological grading (CCG) could be associated with olfactory dysfunction. The study was cross-sectional, enrolling 62 patients (37 males, 25 females, mean age 49 years, range 18-83) suffering from newly diagnosed CRSwNP. Olfactory dysfunction was very frequent (about 90%) and did not depend on nasal obstruction as assessed by both polyp size and nasal airflow limitation. A CCG > 4 was the best cutoff value to suspect olfactory dysfunction [area under the ROC curve of 0.831 (0.715 to 0.914)]; in addition, the statistical risk of having dysosmia was over 7-fold higher in subjects with CCG > 4 compared with subjects reporting a CCG < 4 (adjOR 7.46). The present study underlines that olfactory dysfunction is common in CRSwNP patients and demonstrates an association between olfactory dysfunction and inflammation, suggesting that CCG could be useful in the work-up of CRSwNP patients and in suspecting olfactory impairment
The Relationship Between the Civic Engagement of Parents and Children : a Cross-National Analysis of 18 European Countries
Although previous research has suggested the existence of a positive association
between the political activities of parents and children, little is known about
other forms of civic engagement. In particular, the literature lacks an international
comparative study on the intergenerational transmission of civic involvement. Using
Bayesian multilevel models on data from the European Union Statistics on Income
and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) 2006 special module on social participation, this
article tests hypotheses on the patterns of civic engagement of parents and children
in 18 European countries with different political legacies. Our results show a positive
association between the participation in associational activities of parents and
children in all the considered countries, above and beyond individual and contextual
characteristics. In particular, we do not find an evident East\u2013West gap in the
socialization process, suggesting that the Communist past of Eastern and Central
European countries has little influence on what can be considered a basic mechanism
of civic learning
The Best Is Yet to Come? Attitudes towards gender roles among adolescents in 36 countries
In the present article, we look at attitudes toward
gender roles among young women and men in 36 countries
with different levels of societal gender inequality. By applying
multilevel models to data from the International Civic and
Citizenship Education Study 2009, the study contributes to
our understanding of gender inequality by showing that (a)
both young women and young men (in 8th grade;
Mage = 14.39 years) display more gender-egalitarian attitudes
in countries with higher levels of societal gender equality; (b)
young women in all countries have more egalitarian attitudes
toward gender roles than young men do, but (c) the gender gap
in attitudes is more evident in more egalitarian contexts; and
(d) a higher level of maternal education is associated with
more gender-egalitarian attitudes among young women. In
contrast, no statistically significant association emerges between
maternal employment and young men\u2019s attitudes.
Overall, the findings suggest that adolescents in different contexts
are influenced by the dominant societal discourse on
gender inequality, which they interiorize and display through
their own attitudes toward gender roles. However, the findings
also indicate that young women are more responsive to external
cues than young men are. This result, coupled with the fact
that young men in egalitarian contexts have not adopted
gender-egalitarian attitudes to the same extent as young women,
is concerning because it suggests a slowdown in the
achievement of societal gender equality that is still far from
being reache
Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes Composites for Microwave Absorbing Applications
The response of materials to impinging electromagnetic waves is mainly determined by their dielectric (complex permittivity) and magnetic (complex permeability). In particular, radar absorbing materials are characterized by high complex permittivity (and eventually large values of magnetic permeability), Indeed, energy dissipation by dielectric relaxation and carrier conduction are principally responsible for diminishing microwave radiation reflection and transmission in non-magnetic materials. Therefore, the scientific and technological community has been investigating lightweight composites with high dielectric permittivity in order to improve the microwave absorption (i.e., radar cross-section reduction) in structural materials for the aerospace industry. Multiwalled carbon nanotubes films and their composites with different kind of polymeric resins are regarded as promising materials for radar absorbing applications because of their high permittivity. Nanocomposites based on commercial multi-wall carbon nano-tube (MWCNT) fillers dispersed in an epoxy resin matrix were fabricated. The morphology of the filler was analyzed by Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and Raman spectroscopy, while the complex permittivity and the radiation reflection coefficient of the composites was measured in the radio frequency range. The reflection coefficient of a single-layer structure backed by a metallic plate was simulated based on the measured permittivity. Simulation achievements were compared to the measured reflection coefficient. Besides, the influence of morphological MWCNT parameters (i.e., aspect ratio and specific surface area) on the reflection coefficient was evaluated. Results verify that relatively low weight percent of MWCNTs are suitable for microwave absorption applications when incorporated into polymer matrix (i.e., epoxy resin)
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