God in Berlin, Newton in Brussels: On the power of linguistic images in the Eurozone crisis

The limits of our language are the limits of our world, famously observed the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. For him, word and fact are in a representational relationship: a word is only an image of a fact, but we are only able to think this image and not the fact behind it. This is the archetypical source of failing communication

Rent-sharing under different bargaining regimes : Evidence from linked employer-employee data

In many European countries, the majority of workers have their wage rates determined directly by industry-level agreements. For some workers, industry agreements are supplemented by firm-specific agreements. Yet, the relative importance of individual company and industry agreements (in other words, the degree of centralisation) differs drastically across industries. The authors of this paper use unique linked employer-employee data from a 2003 survey in Belgium to examine how these bargaining features affect the extent of rent-sharing. Their results show that there is substantially more rent-sharing in decentralised than in centralised industries, even when controlling for the endogeneity of profits, for heterogeneity among workers and firms and for differences in characteristics between bargaining regimes. Moreover, in centralised industries, rent-sharing is found only for workers that are covered by a company agreement. The findings of this paper finally suggest that, within decentralised industries, both firm-specific and industry-wide bargaining generate rent-sharing to the same extent.Rent-sharing, collective bargaining, propensity score matching.

IPM Vegetable Web Log

Grower - to grower information sharing has proved to be an effective teaching tool that is increasingly promoted by educational institutions and requested by growers.  Growers in the Hudson Valley and Capital District have expressed a need for a mechanism by which they can frequently communicate with each other and Extension educators about the status of their crops.  In response to this need, Cornell Cooperative Extension proposed to pilot and sponsor an IPM vegetable web log site for growers in the Capital District and in Ulster County.  Beginning in May, the assistance of Cornell Cooperative Extension Information Technology was requested to set up the web log account.  The assistance and web log account information was received the first week of August, too late to be useful for the 2006 growing season.  Both project leaders learned the system and are ready to utilize the web log technology for the 2007 growing season

Rent-Sharing under Different Bargaining Regimes: Evidence from Linked Employer-Employee Data

In many European countries, the majority of workers have their wages directly defined by industry-level agreements. In addition, for some workers, industry agreements are complemented by firm-specific agreements. Yet, the relative importance of firm and industry agreements (in other words, the degree of centralization) differs drastically across industries. The authors of this paper use unique linked employer-employee data from a 2003 survey in Belgium to examine how these bargaining features affect the extent of rent-sharing. Their results show that there is substantially more rent-sharing in decentralized than in centralized industries, even when controlling for the endogeneity of profits, for heterogeneity among workers and firms and for differences in characteristics between bargaining regimes. Moreover, in centralized industries, rent-sharing is found only for workers that are covered by a firm agreement. Finally, results indicate that within decentralized industries, both firm and industry bargaining generate rent-sharing to the same extent.rent-sharing, collective bargaining, propensity score matching

Aprendizaje musical significativo

Understanding the meaningfulness of music learning requires two complementary perspectives. On the one hand, I maintain that the declarative knowledge about music is meaningful when it is related in a non trivial manner to the musical event it denotes, and propose a way of evaluating that meaningfulness through tests that demand the use of different processes of the auditive cognition. On the other hand, given that it is the apprentice who decides to build that relation between musical concept and musical experience, I argue that we need to understand his or her motivations, and propose the use of qualitative research techniques to interpret the meanings attributed to the learning procedures lived in the classroom

Effect of projectile nose shape on ballistic resistance of interstitial-free steel sheets

In this paper an experimental and numerical work is reported concerning the process of perforation of thin steel plates using different projectile nose shapes. The main goal is to analyze how the projectile shape may change the ballistic properties of materials. A wide range of impact velocities from 35 to 180 m/s has been covered during the tests. All the projectiles were 13 mm in diameter and the targets were 1 mm thick, as such the projectile can be regarded as rigid and the target sheets were of interstitial-free (IF) steel. The mass ratio (projectile mass/steel sheet mass) and the ratio between the span of the steel sheet and the diameter of the projectile were kept constant, equal to 0.38 and 3.85 respectively. To define the thermoviscoplastic behavior of the target material, the Rusinek-Klepaczko (RK) constitutive model [1] was used. The complete identification of the material constants was done based on a rigorous material characterization. Numerical simulations of some experimental tests were carried out using a non-linear finite element code ABAQUS/Explicit. It was found that the numerical models are able to describe the physical mechanisms in the perforation process with a good accuracy.The National Centre of Research and Development under the grant WND-DEM-1-203/00