Social security and the search behaviour of workers approaching retirement

This paper explores the links between unemployment, retirement and their associated public insurance programs. It is a contribution to a growing body of literature focused on a better understanding of the labor behavior of advanced—age workers, which has gained importance as the pension crisis looms. The analysis combines the development of a new theoretical model and a detailed exploration of the empirical regularities using the Spanish Muestra Continua de Vidas Laborales (MCVL) dataset. The model is a extension of the standard search model, designed to reproduce the non—stationary environment faced by workers approaching retirement and to explore the interaction of unemployment benefits and retirement pensions. Via calibrated simulations we show that the basic empirical reemployment and retirement patterns can be rationalized as the optimal responses to both the labor market conditions and the institutional incentives. Generous Unemployment Benefits (for durations of up to two years) together with very significant early retirement penalties, make optimal to stay unemployed without searching for large groups of unemployed workers. This moral hazard problem can he substantially alleviated through institutional reform. Setting the early retirement penalties according to the age when the individual withdraws from the labor force (rather than when he/she claims the pension for the first time) seems particularly beneficial. It increases the labor supply, reduces the financial cost for the social security system and generate enough extra resources to compensate for the welfare loss of those unemployed directly hit by the reform.Unemployment search, job benefit, retirement

Android Malware Characterization using Metadata and Machine Learning Techniques

Android Malware has emerged as a consequence of the increasing popularity of smartphones and tablets. While most previous work focuses on inherent characteristics of Android apps to detect malware, this study analyses indirect features and meta-data to identify patterns in malware applications. Our experiments show that: (1) the permissions used by an application offer only moderate performance results; (2) other features publicly available at Android Markets are more relevant in detecting malware, such as the application developer and certificate issuer, and (3) compact and efficient classifiers can be constructed for the early detection of malware applications prior to code inspection or sandboxing.Comment: 4 figures, 2 tables and 8 page

Social Security and the search behaviour of workers approaching retirement

This paper explores the links between unemployment, retirement and their associated public insurance programs. It is a contribution to a growing body of literature focused on a better understanding of the labor behavior of advanced-age workers, which has gained importance as the pension crisis looms. It also contributes to the literature of optimal unemployment insurance by exploring the interaction of unemployment benefits and retirement pensions. The analysis combines the development of a new theoretical model and a detailed exploration of the empirical regularities using the Spanish Muestra Continua de Vidas Laborales (MCVL) dataset. The model is an extension of the standard search model, designed to reproduce the non-stationary environment faced by workers of advanced ages (in the age range 50/65). Via calibrated simulations we show that the basic empirical re-employment and retirement patterns can be considered as rational responses to both the labor market conditions and the institutional incentives. Generous Unemployment Benefits (for durations of up to two years) together with very significant early retirement penalties, make optimal to stay unemployed without searching for large groups of unemployed workers. This moral hazard problem can be substantially alleviated through institutional reform. We explore several potential reforms and find that changing the details of early retirement pensions seems more promising than changing the Unemployment Benefit system.Unemployment, Retirement, Search models

Crystal structure of the N-benzyloxycarbonyl-Alanyl-Phenylalanyl-methyl ester: the importance of the H-bonding pattern

Large crystals of the methyl ester of the N-a-benzyloxycarbonyl protected Ala-Phe dipeptide (Z-AF-OMe) were obtained after the very slow evaporation of a solution of the corresponding carboxylic acid (Z-AF-OH) in methanol containing an excess of HCl. The structure was confirmed by single crystal X-ray diffraction data. It crystallizes in the orthorhombic space group P212121 with unit cell dimensions a = 5.0655(6) Å, b = 8.4614(8) Å, c = 46.856(5) Å, V = 2008.3(4) Å3, Z = 4. In the crystal, the molecules form hydrogen bonded chains running along the a axis of the unit cell. Other secondary interactions are also discussed

Construction design of multi-dwelling building at Maudyklos str. in Vilnius

Intercambios académicos. Vilnius Gediminas Technikos Universitetas, Vilna (Lituania). Elniakampis apartment house is located in the forest on a quiet Elniakampis Street in a prestigious district of Vilnius, Valakampiai. A small three-storey 17-apartment house is designed to let in the maximum amount of natural light. The layout of the apartments is both convenient (from 34,90 m2 to 140,20 m2) and practical. Each apartment comes with a box room, parking place under the house and economical gas heating. There is a possibility to install fireplaces in each apartment. A bus stop (No. 15) is just 200 m away from the house. Just a couple of kilometres away you would find Nemencine Road, leading you to the shopping center, Sauletekis University campus and Baltic-American Clinic that provides medical services 24 hours a day. All the infrastructure of Antakalnis district is nearby. Surfaces: - Building area: 671.47 m2 - Plot: 1200 m2 / El edificio de apartamentos Elniakampis está situado en el bosque en una calle tranquila de Elniakampis, en Valakampiai, un prestigioso distrito de Vilna. Es un pequeño edificio de tres pisos con 17 apartamentos diseñados para permitir la entrada de la máxima cantidad de luz natural. La distribución de los apartamentos es muy cómoda (desde 34,90 m2 hasta 140,20 m2) y práctica. Todos los apartamentos cuentan con trastero, plaza de garaje y calefacción. Existe la posibilidad de instalar chimenea en cada apartamento. Una parada de autobús (n º 15) está a 200 metros de la casa. A sólo un par de kilómetros de distancia se encuentra la carretera a Nemencine, que conduce al centro comercial, a la Universidad y a la Clínica Báltico-Americana que ofrece servicios médicos las 24 horas del día. Además, todas las infraestructuras del distrito de Antakalnis están cerca. Superficies: - Superficie de construcción: 671,47 m2 - Parcela: 1200 m2Veguer Alfonso, IM. (2012). Construction design of multi-dwelling building at Maudyklos str. in Vilnius. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/17627.Archivo delegad

Multiscale modeling of palisade formation in gliobastoma multiforme

Palisades are characteristic tissue aberrations that arise in glioblastomas. Observation of palisades is considered as a clinical indicator of the transition from a noninvasive to an invasive tumour. In this article we propose a computational model to study the influence of genotypic and phenotypic heterogeneity in palisade formation. For this we produced three dimensional realistic simulations, based on a multiscale hybrid model, coupling the evolution of tumour cells and the oxygen diffusion in tissue, that depict the shape of palisades during its formation. Our results can be summarized as the following: (1) we show that cell heterogeneity is a crucial factor in palisade formation and tumour growth; (2) we present results that can explain the observed fact that recursive tumours are more malignant than primary tumours; and (3) the presented simulations can provide to clinicians and biologists for a better understanding of palisades 3D structure as well as glioblastomas growth dynamic

Impacts of land abandonment and climate variability on runoff generation and sediment transport in the Pisuerga headwaters (Cantabrian Mountains, Spain)

Producción CientíficaThe Atlantic mountains of Spain are suffering a strong landscape change due to a widespread and intensive emigration to urban areas since the 1950s. This process, representative of global developments in an imminent future, is dominated by urban societies and leads to deep landscape changes in which crop fields and grasslands are abandoned and progressively covered by forest and shrubs. These dynamics have caused in turn a decrease in the runoff and a general slowdown of geomorphological processes. The impacts of land cover change have been simultaneous to an irregularity in precipitation and a significant increase of temperatures. With this background, this paper assesses in detail the impact of landscape change occurred over the last decades (twentieth and twenty-first centuries) on the water and sediment yield in the Pisuerga catchment headwaters (Cantabrian Mountains, N Spain). We analyzed the different components of Global Change in a catchment of 233 km2 extent, that has passed from 15 to 2 habitants/km2, from multiple data sources. Evolution of land cover was reconstructed from aerial photographs, remote sensing and other resources. The climatic parameters have been studied through meteorological stations, and the hydrological and sedimentological responses over time are based on available runoff data and sedimentological analysis. Our results show a significant decrease in water and sediment transport mainly driven by vegetation increase occurred in a non-linear way, more intense immediately after abandonment. This fact opens the opportunity to control more accurately water resources in Mediterranean catchments through land use management.Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad - Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (project CGL2015-68144-R)Ministerio de Educación y Formación Profesional (grant FPU13/05837

Multiscale modeling of palisade formation in gliobastoma multiforme

Palisades are characteristic tissue aberrations that arise in glioblastomas. Observation of palisades is considered as a clinical indicator of the transition from a noninvasive to an invasive tumour. In this article we propose a computational model to study the influence of genotypic and phenotypic heterogeneity in palisade formation. For this we produced three dimensional realistic simulations, based on a multiscale hybrid model, coupling the evolution of tumour cells and the oxygen diffusion in tissue, that depict the shape of palisades during its formation. Our results can be summarized as the following: (1) we show that cell heterogeneity is a crucial factor in palisade formation and tumour growth; (2) we present results that can explain the observed fact that recursive tumours are more malignant than primary tumours; and (3) the presented simulations can provide to clinicians and biologists for a better understanding of palisades 3D structure as well as glioblastomas growth dynamics

Retirement incentives, individual heterogeneity and labour transitions of employed and unemployed workers

In this paper we analyze the sensitivity of the labour market decisions of workers close to retirement with respect to the incentives created by public regulations. We improve upon the extensive prior literature on the effect of pension incentives on retirement in two ways. First, by modeling the transitions between employment, unemployment and retirement in a simultaneous manner, paying special attention to the transition from unemployment to retirement (which is particularly important in Spain). Second, by considering the influence of unobserved heterogeneity in the estimation of the effect of our (carefully constructed) incentive variables. Using administrative data, we find that, when properly defined, economic incentives have a strong impact on labour market decisions in Spain. Unemployment regulations are shown to be particularly influential for retirement behaviour, along with the more traditional determinants linked to the pension system. Pension variables also have a major bearing on both workers’ reemployment decisions and on the strategic actions of employers. The quantitative impact of the incentives, however, is greatly affected by the existence of unobserved heterogeneity among workers. Its omission leads to sizable biases in the assessment of the sensitivity to economic incentives, a finding that has clear consequences for the credibility of any model-based policy analysis. We confirm the importance of this potential problem in one especially interesting instance: the reform of early retirement provisions undertaken in Spain in 2002. We use a difference-in-difference approach to measure the behavioural reaction to this change, finding a large overestimation when unobserved heterogeneity is not taken into account.Retirement, unemployment, incentives, Pension system, Unobserved, heterogeneity, Spain.

Identifying Comparison and Selection Criteria for Authentication Schemes and Methods

Multiple techniques exist for performing authentication such as text passwords and smart cards. Multi-factor authentication combines two or more of these techniques in order to enhance security. It is of interest to know what the current research on these authentication techniques is and what comparison and selection criteria exist that help in the decision of these techniques. A systematic literature review is performed in order to obtain the desired knowledge. Moreover, the found comparison and selection criteria are analyzed and organized in order to generate a list of criteria that can be used to help in the decision of authentication techniques in different situations. The results of this research help to cover the gap in literature that could be observed through literature, which is the lack of works that focus on the comparison and selection of authentication techniques.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ