The effect of home computer use on children's cognitive and non-cognitive skills

In this paper we investigate the effect of using a home computer on children's development. In most OECD countries 70% or more of the households have a computer at home and children use computers quite extensively, even at very young ages. We use data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC), which follows an Australian cohort born in 1999/2000. Skills and computer usage information is collected when children are approximately 5 and 7 years old. For cognitive skills, our results indicate that computer time has a positive effect. For non-cognitive skills the evidence is mixed, the effect depending on the score and the age of the children. We test the robustness of our results by comparing OLS, IV and Value Added estimators. Generally, the IV estimates are larger and the Value Added estimates lower than the OLS ones. However the pattern of the results is quite consistent. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Labahitha nom.n., çàìåùàþùåå íàçâàíèå äëÿ Mystes Bristowe, 1938, ñ ïåðåîïèñàíèåì òèïîâîãî âèäà (Aranei: Filistatidae)

The monotypic genus Mystes Bristowe, 1938, and its type species, M. oonopiformis Bristowe, 1938, are redescribed based on the neotype male (designated here) and several females. The male is described for the first time and the female endogyne is illustrated for the first time. Morphological analysis reveals that the genus belongs to the Prithinae and is close to the Australian genera Wandella Gray, 1994 and Yardiella Gray, 1994. As the name Mystes is preoccupied by Mystes Champion, 1895 (Coleoptera: Melandryidae), we propose Labahitha nom.n. as a replacement name.Монотипичный род Mystes Bristowe, 1938, и его типовой вид M. oonopiformis Bristowe, 1938 переописываются по обозначенному здесь сам- цу-неотипу и нескольким самкам. Впервые для вида описываются самец и приводятся изображения эн- догины самки. Морфологические признаки этого рода указывают на то, что он принадлежит к под- сем. Prithinae и может быть близкородственным по отношению к Wandella Gray, 1994, и Yardiella Gray, 1994. Так как название Mystes преоккупировано ро- дом Mystes Champion, 1895 (Coleoptera: Melandryidae), мы предлагаем Labahitha nom. n. как замеща- ющее название.Fil: Zonstenin, Sergei L.. Steinhardt Museum Of Natural History, Tel-aviv Universi; IsraelFil: Marusik, Yuri M.. Institute For Biological Problems Of The North; RusiaFil: Fiorini de Magalhaes, Ivan Luiz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales ; Argentin

Generation of Noise Time Series with arbitrary Power Spectrum

Noise simulation is a very powerful tool in signal analysis helping to foresee the system performance in real experimental situations. Time series generation is however a hard challenge when a robust model of the noise sources is missing. We present here a simple computational technique which allows the generation of noise samples of fixed length, given a desired power spectrum. A few applications of the method are also discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 7 figure

The B -- TAU FCNC connection in SUSY Unified Theories

In the context of SUSY grand unification a link is established between the hadronic and leptonic soft breaking sectors. Such relation is here exploited in particular for FCNC processes in B physics. It is shown how bounds on leptonic FCNC involving the third generation translate into constraints on FC B decays. In the second part of the contribution we show that tests of lepton universality in K and B decays can represent an interesting handle to obtain relevant information on the amount of FCNC in the second and third fermion generation.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures. Based on talks given at: DIF06, International Workshop on discoveries in flavour physics at e+e- colloders, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati (Italy), February 28- March 03, 2006; XLIst Rencontres de Moriond, La Thuile, 5-11 March 2006; CORFU2005, Corfu Summer Institute on EPP, Corfu, Greece, September 4-26, 200

On the existence of 0/1 polytopes with high semidefinite extension complexity

In Rothvo\ss{} it was shown that there exists a 0/1 polytope (a polytope whose vertices are in \{0,1\}^{n}) such that any higher-dimensional polytope projecting to it must have 2^{\Omega(n)} facets, i.e., its linear extension complexity is exponential. The question whether there exists a 0/1 polytope with high PSD extension complexity was left open. We answer this question in the affirmative by showing that there is a 0/1 polytope such that any spectrahedron projecting to it must be the intersection of a semidefinite cone of dimension~2^{\Omega(n)} and an affine space. Our proof relies on a new technique to rescale semidefinite factorizations

Services and sustainable development : a conceptual approach

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.For the vast majority of countries, regardless of developmental status, services make a critical contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), are an important source of employment, and serve as vital inputs into production processes. Services are crucial for the development of economies and provide a significant contribution towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) identified in the United Nation’s 2030 Agenda (UN 2015). The nature of the relationship between services and the attainment of sustainable and inclusive economic growth is complex and multifaceted. Services can drive sustainable development outcomes through both growth and non-growth channels. The growth channel includes impacts from domestic production and services trade performance as both affect the productivity and efficiency of the domestic economy. In contrast to the relationship between economic growth and services, which has been well documented in numerous studies, less research has been devoted to the non-growth dimensions of services

Retrofit Proposals for Energy Efficiency and Thermal Comfort in Historic Public Buildings: The Case of the Engineering Faculty’s Seat of Sapienza University

The building sector greatly contributes to energy consumption and Greenhouse Gas emissions, relating to the whole building life cycle. Boasting a huge building heritage of historical and architectural value, Europe faces challenging retrofit perspectives, as the potential for high energy efficiency has to be exploited while preserving the buildings' original characteristics. The present work aims to feature the influence of a passive strategy on a heritage building in a mild climate. As historical its facade cannot be modified, its large glazing areas involve multiple issues, such as an increase in the heating (QH) and cooling (QC) energy demands and the risk of thermal discomfort. Thus, window replacement was proposed for retrofitting. A dynamic simulation model in TRNSYS was validated with experimental data collected by the continuous monitoring of walls of different thicknesses and orientations. Solutions from replacement with Double Glazing Units (DGUs) with improved thermal insulation, to internal shading activation were applied. All configurations were compared in terms of QH, QC, thermal performance of the building and user comfort (Fanger). Low-e DGU enabled the saving of up to 14% of the annual energy demand, and shading also offered good results in summer, reducing QC by 19%. In summer, DGU involved a maximum PPD reduction of 10 units