La cultura de improvisación en la pequeña y mediana empresa. Su impacto para un crecimiento sustentable

ÍNDICE: Introducción. - Metodología. - Resultado y discusión. - 1. Estudio exploratorio sobre la situación general de la PyME, su papel en la economía actual y las razones para un crecimiento sustentable. - 2. Estudio exploratorio sobre los factores de importancia del sistema de información contable en las PyMEs, para la elaboración de sus Estados Contables y la toma de decisiones. - 3. Estudio exploratorio sobre los aspectos relevantes del control, claves para el logro de los objetivos en las Pequeñas y Medianas empresas. - 4. Estudio exploratorio sobre el contexto impositivo de las PyMEs en la República Argentina, sus determinantes que conducen a una evasión tributaria sistemática. -Conclusiones. - Bibliografía.El presente trabajo final busca resaltar la importancia de las PyMEs y empresas familiares en la economía y su aporte vital en la producción de un país, de igual manera establecer las principales debilidades que deben sortear en busca de su crecimiento y sustento. Después del análisis de los resultados surge que adquiere especial relevancia en las organizaciones de hoy en día, la implementación de un adecuado sistema de control interno, sistema de información contable y trabajar con mayor dedicación sobre una auditoria impositiva integral, dada las contingencias a las que se encuentra expuesta la empresa ante los organismos de contralor, para salvaguardar y conservar su patrimonio, minimizando riesgos de errores y fraudes. Finalmente los profesionales en materia contable deben comenzar a trabajar e involucrarse de manera más comprometida, ofreciendo un trabajo en materia estratégica y de control a las PyMEs a los fines de ayudar a los propietarios para agregar valor al proceso decisorio. Palabras claves: PyMEs, Empresa Familiar, Control Interno, Sistema de Información Contable, Auditoria Impositiva, Evasión Fiscal.Fil: Lo Iacono, Mauro Andrés. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas; Argentina

Applying gamification techniques to enhance the effectiveness of video-lessons

Gamification techniques are commonly used in e-learning to enhance the effectiveness of educational activities and the learners\u2019 partaking. In fact, owing to the engagement effect, they can improve learning processes in diverse disciplines, empowering the traditional methods of acquisition of competences and skills. This approach is giving results in informal education activities both in traditional Learning Management Systems and in Massive Open Online Course platforms, mostly based on the consumption of video-lessons. In this context, we describe the gamification-oriented design choices made for the realization of a video-course for the training on the use of office automation software programs. Specifically, we planned the revamping of a course produced in 2012, whose lessons are made by short fictional videos, animated tutorials, and screen captures that show how to perform common operations. The design of the gamification process is following the hype for the launch of the new Star Wars\u2122, Episode 7, and, as a consequence, will be delivered as \u201cStar Words\u201d. In the paper we present the gamification methodologies adopted to create the first prototype of Star Words, also analyzing the criticisms that emerged

Evaluating the impact of eDoS attacks to cloud facilities

The complexity of modern cloud facilities requires attentive management policies that should encompass all aspects of the system. Security is a critical issue, as intrusions, misuse or denial of service attacks may damage both the users and the cloud provider including its reputation on the market. Disruptive attacks happen fast, cause evident and short term damages and are usually the result of operations that are hard to disguise. On the other hand, Energy oriented Denial of Service (eDoS) attacks aim at producing continuous minor damages, eventually with long term consequences. These long lasting attacks are difficult to detect. In this paper we model and analyse the behaviour of a system under eDoS attack. We study the impact in terms of cloud energy consumption of an attack strategy previously proposed in the literature and compare it with other strategies that we propose. Our findings show that the strategy previously proposed in the literature, based on keeping the cloud close to saturation, is not optimal (from the point of view of the attacker) in presence of non-constant workload and that there is a trade-off between the aggressiveness of the attacker and the duration of the attack in order to maximise the damage

SEDIMENTARY DYNAMICS OF THE MARETTIMO CONTINENTAL SHELF AND MARETTIMO CHANNEL (EGADI ISLANDS – WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN): ANALYSIS OF DEPOSITIONAL AND EROSIONAL FEATURES.

Sedimentary dynamics of the Marettimo continental shelf and Marettimo Channel (Egadi Island – Western Mediterranean), have been unveiled based on the erosive and depositional features observed at the seafloor. Different morphologic features were recognized through side scan sonar, multibeam and high-resolution seismics, acquired in the framework of national Research Projects (CARG, GebecSud, MaGIC) carried out by the Department of Earth and Marine Science (former Department of Geology and Geodesy) of the University of Palermo. Sediment samples have been also collected and analyzed. The Egadi Islands are part of the NW Sicilian offshore, and belong to the mountain chain that connects the Sicilian chain to the Maghrebides one. The Marettimo Island represents an isolated portion of the Egadi continental shelf and is separated from the rest of the archipelago by the Marettimo Channel. Previous studies allowed to recognize different kind of sedimentary structures along the seafloor. Lo Iacono and Guillén (2008) described extensive field of subaqueous dunes (Ashley, 1990) along the Marettimo inner shelf, forming on gravelly and pebbly sediments and related to strong storm events (H:5.5 m, T: 12 s). Larger dunes have been observed in the north-western sector of the inner shelf with wavelengths ranging from 1 to 2.5 m, heights between 15 cm and 30 cm and extending laterally for hundreds of meters. Moreover in the north-eastern sector of the inner shelf, sorted bedforms have been detected at a depth of 40 m: they are characterized by a width varying between 15 m and 50 m and a length that reaches hundreds of meters. In the south-eastern sector of the Marettimo outer shelf, Colantoni et al. (1993) map two groups of sedimentary structures. In the same area, Lo Iacono (2004) recognized two-dimensional and three-dimensional subaqueous dunes. 2D dunes are found at depths between 60 and 90 m and show a wavelength variable between 15 and 50 m. 3D dunes, which are found at a depth of 80 m, are characterized by a wavelength of 30 m and a lateral extent of 50 m. Morphological evidences of a strong hydrodynamic regime come also from the morphobathymetric analysis of the Marettimo Channel, that is a 24 km long submarine valley oriented NNW-SSE, with a depth ranging from a minimum of 180 m to a maximum of 370 m and a width from 2 km to 14 km. Inside the channel, south of its narrowest point, a 180 m deep bathymetric threshold separates two areas, which deepens towards opposite directions: north-west and south. The flanks of the sector that deepens towards the NW are affected by mass-wasting features (Lo Iacono et al., 2007). The western flank of the channel, which delimits the Marettimo continental shelf, is carved by gullies, making the shelf-edge very uneven. Gullies develop to a maximum depth of 280 m and have a length of 250 m and a width of 50 m. At the bottom of the channel a linear incision 20 m deep, 400 m wide and almost 3 km long, is probably generated by erosive bottom currents. On the whole, the morpho-sedimentary structures here described reveal a strong hydrodynamic regime. The morphological and textural features of the bedforms observed on the Marettimo inner continental shelf suggest the occurrence of sporadic medium to strong storm events coming from western sectors. The morphological characteristics of the Marettimo Channel reveal the occurrence of strong bottom currents probably related to the severe interchange of water masses between the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Sicily Channel. References: Ashley, G., 1990. Journal of Sedim. Petrology 60, 160–172. Colantoni, P., Ligi, M., Morsiani, M.P., Penitenti, D., 1993. UNESCO Reports in Mar. Science 58, 93–98. Lo Iacono, C., 2004. Università di Napoli ‘‘Federico II,’’ Naples, Italy. Ph.D. Thesis, 150pp... Lo Iacono, C., Catalano, R., Agate, M., 2007. VI Conv. FIST GeoItalia, Rimini (Italy), 12-14 Sept. Lo Iacono C., Guillén J., 2008. Continental Shelf Research 28, 245–256

The Basilicata Wealth Fund: resource policy and long-run economic development in Southern Italy

This paper posits a novel resource policy for the resource-rich southern Italian region of Basilicata. The policy consists of establishing a regionally owned wealth fund (the Basilicata Wealth Fund), in which royalty revenues from natural resources in Basilicata can be stored as low-risk financial assets. The paper pins down and simulates the dynamics of different fiscal expenditure rules. The Basilicata Wealth Fund strengthens long-run economic development and fosters higher accountability, hence avoiding misuse of resource revenues for myopic fiscal spending. The Basilicata Wealth Fund constitutes a novel approach that can be followed by other resource-rich regions

Telemaco: A Language Oriented Tool for Graph-based Models Layout Optimization, Journal of Telecommunications and Information Technology, 2013, nr 4

Progress of ICT is shifting the paradigm of systems organization towards a distributed approach, in which physical deployment of components influences the evaluation of systems properties. This contribution can be considered as a problem of graph layout optimization, well-known in literature where several approaches have been exploited in different application fields with different solving techniques. Then again, complex systems can be only studied by means of different formalisms which codification is the aim of language engineering. Telemaco is a tool that supports a novel approach for the application of graph layout optimizations to heterogeneous models, based on the OsMoSys framework and on the language engineering principles. It can cope with different graph-based formalisms by exploiting either their core graph nature or their different specialized features by means of language hierarchies. In this paper Telemaco is introduced together with its foundations and an example of application to Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) deployment

Model-Based Availability Evaluation of Composed Web Services, Journal of Telecommunications and Information Technology, 2014, nr 4

Web services composition is an emerging software development paradigm for the implementation of distributed computing systems, the impact of which is very relevant both in research and industry. When a complex functionality has to be delivered on the Internet, a service integrator can produce added value by delivering more abstract and complex services obtained by composition of existing ones. But while isolated services availability can be improved by tuning and reconguring their hosting servers, with Composed Web Services (CWS) basic services must be taken as they are. In this case, it is necessary to evaluate the composition effects. The authors propose a high-level analysis methodology, supported by a tool, based on the transformation of BPEL descriptions of CWS into models based on the fault tree availability evaluation formalism that enables a modeler, unfamiliar with the underlying combinatorial probabilistic mathematics, to evaluate the availability of CWS, given components availability and expected execution behavior

Plio-Pleistocene geological evolution of the northern Sicily continental margin (southern Tyrrhenian Sea): new insights from high-resolution, multi-electrode sparker profiles

High-resolution seismic profiles were acquired in the north Sicily offshore region with an innovative, multi-tip sparker array which lacks ringing and has a base frequency around 600 Hz. The new data, combined with published data, suggest that intra-slope and extensional basins formed as a consequence of the late Miocene (?)–early Pliocene shortening and thrusting, and the middle (?)–late Pliocene continental rifting affecting the internal side of the Sicilian-Maghrebian chain. Early (?) Pleistocene to Holocene high-amplitude and high-frequency sea-level changes resulted in repeated sub-aerial exposure and flooding of the shelf, and the deposition of cyclically arranged hemipelagic and shelf sediments. An uplift of the shelf could explain the non-preservation of the transgressive and of the lowstand wedge systems tracts in the oldest sequences