Rationally Addicted to Cinema and Tv? An empirical investigation of Italian consumers

A number of papers have empirically investigated the rational addiction model proposed by Becker and Murphy (1988) by using data on different harmful drugs; but also activities independent of a biological or pharmaceutical dependency have been analysed, such as cinema. The purpose of this paper is to extend previous works on cinema demand by including two addictive consumption goods, cinema and television. To this aim a panel-data GMM methodology is used to estimate a dynamic model of double rational addiction as proposed by Bask and Melkersonn (2004) using a sample of monthly time- and cross-sectional series covering the 20 Italian regions over the period 2000-2002.

Rational Addiction to Cinema? A Dynamic Panel Analysis of European Countries.

A number of papers have empirically investigated the rational addiction model proposed by Becker and Murphy (1988) by using data on different harmful drugs, like cigarettes, alcohol, caffeine, opium, cocaine; but also activities independent of a biological or pharmaceutical dependency have been analysed, such as gambling, calorie consumption, news, arts, and cinema. The purpose of this paper is to extend previous works on cinema demand by using pooled cross-section and time-series data on thirteen European countries over the period 1989-2002. The estimation results provide a strong evidence that cinema consumption conforms to a rational addiction hypothesis.

Propensity Score Matching: un'applicazione per la creazione di un database integrato ISTAT-Banca d'Italia

Il propensity score (Rosemabum e Rubin,1983) è ormai diventati l'approccio predominante nella letteratura della stima dei casual treatment effect. Tuttavia, recentemente i principali istituti nazionali di statistica hanno utilizzato tale strumento per integrare informazioni provenienti da fonti differenti. Infatti, le survey attualmente disponibili spesso mancano di tutte quelle variabili necessarie per condurre una rigorosa indagine economica e gli economisti sono spessa costretti a integrare tali informazioni ricorrendo procedimenti di matching. Tra le diverse tecniche di imputazione presenti in letteratura il propensity score offre l'indiscutibile vantaggio di ridurre un problema di integrazione potenzialmente multidimensionale a uno unidimensionale, riducendo il costo dell'operazione. Il presente contributo valuta l'efficacia di tale strumento nel generare un database integrato a partire dalla survey multiscopo ISTAT "Aspetti della vita quotidiana 2000" e l'indagine Banca d'Italia "Bilanci delle famiglie Italiane 2000".

Monitoring and analyzing exoplanetary transits from Argentina

Photometric observations of transits can be used to derive physical and orbital parameters of the system, like the planetary and stellar radius, orbital inclination and mean density of the star. Furthermore, monitoring possible periodic variations in transit timing of planets is important, since small changes can be caused by the presence of other planets or moons in the system. On the other hand, long term changes in the transit length can be due to the orbital precession of the planets. For these reasons we started an observational program dedicated to observe transits of known exoplanets with the aim of contributing to a better understanding of these planetary systems. In this work we present our first results obtained using the observational facilities in Argentina including the 2.15 telescope at CASLE

Monitoring and analyzing exoplanetary transits from Argentina

Photometric observations of transits can be used to derive physical and orbital parameters of the system, like the planetary and stellar radius, orbital inclination and mean density of the star. Furthermore, monitoring possible periodic variations in transit timing of planets is important, since small changes can be caused by the presence of other planets or moons in the system. On the other hand, long term changes in the transit length can be due to the orbital precession of the planets. For these reasons we started an observational program dedicated to observe transits of known exoplanets with the aim of contributing to a better understanding of these planetary systems. In this work we present our first results obtained using the observational facilities in Argentina including the 2.15 telescope at CASLEO.Instituto de Astrofísica de La PlataFacultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísica

A LOTOS Extension for the Performance Analysis of Distributed Systems

Performance analysis and formal correctness verification of computer communication protocols and distributed systems have traditionally been considered as two separate fields. However, their integration can be achieved by using formal description techniques as paradigms for the development of performance models. This paper presents a novel extension of LOTOS, one of the two formal specification languages that were standardized by ISO. The extension is specifically conceived to integrate performance analysis and formal verification. The extended language syntax and semantics are formally defined, along with a mapping from extended specifications to performance models, The mapping preserves the specified observable behavior. Two simple examples, a stop-and-wait protocol and a time-sharing system, are used to concretely demonstrate the new approach and to validate i

Monitoring and analyzing exoplanetary transits from Argentina

Photometric observations of transits can be used to derive physical and orbital parameters of the system, like the planetary and stellar radius, orbital inclination and mean density of the star. Furthermore, monitoring possible periodic variations in transit timing of planets is important, since small changes can be caused by the presence of other planets or moons in the system. On the other hand, long term changes in the transit length can be due to the orbital precession of the planets. For these reasons we started an observational program dedicated to observe transits of known exoplanets with the aim of contributing to a better understanding of these planetary systems. In this work we present our first results obtained using the observational facilities in Argentina including the 2.15 telescope at CASLEO.Instituto de Astrofísica de La PlataFacultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísica

Association between hearing sensitivity and dopamine transporter availability in Parkinson's disease

In a previous study, we observed: significant hearing function impairment, assessed with pure tone audiometry and distortion product otoacoustic emissions, in patients with Parkinson's disease, compared with a matched control group, and lateralization of the hearing dysfunction, worse on the side affected by more pronounced Parkinson's disease motor symptoms. This study investigates the association between the basal ganglia dopamine transporter availability and the hearing function in Parkinson's disease patients, focusing also on the lateralization of both dysfunctions, with respect to that of the motor symptoms, and introducing a further distinction between patients with left-sided and right-sided predominant motor symptoms. Patients with right-handed Parkinson's disease with a recent estimation of 123I-FP-CIT striatal uptake were audiologically tested with pure tone audiometry and distortion product otoacoustic emissions. Thirty-nine patients were included in the study. A statistically significant association was found, in the left-side predominant group only, between the distortion product otoacoustic emission levels and the contralateral dopamine transporter availability, and between the hearing threshold and the dopamine transporter availability difference between the ipsi- and the contralateral sides. The hearing impairment lateralization correlated to the motor symptom asymmetry was found significant only in the left-side predominant patients. The association between hearing function and basal ganglia dopamine transporter availability supports the hypothesis that the peripheral hearing function decline associated with dopamine depletion is involved in Parkinson's disease development, with a significant difference between patients with left- and right-sided predominant motor symptoms. These findings also suggest that peripheral hearing function evaluation and its lateralization could be key elements for subtyping the disease

Three vs. Four Cycles of Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy for Localized Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer Undergoing Radical Cystectomy: A Retrospective Multi-Institutional Analysis

Three or four cycles of cisplatin-based chemotherapy is the standard neoadjuvant treatment prior to cystectomy in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer. Although NCCN guidelines recommend 4 cycles of cisplatin-gemcitabine, three cycles are also commonly administered in clinical practice. In this multicenter retrospective study, we assessed a large and homogenous cohort of patients with urothelial bladder cancer (UBC) treated with three or four cycles of neoadjuvant cisplatin-gemcitabine followed by radical cystectomy, in order to explore whether three vs. four cycles were associated with different outcomes