1,721,125 research outputs found
Per uno sviluppo locale solidale e sostenibile: i contributi delle Cooperative e delle Fondazioni di Comunità
No full textIl saggio focalizza l'attenzione sulle caratteristiche di due strument di policy atti a generare capitale sociale nelle aree interne: le cooperative e le fondazioni di comunità, analizzando diversi casi studio presenti sul territorio italiano e mettendo a confronto i due tipi di strument
From Virtual to Digital Money. The Concept of Trust in the Era of Bitcoin
No full textMoney and currency are always changing. They are collective agreements born in social reality between those who share the same beliefs and support them with their confidence. Starting from a literature analysis about virtual currency, digital currency and money confidence (Prinz, 1999; Miller, Michalski, and Stevens, 2000; Guo, Chow, and Wigand, 2011; Peck, 2012; Maurer, Nelms, and Swartz, 2013), we focused on Bitcoin (BTC) wondering if the Trust, as well, went through transformations, in accordance with money dematerialization, and in which directions. In contrast to what is asserted in most of the examined communication, the hypothesis of this first Study regards the non-attendance of a radical difference in money trust in front of different types of currency. A content analysis was conducted on 86 Italian newspaper headlines and articles from 2011 and 2014. And 5 semi-structured interviews were conducted to a sample of Italian BTC users. The content analysis using T-LAB gave legitimacy to our hypothesis. The BTC is a digital currency with a great potential due to the power of its cryptography, whose in-depth knowledge would allow users to have full confidence. However, BTC is a monetary system that requires trust users’ support to survive. Different kinds of trusts are designed to meet different money and currency in communications.
A second Study is ongoing, starting from recent events about BTC, the increased interest in the phenomenon and its widespread presence in scientific debates. This research compares Italian users and Italian newspapers articles with English users and English newspapers articles to identify if any differences and/or similarities exist between these groups. The latest results confirm the previous ones with some cultural differences. Trust, as money, is proceeding towards dematerialization, switching consumers’ expectations from symbols of power, such as States and banks, over a bit sequences and encryption of data. Trust is always the core, whatever monetary system is
Is money perception influenced by the awareness of threat about the crisis and personality traits? The Italian case
No full textFundraising Solicitations: How Can Frame and Price Effects Influence Donor's Behavior
No full textMany studies have analyzed psychological framing effects (Kahnenan & Tversky, 1979, 1984; Tversky & Kahneman, 1981; Thaler, 1985) and the likelihood that they influence perception and consumer behavior (Legrenzi, Girotto & Johnson-Laird, 1993; Grewal, Gotlieb, & Marmorstein, 1994; Chen, Monroe, & Lou, 1998; Janiszewski & Cunha, 2004; Raj, 2008). But the same variables and the contest that characterizes fundraising solicitations are quite different as related to consumption behavior. The motivations and the aspects that could influence a giving behavior are manifold (Gittell & Tebaldi, 2006; Lindahl & Conley, 2002; Sargeant & Woodliffe, 2007) and are connected to psychological dynamics, cultural, social, and religious affiliations, demographic characteristics etc. Zolner, Compeau, Jones & Munger (2010) have pointed out that also the frame in which a nonprofit solicitation is presented can influence the probability to be engaged in the exchange. In particular, it seems there is an inverse relationship between transaction amount and consumers’ likelihood of engaging on it and the framing effect results to be relevant only in the case of high- level value, within a range of acceptable values emerged in the pre-test phase (Zolner et al., 2010). Starting from this and with intentions of a deeper analysis, this study analyzes the framing effect (donation or purchase frame) and price effect (taking into account underestimated and overestimated values compared to the acceptable level of price found out during the pre-test phase) related to specific fundraising solicitations. Furthermore, two new variable are introduced: 1) to have or not to have done a donation in the past year, and 2) to be engaged to the specific field of the «good cause» used in the fundraising appeals. The study use Computer-assisted Web Interviewing (CAWI) with a sample of 320 subjects. Two levels of framing (purchase and donation) and three levels of price (underestimated, normal and overestimated) were fully-crossed in a 2 × 3 randomized factorial design. The results were later analyzed by clustering the sample on the strength of habits of donation and on the engagement to the cause.
This study aims at confirming the previous similar researches (Zolner at. al., 2010) observing stronger evidence and underlining differences according to the giving culture between United States of America and Italy
Development of a Misfire Detection's Technique Based on an Engine's Torsional Model
No full textThe recent OBD requirements enforce the misfire's diagnosis and the isolation of the cylinder where the missing combustion took place. Most of the common-used techniques developed are based on the engine's angular speed, that is derived by the signal usually measured with an inductive or Hall-effect sensor already used for the engine's control. The presence of single or multiple misfires (several misfires within the same engine's cycle) induces torsional vibration in the powertrain, requiring specific filtering of the diagnostic signal to avoid false alarms. This paper presents some preliminary results, related to a 4 cylinder 1.2 liter engine mounted on an eddy-current brake test bench, obtained by a new diagnosis technique based on two speed sensors, placed near the toothed wheels used respectively for the engine and current brake's control. The signals coming from the two sensors, applied to an equation derived by a torsional model of the engine powertrain, allow to evaluate an index based on the difference between engine and brake's torque that highlights the misfire presence. It will be shown that this index does not require any particular calibration procedure. Experimental tests, in which single and multiple misfires are induced in several operating conditions, show clearly the algorithm's robustness in misfire detection, especially in multiple misfire tests, where the misfiring cylinders are exactly detected
Mental Representation of Money Category and Expertise. The Influences by Gender and Age
No full textNowadays, due to the current economic downturn, consumers are uncertain, afraid, and concerned about how the crisis affects the personal and economic futures. This research starts from the results of the studies of Snelders, Hussein, Lea & Webley (1992) and Rumiati & Lotto (1996 and 2006) that show how the mental representation of the “money” category should be different among people as they have different ways of handling money depending on their specific activities and on the different levels of expertise.
Little has been done in terms of examining the Italian economical crisis context from a social-psychological point of view concerning money perception.
The aim of this research is to investigate the differences in the perception of money by students, retailers and bank clerks, and how these differences depend not only from the expertise in handling money but also from gender and age. A replication study of the questionnaire of Rumiati & Lotto (2006) was done to confirm the evidence that showed that different exemplars of money are actually perceived as differently representative of the concept of “money”. Participants (210: 70 students, 70 retailers and 70 bank clerks) filled out the on-line questionnaire.
We reached our goal through a Factorial Analysis of Variance and Covariance.
The results show that there are some significant correlations between gender and perception money, as well as between the perception of money and the shift in the age and those perceptions are independent from the category (students, retailers and bank clerks) that we analyzed.
Moreover, referring to the previous studies of Rumiati & Lotto (1996 and 2006), the perception of money changed in the Italian context in the last seven years and the economical crisis could be one of the main causes
Consumatori, fiducia e Bitcoin: uno studio comparativo Italia-Gran Bretagna sulla percezione del denaro digitale
No full textCould the awareness of threat about the crisis and personality traits influence money perception?
No full textNowadays, due to the current economic downturn, consumers are uncertain, afraid, and concerned about how the crisis affects the personal and economic futures. This research starts from the results of the studies of Snelders, Hussein, Lea, & Webley (1992) and Rumiati & Lotto (1996 and 2006) that show how the mental representation of the “money” category should be different among people as they have different ways of handling money depending on their specific activities and on the different levels of expertise. Little has been done in terms of examining the Italian economical crisis context from a social-psychological point of view concerning money perception.
The aim of this research is to investigate the differences in the perception of money by students, retailers and bank clerks, and how these differences depend not only from the expertise in handling money but also from traits of personality and awareness of threat about the actual economical crisis.
To reach this goal the study used the new Financial Threat Scale (Marjanovic, Greenglass, Fiksenbaum, & Bell, 2013), a 5-item scale which was designed to measure the awareness of the economic crisis. A variant of Myer-Briggs Test Indicator (Antoni & Giaconi, 2012) was used to analyze the personality traits. A replication study of the questionnaire of Rumiati & Lotto (2006) was done to confirm the evidence that showed that different exemplars of money are actually perceived as differently representative of the concept of “money”. Participants (210: 70 students, 70 retailers and 70 bank clerks) filled out the tri-partited on-line questionnaire.
Through a Factorial Analysis of Variance and Covariance results show that there are some significant correlations between personality traits and perception of economical crisis, as well as between the perception of money and the crisis awareness. Some results are discussed about the differences perceived by the subjects of a specific category (but lower than those generated by the personality traits) and crisis. Finally, referring to the previous studies of Rumiati & Lotto (1996 and 2006), the perception of money changed in the Italian context in the last few seven years and the economical crisis could be one of the main causes
Relating Knocking Combustions Effects to Measurable Data
No full textKnocking combustions heavily influence the efficiency of Spark Ignition
engines, limiting the compression ratio and sometimes preventing
the use of Maximum Brake Torque (MBT) Spark Advance (SA). A detailed
analysis of knocking events can help in improving the engine performance
and diagnostic strategies. An effective way is to use advanced 3D
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation for the analysis and
prediction of the combustion process. The standard 3D CFD approach
based on RANS (Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes) equations allows
the analysis of the average engine cycle. However, the knocking phenomenon
is heavily affected by the Cycle to Cycle Variation (CCV): the effects
of CCV on knocking combustions are then taken into account, maintaining
a RANS CFD approach, while representing a complex running condition,
where knock intensity changes from cycle to cycle. The focus of the
numerical methodology is the statistical evaluation of the local
air-to-fuel and turbulence distribution at the spark plugs and their
correlation with the variability of the initial stages of combustion.
CFD simulations have been used to reproduce knock effect on the in-cylinder
pressure trace. For this purpose, the CFD model has been validated,
proving its ability to predict the combustion evolution with respect
to SA variations, from non-knocking up to heavy knocking conditions.
The CFD model allowed relating measurable data (i.e., the simulated
cylinder pressure signal) to other factors, representative of the
phenomena actually taking place during knocking combustions: for
each cell used in the CFD simulation, information such as pressure,
heat release, etc. are available and can be traced over the angular
domain. Furthermore, the analysis refers to hundredths of engine
cycles, leading to a comprehensive correlation between standard cylinder
pressure-based knock indexes and other indexes (only available in
a simulation environment), more representative of the actual knock
intensity. Copyright © 2015 SAE International
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