300 research outputs found
Anuson Walter Vella
No full textCremation volume for Vella, Walter F. (Walter Francis), 1924-1980, American author on Thailand; comprises condolences and papers on Thailand by both crematee and others
Ontology
No full textOntology consists of two interlocking works: Nature/Nurture by Robert Davidson and 19… by Richard Vella. Using music, these two works examine various aspects of identity.\ud
\ud
Nature/Nurture draws attention to how culture and ideas are made and their role in defining who we are. Robert Davidson will perform a new 45-minute work based on speech recordings supplied by ABC archives. Included are voice recordings of Margaret Mead, Steven Pinker, David Williamson, Richard Dawkins, Noam Chomsky, Helena Cronin, Stephen Jay Gould, Edward O. Wilson and many others. \ud
\ud
In 19… Richard Vella focuses on songs as they change over generations and a song’s relationship to our bodies and identity
Chapter 3 - Excavations at Tac-Cawla, Rabat, Gozo, 2014 (Temple places: Excavating cultural sustainability in prehistoric Malta)
No full textp.s. Vella Nicholas C. co-author appears on the print version but not the online version.In this chapter, we present the results of archaeological excavations at the prehistoric settlement known as Taċ-Ċawla, Rabat, Gozo (site code TCC14), undertaken by the FRAGSUS Project from 27 March to 17 July 2014. This exercise involved sampling intact archaeological deposits for dateable environmental and economic remains, and identifying and interpreting new features found at a significant settlement site. The site had potential to tackle the fundamental research questions posed by the FRAGSUS Project (§1.5) and expand knowledge of early domestic settlement on Malta. [Excerpt from Introduction]peer-reviewe
Abstract di «Conflitti religiosi nella Milano imperiale. Ilario di Poitiers e il programma neoniceno in Occidente. Aussenzio di Milano e una reliquia dell'omeismo latino»
No full textThe latest polemical work written by Hilary of Poitiers is directed against Auxentius on the occasion of the
failed attempt to remove him from the episcopal see of Milan (ca. 364). This study offers a reconstruction of the dispute
between Hilary and Auxentius in the frame of the pro-Nicene program, promoted by the bishop of Poitiers after his re turn from eastern exile, paying attention to the documents, chronology and nature of the Milan debate. Alongside the
Contra Auxentium, a portion of the manuscript tradition provides the letter that the bishop of Milan addressed to the
emperors Valentinian I and Valens in his own defence, containing a creed and the notes in which the author explains
his accession to the Homoian Council of Rimini (359). The second part of the study is dedicated to the analysis of this
profession, compared to other Homoian creeds
Occupational Mobility and the Business Cycle
No full textDo workers sort more randomly across different job types when jobs are harder to find? To answer this question, we study the mobility of male workers among three-digit occupations in the matched files of the monthly Current Population Survey over the 1979-2004 period. We clean individual occupational transitions using the algorithm proposed by Moscarini and Thomsson (2008). We then construct a synthetic panel comprising annual birth cohorts, and we examine the respective roles of three potential determinants of career mobility: individual ex ante worker characteristics, both observable and unobservable, labor market prospects, and ex post job matching. We provide strong evidence that high unemployment somewhat offsets the role of individual worker considerations in the choice of changing career. Occupational mobility declines with age, family commitments and education, but when unemployment is high these negative effects are weaker, and reversed for college education. The cross-sectional dispersion of the monthly series of residuals is strongly countercyclical. As predicted by Moscarini (2001)’s frictional Roy model, the sorting of workers across occupations is noisier when unemployment is high. As predicted by job-matching theory, worker mobility has significant residual persistence over time. Finally, younger cohorts, among those in the sample for most of their working lives, exhibit increasingly low unexplained career mobility.occupational mobility, business cycle, synthetic cohorts
Two-step estimation of simultaneous equation panel data models with censored endogenous variables
No full textThis paper presents some two-step estimators for a wide range of parametric panel data models with censored endogenous variables and sample selection bias. Our approach is to derive estimates of the unobserved heterogeneity responsible for the endogeneity/selection bias to include as additional explanatory variables in the primary equation. These are obtained through a decomposition of the reduced form residuals. The panel nature of the data allows adjustment, and testing, for two forms of endogeneity and/or sample selection bias. Furthermore, it incorporates roles for dynamics and state dependence in the reduced form. Finally, we provide an empirical illustration which features our procedure and highlights the ability to test several of the underlying assumptions.Estimation;Panel Data;statistics
Occupational Mobility and the Business Cycle
No full textDo workers sort more randomly across different job types when jobs are harder to find? To answer this question, we study the mobility of male workers among three-digit occupations in the matched files of the monthly Current Population Survey over the 1979-2004 period. We clean individual occupational transitions using the algorithm proposed by Moscarini and Thomsson (2008). We then construct a synthetic panel comprising annual birth cohorts, and we examine the respective roles of three potential determinants of career mobility: individual ex ante worker characteristics, both observable and unobservable, labor market prospects, and ex post job matching. We provide strong evidence that high unemployment somewhat offsets the role of individual worker considerations in the choice of changing career. Occupational mobility declines with age, family commitments and education, but when unemployment is high these negative effects are weaker, and reversed for college education. The cross-sectional dispersion of the monthly series of residuals is strongly countercyclical. As predicted by Moscarini (2001)'s frictional Roy model, the sorting of workers across occupations is noisier when unemployment is high. As predicted by job-matching theory, worker mobility has significant residual persistence over time. Finally, younger cohorts, among those in the sample for most of their working lives, exhibit increasingly low unexplained career mobility.
Modelling nourishments through the Durban piers: Research of sediment transport and surf conditions
No full textThe Durban bight has a very dynamic and variable coastline which is constantly under attack by the Indian Ocean. To protect the Durban harbour from this energetic ocean, already in 1855 breakwaters have been constructed to protect the harbour and prevent sedimentation inside. The construction of these breakwaters and eventually extending these breakwaters towards the sea has influenced the sediment flow in front of the Durban beaches enormously. The natural sediment flow along the coast from South to North has been interrupted and this has changed the surroundings. The beaches of Durban are constantly eroding and nourishments are necessary every year to restore the beaches and preserve the safety of the citizens of Durban. The Durban Harbour has agreed to dredge all the available sand that is trapped by the breakwaters and deliver the sand back into the beach system. The Municipality of Durban has responded to this development by constructing a sand distribution system at the beaches, to nourish the sand in an optimal way. New nourishment pipelines have been constructed through three piers at the central part of the Durban coast to supply the sand directly in the surf zone. Although the rough sea is responsible for the erosion at the beaches, the sea also provides nice surf conditions. If the bathymetry has the right shape, perfect surf waves can appear. A combination of nourishments done by the Durban Harbour and the construction of the new nourishment pipelines can lead to the necessary change in bathymetry, resulting in the perfect surf waves. To investigate the consequences of the nourishments on the surf conditions and the movement of the sediment, a Delft3D computer model has been set up. Different nourishment scenarios have been investigated, as well as the available recorded data regarding the tide, the wave and the wind conditions. The total input data have been reduced in size towards representative parameters and converted to corresponding Delft3D input files. After running the constructed model with different scenarios for a simulation period of 15 days, the results have been checked on two different aspects. First of all the effect of the nourishments through the piers on the bathymetry is analysed. An overview of the most important model outcomes is bundled in the additional document ‘Modelling nourishments through the Durban piers, Figures’. The nourishments tend to move onshore and therefore into the coastal cells between the piers. Offshore transport doesn’t seem to be an issue for the dominant wave conditions, but during north-easterly and north-north-easterly waves it is advised not to carry out nourishments. The just nourished sediment might be transported offshore in that situation. The added sediment is partly used to fill up scour holes just north of each pier, but it also leads to the creation of a shallow area north of the tip of each pier. When every year a volume of 250,000 m3 of sand is supplied to the Durban bight, the coastal cells remain more or less in equilibrium, given that 40% of the total amount is nourished through the piers. The second part concerns the effects on the surf conditions. When analysing the physical wave parameters, no major changes can be noticed. However, the model is only run for 15 days, during which one nourishment is simulated. The results do show some subtle trends, which could lead to a bigger influence when successive nourishments are carried out. Waves start to break at the newly created shallow areas during low tide. This has a positive effect on the surf conditions, since the waves will break in a more favourable way. In case of multiple nourishments, the shallow areas will probably become shallower, so then the positive effect can be noticed during high tide as well. Furthermore, the orientation of the coastline between the piers will obtain a slight obliqueness with respect to the dominant wave direction. This causes the waves not to break at once along the whole wave crest, but more gradually from one side to the other, so that surfers can ride a wave uninterruptedly for a longer period of time. Finally a number of recommendations is given, which result from the whole process that the project has gone through. A few adjustments to the model might lead to a major improvement of the performance. Two of the most important recommendations concern a more detailed way of modelling the piers in the model and the inclusion of wind.Hydraulic EngineeringCivil Engineering and Geoscience
Analisi citazionale e indicatori bibliometrici nel modello Open Access
No full textThis article is focused on the bibliometric methods used for research evaluation, within the well known field of the bibliometrics which uses mathematical and statistical techniques to analyze the publications distribution patterns, and to explore their impact into the scholarly communities. While the bibliometric methods are used more often in the LIS, bibliometrics offers a wide range of applications in a variety of fields of knowledge. Since the research evaluation requires a double approach: quantitative (bibliometric analysis) and qualitative (peer-review, panel...), the fundamental idea is that the measurement of the scientific knowledge uses both the methods.
Though the IF or impact factor is the most well known bibliometric index, is not the only one suggested by ISI (now Thompson) to refer. In the Open Access world are spreading a wide number of initiatives and projects regarding the “bibliometrics” field, in which are being testing alternative solutions to the traditional IF, for example the Eigenfactor, the Hirsch index and its variations like the g-index, a-index, h-b-index, tools that mark a meaningful change in this fascinating field.
While the indicators “author-produced” are the citations, those “reader-produced” are usage data collected through webserver and linkresolver logs. A quantitative bibliometric indicator of new generation is the Usage Factor UF, complementary but non substitutive of traditional or alternative impact factor indicator. It will be necessary to organize the log data collection to share methods to obtain significant analysis. The article goes over some examples of new tools/projects for citational analysis in the Web area, among these the Web Impact Factor (WIF), and for the statistical analysis of logs and data, both bringing back to the new science known as metric of the web or Webometric.
Within the OAI framework there are many research projects of the webometric type, involving the intellectual output archivied into the repositories and their impact within the constitutive processes of the scholarly communication.
The theory assuming that an open access article in more likely to be read and therefore cited is matter of international debates and object of several studies, aimed to analyze the effects of the open access model and of the download on the citational impact. The article closes with a critical report on some of the most important works investigating the validity of this theory, from the original study of Lawrence, on Nature 2001, to the most recent works, the three postulates of Kurtz, the analysis run in 2006 by the Cornell’s Library staff on the MathSciNet database, the study of Moed which imposed a completely new methodological level with the introduction of the “variable citation window”.
Useful tools for the citational bibliometric analysis, on the statistical usage measurement of the researchs for the successful data monitoring, should be in the hands of the research producers, not in the hands of those commercial oligopoles that can influence the investment strategies and the national and international policies for the research
- …
