Secret information acquisition in Cournot markets

Two-stage game models of information acquisition in stochastic oligopoliesrequire the unrealistic assumption that firms observe the precision ofinformation chosen by their competitors before determining quantities. Thispaper analyzes secret information acquisition as a one-stage game. Relativeto the two-stage game firms are shown to acquire less information. Policyimplications based on the two-stage game yield, therefore, too high taxes ortoo low subsidies for research activities. For the case of heterogeneousduopoly it is shown that comparative statics results partly depend on theobservability assumption.

Social preferences and skill segregation

This paper shows that models where preferences of individuals dependnot only on their allocations, but also on the well-being of otherpersons, can produce both large and testable effects. We study theallocation of workers with heterogeneous productivities to firms. Weshow that even small deviations from purely selfish preferences leadsto widespread workplace skill segregation. That is, workers ofdifferent abilities tend to work in di¤erent firms, as long as theycare somewhat more about the utilities of workers who are close .

Skill-biased technological change and the business cycle

Over the past two decades, technological progress in the United States hasbeen biased towards skilled labor. What does this imply for business cycles?We construct a quarterly skill premium from the CPS and use it to identifyskill-biased technology shocks in a VAR with long-run restrictions. Hours fallin response to skill-biased technology shocks, indicating that at least part of thetechnology-induced fall in total hours is due to a compositional shift in labordemand. Skill-biased technology shocks have no effect on the relative price ofinvestment, suggesting that capital and skill are not complementary in aggregateproduction.

External technology sources: Embodied or disembodied technology acquisition

This paper analyzes the choice between different innovationactivities of a firm. In particular, we study the technologyacquisition decision of the firm, i.e. its technology BUYdecision as part of the firm's innovation strategy. We take a closer look at the different types of external technologyacquisition where we distinguish two broad types of technologybuy decisions. On the one hand, the firm can acquire new technology which is embodied in an asset that is acquired suchas new personnel or (parts of) other firms or equipment. On the other hand, the firm can obtain new technology disembodiedthrough a licensing agreement or by outsourcing the technologydevelopment from an R&D contractor or consulting agency. Through a series of Probit regressions, we discuss variables that might affect external technology acquisition choices of the firm andpay special attention to the firm's abilities to scan the market for technology and to absorb the technology acquired. Furthermore, we analyze the effect of different appropriationregimes on the decision of the firm to source technology.

Transferencia en la adquisición de segundas lenguas. Un estudio con alumnado rumano en un contexto bilingüe = Transfer in second language acquisition. A study with Romanian schoolchildren in a bilingual context

Situados en el contexto catalán, el artículo estudia la influencia de la L1 (rumano) en algunos aspectos morfosintácticos de la adquisición de las L2s. Para ello se analizan las competencias lingüísticas en catalán y castellano de un grupo de escolares cuya L1 es el rumano y que cursan 2.º y 4.º de ESO. Los datos muestran que los alumnos cuya L1 es el rumano, a pesar de dominar una lengua románica cercana a las lenguas de aprendizaje (L2/L3), presentan dificultades comparables a otros colectivos con otras lenguasde origen. Por otra parte, nuestra investigación confirma que la L1 de este alumnado juega un importante papel en la adquisición de ambas lenguas, concluyendo que parte de los errores hallados son aquellos que se basan en estructuras de la lengua propia

Language Resources Factory: case study on the acquisition of Translation Memories

This paper demonstrates a novel distributed architecture to facilitate the acquisition of Language Resources. We build a factory that automates the stages involved in the acquisition, production, updating and maintenance of these resources. The factory is designed as a platform where functionalities are deployed as web services, which can be combined in complex acquisition chains using workflows. We show a case study, which acquires a Translation Memory for a given pair of languages and a domain using web services for crawling, sentence alignment and conversion to TMX.

The promotion and assessment of generic skills from interdisciplinary teaching teams

The paper explains a teaching project financed by the University of Barcelona (UB). It focuses on ageneric skill of the University of Barcelona, which is defined as "the learning capability andresponsibility”, and in which analytical and synthesis skills are included. It follows a multidisciplinaryapproach including teachers of Mathematics, World Economics and Economic History. All of us sharethe same students during the first and the second course of the grade in Economics at the Faculty ofEconomics and Business. The project has been developed in three stages. The first one has beendone during the first semester of the course 2012/13, being applied to first year students on thesubjects of Mathematics and Economic History. The second phase is being to be done during thesecond semester only on the Economic History subject. A third stage is going to be done next course2013/14 to second year students on the subject of World Economics. Each different teaching teamhas developed specific materials and assessment tools for each one of the subjects included in theproject. The project emphasizes two teaching dimensions: the elaboration of teaching materials topromote the acquisition of generic skills from an interdisciplinary point of view, and the design ofspecific tools to assess such skills. The first results of the first phase of the project shows cleardeficiencies in the analytical skill regarding to first year students.

The promotion and assessment of generic skills from interdisciplinary teaching teams

The paper explains a teaching project financed by the University of Barcelona (UB). It focuses on ageneric skill of the University of Barcelona, which is defined as "the learning capability andresponsibility”, and in which analytical and synthesis skills are included. It follows a multidisciplinaryapproach including teachers of Mathematics, World Economics and Economic History. All of us sharethe same students during the first and the second course of the grade in Economics at the Faculty ofEconomics and Business. The project has been developed in three stages. The first one has beendone during the first semester of the course 2012/13, being applied to first year students on thesubjects of Mathematics and Economic History. The second phase is being to be done during thesecond semester only on the Economic History subject. A third stage is going to be done next course2013/14 to second year students on the subject of World Economics. Each different teaching teamhas developed specific materials and assessment tools for each one of the subjects included in theproject. The project emphasizes two teaching dimensions: the elaboration of teaching materials topromote the acquisition of generic skills from an interdisciplinary point of view, and the design ofspecific tools to assess such skills. The first results of the first phase of the project shows cleardeficiencies in the analytical skill regarding to first year students.

The promotion and assessment of generic skills from interdisciplinary teaching teams

The paper explains a teaching project financed by the University of Barcelona (UB). It focuses on ageneric skill of the University of Barcelona, which is defined as "the learning capability andresponsibility”, and in which analytical and synthesis skills are included. It follows a multidisciplinaryapproach including teachers of Mathematics, World Economics and Economic History. All of us sharethe same students during the first and the second course of the grade in Economics at the Faculty ofEconomics and Business. The project has been developed in three stages. The first one has beendone during the first semester of the course 2012/13, being applied to first year students on thesubjects of Mathematics and Economic History. The second phase is being to be done during thesecond semester only on the Economic History subject. A third stage is going to be done next course2013/14 to second year students on the subject of World Economics. Each different teaching teamhas developed specific materials and assessment tools for each one of the subjects included in theproject. The project emphasizes two teaching dimensions: the elaboration of teaching materials topromote the acquisition of generic skills from an interdisciplinary point of view, and the design ofspecific tools to assess such skills. The first results of the first phase of the project shows cleardeficiencies in the analytical skill regarding to first year students.

Versatile iPad forensic acquisition using the Apple Camera Connection Kit

Peer reviewed

Threading libraries performance when applied to image acquisition and processing in a forensic application

Peer-reviewed

Automatic acquisition of Named Entities for Rule-Based Machine Translation

This paper proposes to enrich RBMTdictionaries with Named Entities(NEs) automatically acquired fromWikipedia. The method is appliedto the Apertium English-Spanishsystem and its performance comparedto that of Apertium with and withouthandtagged NEs. The system withautomatic NEs outperforms the onewithout NEs, while results vary whencompared to a system with handtaggedNEs (results are comparable forSpanish to English but slightly worstfor English to Spanish). Apart fromthat, adding automatic NEs contributesto decreasing the amount of unknownterms by more than 10%.

Waveform-independent frame-timing acquisition for UWB signals

In this paper, the problem of frame-level symboltiming acquisition for UWB signals is addressed. The main goalis the derivation of a frame-level timing estimator which does notrequire any prior knowledge of neither the transmitted symbolsnor the received template waveform. The independence withrespect to the received waveform is of special interest in UWBcommunication systems, where a fast and accurate estimation ofthe end-to-end channel response is a challenging and computationallydemanding task. The proposed estimator is derived under theunconditional maximum likelihood criterion, and because of thelow power of UWB signals, the low-SNR assumption is adopted. Asa result, an optimal frame-level timing estimator is derived whichoutperforms existing acquisition methods in low-SNR scenarios.

More evidence concerning the aspect hypothesis: The acquisition of English progressive aspect by Catalan-Spanish instructed learners

A robust finding of studies investigating the Aspect Hypothesis is that learners at early stages of acquisition show a strong preference for using the progressive aspect as associated with activity verbs. As they advance in their acquisition of the second or foreign language, learners move from this prototypical association to associations traditionally considered to be more peripheral (e.g.-ing with accomplishments or achievements). Within this framework, the goal of this paper is to provide further evidence from groups of learners with different proficiency levels with regard to the acquisition of progressive aspect by tutored learners of English who are bilingual Catalan-Spanish. This is done by eliciting data by means of two different task types and by looking at both tokens and types. Our results are consistent with previous research according to which-ing morphology is closely associated with durative lexical aspect, although not necessarily with activity predicates. The study also shows that the type of task has an influence on the frequency and the distribution of learners" progressive forms.