Promoting rule compliance in daily-life: Evidence from a randomized field experiment in the public libraries of Barcelona

We study how to promote compliance with rules in everyday situations. Having access to unique data on the universe of users of all public libraries inBarcelona, we test the effect of sending email messages with dierent contents.We find that users return their items earlier if asked to do so in a simple email.Emails reminding users of the penalties associated with late returns are more effective than emails with only a generic reminder. We find differential treatmenteffects by user types. The characteristics we analyze are previous compliance,gender, age, and nationality.

The impact of gender composition on team performance and decision-making: Evidence from the field

We investigate whether the gender composition of teams affect theireconomic performance. We study a large business game, played in groups ofthree, where each group takes the role of a general manager. There are twoparallel competitions, one involving undergraduates and the other involvingMBAs. Our analysis shows that teams formed by three women aresignificantly outperformed by any other gender combination, both at theundergraduate and MBA levels. Looking across the performancedistribution, we find that for undergraduates, three women teams areoutperformed throughout, but by as much as 10pp at the bottom and by only1pp at the top. For MBAs, at the top, the best performing group is two menand one woman. The differences in performance are explained bydifferences in decision-making. We observe that three women teams are lessaggressive in their pricing strategies, invest less in R&D, and invest more insocial sustainability initiatives, than any other gender combination teams.Finally, we find support for the hypothesis that it is poor work dynamicsamong the three women teams that drives the results.

The role of incidental variables of time in mood assessment

Determining what influences mood is important for theories of emotion and research onsubjective well-being. We consider three sets of factors: activities in which people areengaged; individual differences; and incidental variables that capture when mood ismeasured, e.g., time-of-day. These three factors were investigated simultaneously in a studyinvolving 168 part-time students who each responded 30 times in an experience samplingstudy conducted over 10 working days. Respondents assessed mood on a simple bipolarscale from 1 (very negative) to 10 (very positive). Activities had significant effects but,with the possible exception of variability in the expression of mood, no systematicindividual differences were detected. Diurnal effects, similar to those already reported inthe literature, were found as was an overall Friday effect. However, these effects weresmall. Lastly, the weather had little or no influence. We conclude that simple measures ofoverall mood are not greatly affected by incidental variables.

Perceptual mapping of practical ethics along the value chain: A multiple correspondence analysis with industry and cultural indices as supplementary variables

This paper presents findings from a study investigating a firm s ethical practices along the value chain. In so doing we attempt to better understand potential relationships between a firm s ethical stance with its customers and those of its suppliers within a supply chain and identify particular sectoral and cultural influences that might impinge on this. Drawing upon a database comprising of 667 industrial firms from 27 different countries, we found that ethical practices begin with the firm s relationship with its customers, the characteristics of which then influence the ethical stance with the firm s suppliers within the supply chain. Importantly, market structure along with some key cultural characteristics were also found to exert significant influence on the implementation of ethical policies in these firms.

Ignoring information in binary choice with continuous variables: When is less 'more'?

When can a single variable be more accurate in binary choice than multiple sources of information? We derive analytically the probability that a single variable (SV) will correctly predict one of two choices when both criterion and predictor are continuous variables. We further provide analogous derivations for multiple regression (MR) and equal weighting (EW) and specify the conditions under which the models differ in expected predictive ability. Key factors include variability in cue validities, intercorrelation between predictors, and the ratio of predictors to observations in MR. Theory and simulations are used to illustrate the differential effects of these factors. Results directly address why and when one-reason decision making can be more effective than analyses that use more information. We thus provide analytical backing to intriguing empirical results that, to date, have lacked theoretical justification. There are predictable conditions for which one should expect less to be more.

Variables geoambientales en el Plan General de Ordenación Urbana de Cassá de la Selva

Se presentan de forma resumida los resultados geoambientales obtenidos en el estudio de un término municipal motivado más por sistemática de planteamiento por parte del responsable del Plan General, que por cuestión concreta planteada sobre este ámbito en aquel término municipal. Así y todo, la información obtenida influye sobre el Plan y pone de manifiesto circunstancias qenerales que sin ser aqudas son persistentes en el tiempo, por razones obvias del ámbito terrestre, al que pertenecen

Estudi i guia docent per a modelatge i simulació de sistemes mitjançant l'entron ARENA

Aquest projecte es basa en el modelatge i simulació de sistemes utilitzant un simulador digital, i pretén ser una guia docent com a eina d’ajuda per a una assignatura que, a priori, s’impartirà a la Universitat de Vic. La simulació és una tècnica que permet representar el comportament de processos (físics, productius, de serveis, etc.) sense necessitat d’accedir al sistema real. Per analitzar, estudiar i millorar el comportament d’un sistema mitjançant la tècnica de la simulació digital és necessari primer desenvolupar un model conceptual que descrigui les variables d’interès, i després implementar-lo en un simulador per poder analitzar els resultats. ARENA és el software de simulació que s’estudia en aquest projecte i es presenta com una eina que permet la descripció complerta de l’experiència que una entitat desenvolupa a l’interior del sistema mentre flueix a través d’aquest. En concret s’utilitza la versió ARENA 10.0. Pel que fa a l’estructura del projecte, primerament s’introdueixen conceptes teòrics referents a la simulació, així com avantatges i inconvenients i els camps d’aplicació de la simulació. Seguidament i ja centrats en l’Arena, s’analitza un exemple senzill per començar-ne a veure el funcionament. Posteriorment, es van estudiant varis exemples amb complexitat progressiva. Aquests exemples es desenvolupen pas a pas de manera que es puguin anar provant amb el simulador. En el transcurs del projecte es van estudiant les eines de l’Arena i les seves possibilitats, així com els resultats obtinguts i les interpretacions d’aquests. Aquest projecte pretén, doncs, donar conceptes introductoris en el camp de la simulació en general, i, en particular, descriure eines bàsiques sobre el funcionament de l’Arena.

Globally aligned photomosaic of the Lucky Strike hydrothermal vent field (Mid-Atlantic Ridge, 37°18.5’N): Release of georeferenced data, mosaic construction, and viewing software

We present a georeferenced photomosaic of the Lucky Strike hydrothermal vent field (Mid-Atlantic Ridge, 37°18’N). The photomosaic was generated from digital photographs acquired using the ARGO II seafloor imaging system during the 1996 LUSTRE cruise, which surveyed a ~1 km2 zone and provided a coverage of ~20% of the seafloor. The photomosaic has a pixel resolution of 15 mm and encloses the areas with known active hydrothermal venting. The final mosaic is generated after an optimization that includes the automatic detection of the same benthic features across different images (feature-matching), followed by a global alignment of images based on the vehicle navigation. We also provide software to construct mosaics from large sets of images for which georeferencing information exists (location, attitude, and altitude per image), to visualize them, and to extract data. Georeferencing information can be provided by the raw navigation data (collected during the survey) or result from the optimization obtained from imatge matching. Mosaics based solely on navigation can be readily generated by any user but the optimization and global alignment of the mosaic requires a case-by-case approach for which no universally software is available. The Lucky Strike photomosaics (optimized and navigated-only) are publicly available through the Marine Geoscience Data System (MGDS, http://www.marine-geo.org). The mosaic-generating and viewing software is available through the Computer Vision and Robotics Group Web page at the University of Girona (http://eia.udg.es/_rafa/mosaicviewer.html)

Generating functions for the numbers of Abelian extensions of a local field

The aim of this paper is to give an explicit formula for the num- bers of abelian extensions of a p-adic number field and to study the generating function of these numbers. More precisely, we give the number of abelian ex- tensions with given degree and ramification index, and the number of abelian extensions with given degree of any local field of characteristic zero. Moreover, we give a concrete expression of a generating function for these last numbers

Una comparación de la selección de los ratios contables en los modelos contable-financieros de predicción de la insolvencia empresarial : la literatura previa frente al analisis factorial

En los últimos 30 años la proliferación de modelos cuantitativos de predicción de la insolvencia empresarial en la literatura contable y financiera ha despertado un gran interés entre los especialistas e investigadores de lamateria. Lo que en un principio fueron unos modelos elaborados con un único objetivo, han derivado en una fuente de investigación constante.En este documento se formula un modelo de predicción de la insolvencia a través de la combinación de diferentes variables cuantitativas extraídas de los estados contables de una muestra de empresas para los años 1994-1997. A través de un procedimiento por etapas se selecciona e interpreta cuáles son las más relevantes en cuanto a aportación de información.Una vez formulado este primer tipo de modelos se busca una alternativa a las variables anteriores a través de la técnica factorial del análisis de componentes principales. Con ella se hace una selección de variables y se aplica, junto conlos ratios anteriores, el análisis univariante. Por último, se comparan los modelos obtenidos y se concluye que aunque la literatura previa ofrece mejores porcentajes de clasificación, los modelos obtenidos a través del análisis decomponentes principales no deben ser rechazados por la claridad en la explicación de las causas que conducen a una empresa a la insolvencia.

What do we actually mean by talent in business? Does it really matter?

[spa] La conceptuación de talento ha ido cobrando cada vez más importancia tanto para académicos como profesionales, con el fin de avanzar en el estudio de la gestión del talento. De hecho, la confusión sobre el significado de talento en la realidad empresarial impide llegar a un consenso sobre el concepto y la práctica de la gestión del talento. En este estudio teórico revisamos el concepto de talento en el mundo de la empresa con el fin de resumir lo que hemos aprendido y discutir las ventajas y limitaciones de las diferentes acepciones. Concluimos con la formulación de una definición de este concepto, ya que una correcta interpretación de la gestión del talento—por no hablar de una exitosa gestión del talento— depende de tener una comprensión clara de lo que se entiende por talento en un contexto organizativo. Además, con la definición de talento propuesta delimitamos el concepto de talento evitando algunos problemas detectados en las definiciones anteriores (por ejemplo, generalidades y tautologías), y poniendo de relieve las variables importantes que le afectan y lo hacen más manejable.

Impedance field and transition from thermal to shot noise in Cd1-xZnxTe semi-insulating Ohmic detectors

Within a drift-diffusion model we investigate the role of the self-consistent electric field in determining the impedance field of a macroscopic Ohmic (linear) resistor made by a compensated semi-insulating semiconductor at arbitrary values of the applied voltage. The presence of long-range Coulomb correlations is found to be responsible for a reshaping of the spatial profile of the impedance field. This reshaping gives a null contribution to the macroscopic impedance but modifies essentially the transition from thermal to shot noise of a macroscopic linear resistor. Theoretical calculations explain a set of noise experiments carried out in semi-insulating CdZnTe detectors.

What do we actually mean by talent in business? Does it really matter?

[spa] La conceptuación de talento ha ido cobrando cada vez más importancia tanto para académicos como profesionales, con el fin de avanzar en el estudio de la gestión del talento. De hecho, la confusión sobre el significado de talento en la realidad empresarial impide llegar a un consenso sobre el concepto y la práctica de la gestión del talento. En este estudio teórico revisamos el concepto de talento en el mundo de la empresa con el fin de resumir lo que hemos aprendido y discutir las ventajas y limitaciones de las diferentes acepciones. Concluimos con la formulación de una definición de este concepto, ya que una correcta interpretación de la gestión del talento—por no hablar de una exitosa gestión del talento— depende de tener una comprensión clara de lo que se entiende por talento en un contexto organizativo. Además, con la definición de talento propuesta delimitamos el concepto de talento evitando algunos problemas detectados en las definiciones anteriores (por ejemplo, generalidades y tautologías), y poniendo de relieve las variables importantes que le afectan y lo hacen más manejable.