Leadership and overcoming coordination failure with asymmetric costs

We study how the heterogeneity of agents affects the extent to which changes in financial incentives can pull a group out of a situation of coordination failure. We focus on the connections between cost asymmetries and leadership. Experimental subjects interact in groups of four in a series of weak-link games. The treatment variable is the distribution of high and low effort cost across subjects. We present data for one, two and three low-cost subjects as well as control sessions with symmetric costs. The overall pattern of coordination improvement is common across treatments. Early coordination improvements depend on the distribution of high and low effort costs across subjects, but these differences disappear with time. We find that initial leadership in overcoming coordination failure is not driven by low-cost subjects but by subjects with the most frequent cost. This conformity effect can be due to a kind of group identity or to the cognitive simplicity of acting with identical others.

Ra isotopes and Rn as a tool for the water management resources: the Alberquillas aquifer (Málaga-Granada)

The aim of this project is to evaluate the importance of submarine groundwater discharge sector in order to improve the water balance in Málaga-Granada region. The approach of this study arose from the the geology and the aquifers that indicate that there could be some discharge to the sea between Maro (Málaga) and Almuñécar (Granada) and the Andalusian’s Government and its Water Agence were really interested in evaluating it because there is a lot of population and few water available and the magnitude of groundwater discharge has generated controversy. Is well known that water is a scarce resource in this area and it’s very important for the society and for the environment. The legislation, the water policies, the knowledge of the aquifer and the geology, the water dynamics, the land use and the water perception in the society might help the management of this resource not just in Andalusia but in all the Mediterranean basin. The main objective is to evaluate the submarine groundwater discharge from the Alberquillas Aqufier to the sea by measuring 222Rn and Ra isotopes. Specific objectives have been established to achieve the main objective: A) Reveal the importance of water resources in the Mediterranean basin; B) Learn radiometric techniques for the study of groundwater discharge to the sea; C) Learn of sampling techniques of water samples for the measurement of Ra and Rn; D) Learn the techniques for measuring Ra (RaDeCC) and Rn (RAD7); E) Interpretation and discussion of results. During this semester, and in addition of the present study in Málaga- Granada region, the author has participated in the initial phase (sampling, analysis and interpretation of preliminary results) of other research projects focused on the study of submarine groundwater discharges through the use of Ra isotopes and 222Rn. These studies have been developed in different areas, including Alt Empordà (Roses and Sant Pere Pescador), Maresme with CMIMA’s group (Mediterranean Center for Marine and Environmental Research), Delta de l’Ebre, Peñíscola and Mallorca with the IMEDEA’s group (Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies).

Presidents and parties in regional politics: Italy and Spain compared

This article examines the relationship between political parties and regional presidents in Italy and Spain, adopting a comparative case study approach based on extensive archival analysis and in-depth interviews with regional politicians. The findings confirm a strong pattern of growing presidentialism at regional level, regardless of whether there are formal mechanisms for direct election, and regardless of the partisan composition of regional government. Regional presidents tend to exert their growing power through a personalised control of regional party organisations, rather than governing past parties in a direct appeal to the electorate. Nevertheless, parties can still present a significant constraint on regional presidents, so successful regional presidents tend to maintain a mediating form of leadership and fully exploit the opportunities for party patronage to build up their support and smooth governing tensions. An autonomist drive helps presidents hold together disparate coalitions or loose parties at regional level, but their lack of internal coherence presents major problems when it comes to political succession.

Temperamental Dimension and Anxiety Problems in a Clinical Sample of Three- to Six-year old Children: A Study of Variables

In the last few years, many researchers have studied the presence of common dimensions of temperament in subjects with symptoms of anxiety. The aim of this study is to examine the association between temperamental dimensions (high negative affect and activity level) and anxiety problems in clinicalpreschool children. A total of 38 children, ages 3 to 6 years, from the Infant and Adolescent Mental Health Center of Girona and the Center of Diagnosis and Early Attention of Sabadell and Olot were evaluated by parents and psychologists. Their parents completed several screening scales and, subsequently, clinical child psychopathology professionals carried out diagnostic interviews with children from the sample who presented signs of anxiety. Findings showed that children with high levels of negative affect and low activity level have pronounced symptoms of anxiety. However, children with anxiety disorders do not present different temperament styles from their peers without these pathologies

Implementació d'un contact center per empreses basat en software lliure

El proyecto consiste en la creación de un CRM de contact center con canal de telefonía y correo electrónico. Se ha llevado a cabo utilizando software libre. Se integra con centralita telefónica para permitir la realización de llamadas por Voip.

Chagas Disease among the Latin American Adult population attending in a primary care center in Barcelona, Spain

Background/Aims: The epidemiology of Chagas disease, until recently confined to areas of continental Latin America, has undergone considerable changes in recent decades due to migration to other parts of the world, including Spain. We studied the prevalence of Chagas disease in Latin American patients treated at a health center in Barcelona and evaluated its clinical phase. We make some recommendations for screening for the disease. Methodology/Principal Findings: We performed an observational, cross-sectional prevalence study by means of an immunochromatographic test screening of all continental Latin American patients over the age of 14 years visiting the health centre from October 2007 to October 2009. The diagnosis was confirmed by serological methods: conventional in-house ELISA (cELISA), a commercial kit (rELISA) and ELISA using T cruzi lysate (Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics) (oELISA). Of 766 patients studied, 22 were diagnosed with T. cruzi infection, showing a prevalence of 2.87% (95% CI, 1.6-4.12%). Of the infected patients, 45.45% men and 54.55% women, 21 were from Bolivia, showing a prevalence in the Bolivian subgroup (n = 127) of 16.53% (95% CI, 9.6-23.39%). All the infected patients were in a chronic phase of Chagas disease: 81% with the indeterminate form, 9.5% with the cardiac form and 9.5% with the cardiodigestive form. All patients infected with T. cruzi had heard of Chagas disease in their country of origin, 82% knew someone affected, and 77% had a significant history of living in adobe houses in rural areas. Conclusions: We found a high prevalence of T. cruzi infection in immigrants from Bolivia. Detection of T. cruzi¿infected persons by screening programs in non-endemic countries would control non-vectorial transmission and would benefit the persons affected, public health and national health systems.

Spanish E-Consumer Segmentation and Positioning in Virtual Supermarkets Sector

This article analyses different factors that influence the purchasing behaviour of online supermarket customers. These factors are related to both the appearance of the website as well as the processes that take place when making the purchase. Based on these analyses, the various groups of consumers with homogenous behaviour are studied and positioned according to their attitudes. The analysis also allows the quality of the service offered by this kind of establishment to be defined, as well as the main dimensions in which it develops. In the conclusions, factors which should influence the manager of an online supermarket to improve the quality of its service are given

Standardized evaluation methodology and reference database for evaluating IVUS image segmentation

This paper describes an evaluation framework that allows a standardized and quantitative comparison of IVUS lumen and media segmentation algorithms. This framework has been introduced at the MICCAI 2011 Computing and Visualization for (Intra)Vascular Imaging (CVII) workshop, comparing the results of eight teams that participated. We describe the available data-base comprising of multi-center, multi-vendor and multi-frequency IVUS datasets, their acquisition, the creation of the reference standard and the evaluation measures. The approaches address segmentation of the lumen, the media, or both borders; semi- or fully-automatic operation; and 2-D vs. 3-D methodology. Three performance measures for quantitative analysis have been proposed. The results of the evaluation indicate that segmentation of the vessel lumen and media is possible with an accuracy that is comparable to manual annotation when semi-automatic methods are used, as well as encouraging results can be obtained also in case of fully-automatic segmentation. The analysis performed in this paper also highlights the challenges in IVUS segmentation that remains to be solved.