La biblioteca recombinada: portals i persones

Aquest article explora el disseny i l'ús dels portals en un entorn bibliotecari. Tracta les motivacions per construir portals, així com l'estructura i la tipologia d'aquests. A més, examina l'entorn de l'usuari en què es desenvolupen aquests portals. També argumenta que aporten serveis útils d'integració i presentació, però que s'han de considerar com a component d'un conjunt de serveis més ampli que la biblioteca està construint per tal d'introduir aquests recursos útils als usuaris. Així mateix, considera breument els serveis que els portals ofereixen: consulta distribuïda o metacerca, personalització, demandes, resolució OpenURL, avisos, etc. També considera l'emergent necessitat de serveis de directori o de registre per a coses com la descripció de col·leccions i serveis, dades de drets i polítiques, etc. Tracta l'impacte dels serveis web i el canvi en els models d'investigació i aprenentatge en relació al subministrament i ús d'informació en xarxa. Finalment, considera els serveis bibliotecaris com a part d'un entorn de sistemes, cada vegada més ric, que inclou els sistemes de gestió d'aprenentatge i de programari educatiu, portals de campus, serveis compartits com l'autenticació, i altres sistemes i serveis.

Hausman tests for inefficient estimators: application to demand for health care service (revised)

The Hausman (1978) test is based on the vector of differences of two estimators. It is usually assumed that one of the estimators is fully efficient, since this simplifies calculation of the test statistic. However, this assumption limits the applicability of the test, since widely used estimators such as the generalized method of moments (GMM) or quasi maximum likelihood (QML) are often not fully efficient. This paper shows that the test may easily be implemented, using well-known methods, when neither estimator is efficient. To illustrate, we present both simulation results as well as empirical results for utilization of health care services.

Technical innovations at the service of cheaper labour in pre-industrial Europe. The Enlightened agenda to transform the gender division of labour in silk manufacturing

In 1749, Jacques de Vaucanson patented his or tour pour tirer la soie or spindle for silk reeling. In that same year he presented his invention to the Academy of the Sciences in Paris, of which he was a member1. Jacques de Vaucanson was born in Grenoble, France, in 1709, and died in Paris in 1782. In 1741 he had been appointed inspector of silk manufactures by Louis XV. He set about reorganizing the silk industry in France, in considerable difficulty at the time due to foreign competition. Given Vaucanson’s position, his invention was intended to replace the traditional Piémontes method, and had an immediate impact upon the silk industry in France and all over Europe.

Trans-Atlantic Pedagogy for Teaching Pre-Service Teachers ICT: Bringing forward cultural issues

Projecte de recerca elaborat a partir d’una estada a la Universitat de Toronto, Canadà, des d’octubre del 2006 a febrer del 2007. El projecte Barchito és un projecte Interrnacional que va involucrar tres universitats: La Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, la Universitat de Toronto (Canadà) i la Universitat de Roosevelt (USA). El seu objectiu principal era posar en contacte estudiants de les tres universitats (de tres cursos diferents) per discutir al voltant de temes com ara l'ensenyament/aprenentatge i elements culturals de cada país. Aquest projecte presenta la natura de l'experiència des de la visió dels participants: alumnat i professorat. Superant diferències inicials de llengua, els participants van aprendre d'altra cultura, van aprendre sobre altres maneres d'ensenyar i van aprendre, en definitiva, sobre ells mateixos. L'eina d'aprenentatge col.laboratiu els va ajudar a sobrepassar el context immediat, emprant per això, l'eina tecnològica anomenada: Knowledge Forum.

Scheduled service versus personal transportation: the role of distance

This paper analyzes both theoretically and empirically the relationship between distance and frequency of scheduled transportation services. We study the interaction between a monopoly firm providing high-speed scheduled service and personal trans- portation (i.e., car). Most interestingly, the carrier chooses to increase frequency of service on longer routes when competing with personal transportation because provid- ing a higher frequency (at extra cost) it can also charge higher fares that can boost its profits. However, when driving is not a relevant option, frequency of service de- creases for longer flights consistently with prior studies. An empirical application of our analysis to the European airline industry con?rms the predictions of our theoretical model.

Scheduled Service Versus Personal Transportation: The Role of Distance

This paper presents a theoretical and empirical analysis of the relationship be- tween frequency of scheduled transportation services and their substitutability with personal transportation (using distance as a proxy). We study the interaction between a monopoly firm providing a high-speed scheduled service and private transportation (i.e., car). Interestingly, the carrier chooses to increase the frequency of service on longer routes when competing with personal transportation because by providing higher frequency (at extra cost) it can also charge higher fares which can boost its profits. However, in line with the results of earlier studies, frequency decreases for longer flights when driving is not a viable option. An empirical application of our analysis to the European airline industry confirms the predictions of our theoretical model. Keywords: short-haul routes; long-haul routes; flight frequency; distance JEL Classification Numbers: L13; L2; L93

Service offshoring and white-collar employment

This paper empirically studies the effects of service offshoring on white-collar employment, using data for more than one hundred U.S. occupations. A model of firm behavior based on separability allows to derive the labor demand elasticity with respect to service offshoring for each occupation. Estimation is performed with Quasi-Maximum Likelihood, to account for high degrees of censoring in the employment variable. The estimated elasticities are then related to proxies for the skill level and the degree of tradability of the occupations. Results show that service offshoring increases high skilled employment and decreases medium and low skilled employment. Within each skill group, however, service offshoring penalizes tradable occupations and benefits non-tradable occupations.

Definició i estudi de viabilitat d'un "support center" funcional en una empresa farmacèutica

Este proyecto comprende dos componentes centrales. Estos son, definir la situación actual sobre el soporte funcional en las aplicaciones y proponer soluciones para una mejora de los servicios. Durante la descripción de la situación actual se han ido encontrando problemas en el soporte, y se proponen soluciones. Se han llegado a proponer 3 modelos distintos de los cuales se ha elegido uno, el cual supone una importante mejora en el servicio.

Employment effects of service offshoring: evidence from matched firms

This paper studies the effects of service offshoring on the level and skill composition of domestic employment, using a rich data set of Italian firms and propensity score matching techniques. The results show that service offshoring has no effect on the level of employment but changes its composition in favor of high skilled workers.

Service offshoring and the skill composition of labor demand

This paper studies the effects of service offshoring on the skill composition of labor demand, using novel comparable data for nine Western European countries between 1990 and 2004. The empirical analysis delivers three main results. First, service offshoring is skill-biased, because it increases the demand for high and medium skilled labor and decreases the demand for low skilled labor. Second, the effects of service offshoring are similar to those of material offshoring, both qualitatively and quantitatively. Third, the economic magnitude of these effects is not large.

Mathematical description of bacterial traveling pulses

The Keller-Segel system has been widely proposed as a model for bacterial waves driven by chemotactic processes. Current experiments on E. coli have shown precise structure of traveling pulses. We present here an alternative mathematical description of traveling pulses at a macroscopic scale. This modeling task is complemented with numerical simulations in accordance with the experimental observations. Our model is derived from an accurate kinetic description of the mesoscopic run-and-tumble process performed by bacteria. This model can account for recent experimental observations with E. coli. Qualitative agreements include the asymmetry of the pulse and transition in the collective behaviour (clustered motion versus dispersion). In addition we can capture quantitatively the main characteristics of the pulse such as the speed and the relative size of tails. This work opens several experimental and theoretical perspectives. Coefficients at the macroscopic level are derived from considerations at the cellular scale. For instance the stiffness of the signal integration process turns out to have a strong effect on collective motion. Furthermore the bottom-up scaling allows to perform preliminary mathematical analysis and write efficient numerical schemes. This model is intended as a predictive tool for the investigation of bacterial collective motion.

Programa de introducción a la investigación y al desarrollo de las destrezas comunicativas (hablar y escribir correctamente): aplicación, desarrollo y resultados

Ante el nuevo reto que supone la adaptación al Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (EEES) con una acción política que propone introducir importantes modificaciones en la concepción del proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje entre las que se encuentran el replanteamiento del papel del profesor y del alumno, y el proceder metodológico en la acción docente, todos los agentes educativos deben aunar esfuerzos para articular medidas que posibiliten la adaptación a este nuevo escenario de manera óptima. Las universidades están ofreciendo a los docentes herramientas que puedan facilitar el acceso a los procesos de innovación educativa que exige el nuevo espacio de formación. En este marco es donde nace el proyecto titulado 'Programa de Introducción a la Investigación y al Desarrollo de las Destrezas Comunicativas (hablar y escribir correctamente)' que, valiéndose de los recursos tecnológicos que nos ofrece el Servicio de Innovación Educativa de la Universidad de Málaga, busca mejorar las competencias de expresión oral y escrita de los alumnos, así como la capacidad para organizar sus trabajos de investigación de manera rigurosa y ordenada, siguiendo una secuenciación razonada y científica. En la presente comunicación se detallan los objetivos del proyecto, la descripción del mismo, el modo de proceder en su desarrollo, las partes de las que ha constado y las conclusiones a las que se ha llegado.

Un cop d’ull a Resource description & acces (RDA) i al seu futur

Es tracta d’una sessió introductòria que se centra en els aspectes més generals de la nova normativa: el marc conceptual en el qual es fonamenta la RDA (els models FRBR i FRAD), els objectius, l’organització de les normes, el nou vocabulari, la continuïtat amb les AACR2 i els punts de divergència, els beneficis que s’espera obtenir del nou codi, etc. El seu objectiu principal és fer una primera introducció de les regles per sensibilitzar els catalogadors dels canvis que tindran lloc a mig termini.

Accounting for Big City Growth in Low Paid Occupations: Immigration and/or Service Class Consumption

Growth of 'global cities' in the 1980s was supposed to have involved an occupational polarisation, including growth of low paid service jobs. Though held to be untrue for European cities, at the time, some such growth did emerge in London a decade later than first reported for New York. The question is whether there was simply a delay before London conformed to the global city model, or whether another distinct cause was at work in both cases. This paper proposes that the critical factor in both cases was actually an upsurge of immigration from poor countries providing an elastic supply of cheap labour. This hypothesis and its counterpart based on growth in elite jobs are tested econometrically for the British case with regional data spanning 1975-2008, finding some support for both effects, but with immigration from poor countries as the crucial influence in late 1990s London. Keywords: regional labour markets; wages; employment; international migration; consumer demand JEL Codes: J21, J23, F22, R12