Reasons for deploying an e-reader loan service at the UOC Library

The presentation will focus on the reasons for deploying an e-reader loan service at a virtual university library as a part of an e-learning support system to aid user mobility, concentration of documentary and electronic resources, and ICT skills acquisition, using the example of the UOC pilot project and its subsequent consolidation. E-reader devices at the UOC are an extension of the Virtual Campus. They are offered as a tool to aid user mobility, access to documentary and electronic resources, and development of information and IT skills. The e-reader loan service began as a pilot project in 2009 and was consolidated in 2010. The UOC Library piloted the e-reader loan service from October to December 2009. The pilot project was carried out with 15 devices and involved 37 loans. The project was extended into 2010 with the same number of devices and 218 loans (October 2010). In 2011 the e-reader loan service is to involve 190 devices, thus offering an improved service. The reasons for deploying an e-reader loan service at the UOC are the following: a) to offer library users access to the many kinds of learning materials available at the UOC through a single device that facilitates student study and learning; b) to enhance access to and use of the e-book collections subscribed to by the UOC Library; c) to align with UOC strategy on the development of learning materials in multiple formats, and promote e-devices as an extension of the UOC Virtual Campus, and d) to increase UOC Library visibility within and beyond the institution. The presentation will conclude with an analysis of the key issues to be taken into account at a university library: the e-reader market, the unclear business and license model for e-book contents, and the library's role in promoting new reading formats to increase use of e-collections.

L'ensenyament universitari del segle XXI : més enllà del paper

Durant les últimes dècades, en un context en què impera la influència de les TIC, el model de l'ensenyament universitari ha canviat radicalment. Paral·lelament, els rols de l'estudiant i del professor també s'han vist modificats: l'estudiant ha deixat de ser un lector passiu per convertir-se en un lector que participa activament en el procés d'aprenentatge, aportant material complementari i en diferents suports a la informació que li arriba. Neix, així, el concepte de lectura augmentada. La Universitat Oberta de Catalunya és un exemple de la tendència de futur de l'ensenyament universitari, en què l'estudiant pren les regnes de l'aprenentatge i les institucions educatives s'adapten a les noves necessitats de l'usuari afavorint la flexibilitat, la mobilitat i les eines tecnològiques imprescindibles per a aquest nou model d'ensenyament.

L'ensenyament universitari del segle XXI : més enllà del paper

La Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) és un exemple de la tendència de futur de l'ensenyament universitari, en què l'estudiant pren les regnes de l'aprenenetatge i les institucions educatives s'adapten a les noves necessitats de l'usuari afavorint la flexibilitat, la mobilitat i les eines tecnològiques imprescindibles per a aquest nou model d'enseyament.

Truncating mutations in the last exon of NOTCH2 cause a rare skeletal disorder with osteoporosis.

Hajdu-Cheney syndrome is a rare autosomal dominant skeletal disorder with facial anomalies, osteoporosis and acro-osteolysis. We sequenced the exomes of six unrelated individuals with this syndrome and identified heterozygous nonsense and frameshift mutations in NOTCH2 in five of them. All mutations cluster to the last coding exon of the gene, suggesting that the mutant mRNA products escape nonsense-mediated decay and that the resulting truncated NOTCH2 proteins act in a gain-of-function manner.

Power Comic Reader : Lector de comics para plataforma iOS

Lector de comics para plataforma iOS para dispositivos iPad.

Teaching Literature in EFL through the Story Grammar and Reader Response Approach

La Literatura ha de ser implementada a les aules com a eina per a l’ensenyament i aprenentatge de la llengua anglesa, i hauria de complementar els llibres de text d’ensenyament d’aquesta llengua. D’aquesta manera els alumnes seran exposats encara més a una varietat de registres, expressions i vocabulari d’aquesta llengua. La metodologia d’ensenyar la gramàtica dels contes o històries coneguda en anglès com “Story Grammar Approach” (SGA) i la metodologia sobre la comprensió i reacció lectora o “Reader Response Approach” (RRA) són excel•lent vehicles per a implementar la Literatura com a eina a les aules per a ensenyar anglès.La metodologia sobre la gramàtica de contes o “SGA” només es pot posar en pràctica quan els textos són narratius perquè aquests posseeixen tots els següents elements:• Personatges• Ambient• Trama• Conflicte• Resolució• Tema La metodologia de la reacció lectiva o “RRA” es centra principalment en la comprensió subjectiva i reacció del lector sobre un text, en la qual el lector formula una hipòtesis i aporta les seves idees sobre el text a una conversa grupal. Els estudiants han de poder aportar les seves reaccions, idees i respostes sobre els textos. La metodologia “RRA” també enfoca les habilitats cognitives superiors i empenya a l’alumne a millorar la seva expressió oral.Aquestes dues metodologies aporten incomptable avantatges. Treballen totes les intel•ligències múltiples i totes les competències acadèmiques (menys la matemàtica), els alumnes aprenen a treballar i a escolar als altres (i valorar altres opinions), poden aprendre sobre diferents cultures, la història, geografia, són exposats a diferents gèneres, i fomenten i estimulen la lectura i escriptura, com també treballen les habilitats productives i receptives en l’aprenentatge del anglès.

Productivity development at construction branch after the last recession

EPC 2006 kansainvälinen tuottavuuskonfrenssi

Some last thoughts on compositional data analysis

One of the disadvantages of old age is that there is more past than future: this,however, may be turned into an advantage if the wealth of experience and, hopefully,wisdom gained in the past can be reflected upon and throw some light on possiblefuture trends. To an extent, then, this talk is necessarily personal, certainly nostalgic,but also self critical and inquisitive about our understanding of the discipline ofstatistics. A number of almost philosophical themes will run through the talk: searchfor appropriate modelling in relation to the real problem envisaged, emphasis onsensible balances between simplicity and complexity, the relative roles of theory andpractice, the nature of communication of inferential ideas to the statistical layman, theinter-related roles of teaching, consultation and research. A list of keywords might be:identification of sample space and its mathematical structure, choices betweentransform and stay, the role of parametric modelling, the role of a sample spacemetric, the underused hypothesis lattice, the nature of compositional change,particularly in relation to the modelling of processes. While the main theme will berelevance to compositional data analysis we shall point to substantial implications forgeneral multivariate analysis arising from experience of the development ofcompositional data analysis…

On a series of Goldbach and Euler

Theorem 1 of Euler s paper of 1737 'Variae Observationes Circa Series Infinitas', states the astonishing result that the series of all unit fractions whose denominators are perfect powers of integers minus unity has sum one. Euler attributes the Theorem to Goldbach. The proof is one of those examples of misuse of divergent series to obtain correct results so frequent during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. We examine this proof closelyand, with the help of some insight provided by a modern (and completely dierent) proof of the Goldbach-Euler Theorem, we present a rational reconstruction in terms which could be considered rigorous by modern Weierstrassian standards. At the same time, with a few ideas borrowed from nonstandard analysis we see how the same reconstruction can be also be considered rigorous by modern Robinsonian standards. This last approach, though, is completely in tune with Goldbach and Euler s proof. We hope to convince the reader then how, a few simple ideas from nonstandard analysis, vindicate Euler's work.

Value and prices in Russian economic thought (1890-1920)

The subject "Value and prices in Russian economic thought (1890--1920)" should evoke several names and debates in the reader's mind. For a long time, Western scholars have been aware that the Russian economists Tugan-Baranovsky and Bortkiewicz were active participants to the Marxian transformation problem, that the mathematical models of Dmitriev prefigured forthcoming neoricardian based models, and that many Russian economists were either supporting the Marxian labour theory of value or being revisionists. Moreover, these ideas were preparing the ground for Soviet planning. Russian scholars additionally knew that this period was the time of introduction of marginalism in Russia, and that, during this period, economists were active in thinking the relation of ethics with economic theory. All these issues are well covered in the existing literature. But there is a big gap that this dissertation intends to fill. The existing literature handles these pieces separately, although they are part of a single, more general, history. All these issues (the labour theory of value, marginalism, the Marxian transformation problem, planning, ethics, mathematical economics) were part of what this dissertation calls here "The Russian synthesis". The Russian synthesis (in the singular) designates here all the attempts at synthesis between classical political economy and marginalism, between labour theory of value and marginal utility, and between value and prices that occurred in Russian economic thought between 1890 and 1920, and that embraces the whole set of issues evoked above. This dissertation has the ambition of being the first comprehensive history of that Russian synthesis. In this, this contribution is unique. It has always surprised the author of the present dissertation that such a book has not yet been written. Several good reasons, both in terms of scarce availability of sources and of ideological restrictions, may accounted for a reasonable delay of several decades. But it is now urgent to remedy the situation before the protagonists of the Russian synthesis are definitely classified under the wrong labels in the pantheon of economic thought. To accomplish this task, it has seldom be sufficient to gather together the various existing studies on aspects of this story. It as been necessary to return to the primary sources in the Russian language. The most important part of the primary literature has never been translated, and in the last years only some of them have been republished in Russian. Therefore, most translations from the Russian have been made by the author of the present dissertation. The secondary literature has been surveyed in the languages that are familiar (Russian, English and French) or almost familiar (German) to the present author, and which are hopefully the most pertinent to the present investigation. Besides, and in order to increase the acquaintance with the text, which was the objective of all this, some archival sources were used. The analysis consists of careful chronological studies of the authors' writings and their evolution in their historical and intellectual context. As a consequence, the dissertation brings new authors to the foreground - Shaposhnikov and Yurovsky - who were traditionally confined to the substitutes' bench, because they only superficially touched the domains quoted above. In the Russian synthesis however, they played an important part of the story. As a side effect, some authors that used to play in the foreground - Dmitriev and Bortkiewicz - are relegated to the background, but are not forgotten. Besides, the dissertation refreshes the views on authors already known, such as Ziber and, especially, Tugan-Baranovsky. The ultimate objective of this dissertation is to change the opinion that one could have on "value and prices in Russian economic thought", by setting the Russian synthesis at the centre of the debates.

The lender of last resort: A 21st Century approach

The object of this paper is to analyze rigorously the role of a Lender ofLast Resort by providing a framework where the distinction betweeninsolvency and illiquidity is not clearly cut. Determining the optimalLender of Last Resort policy requires a careful modeling of the structureof the interbank market and of the closure policy. In our set up, theresults depend upon the existence of moral hazard. If the main source ofmoral hazard is the banks lack of incentives to screen loans, then theLender of Last Resort may have to intervene to improve the e¢ciency of anunsecured interbank market; if instead, the main source of moral hazard isloans monitoring, then the interbank market should be secured and theLender of Last Resort should never intervene.

Firms vs. insiders as traders of last resort

We explore the role of corporate insiders vs. firms as traders of last resort. We develop a simple model of insider trading in which insiders provide price support, as well as liquidity, in security markets. Consistent with the model predictions we find that in the US markets insiders trading activities have a clear impact on return distributions. Furthermore, we provide empirical evidence on insiders transactions and firm transactions affecting returns in a different manner. In particular, while insiders transactions (both purchases and sales) have a strong impact on skewness in the short run and to a lesser extent in short run volatility, company repurchases only have a clear impact on volatility, both in the short and the long run. We provide explanations for this asymmetry.