Great Expectations: The Persistent Effect of Institutions on Culture

Presentation (2014, December 04)

This research exploits the event of immigration to establish that institutions have a persistent effect on culture. It is argued that immigrants coming from corrupt countries, tend to overtrust the ... [more ▼]

This research exploits the event of immigration to establish that institutions have a persistent effect on culture. It is argued that immigrants coming from corrupt countries, tend to overtrust the institutions at the host country. This inflated trust of immigrants is documented as the Great Expectations effect. This result is interesting and intriguing for several reasons. First, it highlights the persistent effect of institutions (at the origin country) on the cultural attitudes of immigrants. Interestingly, this effect is rather persistent and can be detected even to the second generation immigrants. Second, the analysis explores whether mean attitudes at the origin country have an effect on immigrants' attitude. The findings suggest that mean attitudes do not confer a statistically significant effect, whereas a horserace between origin institutions and origin culture suggests that it is the effect of institutions that prevails. Last, the analysis establishes that the inflated trust of immigrants affects their political attitudes. Immigrants coming from corrupt countries tend to be less interested in politics, to overtrust the host governments and to be less active in the political arena. In a globalized world where international immigration is rather extensive, pinning down the cultural differences across immigrants and thus the differences in their political attitudes is of an essence. [less ▲]

Risk Taking , Religiosity and Denomination Heterogeneity

Presentation (2014, December 04)

In this paper, I have merged the European Social Survey, World Values Survey and Eurostat (European Statistics Information) into SHARE (Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe) by regional ... [more ▼]

In this paper, I have merged the European Social Survey, World Values Survey and Eurostat (European Statistics Information) into SHARE (Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe) by regional geographical cell (NUTS2). By using this specific merged data set, I have evaluated the effect of household level religiosity and regional denomination heterogeneity (Catholic/Protestant ratio) on household risk preference. The finding is as follows : the higher the level of religious belief the lower the risk-taking incentive the households have; however, for regional denomination heterogeneity, the higher the regional Catholic/Protestant ratio, the more popular the local risk-taking incentive prevails. [less ▲]

Magnetic small-angle neutron scattering of bulk ferromagnets: beyond the particle-matrix concept

Presentation (2014, December 03)

Feasibility of Positive Secrecy Rate in Wiretap Interference Channels

in IEEE Global Conference on Signal and Information Processing (GlobalSIP) (2014, December 03)

Interference usually is an adverse phenomenon in wireless networks. However, the interference can potentially be used to boost the secrecy rate in wireless interference channels. This work studies the ... [more ▼]

Interference usually is an adverse phenomenon in wireless networks. However, the interference can potentially be used to boost the secrecy rate in wireless interference channels. This work studies the secrecy rate in a two-user interference network where unintended user may overhear one of the users, namely user 1. User 1 tunes its transmission power in order to maximize its secrecy rate as well as to maintain the quality of service at the other user’s destination, user 2, while both user’s power limits are considered. It is demonstrated that achieving a positive secrecy rate for user 1 only depends on the channel conditions and user 2’s transmission power. Consequently, depending on the channel conditions, the exact threshold for user 2’s transmission power which leads to a positive secrecy rate for user 1 is derived. [less ▲]

Lie superalgebras of Krichever-Novikov type

Scientific Conference (2014, December 02)

Digestion of grass silage in a semi-continuously fed reactor at increasing loading rates - Process stability and kinetics evaluatio

in Venice 2014 5th International Symposium on Energy from Biomass and Waste Proceedings (2014, December 01)

Grass is a popular substrate in agricultural biogas plants in Central and Northern Europe. There is currently limited information about the impact of the organic loading rates (OLR) on methane yields ... [more ▼]

Grass is a popular substrate in agricultural biogas plants in Central and Northern Europe. There is currently limited information about the impact of the organic loading rates (OLR) on methane yields, process stability and kinetics for continuous systems digesting grass silage. Anaerobic mono-digestion of grass silage was evaluated in semi-continuously fed laboratory continuously stirred tank reactors (CSTRs) at increasing loading rates between 1.9 and 4.7gVS/l/d. Results show that digestion of grass silage in one-stage CSTR is feasible and do not present any loading-induced inhibition for the tested OLR range. While the volumetric methane production experienced an increase of 61%, the methane yield only decreased by 13% for the highest OLR. On the other hand, the estimated first-order hydrolysis constant decreased by 24% when increasing the loading from 1.9 to 4.7gVS/l/d, which related with an accumulation of the organic material in the reactor. It was also found that the composition of the grass silage affected the digester performance significantly. [less ▲]

Educação de Jovens e Adultos em Portugal e no Brasil: Políticas, Práticas e Atores

Book published by IEUL (2014)

The Geographical Origins of Early State Formation

Presentation (2014, December 01)

This research theoretically and empirically advances the hypothesis that in early stages of development, land and climatic variability had a persistent beneficial effect on the advent of early statehood ... [more ▼]

This research theoretically and empirically advances the hypothesis that in early stages of development, land and climatic variability had a persistent beneficial effect on the advent of early statehood. A high degree of land and climatic diversity, and its association with potential gains from trade, accentuated the incentives to develop social, political and physical infrastructure that could facilitate interregional interaction. Hence, the emergence of states was expedited in more diverse geographical environments. To explore the hypotheses the analysis exploits exogenous sources of variation in a) the measure of land variability across countries, and b) climatic variability within countries over the period 500-1500 CE. The research establishes that i) the advent of statehood was expedited in regions characterized by a higher degree of variability in land and climatic conditions, ii) the effect of (land and climatic) variability on statehood operates partly through the advancement of technologies associated with trade, thus suggesting that it is the pivotal role of states in facilitating trade that ultimately contributed to their emergence and consolidation, and, iii) the effect of land variability on statehood dissipates over time. [less ▲]

The Research Network on European Administrative Law’s Project on EU Administrative Procedure

in Review of European Administrative Law (2014), 7(2), 45-64

This article presents and discusses the concepts, ideas and results of the Research Network on European Administrative Law (ReNEUAL) Project on EU administrative procedure. One of the central objectives ... [more ▼]

This article presents and discusses the concepts, ideas and results of the Research Network on European Administrative Law (ReNEUAL) Project on EU administrative procedure. One of the central objectives of this project was to study means of achieving a double objective: Improving the realisation of constitutional principles in the de-centralised implementation of EU law whilst also simplifying the system of implementation of EU law and increasing intelligibility of rights and obligations for citizens and administrators alike. This article presents the major results and gives an overview over the solutions proposed by the ReNEUAL Model Rules on EU Administrative Procedures. [less ▲]

Workplace Relocation and Mobility Changes in a Transnational Metropolitan Area: The Case of the University of Luxembourg

in Transportation Research Procedia (2014, December), 4

The aim of this paper is to study the utility variation related to the commuting mobility of University staff members due to their future workplace relocation. During the year 2012, a travel survey was ... [more ▼]

The aim of this paper is to study the utility variation related to the commuting mobility of University staff members due to their future workplace relocation. During the year 2012, a travel survey was completed by a total of 397 staff members, representing 36.4% of the university employees, who filled in a questionnaire which revealed complex decision making patterns due to the special traveling scenario involving four countries at once. A Multinomial Logit model has been used to anticipate the impact of university relocation from the capital city to a developing area in the south of the country which will happen between 2015 and 2018 and that will affect most of the employees. The effects of several Travel Demand Management measures are discussed based on the analysis of alternative scenarios [less ▲]