Time allocation during higher education: A study of Brazilian,French, and Spanish students

Conclusion The results we present enable us to highlight common features and disparities in the way students from the three countries organize their time. While the lecture attendance time varies little from one country to another, it is different for other elements of time use. The Spaniards in particular seem to spend more time on personal work and the Brazilians more often have paid employment. The initial comparison should however be regarded as provisional in that no systematic correlation was made with educational policies in each country. Certainly, the lack of grants system in Brazil is linked to the significant amount of available time spent on salaried work but it would be advisable to include elements allowing us to link time allocation to the inherent productivity of the educational systems (drop-out rate, repetition rate, time necessary to graduate) as well as to their administrative organization.     

Can social microblogging be used to forecast intraday exchange rates?

The Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) is widely accepted to hold true under certain assumptions. One of its implications is that the prediction of stock prices at least in the short run cannot outperform the random walk model. Yet, recently many studies stressing the psychological and social dimension of financial behavior have challenged the validity of the EMH. Toward this aim, over the last few years, internet-based communication platforms and search engines have been used to extract early indicators of social and economic trends. Here, we used Twitter’s social networking platform to model and forecast the EUR/USD exchange rate in a high-frequency intradaily trading scale. Using time series and trading simulations analysis, we provide some evidence that the information provided in social microblogging platforms such as Twitter can in certain cases enhance the forecasting efficiency regarding the very short (intradaily) forex.     

Prostata Ca: Wie geht „Mann“ damit um?

Diagnose Prostatakrebs - Die Diagnose trifft die meisten M?nner v?llig unvor bereitet, die Zukunft erscheint ungewiss. In dieser Situation sollen Betroffene dann noch einen klaren Kopf bewahren und Therapieentscheidungen treffen, Nebenwirkungen und Prognosen abw?gen? Kein Wunder, dass viele damit überfordert sind. Pflegekr?fte auf der Urologie sind hier gefordert.     

Long‐run relations in European electricity prices

This paper analyses the interdependencies existing in wholesale electricity prices in six major European countries. The results of a robust multivariate long‐run dynamic analysis reveal the presence of four highly integrated central European markets (France, Germany, the Netherlands and Austria). The trend shared by these four electricity markets appears to be common also to gas prices, but not to oil prices. The existence of a common long‐term dynamics among electricity prices and between electricity prices and gas prices can be explained by the similarity of the market design across Europe and by the same marginal generation technology. Since standard unit root and cointegration tests are not robust to the peculiar characteristics of electricity prices time series, we also develop a battery of robust inference procedures that should assure the reliability of our results. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

‘Better safe than sorry’: consumer perceptions of and deliberations on nanotechnologies

Although nanotechnologies are considered key technologies that can drive growth‐generating innovations in well‐saturated markets, worldwide investment in nanotechnologies has to date focused largely on technology‐related development programmes and little effort has been expended to research associated risks. As a result, even though prior discourses have sensitized western consumers to potential health‐related dangers, solid knowledge on, for example, the toxicological and eco‐toxicological risks and unintended side effects of nanotechnology are scarce. This paper therefore presents an overview of the current evidence on consumer knowledge and perceptions of nanotechnology and public engagement with it, with a focus on the US, the UK and Germany. Overall, even though survey data suggest that awareness of the term ‘nanotechnology’ has risen slightly, today's consumers are generally ill informed about its nature and its applications in consumer‐related products. Hence, based on our analysis of these data, we argue that early political engagement in the nanotechnology issue – for example, consumer policy options that support consumer interest in the marketing of ‘nanos’– would facilitate objective public discourse.