Search results for "intensity"
showing 10 items of 1091 documents
Co-occurrence of resonant activation and noise-enhanced stability in a model of cancer growth in the presence of immune response.
2006
We investigate a stochastic version of a simple enzymatic reaction which follows the generic Michaelis-Menten kinetics. At sufficiently high concentrations of reacting species, the molecular fluctuations can be approximated as a realization of a Brownian dynamics for which the model reaction kinetics takes on the form of a stochastic differential equation. After eliminating a fast kinetics, the model can be rephrased into a form of a one-dimensional overdamped Langevin equation. We discuss physical aspects of environmental noises acting in such a reduced system, pointing out the possibility of coexistence of dynamical regimes where noise-enhanced stability and resonant activation phenomena …
Employee shirking and overworking: modelling the unintended consequences of work organisation
2020
Underworking (i.e. shirking) and overworking of employees can have detrimental effects for the individual and the organisation. We develop a computational model to investigate how work structure, specifically the way in which managers distribute work tasks amongst employees, impacts work intensity and working time. The model draws on theories from economics, psychology and management, and on empirical observations. The simulations show that when managers correctly estimate task difficulty, but undervalue the employee’s competence, opportunities for shirking are provided due to longer deadlines. Similarly, if managers overvalue the employee’s competence, they set tighter deadlines leading to…
Labour Market Regulations and Capital Intensity
2018
What is the impact of labour market regulations as measured by the OECD indicator of employment protection legislation (EPL) on capital and skill composition? Precisely, this study investigates the effects of changes in EPL on changes in four types of capital and three components of labour skill. They include construction, non-ICT, ICT, and R&D capital components on the one hand, and low-, medium-, and highly-skilled labour on the other. Our analysis is grounded on a large country–industry panel dataset of fourteen OECD countries, and eighteen manufacturing and market service industries, from 1988 to 2007. It shows that strengthening EPL lowers ICT capital and, even more severely, R&…
Channels through Which Human Capital Inequality Influences Economic Growth
2011
This paper empirically investigates the theoretical predictions of some of the channels through which human capital inequality may discourage investment and growth. In a cross section of countries over the period 1960–2000, findings reveal that, all other things being equal, a greater degree of human capital inequality increases fertility rates and reduces life expectancy, which in turn hampers the accumulation rates of human capital. This effect is reinforced in the countries where individuals find it difficult to access credit. Extensive sensitivity analyses show that the results are robust across specifications and are not driven by atypical observations, endogenous regressors, or unobse…
Throwing the Spanner in the Works: The Mixed Blessing of FDI
2014
FDI is generally attributed to have positive impact for developing countries. In contrast, this paper shows that foreign capital inflows may cause an economy to be stuck in a middle-income trap. Introducing a simple capital market imperfection into a standard neoclassical (open-economy) model of growth, I show that FDI crowds out domestic investment when countries are still growing. If profitable investments are pursued by foreign capital owners, this does reduce chances for domestic entrepreneurs that they would have otherwise been able to take, by means of economy-wide savings. The long term losses due to the crowding-out effect occur despite the short-term gains that sudden capital inflo…
The Intensification of Work
2018
Work intensity has become an increasingly vital concept in understanding current changes in the employment sector, and why these changes have detrimental implications for the well-being of employees and their families. Objective measures, such as allocation or length of work hours, do not necessarily catch the tempo of work during the time spent at work. Nor are the hours an appropriate indicator of the level of mental effort and strain in and even outside of (official) work (hours). This chapter discusses the various change processes in the economy and work life that have led to the intensification of work. The chapter’s aim is also to describe how these change processes pose varying chall…
Patterns of Working Time and Work Hour Fit in Europe
2018
The requirements for more flexible and lean forms of production that are able to adapt to demand cycles, both quantitatively and functionally, are common in all advanced economies. At the same time, the flexibilization of working times and work places has become an increasing focus for the analysis of quality of work and life (i.e. work-life balance). This chapter approaches flexibilization as a transition from an industrial to a post-industrial working time regime. The new post-industrial working time regime is usually characterized by deregulation of collective norms, diversification of the length (short and long hours) and pattern of working time (unsocial hours), increasing work intensi…
Theoretical prediction of rainfall intensity for a small rainfall simulator
2022
In this contribution, a theoretical approach was developed for predicting rainfall intensity for a small rainfall simulator. The developed equation was tested for two different devices and different pressure head and water temperature values. The proposed relationship was found to have a good predictive ability of rainfall intensity. The proposed theoretical approach could be usable with other devices that operate on the same principles of the simulator considered in this investigation.
The Latomiae of Syracuse: A Geotechnical Mapping Through Rock Reflectivity
2014
The archeological site of the Latomia del Paradiso (Syracuse) is endangered by severe instability phenomena due to the shape of walls and underground excava-tion related with the poor mechanical characteristics of the weathered and wet rock. The failure of huge blocks from the ceiling of the underground areas and the detaching of rock "flakes" from the walls surface make the geotechnical zon-ing particularly complex. the zoning is based on the characteristics of the rock wall surface that, in first approximation, can be distinguished in regularized sur-faces because of mining , and in irregular surfaces characterized by fracture prop-agation. The elaboration of reflectivity values obtained …
Two-Leg Squat Jumps in Water: An Effective Alternative to Dry Land Jumps
2009
The current study was designed to quantify and compare the kinetic parameters of two-leg squat jumps carried out on dry land, in water and in water using area devices that increase drag force. Twelve junior female handball players who had been competing at national level for the previous two years volunteered to participate in the study. Intensity of the two-leg squat jump was examined using a force plate (9 253-B11, Kistler Instrument AG, Winterthur, Switzerland) in three different conditions: on dry land, in water and in water using devices. An ANOVA with repeated measurements (condition) was applied to establish differences between the three jumps. The results show that peak impact force…