Influence of urbanization on the avian species-area relationship: insights from the breeding birds of Rome

Urban Ecosystems - The species-area relationship (SAR) is one of the most investigated patterns in ecology and conservation biology, yet there is no study testing how different levels of...     

Gaze Following in Newborns

Eye gaze has been shown to be an effective cue for directing attention in adults. Whether this ability operates from birth is unknown. Three experiments were carried out with 2‐ to 5‐day‐old newborns. The first experiment replicated the previous finding that newborns are able to discriminate between direct and averted gaze, and extended this finding from real to schematic faces. In Experiments 2 and 3 newborns were faster to make saccades to peripheral targets cued by the direction of eye movement of a central schematic face, but only when the motion of the pupils was visible. These results suggest that newborns may show a rudimentary form of gaze following.     

Performance measurement systems in SMEs: A review for a research agenda

In recent years, literature has identified the increasing complexity of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and highlighted their sensitivity to differences in managerial culture and management systems. Research has shown that performance measurement systems (PMSs) could play an important role in supporting managerial development in these companies. In this paper, the literature on performance measurement in manufacturing SMEs is reviewed and the diffusion, characteristics and determinants of performance measurement in SMEs are analysed. Shortcomings in the performance measurement systems are highlighted and the many factors that seem to constrain PMSs in manufacturing SMEs are defined, e.g. lack of financial and human resources, wrong perception of the benefits of PMS implementation, short-term strategic planning. Moreover, using dimensions defined according to the information found in the literature, two PMS models specifically developed for SMEs are compared with generic PMS models. The comparison points out an evolution in PMS models over time; in particular, the models developed in the last 20 years are more horizontal, process-oriented and focus on stakeholder needs. However, it is not clear whether these changes are due to the evolution of the generic models or an attempt to introduce models suited to the needs of SMEs. To clarify this matter and better to understand PMSs in SMEs, further theoretical and empirical studies are necessary. The main issues still requiring investigation are listed in a research agenda at the end of the paper.     

Mediterranean Lean Production Supervisors,Teamwork and New Forms of Work Organization in Three European Car Makers

In the last ten years most European car makers havedeveloped comprehensive reorganization projectsinspired by lean manufacturing principles. A keyelement of the renewed organizational model isteamwork: through teamwork firms aim at developinginformation exchange and innovation to improveproductivity and quality standards. Basedon empirical evidence accumulated in FIAT, Renault andSeat, this paper focuses on the impact of ElementaryOrganizational Units, a common team structure adoptedin Italian, Spanish and French plants.The paper sheds light on firstline supervisors, Unit team leaders, whoseposition represents the keystone of the neworganizational model. Although the factories widelyrely on horizontal coordination and self-organizingteams, new team leaders are still crucial hierarchicallevel and their function strongly affects the plantglobal performance.     

Does Leaving Home Make You Poor? Evidence from 13 European Countries

This article examines the extent to which the relationship between leaving home and entry into poverty among young people is causal: that is, how far poverty entry is the result of leaving home, rather than arising from heterogeneity or selection. Using propensity score matching, we estimate the effect of home-leaving on entry into poverty and deprivation, with data from the European Community Household Panel. We find that leaving home does have a causal effect on poverty entry, particularly in Scandinavian countries; cross-national differences are partly, but not fully, explained by differences in destinations on leaving home.     

Economic Consequences of Union Dissolution in Italy: Findings from the European Community Household Panel

Union dissolution is a constantly increasing phenomenon across Europe—even in Italy where the prevalence of divorce has always been among the lowest. This poses several questions on the potential consequences of such an event on the families involved. Many studies show that women usually experience the worst financial consequences, although there are few analyses on Italy, given the relatively low levels of union instability. In this work we study the impact of separation on the economic well-being of men and women using data from the European Community Household Panel (ECHP), analyzed using both objective and subjective measures. By means of a matching method, we also estimate the effect of union dissolution, taking account of possible variations according to the different living arrangements adopted by ex-partners after separation. Results confirm that women experience worse economic distress than men. However, there is also a significant drop in economic well-being among non-custodial fathers who live alone after separation. In addition, it is found that income-based measures do not encapsulate all the dimensions of well-being, and therefore need to be complemented with other measures.     

Permutation Approaches for Stochastic Ordering

In many application problems, when dealing with comparisons between two or more groups, the classical parametric inferential statistical methods are used, although in real problems the quite stringent assumptions required by such methods are rarely satisfied. In particular a parametric approach to the test on ordering of C > 2 populations is very difficult. In order to tackle this problem two alternative methods are proposed in the present paper. Both the methods consist in permutation combination based tests: the first is supposed to be more powerful and it is suitable when the main goal of the study is related to the global ordering of the populations; the second is useful when the interest is in the pairwise comparisons between the populations.     

Bayesian emulation of complex multi-output and dynamic computer models

Computer models are widely used in scientific research to study and predict the behaviour of complex systems. The run times of computer-intensive simulators are often such that it is impractical to make the thousands of model runs that are conventionally required for sensitivity analysis, uncertainty analysis or calibration. In response to this problem, highly efficient techniques have recently been developed based on a statistical meta-model (the emulator) that is built to approximate the computer model. The approach, however, is less straightforward for dynamic simulators, designed to represent time-evolving systems. Generalisations of the established methodology to allow for dynamic emulation are here proposed and contrasted. Advantages and difficulties are discussed and illustrated with an application to the Sheffield Dynamic Global Vegetation Model, developed within the UK Centre for Terrestrial Carbon Dynamics.