Gift-for-sex (GFS) barters are a niche practice potentially representing the commodification of everyday dating practices. We inquire how GFS exchanges are practiced and understood in contemporary Russia. Second, we situate these in relation to contemporary economic culture. Our project provides answers in two steps based on online content. First, we identify GFS exchange practices within a major

It is widely recognised that knowledge and highly-skilled individuals as “carriers” of knowledge (i.e. knowledge spillover agents) play a key role in impelling the development and growth of cities and regions. In this chapter we discuss the relation between the mobility of talent and knowledge flows. In this context, several issues are examined, including the role of highly-skilled labour for regi

New knowledge in science and engineering relies increasingly on results produced by scientific software. Therefore, knowing how scientists develop and use software in their research is critical to assessing the necessity for improving current development practices and to making decisions about the future allocation of resources. To that end, this paper presents the results of a survey conducted on

The expression of anti-predator adaptations may vary on a spatial scale, favouring traits that are advantageous in a given predation regime. Besides, evolution of different developmental strategies depends to a large extent on the grain of the environment and may result in locally canalized adaptations or, alternatively, the evolution of phenotypic plasticity as different predation regimes may var

Analysis of interconnected dynamical systems is considered. A framework for the analysis of stability of the interconnection is given. The results of Fax and Murray that studies the SISO-case for a constant interconnection matrix are generalized to the MIMO-case where arbitrary interconnection is allowed. The analysis shows the existence of a separation principle that is very useful in the sense o

Background Although childbearing is known to protect against breast cancer, whether or not breastfeeding contributes to this protective effect is unclear. Methods Individual data from 47 epidemiological studies in 30 countries that included information on breastfeeding patterns and other aspects of childbearing were collected, checked, and analysed centrally, for 50 302 women with invasive breas

Normal maturation of immune response at birth is both supported and stimulated by the gastrointestinal microenvironment, which provides both nutrients and antigenic microbial exposure to the developing child. Micronutrients, trace elements, and vitamins are present in the local environment and have important regulatory effects on adaptive immune cell function through effects on type of cytokine re

This study aims to explore the development in child and adult grammars of a noun-related feature in French, namely gender. In brief, previous research has shown that gender assignment and gender agreement in a language such as French is just as easy for the mono- or bilingual child (Carroll, 1989; Clark, 1985; Müller, 1990, 1994) as it is difficult for the (adult) L2 learner (Bartning, 2000; Carro

In spite of the growing importance of planned,centrally managed and enclosed shopping centres in the retailing sector,the understanding concerning sources and outcomes of customer satisfaction with this kind of shopping malls is limited.This paper develops and vali- dates a conceptualisation of shopping mall satisfaction based on ?eld studies in Sweden.The results show that eight underlying factor

The Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell has been investigated for a long time because it has a high power density, low emission, wide choice of fuel sources, etc. However, the performance of a stack of PEM cells degrades with respect to that of a single cell. This is mainly due to the introduction of the manifold in which supplies the reactants to individual cells. The manifold can induce an

A comprehensive study of the photophysical behavior of poly(acrylic acids) randomly labeled with pyrene using steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy is presented. The influence of external factors, such as different solvents and pH in the aqueous solution, on the polymer photophysics has been investigated. These factors induce major changes in the polymer conformation, which are

Eddy flux tower measurements, ground-based reflectance measurements, regionally modeled data, and data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) were used in this study of an ombrotrophic bog in southern Sweden. Linear regression analysis was used to investigate how the fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (FAPAR), light-use efficiency (epsiv), and gross pr

Emigrants remittances have increased rapidly over the past two decades. While earlier studies have focused on their microeconomic effect on incomes and poverty in recipient countries, the present study concentrates on the macroeconomic impact of remittances on the real exchange rate in Cape Verde. A main conclusion is that remittances give rise to a sort of Dutch Disease effect and thereby have an