Educational assortative mating in Italy: what can Gini’s homogamy index still say?

The homogamy index proposed by Gini is applied to describe the changes occurred in marital choice - across time and regions in Italy. The relevant increase in education by women has provoked an increase in the number of homogamous couples and in an increasing proportion of women who marry downward. Relevant differences are observed in the case of informal unions and mixed marriages

Measure and dynamics of marriage squeezes: from baby boom to baby bust in Italy

Significant changes in the propensity to marry, together with baby booms, busts and migrations shape the marriage market. Big changes in the level of fertility may affect, some decades later, the opportunities of marriage of eligible individuals, creating a marriage squeeze. Italy provides an interesting case study because since World War II, it has been characterised by alternate periods of declines and rises of the annual number of births an by their differential patterns between regions. In this paper we study the dynamics of the Italian marriage market (year 1969-1995) by using some indexes proposed by Schoen as well as two additional measures. The result of regional analysis also suggest that marriage squeeze has also been by international migratory movements. The recent and prolonged phase of steep fertility decline in Italy, together with the drop of international movements, suggests the possibility of a perspective increasing disadvantage of men in the marriage market. (AUTHORS)

Is marriage losing its centrality in Italy?

Unlike the countries of north-western Europe, marriage in Italy has maintained a crucial role in the process of family formation. This raise doubts about the possibility that the theory of "second demographic transition" could adequately account for the behaviour of the European population living south of the Alps. The aim of this paper is twofold: to provide some empirical evidence that cohabitation is now spreading in Italy; and to propose an explanation of the delay of its diffusion until the 1990s. The hypothesis proposed here explains the delay, not so much in terms of limited interest of the Italian youth towards this type of union, but with the convenience of the children in the Mediterranean area to avoid choices which are openly clashing with the values of parents.cohabitation, Italy, strong family ties

Why pool resources in marriage? A study on the choice of matrimonial property regime in Italy

This paper investigates the pooling of resources among spouses using data collected in the Italian Marriage Register. The study of matrimonial property regime sheds light on whether resource pooling in the form of the shared ownership of property or assets accumulated during marriage is more likely to be chosen when there is a disparity between spouses economic potential. Results support the hypothesis that the community of property is more likely to be chosen among couples who are different in education, employment status, age, or when one of the spouses is of foreign nationality. However, our results suggest the existence of a gender double-standard: the community of property is more likely when the weaker spouse is the woman, whereas the separation of property is more likely if the weaker spouse is mal

Pressure Mapping Mat for Tele-Home Care Applications

In this paper we present the development of a mat-like pressure mapping system based on a single layer textile sensor and intended to be used in home environments for monitoring the physical condition of persons with limited mobility. The sensor is fabricated by embroidering silver-coated yarns on a light cotton fabric and creating pressure-sensitive resistive elements by stamping the conductive polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) at the crossing points of conductive stitches. A battery-operated mat prototype was developed and includes the scanning circuitry and a wireless communication module. A functional description of the system is presented together with a preliminary experimental evaluation of the mat prototype in the extraction of plantar pressure parameters

Social capital and fertility intentions: The case of Italy, Bulgaria, and West Germany

Despite the many differences that exist between Italy, Bulgaria, and Germany, the three countries are among those with the lowest fertility rates in Europe. However, they differ in the level of public support for families and the role of informal supportive networks in daily life. Italy and Bulgaria, on the one hand, share very low levels of public support. In both countries, consequently, informal supportive networks based on family relationships and kinship have a strong tradition and a high relevance for getting things done. In Germany, however, support by family policy is much stronger and the importance of such supportive networks is weaker. The paper addresses the question whether these different constellations of public and informal social support have an impact on reproductive decision-making. In particular, it concentrates on the impact of supportive networks on intentions to have a second child. Analyses based on data from the 'Generations and Gender Programme', a comparative survey that was conducted recently in all three countries, provide mixed results. While there is a significant influence of access to informal support on the intention to have a second child in Bulgaria and no significant effect in West Germany, findings for Italy obviously contradict theoretical propositions and suggest that future analysis takes more comprehensive account of the work strategy of the mothers in the context of the current Italian labour market characteristics

Direct X-ray photoconversion in flexible organic thin film devices operated below 1 v

The application of organic electronic materials for the detection of ionizing radiations is very appealing thanks to their mechanical flexibility, low-cost and simple processing in comparison to their inorganic counterpart. In this work we investigate the direct X-ray photoconversion process in organic thin film photoconductors. The devices are realized by drop casting solution-processed bis-(triisopropylsilylethynyl)pentacene (TIPS-pentacene) onto flexible plastic substrates patterned with metal electrodes; they exhibit a strong sensitivity to X-rays despite the low X-ray photon absorption typical of low-Z organic materials. We propose a model, based on the accumulation of photogenerated charges and photoconductive gain, able to describe the magnitude as well as the dynamics of the X-ray-induced photocurrent. This finding allows us to fabricate and test a flexible 2 × 2 pixelated X-ray detector operating at 0.2 V, with gain and sensitivity up to 4.7 × 10 4 and 77,000 nC mGy 1 cm 3, respectively

Two-dimensional electron gas formation in undoped In[0.75]Ga[0.25]As/In[0.75]Al[0.25]As quantum wells

We report on the achievement of a two-dimensional electron gas in completely undoped In[0.75]Al[0.25]As/In[0.75]Ga[0.25]As metamorphic quantum wells. Using these structures we were able to reduce the carrier density, with respect to reported values in similar modulation-doped structures. We found experimentally that the electronic charge in the quantum well is likely due to a deep-level donor state in the In[0.75]Al[0.25]As barrier band gap, whose energy lies within the In[0.75]Ga[0.25]As/In[0.75]Al[0.25]As conduction band discontinuity. This result is further confirmed through a Poisson-Schroedinger simulation of the two-dimensional electron gas structure.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, to be published in J. Vac. Sci. Technol.

Turning an organic semiconductor into a low-resistance material by ion implantation

We report on the effects of low energy ion implantation on thin films of pentacene, carried out to investigate the efficacy of this process in the fabrication of organic electronic devices. Two different ions, Ne and N, have been implanted and compared, to assess the effects of different reactivity within the hydrocarbon matrix. Strong modification of the electrical conductivity, stable in time, is observed following ion implantation. This effect is significantly larger for N implants (up to six orders of magnitude), which are shown to introduce stable charged species within the hydrocarbon matrix, not only damage as is the case for Ne implants. Fully operational pentacene thin film transistors have also been implanted and we show how a controlled N ion implantation process can induce stable modifications in the threshold voltage, without affecting the device performanc