Long Tail

Simple Summary: Floors with a series of gaps to allow pig manure to pass through (slatted floors) are common in the pig industry as they enable the efficient management of pig waste. Pigs need enrichment materials to occupy them and to reduce harmful behaviours like tail biting. Loose materials are problematic in slatted systems because they can block up the slats and slurry pumps. This study aimed to establish if it is possible to rear pigs with undocked tails in a fully slatted system with compatible enrichment, while keeping tail biting at a manageable level and to investigate how important the variation of enrichment is. The results showed that although some tail biting occurred, the level was low with only mild lesions observed. Only 1 out of 96 pigs sustained severe tail damage (portion of tail bitten off). Pigs receiving a more varied enrichment tended to have lower tail lesion scores than pigs continuously presented with the same enrichment. This study showed that an optimal quantity and quality of slat-compatible enrichment provision can reduce the risk of tail biting in undocked pigs in fully slatted systems. The important role of adequate environmental enrichment provision in fulfilling pigs' biological needs cannot be overemphasised. Abstract: In fully slatted systems, tail biting is difficult to manage when pigs' tails are not docked because loose enrichment material can obstruct slurry systems. This pilot study sought to determine: a) whether intact-tailed pigs can be reared with a manageable level of tail biting by using multiple slat-compatible enrichment; b) whether a variation of enrichment has an effect; and c) whether pigs show a preference in enrichment use. Ninety-six undocked pigs were given the same enrichment items from one week after birth until weaning. At weaning, four different combinations of 8 enrichment items were utilized based on predefined characteristics. These were randomly assigned to 8 pens (n = 12 pigs/pen). Four pens had the same combination (SAME) from assignment and four pens switched combinations every two weeks (SWITCH). Individual lesion scores, interactions with the enrichment, and harmful behaviours were recorded. The average tail score during the experiment was low (0.93 ± 0.02). Only one pig in a SAME pen had a severely bitten tail (partly amputated). The overall level of interaction with enrichment did not decline over time. Pigs interacted with a rack of loose material most frequently (p < 0.001). The study showed promising results for rearing undocked pigs on fully slatted floors using slat-compatible enrichment.

The genome sequence of Streptococcus equi subspecies equi (S. equi)(www.sanger.ac.uk) contains partial phage sequences which may affect virulence, gene regulation and expression. The present study was undertaken to characterize P9, a temperate bacteriophage of S. equi [J.G. Spanier, J.F. Timoney, Bacteriophages of Streptococcus equi, J. Gen. Virol., 35: 369–375, 1977.] to gain insight into genes that contributed to formation of

Internet retailing offers merchants limitless shelf space. This has led experts to highlight the existence of a “long tail” of offerings on the web and assert that the future of online business is “selling less of more.” However, it is difficult for Internet retailers of physical goods to sell a large scope of products without having to handle potentially large amounts of product returns from customers. This is due to the fact that customers can and do get overwhelmed by excessive product variety and often make erroneous purchasing decisions. We shed light on this issue through an assessment of theoretical predictions based on data from sales and returns of almost 7000 products in a particular product category. While retailers can benefit from expanding the scope of their inventories to generate Internet sales, the success of this strategy will depend on the control of unjustified product returns by consumers and the management of recurrent execution errors and product fit failures ...

Founded just 20 years ago, the Netflix brand has had an impact around the world and has changed our understanding of modern entertainment.
The company made the move from analog to digital media in 2007, after 10 years in which its business had consisted of offering customers a flat rate for DVD rental by mail. The business model has not substantially changed (bringing films and television series into the home) but has now gone 100% digital, with a monthly subscription for streaming contents instead of downloading them to a playback device. Betting on the Internet seemed risky at the time given what was happening with home entertainment, which had been weakened by piracy and declining sales and rentals of content on a physical format. “Nobody is going to pay for something they can get for free” was often heard, especially among the traditional players in the industry, who were (and are still) mired in the dilemma of how to continue their analog business while exploiting the demand generated by the new digital ecosystem.

Netflix proved that it was possible. It has been true to its philosophy of providing its product on demand with total access, including its original content. It is currently the leader by a wide margin in Internet television with nearly 110 million subscribers worldwide, and is available in more than 190 countries (according to statistics from the third quarter of 20171. This journey has not been without setbacks and mistakes.

The company made the right adjustments to its business model when necessary, adapting its product to a world engulfed by the accelerated pace of innovation and constantly changing consumer habits. It also proved that providing digital content services could be profitable, offering an added value for which users would be willing to pay. In the process, it also radically transformed cultural consumption patterns in
television viewing.

THIS ARTICLE WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON AC/E DIGITAL CULTURE ANNUAL REPORT 2018 - DIGITAL TRENDS IN CULTURE. CREATIVE COMMONS LICENCE 3.0 https://www.accioncultural.es/es/ebook-anuario-2018

El propósito de esta tesis es explicar la evolución de los modelos de negocios del mercado editorial latinoamericano en la última década a la luz de los cambios impuestos por la irrupción de las nuevas tecnologías. Para ello se hace referencia a las características del sector y los principales factores de los cambios.
La investigación se centra en seis países que por el tamaño de su mercado y las características de sus empresas editoriales son los que poseen el mayor grado de desarrollo en la región: Argentina, Colombia, chile, Perú, Brasil y México.   
El marco teórico se encuadra dentro de los estudios de economía y gestión de empresas de medios (media management).
La industria editorial de la región muestra dinamismo y creatividad. Sorprende la cantidad de editoriales independientes y títulos publicados en la última década en un mercado con bajos índices de lectura.
Los pequeños y medianos editores han demostrado capacidad para enfrentar los embates de la concentración editorial de los últimos años, con estrategias comerciales orientadas a nichos de mercado.
No obstante, existen nuevas amenazas en el sector como las plataformas de selfpublishing y los grandes agregadores de contenidos que podrían llegar a imponer sus condiciones en el mediano plazo por su capacidad de orientarse también a los nichos de mercado.
El futuro de la edición en Latinoamérica depende de la adaptación a los cambios que impone la digitalización de los contenidos, que va muchos más allá de la comercialización de libros electrónicos.   
Palabras clave: cadena de valor, modelos de negocio, long tail, ebook, redes sociales de lectores, crowfunding, suscripción, tablets, ereaders, selfpublishing.

In the city of Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil, there’s a discussion about the reason why local musicians and bands haven’t achieved commercial success as well as musicians from other Brazilian states. This paper analyzes the results achieved by many of Curitiba’s and Parana’s music artists, the problems they have faced through the last 60 (sixty) years, the service that their representatives should do compared to what they really do, the big record labels domain, the treatment given by local media and the real revolution that the internet and the technological innovations represent to the phonographic industry. The conclusion compares all the facts and data presented, analyses the real value of what has been done and identifies the importance of academic studies about the subject.
Keywords: Pop music. Local music. Curitiba. Paraná. Rock and roll.

"Web 2.0 brought a new way to people to use the web through User Generated Content. The ease to edit content gives rise to content in perpetual movement, result of a collective intelligence. Virtual communities through their different exchanges lead to new social interactions on the web, the final result of this trend is the creation and emergence of micro blogging, social media and social networks.

Integration of social media into population has been facilitated by the omniscience of the web that went mobile with Smartphones, tablets and useful specific tools associated to them, such as Geolocation and Augmented Reality. Nowadays, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and twitter are among the tools most used on a daily basis.

Marketers react by creating new ways to evaluate Return on Investment, new Web Analytical tools to gather and interpret all the data now available as a result of information collected from users browsing. This is still challenged by the emergence of Web3.0. Another effect of the socialisation and exchange is that the classic Word of Mouth Marketing access a new dimension because of the myriad of connections each user has on social networks to become Viral Marketing.

On a sociological perspective, Social Networks are a great opportunity to leverage Social Capital even if this usage is not the most popular and is mainly employed by students, managers and executives. It gives also opportunity to individuals to brand themselves by being proactive trough pertinent communication on specific topics.

The real success of social networks is due to the ease given to the population to maintain their connections and sustain their group affiliation. Digital natives‟ generation are also natural users of these tools. There are some psychological factors that affect people and reassure them by seeing that others have similar life and make them feel well integrated into society. The result of this search for conformity is that people will broadcast more spontaneously communications with consensual topic, universal value or moral attached to their message or post."

L’intervento presenta dati testuali esaustivi estrapolati da quattro romanzi di Chrétien de Troyes (Erec et Enide, Cligès, Chevalier de la Charrette e Chevalier au Lion) ed elaborati secondo un criterio improntato alle wittgensteiniane “somiglianze di famiglia” grazie a strumenti presi in prestito dalla teoria dei grafi. Illustrando alcune regolarità caratteristiche del modo in cui Chrétien descrive gli stati affettivi dei suoi personaggi, si evidenziano sovrapposizioni e caratterizzazioni speci che, cioè i fattori differenziali che determinano la dimensione identitaria dei singoli, con riferimento a fattori di genere, età, posizione sociale. La valutazione complessiva dei dati consente di osservare la regolarizzazione dello spettro affettivo dei personaggi sui parametri di un sistema a coda lunga. Inoltre, l’altissimo livello di interconnessione che risulta dalla combinazione dei verbi, dei sostantivi e degli aggettivi prova a posteriori che il sistema emergente basato sulla co-occorrenza contiene parole ca- riche di rilievo emotivo. Un sistema affettivo integrato è prerogativa di personaggi coerenti, che reagiscono alle varie circostanze in maniera congruente. Dunque riflette un’idea di realismo romanzesco improntata all’adozione di diverse angolazioni affettive e orientata al racconto della verità dei sentimenti.

This paper presents comprehensive textual data concerning the description of affective states in four romances written by Chretien de Troyes (Erec et Enide, Cligès, Chevalier de la Charrette and Chevalier au Lion. These data emerge from a theoretical approach which assumes co-occurrence of words as an indicator of semantic proximity and/or interdependency. The data processing is based on Wittgenstein’s idea of “family similarities and relies on tools which reflects basic assumptions of the Graph Theory. Lexical data concerning the description of affective states are associated to the specific characters targeted by the described emotions. This approach based on distribution allows for a subsequent comparison between the characters. Differences and similarities, specific characterizations and overlapping areas are highlighted and explained in detail. Special consideration is given to the differential factors that determine individual identity, with reference to such factors as gender, age, social position. A close examination of the collected data shows that the emotional system of all leading characters, and some of the supporting characters as well, are drawn along long-tail curves and show a consistent interconnection between all the affective states. In retrospect,  tight interconnection of verbs, nouns and adjectives which describe the affective states of each and all leading characters shall constitute proof that the emerging system based on the co-occurrence contains words which actually refer to affective modulations. Furthermore, an integrate affective system must be the prerogative of consistent characters and reflects an idea of realism which is based on the the adoption of different affective angles and aims to describe the emotional truth of a story.

The Long Tail concept refers to the Internet-based economy that has enabled company success through a focus on highly specialized services and products that are not in high volume demand, but maybe in high-value demand. The concept of the post-tourist, for example, is a Long Tail phenomenon. Long Tail marketing approaches are proving success due to advances in communication technology and social networking that have given more people access to a broader range of goods and services and information. The Long Tail is not without its challenges, including increased global competition, and it has not abandoned geographic considerations. Geography, in fact, can help to differentiate niche products and must still be overcome to consummate the tourist experience.

KEYWORDS. The Long Tail, social software, marketing, geography, the Internet

Many recommender systems suffer from popularity bias: popular items are recommended frequently while less popular, niche products, are recommended rarely or not at all. However, recommending the ignored products in the ``long tail'' is critical for businesses as they are less likely to be discovered. In this paper, we introduce a personalized diversification re-ranking approach to increase the representation of less popular items in recommendations while maintaining acceptable recommendation accuracy. Our approach is a post-processing step that can be applied to the output of any recommender system. We show that our approach is capable of managing popularity bias more effectively, compared with an existing method based on regularization. We also examine both new and existing metrics to measure the coverage of long-tail items in the recommendation.

Recommender systems are considered as an answer to the information overload in a Web environment. Such systems recommend items (movies, music, books, news, web pages, etc.) that the user should be interested in. Collaborative filtering recommender systems have a huge success in commercial applications. The sales in these applications follow a power law distribution. However, with the increase of the number of recommendation techniques and algorithms in the literature, there is no indication that the datasets used for the evaluation follow a real world distribution. This paper introduces the long tail theory and its impact on recommender systems. It also provides a comprehensive review of the different datasets used to evaluate collaborative filtering recommender systems techniques and algorithms (EachMovie, MovieLens, Jester, BookCrossing, and Netflix). Finally, it investigates which of these datasets present a distribution that follows this power law distribution and which distribution would be the most relevant.

What is the effect of Internet distribution  of digital video on content?  Is there evidence  that content will be different from what  is available through  other conduits  or will it just be more of the same? Who will be producing it and who will be consuming it? How important  will user-generated  video  content be? These  are some of the questions  addressed  in this essay

This article revisits the long tail phenomenon, a dozen years after it was first articulated as a model for the digital media economy. As this article illustrates, both the research evidence and the evolution of industry practice have demonstrated that the long tail phenomenon has failed to take hold to the extent expected. This article outlines the interconnected technological, institutional and economic factors that explain the decline of the long tail, and considers the implications of this decline for media policy and media research.

As time‐varying volatility has found applications in roughly all time series modelling in economics, it largely draws attention in the areas of financial markets. This study also examines the characteristics of conditional volatility in the Baltic Stock Markets (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) by using a broad range of GARCH volatility models. Correctly forecasting the volatility leads to better understanding and managing financial market risk. Daily returns from four Baltic stock indexes are used; Estonia (TALSE index), Latvia (RIGSE index), Lithuania (VILSE index) and synthetic BALTIC benchmark index. We test a large family of GARCH models, including; the basic GARCH model, GARCH‐in‐mean model, asymmetric exponential GARCH and GJR GARCH, power GARCH and component GARCH model. We find strong evidence that daily returns from Baltic Stock Markets can be successfully modelled by GARCH‐type models. For all Baltic markets, we conclude that increased risk will not necessarily lead to a rise in the returns. All of the analysed indexes exhibit complex time series characteristics involving asymmetry, long tails and complex autoregression in the returns. Results from this study are firmly recommended to financial officers and international investors.Straipsnyje analizuojamas salyginis Baltijos vertybiniu popieriu rinku (Estijos, Latvijos ir Lietuvos) nepastovumas, taikant eile GARCH kintamumo modeliu. Pažymetina, kad tinkamai prognozuojant nepastovuma, galima geriau suvokti ir valdyti finansiniu rinku rizika. Straipsnyje remiamasi keturiu Baltijos šaliu kasdienemis akciju indeksu gražomis; Estijos (TALSE indeksu), Latvijos (RIGSE indeksu), Lietuvos (VILSE indeksu) ir sintetiniu palyginamuoju BALTIC indeksu. Pritaikius eile GARCH kintamumo modeliu, galima teigti, kad didejanti rizika Baltijos šaliu rinkose nebūtinai itakos vertybiniu popieriu gražos augima. Tyrimo metu gauti rezultatai rekomenduojami finansu specialistams ir investuotojams.

"Technologies for Freedom" is a sentence in Manuel Castells’ "Communication and power"; they are intended as a "material basis and cultural movements in their struggle against capitalist globalization", and against the consequent displacement of decision-making places from democratic instances.
In order to confirm the validity of this statement, this thesis initially wanted to develop a theoretical approach that would allow to compare the thought of some of the most important experts in the impact of digital technology on our society and, later, to verify its compliance in political upheaval that characterized the year 2011.
Trying not to be determinist, we have realized that many of the theories of authors like Bauman, Castells, John Friedmann, Hardt and Negri, Latouche, Mezza, Rheingold, Sassen, and others, could contribute to the definition of a single theoretical framework in which the digital, and particularly the Web 2.0, is actually helping to create a new man: today, as in italian Rinascimento, is no longer sufficient to stand on the nineteenth-twentieth century giants’ shoulders, but people claim to be an active participant in social, economic and political choices.
Beyond the obvious effect of "amplification of informations", there was evidence that three changes are characterizing people who are questioning the current arrangements of power, and any change has been associated with a precise method in digital social use:
· Disintermediation: Awareness of the failures of the short century and acquisition of
new sense of responsibility;
· User-generated content: Analysis and construction of a shared alternative; it consists in
the production of new meaning;
· Adhocracy: The action, the tendency to form spontaneous groups in the network, also
chasing minimum goals; fact that in 2011 took a lot more political characteristics.
Even using the parallelism between the movements of the 2001 Social Forum and those of 2011, steps were taken to see if what is proposed is theoretically then actually occurred in the Arab Springs protests, in the indignados and Occupy Wall Street movements. To verify this statement has been used the comments that journalists, writers and bloggers produced for networks and web.
The conclusion of the thesis is that the dynamics that made the 2011’s protesters occupy the squares of Arab and Western worlds are not detectable in the protests of previous years, except for the first period of the 2001 Social Forum, characterized by spirit of Genoa: the horizontality of the decisions taken both at birth and in the management of movements, refer to the three steps described above.

The basal hadrosauroid Tethyshadros insularis from the uppermost Cretaceous of NE Italy lived on an island of the European archipelago in the Tethys Ocean. The tail of this dinosaur presents several apomorphic traits respect to the tails of other coeval hadrosauroids of the archipelago and of hadrosauroids in general. The estimated total length of the tail of the holotypic specimen shows that the tail was long, accounting for at least 56% of the total body length, relatively stiff and deep proximally, whereas it was whip-like distally. The reconstruction of the tail musculature by comparison with that of living archosaurs and other dinosaurs suggests that the posterior shift of the first haemapophysis affected the size and shape of the M.m. caudofemorales with important consequences on the locomotion of T. insularis. Somewhat peculiar stance and gait for this dinosaur are suggested also by limb features. The posterior shift of the vent and consequent longer distal tract of the intestine or a longer cloaca could increase the space for urine storage and urinary water reabsorption. The posterior shift of the vent could imply also longer oviducts and plausibly an increased number of eggs per clutch. Tail apomorphies of T. insularis may be related to the rugged and water-depleted karst landscape where the Italian dinosaur lived. The two main specimens of T. insularis differ in robustness possibly because of sexual dimorphism, ontogeny or high intraspecific variability.

We report on a new enantiornithine Eopengornis martini gen. et sp. nov. from the lowest horizon of the Jehol Biota in Hebei, China; dated at 130.7 Mya, this is the second oldest avian bearing fossil deposit in the world, recording the First Appearance Datum of Enantiornithes. The new specimen, only the second enantiornithine and third bird reported from this horizon, preserves numerous synapomorphies with the largest Lower Cretaceous enantiornithine Pengornis houi from the Jiufotang Formation dated at 120 Mya. Together, they form a new avian lineage that lasted over 10 Myr, which is longer than any known clade of Lower Cretaceous enantiornithine. Eopengornis reveals new information about basal enantiornithine morphology such as the presence of a metatarsal V, helping to clarify the early evolution of these dominant Cretaceous avians. Furthermore, Eopengornis preserves a previously unrecognized tail morphology: a pair of elongate fully pennaceous rachis dominated feathers. This discovery confirms hypotheses proposing that the rachis dominated racket-plumes in basal birds represent modified pennaceous feathers. We suggest that the ornamental racket-plumes in enantiornithines and Confuciusornis evolved independently from the basal pygostylian condition, which we infer was a tail formed of normal flight feathers.

Í þessari ritgerð er fjallað um menningarneyslu og söludreifingu á tónlist og á hvaða hátt söludreifing í netverslunum er frábrugðin því sem gengur og gerist í hefðbundnum verslunum. Skoðaðar eru hefðbundnar kenningar um neyslu, menningu og söludreifingu og jafnframt skoðaðar nýlegar rannsóknir á viðfangsefninu og niðurstöður úr þeim rannsóknum bornar saman við eldri kenningar.

Tekið var viðtal við Engilbert Hafsteinsson hjá netversluninni Tónlist.is til þess að fá sýn á hvernig netsölu til íslenskra neytenda er háttað.

Niðurstaða höfundar er sú að internetið hefur aukið vöruúrval og neytendaábata umtalsvert. Jafnframt hefur söludreifing breyst, þó enn sem komið er sé óljóst hvað felist nákvæmlega í breytingunni.

Þá er ljóst að því minna umstang sem fylgir því að kynnast nýrri tónlist því líklegra er að neytendur kaupi tónlist sem ekki flokkast til smella. Hins vegar er ljóst að neytendur kunna enn best að meta smellina. Þrátt fyrir að þungavigtarneytendur séu helstu neytendur lítt þekktra vara eru þeir samt sem áður ánægðari með smellina heldur en lítt þekktu vörurnar.

Hvað íslenska netsölu varðar er ljóst að Íslendingar eru annað hvort mjög tregir við að nota netsölusíður til að kaupa tónlist, eða mjög tregir við að nota íslenskar netsölusíður til að kaupa tónlist.

Netsala tónlistar á Íslandi er talsvert minna hlutfall af heildartónlistarsölu en gengur og gerist almennt í heiminum. Jafnframt er söludreifing hjá Tónlist.is mjög einsleit. Í það minnsta 96,4% af þeim titlum sem eru til sölu hjá Tónlist.is selja ekki eitt stykki á ársgrundvelli.

Stikkorð: söludreifing, menningarneysla, tónlist, langhali, long tail,

Quando o Facebook lançou os Instant Articles (IA) houve quem dissesse
que seriam a alternativa para todas as angústias do jornalismo
tradicional, uma vez que crise gerada pela perda de espaço para as
redes sociais ampliava o número de veículos fechados, edições impressas
encerradas e demissões de profissionais. A realidade mostra
que isso não ocorreu.