The Supercore for Normal Form Games

We study the supercore of a system derived from a normal form game. For the case of a finite game with pure strategies, we define a sequence of games and show that the supercore of that system coincides with the set of Nash equilibrium strategy profiles of the last game in the sequence. This result is illustrated with the characterization of the supercore for the n-person prisoners’ dilemma. With regard to the mixed extension of a normal form game, we show that the set of Nash equilibrium profiles coincides with the supercore for games with a finite number of Nash equilibria. For games with an infinite number of Nash equilibria this need not be no longer the case. Yet, it is not difficult to find a binary relation which guarantees the coincidence of these two sets.

Royalty Licensing

Published as an article in: Economics Letters, 2010, vol. 107, issue 2, pages 284-287.

Mergers in Durable Goods Industries

Revised 2008-11.-- Published as an article in: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2008, 68, pp. 691-701.

La Participación Social de las Personas Mayores

Duración (en horas): Menos de 10 horas. Nivel educativo: Grado

Policy Coordination in an Oligopolistic Housing Market

This paper analyzes the consequences of the interaction between two different levels of government (regulators) in the development of housing policy when their decisions determine the level of competition in the housing market. The analysis discusses the implications derived from a lack of coordination between a local regulator who controls the supply of land for housing development and a central regulator who decides on housing subsidies. The results suggest that lack of coordination has significant effects on prices and supply of houses, housing developers’ profits, and buyers’ surplus.

Consumer Confidence and Yield Spreads in Europe

This paper shows the extraordinary capacity of yield spreads to anticipate consumption growth as proxy by the Economic Sentiment Indicator elaborated by the European Commission in order to predict turning points in business cycles. This new evidence complements the well known results regarding the usefulness of the slope of the term structure of interest rates to predict real economic conditions and, in particular, recessions by using a direct measure of expectations. A linear combination of European yield spreads explains a surprising 93.7% of the variability of the Economic Sentiment Indicator. Yield spreads seem to be a key determinant of consumer confidence in Europe.

Chemical recycling of municipal packaging waste by pyrolysis

[EN]The present doctoral thesis centers on studying pyrolysis as a chemical recycling technique for rejected packaging waste fractions coming from separation and sorting plants. The pyrolysis experiments have been carried out in a lab-scale installation equipped with a 3.5 L semi-batch reactor and a condensation and collection system for the liquids and gases generated. In the present thesis, an experimental study on the conventional pyrolysis process applied to the aforementioned waste fractions has been conducted, as well as the study of non-conventional or advanced pyrolysis processes such as catalytic and stepwise pyrolysis. The study of the operating parameters has been carried out using a mixed plastics simulated sample, the composition of which is similar to that found in real fractions, and subsequently the optimized process has been applied to real packaging waste. An exhaustive characterization of the solids, liquids and gases obtained in the process has been made after each experiment and their potential uses have been established. Finally, an empirical model that will predict the pyrolysis yields (% organic liquid, % aqueous liquid, % gases, % char, % inorganic solid) as a function of the composition of the initial sample has been developed. As a result of the experimental work done, the requirements have been established for an industrial packaging waste pyrolysis plant that aims to be sufficiently versatile as to generate useful products regardless of the nature of the raw material.

A short in-frame deletion in NTRK1 tyrosine kinase domain caused by a novel splice site mutation in a patient with congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis

Background: Congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis (CIPA) is a rare autosomal recessive genetic disease characterized by the lack of reaction to noxious stimuli and anhidrosis. It is caused by mutations in the NTRK1 gene, which encodes the high affinity tyrosine kinase receptor I for Neurotrophic Growth Factor (NGF). -- Case Presentation: We present the case of a female patient diagnosed with CIPA at the age of 8 months. The patient is currently 6 years old and her psychomotor development conforms to her age (RMN, SPECT and psychological study are in the range of normality). PCR amplification of DNA, followed by direct sequencing, was used to investigate the presence of NTRK1 gene mutations. Reverse transcriptase (RT)-PCR amplification of RNA, followed by cloning and sequencing of isolated RT-PCR products was used to characterize the effect of the mutations on NTRK1 mRNA splicing. The clinical diagnosis of CIPA was confirmed by the detection of two splice-site mutations in NTRK1, revealing that the patient was a compound heterozygote at this gene. One of these alterations, c.574+1G > A, is located at the splice donor site of intron 5. We also found a second mutation, c.2206-2 A > G, not previously reported in the literature, which is located at the splice acceptor site of intron 16. Each parent was confirmed to be a carrier for one of the mutations by DNA sequencing analysis. It has been proposed that the c.574+1G > A mutation would cause exon 5 skipping during NTRK1 mRNA splicing. We could confirm this prediction and, more importantly, we provide evidence that the novel c.2206-2A > G mutation also disrupts normal NTRK1 splicing, leading to the use of an alternative splice acceptor site within exon 17. As a consequence, this mutation would result in the production of a mutant NTRK1 protein with a seven aminoacid in-frame deletion in its tyrosine kinase domain. --Conclusions: We present the first description of a CIPA-associated NTRK1 mutation causing a short interstitial deletion in the tyrosine kinase domain of the receptor. The possible phenotypical implications of this mutation are discussed.

Identification of a biomarker panel for colorectal cancer diagnosis

Background: Malignancies arising in the large bowel cause the second largest number of deaths from cancer in the Western World. Despite progresses made during the last decades, colorectal cancer remains one of the most frequent and deadly neoplasias in the western countries. Methods: A genomic study of human colorectal cancer has been carried out on a total of 31 tumoral samples, corresponding to different stages of the disease, and 33 non-tumoral samples. The study was carried out by hybridisation of the tumour samples against a reference pool of non-tumoral samples using Agilent Human 1A 60- mer oligo microarrays. The results obtained were validated by qRT-PCR. In the subsequent bioinformatics analysis, gene networks by means of Bayesian classifiers, variable selection and bootstrap resampling were built. The consensus among all the induced models produced a hierarchy of dependences and, thus, of variables. Results: After an exhaustive process of pre-processing to ensure data quality–lost values imputation, probes quality, data smoothing and intraclass variability filtering–the final dataset comprised a total of 8, 104 probes. Next, a supervised classification approach and data analysis was carried out to obtain the most relevant genes. Two of them are directly involved in cancer progression and in particular in colorectal cancer. Finally, a supervised classifier was induced to classify new unseen samples. Conclusions: We have developed a tentative model for the diagnosis of colorectal cancer based on a biomarker panel. Our results indicate that the gene profile described herein can discriminate between non-cancerous and cancerous samples with 94.45% accuracy using different supervised classifiers (AUC values in the range of 0.997 and 0.955).

¿Cómo gestionan las empresas emprendoras los recursos humanos? El caso de REDUR

[ES] En este trabajo se analiza la dirección de los recursos humanos en una empresa familiar y emprendedora, REDUR. En concreto, analizamos las características y los principales problemas en esta área a lo largo de la vida de la empresa. Actualmente REDUR se encuentra en su etapa de crecimiento. El estudio realizado nos ha permitido saber que la gestión de recursos humanos va adquiriendo un carácter más formal y que la formación y la contratación son las prácticas más importantes. Precisamente, en lo que se refiere a estas prácticas, destaca la utilización de la grafología, como técnica para seleccionar al personal, y la importancia de la socialización. Esto se puede deber a que las empresas en crecimiento priorizan el ajuste persona-organización.

Determinantes sociales y cognitivos en el espíritu emprendedor: un estudio exploratorio entre estudiantes argentinos

[ES] En este artículo analizamos las intenciones de emprender un negocio por parte de un grupo de estudiantes argentinos que cursaban la especialización en Dirección Estratégica de Recursos Humanos en la Universidad de Buenos Aires. Los resultados del estudio muestran que estos estudiantes desean crear su propio negocio, pero las posibilidades de creación del mismo dependen de varios factores. Entre todos ellos destaca la autoeficacia; aquellos estudiantes que muestran puntuaciones más elevadas en esta variable son los que manifiestan más intención por crear un negocio. Esta intención, en contra de lo esperado, es menor para los alumnos que señalan poseer más apoyo social. No encontramos que las cargas familiares o la experiencia previa en creación de empresas tengan un efecto significativo.

Turismo rural como estrategia de diversificación: factores determinantes y resultados en Galicia

[ES] Los determinantes y los resultados de la estrategia de diversificación se han abordado frecuentemente en la literatura. Son sin embargo pocos los estudios que analizan la diversificación en sectores concretos donde el impulso para diversificar no es estrictamente económico, sino político o social. La diversificación de la actividad agrícola hacia el turismo en Galicia es un claro ejemplo de este fenómeno. El objetivo de este trabajo es determinar cuales son los factores que motivan a titulares de explotaciones agrarias gallegas a iniciar una estrategia de diversificación hacia el turismo, así como las dimensiones de los resultados empresariales relevantes para dichos propietarios. Los resultados del análisis sobre una muestra representativa de los establecimientos de turismo rural de Galicia indican la multidimensionalidad y heterogeneidad de los constructos analizados. Las motivaciones sociales adquieren gran protagonismo, del mismo modo que las medidas subjetivas de resultado empresarial relacionadas con la mejora del entorno y la orientación al cliente.

Erizaintza-prozesua: Gipuzkoako herrialdean izaniko erabileraren bilakaera

284 p.: il.col.

Evolución y tendencias de la marca de distribuidor en los mercados de gran consumo: el caso de España

[ES] La marca de distribuidor está experimentando un proceso de crecimiento notable en nuestro país, especialmente en los mercados de productos de gran consumo. Sobre este particular, este trabajo tiene por objeto analizar la situación actual así como las tendencias futuras en la comercialización de marcas de distribuidor en la industria de productos de gran consumo. Para ello, se tendrá en cuenta la penetración de las marcas de distribuidor en distintas categorías de productos de gran consumo, exponiéndose una serie de argumentos con objeto de explicar las tendencias observadas.

Importancia de la marca paraguas y el made in en la competitividad internacional del granito

[ES] España, al igual que Italia, líder tradicional del sector de granito, ha visto como China, India o Brasil, han escalado posiciones en el ranking de producción y exportación mundial de granito. En un contexto globalizado, es necesario posicionarse frente a estos competidores en los mercados internacionales, y dado que estamos ante un producto genérico que cumple unas condiciones adecuadas de precio y calidad, una forma de identificarlo y diferenciarlo es aportándole valor mediante la creación de una marca. En el trabajo se analiza la utilidad de una estrategia basada en el made in para el caso de Galicia, núcleo fundamental de la industria en España, alternativa que resulta interesante para las empresas consultadas pero cuya puesta en práctica exige la colaboración entre éstas y las instituciones.