Spain and Investment Arbitration: The Renewable Energy Explosion

In the past decade, Spain’s generous incentive system for renewable energy production attracted substantial foreign and national investment. However, when the global financial crisis hit, and the consequent reduction of electricity consumption, the incentives began to cause a tariff deficit in the electricity system, leading the Spanish government to cut back and then eliminate the incentives. In the wake of losses, international investors turned to investment arbitration, while national investors could only present their claims before Spanish courts. The result was a potential for differential treatment between national and foreign investors. This paper examines the incentive regime and the government’s changes to it in order to understand the investors’ claims and the reasoning that resulted in their rejections, both in national courts and in the only arbitration award issued up to now. The paper concludes with a discussion of the effect of the renewable energies situation on the investment arbitration debate within Spanish civil society.

No surviving evolved companions of the progenitor of SN 1006

Type Ia supernovae are thought to occur when a white dwarf made of carbon and oxygen accretes sufficient mass to trigger a thermonuclear explosion(1). The accretion could be slow, from an unevolved (main-sequence) or evolved (subgiant or giant) star(2,3) (the single-degenerate channel), or rapid, as the primary star breaks up a smaller orbiting white dwarf(3,4) (the double-degenerate channel). A companion star will survive the explosion only in the single-degenerate channel(5). Both channels might contribute to the production of type Ia supernovae(6,7), but the relative proportions of their contributions remain a fundamental puzzle in astronomy. Previous searches for remnant companions have revealed one possible case for SN 1572 (refs 8, 9), although that has been questioned(10). More recently, observations have restricted surviving companions to be small, main-sequence stars(11-13), ruling out giant companions but still allowing the single-degenerate channel. Here we report the results of a search for surviving companions of the progenitor of SN 1006 (ref. 14). None of the stars within 4 arc minutes of the apparent site of the explosion is associated with the supernova remnant, and we can firmly exclude all giant and subgiant stars from being companions of the progenitor. In combination with previous results, our findings indicate that fewer than 20 per cent of type Ia supernovae occur through the single-degenerate channel.

El merchandising de las marcas de distribución vs. marcas de fabricantes, en productos de alimentación de la Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid

El presente trabajo se centra en el estudio de ciertos elementos de Marchandising relacionados con la pujanza que en los últimos años han conseguido las marcas propias de la Distribución y sus efectos sobre las marcas de fabricantes, fundamentalmente, líderes. OBJETIVOS Y RESULTADOS: Durante la década analizada, crecieron las Marcas Privadas (MDD) en alimentación y apareció la segunda generación de Marcas Propias (Marcas de Primer Precio: MPP) La bibliografía de Marketing es escasa en referencias al Merchandising y, menos con métodos cuantitativos. De aquí nuestra motivación para abordar este tema que consideramos de gran importancia. Por todo ello nos hemos propuesto cubrir los siguientes objetivos, aunque obviamente se detallan en las hipótesis a corroborar son los siguientes: • Espacio dedicado en el lineal de las MDD vs MF • Situación en el lineal de las MDD vs MF • Comparación de actividades promocionales y sus clases entre las MDDs y las MFs • Comparación de calidad de envases de las MDDs vs MFs • Finalmente hemos querido modernizar y actualizar ciertos contenidos académicos. HIPÓTESIS A CORROBORAR HIPÓTESIS TEÓRICA: Las enseñas con marcas de distribución, con el objetivo de incrementar el margen bruto de los productos con estas marcas, tienden a optimizar las acciones de marketing de sus marcas vs. las marcas líderes, en sus mismos mercados. HIPÓTESIS BÁSICAS: H1.- Las Marcas de Distribuidor gozan de, al menos, igual longitud de lineal que las marcas de fabricante líderes de su categoría de producto... NOTA 520 8 The current research focuses on certain Merchandising elements related to the push that in the latest years have gotten distribution private labels and its effects over manufactureŕs brand, mainly, leaders. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND OUTCOMES During the analyzed decade, the explosion of the Private Brands (PB) happened in the food market of Spain. In this period of time the second generations of Private Brands (First Price Brands) were launched. In Marketing bibliography there is only a few Merchandising references. And among the latter, there are even fewer when it comes to quantitative publications. This is the reason why the target of this research is mainly quantitative. Due to these considerations, the objectives to cover (detailed in the hypothesis to corroborate) have been: Share of shelf of PB vs MB Shelf position of PB vs MB Comparison of PB́s packaging vs MB Promotional activities and types of PB vs MB Below the Line And also an update of certain academic content The main statements investigated are based on the following hypothesis: THEORETICAL ASSUMPTION: Distributors that own private brands, with the objective to increase the gross margin of these brands, tend to optimize Marketing tactics of their own brands vs. manufactureŕs brands...