A Model of ethnic conflict

We present a model of conflict, in which discriminatory government policy or social intolerance is responsive to various forms of ethnic activism, including violence. It is this perceived responsiveness -captured by the probability that the government gives in and accepts a proponed change in ethnic policy- that induces individuals to mobilize in support for their cause. Yet, mobilization is costly and demonstrators have to be compensated accordingly. Individuals have to weigh their ethnic radicalism with their material well-being to determine the size of their money contribution to the cause. Our main results are: (i) a one-sided increase in radicalism or in population size increases conflict; (ii) a one-sided increase in income has ambiguous effects depending on the elasticity of contributions to income; (iii) an increase in within-group inequality increases conflict; and (iv) an increase in the correlation between ethnic radicalism and inequality also increases conflict.

The Social contract with endogenous sentiments

Moral values infuence individual behavior and social interactions. A specially signif- cant instance is the case of moral values concerning work e¤ort. Individuals determine what they take to be proper behaviour and judge the others, and themselves, accordingly. They increase their esteem -and self-esteem- for those who perform in excess of the standard and decrease their esteem for those who work less. These changes in self-esteem result from the self-regulatory emotions of guilt or pride extensively studied in Social Psychology. We examine the interactions between sentiments, individual behaviour and the social contract in a model of rational voting over redistribution where individual self-esteem and relative es-teem for others are endogenously determined. Individuals di¤er in their productivities. The desired extent of redistribution depends both on individual income and on individual attitudes toward others. We characterize the politico-economic equilibria in which sentiments, labor supply and redistribution are simultaneously determined. The model has two types of equilibria. In "cohesive" equilibria, all individuals conform to the standard of proper behav- iour, income inequality is low and social esteem is not biased toward any particular type. Under these conditions equilibrium redistribution increases in response to larger inequality. In a "clustered" equilibrium skilled workers work above the mean while unskilled workers work below. In such an equilibrium, income inequality is large and sentiments are biased in favor of the industrious. As inequality increases, this bias may eventually overtake the egoistic demand for greater taxation and equilibrium redistribution decreases. The type of equilibrium that emerges crucially depends on inequality. We contrast the predictions of the model with data on inequality, redistribution, work values and attitudes toward work and toward the poor for a set of OECD countries.

Polarization, fractionalization and conflict

A recent upsurge of empirical studies on the causes of conflict attempts to connect various features of the distribution of the relevant characteristic (typically ethnicity or religion) to conflict. The distributional indices differ (polarization, fractionalization or Lorenz-domination) and so do the various specifications of "conflict" (onset, incidence or intensity). Overall, the results are far from clear, and combined with the mixture of alternative indices and notions of "conflict" it is not surprising that the reader may come away thoroughly perplexed. The aim of this paper is to provide a theoretical framework that permits us to distinguish between the occurrence of conflict and its severity and that clarifies the role of polarization and fractionalization in each of these cases.

Disseny i aplicació del protocol d'instal·lació d'energia fotovoltaica en edificis aïllats de la xarxa elèctrica al PNAP

En el perímetre del parc es troben gran nombre d’edificacions amb mancances de subministrament elèctric per la gran dispersió de la població de la comarca. L’objectiu d’aquest estudi és desenvolupar un protocol per determinar la viabilitat de l’energia fotovoltaica en edificis aïllats i aplicar-la de forma pilot a dos edificis gestionats pels responsables del Parc Natural de l’Alt Pirineu: el Centre de Logística i Manteniment (CLM) i el Refugi del Fornet. Aquests han estat escollits per la seva representativitat com a edificis aïllats de la xarxa elèctrica convencional. S’ha elaborat una metodologia pròpia, el Protocol d’instal·lació d’energia fotovoltaica en edificis aïllats de la xarxa elèctrica. S’ha realitzat una anàlisi de sensibilitats del dimensionat fotovoltaic davant la modificació de diversos paràmetres rellevants. Això ha permès determinar les característiques òptimes de viabilitat per als dos edificis en estudi i el cost de la instal·lació fotovoltaica (17.183€ el CLM i 164.815 € el Refugi del Fornet). Els resultats obtinguts en els dos edificis pilot han mostrat el gran cost relatiu entre l’energia fotovoltaica i l’energia elèctrica produïda a partir de combustibles fòssils.

Arquitectura wormhole per a una NoC 2D-Mesh

Aquest projecte presenta la implementació d'un disseny, i la seva posterior síntesi en una FPGA, d'una arquitectura de tipus wormhole packet switching per a una infraestructura de NetWork-On-Chip amb una topologia 2D-Mesh. Agafant un router circuit switching com a punt de partida, s'han especificat els mòduls en Verilog per tal d'obtenir l'arquitectura wormhole desitjada. Dissenyar la màquina de control per governar els flits que conformen els paquets dins la NoC,i afegir les cues a la sortida del router (outuput queuing) són els punts principals d'aquest treball. A més, com a punt final s'han comparat ambdues arquitectures de router en termes de costos en àrea i en memòria i se n’han obtingut diverses conclusions i resultats experimentals.

Avaluació dels algorismes d'encaminament per a una NoC amb topologia Mesh 2D

Aquest projecte presenta una avaluació de les diferents alternatives d'encaminament per a una NoC amb una topologia mesh 2D. Per tal d'exposar aquestes alternatives s'ha estudiat la composició d'un router implementat amb l'algorisme determinista XY i s'ha adaptat per tal que aquest suportés els algorismes parcialment adaptatius West First, North Last i Negative First. Un cop tenim els routers implementats es disposa un estudi dels diferents algorismes i com cadascun d'aquests actuen en front uns mateixos estímuls per tal de crear una comparativa entre ells que ens faciliti una elecció a priori.

Occurrence and bioaccumulation study of PCDD and PCDF from mineral feed additives

Occurrence of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) was evaluated in sepiolite as a widely employed binder and anti-caking agent for animal feed. Also, naturally contaminated kaolinitic clay was used for comparative purposes. Since sepiolite shows remarkable adsorption properties, particular interest was paid to the extraction steps as they become critical for the final determination of these pollutants in such matrixes. Furthermore, classical Soxhlet extraction using different extracting strategies as well as acid treatment were carried out with simultaneous liquid-liquid extraction. Results obtained depended on the extraction procedure applied. Acid treatment or Soxhlet extraction using a mixture of toluene:ethanol as solvent allowed to reach the minimum requirements of recovery rates. However, Soxhlet extraction using a mixture cyclohexane:toluene as extracting solvent did not allow to comply with minimum specifications for recovery. Significant differences were obtained in TEQ units when acid treatment was applied in comparison to Soxhlet extraction. This fact can be explained because the use of drastic acid conditions allows removing strongly adsorbed analytes which can be uniquely extracted after a total destruction of the crystalline structure of sepiolite. On the contrary, Soxhlet extraction was not able to destroy the structure of sepiolite and as a consequence the PCDDs/Fs were strongly adsorbed in the internal structure of the mineral. From biological point of view the availability of these toxicants constitutes a critical aspect playing an important role in the final decision choosing particular analytical procedures. Then, acid conditions in the digestive tract should be taken into account. In this scenario, a bioaccumulation study was conducted to evaluate the transference of PCDDs/PCDFs from the sepiolite into the animal tissues when fed with feed containing sepiolite. To this end, chickens were used as a model to examine the bioavailability of PCDDs/PCDFs. Four groups of chickens were exposed through their diet to a control feed, feed with 3% w/w sepiolite as additive, feed contaminated with PCDDs/PCDFs at concentration around 2.8 pg WHO-TEQ/g and feed with 2% of a contaminated kaolinitic clay (460 pg TEQ/g mineral). Livers of the four studied groups were analyzed throughout the exposure period. Results of this trial showed that the performance of broilers was not affected by the presence of dioxins at levels tested, and chickens did not show any abnormal behaviour. Dioxins intentionally added to the diet were absorbed and accumulated in the liver in a significant manner, whereas the PCDDs/Fs from sepiolite were not available for chickens since livers from broilers fed 3% sepiolite presented similar WHO-TEQ values than those from broilers fed control diet.

The Measurement of social polarization in a multi-group context

Polarization indices presented up to now have only focused their attention on the distribution of income/wealth. However, in many circumstances income is not the only relevant dimension that might be the cause of social conflict, so it is very important to have a social polarization index able to cope with alternative dimensions. In this paper we present an axiomatic characterization of one of such indices: it has been obtained as an extension of the (income) polarization measure introduced in Duclos, Esteban and Ray (2004) to a wider domain. It turns out that the axiomatic structure introduced in that paper alone is not appropriate to obtain a fully satisfactory characterization of our measure, so additional axioms are proposed. As a byproduct, we present an alternative axiomatization of the aforementioned income polarization measure.

El largo viaje de Juan Preciado: propuesta de lectura de la novela Pedro Páramo desde la mitología nahua

Nuestro trabajo pretende abrir una nueva línea de análisis de la novela de Juan Rulfo Pedro Páramo que explore el arquetipo de la muerte que se esconde en el recorrido que realiza el protagonista de la novela, Juan Preciado, por el fantasmal pueblo de Comala, a través del mito nahua que narra el viaje del alma desencarnada al inframundo, al Mictlán

Leadership in collective action

We extend the model of collective action in which groups compete for a budged by endogenizing the group platform, namely the specific mixture of public/private good and the distribution of the private good to group members which can be uniform or performance-based. While the group-optimal platform contains a degree of publicness that increases in group size and divides the private benefits uniformly, a success-maximizing leader uses incentives and distorts the platform towards more private benefits - a distortion that increases with group size. In both settings we obtain the anti-Olson type result that win probability increases with group size.

nàlisi de les modificacions produïdes per llops en conjunts ossis actuals a Bialowieza i Biezcady (Polonia)

Projecte de recerca elaborat a partir d’una estada a la Université Toulouse-Le Mirail, França, entre octubre i novembre del 2006. Estudi experimental que s’emmarca en un projecte predoctoral que té com a objectius principals caracteritzar les modificacions produïdes per carnívors en conjunts ossis actuals, establir una metodologia que permeti identificar el predador o predadors que han intervingut i aplicar aquesta metodologia al registre arqueològic. S’han analitzat les modificacions produïdes per llops (Canis lupus) en conjunts ossis actuals procedents del Parc Nacional de Bialowieza y Biezcady a Polonia i que formen part de la neotafoteca amb dipòsit a la Universitat de Toulouse. L'anàlisi de les fractures i les mossegades als ossos fetes pels llops (Canis lupus) durant el consum, han revelat la important capacitat destructiva i modificadora d'aquests agents tafonòmics. Les dades obtingudes, d'aquest i altres estudis, serviran per confeccionar una metodologia vàlida per a l’estudi de la intervenció de llops en conjunts arqueològics. També serà possible crear un model del tipus de modificació que produeixen els llops. Aquest model estarà reforçat per experiments realitzats per altres investigadors i es podran aplicar als estudis tafonòmics de jaciments arqueo-paleontològics.

Model based fault diagnosis with application to an automotive engine

Report for the scientific sojourn at the University of Linköping between April to July 2007. Monitoring of the air intake system of an automotive engine is important to meet emission related legislative diagnosis requirements. During the research the problem of fault detection in the air intake system was stated as a constraint satisfaction problem over continuous domains with a big number of variables and constraints. This problem was solved using Interval-based Consistency Techniques. Interval-based consistency techniques are shown to be particularly efficient for checking the consistency of the Analytical Redundancy Relations (ARRs), dealing with uncertain measurements and parameters, and using experimental data. All experiments were performed on a four-cylinder turbo-charged spark-ignited SAAB engine located in the research laboratory at Vehicular System Group - University of Linköping.

Estimació de les emissions de metà generades per fermentació entèrica a la ramaderia bovina a Catalunya, com a font de gasos d'efecte hivernacle (GEH)

L’emissió de GEH generats per processos relacionats amb l’activitat antropogènica ha provocat que la temperatura mitjana de la Terra augmenti, originant el que es coneix com escalfament global. Les possibles conseqüències negatives per al conjunt de la biosfera han portat a l’adopció d’acords internacionals que obliguen als diferents Estats a realitzar Inventaris Nacionals d’Emissions a l’Atmosfera. El CH4, que és exhalat o eructat com a resultat del procés de fermentació entèrica dels remugants, genera un impacte que ha de ser quantificat en els diferents inventaris. En aquest projecte s’ha realitzat l’estimació del CH4 generat per la fermentació entèrica dels bovins a Catalunya. Per aquest objectiu s’han utilitat les equacions explicitades a les directrius del Panel Intergovernamental sobre el Canvi Climàtic (IPCC), així com l’equació de Cambra, L. et al. (2008) per a la determinació del factor de conversió Ym. El resultat final rebaixa les quantitats inventariades tant per l’administració catalana com per l’espanyola.

Linking conflict to inequality and polarization

In this paper we study a behavioral model of conflict that provides a basis for choosing certain indices of dispersion as indicators for conflict. We show that the (equilibrium) level of conflict can be expressed as an (approximate) linear function of the Gini coefficient, the Herfindahl-Hirschman fractionalization index, and a specific measure of polarization due to Esteban and Ray