Competing engines of growth: Innovation and standardization

We study a dynamic general equilibrium model where innovation takes theform of the introduction of new goods whose production requires skilled workers.Innovation is followed by a costly process of standardization, whereby these newgoods are adapted to be produced using unskilled labor. Our framework highlightsa number of novel results. First, standardization is both an engine of growth anda potential barrier to it. As a result, growth is an inverse U-shaped function ofthe standardization rate (and of competition). Second, we characterize the growthand welfare maximizing speed of standardization. We show how optimal protection of intellectual property rights affecting the cost of standardization vary withthe skill-endowment, the elasticity of substitution between goods and other parameters. Third, we show that, depending on how competition between innovatingand standardizing firms is modelled and on parameter values, a new type of multiplicity of equilibria may arise. Finally, we study the implications of our model forthe skill-premium and we illustrate novel reasons for linking North-South trade tointellectual property rights protection.

The electric revolution in Latin America

Latin America participated in the electric revolution which profoundly transformed the most developed Western economies between 1880 and 1930. The electrification of Latin America began relatively soon after these economies, but it was incapable of keeping up with them. Public electric lighting was introduced early in the big Latin American cities, where electric trams started running at almost the same time as in Europe, and electricity spread rapidly in the mining sector. In the most advanced countries or areas in the region, the manufacturing industry substituted the steam engine with the electric motor, following the example of industry in the United States and Europe. Nevertheless, towards 1930 electricity consumption per inhabitant for Latin America was far below that of the more advanced economies, and only the Latin American countries which lead the process of electrification had reached levels of electric consumption that were similar to those of the late industrialised European countries. One of the most striking features of the electric revolution in Latin America is rooted precisely in the enormous national differences. These differences are indicative of the great economic inequalities existing in the heart of the region and these nations highly diverse capacity for economic modernisation.

Cultural differences on seeking information: an eye tracking study

The main goal of this research is to investigate how people with different cultural background differ in their interaction style and visual behavior on search engine results pages (SERP), more specifically between groups from the Middle Eastern region vs. Western Europe. We conducted a controlled eye-tracking experiment to explore and evaluate the visual behavior of Arabs and Spaniardusers when scanning through the first page of the search results in Google. Big differences can be observed in the 4 aspects studied: U.A.E. participants stayed on the SERPs for longer, they read more results and they read each snippet in a more complete way than Spaniards. In Spain, people tended to scan the SERP, reading less text on each snippet, and choose a result among the first top rankedones without hardly seeing those in bottom positions.

Cercador documental amb lematització

Un cercador documental d'arxius locals, en diferents formats, que permet l'extracció i indexació de lemes en diferents idiomes (principalment català, castellà i anglès) en el que s'habilita la cerca a través d'una pàgina web allotjada en un servidor local.

Code 2.0 gestió de pràctiques en núvol

Partint d'un projecte anterior anomenat Code, els objectius d'aquest projecte són: integrar l'aplicació en una eina de software, incorporar les noves versions de les llibreries GWT i Java, i escabilitzar l'aplicació a través de la tecnologia cloud computing concretament amb la infraestructura de Google App Engine

Anàlisi de les diferències en la conducta motriu dels alumnes de l'ESO durant la realització d'un joc col·lectiu

Partint de la base que no tots els alumnes es desenvolupen de la mateixa manera en el marc de les pràctiques esportives col·lectives a l’àrea d’Educació Física, per què no indagar dins el comportament motor de cadascun d’ells i veure’n les diferències? Arran d’aquesta qüestió, el següent estudi pretén evidenciar les diferències més significatives que s’estableixen sobre les conductes motrius dels alumnes de 3r i 4t de l’ESO durant la realització d’un joc esportiu col·lectiu. Així doncs, la mostra va ser seleccionada en funció de si els alumnes realitzaven, o no, algun tipus de modalitat esportiva fora de l’escola (individual i/o col·lectiva). Per tal de poder determinar aquestes diferències, es va utilitzar l’observació indirecta d’imatges enregistrades en vídeo. Amb l’ajuda de fulls d’observació ajustats al joc en concret i d’un instrument d’avaluació, s’havien de registrar de forma pertinent les conductes motrius dels alumnes durant la realització del joc esportiu col·lectiu seleccionat. Els resultats i les conclusions finals s’han extret a partir dels valors representats en la graella d’observació i de la puntuació final obtinguda mitjançant l’instrument d’avaluació emprat.

Creació d'una aplicació col·laborativa orientada a web semàntica

L'objectiu d'aquest projecte es la creació d'una plataforma que ofereix un nou format per a presentar aquest tipus d'informació, i que a mes permet la integració d'ontologies per a poder classificar les diferents noticies que s'afegeixin al sistema.

Desarrollo de una web semántica

Amb aquest projecte es vol solucionar aquesta manca d'accés a la informació i sobretot disposar d'un sistema que relacioni "tot amb tot", és a dir, muntar un sistema únic per documentar xarxa (física) independentment de l'element que es vulgui documentar. La idea és basar el projecte de documentació en una web semàntica basada en wiki semàntica amb un motor de cerca MediaWiki.

Knowledge Licensing in a Model of R&D-driven Endogenous Growth

In this paper I present an endogenous growth model where the engine of growth is in-house R&D performed by high-tech firms. I model knowledge (patent) licensing among high-tech firms. I show that if there is knowledge licensing, high-tech firms innovate more and economic growth is higher than in cases when there are knowledge spillovers or there is no exchange of knowledge among high-tech firms. However, in case when there is knowledge licensing the number of high-tech firms is lower than in cases when there are knowledge spillovers or there is no exchange of knowledge.

Knowledge Licensing in a Model of R&D-driven Endogenous Growth

In this paper I present an endogenous growth model where the engine of growth is in-house R&D performed by high-tech firms. I model knowledge (patent) licensing among high-tech firms. I show that if there is knowledge licensing, high-tech firms innovate more and economic growth is higher than in cases when there are knowledge spillovers or there is no exchange of knowledge among high-tech firms. However, in case when there is knowledge licensing the number of high-tech firms is lower than in cases when there are knowledge spillovers or there is no exchange of knowledge.

QuesTInSitu: mejora del sistema de autoría y móvil para la creación, realización y monitorización de rutas abiertas de preguntas geolocalizadas

Aquest projecte te com a objectiu estendre el treball realitzat amb l‟eina QuesTInSitu, ques‟emmarca dins del món de les Tecnologies de la Informació i Comunicació (TIC) iconcretament en l‟àrea d‟E-Learning. Es presenta una aplicació Web, QuesTInSitu, la qual ésuna eina d‟autoria que permet crear preguntes geolocalitzades a sobre de mapes de GoogleMaps. Aquestes preguntes segueixen l‟especificació IMS Question & Test Interporability (QTI)i són gestionades pel motor de QTI NewApis.L‟usuari pot crear preguntes geolocalitzades i organitzar-les com a rutes (qüestionaris) sobre unmapa de qualsevol punt del món. Per una altre banda, s‟ofereix la possibilitat de respondre a lespreguntes geolocalitzades mitjançant mòbils 3G gràcies a una aplicació especialmentdissenyada per a dispositius mòbils on els usuaris poden respondre les preguntes i veure lapuntuació.Aquest PFC presenta nous aspectes de millora sobre l‟eina ja existent, com per exemple: un nousistema de monitorització, un nou sistema de rutes, noves funcionalitats tant de l‟aplicaciómòbil com de l‟aplicació web entre d‟altres. Aquests nous aspectes s‟han avaluat dins de nousescenaris educatius.

A Widely Used Machine Translation Service and its Migration to a Free/Open-Source Solution : the Case of Softcatalà

Softcatalà is a non-profit associationcreated more than 10 years ago to fightthe marginalisation of the Catalan languagein information and communicationtechnologies. It has led the localisationof many applications and thecreation of a website which allows itsusers to translate texts between Spanishand Catalan using an external closed-sourcetranslation engine. Recently,the closed-source translation back-endhas been replaced by a free/open-sourcesolution completely managed by Softcatalà: the Apertium machine translationplatform and the ScaleMT web serviceframework. Thanks to the opennessof the new solution, it is possibleto take advantage of the huge amount ofusers of the Softcatalà translation serviceto improve it, using a series ofmethods presented in this paper. In addition,a study of the translations requestedby the users has been carriedout, and it shows that the translationback-end change has not affected theusage patterns.

Un motor de cerca per a l'aualé

L'aualé és possiblement el joc de mancala més conegut. Essent un joc amb adversari i de suma nul·la que s'ha estudiat profusament en el marc de la intel·ligència artificial, fins a arribar a la solució d'una de les seves variants l'any 2002. El projecte plantejat se centra en l'estudi pràctic d'una variant d'aualé de més difícil solució, 'abapa', a través de l'elaboració i optimització d'un motor de cerca.

Improving Information Problem Solving skills in Secondary Education through embedded instruction

This empirical study consists in an investigation of the effects, on the development of Information Problem Solving (IPS) skills, of a long-term embedded, structured and supported instruction in Secondary Education. Forty secondary students of 7th and 8th grades (13–15 years old) participated in the 2-year IPS instruction designed in this study. Twenty of them participated in the IPS instruction, and the remaining twenty were the control group. All the students were pre- and post-tested in their regular classrooms, and their IPS process and performance were logged by means of screen capture software, to warrant their ecological validity. The IPS constituent skills, the web search sub-skills and the answers given by each participant were analyzed. The main findings of our study suggested that experimental students showed a more expert pattern than the control students regarding the constituent skill ‘defining the problem’ and the following two web search sub-skills: ‘search terms’ typed in a search engine, and ‘selected results’ from a SERP. In addition, scores of task performance were statistically better in experimental students than in control group students. The paper contributes to the discussion of how well-designed and well-embedded scaffolds could be designed in instructional programs in order to guarantee the development and efficiency of the students’ IPS skills by using net information better and participating fully in the global knowledge society.

La cerca única, o com fer fàcil el camí a l'usuari

This paper presents a reflection on the need for libraries to think about how to facilitate access to the documentary sources they manage.As the number of resources available in electronic form increases, libraries are in the need to provide a simple and usable search tool that allows integrating the contents of the various information management systems they give access to.To define user expectations to the search interface, some of the features that they are accustomed to use in their requests for information on the Internet have been included.The technologies that allow the discovery layer implementation as a search tool that integrates the various information systems of the library are presented next. And below are some examples of implementations that work in line with the integration of various information sources into a single search engine, as models to consider for implementing a system of this kind.The purpose of it all is to present a state of the art of some cases of operational deployments as a starting point for any organization interested in improving access it offers to its resources on the basis of references study.