Climate change in the Atlantic Ocean since the 1940's and the effects on the global climate

En aquest projecte s’ha estudiat la relació entre els canvis en les temperatures superficials de l’Oceà Atlàntic i els canvis en la circulació atmosfèrica en el segle XX. Concretament s’han analitzat dos períodes de estudi: el primer des del 1940 al 1960 i el segon des del 1980 fins al 2000. S’ha posat especial interès en les anomalies en les temperatures superficials del mar en la regió tropical de l’Oceà Atlàntic i la possible interconnexió amb els canvis climàtics observats i predits. Per a la realització de l’estudi s’han dut a terme una sèrie d’experiments utilitzant el model climàtic elaborat a la universitat d’UCLA (UCLA‐AGCM model). Els resultats obtinguts han estat analitzats en forma de mapes i figures per a cada variable d’estudi. També s’ha fet una comparació entre els resultats obtinguts i altres trobats en altres treballs publicats sobre el mateix tema de recerca. Els resultats obtinguts són molt amplis i poden tenir diverses interpretacions. Tot i així algunes de les conclusions a les quals s’ha arribat són: les diferències més significatives per a les variables estudiades i trobades a partir dels resultats obtinguts del model per als dos períodes d’estudi són en els mesos d’hivern i a la zona dels tròpics; concretament a parts del nord de sud Amèrica i a parts del nord d’Àfrica. S’han trobat també canvis significatius en els patrons de precipitació sobre aquestes mateixes zones. També s’ha observant un moviment cap al nord de la zona d’interconvergència tropical i pot ser degut a l’anòmal gradient trobat a la zona equatorial en les temperatures superficial de l’Oceà. Tot i així per a una definitiva discussió i conclusions sobre els resultats dels experiments, seria necessari un estudi més ampli i profund.

Nutritional and feeding ecology in the Cory"s shearwater (Calonectris diomedea).

In birds, parents adjust their feeding behaviour according to breeding duties, which ultimately may lead to seasonal adjustments in nutritional physiology and hematology over the breeding season. Although avian physiology has been widely investigated in captivity, few studies have integrated individual changes in feeding and physiological ecology throughout the breeding season in wild birds. To study relationships between feeding ecology and nutritional ecophysiology in Cory"s shearwater Calonectris diomedea, we weighed and took blood samples from 28 males and 19 females during the pre-laying, egg-laying, incubation, hatching and chick-rearing periods of the breeding season. In addition, we fitted 6 birds with geolocators to track their foraging movements throughout the reproductive period. Thus, we examined individual changes in (1) nutritional condition (biochemistry metabolites); (2) oxygen carrying capacity (hematology); and (3) feeding areas and foraging effort (stable isotopes and foraging movements). Geolocators revealed a latitudinal shift in main feeding areas towards more southern and more neritic waters throughout the breeding season, which is consistent with the steady increase in δ13C signatures in the blood. Geolocators also showed a decrease in foraging effort from egg-laying to hatching, reflecting the activity decrease associated with incubation duties. Plasma metabolites, body mass and oxygen carrying capacity were associated with temporal changes in nutritional state and foraging effort in relation to recovery after migration, egg formation, fasting shifts during incubation and chick provisioning. This study shows that combining physiological and ecological approaches can help us understand the influence of breeding duties on feeding ecology and nutritional physiology in wild birds.

On the critical periods of perturbed isochronous centers

"Vegeu el resum a l'inici del document del fitxer adjunt."

Inter-group conflict and intra-group punishment in an experimental contest game

We study how conflict in a contest game is influenced by rival parties being groups and by group members being able to punish each other. Our main motivation stems from the analysis of socio-political conflict. The relevant theoretical prediction in our setting is that conflict expenditures are independent of group size and independent of whether punishment is available or not. We find, first, that our results contradict the independence of group-size prediction: conflict expenditures of groups are substantially larger than those of individuals, and both are substantially above equilibrium. Towards the end of the experiment material losses in groups are 257% of the predicted level. There is, however, substantial heterogeneity in the investment behaviour of individual group members. Second, allowing group members to punish each other after individual contributions to the contest effort are revealed leads to even larger conflict expenditures. Now material losses are 869% of the equilibrium level and there is much less heterogeneity in individual group members' investments. These results contrast strongly with those from public goods experiments where punishment enhances efficiency and leads to higher material payoffs.

Mobilitat inter-plataforma d'agents software: protocol de migració fragmentada

En aquest projecte s'ha realitzat l'anàlisi, disseny i implementació d'un protocol de migració d'agents software basat en l'enviament del codi dels agents fragmentat en múltiples missatges. Aquest protocol es troba dins d'una arquitectura de migració multi-protocol per a la mobilitat d'agents entre plataformes JADE. Finalment, s'ha realitzat un estudi que compara el rendiment assolit pel protocol i les prestacions que aporta.

Changes in the demand for private medical insurance following a shift in tax incentives

The 1998 Spanish reform of the Personal Income Tax eliminated the 15% deduction for private medical expenditures including payments on private health insurance (PHI) policies. To avoid an undesirable increase in the demand for publicly funded health care, tax incentives to buy PHI were not completely removed but basically shifted from individual to group employer-paid policies. In a unique fiscal experiment, at the same time that the tax relief for individually purchased policies was abolished, the government provided for tax allowances on policies taken out through employment. Using a bivariate probit model on data from National Health Surveys, we estimate the impact of said reform on the demand for PHI and the changes occurred within it. Our findings suggest that the total probability of buying PHI was not significantly affected. Indeed, the fall in the demand for individual policies (by 10% between 1997 and 2001) was offset by an increase in the demand for group employer-paid ones, so that the overall size of the market remained virtually unchanged. We also briefly discuss the welfare effects on the state budget, the industry and society at large.

Contribució a la mobilitat inter-plataforma d'agents mòbils: protocol de migració fragmentada

En aquest projecte s’ha dissenyat un protocol de migració d’agents mòbils per a l’arquitectura IPMA basat en l’enviament dels agents fragmentats en diversos missatges FIPA ACL. Aquest s’ha implementat dins el servei de migració JIPMS per a la plataforma JADE. Finalment s’ha dut a terme un conjunt exhaustiu de tests per avaluar-ne el rendiment i comparar-lo amb altres protocols de migració existents.

Are the high-growth recovery periods over?

We present evidence about the loss of the so-called "plucking effect", that is, a high-growth phase of the cycle typically observed at the end of recessions. This result matches the popular belief, presented informally by different authors, that the current recession will have permanent effects, or that the current recession will have an L shape versus the old-time recessions that have always had a V shape. Furthermore, we show that the loss of the "plucking effect" can explain part of the Great Moderation. We postulate that these two phenomena may be due to changes in inventory management brought about by improvements in information and communications technologies.

Sharp A₂ inequality for haar shift operators

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Inter-regional redistribution through infrastructure investment: tactical or programmatic?

In this paper we analyze the effects of both tactical and programmatic politics on the inter-regional allocation of infrastructure investment. We use a panel of data for the Spanish electoral districts during the period 1964-2004 to estimate an equation where investment depends both on economic and political variables. The results show that tactical politics do matter since, after controlling for economic traits, the districts with more ‘Political power’ still receive more investment. These districts are those where the incumbents’ Vote margin of victory/ defeat in the past election is low, where the Marginal seat price is low, where there is Partisan alignment between the executives at the central and regional layers of government, and where there are Pivotal regional parties which are influential in the formation of the central executive. However, the results also show that programmatic politics matter, since inter-regional redistribution (measured as the elasticity of investment to per capita income) is shown to increase with the arrival of the Democracy and EU Funds, with Left governments, and to decrease the higher is the correlation between a measure of ‘Political power’ and per capita income.

Weak-type estimates for Haar shift operators: Sharp power on the A(p) characteristic

"Vegeu el resum a l'inici del document del fitxer adjunt."

Inter-American Court, Crimes Against Humanity and Peacebuilding in South America

The present work contains a general overview of the sentences of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR), which have recognised that crimes against humanity are pre-existing in customary law, and do not prescribe, nor can they be subject to amnesty or pardon. Specific attention is paid to the consequent restrictions and opportunities offered by said verdicts to countries such as Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Peru, which find themselves in postconflict transition processes and where peace has been negotiated with certain groups and state structures that are responsible for carrying out crimes against humanity. In doing so, special attention is paid to the impact of the recognition of the nature of crimes against humanity on the notion of the principle of legality, stricto sensu; on the development and evolution of the doctrine and the practice of international human rights law in the inter-American context; and finally on the aforementioned processes of transitional justice.

Estudio acústico de la variación inter e intralocutor en la frecuencia fundamental de hablantes bilingües de catalán y de castellano

Este trabajo pretende contribuir a establecer la individualidad de la voz de los hablantes bilingües equilibrados de catalán y de castellano a partir del análisis de la frecuencia fundamental y estudiar los efectos, en el nivel acústico, que el uso de una lengua u otra produce en este parámetro. Se pretende obtener, así, parte del conocimiento fonético necesario para la mejora de los sistemas de reconocimiento, identificación o verificación automáticos del locutor y proporcionar a los especialistas en fonética judicial nuevos datos acústicos para que puedan comparar con un mayor grado de certeza locutores dubitados e indubitados

Multilocus sequence analysis reveals the genetic diversity of European fruit tree phytoplasmas and supports the existence of inter-species recombination

The genetic diversity of three temperate fruit tree phytoplasmas ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma prunorum’, ‘Ca. P. mali’ and ‘Ca. P. pyri’ has been established by multilocus sequence analysis. Among the four genetic loci used, the genes imp and aceF distinguished 30 and 24 genotypes, respectively, and showed the highest variability. Percentage of substitution for imp ranged from 50 to 68% according to species. Percentage of substitution varied between 9 and 12% for aceF, whereas it was between 5 and 6% for pnp and secY. In the case of ‘Ca P. prunorum’ the three most prevalent aceF genotypes were detected in both plants and insect vectors, confirming that the prevalent isolates are propagated by insects. The four isolates known to be hypo-virulent had the same aceF sequence, indicating a possible monophyletic origin. Haplotype network reconstructed by eBURST revealed that among the 34 haplotypes of ‘Ca. P. prunorum’, the four hypo-virulent isolates also grouped together in the same clade. Genotyping of some Spanish and Azerbaijanese ‘Ca. P. pyri’ isolates showed that they shared some alleles with ‘Ca. P. prunorum’, supporting for the first time to our knowledge, the existence of inter-species recombination between these two species.