Relationship between technological progress, capital elasticity and emissions of industrial pollutants for the production sectors in Catalonia

As is known, the Kyoto Protocol proposes to reinforce national policies for emission reduction and, furthermore, to cooperate with other contracting parties. In this context, it would be necessary to assess these emissions, both in general and specifically, by pollutants and/or among productive sectors. The object of this paper is precisely to estimate the polluting emissions of industrial origin in Catalonia in the year 2001, in a multivariate context which explicitly allows a distinction to be made between the polluter and/or the productive sector causing this emission. Six pollutants considered, four directly related to greenhouse effect. A multi-level model, with two levels, pollutants and productive sectors, was specified. Both technological progress and elasticity of capital were introduced as random effects. Hence, it has been permitted that these coefficients vary according to one or other level. The most important finding in this paper is that elasticity of capital has been estimated as very non-elastic, with a range which varies between 0.162 (the paper industry) and 0.556 (commerce). In fact, and generally speaking, the greater capital the sector has, the less elasticity of capital has been estimated. Key words: Kyoto protocol, multilevel model, technological progress

Structuration and branding of a religious tourism product: Catalonia sacra

This article aims to provide an overview of the products Catalonia has to offer in terms of religious tourism. The growing interest in this kind of tourism worldwide, and in Catalonia itself, along with the region's wealth of religious heritage (particularly connected to the Christian Church) contrast with the lack of religion-based tourism products available, which results in its absence from the region's image as a tourism destination. In view of this, the Faculty of Tourism (University of Girona), the Vic Bishopric's Albergueria-Centre for Cultural Dissemination and the Tarraconense Episcopal Conference's Interdiocese Secretariat for the Custody and Promotion of Holy Art (SICPAS) decided to address the situation with the help of funding from the Autonomous Government of Catalonia. In order to re-position Christian religious heritage in the image of Catalonia as a tourist destination, the aforementioned parties embarked upon a project to set up a series of routes throughout the region, branded under the name Catalonia Sacra

Conflict prevention and decentralized governance: some remarks about the state of the art in theory and practice

Is there a link between decentralized governance and conflict prevention? This article tries to answer the question by presenting the state of the art of the intersection of both concepts. Provided that social conflict is inevitable and given the appearance of new threats and types of violence, as well as new demands for security based on people (human security), our societies should focus on promoting peaceful changes. Through an extensive analysis of the existing literature and the study of several cases, this paper suggests that decentralized governance can contribute to these efforts by transforming conflicts, bringing about power-sharing and inclusion incentives of minority groups. Albeit the complexity of assessing its impact on conflict prevention, it can be contended that decentralized governance might have very positive effects on the reduction of causes that bring about conflicts due to its ability to foster the creation of war/violence preventors. More specifically, this paper argues that decentralization can have a positive impact on the so-called triggers and accelerators (short- and medium-term causes).

The first steps of a secondary school teacher: experiences and studies of a student-teacher

This dissertation aims at fostering the professional development of the EFL teacher. This document compiles two small scale empirical studies carried out during the practicum periods of the TED's course. The first one is based on the role of the teacher's talk in the EFL classroom and the second one focuses on students’ small group talk, analysing the impact of cooperative learning in the EFL classroom by examining students' conversation. The following section gathers the teacher's personal reflections upon the process of professionalization. The paper concludes with a summary of the major findings and further professional improvement proposals

Uso del preservativo en estudiantes de secundaria de Mozambique. Diferencias en razón del género y del tipo de pareja = Condom use amongst high school students in Mozambique differences by gender and kind of partners

La mayor parte de las nuevas infecciones con el VIH en el mundo se producen por transmisión sexual entre adultos jóvenes y se aprecia una mayor vulnerabilidad en las mujeres (Gregson et al., 2002). Los principales objetivos de este trabajo son: estudiar la prevalencia del uso auto informado del preservativo durante la última relación sexual en los estudiantes de secundaria de Mozambique y la intención de emplearlo en las futuras relaciones, sea con la pareja actual o con una ocasional. Los resultados muestran que: 1) el 47% de los va rones y el 62% de las mujeres no utilizaron el preservativo, 2) tanto ellos como ellas están más seguros de que lo utilizarán con una pareja ocasional que con la actual y 3) los que emplearon el preservativo en su última relación sexual tienen más intención de volver a usarlo que aquellos que no lo emplearon

Characterization and Application of Educational Virtual Environments for Science Teaching in Secondary School

This work describes the characteristics of a representative set of seven different virtual laboratories (VLs) aimed for science teaching in secondary school. For this purpose, a 27-item evaluation model that facilitates the characterization of the VLs was prepared. The model takes into account the gaming features, the overall usability, and also the potential to induce scientific literacy. Five of the seven VLs were then tested with two larger and highly heterogenic groups of students, and in two different contexts – biotechnology and physics, respectively. It is described how the VLs were received by the students, taking into account both their motivation and their self-reported learning outcome. In some cases, students’ approach to work with the VLs was recorded digitally, and analyzed qualitatively. In general, the students enjoyed the VL activities, and claimed that they learned from them. Yet, more investigation is required to address the effectiveness of these tools for significant learning.

Lengua familiar y conocimiento de la lengua escolar en Cataluña al finalizar la Educación Infantil = Home Language and Knowledge of the School Language in Catalonia at the end of Nursery School

La infancia extranjera se escolariza en Cataluña en un programa de cambio de lengua del hogar a la escuela. Las investigaciones afirman que este alumnado tarda un mínimo de seis años en equiparar sus habilidades lingüístico-cognitivas con sus pares autóctonos, no así las habilidades conversacionales, las cuales se adquieren antes de los dos años de residencia. Sin embargo, no existen estudios sobre los efectos de la escolarización en el parvulario del alumnado alófono, así como de su lengua familiar, en relación con la adquisición de la lengua escolar. El artículo es un estudio comparativo de la adquisición del catalán de 567 autóctonos y 434 alófonos, al final del parvulario, en 50 escuelas de Cataluña que escolarizan a alumnado de origen extranjero. Las lenguas del alumnado autóctono son el catalán, el castellano y el bilingüismo catalán-castellano y las lenguas del alumnado alófono son el árabe, el soninké y el castellano. Los factores utilizados más relevantes han sido el nivel socioprofesional y educativo de las familias, el tiempo de residencia y el momento de escolarización del alumnado, el porcentaje de alumnado catalanohablante y de alumnado alófono en el aula y el contexto sociolingüístico del centro escolar. Los resultados muestran que el alumnado autóctono sabe más catalán que el alumnado alófono, pero las diferencias desaparecen respecto a algunos factores, de los cuales los más relevantes son los relacionados con las características del alumnado de las aulas. La lengua familiar del alumnado alófono no incide en sus resultados

Electron energy loss spectroscopy: physical principles, state of the art and applications to the nanosciences

In the present work we review the way in which the electron-matter interaction allows us to perform electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS), as well as the latest developments in the technique and some of the most relevant results of EELS as a characterization tool in nanoscience and nanotechnology.

Compact thermal storage: a-state-of-the-art review of experimental results

Thermal energy storage (TES) can increase the thermal energy effieresa, of a process by reusing the waste heat from industrial process, solar energy or other sources. There are different ways to store thermal energy: by sensible heat, by latest heat, by sorption process or by chemical reaction. This thesrs provides a-state-of-the-art review of the experimental performance of TES systems based on solid gas sorption process and chemical reactions. The importance of theses processes is that provides a heat loss free storage system with a high energy density.

Life cycle analysis and life cyle impact assessment methodologies: a state of the art

Life cycle analysis (LCA) is a comprehensive method for assessing the environmental impact of a product or an activity over its entire life cycle. The purpose of conducting LCA studies varies from one application to another. Different applications use LCA for different purposes. In general, the main aim of using LCA is to reduce the environmental impact of products through guiding the decision making process towards more sustainable solutions. The most critical phase in an LCA study is the Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) where the life cycle inventory (LCI) results of the considered substances related to the study of a certain system are transformed into understandable impact categories that represent the impact on the environment. In this research work, a general structure clarifying the steps that shall be followed ir order to conduct an LCA study effectively is presented. These steps are based on the ISO 14040 standard framework. In addition, a survey is done on the most widely used LCIA methodologies. Recommendations about possible developments and suggetions for further research work regarding the use of LCA and LCIA methodologies are discussed as well.

Ergonomics and musculoskeletal pain among postgraduate students and faculty members of the School of Dentistry of the University of Barcelona (Spain). A cross-sectional study

Objectives: To evaluate the intensity and location of musculoskeletal pain suffered by students and professors from different postgraduate programs of the School of Dentistry of the University of Barcelona (Spain), to identify the variables related to the occurrence of musculoskeletal symptoms and signs, and to establish possible preventive measures for such disorders. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was made among students and faculty members from different postgraduate courses of the School of Dentistry at the University of Barcelona between May and June 2007. A total of 74 dentists (54 postgraduate students and 20 faculty members) completed an anonymous questionnaire containing 19 questions. The variables were divided into three main groups: sociodemographic information, ergonomic features and musculoskeletal pain arising from professional practice. Results: Most of the dentists (79.8%) had experienced some kind of musculoskeletal pain in the last 6 months. On comparing the different locations of pain (lumbar, cervical, dorsal, wrist, shoulder and others), the neck was found to be the most commonly affected location (58% of all subjects), and only 34% of the respondents took some preventive measures against musculoskeletal disorders. Women showed a higher frequency of intense pain involving the cervical, lumbar, dorsal and wrist areas (p<0.05). A higher incidence of wrist pain was recorded in professionals exclusively dedicated to oral surgery (p<0.05). No statistically significant correlation was found between the workload (hours) and pain in the different anatomical locations (p>0.05). Conclusions: An important incidence of pain symptoms secondary to musculoskeletal disorders was observed, particularly in the cervical region. Females and younger dentists showed a higher frequency of such symptoms. The implementation of preventive measures is necessary, in view of the high incidence of these disorders

Organic chicken product authentication: state-of-the-art and future perspectives

Organic food products are highly susceptible to fraud. Currently, administrative controls are conducted to detect fraud, but having an analytical tool able to verify the organic identity of food would be very supportive. The state-of-the-art in food authentication relies on fingerprinting approaches that find characteristic analytical patterns to unequivocally identify authentic products. While wide research on authentication has been conducted for other commodities, the authentication of organic chicken products is still in its infancy. Challenges include finding fingerprints to discriminate organic from conventional products, and recruiting sample sets that cover natural variability. Future research might be oriented towards developing new authentication models for organic feed, eggs and chicken meat, keeping models updated and implementing them into regulations. Meanwhile, these models might be very supportive to the administrative controls directing inspections towards suspicious fraudulent samples.

Consideraciones metodológicas para la enseñanza y el aprendizaje del deporte escolar = Methodological considerations for the teaching and learning of school sport

Sport is a fundamental content in the teaching and learning of Physical Education independently of whether it is seen assuch by some authors. In whichever case according to the treatment that we give it, it will have sufficient educationalpotential without forgetting that it is the student who is the important figure in the process. To achieve the objectives wemust facilitate practices that are in agreement with the indispensable ethical principles to try to bring about a meaningfuland functional learning. The methodological criteria that we present in this article have this intention helped by examplesthat make it easier to understand the teaching learning process