Firm strategies in R&D: cooperation and participation in R&D programs

This paper presents empirical evidence on firms��� decisions to cooperate in R&D and the extent to which government sponsored R&D programs increase cooperation. Using a sample of firms from the Spanish innovation survey we jointly estimate the determinants of firm participation in R&D programs and of choice of cooperation partners. We find that (i) firms participating in national and European programs have different profiles, suggesting program complementarity; (ii) private-private and publicprivate cooperation are associated on average with firms with different characteristics, and (iii) national R&D programs seem to have a positive effect on all types of cooperation, but especially on public-private partnerships.

1st National Accessiblity Plan 2004-2012: achieving equal opportunities and full participation through design for all

According to official statistics, disabled people in Spain number 3.5 million and make up 8.8% of the Spanish population. This group of people are increasingly being recognised as members of society with equal rights, and many of their demands are gradually being transformed into solutions that benefit society as a whole. One example is improved accessibility. Accessible built environments are more human and inclusive places, as well as being easier to get around. Improved accessibility is now recognised as a requirement shared by all members of society, although it is achieved thanks to the demands of disabled people and their representatives. The 1st National Accessibility Plan is a strategic framework for action aimed at ensuring that new products, services and built environments are designed to be accessible for as many people as possible (Design for All) and that existing ones are gradually duly adapted.

Rosca participation in Benin: a commitment issue

In the light of first-hand data from a Beninese urban household survey in Cotonou, we investigate several motives aiming to explain participation in Rotating Savings and Credit Associations. We provide anecdotal pieces of evidence, descriptive statistics, FIML regressions and matching estimates which tend to indicate that most individuals use their participation in a rosca as a device to commit themselves to save money and to deal with self-control problems.

The Division problem with voluntary participation

The division problem consists of allocating a given amount of an homogeneous and perfectly divisible good among a group of agents with single-peaked preferences on the set of their potential shares. A rule proposes a vector of shares for each division problem. The literature has implicitly assumed that agents will find acceptable any share they are assigned to. In this paper we consider the division problem when agents' participation is voluntary. Each agent has an idiosyncratic interval of acceptable shares where his preferences are single-peaked. A rule has to propose to each agent either to not participate or an acceptable share because otherwise he would opt out and this would require to reassign some of the remaining agents' shares. We study a subclass of efficient and consistent rules and characterize extensions of the uniform rule that deal explicitly with agents' voluntary participation.

The participation of women in peace processes: the other tables

This paper argues that women���s absence in peace processes cannot be explained by their alleged lack of experience in dialogue and negotiation, but by a serious lack of will to include them in such important initiatives of change. Women have wide ranging experience in dialogue processes including many war and post-war contexts, but there has been a deliberate lack of effort to integrate them in formal peace processes. After introducing the research framework, the paper addresses women���s involvement in peace, and analyzes the role played by women in peace processes, through the cases of Sri Lanka and Northern Ireland. The paper concludes that peace processes are as gendered as wars, and for that reason gender has to be a guiding line for including women in peace processes.

Catalonia���s participation in calls of the EU 7th Framework Programme for RTD. Period 2007-2009

English translation of the Executive summary of the report ���Catalonia���s participation in calls of the EU 7th Framework Programme for RTD. Period 2007-2009��� drawn up by researchers of the AQR Research Group ��� Research Institute of Applied Economics (IREA) of the University of Barcelona. It aims to find out the reality of the Catalonia���s participation in the EU 7th Framework Programme, the main European financial instrument for research during the period 2007-2009.

Proposing a 'Consent Commons' in open education - balancing the desire for openness with the rights of people to refuse or withdraw from participation

A new 'Consent Commons' licensing framework is proposed, complementing Creative Commons, to clarify the permissions given for using and reusing clinical and non-clinical digital recordings of people (patients and non-patients) for educational purposes. Consent Commons is a sophisticated expression of ethically based 'digital professionalism', which recognises the rights of patients, carers, their families, teachers, clinicians, students and members of the public to have some say in how their digital recordings are used (including refusing or withdrawing their consent), and is necessary in order to ensure the long term sustainability of teaching materials, including Open Educational Resources (OER). Consent Commons can ameliorate uncertainty about the status of educational resources depicting people, and protect institutions from legal risk by developing robust and sophisticated policies and promoting best practice in managing their information.

Soluci�� mental i soluci�� motriu en la iniciaci�� als esports col��lectius en l'Educaci�� Prim��ria

The adjustment of the teaching learning contents in Physical Education, requires of a rigorous analysis that permits to adjust them to the maximum with the educational needs of the student body. It has been approached an investigation study in the one which have intervened pupils, boys and girls, of two different populations, Girona and Madrid in order to prove and analyse the motor and mental components of the student body in the real situation of the game. The hypothesis that we have treated are:if it exists differences between the boys and girls of the educational levels studied in the motor and mental solution in the sports initiation, additionally, the differences that they can exist between the courses and what distance is verified between the study ages to approach a physical activity that implies an initial step to the hour of teaching the collective sports in the classes of Physical education. They have been employed three measure instruments: the first permits to analyse the mental solution without need of practice employing situation photographs of the real game with those which the pupils must choose to who to happen; the second is a pass test that permits to prove the technical dominance to use in a collective sport and the third is a real game situation that permits to put in manifesto the relationship between the mental behaviour and the motor of the pupil. This real game situation is ���the game of ten pass��� (Bl��zquez,1986; Torres,1993). The results demonstrate that it do not exist differences between the two sexes in the study ages. In the case of the technical execution level, there is a considerable increase with the age and it is slightly greater in the kids that in the girls. In the case of the real game, we find ourselves with a great variability in the results and we cannot conclude that there are relative differences to the sex in none of the three courses. Respect at participation level during the game is confirmed that the pupils that more participate are not the pupils than more balls lose, what permits to guarantee the idea of the fact that it is convenient to use the real game practice as direct learning element. Finally, there is no a high correlation between the execution level measured in the test of technical execution and the decision execution during the game

La pr��ctica m��dica en el ejercico f��sico en Barcelona en los principios del siglo XX

La tesis titulada ���La pr��ctica m��dica en el ejercicio f��sico en la Barcelona de principios del siglo XX��� trata de examinar c��mo se relacionaba la pr��ctica m��dica con los ejercicios f��sicos como la gimnasia y el deporte, y saber si realmente se lleg�� a formar una especialidad m��dica llamada medicina del deporte en la Barcelona de los principios del siglo XX. La primera parte se titula ���Perspectiva hist��rica del ejercicio f��sico y la medicina���, y trata de la relaci��n general entre el ejercicio f��sico y la medicina desde el punto de macro-vista hist��rico y regional. La segunda parte se titula ���Hacia la formaci��n de la especializaci��n de la medicina del deporte en Barcelona���, y analiza la pr��ctica m��dica relacionada con el deporte en una ciudad concreta durante un tiempo determinado, es decir, desde un punto de micro-vista. En el fondo de la creaci��n de las especialidades m��dicas a partir de mediados del siglo XIX existe la formaci��n de una sociedad moderna, simbolizada por el sistema administrativo de la democracia nacional y el sistema econ��mico del capitalismo. Considerando los elementos comprendidos dentro del sistema de la modernidad que provocaron la especializaci��n m��dica tales como la urbanizaci��n, la industrializaci��n, el aumento de la poblaci��n, el inter��s estatal, el desarrollo de la prensa, el elevado inter��s p��blico, el progreso intelectual y tecnol��gico de la ciencia y la medicina, la creaci��n de un sistema de atenci��n de la salud, la formaci��n y participaci��n en las instituciones internacionales, el cambio de la identidad de los m��dicos, y la reposici��n de la medicina hol��stica, investigo integralmente la formaci��n de la especialidad de la medicina del deporte en Catalunya, y lo caracterizo por las iniciativas privadas emprendidas por un sector experto y profano, y la ausencia de un inter��s estatal suficiente en la dicha especialidad.

What made him change? an individual and national analysis of men's participation in housework in 26 countries

We offer new evidence on multi-level determinants of the gender division of housework. Using data from the 2004 European Social Survey (ESS) for 26 European, we study the micro and macro-level factors which increase the likelihood of men doing an equal or greater share of housework than their female partners. A sample of 11,915 young men and women is analysed with a multi-level logistic regression in order to test at individual level the classic relative-income, time-availability and gender-role values, and a new couple conflict hypothesis. At individual level we find significant relationships between relative resources, values, couple's disagreement, and the division of housework which support more economic dependency than "doing gender" perspectives. At the macro-level, we find important composition effects and also support for gender empowerment, family model and social stratification explanations of cross-country differences.