The Spanish mathematician Norberto Cuesta recovered from oblivion

This paper1 outlines the activity as a mathematician, historian, and compromised person of the Spanish mathematician Norberto Cuesta Dutari (1907-1989) and its relationship with the social and political situation in Spain under General Franco’s regime between 1939 and 1977 and the first years of the democratic restoration. It is shown that he was able to achieve a good mathematical production, though he never was close to the establishment and therefore could not profit from a number of opportunities for personal and institutional promotion. This article is the result of an elaboration of information directly gathered from its main protagonist, a number of secondary sources, and the primary sources: his papers and books, from which a hopefully complete list can be found in Appendix I

Following the steps of spanish mathematical analysis: from Cauchy to Weierstrass between 1880 and 1914

[EN] Rigorous Mathematical Analysis in the Cauchy style was not accepted in a straightforward manner by the European mathematical community of the central years of the 19th Century. In average, only around forty years after the 1821 Cours d'Analyse did Cauchy's treatment become a standard in the more mathematically advanced countries, as a paradigm that remained in use until the arithmetisation of Analysis by Weierstrass replaced it before the end of the century. ln this paper the authors show how rigorous Mathematical Analysis à la Cauchy was adopted in Spain quite late -around 1880- and how in sorne more forty years, the Weierstrassian formulation became the usual presentation in Spanish texts

Are prescribing doctors sensitive to the price that their patients have to pay in the Spanish National Health System?

[EN] Background This study aims to design an empirical test on the sensitivity of the prescribing doctors to the price afforded for the patient, and to apply it to the population data of primary care dispensations for cardiovascular disease and mental illness in the Spanish National Health System (NHS). Implications for drug policies are discussed. Methods We used population data of 17 therapeutic groups of cardiovascular and mental illness drugs aggregated by health areas to obtain 1424 observations ((8 cardiovascular groups * 70 areas) + (9 psychotropics groups * 96 areas)). All drugs are free for pensioners. For non-pensioner patients 10 of the 17 therapeutic groups have a reduced copayment (RC) status of only 10% of the price with a ceiling of €2.64 per pack, while the remaining 7 groups have a full copayment (FC) rate of 40%. Differences in the average price among dispensations for pensioners and non-pensioners were modelled with multilevel regression models to test the following hypothesis: 1) in FC drugs there is a significant positive difference between the average prices of drugs prescribed to pensioners and non-pensioners; 2) in RC drugs there is no significant price differential between pensioner and non-pensioner patients; 3) the price differential of FC drugs prescribed to pensioners and non-pensioners is greater the higher the price of the drugs. Results The average monthly price of dispensations to pensioners and non-pensioners does not differ for RC drugs, but for FC drugs pensioners get more expensive dispensations than non-pensioners (estimated difference of €9.74 by DDD and month). There is a positive and significant effect of the drug price on the differential price between pensioners and non-pensioners. For FC drugs, each additional euro of the drug price increases the differential by nearly half a euro (0.492). We did not find any significant differences in the intensity of the price effect among FC therapeutic groups. Conclusions Doctors working in the Spanish NHS seem to be sensitive to the price that can be afforded by patients when they fill in prescriptions, although alternative hypothesis could also explain the results found.

IMBER mini-Symposium with Spanish oceanographers

Celebrado en la Sala de Grado de la Facultad de Ciencias del Mar (ULPGC) el 18 de junio de 2013