Fiscal policy and interest rates: the role of financial and economic integration

It is commonly believed that a fiscal expansion raises interest rates. However, these crowding out effects of deficits have been found to be small or non-existent. One explanation is that financial integration offsets interest rate differentials on globalised bond markets. This paper measures the degree of integration of government bond markets, using spatial modelling techniques to take this spillover on financial markets into account. Our main finding is that the crowding out effect on domestic interest rates is significant, but is reduced by spillover across borders. This spillover is important in major crises or in periods of coordinated policy actions. This result is generally robust to various measures of cross-country linkages. We find spillover to be much stronger among EU countries.

Another Look at the Null of Stationary Real Exchange Rates: Panel Data with Structural Breaks and Cross-section Dependence

This paper re-examines the null of stationary of real exchange rate for a panel of seventeen OECD developed countries during the post-Bretton Woods era. Our analysis simultaneously considers both the presence of cross-section dependence and multiple structural breaks that have not received much attention in previous panel methods of long-run PPP. Empirical results indicate that there is little evidence in favor of PPP hypothesis when the analysis does not account for structural breaks. This conclusion is reversed when structural breaks are considered in computation of the panel statistics. We also compute point estimates of half-life separately for idiosyncratic and common factor components and find that it is always below one year.

Ecological fallacy in a time series context: evidence from the Spanish regional unemployment rates

The ecological fallacy (EF) is a common problem regional scientists have to deal with when using aggregated data in their analyses. Although there is a wide number of studies considering different aspects of this problem, little attention has been paid to the potential negative effects of the EF in a time series context. Using Spanish regional unemployment data, this paper shows that EF effects are not only observed at the cross-section level, but also in a time series framework. The empirical evidence obtained shows that analytical regional configurations are the least susceptible to time effects relative to both normative and random regional configurations, while normative configurations are an improvement over random ones.

Jatkuvatoimisen natriumhypokloriittireaktorin mallinnus

Natriumhypokloriittia voidaan valmistaa kloorista ja lipeästä jatkuvatoimisessa absorberissa. Tässä työssä tutkittiin kokeellisesti, miten kaasun ja nesteen virtausnopeudet vaikuttavat täytekappalekolonnin tulvimiseen ja painehäviöön, kuinka nopeasti kloori absorboituu lipeään ja kuinka suuri hypokloriittiliuoksen kierrätys tarvitaan, ettei hypokloriitti ala hajota. Lisäksi luotiin matemaattinen malli, jolla voidaan mitoittaa jatkuvatoiminen vastavirtaperiaatteella toimiva natriumhypokloriittireaktori. Kloori–lipeäsysteemin havaittiin tulvivan suuremmilla virtausnopeuksilla kuin ilma–vesisysteemin. Tosin osa kloorista absorboituu jo ennen täytekappalekerrosta, minkä vuoksi kaasun todellinen virtausnopeus täytekappalekerroksen alaosassa on pienempi kuin mitattu arvo. Kolonnin painehäviö nousee erittäin jyrkästi tulvimispisteen läheisyydessä. Koska kloori absorboituu lähes täydellisesti ja vain kolonnin alaosa tulvii, voidaan kolonnia painehäviön kannalta operoida lähellä tulvimispistettä. Sekä mallinnuksen että koetulosten perusteella yli 99,99 % kloorista absorboituu koeolosuhteissa kahden metrin täytekappalekerroksessa. Nopea absorptio johtuu erittäin nopeasta, irreversiibelistä kloorin reaktiosta ja prosessille tyypillisestä natriumhydroksidikonversion rajoittamisesta alle 94 %:iin. Jotta varmistetaan, ettei hypokloriitti ala hajota, valmista hypokloriittiliuosta täytyy kierrättää kolonniin vähintään noin 4-kertainen määrä tuoreen lipeän syöttömäärän nähden.

Chelating Adsorbents in Purification of Hydrometallurgical Solutions

In this thesis, equilibrium and dynamic sorption properties of weakly basic chelating adsorbents were studied to explain removal of copper, nickel from a concentrated zinc sulfate solution in a hydrometallurgical process. Silica-supported chelating composites containing either branched poly(ethyleneimine) (BPEI) or 2-(aminomethyl)pyridine (AMP) as a functional group were used. The adsorbents are commercially available from Purity Systems Inc, USA as WP-1® and CuWRAM®, respectively. The fundamental interactions between the adsorbents, sulfuric acid and metal sulfates were studied in detail and the results were used to find the best conditions for removal of copper and nickel from an authentic ZnSO4 process solution. In particular, the effect of acid concentration and temperature on the separation efficiency was considered. Both experimental and modeling aspectswere covered in all cases. Metal sorption is considerably affected by the chemical properties of the studied adsorbents and by the separation conditions. In the case of WP-1, acid affinity is so high that column separation of copper, nickel and zinc has to be done using the adsorbent in base-form. On the other hand, the basicity of CuWRAM is significantly lower and protonated adsorbent can be used. Increasing temperature decreases the basicity and the metals affinity of both adsorbents, but the uptake capacities remain practically unchanged. Moreover, increasing temperature substantially enhances intra-particle mass transport and decreases viscosities thus allowing significantly higher feed flow rates in the fixed-bed separation. The copper selectivity of both adsorbents is very high even in the presence of a 250-fold excess of zinc. However, because of the basicity of WP-1, metal precipitation is a serious problem and therefore only CuWRAM is suitable for the practical industrial application. The optimum temperature for copper removal appears to be around 60 oC and an alternative solution purification method is proposed. The Ni/Zn selectivity of both WP-1 and CuWRAM is insufficient for removal of the very small amounts of nickel present in the concentrated ZnSO4 solution.

Patson Approach versus the Standard Approach for increasing breast reconstruction rates in women undergoing mastectomy. A randomized, controlled, open-label clinical trial

Breast cancer is the most prevalent neoplasm among women in the majority of countries worldwide. Breast cancer treatment include mastectomy which is associated to strong impact in women. Breast reconstruction is an option for many women to re-establish their body image and also to decrease psychological impact. However, breast reconstruction rates are low and many factors are involved in not undergoing breast reconstruction. Patient involvement in the decision-making process increases breast reconstruction rates and is associated to higher satisfaction and less anxiety and depression symptoms. More physician-patient relation and more education in terms of breast reconstruction are needed to achieve our objective. A new approach of medical care, called Patson Approach, is created in order to meet our goal with more patient involvement, as well as, physician and psychological counsellingObjective: to increase breast reconstruction rates in women who are candidates for breast reconstruction after mastectomy and are included in the Patson Approach compared to women included in the Standard ApproachMethods: the study design will be a randomized, controlled, open-label clinical trial. 62 patients will be recruited during two years and randomly divided in two groups, 31 will be included in the Standard Approach and 31 will be included in the Patson Approach. Preoperative and postoperative appointments are established in order to do a follow-up of the patients and collect all the data

Retrieval of kinetic rates in reactions with semi batch liquid phase using ill-posed inverse problem theory

A neural network procedure to solve inverse chemical kinetic problems is discussed in this work. Rate constants are calculated from the product concentration of an irreversible consecutive reaction: the hydrogenation of Citral molecule, a process with industrial interest. Simulated and experimental data are considered. Errors in the simulated data, up to 7% in the concentrations, were assumed to investigate the robustness of the inverse procedure. Also, the proposed method is compared with two common methods in nonlinear analysis; the Simplex and Levenberg-Marquardt approaches. In all situations investigated, the neural network approach was numerically stable and robust with respect to deviations in the initial conditions or experimental noises.

Carbon sequestration rates in Swedish forest soils : a comparison of three approaches

Selective papers of the workshop on "Development of models and forest soil surveys for monitoring of soil carbon", Koli, Finland, April 5-9 2006.

Wood consumption rates of forest species by subterranean termites (Isoptera) under field conditions

Termites are well -known for their capacity to damage and destroy wood and wood products of all kinds in the tropics and subtropics. A field test was undertaken to evaluate variations in wood consumption of Pinus sp. and three species of Eucalyptus by subterranean termites. The test consisted of wooden stakes of each species being initially submitted to water immersion for 0, 24, 48 and 72 h, and buried in the ground to natural infestation by subterranean termites for an exposure period of 30, 45 and 60 days. Three species of subterranean termites were identified: Heterotermes longiceps (Snyder), Coptotermes gestroi (Wasmann) (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae), and Nasutitermes jaraguae (Holmgren) (Isoptera: Termitidae). This is the first record of occurrence of H. longiceps in the state of Rio de Janeiro. Although the wood-consumption rates were not correlated significantly with their wood densities, there was a tendency of the softwoods (E. robusta and Pinus sp.) to be more consumed by subterranean termites than the woods of intermediate hardness (E. pellita and E. urophylla). Among the eucalyptus, E. robusta showed to be more susceptible to attack by subterranean termites than E. pellita and E. urophylla

Swine effluent treatment using anaerobic digestion at different loading rates

The industrial swine production is characterized by generation of significant effluent amounts that require treatment. The most adopted practices by Brazilian swine farmers have been wastewater storage in lagoons and its subsequent use as a biofertilizer. Nutrient accumulation in soil and water creates the need for an effective management of these residues. The anaerobic digestion process is an important alternative and low-cost treatment for organic matter reduction. However, its efficiency is limited by the digester capacity of solid degradation, especially at low hydraulic retention times. Thus, the present study aimed to verify the behavior of an upflow anaerobic digester by increasing the organic loading rate. This was accomplished in three stages using, as a parameter, volatile solids at 0.5; 1.0 and 1.5 kgVS m-3 d-1, respectively. This digester model proved to be quite robust and effective in swine manure treatment, achieving high efficiency of volatile solid removal at all stages of the study (stage 1: 61.38%; stage 2: 55.18%; and stage 3: 43.18%). Biogas production was directly related to the increasing organic load, reaching 0.14, 0.85, and 0.86 Nm³ kgVS-1add., respectively, with no significant difference (p<0.05) of biogas methane concentration among the studied stages (73.7, 75.0, and 77.9%).

Terapia nutricional precoce no trauma: após o A, B, C, D, E, a importância do F (FEED)

Um número significativo de mortes no trauma ocorre dias a semanas após a injúria inicial, sendo causado por infecções e insuficiência orgânica, relacionadas a hipercatabolismo e consequente desnutrição proteica aguda. A terapia nutricional deve ser planejada e incluída com as demais condutas de reanimação para pacientes politraumatizados e grandes queimados. A rápida aquisição de uma via para suporte nutricional é importante para inicio da terapia nutricional precoce em até 48 horas do atendimento. A via enteral é a opção preferencial no pós-operatório de pacientes traumatizado mas a via parenteral deve ser prescrita quando a enteral está contraindicada ou insuficiente. Após as medidas iniciais ditadas pelo ATLS, sintetizadas em A (air), B (breath), C (circulation), D (disability) e E (exposure), nós incluímos a letra F (feed) para enfatizar a importância do atendimento nutricional precoce no trauma.