Experimentation and Stages of Acquisition for Tobacco Consumption in Spanish Adolescents

One area which has been largely neglected when studying the acquisition of addiction to smoking with the transtheoretical model is whether the individual had previously experimented with smoking. The importance of including the experimentation variable was supported by this research

Educational inequalities in quantity, duration and type of tobacco consumption among lung cancer patients in Asturias : Epidemiological analices

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Alcohol consumption in young college students

Descriptive Cross-sectional study involving 787 students from a private university in Bogota. Its objectives were to determine the alcohol consump- tion prevalence, alcoholism and risk of alcoholism and determine the current pattern of alcohol con- sumption. A survey –which included the CAgE index– was used to collect the data. A prevalence of alcoholism of 23%, and of risk of alcoholism of 15% were found. Results show that alcohol con- sumption in university students begins in high school and it is a problematic conduct that it is worth being enlarged and analyzed in greater detail including other variables and perfecting the diag- nosis of alcoholism and its risk in order to achieve early identification and intervention.

"Tell me who you hang out with": Classroom peer effects on psychoactive substances consumption

I look for classroom peer effects for psychoactive substance consumption among Colombian high school students and attempt to identify channels that rationalize for these effects. To do so, I use data for Colombian schools from 2011. I identify peer effects using household consumption behavior to instrument average classroom consumption. I find that an increase of 10% in the proportion of classroom users of alcohol, cannabis, and cocaine increases the probability of students to use alcohol, cannabis, and cocaine in 3.14%, 4.29%, and 2.38% respectively. I find no significant effect on cigarette smoking for the full sample but after exploring heterogeneous effects I find suggestive evidence that the effect is positive in some grades. I find some evidence that indicate that peer effects on alcohol, cannabis, and cocaine consumption operate through risk perception and easiness of access to psychoactive substances, meaning that the increase of likelihood of consumption could be explained because it is easier to access to drugs for students that interact with consumers or because a decrease in the risk students perceive of consuming these substances. Finally, through the use of a SUR and a 3SLS estimator I find strong correlations between smoking cigarettes and consuming cannabis (55 %), and cocaine (60 %).

A DSGE model with loss aversion in consumption and leisure: an explanation for business cycles asymmetries

In this chapter, an asymmetric DSGE model is built in order to account for asymmetries in business cycles. One of the most important contributions of this work is the construction of a general utility function which nests loss aversion, risk aversion and habits formation by means of a smooth transition function. The main idea behind this asymmetric utility function is that under recession the agents over-smooth consumption and leisure choices in order to prevent a huge deviation of them from the reference level of the utility; while under boom, the agents simply smooth consumption and leisure, but trying to be as far as possible from the reference level of utility. The simulations of this model by means of Perturbations Method show that it is possible to reproduce asymmetrical business cycles where recession (on shock) are stronger than booms and booms are more long-lasting than recession. One additional and unexpected result is a downward stickiness displayed by real wages. As a consequence of this, there is a more persistent fall in employment in recession than in boom. Thus, the model reproduces not only asymmetrical business cycles but also real stickiness and hysteresis.

O2 activation at bioinspired complexes: dinuclear copper systems and mononuclear non-heme iron compounds. Mechanisms and catalytic applications in oxidative transformations

L'activació d'oxigen que té lloc en els éssers vius constitueix una font d'inspiració pel desenvolupament d'alternatives als oxidants tradicionals, considerats altament tòxics i nocius. En aquesta treball s'utilitzen compostos sintètics com a models del centre actiu de proteïnes dinuclears de coure i mononuclears de ferro de tipus no-hemo que participen en l'activació d'oxigen en els éssers vius. Els sistemes dinuclears de coure mostren un centre de tipus coure(III) bis(oxo) que és capaç de dur a terme l'ortho-hidroxilació de fenols de manera similar a la reacció que catalitza la proteïna tirosinasa. Per altra banda, els sistemes de ferro desenvolupats en aquest treball actuen com a models de les dioxigenases de Rieske i poden dur a terme l'hidroxilació estereoespecífica d'alcans i l'epoxidació i cis-dihidroxilació d'olefines utilitzant peròxid d'hidrogen com a agent oxidant. Tot plegat demostra que el desenvolupament de sistemes model constitueix una bona estratègia per l'estudi dels sistemes naturals.