The Impact of Foreign Direct Investment on Developing Economies and the Environment

This article is about the impact of foreign direct investment on developing economies and the environment. All of us that are concerned about the environment should ask ourselves if the increase in capital mobility associated with the world-wide process of liberalization, deregulation and privatization, known as the Neo-liberal global regime, has contributed to the problems of higher emissions, ozone layer destruction, and pollution of water sources, as well as to create false economic bubbles that lead to increased consumption in these regions whilst forcing the destruction of the environment by the poor in order to survive and cope with the roles their society demands. Neo-liberal practices such as those enforced in developing countries like Colombia, while seeking to attract foreign investment to push their economies, tend to generate a false aggregated demand growth that in most cases is not sustainable in the long term, increases global unemployment, unleash destructive competitive processes and weaken government’s ability to regulate business in the citizens` best interests.Este artículo trata sobre el impacto de inversión extranjera directa en economías en vías de desarrollo y el medio ambiente. Todos los que nos preocupamos por el medio ambiente debemos preguntarnos, si el aumento en la movilidad de capitales asociada con el proceso mundial de liberalización, desregulación y privatización, conocido como “neoliberalismo”, ha contribuido a problemas de emisiones más altas, destrucción de la capa de ozono, y polución de fuentes de agua, así como a la creación de falsas burbujas económicas que llevan a aumentar el consumo en estas regiones, obligando a los más pobres a destruir el medio ambiente para sobrevivir y poder cumplir con los roles impuestos por la sociedad. Prácticas neoliberales tales como las implantadas en países en vías de desarrollo, como Colombia, en búsqueda de alcanzar mayor inversión extranjera para impulsar sus economías, tienden a generar un falso crecimiento de la demanda agregada que en la mayoría de los casos no es sostenible en el largo plazo, y generan así alto desempleo, procesos competitivos destructivos, y debilitando la habilidad de los gobiernos de regular los negocios y salvaguardar los intereses de los ciudadanos

The Impact of Foreign Direct Investment on Developing Economies and the Environment

This article is about the impact of foreign direct investment on developing economies and the environment. All of us that are concerned about the environment should ask ourselves if the increase in capital mobility associated with the world-wide process of  liberalization, deregulation and privatization, known as the Neo-liberal global regime, has contributed to the problems of higher emissions, ozone layer destruction, and pollution of water sources, as well as to create false economic bubbles that lead to increased consumption in these regions whilst forcing the destruction of the environment by the poor in order to survive and cope with the roles their society demands. Neo-liberal practices such as those enforced in developing countries like Colombia, while seeking to attract foreign investment to push their economies, tend to generate a false aggregated demand growth that in most cases is not sustainable in the long term, increases global unemployment, unleash destructive competitive processes and weaken government’s ability to regulate business in the citizens` best interests.Este artículo trata sobre el impacto de inversión extranjera directa en economíasen vías de desarrollo y el medio ambiente. Todos los que nos preocupamos por elmedio ambiente debemos preguntarnos, si el aumento en la movilidad de capitales asociada con el proceso mundial de liberalización, desregulación y privatización,conocido como “neoliberalismo”, ha contribuido a problemas de emisiones másaltas, destrucción de la capa de ozono, y polución de fuentes de agua, así como a lacreación de falsas burbujas económicas que llevan a aumentar el consumo en estasregiones, obligando a los más pobres a destruir el medio ambiente para sobrevivir ypoder cumplir con los roles impuestos por la sociedad. Prácticas neoliberales talescomo las implantadas en países en vías de desarrollo, como Colombia, en busquedade alcanzar mayor inversión extranjera para impulsar sus economías, tienden agenerar un falso crecimiento de la demanda agregada que en la mayoría de loscasos no es sostenible en el largo plazo, y generan así alto desempleo, procesoscompetitivos destructivos, y debilitando la habilidad de los gobiernos de regular losnegocios y salvaguardar los intereses de los ciudadanos

BlogForever D5.3: User Questionnaires and Reports

This report presents the feedback gathered from third party users during the BlogForever Case Studies. Therefore, the research framework is defined and the case studies results are presented, followed by a summary of conclusions and remarks

High temperature ferromagnetism of Li-doped vanadium oxide nanotubes

The nature of a puzzling high temperature ferromagnetism of doped mixed-valent vanadium oxide nanotubes reported earlier by Krusin-Elbaum et al., Nature 431 (2004) 672, has been addressed by static magnetization, muon spin relaxation, nuclear magnetic and electron spin resonance spectroscopy techniques. A precise control of the charge doping was achieved by electrochemical Li intercalation. We find that it provides excess electrons, thereby increasing the number of interacting magnetic vanadium sites, and, at a certain doping level, yields a ferromagnetic-like response persisting up to room temperature. Thus we confirm the surprising previous results on the samples prepared by a completely different intercalation method. Moreover our spectroscopic data provide first ample evidence for the bulk nature of the effect. In particular, they enable a conclusion that the Li nucleates superparamagnetic nanosize spin clusters around the intercalation site which are responsible for the unusual high temperature ferromagnetism of vanadium oxide nanotubes.Comment: with some amendments published in Europhysics Letters (EPL) 88 (2009) 57002; http://epljournal.edpsciences.or

Ubiquity of optical activity in planar metamaterial scatterers

Recently it was discovered that periodic lattices of metamaterial scatterers show optical activity, even if the scatterers or lattice show no 2D or 3D chirality, if the illumination breaks symmetry. In this Letter we demonstrate that such `pseudo-chirality' is intrinsic to any single planar metamaterial scatterer and in fact has a well-defined value at a universal bound. We argue that in any circuit model, a nonzero electric and magnetic polarizability derived from a single resonance automatically imply strong bianisotropy, i.e., magneto-electric cross polarizability at the universal bound set by energy conservation. We confirm our claim by extracting polarizability tensors and cross sections for handed excitation from transmission measurements on near-infrared split ring arrays, and electrodynamic simulations for diverse metamaterial scatterers.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Catira de los LLanos Orientales variedad mejorada de papaya.

Se describe la importancia de la variedad llanera Catira de papaya, en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, la metodología seguida para su obtención, los criteris de selección y las características agronómicas. Se indican las principales practivas de manejo del cultivo, el control de plagas y enfermedades y los costos de producció

Inversión en investigación

RESUMEN: Colciencias es el ente encargado de definir las políticas públicas en materia de ciencia, tecnología e innovación (CTI) para el sector agropecuario colombiano. Las políticas actuales en esta materia buscan fortalecer la capacidad de respuesta del agro a las cambiantes y exigentes condiciones del entorno. En su Plan Estratégico 2005-2015 del Programa Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Agropecuaria de Colciencias, se estableció como principal objetivo “desarrollar capacidades institucionales, científicas, tecnológicas y de innovación que garanticen la generación y aplicación social y económica del conocimiento a fin de elevar la competitividad del sector agropecuario y agroindustrial, bajo los criterios de equidad social y sostenibilidad ambiental”. Sin lugar a dudas, ese objetivo enmarca el deber ser de las políticas públicas en dichas materias

Magnetic properties of the low-dimensional spin-1/2 magnet \alpha-Cu_2As_2O_7

In this work we study the interplay between the crystal structure and magnetism of the pyroarsenate \alpha-Cu_2As_2O_7 by means of magnetization, heat capacity, electron spin resonance and nuclear magnetic resonance measurements as well as density functional theory (DFT) calculations and quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulations. The data reveal that the magnetic Cu-O chains in the crystal structure represent a realization of a quasi-one dimensional (1D) coupled alternating spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain model with relevant pathways through non-magnetic AsO_4 tetrahedra. Owing to residual 3D interactions antiferromagnetic long range ordering at T_N\simeq10K takes place. Application of external magnetic field B along the magnetically easy axis induces the transition to a spin-flop phase at B_{SF}~1.7T (2K). The experimental data suggest that substantial quantum spin fluctuations take place at low magnetic fields in the ordered state. DFT calculations confirm the quasi-one-dimensional nature of the spin lattice, with the leading coupling J_1 within the structural dimers. QMC fits to the magnetic susceptibility evaluate J_1=164K, the weaker intrachain coupling J'_1/J_1 = 0.55, and the effective interchain coupling J_{ic1}/J_1 = 0.20.Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Review

Entanglement and Timing-Based Mechanisms in the Coherent Control of Scattering Processes

The coherent control of scattering processes is considered, with electron impact dissociation of H$_2^+$ used as an example. The physical mechanism underlying coherently controlled stationary state scattering is exposed by analyzing a control scenario that relies on previously established entanglement requirements between the scattering partners. Specifically, initial state entanglement assures that all collisions in the scattering volume yield the desirable scattering configuration. Scattering is controlled by preparing the particular internal state wave function that leads to the favored collisional configuration in the collision volume. This insight allows coherent control to be extended to the case of time-dependent scattering. Specifically, we identify reactive scattering scenarios using incident wave packets of translational motion where coherent control is operational and initial state entanglement is unnecessary. Both the stationary and time-dependent scenarios incorporate extended coherence features, making them physically distinct. From a theoretical point of view, this work represents a large step forward in the qualitative understanding of coherently controlled reactive scattering. From an experimental viewpoint, it offers an alternative to entanglement-based control schemes. However, both methods present significant challenges to existing experimental technologies