Putting health in all policies: The National Institute for Welfare Enhancement

Welfare is a rather vague term whose meaning depends on ideology, values and judgments. Material resources are just means to enhance people’s well-being, but growth of the Gross Domestic Production is still the standard measure of the success of a society. Fortunately, recent advances in measuring social performance include health, education and other social outcomes. Because “what we measure affects what we do” it is hoped that social policies will change. The movement Health in all policies and its associated Health Impact Assessment methodology will contribute to it. The task consists of designing transversal policies that consider health and other welfare goals, the short term and long-term implications and intergenerational redistributions of resources. As long as marginal productivity on health outside the healthcare system is higher than inside it, efficiency needs cross-sectoral policies. And fairness needs them even more, because in order to reduce social inequalities in health, a wide social and political response is needed. Unless we reduce the well-documented inefficiencies in our current health care systems the welfare states will fail to consolidate and the overall economic wellbeing could be in serious trouble. In this article we sketched some policy solutions such as pricing according to net benefits of innovation and public encouragement of radical innovation besides the small type incremental and market-led innovation. We proposed an independent agency, the National Institute for Welfare Enhancement to guarantee long term fair and efficient social policies in which health plays a central role.Public health policies; Health Impact Assessment; Welfare; Health in All Policies.

Estimación de la habitabilidad urbana sostenible a través de un enfoque multicriterio. Una aplicación a ciudades españolas

La mejora de la habitabilidad a largo plazo es el principal reto al que se enfrentan las ciudades en la actualidad. Si bien la aglomeración urbana otorga numerosas ventajas a su población en términos de eficiencia económica y social, el elevado ritmo de consumo y actividad generado por esta es también el desencadenante de la degradación ambiental a la que todas las ciudades están sometidas, y que limitan las posibilidades de que el nivel de bienestar alcanzado por su población sea sostenible. En este contexto, es necesario encontrar un instrumento que permita hacer operativa una aproximación de la habitabilidad urbana que vaya más allá de las necesidades presentes, exigiendo el cumplimiento de unas condiciones ambientales mínimas que garanticen que dicha habitabilidad pueda mantenerse en el tiempo. Esta tesis propone la construcción de un índice sintético que utiliza un sistema de agregación basado en la programación por metas, que posibilita que no exista compensación de los indicadores parciales de la dimensión medioambiental

Quality parameters of some Brazilian panettones

No panetone, propriedades físicas e químicas podem determinar além dos atributos de qualidade, a aceitabilidade pelos consumidores. O objetivo do presente trabalho é avaliar atributos de qualidade em nove amostras comerciais de panetone brasileiro. As amostras foram caracterizadas quanto a aspectos físico-químicos (umidade e cor), atributos de qualidade (volume específico, densidade e textura) e análise de imagem. Os resultados das análises estatísticas (ANOVA e Tukey) mostraram diferenças significativas (p < 0,05) entre as amostras. Diferenças no volume específico e densidade foram observadas. As amostras apresentaram valores de umidade entre 22,83% e 26,86%. A análise de textura do miolo mostrou elevada variação nos valores de firmeza (entre 2,14 N e 7,55 N). Diferenças significativas nos parâmetros de cor, para crosta (valores de L* entre 31,58 e 44,85, a* entre 12,34 e 16,47 e b* entre 27,15 e 37,28) e miolo (valores de L* entre 64,48 e 72,34, a* entre -0,82 e 3,79 e b* entre 33,43 e 40,97), foram encontrados em todas as amostras. Por meio da análise de imagem observou-se variabilidade na estrutura do miolo, porém a análise estatística não mostrou diferenças significativas entre as amostras.In panettone, physical and chemical properties can determine the quality attributes in addition to consumer acceptability. The aim of this work was to assess the quality attributes of nine commercial samples of Brazilian panettone. Samples were characterized according to their physicochemical (moisture and color) aspects, quality attributes (specific volume, density and texture) and image analysis. The results of the statistical analysis (ANOVA and Tukey) showed significant differences (

Sustainable urban liveability : a practical proposal based on a composite indicator

This article presents a proposal for a composite index to assess the degree of sustainable urban liveability. It makes two key contributions to this field of study. The first is a proposal for the concept of sustainable urban liveability that includes the need to meet a minimum number of environmental conditions in terms of resource consumption and the deterioration of the environment. The second contribution is the use of a non-compensatory aggregation technique in order to construct the composite index. This kind of aggregation technique does not allow trade-offs between partial indicators. In the particular context of sustainable urban liveability, it prevents poor performance by the natural environment indicators from being compensated by positive results in the remaining indicators. The proposed composite index for sustainable urban liveability is applied to the case of 58 Spanish cities. The results reveal significant differences in the degree of sustainable urban liveability for this group of cities, but more importantly, they highlight the potential of this proposal for urban managementS

Danger: local corruption is contagious!

Corruption is a major problem, and not only in developing countries. It impedes economic growth, weakens the rule of law and undermines the legitimacy of institutions. Although it has been studied at national level from different perspectives, there is a recent growing body of research on local corruption. As far as we know, these latter studies focused on corruption and its effects on votes. However, a further question arises as to whether there is a mimetic effect on neighbouring municipalities? We employ data from Spain, and the boom in local corruption in the 2000s, to respond to this question. Specifically we have constructed a panel database (2001-2010) on local characteristics, economic factors and corruption at local level in order to achieve this. Our spatial econometrics methodology supports the hypothesis that corruption is not local-specific, and leads to two opposing outcomes: on the one hand, local corruption is contagious and the probability of being ‘infected’ increases by 3.1 per cent for each corrupt neighbouring municipality; on the other hand the likelihood of a municipality being taken to court increases by 6.7 per cent for each neighbouring municipality accused. Although the former is alarming, the latter provides hope in the fight against local corruption

A Territorial Estimate for Household Energy Vulnerability: An Application for Spain

This paper proposes a composite indicator intended to assess territorial differences in household energy vulnerability. Although the estimation of household energy vulnerability has received less attention in scientific literature than energy poverty, it is a key element for political action as it allows for the diagnosis and subsequent action to tackle potential situations of household poverty before they actually occur. In this sense, the principal contribution of this article is a proposal for a tool designed to quantify the abstract and multidimensional phenomenon of household energy vulnerability. The technique used for constructing this synthetic indicator allows for the participation of stakeholders, especially policy makers, in defining and calculating the index. The synthetic index for energy vulnerability has been estimated for Spanish provinces. The results allow for the creation of a map providing an approximate insight into the spatial distribution of household energy vulnerability in SpainS

The physical, chemical and functional characterization of starches from Andean tubers: oca (Oxalis tuberosa Molina), olluco (Ullucus tuberosus Caldas) and mashua (Tropaeolum tuberosum Ruiz & Pavón)

As propriedades físicas, químicas e funcionais de amidos isolados das tuberosas andinas, oca (Oxalis tuberosa M.), olluco (Ullucus tuberosus C.) e mashua (Tropaeolum tuberosum R. & P.), obtidas no comércio local, foram estudadas. A morfologia dos grânulos de amido foi avaliada por microscopia eletrônica de varredura (SEM) revelando formas elipsoidais, ovais, cônicas, periformes e prismáticas: grânulos elipsoides e ovais com dimensões de até 54,30 µm de comprimento para a oca, de até 32,09 µm para o amido de olluco, e com formas predominantemente esféricas ou ovais truncadas, de menores dimensões de até 16,29 µm para grânulos de amido de mashua. Os conteúdos de amilose foram similares entre as amostras: 27,60% (oca), 26,49% (olluco) e 27,44% (mashua). O amido de olluco teve menor poder de intumescimento, formando géis opacos e menos resistentes. Os géis dos três amidos mostraram a mesma estabilidade sob refrigeração e apresentaram alta sinérese após congelamento, com variação de 40,28 a 74,42% para amido de olluco. Os amidos tiveram cocção rápida com alto pico de viscosidade. A baixa temperatura de gelatinização e alta estabilidade durante a refrigeração fazem destes amidos matérias-primas adequadas para formulações que requeiram temperaturas brandas de processamento e que dispensem conservação por congelamento.The physical, chemical, and functional properties of starches isolated from the Andean tubers oca (Oxalis tuberosa M.), olluco (Ullucus tuberosus C.) and mashua (Tropaeolum tuberosum R. & P.) were studied. The tubers were obtained from a local grocery. The morphology of the starch granules (size and shape) was studied with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), which revealed ellipsoid, oval, conical, pear-shaped and prismatic forms: ellipsoids and oval granules with lengths up to 54.30 µm in oca; with lengths up to 32.09 µm for olluco starch granules; and with predominantly truncated spherical or oval forms and smaller dimensions (up to 16.29 um) for mashua starch granules. Amylose contents were similar among the samples: 27.60% (oca), 26.49% (olluco) and 27.44% (mashua). Olluco starch had less swelling power, forming opaque, less firm gels. All three starch gels showed the same stability on refrigeration and presented high syneresis under freezing temperatures, with a variation of 40.28 to 74.42% for olluco starch. The starches cooked easily, with high peak viscosity. The low gelatinization temperatures and high stability during cooling make these starches suitable feedstock for use in formulations that require milder processing temperatures and dispense freezing storage