Testing Gribat´s Law Across Regions. Evidence from Spain.

The article analyses if Gibrat’s law holds in different regions of Spain using a sample of Spanish manufacturing firms over the period 1990-2001. The regions are classified depending on the degree of development of the provinces included. The study draws upon a sample of 1073 manufacturing firms in which only 751 of them survived for the whole twelve years period. The analyses test Gibrat’s law by using the procedure proposed by Heckman, in which a probit survival equation is first estimated to correct for sample selection bias, estimating the model by maximum likelihood methods. The results reject Gibrat’s law for the most developed Spanish regions, supporting the proposition that small firms have grown faster, but accepts it for non developed areas. Additionally, the results show that innovating activity – both process and product – is a strong positive factor in firm’s survival, independently of the region firm is located. Journal of Economic Literature classification: L11; L25.

Higini Anglès y la "Obra del Cançoner Popular de Catalunya"

La presente comunicación tiene por objeto ser una contribución al conocimiento de la obra total de Mn. H. Anglès; si fijamos nuestra atención en sus aportaciones a la "Obra del Cançoner Popular de Catalunya", es por varias razones: la primera es que fue un trabajo de Mn. Anglès en el campo de la recolección de la canción tradicional popular, considerándolo como una de las bases que más tarde le impulsaron a fomentar la "Sección de Folklore Musical" y las misiones etnomusicológicas del Instituto Español de Musicologia; la seunda es la referencia a las experiencias de Anglès y su compañero de viaje, Pere Bohigas i Balaguer, cuando nos informan de la situación de la canción popular en unas determinadas comarcas catalanas (Solsona, Berga), asi como de los intereses de los recolectores; además, sus informaciones, sus vivencias, son un autentico friso etnográfico de la sociedad rural catalana de las primeras décadas de nuestro siglo; y la tercera, porque responde al proyecto que desarrolla el Departamento de Antropologia de la Delegación de Barcelona del CSIC, "Fuentes de la Etnologia Catalana".Peer reviewe

La Feria de Sant Ponç: el retorno anual a lo sagrado de la naturaleza

Este texto es un adaptación de los diversos trabajos que se publicaron en el opúsculo "La Fira de Sant Ponç. Plantes remeieres, ciéncia i saviesa popular", publicado por la Residencia de Investigadores CSIC-GeneraIitat de Catalunya (Barcelona , 1999), publicado con motivo de la exposición «La Fira de Sant Ponç» celebrada en la Residencia de Investigadores entre los días 10-17 de mayo de 1999. En el presente texto se mantienen los nombres originales catalanes.La feria de Sant Ponç -San Poncio- es una de las fechas del calendario tradicional con más arraigo en Barcelona y en Cataluña; el éxito de esta feria barcelonesa -cuyos orígenes se remontan a la Edad Media- de plantas medicinales, miel, derivados de ambos (como caramelos hechos a base de hierbas o miel) y otros productos como fruta confitada, arrope, etc., ha propiciado su extensión a otras muchas poblaciones catalanas. Hoy, esta feria, que hunde sus orígenes en las diferentes advocaciones religiosas del Antiguo Régimen que marcaban y estructuraban el ritmo de los trabajos y de las celebraciones anuales, conserva todavía las características que la han hecho tan particular; de hecho, en el contexto urbano y contemporáneo de una ciudad como Barcelona es una de las manifestaciones populares que mejor evoca un tiempo pasado de marcado carácter rural. De esta forma, esta feria es un vivo recordatorio del fecundo diálogo que se ha establecido entre cultura y naturaleza en especial todo aquello que atañe a la reproducción, conservación y regeneración de la vida. Con vistas a enmarcar debidamente lo que es esta feria en sí, que puntualmente se celebra cada 11 de mayo, conviene contextualizarla en un marco más amplio: el de la relación existente entre cultura y mundo vegetal y entre las abejas y lo sagrado.Peer reviewe

Experimental study and modelling of Networked Virtual Environment server traffic

The paradigm of virtual world environment arises as an useful tool in diverse fields such as e-Health or education, where they provide a new way of communication and interaction with end users. Networking capabilities play an important role in these systems, which motivates the study and understanding of the gaming network traffic. The present work focuses on Open Wonderland, a system that provides the basis for the development of Networked Virtual Environments with educational or health purposes. The goal of this paper is defining a testing environment and modelling the behaviour of the outgoing network traffic at the server side.Ministerio de Industria, Comercio y Turismo AAL-010000-2012-10Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TEC2009-10639-C04-0

Heuristic usability evaluation on games: a modular approach

Heuristic evaluation is the preferred method to assess usability in games when experts conduct this evaluation. Many heuristics guidelines have been proposed attending to specificities of games but they only focus on specific subsets of games or platforms. In fact, to date the most used guideline to evaluate games usability is still Nielsen’s proposal, which is focused on generic software. As a result, most evaluations do not cover important aspects in games such as mobility, multiplayer interactions, enjoyability and playability, etc. To promote the usage of new heuristics adapted to different game and platform aspects we propose a modular approach based on the classification of existing game heuristics using metadata and a tool, MUSE (Meta-heUristics uSability Evaluation tool) for games, which allows a rebuild of heuristic guidelines based on metadata selection in order to obtain a customized list for every real evaluation case. The usage of these new rebuilt heuristic guidelines allows an explicit attendance to a wide range of usability aspects in games and a better detection of usability issues. We preliminarily evaluate MUSE with an analysis of two different games, using both the Nielsen’s heuristics and the customized heuristic lists generated by our tool.Unión Europea PI055-15/E0

On the Empirics of Sudden Stops: The Relevance of Balance-Sheet Effects

Using a sample of 32 developed and developing countries we analyze the empirical characteristics of Sudden Stops in capital flows and the relevance of balance-sheet effects in the likelihood of their occurrence. We find that large real exchange rate (RER) fluctuations accompanied by Sudden Stops are basically an emerging market (EM) phenomenon. Sudden Stops seem to come in bunches, grouping together countries that are different in many respects. However, countries are similar in that they remain vulnerable to large RER fluctuations. This may be the case because countries are forced to make large adjustments in the absorption of tradable goods, and/or because the size of dollar liabilities in the banking system (i. e. , domestic liability dollarization, or DLD) is large. Openness, understood as a large supply of tradable goods that reduces leverage over the current account deficit, in combination with DLD, is a key determinant of the probability of Sudden Stops. The relationship between Openness and DLD in the determination of the probability of Sudden Stops is highly non-linear, implying that the interaction of high current account leverage and high dollarization may be a dangerous cocktail.

Systemic Sudden Stops: The Relevance of Balance-Sheet Effects and Financial Integration

Using a sample of 110 developed and developing countries for the period 1990-2004, this paper analyzes the characteristics of systemic sudden stops (3S) in capital flows and the relevance of balance-sheet effects in the likelihood of their materialization. A small supply of tradable goods relative to their domestic absorption?a proxy for potential changes in the real exchange rate?and large foreign-exchange denominated debts towards the domestic banking system are claimed to be key determinants of the probability of 3S, producing a balancesheet effect with non-linear impacts on the probability of 3S. While financial integration is up to a point associated with a higher likelihood of 3S, beyond that point financial integration is associated with a lower likelihood of 3S.

On the Empirics of Sudden Stops: The Relevance of Balance-Sheet Effects

Using a sample of 32 developed and developing countries we analyze the empirical characteristics of sudden stops in capital flows and the relevance of balance sheet effects in the likelihood of their materialization. We find that large real exchange rate (RER) fluctuations coming hand in hand with Sudden Stops are basically an emerging market (EM) phenomenon. Sudden Stops seem to come in bunches, grouping together countries that are different in many respects. However, countries are similar in that they remain vulnerable to large RER fluctuations – be it because they could be forced to large adjustments in the absorption of tradable goods, and/or because the size of dollar liabilities in the banking system (i.e., domestic liability dollarization, or DLD) is high. Openness, understood as a large supply of tradable goods that reduces leverage over the current account deficit, coupled with DLD, are key determinants of the probability of Sudden Stops. The relationship between Openness and DLD in the determination of the probability of Sudden Stops is highly non-linear, implying that the interaction of high current account leverage and high dollarization may be a dangerous cocktail.

When omnigeneity fails

A generic non-symmetric magnetic field does not confine magnetized charged particles for long times due to secular magnetic drifts. Stellarator magnetic fields should be omnigeneous (that is, designed such that the secular drifts vanish), but perfect omnigeneity is technically impossible. There always are small deviations from omnigeneity that necessarily have large gradients. The amplification of the energy flux caused by a deviation of size $\epsilon$ is calculated and it is shown that the scaling with $\epsilon$ of the amplification factor can be as large as linear. In opposition to common wisdom, most of the transport is not due to particles trapped in ripple wells, but to the perturbed motion of particles trapped in the omnigeneous magnetic wells around their bounce points.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure