Strengthening financial innovations in energy supply projects for rural exploitations in developing countries

Sustainable energy supply models are needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals established by the United Nations for 2015. On the other hand, sustainability of agricultural exploitations in rural areas is a pre-requisite to achieve the objective of halving the proportion of people that lives in poverty, and productivity of such exploitations is closely related to energy supply. This article analyses the results of a survey of experts, suggesting that there may be good chances to innovate in the financing of agricultural electrification projects in developing countries. The experts’ opinion suggests that new sources of financing could be mobilised and oriented towards the promotion of sustainable initiatives in developing countries. Financial mechanisms should be adapted to the characteristics of decentralised systems of energy production with renewable sources or with mixed technologies, in order to overcome the barriers derived from the high initial price of the applications, and to the specific conditions of the agricultural sector. The participation of funds from the beneficiaries and the incorporation of the beneficiaries in the initial phases of project organisation would allow for the development of productive solutions with a higher potential to generate resources and to articulate sustainable proposals. r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Análisis crítico sobre la directiva europea que regula el uso de los biocombustibles en los países miembros

La directiva europea 2003/30/CE busca fomentar el uso de bio-carburantes como sustitutos del gasóleo o la gasolina a efectos de transporte con los objetivos de cumplir los compromisos asumidos en materia de cambio climático, la seguridad de abastecimiento en condiciones ecológicamente racionales y la promoción de las fuentes de energía renovables. Para conseguir éstos objetivos, la Directiva establece que antes del fin de 2010 se debe consumir un mínimo del5,75% de bio-carburantes en toda gasolina y gasóleo comercializado con fines de transporte. En este trabajo se realiza un análisis crítico sobre el contenido de esta directiva, examinando sus objetivos y las consecuencias que la obligación impuesta acarrea en los estados miembros

La alternativa factible a los combustibles fósiles en España: El hidrógeno

La Unión Europea ha apostado por los biocombustibles como sustitutos de los combustibles fósiles. El presente artículo analiza si es posible emplear, desde los puntos de vista técnico, económico y medioambiental, el hidrógeno como combustible alternativo a los combustibles fósiles y a los biocombustibles, teniendo en cuenta además que el hidrógeno, salvo que se genere a partir de biomasa, no se considera biocombustibles según la orden ITC/2877/2008, de 9 de octubre y por lo tanto no cuenta con los beneficios fiscales que tienen éstos

Análisis de la competitividad y la penetración de los biocombustibles en el mercado de combustibles para automoción en España.

En la actualidad, los biocombustibles no son rentables, ya que son más caros que sus equivalentes de origen fósiles. Por esto cabe preguntarse si pueden serlo en el futuro. Para ello se propone analizar las relaciones de diversas cotizaciones de los biocombustibles y de los combustibles fósiles con la cotización del petróleo y la de los bonos de CO2. En principio, es deseable que las cotizaciones relacionadas con los biocombustibles bien no estén relacionadas o tengan una relación negativa con las cotizaciones de los combustibles fósiles

Materiales didácticos para la preparación para el ingreso a los estudios universitarios

El presente trabajo muestra la experiencia del grupo de investigación en el uso de calculadoras graficadoras del Instituto Superior Politécnico José Antonio Echeverría, en La Habana, Cuba. En este se muestra el resultado obtenido en la elaboración de materiales didácticos dirigido a estudiantes de preuniversitario que se preparan para el ingreso a los estudios universitarios. En muchas universidades donde se enseñan carreras vinculadas a las ciencias, como las ingenierías, se desarrollan cursos de ingreso para los jóvenes, que tienen la función de repasar los contenidos dados en el nivel anterior, aunque en la práctica muchos alumnos manifiestan desconocer temas básicos que deberían haber adquirido en el nivel medio (Fernández, 2003). Teniendo esto presente se trabajó en la elaboración de materiales didácticos, vinculando los contenidos teóricos, la ejercitación necesaria y el uso de la tecnología

Critical analysis of the European Union directive which regulates the use of biofuels: An approach to the Spanish case

In recent times, the global debate on the environment has been centered on CO2 emissions. This gas is the major cause of the “greenhouse effect” and people are more concerned with the idea that the emissions of this gas should be minimized. As a result of this concern, the Kyoto Protocol was enacted and subscribed to by many countries, setting the maximum gas emissions for them. Fossil fuels are a major source of CO2 emissions. For some years now The European Union has been seeking to promote some years now the use of biofuels as substitutes for diesel or petrol for transport purposes. As a result of this policy, in 2003 the European Union (EU) Directive 2003/30/EC [1] was developed with the aim of promoting the use of biofuels as a substitute for diesel or gasoline among European Union countries as well as to contribute to fulfilling the commitments acquired on climate change, security of supply in environmentally friendly conditions and the promotion of renewable energy sources. In order to achieve these goals, the directive forces all EU members to ensure that before December 31 of 2010 at least 5.75% of all gasoline and diesel fuels sold for transport purposes are biofuels. European Union countries have social and economic characteristics unique to themselves. The energy dependence on foreign sources, the features of the agricultural sector or the degree of industrialization varies greatly from one country to another. In this context, it is questionable whether the obligation imposed by this directive is actually achieving in its application uniform and/or identical goals in each of the countries involved and whether the actions of the various governments are also aligned with these goals. All these ideas were developed in a previous report (Sobrino and Monroy (2009) [2]). This report examines the possibility of using hydrogen as an alternative to fossil fuels and biofuels from a technical, economic and environmental point of view in the specific case of a European Union country: Spain

Análisis multinivel de los factores asociados a la educación cívica en estudiantes de secundaria

La presente investigación tuvo como propósito analizar los efectos de un conjunto de variables personales y escolares en las actitudes cívicas en una muestra de estudiantes mexicanos de educación secundaria (n=4,111). Los datos obtenidos, producto de la aplicación de la adaptación del Civic Education Study de la International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), se analizaron mediante el modelamiento multinivel, controlando los efectos del nivel socioeconómico y tipo de escuela. Los resultados muestran que el tipo de secundaria y el nivel socioeconómico explican sólo una proporción marginal de la varianza asociada con las actitudes cívicas, donde el mayor porcentaje de la varianza se explica por variables de naturaleza personal

Active Vision Therapy for Anisometropic Amblyopia in Children: A Systematic Review

Purpose. The aim of the study was evaluation of the scientific evidence about the efficacy of vision therapy in children and teenagers with anisometropic amblyopia by performing a systematic literature review. Methods. A search was performed using 3 searching strategies in 4 different databases (PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and PruQuest). The quality of the included articles was evaluated using two tools for the risk of bias assessment, ROBINS-I for nonrandomized studies of intervention (NRSI), and ROB 2.0 for randomized clinical trials. Results. The search showed 1274 references, but only 8 of them passed the inclusion criteria after the complete text review. The articles that were finally included comprised 2 randomized control trials and 6 nonrandomized studies of intervention. These articles provided evidence supporting the efficacy of vision therapy for the treatment of anisometropic amblyopia in children and teenagers. Assessment of the risk of bias showed an appropriate risk of bias for the randomized control trials, but a high risk of bias for nonrandomized studies of intervention (NRSI). A main source of risk of bias for NRSI was the domain related to the measurements of the outcomes, due to a lack of double-blind studies. Conclusion. Vision therapy is a promising option for the treatment of anisometropic amblyopia in children and teenagers. However, the level of scientific evidence provided by the studies revised is still limited, and further randomized clinical trials are necessary to confirm the results provided to date and to optimize the vision therapy techniques by knowing the specific neural mechanisms involved.The author David P Piñero was supported by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness of Spain within the program Ramón y Cajal, RYC-2016-20471

Biofuels in Spain: Market penetration analysis and competitiveness in the automotive fuel market

For several years the European Union (E.U.) has been promoting the use of biofuels due to their potential benefits such as the reduction of dependence on foreign energy imports (the raw materials can be produced within the E.U.), the more stable fossil fuel prices (they can replace fossil fuels on the market), the greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction (biofuels’ raw materials fix CO2 from the atmosphere) and the fact that they can represent an additional source of income for the primary sector (biofuels’ raw materials are vegetables that can be grown and harvested). Despite the public aids (direct and indirect), biofuels are not competitive with fossil fuels at present, but it is possible that in the future the environment conditions change and biofuels might become competitive. It is difficult to assess whether this will happen or not, but it is possible to make an assessment of a future situation. This article presents two analyses with one objective: to determine if biofuels might become competitive in the future. The first analysis examines the dependencies of two quotations which have a strong relationship with fuels: the crude oil quotation and the CO2 bond quotation. The analysis of these relationships may help to forecast the future competitiveness of biofuels. For instance, biofuels’ future competitiveness will be higher if their raw material costs are not related to crude oil quotations or if they are related in a negative way (the higher the crude oil quotations the lower the raw material biofuels’ cost). The second analysis focuses on the market penetration of biofuels in the Spanish market. There are data related to biofuels monthly consumption in Spain since 2007 and it is possible to know if biofuels are gaining market quota since the