ESSAYS ON CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND ECONOMICS

The idea that culture is a determinant of economic outcomes has regained in recent economic literature its full recognition. In this perspective, this analysis aims at discussing the impact of cultural diversity on economic outcomes and disentangling the mechanisms through which economic forces of globalization (trade, migration and capital flows) interplay with local cultural identities. Note that the analysis has a specific geographical focus, i.e.: European countries. The choice of Europe as target of the analysis depends on two main considerations: cultural issues are particularly important for the socio-economic success of European Union and cultural diversity is a funding element of Europe. Culture and cultural diversity are thus two important elements of European societies, but why should they matter in an economic perspective? The analysis that follows gives three main answers to this question. First of all, some of our economic choices and actions as consumers can have important fallouts on cultural diversity and on the possibility of cohabitation of different cultures. Secondly, some economic phenomena can have a cultural content, such as trade in cultural goods. For this reason they can become a vehicle for intercultural exchange, fostering tolerance towards immigrants and easing the success of multicultural societies. Finally, different local cultural identities can act as a filter for economic phenomena such as foreign investments, magnifying or destroying the growth enhancing effect of economic globalization. These three explanations are discussed and analyzed in the three chapters of the thesis

A new FDI potential index : design and application to the EU regions.

The aim of this paper is to propose a new way of computing the FDI Potential Index to address the issue of FDI attractiveness at the EU regional level. This new index employs a sound way of selecting the variables involved in its construction, for which a factor analysis is performed. Accordingly, six factors (“economic potential”, “market size”, “labour situation”, “technological progress”, “labour regulation” and “competitiveness”) are identified. Next, by applying the methodology of composite indicators and considering different weighting and aggregation schemes, three versions (un-weighted linear, weighted linear and weighted geometric) of the new FDI Potential Index are computed. Afterwards, the comparison of the weighted linear version of the Potential Index with the conventional FDI Performance Index allows us to apply the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) FDI typology. The results reveal considerable heterogeneity among EU regions in terms of FDI attractiveness, and that regions belonging to the same group of the UNCTAD classification are highly concentrated from a geographical perspective. In view of these findings, we compute an additional version of both the FDI Potential and Performance indices, in which the geographical location of each region plays a key role. Based on these spatial indices, some general policy implications are drawn

On the drivers of UK direct investment in the Spanish regions: A spatial Durbin approach

This paper empirically examines the key factors driving UK direct investment in the Spanish regions over the period 2000-2016 and, consequently, tries to unveil its main motivation. Applying a spatial Durbin panel model to capture spatial linkages, the results point to the existence of complementarity between the FDI received by a region and that of the remaining ones. This outcome, along with a positive and statistically significant spillover effect of market potential, reveals that complex-vertical FDI motivation with agglomeration economies prevails among UK MNEs investing in Spain. Additionally, our findings unveil the role played by some other FDI drivers, such as wages and infrastructure. Furthermore, the paper is unique in decomposing the average direct and spillover effects by region and pairs of regions, so that remarkable differences can be identified. This breakdown has strong significance from a policy perspective since it can guide regional policy makers. In short, our findings point out to the fact that FDI policy should be jointly designed by those regions presenting strong bilateral spillover effects. Thus, greater cooperation among policy makers would be welcom

Neutropenia febril por Metimazol

Las drogas antitiroideas son el principal tratamiento del Hipertiroidismo por Enfermedad de Graves, utilizándose como preparación para cirugía o tratamiento con Iodo 131 (I131). Estas drogas constituyen el grupo de las Tionamidas, siendo el más usado el Metimazol presentando efectos adversos mayormente leves y transitorios dependiendo de la dosis. Dentro de sus efectos adversos se describen artralgias, gastrointestinales, cutáneos y rara vez agranulocitosis como efecto adverso grave con una frecuencia de hasta el 0,6% y rondando el 50% de mortalidad. Este trabajo tiene por objetivo resaltar la importancia de aparición de fiebre en pacientes medicados con Metimazol, debido a su alta mortalidad.Facultad de Ciencias Médica

Wastewater-Based Epidemiology: Global Collaborative to Maximize Contributions in the Fight against COVID-19

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARSCoV-2), a novel member of the Coronaviridae family, has been identified as the etiologic agent of an ongoing pandemic of severe pneumonia known as COVID-19. To date there have been millions of cases of COVID-19 diagnosed in 184 countries with case fatality rates ranging from 1.8% in Germany to 12.5% in Italy. Limited diagnostic testing capacity and asymptomatic and oligosymptomatic infections result in significant uncertainty in the estimated extent of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Recent reports have documented that infection with SARS-CoV-2 is accompanied by persistent shedding of virus RNA in feces in 27% to 89% of patients at densities from 0.8 to 7.5 log10 gene copies per gram. The presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in feces raises the potential to survey sewage for virus RNA to inform epidemiological monitoring of COVID-19, which we refer to as wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE), but is also known as environmental surveillance

Thermoelectric generator (TEG) technologies and applications

2021 The Author(s). Nowadays humans are facing difficult issues, such as increasing power costs, environmental pollution and global warming. In order to reduce their consequences, scientists are concentrating on improving power generators focused on energy harvesting. Thermoelectric generators (TEGs) have demonstrated their capacity to transform thermal energy directly into electric power through the Seebeck effect. Due to the unique advantages they present, thermoelectric systems have emerged during the last decade as a promising alternative among other technologies for green power production. In this regard, thermoelectric device output prediction is important both for determining the future use of this new technology and for specifying the key design parameters of thermoelectric generators and systems. Moreover, TEGs are environmentally safe, work quietly as they do not include mechanical mechanisms or rotating elements and can be manufactured on a broad variety of substrates such as silicon, polymers and ceramics. In addition, TEGs are position-independent, have a long working life and are ideal for bulk and compact applications. Furthermore, Thermoelectric generators have been found as a viable solution for direct generation of electricity from waste heat in industrial processes. This paper presents in-depth analysis of TEGs, beginning with a comprehensive overview of their working principles such as the Seebeck effect, the Peltier effect, the Thomson effect and Joule heating with their applications, materials used, Figure of Merit, improvement techniques including different thermoelectric material arrangements and technologies used and substrate types. Moreover, performance simulation examples such as COMSOL Multiphysics and ANSYS-Computational Fluid Dynamics are investigated

Spatial complexity and interactions in the FDI attractiveness of regions

In this study we argue that the capacity of regions to attract FDI is affected by the own-country effect, which can take two different forms: the first relates to the relative performance of the country of which the region is part (the between-country effect); the second concerns the relative performance of regions within their own countries (the within-country effect). By using spatial econometrics techniques we demonstrate that the own country effect exists. However, while the within effect is always positive, the between one may be either positive or negative. This means that successful regions in unsuccessful countries generally enjoy an extra-FDI premium, while regions in successful countries do not necessarily do so

The Creative Mind - DRACLE

Human creativity is not just the result of a cognitive encapsulated process, but is an online process that link together thoughts, emotions and sensory events in a complex fashion. Thanks to this property, that is to the development of mental reflection, we can always (or almost always) create a context in which to give sense to the world. Art and science are clear examples. Scientific research is clearly interested in mechanisms of translating the imagination, the pure thinking into something useful to a community in a social and economic sense. In particular, the contemporary cognitive science, that is slowly abandoning its traditional stand-alone paradigms, is increasingly taking the shape of an open range where it possible to exercise a fruitful cross-fertilization between different disciplines (from computer science to psychology, from art to anthropology and mathematics) that more and more speak a similar language. This new frontier is what we call the paradigm of extended cognition. The performance, presented and discussed in this paper, is aimed at artists, scholars and experts interested in the whole world of creativity and the related psychological and neuro-cognitive mechanisms. In particular, the paper aims at explaining the possible benefits deriving from the contamination of Art and Science in order to understand how the mind and brain shape our experience through the dynamics of conscious and unconscious creativity mechanisms. We aim to contaminate the traditional academic thinking with the suggestions coming from the world of contemporary art and particularly, the installation aims to introduce a discussion on the critical issue of the creativity mediated by technology and, as a counterpart, the creative mood of technology