Consensus and dissent in the resolution of conflicts of competence by the Spanish Constitutional Court: the role of federalism and ideology

Given the lack of unambiguously constitutional foundations, Spain’s Constitutional Court (TC) has being playing a leading role in building the regulatory framework of the Autonomic State. This paper analyses whether this function is sufficient to explain the level of agreement among TC justices when adopting their resolutions, and in particular, on reaching unanimous rulings. If so, the legalist/federalist model would be a more adequate model to explain the behaviour of TC justices than the other models proposed in the literature on judicial behaviour: the attitudinal and the strategic models. A database has been constructed for this purpose with the 390 positive conflicts of competence between the central government and the autonomous communities resolved by the TC from 1981 to 2017, which have been used to estimate various explanatory models of unanimous rulings. The results obtained show the importance of the legalist/federalist model when attempting to explain unanimity in the Court’s pronouncements, but they also offer evidence that there are other factors that also influence the level of agreement among TC justices, remarkably the ideological ones

Detection and Determination of Released Ions in the Presence of Nanoparticles: Selectivity or Strategy?

Metallic nanoparticles can release ionic species, but also both species can occur in the same samples. Therefore, there is a need of efficient and cost-effective methods to determine these ionic species in the presence of the corresponding nanoparticles. Electroanalytical techniques open the door to this selective detection of NPs and their ions. In this work, a methodology that allows the direct determination of ionic silver (Ag+) in the presence of silver nanoparticles based on anodic stripping voltammetry was implemented. Silver nanoparticles were determined, after acidic digestion of the sample, by difference with respect to the total content of silver. The method was validated in terms of specific identification of silver ions, linearity, working range, limit of detection, limit of quantification, recovery, repeatability and ruggedness. All parameters are adequate for an analytical method following Eurachem recommendations. The validated method was used to determine the concentration of Ag+ and total silver in two commercial products of colloidal silver. The results were compared with those obtained by atomic absorption spectrometry in combination with an ultrafiltration step for isolation of ionic silver. There were no significant differences in the results. The proposed methodology benefits from the intrinsic selectivity of the electroanalysis methods, allowing to eliminate the steps of pretreatments of the samples, which are necessary in other techniques. The novelty of the article lies in the direct determination of Ag (I) ions in the presence of AgNPs, without the use of previous separation steps

Exploring the boundaries in the analysis of large particles by single particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry: application to nanoclays

The analysis of microparticles by single particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (SP-ICP-MS) requires sample introduction systems that guarantee transport efficiencies similar to those obtained with dissolved standards across the size range covered. The utilization of a nebulisation system based on a linear pass spray chamber and a micronebuliser is discussed and optimized for the introduction of large inorganic particles. Limitations caused by incomplete ionisation or the counting limit of detectors affecting particle size characterisation are also considered. The procedure developed has been applied to the characterisation of suspensions of a natural clay (kaolinite), with a thickness in the range of a few nanometers and lateral dimensions up to 1 mu m. The application of different sensitivity conditions by the modification of the ion transmission allowed us to cover the whole size range of the suspension monitoring the Al-27 isotope and achieve a quantitative mass recovery with respect to ICP-MS analysis. Finally, the migration of nanoclays (montmorillonite) from food containers and their detection by SP-ICP-MS are presented. The results have been compared to those obtained by TEM, showing that nanoclays migrated from the containers into water

Productivity growth and international openness : evidence from Latin American countries 1980-2006

In this study we examine productivity growth and their relationship with international openness in Latin American countries over the period 1980¿2006. Overall results on productivity indicate a stagnation process for the entire period 1986¿2006. The decomposition of productivity into catching up and technical change reveals that the first have a stagnation process and the latter worsening. Analyzing the relationship between productivity growth and international openness we find different patterns for both methodologies parametric (Arellano¿Bond estimator) and nonparametric (GAM) and for both measures of international openness merchandise trade (% of GDP) and (export+imports)/GDP. In particular in a parametric way, although the shape is curvilinear for both models the relationship is positive inverted U¿shaped in the first case and Ushaped in second

Use of flow-cytometry to distinguish between haploid and diploid strains of Aspergillus fumigatus

Many filamentous fungi with general interest such as plant/human pathogens and enzyme/antibiotic producers lack a sexual cycle. Since sexual crosses are unavailable in these species, the parasexual analysis, apart from physical mapping, is the only way of mapping the chromosomes. The use of the parasexual cycle requires a method to distinguish between haploids and diploids. Here, we report the use of flow-cytometry to distinguish clearly between haploid and diploid strains of Aspergillus fumigatus, a very rapid, simple and accurate technique that can be applied to parasexual analysis in other filamentous fungi

Productivity growth and international openness : evidence from Latin American countries 1980-2006

In this study we examine productivity growth and their relationship with international openness in Latin American countries over the period 1980¿2006. Overall results on productivity indicate a stagnation process for the entire period 1986¿2006. The decomposition of productivity into catching up and technical change reveals that the first have a stagnation process and the latter worsening. Analyzing the relationship between productivity growth and international openness we find different patterns for both methodologies parametric (Arellano¿Bond estimator) and nonparametric (GAM) and for both measures of international openness merchandise trade (% of GDP) and (export+imports)/GDP. In particular in a parametric way, although the shape is curvilinear for both models the relationship is positive inverted U¿shaped in the first case and Ushaped in second

An approach to the natural and engineered nanoparticles analysis in the environment by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Different approaches to the most relevant and recent studies and applications of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) applied to the analysis of natural and engineered nanoparticles in the environment are described. Usually several separation methods like polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE), field-flow fractionation (FFF) and size exclusion chromatography (SEC) are used prior to the mass spectrometric measurements. In many cases the use of these hyphenated techniques provides important methodologies to know the bioavailability, mobility and toxicity of elements in life and environmental sciences. Alternatively, the capabilities of the single particle detection by ICP-MS (SD-ICP-MS) for the selective identification, characterization and determination of engineered nanoparticles will be also discussed

Detection and characterization of biogenic selenium nanoparticles in selenium-rich yeast by single particle ICPMS

A method based on single particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (SP-ICPMS) was developed for the analysis of commercial Se-rich yeasts, to confirm the occurrence of selenium nanoparticles in these food supplements. A considerable reduction of background levels was achieved by combining data acquisition at microsecond dwell times and the use of a H2 reaction cell, improving by a factor of 10 the current state-of-the-art methodology, and bringing size detection limits down to 18 nm for selenium nanoparticles. The presence of nanoparticulate selenium was revealed by size-exclusion chromatography ICPMS, with detection of a selenium peak at the exclusion volume of the column showing absorption at a wavelength corresponding to selenium nanoparticles. SP-ICPMS allowed us to confirm the presence of Se-nanoparticles, as well as to calculate the nanoparticle size distribution, from information about the shape and elemental composition of the nanoparticles obtained by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), respectively. These results reveal the significance of nanoparticles in the speciation of metals and metalloids in biological samples and the capability of SP-ICPMS in combination with TEM-EDS to carry out these analyses