Evaluating EU policies on public services: a citizens´ perspective

This article evaluates EU policies on public services – particularly public network services - from the citizens´ point of view. It is first argued that citizens´ perceptions about these services are important because they are essential for quality of life, but also because they exhibit economic characteristics such as asymmetrical information, adverse selection and positive externalities. Changing EU policy on public services is synthesised and classified into two main phases in section two. Citizen satisfaction with public services as revealed through surveys from 1997 to 2007 is explored in the third section. In the discussion, the prospects for EU policy on public services are considered and, it is argued that, from the perspectives of subsidiarity and proportionality, policy towards strengthening the common market is being increasingly uploaded to the supranational level in the form of directives, whilst cohesion and redistribution policies are being downloaded to the national level or dealt with at the supranational level by “soft” instruments.Economics of public services; evaluation; citizen; consumer; satisfaction; privatization; liberalization; competition

HADAS: tool for analysis and development of sustainable applications

Durante esta Conferencia Internacional, representantes del Gobierno, autoridades locales, instituciones públicas y privadas, vicerrectores de Internacionalización y talento nacional e internacional crearon un ecosistema para fomentar las colaboraciones nacionales e internacionales, así como la presentación de nuevas ideas para resolver retos que afectan a la sociedad. Se trata de un foro único, donde se presentaron trabajos científicos y se otorgaron premios con el fin de fomentar el rigor y la excelencia científica.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Quantum simulation of dark energy candidates

Additional scalar fields from scalar-tensor, modified gravity or higher dimensional theories beyond general relativity may account for dark energy and the accelerating expansion of the Universe. These theories have lead to proposed models of screening mechanisms, such as chameleon and symmetron fields, to account for the tight experimental bounds on fifth-force searches. Cold atom systems have been very successfully used to constrain the parameters of these screening models, and may in future eliminate the interesting parameter space of some models entirely. In this paper, we show how to manipulate a Bose-Einstein condensate to simulate the effect of any screened scalar field model coupled conformally to the metric. We give explicit expressions for the simulation of various common models. This result may be useful for investigating the computationally challenging evolution of particles on a screened scalar field background, as well as for testing the metrology scheme of an upcoming detector proposal.Comment: 26 pages, 3 figure

Fundamentos para el análisis económico del tabaquismo: la utilidad marginal y los umbrales de asimilación

Current regulation of smoking in Spain (Law 28 /2005) defines and reallocates environmental property rights in favour of nonsmokers. From this point of view, it is important to analyze the social desirability of maximizing the utility of a category of individuals knowing that this requires the exclusion of the other category. In our analysis we consider that the ability of individuals to tolerate tobacco smoke in the environment not only depends on marginal utility (or disutility) but also on consumption thresholds about what they are willing to tolerate or perform. We find a bang bang solution switching between zero-pollution (exclusion of smokers) and maximum tobacco consumption (exclusion of nonsmokers).The paper also shows why, in the presence of compulsive smokers, the prohibition of tobacco consumption may be economically rational

Explaining Telecoms and Electricity Internationalization in the European Union: A Political Economy Perspective

One consequence of the liberalization of certain services in the European Union was that a number of formerly inward-looking incumbents in telecommunications and electricity rapidly transformed themselves into some of the world’s leading Multinationals. However, the precise relationship between liberalization and incumbent internationalization is contested. This article tests three persuasive arguments derived from the political economy literature on this relationship. The first claims that those incumbents most exposed to domestic liberalization would internationalise most. The second asserts the opposite: incumbents operating where liberalization was restricted could exploit monopolistic rents to finance their aggressive internationalisation. The third argument claims that a diversity of paths will be adopted by countries and incumbents vis-à-vis liberalization and internationalization. Using correlation and cluster analysis of the sample of all major EU telecoms and electricity incumbent Multinationals evidence is found in favour of the third hypothesis. Internationalization as a response to liberalization took diverse forms in terms of timing and extent and this is best explained using a country, sector and firm logic.Electricity, European Union, Internationalization, Liberalization, Telecommunications, Political Economy, Multinational Corporations, National Champions

Nuevos formatos artísticos y comunicativos en Instagram

Instagram es una de las redes sociales más visuales que existen hasta el momento. Gracias a sus posibilidades creativas algunos de los usuarios que la utilizan han desarrollado nuevos formatos artísticos y comunicativos dentro de la aplicación. Estos usuarios son denominados como creativos-comunicadores y son reconocibles son su inconformismo creativo a la hora de desarrollar contenido para esta red social. La forma de compartir contenido en Instagram ha ido evolucionando desde su surgimiento en 2010, donde la espontaneidad era la esencia de la aplicación, posteriormente se comenzó a desarrollar, por parte de los usuarios creativos-comunicadores, perfiles mucho más meticulosos y cuidados estableciendo temáticas o paletas de color entre sus fotografías para conseguir un feed estéticamente equilibrado. Pero, lejos de quedar aquí estos usuarios aprovechan todas las posibilidades creativas que Instagram pone a su alcance llegando a crear nuevos formatos artísticos y comunicativos como los vídeos cinematográficos en formato vertical para Stories, series adaptadas para Instagram, mosaicos a gran escala en los feeds y la creación de nuevos híbridos entre imagen y vídeo.Universidad de Sevilla. Grado en Periodism

Por la revitalización del mundo rural frente al saqueo de la banca

Desde hace dos años okupo una finca abandonada y gestiono una pequeña producción diversificada, con huerto, gallinas, pollos camperos, cabras, cerdos, conejos y colmenas. Produzco lo que necesito y vendo los excedentes a mis vecinas y vecinos de Jábaga (Cuenca) y poblaciones cercanas, pero el banco me quiere echar