A New Fiscal Pact, Tax Policy Changes and Income Inequality

The paper analyses the changes in tax policy, tax/GDP ratios, tax incidence and income inequality which have taken place in Latin America during the last decade against the background of the changes observed in these variables during the liberal years of the 1980s and 1990s. The paper argues that the recent tax policy changes and a favourable external environment led to an increase of about three points in the regional tax/GDP ratio, that such increase in taxation took place in a slightly or substantially more progressive way than in the past, that the Gini coefficient of the distribution of household income improved on average by 0.4-0.8 points, and that, as a result, redistribution via taxation improved (especially in the Southern Cone) in relation to the 1990s thanks to greater reliance on direct taxes and a reduction in excises. However, in the mid-late 2000s taxation remains unequalizing in about a third of the countries of the region, especially in Central America. The paper concludes by offering recommendations on how the new fiscal pact evolving in the region can be strengthened to improve the redistributive effect of taxation in the years ahead.tax policy, tax incidence, income inequality, redistribution, fiscal exchange, Latin America

A Practical Approach to Protect IoT Devices against Attacks and Compile Security Incident Datasets

open access articleThe Internet of Things (IoT) introduced the opportunity of remotely manipulating home appliances (such as heating systems, ovens, blinds, etc.) using computers and mobile devices. This idea fascinated people and originated a boom of IoT devices together with an increasing demand that was difficult to support. Many manufacturers quickly created hundreds of devices implementing functionalities but neglected some critical issues pertaining to device security. This oversight gave rise to the current situation where thousands of devices remain unpatched having many security issues that manufacturers cannot address after the devices have been produced and deployed. This article presents our novel research protecting IOT devices using Berkeley Packet Filters (BPFs) and evaluates our findings with the aid of our Filter.tlk tool, which is able to facilitate the development of BPF expressions that can be executed by GNU/Linux systems with a low impact on network packet throughput

Adolescents’ Cyberdating Relationships and the Socialisation Background: Links with Sexism in Spanish Society and Pornography Consumption

The present paper synthesises the results obtained in an exploratory study about adolescents’ online cyberdating relationships. The main objective of the study was to verifywhether the quality of these relationships depends on pornography consumption, beliefs about sexism in Spanish society, and sex as a variable associated with differentiatingsocio-cultural factors. A total of 240 secondary school students randomly selected from the Castilla-La Mancha region in Spain constituted the sample for the study. The Cyberdating Q_A questionnaire was used to measure the quality of dating relationships among adolescents on social networks. The relationship between the variables considered was tested in a multivariate analysis of the variance model. According to the results, pornographyconsumption was the only factor differentiating the selected dimensions of cyberdating relationships. Sex and sexism turned out to be insignificant. The results were discussed.W niniejszym artykule przedstawiono wyniki uzyskane w badaniu eksploracyjnym dotyczącym cyberrandkowych relacji młodzieńczych. Głównym celem badania było udzielenie odpowiedzi na pytanie, czy jakość tych relacji zależy od konsumpcji pornografii, przekonań na temat seksizmu w społeczeństwie hiszpańskim oraz płci jako zmiennej identyfikowanej z różnicującymi czynnikami społeczno-kulturowymi. Próbę badawczą stanowiło 240 uczniów szkół średnich wybranych losowo z regionu Kastylia-La Mancha w Hiszpanii. Kwestionariusz Cyberdating Q_A został wykorzystany do pomiaru jakości relacji randkowych wśród nastolatków w sieciach społecznościowych. Związek między uwzględnionymi zmiennymi został przetestowany w modelu wielowymiarowej analizy wariancji. Zgodnie z wynikami, konsumpcja pornografii była jedynym czynnikiem różnicującym wybrane wymiary relacji cyberrandkowych. Płeć i seksizm okazały się nieistotne. Wyniki poddane zostały dyskusji

A Scoping Review of Complexity Science in Dentistry

Introducción: El propósito de esta revisión es establecer cómo se entiende e instituye la teoría de la complejidad en odontología. Métodos: El sistema estomatognático puede ser entendido como un sistema dinámico, complejo y adaptativo. Cada condición patológica o fisiológica de este sistema involucra procesos físicos, químicos y biológicos en interacciones constantes, abiertas y cambiantes con procesos sociales, emocionales, nutricionales, políticos y económicos. En este contexto, concretamente, se plantearon las siguientes preguntas de investigación: ¿Cómo utilizan los investigadores la ciencia de la complejidad en odontología? ¿Cómo se describe la ciencia de la complejidad en los artículos de odontología? Resultados: Se realizó una breve búsqueda bibliográfica que permitió identificar 11 artículos de PubMed, así como dos de la base de datos Literatura Latinoamericana y del Caribe en Ciencias de la Salud (LILACS) y uno de la Biblioteca Cochrane para una revisión de texto completo. Los estudios sobre complejidad en las ciencias odontológicas se presentan mayoritariamente en forma de artículos de opinión crítica, que correspondieron al 50% de los artículos revisados. En odontología, la complejidad se entiende menos como una teoría y más como una línea de pensamiento relativa a los procedimientos que pueden volverse complejos en un momento dado. Conclusiones: Este artículo muestra que existen grandes dificultades para integrar la complejidad y entenderla en odontología. Hay muchos aspectos de la ciencia de la complejidad que aún deben comprenderse en la salud bucodental.Introduction: The purpose of this review is to establish how the theory of complexity is understood and instituted in dentistry. Methods: The stomatognathic system can be understood as a dynamic, complex, and adaptive system. Each pathological or physiological condition of this system involves physical, chemical, and biological processes in constant, open, and changing interactions with social, emotional, nutritional, political, and economic processes. Against this background, specifically, the following research questions were posed: How do researchers use complexity science in dentistry? How is complexity science described in dentistry articles?. Results: A brief literature search was implemented, which identified 11 PubMed articles as well as two from the Literatura Latinoamericana y del Caribe en Ciencias de la Salud (LILACS) database and one from the Cochrane Library for a full text review. Studies on complexity in the dental sciences are mostly presented in the form of critical opinion articles, which corresponded to 50% of the reviewed articles. In dentistry, complexity is understood as less of a theory and more as a line of thinking regarding procedures that can become complex at any given time. Conclusion: This article shows that there are great difficulties in integrating complexity and understanding it in dentistry. There are many aspects from complexity science that still need to be understood in oral health

Transient Propagation and Scattering of Quasi-Rayleigh Waves in Plates: Quantitative comparison between Pulsed TV-Holography Measurements and FC(Gram) elastodynamic simulations

We study the scattering of transient, high-frequency, narrow-band quasi-Rayleigh elastic waves by through-thickness holes in aluminum plates, in the framework of ultrasonic nondestructive testing (NDT) based on full-field optical detection. Sequences of the instantaneous two-dimensional (2-D) out-of-plane displacement scattering maps are measured with a self-developed PTVH system. The corresponding simulated sequences are obtained by means of an FC(Gram) elastodynamic solver introduced recently, which implements a full three-dimensional (3D) vector formulation of the direct linear-elasticity scattering problem. A detailed quantitative comparison between these experimental and numerical sequences, which is presented here for the first time, shows very good agreement both in the amplitude and the phase of the acoustic field in the forward, lateral and backscattering areas. It is thus suggested that the combination of the PTVH system and the FC(Gram) elastodynamic solver provides an effective ultrasonic inspection tool for plate-like structures, with a significant potential for ultrasonic NDT applications.Comment: 46 pages, 16 figures, corresponding author Jos\'e Carlos L\'opez-V\'azquez, [email protected]. Changes: 1st, 4th, 5th paragraphs (intro), 3rd, 4th paragraphs (sec. 4); [59-60] cited only in appendixes; old ref. [52] removed; misprints corrected in the uncertainty of c_L (subsec. 3.1), citation to fig. 10 (sec. 4), size of images (caption fig.15); reference to Lam\'e constants removed in subsec. 3.

El paper del veterinari en front de la tinença d'animals protegits

Treball presentat a l'assignatura de Deontologia i Veterinària Legal (21223

A new fiscal pact, tax policy changes and income inequality: Latin America during the last decade

The paper analyses the changes in tax policy, tax/GDP ratios, tax incidence and income inequality which have taken place in Latin America during the last decade against the background of the changes observed in these variables during the liberal years of the 1980s and 1990s. The paper argues that the recent tax policy changes and a favourable external environment led to an increase of about three points in the regional tax/GDP ratio, that such increase in taxation took place in a slightly or substantially more progressive way than in the past, that the Gini coefficient of the distribution of household income improved on average by 0.4-0.8 points, and that, as a result, redistribution via taxation improved (especially in the Southern Cone) in relation to the 1990s thanks to greater reliance on direct taxes and a reduction in excises. However, in the mid-late 2000s taxation remains unequalizing in about a third of the countries of the region, especially in Central America. The paper concludes by offering recommendations on how the new fiscal pact evolving in the region can be strengthened to improve the redistributive effect of taxation in the years ahead