Spain 2011 pension reform

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the impact of the Spanish pension reform enacted in 2011. We use an accounting model with heterogeneous agents and overlapping generations in order to project revenues and expenditures of the pension system for the next four decades. Specifically, we analyze the impact of changes in the replacement rate, in the period of calculation and the delay of the retirement age. We obtain results under two alternative migration scenarios: (i) a combination of the latest figures released by the INE, which forecast a reduced annual immigration net flow of some 70,000 persons; and (ii) a revised scenario featuring a more generous hypothesis concerning this net flow. We demonstrate that the results show that these three changes instigated by the reform could imply a savings of about 3 percentage points of GDP in 2051. However, we couldn’t include in the evaluation the sustainability factor (that transform the Spanish system in a defined contribution scheme) that will start in 2027 due to the lack of details in the text of the Reform. Finally, we analyze the changes in average pensions by gender, skill, and nationalit

Knowledge Management and decision making based on informal learning activities in business

The application of the Information and Communication Technologies to everyday life activities facilitates the availability of lots of information and knowledge which can be used for multiple purposes. One of them is learning processes within organizations. However, there are two questions which must be addressed: first, that people do not only learn in organizational contexts; and second, that not all the data gathered from learning systems is useful. This makes it necessary to find a way to gather information about informal learning activities in the workplace and to facilitate visibility of what employees learn outside the organization so that such knowledge may be accessed from within the organization and be used for decision making. In order to do so this study proposes a methodology based on the identification of informal learning instances by the employee and their ecognition by the organization. The methodology is supported by a technological framework based on a Personal Learning Network, a Portfolio, a Catalog of Competences and an institutional system which includes tools for optimization of decision making. The methodology has been implemented and evaluated in the context of a pan-European project. The main findings from this study suggest that, although decision making from informal learning instances is possible, both the methodology and tools used should be flexible enough to satisfy the needs of the organization

Analysis of Self-Concept in Adolescents before and during COVID-19 Lockdown: Differences by Gender and Sports Activity

An appeal has been issued to the scientific community to investigate physical, mental and emotional states, and pro-social behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, this study aims to investigate adolescents’ self-concept before and during a lockdown period in relation to gender and type/amount of physical activity or sports. The pre-lockdown sample of 366 adolescents were aged 13–17 years (M = 15.51 ± 0.65), of whom 192 (52.5%) were females and 174 (47.5%) were males. During the lockdown, the age range of the sample was 13–17 years (M = 14.57 ± 1.47), of whom 82 (60.3%) were females, and 54 (39.7%) were males. The Form-5 Self-concept Questionnaire (AF-5) was used to measure adolescents’ self-concept. There was a reduction in adolescents’ overall self-concept during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was positively associated with emotional well-being, with family and peers being essential factors in the development of an appropriate self-concept. Furthermore, girls’ self-concept, especially academic self-concept, was higher than that of boys during the lockdown. However, both physical and emotional self-concept were higher for boys than girls before the COVID-19 lockdown, although no differences were found during the lockdown. The findings reveal that physical activity was positively correlated to self-concept before and during the COVID-19 lockdown

Contribución a la corología de las macroalgas marinas bentónicas del litoral malagueño. I.

Continuando con un proyecto sobre la corología de las macroalgas marinas bentónicas del litoral malagueño (Conde, 1981; Conde, 1984; Conde & Soto, 1986) reseñamos en esta nota la presencia en la zona de 5 nuevas especies, y se confirman otras 5, citadas anteriormente en la literatura o de arribazón. La ordenación de las especies se ha realizado según la propuesta de Gallardo ét al. (1985)

Aspectos ultraestructurales de algunas coralináceas (Rhodophyta) del Mediterráneo andaluz (S. de España).

En el presente artículo se estudian e interpretan al microscopio electrónico de barrido (M.E.B.) algunos caracteres cualitativos de siete especies de algas coralináceas del litoral andaluz, pertenecientes a los géneros Corallina,Jania y Amphiroa.Using the scanning electron microscopy some qualitatives characteristics of seven seaweeds species of the mediterranean coasts of Andalucía (S. of Spain), of the genus Corallina, Junio y Amphiroa have been studied

Moodle HEODAR implementation and its implantation in an academic context.

[EN]One of the most important aspects of a 'continuously in change’ society is to improve everything everywhere. In order to obtain the best products, they should be periodically evaluated and reengineered. So the evaluation task and of course, the adequate results interpretation, can make all the difference between competitors. E-learning is similar to these products. Different issues can be evaluated to make learning process getting better and better, such as tutors, platform software and contents. In this last issue, it can be included the minimum knowledge unit: the learning object (LO) (De Marcos et al., 2008). There exist different models and methods for LO evaluation. What is pretended with this work is to choose one model and implement a singular tool, in order to automatically evaluate these LOs and produce a set of information, that can be used to improve those LOs. In this case, it is implemented in the evaluation model called HEODAR (Morales et al., 2008a) and after that the model is implanted in Studium, the Moodle campus of Salamanca University