Economic effect of splitting a region: A case from the south of Chile

Treballs Finals del Màster d'Economia, Facultat d'Economia i Empresa, Universitat de Barcelona. Curs: 2021-2022, Tutor: Jordi Jofre-MonsenyThe economic impact of territorial reforms has been discussed in the literature, but mostly looking at amalgamations rather than de-amalgamations. Little is known about the impact of territorial splits and even less in a centralized and emerging country. This paper aim to fill this gap by analyzing the specific case of the Los Rios region, who was splinted from Los Lagos region in the south of Chile. By using a synthetic control approach, a difference in differences and event studies, we estimate the causal effect of such reform over GDP, private sales, and employment on the affected regions, including the effect of the new administrative status for the city of Valdivia who became regional capital. Once we accounted for all sources of external shocks, we did not find any impact of the division on the regions of Los Lagos and Los Rios and no effect of the new administrative status for Valdivia. We believe these results are very important as illustrate that policies aimed to splits regions or relocate the capital status to promote growth should consider the context and the scope of competences of the subnational governments

Analysis of Factors for Incorporating User Preferences in Air Traffic Management: A system Perspective

This paper presents an analysis of factors that impact user flight schedules during air traffic congestion. In pre-departure flight planning, users file one route per flight, which often leads to increased delays, inefficient airspace utilization, and exclusion of user flight preferences. In this paper, first the idea of filing alternate routes and providing priorities on each of those routes is introduced. Then, the impact of varying planning interval and system imposed departure delay increment is discussed. The metrics of total delay and equity are used for analyzing the impact of these factors on increased traffic and on different users. The results are shown for four cases, with and without the optional routes and priority assignments. Results demonstrate that adding priorities to optional routes further improves system performance compared to filing one route per flight and using first-come first-served scheme. It was also observed that a two-hour planning interval with a five-minute system imposed departure delay increment results in highest delay reduction. The trend holds for a scenario with increased traffic

Activities Adjusting Attitudes: The Impact of Lifestyle on Age Stereotype and Beliefs

Negative stereotypes about old age in general, such as the belief the older people are frail and forgetful or the expectation that declines are inevitable with increased age (Hummert, 2011; Kite & Stockdale, 2005) become self-relevant once individuals identify as old (Levy, 2009). In turn, negative attitudes about one’s own aging is linked to impaired performance, such as poorer memory (Levy, 2000) and slower walking (Levy et al., 2012), and detrimental health outcomes, such as worse physical health (Siebert et al., 2016), slower recovery from illness (Nelson, 2016), and reduced longevity (Levy et al., 2002). Research suggests that increased knowledge and awareness about a social group may reduce reliance on the stereotypes and encourage more realistic beliefs (Hess, 2006). Further, engaged lifestyles, such as participation in social activities are cognitively stimulating or physically active may promote healthier aging (Hertzog et al., 2008). We propose that benefits from these lifestyle activities might transfer to enhanced age attitudes. The purpose of the proposed research is to test whether engaged lifestyles, positive intergenerational contact, and more knowledge about aging relate to more positive age attitudes in general and about one’s own age. Members of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), aged 50 years and older, will be compensated with $15 gift cards for completing surveys about their general lifestyle activities, engagement in OLLI activities, quality and frequency of contact with younger adults, and age attitudes. We expect that self-relevant age attitudes will be more positive for individuals who participate in more activities and spend quality time with younger adults. More positive attitudes about old age in general is expected for participants who learned about the “typical” aging process in OLLI classes. Results may inform development of psychosocial interventions to improve aging attitudes and reveal which specific activities are best for healthy aging

Diseño, implementación y evaluación de un sistema de deshidratación por cambios cíclicos de presión para residuos agroindustriales

Para el acondicionamiento y aprovechamiento de residuos agroindustriales, el secado es una operación necesaria para reducir su contenido de humedad y así, facilitar su manejo y almacenamiento. El objetivo de este estudio fue diseñar, implementar y evaluar un sistema de deshidratación por cambios cíclicos de presión (DCP) para residuos de actividades agroindustriales. Para los ensayos se deshidrataron papas (Solanum tuberosum v. Russet Burbank) luego de perder su calidad comercial por la presencia de brotes. Se adoptaron tres etapas para dicho fin: la etapa de diseño y modelización, la construcción y la evaluación del sistema DCP. Para el diseño, se propuso que la frecuencia de caídas de presión y la diferencia de presión permiten controlar el proceso de secado por DCP. Se adaptó el modelo de Thompson para secadores de lecho estático y los parámetros termofísicos del material trabajado. El modelo predijo en al menos un 91% la variedad de los datos experimentales. En la etapa de evaluación se concluyó que la DCP permite la remoción de agua del material principalmente en el momento en que se produce la caída de presión. Al aumentar la frecuencia de caídas de presión, se mejoró la cinética de secado. Los resultados mostraron que la calidad del producto deshidratado varía en función de los parámetros de operación. Este trabajo de investigación puede ser usado como base para futuros trabajos en la utilización de esta técnica de secado, bien sea para la construcción de un nuevo dispositivo o para la modelización del proceso.Abstract. For the conditioning and use of agro-industrial biomass, drying is a necessary operation to reduce its moisture content and thus, facilitate handling and storage. The objective of this study was to design, implement and evaluate a dehydration system by successive pressure drops (DCP) for residues from agro-industrial activities. For tests, potato was dehydrated (Solanum tuberosum v. Russet Burbank) after losing their commercial quality by outbreaks. Three steps were adopted: design and modeling, implementation and evaluation of DCP. For design, frequency of pressure drops and the pressure difference was proposed to control the drying process by DCP. Thomson’s model for static bed dryers and thermophysical parameters of the material were adopted as model basis. The model predicted at least 91% the variety of experimental data. At assess stage, DCP allowed water removal from material mainly when pressure drop occurs. By increasing the frequency of pressure drops, the drying kinetics was improved. The results showed that the quality of the dehydrated product varies depending on the operating parameters. This research could be used as a basis for further works on DCP use, either for the development of a new device or process modeling.Maestrí

複合現実感に基づくヒューマン・マシン・インターフェースを用いた運動コーチング

要約のみTohoku University平田泰久課

Variabilidad en secuencias proteicas de los sistemas Toxina-Antitoxina en Mycobacterium tuberculosis

El agente causal de la tuberculosis es Mycobacterium tuberculosis, un patógeno dividido en 7 linajes asociados a zonas geográficas específicas y con diferencias en su comportamiento. Una característica notable en M. tuberculosis es su alto número de sistemas toxina-antitoxina, operones involucrados en la formación de células persistentes bajo situaciones de estrés. Se analizó la variabilidad en la secuencia de las proteínas de los sistemas toxina-antitoxina entre los linajes de M. tuberculosis. La predicción se hizo utilizando perfiles de modelos ocultos de Markov, seguido de un agrupamiento de genes ortólogos y posteriormente el alineamiento múltiple para la búsqueda de mutaciones. Se encontraron seis posibles antitoxinas y 63 proteínas completamente conservadas: 22 toxinas, 36 antitoxinas y 5 proteínas sin caracterizar. 41 toxinas y 18 antitoxinas presentaron mutaciones. Se encontraron mutaciones asociadas a cada linaje. Estos resultaron sugieren que en M. tuberculosis se favorece el surgimiento de nuevas antitoxinas y que las toxinas son más propensas a cambios que la antitoxinas.Abstract: Tuberculosis is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It is a pathogen divided into 7 lineages associated with specific geographical areas and with differences in their behavior. The high numbers of toxin- antitoxin systems are a notable feature in M. tuberculosis, which are operons involved in the formation of persistent cells under stress situations. The sequence variability of the toxin-antitoxin systems among the M. tuberculosis lineages was analyzed. Profiles of hidden Markov models, followed by a clustering of orthologous genes, and subsequently multiple alignments for mutations search were used to predict protein sequences. Six possible antitoxins and 63 fully conserved proteins were found: 22 toxins, 36 antitoxins and 5 uncharacterized proteins. 41 toxins and 18 antitoxins showed mutations. Mutations associated with each lineage were found. The results suggest that M. tuberculosis favors the emergence of new antitoxins and that toxins are more likely to change than antitoxins.Maestrí

Diseño y desarrollo e implementación gestor de contenidos para la promoción y administración de las rutas y sitios turísticos, naturales, históricos y culturales del municipio de Tocaima

Sistema de información web para la promoción del turismo en el municipio de Tocaim