Revisión de los estudios orientados a la medición de las capacidades tecnológicas por medio de la literatura patente. Propuesta de análisis estadístico y evaluación de la calidad de una base de datos en patentes

El desarrollo de los estudios estadísticos y bibliométricos de la literatura patente fueron iniciados en España por diversos autores, que luego consideraremos. Se revisan los criterios destinados a la creación de una base de datos denominada Recodificacion. SAV para el análisis y tratamiento estadístico de 13.913 patentes españolas depositadas en la Oficina Española de Patentes y Marcas (OEPM).The development of statistical and bibliometrics studies of patents literature were begun in Spain by various authors who will be considered later. Review has been carried out of the criteria for the creation of a database entitled Recodification. SAV for the analysis and statistical treatment of 13,913 Spanish patents deposited in the Spanish Patents and Trademarks Office

Risk factors for incidence and persistence of disability in chronic major depression and alcohol use disorders: longitudinal analyses of a population-based study

BackgroundMajor depression and alcohol use disorders are risk factors for incidence of disability. However, it is still unclear whether a chronic course of these health conditions is also prospectively associated with incidence of disability. The aim of the present study was, first, to confirm whether chronic major depression (MD) and alcohol use disorders (AUD) are, respectively, risk factors for persistence and incidence of disability in the general population; and then to analyze the role of help-seeking behavior in the course of disability among respondents with chronic MD and chronic AUD. MethodData from two assessments in the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions were analyzed. Disability was measured by eight domains of the Short Form 12 Health Survey version 2 (SF-12). Generalized estimating equations and logistic regression models were run to estimate risk factors for persistence and incidence of disability, respectively. ResultsAnalyses conducted on data from the US general population showed that chronic MD was the strongest risk factor for incidence and persistence of disability in the social functioning, emotional role and mental health domains. Chronic AUD were risk factors for incidence and persistence of disability in the vitality, social functioning, and emotional role domains. Within the group of chronic MD, physical comorbidity and help-seeking were associated with persistent disability in most of the SF-12 domains. Help-seeking behavior was also associated with incidence of problems in the mental health domain for the depression group. Regarding the AUD group, comorbidity with physical health problems was a strong risk factor for persistence of disability in all SF-12 domains. Help-seeking behavior was not related to either persistence or incidence of disability in the chronic alcohol group. ConclusionsChronic MD and chronic AUD are independent risk factors for persistence and incidence of disability in the US general population. People with chronic MD seek help for their problems when they experience persistent disability, whereas people with chronic AUD might not seek any help even if they are suffering from persistent disability.<br/

The role of fiscal rules and institutions in shaping budgetary outcomes

The Workshop "The role of fiscal rules and institutions in shaping budgetary outcomes" organized by the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial affairs of the European Commission on 24 November 2006 in Brussels aimed at enriching the debate on the fiscal arrangements and improving the understanding of their functioning. This Economic Paper contains all the paper presented in this event that was organised in four sessions. A first set of papers mainly focus on the impact of numerical fiscal rules on budgetary outturns. Other paper deal primarily with the appropriate design of fiscal rules and institutions. An additional group of papers addresses the relationship between the fiscal governance approach adopted by the EU Member States and their institutional and political frameworks. Finally the remaining presentations relate more directly to policy experiences. fiscal rules, budget, institutions.fiscal rules, budget, institutions, Ayuso-i-Casals, Deroose, Flores, Moulin

The Best-or-Worst and the Postdoc problems

We consider two variants of the secretary problem, the\emph{ Best-or-Worst} and the \emph{Postdoc} problems, which are closely related. First, we prove that both variants, in their standard form with binary payoff 1 or 0, share the same optimal stopping rule. We also consider additional cost/perquisites depending on the number of interviewed candidates. In these situations the optimal strategies are very different. Finally, we also focus on the Best-or-Worst variant with different payments depending on whether the selected candidate is the best or the worst

The importance of the tumor microenvironment to understand tumor origin, evolution, and treatment response

During the second half of the twentieth century, oncology adopted a tumor-centric approach to cancer treatment, focusing primarily on the tumor cell to identify new therapeutic targets. However, since the 2000s, we have seen a gradual shift in this paradigm with numerous studies highlighting the importance of the tumor microenvironment in tumor progression, patient prognosis, and therapy response. Solid tumors are highly complex systems where numerous cell types and microenvironmental factors are intertwined, potentially affecting tumor evolution, treatment response, and patient outcome. Stromal cells such as fibroblasts and immune cells can stimulate or suppress tumor growth and are currently being used as therapeutic targets in numerous studies and clinical trials..

Financiación de proyectos de desarrollo con recursos del FED y del BEI

Este artículo es la primera parte del desarrollo del tema relativo a la financiación de proyectos de desarrollo con recursos del Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo (FED) y del Banco Europeo de Inversiones (BEI). Es así como esta entrega se centra en explicar el desarrollo histórico de la Comunidad Económica Europea (hoy Unión Europea) y su funcionamiento a través de sus cuatro órganos esenciales: la Comisión, el Consejo de Ministros, el Parlamento Europeo y la Corte de Justicia

What does consumption tell us about inflation expectations and real interest rates?

En este trabajo se estiman tipos de interes reales, cotas para las expectativas de inflacion y primas por riesgo de inflacion en España. Las estimaciones se realizan en el marco del CCAPM para cuatro especificaciones diferentes de las preferencias. Dado el comportamiento del consumo entre 1979 y 1995, para obtener tipos de interes reales por debajo del 4% es preciso aceptar, ademas de un grado reducido de aversion al riesgo por parte de los agentes, un elevado grado de paciencia, u extremadamente alto grado de sustitucion intertemporal o la existencia de un cierto grado de altruismo en las preferencias de los consumidores. Las primas pro riesgo de inflacion son pequeñas y estables y las expectativas de inflacion reaccion con cierto retraso ante cambios en la tendencia observada de la inflacion. Asi, los agentes parecen tomarse un cierto tiempo antes de considerar definitivo un nuevo patron de comportamiento en los precios. (jah) (jls) (mac

Are ex-post real interest rates a good proxy for ex-ante real rates? : an international comparison within a CCAPM framework

En este trabajo se utiliza el marco teorico que proporciona el modelo de valoracion de activos conocido como CCAPM (Consumption Capital Asset Pricing Model) para obtener tipos de interes reales ex-ante, cotas para los errores de expectativas de inflacion y primas de riesgo en cuatro paises: España, Francia, Reino Unido y Estados Unidos. De acuerdo con los resultados, aun considerando un rango amplio de posibles especificaciones de las preferencias de los agentes, no es posible generar tipos reales ex-ante a un año con un grado suficientemente alto de correlacion con el tipo ex-post. Asimismo, para los casos en los que se obtiene la maxima correlacion entre ambos tipos de interes - es decir, en aquellos casos en los que los tipos ex-post serian una mejor aproximacion al tipo ex-ante -, los errores de expectativas de inflacion parecen desempeñar un papel mas relevante que las primas de riesgo por inflacion a la hora de explicar diferencias en el comportamiento de uno y otro tipo de interes real. (jah) (jls) (mac

What if Newton's Gravitational Constant was negative?

In this work, we seek a cosmological mechanism that may define the sign of the effective gravitational coupling constant, {\em G}. To this end, we consider general scalar-tensor gravity theories as they provide the field theory natural framework for the variation of the gravitational coupling. We find that models with a quadratic potential naturally stabilize the value of {\em G} into the positive branch of the evolution and further, that de Sitter inflation and a relaxation to General Relativity is easily attained.Comment: 16 pages, 16 figure

Experimental recreation of the evolution of lignin-degrading enzymes from the Jurassic to date

[Background] Floudas et al. (Science 336: 1715) established that lignin-degrading fungi appeared at the end of Carboniferous period associated with the production of the first ligninolytic peroxidases. Here, the subsequent evolution of these enzymes in Polyporales, where most wood-rotting fungi are included, is experimentally recreated using genomic information.[Results] With this purpose, we analyzed the evolutionary pathway leading to the most efficient lignin-degrading peroxidases characterizing Polyporales species. After sequence reconstruction from 113 genes of ten sequenced genomes, the main enzyme intermediates were resurrected and characterized. Biochemical changes were analyzed together with predicted sequences and structures, to understand how these enzymes acquired the ability to degrade lignin and how this ability changed with time. The most probable first peroxidase in Polyporales would be a manganese peroxidase (Mn3+ oxidizing phenolic lignin) that did not change substantially until the appearance of an exposed tryptophan (oxidizing nonphenolic lignin) originating an ancestral versatile peroxidase. Later, a quick evolution, with loss of the Mn2+-binding site, generated the first lignin peroxidase that evolved to the extant form by improving the catalytic efficiency. Increased stability at acidic pH, which strongly increases the oxidizing power of these enzymes, was observed paralleling the appearance of the exposed catalytic tryptophan.[Conclusions] We show how the change in peroxidase catalytic activities meant an evolutionary exploration for more efficient ways of lignin degradation by fungi, a key step for carbon recycling in land ecosystems. The study provides ancestral enzymes with a potential biotechnological interest for the sustainable production of fuels and chemicals in a biomass-based economy.We acknowledge support of the publication fee by the CSIC Open Access Publication Support Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI), and the EC OpenAIRE FP7 post-grant Open Access Pilot.This work was supported by the INDOX (KBBE-2013-613549) and EnzOx2 (H2020-BBI-PPP-2015-2-720297) EU projects and the NOESIS (BIO2014-56388-R) project of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO). The work conducted by JGI was supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract DE-AC02-05CH11231.EUR 1,620 APC fee funded by the EC FP7 Post-Grant Open Access Pilo