The effect of decoupling on water resources: Insights from European international trade

The concern on the effects and potential consequences of the displacements of water resources through international trade has increased in the last decades. Today, water scarcity is considered one of the main problems in the world. Despite large advances on its quantification and understanding, further research on the anthropogenic determinants of the exchanges of water embodied in international trade is necessary. Our study aims to shed light on the trajectories and explaining factors of water exchanges in the European Union. In particular, we analyse how the 2003 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform, which decoupled direct subsidies from production, affected European water consumption through agri-food exports. First, our methodology relies on the bottom-up approach to estimate European long-term exports of virtual water from 1995 to 2013. Second, we assess the effect of the reform on water consumption using panel data analysis in a trade gravity framework. Our main results show that the 2003 reform boosted extra European virtual water exports. We also observe a large heterogeneity in our sample, pointing to Mediterranean areas as the most affected by the policy reorientation. Spain, one of the most water scarce countries in the European Union, is essential to explain this link

Production and consumption-based water dynamics: A longitudinal analysis for the EU27

This paper investigates the relationship between economic development and water pressures using a global Multiregional Input-Output model (MRIO) dataset that takes into account the increasingly connected global supply chains underlying the economic systems. In particular, we analyse differences in water indicator outcomes by income level among European Union countries (EU27) from 1995 to 2008, focusing specifically on production and consumption-based water metrics for the member states. We use panel fixed effects regressions to study the dynamics of adjustment of water resources alongside controlling for individual country heterogeneity. Our main results indicate that the effects differ substantially depending on the approach used for measurement, especially when we conditioned on the country economic development, indicating opposite trajectories of water consumption and per capita gross domestic product (GDP). Furthermore, the analysis of the main components associated to water indicators highlight the role of water embodied in trade flows as the transmission mechanisms of the main effects. In particular, our estimates suggest that the growth path followed by the most developed areas in the EU27 is based on the externalisation of the environmental burden over the less developed European partners, and external developing countries. On the policy front, our findings call for the implementation of integrated water resources management, technological specific policies and the corresponding environmental regulation to combine the conservation of water ecosystems and sustainable economic growth at the national, supranational and global levels

Los políticos, la política y la hacienda : breve opúsculo

Copia digital. Valladolid : Junta de Castilla y León. Consejería de Cultura y Turismo, 2009-201

How to fill a narrow 27 KM long tube with a huge number of accelerator components?

As in large scale industrial projects, research projects, such as giant and complex particle accelerators, require intensive spatial integration studies using 3D CAD models, from the design to the installation phases. The future management of the LHC machine configuration during its operation will rely on the quality of the information, produced during these studies. This paper presents the powerful data-processing tools used in the project to ensure the spatial integration of several thousand different components in the limited space available. It describes how the documentation and information generated have been made available to a great number of users through a dedicated Web site and how installation nonconformities were handled

“HEMODILUCION NORMOVOLEMICA EN CIRUGIA CARDIACA”

Objetivo: Determinar si la realización de hemodilución normovolémica aguda en pacientes adultos sometidos a cirugía cardiaca de reoperación comparado con un grupo sin hemodilución normovolémica, disminuyen los requerimientos transfusionales en el intraoperatorio. Material y métodos: Se realizó un estudio controlado y aleatorizado, con 20 pacientes, en los que se sometieron a cirugía cardiaca de reintervención de manera electiva. El grupo I se tomo como grupo control y no se les realizó hemodilución normovolemica. Se midieron niveles de hemoglobina, cantidad de sangrado y requerimientos transfusionales. Resultados: La edad promedio del grupo I fue de 39 años y del grupo II de 41 años, no se registraron pacientes mayores de 65 años. En cuanto al sexo, en el grupo I se registraron 6 hombres y 4 mujeres; en el grupo II 5 hombres y 5 mujeres. En los resultados de este estudio no se encontraron diferencias estadísticamente significativas en los datos demográficos, tiempos de circulación extracorpórea, ni tiempo de pinzamiento. No se presentaron complicaciones relacionadas con la transfusión autóloga. Preoperatoriamente 4 pacientes del grupo I y 6 pacientes del grupo II presentaron hemoglobina previa mayor de 12 mg /dL. El promedio de transfusión de hemoderivados autólogos fue similar en ambos grupos. Conclusiones: La hemodilución normovolémica no proporciona ventajas estadísticamente significativas como un solo método para reducir el sangrado transquirúrgico y los requerimientos transfusiones en pacientes reoperados de cirugía cardiac

Effects of grade retention policies: a literature review of empirical studies applying causal inference

The identification of the causal effects of grade retention policies is of enormous relevance for researchers and policymakers alike. Taking advantage of the availability of more detailed longitudinal datasets, researchers have been able to apply different identification strategies that address the classical problems of selection bias and unobserved heterogeneity that have plagued previous studies on the effect of retention. We present a systematic literature review of empirical studies aiming to unveil the causal effects of retention. This study underlines the need to consider and evaluate different kinds of grade retention polices as their effects vary depending on several dimensions (such as timing of the policy, comparison groups, length of the effects or institutional settings). According to the results of our review, we conclude that grade retention is unlikely to be an efficient policy as the costs associated to the policy can easily outweigh the potential (weak) benefits of retention. It is therefore necessary to consider alternative policies to retention, or policies that can be used in combination with it, in order to enhance the performance of low achievers, in particular those students at risk characterized by a low ability profile