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

A simple preconditioner for a discontinuous Galerkin method for the Stokes problem

In this paper we construct Discontinuous Galerkin approximations of the Stokes problem where the velocity field is H(div)-conforming. This implies that the velocity solution is divergence-free in the whole domain. This property can be exploited to design a simple and effective preconditioner for the final linear system.Comment: 27 pages, 4 figure

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

Tilting light's polarization plane to spatially separate the ultrafast nonlinear response of chiral molecules

Distinguishing between the left- and right-handed versions of a chiral molecule (enantiomers) is vital, but also inherently difficult. Traditional optical methods using elliptically/circularly polarized light rely on linear effects which arise beyond the electric-dipole approximation, posing major limitations for ultrafast spectroscopy. Here we show how to turn an ultrashort elliptical pulse into an efficient chiro-optical tool: by tilting its polarization plane towards its propagation direction. This forward tilt can be achieved by focusing the beam tightly, creating structured light which exhibits a nontrivial polarization pattern in space. Using state-of-the-art computational modelling, we show that our structured field realizes a near-field interferometer for efficient chiral recognition that separates the nonlinear optical response of left- and right-handed molecules in space. Our work provides a simple, yet highly efficient, way of spatially structuring the polarization of light to image molecular chirality, with extreme enantio-efficiency and on ultrafast time scales

Aumento de la fertilidad mediante técnicas de procesamiento avanzado de semen: caso clínico

Current equine reproductive clinic aims to improve subfertile stallions semen quality, (which is furthermore affected by the processing protocol) and maintain this quality during storage. The aim of this paper is to present a case referred to the Hospital Clínico Veterinario Complutense, of a stallion with low sperm quality, and 0% fertility rate in the first batch of mares served. Due to these results it was decided to perform a special semen processing protocol, developed by our laboratory, in order to increase its quality throughout a colloidal centrifugation technique with EquiPure® This system is able to increase semen quality and maintain itduring cooling preservation, obtaining results of around 57,1% of total fertility, which validates this technique as an effective method for subfertile stallions semen processing.La clínica reproductiva equina actual persigue mejorar la calidad seminal de sementales subfértiles, (la cual, además, se ve afectada por el procesamiento del semen) y que ésta se conserve durante el almacenamiento. El objetivo de este trabajo es presentar un caso clínico remitido al Hospital Clínico Veterinario Complutense, sobre un semental que presenta una baja calidad seminal, siendo la fertilidad del primer lote de yeguas del 0%. Ante estos resultados se decide realizar un procesado del semen, desarrollado por nuestro laboratorio, enfocado a aumentar su calidad mediante un protocolo de centrifugación coloidal con EquiPure® (Nidacon International AB). La aplicación de este protocolo consigue aumentar la calidad seminal y mantenerla durante la conservación en refrigeración, obteniéndose unos resultados de fertilidad total del 57,1%, lo que lo valida como método efectivo para el procesado del semen en casos de sementales subfértiles

Burnout y Mobbing en Enseñanza Secundaria

Se presenta un Trabajo de Investigación, dentro del contexto de “Profesiones Asistenciales”, donde estudiamos el Estrés Laboral en su fase más avanzada y más concretamente los síndromes de Burnout (profesional quemado) y Mobbing (acoso moral en trabajo). El objetivo general es determinar el nivel del constructo Estrés Laboral, a través del estudio de estos síndromes, detectándose una alta incidencia del Síndrome de Burnout entre los docentes de secundaria. El instrumento utilizado, para realizar esta investigación, ha consistido en un protocolo de recogida de información autoadministrado que consta de: Registro de variables personales y de condiciones de trabajo; Inventario de Burnout de Maslach (MBI) e Inventario de terror psicológico de Leymann (LIPT). Finalmente se obtiene una alta incidencia de burnout, no se detecta un alto porcentaje de mobbing, no podemos descartar una posible relación entre burnout y mobbing y se establece el perfil de profesorado burnout.We present here a research on work stress within the context of the so called “well-fare careers”. The general aim is to determine the level of work stress in a sample made up of secondary school teachers through the study of the incidence of specific indicating variables (or indicators) such as those of burnout and mobbing. The methodology is descriptive and our sample is formed by all the secondary school teachers of the nine public schools located in the city of Cádiz. The instrument used to perform the study consists of a self-given information protocol recording the following: Personal indicators and working conditions register, Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and Leymann’s Inventory of Psychological Terror. We finally present the discussion on the following achieved conclusions: High incidence of burnout (48,93%), there is not a high level of mobbing cases (20% of the sample confirms some LIPT), a possible relationship between burnout and mobbing is not laid aside, establishment of the Teacher’s Burnout Profile

A switching-regimen model for the Spanish inflation : 1962-1997

En este documento se estima un modelo de cambio de regimen para describir la evolucion de la inflacion durante el periodo 1965-1997. De este modo es posible identificar tanto las diferentes fechas en las que la inflacion cambia de regimen como la probabilidad asignada a cada registro de inflacion observada de pertenecer a un regimen u otro. Estas circunstancias resultan de especial interes para relacionar la evolucion y caracteristicas de cada regimen de inflacion con el momento de implantacion de las mencionadas estrategias antiinflacionistas. (jah) (glk) (dls) (mac

Towards a clinical staging for bipolar disorder: defining patient subtypes based on functional outcome.

BACKGROUND: The functional outcome of Bipolar Disorder (BD) is highly variable. This variability has been attributed to multiple demographic, clinical and cognitive factors. The critical next step is to identify combinations of predictors that can be used to specify prognostic subtypes, thus providing a basis for a staging classification in BD. METHODS: Latent Class Analysis was applied to multiple predictors of functional outcome in a sample of 106 remitted adults with BD. RESULTS: We identified two subtypes of patients presenting "good" (n=50; 47.6%) and "poor" (n=56; 52.4%) outcome. Episode density, level of residual depressive symptoms, estimated verbal intelligence and inhibitory control emerged as the most significant predictors of subtype membership at the p<0.05 level. Their odds ratio (OR) and confidence interval (CI) with reference to the "good" outcome group were: episode density (OR=4.622, CI 1.592-13.418), level of residual depressive symptoms (OR=1.543, CI 1.210-1.969), estimated verbal intelligence (OR=0.969; CI 0.945-0.995), and inhibitory control (OR=0.771, CI 0.656-0.907). Age, age of onset and duration of illness were comparable between prognostic groups. LIMITATIONS: The longitudinal stability or evolution of the subtypes was not tested. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings provide the first empirically derived staging classification of BD based on two underlying dimensions, one for illness severity and another for cognitive function. This approach can be further developed by expanding the dimensions included and testing the reproducibility and prospective prognostic value of the emerging classes. Developing a disease staging system for BD will allow individualised treatment planning for patients and selection of more homogeneous patient groups for research purposes

Commissioning and First Observations with Wide FastCam at the Telescopio Carlos S\'anchez

The FastCam instrument platform, jointly developed by the IAC and the UPCT, allows, in real-time, acquisition, selection and storage of images with a resolution that reaches the diffraction limit of medium-sized telescopes. FastCam incorporates a specially designed software package to analyse series of tens of thousands of images in parallel with the data acquisition at the telescope. Wide FastCam is a new instrument that, using the same software for data acquisition, does not look for lucky imaging but fast observations in a much larger field of view. Here we describe the commissioning process and first observations with Wide FastCam at the Telescopio Carlos S\'anchez (TCS) in the Observatorio del Teide.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, Proc. SPIE. 9908, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VI, 99082O. (August 09, 2016

The efficacy of psychotherapy, pharmacotherapy and their combination on functioning and quality of life in depression:a meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: There is growing recognition of the importance of both functioning and quality of life (QoL) outcomes in the treatment of depressive disorders, but the meta-analytic evidence is scarce. The objective of this meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was to determine the absolute and relative effects of psychotherapy, pharmacotherapy and their combination on functioning and QoL in patients with depression. METHOD: One hundred and fifty-three outcome trials involving 29 879 participants with depressive disorders were identified through database searches in Pubmed, PsycINFO and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. RESULTS: Compared to control conditions, psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy yielded small to moderate effect sizes for functioning and QoL, ranging from g = 0.31 to g = 0.43. When compared directly, initial analysis yielded no evidence that one of them was superior. After adjusting for publication bias, psychotherapy was more efficacious than pharmacotherapy (g = 0.21) for QoL. The combination of psychotherapy and medication performed significantly better for both outcomes compared to each treatment alone yielding small effect sizes (g = 0.32 to g = 0.39). Both interventions improved depression symptom severity more than functioning and QoL. CONCLUSION: Despite the small number of comparative trials for some of the analyses, this study reveals that combined treatment is superior, but psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy alone are also efficacious for improving functioning and QoL. The overall relatively modest effects suggest that future tailoring of therapies could be warranted to better meet the needs of individuals with functioning and QoL problems