Going beyond energy intensity to understand the energy metabolism of nations: The case of Argentina

The link between energy consumption and economic growth has been widely studied in the economic literature. Understanding this relationship is important from both an environmental and a socio-economic point of view, as energy consumption is crucial to economic activity and human environmental impact. This relevance is even higher for developing countries, since energy consumption per unit of output varies through the phases of development, increasing from an agricultural stage to an industrial one and then decreasing for certain service based economies. In the Argentinean case, the relevance of energy consumption to economic development seems to be particularly important. While energy intensity seems to exhibit a U-Shaped curve from 1990 to 2003 decreasing slightly after that year, total energy consumption increases along the period of analysis. Why does this happen? How can we relate this result with the sustainability debate? All these questions are very important due to Argentinean hydrocarbons dependence and due to the recent reduction in oil and natural gas reserves, which can lead to a lack of security of supply. In this paper we study Argentinean energy consumption pattern for the period 1990-2007, to discuss current and future energy and economic sustainability. To this purpose, we developed a conventional analysis, studying energy intensity, and a non conventional analysis, using the Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) accounting methodology. Both methodologies show that the development process followed by Argentina has not been good enough to assure sustainability in the long term. Instead of improving energy use, energy intensity has increased. The current composition of its energy mix, and the recent economic crisis in Argentina, as well as its development path, are some of the possible explanations.Argentina, energy intensity; energy mix; economic development; societal metabolism, integrated analysis

A key handbook for managing advertising companies

Este libro no sólo es un manual básico para enseñar a gestionar y administrar empresas de publicidad, sino que también es al mismo tiempo, una guía práctica para emprendedores y profesionales del sector publicitario.This book is not only a basic handbook to teach how to manage advertising companies, but it is also, at the same time, a practical guide for entrepreneurs and professionals in the advertising sector

Comunicación viral y creatividad

Este artículo tiene como principal objetivo realizar una aproximación teórica de la comunicación viral con fines publicitarios. Por este motivo se hace necesario no sólo profundizar en sus orígenes sociales sino también, comprender fenómenos paralelos como las redes sociales como Youtube, que han puesto de manifiesto la debilidad de la comunicación masiva como consecuencia del poder adquirido por los usuarios. Del mismo modo, la utilización de las nuevas tecnologías ha permitido potenciar la profesionalización de esta técnica publicitaria, anteriormente utilizada de forma pasiva. A pesar de la importancia de la tecnología en el desarrollo de la comunicación viral, en este artículo se demostrará que la creatividad será crucial para su correcta utilización. Con el fin de legitimar esta teoría se analizarán los principales tópicos creativos utilizados por las campañas virales más célebres, tanto en el ámbito nacional como internacional.This paper must like main objective make a theoretical approach of the viral communication with advertising aims. For this reason, it is made necessary not only to also deepen in its social origins but, including parallel phenomena like blogs and the social networks like Youtube, that have shown the weakness of the massive communication as a result of the power acquired by the users. In the same way, the use of the new technologies has allowed to harness the professionalization of this advertising technique, previously used of passive way. In spite of the importance of the technology in the development of the viral communication, in this article will demonstrate that the creativity will be crucial for its correct use. With the purpose of legitimizing this theory it will be analyzed the main creative topics used by the more famous viral campaigns, as much in the national scope as internationa

Biotechnological approaches to increase biomass production in trees

Nutrient use efficiency is one of the factors influencing growth and therefore of high importance for biomass production in trees. Poplar is a model tree widely used for molecular and functional studies and the characterization of transgenic poplars overexpressing structural and regulatory genes involved in glutamine biosynthesis has provided insights on how glutamine metabolism is involved in N economy and biomass production in woody plant models. Numerous studies have shown the relevance of GS isoenzymes in plant development, biomass production, and yield (Cánovas et al. 2006; Castro-Rodríguez et al. 2015). In this communication two examples of functional analysis of plant genes in poplar, and their potential interest for biotechnological approaches are presented (Pascual et al. 2018; Rueda-López et al. 2017). Overexpression of cytosolic NADP+-isocitrate dehydrogenase (ICDH), one of the major enzymes involved in the production of 2-oxoglutarate for amino acid biosynthesis in plants, yields poplar trees with increased growth and enhanced vascular development in young leaves and apical stems. These plants also show an increased expression of genes associated with vascular differentiation and altered amino acids and organic acids content (Pascual et al. 2018). In other study, we observed that overexpression of Dof5, a transcriptional regulator of lignin production and the carbon-nitrogen balance, produced poplar trees with increased growth and biomass production when N availability in the soil is sufficient (Rueda-López et al. 2017). Taken together, these results suggest a close relationship between carbon and nitrogen metabolism and highlights the relevance of glutamine and glutamate biosynthesis in the control of growth and development. Research supported by Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and Junta de Andalucía (Grants BIO2015-69285-R, BIO2012-0474 and research group BIO-114).Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec

Going beyond energy intensity to understand the energy metabolism of nations : the case of Argentina

The link between energy consumption and economic growth has been widely studied in the economic literature. Understanding this relationship is important from both an environmental and a socio-economic point of view, as energy consumption is crucial to economic activity and human environmental impact. This relevance is even higher for developing countries, since energy consumption per unit of output varies through the phases of development, increasing from an agricultural stage to an industrial one and then decreasing for certain service based economies. In the Argentinean case, the relevance of energy consumption to economic development seems to be particularly important. While energy intensity seems to exhibit a U-Shaped curve from 1990 to 2003 decreasing slightly after that year, total energy consumption increases along the period of analysis. Why does this happen? How can we relate this result with the sustainability debate? All these questions are very important due to Argentinean hydrocarbons dependence and due to the recent reduction in oil and natural gas reserves, which can lead to a lack of security of supply. In this paper we study Argentinean energy consumption pattern for the period 1990-2007, to discuss current and future energy and economic sustainability. To this purpose, we developed a conventional analysis, studying energy intensity, and a non conventional analysis, using the Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) accounting methodology. Both methodologies show that the development process followed by Argentina has not been good enough to assure sustainability in the long term. Instead of improving energy use, energy intensity has increased. The current composition of its energy mix, and the recent economic crisis in Argentina, as well as its development path, are some of the possible explanations