Aspects of universal extra dimensional models and their latticized versions

In this work some aspects of models with universal extra dimensions are studied. In particular, in the case of models with one universal extra dimension their phenomenology is investigated and used to extract bounds on the size of the extra dimension. In addition, the phenomenology of their latticized counterparts is also investigated. The running of the gauge coupling constants in models with an arbitrary number of universal extra dimensions is revisited. The possible reliable determination of the power corrections that appear is studied. Finally, a model with one non-universal extra dimension is presented to compare the results in these kind of scenarios with the universal ones.Comment: Ph.D. Thesis, 94 page

Database of historic ports and coastal sailing routes in England and Wales

This data paper presents a reconstruction of historical ports and coastal routes in England and Wales during the age of the sailing ship, ending at the beginning of the twentieth century. The dataset was created by an amalgamation of twenty different sources,including geographical data, primary sources and secondary literature. Ports found in historical documents were listed by year of appearance and georeferenced. Ports that appear in multiple sour-ces were listed only once. Coastal routes between ports were drawn based on navigation charts and bathymetry data, distinguishing five categories with different characteristics. Visibility from the coast was deduced from elevation rasters and lighthouse locations. Subsequently both ports and coastal routes were checked using topo-logical rules to ensure the connectivity of the network. The data is provided in shapefile format with all the attributes and can be analysed using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for different types of geographical and historical studies

Not All University Degrees Yield the Same Return: Private and Social Returns to Higher Education for Males in Spain

In this paper we use micro data from the Spanish Family Expenditure Survey for 1990 to estimate, for the first time, the private and social rates of return of different university degrees in Spain. We compute internal rates of return and include investment on higher education financed by the public purse to estimate social rates of return. Our main finding is that, as presumed, there is large heterogeneity in rates of return amongst different university

Josep Comas Solà, va veure l'atmosfera de Tità?

In 1907 Josep Comas Solà, director of the Fabra Observatory in Barcelona, announced that he had seen a darkening on Saturn’s satellite Titan which made him think that this celestial body had an atmosphere. If this is so, he would be the discoverer of Titan’s atmosphere. We analyse Comas’ experience in planetary observation, the instrumental characteristics and the conditions of Titan, in order to verify whether Comas could actually observe the atmosphere. We can only conclude that he could

El grau d’Educació Primària de la UIB: passat, present i futur

Els estudis de Grau d’Educació Primària són una peça clau a l’engranatge del procés educatiu. Aquest article pretén donar a conèixer els principals trets d’aquests estudis, mostrant com s’estructuren a altres països europeus, la distribució del pla d’estudis, el seguiment que es fa de la titulació, principals problemes existents a dia d’avui, i dades destacables del darrer informe de la comissió de garantia de qualitat. Per altra banda, també volem fer una crítica a la gestió educativa que s’està duent a terme des de l’administració pública i les conseqüències que té, tant sobre el propi sistema educatiu, com sobre els estudis de Grau d’Educació Primària.Los estudios de Grado de Educación Primaria son una pieza clave en el engranaje del proceso educativo. Este artículo pretende dar a conocer los principales rasgos de estos estudios, mostrando cómo se estructuran en otros países europeos, la distribución del plan de estudios, el seguimiento que se hace de la titulación, principales problemas existentes a día de hoy, y datos destacables del último informe de la comisión de garantía de calidad. Por otra parte, también queremos hacer una crítica a la gestión educativa que se está llevando a cabo desde la administración pública y las consecuencias que tiene, tanto sobre el propio sistema educativo, como sobre los estudios de Grado de Educación Primaria

Recent trends in Spanish Income Distribution: A Robust Picture of Falling Income Inequality.

Income distribution in Spain has experienced a substantial improvement towards equalisation during the second half of the seventies and the eighties; a period during which most OECD countries experienced the opposite trend. In spite of the many recent papers on the Spanish income distribution, the period covered by those stops in 1990. The aim of this paper is to extent the analysis to 1996 employing the same methodology and the same data set (ECPF). Our results not only corroborate the (decreasing inequality) trend found by others during the second half of the eighties, but also suggest that this trend extends over the first half of the nineties. We also show that our main conclusions are robust to changes in the equivalence scale, to changes in the definition of income and to potential data contamination. Finally, we analyse some of the causes which may be driving the overall picture of income inequality using two decomposition techniques. From this analyses three variables emerge as the major responsible factors for the observed improvement in the income distribution: education, household composition and socioeconomic situation of the household head.