Continuous time models of interest rate: testing peso-dollar exchange rate.

As an extension of the article by Núñez, De la Cruz and Ortega (2007), different parametric models with jumps are tested with the methodology developed by Ait-Sahalia and Peng (2006), based on the transition function. Data analyzed are the peso-dollar exchange rate. The idea is to implement continuous-time parametric models for the peso-dollar exchange rate. The results confirm that the proposed continuous time models are not good enough to explain the behavior that describes the peso-dollar exchange rate. However, considering some continuous time models with Poisson jumps is possible to describe such behavior.

EMPLOYEE PARTICIPATION IN EUROPE

The goal of this study was to identify the determinants of employee participation in organizations across Europe. Power distance, uncertainty avoidance, competition, unionisation, sector, organizational size and business strategy were all expected to influence amount of employee involvement. The hypothesised relationships were contrasted using data from the EPOC survey, a representative survey of over 5,700 organisations located in 10 European Union countries. The results supported all but two of the expected relationships. Power distance and organisational size did not predict amount of participation. A closer look at the relationship between organizational size and employee involvement revealed a significant relationship when type of participation, consultative or delegative, was included in the analysis.

An exploration of the factors that influence employee participation in Europe.

Employee involvement; Employee participation; Delegation; Consultation;

Continuous Time Models of Interest Rate: Testing the Mexican Data (1998-2006)

Distinct parametric models in continuous time for the interest rates are tested by means of a comparative analysis of the implied parametric and nonparametric densities. In this research the statistic developed by Ait-Sahalia (1996a) has been applied to the Mexican CETES (28 days) interest rate in the period 1998-2006. With this technique, the discrete approximation to the continuous model is unnecessary even when the data are discrete. The results allow to affirm that the models of interest rate shown in this paper are unable to describe the data of the Mexican CETES.

Spring Blossoms

The piece “Spring Blossoms” emulates the beauty of organic life and its processes, in both tangible and intangible ways. The interconnectedness of biology is especially emulated within trees- their roots are not usually seen with the human eye as underground, their network is being used to share water, share nutrients, and even to communicate by sending signals to their equivalents— other trees. Cherry blossoms are symbolic of time renewal. In many cultures, watching the petals fall introduces spring and represents the fleeting nature of life. Trees and its symbolism have aged with humanity

New Flexible Regression Models Generated by Gamma Random Variables with Censored Data

We propose and study a new log-gamma Weibull regression model. We obtain explicit expressions for the raw and incomplete moments, quantile and generating functions and mean deviations of the log-gamma Weibull distribution. We demonstrate that the new regression model can be applied to censored data since it represents a parametric family of models which includes as sub-models several widely-known regression models and therefore can be used more effectively in the analysis of survival data. We obtain the maximum likelihood estimates of the model parameters by considering censored data and evaluate local influence on the estimates of the parameters by taking different perturbation schemes. Some global-influence measurements are also investigated. Further, for different parameter settings, sample sizes and censoring percentages, various simulations are performed. In addition, the empirical distribution of some modified residuals are displayed and compared with the standard normal distribution. These studies suggest that the residual analysis usually performed in normal linear regression models can be extended to a modified deviance residual in the proposed regression model applied to censored data. We demonstrate that our extended regression model is very useful to the analysis of real data and may give more realistic fits than other special regression models

Ethnic Andean Concepts of Health and Illness in the Post-Colombian World and Its Relevance Today

‘MEDICINE’ is a new project funded under the EC Horizon 2020 Marie-Sklodowska Curie Actions, to determine concepts of health and healing from a culturally specific indigenous context, using a framework of interdisciplinary methods which integrates archaeological-historical, ethnographic and modern health sciences approaches. The study will generate new theoretical and methodological approaches to model how peoples survive and adapt their traditional belief systems in a context of alien cultural impacts. In the immediate wake of the conquest of Peru by invading Spanish armies and ideology, native Andeans responded by forming the Taki Onkoy millenarian movement, which rejected European philosophical and ontological teachings, claiming “you make us sick”. The study explores how people’s experience of their world and their health beliefs within it, is fundamentally shaped by their inherent beliefs about the nature of being and identity in relation to the wider cosmos. Cultural and health belief systems and related rituals or behaviors sustain a people’s sense of identity, wellbeing and integrity. In the event of dislocation and persecution these may change into devolved forms, which eventually inter-relate with ‘modern’ biomedical systems of health in as yet unidentified ways. The development of new conceptual frameworks that model this process will greatly expand our understanding of how people survive and adapt in response to cultural trauma. It will also demonstrate the continuing role, relevance and use of TM in present-day indigenous communities. Studies will first be made of relevant pre-Colombian material culture, and then of early colonial period ethnohistorical texts which document the health beliefs and ritual practices still employed by indigenous Andean societies at the advent of the 17th century Jesuit campaigns of persecution - ‘Extirpación de las Idolatrías’. Core beliefs drawn from these baseline studies will then be used to construct a questionnaire about current health beliefs and practices to be taken into the study population of indigenous Quechua peoples in the northern Andean region of Ecuador. Their current systems of knowledge and medicine have evolved within complex historical contexts of both the conquest by invading Inca armies in the late 15th century, followed a generation later by Spain, into new forms. A new model will be developed of contemporary Andean concepts of health, illness and healing demonstrating the way these have changed through time. With this, a ‘policy tool’ will be constructed as a bridhging facility into contemporary global scenarios relevant to other Indigenous, First Nations, and migrant peoples to provide a means through which their traditional health beliefs and current needs may be more appropriately understood and met. This paper presents findings from the first analytical phases of the work based upon the study of the literature and the archaeological records. The study offers a novel perspective and methods in the development policies sensitive to indigenous and minority people’s health needs

La participación de los empleados en España: ¿cuánto, cómo y en qué participan?

En este trabajo aportamos evidencia empírica acerca de la participación de los empleados en la toma de decisiones de la empresa. Utilizamos una base de datos (EPOC) de más de 5700 establecimientos de toda Europa, y comparamos la situación española con la del resto de países europeos. La riqueza de la encuesta nos permite conocer múltiples detalles sobre los niveles de participación, los tipos de prácticas de participación utilizadas, las cuestiones sobre los empleados opinan o deciden, y las fechas en que estas prácticas fueron adoptadas

Situación actual de las competencias informacionales en los estudiantes de pregrado de la Universidad de Nariño.

Con el avance de las nuevas tecnologías de la información y la comunicación se ha contribuido al surgimiento de una nueva sociedad, en donde uno de los mayores retos que enfrenta el ser humano es el desarrollo de sus competencias en el manejo de información dado el enorme volumen disponible y el fácil acceso que se tiene a ésta. Teniendo en cuenta lo anterior el presente proyecto de grado, presenta los resultados del estudio descriptivo sobre el estado actual de las competencias informacionales en los estudiantes de pregrado de la Universidad de Nariño, con el fin de identificar las principales fuentes de consulta y conocer los criterios y métodos utilizados en la búsqueda, selección y evaluación de la información con fines académicos por parte del estudiantado. El estudio se basó en la aplicación de encuestas a estudiantes y docentes, revisión documental y entrevistas no estructuradas a directivos de áreas directamente relacionadas con el objeto de investigación. De los resultados alcanzados se destaca el hecho de la utilización de Internet como fuente de consulta académica por preferencia, y plantea la necesidad de mejorar las competencias y estrategias de documentación de los estudiantes, basadas en recursos confiables que le brinden la fiabilidad, rigurosidad y potencialidad necesaria para sus estudios de pregrado