Trade Policy and Factor Prices: An Empirical Strategy

This paper presents a new empirical strategy for estimating the effects of trade policy on domestic factor prices when policy endogeneity is suspected. Absent income effectson factor supplies or domestic prices, the coefficient on the terms of trade can provide an unbiased estimator of the effect of trade barriers on the factor distribution of income for a small economy. In the more general case where income effects are allowed for, we provide a means to quantify and control for the possible bias. We implement our strategy on a cross-national data set of trade policies and income shares of capital and labor. We find little evidence of the existence of Stolper-Samuelson effects, both for the sample as a whole as well as within cones of diversification. Consistent with a model of wage bargaining, we find that the effect of openness on capital shares is greater for countries with higher unionization rates.Factor prices, trade policy, Stolper-Samuelson theorem, wage bargaining

Freed from Illiteracy? A Closer Look at Venezuela’s Robinson Literacy Campaign

We evaluate the success of the Venezuelan government’s latest nationwide literacy program, Misión Robinson, using official Venezuelan government survey data. Controlling for existing trends in literacy rates by age groups over the period 1975 to 2005, we find at most a small positive effect of Robinson on literacy rates, and in many specifications the program impact is statistically indistinguishable from zero. This main result is robust to time series analysis by birth cohort, and to state-level difference-in-differences estimation. The results appear to be inconsistent with recent official claims of the complete eradication of illiteracy in Venezuela, but resonate with existing research on other adult literacy programs, which have usually been expensive failures.

Likelihood ratio calibration in a transparent and testable forensic speaker recognition framework

Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works. D. Ramos, J. González-Rodríguez, J. Ortega-garcía, "Likelihood Ratio Calibration in a Transparent and Testable Forensic Speaker Recognition Framework " in The Speaker and Language Recognition Workshop, ODYSSEY, San Juan (Puerto Rico), 2006, 1 - 8A recently reopened debate about the infallibility of some classical forensic disciplines is leading to new requirements in forensic science. Standardization of procedures, proficiency testing, transparency in the scientific evaluation of the evidence and testability of the system and protocols are emphasized in order to guarantee the scientific objectivity of the procedures. Those ideas will be exploited in this paper in order to walk towards an appropriate framework for the use of forensic speaker recognition in courts. Evidence is interpreted using the Bayesian approach for the analysis of the evidence, as a scientific and logical methodology, in a two-stage approach based in the similarity-typicality pair, which facilitates the transparency in the process. The concept of calibration as a way of reporting reliable and accurate opinions is also deeply addressed, presenting experimental results which illustrate its effects. The testability of the system is then accomplished by the use of the NIST SRE 2005 evaluation protocol. Recently proposed application-independent evaluation techniques (Cllr and APE curves) are finally addressed as a proper way for presenting results of proficiency testing in courts, as these evaluation metrics clearly show the influence of calibration errors in the accuracy of the inferential decision processThis work has been supported by the Spanish Ministry for Science and Technology under project TIC2003-09068-C02-01

Using chi-squared automatic interaction detection modelling to identify student opinion profiles regarding same-sex couples as a family structure

The aim was to determine the opinions held by a sample of students in relation to homoparenting as a family modality. A cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of university students specialization: social sciences using the AHFH. It is patent that opinions of students about the three factors (support, rejection and acceptance) that compose the construct of attitudes towards same-sex couples as a family structure, differ greatly depending on the positive or negative nature of these components. In conclusion, in relation to the dimension pertaining to rejection of same-sex couples as a family entity, we derived a configuration determined by 1 of the 4 predictor variables. In this case, gender was the only one of the 4 variables considered to support formation of a profile. This profile was constituted by male students who, independent of their birthplace setting, qualification and whether they personally know any same-sex couples, showed stronger agreement with the dimension describing rejection of same-sex couples as a family structure

Middleware Ginga en el desarrollo de aplicaciones interactivas para la televisión digital terrestre

Realizar el estudio del middleware ginga en el desarrollo de aplicaciones interactivas para la televisión digital terrestre.La señal digital en el Ecuador es un tema poco explorado porque se desconoce el verdadero impacto que llegaría a tener en la población, sobre todo solucionando problemas sociales. Debido a esto se está restando importancia a un campo que puede aportar con ganancias muy rentables, en especial para los desarrolladores de software. El presente trabajo pretende demostrar el uso del middleware ginga en el desarrollo de aplicaciones interactivas para la Televisión Digital Terrestre. Además, otorga a las nuevas generaciones de programadores una pauta para el desarrollo de las aplicaciones interactivas. En el Capítulo 1, se detalla la situación actual de la señal digital en la provincia de Imbabura y a su vez en el Ecuador, también se analiza los factores y la justificación para el desarrollo de este tema. En el Capítulo 2, se describe los conceptos generales que darán la pauta para el entendimiento del middleware, además se detallan los lenguajes usados por ginga así como también la metodología usada para el desarrollo del prototipo. En el Capítulo 3, se analiza el middleware ginga, sus herramientas y los subsistemas en los que se divide. También se realiza un análisis comparativo entre los lenguajes usados para el desarrollo del prototipo. En el Capítulo 4, se aplica la metodología XP (Extreme Programming) en el desarrollo del prototipo interactivo de compra y venta de productos para la televisión digital. En el Capítulo 5, se realiza un análisis costo por beneficio de los tres dispositivos usados en el desarrollo del prototipo. Además se detallan las conclusiones que surgieron a partir de los objetivos y de igual manera las recomendaciones, detallando las ventajas de las herramientas usadas y proponiendo nuevas tecnologías y lenguajes de programación para el desarrollo de aplicaciones interactiva

La evolución de la relación entre marcas e influencers españolas de moda tras la pandemia.

In March 2020, the new SARS-CoV-2 virus arrived to stay amongst us, bringing the most important global pandemic known up to now. The entire world was affected by a health crisis that spread to all sectors of society, leading to company clousures, rises in unemployment rates and many changes in ordinary lifestyle. This pandemic has also had an impact on changes in society's consumption habits and a relevant increase in the use of social networks due to the months of lockdown, which has leaded to important changes in various areas and, specifically, in the fashion and  influencers sector. In addition to the pandemic problem, there is the trouble of adapting to the new Spanish regulation, code of conduct on social networks, from January 2021. This research aims to analyze, using a mixed methodology, the changes produced in fashion influencers jobs before, during and after the pandemic, the evolution of fashion brands in digital media and new trends in influencer marketing that have been caused by this new situation. To do so, we have performed a content analysis and interviews with professionals from the fashion sector. Conclusions show a greater control of content, an increase in number of followers and a closer link with brands. Comparisons with the dynamic in other international markets, as well as the future adaptation of the professional activity to current regulations, are the most relevant questions to be addressed in order to be able to expand the study in the future.In March 2020, the new SARS-CoV-2 virus arrived to stay amongst us, bringing the most important global pandemic known up to now. The entire world was affected by a health crisis that spread to all sectors of society, leading to company clousures, rises in unemployment rates and many changes in ordinary lifestyle. This pandemic has also had an impact on changes in society's consumption habits and a relevant increase in the use of social networks due to the months of lockdown, which has leaded to important changes in various areas and, specifically, in the fashion and  influencers sector. In addition to the pandemic problem, there is the trouble of adapting to the new Spanish regulation, code of conduct on social networks, from January 2021. This research aims to analyze, using a mixed methodology, the changes produced in fashion influencers jobs before, during and after the pandemic, the evolution of fashion brands in digital media and new trends in influencer marketing that have been caused by this new situation. To do so, we have performed a content analysis and interviews with professionals from the fashion sector. Conclusions show a greater control of content, an increase in number of followers and a closer link with brands. Comparisons with the dynamic in other international markets, as well as the future adaptation of the professional activity to current regulations, are the most relevant questions to be addressed in order to be able to expand the study in the future.La llegada del virus SARS-CoV-2 trajo consigo una pandemia mundial y una crisis sanitaria que iba a extenderse a todos los ámbitos de la sociedad, desembocando en cierre de empresas, pérdidas de millones de empleos y numerosas alteraciones en el estilo de vida de los individuos, además de provocar cambios de consumo en la sociedad y un aumento del uso de las redes sociales debido a los meses de confinamiento, lo que supuso un punto de inflexión en diversos ámbitos y, concretamente, en el sector de la moda y de las influencers. Con la presente investigación se pretende analizar, mediante metodología mixta, los cambios producidos antes, durante y después de la pandemia en el trabajo de las influencers de moda, la evolución de las marcas de este sector en los medios digitales y las nuevas tendencias en el marketing de influencia que se han generado a raíz de esta nueva situación. Para ello, se realizará un análisis de contenido y una entrevista a profesionales del sector

Bayesian analysis of fingerprint, face and signature evidences with automatic biometric systems

This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Forensic Science International. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Forensic Science International, Vol 155, Issue 2 (20 December 2005) DOI: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2004.11.007The Bayesian approach provides a unified and logical framework for the analysis of evidence and to provide results in the form of likelihood ratios (LR) from the forensic laboratory to court. In this contribution we want to clarify how the biometric scientist or laboratory can adapt their conventional biometric systems or technologies to work according to this Bayesian approach. Forensic systems providing their results in the form of LR will be assessed through Tippett plots, which give a clear representation of the LR-based performance both for targets (the suspect is the author/source of the test pattern) and non-targets. However, the computation procedures of the LR values, especially with biometric evidences, are still an open issue. Reliable estimation techniques showing good generalization properties for the estimation of the between- and within-source variabilities of the test pattern are required, as variance restriction techniques in the within-source density estimation to stand for the variability of the source with the course of time. Fingerprint, face and on-line signature recognition systems will be adapted to work according to this Bayesian approach showing both the likelihood ratios range in each application and the adequacy of these biometric techniques to the daily forensic work.This work has been partially supported under MCYT Projects TIC2000-1683, TIC2000-1669, TIC2003-09068, TIC2003-08382 and Spanish Police Force ‘‘Guardia Civil’’ Research Program

HMM-based on-line signature verification: Feature extraction and signature modeling

This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Pattern Recognition Letters. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Pattern Recognition Letters 28.16 (2007): 2325 – 2334, DOI: 10.1016/j.patrec.2007.07.012A function-based approach to on-line signature verification is presented. The system uses a set of time sequences and Hidden Markov Models (HMMs). Development and evaluation experiments are reported on a subcorpus of the MCYT bimodal biometric database comprising more than 7,000 signatures from 145 subjects. The system is compared to other state-of-the-art systems based on the results of the First International Signature Verification Competition (SVC 2004). A number of practical findings related to feature extraction and modeling are obtained.This work has been supported by the Spanish projects TIC2003-08382-C05- 01 and TEC2006-13141-C03-03, and by the European NoE Biosecure

Adapted user-dependent multimodal biometric authentication exploiting general information

This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Pattern Recognition Letters. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Pattern Recognition Letters 26.16 (2005): 2628 – 2639, DOI: 10.1016/j.patrec.2005.06.008A novel adapted strategy for combining general and user-dependent knowledge at the decision-level in multimodal biometric authentication is presented. User- independent, user-dependent, and adapted fusion and decision schemes are com- pared by using a bimodal system based on ¯ngerprint and written signature. The adapted approach is shown to outperform the other strategies considered in this pa- per. Exploiting available information for training the fusion function is also shown to be better than using existing information for post-fusion trained decisions.This work has been supported by the Spanish Ministry for Science and Tech- nology under projects TIC2003-09068-C02-01 and TIC2003-08382-C05-01

Uso de antibióticos en producción animal: Implicaciones en la aparición de resistencias y aproximación a los riesgos para la salud pública

Introducción: El fenómeno de la resistencia a los antibióticos es uno de los problemas de mayor trascendencia en la salud pública mundial en los momentos actuales. La medicina humana, la medicina veterinaria y las ciencias ambientales comparten el concepto globalizador de la OMS “one health”, según el cual no tiene sentido considerar la sanidad animal, humana y ambiental por separado, sino como un todo único que interactúa constantemente. Con ese espíritu unificador, se ha pretendido conocer la situación de uso de antibióticos en animales de abasto y las condiciones de esos usos, con el fin de establecer una aproximación al riesgo que esas prácticas pueden suponer para la salud pública actual o futura en el desarrollo de fenómenos de resistencia a los mismos en las personas, con las consecuencias que eso acarrea para la salud pública. Metodología: Para la realización del presente proyecto se ha realizado en primer lugar una revisión bibliográfica con el objeto de adquirir una visión generalizada del problema y poder establecer de forma general los aspectos más importantes que afectan al desarrollo y transmisión de resistencia a antibióticos al hombre. Una vez realizada, se ha procedido a la realización de un trabajo de campo (estudio descriptivo ecológico), tomando como población de nuestro estudio explotaciones ganaderas de varias especies productoras de alimentos de la Comarca del Campo de Borja, y apoyada en una recogida de información sobre usos de antibióticos, con el que pretendemos comprender la dinámica de ese uso de antibióticos en medicina veterinaria y en función de ello realizar una valoración cualitativa del riesgo que conlleva la aparición de resistencias en animales de abasto para la salud pública. Resultados y discusión: Si bien el análisis de nuestros datos es limitado, hemos podido establecer que los datos de nuestro estudio se podrían aproximar a aquellos que se han mostrado en la bibliografía seleccionada y en función de ambos elementos del trabajo, revisión bibliográfica y datos de campo, hemos elaborado una aproximación, desde la perspectiva cualitativa, al riesgo potencial de transmisión de resistencia a antibióticos en salud pública. Conclusiones: La comunidad científica y las instituciones competentes en la materia están de acuerdo en que la problemática de la resistencia a antibióticos de las bacterias es una problemática real y severa. No obstante, los mismos que reconocen tal circunstancia, no se ponen de acuerdo en que a día de hoy todavía no existe suficiente evidencia científica o en que si bien el uso de antibióticos en animales productores de alimentos puede representar un peligro para la salud humana, la correlación o la evaluación de los riesgos no están bien caracterizados todavía a día de hoy. En esta línea de incertidumbre actual sobre el papel real del uso de antibióticos en animales de abasto como base para el desarrollo de las resistencias en medicina humana, hemos considerado, a partir de nuestros resultados, que actualmente el riesgo de transmisión de resistencias es inapreciable o a lo sumo posible, gracias en gran medida a estrategias de medicina preventiva como la instauración de los tiempos de supresión. INTRODUCTION: The phenomenon of antibiotic resistance is one of the most significant issues in global public health at the present time . Human medicine, veterinary medicine and environmental sciences share the unifying concept of the WHO "one health". According to that it makes no sense to consider the animal health, human health and environmental health separately , but as a single entity that interacts constantly. With that unifying spirit , we have tried to understand the situation of use of antibiotics in food animals and the conditions of such use , in order to establish an approach to risk that such practices may pose to the present or future public health in developing phenomena of resistance to them in people, with the consequences this entails for public health. METHODOLOGY: For the realization of this project, we have started with a literature review in order to acquire a general view of the problem and to establish the most important aspects affecting the development and transmission of antibiotic resistance to humans. Once completed, we proceeded to perform a fieldwork (ecological descriptive study ) , taking as our study population, several farms of food producing-species of the region of Campo de Borja (Zaragoza, Spain) , supported by a collection of information on uses of antibiotics , with which we intend to understand the dynamics of the use of antibiotics in veterinary medicine and accordingly make a qualitative assessment of the risk associated with emergence of resistance in food-producing animals for public health . RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Although the analysis of our data is limited , we were able to establish that the data from our study could approach to those shown in the selected bibliography, and depending on both elements of the project, literature review and field data , we have developed an approaching, from the qualitative perspective ,to the potential risk of transmission of antibiotic resistance in public health. CONCLUSIONS: The scientific community and relevant institutions in the field agree that the problem of antibiotic resistance in bacteria is a real and serious problem . However, the same that recognize that fact , do not agree on that there is still not enough scientific evidence, or that while the use of antibiotics in food-producing animals may be dangerous to human health , correlation or risk assessment are not well characterized yet today . In this line of uncertainty about the actual role of antibiotic use in food-producing animals as a basis for the development of resistance in human medicine, we have considered that , from our results , currently the risk of transmission of resistance is negligible or at most possible , thanks largely to preventive medicine strategies such as the introduction of waiting periods