Factores Macroecon�micos en Retornos Accionarios Chilenos

We evaluate the growth effects of real exchange rate (RER) misalignments and their volatility. We calculate RER misaligments as deviations of actual RERs from their equilibrium for 60 countries over 1965-2003 using panel and time series cointegration methods. Using dynamic panel data techniques we find that RER misalignments hinder growth but the effect is non-linear: growth declines are larger, the larger the size of the overvaluation. Although large undervaluations hurt growth, small to moderate undervaluations enhance growth. However, we find that it is difficult to follow a pro-growth RER policy. Finally, growth is hampered by highly volatile RER misalignments.

An unexpected bird in Honkai: Star Rail and China’s war on sparrows

Source at https://jgeekstudies.org/.In April 2023, the gacha game Honkai: Star Rail was launched, published by miHoYo/HoYoverse, a Chinese company now very famous for its hit game Genshin Impact. The game is a space opera focusing on a group of interstellar adventurers that travels across the universe to eliminate dangerous artifacts known as Stellarons. The player builds their team with a variety of anime-style characters (23 in total as of writing) earned from a brutal1 gacha mechanic

Joining the dots: systematics and biogeography of Punctoidea land snails

Academic lecture at the conference ForBio Annual Meeting 2022, 28.11.22 - 30.11.22, Trondheim, Norway, arranged by ForBio: https://www.forbio.uio.no/</a

Phylogenetic position of African punctoid snails (Stylommatophora, Punctoidea, Trachycystinae)

The punctoid land snail family Charopidae, as currently defined, is a paraphyletic assemblage of taxa with Gondwanan distribution. It is represented in Africa largely by the pinwheels (genus Trachycystis and allies) and afrodontas (genus Afrodonta and allies), as well as a few additional genera, such as Reticulapex, Pilula, and Helenoconcha. Herein, a Bayesian inference phylogenetic analysis (using four molecular markers) is conducted to test whether these taxa belong to the Charopidae and, if so, what their position is in the phylogenetic tree. It is concluded that Reticulapex and Pilula do not belong to the Punctoidea and are thus transferred to the Acavidae and Helicarionoidea, respectively. The pinwheels and afrodontas form a monophyletic group, the most basal branch of “Charopidae”, here classified as the subfamily Trachycystinae. It possibly represents an old southern African lineage potentially dating back to the split of Gondwana, while the remaining “Charopidae” and Punctidae can be found in Zealandia and Australia, and later, in the Americas and Europe. If further studies support the present findings, the elevation of Trachycystinae to the family level might be warranted. Finally, Flammoconchinae is also identified as a New Zealand subfamily of “Charopidae”

Cicadas in Japanese video games and anime

Source at https://jgeekstudies.org/.If you ever watched an anime, chances are at some point you have heard an incessant buzzing sound in the background. Those are cicadas, the sound of summer in Japan. Summer only truly arrives when the cicadas start singing (Kendall, 2014). Whenever it is summer in an anime, TV series, movie, or game, you can be almost sure to hear cicadas on the background. Their sound is an easy and straightforward way to set the atmosphere and impart the feel of a Japanese summer (McKirdy, 2019). Many people don’t pay much attention to nature, be it the real thing or in fiction, so if you think you have never heard cicadas, just go back to one of the almost-mandatory episodes in your favorite anime (summer holidays, festival/fireworks, beach trip) and check it out. They are so prominent that, as a Redditor put it, they are the best supporting character in every anime

The sea slugs of Shiroi Suna no Aquatope

Source at https://jgeekstudies.org/.Shiroi Suna no Aquatope (白い砂のアクアトープ) is a new anime by P.A. Works that started airing in the summer season of 2021 (Fig. 1). In a broad sense (to avoid spoilers), the anime focuses on the daily life of the staff working in a small aquarium in Okinawa. Its official title in English is The Aquatope on White Sand and, from this point on, we’ll refer to it as Aquatope for simplicity

Testing the Astolfo Effect on newly-released servants in Fate/Grand Order

Source at https://jgeekstudies.org/.Back in 2021, we wrote an article defining the Astolfo Effect. That is what happens when a pop culture representation of a character (fictional or otherwise) becomes more popular than the original. We named it after Astolfo, one of Charlemagne’s paladins and arguably an obscure character in the works that make up the Matter of France and in later literature related to it (such as Orlando Furioso, in which Astolfo plays an important role). Astolfo only achieved great popularity due to his incarnation in the light novel/manga/anime Fate/Apocrypha and the game Fate/Grand Order (henceforth FGO)

A new species of Megalobulimus from the early Holocene of southeastern Brazil (Gastropoda, Strophocheilidae)

A new species of megasnail, Megalobulimus diluvianus sp. nov., is herein described based on subfossil material from limestone caves in the area of Lagoa Santa, Minas Gerais state, southeastern Brazil. The specimens come from a context of archaeological strata of early Holocene age. Considering the morphological features of the shell, the new species seems closely allied to the so-called “Megalobulimus bronni complex”, whose representatives inhabit the tropical to subtropical Atlantic plateau of southeastern Brazil. Megalobulimus diluvianus sp. nov. is considered to be presently extinct (substituted by M. oblongus in the stratigraphical record)

Diseño : potenciador de bienes culturales

Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Unidad Azcapotzalco, División de Ciencias y Artes para el Diseño, Departamento de Investigación y Conocimiento para el Diseño. 1 archivo PDF (18 páginas)El objetivo de este trabajo es reflexionar en torno a la problemática que el papel del diseño ha enfrentado ante el cauce del desarrollo económico contemporáneo para legitimarse socialmente. En el contexto del paradigma fracasado de “sustitución de importaciones” y en contraposición al modelo consolidado de inversión extranjera directa en el sector manufacturero que derivó en una apertura comercial sin cortapisas. Una alternativa para el diseño es su conceptuación como actividad innovadora y como agente de consolidación de la industria cultural local. Este camino emergente del diseño pretende: impulsar y potenciar las prácticas culturales como bienes culturales, reactivando así la matriz económica; y por otro lado, reconocer la influencia social de su campo transdisciplinar

A new giant petrel (Macronectes, Aves: Procellariidae) from the Pliocene of Taranaki, New Zealand

A new species of giant petrel, Macronectes tinae sp. nov., is described from the Pliocene deposits of South Taranaki, New Zealand. The holotype is a near complete skull and the paratype a fragmentary left humerus; both come from the Tangahoe Formation, dating from the late Pliocene (Piacenzian or “Waipipian”; age estimated as ca. 3.36–3.06 Ma). The new species of giant petrel is the first fossil Macronectes ever reported. It is morphologically similar to the two present-day Macronectes spp., but it was a smaller bird. The skull is diagnosed by its overall smaller size, a proportionately longer apertura nasi ossea, and potentially by a shorter os supraocciptale. The humerus is diagnosed from both species by a proportionately less deep shaft, a more prominent medial portion of the epicondylus ventralis, and a larger and fusiform fossa medialis brachialis. The Tangahoe Formation is proving to be a remarkable source of marine vertebrate fossils and an important piece of the puzzle in understanding the evolution and biogeography of seabirds