Religion and Innovation in Europe: Implications for Product Life-Cycle Management

This paper analyzes the relationship between religion and innovation in Europe. To the best knowledge of the authors, no paper has been published about the association of religion with innovation and innovative products and services, at an individual level, for all the countries that belong to the European Union. This is the main goal of our paper. The results show that the orientation of innovativeness depends on religion. This study contains a segmentation of the main religions in Europe, taking into account their innovative profile. Connecting the characteristics of the religious segments found and the innovations life-cycle concept, companies have a tool to manage different innovations’ evolutive stages taking into consideration the religion of their customers. The European policy-makers, still dominated by a traditional innovation approach, gain a demand-side perspective to improve citizen’s innovativeness awareness and acceptance. Finally, religiosity does not seem to have a very strong relationship with attitudes towards innovation once we control for religious affiliation

THE MONETARY POLICY RULE DURING THE TRANSITION TO A STABLE LEVEL OF INFLATION: THE CASE OF COLOMBIA

Abstract. We distinguish two types of monetary policy rules: those depen- dent on particular models and loss functions and those robust to them. While dependent rules are useful for monetary policy implementation, robust rules are powerful tools to characterize the behavior of the monetary authority over a time span. Robust rules are estimated directly from observable data usually under the assumption that the targets, the nominal interest rate and the infla- tion rate are stationary. During the transition from a moderately high level of in°ation to a stable, internationally accepted level ¼, the commitment with this goal imply that the in°ation rate, targets, nominal interest rates and nominal equilibrium interest rates are non-stationary. Acknowledging this later fact has important implications for the dynamic behavior of transmission mechanisms models during the transition. In this note we set up a robust monetary policy rule useful to characterize the behavior of a central bank during the transition to a stable inflation level. As in previous research, estimation may be carried out by GMM on a nonlinear equation. We illustrate these results by charac- terizing the behavior of the Colombian central bank during the period of full in°ation targeting, that is after 2000. Our results agree with the prevailing policy in the sample span: A gentle in°ation stabilization program, a stronger one on the output gap, and a high degree of interest rate smoothing. Combin- ing these evidence with that of previous works our results suggests that the policy rule is time varying, a useful fact for policy implementation.

DOES THE SPOT CURVE CONTAIN INFORMATION ON FUTURE MONETARY POLICY IN COLOMBIA?

In order to asses the credibility of their targets and policies, inflation targeting central banks always keep an eye on market expectations of the future inflation rates and short maturity interest rates. In economies with developed financial markets the prices of financial assets are a prime source of expectations. Thespot curve, in particular, is thought to contain a great deal of information on market expectations. In this paper we study the possibility to obtain market expectations on short maturity interest rates, that is, on the future monetary policy. A natural starting point in the program of deriving expectations from the spot curve is the Expectations Hypothesis of the Term Structure of the Interest Rates. According to this hypothesis the slope of the spot curve, the forward curve, represents the market expectations on interest rates aside from a negligible or at least time invariant forward term premium. For this note we developed a unique database of spot curves spanning the period from Nov-1999 to Sep-2006 in order to test the validity of the Expectations Hypothesis for short maturities in Colombia. Our results indicate that the spot curve contains information on the future behavior of short maturity interest rates only for very short horizons. Moreover, we found that The forward termpremium tend to be time varying. These result comprise in the rejection of the Expectations Hypothesis. Although these results imply that market expectations on future short maturity interest rates can not be obtained as easily as just applying the prescription of the Expectations Hypothesis, they do not Rule out the possibility to obtain market expectations of the future monetary policy from the time series of spot curves.Market Expectations of future Monetary Policy, Expectations Hypothesis, Term Structure. Classification JEL: E43; E44; E52.

Hybrid Organic−Inorganic Solids That Show Shape Selectivity

Hybrid organic−inorganic solids featuring millimolar/gram concentrations of intracrystalline organic moieties and shape-selectivity are synthesized. Pure-silica zeolite beta crystals are coated with zirconia and treated in aqueous sodium hydroxide to create defects and mesoporosity within the crystalline structure. Aminopropyl organic groups are subsequently grafted onto the generated intracrystalline silanol groups. After grafting, characterization data indicate a high organic concentration localized primarily within the intracrystalline voids. Specifically, thermogravimetric analysis shows an organic loading of 0.7 mmol of NH_2/g, ^(29)Si solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra display a quantitative decrease in Q^3 silicon atoms with a corresponding resharpening of the Q^4 resonances, and N_2 adsorption data show a decrease in micropore volume to 0.10 cm^3/g. Knoevenagel condensation reactions are catalyzed by the aminopropyl-functionalized materials using differently sized aldehydes and the results show that the zirconia-protected functionalized solid have shape selective properties

La amenaza para el hombre de los microbios emergentes en un mundo global (Discurso de ingreso como Académico Numerario del Ilmo. Sr. D. Manuel Casal Román, pronunciado el día 15 de mayo de 2014)

En la actualidad a nivel mundial en el mundo global en el que vivimos, los microbios infecciosos que más daño están causando al hombre son un parásito, el causante de la malaria, un virus causante del SIDA y una bacteria, la que provoca la tuberculosis. Los virus más recientes y llamativos, como MERS, en realidad son culpables de pocas bajas, sólo que nos dan miedo por ser más nuevos y desconocidos. Pero pueden llegar a ser peligrosos como el VIH, causante del SIDA. Un nuevo virus con la contagiosidad de un virus respiratorio y la virulencia del VIH sería muy peligroso para la humanidad. Existe la sensación que el hallazgo de nuevos hábitats para especies microbianas conocidos o relativamente desconocidos, es mucho más frecuente que lo que se informa. Hay numerosos factores que determinan la emergencia y reemergencia de nuevos microbios patógenos en el mundo global. A la vista de la creciente lista de enfermedades microbianas emergentes y reemergentes y su presencia en nuevas áreas, parece que la causa fundamental ha sido la migración a lo largo y ancho de nuestro planeta de manera rápida de muchos millones de personas y de especies microbianas con la ayuda del hombre de muchas maneras y formas, y no solo el Cambio Climático y el Calentamiento Global a los que frecuentemente se alude. Una de las medidas fundamentales para plantar batalla a los nuevos agentes infecciosos es la de conocer qué factores se esconden detrás del salto de la barrera de especies. Hemos de ser rápidos en el desarrollo de nuevos diagnósticos microbiológicos o de vacunas y tratamientos nuevos. Hay que estar alerta ante nuevos microbios patógenos para el hombre para predecir y prevenir, o al menos mitigar, las consecuencias de futuras pandemias de microbios emergentes o reemergentes.Today around the world in the global world in which we live, infectious microbes that more damage is causing the man they are the cause of malaria, a parasite, a virus causing AIDS and a bacterium, which causes tuberculosis. The most recent and striking, as MERS, viruses are actually guilty of few casualties, only giving us fear for being new and unknown. But they can be dangerous as HIV, which causes AIDS. A new virus with a respiratory virus infectivity and virulence of HIV would be very dangerous for humanity. There is a sense that the discovery of new habitat for microbial species known or relatively unknown, is much more frequent that what is reported. There are many factors that determine the emergence and reemergence of new pathogenic microbes in the global world. In view of the growing list of emerging and reemerging microbial diseases and its presence in new areas, it seems that the root cause has been the migration to the length and breadth of our planet's quick way to many millions of people and microbial species with the help of the man in many ways and forms, and not just climate change and Global warming that frequently referred to. One of the fundamental measures to battle to new infectious agents is the know what factors lie behind the jump the species barrier. We must be quick in the development of vaccines and new treatments or new microbiological Diagnostics. You must be alert to new pathogenic microbes to man to predict and prevent, or at least mitigate the consequences of future pandemics of emerging or reemerging microbes

Los microbios como enemigos del hombre en el siglo XXI

Apertura del curso académico 2000-2001. Lección inaugura

Deontología de las relaciones públicas y la comunicación : análisis comparativo de los principales códigos

La presente comunicación analiza el desarrollo deontológico que las Relaciones Públicas han experimentado en las últimas décadas. La deontología profesional y su expresión concreta en forma de códigos suponen una consecuencia de un elevado grado de madurez y evolución de la profesión que los genera. Cuando una profesión está en condiciones de plantear y expresar un conjunto formal de normas de autorregulación demuestra un profundo conocimiento de cuál es su función social, además de una sólida cohesión del conjunto de profesionales que la ejercen. No todas las profesiones y disciplinas se encuentran en el grado de madurez requerido para ello, otras están inmersas ahora mismo en el reto de desarrollar su propia deontología. Los libros, los estatutos, los códigos y los diferentes organismos de autocontrol responden a la inquietud creciente entre los profesionales de las relaciones públicas ante el incremento de su responsabilidad en la conformación de la sociedad. Los códigos deontológicos constituyen un compromiso colectivo expresado por escrito. Unas normas autoimpuestas por la profesión con el objeto de servir de guía moral en el ejercicio de sus actividades. En estos años distintas Asociaciones de Relaciones Públicas han formulado diferentes propuestas de códigos. Resulta necesario ofrecer una visión global de la situación deontológica con el objetivo de estructurar lo que podríamos considerar el corpus esencial de nuestra deontología profesional. Para ello, la comunicación que ahora avanzamos realiza un análisis comparativo de los objetivos, los principios y el alcance de los códigos deontológico de las principales Asociaciones Profesionales de Relaciones Públicas, entre otros: el código de Atenas (CERP, IPRA), IABC (International Association of Business Comunicators), Entreprises et Médias, Asociación de Directivos de Comunicación DIRCOM, y el Protocolo Global de Ética en las Relaciones Publicas desarrollado por Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management