Business services and the changing structure of European economic growth

A pervasive trend that characterised the past two decades of European economic growth is that the share in the economy of commercial services, and particularly business services, grows monotonically, and this mainly to the expensive of the manufacturing sector. The structural shift reflects a changing and increasingly complex social division of labour between economic sectors. The fabric of inter-industry relations is being woven in a new way due to the growing specialisation in knowledge services, the exploitation of scale economies for human capital, lowered costs of outsourcing in-house services, and the growing encapsulation of manufacturing products in a 'service jacket'. Business services, which inter alia includes the software industry and other knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS), play a key role in many of these processes. We argue that in recent decades business services contributed heavily to European economic growth, in terms of employment, productivity and innovation. A direct growth contribution stems from the business-services sector's own remarkably fast growth, while an indirect growth contribution was caused by the positive knowledge and productivity spill-overs from business services to other industries. The spill-overs come in three forms: from original innovations, from speeding up knowledge diffusion, and from the reduction of human capital indivisibilities at firm level. The external supply of knowledge and skill inputs exploits positive external scale economies and reduces reduces the role of internal (firm-level) scale (dis)economies associated with these inputs. The relatively low productivity growth that characterises some business-services sectors may be a drag on the sector's direct contribution to overall economic growth. The paper argues that there is no reason to expect a "Baumol disease" effect as long as the productivity and growth spill-overs from KIBS to other economic sectors are large enough. Finally, the paper concludes by pinpointing some policy 'handles' that could be instrumental in boosting the future contibution of business services to overall European economic growth.

Services in European Policies. Bruges European Economic Policy (BEEP) Briefing 16/2007

This paper’s objective is twofold. Firstly, it presents the case for services-related policies in the current European Union (EU). The services economy is frequently misunderstood, due to old and new myths that stem from the classic economic tradition. These myths obscure the role of the services economy in economic development. Nonetheless, the European services economy faces specific problems, such as lack of market integration, which amplifies arguments that justify policy actions toward services within a framework where market and systemic failures do apply. Secondly, this paper focuses on existing services-policies at the EU level, paying special attention to the internal market for services policies and to the complementary role of primarily non-regulatory policies. Within a comprehensive policy framework, each individual policy will have a higher impact, improved implementation and easier acceptance. Synergies among services-related policies should be promoted; the internal market policies, enterprise and industrial policies, competition policies and regional policies may take the lead in such a framework. Since the Lisbon Strategy, services have begun to gain recognition in EU policy agendas. This paper attempts to increase their visibility and to highlight their crucial role in European integration and in economic growth and social welfare

The growth of business services and the economic cycle

Business services have become one of the most dynamic activities in modern economies. Their high growth rates in value added and employment support its outstanding position. The paper identifies short-term cyclical and long-term structural components in the business services growth. The relationship between business services and the economic cycle and the wide spectrum of reasons explaining structural growth are also analysed. The conclusions point out the importance of business services for economic progress of current economies. It seems that the structural component is more relevant than the cyclical one. The available data for some main OECD countries show that there is still a potential margin for further structural growth for business services. Some policies implications can be drawn from all this.

Pablo Ramos : Un corpus abierto, un archivo en diálogo

Este trabajo plantea el estudio de un archivo en construcción, el del escritor Pablo Ramos. La reunión de sus textos publicados en libro dialoga con otras versiones de sus obras publicadas en su blog personal, su página de Facebook, entrevistas y planes de escritura. Su permanente diálogo sobre qué es ser escritor o qué es la literatura discute con la mirada de sus lectores y sus críticos. Proponemos identificar los diversos textos que componen un archivo que reúna la(s) palabra(s) del autor y plantear clasificaciones posibles para la variedad de materiales que lo integra

Understanding Their Journeys: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study on the Lived Experiences of Noncredit Homeless Students

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of noncredit homeless students enrolled in a retention model program at a noncredit community college institution. The lived experiences of noncredit homeless students were generally defined as homeless adult learners enrolled in a noncredit community college institution participating in a retention model program. Retention was generally defined as keeping students enrolled each term or term to term. The research examined noncredit homeless students’ basic needs, barriers to retention, and motivation to stay enrolled. The theory guiding this study was Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which provided a holistic approach to students’ motivation by meeting physiological, emotional, social, and intellectual needs. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs provided a theoretical context for retention model program coordinators to design and implement best practice programs. The central research question was what are the lived experiences of noncredit homeless students enrolled in a retention model program? This hermeneutic phenomenological study was conducted through interviews, focus groups, and document review of anecdotal writings with 18 noncredit homeless students enrolled in a retention model program. Qualitative data analysis procedures were used to understand, contextualize, theorize, and synthesize data to interpret the basic needs, barriers to retention, and motivation to stay enrolled of noncredit homeless students. Thematic findings for this study are basic needs insecurities, safety, and social-emotional attributes of motivation that describe and interpret the lived experiences of noncredit homeless students enrolled in a retention model program

Sectoral innovation performance in the knowledge intensive services

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USING ART EDUCATION TO CULTIVATE SELF-EFFICACY AND DIVERGENT THINKING

The purpose of this study is to understand the experiences of an art teacher implementing art education with creative learning principles to cultivate students’ creative self-efficacy and divergent thinking at one middle school in the Inland Empire located in Southern California. The research continues to focus on how self-efficacy and divergent thinking cultivate through the process of art creation through project-based learning (Puente-Díaz & Cavazos-Arroyo, 2017). An art education is not a requirement for students to receive throughout their PK-12 general education in low socioeconomic schools due to an emphasis on the general education curriculum to focus on high-stakes standardized testing (Wexler, 2014). For students in California, one art course is a requirement to graduate from high school (California Department of Education, 2020). The framework of this study uses critical race theory and critical pedagogy to examine students in low socioeconomic communities and inequitable opportunities to cultivate self-efficacy and divergent thinking when compared to more affluent communities (Puente-Díaz & Cavazos-Arroyo, 2017; Reichelt et al., 2019)

Peroxide promoted catalytic wet air oxidation of phenolic aqueous solutions using activated carbon as catalyst

Tesi Alícia RubalcabaLa creixent complexitat dels efluents residuals així com la manifesta oposició pública cap a determinades tècniques convencionals per a la gestió de residus, com és la incineració, ha accelerat el desenvolupament de tractaments econòmics i respectuosos amb el medi ambient. Hi ha pocs dubtes sobre que els processos de degradació biològica continuïn sent els més utilitzats pel tractament d'aigües residuals. Malgrat això, quan els processos biològics s'apliquen al tractament d'efluents industrials, no sempre arriben a nivells de depuració satisfactoris, ja que moltes substàncies orgàniques produïdes per les indústries químiques són inhibidores, tòxiques o resistents a l'oxidació biològica. L'Oxidació Humida Catalítica (CWAO, de l'anglès Catalytic Wet Air Oxidation) és una de les tecnologies més prometedores per al tractament d'aigües que continguin una alta càrrega orgànica o amb presència de contaminants biotòxics. A més a més, el procés CWAO ha demostrat recentment la seva eficàcia com a pretractament químic, produint efluents que poden ser tractats posteriorment mitjançant un sistema biològic. Una opció per suavitzar les condicions d'operació de la CWAO o per al tractament de contaminants resistents a aquest procés és afegir petites quantitats d'un oxidant més potent que l'aire, com ara el peròxid d'hidrogen. Aquest procés s'anomena Oxidació Humida Catalítica Promoguda amb Peròxid d'Hidrogen (PP-CWAO, de l'anglès Peroxide Promoted Catalytic Wet Air Oxidation). Per a l'estudi d'aquest procés recentment desenvolupat, l'activitat i l'estabilitat del carbó actiu (AC) s'han provat a la PP-CWAO de solucions aquoses de fenol. Aquest compost s'ha elegit com a model degut a que els residus fenòlics són uns dels contaminants més habituals als efluents de les indústries químiques, que a més es caracteritzen per una elevada toxicitat i una escassa biodegradabilitat. A aquesta tesi, les solucions fenòliques s'han tractat en un reactor de llit fix de goteig a condicions de pressió i temperatura mitjanes (The increasing complexity of wastewater streams as well as the unfavourable public opinion about some conventional waste management techniques, e.g. incineration, is forcing the development of cost-competitive and environmentally acceptable waste treatments. There is little doubt that biological processes will continue to be employed as a baseline treatment processes for most wastewater. However, when biological processes are applied to treatment of industrial effluents, they do not always give satisfactory results, sine many organic substances produced by the chemical and related industries are inhibitory, toxic and/or resistant to biological oxidation. The Catalytic Wet Air Oxidation (CWAO) process is one of the most promising technologies for the remediation of concentrated and/or biotoxic water pollutants, when a stable and active catalyst can be provided. In addition, CWAO has recently proved to be effective as chemical pre-treatment that could give effluents suitable for a subsequent biological end treatment. An alternative to lower CWAO operation conditions or to treat some refractory compounds is to supply little amount of a stronger oxidant such as hydrogen peroxide in a process referred as to Peroxide Promoted Catalytic Wet Air Oxidation (PP-CWAO). To study the potentialities of this newly developed oxidation process, the catalytic activity and stability of activated carbon (AC) was tested in the PP-CWAO of phenolic aqueous solutions. Phenol was chosen as model compound because of phenolic wastes are one of the most prevalent forms of chemical pollutants, characterised by a high toxicity and a poor biodegradability. In this work, phenolic water was treated in a trickle bed reactor (TBR) at mild pressure and temperature conditions (<15 bar, <150 ºC), using air as main oxidant agent and hydrogen peroxide merely being a promoter. First, the synergistic or promoting ability of H2O2 to facilitate the oxidation reaction of phenol over AC was analysed. Secondly, some selected conditions were tested for the oxidation of other phenolic compounds such as o-cresol and p-nitrophenol. Finally, iron containing AC catalysts were prepared and applied to the oxidation of phenol. Results were evaluated in terms or organic load removal and biodegradability improvement. It can be concluded that this newly developed process could be included among chemical pre-treatments for toxic and concentrated wastewater that, once optimised, could lead to innocuous effluents for a subsequent biological process

La superación de las educadoras de círculo infantil dirigida a la rehabilitación de la escoliosis en niños de 3 a 6 años

The research addresses the need to solve the insufficiencies that arise in the improvement of the educators of day care centers for the rehabilitation of Scoliosis in children, a methodological strategy is proposed for the improvement of nursery school educators aimed at the rehabilitation of Scoliosis in children from 3 to 6 years. An initial verification diagnosis was made to measure the level of preparation of the educators, for which different scientific research methods were used that allowed reaching the final results, expressed in the strategy that allowed greater preparation of the educators of daycare centers.La investigación aborda la necesidad de resolver las insuficiencias que se presentan en la superación de las educadoras de círculos infantiles para la rehabilitación de la Escoliosis en los niños, se propone una estrategia metodológica para la superación de las educadoras de círculo infantil dirigido a la rehabilitación de la Escoliosis en niños de 3 a 6 años. Se realizó un diagnóstico inicial para medir el nivel de preparación de las educadoras, se emplearon diferentes métodos de investigación científica que permitieron arribar a los resultados finales, expresados en la estrategia que permitió mayor preparación de las educadoras de círculos infantiles

The Beauty of Living

The CE “The Beauty of Living” encapsulates three main projects: the production of a three songs EP, the development of artist branding and look, and the accompaniment of the music with visuals. With the songs the aim is to finish three songs at a professional level, leaving them ready to be released at a record label. With the visuals, complete visuals for the whole duration of the three songs, so there’s always a background and a story for the music. And the purpose of the artist branding is to have the presentation material ready when releasing the tracks in the future.https://remix.berklee.edu/graduate-studies-production-technology/1160/thumbnail.jp