Business cycle convergence in EMU: A first look at the second moment

We propose the analysis of the dynamics of the standard deviation of business cycles across euro area countries in order to evaluate the patterns of cyclical convergence in the European Monetary Union for the period 1960-2008. We identify significant business cycle divergence taking place in the mid-eighties, followed by a persistent convergence period spanning most of the nineties. This convergent episode finishes roughly with the birth of the European Monetary Union. A hypothetical euro area including all the new members of the recent enlargements does not imply a sizeable decrease in the optimality of the currency union. Finally, the European synchronization differential with respect to other developed economies seems to have been diluted within a global cycle since 2004.Business cycles, business cycle convergence, European Monetary Union

Macroeconomic Aspects of European Integration: Fiscal Policy, Trade Integration and the European Business Cycle

We analyze the role of fiscal policy and intra-European trade in business cycle synchronization in the EU for the period 1995-2008. There is a broad consensus that the relationship between fiscal policy and business cycle comovements and between trade integration and cyclical synchronization are subject to endogeneity problems. We instrument fiscal budget surplus by means of (exogenous) political determinants of fiscal policy acknowledged by the literature, while trade integration is instrumented using covariates which summarize the integration status of countries in the sample, GDP per capita differences with respect to the EU and trade specialization within the EU framework. Our results show that both fiscal policy and trade integration are important determinants of cyclical synchronization. We can conclude that once a high degree of trade integration is reached by countries involved in the European integration process, the role of fiscal policy is particularly relevant and differences in fiscal shocks should be analyzed in detail as a source of coherence in cyclical comovements in Europe. Furthermore, fiscal deficits are shown to be an important potential source of idiosyncratic macroeconomic fluctuations, especially in the eurozone. Our results confirm the rationale of monitoring fiscal developments to assess the adequacy of potential future EMU countries and the need for a broad agreement concerning fiscal policy at the EU level.Monetary union, business cycles, synchronization, trade integration, fiscal policy

Numerical simulation of problems of great deformation in rock masses and its application in mining

The design of a salt working requires detailed studies of the chambers and galleries which will remain opened during the operation. The excavation of the cavity changes the natural distribution of tensions, and the resulting derived cause the flow of salt towards the cavity. The relation between the diverting tensions and the velocity of the associated deformation is defined by a constitutive law depending on temperature. There are a series of computer programs which solve the equations of the thermic and mechanical phenomena, which are used to produce results to compare and combine with the measurements gathered in the mine. So it is a study of the rheologic behavior of a salt material in a visco-elasto-plastic performance, representing such performances by means of programs of numerical simulation based on procedures of finite differences with integration in time

Una aproximación a las nociones de área y perímetro en el ambiente de geometría Cabri

En una primera instancia se aborda una discusión didáctica relativa a los problemas de la enseñanza de las nociones de área y perímetro. En tal sentido, se discute sobre la confusión entre perímetro y área, a la luz de una metodología tradicional basada en el dibujo

Patrimonio minero-metalúrgico de Rodalquilar: Metodología de catalogación y resultados

Para estudiar y conservar el Patrimonio, es necesario desarrollar una metodología para la catalogación y valoración de los elementos patrimoniales. Un caso real catalogación de una antigua zona minera; Rodalquilar (Almería) en el Sudeste de España, es el objetivo del presente trabajo

Refereetrainer: Sistema de entrenamiento para árbitros

Este trabajo es un estudio de caso cuyo objetivo es la elaboración de un programa de entrenamiento para un sujeto que pretende superar las pruebas físicas para árbitros que pretenden ascender a la 3ª División del fútbol español, establecidas por el Comité Técnico Andaluz de Árbitros de Fútbol (CTAAF). Dicho programa de entrenamiento tiene una duración de 3 meses, (12 semanas) con 3 entrenamientos por cada una de ellas. Ha sido elaborado desde un Proyecto de Innovación Docente, el Proyecto Sinergia, en el que se confluyen los conocimientos de diferentes grados, Ingeniería Informática (I.I.) y Educación Primaria, en este caso. Entre otras utilidades, este trabajo puede servir de base para todos aquellos/as árbitros que se encuentren en la misma situación y, carezcan de los conocimientos deportivos o de recursos económicos para poder llevar a cabo un entrenamiento específico para superar las pruebas físicas. A partir de este programa de entrenamiento, un alumno de la universidad de I.I. se encargará de crear una Application (App), en la que se encontrarán todas aquellas sesiones de las que está compuesto el programa. De esta manera, se estará dotando al usuario de las herramientas necesarias para poder realizar un entrenamiento en cualquier lugar del mundo sin la necesidad de tener un entrenador personal cerca de él

Bioethics, mental health and human rights

La disposición legal y los modos de desarrollar el tratamiento médico de la salud mental puede atenderse desde una perspectiva diferenciada de los derechos humanos y de la bioética, o interrelacionada. Con esta segunda opción, la salud mental con respecto a los derechos humanos, se puede abordar desde tres posiciones inherentes a la bioética: en la primera, se trataría del valor que los derechos humanos implican para la salud pública general; la segunda, incluiría algunos principios, normas y procesos con los cuales actúan los psicólogos, psicoanalistas y psiquia¬tras que atienden los múltiples casos de trastornos mentales, y la tercera, que es en la que se centrará el presente artículo, al establecerse como objetivo principal, dos indicadores de salud que ponen en evidencia cómo la estigmación social y la falta de una política sanitaria de desequilibrios mentales específica (no sobre la salud en general), repercu¬te en la poca y deficiente atención a la salud mental aplicada en la mayoría delos países del mundo, y en particular en el caso de México

Analyzing recommender systems for health promotion using a multidisciplinary taxonomy: A scoping review

Background: Recommender systems are information retrieval systems that provide users with relevant items (e.g., through messages). Despite their extensive use in the e-commerce and leisure domains, their application in healthcare is still in its infancy. These systems may be used to create tailored health interventions, thus reducing the cost of healthcare and fostering a healthier lifestyle in the population. Objective: This paper identifies, categorizes, and analyzes the existing knowledge in terms of the literature published over the past 10 years on the use of health recommender systems for patient interventions. The aim of this study is to understand the scientific evidence generated about health recommender systems, to identify any gaps in this field to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG3) (namely, “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”), and to suggest possible reasons for these gaps as well as to propose some solutions. Methods: We conducted a scoping review, which consisted of a keyword search of the literature related to health recommender systems for patients in the following databases: ScienceDirect, PsycInfo, Association for Computing Machinery, IEEExplore, and Pubmed. Further, we limited our search to consider only English-lan-guage journal articles published in the last 10 years. The reviewing process comprised three researchers who filtered the results simultaneously. The quantitative synthesis was conducted in parallel by two researchers, who classified each paper in terms of four aspects—the domain, the methodological and procedural aspects, the health promotion theoretical factors and behavior change theories, and the technical aspects—using a new multidisciplinary taxonomy. Results: Nineteen papers met the inclusion criteria and were included in the data analysis, for which thirty-three features were assessed. The nine features associated with the health promotion theoretical factors and behavior change theories were not observed in any of the selected studies, did not use principles of tailoring, and did not assess (cost)-effectiveness. Discussion: Health recommender systems may be further improved by using relevant behavior change strategies and by implementing essential characteristics of tailored interventions. In addition, many of the features required to assess each of the domain aspects, the methodological and procedural aspects, and technical aspects were not reported in the studies. Conclusions: The studies analyzed presented few evidence in support of the positive effects of using health recommender systems in terms of cost-effectiveness and patient health outcomes. This is why future studies should ensure that all the proposed features are covered in our multidisciplinary taxonomy, including integration with electronic health records and the incorporation of health promotion theoretical factors and behavior change theories. This will render those studies more useful for policymakers since they will cover all aspects needed to determine their impact toward meeting SDG3.European Union's Horizon 2020 No 68112