Latin American Unions and the Reform of Social Service Delivery Systems: Institutional Constraints and Policy Choice

Recent policy debates on the reform of social service delivery systems focus on the decentralization of services and the introduction of competition in order to improve the quality of services. Despite the common assumption that public sector unions oppose these reforms, their responses were diverse. This paper argues that the structure of union organization and the environment of party and union competition are fundamental for understanding union policy preferences and strategic choices regarding the reforms of social service delivery systems. Mexico and Argentina education and health reforms in the early 1990s are used to illustrate the influence of these institutional features on the policy preferences and strategic choices of public sector unions.

Reforma del sector social en América Latina y el papel de los sindicatos

(Disponible en idioma inglés únicamente) En este trabajo se analiza la reacción de los sindicatos magisteriales y los gremios médicos a una serie de reformas del sector social en la región, incluidos la descentralización, mecanismos de pago a los prestadores de servicios y la introducción de mecanismos de evaluación del desempeño y de prestación privada de servicios. Combina la obra publicada sobre Economía y Politología para comprender las condiciones que moldean diversos patrones de comportamiento de los sindicatos y sus efectos en la aplicación de las políticas. El trabajo sugiere que las principales condiciones que influyen en el comportamiento de los sindicatos en el sector de la salud tienen que ver con la estructura del mercado (tamaño y nivel de competencia), debido a la participación combinada del sector privado y el público en el empleo. En la educación, donde el sector público es la principal fuente de empleo, los alineamientos políticos y las características organizacionales de las asociaciones magisteriales también desempeñan un papel importante para explicar el comportamiento de las organizaciones prestadoras de esos servicios. Se concluye, tomando en cuenta la naturaleza exógena de la mayoría de estas variables, presentando algunas sugerencias de políticas para alinear los objetivos de los sindicatos y los de los diseñadores de políticas mediante reformas de la normativa.

Influence of temperature on the performance of wetlands treating chlorinated volatile organic compounds

Various studies have presented models to predict the performance of constructed wetlands at different temperatures focused on the removal of conventional pollutants, and common configuration of constructed wetlands. Investigations on the effect of temperature on the performance of constructed wetlands treating chlorinated volatile organic compounds are limited to microcosm studies. This study is meant to come up with kinetic and energy balance input data for mathematical models that can be used to predict the performance of upflow constructed treatment wetlands treating chlorinated ethenes and ethanes at different ambient temperatures. Bench scale continuous upflow columns will be conducted to investigate the effect of temperature on the performance of upflow constructed wetlands treating volatile organic compounds (CVOCs). The columns will be packed with two types of wetland bed materials. For the first treatment the constructed wetland will be packed with row crop compost/ soil builder compost/ sand. The second one will be packed with Bion Soil®/Latimer peat/Sand. Both upflow constructed columns will be operated under a controlled environment to simulate field conditions at four phases of temperature (30ºC, 20ºC, 10ºC, and 5ºC). Thermal conductivity coefficients will be determined for wetland bed materials of interest. The results on theses studies will be used as energy balance input data for mathematical models that can be used to predict the performance of upflow constructed treatment wetlands treating chlorinated ethenes and ethanes at different ambient temperatures

The Economic Effects of Unions in Latin America: Teachers' Unions and Education in Argentina

This paper considers the effects of trade unions on the education sector in Argentina. We have provided a substantial amount of new information and we have found useful preliminary results on some of the channels of union influence on the performance of this crucial sector. We find that those provinces where teacher unionism is fragmented, where union density is higher and where political relations with the governor are more conflictual, have more strikes (fewer class days). Based on estimates of education production functions both in this paper and elsewhere, we expect this to translate into lower student performance. We then find a number of weak conclusions related to the impact that unions have on several variables that affect students’ performance (i. e. , teachers’ tenure, job satisfaction, class size, education budget and teachers’ salaries). Reviewing these results, we conclude that the impact of unions on students’ performance depends on the channel and kind of political market where unions operate, but not on the existence of unions per se.

Business of fashion sustainability index : an analysis on willingness to pay, perceived quality and purchase intention

Textile, clothing, and fashion (TCF) industry is one of the most polluting and resourceconsuming industries in the world, second only to the oil industry. In response to social and environmental issues in the fashion industry and pressure from various stakeholders, companies are addressing sustainability issues more than ever. The launch of the Business of Fashion Sustainability Index, which provides information about companies' performance on sustainability goals, is an effort to raise consumer awareness of the practises behind the products they buy. The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of how the BoF Sustainability Index influences consumer purchasing decisions for fashion items. More specifically, an experimental procedure was used to test the effects of BoF Sustainability Index information (high, low, and no information) on fashion product consumption, namely willingness to pay, perceived quality, and intention to purchase footwear. In addition, the effects of demographic variables such as gender, generation, and nationality were also considered. According to the results, the sustainability index influences consumers' willingness to pay, perceived quality, and purchase intention. In general, attitudes toward SI were very positively received by respondents and considered beneficial. The socio-demographic variables used in this experiment were key to understanding the effects of the manipulated variables on the dependent variables.A indústria têxtil, de vestuário e moda (TCF) é uma das indústrias mais poluentes e consumidoras de recursos do mundo, só depois da indústria do petróleo. Em resposta às questões sociais e ambientais da indústria da moda e à pressão de várias partes interessadas, as empresas estão abordando questões de sustentabilidade mais do que nunca. O lançamento do Índice de Sustentabilidade (Business of Fashion Sustainability Index), que fornece informações sobre o desempenho das empresas em relação às metas de sustentabilidade, é um esforço para conscientizar os consumidores sobre as práticas por trás dos produtos que compram. O objetivo deste estudo é obter uma melhor compreensão de como o Índice de Sustentabilidade BoF influencia as decisões de compra dos consumidores de itens de moda. Mais especificamente, um procedimento experimental foi usado para testar os efeitos das informações do BoF Sustainability Index (alto, baixo e nenhuma informação) sobre o consumo de produtos de moda, ou seja, disposição a pagar, qualidade percebida e intenção de compra de calçados. Além disso, também foram considerados os efeitos de variáveis demográficas como gênero, geração e nacionalidade. De acordo com os resultados, o índice de sustentabilidade influencia a disposição a pagar dos consumidores, a qualidade percebida e a intenção de compra. Em geral, as atitudes em relação à o Índice de Sustentabilidade foram recebidas de forma muito positiva pelos entrevistados e consideradas benéficas. As variáveis sociodemográficas utilizadas neste experimento foram fundamentais para entender os efeitos das variáveis manipuladas sobre as variáveis dependentes

Multi-label classification models for heterogeneous data: an ensemble-based approach.

In recent years, the multi-label classification gained attention of the scientific community given its ability to solve real-world problems where each instance of the dataset may be associated with several class labels simultaneously, such as multimedia categorization or medical problems. The first objective of this dissertation is to perform a thorough review of the state-of-the-art ensembles of multi-label classifiers (EMLCs). Its aim is twofold: 1) study state-of-the-art ensembles of multi-label classifiers and categorize them proposing a novel taxonomy; and 2) perform an experimental study to give some tips and guidelines to select the method that perform the best according to the characteristics of a given problem. Since most of the EMLCs are based on creating diverse members by randomly selecting instances, input features, or labels, our main objective is to propose novel ensemble methods while considering the characteristics of the data. In this thesis, we propose two evolutionary algorithms to build EMLCs. The first proposal encodes an entire EMLC in each individual, where each member is focused on a small subset of the labels. On the other hand, the second algorithm encodes separate members in each individual, then combining the individuals of the population to build the ensemble. Finally, both methods are demonstrated to be more consistent and perform significantly better than state-of-the-art methods in multi-label classification

Political Competition and Policy Adoption: Market Reforms in Latin American Public Utilities

This paper shows that political competition generates incentives that affect the pace of adoption of market reforms in the context of policy convergence. Previous work shows the effect of financial and technological pressures in promoting policy convergence and the impact of institutional constraints on shaping the pace of policymaking. Controlling for these effects, this paper demonstrates the policy effects of political competition and ideological polarization between the incumbent and its contenders even at a time when ideological policy differences seem to be fading due to policy convergence. In studying policy adoption, the authors use duration analysis for the 18 countries of Latin America during the 1985-2000 period when most of the market reforms in public utilities were adopted

Estudio analítico de principio activo farmacéutico en un proceso industrial

"Estudi analític d’un principi actiu en un procés industrial” tracta d’estudiar el procés de fabricació de comprimits a la indústria farmacèutica. Les diferents etapes de que consta, maquinaria utilitzada, formulació, etc., Així com els diferents controls que s’han d’efectuar al llarg i després de la fabricació del comprimit per assegurar l’eficàcia, inoqüitat i estabilitat del producte farmacèutic. Des del punt de vista experimental, es tracte l’àcid ascòrbic com a principi actiu, utilitzant com a especialitat farmacèutica que conté Vitamina C el Redoxón. Existeix un detallat estudi sobre l’àcid ascòrbic, característiques generals, estructura, estabilitat,propietats farmacològiques, indicacions i posologia, contraindicacions, reaccions adverses, etc.. amb la finalitat de tenir un ampli coneixement per la seva posterior determinació. Es plantegen tècniques analítiques per la determinació del nostre principi actiu escollit, detallant-se cadascuna d’elles per portar-se a terme experimentalment. Aquestes tècniques son tant qualitatives com quantitatives. Abarquen des de la simple y eficaç volumetria a mètodes més complexes com poden ser les colorimetríes, en les que intervenen en elles una quantitat molt elevada de paràmetres a tenir en conta els quals amb molt petites variacions poden causar una baixa repetibilidad dels resultats dificultant així l’èxit de la determinació. També es dur a terme l’aplicació de dues tècniques analítiques, com son la iodimetria, com a tècnica quantitativa, i la cromatografía en capa fina com a tècnica qualitativa. Detallant-se el procés experimental de la tècnica, el fonament teòric en que es basa l’experiment, així com els resultats obtinguts experimentalment, càlculs i posterior discussió de resultats i conclusions

Recerca en accessibilitat

Aquesta ponència descriu l’activitat de promoció de recerca en accessibilitat que impulsa la Càtedra d’Accessibilitat en el sí de la UPC. Per tant, s’identifica en el tercer bloc temàtic del Congrés: interdisciplinarietat en la recerca.Peer Reviewe