Public sector wage gaps in Spanish regions.

This paper provides an approximation to the measurement of public sector wage gaps in Spanish regions. By using data from the European Community Household Panel, it is shown that the balance between what private firms pay in the local market and what the public sector pays, differs substantially in different areas of the country. Public sector wage differences among Spanish regions are mostly due to differences in returns, not to differences in characteristics or to selection effects, and are not constant across gender, educational levels, or occupations. Moreover, in those regions where Regional Governments have a higher weight in public employment, public wage gaps are higher and public employers pay higher returns. There also seems to be a cross-regional positive correlation between public wage gaps and unemployment, and a negative one between labour productivity and public wage gaps. Hence, a tentative conclusion is that the incentives to select into the public sector are higher in the low productivity regions, precisely those where scarcity of human capital in the private sector may be the most important factor for explaining economic backwardness.public sector, wage differentials, switching regressions, Spanish regions.

Isolated vacua in supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories

An explicit proof of the existence of nontrivial vacua in the pure supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories with higher orthogonal SO(N), N>=7 or the G_2 gauge group defined on a 3-torus with periodic boundary conditions is given. Extra vacuum states are separated by an energy barrier from the perturbative vacuum A_i=0 and its gauge copies.Comment: 8 pages, no figures, late

Hypoxic Cell Waves around Necrotic Cores in Glioblastoma: A Biomathematical Model and its Therapeutic Implications

Glioblastoma is a rapidly evolving high-grade astrocytoma that is distinguished pathologically from lower grade gliomas by the presence of necrosis and microvascular hiperplasia. Necrotic areas are typically surrounded by hypercellular regions known as "pseudopalisades" originated by local tumor vessel occlusions that induce collective cellular migration events. This leads to the formation of waves of tumor cells actively migrating away from central hypoxia. We present a mathematical model that incorporates the interplay among two tumor cell phenotypes, a necrotic core and the oxygen distribution. Our simulations reveal the formation of a traveling wave of tumor cells that reproduces the observed histologic patterns of pseudopalisades. Additional simulations of the model equations show that preventing the collapse of tumor microvessels leads to slower glioma invasion, a fact that might be exploited for therapeutic purposes.Comment: 29 pages, 9 figure

Geografía, Problemas Sociales y Conocimiento Escolar

La Geografía que se enseña habitualmente en la escuela no suele preparar a los alumnos para comprender y afrontar los graves problemas sociales y ambientales de nuestro mundo. Ello puede observarse, entre otros, en el tipo de conocimiento escolar presente en los libros de texto. Pero el mero cambio del conocimiento escolar de dichos libros no sería una solución suficiente; es necesario un verdadero cambio de la cultura escolar. En ese sentido, trabajar en torno a problemas sociales relevantes, con una perspectiva de investigación escolar, es una alternativa que puede contribuir a la transformación de la educación escolar y, al mismo tiempo, al desarrollo profesional de los profesores.Geography usually taught at school frequently does not prepare students to understand and confront the serious social and environmental problems of our world. It can be observed, among others, in the type of school knowledge in the text books. But the simple change of knowledge in these books would not be a sufficient solution; a real change of school culture is necessary. In this sense, to work on relevant problems, with a perspective of school research, is an alternative that can contribute to the transformation of school education and, at the same time, to the teachers’ professional development

Un Modelo Didáctico Alternativo para Transformar la Educación: el Modelo de Investigación en la Escuela

En el ámbito educativo se suele utilizar el concepto de modelo didáctico para el análisis y para la intervención en la realidad educativa. Este artículo presenta un modelo didáctico renovador, que pretende transformar la educación: el "Modelo de Investigación en la Escuela", asumido en el proyecto curricular "Investigación y Renovación Escolar". En primer lugar, se encuadra dicho modelo en una concepción integradora de la didáctica, para analizar, a continuación, los fundamentos del mismo, constituidos por una perspectiva constructivista y evolucionista del conocimiento, una perspectiva sistémica y compleja de la realidad escolar y una perspectiva crítica de la transformación de la escuela. Sobre esta base se apoyan las teorías didácticas del modelo: una concepción sistémica del aula (y de los contextos escolares) y una teoría de la elaboración y construcción del conocimiento escolar (y del conocimiento profesional). Como síntesis del modelo se destaca la importancia del "principio de investigación", que se aplica al aprendizaje de los alumnos, a la formación profesional de los profesores y a la construcción del conocimiento didáctico.The concept of didactic model for the analysis and intervention in the educational reality is often used in the field of education. This article offers an innovative didactic model that aims at transforming education: the "School Research Model", assumed by the so-called "Research and School Innovation" curricular project. First of all, this model is framed in an integrating conception of didactics, in order to analyse, next, its foundations, based on a constructivist and evolucionist perspective of knowledge, a systemic and complex perspective of school reality and a critical perspective of school transformation. On those bases rest the didactic theories of this model: a systemic conception of the classroom (and of the school contexts) and a theory of the making and construction of school knowledge (and professional knowledge). As a synthesis of the model stands out the importance of "research principle", which is applied to pupils' learning,teachers' professional training and the building of didactic knowledg

Educar para una ciudadanía activa en el espacio municipal. Experiencias de programas educativos en Andalucía

La educación ambiental y la educación para la ciudadanía son temas transversales importantes que pueden ser enseñados de forma conjunta en los centros escolares a través de programas educativos en los que los problemas sociales y ambientales más relevantes de la localidad puedan ser trabajados. Esa enseñanza debería realizarse a través de la participación de los alumnos y alumnas y con la colaboración de toda la comunidad educativa. En este sentido, los programas educativos “Ecoescuela”, “Parlamento joven” y “Seguro que te mueves”, desarrollados en Andalucía (España) facilitan al alumnado la participación comprometida en el desarrollo de su localidad, sin olvidar la escala global de los problemas. Así pueden adquirir las competencias necesarias para desenvolverse como ciudadanos activos, participativos y críticos en el contexto social en el que viven