Specialization and Diverging Manufacturing Structures: The Aftermath of Trade Policy Reforms in Developing Countries

Trade barriers have been declining around the world over the last five decades. Countries reduced their tariffs unilaterally as well as concertedly in the framework of regional integration agreements. As a consequence, trade flows among economies have substantially intensified. According to economic theory, this should have had a significant impact on the countries’ specialization patterns. However, to our knowledge, there is no direct robust econometric evidence on the effect of trade policy on the overall degree of countries’ specialization. This paper aims at filling this gap in the literature. We focus on ten Latin American countries members of the LAIA (Latin American Integration Association) over the period 1985-1998. These countries are natural case studies because in the last two decades they implemented road and comprehensive trade liberalization programs, both generally and preferentially, starting from relatively high tariff protection levels. Our econometric results suggest that reducing own MFN tariffs is associated with increasing manufacturing production specialization. Furthermore, we find that preferential trade liberalization and differences in the degree of unilateral openness have resulted in increased dissimilarities in manufacturing production structures across countries. These results are robust to the specialization measure being used, the correction for groupwise heteroscedasticity, cross-sectional correlation, serial correlation and endogeneity biases, and the inclusion of indicators to account for the real exchange misalignment prevailing in the region during the period under examination.Specialization, Trade Policy, Latin America

Complements or Substitutes? Preferential and Multilateral Trade Liberalization at the Sectoral Level

This paper explores the relationship between preferential and multilateral trade liberalization at the sectoral level using a unique dataset that includes data on most favored nation (MFN) and bilateral preferential tariffs at the 4-digit ISIC level for 11 Latin American countries over the period 1985–2005. We find evidence of heterogeneity across sectors. While in some industries, complementary effects between both kinds of trade liberalization are observed, in others no significant links are detected and—in a few cases—even substitutability seems to prevail. Variation across sectors appears to be systematically related to both import demand elasticities and countries’ sectoral comparative advantages.Trade liberalization; regionalism; Latin America

Ultrasound enhancement of near-neutral photo-Fenton for effective E. coli inactivation in wastewater

In this study, we attempt for the first time to couple sonication and photo-Fenton for bacterial inactivation of secondary treated effluent. Synthetic wastewater was subjected to sequential high-frequency/low power sonication, followed by mild photo-Fenton treatment, under a solar simulator. It was followed by the assessment of the contribution of each component of the process (Fenton, US, hv) towards the removal rate and the long-term survival; sunlight greatly improved the treatment efficiency, with the coupled process being the only one to yield total inactivation within the 4-h period of treatment. The short-term beneficial disinfecting action of US and its detrimental effect on bacterial survival in long term, as well as the impact of light addition were also revealed. Finally, an investigation on the operational parameters of the process was performed, to investigate possible improvement and/or limitations of the coupled treatment; 3 levels of each parameter involved (hydraulic, environmental, US and Fenton) were tested. Only H2O2 increased improved the process significantly, but the action mode of the joint process indicated potential cost-effective solutions towards the implementation of this method. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Preprin

Introduction:Accountability and datafication in education: Historical, transnational and conceptual perspectives

Accountability has become a buzzword used not only in media and academic debates, but also at the political, regulatory and legislative levels. This chapter summarizes in conceptual terms the notion of performance-based accountability (PBA) and elaborates how and why it could be considered as a policy instrument, that is related to data and quantification, from a political sociology perspective. It presents the main inquiry lines in the configuration of a comprehensive research agenda on accountability, datafication and education, and how the book’s contents relate to it. The performance-based accountability mechanisms are the bearers of a redefinition of governance and regulations existing between the state and the organizations and actors in the field of education. They redefine the relationships and roles between governors and governed, establishing new objects, new modalities and new accountability and responsibility relationships within the school sector

Using viscosity-modifying admixture to increase the cohesion of low-cement concrete mixture

Low-cement concrete (LCC) is made by considering the particle packing of the constituent material. The minimal content of cement paste is achieved by optimizing the coarse and fine aggregate particle size gradation to reduce the void volume (Vv) between the aggregate particles. Theoretically, the minimum cement paste can be calculated as the cementitious paste volume (Vp) filling the entire void volume (Vp/Vv = 100%). Practically, low fine or powder material content would reduce concrete mixture cohesion and cause bleeding and segregation. Viscosity-modifying admixture (VMA) can be added as an alternative to adding more cement powder or supplementary cementitious materials to improve the cohesion and stability of the LCC matrix. This study investigated the role of VMA addition in increasing stability in low water to cement ratio (w/c) mortar with an excessive dosage of superplasticizer and in high w/c mortar designed with low cement content. The results showed that adding VMA reduced bleeding and increased cohesion in the fresh mixture, and also increased the compressive strength of the hardened mortar. Although the addition of VMA cannot increase the workability of LCC, it had a beneficial effect when added to an LCC mixture as the 28-day compressive strength of the concrete with w/c of 0.5 was increased from 18.68 MPa to 22.93 MPa by adding 0.4% VMA by mass of cement

Penggunaan Bottom Ash Yang Telah Diolah Untuk Pembuatan Beton Hvfa Mutu Menengah

Bottom ash merupakan limbah pembakaran batu bara dari PLTU. Di Indonesia pemanfaatan bottom ash sebagai material konstruksi belum maksimal. Terdapat potensi penggunaan bottom ash sebagai pengganti agregat halus pada beton. Dalam penelitian ini, bottom ash akan diberikan treatment ayak dan tumbuk sebelum digunakan sebagai pengganti agregat halus pada beton high volume fly ash (HVFA). Pengujian awal dilakukan dengan menguji karakteristik dari pasir Lumajang dan bottom ash yang akan dipakai seperti water content, analisa ayakan, dan fineness modulus. Pengujian kuat tekan dan slump test dilakukan pada beton HVFA yang menggunakan pasir Lumajang dibandingkan dengan beton HVFA yang menggunakan bottom ash yang telah diberi treatment. Dari penelitian ini, didapatkan hasil bahwa semakin banyak persentase penggantian pasir Lumajang dengan bottom ash maka semakin banyak pula penurunan kekuatan dan workability dari beton HVFA. Penurunan workability dapat diatasi dengan memberikan treatment penumbukan pada bottom ash

Desarrollo de una aplicación web para el área de calidad de la Clínica El Golf – San Isidro

La presente tesis comprende como objetivo principal es iidentificar el grado de la capacidad de percepción de la adecuación para la aplicación web para el área de calidad en la Clínica El Golf – San Isidro. Para el desarrollo de la aplicación web, se empleó la metodología OOHDM, gracias por sus fases de desarrollo como obtención de requerimientos, diseño conceptual, diseño navegacional, diseño de interfaz abstracta e implementación. La investigación fue de tipo aplicada, con un alcance descriptivo y un diseño no experimental de tipo transversal descriptivo con enfoque cualitativo. La población fue de 40 usuarios. La técnica de recolección de datos se utilizó encuesta y el instrumento cuestionario, los cuales fueron validados y firmamos por 2 expertos de la escuela de ingeniería de sistemas de la universidad cesar vallejo en las cuales emitieron un resultado de opinión aplicable. La confiabilidad del instrumento se realizó el alfa de Cronbach cuyo valor fue 0.858. En conclusión, las 40 personas encuestadas, el 97.5% indica que el software tiene el grado alto de usabilidad y como objetivos específicos, el 95% a un grado alto de capacidad de percepción de adecuación las personas que afirmaron que la aplicación web cumple con las necesidades según el proceso regular de la clínica, el 92.5% a un grado alto de capacidad de aprendizaje de las personas que afirmaron que la aplicación cumple con que es intuitivo y fácil de aprender, el 97.5% a un grado alto de operabilidad de las personas que afirmaron que el aplicativo web permite que los usuarios puedan operarlo y controlarlo con facilidad, el 95% a un grado alto de protección contra errores de usuario de las personas que afirmaron que la aplicación web tiene la capacidad de proteger a los usuarios de hacer errores, el 97.5% a un grado alto de estética de la interfaz de usuario de las personas que afirmaron que el aplicativo tiene la capacidad de agradar y satisfacer la interacción con el usuario y el 97.5% a un grado alto de accesibilidad de las personas que afirmaron que la aplicación tiene la capacidad que permite utilizar a los usuarios con determinadas características

Epigenetic mechanisms underlying cognitive impairment and Alzheimer disease hallmarks in 5XFAD mice

5XFAD is an early-onset mouse transgenic model of Alzheimer disease (AD). Up to now there are no studies that focus on the epigenetic changes produced as a result of Aß-42 accumulation and the possible involvement in the different expression of related AD-genes. Under several behavioral and cognition test, we found impairment in memory and psychoemotional changes in female 5XFAD mice in reference to wild type that worsens with age. Cognitive changes correlated with alterations on protein level analysis and gene expression of markers related with tau aberrant phosphorylation, amyloidogenic pathway (APP, BACE1), Oxidative Stress (iNOS, Aldh2) and inflammation (astrogliosis, TNF-¿ and IL-6); no changes were found in non-amyloidogenic pathway indicators such as ADAM10. Epigenetics changes as higher CpG methylation and transcriptional changes in DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) family were found. Dnmt1 increases in younger 5XFAD and Dnmt3a and b high levels in the oldest transgenic mice. Similar pattern was found with histone methyltransferases such as Jarid1a andG9a. Histone deacetylase 2 (Hdac2) or Sirt6, both related with cognition and memory, presented a similar pattern. Taken together, these hallmarks presented by the 5XFAD model prompted its use in assessing different potential therapeutic interventions based on epigenetic targets after earlier amyloid deposition.This study was supported by Spanish MINECO, and the European Regional Development Funds (SAF-2012- 39852, BFU2013-48822-R and CSD2010-00045). CGF, AC, and MP belong to 2014 SGR 525; and SS and CS to 2014 SGR 625.Peer Reviewe