Política presupuestaria y elecciones

El carácter cíclico de las elecciones ha originado el estudio del efecto que esta periodicidad puede ejercer sobre la política fiscal de los gobiernos, surgiendo así el análisis del Ciclo Político Presupuestario (CPP). El objetivo de este trabajo es realizar un repaso de la literatura existente sobre los cambios en la política presupuestaria con origen en las elecciones, motivados principalmente por un comportamiento oportunista de los gobernantes. Además se analizan cuestiones como los determinantes de la magnitud de los ciclos o su efecto sobre la reelección de los gobiernos. La literatura muestra que, además de incrementos en el gasto antes de las elecciones o recortes de impuestos, algunos gobernantes cambian la composición del gasto preelectoral con el objetivo de conseguir más votos. Sin embargo, este tipo de comportamientos oportunistas no siempre se traduce en una recompensa para los gobernantes. Asimismo, cabe destacar que factores tales como el nivel de desarrollo del país, el nivel de transparencia fiscal o la libertad de los medios de comunicación son algunos de los factores que pueden influir en el tamaño de los CPP, siendo fundamentalmente en las democracias más recientes, en donde la falta de información por parte de los votantes, hace que se produzcan este tipo de comportamientos oportunistas.The cyclical nature of elections has aroused interest in how the electoral calendar affects government fiscal policy, and has motivated analysis of the Political Budget Cycle (PBC). The aim of this paper is to provide a literature review, and to develop a database gathering the most relevant results on changes in fiscal policy originated by elections, primarily motivated by governments’ opportunistic behaviour. We also analyse issues such as what determines cycle magnitude or its effect on the probability of governments’ reelection. The literature shows that in addition to spending increases or tax cuts before elections, some governments change the composition of pre-election spending in an attempt to win more votes. However, this type of opportunistic behavior does not always bring rewards. The literature also reports that level of development of the country, level of fiscal transparency, and media freedom are some of the factors that can influence the length of the PBC. It is mainly in emerging democracies where the lack of information made available to voters leads to such opportunistic behaviour on the part of the government

Defending Hermeneutics

This article offers several perspectives on the challenges of defending Gadamerian hermeneutics in applied research settings, specifically counselling psychology and nursing. Given the lack of methodological steps associated with the method, researchers employing hermeneutics can be vulnerable to scrutiny from others. We discuss the uncertainty that is inevitable when embarking on hermeneutic inquiry and provide personal accounts of how we have encountered the uncertain nature of hermeneutics

Changes in Pre-Service Teacher Personal and Professional Attitudes Following a Comprehensive School Health Course

Comprehensive school health (CSH) is a framework that can support teachers in the delivery of health-related content as well as supporting health promotion within the school community. In this study, 222 Bachelor of Education students completed surveys at the beginning and end of a mandatory six-week course on CSH with a body weight-neutral focus. Following the course, participants had significantly positively increased attitudes toward CSH, self-efficacy to teach using CSH, and weight-related attitudes. These results support CSH as a useful framework for teachers in their future practice to improve the wellness of students, teachers, and the broader school community.L’approche globale de la santé en milieu scolaire (AGSS) est un système développé pour aider les enseignants à fournir des contenus liés à la santé et à soutenir la promotion de la santé au sein de la communauté scolaire. Dans cette étude, 222 étudiants du baccalauréat en Éducation ont répondu à des sondages au début et à la fin d’un cours obligatoire de 6 semaines sur l’AGSS. À la suite du cours, les résultats des participants s’étaient considérablement améliorés dans les catégories suivantes : leurs attitudes envers l’AGSS, l’autoefficacité d’enseigner en utilisant l’AGSS, et leurs attitudes liées au poids. Ces résultats appuient l’AGSS en tant que système utile pour les enseignants dans leur pratique future afin d’améliorer le bien-être des élèves, des enseignants et de la communauté scolaire en général

La recuperación de arquitecturas efímeras del Movimiento Moderno

El presente Trabajo de Fin de Grado se centra en el estudio de las reconstrucciones llevadas a cabo en el último tercio del siglo XX de algunas arquitecturas efímeras pertenecientes al Movimiento Moderno. Para ello, se han analizado los condicionantes que conllevaron a la revalorización de este movimiento a finales de siglo y la consiguiente proliferación de reconstrucciones de algunos de sus edificios efímeros más representativos. Como muestra de lo anterior, en este Trabajo de Fin de Grado se han analizado cuatro ejemplos de reconstrucciones realizadas en el continente europeo: el Pabellón Alemán de Mies van der Rohe (Barcelona, 1986), el Pabellón de L´Esprit Nouveau de Le Corbusier (Bolonia, 1977), el Pabellón de la República Española de Sert y Lacasa (Barcelona, 1992) y el Café de Unie de Pieter Oud (Rotterdam, 1986); todos ellos, muestras significativas de una nueva concepción de la arquitectura contemporánea

Non-destructive evaluation of carcass and ham traits and meat quality assessment applied to early and late immunocastrated Iberian pigs

Castration is a common practice in Iberian pigs due to their advanced age and high weight at slaughter. Immunocastration (IC) is an alternative to surgical castration that influences carcass and cut fatness. These traits need to be evaluated in vivo and postmortem. The aims of the present work were (a) to determine the relationship between ham composition measured with computed tomography (CT) and in vivo ultrasound (US) and carcass fat thickness measurements, (b) to apply these technologies to early (EIP) and late (LIP) immunocastrated Iberian pigs in order to evaluate carcass fatness and ham tissue composition and (c) to assess meat quality on these animals and to find the relationships between meat quality traits (namely, intramuscular fat (IMF)) and fat depot thicknesses. For this purpose, 20 purebred Iberian pigs were immunocastrated with three doses of Improvac (R), at either 4.5, 5.5 and 9 or 11, 12 and 14 months of age (EIP or LIP; respectively; n = 10 each) and slaughtered at 17 months of age. Fat depots were evaluated in vivo by US, in carcass with a ruler and in hams by CT. Carcass and cut yields, loin meat quality and loin acceptability by consumers were determined. Also, IMF was determined in the loin and three muscles of the ham. Carcass weight was 14.9 kg heavier in EIP vs LIP, and loin backfat thickness (US- and ruler-measured) was also greater in EIP. Similarly, CT-evaluated ham bone and fat contents were greater and smaller for EIP vs LIP, respectively. Loin and ham IMF were also greater in EIP, but the other meat quality parameters were similar. The acceptability of meat by consumers was high and it did not differ between IC protocols. Correlations between several fat depots measured with the different technologies were high. In conclusion, all these technologies allowed fat depot measurements, which were highly correlated despite being obtained at different anatomical locations. (C) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of The Animal Consortium

Software applications for managing digital repositories: an updated review

A review of software applications for managing digital repositories is presented. Information managers have at their disposal several alternatives beyond those that have achieved greater popularity in the area of academic repositories: DSpace and EPrints. Existing alternatives have evolved and implemented mayor improvements in their more recent versions, with the aim of adopting the latest standards for the semantic web and linked data. This paper provides a description of the new features incorporated into the latest versions of the most popular open-source products. The selection has been made using as a reference the information offered by the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC), Digital Curation Center (DCC), National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA), and Open Preservation Foundation. The conclusions of the study indicate that the combined use of different tools is needed to support a complete archive and digital preservation program, as no single application seems to be able to provide the features required for an effective strategy

Understanding consumers' perceptions towards Iberian pig production and animal welfare

The Spanish market offers a greater variety of Iberian pork products. The aim of this paper is to determine the perception of consumers of several aspects of Iberian pig production and animal welfare depending on the consumers' characteristics. Consumers from two Spanish regions (n = 403) answered a questionnaire about their beliefs and the importance of pig production, their purchase intentions and their willingness to pay. Consumers were segmented according to their level of knowledge about Iberian pig production. The results of this work indicate that consumers have poor knowledge about Iberian pig production. Even so, consumers show a remarkable preference for Iberian products, especially when the animals are reared freely and in natural conditions, giving great importance to animal welfare. Consumer preferences indicate the importance of emphasizing Iberian traditional pig product characteristics on the label to promote their purchase choices

La transparencia en las administraciones locales españolas

This article draws on information published by the organisation Transparency International-Spain (TI-Spain) for the period 2008-2014 to analyse levels of transparency in larger Spanish local authorities. The results show an increase in recent years in the information councils disclose voluntarily. Growing demand from economic and social agents calling for greater transparency, and cases of corruption in the public sphere have led to the approval of laws to deal with this question, and which, in consequence, represent an important step forward in the issue of transparency of information in Spanish public administrations.En este trabajo se han analizado los niveles de transparencia de las entidades locales españolas de mayor tamaño, a partir de la información que publica la organización Transparencia Internacional-España (TI-España) para el periodo 2008-2014. Los resultados muestran que en los últimos años se ha producido un incremento de la información que de forma voluntaria divulgan los ayuntamientos. La mayor demanda por parte de los agentes económicos y sociales, que reclaman una mayor transparencia, y la presencia de casos de corrupción en el ámbito público, han provocado la aprobación de leyes que han ido en dicha dirección y que, por consiguiente, han supuesto un paso importante en materia de transparencia de la información de las administraciones públicas españolas