Political institutions and tax rate initiatives.

In a model of a representative democracy, we incorporate into the analysis of tax design the constitutional provision that allows voters to propose tax initiatives. In this paper, we present a theory of tax substitution as the rationale for a tax rate limit (TRL) initiative. In our model the tax system at the status quo is determined by the electoral competition between parties. This political institution aggregates the voters’ preferences for tax policy according to the voters’ marginal proportion of the expected vote that different coalition of voters can deliver in the election. The approval of a TRL, however, depends on the majority rule, and it aggregates the preferences of the median voter of tax initiatives. Thus, a TRL is the result of two political institutions with different mechanisms to aggregate the preferences of voters. Moreover, our paper distinguishes the role of perfect and imperfect information on the distribution of voters´ preferences for tax systems in approving a tax initiative. In this paper we identify conditions on the distribution of preferences and income of the electorate and the median voter that guarantee the approval (rejection) of tax initiatives.Taxation, Tax Limitations, Redistributive Effects, Structure and Scope of Government

Convergence and Divergence in United States and Canadian Cuba Policy Post-1959: A Triangular Comparative Analysis

The main objective of this article is to explore the convergence and divergence in both of these North American nations' Cuba policy. The last 49 years have been full of important and dramatic economic, political, military, and socio-cultural events worldwide that have had an impact on this triangular relationship. Therefore, even the smallest attempt at covering all aspects over such a long period would be worthy of a much lengthier piece of writing. However, an overview of the post-1959 period reveals a remarkable continuity in American Cuba policy. The main objective of successive United States governments, both Republican and Democrat, has been regime change by using a full arsenal of overt and covert means, while Canadian policy has diverged mostly in terms of the means to promote the desired changes that would bring Cuba back to the pattern of Western socio-economic capitalist formation. This article is mainly the result of a study of the initial years of the Cuban revolution, from 1959 to 1962, that were full of defining and transformational events. These events set the tone for the years to come against the backdrop of the prevailing order of international relations resulting from the Second World War and the Cold War.Le principal objectif de cet article consiste à examiner la convergence et la divergence de la politique de ces deux pays d’Amérique du Nord envers Cuba. Au cours des 49 dernières années, il y a eu une foule d’événements importants et spectaculaires sur les plans économique, politique, militaire et socio-culturel dans le monde qui ont eu une incidence sur cette relation triangulaire. Par conséquent, il vaudrait la peine de consacrer un texte beaucoup plus long même à la plus petite tentative d’examen de tous les aspects d’une période aussi longue. Cependant, un survol de la période postérieure à 1959 révèle une continuité remarquable dans la politique américaine à l’égard de Cuba. Le principal objectif des gouvernements américains qui se sont succédés, tant républicains que démocrates, a été de changer le régime en utilisant un arsenal complet de moyens secrets et déclarés tandis que la politique canadienne a divergé surtout du point de vue des moyens utilisés pour promouvoir les changements souhaités qui ramèneraient Cuba au sein des pays capitalistes occidentaux. Cet article résulte surtout d’une étude des premières années de la révolution cubaine, de 1959 à 1962, au cours desquelles il s’est produit un grand nombre d’événements qui ont façonné et transformé la société cubaine. Ces événements ont donné le ton pour les années à venir dans le contexte de l’ordre des relations internationales qui a prévalu par suite de la Deuxième guerre mondiale et de la guerre froide

Observaciones sobre la poesía de Quevedo desde el soneto “Miré los muros de la patria mía”

Se estudia la influencia de la poesía del siglo XV, con poetas como Rodrigo de Cota y Guevara, en la poesía de Francisco de Quevedo, a través del análisis del soneto: “Miré los muros de la patria mía”, en sus dos versiones de 1613 y 1648. En él se evidencia el uso de recursos propios de la poesía cancioneril y se analizan coincidencias léxicas y simbólicas.The influence of the fifteenth century poetry, with poets like Rodrigo de Cota and Guevara, in Quevedo's poetry is analyzed. It's realized through the analysis of the sonnet: "Miré Los muros de la patria mía" in its both versions of 1613 and 1648. It demonstrates the use of resources of cancioneril poetry and lexical and symbolic matches

Neural ODEs with stochastic vector field mixtures

It was recently shown that neural ordinary differential equation models cannot solve fundamental and seemingly straightforward tasks even with high-capacity vector field representations. This paper introduces two other fundamental tasks to the set that baseline methods cannot solve, and proposes mixtures of stochastic vector fields as a model class that is capable of solving these essential problems. Dynamic vector field selection is of critical importance for our model, and our approach is to propagate component uncertainty over the integration interval with a technique based on forward filtering. We also formalise several loss functions that encourage desirable properties on the trajectory paths, and of particular interest are those that directly encourage fewer expected function evaluations. Experimentally, we demonstrate that our model class is capable of capturing the natural dynamics of human behaviour; a notoriously volatile application area. Baseline approaches cannot adequately model this problem

Evolution of the spherical cavity radius generated around a subsurface emitter

The emitter discharge in subsurface drip irrigation can be affected by soil properties. A positive pressure develops at the emitter outlet where a spherical cavity is assumed to form. In steady-state conditions, the pressure in the soil relates to soil hydraulic 5 properties, the emitter discharge, and the cavity radius. This pressure in the soil is very sensitive to the cavity radius. In this paper, the development of the cavity around the emitter outlet was measured for various emitter discharges in laboratory tests carried out in containers with uniform loamy soils. A trend between soil pressure and emitter discharge was established that illustrates the performance of buried emitters in the 10 field. Its application to the prediction of water distribution in subsurface drip irrigation units and its effect on the estimation of irrigation performance is also show

Water distribution in laterals and units of subsurface drip irrigation. II: Field evaluation.

The performance of drip irrigation and subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) laterals has been compared. Two emitter models (one compensating and the other noncompensating) were assessed. Field tests were carried out with a pair of laterals working at the same inlet pressure. A procedure was developed that recorded head pressures at both lateral extremes and inlet flow during irrigation. Both models showed similar behavior and soil properties affected their discharge. On the other hand, the performance of a field SDI unit of compensating emitters was characterized by measuring pressures at different points and inlet flow. Finally, the distribution of water and soil pressure in the laterals and the unit were predicted and irrigation uniformity and soil pressure variability were also determined. Predictions agreed reasonably well with the experimental observations. Thus, the methodology proposed could be used to support the decision making for the design and management of SDI system

Metáforas con futuro Los nuevos medios y la imaginación metafórica

Este artículo pretende repasar la historia de las metáforas que han servidopara explicar los medios de comunicación, desde los medios difusivos,generalistas pero asimétricos, a los medios electrónicos, mucho másinteractivos y cooperativos. Partimos del convencimiento de que lasmetáforas de los medios nos dicen mucho más de la percepción que deellos se tiene, del sentimiento de fortaleza o de debilidad, de oportunidado de amenaza que representan, de lo que pueda hacerlo un manual quedescribe con pretensión de objetividad científica. Más bien sucede que eldesarrollo tecnológico, la sofisticación de los instrumentos y lamultimedialidad de los nuevos medios no desplazan la pulsión metafórica,sino que la exacerban y la convierten en el único modo de entenderlo

Culture in the age of its digital postproduction

De la misma manera que la industrialización de la cultura alteró de manera inédita los límites entre producción y reproducción, así las nuevas tecnologías digitales aplicadas a la cultura han difuminado las fronteras entre ambos términos y los de recepción y postproducción. Hoy día no sólo la reproducción determina y en cierto modo precede a la producción (se produce en vistas a cómo quedará reproducido y atendiendo siempre a los requerimientos de los aparatos, los soportes, los formatos reproductores). Casi cada acto de recepción de la cultura digitalizada circulante (narrativa, música, cine, vídeo) es una invitación a operar de alguna manera con lo recibido, y no sólo a contemplarlo, atesorarlo y preservarlo. Una operación que va desde la difusión al juicio crítico, y de éste a la postproducción más o menos osada. Y vuelta de nuevo a poner el texto en circulación, librado a nuevas manipulaciones. Es más, las estrategias de la producción incorporan de forma creciente la expectativa de la participación táctica del receptor, a menudo la favorecen y se nutren de ellas. El artículo parte de Benjamin como valedor esperanzado de la reproductibilidad técnica (aun a costa del aura) y de la recepción crítica (aunque distraída, dispersa), avanza hasta la cultura digital del uso postproductivo (y del abuso, también), y analiza esa situación con numerosos ejemplos, que obligan a repensar las cartografías de la creatividad, la propiedad intelectual y el disfrute de las ficciones.The industrialization of culture altered the boundaries between production and reproduction. Nowadays information technologies applied to culture have blurred the limits between these two terms and those of reception and post-production. Not only reproduction «precedes» production, and becomes its ultimate purpose (something is produced bearing in mind how it will look or sound once it is reproduced and the devices, supports, and reproductive formats with which it will be reproduced). Almost every act of reception of digitized culture is an invitation for creative intervention, not just an occasion to contemplate, to possess or to preserve it. Moreover, production strategies increasingly incorporate the expectation of audience tactical involvement, and often stimulate it to obtain feedback (and profit). The article begins with Benjamin, hopeful supporter of mechanical reproducibility (even at the expense of the aura) and critical reception (though distracted), and advances to the digital culture of the use -this act of micropirating that constitutes postproduction- with numerous examples that force us to rethink the cartographies of creativity, intellectual property and the enjoyment of fictions

Genome scale metabolic modeling reveals the metabolic potential of three Type II methanotrophs of the genus Methylocystis

Producción CientíficaGenome Scale Metabolic Models (GSMMs) of the recently sequenced Methylocystis hirsuta and two other methanotrophs from the genus Methylocystis have been reconstructed. These organisms are Type II methanotrophs with the ability of accumulating Polyhydroxyalkanoates under nutrient limiting conditions. For the first time, GSMMs have been reconstructed for Type II methanotrophs. These models, combined with experimental biomass and PHB yields of Methylocystis hirsuta, allowed elucidating the methane oxidation mechanism by the enzyme pMMO (particulate methane monooxygenase) in these organisms. In contrast to Type I methanotrophs, which use the “direct coupling mechanism”, Type II methanotrophs appear to use the so called “redox arm mechanism”. The utilization of the “redox arm mechanism”, which involves the coupling between methane oxidation and complex I of the respiratory chain, was confirmed by inhibition of complex I with catechol. Utilization of the “redox arm” mechanism leads to lower biomass yields on methane compared to Type I methanotrophs. However, the ability of Type II methanotrophs to redirect high metabolic carbon fluxes towards acetoacetyl-CoA under nitrogen limiting conditions makes these organisms promising platforms for metabolic engineering.Marie Curie grant H2020-MSCA-IF-2016 CH4BioVal (GA nº 750126).Junta de Castilla y León (Ref. Project VA281P18)Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Proyect CLU 2017-09, CTM2015-70442-R