Foreign direct investment: a tool or a target for industrial policy in Eastern Countries?

Is there any linkage between industrial policy and the inflow of Foreign Direct Investment in Eastern European countries? This is the core question which is analysed and discussed in this paper. The transition process of Central and Eastern Europe to a market economy has raised a lot of challenging questions both to Applied Economics and to Management Science. Enterprise adjustment remains one of the most interesting and complex as it is closely related to a wide range of economic, policy and management issues. Foreign Direct Investment, privatisation and industrial policy and their sort of linkage, remain some of the most interesting factors in the transition process. It seems that no sharp distinction can be presented between FDI as a target and FDI as a tool for industrial policy, but national differences remain significant as well as enterprises adjustment capacity

Toy Blocks and Rotational Physics

In this paper we summarize the theory of the "falling chimney," which deals with the breaking of tall structures in mid-air, when they fall to the ground. We describe how to reproduce these effects using small-scale models built with toy blocks. We also present an improved and more effective way to perform and analyze these interesting experiments, by using video capture software together with a digital video camera.Comment: 6 pages, including 3 figure

Opiate Drug Seeking and Addiction: The Influence of Sucrose Consumption on the Acquisition and Expression of Morphine-induced Conditioned Place Preferences (CPP)

Sucrose intake may lead to changes in brain and behavior similar to the effects of abused drugs. For example, sucrose may agonize endogenous opiate systems and modulate opiate-seeking behavior. Previous research reported equivocal outcomes where sucrose may either enhance (i.e., cross-sensitization) or attenuate (i.e., cross-tolerance) drug seeking as measured by morphine-induced CPP. The present experiment extends from past work and evaluated the impact of sucrose administered prior to place conditioning. Additionally, unique groups received sucrose prior to tests for CPP to measure sucrose influences on CPP expression. Sprague-Dawley rats (n=24) were assigned to sucrose (15% w/v) or water pre-exposure conditions. Subsequently, subjects received morphine place conditioning where morphine (10mg/kg) was administered on the initially non-preferred side of the apparatus. Three post-tests were conducted and, prior to each test, animals within each pre-exposure group (sucrose or water) received either sucrose or water. Factorial ANOVA was used to analyze data. Results showed robust morphine-induced CPP. Although animals in the sucrose pre-exposure condition displayed enhanced CPP, the outcomes were not statistically significant. The present findings support the value of CPP techniques to measure opiate drug-seeking behavior. Future work may discover the sufficient conditions for detecting sucrose cross-sensitization of morphine CPP

Cross-coupled doa trackers

A new robust, low complexity algorithm for multiuser tracking is proposed, modifying the two-stage parallel architecture of the estimate-maximize (EM) algorithm. The algorithm copes with spatially colored noise, large differences in source powers, multipath, and crossing trajectories. Following a discussion on stability, the simulations demonstrate an asymptotic and tracking behavior that neither the EM nor a nonparallelized tracker can emulate.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Trypanosoma cruzi expresses a plant-like ascorbate-dependent hemoperoxidase localized to the endoplasmic reticulum.

In most aerobic organisms hemoperoxidases play a major role in H(2)O(2)-detoxification, but trypanosomatids have been reported to lack this activity. Here we describe the properties of an ascorbate-dependent hemoperoxidase (TcAPX) from the American trypanosome Trypanosoma cruzi. The activity of this plant-like enzyme can be linked to the reduction of the parasite-specific thiol trypanothione by ascorbate in a process that involves nonenzymatic interaction. The role of heme in peroxidase activity was demonstrated by spectral and inhibition studies. Ascorbate could saturate TcAPX activity indicating that the enzyme obeys Michaelis-Menten kinetics. Parasites that overexpressed TcAPX activity were found to have increased resistance to exogenous H(2)O(2). To determine subcellular location an epitope-tagged form of TcAPX was expressed in T. cruzi, which was observed to colocalize with endoplasmic reticulum resident chaperone protein BiP. These findings identify an arm of the oxidative defense system of this medically important parasite. The absence of this redox pathway in the human host may be therapeutically exploitable

Economic Reforms and Growth in Franco’s Spain

This paper is an attempt at assessing the economic impact of market-oriented reforms undertaken during General Franco’s dictatorship, in particular, the 1959 Stabilization and Liberalization Plan. Using an index of macroeconomic distortions (IMD) the relationship between economic policies and the growth record is examined. Although a gradual reduction in macroeconomic distortions was already in motion during the 1950s, the 1959 Plan opened the way to a new institutional design that favoured a free-market allocation of resources and allowed Spain to accelerate growth and catch up with Western Europe. Without the 1950s reforms and, especially, the 1959 Plan, per capita GDP would have been significantly lower in 1975Spain, Franco’s dictatorship, Economic reforms, Stabilization, Liberalization, Growth

Reduction of the transverse effective charge of optical phonons in ZnO under pressure

This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and AIP Publishing. This article appeared in Appl. Phys. Lett. 96, 231906 (2010) and may be found at https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3447798."From Raman scattering on a-plane wurtzite ZnO crystals we obtained a decreasing splitting between longitudinal and transversal optical phonons with A1 and E1 symmetry as a function of hydrostatic pressure up to 5.5 GPa. Consequently, the transverse effective charge (e∗T) exhibits a strong reduction with increasing pressure, yielding 2.17–14.6×10−3 P/GPa and 2.04–13.7×10−3 P/GPa (in units of the elementary charge) for the A1 and E1 phonons, respectively. We find a clear systematic in the linear pressure coefficient of e∗T with bond polarity for the series of wide-band gap semiconductors SiC, AlN, GaN, and ZnO.DFG, 43659573, SFB 787: Halbleiter - Nanophotonik: Materialien, Modelle, Bauelement

Stabilization and growth under dictatorship: the experience of Franco's Spain

Stabilizing and liberalizing policies are key elements of the Washington Consensus. This paper adds a historical dimension to the ongoing debate by assessing the economic impact of market-oriented reforms undertaken during General Franco’s dictatorship, the 1959 Stabilization and Liberalization Plan. Using an index of macroeconomic distortions (IMD) the relationship between economic policies and the growth record is examined. Although a gradual reduction in macroeconomic distortions was already in motion during the 1950s, the 1959 Plan opened the way to a new institutional design that favoured a free-market allocation of resources and allowed Spain to accelerating growth and catching up with Western Europe. Without the 1959 Plan, per capita GDP would have been significantly lower in 1975.Macroeconomic policy, Stabilization, Liberalization, Growth, Dictatorship, Anti-market policies, Spain

Dynamical spacetimes and gravitational radiation in a Fully Constrained Formulation

This contribution summarizes the recent work carried out to analyze the behavior of the hyperbolic sector of the Fully Constrained Formulation (FCF) derived in Bonazzola et al. 2004. The numerical experiments presented here allows one to be confident in the performances of the upgraded version of CoCoNuT's code by replacing the Conformally Flat Condition (CFC) approximation of the Einstein equations by the FCF.Comment: 4 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in Journal of Physics: Conference Series, Proceedings of the 8th Edoardo Amaldi Conference on Gravitational Wave

Flora algal de la cuenca del río Guadalquivir: Su valor en la determinación de la ecorregionalización de la cuenca

In compliance with the Water Framework Directive of the European Union, we needed to diagnose the ecologic quality of the different sections of the rivers of the Guadalquivir basin. In order to establish a regional classification of the water bodies by a grouping into areas of similar characteristics, we took into consideration the benthic phycologic flora of the Guadalquivir-River basin. Benthic algae, being one of the groups of organisms that best define the water quality of rivers, are useful for characterizing the basin´s ecoregionalization. We collected multihabitat samples in 109 georeferenced reaches and identified 777 algal taxa: 397 Bacillariophyceae (diatoms), 181 Chlorophyta, 148 Cyanoprokariota, 41 Euglenophyta, 4 Chrysophyceae, 3 Dinophyta, 2 Rodophyta, and 1 Cryptophyta. Except for Achnanthidium minutissimum?it being present in nearly all the sites?the species composition enabled the identification of 4 groups: (1) the Sierra-Morena rivers with a predominantly siliceous substrate and concomitantly low mineralized water (< 250 mg/L); (2) the Doñana and lower-Guadiamar rivers of the lower-Guadalquivir with a high relative proportion of sodium; (3) rivers with any kind of disturbance, principally organic contamination, grouped regardless of their geographical location; (4) rivers of high calcium content that, though constituting a heterogeneous group, the majority of which belong to the Betic-Mountain region. According to our results, the subbasin was the one that determined the composition of the periphyton. The categorization of the rivers according to biota obtained in the present work differs from the hydrogeomorphological classification established by the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation.En cumplimiento con la Directiva Marco para las Políticas del Agua (DMA) de la Unión Europea fue necesario diagnosticar la calidad ecológica de los distintos tramos de los ríos de la cuenca del Guadalquivir. Para establecer una regionalización de las masas de agua agrupándolas en zonas de similares características se tomó en consideración la flora ficológica bentónica de la cuenca del río Guadalquivir y su valor en la ecorregionalización de la cuenca debido a que las algas bentónicas están entre los grupos de organismos que mejor definen la calidad del agua de los ríos. Se extrajeron muestras multihábitat en 109 tramos georeferenciados. Se identificaron 777 taxa algales: 397 Bacillariophyceae (diatomeas), 181 Chlorophyta, 148 Cyanoprokariota, 41 Euglenophyta, 4 Chrysophyceae, 3 Dinophyta, 2 Rodophyta y 1 Cryptophyta. Con excepción de Achnanthidium minutissimun, que estuvo presente en casi todos los sitios, según la composición algal pueden identificarse 4 grandes grupos: 1) Sierra Morena, con sustrato predominantemente silíceo y concomitantemente aguas poco mineralizadas (< 250 mg/L); 2) ríos de la depresión del Bajo Guadalquivir, Doñana y bajo Guadiamar con una proporción relativamente elevada de sodio; 3) ríos con algún tipo de perturbación, principalmente contaminación orgánica, agrupados independientemente de su situación geográfica, 4) ríos con alto contenido de calcio en sus aguas que, si bien forman un grupo heterogéneo, la mayoría pertenecen a la región de las Montañas Béticas. De acuerdo con nuestros resultados, la subcuenca fue la que determinó la composición del perifiton. La categorización de los ríos según la biota obtenida en el presente trabajo difiere de la clasificación hidrogeomorfológica establecida por la Confederación Hidrográfica del Guadalquivir.Fil: Casco, Maria Adela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. División Ficología; ArgentinaFil: Reyes, Isabel. Universidad de Sevilla; EspañaFil: Martín, Gonzalo. Universidad de Sevilla; EspañaFil: Fernández, María R.. Universidad de Sevilla; EspañaFil: Sala, Silvia Estela. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. División Ficología; ArgentinaFil: Toja, Julia. Universidad de Sevilla; Españ