Territorial Analysis of the European Rural Development Funds (ERDF) as a Driving Factor of Ecological Agricultural Production

The Europe 2030 project identified the need to create a growth model that is based on a dynamic balance between economic, social, and environmental dimensions. This involves, among other objectives, redirecting the resources that are allocated to the Common Agricultural Plan (CAP) toward more ecological agriculture and livestock. In recent decades, two packages of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) approved funds for projects related to agriculture. This study carried out a regional evaluation of the effects on production and employment that were generated in the Spanish organic farming sector. For this, a methodology that is frequently used by researchers to analyze territorial differences was used, namely, the shift-share analysis. The main results showed important differences at the regional level in the production of crops. Likewise, constant shift and constant share analyses were used to forecast the evolution of the sector from the recent data. Pending the approval of the new EAFRD 2021–2030, the results obtained in this research allowed for the identification of the regions that showed a favorable evolution to change the agricultural model and to identify the projects that generated employment and ecological production in the sector.

Shifting the goalposts: postcolonial Africa and the West in the global 'two publics' of the development paradigm

<p>Heretofore, development studies seldom focus on the systemic twists of capitalism and the colonial past that contributed immensely to dislocate the African states as global financial competitors. The article engages the nagging reconstruction of Africa’s development discourse, in particular, the debate about the fallout of global development paradigm that created ‘two publics’ of the West and others. The global economic order metamorphosed from mutuality interface into subordinate-superordinate relations. The aberration negates the <i>freedom of the impoverished to trade </i>and, specifically, made economic transformation in post-colonial Africa forlornly challenging—not necessarily for being a poor player but for the constant shift in the goalposts.</p>

Shifting the goalposts: postcolonial Africa and the West in the global 'two publics' of the development paradigm

<p>Heretofore, development studies seldom focus on the systemic twists of capitalism and the colonial past that contributed immensely to dislocate the African states as global financial competitors. The article engages the nagging reconstruction of Africa’s development discourse, in particular, the debate about the fallout of global development paradigm that created ‘two publics’ of the West and others. The global economic order metamorphosed from mutuality interface into subordinate-superordinate relations. The aberration negates the <i>freedom of the impoverished to trade </i>and, specifically, made economic transformation in post-colonial Africa forlornly challenging—not necessarily for being a poor player but for the constant shift in the goalposts.</p>

Evaluation of the Effects on Regional Production and Employment in Spain of the Renewable Energy Plan 2011–2020

The Renewable Energy Plan for the period 2011–2020 established as a general goal to ensure that renewable sources represent at least 20% of final energy consumption in 2020, together with a minimum contribution of 10% from renewable energy sources in transportation for that year. Then, the goal of this research is to evaluate the effects of the regional production of clean energy, identifying the employment generated in the renewable sector. The adopted methodology was the shift-share analysis, frequently used by researchers to analyze territorial differences. Main results showed important differences, at regional level, in the production of this type of energy. Likewise, we used constant shift and constant share methodology to make a forecast on the evolution of the sector from the data of last published years. Pending the approval of the new Renewable Energy Plan for the period 2021–2030, the results obtained in this research allow the identification of the regions that showed a favorable evolution to the energy change and identifies the projects that generate employment and production in the sector.

BicGO: a new biclustering algorithm based on global optimization

Recognizing complicated biclusters submerged in large scale datasets (matrix) has been being a highly challenging problem. We introduce a biclustering algorithm BicGO consisting of two separate strategies which can be selectively used by users. The BicGO which was developed based on global optimization can be implemented by iteratively answering if a real number belongs to a given interval. Tested on various simulated datasets in which most complicated and most general trend-preserved biclusters were submerged, BicGO almost always extracted all the actual bicluters with accuracy close to 100%, while on real datasets, it also achieved an incredible superiority over all the salient tools compared in this article. As far as we know, the BicGO is the first tool capable of identifying any complicated (e.g., constant, shift, scale, shift-scale, order-preserved, trend-preserved, etc), any shapes (narrow or broad) of biclusters with overlaps allowed. In addition, it is also highly parsimonious in the usage of computing resources. The BicGO is available at https://www.dropbox.com/s/hsj3j96rekoks5n/BicGO.zip?dl=0 for free download.

The Role and Potential Dangers of Visualisation when Learning about Sub-Microscopic Explanations in Chemistry Education

The core of theory-driven chemistry education consists of the constant shift between the different representational domains of chemical thinking: the macroscopic, the sub-microscopic, and the symbolic domains. Because the sub-microscopic domain can neither be seen nor directly visualised, it requires specific forms of visualisation, i.e. pictures andanimations illustrating the model-based level of discrete particles, atoms, or molecular structures. This paper considers the central role visualisations play when learning about the model-based, sub-microscopic level, but it also reflects the dangers inherent in employing insufficiently examined, poorly considered, or even misleading visualisations. This is outlined using different examples taken from both textbooks for lower secondary chemistry education (for students aged 10 to 15) and from the internet. Implications for structuring and using sub-micro visualisations in chemistry education are also given.

Efectos de la crisis económica de 2008 sobre el empleo en las cooperativas andaluzas: un estudio del impacto provincial mediante el análisis shift-share

Durante la reciente crisis económica, las cooperativas instaladas en la comunidad autónoma de Andalucía han demostrado ser una opción estratégica de desarrollo territorial con mayor estabilidad en el empleo frente a otras formas jurídicas empresariales. Este comportamiento es una consecuencia de su capacidad para actuar como elemento dinamizador y de adaptación a las singularidades de los territorios sobre los que actúa. Sin embargo, del análisis a nivel provincial efectuado en esta investigación se constata un comportamiento diferenciado, debido en gran medida a la existencia de diferencias socioeconómicas entre ellas. En este trabajo se propone la utilización de la metodología shift-share para determinar sus desigualdades. Su capacidad para analizar la evolución de variables económicas en función de las características territoriales ha justificado su utilización en los análisis de desigualdad interregionales. Asimismo se ha completado el análisis con la aplicación de los modelos predictivos denominados constant share y constant shift. Los resultados muestran diferencias sectoriales provinciales respecto al nivel de comunidad autónoma, tanto en su vertiente de cambio estructural como cambio diferencial o de competitividad regional. Asimismo, los modelos de predicción aplicados a la evolución del número de cooperativas constatan el mantenimiento de las mismas en el tiempo.

The Flux of Transmigrant Identities in Thomas Arslan’s Brothers and Sisters

The paper investigates Brothers and Sisters (Geschwister-Kardeşler, 1995), the first piece of Thomas Arslan’s Berlin-trilogy. While putting the film into the socio-historical context of the newly united German Republic, the study aims to highlight the characters’ struggle and constant shift between their Turkish and German identity. Through the narrative and textual analysis of Brothers and Sisters, the paper reveals the visual forms of social exclusion and concludes that in Arslan’s film, the characters bear with no social identity but various stages of identification, which keep them in an in-between, insecure position.

Spice modeling of ionizing radiation effects in CMOS devices

Electric characteristics of devices in advanced CMOS technologies change over the time because of the impact of the ionizing radiation effects. Device aging is caused by cumulative contribution of generation of defects in the gate oxide and/or at the interface silicon-oxide. The concentration of these defects is time and bias-dependent values. Existing models include these effects through constant shift of voltage threshold. A method for including ionizing radiation effects in Spice models of MOS transistor and FinFET, based on an auxiliary diode circuit using for derivation of values of surface potential, that also calculates the correction time-dependent voltage due to concentration of trapped charges, is shown in this paper.

Images et narration dans l’œuvre de Dany Laferrière

Narrative developments often stem from images in Dany Laferrière’s work. On the other hand, some of the narration in Laferrière’s fiction and nonfiction is synthesized in narrative snapshots that resemble descriptions. Temporal dimension plays a key role in this constant shift between image and imagination, because, as Didi-Huberman has shown, images carry an anachronistic element. This element also allows Laferrière and his narrators to use mainly simple present tense, even when the content of the narration is set in the past. Nevertheless, images are never explained or rationalized in Laferrière’s work, which keeps the mystery and ambiguity that characterize visual representations.