Suchergebnisse

L'objectiu de la tesi es centra en la definició, en l'àmbit de l'ordenament comunitari, de l'actual estatut jurídic dels treballadors extracomunitaris assalariats que formen part del mercat de treball regular d'un Estat membre. Els treballadors nacionals de tercers països que formen part del mercat de treball regular d'un Estat comunitari, així com els membres de les seves famílies, gaudeixen d'un estatut jurídic fragmentat: els seus drets són variables, depenen de la norma que els regula. En aquest sentit, la situació varia en funció de la llei interna de l'Estat d'acollida, l'existència o no d'acords bilaterals entre l'Estat d'acollida i l'Estat d'origen, i les normes de dret comunitari. Aquesta situació també és diferent atenent a l'existència i el contingut d'un acord extern celebrat per la Comunitat i els seus Estats membres i el país de la nacionalitat de l'immigrant, aquest aspecte centra el present estudi. Els acords que s'analitzen són aquells que juntament amb aspectes econòmics, contenen disposicions relatives als treballadors, i que s'han celebrat, prenent com a base jurídica l'actual article 310 TCE, amb països geogràficament fronterers amb la Unió Europea. D'entre ells, el model a seguir és l'Acord d'Associació amb Turquia, que preveu uns objectius més amplis, com ara la creació d'una unió duanera enfront a la zona de lliure comerç prevista en els altres acords i que s'ha desenvolupat mitjançant les decisions adoptades pel seu Consell d'Associació. Aquest acord ha estat objecte d'una àmplia jurisprudència per part del Tribunal europeu, relativa a l'aplicació i la interpretació de les seves disposicions. A fi de delimitar l'abast de les disposicions de l'Acord, i valorar si es tracta d'un estatut privilegiat respecte del dels altres treballadors extracomunitaris, es comparen les seves disposicions amb les corresponents a les dels acords celebrats amb els països del Magreb, entenent per aquests el Marroc, Tunísia i Algèria i amb els 10 països d' Europa Central i Oriental (els anomenats PECO's). A fi de clarificar l'estatut jurídic dels treballadors extracomunitaris, és necessari entrar a considerar altres aspectes directament relacionats amb aquest estatut, com són les condicions d'accés i de permanència en un Estat, matèries, que, fins a l'entrada en vigor del Tractat d'Amsterdam, eren competència exclusiva de cadascun dels Estats membres. De totes maneres, no es fa un estudi comparatiu de les diferents legislacions internes en matèria d'immigració, donat que l'àmbit d'anàlisi es limita a l'ordenament comunitari, i no a l'ordenament intern. La tesi s'estructura en dues parts diferenciades, correspon la primera als 2 Capítols inicials i la segona als altres 3. En els dos primers Capítols se segueix un criteri cronològic, començant amb el Tractat de Roma i culminant amb el Tractat de Niça. En aquests Capítols s'analitzen les possibles bases jurídiques del dret originari que podien haver-se utilitzat, així com la cooperació que varen fer els Estats membres, tant a dins com a fora, de la Unió Europea, en relació a les mesures adoptades destinades a la regulació de l'accés i de l'estatut jurídic dels treballadors immigrants. L'entrada en vigor, l'1 de maig de 1999 del Tractat d'Amsterdam ha suposat un important avenç per a l'atribució de competències a la Comunitat en matèria d'immigració, que queda vinculada al nou objectiu de la creació de l'espai de llibertat, seguretat i justícia. A partir d'aquest moment, s'assumeix la lliure circulació de persones com objectiu propi, que requereix la regulació del control a les fronteres externes, d'asil, de la immigració i de la cooperació dels Estats membres en la prevenció i la lluita contra la delinqüència. Això es concreta en la comunitarització d'una part del Tercer Pilar destinada a visats, asil i immigració, amb l'exclusió del Regne Unit, Irlanda i Dinamarca, i en la integració del cabal Schengen a l'estructura de la Unió Europea, tot i que permetent una exclusió per al Regne Unit i Irlanda. Es crea, doncs, una cooperació sui generis plena de solucions d'enginyeria jurídica, que si bé suposa un avenç, trenca la unitat i l'homogeneïtat del dret comunitari. Tot i aquestes complexitats tècniques que deriven de la reforma del Tractat d'Amsterdam, el nou article 63 en els seus apartats 3 i 4 permet abordar, a través de la coordinació o de l'harmonització, els temes d'interès comú vinculats al fenomen de la immigració. Entre ells, hi ha la possibilitat d'elaborar un estatut comú per als treballadors no comunitaris. Les iniciatives legislatives presentades des de l'entrada en vigor del Tractat d'Amsterdam demostren l'acceleració en l'elaboració i el desenvolupament d'una política comunitària d'immigració, integrada en uns objectius comuns, per primera vegada sembla realista pensar en l'adopció d'un estatut jurídic únic per l'extracomunitari que sigui resident de llarga durada. Tot i que aquest estatut pot quedar configurat com un estàndard mínim de protecció, considero que la seva adopció constituiria un pas de gran rellevància en la clarificació dels drets d'aquest col·lectiu de treballadors. Els altres tres Capítols conformen la segona part de la tesi, dedicada a analitzar l'actual estatut dels treballadors nacionals de tercers Estats. Aquest estatut es caracteritza pel seu caràcter fragmentat, que deriva de la diversitat de les disposicions contingudes en els acords externs. Mitjançant un estudi comparatiu, s'analitzen els objectius, l'estructura, els antecedents i el desenvolupament dels acords celebrats amb Turquia, amb els països del Magreb i amb els PECO's. El contingut dels objectius d'aquests acords constata que ens trobem davant 3 models diferents que reflecteixen una disminució del compromís comunitari. El Tribunal de Justícia, en la seva jurisprudència, ha manifestat que tant els acords externs celebrats per la Comunitat, com les decisions adoptades pels òrgans que els desenvolupen, formen part de l'ordenament jurídic comunitari. El Tribunal de Justícia és l'òrgan competent per interpretar-los, contribuint a clarificar el contingut d'aquests instruments jurídics. Aquesta perspectiva es completa amb l'anàlisi de les nocions que recullen els acords externs, a fi de dilucidar si un mateix terme té idèntic contingut, i si, tot i la diversitat dels instruments jurídics utilitzats, tenen una mateixa interpretació jurisprudencial. Per aquest motiu ha estat necessari, que el Tribunal de Justícia determinés l'abast dels diferents conceptes emprats, i clarifiqués si és el mateix que el relatiu als treballadors comunitaris o és diferent. La redacció dels acords estudiats reflecteix un estatut jurídic privilegiat per als treballadors turcs en relació als altres treballadors immigrants. Els treballadors originaris dels països d'Europa Central i Oriental o del Magreb, podran millorar la seva situació actual en la mesura en què les disposicions dels seus respectius acords siguin, en el futur, desenvolupades. De totes maneres, aquesta situació de privilegi que ha estat un fet fins el moment actual, ha canviat amb l'entrada en vigor de diferents lleis d'estrangeria estatals, i pot modificar-se, també, amb el desenvolupament del Tractat d'Amsterdam. Actualment, a un treballador turc li perjudica, més que no beneficia el sistema de terminis que per accedir a un lloc de treball preveu la Decisió 1/80. Els treballadors turcs que formen part del mercat regular de treball d'un Estat membre haurien de quedar protegits pel règim jurídic que els sigui més beneficiós, amb independència de que aquest sigui l'intern de l'Estat d'acollida, el comunitari previst a l'Acord d'Associació i el seu posterior desenvolupament, o el que derivi de les futures directives quan entrin en vigor. Si bé aquestes disposicions dels Acords d'Associació varen ser positives, actualment hauran de ser objecte de modificació, la qual cosa no implica la seva desaparició. El seu contingut haurà de tendir a ressaltar l'especificitat de les relacions que es volen establir amb un tercer Estat concret, establint en aquest sentit un tractament preferent als seus nacionals enfront als altres immigrants, i reconeixent el seu dret de residència com derivat del permís de treball. De tota manera, amb l'entrada en vigor de la directiva relativa a l'estatut dels residents de llarga durada, aquest règim privilegiat només afectarà als immigrants residents legals a l'Estat d'acollida durant els primers 5 anys, és a dir, abans de que se'ls concedeixi el citat estatut. ; La tesis doctoral pretende determinar el estatuto jurídico de los trabajadores extracomunitarios, tomando como modelo de referencia la situación jurídica que el ordenamiento comunitario otorga a los trabajadores turcos que forman parte del mercado de trabajo regular de un Estado miembro de la Unión Europea, y comparando su situación con la de los trabajadores provenientes de los países del Magreb y de Europa Central y Oriental regulada en los correspondientes acuerdos Euromediterráneos y Europeos. Los dos primeros capítulos se destinan al análisis de las posibles bases jurídicas a utilizar por la Comunidad Económica Europea en su momento, y la actual Comunidad Europea y la unión Europea para definir el alcance de los derechos que se atribuyen al colectivo de trabajadores extracomunitarios. Debido a la estrecha relación entre el estatuto jurídico de este colectivo y el estatuto jurídico general de los immigrantes, las medidas relativas a las condiciones de acceso también son objeto de atención, aunque solamente con la finalidad de contribuir a la concreción del objetivo fundamental de la tesis. Des estea primera parte de la tesis, se desprende que el principal instrumento jurídico utilizado hasta la entrada en vigor del Tratado de Amsterdam han sido los acuerdos concluidos por la Comunidad y sus Estados miembros por una partey un Tercer Estado por otra, a su análisis se dedica la segunda parte de la tesis doctoral. A fin de interpretar correctamente las disposiciones de los acuerdos externos relativas a los trabajadores inmigrantes, en el tercer capítulo se lleva a cabo un estudio comprativo de los objetivos, etapas, instituciones, y desarrollo de los diversos acuerdos, así como de las características de estas disposiciones y de las decisiones que se desarrollan. El capítulo cuarto se destina a las nociones conceptuales que se utilizan, determinando sus semejanzas y diferencias con los conceptos comunitarios. Este capítulo sirve de base para el siguiente destinado a la interpretación que, de las diversas disposiciones de los acuerdos, ha llevado a cabo el Tribunal de Justicia. ; The aim of the thesis is centred on the definition, within European Community regulations, of the current statutory juridical status of employed workers who are from outside the European Community who form part of the employment market in a European Community state. The workers from non-European Community states, who form part of the regular employment market of a member state, as well as the members of their families, possess a fragmentary judicial statute: their rights are variable depending on the regulation which they are subject to. In this sense the situation varies and is dependent on the internal laws of the receiving state, the absence of bilateral agreements between the receiving state and the state of origin and the procedures and regulations of Community law. This situation will also vary depending on the existence and the content of an external agreement made by the Community and its member states and the country of origin of the immigrant. This study focuses on this aspect. The agreements which are analysed here are those which, along with economic aspects, contain provisions relating to the workers which have been adopted, taking as its juridical base the current article 310 European Community Treaty (ECT), with countries which border geographically with the European Union. Amongst them, the model to be followed is the Agreement of Association with Turkey, which foresees broader objectives, such as the creation of a customs union, in line with the area of free trade envisioned by other agreements, and which has been developed in the decisions adopted by its Council of Association. This aforementioned agreement has been the object of abundant jurisprudence relating to the application and interpretation of its provisions, in the European Court in order to define the scope of the provisions of the agreement and also asses whether we are dealing with a privileged status in contrast with other workers coming from countries outside the European Union. These provisions will be compared with those affecting the countries of Magreb, by which we mean Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria and the ten countries of Central and Eastern Europe. In order to clarifying the juridical status of workers from outside the European Community other aspects directly relating to this statute must be considered. These include the conditions of access and residence in a state, subjects which until the application of the Treaty of Amsterdam were the exclusive province of each one of the member states. However, this is not a comparative study of different areas of internal legislation regarding immigration, given that the area of analysis is restricted to European Community regulations and not to internal regulations. The thesis is structured in two different parts, which correspond, in the first case, to the first two Chapters and, in the second, to the remaining three Chapters. In the first two Chapters the criteria are chronological, beginning with the Treaty of Rome and ending with the Treaty of Nice. In these Chapters the original juridical bases which could have been utilised, as well as the co-operation exercised by the member states, both within and outside the European Union are analyzed, in relation to the measures adopted and destined to the regulation of access and the juridical status of immigrant workers. The implementation, on 1st May 1999, of the Treaty of Amsterdam has signified an important step forward towards the attribution of jurisdictional competence in the Community on matters relating to immigration which remain linked to the new objective of creating an area of freedom, safety and justice. From this point on, the free movement of people is assumed as an aim. This requires the regulation of border controls, of asylum, of immigration and co-operation in the struggle to prevent delinquency. This is specified in the comunitarization of a part of the Third Pillar regarding visas, asylum and immigration, excluding the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark, and in the integration of "acquis" Schengen in the structure of the European Union albeit at the cost of excluding the United Kingdom and Ireland. An area of co-operation has been created, sui generis, complete with juridical engineering solutions, which, while signifying an advance, break the unity and homogeneity of Community law. Despite all the technical complexities that derive from the Treaty of Amsterdam, the new article 63 and clauses, 3 and 4 enable the Community to assume areas of common interest linked to the phenomenon of immigration through co-ordination and harmonisation. Amongst these, there is the possibility of formulating a common statute for workers who are not members of the European Community. The legislative initiatives which have been presented since the implementation of the Treaty of Amsterdam show the acceleration in the formulation and development of a community policy of immigration, integrated within some common objectives. For the first time, it seems realistic to envision the adoption of a sole juridical statute for the non-community worker who is a long-term resident. Despite the fact that this statute might be characterised as a minimum standard of protection, I believe that the adoption of such a statute would constitute a great step forward in the clarification of the rights of this collective of workers. The remaining three chapters form the second part of the thesis which is dedicated to analysing the present status of workers from other states outside the European Community. This status is characterised by its fragmentary nature, which derives from the diversity of the provisions contained in external agreements. The objectives, structure antecedents and development of the agreements formulated in agreement with Turkey with the countries of the Magreb and with the countries of east and central Europe (PECO's) were analyzed by means of a comparative study. The content of the objectives of the said agreements alleges that we find ourselves facing three different models that reflect a gradual diminishing of the European commitment to safeguarding the status of the immigrant worker. The Court of Justice in its jurisprudence has manifested that both those external agreements adopted by the Community, as well as the decisions taken by the organs which develop them, form part of the juridical regulations of the community. It is the Court of Justice which is the organ most competent to interpret these provisions, contributing to the clarification of the content of these juridical instruments. This perspective will be complemented with the analysis of the notions which take into account external agreements. The aim of this study is to clarify whether the same term has the same content in each agreement and if, despite the diversity of the juridical instruments used, they have the same interpretation in jurisprudence. In order to do this, it has been necessary, for the Court of Justice to determine the scope of the different concepts employed and to clarify whether it applies to the workers of the community or if differs significantly. The drawing up of the agreements studied reflects a privileged juridical status for Turkish workers in comparison with other immigrants. The immigrants who come from the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Magreb can improve their current situation in as far as the provisions of their respective agreements are developed in the future. However, this privileged situation which has been a fact to date, has changed with the implementation of immigration laws in different states. These may be modified in addition to and following on from the development of the Treaty of Amsterdam. At present, a Turkish worker is affected adversely rather than benefiting from the system of quotas to gain access to a job in accordance with Decision 1/80. The Turkish workers who form part of the regular employment market in a member state should be protected by the juridical ruling which is most beneficial to them, independent of the fact that this may be the internal ruling of the receiving state, the community member foreseen in the Agreement of Association and its latter development, or that which is derived from future directives when they are in force. If the provisions from agreements of association were initially positive they should have be the object of modification, which should not imply their disappearance. Their content should stress the specificity of the relationships which they wish to establish with a third state, in this sense establishing favourable treatment for these nationals as opposed to other immigrants and recognising their right of residence as well as their right to obtain a work permit. However, with the implementation of the directive regarding the status of immigrants who are long term residents, this privileged status only affects those immigrants who are legally resident in the receiving state for the first five years, that is to say before they are given the cited statute.

El pasado 3 de junio, en el marco del Foro Nacional Estudiantil del 2020, Propuestas por Colombia: la voz de los jóvenes, de la facultad de Economía, se realizó el primer panel de discusión, llamado "Nuevos Retos y Oportunidades de la Educación en Colombia". El evento contó con la opinión de expertos en temas académicos y educativos, que respondieron a diferentes cuestiones coyunturales. Entre ellos estuvieron Alejandro Cheyne, rector de la Universidad del Rosario, Juan David Aristizábal, educador, Mauricio Castillo, subsecretario de calidad y pertinencia de la Secretaría de Bogotá, Darwin Cortés, profesor investigador y Marcela Bautista, socióloga de la Universidad Nacional. Para nuestros expertos, entre los principales retos al que se enfrenta la educación actualmente es lograr que sea de alta calidad para todos, reevaluar el modelo de negocio para reducir las barreras de entrada, integrar las competencias duras y blandas, y lograr espacios de interacción para desarrollar habilidades socioemocionales. Por otro lado, dentro de las oportunidades generadas dentro de la crisis, están la innovación en espacios de encuentro, transformación pedagógica de roles, repensar la duración y mejorar el acceso al mundo laboral. El panel finalizó con una ronda de preguntas personalizadas para cada panelista, enfocadas según la especialidad de cada uno. La primera pregunta, acerca de la brecha entre ciudad y ruralidad en términos de educación remota, fue para Marcela, quien respondió que pese a las condiciones tan complejas que enfrentan las zonas rurales en términos de pobreza, violencia y accesibilidad a la educación remota, "como sistema educativo, nosotros no tenemos un mecanismo o una estrategia de comunicación con esa ruralidad, pero sobre todo con la ruralidad dispersa", debido a la configuración administrativa de las secretarías de educación. La segunda pregunta, acerca de la deserción estudiantil fue para el profesor Darwin, quien respondió que efectivamente la deserción va a aumentar debido a los cambios generados por la crisis, pero que esté factor reprimirá el desarrollo económico, ya que entre más tiempo pasan los estudiantes en casa, menos tiempo tienen los padres para salir y buscar empleo. Por lo tanto, "gran parte de la solución depende de que los niños estén escolarizados, lo cual significa que, debe haber un compromiso importante por parte del gobierno para alivianar los problemas de financiación crediticia que tienen las familias". La tercera pregunta fue, ¿cómo el emprendimiento puede responder a lo que sucede hoy?, resulta por Juan David en tres ideas principales: primero, "pensar en cómo nos educamos en mejores pedagogías para enseñar en la educación superior", además, pensar en replantear la metodología de pago a los profesores considerando las nuevas condiciones del entorno, con el incremento en la demanda de clases grabadas que conecten emocionalmente, los profesores podrían ganar dinero monetizando sus videos. Y finalmente, "el fortalecimiento del talento de nuestros profesores en educción superior, sabiendo que tenemos hoy en día muchos más profesores en el exterior, ya que no necesitamos incurrir en el costo de traerlos físicamente". La cuarta pregunta, fue sobre los avances que ha tenido la Alcaldía en términos infraestructura para implementar la jornada única en las instituciones y qué podría pasar con estos dada la creciente necesidad de espacios virtuales, a lo que Mauricio hizo énfasis en que hoy en día implementar la jornada única es un reto con o sin pandemia, pero que "a través de utilizar la educación remota, podríamos comenzar a ganar experiencias de cómo, en un eventual regreso post- pandemia, vamos a poder y hacer mucho más eficiente" la combinación del uso de estos espacios. Pensando en aprovechar la oportunidad que representa esta coyuntura para desarrollar la infraestructura necesaria en una situación de jornada completa. La última pregunta fue, ¿cómo van a ser las universidades después de la pandemia?, que nuestro rector respondió, resaltando la importancia del "emprendizaje", que se define como aprender a emprender, "algunos de nosotros creemos firmemente que el emprendimiento es para todos, que no se requiere una condición socioeconómica, que no depende de ningún gen, que no depende de antecedentes familiares ni empresariales, y creemos firmemente que, el emprendimiento es una competencia que se puede desarrollar, y que, por lo tanto, como toda competencia se puede evaluar", afirmó Cheyne, "las universidades lo que tienen que hacer es darse cuenta, realmente de su misión… uno, formar proyectos de vida, y dos, servir al país, porque para una universidad como la nuestra el servicio al país no es una alternativa, es la solución", finalizó. ; On June 3, within the framework of the 2020 National Student Forum, Proposals for Colombia: the voice of young people, from the Faculty of Economics, the first panel of discussion was held, called "New Challenges and Opportunities for Education in Colombia". The event had the opinion of experts in academic and educational subjects, who responded to different conjunctural questions. Among them were Alejandro Cheyne, rector of the Universidad del Rosario, Juan David Aristizábal, educator, Mauricio Castillo, undersecretary of quality and relevance of the Bogotá Secretariat, Darwin Cortés, research professor and Marcela Bautista, sociologist of the National University. For our experts, among the main challenges that education currently faces is to ensure that it is of high quality for all, to reevaluate the business model to reduce entry barriers, integrate hard and soft skills, and achieve interaction spaces for develop socio-emotional skills. On the other hand, among the opportunities generated within the crisis, are innovation in meeting spaces, pedagogical transformation of roles, rethinking the duration and improving access to the world of work. The panel ended with a round of personalized questions for each panelist, focused on each one's specialty. The first question, about the gap between city and rurality in terms of remote education, was for Marcela, who answered that despite the complex conditions that rural areas face in terms of poverty, violence and accessibility to remote education, " As an educational system, we do not have a mechanism or a communication strategy with that rurality, but above all with dispersed rurality ", due to the administrative configuration of the education secretariats. The second question, about student dropout, was for Professor Darwin, who answered that effectively dropout will increase due to the changes generated by the crisis, but that this factor will repress economic development, since the more time students spend at home, the less time parents have to go out and look for work. Therefore, "much of the solution depends on the children being in school, which means that there must be a significant commitment from the government to alleviate the problems of credit financing that families have." The third question was, how can entrepreneurship respond to what is happening today? Juan David results in three main ideas: first, "think about how we educate ourselves in better pedagogies to teach in higher education", in addition, think about Rethinking the methodology for paying teachers considering the new environmental conditions, with the increase in demand for recorded classes that connect emotionally, teachers could earn money by monetizing their videos. And finally, "the strengthening of the talent of our teachers in higher education, knowing that today we have many more teachers abroad, since we do not need to incur the cost of bringing them physically." The fourth question was about the progress that the Mayor's Office has had in terms of infrastructure to implement the single day in the institutions and what could happen to these given the growing need for virtual spaces, to which Mauricio emphasized that today implement the single day is a challenge with or without a pandemic, but that "through the use of remote education, we could begin to gain experiences of how, in an eventual post-pandemic return, we will be able and make much more efficient" the combination of use of these spaces. Thinking of taking advantage of the opportunity that this situation represents to develop the necessary infrastructure in a full-time situation. The last question was, how are universities going to be after the pandemic ?, which our rector answered, highlighting the importance of "entrepreneurship", which is defined as learning to undertake, "some of us firmly believe that entrepreneurship is for all, that a socioeconomic condition is not required, that it does not depend on any gene, that it does not depend on family or business background, and we firmly believe that entrepreneurship is a competence that can be developed, and that, therefore, like all competence can be evaluated ", said Cheyne," what universities have to do is really realize their mission . one, form life projects, and two, serve the country, because for a university like ours the service to The country is not an alternative, it is the solution ", he concluded.

Abstract - The genus Bursaphelenchus comprises almost 100 species mainly from the northern hemisphere, with conifers as the most important hosts. Among the various nematode species, the pine wood nematode (PWN), Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, is the casual agent of pine wilt disease (PWD), and the most important forest pest for pines worldwide, classified as an A1 quarantine organism within the European Union. In 1999 this nematode was detected for the first time in Portugal and Europa associated with maritime pine, Pinus pinaster. Following detection, a national program denominated "Programa Nacional de Luta contra o Nemátodo da Madeira do Pinheiro" (PROLUNP) was created to, among other objectives, determine the distribution of the PWN and its associated vector(s) and host(s), and therefore intensive surveys covering the entire country were conducted with thousands of wood samples and suspected insects being analyzed. This thesis presents the listing, distribution, frequency and the insects associated with Bursaphelenchus species found associated with maritime pine in Portugal, identifying and characterizing the various species by morphological, biometrical and molecular biology (ITS-RFLP and rDNA sequencing analysis) techniques. To achieve the objectives, a total of 4813 maritime pine wood samples and 3294 insects from 22 species and six families were individually analyzed. A total of nine Bursaphelenchus species were found, namely: B. antoniae, B. hellenicus, B. leoni, B. mucronatus, B. pinasteri, B. sexdentati, B. teratospicularis, B. tusciae and B. xylophilus, all of them (with the exception of B. xylophilus) being new records for Portugal. Some of the species appear to have a widespread distribution, such as B. leoni, B. teratospicularis and B. tusciae while others were very rarely found and apparently have a localized distribution range within the country, namely B. antoniae and B. mucronatus. The majority of the species is characteristic of the Mediterranean region and can also be found in countries such as Spain, Italy and Greece, reflecting the affinity of our fauna with those locations. The association of B. hellenicus and B. tusciae with maritime pine is here reported for the first time. Six of the Bursaphelenchus species were also found associated with insects, mainly from the family Scolytidae (Coleoptera). Some of these interactions were described for the first time, namely: B. hellenicus with both Ips sexdentatus and Hylurgus ligniperda, B. sexdentati with both H. ligniperda and Orthotomicus erosus and B. tusciae with H. ligniperda. The exclusive association of B. xylophilus with the cerambycid Monochamus galloprovincialis was also confirmed. The nematode's dauer juveniles were usually found in low numbers in the insect vectors (ca 10-100 per insect), although for B. xylophilus a few thousand specimens per insect were sometimes found. The location of the dauer juveniles differed according to the species, although they were more common under the elytra and wings of the adult insects. A species new to science was detected and formally described as B. antoniae, associated with Hylobius sp. (Coleoptera; Curculionidae) beetles. Morphologically, this new species is very similar to B. hylobianum, although it's distinct ITS-RFLP molecular pattern (with only the enzyme Haelll producing comparable restriction bands) and the failure of hybridization supported the two species as distinct entities. Additional phylogenetic analysis of the 18S rDNA sequence further supported the taxonomical proximity of B. antoniae with B. hylobianum. Concerning the PWN, detailed studies on the development and morphology of B. xylophilus were conducted, and comparative measurements of field-collected and laboratory-maintained populations demonstrated that nematodes from the second group displayed larger size in all morphometric parameters, which could derive from more adequate conditions of nourishment and/or temperature. Taxonomical studies on the development stages of B. xylophilus confirmed the existence of four propagative juvenile stages (J1,J2,J3 and J4), an adult stage with both sexes and two dispersal stages (jIII e jIV), with the measurements of the gonad length allowing the separation of the propagative stages. It is hoped that the acquired knowledge will be useful on future surveys of nematodes of the Bursaphelenchus genus collected from either wood material or insect vectors, and facilitate the correct distinction and identification of the various species which are now known to occur. ### Resumo - 0 género Bursaphelenchus compreende quase 100 espécies, distribuídas sobretudo nos países do hemisfério norte do globo terrestre. Embora algumas espécies já tenham sido detectadas em plantas herbáceas, os hospedeiros vegetais mais comuns deste género são as coníferas, particularmente pinheiros. 0 nemátode da madeira do pinheiro (NMP), Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, é considerado a espécie mais importante deste género uma vez que é o agente causal da doença da murchidão dos pinheiros ("pine wilt disease"). Originário dos Estados Unidos, onde não causa grande impacte, o NMP foi introduzido em alguns países da Ásia (China, Japão, Coreia e Taiwan) e mais recentemente na Europa (Portugal). Nestas regiões é responsável pela destruição de milhares de hectares de coníferas, assumindo uma elevada importância económica. Em Portugal, depois da sua detecção em 1999, associado a Pinus pinaster, foi implementado um programa nacional "Programa Nacional de Luta contra o Nemátodo da Madeira do Pinheiro" (PROLUNP) que permitiu determinar a área afectada pela praga (a sul do rio Tejo, península de Setúbal) bem como definir e implementar estratégias de controlo e prevenção da disseminação do NMP a outras zonas de Portugal. Recentemente, em Junho de 2008, foi confirmada a presença de B. xylophilus em outras regiões de Portugal levando as autoridades oficiais a definir todo o território continental como zona afectada e de restrição. As prospecções intensivas realizadas nos últimos anos incluíram a recolha e análise de milhares de amostras de madeira de pinheiro bem como de insectos associados ao pinheiro bravo conduzindo à identificação de várias espécies de Bursaphelenchus. Assim, os estudos conduzidos neste trabalho tiveram como objectivos efectuar uma caracterização morfológica, biométrica e molecular das espécies associadas a P. pinaster em Portugal bem como a sua distribuição geográfica e abundância. Os estudos biométricos foram realizados com populações extraídas directamente do meio natural. Foi ainda realizada uma pesquisa que permitiu identificar os insectos a que estão associadas essas espécies, os seus possíveis vectores. Foram analisadas no total 4813 amostras de P. pinaster e 3294 insectos (22 espécies pertencentes a seis famílias diferentes). Foram identificadas um total de nove espécies: B. antoniae n. sp., B. hellenicus, B. leoni, B. mucronatus, B. pinasteri, B. sexdentati, B. teratospicularis, B. tusciae e B. xylophilus. Foram realizados estudos morfológicos e biométricos de todas as espécies com excepção de B. mucronatus; o reduzido número de exemplares encontrados em apenas uma amostra foram utilizados para efectuar o diagnóstico molecular desta espécie (ITS-RFLP). Apesar de ter havido, sempre que possível, a confirmação molecular, na maioria dos casos a caracterização morfológica e biométrica permitiu a correcta identificação das espécies. Contudo, foi imprescindível a análise molecular em algumas amostras, nomeadamente para a identificação de B. xylophilus e B. sexdentati; dada a grande semelhança entre B. xylophilus e B. mucronatus e tendo sido encontradas algumas populações de B. xylophilus que possuíam fêmeas com cauda mucronada, foi necessária a realização da confirmação molecular. Com excepção de B. xylophilus, todas as outras espécies foram reportadas pela primeira vez em Portugal. Juntamente com B. xylophilus, B. pinasteri foi a espécie encontrada nas amostras de madeira de pinheiro com maior frequência. Algumas destas espécies como B. leoni, B. teratospicularis e B. tusciae foram reportadas em diferentes localidades do norte, centro e sul de Portugal, apresentando uma vasta distribuição geográfica; este resultado está em consonância com a forte associação destas espécies a climas mediterrânicos tal como acontece em Espanha, França, Itália e Grécia. Em oposição, espécies como B. antoniae e B. mucronatus foram encontradas apenas numa ocasião na região centro (Leiria) e norte (Figueira da Foz) do país, respectivamente. Bursaphelenchus mucronatus é igualmente pouco frequente em Espanha onde ocorre sobretudo na região norte, na Galiza. Esta espécie preferirá climas mais frios, ocorrendo com uma maior frequência nas regiões de latitude norte; esta análise é corroborada pela presença constante em países como Alemanha, Finlândia, França, Noruega, Rússia e Suécia. A nível mundial são descritas neste trabalho pela primeira vez as associações das espécies B. hellenicus e B. tusciae ao hospedeiro vegetal P. pinaster.

Background: In recent years, health care has increasingly become the focus of public interest, politics, health insurance companies, and research. This includes the development of therapeutic concepts that can respond individually to patients' resources in order to improve coping with chronic diseases. Research into psychosocial and biological resilience factors is very important and the basic objective of the present work. I studied patients with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS), who suffer among others from chronic pain, fatigue, sleep and gastrointestinal problems. This patient cohort is characterized by a pronounced heterogeneity in terms of clinical outcome, degree in disability and coping. FMS has a prevalence of 3 – 8 % in the Western population and has a significant socio-economic impact. Validated psychosocial resilience factors include optimism, humor, coherence, self-efficacy, awareness with one's own resources and the ability to apply them profitably (coping), and a healthy social environment with positive relationships. Studies in patients with cancer revealed religiosity as positive and negative factor on the health outcome, but there is little data on religious aspects of pain resilience. Various genetic polymorphisms and anti-inflammatory cytokines are known as biological resilience factors. Various microRNA (miRNA) were detected to contribute to resilience in the context of stress and psychiatric disorders. Objective: The underlying research question of this work is to understand the factors that make some FMS patients resilient and others not, even though they suffer from the same disease. The long-term aim was to understand mechanisms and influencing factors of resilience to design preventive and resource-oriented therapies for FMS patients. Material and Methods: Three studies examined religious, physiological, biological, and psychosocial factors which may contribute to resilience in FMS patients. Study one combined data of questionnaires, a psychosocial interview, and regression analyses to investigate the relevance of religiosity for coping and resilience. Study two examined variance explaining factors and defined clusters among FMS patients by their differences in coping, pain phenotype and disability. The factor analysis used variables derived from questionnaires and qPCR of cytokines in white blood samples (WBC) of patients and healthy controls. Study three assessed cluster-wise miRNA signatures which may underly differences in behaviour, emotional and physiological disability, and resilience among patient clusters. A cluster-specific speculative model of a miRNA-mediated regulatory cycle was proposed and its potential targets verified by an online tool. Results: The data from the first study revealed a not very religious patient cohort, which was rather ambivalent towards the institution church, but described itself as a believer. The degree of religiosity played a role in the choice of coping strategy but had no effect on psychological parameters or health outcomes. The coping strategy "reinterpretation", which is closely related iv to the religious coping "reappraisal", had the highest influence on FMS related disability. Cognitive active coping strategies such as reappraisal which belongs to religious coping had the highest effect on FMS related disability (resilience) and could be trained by a therapist. Results from the second study showed high variances of all measured cytokines within the patient group and no difference between patient and control group. The high dispersion indicated cluster among patients. Factor analysis extracted four variance-explaining factors named as affective load, coping, pain, and pro-inflammatory cytokines. Psychological factors such as depression were the most decisive factors of everyday stress in life and represented the greatest influence on the variance of the data. Study two identified four clusters with respective differences in the factors and characterized them as poorly adapted (maladaptive), well adapted (adaptive), vulnerable and resilient. Their naming was based on characteristics of both resilience concepts, indicated by patients who were less stress-sensitive and impaired as a personal characteristic and by patients who emerged as more resilient from a learning and adaptive process. The data from the variance analysis suggests that problem- and emotion-focused coping strategies and a more anti-inflammatory cytokine pattern are associated with low impairment and contribute to resilience. Additional favorable factors include low anxiety, acceptance, and persistence. Some cluster-specific intervention proposals were created that combine existing concepts of behavioral and mindfulness therapies with alternative therapies such as vitamin D supplementation and a healthy intestinal flora. The results of the third study revealed lower relative gene expression of miR103a-3p, miR107, and miR130a-3p in the FMS cohort compared to the healthy controls with a large effect size. The adaptive cluster had the highest gene expression of miR103a-3p and tendentially of miR107, which was correlated with the subscale score "physical abuse" of the trauma questionnaire. Further correlations were found in particular with pain catastrophizing and FMS-related disability. MiR103a-3p and miR107 form a miRNA-family. Based on this, we proposed a miR103a/107 regulated model of an adaptive process to stress, inflammation and pain by targeting genetic factors which are included in different anti-inflammatory and stress-regulating pathways. Conclusion: All three studies provide new insights into resilience in FMS patients. Cognitive coping (reappraisal/reinterpretation) plays a central role and thus offers therapeutic targets (reframing in the context of behavioral therapy). Religosity as a resilience factor was only partially valid for our patient cohort. Basically, the use of resource-oriented therapy in large institutions still requires research and interdisciplinary cooperation to create a consensus between the humanities, natural sciences and humanism. ; Hintergrund: Die Gesunderhaltung ist in den letzten Jahren mehr und mehr in den Fokus des Interesses der Öffentlichkeit, Politik, Krankenkassen und Forschung gerückt. Dazu zählt auch die Entwicklung von Therapiekonzepten, die individuell auf die Bedürfnisse und Ressourcen der Patienten zugeschnitten sind, um den Umgang mit insbesondere chronischen Erkrankungen zu verbessern. Die Erforschung von psychosozialen und biologischen Resilienzfaktoren ist hierfür sehr wichtig, und das grundlegende Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit. Zielgruppe sind Patienten mit Fibromyalgiesyndrom (FMS). Symptome des FMS sind u.a. chronischer Schmerz, Erschöpfung, Schlaf und Magen-, Darmprobleme. Die Patientengruppe erscheint in der Klinik als sehr heterogene mit unterschiedlichen Beeinträchtigungsgraden und verschiedenen Strategien, mit den Auswirkungen der Erkrankung umzugehen. Die Prävalenz des FMS liegt bei 3 – 8% in der westlichen Bevölkerung und ist somit von erheblicher gesellschaftlicher und sozioökonomischer Bedeutung. Validierte psychosoziale Resilienzfaktoren sind u.a. Optimismus, Humor, Kohärenzgefühl, Selbstwirksamkeit, Bewusstsein der eigenen Ressourcen und die Fähigkeit diese gewinnbringend anzuwenden (Coping) und ein gesundes soziales Umfeld mit positiven Beziehungen. Studien an Krebspatienten ergaben unterschiedliche Effekte von Religiosität als Copingstrategie und Resilienzfaktor. Im Allgemeinen liegen wenige Daten vor zum Thema Religiosität / als Schutzfaktor bei Schmerzpatienten. Als biologische Resilienzfaktoren sind verschiedene genetische Polymophismen, anti-inflammatorische Zytokine und microRNA (miRNA) bekannt, die zur Resilienz bei chronischem Stress und psychiatrischen Krankheitsbildern beitragen. Ziel: Die zugrundeliegende Forschungsfrage dieser vorliegenden Arbeit ist, welche Faktoren dazu beitragen, dass manche Patienten resilienter sind als andere, obwohl sie unter derselben Erkrankung leiden. Das langfristige Ziel dieser Forschung ist es, Mechanismen und Einflussfaktoren der Resilienz zu verstehen, um präventive und gezielte Ressourcen-orientierte Therapien für FMS Patienten zu entwickeln. Material und Methoden: Insgesamt drei Studien untersuchten explorativ eine Reihe von religiösen, physiologischen, biologischen und psychosozialen Faktoren und ihre Rolle als Schutzfaktor bei Patienten mit FMS. Studie 1 kombinierte Daten von Fragebögen, einem psychologischen Interview und Regressionsanalysen, um die Relevanz von Religiosität für das Coping und Resilienz zu untersuchen. Studie 2 versuchte mit einer explorativen Faktorenanalyse Einflussfaktoren zu ermitteln, die für die heterogene Datenlage der Patienten verantwortlich sind. Mithilfe einer Clusteranalyse wurden Subgruppen anhand ihrer Unterschiede in mentaler Gesundheit, Coping, Schmerzphänotyp und Beeinträchtigung definiert. Die Faktorenanalyse verwendete Daten der Fragebögen und Genexpressionsanalysen ausgewählter Zytokine aus Blutproben der Patienten und einer gesunden Kontrollgruppe. Zuletzt wurden Cluster-spezifische Therapievorschläge auf der Basis bereits bekannter Therapien zusammengestellt. Studie 3 bestimmte Cluster-charakteristische miRNA Signaturen, die verantwortlich für die Cluster-spezifischen Unterschiede in Verhalten (coping), emotionaler und körperlicher Beeinträchtigung, und Resilienz sein können. Die Ergebnisse wurden in einem Regulationsschema zusammengefasst und schlagen einen möglichen miRNA-regulierten Mechanismus von adaptivem Verhalten vor. Die potentiellen genetischen Targets wurden mittels eines online Tools "Target Scan Human" verifiziert. Ergebnisse: Die Daten der ersten Studie zeigten eine wenig religiöse Patientenkohorte, die der Institution Kirche eher ambivalent gegenüberstand, sich jedoch dennoch als gläubig beschrieb. Der Grad der Religiosität spielte eine Rolle bei der Wahl der Copingstrategie, hatte jedoch keinen Einfluss auf psychologische Parameter oder die Gesundheit. Die Copingstrategie "Reinterpretation", welche auch nah verwandt mit dem religiösen Coping "reappraisal" ist, hatte einen signifikanten Einfluss auf die Beeinträchtigung, und könnte innerhalb einer Verhaltenstherapie erlernt werden. Ergebnisse der zweiten Studie zeigen hohe Varianzen aller gemessenen Zytokine innerhalb der Patientengruppe und keinen signifikanten Unterschied zwischen Patienten- und Kontrollgruppe. Die hohe Streuung deutete auf Subgruppen innerhalb der FMS Kohorte hin. Mittels einer Faktorenanalyse wurden vier Faktoren ermittelt, die dieser Varianz zugrunde liegen, welche absteigend als affektive Belastung, Coping, Schmerz und pro-inflammatorische Zytokine benannt wurden. Interessant ist, dass psychische Faktoren wie Depression den höchsten Einfluss auf die Belastung im Alltag darstellten und auch den größten Einfluss auf die Varianz der Daten abbildete. Studie 2 konnte vier Subgruppen mit jeweiligen Unterschieden in den charakterisierten Faktoren ermitteln und diese als schlecht angepasst (maladaptive), gut angepasst (adaptive), vulnerabel und resilient charakterisieren. Ihre Benennung basierte auf Charakteristika beider Resilienzkonzepte. Es gab Anzeichen für Patienten, die weniger stresssensibel und beeinträchtigt waren aufgrund von Persönlichkeitsstrukturen sowie Patienten, die aus einem Lern- und Anpassungsprozess nun resilienter hervorgingen. Die Daten der Varianzanalyse legten nahe, dass problem- und emotionsfokussierte Copingstrategien und ein eher antiinflammatorisches Zytokinmuster mit einer niedrigen Beeinträchtigung assoziiert sind und eher zur Resilienz beitragen. Zusätzliche begünstigende Faktoren sind niedrige Angstwerte, Akzeptanz und Durchhaltevermögen. Basierend auf diesen Erkenntnissen wurden einige Subgruppen-spezifische Interventionsvorschläge vorgestellt, welche bereits existierende Konzepte der Verhaltens- und Achtsamkeitstherapien mit alternativen Therapien wie Supplementierung von Vitamin D und eine gesunde Darmflora miteinander kombinieren. Die Ergebnisse der dritten Studie zeigten eine niedrigere relative Genexpression von miR103a-3p, miR107 und miR130a-3p in der FMS Kohorte verglichen mit der gesunden Kontrollkohorte mit einer großen Effektstärke. Die höchste relative Genexpression zeigte miR103a im adaptiven Cluster, das Cluster mit der niedrigsten Beeinträchtigung. MiR107 tendierte zu einer leicht erhöhten relativen Expression im adaptiven Cluster und war mit dem Subskalenscore "körperlicher Missbrauch" des Traumafragebogens korreliert. Weitere Korrelationen fanden sich insbesondere mit den Variablen psychologischer Fragebögen zu Schmerz Katastrophisieren und FMS-bezogene Beeinträchtigung. MiR103a-3p und miR107 bilden zuammen eine miRNA Familie mit gleichen physiologischen Funktionen. Basierend auf diesen Erkenntnissen, schlugen wir ein Model der miR103a/107 regulierten Anpassung an Stress, Entzündung und Schmerz unter Einbezug verifizierter Gene, vor. Schlussfolgerung: Zusammenfassend geben alle drei Studien neue Einblicke in die Resilienzfaktoren von FMS Patienten. Dabei kommt dem kognitiven Coping (reappraisal / reinterpretation) eine zentrale Rolle zu, was therapeutische Ansatzpunkte (reframing innerhalb einer Verhaltenstherapie) bietet. Religiosität konnte sich in der hier untersuchten Kohorte als Schutzfaktor nur bedingt validieren. Grundsätzlich benötigt der Einsatz von ressourcenorientierter Therapie innerhalb großer Kliniken noch einiges an Forschung und interdisziplinärer Zusammenarbeit, die einen Konsens zwischen Geisteswissenschaften, Naturwissenschaften und Humanismus schafft.

This paper proposes and illustrates a methodology to assess the economic cost of the sovereign risk finance instruments available to the Government of Ethiopia and its development partners for financing the shock-responsive scalability component of the Productive Safety Net Programme. The methodology involves: (i) specifying rules for when additional expenditures would be triggered in each woreda; (ii) specifying alternative risk finance strategies; and (iii) analyzing the costs of each risk financing strategy, including sensitivity and scenario testing of the results. The methodology is applied to a hypothetical set of rules for drought-responsive scalability, and a range of potential risk finance strategies.

Uruguay is a country of about 3.3 million people, which has consistently given high priority to achieving broadly-shared economic growth and a sustainable reduction in poverty. A strong and progressive social compact has been a defining feature of Uruguayan society and politics, with consistent emphasis placed on protecting vulnerable groups, assuring worker dignity and promoting equitable growth. This compact, combined with rapid economic growth since 2003, has contributed to the development of a sizeable middle class, at 60 percent, the largest in Latin America as a proportion of the population, as well as effective institutions, good governance and, in consequence, a high degree of public trust in Government. The resultant political stability has been a fundamental element of Uruguay's success in attaining its present standards of living. This Country Partnership Framework (CPF) is aligned with Uruguay's 2015-2020 political cycle and selectivity has been exercised in the identification of objectives. The design of the CPF program responds to the Government's priorities and is also closely coordinated with the programs of Uruguay's other development partners, including IADB and CAF. The program is anchored in the findings of the new Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) which was informed by extensive consultations with a wide range of stakeholders. The proposed CPF program is designed to support the Government in its pursuit of six objectives identified in the SCD, grouped into three focal areas, namely, building resilience, rebalancing the social compact, and integrating Uruguay into global markets. During consultations, the Government endorsed the selection of focal areas (CPF's pillars and objectives) and the technical teams closely coordinated with the Bank experts who designed a set of indicators, which are fully owned.

India is experiencing a period of high economic growth and rapid social and demographic change. There is increasing concern about the manner in which this transformation is impacted by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. While the Government of India has taken significant measures to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS, much remains to be done. Given the complexity of the challenge, an effective response requires the engagement of all sectors. The private sector, alongside other stakeholders, can play an important part not only by contributing to the efforts for HIV/AIDS prevention and the reduction of stigma and discrimination, but also for the care, support and treatment of Persons Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA). The report presents challenges, good practices and success stories about how Informational Technology (IT) companies in India are addressing the issues of HIV/AIDS. It demonstrates the mounting will and commitment of IT leaders to respond to the epidemic. The IT industry in India is young in terms of both its stage of development and the age of its workforce which averages 18-35 years. Reflecting the composition of the sector, the report documents the experiences not only of large companies in India's IT sector, but also of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Each company has used different approaches to address HIV/AIDS among its workforce including community outreach activities. By capturing these companies' experiences, the report seeks to foster a more active response to HIV/AIDS from India's IT community and to encourage new partnerships to leverage the goodwill and competencies of this sector.

The World Bank is making strides in mainstreaming gender-sensitive approaches to climate action on the ground. Ensuring that men and women have equal access to education, economic opportunities, productive inputs and equal chances to become socially and politically active can generate broad productivity gains, and lead to more inclusive and greener development path for all. For the World Bank, gender analysis is an integral aspect of the upstream social analysis that is required to inform both development policy lending (DPL) and investment lending (IL). It helps identify and suggest ways to mitigate possible risks in terms of exacerbating gender inequality, and highlight opportunities to enhance positive outcomes for gender equality. The entry points for such upstream gender analysis include Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIA) in the case of DPL, climate financing mechanisms are beginning to adopt gender-sensitive approaches in program design and results frameworks, but more needs to be done. Much can be done to improve the effectiveness of climate finance and actions on the ground by ensuring that gender relations are taken into account in design, implementation, and measurement of results. But this can only be achieved through a concerted effort to apply a gender lens in climate finance mechanisms. It matters for development, and it matters for effective action on climate change.

The proposed national model described in this report has been developed by a working group comprised of staff from the National Board of Health and Welfare, the National Centre for Priority Setting in Health Care, and other organisations involved in vertical prioritisation – including the Östergötland County Council, Stockholm County Council, Västra Götaland, the Health Services Region of Southern Sweden, the Swedish Society of Medicine, the Swedish Society of Nursing, and the Swedish Association of Health Professionals. Throughout the process of designing the model, the Swedish Federation of Occupational Therapists and the Swedish Association of Registered Physiotherapists were regularly informed and given opportunities to review and comment on the proposal. Furthermore, the report was reviewed and discussed at a meeting with invited representatives from the other county councils, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Board, and several professional interest groups. Viewpoints were also obtained at a seminar arranged by PrioNet, a network of individuals interested in prioritisation. Potentially, the working model described in Chapter 4 could be used in any context where vertical prioritisation takes place, e.g. activities arranged by the state, county councils, municipalities, hospital departments, and professional groups. This report is designed to be a useful tool for those working on development projects in priority setting. We believe that the contents must be adapted, with the help of relevant examples and some simplifications; to fit the specific needs of different projects or groups. The text must also be adapted to a target group's knowledge and previous experience in dealing with transparent priority setting. It must be the responsibility of each provider and other affected organisation to adapt the material to the given situation and project. The National Centre for Priority Setting in Health Care, the National Board of Health and Welfare, and others who have participated actively in this effort can be helpful to various target groups in adapting this report. When and how to engage in practically implementing vertical prioritisation are questions that need to be answered at the local level. Primarily, it is the duty of the local authorities/providers to take responsibility for implementation. Professional organisations also play an important role. Public agencies, universities, and knowledge centres should be sources of support for the local authorities/providers. The Riksdag's resolution on prioritisation served as the foundation for developing the model. Where there are areas of uncertainty in how to translate these guidelines in practice, or where practical implementation might conflict with the principles, we have pointed this out. Our conclusions and proposals are the following: When facing a choice – regardless of whether it involves allocating new resources for different purposes, or to implement cutbacks – it can be advantageous to rank the possible choices in order of priority. In our model, only the relevant options can be ranked by priority. The consequences of this ranking are not obvious at the outset, but can serve as a basis either to allocate more resources or ration by some means. In vertical prioritisation, it is advantageous to organise the prioritization process starting from a general categorisation of health problems/disease groups. As a rule, these categories cover many organisational units/clinical departments, specialties, or professional groups, thus providing a more multidimensional view of the problem. Furthermore, this allows the process to start from a patient/population perspective, which appears to be more goal-oriented than an organisational/staff perspective. That which is ranked, i.e. one of the choices, we refer to as a prioritization object. We suggest that prioritisation objects consist of different combinations of health conditions and interventions.1 When deciding on the appropriate level of detail, the decision must be based on the context in which prioritisation is carried out. A starting point would be to focus on typical cases, large-volumes services, and controversial care. All forms of vertical prioritisation should be based on the ethical principles that the Riksdag decided should apply in prioritising health services. However, these ethical principles must be made known, clarified, and perhaps complemented before they can be applied to practical priority setting. Furthermore, we believe that the Riksdag's four so-called priority groups should not be part of the model. The human dignity principle, i.e. that all people should have equal value and equal rights to care irrespective of their personal characteristics and function in society, is the undisputed cornerstone in priority setting. When personal characteristics such as age, gender, lifestyle, or function of a group are expressions of the presence of special needs, so that benefits of the interventions are different, these personal characteristics could be addressed in a priority at the group level. Further discussion is needed regarding the question of how external effects (i.e. the effects of an intervention on families and groups other than the individual directly affected by the intervention) should be valued in priority setting. The concept of need in health care includes both the severity level of the condition and the expected benefits of intervention. As a patient, one needs only those interventions that can be expected to yield benefits. Based on this definition of need, a person does not need an intervention that does not improve health and quality of life, i.e. an intervention with no benefit. In such cases, health services have a responsibility to refer people who seek care for some type of problem, to other appropriate services. The Riksdag's guidelines regarding the cost-effectiveness principle (applied to individual patients) are too limited to provide guidance for vertical prioritisation at the group level. From the outset, the Government's bill (Priority Setting in Health Care) highlighted the importance of differentiating a cost-effectiveness principle that applied to choices among various interventions for the individual patient (where the principle can be applied as the Commission of Inquiry proposed) and the aim of health services to achieve high cost-effectiveness in health care generally. Here we also refer to the Riksdag's directive to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Board. In its decisions on subsidising (prioritising) a drug, the Board should determine, e.g. whether the drug is cost effective from a societal perspective, which requires comparing the patient benefits of the drug to its cost. In such decisions, the cost effectiveness should be considered along with the needs and solidarity principle and the human dignity principle. The proposed working model essentially concurs with the working model used by the National Board of Health and Welfare in developing national guidelines. In describing a national working model, it is not possible to include every aspect that might be considered. Hence, one must start from the model and decide which other relevant aspects should be included. For instance, the International Classification on Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) can be used as guidance to describe the severity of health conditions. Due to the wealth of variety in outcome measures for different activities, and the limited experience in working with explicit threshold values, we believe would be premature to recommend standardised categories, e.g. risk levels. However, it is important that those working with prioritization describe their reasoning. Primarily, the categories applied by the Swedish Council on Technology Assessment in Health Care (SBU) to grade the scientific evidence of an intervention's effects should be used. Local prioritisation projects with limited resources at their disposal should describe (text) their appraisal of the scientific evidence and reference the scientific sources used. The strength of evidence should be expressed in numbers only when supporting a conclusion of a systematic review by SBU, or other literature reviews of good quality. Prioritisation projects having access to health economic evaluation should, until further notice, adhere to the approach used by the National Board of Health and Welfare and present cost-effectiveness on a scale from low to very high cost per life-year gained or cost per quality-adjusted life-year. Economic evidence should be presented according to the principles applied by the National Board of Health and Welfare. In local projects with limited resources, or problems in consistently acquiring information on cost effectiveness, we recommend that the authors at least discuss cost effectiveness in cases where the priority ranking would be decisively affected when costs are weighed in. A 10-level ranking list should be used. The ranking list should be complemented by a "don't do" list for methods that should not be used at all, or not used routinely, and a research and development (R&D) list for methods where the evidence still insufficient to motivate their use in standard practice. In the absence of an objective quantitative/mathematical method, a qualitative method should be used in the appraisal. Here too, we believe that it is not yet possible to establish standard criteria to determine within which ranking level a prioritisation object should fall. Results should be presented as a ranking list. The parameters used as a basis for prioritisation should also be presented in a uniform manner in ranking lists that are shared with other parties. For pedagogic reasons, details concerning language and format need to be adapted to the respective target groups. Thresholds for what constitutes an acceptable coverage of need (care quality, volume, and percentage of the patient group with access to services) are regional and local issues, and hence are not included in the national model.

15 Years of Predictions and Realities With this issue we begin our fifteenth year of publication. This decade and a half has certainly seen a number of changes to the field, and to the academy in general. If we compare the present state of the field, and higher education in general, to what was predicted for us 15 years ago, we can get a 30,000-foot view on some interesting advancements and disappointing stalls. We'd like to look at just two of those predictions, where the current state of affairs illustrates just how fluid and nuanced higher education is as we crawl out of the global pandemic. Parsing the field in any way we choose, via institutions, or disciplines, or geographic regions, or modes of instruction, etc., we can see but one commonality: we are not monolithic, and do not move in lockstep. Online / Digital / Remote instruction Perhaps the most ubiquitous and incessant prediction, one that began in the mid-1990s and which we are still working hard to manifest, is that online education will conquer the digital divide and democratize higher education. We can all point to successful online programs, degrees, and even entire universities. However, as we have learned in the past year, the potential for remote instruction is still high, but other factors, unanticipated fifteen years ago, mitigate against it becoming the panacea for all the ills of higher education. ZOOM fatigue is real, and a student's success in an online environment relies heavily on their internal locus of control. Remote instruction, we have learned, requires students to be far more responsible for their own time and effort than any face-to-face instruction ever required. We're not sure if this is the reason why students dislike remote instruction, but the fact is that they do, or at least they did. A survey of undergraduates conducted by SimpsonScarborough in March of 2020 (at the beginning of the lockdown of higher ed here in the US) revealed that 63% of the respondents said that online instruction was worse than the in-person instruction they received at their school. When SimpsonScarborough repeated the same survey just a month later, than number had risen to 70%.1 But, oh, what a difference a year makes. The Digital Learning Pulse survey of undergraduates in the US, published in April of 2021 by Bay View Analytics (in partnership with a number of entities heavily invested in the use of technology in education), notes that 73% of their respondents either somewhat agreed or strongly agreed that they would like to take some fully online courses in the future.2 Maybe we got better at remote instruction once we had a chance to breathe after the mad scramble to jump online in the spring of 2020. Maybe students rose to the occasion and remained persistent in their coursework. Or maybe the real explanation here is the distinction between being forced to have all your courses online and choosing to take some fully online courses. And there are other reasons why we are not all teaching MOOCs as we sit poolside, relying on ZOOM to make us look engaged with a nicely academic virtual background. Even before the pandemic, the rise (and subsequent fall) of many for-profit online universities painted online instruction with a broad brush, and soured many on it as just a cash grab. Some not-for-profit institutions, looking to cut instructional expenses and get good returns on their investments in large Learning Management Systems, played fast and loose with intellectual property rights, and the professoriate (whom those institutions saw as merely content providers) balked at having their instructional designs and course materials co-opted into turnkey courses that could be taught by adjuncts or teaching assistants. Fortunately, the tide has turned in this matter at least, as many institutions have articulated IP policies that benefit greatly from faculty input. Other enhancements or appendages to online instruction, things like the gamification of learning or the use of virtual reality, have sputtered and seen little penetration in the culture. Big Data Another prediction that has been proven true, but in unexpected ways, is one bruited about for decades. Decisions in higher education, this prediction states, will rely less on historical models, institutional or disciplinary inertia, and the vagaries of theoretical models. Rather, these decisions will be driven by data. And those data sets are overwhelmingly numerical rather than verbal. Everything from student ratings of instruction to annual reviews of faculty members, from your methodology for evaluating student performance to Comprehensive Administrative Review dashboards, relies on numbers. While the distinction between, say, a score of 4.6 and a score of 4.7 out of 5 may be minute, for many faculty members such fine distinctions matter a great deal, because they are tied to their compensation packages. We can, in good faith, argue both sides of the tendency to boil our professional lives down to a series of numbers, but the movement away from anecdotal evidence and the "it works for me" mentality has, in large part, improved both curricula and instruction. The SoTL field, more than almost any other discipline in higher education, has sorted itself over the period of the last fifteen years, demonstrating a strong preference for data-driven decision-making. IJSoTL itself illustrates this point. If you look at the articles from our first year of publication, you see a far wider variety of article types. There are some articles that follow the social science model--where data is generated then analyzed, but there are a number of other forms, like essays, reflections, and personal narratives. Our most recent issues are almost completely filled with articles that follow the social science model, since what it offers is reliability and repeatability. In other areas, however, this drive toward data has moved in fits and starts. Predictive analytics, where instructors can drill down into huge data sets to predict the success or failure of individual students, has been one of the largest carrots dangled in front of us in recent years. It represents the most enticing promise of data, yet it still cannot offer the level of certainty that the big data sales teams continue to claim. But the efficacy and the possibility of data for transforming higher education is seen at its most engaging in what we might call the rise of assessment culture. As we employ the Continuous Quality Improvement or Total Quality Management cycles first used in the US in the 1950s, honed to their streamlined perfection in Japan in the 1970s, then rediscovered in the west in the 1980s, we participate in the "plan-do-study-act" process that is the foundation for any sound and lasting change in a culture or institution. And the grist for this mill, the fuel for this engine, is the data we generate then analyze. We think we can say with certainty that nothing in higher education has had such a positive impact, or possesses such still-untapped potential, as the data generated through program assessment. A Special Issue Moving from the past to the very immediate future, we will be celebrating our fifteenth year of publication with a special issue that will come out in January of 2022.That issue will focus on the scholarship of teaching and learning here where the journal is housed, at Georgia Southern University. We would like to show the innovative work that our colleagues are doing here, in the hope that you may be able to use what they're doing in your own work. We'll still be publishing our regular issue in May of 2022 so this special issue is a bonus, and this volume will contain three issues rather than two. A Change to the Masthead Before we show you a variety of our colleagues on our several campuses in our special issue, we'd like to introduce just one, a new addition to our masthead. Nikki DiGregorio is an Associate Professor in the School of Human Ecology and a member of the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Executive Board at Georgia Southern. She joins the journal as an Editor-in-Chief. Nikki teaches courses in sexuality and diversity in human development, public policies affecting families, as well as programming and evaluation, and conducts research on the interplay between social policy, language appropriation, and the experiences of gender and sexual minorities. Nikki has published in SoTL, examining especially the effectiveness of teaching strategies centered around concepts including diversity-related issues, homophobia, trauma-informed care, objectification, and sexualization. She is also the current Vice President of the Family Science Association, the premiere teaching-focused organization in the discipline. As many of us head back to face-to-face instruction in the fall of 2021, we hope you all can keep safe, and will find both fulfillment and joy in the new normal, whatever that may be. The Editors Notes 1. See "Higher Ed and COVID-19: National Student Survey," SimpsonScarborough, April 2020, available at https://f.hubspotusercon- tent30.net/hubfs/4254080/SimpsonScarborough%20National%20Student%20Survey%20.pdf, and "Higher Ed and COVID-19: April Replication of the National Student Survey," SimpsonScarborough, April 2020, available at https://f.hubspotusercontent30.net/ hubfs/4254080/The%20April%20Replication%20of%20the%20National%20Student%20Survey%20by%20SimpsonScarb orough.pdf. 2. For complete results, see https://info.cengage.com/wrec_PulseSurveyResults_1470945, which requires a free registration. For a summary of results, see "Students Want Online Learning Options Post-Pandemic," by Lindsay McKenzie, in Inside Higher Ed, 27 April 2021, available at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/04/27/survey-reveals-positive-outlook-online-instruction-po st-pan- demic#:~:text=The%20majority%20of%20students,%2073,in%2Dperson%20and%20online%20instruction.

Background: Prenatal exposure to air pollution has been associated with childhood respiratory disease and other adverse outcomes. Epigenetics is a suggested link between exposures and health outcomes. Objectives: We aimed to investigate associations between prenatal exposure to particulate matter (PM) with diameter <10 (PM10) or <2.5 mu m (PM2.5) and DNA methylation in newborns and children. Methods: We meta-analyzed associations between exposure to PM10 (n=1,949) and PM2.5 (n=1,551) at maternal home addresses during pregnancy and newborn DNA methylation assessed by Illumina Infinium HumanMethylation450K BeadChip in nine European and American studies, with replication in 688 independent newborns and look-up analyses in 2,118 older children. We used two approaches, one focusing on single cytosine-phosphate-guanine (CpG) sites and another on differentially methylated regions (DMRs). We also related PM exposures to blood mRNA expression. Results: Six CpGs were significantly associated [false discovery rate (FDR) <0.05] with prenatal PM10 and 14 with PM2.5 exposure. Two of the PM10-related CpGs mapped to FAM13A (cg00905156) and NOTCH4 (cg06849931) previously associated with lung function and asthma. Although these associations did not replicate in the smaller newborn sample, both CpGs were significant (p<0.05) in 7- to 9-y-olds. For cg06849931, however, the direction of the association was inconsistent. Concurrent PM10 exposure was associated with a significantly higher NOTCH4 expression at age 16 y. We also identified several DMRs associated with either prenatal PM10 and or PM2.5 exposure, of which two PM10-related DMRs, including H19 and MARCH11, replicated in newborns. Conclusions: Several differentially methylated CpGs and DMRs associated with prenatal PM exposure were identified in newborns, with annotation to genes previously implicated in lung-related outcomes. ; ALSPAC: The UK Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust (Grant ref. 102215/2/13/2) and the University of Bristol provide core support for ALSPAC. This publication is the work of the authors and P.Y. will serve as guarantors for the contents of this paper. A comprehensive list of grants funding is available on the ALSPAC website (http://www.bristoLac.uk/alspac/external/documents/grant-acknowledgements.pdf). This research was specifically funded by a joint grant from the UK Economic & Social and Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Councils (Grant ref. ES/N000498/1). ALSPAC was funded by the BBSRC (BBI025751/1 and BB/I025263/1). Air pollution exposure assessment was funded by Public Health England as part of the MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health, funded also by the UK Medical Research Council (Grant ref. MR/L01341X/1). This paper does not necessarily reflect the views of Public Health England or the Department of Health. BAMSE was supported by The Swedish Research Council, The Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation, Freemason Child House Foundation in Stockholm, MeDALL (Mechanisms of the Development of ALLergy) a collaborative project conducted within the European Union (grant agreement No. 261357), Centre for Allergy Research, Stockholm County Council (ALE), Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) (RBc08-0027), the Strategic Research Programme (SFO) in Epidemiology at Karolinska Institutet, The Swedish Research Council Foams, and the Swedish Environment Protection Agency. E.M. is supported by a grant from the European Research Council under the European Union (EU) Horizon 2020 (H2020) research and innovation programme (grant agreement number 757919, TRIBAL). O.G. is supported by Forte (Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare) and The Swedish Society for Medical Research. CHS: This work was supported by NIEHS grants K01ES017801, R01ES022216, and P30ES007048. EARLI: This work was supported by NIH grants R01ES016443, R01ES023780, and R01ES017646 as well as by Autism Speaks (AS 5938). ENVIRONAGE: The ENVIRONAGE birth cohort is funded by the European Research Counsil (ERC-2012-StG.310898) and by funds of the Flemisch Scientific Research Council (FWO, N1516112/G.0.873.11N.10). The methylation assays were funded by the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013 project EXPOsOMICS (grant no. 308610). Z.H. is supported by the Exposomics EC FP7 grant (Grant agreement no. 308610). ZH and A.G. and the Epigenetics Group at IARC are supported by grants from the Institut National du Cancer (INCa, Plan Cancer-EVA-Inserm, France) and Association pour la Recherche sur le Cancer (ARC, France). Generation R Study: The general design of the Generation R Study is made possible by financial support from the Erasmus Medical Center (MC), Rotterdam, the Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development and the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. The EWAS data was funded by a grant to VWJ from Netherlands Genomics Initiative (NGI)/Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) Netherlands Consortium for Healthy Aging (NCHA; project no. 050-060-810), by funds from the Genetic Laboratory of the Department of Internal Medicine, Erasmus MC. V.W.J. also received a grant from Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (VIDI 016.136.361) and a Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC-2014-CoG-648916). J.F.F. has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement no. 633595 (DynaHEALTH). This project received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (733206, LIFECYCLE). HELIX: The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-206) under grant agreement no 308333 - the HELIX project. R.G. received the grant of the Lithuanian Agency for Science Innovation and Technology (No. 45 31V-66). The Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) is supported by the Ministry of Health and Care Services and the Ministry of Education and Research, NIH/NIEHS (contract no. N01-ES-75558), NIH/NINDS (grant no. 1 UO1 NS 047537-01 and grant no. 2 UO1 NS 047537-06A1). INMA: This study was funded by grants from Institut() de Salud Carlos III (Red INMA G03/176), Generalitat de Catalunya-CIRIT 1999SGR 00241, and EU Commission (261357; 211250; 268479). Piccolipiu: The study was approved and initially funded by the Italian National Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (CCM grant 2010) and by the Italian Ministry of Health (art 12 and 12bis Dl.gs.vo 502/92). The methylation assays were funded by the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013 project EXPOsOMICS (grant no. 308610). Z.H. is supported by the Exposomics EC FP7 grant (Grant agreement no: 308610). Z.H. and A.G. and the Epigenetics Group at IARC are supported by grants from the Institut National du Cancer (INCa, Plan Cancer-EVA-INSERM, France) and Association pour la Recherche sur le Cancer (ARC, France). Rhea: The methylation assays were funded by the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013 project EXPOsOMICS (grant no. 308610). Z.H. is supported by the Exposomics EC FP7 grant (grant agreement no. 308610). ZH and A.G. and the Epigenetics Group at IARC are supported by grants from the Institut National du Cancer (INCa, Plan Cancer-EVA INSERM, France) and Association pour la Recherche sur le Cancer (ARC, France). PRISM: R.J.W. received funding for the PRISM cohort under HL095606 and R01 HL1143396. A.C.J. is supported by R00 ES023450. Project Viva: This Project Viva study was supported by grants from the NIH (NIH R01 HL 111108, R01 NR013945, R01 HD 034568, K24 HD069408, K23 ES022242, P01ES009825, R01AI102960, P30 ES000002) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (R832416, RD834798). This publication's contents are solely the responsibility of the grantee and do not necessarily represent the official views of the U.S. Government, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or the NIH, or the EPA. Further, the EPA does not endorse the purchase of any commercial products or services mentioned in the publication. MeDALL: The methylation study of MeDALL cohorts was funded by MEDALL, a collaborative project supported by the European Union under the Health Cooperation Work Programme of the 7th Framework Programme (grant agreement no. 261357). The Biobank-Based Integrative Omics Studies (BIOS) Consortium is funded by BBMRI-NL, a research 'infrastructure financed by the Dutch government (NWO 184.021.007). BAMSE: We would like to thank all the families for their participation in the BAMSE study. In addition, we would like to thank E. Haliner, S. Nilsson, and A. Lauber at the BAMSE secretary for invaluable support, as well as Mutation Analysis Facility (MAF) at Karolinska Institutet for genome-wide methylation analysis, and I. Delin for excellent technical assistance. The computations were performed on resources provided by SNIC through Uppsala Multidisciplinary Center for Advanced Computational Science (UPPMAX) under Project b201.4110.

The Lebanon Economic Monitor provides an update on key economic developments and policies over the past six months. It also presents findings from recent World Bank work on Lebanon. It places them in a longer-term and global context, and assesses the implications of these developments and other changes in policy on the outlook for Lebanon. Its coverage ranges from the macro-economy to financial markets to indicators of human welfare and development. It is intended for a wide audience, including policy makers, business leaders, financial market participants, and the community of analysts and professionals engaged in Lebanon.

Africa's population is young and growing at twice the pace of other continents. A youth bulge presents a series of development policy opportunities and challenges. In this context, simplistic linkages between the youth bulge, high unemployment, and fragility have gained traction and given rise to a youth policy agenda that targets urban male youth as the problem and emphasizes formal sector development as the solution. This paper questions some of the core assumptions that underpin mainstream perceptions of the linkages between youth, employment, and fragility in West Africa, and presents an alternative analysis. The study will use the language of livelihoods to reflect on youth employment experiences, as livelihoods take into account the capabilities, assets (including both material and social resources), and activities required for a means of living beyond traditional ideas of employment, and thus enable a deeper, more sophisticated understanding of the realities of many young West Africans. The paper argues that a nuanced understanding of specific groups of young people and their livelihood activities in their specific social, cultural, political, and economic context is necessary to understand how young peoples' lives intersect with fragility dynamics. The paper aims to highlight that the relationship between youth, unemployment, underemployment, livelihoods, and fragility is far more complex than is often recognized and should not be exaggerated or taken out of context.

La comunicación digital constituye en la era tecnológica una de las formas de interacción más habituales. Su desarrollo se produce en el ecosistema mediático donde priman la interactividad y la rapidez con la que se transmiten los datos. Los sujetos, especialmente los más jóvenes, pasan una media de tres horas diarias en contacto con las pantallas que les proveen de conocimientos al tiempo que condicionan su forma de actuar y su personalidad. En tal contexto el desarrollo de la autonomía moral y la competencia mediática constituyen la base del camino sobre el que ha de encauzarse la educación integral del sujeto. En este entorno adquiere un valor y trascendencia importante el papel de la familia. Situación que nos conduce a incluir un epígrafe en el cual se realiza una entrevista a familias de Lugo con hijos en edad escolar, hombres y mujeres de los ámbitos rural y urbano. Aspecto que condiciona el grado de desarrollo de la competencia mediática del colectivo adolescente lucense de ambos espacios. Entre las pretensiones destaca, partiendo de los resultados, la elaboración de programas y actividades que favorezcan el desarrollo de la autonomía mediática en los menores. La investigación se inicia con la presentación y se compone de un marco teórico formado por seis capítulos al que se suma una segunda parte referida al diseño y desarrollo de la investigación y el posterior análisis de los resultados. Partes que conducen a una cuarta en la cual se realiza la discusión de resultados y las conclusiones a las que se añade las prospecciones de futuro. El trabajo cuenta además con una serie de anexos que complementan la comprensión y desarrollo del estudio. El primer capítulo que conforma el marco teórico alude al concepto de ciudadanía en el marco de la sociedad de la información donde se presenta la información mediatizada. Momento en el cual la comunicación adquiere un valor especial así como el receptor que más allá de mera audiencia debe convertirse en «prosumer», terminología de reciente actualidad que hace referencia a los consumidores de la realidad transmitida. Todo ello debe regularse y legislarse no solo a través de los aspectos coercitivos sino de los deontológicos. La omnipresencia de las pantallas requiere del desarrollo de la mirada crítica que constituye un reto para la educación. Entre los hándicaps más comunes se sitúa el desarrollo de la autonomía mediática por parte de la totalidad de la ciudadanía que se adscribe a los niveles inferiores de desarrollo moral. Se auspicia el alcance de la conciencia crítica que conduce a la emisión de juicios críticos. En el caso de los adolescentes el alcance de esta premisa constituye uno de los principales retos. Su consecución debe pretenderse con la contribución del esfuerzo familiar, social, escolar y mediático y se vincula de forma directa con la alfabetización comunicativa. Cuestión que preocupa, especialmente hoy en día y que viene haciéndolo desde la última década del pasado siglo XX. La formación por competencias y su aprendizaje constituyen uno de los principales retos a los que se enfrenta la institución educativa. En la situación descrita se propone la competencia mediática como motor del desarrollo autónomo del sujeto, especialmente de los más jóvenes. Hecho que justifica el análisis de este colectivo tanto a nivel español como en la comunidad gallega, espacio al que se circunscriben los datos que se analizan en la investigación. Posteriormente y dada la realidad se analiza la posibilidad de aplicación de prácticas que contribuyan al desarrollo de la competencia mediática entre este colectivo. El trabajo continúa con el análisis del currículo académico de los niveles de Secundaria y Bachillerato, etapas a las que se refieren los datos recogidos. Antes de analizarlos se describe la presencia del contenido audiovisual en el currículo de los mencionados niveles y las potencialidades curriculares del mismo. De la realidad se infieren una serie de carencias que se describen, al mismo tiempo se postulan una serie de propuestas que, en un futuro pueden servir para implementar el desarrollo de la autonomía mediática en los menores y en sus progenitores. La segunda parte se ocupa del diseño y desarrollo de la investigación partiendo de la justificación y relevancia de la naturaleza del estudio se delimita este y sus fases. La metodología ocupa una parte importante que precede a la descripción de los instrumentos utilizados en cada caso: cuestionario y focus Group. El análisis y discusión de los resultados ocupa las dos últimas partes del trabajo donde se incluyen no solo la descripción de los mismos sino además una serie de propuestas de mejora que implican la continuidad y vigencia de la tarea. ; Digital communication constitutes one of the most common forms of interaction in the era of technology. Its development is produced within the ecosystem of the media within which the interactivity and speed of data transmission take precedence. Subjects, especially the younger ones spend an average of three hours per day in contact with screens that provide them with knowledge while conditioning their behavior and personality. In this context the development of moral autonomy and media competency constitute the basis on which one is able to focus the integral education of an individual. In this scenario the role of family takes on value and significance. This leads us to include an epigraph in which an interview is given to families in Lugo including men and women with school-age children, in both rural and urban settings. This measure determines the degree of media competency of the adolescents in Lugo from both settings. Amongst the ambitions of this study, based on the results, is the development of programs and activities that aid minors in the development of media autonomy. This study begins with an introduction chapter that includes a theoretical framework composed of six sections to which a second chapter, referred to as the design and procedure of the study is added as well as the subsequent analysis of the results. The discussion of the results, conclusions and prospective research is included in a fourth chapter. Furthermore, this dissertation contains a series of appendices that complement the understanding and development of this study. The first chapter defines the theoretical framework alluding to the concept of citizenship within the context of an information society where mediatized information is presented. In this respect communication takes on a special value, so does the recipient of this communication who goes beyond merely hearing the information; they themselves must become "prosumers" (new terminology that makes reference to consumers who actually produce). All of this should be regulated and legislated not only by means of enforcement but also by ethics. The omnipresence of screens requires the development of a critical eye, posing a challenge to education. Among the most common disadvantages lies the development of media autonomy in part because the population at whole ascribes to low levels of moral development. The extent that critical awareness leads to critical thinking is supported. For adolescents, the confines of this assumption constitute one of the main challenges. Their attainment is expected through the contribution of family, social, academic and media factors and is directly linked with communication literacy. This is an area of concern today, and has been since the last decade of the 20th century. Competency-based training and learning constitute one of the principal challenges that the institution of education faces. In the situation described, media competency is proposed as an engine of the subject's autonomous development, especially for the younger subjects. This fact justifies the analysis of this sample on a national level as well as within Galicia; the area in which the data analyzed in this study is circumscribed. Subsequently the applicability of real world practices that contribute to the development of media literacy among this group is analyzed. This study continues with an analysis of the academic curriculums for both secondary school and the A Levels (the groups that the collected data refer to). Before analyzing the data, the presence of audiovisual material in the curriculum of the aforementioned levels is discussed as well as curricular potentials. From this, a number of shortcomings are described and a series of proposals is postulated that, in the future, could serve to implement the development of media autonomy of both minors and their parents. The second part addresses the study's design and development starting with its justification and the relevance of the nature of this study in which it is delimited as well as its stages. The methodology is an important component that precedes the description of the instruments used in this study: a questionnaire and focus group. The analysis and discussion of the results are included in the last two sections of this study where they include not only a description but also a number of suggestions to improve on what the continuity and validity of the study imply.

James Freeman's always excellent "best of the web" WSJ column today covers a Manhattan Institute report by Mark Mills itself referencing material deep in side an International Energy Agency report on battery powered electric cars. Like corn ethanol, this enthusiasm may also pass. The economic and environmental costs of batteries are slowly seeping out. One of my pet peeves in all of our command-and-control climate policy is that any comprehensive quantification of costs and benefits seems so rare, or at least so hidden. How many dollars for how many tons of carbon -- and especially the latter: how many tons of carbon, really, all in, including making the cars? (California only counts tailpipe emissions!) I have seen guesstimates that electric cars only breakeven in their carbon emissions at 50,000-70,000 miles. And, the point of the article, those estimates are likely undercounts especially if there is a huge expansion.  Parts I found interesting and novel: For all of history, the costs of a metal in both dollar and environmental terms are dictated primarily by ore grades, i.e., the share of the rock dug up that contains the metal sought... Ore grade is what accounts for the differences in the cost per pound of gold, $15,000, and iron, $0.05. The former ore grades are typically below 0.001% and the latter over 50%.... Average nickel ore grade is under 2% and for copper below 1%, ... Such geological realities determine the amount of energy used by big machines to do the digging, moving, grinding, refining, etc.The global mining industry today already accounts for about 40% of all industrial energy use, and that's before an epic expansion that will be needed to meet green plans. Petroleum itself typically accounts for half of mining-sector energy use.Thus, estimating future EV energy emissions requires including the trajectory for ore grades. There is no evidence that any study is doing so. [My emphasis] Every metal exhibits a long-run and significant decline in ore grades. [The International Energy Agency] acknowledges this, even if it tendentiously understates the reality: "Future [minerals] production is likely to gravitate towards more energy-intensive pathways." The word "likely" dodges the fact that the data and the trends are clear. Copper is typical and is one metal for which there are no substitutes for building EVs or wind and solar hardware. As a National Renewable Energy Laboratory paper pointed out, "a decrease in copper ore grade between 0.2% and 0.4%, will require seven times more energy than present-day operations." And copper ore grades are forecast to continue the long-run decline...Mr. Mills cites an IEA report showing a trend of increasingly energy-intensive mining to collect a number of other minerals needed for EVs and adds:All the trends for declining ore grades are visible, even if they are ignored. [my emphasis]Now any economist of a certain era like me remembers the resource limits arguments of the 1970s, and the fact that raw materials prices keep going down over time. How does this square with the above? Simple: over time energy prices go down, and a bit the cost of machinery goes down, so we can mine lower and lower quality ore at the same or lower price.  This is how we overcome the laws of thermodynamics. As the thing you want is more and more needle in a haystack of rubble, it takes more and more energy to pull it out. We could make copper from sea water with enough free energy. We could make copper from other elements in particle accelerators with enough free energy. Energy abundance drives declining resource prices. And, of course, current policy is driving us to more and more expensive energy.  So perhaps the resource limited crowd might be right after all, though only because of our self-imposed energy policies. (I don't see how one can use nuclear or solar power to run a mine. Maybe, which would at least help the carbon issue if not all the other externalities of mining.)Some of the environmental question around carbon is nicely stated as, what kind of earth do we want to leave our great grandchildren? A hotter earth is not a pleasant choice. But an earth with all of its high grade minerals removed, and only a tenth of a degree cooler, is not a great choice either. I recall from somewhere a speculation about whether industrial civilization could revive after a social collapse. The answer is no. We can't even have a new Bronze Age. All the easily accessible deposits are gone.  Second, an interesting forecast that our regulators will give up -- i.e. give up on the idea that replacing ICE vehicles with batteries and continuing as we do now will work: . . . Consumers are also to be persuaded, or forced, to drive less in general and travel more by bus, bicycle, rail, ride-share, or on foot, and to own fewer cars in the first place. As stated in the IEA net zero goal: the number of global households without a car needs to rise from 45% today to 70% by 2050, reversing a century-long trend of rising ownership. One researcher simply stated: "There is therefore a need for a wide range of policies that include measures to reduce vehicle ownership and usage." As usual, California regulators are ahead of the proverbial curve in admitting that the state's emissions goals will require citizens of that state—on top of being forced into EVs—to drive 25% fewer miles than they did 30 years ago . . . Reversing Americans' entire residential locations to something like a Manhattan where non-car transport can work is hard enough.  Carbon emissions in the next century means China, India and Africa. Do they join the modern world? Reducing "global" car ownership means, no. You walk. Not in the article, my own pet peeve about electric car mandates, current policy, and the coming total ban on ICE vehicles: Economics teaches you the wonder of tremendous variety in our economy. Lots of people use cars and trucks for lots of different things. If electrification saves carbon at all -- a big if, and the central point of this report -- but is expensive or range limited, then it makes sense to do it first where it's least costly and most beneficial, and leave the most high value and hard to substitute uses of gas power alone. For example, the natural first use for electric cars is a second or shared small car with small battery for around town. Most families have two cars. Or, you could own a small limited range car for daily driving and rent a Chevy Tahoe for a long road trip. Privately owned cars sit idle most of the time, and are not a great first use for expensive and environmentally costly batteries anyway. A fire truck that operates one month of the year in the middle of nowhere off the grid should probably stay gas powered forever. The earth does not require 100% elimination of ICE, 90% will do! Yet our policy makers see only one vision: each family has one car, Chevy Chase's family truckster, and must take that car on a long road trip. So the car needs to be huge, have a huge battery, and have a network of charging stations. All at once. Moonshot, not bit by bit. The pressure on materials will not just come from cars either. The current policy plan is to move home heating, AC, stoves, and industry to electricity, and to move electric production to solar panels and windmills. But those only work during the day. The current plan -- dream -- is battery powered grid scale electric storage. To obviate the need for backup fossil plants -- i.e. doubling the fixed cost -- we then need something like a week's worth of battery backup for the whole current electrical output, all the cars, houses, and industry that are going to be forced to move to electricity, and new economic growth. A total ban on gas power, a forced move to huge cars with huge batteries, and no clear quantitative understanding that this actually saves any carbon at all, let alone the other environmental consequences of massively increasing resource extraction, will obviously end badly. Freeman says "they're coming for your cars." They may, but we are still a democracy. More likely, this will join corn ethanol, switchgrass, high speed trains, urban mass transit, and a hundred other enthusiasms in a pile of eternal subsidies while the chattering classes move on to the next great enthusiasm. I can bet what will happen in California. The ban will take effect, but there will be a mechanism to plead for exemptions. Once again large well connected people and companies will get exemptions, smaller businesses will shut down, and everything gets more expensive.  The sad effect of all of this is that slow diffusion of sensible electric cars may be stalled, along with development of the technology--whatever it is--that will eventually win out 20 or 30 years from now.