Ramón Flores

Synthesis of Purine Nucleosides Built on a 3-Oxabicyclo[3.2.0]heptane Scaffold

The photochemical [2 + 2] cycloaddition of chiral 3-chloro and 3-fluoro-5-hydroxymethyl-2(5H)-furanone to ethylene and acetylene has been studied. The effect of the halogen atom on the chemical yield and facial diastereoselectivity of the cycloaddition process has been evaluated. From the major anti cycloadducts, practical syntheses of several purine cyclobutane and cyclobutene-fused nucleosides containing a halogen atom have been developed. The anti-HIV activity of the new nucleoside analogues has been evaluated.

Impact on Competitive Balance from Allowing Foreign Players in a Sports League: Evidence from European Soccer

Different theoretical frameworks have yielded different predictions concerning the impact on competitive balance of widening the pool of players from which clubs in a sports league are permitted to recruit. We identify that one reason for differences is that models may represent clubs as hiring from the pool of talent either simultaneously or in a leader-follower fashion (such that strong clubs have first pick of players). With the latter assumption, we suggest that there is an effect, the sign depending on how many extra talented players are admitted to the pool. Whether balance is modified favourably or unfavourably when, for example, foreign players are introduced is therefore an empirical matter. In our statistical analysis, we test for effects from the liberalisation of football player labour markets associated with the Bosman Ruling. We show that, across seventeen European football leagues, results derived from indicators based on tables of aggregated seasonal performance (for example, concentration ratios) point to an improvement in within-season (but not cross-season) competitive balance following Bosman.

Nullification and cellularization of classifying spaces of finite groups

In this note we discuss the effect of the BZ/p-nullification P BZ/P and the BZ/p-cellularization CW Bz/p over classifying spaces of finite groups, and we relate them with the corresponding functors with respect to Moore spaces that have been intensively studied in the last years. We describe P BZ/p BG by means of a covering fibration, and we classify all finite groups G for which BG is BZ/p-cellular. We also carefully study the analogous functors in the category of groups, and their relationship with the fundamental groups of P BZ/p BG and CW BZ/p BG.

On Bredon homology of elementary amenable groups

We show that for elementary amenable groups the Hirsch length is equal to the Bredon homological dimension. This also implies that countable elementary amenable groups admit a finite-dimensional model for

Decision taking under pressure: Evidence on football manager dismissals in Argentina and their consequences

\underbar{EG}

Networks and Collective Action

of dimension less than or equal to the Hirsch length plus one. Some remarks on groups of type

Synthesis, Anti-HIV Activity Studies, and in silico Rationalization of Cyclobutane-Fused Nucleosides

FP_\infty

Cellular properties of nilpotent spaces

are also made.

Homotopy idempotent functors on classifying spaces

The paper focuses on dismissals of football managers and whether such decisions appear to contribute to organisational goals or else to be fruitless exercises in scapegoating. Its empirical setting is Argentina where incidence of sackings is more than one per season per club. It models 20years of football match results and detects a tendency for a change of manager to be followed by deterioration in team performance, with adverse effects concentrated in results of matches played away. The evidence is consistent with decisions being driven by fan and media pressure rather than in realistic hope of improving the position of the club.

What is a good result in the first leg of a two-legged football match?

This paper proposes a new measure for a groups ability to lead society to adopt their standard of behavior, which in particular takes account of the time the group takes to convince the whole society to adopt their position. This notion of a groups power to initiate action is computed as the reciprocal of the resistance against it, which is in turn given by the expected absorption time of a related finite state partial Markov chain that captures the social dynamics. The measure is applicable and meaningful in a variety of models where interaction between agents is formalized through (weighted) binary relations. Using Percolation Theory, it is shown that the group power is monotonic as a function of groups of agents. We also explain the differences between our measure and those discussed in the literature on Graph Theory, and illustrate all these concerns by a thorough analysis of two particular cases: the Wolfe Primate Data and the 11S hijackers’ network.