La incorporación de nuevas tecnologías digitales a los procesos de gestión empresarial desempeña hoy en día un factor competitivo determinante en la estrategia de cualquier entidad. Las cooperativas agroalimentarias no pueden quedar al margen de esta oportunidad y, en consecuencia, deben afrontar la transformación digital de sus estructuras no solo para crecer sino también para sobrevivir en un entorno cada vez más cambiante y competitivo. En este trabajo se presenta un estudio exploratorio cuyo objetivo principal se centra en el análisis del uso e implementación de las nuevas tecnologías digitales en las cooperativas agroalimentarias españolas con la finalidad de determinar su grado de transformación digital desde una doble perspectiva: su presencia en internet y los servicios web ofrecidos. Para tal fin, se procede a la revisión de los antecedentes de investigación y posterior estudio centrado en el análisis de un conjunto amplio de parámetros e indicadores sobre el uso de TIC y comercio electrónico que permita determinar la situación del sector cooperativo agroalimentario respecto del conjunto de empresas españolas y realizar un análisis comparativo tanto a nivel territorial como intersectorial. Los resultados obtenidos revelan la existencia de cierto retraso en el grado de transformación digital de las cooperativas agroalimentarias cuya magnitud se encuentra condicionada por el tamaño y el subsector donde desarrollan su actividad.

The digitization of the agri-food sector is a strategic priority in the political agenda of European institutions. The opportunity to improve the competitiveness and efficiency of the sector offered by new technologies comes together with its potential to face new economic and environmental challenges. This research aims to analyze the level of digitalization of the European agri-food cooperative sector from the construction of a composite synthetic index. Such an index is to be based on a diverse set of variables related to electronic commerce and the services offered through the internet. It also evaluates how European cooperatives influence the degree of technological adoption depending on their size or the wealth of the country where they carry out their activity. The empirical analytical method is thus used, through the analysis of frequencies and correlations. The results obtained reveal the existence of a suboptimal and heterogeneous degree of digitization of European agri-food cooperatives, clearly conditioned by their size and the wealth of the country where they operate. In this situation, it is recommended to promote public policies that guarantee high-performance digital connectivity, an improvement in training in digital skills and the promotion of cooperative integration processes.

The rise of digital technologies and their educational applications increasingly require the development of digital skills among university faculty. This study focuses on examining the level of digital competencies of university faculty and identifying their conditioning factors. To achieve this objective, an ex post facto methodological design with surveys is used. A sample of 216 university teachers from different regions of Ecuador was used. The non-parametric Chi-square test was used to validate the hypothesis of independence of the variables. The results obtained show that university faculty have a mostly intermediate level of digital skills, which is independent of gender, but dependent on the generational cohort. In particular, it is found that younger teachers (millennials) have a more advanced level of digital skills, although this relationship is not very strong. On the other hand, we observe the positive influence of the university’s strategic leadership in terms of technological adoption on the development of teachers’ digital skills. Universities with better technological resources and with training plans focused on the pedagogical application of technology have teachers with a more advanced level of digital skills. All of this leads to the recommendation that education policies should prioritise actions that promote the development of digital competencies among university faculty

The great advances produced in the field of artificial intelligence and, more specifically, in deep learning allow us to classify images automatically with a great margin of reliability. This research consists of the validation and development of a methodology that allows, through the use of convolutional neural networks and image identification, the automatic recycling of materials such as paper, plastic, glass, and organic material. The validity of the study is based on the development of a methodology capable of implementing a convolutional neural network to validate a reliability in the recycling process that is much higher than simple human interaction would have. The method used to obtain this better precision will be transfer learning through a dataset using the pre-trained networks Visual Geometric Group 16 (VGG16), Visual Geometric Group 19 (VGG19), and ResNet15V2. To implement the model, the Keras framework is used. The results conclude that by using a small set of images, and thanks to the later help of the transfer learning method, it is possible to classify each of the materials with a 90% reliability rate. As a conclusion, a model is obtained with a performance much higher than the performance that would be reached if this type of technique were not used, with the classification of a 100% reusable material such as organic material.

This article analyzes the monetary policy of major central banks during the economic crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Rising public debt in many countries is being financed through asset purchases by monetary authorities. Although these stimulus policies predate the pandemic, they have been significantly boosted as many governments face large financing needs. We have been in a low interest rate environment for years and some governments have issued debt securities at negative rates. In addition, the rise of decentralized cryptocurrencies, based on blockchain technology, has created greater competition in the international monetary system and many governments have considered the creation of centralized virtual currencies, known as central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). We will analyze some relevant cases, with an emphasis on the digital euro project. The methodology is based on the analysis of the evolution of monetary variables. Pearson’s correlation will be used to establish some relationships between them. There is a strong similarity in the expansionary monetary policies of central banks. Although the growth of the money supply has not been passed on to the CPI, it has been passed on to the financial markets and the price of assets such as Bitcoin or gold.