Urban growth and territorial dynamics in Spain (1985-2001): A spatial econometrics analysis

The study of the territorial/regional development in Spain has nowadays a relatively long tradition, but from the point of view of cities development the number of studies and documents decreases drastically. This paper tries to improve the knowledge of the Spanish urban system. The aim of this paper is twofold: firstly, to determine the factors that explain the urban growth of Spanish cities; secondly, to observe the cities situation in terms of ¡§winners¡¨ and ¡§losers¡¨ after the long period of integration of Spain in the EU. A spatial conditional ƒÒ- convergence equation is specified and the Durbin-Wu-Haussman exogeneity test is used to check on the existence of simultaneity between urban growth and the control variables. The classic problems of spread and backwash are studied by including a spatial autoregressive term and spatial regimes ¡Vconvergence clubs- in the growth model.Urban growth, Spanish cities, conditional ƒÒ-convergence, endogeneity, Durbin-Wu-Haussman, spatial autocorrelation, spatial heterogeneity, convergence clubs

Reforms and infrastructure efficiency in Spain's container ports

This paper quantifies the evolution of technical efficiency in port infrastructure service provision in the major Spanish port authorities involved in container traffic. The paper also analyzes the extent to which port reforms that took place in the 1990's had an impact on the efficiency of the Spanish container ports. Because of the multi-output nature of port activities, we have estimated a distance function, which is a novel methodology in the study of the port industry. The results show that the reforms resulted in significant improvements in technological change, but that technical efficiency has in fact changed little on average. However, there is a significant movement of the efficiency within ports over time as a result of these reforms.Ports&Waterways,Transport and Trade Logistics,Environmental Economics&Policies,Common Carriers Industry,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Ports&Waterways,Transport Security,Common Carriers Industry,Transport and Trade Logistics,Public Sector Economics&Finance

The economics of municipal solid waste management in tourism destinations: the case of Mallorca

El turismo es una de los sectores que ha mostrado un destacado crecimiento a nivel mundial actualmente. En relación con el estudio de los impactos negativos, la investigación sobre externalidades ha sido objeto de gran interés, sin embargo la relación entre la actividad turística y de los residuos sólidos municipales (RSM) no ha atendida profundamente. La tesis realiza importantes contribuciones en el análisis de tres aspectos de la relación entre turismo y la gestión de RSM. En primer lugar, el análisis cuantitativo del turismo como factor determinante en la generación de RSM. En segundo lugar, los retos del turismo en la gestión de RSM en destinos turísticos, con énfasis en Mallorca. En tercer lugar, el análisis teórico de incentivos a las empresas turísticas para mejorar la gestión de residuos. Finalmente, la tesis abre camino para identificar una serie de cuestiones que deben ser exploradas en futuras investigaciones

A Survey of Recent Advances in Particle Filters and Remaining Challenges for Multitarget Tracking

[EN]We review some advances of the particle filtering (PF) algorithm that have been achieved in the last decade in the context of target tracking, with regard to either a single target or multiple targets in the presence of false or missing data. The first part of our review is on remarkable achievements that have been made for the single-target PF from several aspects including importance proposal, computing efficiency, particle degeneracy/impoverishment and constrained/multi-modal systems. The second part of our review is on analyzing the intractable challenges raised within the general multitarget (multi-sensor) tracking due to random target birth and termination, false alarm, misdetection, measurement-to-track (M2T) uncertainty and track uncertainty. The mainstream multitarget PF approaches consist of two main classes, one based on M2T association approaches and the other not such as the finite set statistics-based PF. In either case, significant challenges remain due to unknown tracking scenarios and integrated tracking management

Contribution to the organization of ground handling management at airports

La croissance du trafic aérien a rendu critique l’opération de la gestion des plateformes aéroportuaires. Celle-ci fait appel à de nombreux acteurs (autorités aéroportuaires, compagnies aériennes, contrôle du trafic aérien, prestataires de services, …). Le concept d’Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM) développé depuis une dizaine d’années est basé sur un partage d’informations opérationnelles en temps réel entre les différents acteurs de la plate-forme, permettant de prendre des décisions en commun pour rechercher une utilisation optimale, en toutes conditions, des capacités de l’aéroport. L’objectif principal de cette thèse est de contribuer à l’organisation de la gestion des opérations d’escale dans une plateforme aéroportuaire. Il s’agit de proposer une structure d’organisation de cette opération qui soit compatible avec l’approche A-CDM. La structure proposée introduit un coordinateur des opérations d’escale (GHC) qui joue le rôle d’interface de communication entre les partenaires de l’A-CDM et les différents gestionnaires des opérations d’escale (GHM). Cette structure hiérarchique permet d’une part de partager des informations avec les partenaires de l’A-CDM et d’autre part d’interagir avec les gestionnaires des opérations d’escale (GHM). Les processus de prise de décision basés sur des heuristiques ont été développés à chaque niveau de l’organisation proposée et sont évalués aussi bien dans le cas de conditions nominales que dans le cas de la présence de perturbations majeures. ABSTRACT : The increase of the world air traffic growth of the last decades has generated a permanent challenge for civil aviation authorities, airlines and airports to supply sufficient capacity to provide a safe transportation service with acceptable quality standards. New traffic management practices, such as A-CDM, based on multi-agent and collaborative decision making concepts have been introduced at airports. However, within the turnaround process of aircraft at airports, ground handling management of aircraft has not been developed specifically in the A-CDM approach, even if it has an important role in the fluidity of aircraft operations at airports. The main objective of this thesis dissertation is to contribute to the organisation of the ground handling management at airports. It consists to provide a structure organize the ground handling management compatible with the A -CDM concept. The proposed structure introduces a ground handling coordinator (GHC) which is considered as an interface for communication between the partners of the A -CDM and the different ground handling managers (GHM). This hierarchical structure allows sharing information with partners in the A -CDM on the one side and on the other side, interacting with ground handling managers (GHM). Decision making processes based on heuristics have been developed at each level of the proposed organization and have been also evaluated in the case of nominal conditions and in the case of the presence of major disruptions

Contribution à l'organisation des opérations d'escale dans une plateforme aéroportuaire

La croissance du trafic aérien a rendu critique l opération de la gestion des plateformes aéroportuaires. Celle-ci fait appel à de nombreux acteurs (autorités aéroportuaires, compagnies aériennes, contrôle du trafic aérien, prestataires de services, ). Le concept d Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM) développé depuis une dizaine d années est basé sur un partage d informations opérationnelles en temps réel entre les différents acteurs de la plate-forme, permettant de prendre des décisions en commun pour rechercher une utilisation optimale, en toutes conditions, des capacités de l aéroport. L objectif principal de cette thèse est de contribuer à l organisation de la gestion des opérations d escale dans une plateforme aéroportuaire. Il s agit de proposer une structure d organisation de cette opération qui soit compatible avec l approche A-CDM. La structure proposée introduit un coordinateur des opérations d escale (GHC) qui joue le rôle d interface de communication entre les partenaires de l A-CDM et les différents gestionnaires des opérations d escale (GHM). Cette structure hiérarchique permet d une part de partager des informations avec les partenaires de l A-CDM et d autre part d interagir avec les gestionnaires des opérations d escale (GHM). Les processus de prise de décision basés sur des heuristiques ont été développés à chaque niveau de l organisation proposée et sont évalués aussi bien dans le cas de conditions nominales que dans le cas de la présence de perturbations majeures.The increase of the world air traffic growth of the last decades has generated a permanent challenge for civil aviation authorities, airlines and airports to supply sufficient capacity to provide a safe transportation service with acceptable quality standards. New traffic management practices, such as A-CDM, based on multi-agent and collaborative decision making concepts have been introduced at airports. However, within the turnaround process of aircraft at airports, ground handling management of aircraft has not been developed specifically in the A-CDM approach, even if it has an important role in the fluidity of aircraft operations at airports. The main objective of this thesis dissertation is to contribute to the organisation of the ground handling management at airports. It consists to provide a structure organize the ground handling management compatible with the A -CDM concept. The proposed structure introduces a ground handling coordinator (GHC) which is considered as an interface for communication between the partners of the A -CDM and the different ground handling managers (GHM). This hierarchical structure allows sharing information with partners in the A -CDM on the one side and on the other side, interacting with ground handling managers (GHM). Decision making processes based on heuristics have been developed at each level of the proposed organization and have been also evaluated in the case of nominal conditions and in the case of the presence of major disruptions.TOULOUSE-INP (315552154) / SudocSudocFranceF

The Spanish media and the Internet: new practices built on traditional values

This research explores the convergence of journalism, an influential and well established profession, and the Internet, a technology that alters the communication experience. It focuses on how the Net and its associated practices intersects with deep rooted journalistic cultures; asking how this collision affects traditional values, how it influences new practices appearing in newsrooms, how the involved agents re-define their roles and how new media logics are emerging from this contact. This investigation has been developed through the prism of Bourdieu's theory of practice, which considers the journalistic profession as a field, where there are shared values, practices and routines, a sense of a group, a common identity, built on each actor's daily experiences. The latter, accumulated as a bodily habitus, operates in relation to the environment. The ethnography, a tool reckoned as well suited to capture and describe behaviours in newsrooms, is the methodology employed in this work, which combines participant observation and interviews. The studied media are four Spanish journalistic institutions; Diario de Mallorca, a regional print paper; Efe, a news agency, El País and El Mundo, the two biggest national newspapers and its online sites. This thesis argues that, in the negotiation of their adapted new role, journalists tend to align themselves with their traditional values and habitus. Well aware of the Internet related trends, they claim to keep an open mind to technological features, while filtering them through the sieve of their most cherished tenets. They see the gatekeeping role of journalism –as a profession with particular values– as something that can help save the public sphere from powerful and biased agents; the identification of sources and traceability of stories to guarantee its trustfulness, framing news in wider scenarios or a declared attachment to 'the truth' –all of these ‘news values’ and the practical activities designed to underpin them shape their professional ideology. Negotiating new media, and taking a view on journalistic transformation, they mostly stick to what they do not see as nostalgia (an attachment to values now rendered redundant in a new media environment), but as values related with, and indeed helping to enable, democracy, fairness, equality and a healthy public sphere

Fate of Duplicated Neural Structures

Statistical mechanics determines the abundance of different arrangements of matter depending on cost-benefit balances. Its formalism and phenomenology percolate throughout biological processes and set limits to effective computation. Under specific conditions, self-replicating and computationally complex patterns become favored, yielding life, cognition, and Darwinian evolution. Neurons and neural circuits sit at a crossroads between statistical mechanics, computation, and (through their role in cognition) natural selection. Can we establish a {\em statistical physics} of neural circuits? Such theory would tell what kinds of brains to expect under set energetic, evolutionary, and computational conditions. With this big picture in mind, we focus on the fate of duplicated neural circuits. We look at examples from central nervous systems, with a stress on computational thresholds that might prompt this redundancy. We also study a naive cost-benefit balance for duplicated circuits implementing complex phenotypes. From this we derive {\em phase diagrams} and (phase-like) transitions between single and duplicated circuits, which constrain evolutionary paths to complex cognition. Back to the big picture, similar phase diagrams and transitions might constrain I/O and internal connectivity patterns of neural circuits at large. The formalism of statistical mechanics seems a natural framework for thsi worthy line of research.Comment: Review with novel results. Position paper. 16 pages, 3 figure

Fragmented City: International Mobility and Housing in Spain

Habitual statements in academic and journalistic fields on the growing inequality of our cities call for multiple reflections. There are numerous indicators of inequality, and territorial specificities give rise to important and subtle differences. What is less debatable is the spatial expansion of inequality (from more outlying, poorer countries to the most developed ones) and its generalization on all scales (from rural to urban areas, and from large metropolises to small cities). Mobility and housing lie at the root of many of these processes, which are represented by phenomena that are often interconnected, such as gentrification and the elite social classes; impoverishment and immigrants in search of work; and segregation and refugees; among many others. In this book, we try to offer a Spanish-based vision of what we call urban geographies in transition—that is, urban geographies in which the key stages, for the purpose of analysis, are the real estate bubble (1996–2007), the subsequent crisis (2008–2013), and the ensuing recovery (2014–2020), without overlooking the impact of the current COVID-19 crisis on the configuration of a new spatial order in cities

An Evolutionary Learning Approach for Adaptive Negotiation Agents

Developing effective and efficient negotiation mechanisms for real-world applications such as e-Business is challenging since negotiations in such a context are characterised by combinatorially complex negotiation spaces, tough deadlines, very limited information about the opponents, and volatile negotiator preferences. Accordingly, practical negotiation systems should be empowered by effective learning mechanisms to acquire dynamic domain knowledge from the possibly changing negotiation contexts. This paper illustrates our adaptive negotiation agents which are underpinned by robust evolutionary learning mechanisms to deal with complex and dynamic negotiation contexts. Our experimental results show that GA-based adaptive negotiation agents outperform a theoretically optimal negotiation mechanism which guarantees Pareto optimal. Our research work opens the door to the development of practical negotiation systems for real-world applications