Evaluating residents’ preferences for remediation technologies: A choice experiment approach

© 2017 Elsevier B.V. The choice of technologies used to remediate contaminated environments is increasingly made through engagement with a multitude of stakeholders including affected residents. Despite this, little is known about how residents perceive remediation technology applications. In this study a choice experiment is designed to explore ways of understanding and measuring residents’ preferences for different remediation technologies approaches using a sample of 944 residents in New South Wales, Australia. Analysis reveals that the residents’ acceptability of remediation technologies can be explained by both the efficacy of the technology in improving the environmental quality of the community, and the reputational value of the technology. In particular it is found that residents prefer Monitor Natural Attenuation and Bioremediation to other remediation technologies. In particular they are willing to pay an increase in yearly taxes of $44.60 and$41.15 respectively for implementing such technologies instead of alternative remediation technologies like Chemical remediation

Modelling contingent valuation iterated elicitation data with an MCMC approach

The valuation of non-market goods involves iterated elicitation questions which obtain more information from the sample respondents and lead to more efficient welfare estimates. In this paper we consider the improvements which could be obtained by utilising a Bayesian MCMC approach to model this type of data. A fully informative prior resulting from previous stages is compared with a flat non-informative prior utilising both simulated and empirical data. These priors are combined with data in each stage to form the posteriors which are simulated with Gibbs sampling algorithms. The models are applied to an elicitation tree involving two successive dichotomous choice questions followed by an open-ended question. Monte Carlo simulations show that taking into account the information process implicit in successive elicitation improves the performance of the results at each stage and increases efficiency. Thus, the model allows the researcher to consider the evolving process along the elicitation tree, while increasing useful information obtained from the individual.Bayesian methods, Contingent valuation, Gibbs sampling, Iterated Elicitation, National Parks.

Modificación de un material didáctico interactivo en la búsqueda de un aprendizaje más adaptativo

Este trabajo presenta la evolución de un material didáctico interactivo orientado hacia el sistema de especificaciones geométricas de productos, ISO GPS. El grupo de Innovación Educativa Ingeniería de Fabricación de la Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria ha buscado aportar un grado de adaptatividad más alto a este material implementándolo directamente en la plataforma Moodle. Se han reorganizado los contenidos en varios bloques para mejorar su progresividad, siendo necesario superar cuestionarios de conceptos básicos para ir avanzando hacia nuevos contenidos. También se le han incorporado nuevos recursos como videos interactivos de resolución de problemas y un simulador gráfico para la visualización de las tolerancias y ajustes. Se ha empleado metodologías con la participación activa y colaborativa de estudiantes, tanto para el desarrollo como en la evaluación de este nuevo material didáctico. Los resultados obtenidos evidencian que las mejoras introducidas han tenido un impacto positivo en el aprendizaje en los estudiantes, y se ha mostrado también como una herramienta muy adecuada para su uso en una modalidad de educación híbrida que integre la docencia presencial y la telemática

A Fermented Food Product Containing Lactic Acid Bacteria Protects ZDF Rats from the Development of Type 2 Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a complex metabolic disease, which involves a maintained hyperglycemia due to the development of an insulin resistance process. Among multiple risk factors, host intestinal microbiota has received increasing attention in T2D etiology and progression. In the present study, we have explored the effect of long-term supplementation with a non-dairy fermented food product (FFP) in Zucker Diabetic and Fatty (ZDF) rats T2D model. The supplementation with FFP induced an improvement in glucose homeostasis according to the results obtained from fasting blood glucose levels, glucose tolerance test, and pancreatic function. Importantly, a significantly reduced intestinal glucose absorption was found in the FFP-treated rats. Supplemented animals also showed a greater survival suggesting a better health status as a result of the FFP intake. Some dissimilarities have been observed in the gut microbiota population between control and FFP-treated rats, and interestingly a tendency for better cardiometabolic markers values was appreciated in this group. However, no significant differences were observed in body weight, body composition, or food intake between groups. These findings suggest that FFP induced gut microbiota modifications in ZDF rats that improved glucose metabolism and protected from T2D development

Spain

This chapter presents a review of the situation concerning the various geomorphological hazards in the country, including some information about existing programmes for research, control and mitigation. With its great variety of climatic, geological and morphodynamic environments, Spain is subject to every kind of natural hazard: tsunamis, floods, volcanism, and mass movements. The whole of the territory is prone to some kind of geomorphological hazard but it is in the eastern and southern coastal strips that the risks are greatest. One of the main problems for the mitigation of geomorphological hazards in Spain is the lack of an appropriate regulatory framework for the incorporation of natural hazard assessments into land-use planning and management at the macro-, meso- and micro-planning levels. The coverage of hazard mapping is still far from complete or adequate, and much work remains to be done. There has been considerable diversity in the methods used for risk assessment and for the cartographic representation of natural hazards. An urgent need is to establish common, accepted methodologies and criteria, based on indicators defined as clearly as possible, and to standardize map legends and scales for different planning levels. Information programmes for the general public also need to be considerably expanded

Downscaling Climate Change Impacts, Socio-Economic Implications and Alternative Adaptation Pathways for Islands and Outermost Regions

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the future scenarios of climate change and management concerns associated with climate change impacts on the blue economy of European islands and outermost regions. The publication collects major findings of the SOCLIMPACT project’s research outcomes, aiming to raise social awareness among policy-makers and industry about climate change consequences at local level, and provide knowledge-based information to support policy design, from local to national level. This comprehensive book will also assist students, scholars and practitioners to understand, conceptualize and effectively and responsibly manage climate change information and applied research. This book provides invaluable material for Blue Growth Management, theory and application, at all levels. This first edition includes up-to-date data, statistics, references, case material and figures of the 12 islands case studies. ¨Downscaling climate change impacts, socio-economic implications and alternative adaptation pathways for Islands and Outermost Regions¨ is a must-read book, given the accessible style and breadth and depth with which the topic is dealt. The book is an up-to-date synthesis of key knowledge on this area, written by a multidisciplinary group of experts on climate and economic modelling, and policy design

Comparative analysis of the impact of geological activity on astronomical sites of the Canary Islands, Hawaii and Chile

An analysis of the impact of seismic and volcanic activity was carried out at selected astronomical sites, namely the observatories of El Teide (Tenerife, Canary Islands), Roque de los Muchachos (La Palma, Canary Islands), Mauna Kea (Hawaii) and Paranal (Chile) and the candidate site of Cerro Ventarrones (Chile). Hazard associated to volcanic activity is low or negligible at all sites, whereas seismic hazard is very high in Chile and Hawaii. The lowest geological hazard in both seismic and volcanic activity was found at Roque de los Muchachos observatory, in the island of La Palma.Comment: 12 pages and 11 figure

Riesgos geológicos en España: estado de la cuestión

Trabajo presentado en el III Congreso geológico de España y VIII Congreso Latinoamericano de Geología, celebrado en Salamanca (España), en 1992Peer reviewe

Aeromagnetic anomalies reveal the link between magmatism and tectonics during the early formation of the Canary Islands

The 3-D inverse modelling of a magnetic anomaly measured over the NW submarine edifice of the volcanic island of Gran Canaria revealed a large, reversely-magnetized, elongated structure following an ENE-WSW direction, which we interpreted as a sill-like magmatic intrusion emplaced during the submarine growth of this volcanic island, with a volume that could represent up to about 20% of the whole island. The elongated shape of this body suggests the existence of a major crustal fracture in the central part of the Canary Archipelago which would have favoured the rapid ascent and emplacement of magmas during a time span from 0.5 to 1.9 My during a reverse polarity chron of the Earth’s magnetic field prior to 16 Ma. The agreement of our results with those of previous gravimetric, seismological and geodynamical studies strongly supports the idea that the genesis of the Canary Islands was conditioned by a strike-slip tectonic framework probably related to Atlas tectonic features in Africa. These results do not contradict the hotspot theory for the origin of the Canary magmatism, but they do introduce the essential role of regional crustal tectonics to explain where and how those magmas both reached the surface and built the volcanic edifices.Project CGL2015-63799-P of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivenes