Analysing the provision of agricultural public goods: The case of irrigated olive groves in Southern Spain

The analysis of the joint production of private and public goods (PGs) from farming activities is a fertile research field. These joint production. processes are typically characterized by a high level of complexity derived from the intense relationship between the production of both kinds of outputs. An integrated approach is strongly recommended to study the provision of agricultural PGs and the design of public intervention in this sector. Here, we propose a theoretical framework to apply an integrated approach using the Analytic Network Process (ANP) to analyse the production of PGs by agricultural systems to support public decision-making concerning the design and implementation of agricultural policies. We introduce a novel approach in applying ANP through double direction of the influences among elements, allowing us to identify the most influenced PGs and the most influential farmer&rsquo;s decisions. This methodological approach is empirically applied to a particular farming system; the irrigated olive groves (IOG) of Southern Spain. Results show that the PGs most influenced by olive growers&rsquo; decisions are soil fertility, visual quality of agricultural landscapes and farmland biodiversity. In addition, the most influential factors affecting the PGs provision are the structural factors, namely farm size and tree density, and, to a lesser extent, management factors dealing with fertilization, soil and irrigation management. These results are useful for supporting agricultural policy decision-making to enhance an adequate management of this farming system concerning PGs productionEn el art&iacute;culo se analiza la producci&oacute;n de bienes p&uacute;blicos por parte de la agricultura. Mediante entrevistas a expertos siguiendo el m&eacute;todo ANP se aplica al olivar de regad&iacute;o.</p

Factors affecting mortality of shearwaters stranded by light pollution

Every year and across the world, thousands of fledglings of different petrel species crash into human structures because they are disorientated by artificial lights during their first flights. As this phenomenon is rather predictable, rescue cam- paigns are organized to help birds to reach the ocean, but unfortunately, a low proportion gets hurt or dies. Despite the huge number of affected individuals, and the fact that the problem was detected a long time ago, little is known on this source of mortality. We have studied the factors (i.e. body condition, plumage development, fledging date and sex) influencing the mortality of Cory’s Shearwa- ter Calonectris diomedea fledglings stranded inland due to light pollution in Ten- erife (Canary Islands) during two consecutive breeding seasons (2009 and 2010). Late fledglings showed lower values of a body condition index than early ones. No sex biases were detected, neither considering stranded birds overall, nor for recov- ery dates or in the body condition of rescued fledglings. Our results indicate that late birds stranded by lights showing abundant down are more susceptible to fatal collisions and that the lights do not selectively kill birds with lower body condition indices. An enhancement of veterinary care should be done during the last part of the fledging period when more fatal collisions occur, especially focused on fledg- lings with abundant down. More research to determine why some individuals end up disoriented around artificial lights and others do not is urgently needed to minimize or prevent fallouts.Peer reviewe

Implementación del càlculo de polinomios zonales y aplicaciones en análisis multivariante

En este trabajo se describe la implementación de un algoritmo para el cálculo de polinomios zonales, así como dos aplicaciones explícitas de éstos en el ámbito del análisis multivariante. Concretamente, esta implementación permite obtener resultados de sumación aproximados para funciones hipergeométricas de argumento matricial que, a su vez, pueden utilizarse en la génesis de distribuciones multivariantes discretas con frecuencias simétricas. De igual forma, se pone en práctica un conocido resultado teórico que caracteriza la distribución de la menor raíz característica de una matriz aleatoria con distribución de Wishart

The design of agri-environmental schemes: Farmers preferences in southern Spain

Agri-environmental schemes (AES) play a key role in promoting the production of environmental public goods by European Union agriculture. Although extensive literature has analyzed AES, some important issues remain understudied. This paper performs an ex-ante assessment of AES in permanent cropping, analyzing several issues that have received little attention from researchers, such as ecological focus areas (EFA) and collective participation. For this purpose, a choice experiment was used to assess farmers&rsquo; preferences towards AES in a case study of olive groves in southern Spain. Results show high heterogeneity among farmers, with different classes being identified, from potential participants to non-participants. As regards EFA, almost half of the farmers would be willing to accept it for low monetary incentives (&euro;8-9/ha per additional 1% of the farmland devoted to EFA) while the rest would do it for moderate-to-high monetary incentives (&euro;41-151/ha per additional 1% of EFA). However, for a high share of EFA (e.g., 5-7%) higher incentives would presumably be required due to the intrinsic spatial restrictions of olive groves. With regard to collective participation, we find that it is unlikely that farmers would participate collectively with the incentive of the up-to-30% EU-wide bonus. These results are relevant for policy-making now when new AES are being designed for the next programming period 2014-2020.Los programas medioambientales son un instrumento clave para la provisi&oacute;n de bienes p&uacute;blicos de car&aacute;cter ambiental. En este trabajo utilizando los experimentos de elecci&oacute;n se determina el grado de adopci&oacute;n seg&uacute;n el tipo de sistema de olivar. Los resultados indican que casi la mitad de los olivareros estar&iacute;an dispuestos a dedicar el 2% a Superficie de Inter&eacute;s Ecol&oacute;gico (SIE) por reducidos incentivos monetarios. Para una adopci&oacute;n entre 5-7% se requerir&iacute;an elevados incentivos.</p

γ-Radonifying operators and UMD-valued Littlewood–Paley–Stein functions in the Hermite setting on BMO and Hardy spaces

AbstractIn this paper we study Littlewood–Paley–Stein functions associated with the Poisson semigroup for the Hermite operator on functions with values in a UMD Banach space B. If we denote by H the Hilbert space L2((0,∞),dt/t), γ(H,B) represents the space of γ-radonifying operators from H into B. We prove that the Hermite square function defines bounded operators from BMOL(Rn,B) (respectively, HL1(Rn,B)) into BMOL(Rn,γ(H,B)) (respectively, HL1(Rn,γ(H,B))), where BMOL and HL1 denote BMO and Hardy spaces in the Hermite setting. Also, we obtain equivalent norms in BMOL(Rn,B) and HL1(Rn,B) by using Littlewood–Paley–Stein functions. As a consequence of our results, we establish new characterizations of the UMD Banach spaces

A comparative study of the electrochemical properties of vitamin B-6 related compounds at physiological pH

A comparative study of vitamin B6 group and related compounds in buffered solutions using electrochemical techniques has been performed at neutral pH. Irreversible bi- or tetra-electronic processes are observed for these substances, and the electron transfer coefficient (αn) calculated. It was concluded that either the first or second electron transfer were the rate determining step of the electrode process. The diffusion coefficient of these substances was calculated and the values given follow an inverse tendency to the molecular size. For aldehydes the values obtained were corrected of the hydration reaction. It is important to remark that catalytic waves were reported for the first time for these compounds. Using a model involving the nitrogen of the basic structure the kinetic constants were calculated for most of them

Students expectations on Tutoring teachers in the context of the European space for higher education

[ES] La acción tutorial en la enseñanza universitaria representada en la figura del profesorado tutor y desarrollada en su relación con el alumnado, está siendo objeto de una cada vez mayor atención por quienes trabajan en la mejora de la enseñanza-aprendizaje, y en especial de la enseñanza universitaria en el nuevo proceso de Convergencia Europea. Este trabajo ha abordado las expectativas del alumnado mediante un estudio Delphi. A lo largo de sucesivas etapas o circulaciones, se han obtenido una serie de competencias con que, según los expertos consultados, debería contar el profesorado que ejercerá la acción tutorial en el contexto del Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (EEES). Además, de las competencias demandadas se observa que estas varían en función del curso al que pertenece el alumnado consultado. [EN] The tutorial action in the education represented in the figure of the tutorial professor and developed in its relation with the students, is being object of greater attention by those ones who work in the improvement of the education-learning, and in special of university education in the new process of European Convergence. This study has faced the expectations of the students by means of a Delphi study. Throughout successive stages or circulations, they have been obtained a series of competences whereupon, according to the consulted experts, would have to count the teaching staff who will exert the tutorial action in the context of the European space for higher education (EEES). In addition, of the demanded competences, it is observed that these vary based on the course taken by the consulted students.Troyano Rodríguez, Y.; García, A. (2009). Expectativas del alumnado sobre el profesorado tutor en el contexto del Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior. REDU. Revista de Docencia Universitaria. 7(2):1-8. https://doi.org/10.4995/redu.2009.6245OJS1872Alañon, M. T. (2003). Planificación, desarrollo y evaluación del Plan de Acción Tutorial en la Universidad. En: P. Álvarez y H. Jiménez (Comp.). Tutoría Universitaria. La Laguna: Servicio de Publicaciones Universidad de La Laguna.Attalli, J. et al. (1998). Pour un modéle européen dénseignement supérieur. Rapport de la Comisión présidée par Jacques Attali. Ed. Stock.Briscall, J. M. (Coord.) (2000). Informe Universidad 2000. Madrid: Conferencia de Rectores de las Universidades Españolas (CRUE).Brunet, J. J. y Negro, J. L. (1989). Tutoría con adolescentes. Madrid: Ediciones San Pío X.Delors, J. (2003). La educación encierra un tesoro. Informe a la UNESCO de la Comisión Internacional sobre Educación para el siglo XXI.García, A. (2006) La tutoría y la relación profesor-alumno en la formación para la inserción laboral. Revista de Educación, 341, 197-211.García, N.; Asensio, I.; Carballo, R.; García, M. y Guardia, S. (2005). La tutoría universitaria ante el proceso de armonización europea. Revista de Educación, 337, 189-210.Jiménez, H. y Álvarez, P.R. (2003). La tutoría universitaria en España: aproximación a una variopinta realidad. En: P. Álvarez y H. Jiménez (Comp.). Tutoría Universitaria. La Laguna: Servicio de Publicaciones Universidad de La Laguna.Homar, J. M. (2002). La experiencia de tutorías universitarias en la Facultad de Formación del Profesorado. Recuperado 4 de Diciembre de 2007, en http://www.uhu.es/fexp/tutorias/documentación.Lázaro, A. (1997). La acción tutorial de la función docente universitaria. En: P. Apodaca y C. Lobato. Calidad en la Universidad: orientación y evaluación. Barcelona: Laertes.Lázaro, A. (2002). La acción tutorial de la función docente universitaria. En V. Álvarez y A. Lázaro (Coords.). Calidad de la Universidades y Orientación universitaria. Málaga: Aljibe.Lázaro, A. (2003). Competencias tutoriales en la universidad. En F. Michavilla y F. García (Eds.). La tutoría y los nuevos modos de aprendizaje en la Universidad. Madrid: CAM- Cátedra UNESCO.Pagani, R. (2002). El crédito europeo y el sistema educativo español. Disponible en http://www.crue.org. espaeuro/encuentros/credito.pdf.Rodríguez, M. (2004). Represente el papel de tutor. En: L. M. Villar (Coord.). Programa para la mejora de la docencia universitaria. Madrid: Pearson Educación.Rodríguez, S. (Coord.) (2004): Manual de Tutoría universitaria. Recursos para la acción. Barcelona: Octaedro/ICE-UB.Zabalza, M. A. (2003). Competencias docentes del profesorado universitario. Calidad y desarrollo profesional. Madrid: Narcea.Rodríguez, M. L. y Gallego, S. (1999). El proyecto profesional, herramienta de intervención en la función tutorial universitaria. Madrid: Revista española de orientación y psicopedagogía, 10, 17, 184

Mirando al cielo sin dejar el suelo: Los jerónimos cordobeses de Valparaíso en el Antiguo Régimen. Estudio preliminar y edición crítica del libro «Protocolo» de la comunidad [RESEÑA]

Reseña de "Soledad GÓMEZ NAVARRO, Mirando al cielo sin dejar el suelo: Los jerónimos cordobeses de Valparaíso en el Antiguo Régimen. Estudio preliminar y edición crítica del libro «Protocolo» de la comunidad. Visión Libros-Colegio Notarial de Andalucía-Instituto Escurialense de Investigaciones Históricas y Artísticas, Colección de Historia Religiosa, Madrid 2014, 824 pp.

Establishing the relationship between cortical atrophy and semantic deficits in Alzheimer's disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment patients through Voxel-Based Morphometry

The aim of this study was to determine the brain areas responsible for the semantic impairment observed in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) patients. Thirteen AD, 14 MCI patients, and 13 matched healthy older adults were assessed with a test battery aimed to study their semantic competence. Different subtasks were designed to study their semantic knowledge related to objects and faces in the context of semantic retrieval- and semantic association-dependent tasks. Aggregate scores obtained in the different tests were entered into voxel-based regression analyses with grey matter volume values obtained from three-dimensional brain MRI scans. Areas of significant correlation between volume loss and poor semantic scores were restricted to the temporal lobe in the AD group, while in the MCI and control groups significant associations were found with lower grey matter volume values in a widely distributed network of bilateral fronto-temporo-parietal regions. Our results suggest that degradation of partially overlapping and widely distributed neural networks, mainly including temporal regions, subserve semantic deficits related to objects and faces in AD and MCI patients