Relevance of Social, Economic, and Environmental Impacts on Residents’ Satisfaction with the Public Administration of Tourism

Those in charge of tourism destinations face the need to create tourism development models compatible with the essence of the localities that they manage. These models have to be sustainable, both environmentally and socially, and also must become drivers of the local economy. However, tourists also generate negative impacts in the locality which, when they are perceived by the residents, can give rise to a rejection of visitors. Hence, improving the tourism management is necessary. This is why to know the residents’ perceptions about the impacts of tourism is essential. Moreover, measuring the impact effects on their satisfaction with the public administration of the destination can be of great usefulness. This study falls into this research line, as it proposes a model to measure these impacts and their effect on satisfaction. To do so, an empirical study is performed among residents in the city of Seville (southern Spain, one of the most visited destinations in the world), based on subjective economic, social, and environmental indicators. The results show that the citizens value three types of impacts, the social impact coming after the economic impact as to its influence on their satisfaction with the administration. Based on this, we postulate that the efforts made to attract events to the city, or to improve connections to access a broader market, must be approached as public procurements in which selection criteria that are compatible with the destination’s positioning and strategy prevail. Social and environmental criteria should be considered among these criteria

Static locality analysis for cache management

Most memory references in numerical codes correspond to array references whose indices are affine functions of surrounding loop indices. These array references follow a regular predictable memory pattern that can be analysed at compile time. This analysis can provide valuable information like the locality exhibited by the program, which can be used to implement more intelligent caching strategy. In this paper we propose a static locality analysis oriented to the management of data caches. We show that previous proposals on locality analysis are not appropriate when the proposals have a high conflict miss ratio. This paper examines those proposals by introducing a compile-time interference analysis that significantly improve the performance of them. We first show how this analysis can be used to characterize the dynamic locality properties of numerical codes. This evaluation show for instance that a large percentage of references exhibit any type of locality. This motivates the use of a dual data cache, which has a module specialized to exploit temporal locality, and a selective cache respectively. Then, the performance provided by these two cache organizations is evaluated. In both organizations, the static locality analysis is responsible for tagging each memory instruction accordingly to the particular type(s) of locality that it exhibits.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Abrupt climate changes of the last deglaciation detected in a Western Mediterranean forest record

Abrupt changes in Western Mediterranean climate during the last deglaciation (20 to 6 cal ka BP) are detected in marine core MD95-2043 (Alboran Sea) through the investigation of high-resolution pollen data and pollen-based climate reconstructions by the modern analogue technique (MAT) for annual precipitation (Pann) and mean temperatures of the coldest and warmest months (MTCO and MTWA). Changes in temperate Mediterranean forest development and composition and MAT reconstructions indicate major climatic shifts with parallel temperature and precipitation changes at the onsets of Heinrich stadial 1 (equivalent to the Oldest Dryas), the Bölling-Allerød (BA), and the Younger Dryas (YD). Multi-centennial-scale oscillations in forest development occurred throughout the BA, YD, and early Holocene. Shifts in vegetation composition and (Pann reconstructions indicate that forest declines occurred during dry, and generally cool, episodes centred at 14.0, 13.3, 12.9, 11.8, 10.7, 10.1, 9.2, 8.3 and 7.4 cal ka BP. The forest record also suggests multiple, low-amplitude Preboreal (PB) climate oscillations, and a marked increase in moisture availability for forest development at the end of the PB at 10.6 cal ka BP. Dry atmospheric conditions in the Western Mediterranean occurred in phase with Lateglacial events of high-latitude cooling including GI-1d (Older Dryas), GI-1b (Intra-Allerød Cold Period) and GS-1 (YD), and during Holocene events associated with high-latitude cooling, meltwater pulses and N. Atlantic ice-rafting. A possible climatic mechanism for the recurrence of dry intervals and an opposed regional precipitation pattern with respect to Western-central Europe relates to the dynamics of the westerlies and the prevalence of atmospheric blocking highs. Comparison of radiocarbon and ice-core ages for well-defined climatic transitions in the forest record suggests possible enhancement of marine reservoir ages in the Alboran Sea by 200 years (surface water age 600 years) during the Lateglacial

Diversification decisions among family firms: the role of family involvement and generational stage

While prior literature has focused on whether family firms are more or less inclined to diversification than non-family firms, the examination of differences in diversification among family firms has received much less attention. We analyze how family involvement (in ownership, control, and management) and the generational stage in the company (first versus later generations) influence diversification among family firms. The empirical evidence is provided by a sample of publicly listed family firms from the EU. Our results show that larger levels of family involvement in the firm are associated with lower diversification. Furthermore, first-generation family firms are found to be less diversified than their later-generation counterparts

Multi-Sensor System For Level Measurements With Optical Fibres

A system for measuring liquid level in multiple tanks using optical fibre technology has been developed. The oil field service industry can benefit from this intrinsically safe technology. Plastic optical fibre (POF) sensor heads are excited by a 650 nm laser. Laser diodes are housed in ST connectors to obtain compact and rough prototypes and these connectors are also used in the fibre pigtails. Optical multiplexing is used to increase the measuring safety area. POF splitters and connectors are used to combine all the receiving sensor head fibres in a single one. Frequency division multiplexing is used to address each sensor head. The global system is controlled through a user friendly software application running in a PC connected to the system via an RS-232 port. A scalable prototype with a range greater than 2 meter, good linearity, better than 1.5% FS (full scale), high accuracy and resolution is developed using a unique lens to collimate and focus the light. Measurements are taken to validate the designs. Up to 8 sensor heads can be connected in the present implementation. But a greater number of sensors can be allocated with minor modifications in the electronics.Universidad Carlos III de MadridPublicad

Europe 2020 strategy: a strategy for which type of growth?

This paper constructs an index that synthesizes the eight targets of the EU 2020 Strategy into a one-dimensional target –EU 2020 synthetic target- and the situation of each EU28 Member States (the current 27 Members plus Croatia) in 2011 with respect to them –2011 synthetic situation-. Hence we can measure the distance of each EU Member State synthetic situation in 2011 to the EU 2020 synthetic target. We find that none of the Member States meets the EU 2020 synthetic target, Denmark is the closest and Malta is the furthest to it. In fact we could identify clusters of Member States in terms of the distances to the EU 2020 synthetic target: the North EU region is closer to and the Mediterranean region is further away from it. We extent the distance analysis above by adding three inequality targets -income distribution, female employment and child poverty- and find that all of the Member States increase their distance between their 2011 synthetic inequality-extended situation and the 2020 inequality-extended targeted situation. Finally, we want to analyse each Member State’s relationship between its objective position regarding the EU 2020 synthetic target and its life satisfaction level, inhabitants’ subjective position. Through a multivariate regression methodology, we analyse how much of the total effect of the synthetic index on life satisfaction is direct, and how much is mediated. The mediation analysis shows that a substantial part of the effect of the synthetic index on life satisfaction is mediated by the GDP per capita. These results are in line with recent views in human development and well-being research. That is, the GDP per capita is only a means to achieve socioeconomic progress, not the end

A Progressive Approach to the Measurement of Regional Performance in the European Union

The shared file includes (starting on page 6) the full text that we presented at the Progressive Economy Forum 2014, held at the European Parliament, Brussels 5-6 March 2014. Our work won the award for best paper in the area "Rethinking Economy Policy" and a summary of our presentation was published in the Journal for a Progressive Economy, 3, 62-64 (first pages of this file).El archivo compartido incluye (a partir de la página 6) el texto completo que presentamos en el Foro de Economía Progresista 2014, celebrado en el Parlamento Europeo, Bruselas, 5 y 6 de marzo de 2014. Nuestro trabajo ganó el premio al mejor artículo en el área "Rethinking Economy Policy" y un resumen de nuestra presentación fue publicada en el Journal for a Progressive Economy, 3, 62-64 (primeras páginas de este archivo).With a view to promote the European Union (EU) overall harmonious development, the EU Regional Policy –or Cohesion Policy- focuses on reducing disparities between the levels of development of the various regions and the backwardness of the least favoured regions. Structural Funds, the main instrument to achieve the EU Regional Policy objectives, are allocated by regional Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita. Furthermore, in the EU context, the socio-economic inequalities between both people and regions have been rising in the majority of Member States over the last three decades and are now higher than in 1980 regardless of consistent objectives for economic and social cohesion (Eurostat). This separation between economy and society could be potentially overcome by including a measure of social well-being in models of regional performance. However, and despite economic and social cohesion being core EU objectives since its foundation, the community regional performance is defined in a strict economic sense by the size and growth of the economy. Regions whose per capita income falls short off the threshold of the 75% of the EU average GDP per capita are less developed regions, and are thus eligible for Structural Funds support. The aim of this paper is to present a multidimensional approach to the measurement of regional performance as an alternative to a single criterion approach based on the GDP per capita. With this in mind: 1st. Drawing on the capabilities approach and the recent trends in well-being (i.e. Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Report of 2009), we discuss the reasons that justify the revision of the current allocation mechanism of EU Structural Funds. 2nd. We develop a composite index to measure regional performance in the 269 regions of EU28 in 2009 from a multidimensional perspective (16 indicators of health, education, employment, inequalities, poverty, etc.) following two distinct multivariate methods (Principal Component Analysis and Distance P2). 3rd. We discuss some regional policy implications of a change in the rules. That is, we analyse the consequences of applying a multidimensional approach instead of the traditional GDP based allocation mechanism. We find that, with an equivalent budgetary effort regarding the population benefited from these funds, a distinct map of priority regions results. Based upon the indicators considered, Stockholm in Sweden is the most developed region with a development level that triples that achieved by the least developed region (Severozapaden in Bulgaria). Hence large territorial disparities exist. Employment (female and male) related aspects and GDP per capita adjusted by inequality are the key determining factors of regional development. Were the Structural Funds allocated by our regional development index instead of the GDP per capita, some regions of Belgium, France, Greece, Germany, Italy and Spain would be considered priority regions; whereas some other regions, mainly from Eastern Europe, would not be considered so

Competencia financiera y modelación matemática en bachillerato: un acercamiento cualitativo desde la investigación basada en diseño (DBR)

La competencia matemática se articula como un conjunto de habilidades y capacidades que van permitir a los individuos analizar, resolver e interpretar problemas matemáticos en diferentes situaciones, y su importancia para mejorar el bienestar de los ciudadanos se recoge en informes como PISA o leyes como la LOMCE. El estudio del proceso de adquisición de la competencia financiera al trabajar dicha competencia con las competencias matemática y de modelación, es uno de los objetivos centrales de nuestra investigación, que se desarrolla en un contexto de enseñanza de Economía en Bachillerato

Insertions of mitochondrial DNA into the nucleus—effects and role in cell evolution

We review the insertion of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) fragments into nuclear DNA (NUMTS) as a general and ongoing process that has occurred many times during genome evolution. Fragments of mtDNA are generated during the lifetime of organisms in both somatic and germinal cells, by the production of reactive oxygen species in the mitochondria. The fragments are inserted into the nucleus during the double-strand breaks repair via the non-homologous end-joining machinery, followed by genomic instability, giving rise to the high variability observed in NUMT patterns among species, populations, or genotypes. Some de novo produced mtDNA insertions show harmful effects, being involved in human diseases, carcinogenesis, and ageing. NUMT generation is a non-stop process overpassing the Mendelian transmission. This parasitic property ensures their survival even against their harmful effects. The accumulation of mtDNA fragments mainly at pericentromeric and subtelomeric regions is important to understand the transmission and integration of NUMTs into the genomes. The possible effect of female meiotic drive for mtDNA insertions at centromeres remains to be studied. In spite of the harmful feature of NUMTs, they are important in cell evolution, representing a major source of genomic variation