Potential Tourism Market in Transition Countries: A Regional Analysis

Tourism is a very important sector for the economic growth and the employment. It is also important to stress that this relationships have not been studied enough, this is even more important if we take into account that we consider the economic impact, not the major determinants of tourist demand, which is the most common feature of tourism studies. In this paper we analyse the economic impact of tourism in the economy of 50 regions of transition countries. The political and economic changes in these countries have brought the attention in this area, making it a desirable destination for an important part of tourists, both in Europe and other parts of the world. Nowadays tourist are not seeking just sun and beaches as it happened in the past, other factors such as culture, history, archaeology or natural parks can explain some of the changes in the movement of tourists around the world. We study the difference among the countries and regions, considering the importance of resident and non-residents tourism in each of them. Through this analysis we would like to point those countries, and regions, which are already in a good position, such as the Czech Republic, Hungary or Poland, comparing them with those others which offer an important potential to develop this sector.

Maternal social capital and child growth: Do grandmothers help?

Evolutionary life history theory assumes that the resources available to an organism in any environment are finite and that each organism has been selected to allocate those resources in ways that maximize reproductive fitness. In humans, high levels of parental investment are required to raise offspring, because of their large, costly brains. The costs borne by each individual mother may be mitigated by obtaining social support from other family members. Maternal grandmothers could be a particularly reliable source of support because of the high degree of genetic relatedness and since they represent a valuable source of knowledge and resources, and can release mothers from the 'energetic demands’ of childcare. This thesis tested the over-arching hypothesis that women with grandmothers’ support would have more favourable physiological and psychological characteristics that, in turn, would be associated with healthier growth patterns and lower levels of irritability in their children. To test this hypothesis, a cohort of 90 mother-infant dyads (52 with grandmothers’ support, 38 without) was recruited in Merida, Mexico. Children were first-borns and aged 1.7-2.3 years. Anthropometric and body composition data and behavioural and physiological markers of stress (salivary cortisol) in both mother and child were assessed. Additional data on maternal resilience and self-efficacy and infant temperament were obtained. In the whole population, mothers showed high levels of self-efficacy and resilience and perceived their children as having favourable temperament, suggesting that mothers with greater psychosocial capital have a positive impact on their child’s development. However, there were no differences between the groups in stress markers or nutritional status among mothers or infants. Notably, mothers without grandmaternal support benefitted from higher levels of support from other female family members. In conclusion, mothers can find different sources of social support for rearing their children, and those lacking a grandmother are not at a systematic disadvantage

Human capital and other factors of the total productivity in Spanish Regions

The productivity evolution results a main factors indicators in order to explain the uneven growth of the different economic spaces and their different levels of welfare in a long run. Just, the crucial importance of productivity for economic growth can be derived from its relation to other indicators of economic performance. Among other factors, these include accumulation of physical and human capital, technological progress, resources allocation and efficiency, and competitiveness. For this reason, in this paper we elaborate in the first place an indicator of Total Factor Productivity for the Spain regions from of point of view of the theoretical justifications of the different methodological proposals. In the second place, and using the available statistics, we explain the unequal behaviour of the Total Factor Productivity (TFP) between these regions from a point of view that variables like public capital (infrastructure), human capital (qualification), technological capital (research and development), productive specialization, the different grades of resource's uses, the exploitation of scale economies ..., may justify the regional divergence in productivity terms.

La productividad como indicador de bienestar. Aplicacion al caso de las Comunidades Autonomas españolas.

En este trabajo pretendemos poner de manifiesto que el comportamiento de la productividad en un determinado espacio economico esta estrechamente relacionado con los niveles de riqueza de los ciudadanos, dado que las ganancias en la eficiencia productiva se manifiestan como una de las vias principales para lograr mejorar el bienestar. La eficiencia productiva hay que medirla adecuadamente. Para ello nosotros proponemos el calculo de indices de productividad total, sin imponer restricciones a priori, y especificamos el correspondiente modelo econometrico para las distintas Comunidades Autonomas con la finalidad de deducir cuales son los principales determinantes de su evolucion.productividad, bienestar, comunidades autonomas

Comportamento da productividade da economia galega no contexto economico español.

Neste traballo tratamos de ilustra-la evolucion da productividade na economia galega nos ultimos anos en relacion o comportamento seguido no resto de CC.AA., como un indicador principal da sua converxencia-diverxencia no marco de referencia; pois non cabe dubida que as ganancias na eficiencia productiva son unha das vias esenciais para acadar maiores niveis de benestar. Dadas as limitacions importantes que ofrecen os indices de productividade parcial, nesta comunicacion presentamos indices de productividade total (como unha medida mais completa), sen impor ningun tipo de restriccion a priori para o seu calculo (esto ultimo e o que se fai habitualmente). Se e importante definir a traxectoria relativa da productividade, non e menos relevante analiza-los determinantes fundamentais da sua evolucion (fenomeno que pretendemos explicar mediante a elaboracion do correspondente modelo econometrico) o cal nos permite identifica-las fontes esenciais da converxencia-diverxencia da economia galega.

Evolucion de la productividad en la economia española. Un analisis por Comunidades Autonomas.

No cabe duda de que el indicador productividad es uno de los mas relevantes para estudiar la "salud" economica de una sociedad, dado que las ganancias en la eficiencia productiva son una de las vias esenciales para conseguir mayores niveles de bienestar. En este trabajo tratamos de medir la evolucion de la productividad en la economia española durante los ultimos años, efectuando un estudio desagregado por comunidades autonomas con la finalidad de centrar las tendencias relativas de su convergencia-divergencia. Dadas las limitaciones importantes que ofrecen los indices de productividad parcial, en esta comunicacion presentamos indices de productividad total (una medida mas completa), sin imponer ningun tipo de restriccion a priori para su calculo (esto ultimo es lo que se hace habitualmente). Si es importante definir la trayectoria relativa de la productividad, no lo es menos analizar los determinantes fundamentales de su evolucion (fenomeno que pretendemos explicar mediante la elaboracion del correspondiente modelo econometrico), lo cual nos permite identificar las fuentes esenciales de convergencia-divergencia entre las distintas comunidades autonomas.

Fractal characterisation of electrodispersed gold electrodes

The fractal dimension of the surface, Ds, of thin columnar gold electrodeposits (surface roughness factor 50–100) grown on gold wire cathodes by electroreducing hydrous gold oxide layers has been determined by measuring the diffusion controlled current of the Fe(CN)4−6/Fe(CN)3−6 reaction. The diffusion current (I) vs. time (t) relationships obeyed a Iαt−α dependence with Ds = 2α + 1. The initial Ds, value is 2.5 ± 0.1, and decreases to 2.3 ± 0.1 by keeping the deposit in contact with the electrolyte solution at 298 K due to the smoothing of the rough metal surface by surface diffusion.Instituto de Investigaciones Fisicoquímicas Teóricas y AplicadasFacultad de Ciencias Exacta

Fractal characterisation of electrodispersed gold electrodes

The fractal dimension of the surface, Ds, of thin columnar gold electrodeposits (surface roughness factor 50–100) grown on gold wire cathodes by electroreducing hydrous gold oxide layers has been determined by measuring the diffusion controlled current of the Fe(CN)4−6/Fe(CN)3−6 reaction. The diffusion current (I) vs. time (t) relationships obeyed a Iαt−α dependence with Ds = 2α + 1. The initial Ds, value is 2.5 ± 0.1, and decreases to 2.3 ± 0.1 by keeping the deposit in contact with the electrolyte solution at 298 K due to the smoothing of the rough metal surface by surface diffusion.Instituto de Investigaciones Fisicoquímicas Teóricas y AplicadasFacultad de Ciencias Exacta

Thionins: plant peptides that modify membrane permeability in cultured mammalian cells

Thionins, which are high-sulphur polypeptides present in the endosperm of wheat and related species, have been found to prevent growth and to inhibit macromolecular synthesis in cultured mammalian cells. Baby hamster kidney (BHK) cells were markedly more sensitive to thionins than the other cell lines tested (monkey CV1, mouse L, human HeLa). A thionin concentration of 5 μ/ml (1 μM) completely blocked translation in BHK cells. It was later found that omission of both calcium and magnesium ions from the medium strongly enhanced the inhibitory effects of thionins (BHK cells, 80% inhibition, 0.5 μ/ml). Several lines of evidence indicate that thionins might act at the membrane level. Indeed, both the 86Rb+ content and the nucleotide pool of BHK cells were drastically decreased at thionin concentrations that inhibited translation. In addition, thionin concentrations that did not affect macromolecular synthesis in these cells, allowed inhibition of translation by antibiotics, such as hygromycin Bthat are not able to cross the cell plasma membrane by themselves. Our results suggest that the inhibition of protein, RNA and DNA synthesis in BHK cells might be a consequence of membrane leakiness induced by thionin treatment. In this respect, particularly striking was the parallelism found between 86Rb+ leakage and inhibition of protein synthesis by treatment with different genetic variants of thionins (α1 purothionin, α2 purothionin, β purothionin from wheat; hordothionin from barley), as well as with the viscotoxins, which are homologous polypeptides from the European mistletoe

La artesanía como producción cultural susceptible de ser atractivo turístico en Santa Catarina del Monte, Texcoco

El medio rural ofrece una alternativa económica basada en el binomio naturaleza y cultura. Los recursos naturales son un atractivo turístico que junto con las peculiaridades culturales diferencian unas zonas de otras, otorgándoles una identidad propia. En Santa Catarina del Monte se conjugan estas características naturales y culturales en la elaboración de artesanía de vara, que reproduce piezas con motivos navideños. El turismo rural es considerado como un motor del desarrollo en esta zona, trayendo beneficios económicos a los grupos domésticos que comercializan estas piezas e impulsando, a la vez, la visita a los bosques y manantiales del lugar