The Recent Evolution and Impact of Tourism in the Mediterranean: The Case of Island Regions, 1990-2002

This paper aims to analyse one of the world’s top tourist destinations, the Mediterranean, and, more specifically, the evolution and impact of mass tourism on its western islands (Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Malta and the Balearic Islands) throughout the final decade of the 20th century. Firstly a general overview of world tourism is given, followed by an analysis of tourism in the Mediterranean. In continuation, an in-depth study is made of the evolution and impact of tourism on the aforementioned islands. Finally, the economic impact of tourism specialisation is examined in these island regions.Mediterranean, Balearic Islands, Malta, Sardinia, Sicily, Corsica, Destination Lifecycle, Mass Tourism, IMEDOC

Impact of soil management on the functional activity of microbial communities associated to cork oak rhizosphere

The microbial ecology of cork oak rhizosphere was investigated using the Biolog community level physiological profile (CLPP) that provides a unique metabolic fingerprint helpful for the characterization of complex microbial communities. Microbial populations from the rhizosphere of cork oak plants growing at three different sites within the same area were characterized using CLPP and compared. The sites were distinguished by a different soil management under the tree cover and, in general terms, by a different anthropogenic impact. The comparison of metabolic fingerprints of the different microbial populations showed the existence of a relationship between general microbial activity and functional biodiversity in the rhizosphere and the level of anthropogenic impact. Particularly the presence of grazing animals, soil tillage and fire could be identified as the main factors affecting both the general microbial activity and the structure of microbial populations from cork oak rhizospheres

The responses of people to virtual humans in an immersive virtual environment

This paper presents an experiment investigating the impact of behavior and responsiveness on social responses to virtual humans in an immersive virtual environment (IVE). A number of responses are investigated, including presence, copresence, and two physiological responses—heart rate and electrodermal activity (EDA). Our findings suggest that increasing agents’ responsiveness even on a simple level can have a significant impact on certain aspects of people’s social responses to humanoid agents. Despite being aware that the agents were computer-generated, participants with higher levels of social anxiety were significantly more likely to avoid “disturbing” them. This suggests that on some level people can respond to virtual humans as social actors even in the absence of complex interaction. Responses appear to be shaped both by the agents’ behaviors and by people’s expectations of the technology. Participants experienced a significantly higher sense of personal contact when the agents were visually responsive to them, as opposed to static or simply moving. However, this effect diminished with experienced computer users. Our preliminary analysis of objective heart-rate data reveals an identical pattern of responses

Reproductive biology of "Helianthemum apennium" (L.) Mill. and "H. caput-felis" Boiss. (Cistaceae) from Mallorca (Balearic Island, Spain)

El estudio de la biología reproductiva de poblaciones naturales de Helianthemum apenninum y H. caput-felis en Mallorca ha demostrado que son básicamente entomófilos, aunque también producen numerosos frutos por auto-polinización. Las flores de H. caput-felis duran cuatro dias, mientras que las de H.apenninum duran uno, como suele ocurrir en otras especies del género. En la población de H. apenninum, la predación por ungulados afecta al 50% de los individuos. Los test de germinación mostraron una temperatura óptima de germinación de 16 ºC para H. apenninum y de 23ºC para H. caput-felis. H. caput-felis muestra una importante variabilidad interanual en su comportamiento germinativo. En las poblaciones naturales de H. caput-felis, se ha observado atelecoria, y en relación con ésta, las semillas germinan dentro de la cápsula

Aspectes problemàtics del turisme a les Balears

Abstract not availabl

Late-scholastic and Cartesian conatus

Introduction Conatus is a specific concept within Descartes’s physics. In particular, it assumes a crucial importance in the purely mechanistic description of the nature of light – an issue that Des- cartes considered one of the most crucial challenges, and major achievements, of his natural phil- osophy. According to Descartes’s cosmology, the universe – understood as a material continuum in which there is no vacuum – is composed of a number of separate yet interconnected vortices. Each of these vortices consists in a set of bands rotating around their centres. The bands are com- posed of corpuscles of the three elements, each distinguished on the basis of their different shapes and sizes. The small globules of the second element, although impeded by the other parts of heaven, strive to move away from the centre of the vortex around which they revolve, thus exerting a certain force against the surrounding bodies. This striving or conatus, though a mere force rather than a genuine motion, is transmitted instan- taneously and along straight lines from body to body. According to Descartes, then, the nature of light consists in this striving alone. This account must be understood as strictly connected to the fundamental laws that regulate the Cartesian world. It is particularly important to recall that for Descartes the centrifugal force exerted by a rotating body is understood to be a consequence of the intrinsic rectilinearity of every motion. As the second of the three Laws of Nature set forth in Book II of the Principles of Philosophy establishes, “all motion is in itself rectilinear; and hence any body moving in a circle tends to move away from the centre of the circle which it describes as proved by the fact that a stone rotating in a sling tends to move centrifugally along the tangent of each point described by a circle.1 Similarly, each of the globules of the second element “strives to recede with a great force from the centre of the vortex in which it rotates; it is in fact prevented by the other globules placed all around, not differently than a stone in a sling”. Within this framework, as I show later, conatus occurs when a body’s intrinsic tendency to rectilinear motion is impeded by an external constraint. As Stephen Gaukroger notes, the use of the term conatus in the Principles – like “vis” and “ action ” – shows that Descartes “cannot avoid dynamic terminology”, despite his declared intent “to construe motion in a purely kinematic way”. Indeed, Gaukroger observes that the notions of force action and striving are systematically employed in the Principles – appearing 290, 59 and 8 times, respectively. Also noteworthy, conatus was – together with the more familiar concepts of actio and vis – a significant element of the conceptual apparatus of Scholastic natural philosophy. As will be seen later – and this is the first goal of this paper – here the concept of conatus had a very specific function. Indeed, it was a central part of the Aristotelian- Scholastic account of gravitation. Conatus was used to refer to the striving of a body to move towards its natural place – especially in cases where its natural motion was hindered or impeded by an external mover. This specific use of the concept of conatus can be found in texts on natural philosophy from the end of the sixteenth through the late seventeenth century. Notably, it occurs in some of the late -Scho- lastic texts which held special significance for Descartes’s thought. Therefore, Descartes introduces conatus in a context in which this concept already had a very specific meaning, and one of which he was very probably aware. The possible relations between these two apparently very different con- cepts have therefore to be scrutinized. I thereby propose to undertake a comparison between the Scho- lastic and the Cartesian conceptions of conatus. I hope to show that certain traits of the former are indeed echoed by the latter, although adapted to the much changed physical paradigm of Cartesian physics. In fact, Descartes’s conatus, though sharing some important similarities with the old one, underwent significant transformations in terms of both its meaning and its application. However, I hope to show that these concepts are both used to describe the behaviour of bodies in relation to their intrinsic motive tendency, and in particular when this tendency is impeded or prevented. Such a reconstruction offers two main areas of interest. On an immediate level, it furthers the general efforts of scholars over the past decades to reconstruct the full extent of the relations between Descartes’s thought and Scholastic philosophy. However, there is another significant reason for taking an interest in the ties between the Scholastic and the Cartesian conceptions of conatus. Indeed, the Cartesian conatus must be seen as crucial to a proper understanding of the broader, diverse conceptualization that this idea enjoyed in the thought of many of the most important philosophers of the early modern period, namely Spinoza, Hobbes and Leibniz. In particular, Spinoza, were directly influenced by Descartes in their unique formulations of conatus. Thus a reconstruction of the context in which Descartes formulated his conatus and of its relations to a pre-existing Scholastic conception will enable us to better reconstruct the history of this idea in the early modern period. The paper is structured as follows: in the first part, I provide a thorough review of the Scho- lastic employment of the concept conatus – both its meaning and the extent of its usage. I then show that it occurs in some of the most prominent Cartesian sources. Finally, I shall provide an account of Descartes’s theory of circular motion and conatus with the specific aim of empha- sizing the elements of both continuity and discontinuity that justify the claim that Descartes’s con- ception of conatus is reminiscent of the Scholastic one

Clasificación sinóptica automática de Jenkinson y Collison para los días de precipitación mayor o igual a 200 mm en la isla de Mallorca

Se aplica el método de clasificación sinóptica automática de Jenkinson y Collison a las precipitaciones de gran intensidad (200 mm en 24 horas) registradas en la isla de Mallorca durante el período 1939-2001, y por el que se consignan 49 episodios en los que se ha superado este límite pluviométrico. Los resultados permiten apreciar un predominio de situaciones sinópticas de componente Este, aun cuando el número de situaciones de componente Norte es también relativamente elevado, debido a factores geográficos relacionados fundamentalmente con la influencia de los relieves de la Serra de Tramuntana en Mallorca. El importante peso de esta misma componente Norte en los temporales asociados a precipitaciones muy intensas en Mallorca, no es sino un reflejo de la importancia de los procesos ciclogenéticos en sectores situados al Este del archipiélago Balear, que a menudo no tienen consecuencias pluviométricas importantes en el litoral mediterráneo peninsula