Helictochloa lusitanica. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2018

This species is endemic to northwestern Portugal. It is assessed as Vulnerable based on the very small area of occurrence, approximately 20 km2, although this is likely to be an underestimate, since point records may not available for all subpopulations. This species presents specific habitat requirements (ultrabasic rocky soils) and is not able to colonize other kinds of habitat. It is also subject to ongoing threats like shrub encroachment and threats which may repeat in the future (industrial and road development).This plant requires some level human management like sustainable grazing and further research to confirm current distribution and population trends

SURVIVAL OF THE SMALL FIRM AND THE ENTREPRENEUR UNDER DEMAND AND EFFICIENCY UNCERTAINTY

The objective of this paper is to offer an answer to the question : why do some entrepreneurs wish to own another firm in the future after having closed an unsuccessful one? We first show this question is relevant because making use of a sample of entrepreneurs in the UK who have experienced a business closure, we show that 45% of them have the desire to own another firm in the future, despite having an unsuccessful experience in small firm ownership. To tackle our question we develop a model where the profits of the small firm depend on two firm-specific parameters : the effciency parameter, which represents the skills of the entrepreneur to manage and cope efficiently with the everyday tasks of the small firm, and the demand parameter, which denotes the success of the firm’s product to attract demand or capture a market niche. It is found that our model answers our initial question by revealing the existence of a mechanism of entrepreneurial self-selection. Under such mechanism, skilful entrepreneurs are the only ones who wish to own another firm in the future, regardless of the degree of success in their previous venture, whereas unskilful entrepreneurs prefer to go to wage work. We show this mechanism accounts not only for the empirical evidence relevant to our initial question, but also for the rest of cases of entrepreneurs’ attitudes after experiencing a business closureSmall Firm ; Entrepreneur ; Survival ; Entrepreneurial Skills

Economies of Scale and Spatial Scope in the European Airline Industry

In this article we use four different indices to measure cost performance of the European Airline Industry. By using the number of routes as an indicator of Network Size, we are able to estimate indicators of Economies of Scale and Spatial Scope. By estimating total and variable cost functions we are also able to calculate an index of the excess capacity of the firms. For this purpose, we use data from the years 1984 to 1998, a period during which several deregulation measures were imposed on the European airline industry. Some of the implications of this deregulation process for the cost performance of the industry are presented and discussed. Our results suggest that in the year 1998, almost all the firms had Economics of Density in their existing networks, while several of the firms also had Economies of Scale and Economies of Spatial Scope. All of the firms had excess capacity of fixed inputs. These results support our hypothesis that fusion, alliance, and merger strategies followed by the principal European airlines after 1998 are not just explained by marketing strategies, but also by the cost structure of the industry.

Creencias de los estudiantes en torno a los Espacios Virtuales de Aprendizaje en el desarrollo de la competencia comunicativa oral. Un estudio de caso

Oral communicative competence is traditionally neglected in the development of competence of students in compulsory education. In a highly demanding social and professional context, we must contribute to communication skills in general and to oral skills in particular. Together with this, given the digital and changing context in which we find ourselves, we need to know and master new means of production and reception of messages mediated by technology. Virtual Learning Environments open up an updated field of work that allows for feedback and the extension of the spatial-temporal limits of the classroom for the development of orality

A New Framework for the Performance Analysis of Wireless Communications under Hoyt (Nakagami-q) Fading

(c) 20xx IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works. DOI:10.1109/TIT.2017.2655342We present a novel relationship between the distribution of circular and non-circular complex Gaussian random variables. Specifically, we show that the distribution of the squared norm of a non-circular complex Gaussian random variable, usually referred to as the squared Hoyt distribution, can be constructed from a conditional exponential distribution. From this fundamental connection we introduce a new approach, the Hoyt transform method, that allows to analyze the performance of a wireless link under Hoyt (Nakagami-q) fading in a very simple way. We illustrate that many performance metrics for Hoyt fading can be calculated by leveraging well-known results for Rayleigh fading and only performing a finite-range integral. We use this technique to obtain novel results for some information and communication-theoretic metrics in Hoyt fading channels.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Execelencia Internacional. Andalucía Tech

The long and winding path to private financing and regulation of toll roads

Road transport has long been the dominant form of transport for freight and passenger movement throughout the world. Because most road projects require investments with long amortization periods and because many projects do not generate enough demand to become self-financing through some type of user fee or toll, the road sector remains in the hands of the public sector to a much greater extent than other transport activities. But governments throughout the world, including those of many poor African and South Asian countries, are commercializing their operations to cut costs, improve user orientation, and increase sector-specific revenue. There seems to be demand for toll roads in specific settings, but the problems met by many of this"first generation"of road concessions-from Mexico to Thailand-have given toll projects a bad reputation. Many mistakes were made, and tolling is obviously not the best solution for every road. Most of the alternatives aim at improving efficiency (lowering costs). But there are many ways of getting the private sector involved in toll roads, thus reducing public sector financing requirements for the sector. Understanding the context in which toll roads are viable is essential both for their initial success and for effective long-run regulation. The authors provide a broad overview of issues at stake from the viewpoint of both privatization teams and regulators responsible for supervising contractual commitments of private operators and the government, to each other and to users.Urban Services to the Poor,Roads&Highways,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Decentralization,Banks&Banking Reform,Roads&Highways,Toll Roads,Urban Transport,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Airports and Air Services