Shocks and spatial regime fades in Spain's international migration distribution.

Using an exploratory space-time analysis called spMorph, this article explores how the spatial distribution of international migration across the Spanish provinces has evolved over the period 1998-2010. The chief advantage of this approach is that it permits the unambiguous identification of two key components in a spatial redistribution process, namely the shocks to the spatial distribution and the duration of regime fades. The results of the analysis show that administrative regions do not provide a reliable picture of the real dynamics in Spain’s international migration distribution. In addition, the identification of two spatial shocks reveals the existence of three spatial regimes that consistently characterize the various phases that international migration has been through since the late 1990s

An algorithmic approach for simulating realistic irregular lattices.

There is a wide variety of computational experiments, or statistical simulations, in which regional scientists require regular and irregular lattices with a predefined number of polygons. While most commercial and free GIS software offer the possibility of generating regular lattices of any size, the generation of instances of irregular lattices is not a straightforward task. The most common strategy in this case is to find a real map that matches as closely as possible the required number of polygons. This practice is usually conducted without considering whether the topological characteristics of the selected map are close to those for an “average” map sampled in different parts of the world. In this paper, we propose an algorithm, RI-Maps, that combines fractal theory, stochastic calculus and computational geometry for simulating realistic irregular lattices with a predefined number of polygons. The irregular lattices generated with RI-Maps have guaranteed consistency in their topological characteristics, which reduces the potential distortions in the computational or statistical results due to an inappropriate selection of the lattices

The Determinants of UN Interventions. Are There Regional Preferences?

What leads the United Nations Security Council to intervene in one conflict, but remain inactive in others of similar magnitude and cruelty? This paper analyzes all registered 178 internal and internationalized internal conflicts since 1945, with the goal to unveil what determines the probability of a UN intervention. Our main focus lies on the question whether the geographical proximity to the ve permanent members of the UN Security Council (China,France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) has an e ect on the probability of intervention. Our results suggest that the UN is substantially more likely to intervene in conflicts located in Europe. A more detailed look at distances revels that for every 1,000 kilometers of distance from France or the United Kingdom the probability of intervention decreases by about one third. Further, we nd that UN intervention is signi cantly more likely to happen in smaller (less population), poorer (smaller GDP per capita), and less open economies (openness to international trade)

Bartenders and Customers' Interactions. Influence on Sexual Assaults in Nightlife

Nightlife establishments are meeting points for what the scientific literature has called "hookups" or "one-night stands" that is, uncommitted sexual relationships that can sometimes result in unwanted or even violent experiences. The scientific literature has identified that sexual assault has usually been connected with alcohol abuse. Other studies have found that nightlife staff can be an active or passive party to violent events (sexual or otherwise), especially bouncers. However, less attention has been paid to bartenders, and their involvement in such events has not been analyzed in depth. This article presents an exploration of how some male bartenders interact with some male customers in the nightlife context to promote sexual relationships and how their interactions might influence possible sexual assault situations. The results of this study shed light on and help us to understand why sexual assault occurs in these spaces

Intención de abandono en estudiantes de pregrado: factores y soluciones

El presente estudio abordó la problemática del abandono estudiantil desde un enfoque a priori, el cual fue se basó conceptual y metodológicamente en Suriñach et al (2007), Duque et al (2012), Duque (2013a) y Duque (2013b). El principal propósito fue medir el efecto que tiene la satisfacción y los resultados del aprendizaje de los estudiantes en su intención de abandono. Para lograr el objetivo se aplicó un cuestionario aplicado a los estudiantes activos de todos los pregrados de la Universidad EAFIT. El análisis se realizó por medio de un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales estimado con el algoritmo parcial de mínimos cuadrados (PLS). Los resultados evidencian que, en promedio, el efecto es 0.38, lo que significa que si se aumenta la satisfacción en una unidad, la intención de abandono disminuye en 0.25. Asimismo, se encontró que a mejores percepciones en los resultados del aprendizaje (afectivos y cognitivos), los estudiantes disminuyen su intención de abandono en 0.25.The present study addressed dropout intention problem from a priori perspective. Conceptually and methodologically it was based on Suriñach et al (2007), Duque et al (2012), Duque (2013a) y Duque (2013b). Measuring the effect from satisfaction and academic development to dropout intentions was the main purpose. To achieve this objective, we applied a survey with active students from all undergraduate programs at Universidad EAFIT. The analysis was carried out through structural equations based on the partial least squares algorithm (PLS). The results show that, on average, the effect is 0.38. It means that if students’ satisfaction would increase in one unit, dropout intention reduced in 0.25. At the same way, we found that better learning outcome perceptions (cognitive and affective), students decrease their dropout intention in 0.25

Análisis de la distribución espacial de la reducción en la demanda de agua potable como efecto de políticas de ahorro en su consumo en el Área Metropolitana del Valle de Aburrá.

El presente estudio presenta un análisis, espacialmente desagregado, de la disminución en el consumo residencial de agua en el Área Metropolitana del Valle de Aburrá (AMVA) durante el periodo 2005 – 2010 e identificar las características socioeconómicas asociadas a estos patrones. Además, se analiza la forma cómo las políticas y campañas para incentivar la disminución del consumo de agua potable han sido acogidas en el AMVA. Los resultados obtenidos muestran claras diferencias espaciales (y por estrato) en los niveles de consumo de agua, así como en los niveles de reducción de dicho consumo en el período analizado. También, por medio de modelos de econometría espacial, se encuentra que las características socioeconómicas juegan un papel relevante a la hora de explicar los niveles de consumo de agua y que estos consumos presentan autocorrelación espacial sustantiva que indica que los niveles de consumo de agua potable en un área determinada no solo dependen de las características socioeconómicas del área, sino también de los niveles de consumo de las áreas vecinas. Por último, se encuentra que los impactos derivados del desincentivo económico al consumo excesivo, tiene un efecto inmediato que no perdura en el tiemp

Combustion of Soya Oil and Diesel Oil Mixtures for Use in Thermal Energy Production

Producción CientíficaIn August 2005, Spain approved the Plan for Renewable Energy Sources for the period 2005-2010 (P.E.R.), including co-combustion installations. Co-combustion in the P.E.R. aims to increase power output by 12,185.3 GWh in five years and shows great interest in studies of the combustion of mixtures of fossil and bio-combustible fuels. This paper presents studies of the co-combustion of soya oil and diesel for thermal heating. The paper begins with a characterization of soya oil as well as mixtures of this oil, with diesel, as fuels. The combustion of the soya oil mixtures and diesel is made in an installation, where the pressure of injection as well as the air volume of the burner can be changed. The obtained results inside to be the environmental average legislation and a greater efficiency of combustion is found. The conclusions show that the use of mixtures of soya oil and Diesel for producing thermal energy in conventional equipment is feasible

A Search Engine Optimization Recommender System

International audienceSearch Engine Optimization reefers to the process of im- proving the position of a given website in a web search engine results. This is typically done by adding a set of parameters and metadata to the hypertext files of the website. As nowadays the majority of the web-content creators are non-experts, automation of the search en- gine optimization process becomes a necessity. On this regard, this paper presents a recommender system to improve search engine op- timization based on the site’s content and creator’s preferences. It exploits text analysis for labels and tags, artificial intelligence for deducing content intention and topics, and case-based reasoning for generating recommendations of parameters and metadata. Recom- mendations are given in natural language using a predefined set of sentences

Quantifying slumness with remote sensing data

The presence of slums in a city is an indicator of poverty and its proper delimitation is a matter of interest for researchers and policy makers. Socio-economic data from surveys and censuses are the primary source of information to identify and quantify slumness within a city or a town. One problem of using survey data for quantifying slumness is that this type of data is usually collected every ten years and is an expensive and time consuming process. Based on the premise that the physical appearance of an urban settlement is a reflection of the society that created it and on the assumption that people living in urban areas with similar physical housing conditions will have similar social and demographic characteristics (Jain, 2008; Taubenb¨ock et al., 2009b); this paper uses data from Medellin City, Colombia, to estimate slum index using solely remote sensing data from an orthorectified, pan-sharpened, natural color Quickbird scene. For Medellin city, the percentage of clay roofs cover and the mean swimming pool density at the analytical region level can explain up to 59% of the variability in the slum index. Structure and texture measures are useful to characterize the differences in the homogeneity of the spatial pattern of the urban layout and they improve the explanatory power of the statistical models when taken into account. When no other information is used, they can explain up to 30% of the variability of the slum index. The results of this research are encouraging and many researchers, urban planners and policy makers could benefit from this rapid and low cost approach to characterize the intra-urban variations of slumness in cities with sparse data or no data at all