Los nuevos activos del árbitro de baloncesto: poder blando, empatía y comunicación. El caso del Comité catalán de Árbitros de Baloncesto

The basketball refereeing has undergone many changes in the last ten years. This article claims to combine some conceptual and methodological basis to define the meanings for the so called ‘modern refereeing’. Indeed, this research is concerned to the analysis of the new communication skills as an inseparable asset to the arbitration task, characterized by the dialogue, the administration of 'soft power', the emotional management and the adoption of a renewed and empathic attitude towards all the components of the game. Finally, this paper will propose the concretion of some specific communicative characteristics of the basketball refereeing in the XXI century.

La comunicología y el estudio transversal del paisaje. Articulaciones conceptuales y propuesta de indicadores comunicativos para la evaluación de los paisajes

La gestión y evaluación del paisaje exige la necesaria convergencia de disciplinas en aras de delimitar los valores que la propia sociedad otorga al paisaje. El establecimiento de metodologías de análisis de tipo cualitativo parece satisfacer, en la mayoría de los casos, las necesidades de la comunidad científica en relación con la catalogación del paisaje. Las dificultades surgen cuando lo que pretende es clasificar el paisaje a partir de indicadores más de tipo cualitativo, lo que implica, sin lugar a dudas, la búsqueda de disciplinas que aporten más luz al ya de por sí complejo estudio de los denominados como valores intangibles del paisaje. La Comunicología representa, en este sentido, un aporte disciplinario novedoso, sobre todo en el sentido de intentar habilitar un lenguaje del paisaje, a partir del cual fijar los cimientos de su interpretación simbólica e identitaria. Así, las contribuciones teóricas del interaccionismo simbólico, de la ecología humana, de la psicología cognitiva o de la semiótica visual, entre otras, permiten vislumbrar las posibilidades de estudio del paisaje desde un punto de vista comunicológico. En este ensayo se sitúan los indicadores de evaluación de los paisajes en la órbita de la aportación disciplinar de la Comunicología. De ahí se abre un horizonte de posibilidades infinitas para el que se podría denominar como “abordaje comunicológico del paisaje”, con especiales sinergias en la concepción del paisaje como elemento activo de comunicación.

Identidad territorial y promoción turística: la organización de eventos como estrategia de creación, consolidación y difusión de la imagen de marca del territorio

Gertakizun baten antolaketa paradigmatikoa da in situ bizi izandako lurraldeirudien eraikuntza-prozesuan. Parte-hartzaileen imaginario kolektiboan finkatzeko helburuaz antolatutako gertakizunak direla eta, fabrikatutako lurralde-irudiek – turistikoak zein bestelakoak– sustapen turistikorako alternatiba bitxia planteatzen dute, gertakizunaren kudeaketa-estrategian bertan dagoena. Izan ere, gertakizunak, berez, lurraldearen sustapenerako estrategia garrantzitsua adierazten du; are gehiago, irudien katalizatzaile ere bihur daiteke, eta bere osotasunean hiri-marka bat finkatzeko gai diren imaginarioak sor ditzake. Artikulu honetan, identitate-posizionamenduari eta lurralde-sustapenari dagokienean, gertakizun baten antolaketak eskeintzen dituen aukerak ezagutarazten dira.

Pensamiento geográfico versus teoría de la comunicación. Hacia un modelo de análisis comunicativo del paisaje

The study of the communicative implications related to landscapes opens a wide range of possibilities concerning the treatment of the communication and landscape relationship. Issues such as the effects of the landscape on the processes of human communication (intrapersonal and interpersonal communication), the follow-up of the communicative processes by means of which the landscape becomes an object of trade (mass communication), the construction of individual and collective imaginaries arising from the citizenship and landscape exchange and, recently, the construction of territorial identities through the production of a brand image of a city or country (i. e., tourist promotion, city marketing and branding). All of them have important implications in the contemporary societies. For that reason, it appears almost essential to progress towards a communicative landscape model, a target which becomes possible if we interrelate geography and communication studies, two fields apparently unrelated one another concerning their origins and practice, although they are very close if we look at the recent evolution of their paradigms and the approach to certain concepts, such as space and landscape.

Marcas territoriales y desarrollo local en la Cataluña interior. Estudio de caso: Territoris serens (el Lluçanès)

La denominada «reestructuración rural» pasa ineludiblemente por la transformación de la economía de sector primario que tradicionalmente ha sustentado al campo. En los últimos tiempos, se experimenta una clara tercerización de la economía rural, en muy buena medida capitalizada por la industria turística. En este sentido, surge la necesidad de repensar la ruralidad, de construirla socialmente a partir de la proyección de imaginarios comunicados interna y externamente mediante la ayuda de marcas territoriales. El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo prioritario explorar de qué forma la marca espacial Territoris serens permite la creación de una imagen competitiva para la agrupación territorial del Lluçanès, por medio de la difusión de relatos asociados a diversos valores intangibles encabezados por la serenidad, el paisaje y, por ende, la identidad territorial. La revisión de la literatura referida a marcas de territorio, el análisis de la producción documental vinculada a Territoris serens y la organización de un grupo focal de discusión permitirá dirimir el proceso de transformación de territorios en marcas, en aras de conseguir, en nombre de la competitividad, un renovado y posmoderno «sentido de lugar».

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Effect of reducing and replacing pork fat on the physicochemical, instrumental and sensory characteristics throughout storage time of small caliber non-acid fermented sausages with reduced sodium content

The effect of pork fat reduction (from 44% to 20% final fat content) and its partial substitution by sunflower oil (3% addition) on the physicochemical, instrumental and sensory properties throughout storage time of small caliber non-acid fermented sausages (fuet type) with reduced sodium content (with partial substitution of NaCl by KCl and K-lactate) and without direct addition of nitrate and nitrite (natural nitrate source used instead), was studied. Results showed that sausages with reduced fat (10% initial fat content) and with acceptable sensory characteristics can be obtained by adding to the shoulder lean (8% fat content) during the grinding, either 3.3% backfat (3% fat content) or 3% sunflower oil, both previously finely comminuted with lean. Furthermore, sunflower oil showed to be suitable for partial pork backfat substitution in very lean fermented sausages, conferring desirable sensory properties similar to those of sausages with standard fat content. The sensory quality of the sausages was maintained after three-month cold storage in modified atmosphere.

Consumer valuation of energy-saving features of residential air conditioners with hedonic and choice models

The promotion of energy-efficient appliances is necessary to reduce the energetic and environmental burden of the household sector. However, many studies have reported that a typical consumer underestimates the benefits of energy-saving investment on the purchase of household electric appliances. To analyze this energy-efficiency gap problem, many scholars have estimated implicit discount rates that consumers use for energy-consuming durables. Although both hedonic and choice models have been used in previous studies, a comparison between two models has not yet been done. This study uses point of sale data about Japanese residential air conditioners and estimates implicit discounts rates with both hedonic and choice models. Both models demonstrate that a typical consumer underinvests in energy efficiency. Although choice models estimate a lower implicit discount rate than hedonic models, the latter models estimate the values of other product characteristics more consistently than choice models.

Cytoplasmic accumulation of NCoR in malignant melanoma: Consequences of altered gene repression and prognostic significance

Invasive malignant melanoma (MM) is an aggressive tumor with no curative therapy available in advanced stages. Nuclear corepressor (NCoR) is an essential regulator of gene transcription, and its function has been found deregulated in different types of cancer. In colorectal cancer cells, loss of nuclear NCoR is induced by Inhibitor of kappa B kinase (IKK) through the phosphorylation of specific serine residues. We here investigate whether NCoR function impacts in MM, which might have important diagnostic and prognostic significance. By IHC, we here determined the subcellular distribution of NCoR in a cohort of 63 primary invasive MM samples, and analyzed its possible correlation with specific clinical parameters. We therefore used a microarray-based strategy to determine global gene expression differences in samples with similar tumor stage, which differ in the presence of cytoplasmic or nuclear NCoR. We found that loss of nuclear NCoR results in upregulation of a specific cancer-related genetic signature, and is significantly associated with MM progression. Inhibition of IKK activity in melanoma cells reverts NCoR nuclear distribution and specific NCoR-regulated gene transcription. Analysis of public database demonstrated that inactivating NCoR mutations are highly prevalent in MM, showing features of driver oncogene.

Bifurcation of relative equilibria of the (1+3)-body problem

We study the relative equilibria of the limit case of the pla- nar Newtonian 4{body problem when three masses tend to zero, the so-called (1 + 3){body problem. Depending on the values of the in- nitesimal masses the number of relative equilibria varies from ten to fourteen. Always six of these relative equilibria are convex and the oth- ers are concave. Each convex relative equilibrium of the (1 + 3){body problem can be continued to a unique family of relative equilibria of the general 4{body problem when three of the masses are su ciently small and every convex relative equilibrium for these masses belongs to one of these six families.

Comunicar la ciudad desde el paisaje: hacia una teoría del landscape branding

The need to decode landscape meanings, the society- landscape interaction (intra- and inter-personal communication) and, more recently, the uses of landscape as a territorial sight linked to advertising communication, citymarketing or place branding (mass communication) highlights the study of landscape persuasion, which includes clear emotional, symbolic and, therefore, communicative aspects. The landscape, as a territory image or face, gathers the essence of the implicit message in the space, thus working as a great metaphor for city communication. Regarding the foregoing, specific communication research with intangible landscapes —together with the recent emergence of emotional geographies— suggests a new territorial message theory based on the union of geographical, landscape, emotional and communicational variables. Landscape has historically been studied by geographers, architects, historians or sociologists, among others researchers, but it has not been analysed from communicational viewpoints. In this sense, the proliferation of analyses highlighting the role played by the territory as a communication mediator in the interaction process between society and its spaces (cognition and/or perception) is also remarkable. Current sales of territorial identities lead to increases in the production of territory brands, which have gathered a noticeable relevance within the last years.