Conflictos ambientales derivados de la urbanización turístico-residencial. Un caso aplicado al litoral alicantino

La actividad turística desarrollada en el Mediterráneo español, en general, y en el litoral valenciano, en particular, está vinculada a la demanda de segundas residencias y, con ella, al desarrollo urbanístico. Se trata de un modelo que incide negativamente sobre el territorio y genera fuertes impactos, especialmente medioambientales, apenas frenados por las medidas conservacionistas llevadas a cabo en las últimas décadas. Para comprobar tales afirmaciones, el presente artículo se centra en un territorio concreto como el litoral de la provincia de Alicante, donde los parques naturales mantienen una estrecha relación con algunos de los principales destinos de sol y playa.

Cartels: the Probability of Getting Caught in the European Union. Bruges European Economic Research (BEER) Papers 12/March 2008

In 1991, Bryant and Eckard estimated the annual probability that a cartel would be detected by the US Federal authorities, conditional on being detected, to be at most between 13 % and 17 %. 15 years later, we estimated the same probability over a European sample and we found an annual probability that falls between 12.9 % and 13.3 %. We also develop a detection model to clarify this probability. Our estimate is based on detection durations, calculated from data reported for all the cartels convicted by the European Commission from 1969 to the present date, and a statistical birth and death process model describing the onset and detection of cartels.

Society's level of literacy: A cross cultural study. ACES Working Papers No. 4, 2008

In this study, the relationship between the country's level of literacy and its national culture will be explored. Cultural differences effect the way that people think and react. Culture is "the value shared amongst distinctive social groups and classes" (Soley and Pandya 2003, 206). House, et al. (2004, 57) define culture as "shared motives, values, beliefs, identities, and interpretations or meanings of significant events that result from common experiences of members of collectives and are transmitted across age generations." Dutch anthropologist Geert Hofstede (1991) considers culture to be "the collective programming of the mind. Culture is a stem of collectively held values" (Hofstede 1981, p. 240).

(Table S2) Biometric data, time of ice breakup and carbon isotopic composition of adipose tissue of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) between 1991-2007

Two global environmental issues, climate change and contamination by persistent organic pollutants, represent major concerns for arctic ecosystems. Yet, it is unclear how these two stressors interact in the Arctic. For instance, the influence of climate-associated changes in food web structure on exposure to pollutants within arctic ecosystems is presently unknown. Here, we report on recent changes in feeding ecology (1991-2007) in polar bears (Ursus maritimus) from the western Hudson Bay subpopulation that have resulted in increases in the tissue concentrations of several chlorinated and brominated contaminants. Differences in timing of the annual sea ice breakup explained a significant proportion of the diet variation among years. As expected from climate change predictions, this diet change was consistent with an increase in the consumed proportions of open water-associated seal species compared to ice-associated seal species in years of earlier sea ice breakup. Our results demonstrate that climate change is a modulating influence on contaminants in this polar bear subpopulation and may pose an additional and previously unidentified threat to northern ecosystems through altered exposures to contaminants.