Wage settlements, California union agreements.

Title from cover.

Santa Monica Mountains area : recreational trails coordination project : final summary report /

"This report was prepared through a cooperative effort of the Santa Monica Mountains Area Recreation Trails Coordination Project [and] ... facilitated by the Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance Program ..."--Verso t.p.

Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences.

Each number has also a distinctive title.

Benefit segmentation of international travelers to Macau, China

The purpose of this study is threefold: (1) to identify the underlying benefits sought by international visitors to Macau, China, which has emerged as a popular gambling destination in Asia; (2) to segment tourists visiting Macau by employing a cluster analysis based on the benefits sought; and (3) to examine any salient differences between the segment groups with regard to their behavioral characteristics, socio-economic characteristics, and demographic profiles. A convenience sample was used to collect data in the Macau International Airport, in the Macau Ferry Terminal, and at the border gate with Mainland China. A total 1,513 useful surveys were retained for data analysis. Cluster analysis discloses four distinct clusters: "convention and business seekers," "family and vacation seekers," "gambling and shopping seekers," and "multi-purpose seekers." Based on the results of our findings, several managerial implications are discussed. © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Gender, identity, and the security state: The politics of international drug trafficking

This dissertation examined how United States illicit drug control policy, often commonly referred to as the "war on drugs," contributes to the reproduction of gendered and racialized social relations. Specifically, it analyzed the identity producing practices of United States illicit drug control policy as it relates to the construction of U.S. identities. ^ Drawing on the theoretical contributions of feminist postpositivists, three cases of illicit drug policy practice were discussed. In the first case, discourse analysis was employed to examine recent debates (1986-2005) in U.S. Congressional Hearings about the proper understanding of the illicit drug "threat." The analysis showed how competing policy positions are tied to differing understandings of proper masculinity and the role of policymakers as protectors of the national interest. Utilizing critical visual methodologies, the second case examined a public service media campaign circulated by the Office of National Drug Control Policy that tied the "war on drugs" with another security concern in the U.S., the "war on terror." This case demonstrated how the media campaign uses messages about race, masculinity, and femininity to produce privileged notions of state identity and proper citizenship. The third case examined the gendered politics of drug interdiction at the U.S. border. Using qualitative research methodologies including semi-structured interviews and participant observation, it examined how gender is produced through drug interdiction at border sites like Miami International Airport. By paying attention to the discourse that circulates about women drug couriers, it showed how gender is normalized in a national security setting. ^ What this dissertation found is that illicit drug control policy takes the form it does because of the politics of gender and racial identity and that, as a result, illicit drug policy is implicated in the reproduction of gender and racial inequities. It concluded that a more socially conscious and successful illicit drug policy requires an awareness of the gendered and racialized assumptions that inform and shape policy practices.^

Genomic consequences of mating system evolution in the Pacific coastal dune endemic, Abronia umbellata (Nyctaginaceae)

The advent of next-generation sequencing has significantly reduced the cost of obtaining large-scale genetic resources, opening the door for genomic studies of non-model but ecologically interesting species. The shift in mating system, from outcrossing to selfing, has occurred thousands of times in angiosperms and is accompanied by profound changes in the population genetics and ecology of a species. A large body of work has been devoted to understanding why the shift occurs and the impact of the shift on the genetics of the resulting selfing populations, however, the causes and consequences of the transition to selfing involve a complicated interaction of genetic and demographic factors which are difficult to untangle. Abronia umbellata is a Pacific coastal dune endemic which displays a striking shift in mating system across its geographic range, with large-flowered outcrossing populations south of San Francisco and small-flowered selfing populations to the north. Abronia umbellata is an attractive model system for the study of mating system transitions because the shift appears to be recent and therefore less obscured by post-shift processes, it has a near one-dimensional geographic range which simplifies analysis and interpretation, and demographic data has been collected for many of the populations. In this study, we generated transcriptome-level data for 12 plants including individuals from both subspecies, along with a resequencing study of 48 individuals from populations across the range. The genetic analysis revealed a recent transition to selfing involving a drastic reduction in genetic diversity in the selfing lineage, potentially indicative of a recent population bottleneck and a transition to selfing due to reproductive assurance. Interestingly, the genetic structure of the populations was not coincident with the current subspecies demarcation, and two large-flowered populations were classified with the selfing subspecies, suggesting a potential need for re-evaluation of the current subspecies classification. Our finding of low diversity in selfing populations may also have implications for the conservation value of the threatened selfing subspecies.

The effectiveness of corporate Web in small and médiumsized business: an analysis of Web Usability

Internet and the Web have changed the way that companies communicate with their publics, improving relations between them. Also providing substantial benefits for organizations. This has led to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to develop corporate sites to establish relationships with their audiences. This paper, applying the methodology of content analysis, analyzes the main factors and tools that make the Websites usable and intuitive sites that promote better relations between SMEs and their audiences. Also, it has developed an index to measure the effectiveness of Webs from the perspective of usability. The results indicate that the Websites have, in general, appropriate levels of usability.

El periodismo deportivo condicionado por la gestión comunicativa de los clubes de fútbol: el caso del FC Barcelona

Las relaciones entre los gabinetes de Comunicación de los clubes de fútbol y los periodistas deportivos se enmarcan en el modelo de Gieber y Johnson (1961) por el que el hecho de que ambos compartan objetivos comunes, donde los gabinetes de Comunicación necesitan que los medios publiquen determinadas informaciones y los periodistas precisan de noticias que publicar, provoca una pérdida de independencia por parte de los periodistas, ya que necesitan a esos departamentos como fuentes. En la actualidad, los departamentos de Comunicación de los clubes de fútbol, como el del FC Barcelona, se han constituido en gatekeepers. Esto ha acentuado las históricas diferencias que existen entre los periodistas y los profesionales de la comunicación corporativa, incrementado por el control informativo de estos departamentos lo que provoca constantes tensiones entre ambos.

Cooperative or collaborative learning: Is there a difference in university students’ perceptions?

The hypothesis that the same educational objective, raised as cooperative or collaborative learning in university teaching does not affect students’ perceptions of the learning model, leads this study. It analyses the reflections of two students groups of engineering that shared the same educational goals implemented through two different methodological active learning strategies: Simulation as cooperative learning strategy and Problem-based Learning as a collaborative one. The different number of participants per group (eighty-five and sixty-five, respectively) as well as the use of two active learning strategies, either collaborative or cooperative, did not show differences in the results from a qualitative perspective.

Dificultades del profesorado para planificar, coordinar y evaluar competencias claves. Un análisis desde la Inspección de Educación.

Este artículo presenta una investigación en la que se analizan las dificultades del profesorado para planificar, coordinar y evaluar competencias claves en una muestra de 23 centros educativos. El tema tiene hondas repercusiones ya que una mala praxis educativa de las competencias claves puede conculcar uno de los derechos fundamentales del alumnado a ser evaluado de forma objetiva (LODE: Art.6b y RD 732/1995: Art. 13.1) y poder superar las pruebas de evaluación consideradas necesarias para la obtención del título académico mínimo que otorga el estado español. La investigación se ha desarrollado desde una doble perspectiva metodológica; en primer lugar, es una investigación descriptiva en la que presentamos las características fundamentales de las competencias claves y la normativa básica para su desarrollo y evaluación. En segundo lugar,  aplicamos un procedimiento de análisis con una doble vertiente cualitativa mediante el empleo del programa Atlas-Ti y del enfoque reticular-categorial del análisis de redes sociales con la aplicación de UCINET y el visor yED Graph Editor para abordar el análisis de las principales dificultades y obstáculos detectados. Los resultados muestran que existen serias dificultades en las tres dimensiones analizadas: "planificación", "coordinación" y "evaluación" de competencias clave; especialmente en la necesidad de formación del profesorado, en la evaluación de las competencias, en la metodología para su desarrollo y en los procesos de coordinación interna para su consecución en los centros educativos.

These things are alive: relationships between material culture, communities, and archaeological legislation

This paper deals with the relationship between different sets of archaeological legislation, material culture and communities. First it presents a historical sketch of the heritage legislation in the West and its contemporary uses. Secondly, it shows how alternative archaeological agencies, such as community archaeology, deal with these problems. The discussion is especially relevant in Brazil, where contract archaeology is presently overwhelming, and the issue is raised in the last part of the paper.

Negative Archaeology. The Archaeological Borders of the Present

Nowadays, archaeology is trying to redefine its relation with objects. This change is taking place at the same time as the West is breaking once and for all with the generation who did the rural exodus in the mid of the twentieth century. The present paper proposes a revision of the conditions that allow us to both define this rupture and at the same time determine our affinity with materiality. This is done through a reconsideration of the relation between the past and the present and the dynamics marking this difference. We are situated in a moment when the experience of time is shifting and thus so is the integrity of archaeological objects. Under the name of Negative Archaeology, the border between past and present is explored. This border determines the creation of the past in a present which intends to homogenise changes. Archaeology is a unique discipline which could prevent this process, or at least bear witness to the dynamics to which objects seem to be subjected. Obscolescence is introduced as a concept in an attempt to name the aforementioned problem.

Biografía inédita de Francisco de Quintana: recuperación de un novelista olvidado

Este artículo pretende desvelar datos inéditos de Francisco de Quintana, escritor del seiscientos escasamente estudiado por la crítica literaria hasta nuestros días. La investigación, a partir tanto de fuentes primarias como de su obra literaria, ha supuesto el hallazgo de información sustancial sobre este íntimo amigo de Lope de Vega. Además de aportar nuevos testimonios biográficos, esta comunicación interrelaciona acontecimientos fundamentales de su vida con su obra literaria.

Estados Unidos y la guerra por el desarrollo: el control de la natalidad en Chile, 1960-1970

Bajo el paradigma de modernización y desarrollo norteamericano -y en un contexto de Guerra Fría-, durante la década de 1960 se adecuaron a la realidad chilena programas de control de natalidad que no sólo buscaron disminuir las altas tasas de mortalidad materno infantil, sino que además respondieron al proyecto de seguridad hemisférica norteamericana de contención a posibles revoluciones populares en países del Tercer Mundo.

A vueltas con la naturaleza del cambio fonético-fonológico: los casos de Nj y Lj

Las etapas del cambio fonético-fonológico han sido descritas desde hace décadas, especialmente desde un punto de vista articulatorio y casi siempre partiendo de los testimonios escritos de que se podía disponer. No obstante, recientemente han ido surgiendo nuevas teorías que defienden que el cambio puede ser explicado a través del estudio de la variación y los procesos fonéticos propios del habla actual, puesto que ambos están relacionados con fenómenos de hipo (e hiper) articulación y, a la postre, de coarticulación. Una de ellas es la Fonología Evolutiva (Blevins 2004), aun cuando no ofrece una explicación satisfactoria para la difusión del cambio. En este estudio, se ha recurrido a estas teorías para esclarecer las causas de la evolución de dos contextos de yod segunda: /nj/ y /lj/, que llevaron a la fonologización de // y //, en un primer estadio de la historia del español.