Ball Recovery in the Handball Tournament of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games: Sequential Analysis of Positional Play as Used by the Spanish Team���s Defence

In sport there is a great need to obtain as much information as possible about the factors which affect the dynamics of play. This study uses sequential analysis and temporal patterns (T-patterns)to examine the evolution of defence (against an equal number of attackers)as used by the Spanish handball team at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The aim is to help handball coaches (during their training and gathering of professional experience)to understand the importance of the structure of defensive systems. This can be achieved through observational processes that reveal the evolution and adaptation of these defensive systems according to different variables: the match score, the response of the opposing team and progress through the tournament.

Return premiums of sustainable companies listed on the Spanish stock market

The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether companies with a greater commitment to corporate social responsibility (SRI companies) perform differently on the stock market compared to companies that disregard SRI. Over recent years, this relationship has been taken up at both a theoretical and practical level, and has led to extensive scientific research of an empirical nature involving the examination of the relationships existing between the financial and social, environmental and corporate governance performance of a company and the relationship between SRI and investment decisions in the financial market. More specifically, this work provides empirical evidence for the Spanish market as to whether or not belonging to a group of companies the market classes as sustainable results in return premiums that set them apart from companies classed as conventional, and finds no differences in the stock market performance of companies considered to be SRI or conventional.

Interest rate exposure of Spanish banks: A nonparametric analysis

Interest rate risk is one of the major financial risks faced by banks due to the very nature of the banking business. The most common approach in the literature has been to estimate the impact of interest rate risk on banks using a simple linear regression model. However, the relationship between interest rate changes and bank stock returns does not need to be exclusively linear. This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the interest rate exposure of the Spanish banking industry employing both parametric and non parametric estimation methods. Its main contribution is to use, for the first time in the context of banks��� interest rate risk, a nonparametric regression technique that avoids the assumption of a specific functional form. One the one hand, it is found that the Spanish banking sector exhibits a remarkable degree of interest rate exposure, although the impact of interest rate changes on bank stock returns has significantly declined following the introduction of the euro. Further, a pattern of positive exposure emerges during the post-euro period. On the other hand, the results corresponding to the nonparametric model support the expansion of the conventional linear model in an attempt to gain a greater insight into the actual degree of exposure.

Idiosyncratic risk really drives stock returns; Spanish evidence

Following the theoretical model of Merton (1987), we provide a new perspective of study about the role of idiosyncratic risk in the asset pricing process. More precisely, we analyze whether the idiosyncratic risk premium depends on the idiosyncratic risk level of an asset as well as the vatriation in the market-wide measure of idiosyncratic risk. As expected, we obtain a net positive risk premium for the Spanish stock market over the period 1987-2007. Our results show a positive relation between returns and individual indiosyncratic risk levels and a negative but lower relation with the aggregate measure of idiosyncratic risk. These findings have important implications for portfolio and risk management and contribute to provide a unified and coherent answer for the main and still unsolved question about the idiosyncratic risk puzzle: whether or not there exists a premium associated to this kind of risk and the sign for this risk premium.

Language and trade: the (new) route of portuguese in the 21st century

Globalisation has eliminated frontiers and in the case of Europe helped the crossing of borders and changed forever the concept of social (and I would also say individual) geography: the rest of the world is out there; we can pretend not to see it, but we cannot avoid it. Moreover, Europe is undergoing a serious crisis, also economic, and new markets and business partners are welcome. In this context, cultural bonds like a common language can open new investment paths and give rise to successful stories. In this paper we intend to present an example of how low linguistic distance can lead to good business, even if a) in the internationalization process of the companies��� language is often forgotten as a management element and b) consumers of language products (like User Guides) are also not stimulating investment in language by the companies. Through the results of 2 studies carried out in 2010 and 2011 we will show how a pluricentric language like Portuguese is managed in multinational companies (MC) and Small and medium Enterprises (SMEs). The second study is based on an online survey questioning the effectiveness, efficiency and general quality of User Guides and the reaction of consumers to language. Results show that although playing a role in the internationalization process of companies in the same linguistic space, language is opportunistically used. On the other hand, Portuguese and Brazilian consumers show a very functional perception of the Portuguese language...

Factorial validity of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI-HSS) among Spanish professionals

OBJECTIVE: To assess the factorial validity and internal consistency of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI-HSS). METHODS: In a sample consisting of 705 Spanish professionals from diverse occupational sectors (health, education, police and so one), seven plausible factorial models hypothesized were compared using LISREL 8. RESULTS: The four-factor oblique solution and the three-factor oblique solution showed the best and similar fit. Deletion of Item 12 and Item 16, taking into consideration the suggestions in the manual, improved the goodness of fit for both models. The four-factor oblique model suggests that, in addition to Emotional Exhaustion (EE) and Depersonalization (DP), Personal Accomplishment (PA) consists of two components labeled here Self-Competence (Items 4, 7, 17, and 21) and the Existential Component (Items 9, 12, 18, and 19). However, the alpha coefficient was relatively low for the Self-Competence component, suggesting that it is more suitable to estimate the syndrome as a threedimensional construct. The Cronbach's alpha was satisfactory for PA (alpha =.71) and EE (alpha =.85), and moderate for DP (alpha =.58). CONCLUSIONS: The results show that the MBI-HSS offers factorial validity and its scales present internal consistency to evaluate the quality of working life for Spanish professionals.

Aspectos te��ricos y pr��cticos de la interpretaci��n de congresos de medicina

Los congresos de medicina se destacan actualmente como uno de los eventos multiling��es que se celebran con m��s frecuencia en el panorama internacional. Recurrir a los servicios de interpretaci��n se revela como un hecho habitual entre los organizadores de estos encuentros, especialmente en determinados ��mbitos nacionales. Por consiguiente, los congresos de medicina brindan grandes posibilidades laborales a los int��rpretes de conferencias, sobre todo a aquellos cuya combinaci��n ling����stica es ingl��s-espa��ol, dado que el ingl��s se define, sin lugar a dudas, como la lengua por excelencia de la comunicaci��n m��dica. No obstante, a pesar de esta demanda creciente en nuestra sociedad actual, los planteamientos acad��micos y profesionales siguen siendo, en gran medida, te��ricos e intuitivos, fruto de experiencias personales, carentes en la mayor��a de los casos de un respaldo emp��rico. Para corroborar o descartar ciertas presuposiciones establecidas a priori por estudiosos de la interpretaci��n especializada, como pueden ser el uso de determinadas fuentes documentales y m��todos de preparaci��n, la evaluaci��n de determinados par��metros de calidad o el nivel de especializaci��n del int��rprete, nos servimos de unas medidas de valoraci��n retrospectivas en int��rpretes profesionales especializados en congresos de medicina para verificar nuestro objetivo fundamental: en qu�� medida se alejan las teor��as establecidas de la pr��ctica profesional.

Bicas, pacotes e outros embrulhos. materiais para o ensino de portugu��s com fins espec��ficos

O trabalho consiste na descri����o pormenorizada do processo de elabora����o dos cursos Portugu��s para Restauraci��n y Servicio de Bar (A1-A2) e Portugu��s para Dependiente de Comercio (A1-A2) (2008), cujo objetivo �� certificar o n��vel de conhecimento lingu��stico dos membros da Uni��o Europeia para a realiza����o de ocupa����es profissionais. Apresentamos os diferentes contextos que a equipa de l��ngua portuguesa teve em conta antes da elabora����o dos cursos ��� suportes, n��veis de l��ngua, fins ocupacionais, estudantes, regi��o e cultura, l��nguas de origem dos alunos ���, bem como uma amostra das propostas desenvolvidas a n��vel de conte��dos culturais, gramaticais, fon��ticos, lexicais, de atividades e exerc��cios e da avalia����o.

An Interface to Retrieve Personal Memories Using an Iconic Visual Language

Relevant past events can be remembered when visualizing related pictures. The main difficulty is how to find these photos in a large personal collection. Query definition and image annotation are key issues to overcome this problem. The former is relevant due to the diversity of the clues provided by our memory when recovering a past moment and the later because images need to be annotated with information regarding those clues to be retrieved. Consequently, tools to recover past memories should deal carefully with these two tasks. This paper describes a user interface designed to explore pictures from personal memories. Users can query the media collection in several ways and for this reason an iconic visual language to define queries is proposed. Automatic and semi-automatic annotation is also performed using the image content and the audio information obtained when users show their images to others. The paper also presents the user interface evaluation based on tests with 58 participants.

Construction of womanhood in the bengali language of Bangladesh

The subject-matter of this essay is gender justice in language which, as I argue, may be achieved through the development of a gender-related approach to linguistic human rights. The last decades of the 20th century, globally marked by a ���gender shift��� in attitudes to language policy, gave impetus to the social movement for promoting linguistic gender equality. It was initiated in Western Europe and nowadays is moving eastwards, as ideas of gender democracy progress into developing countries. But, while in western societies gender discrimination through language, or linguistic sexism, was an issue of concern for over three decades, in developing countries efforts to promote gender justice in language are only in their infancy. My argument is that to promote gender justice in language internationally it is necessary to acknowledge the rights of women and men to equal representation of their gender in language and speech and, therefore, raise a question of linguistic rights of the sexes. My understanding is that the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights in 1996 provided this opportunity to address the problem of gender justice in language as a human rights issue, specifically as a gender dimension of linguistic human rights.

The rebirth of an old language: issues of gender equality in Kazakhsstan

The existing language situation in Kazakhstan, while peaceful, is not without some tension. We propose to analyze here some questions we consider relevant in the frame of cultural globalization and gender equality, such as: free from Russian imperialism, could Kazakhstan become an easy prey of Turkey���s ���imperialist dream���? Could these traditionally Muslim people be soon facing the end of religious tolerance and gender equality, becoming this new old language an easy instrument for the infiltration in the country of fundamentalism (it has already crossed the boarders of Uzbekistan), leading to a gradual deterioration of its rich multicultural relations? The present structure of the language is still very fragile: there are three main dialects and many academics defend the re-introduction of the Latin alphabet, thus enlarging the possibility of cultural ���contamination��� by making the transmission of fundamentalist ideas still easier through neighbour countries like Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan (their languages belong to the same sub-group of Common Turkic), where the Latin alphabet is already in use, and where the ground for such ideas shown itself very fruitful.

El predom��nio del ingl��s en el lenguaje cient��fico: caracter��sticas del lenguaje m��dico espa��ol en la actualidad

Sin lugar a dudas, el ingl��s se ha convertido en las ��ltimas d��cadas en la lingua franca de la comunidad cient��fica internacional, desplazando incluso a otras lenguas que tuvieron una gran importancia en otras ��pocas, caso del franc��s o del alem��n. El lenguaje cient��fico espa��ol tambi��n ha sucumbido a esta entrada masiva del ingl��s en las distintas disciplinas cient��fico-t��cnicas, y presenta desde hace unas d��cadas ciertas caracter��sticas que no son propias de las reglas gramaticales del espa��ol y que son el fruto de una contaminaci��n ling����stica derivada de la penetraci��n del ingl��s. El objetivo del presente art��culo es analizar las caracter��sticas del lenguaje m��dico tal y como lo podemos encontrar en las publicaciones espa��olas actuales. Para ello, el art��culo se divide en tres apartados: en primer lugar, haremos un breve recorrido por la historia del lenguaje m��dico como punto de partida para comprender la evoluci��n de este lenguaje. En segundo lugar, analizaremos las caracter��sticas principales dentro de los niveles l��xicosem��ntico, morfosint��ctico y fon��tico-fonol��gico del lenguaje m��dico espa��ol y veremos la influencia que ha tenido el ingl��s en el proceso de evoluci��n del mismo. En tercer lugar, examinaremos los procedimientos de creaci��n y formaci��n de t��rminos m��dicos y c��mo afectan al desarrollo ling����stico de la terminolog��a.

The economics of language or how can language be an asset? General reflections on the European case and brief focus on the case of portuguese

In this paper, we will focus on the importance of languages as an asset to people and companies in knowledge-based society, giving special attention to the case of portuguese, not forgetting the role of Higher Education Institutions in preparing students to be part of the new creative multilingual and sucsessful class.

Tratamiento y presencia de las mujeres em la prensa

Este art��culo presenta los resultados de un an��lisis de contenido sobre la representaci��n de la mujer en la prensa espa��ola que forma parte de una investigaci��n m��s amplia que abarca el periodo de 1974-2000. Nuestra investigaci��n supone una importante contribuci��n a otras investigaciones ya que analiza de forma comparativa, sistem��tica y longitudinal las representaciones sociales y pol��ticas enfocadas en la prensa. Examinamos como en los medios de comunicaci��n los periodistas utilizan frecuentemente distintas referencias para los diferentes tipos de actores a partir de recursos estil��sticos que ayudan a enfatizar sus argumentos. En la mayor��a de los casos, estos pasan desapercibidos pero en ocasiones se convierten en generalizaciones que parten de ideas preconcebidas y prejuicios. Nuestros resultados demuestran que los actores a los que los medios de comunicaci��n dedican menos espacio son tambi��n los que reciben un peor tratamiento. Espec��ficamente, las mujeres reciben una menor atenci��n como colectivo en los medios de comunicaci��n analizados. Adem��s, aparecen como personajes pasivos, no son enfocadas como representantes p��blicas y son relegadas a la vida privada. Principalmente, las mujeres son enfocadas realizando actividades deportivas, culturales o de entretenimiento o cuando son v��ctimas, mientras que s��lo una minor��a de ellas merecen atenci��n efectuando acciones pol��ticas. Despu��s de exponer este diagn��stico, realizaremos propuestas de estilo, lenguaje y producci��n de noticias para fomentar que los peri��dicos muestren de forma positiva una sociedad con igualdad de oportunidades.