Changes in biodiversity and trade-offs among ecosystem services, stakeholders, and components of well-being: the contribution of the International Long-Term Ecological Research network (ILTER) to Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS)

The International Long-Term Ecological Research (ILTER) network comprises > 600 scientific groups conducting site-based research within 40 countries. Its mission includes improving the understanding of global ecosystems and informs solutions to current and future environmental problems at the global scales. The ILTER network covers a wide range of social-ecological conditions and is aligned with the Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS) goals and approach. Our aim is to examine and develop the conceptual basis for proposed collaboration between ILTER and PECS. We describe how a coordinated effort of several contrasting LTER site-based research groups contributes to the understanding of how policies and technologies drive either toward or away from the sustainable delivery of ecosystem services. This effort is based on three tenets: transdisciplinary research; cross-scale interactions and subsequent dynamics; and an ecological stewardship orientation. The overarching goal is to design management practices taking into account trade-offs between using and conserving ecosystems toward more sustainable solutions. To that end, we propose a conceptual approach linking ecosystem integrity, ecosystem services, and stakeholder well-being, and as a way to analyze trade-offs among ecosystem services inherent in diverse management options. We also outline our methodological approach that includes: (i) monitoring and synthesis activities following spatial and temporal trends and changes on each site and by documenting cross-scale interactions; (ii) developing analytical tools for integration; (iii) promoting trans-site comparison; and (iv) developing conceptual tools to design adequate policies and management interventions to deal with trade-offs. Finally, we highlight the heterogeneity in the social-ecological setting encountered in a subset of 15 ILTER sites. These study cases are diverse enough to provide a broad cross-section of contrasting ecosystems with different policy and management drivers of ecosystem conversion; distinct trends of biodiversity change; different stakeholders’ preferences for ecosystem services; and diverse components of well-being issues.

Construction Innovation Futures - Industry and Environmental Opportunities.

During the next two decades global construction investment will top $100 trillion (US). New directions in construction innovation will be driven by industry to address challenges in skills, environmental regulations and maximise the benefits of low carbon building systems. Growth productivity catalysts such as offsite construction, higher BIM levels and multi-skill operatives will be instrumental contributors in achieving some of these aims. The increasing use of timber architecture across domestic, public and commercial buildings also opens new pathways. This event will discuss some of the key changes taking place in the UK and parallels with Hong Kong’s ambitions towards delivering a sustainable legacy in this sector.

Auctioning versus grandfathering in cap-and-trade systems with market power and incomplete information

We compare auctioning and grandfathering as allocation mechanisms of emission permits when there is a secondary market with market power and firms have private information on their own abatement technologies. Based on real-life cases such as the EU ETS, we consider a multi-unit, multi-bid uniform auction. At the auction, each firm anticipates its role in the secondary market, either as a leader or a follower. This role affects each firms’ valuation of the permits (which are not common across firms) as well as their bidding strategies and it precludes the auction from generating a cost-effective allocation of permits, as it occurs in simpler auction models. Auctioning tends to be more cost-effective than grandfathering when the firms’ abatement cost functions are sufficiently different from one another, especially if the follower has lower abatement costs than the leader and the dispersion of the marginal costs is large enough.

The impacts of US agricultural and trade policy on trade liberalization and integration via a US- Central America free trade agreement

Resumen Este estudio analiza importantes acciones legislativas del 2002 que afectarán sustancialmente las negociaciones comerciales con Estados Unidos; examina, asimismo, la protección de importaciones de ese país con respecto a productos agrícolas que serán críticos en las negociaciones con los países centroamericanos. Las acciones legislativas mencionadas fueron la aprobación del Proyecto de ley Agrícola del 2002 y la aprobación de la Autorización de Promoción Legal, que provee tratamiento del ‘trámite rápido’ de los acuerdos comerciales…

Public capital, productivity and trade balances:some evidence for the Italian regions

This paper analyses the extent to which intensive investments in public capital may have had an unfavourable impact on the regional trade balances across the 20 Italian regions. Our working hypothesis is that investments in public capital, while stimulating the demand for tradables across the regions, may have a limited positive impact on the supply of tradables in regions characterised by relatively low productivity like the South of Italy (or Mezzogiorno). The empirical results are consistent with our expectations and suggest that programs of investments in public capital should be accompanied by additional policy measures that can remove the structural factors that hamper the total factor productivity growth in specific areas. © Springer-Verlag 2008.

Tuberculosis epidemiology in islands: insularity, hosts and trade

Because of their relative simplicity and the barriers to gene flow, islands are ideal systems to study the distribution of biodiversity. However, the knowledge that can be extracted from this peculiar ecosystem regarding epidemiology of economically relevant diseases has not been widely addressed. We used information available in the scientific literature for 10 old world islands or archipelagos and original data on Sicily to gain new insights into the epidemiology of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC). We explored three nonexclusive working hypotheses on the processes modulating bovine tuberculosis (bTB) herd prevalence in cattle and MTC strain diversity: insularity, hosts and trade. Results suggest that bTB herd prevalence was positively correlated with island size, the presence of wild hosts, and the number of imported cattle, but neither with isolation nor with cattle density. MTC strain diversity was positively related with cattle bTB prevalence, presence of wild hosts and the number of imported cattle, but not with island size, isolation, and cattle density. The three most common spoligotype patterns coincided between Sicily and mainland Italy. However in Sicily, these common patterns showed a clearer dominance than on the Italian mainland, and seven of 19 patterns (37%) found in Sicily had not been reported from continental Italy. Strain patterns were not spatially clustered in Sicily. We were able to infer several aspects of MTC epidemiology and control in islands and thus in fragmented host and pathogen populations. Our results point out the relevance of the intensity of the cattle commercial networks in the epidemiology of MTC, and suggest that eradication will prove more difficult with increasing size of the island and its environmental complexity, mainly in terms of the diversity of suitable domestic and wild MTC hosts.

Sealing practices in the Near East during the Late Bronze II period: administration and trade in the age of internationalism

This PhD research investigates sealing practices in the Near East during the Late Bronze II period (ca. 1375-1175 BCE). Sealings from archaeological contexts in the Southern Levant, North Syria, Upper and Lower Mesopotamia and South-Western Iran are taken under consideration and analyzed on multiple aspects at local, regional, and international levels. The contextual, functional, and iconographic analysis of these materials, in fact, allows to reconstruct the nature of the transactions and the agents involved in the sealing operations within local administrative systems, highlighting at the same time aspects of inter-regional interactions during the age of internationalism. Following a survey of the available evidence, a corpus consisting of 1845 records from 28 different sites across the ANE, has been filed using MS Access and MS Excel, including 740 unpublished sealing from Karkemish. Among this large evidence, the corpus of recently discovered sealings from Karkemish and the other scattered sealings from the North Syrian provinces, for instance, provide insights on the core-periphery relationships under the Hittite Empire; while the deposit from Building P at Tell Sheikh Hamad, that of the Middle Assyrian houses at Tell Fekheriye, and of the dunnu of Tell Sabi Abyad, significantly contributes to defining the administration of provinces within the Middle Assyrian state and the regional circulation of good. The less extensive evidence from South Mesopotamia under the Kassite rule and from Middle Elamite contexts in South-Western Iran somewhat contribute as well to the understanding of sealing practices in the LB II period. The South Levantine kingdoms, on the other hand, seems participates to the Egyptian regional network of exchanges and sealing practices.

Gestão de risco: articulação com o planeamento estratégico e a contabilidade de gestão: estudo aplicado a empresas não financeiras do concelho de Vila do Conde

Este trabalho de investigação tem como objetivo analisar se as empresas do concelho de Vila do Conde, efetuam planeamento estratégico, contabilidade de gestão e/ou gestão de risco. Pretende-se ainda verificar se o facto de existir articulação entre estas três áreas da empresa influencia o resultado do seu EBIT (Earning Before Interest and Taxes). Através da literatura relevante, verificou-se que o planeamento estratégico, a contabilidade de gestão e a gestão de risco têm progredido de modo a responder às mudanças do meio envolvente onde as empresas estão a operar. Contudo, em termos práticos, este estudo permitiu verificar que a implementação da gestão de risco e da contabilidade de gestão no tecido empresarial de Vila do Conde tem sido muito lenta. Os dados foram recolhidos através dum inquérito eletrónico efetuado a 505 empresas do concelho de Vila do Conde de diversas atividades económicas pertencentes aos três grandes sectores (serviços, indústria e comércio). De acordo com os resultados obtidos, concluiu-se que apenas 17% das empresas do concelho de Vila do Conde efetuam simultâneamente planeamento estratégico, contabilidade de gestão e gestão de risco. Conclui-se ainda que as empresas do concelho de Vila do Conde que efetuam em simultâneo planeamento estratégico, contabilidade de gestão e gestão de risco apresentam em média um EBIT (2010) aparenta ser superior às que não fazem planeamento estratégico, contabilidade de gestão e gestão de risco.

Comércio bilateral Portugal - Brasil

Dissertação apresentada ao Instituto Superior de Contabilidade e Administração do Porto para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Empreendedorismo e Internacionalização Orientadora: Professora Doutora Celsa Maria de Carvalho Machado

The Irish Pub: past, present – whither the future?

The purpose of this research is to examine the main economic, legislative, and socio- cultural factors that are currently influencing the pub trade in Ireland and their specific impact on a sample of publicans in both Galway city and county. In approaching this task the author engaged in a comprehensive literature review on the origin, history and evolution of the Irish pub; examined the socio-cultural and economic role of the public house in Ireland and developed a profile of the Irish pub by undertaking a number of semi-structured interviews with pub owners from the area. In doing so, the author obtained the views and opinions of the publicans on the current state of their businesses, the extent to which patterns of trade have changed over recent years, the challenges and factors currently influencing their trade, the actions they believed to be necessary to promote the trade and address perceived difficulties and how they viewed the future of the pub business within the framework of the current regulatory regime. In light of this research, the author identified a number of key findings and put forward a series of recommendations designed to promote the future success and development of the pub trade in Ireland. The research established that public houses are currently operating under a very unfavourable regulatory framework that has resulted in the serious decline of the trade over the last decade. This decline appears to have coincided initially with the introduction of the ban on smoking in the workplace and was exacerbated further by the advent of more severe drink-driving laws, especially mandatory breath testing. Other unfavourable conditions include the high levels of excise duty, value added tax and local authority commercial rates. In addition to these regulatory factors, the research established that a major impediment to the pub trade is the unfair competition from supermarkets and other off-licence retail outlets and especially to the phenomenon of the below-cost selling of alcohol. The recession has also been a major contributory factor to the decline in the trade as also has been the trend towards lifestyle changes and home drinking mirroring the practice in some continental European countries.

China y la globalización del mercado automovilístico : efectos sobre las empresas catalanas de componentes

Estudi centrat en el sector de components d'algunes empreses catalanes que tendeixen a buscar inversions en els països asiàtics com a mesura d'adaptació al nou ordre, mitjançant la seva unió amb empreses locals del país destinació conegudes com joint-ventures.

Projecte i disseny d’ una talladora de closques de castanya

L’objectiu d’ aquest treball consisteix en projectar i dissenyar una màquina amb capacitat per realitzar el tall lateral a les castanyes a gran producció. Ideada per complir la norma USFDA, integra una sèrie d' elements que permeten carregar els fruits de manera manual amb facilitat, un sistema de dosificat sobre una cinta de transport i una descàrrega d'aquests fruits sobre un sistema de rails que orienten i pre-carreguen un sistema de talladors de doble acció que s' encarrega de fer el tall i retirar el fruit