Suchergebnisse

This paper surveys empirically the broad features of trade policy in goods for 31 major economies that collectively represented 83 percent of the world's population and 91 percent of the world's GDP in 2013. It addresses the following five questions: Do some countries have more liberal trading regimes than others? Within countries, which industries receive the most import protection? How do trade policies change over time? Do countries discriminate among their trading partners when setting trade policy? Finally, how liberalized is world trade? The analysis documents the extent of cross-sectional heterogeneity in applied commercial policy across countries, their economic sectors, and their trading partners, over time. It concludes that substantial trade policy barriers remain as an important feature of the world economy.

Διαθέσιμο μετά τις 30/09/2024 ; Η εφαρμογή του Γενικού Κανονισμού Προστασίας Δεδομένων (Γ.Κ.Π.Δ.) στις 25 Μαΐου 2018 σε όλη την Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση (Ε.Ε.) εγκαθίδρυσε ένα νέο καθεστώς για την προστασία} των προσωπικών δεδομένων και της ιδιωτικότητας των ατόμων. Αν και γενικότερα ο Γ.Κ.Π.Δ. έτυχε θερμής υποδοχής, συνάντησε όμως και έντονες επιφυλάξεις τόσο εντός όσο και εκτός της Ε.Ε. κυρίως λόγω της σοβαρής επίδρασης του στην επεξεργασία των προσωπικών δεδομένων. Ίσως η πιο ριζοσπαστική και αμφιλεγόμενη από τις διατάξεις του -- και αυτή που έγινε θέμα πολλών έντονων συζητήσεων λόγω του καθοριστικού της ρόλου στη διαχείριση των προσωπικών δεδομένων και των δραστικών της συνεπειών όταν επιβληθεί στην εποχή των big data, των blockchains, και του Internet of Things (IoT) -- είναι το Άρθρο 17 που προβλέπει το ``Δικαίωμα στη Λήθη'' (``Right to be Forgotten'' - RtbF). Ουσιαστικά, το Δικαίωμα στη Λήθη δίνει τη δυνατότητα στα άτομα, υπό συγκεκριμένες προϋποθέσεις, να αιτηθούν τη διαγραφή των προσωπικών τους δεδομένων από όλες τις διαθέσιμες πηγές στις οποίες αυτά έχουν διαδοθεί. Η παρούσα διατριβή εξετάζει τις αντιφάσεις που ανακύπτουν από την εφαρμογή των αρχών της ιδιωτικότητας που κατοχυρώνονται στον Γ.Κ.Π.Δ. - και ιδιαίτερα του Δικαιώματος στη Λήθη - στα σύγχρονα πληροφοριακά συστήματα και στις τεχνολογίες αιχμής. Μεταξύ άλλων, μελετούμε δυο θεαματικές καινοτομίες της εποχής μας: την κινητή και πανταχού παρούσα υπολογιστική (mobile ubiquitous computing), και τα αποκεντρωμένα ομότιμα (peer-to-peer, p2p) δίκτυα για αποθήκευση και διαμοιρασμό αρχείων (decentralized file storage and sharing systems). Πιο συγκεκριμένα, εμβαθύνουμε στην πρόοδο της κινητής συναισθηματικής πληροφορικής (mobile affective computing) και στην τελευταία λέξη της τεχνολογίας στα αποκεντρωμένα p2p δίκτυα, όπως το blockchain και το Inter-Planetary File System (IPFS), και ερευνούμε τους κινδύνους αυτών των τεχνολογιών στην ιδιωτικότητα σε σχέση με τις αρχές που ορίζονται στον Γ.Κ.Π.Δ. Κατά κύριο λόγο, διερευνούμε την αποτελεσματική εναρμόνιση του IPFS με τις απαιτήσεις του Δικαιώματος στη Λήθη και προς αυτόν τον σκοπό προδιαγράφουμε με τυπικούς κανόνες ένα ανώνυμο και ασφαλές πρωτόκολλο εξουσιοδότησης για διαγραφή περιεχομένου. Για να αναπτύξουμε την επίδραση του Δικαιώματος στη Λήθη πάνω στα σύγχρονα πληροφοριακά συστήματα, αρχικά προσδιορίζουμε τις ποικίλες έννοιες της λήθης και της ανάγκης για λησμονιά - συμπεριλαμβανομένης και της περίπτωσης της ανάκλησης της συγκατάθεσης - τόσο σε κοινωνικό όσο και σε τεχνικό πλαίσιο. Στη συνέχεια, διερευνούμε τις προκλήσεις υλοποίησης του Δικαιώματος στη Λήθη στις οργανωτικές διεργασίες και τις τρέχουσες επιχειρησιακές πρακτικές όπως στις ήδη καθιερωμένες διαδικασίες εφεδρικών αντιγράφων και αρχειοθέτησης που προσδιορίζονται από τα σύγχρονα πρότυπα ασφάλειας. Με σκοπό την συμμόρφωση με τον Γ.Κ.Π.Δ., αξιολογούμε υφιστάμενες τεχνικές μεθόδους, πλαίσια και αρχιτεκτονικές – που υπάρχουν είτε σε επιχειρηματικά είτε σε ακαδημαϊκά περιβάλλοντα – ως προς την αντιμετώπιση των τεχνικών δυσκολιών για την αποτελεσματική ενσωμάτωση του Δικαιώματος στη Λήθη στις τρέχουσες υπολογιστικές υποδομές. Ακολούθως, αναγνωρίζουμε τους κινδύνους στην ιδιωτικότητα που τίθενται από τις τρέχουσες πρακτικές και έρευνα πάνω στην απανταχού παρούσα κινητή υπολογιστική - και ειδικότερα όταν αυτές συνδυάζονται με αλγοριθμικές επεξεργασίες big data για να συνάγουν ευαίσθητες προσωπικές λεπτομέρειες όπως κοινωνικές συμπεριφορές ή συναισθήματα – και συζητούμε τις επιπτώσεις τους στα άτομα βάσει του Γ.Κ.Π.Δ. και του Δικαιώματος στη Λήθη. Συγκεκριμένα, μελετούμε τους κινδύνους της κατάρτισης προφίλ (profiling) οι οποίοι αναλύονται περαιτέρω στο φορολογικό και οικονομικό πλαίσιο. Υπό αυτό το πρίσμα, εξετάζουμε τις εμφανιζόμενες τάσεις για λογοδοτούμενες αλγοριθμικές επεξεργασίες μηχανικής μάθησης (machine learning) και εξερευνούμε στρατηγικές για την αντιμετώπιση των κινδύνων που προέρχονται από επιθετικές μεθόδους κατάρτισης προφίλ και μεροληπτικές αυτοματοποιημένες αποφάσεις. Επιπλέον, αναζητούμε το βαθμό στον οποίο οι διατάξεις του Γ.Κ.Π.Δ. καθιερώνουν ένα καθεστώς προστασίας των ατόμων έναντι αυτών των κινδύνων, επισημαίνουμε δυνητικές παγίδες, και προτείνουμε εξειδικευμένα αντίμετρα για την συμμόρφωση με τον Γ.Κ.Π.Δ. Στη συνέχεια, εμβαθύνουμε στον αντίκτυπο υλοποίησης των απαιτήσεων της λήθης σε αναπτυσσόμενες αποκεντρωμένες τεχνολογίες όπως το blockchain και το IPFS. Η ανάλυση μας φανερώνει ότι οι προκλήσεις εφαρμογής του Γ.Κ.Π.Δ., και συγκεκριμένα του Δικαιώματος στη Λήθη, δεν είναι ασήμαντες. Σε αυτό το πλαίσιο, ερευνούμε ενδελεχώς την ασυμβατότητα μεταξύ της αμετάβλητης φύσης του blockchain και των υποχρεώσεων διαγραφής που απορρέουν από το Δικαίωμα στη Λήθη, ενώ παράλληλα εξετάζουμε διεξοδικά τρέχουσες προηγμένες τεχνικές και μεθόδους κρυπτογράφησης για την εισαγωγή περιορισμένης μεταβλητότητας στο σχεδιασμό του blockchain. Ωστόσο, επειδή αυτές οι μέθοδοι παρουσιάζουν συγκεκριμένους περιορισμούς όταν εφαρμόζονται σε πραγματικά δημόσια blockchains για τα οποία δεν απαιτείται άδεια συμμετοχής (permissionless), άλλες εναλλακτικές που βασίζονται σε αποκεντρωμένες λύσεις αποθήκευσης αρχείων, όπως το IPFS, υιοθετούνται όλο και περισσότερο από πολλά έργα blockchain. Παρόλα αυτά, η αποθήκευση των πραγματικών αρχείων που περιέχουν προσωπικά δεδομένα στο δίκτυο IPFS δεν απαλλάσσει από την υποχρέωση της διαγραφής τους όταν εγερθεί το Δικαίωμα στη Λήθη. Για αυτό το λόγο, και δεδομένης της ευρείας αποδοχής του IPFS για την αποθήκευση προσωπικών δεδομένων εκτός του blockchain, μελετούμε το βαθμό στον οποίο το πρωτόκολλο IPFS συμμορφώνεται με τις απαιτήσεις διαγραφής του Γ.Κ.Π.Δ. Όπως αποκαλύπτει η ανάλυση μας, το πρωτόκολλο IPFS δεν συνάδει ικανοποιητικά με το Δικαίωμα στη Λήθη αφού προς το παρόν δεν είναι δυνατόν να εφαρμοστεί αποτελεσματικά η διαγραφή των δεδομένων σε όλο το δίκτυο του. Η κύρια συνεισφορά μας στην επίλυση των αποκλίσεων μεταξύ του IPFS και του Δικαιώματος στη Λήθη είναι η επίσημη πρόταση ενός ανώνυμου πρωτοκόλλου για διαγραφή περιεχομένου κατ' εξουσιοδότηση. Το πρωτόκολλο αυτό μπορεί εύκολα να ενσωματωθεί στο IPFS έτσι ώστε να κατανείμει αποτελεσματικά και με ασφάλεια ένα αίτημα διαγραφής περιεχομένου μεταξύ όλων των IPFS κόμβων όταν ένα τέτοιο αίτημα διαγραφής βάσει του Δικαιώματος στη Λήθη χρειάζεται να ικανοποιηθεί. Το προτεινόμενο πρωτόκολλο συμμορφώνεται με την βασική αρχή του IPFS περί αποτροπής της λογοκρισίας, και για αυτό το σκοπό η διαγραφή επιτρέπεται μόνο από τον αρχικό πάροχο του περιεχομένου ή από τους αντιπροσώπους του. Το πρωτόκολλο ορίζεται τυπικά, και παρέχονται αποδείξεις της ασφάλειας του, καθώς και ένα σύνολο πειραμάτων που αποδεικνύουν την αποτελεσματικότητα του. Εξ όσων γνωρίζουμε, αυτή είναι η πρώτη - ανεξαρτήτως εφαρμογής (application-agnostic) - πρόταση για να εναρμονιστεί το IPFS με το Δικαίωμα στη Λήθη και να υποστηριχτεί η συμμόρφωση του με τον Γ.Κ.Π.Δ. Ως εκ τούτου, πιστεύουμε ακράδαντα ότι η εργασία μας προσθέτει πραγματική αξία στο IPFS όσον αφορά τη βελτίωση της ιδιωτικότητας του και συνεπώς, συνεισφέρει εξαιρετικά στην μελλοντική του υιοθέτηση από εφαρμογές που επεξεργάζονται προσωπικά δεδομένα. ; The enforcement of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on the 25th of May 2018 across the European Union (EU) established a new regime for the protection of the personal data and the privacy of individuals. While the GDPR was mostly welcomed, it also provoked widespread scepticism both within and outside the EU territory due to its severe impact on the processing of personal data. Perhaps the most radical and controversial of its provisions -- that has been subject to heated debates due to its pivotal role in the management of personal data and its drastic consequences when enforced in the era of big data, blockchains, and the Internet of Things (IoT) -- is the Article 17 that anticipates the ``Right to be Forgotten'' (RtbF). Essentially, the RtbF allows the possibility for individuals to request the erasure of their personal data from all the available sources to which they have been disseminated when certain conditions are met. This thesis examines the conflicts arising from the implementation of privacy principles enshrined in the GDPR, and most particularly of the RtbF, on contemporary information systems and state-of-the-art technologies. Among others, we study two ground-breaking innovations of our times: mobile ubiquitous computing, and decentralized file storage and sharing systems. Specifically, we delve into the progress of mobile affective computing and the state of the art in decentralized peer-to-peer (p2p) networks, namely the blockchain and the Inter-Planetary File System (IPFS), and we explore their risks to privacy in relation to the principles stipulated by the GDPR. Above all, we research into aligning the IPFS efficiently with the RtbF requirements and to this end we formally specify an anonymous and secure delegation protocol for content erasure. To elaborate on the impact of the RtbF upon modern information systems, we first identify the various notions of forgetting and the need to be forgotten, including the case of revoking consent, both in the social and in the technical context. Next, the challenges of implementing the RtbF in organizational processes and current business practices, such as in already established backup and archiving procedures specified by modern security standards, are investigated. Towards seeking GDPR compliance, we evaluate technical methods, architectures and frameworks -- existing either in business or academic environments -- in terms of fulfilling the technical practicalities for the effective integration of the RtbF into current computing infrastructures. The privacy risks imposed by ubiquitous mobile computing practice and research, especially when combined with big data algorithmic processing to infer sensitive personal details such as people's social behaviour or emotions, are subsequently identified along with their implications for individuals which are discussed on the basis of the GDPR and the RtbF. We specifically study the risks of profiling which are further elaborated in the tax and financial context. In this respect, we review the emerged trends towards accountable machine learning algorithmic processing, and we explore strategies for mitigating the risks of aggressive profiling and discriminatory automated decisions. In addition, we investigate the extent to which the GDPR provisions establish a protection regime for individuals against those risks, we highlight potential pitfalls, and we propose domain-specific countermeasures for complying with the GDPR provisions. Next, we delve into the implementation impact of the GDPR forgetting requirements in emerging decentralized technologies such as blockchains and the IPFS. Our analysis demonstrates that the challenges of enforcing the GDPR, and in particular the RtbF, on these environments are not trivial. Against this background, the incompatibility between the blockchain immutable nature and the erasing obligations resulting from the RtbF are thoroughly investigated, whereas current advanced cryptographic techniques and methods for introducing restricted mutability into the blockchain's design are comprehensively reviewed. However, as these methods present certain limitations when applied in the wild to public permissionless blockchains, other workarounds based on decentralized file storage solution such as the IPFS are increasingly adopted by many blockchain projects. Yet, storing the actual personal files in the IPFS network does not remove the burden of erasing them should the RtbF be raised. Therefore, and given the widespread adoption of the IPFS to store personal data off-chain, we study the extent to which the IPFS protocol complies with the GDPR erasing requirements. As our analysis reveals, the IPFS protocol does not adequately adhere to the RtbF since it is not currently feasible to efficiently enforce data erasure across its entire network. Our main contribution towards resolving the conflict between the IPFS and the RtbF is the formal proposal of an anonymous protocol for delegated content erasure that could be integrated into the IPFS to distribute efficiently and securely a content erasure request among all the IPFS nodes when a request for erasure under the RtbF needs to be carried out. The proposed protocol complies with the primary principle of IPFS to prevent censoring; therefore, erasure is only allowed to the original content provider or her delegates. A formal definition and the security proofs are provided, along with a set of experiments that prove the efficacy of the proposed protocol. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first application-agnostic proposal to align the IPFS with the RtbF and to endorse its GDPR compliance. Hence, we firmly believe that our work adds real value to the IPFS in terms of its privacy enhancement and, consequently, contributes significantly to its future adoption by applications that are processing personal data.

In accordance with the existing environmental issues and the basic principles of the Circular Economy on waste management, the suitability of five different wastes has been assessed for lightweight aggregate (LWA) production: a granite and marble sludge generated from ornamental rock sawing (COR), a factory sepiolite reject (SEP), household polyethylene-hexene thermoplastics (P), carbon fiber remnants from the production of aviation pieces (FC) and a heavy metal polluted material (MAZ), which was taken from the tailings of an abandoned mine. This Doctoral Thesis is made up of six main lines of research and a secondary one which can be summarized as follows: i) Analysis of the suitability of mixtures rich in granite and marble sludge for the production of LWAs: Although some LWA varieties were sintered from SEP and MAZ as major components, this investigation has been focused mainly on COR as it is a relatively common and widespread residue. Hence, different mixtures were prepared using COR as major component, while FC and P were examined as bloating additives and SEP as a binder, since the plasticity of COR itself was very low to be properly molded into spherical pellets. Once the wastes were milled (FC and P) or disaggregated (COR and SEP) to a very fine particle size, a preliminary study of their physicochemical properties and their thermal behavior was carried out in order to devise the appropriate batches. In accordance with the results obtained, a base mixture was prepared by blending 90 wt% COR and 10 wt% SEP (mixture called COS) to confer plasticity as well as 0, 2.5, 5 and 10 wt% of P or FC to check their suitability as pore-forming elements. The resulting mixtures were kneaded with their optimum water volume, extruded, shaped into pellets by hand, oven-dried and finally fired at 1100, 1125 and 1150 °C for 4, 8 and 16 minutes in a laboratory-scale rotary kiln. The main technological properties of the aggregates related to bloating, density, porosity, loss on ignition, water absorption and mechanical strength were determined. In addition, SEM microscopy was used to study the microstructure of some selected specimens. Of a total of 49 types of aggregate using the granite-marble sludge as major constituent, 42 were lightweight. However, those LWAs coming from COS mixture without any additive or when it was P did not exhibit either bloating or the typical LWA shell-core-macropore structure, but one consisting of micropores and microchannels. The increase in temperature and time of heating involved a greater sintering in these samples, which in turn was translated into higher shrinkage, density and compressive strength values, but less porosity and water absorption. In fact, the addition of plastic did not entail any improvement, but rather the opposite, as the resistance to crushing dropped significantly. From those batches, only the LWA sintered without P at the minimum time (4 min) and minimum temperature of firing (1100 °C) displayed adequate features to assess its water suction capability. The results pointed out that this LWA could be suitable in hydroponics and/or water filtration systems, even better than the commercial LWA called Arlita G3. For its part, the addition of FC did promote bloating and the formation of a highly porous shell-core structure. It was remarkable the presence of unburnt carbon fibers embedded in the mineral matrix, which helped to enhance the mechanical strength. Although all the FC varieties met the regulatory requirements on LWA density, the specimens fired at 1150 °C are noteworthy, as they were particularly lightweight, yielding a particle density of 1.1-1.2 g/cm3, which is far below the maximum standardized limit of 2.0 g/cm3 applicable to LWAs. ii) Analysis of the impact of firing conditions on the mineralogy and texture of the samples: In order to assess the influence of the heating temperature (1100, 1125 or 1150 °C), the dwell time (4, 8 or 16 min) and the additive (FC, P or none) on the mineralogy and the texture, twelve of those aggregates were selected and subjected to a thorough study by means of microscopy and thermal techniques, as well as by X-ray diffraction, analyzing the polycrystalline powder diagrams according to the Rietveld method. Only small proportions of quartz, plagioclase and alkali feldspar withstood the sintering process from the original mineralogy, while glass increased from 36 to 70 % as temperature and dwell time were risen. Some augite (6.5 %) was neo-formed at about 980-1025 °C, far below the sintering temperatures. The addition of P barely affected the mineralogy, while FC promoted the development of glass and a highly porous fiber-microsphere-holding texture in which the phenocrysts observed in other specimens were almost absent. It was remarkable that the glass formation was connected with lower solid-phase density, less water absorption and greater closed porosity in the aggregates. iii) Analysis of the suitability of mixtures rich in sepiolite rejects for LWA production: A less comprehensive study with the sepiolite-rich sample, SEP, and the mining waste, MAZ, as major components was also performed. Regarding the former, some tentative tests showed that when SEP is fired without any gas-pressure-mitigating additive, the pellets burst inside the kiln very quickly. This undesirable effect was prevented by the addition of 2.5 wt% of P. In order to find out if carbon fiber entailed any impact, another mixture was prepared by adding 2.5 wt% P + 2.5 wt% FC into SEP. The resulting pellets were heated at 1225 °C for 4 minutes. White color LWAs of high porosity, low density and significant mechanical strength were obtained. A meaningful volume of glass was evolved in all the aggregates (>50 %), just as less proportions of enstatite, protoenstatite and diopside as neo-formed species. Quartz was the only inherited mineral, appearing in the form of isolated phenocrysts inside an overall porous porphyritic texture. The addition of FC did not mean any remarkable improvement in this case. iv) Manufacturing of lightweight aggregates from a heavy metal polluted mining waste: As MAZ was a sandy material, it was sieved <63 µm to collect the fraction in which the heavy metals adsorbed to phyllosilicates and organic matter are usually concentrated. Just like COR, MAZ plasticity was poor, so it was blended with 10 wt% SEP to gain consistency (MAS mixture). Likewise, two other mixtures were prepared: the first one by adding 2.5 wt% of thermoplastic and the second one containing 2.5 wt% of carbon fiber so as to check the effect of these two additives as bloating agents in MAS. The pellets were fired at 1175 °C for 4 minutes. Dark color LWAs of high porosity, low density and good mechanical strength were obtained. The addition of P and FC enabled the development of a porous core with well distributed pores surrounded by a very thin shell, which contrasted with the thick cortex formed when these components were not used. While the addition of FC did not provide real advantages in the technological properties, P promoted greater bloating and lower density. A high volume of glass was evolved in all the aggregates (= 60 %) and augite was the main neo-formed mineral. v) Study of the immobilization and changes in the fractionation of chemical elements associated with sintering: The impact of LWA sintering on the fractionation and immobilization of thirty-three metallic elements, including a good handful of heavy metals and rare earth elements, has been assessed thoroughly by means of the BCR method. Four fractions were considered: F1 (weakly adsorbed), F2 (Fe–Mn (hydr)oxide-bound), F3 (sulfide- organic matter-bound) and FR (immobile, e.g., aluminosilicate-bound). Seven LWA varieties were selected: one sintered from the mixture COS (90 % granite-marble sludge + 10 % rejected sepiolite), five from COS-2.5FC (COS + 2.5 % of carbon fiber waste) and one from MAS (90 % heavy-metal-rich mine tailing + 10 % sepiolite). Both the unfired mixtures and the SEP sample were also subjected to the BCR protocol in order to evaluate the effect of firing on the mobility of the elements. The major components detected were Fe and Mg, this last one coming mostly from the sepiolite. Besides, MAS presented concentrations of Zn, Pb, Ni and As exceeding the legal limits established in USA (US EPA, 1993; USDA, 2000), as well as the ones ruling in Spain (Real Decreto 1310/90), which are based on the Council Directive 86/278/EEC of the European Union (Council Directive, 1986). The study was mainly focused on the mixture COS-2.5FC and its selected LWAs, which were sintered at different temperatures (1100, 1125 and 1150 °C) and dwell times (4, 8 and 16 min). It has been observed that although most of the elements follow the expected redistribution (a decrease in their concentrations of F1, F2 and F3 in favor of FR), this pattern is not followed in many cases, and in fact, complex trends depending on heating intensity have been observed (e.g., in Fe, Co, Ni, Cu and As). Accordingly, the elements have been grouped into different classes based on the fractionation behavior observed. As a general rule, with some exceptions, LWA sintering has caused the desired effect by increasing the immobilization of the elements to a greater or lesser extent. Only arsenic has exhibited a clear increase of its bioavailability at the expense of a pronounced reduction of FR. An environmental evaluation based on regulatory thresholds and the Risk Assessment Code (RAC) applicable to the BCR test, has indicated that the aggregates manufactured with the granite-marble sludge as main component do not entail any negative environmental concern, while that prepared from the mining-tailing would not be appropriate for agricultural uses in its current state due to its high concentration of As and the high leachability recorded for this metalloid. vi) Application of selected aggregates in the manufacture of lightweight concrete: Since LWAs are usually intended for lightweight concrete production, three of the varieties containing carbon fiber (the most interesting according to their technological characteristics) have been selected for this purpose. Prismatic concrete specimens were prepared in triplicate using these LWAs as coarse fraction. Additional specimens containing a normal-weight aggregate, a commercial lightweight aggregate and no coarse aggregate (mortar) were prepared for comparison. Water/cement ratios of 0.45 and 0.55 were studied. A comprehensive analysis of the properties related to workability, density, porosity, mechanical strength, elastic modulus and thermal transfer was conducted. Interfacial transition zones were examined through SEM-microscopy. Compressive strengths between 35 and 55 MPa and low values of density and thermal conductivity have been obtained with the LWAs developed in this investigation. Furthermore, the concrete samples manufactured from them have displayed the highest ratios relating the mechanical strength over the density and the thermal conductivity, meaning more balanced features than the other specimens, even exceeding the values of the normal-weight concrete. vii) Secondary research line: development of a new methodology to determine more accurately the plasticity of raw materials and their optimum moisture content for extrusion and molding: This Doctoral Thesis has also addressed the development of a new method to measure plasticity. This method has been of great importance in measuring not only the consistency of the samples but also their optimal water content for extrusion and pelletizing. Furthermore, this new approach has enabled us to develop new soil classification systems and a new definition of clay, whose potential application goes beyond even the manufacture of LWAs, covering fields such as ceramics, agriculture or geotechnical engineering. On balance, it has been proven that the wastes embraced in this research are suitable for LWA production, highlighting some varieties (e.g., some of those containing carbon fiber) whose characteristics in terms of strength/density ratio exceed those of commercial LWAs, which is very important in structural lightweight concrete production. Other specimens have shown excellent features for agriculture, while from an environmental standpoint, beyond the profit linked to the recycling process, the use of highly-polluted materials to manufacture LWAs could be promising not only to obtain high-quality materials intended for concrete, agriculture or civil engineering, but particularly to immobilize heavy metals from contaminated sites.

Transportation has continued to increase worldwide and fossil-fuel dependency is strong which leads to a number of problems, e.g. increased emissions of green-house gases (GHG) and risks related to energy security. Biofuels have until now been one of the few renewable alternatives which have been able to replace fossil fuels on a large scale. The biofuel share in relation to the total use of fuel in the transportation sector is still small, but in many places in the world political targets are set to increase the share of renewable fuels, of which biofuels are supposed to be an important part. Within the European Union targets for renewable energy have been set, including within the transportation sector, where 10% shall come from renewable sources by 2020 according to the EU Renewable Energy Directive (EU RES). Biofuels also need to fulfill the sustainability criteria in the EU RES, to be regarded as renewable. Depending on how biofuels are produced their resource efficiency varies, and the differences in environmental and economic performance can for instance be significant. The aim of this thesis is to describe and analyze conditions for a development towards increased and more resource-efficient production of biofuels in Sweden. The conditions have been studied from a regional resource perspective and from a biofuel producer perspective since it has been assumed that the producers are in possession of important knowledge, and potentially will play an important role in future biofuel development. The concept of resource efficiency used in this thesis includes an environmental and economic perspective as well as an overall societal dimension to some extent. The region of Östergötland in Sweden was used for the assessment of the resourcefocused biofuel potential for the year 2030, where two scenarios based on assessments regarding socio-technical development in relation to regional resources were used. The scenarios were based on semi-structured interviews with biofuel actors, literature studies and information from experts in the field. In the EXPAN (Expansion) scenario a continued development in line with the current one was assumed, but also an increased availability of feedstock primarily within the agricultural and waste sectors (also including byproducts from industry) for biofuel production. In the INNTEK (Innovation and Technology development) scenario greater technological progress was assumed to also enable the use of some unconventional feedstock besides increased available arable land and improved collection/availability of certain feedstock. Biomass feedstock from four categories was included in the potential: waste, agriculture, forestry and aquatic environments. One important feedstock which was not included in this study, but which is often included in studies of potential, is lignocellulosic material from the forest. This choice was also supported by the regional actors who judged it as less probable that there will be any large-scale use of such feedstock for biofuels in this region within the given timeframe. Regarding arable land available for biofuel production a share of 30% was assumed at maximum in the region, of which 15% is already used for cereal production for ethanol fuel. On these additional 15% assumed to be available for biofuel production year 2030, ley cropping for production of biogas was assumed in this study. Aquatic biomass is often not included in biofuel potentials. Here, algae were assumed to be a potentially interesting substrate for biogas production since harvesting algae in for instance the Baltic Sea could be seen as a multifunctional measure, i.e., contributing additional environmental benefits such as reducing eutrophication. Based on the assumption that the energy need in the transportation sector will be the same in 2030 as in 2010, up to 30% could be substituted with biofuels in the EXPAN scenario and up to 50% in the INNTEK scenario, without seriously conflicting with other interests such as food or feed production. In the study of potential, production systems for biogas production were prioritized since such systems were judged to have a large potential for resource efficiency. This is because they have a big capacity to utilize by-products and waste as feedstock, and also because they can contribute to closing the loops of plant nutrients, seen as an important goal in society, if the digestate is returned to arable land. The utilization of by-products and waste however in many cases requires cooperation between different actors in society. Within the research field of industrial symbiosis, cooperation regarding material and energy flows is studied from different perspectives, e.g. how such cooperation between actors evolves and to what extent such cooperation can contribute to improving the environmental and economic performance of systems. Both these perspectives are interesting in relation to biofuels since production often involves a large number of energy- and material flows at the same time as resource efficiency is important. How the producers organize the production when it comes to feedstock, energy, by-products and products and what influences this is therefore interesting to study. In this thesis four biofuel producers of three different biofuels (ethanol, biodiesel and biogas) on the Swedish market were studied, focusing on how they organize their biofuel production in terms of e.g. their material and energy flows, and how they intend to organize it in the future. The study is based on semi-structured interviews with the biofuel producers as well as literature studies. In all the cases, a number of areas of material and energy flow cooperation were identified and it could also be concluded that there had been some change regarding these patterns over time. Looking into the future a clear change of strategy was identified in the ethanol case and partly also in the biodiesel case where a development towards improved valorisation and differentiation of by-product flows was foreseen. If such a "biorefinery" strategy is realized, it can potentially improve the economic viability and resource efficiency in these biofuel producers. In the biogas cases, instead a strategy to lower the costs for feedstock through the use of lower quality feedstock was identified. This strategy also has a potential to increase economic viability and improve the resource efficiency. However, the success of this strategy is to a large extent dependent on how the off-set of the biofertilizer can be arranged regarding the economic challenges that the biogas producers' experience, and yet no strategy for implementation regarding this was identified. The EU Renewable Energy Directive was mentioned in relation to most cooperation projects and therefore regarded as an important critical factor. All of the studied companies also struggle to be competitive, for which reason the importance of the direct economic aspects of cooperation seems to increase. ; Transporterna i världen ökar kontinuerligt och det fossila beroendet är fortsatt stort vilket medför flera problem, bl. a. ökade utsläpp av växthusgaser och en osäkerhet kring framtidens energiförsörjning. Biodrivmedel har hittills varit ett av de få förnyelsebara alternativ som kunnat ersätta fossila drivmedel i stor skala. Andelen biodrivmedel av den totala bränsleanvändningen inom transportsektorn är dock fortfarande liten, men på många håll i världen finns nu politiska mål för att öka andelen förnyelsebara drivmedel av vilka biodrivmedel förväntas utgöra en viktig del. Inom EU har mål för förnybar energi satts upp bl. a. inom transportsektorn där 10% skall komma från förnybara energikällor senast år 2020 enligt EUs förnybarhetsdirektiv. Biodrivmedel måste dessutom, om de ska räknas som förnyelsebara, uppfylla direktivets hållbarhetskriterier. Beroende på hur biodrivmedel produceras är de olika resurseffektiva, med exempelvis betydande skillnader avseende miljömässig och ekonomisk prestanda. Syftet med den här avhandlingen är att beskriva och analysera förutsättningarna för en utveckling mot ökad och mer resurseffektiv produktion av biodrivmedel i Sverige. Förutsättningarna har studerats med ett regionalt resursperspektiv samt från ett biodrivmedelsproducentperspektiv eftersom producenterna sitter på viktiga kunskaper och sannolikt spelar en betydande roll för den framtida utvecklingen. Resurseffektivitetsbegreppet som används i den här avhandlingen inkluderar ett miljömässigt och ett ekonomiskt perspektiv liksom ett övergripande samhälleligt perspektiv. När det gäller ett regionalt resursperspektiv har Östergötland använts för att med hjälp av två scenarier för år 2030 ta fram en biodrivmedelspotential utifrån en bedömning av en socio-teknisk utvecklingspotential i förhållande till regionala resurser. Scenarierna togs fram med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer med aktörer i branschen, litteraturstudier och i vissa fall med hjälp av sakkunniga. I scenario EXPAN (expansionsscenario) antogs en fortsatt teknikutveckling i linje med den hittills-varande och en samtidig ökning av tillgängligheten av potentiella resurser inom framförallt jordbrukssektorn och avfallssektorn (inkluderat också restproduktsresurser inom industrin) för biodrivmedelsproduktion. I scenario INNTEK (Innovations och teknikutvecklingsscenario) har utöver ytterligare antagen tillgänglig jordbruksmark också större tekniksprång antagits som möjliggör användning av icke konventionella råvaror för biodrivmedelsproduktion, samt förbättrad insamling/tillgängliggörande av vissa råvaror. I potentialen har biomassa från fyra olika sektorer inkluderats; avfall, jordbruk, skogsbruk och akvatiska miljöer. En viktig biomassaresurs som inte inkluderats i denna potentialstudie, men som vanligen inkluderas i potentialstudier, är lignocellulosarika material från skogen. Detta var ett val som också stöddes av de regionala aktörerna som i den här studien bedömde det som mindre sannolikt att någon storskalig användning av sådana råvaror kommer att finnas i regionen inom den aktuella tidsramen. När det gäller jordbruksmark som kan utnyttjas för bioenergiproduktion så har en andel på 30% antagits, varav 15% redan idag utnyttjas till spannmålsodling för produktion av etanol. På de ytterligare 15% som antas kunna tas i anspråk för biodrivmedelsändamål år 2030, har vallodling för biogasändamål antagits i denna studie. Akvatisk biomassa ingår ofta inte i bioenergipotentialstudier, men har inkluderats här eftersom alger skulle kunna vara ett intressant substrat för biogasproduktion, men också för att algskörd i akvatiska miljöer skulle kunna ses som en multifunktionell åtgärd med ytterligare miljönytta som t.ex. minskad övergödning i Östersjön. Med antagandet att energibehovet inom transportsektorn blir lika stort år 2030 som år 2010, skulle upp till 30% av de fossila drivmedlen kunna ersättas av biodrivmedel i scenario EXPAN och upp till 50% i scenario INNTEK, utan att större intressekonflikter skulle uppstå i förhållande till andra behov såsom mat eller foderproduktion. I potentialstudien har vidare produktionssystem för biogas prioriterats eftersom sådana system bedömdes ha stor potential när det gäller resurseffektivitet. Först och främst för att de har stor kapacitet när det gäller användning av restprodukter, men också för att de kan bidra till att sluta kretsloppet av växtnäringsämnen om rötresten återförs till åkermark. Nyttiggörande av restprodukter och avfall kräver emellertid i många fall samarbete mellan olika aktörer i samhället. Inom forskningsfältet industriell symbios studerar man bl. a. hur samarbeten kring energi- och materialflöden mellan aktörer uppstår och i vilken utsträckning samarbetsgraden kan bidra till att förbättra miljöprestandan och ekonomiska prestanda i systemen. Dessa perspektiv är intressanta i förhållande till biodrivmedel eftersom produktionen av dessa är förknippad med ett stort antal energi- och materialflöden samtidigt som resurseffektiviteten är viktig. Hur biodrivmedelsproducenterna organiserar produktionen när det gäller råvaror, energi, biprodukter och produkter och vad som styr detta är därför intressant att studera. I den här avhandlingen studerades hur fyra svenska biodrivmedelsproducenter för tre olika biodrivmedel (etanol, biodiesel och biogas) på den svenska marknaden har organiserat sin produktion, med fokus på energi- och materialflöden, samt hur de planerar att organisera den framöver. Studien baseras framförallt på semi-strukturerade intervjuer med aktörerna samt litteraturstudier. I samtliga fyra fall kunde ett antal samarbeten kring bl.a. material och energiflöden kartläggas samt hur dessa förändrats över tiden. När det gäller framtiden kunde en tydlig strategiomläggning ses i etanolfallet och delvis i biodieselfallet mot en valorisering och diversifiering av rest-/bi-produktflöden. Om denna "bioraffinaderistrategi" lyckas kan den bidra till bättre lönsamhet och bättre resurseffektivitet. I biogasfallen fanns istället strategier för att försöka sänka råvarukostnader genom att hitta råvaror av lägre kvalitet. Också denna strategi kan öka lönsamheten och förbättra resurseffektiviteten, men detta förutsätter att avsättningen av biogödsel också kan lösas på ett lönsamt sätt. Detta är en fortsatt stor utmaning för biogasproducenterna. En av de viktigaste kritiska faktorerna för de olika samarbetsprojekten var EUs förnybarhetsdirektiv som nämndes i samband med de flesta samarbetsprojekt och som här sågs som en miljömässig drivkraft. Också det långsiktiga byggandet av gröna varumärken verkar vara en drivkraft, åtminstone när det gäller vissa samarbetsprojekt. Samtliga biodrivmedelsproducenter kämpar idag med lönsamheten varför också de ekonomiska aspekterna kring samarbeten är mycket väsentliga.

1. Approaches to U.S. immigration history. Immigration portrayed as an experience of uprootedness / Oscar Handlin ; Immigration portrayed as an experience of transplantation / John Bodnar ; The invention of ethnicity in the United States / Kathleen Neils Conzen ... [et al.] ; Immigrant women: nowhere at home? / Donna Gabaccia ; Race, nation, and culture in recent immigration studies / George J. Sanchez ; More "trans-," less "national" / Matthew Frye Jacobson -- 2. Settlers, servants, and slaves in early America. European claims to America, circa 1650 ; Alonso Ortiz, a tanner in Mexico City, misses his wife in Spain, 1574 ; Don Antonio de Otermin, governor of New Mexico, on the Pueblo revolt, 1680 ; Marie of the Incarnation finds clarity in Canada, 1652 ; Elizabeth Sprigs, a servant, writes to her father in London, 1756 ; William Byrd II, a land speculator, promotes immigration to Virginia, 1736 ; Thomas Philip, a slave trader, describes the middle passage, 1693 ; Job recalls being taken to slavery in America, 1731 ; Religion and contested spaces in colonial North America / Tracy Neal Leavelle ; Adaptation and survival in the New World / Alison Games -- 3. Citizenship and migration before the Civil War. Citizenship in the Articles of Confederation, 1781 ; Citizenship and migration in the United States Constitution, 1787 ; Naturalization Act of 1790 ; An Act Concerning Aliens, 1798 ; New York's Poor Law, 1788 ; Moore v. People upholds fugitive slavery acts, 1852 ; The open borders myth / Gerald L. Neuman ; Citizenship in nineteenth-century America / William J. Novak -- 4. European migration and national expansion in the early nineteenth century. Ana Maria Schano advises her family in Germany on emigration, 1850-1883 ; Irish describe effects of the potato famine, 1846-1847 ; Irish immigration and work depicted in song, 1850s ; Emigrant runners work NY harbor, 1855 ; Samuel F.B. Morse enumerates the dangers of the Roman Catholic immigrant, 1835 ; Portrayals of immigrants in political cartoons, 1850s ; The global Irish / Kevin Kenny ; German Catholic immigrants who make their own America / Kathleen Neils Conzen -- 5. The Southwest borderlands. Stephen Austin calls for Texas independence, 1836 ; John O'Sullivan declares "boundless future" is America's "manifest destiny" ; U.S. territorial expansion to 1850 ; Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo sets rights of Mexicans in ceded territory, 1848 ; Congress reports Indian incursions in the border area, 1850 ; The ballad of Gregario Cortez, 1901 ; Negotiating captivity in the New Mexico borderlands / James F. Brooks ; Anglos establish control in Texas / David Montejano -- 6. National citizenship and federal regulation of immigration. U.S. Constitution, Amendment 14, Sec. 1 ; Naturalization Act of 1870, Sec. 7 ; Supreme Court recognizes Congress's plenary power over immigration, 1889 ; U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark rules birthright citizenship applies to all born in United States, 1898 ; Immigration Act of 1917 lists excludable classes ; Chinese poetry from Angel Island, 1910s ; Immigration station at Ellis Island, New York, c. 1904 ; Immigration station at Angel Island, San Francisco, c. 1915 ; The great wall against China / Aristide R. Zolberg ; Divided citizenships / Linda Bosniak -- 7. Immigration during the era of industrialization and urbanization. Mary Antin describes life in Polozk and Boston, 1890 ; Jacob Riis describes the impoverished tenements of New York City, 1890 ; George Washington Plunkitt justifies the urban political machine, 1905 ; Chinatown, U.S.A., 1874-1919 ; John Martin, an American worker, does not understand the foreigners in the 1919 steel strike ; Jane Addams on the settlement as a factor in the labor movement, 1895 ; Work and community in the jungle / James R. Barrett ; Chinatown: a contested urban space / Mary Ting Yi Lui -- 8. Colonialism and migration. Senator Albert J. Beveridge supports an American empire, 1898 ; Joseph Henry Crooker says America should not have colonies, 1900 ; Downes v. Bidwell rules Puerto Rico belongs to but not part of United States, 1901 ; Louis Delaplaine, a consular official, says Puerto Ricans are ungrateful, 1921 ; A citizen recommends Puerto Rican labor for Panama Canal, 1904 ; Filipino asparagus workers petition for standard of American wages, 1928 ; A Chinese labor contract in Hawaii, 1870 ; The noncitizen national and the law of American empire / Christina Duffy Burnett ; Japanese and Haoles in Hawaii / Evelyn Nakano Glenn -- 9. Immigrant incorporation, edentity, and nativism in the early twentieth century. The Asiatic Exclusion League argues that Asians cannot be assimilated, 1911 ; Fu Chi Hao reprimands Americans for anti-Chinese attitudes, 1907 ; Madison Grant on the "passing of a great race," 1915 ; Randolph Bourne promotes cultural pluralism, 1916 ; Becoming American and becoming white / James R. Barrett and David Roediger ; The evolution of racial nativism / John Higham -- 10. The turn to restriction. Immigration Act of 1924 establishes immigration quotas ; Thind v. United States rules Asians cannot become citizens, 1923 ; Mary Kidder Rad writes that patrolling the border is a "man sized job" ; Congressman John Box objects toMexican immigrants, 1928 ; League of United Latin-American Citizens form civil rights organization, 1929 ; The invention of national origins / Mae M. Ngai ; The shifting politics of Mexican nationalism and ethnicity -- 11. Patterns of inclusiion and exclusion, 1920s to 1940s. Dominic Del Turco remembers union organizing, 1934 ; Dept. of Labor reports on consumer spending patterns of Mexican families, 1934 ; Recalling the Mexican repatriation in the 1930s ; Callifornia Attorney General Earl Warren questions Japanese Americans' loyalty, 1941 ; Poet Mitsuye Yamada ponders the question of loyalty, 1942 ; Mine Okubo illustrates her family's internment, 1942 ; Sailors and Mexican youth clash in Los Angeles, 1943 ; Louis Adamic: war is opportunity for pluralism and unity, 1940 ; President Franklin Roossevelt urges repeal of Chinese Exclusion Laws, 1943 ; Chicago workers encounter mass culture / Lizabeth Cohen ; The history of "milotary necessity" in the Japanese American internment / Alice Yang Murray -- 12. Immigration reform and ethnic politics in the era of civil rights and the Cold War. Sociologist Will Herberg describes the "triple melting pot" ; Anthropologist Oscar Lewis theorizes the culture of poverty, 1966 ; :iri Tholmas thinks about racism, 1969 ; Cesar Chavez declares "Viva la cause!" 1965 ; Historian Oscar Handlin criticizes national-origin quotas, 1952 ; President Lyndon Johnson signs Immigration Act of 1965 ; The liberal brief for immigration reform / Mae M. Ngai ; Representing the Puerto Rican problem / Lorrin Thomas -- 13. Immigrants in the post-industrial age. President Reagan signs Immigration Reform and Control Act, 1986 ; Ruben Martinez describes the fight against Proposition 187, 1995 ; Asian immigrants transplant religious institutions, 1994 ; Proof of the melting pot is in the eating, 1991 ; Perla Rabor Rigor compares life as a nurse in the Philippines and America, 1987 ; Santiago Maldonado details the lives of undocumented immigrants in Texas, 1994 ; George Gmelch compares life in New York and Barbados, 1971-1976 ; A Chicano conference advocates the creation of Aztlan, 1969 ; Janitors strike for justice, 1990 ; Transnational ties / Nancy Foner ; Ethnic advocacy for immigration reform / Carolyn Wong -- 14. Refugees and asylees. Refugee Act of 1980 ; Congressman Jerry Patterson details needs of refugees in California, 1981 ; A Cuban flees to the United States, 1979 ; Xang Mao Xiong recalls his family's flight from Laos, 1975 ; United States interdicts Haitian refugees at sea, 1991 ; Refugee youth play soccer in Georgia, 2007 ; A sociologist assesses DNA testing for African refugees, 2010 ; Refugees enter America through the side door / Aristide R. Zolberg ; "They are proud people": refugees from Cuba / Carl J. Bon Tempo -- 15. Immigration challenges in the twenty-first century. An overview of race and Hispanic origin makeup of the U.S. population, 2000 ; A statistical portrait of unauthorized immigrants, 2009 ; Remittance and housing woes for immigrants during economic recession, 2008 ; Mohammed Bilal-Mirza, a Pakistani-American taxi driver, recounts September 11, 2001, and its aftermath ; American-Arab Anti-discrimination Committee condemns terrorism, 2001 ; Feisal Abul Rauf, an imam, proposes a multi-faith center in New York, 2010 ; Immigrants march for immigration reform, 2006 ; Minutemen call for border security first, only, and now, 2006 ; Joseph Carens makes the case for amnesty, 2009 ; Arizona passes state law against illegal immigration, 2010 ; The work culture of Latina domestic workers / Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo ; The citizen and the terrorist / Leti Volpp.

The causes of historical climate changes are a continuing subject of heated discussions, in which political and economical aspects often dominate over the climatological facts. Although it seems indisputable that the discussed changes are a reality, the basic controversy concerns the influence of human activity on their magnitude. Geologists have entered into the discussion relatively late, but they have clearly widened the range of the discussion by the addition of climate changes recorded in various Phanerozoic successions. The present book perfectly fits in the mainstream of this discussion.The attractive book title, suggesting analysis of climate throughout the Palaeozoic, does not correspond very accurately to its content. In fact, the book focuses on the climatic changes only of the Late Palaeozoic, particularly those which occurred during the last 100 Ma of the Carboniferous and the Permian. This was really a very specific period of Earth's history; comprising a geographically extensive and longlasting glaciation followed by a time of dry and hot climate. Simultaneously, geotectonical processes led to numerous changes of continent configurations and sea level, and finally to the greatest mass extinction in Phanerozoic history. There are numerous and readily recognizable indirect indications of Earth's climate changes in the stratigraphic record of the interval under discussion.The book came about from the palaeoclimatic session held at the European Geosiences Union General Assembly Conference in Vienna (2011) and includes 22 papers. As usual, in the case of such sets of papers, their correspondence with the main subject of the book is variable. In a few cases, the main subject of the paper is strictly sedimentological, stratigraphical or regional, and any climatic aspects seem to have been added as an afterthought. However, such papers are the exception, and most of the papers concentrate largely on discussion of past climate changes. All of the papers are grouped formally in five chapters but they can actually be classified into three main topics: general remarks on the Late Palaeozoic climate, stratigraphy and palaeogeography; Carboniferous case studies; and Permian case studies. Incidentally, the book editors were not particularly attached to the chapter subdivision, because the chapter titles are presented only on the contents page, and not in the text. The choice of the four papers that open the book is very sound and the papers are particularly informative. H. Wofner analysed climate changes and their edimentological record in the Carboniferous–Permian time interval. This is a very competent synthesis of recent knowledge of the development of the Carboniferous–Permian glaciation and it provides a brief description of the key world sections, an excellent starting point for further reading of regional case studies. Extremely interesting in the context of present-day discussion is the final conclusion that the variations in CO2 concentrations are not a very convincing cause of global temperature changes. As it proved in the case of the Quaternary glaciation, "rising temperature preceded the increase of atmospheric CO2 ". According to this author, the causes of climatic changes are evidently more complex and were caused by .forces emanating from our galaxy (cosmic ray influx, magnetic intensity, gravitational vectors) and their variation over the course of a galactic year (the time for the solar system to orbit the core of the galaxy)".X. Wang and an assembly of Chinese and Japanese authors summarized the state of knowledge of the Carboniferous of South China. They presented a description of evolving brachiopod, fusulinacean and conodont assemblages in Chinese sections in the context of climate change. Although the paper could be assigned to the group of papers where the climatic context is of secondary importance, the article is an extremely useful synthesis of modern knowledge of the Chinese Carboniferous.Similarly synthetic in character is the paper by Zubin-Stathopoulos et al. on the Pennsylvanian–Permian carbonates in the north-west part of Pangea. The general subject of their observations is the very broad interval starting from the Serpukchovian (upper part of the Mississippian) and ending in the latest Permian in the classical region of east-central British Columbia. Microfacies analysis enabled warm and cold climatic zones to be distinguished and to be assigned to the changing palaeogeographies.The last of the papers included in the basic chapter is dedicated to a summary of the Zechstein magnetostratigraphy. M. Szurlies showed that the duration of the Zechstein (max. 3.5 Ma) was shorter than hitherto accepted and that the Permian/Triassic boundary was located within the continental deposits of the lowermost Buntsandstein. This conclusion had been proposed earlier by some Polish stratigraphers, and it was satisfactory that this hypothesis was now confirmed by magnetostratigraphic data.The second basic set of articles is connected with the Carboniferous and the Pennsylvanian/Permian boundary interval, i.e. with the time of the great ondwana Glaciation. In continental sections the recognition of climatic changes is difficult and therefore it is not surprising that most of the investigations are concentrated on eustatically controlled sedimentary cyclicity resulting from changes in volume of the southern continental ice sheet. Direct consideration of climate variations appears almost by accident in this chapter, and at times this gives the impression that climatic conclusions were added at the request of the reviewers or editors. Nevertheless, there are at least two papers, which describe very precise methodological tools. The first one (U. Gebhardt and M. Hiete) is devoted to the Carboniferous of the Saale Basin (Germany) and proposes an interesting procedure for distinguishing between auto- and allocyclicity in continental red beds of the Variscan intermontane basin (Pennsylvanian). The second one (M. Waksmundzka) is an example of the application of sequence stratigraphy in the correlation of Carboniferous sections between eastern Poland and western Europe, with innovative conclusions on the continuity of sedimentation. Neither paper concentrates on climate issues but they are both very interesting methodological contributions to stratigraphy.The last set of the papers is the most extensive and concentrates on Permian topics. They include direct climate-related interpretations based on geochemical analysis and provide quantitive data of specific climatic components. The best example is the analysis of carbon and oxygen stable isotopes in samples from brachiopod shells by J.K. Nielsen et al., which enabled recognition of seasonal climate changes in two different geographical zones, represented by Spitsbergen (20ºN–45ºN during the Permian) and Central Poland (Kajetanów – 30º farther to the south). Equally interesting is H. Kiersnowski's paper, with the reconstruction of wind directions, dependent on climatic fluctuations during the Permian in western Poland. This is a very elegant example of the application of pure sedimentological data to the interpretation of past climates. Another example of such climatic implicationsdrawn from sedimentological observations is the interpretation by G. Czapowski and H. Tomassi-Morawiec of the bromine content in salt, the key supposition being the connection of this indicator with variations in climate humidity.This part of the book is very well integrated and the component papers have been carefully selected. This most probably results from the personal interest of the book editors, A. Gąsiewicz and M. Słowakiewicz, whose scientific activity is focused on the widely interpreted geology of the Southern European Permian Basin. Their joint article, in the final part of the book, is devoted to the nature of hydrocarbons in the Zechstein Main Dolomite of Poland. In contrast to the older hypothesis on the Carboniferous source of the hydrocarbons, they argued that the majority of the hydrocarbons derived from in situ organic matter. The quoted examples, although selected slightly tendentiously, confirm the general impression after reading the book that strict climatic considerations constitute the addenda rather than the basic conclusions. However, this does not reduce the importance of this valuable and useful book. It is especially worthwhile for all geologists who investigate Late Palaeozoic successions. In conclusion, this excellent set of case studies can be thoroughly recommended and it needs to be in all institutional libraries.

My thesis consists of three chapters. In the rst chapter, The choice to become self-employed: acknowledging frictions, I develop and calibrate a search model of self- employment that is quantitatively consistent with the unemployment, paid employment and self-employment rates, the transitions between those states and the observed dis- tribution of earnings in self-employment and paid employment. I first report evidence indicating that many individuals choose self-employment as a route out of unemployment. Using data from the European Community Household Panel (ECHP; Eurostat), I find that the proportion of unemployed entering self-employment is higher that the proportion of paid employed entering self-employment. Then I find that the earnings of the self- employed coming from unemployment are lower than the earnings of the paid employed coming from unemployment. Moreover, I find that the self-employed coming from unemployment earn less than those coming from paid employment. This evidence cannot be captured by existing theoretical models of self-employment that assume a perfectly competitive environment in the labor market and ignore market frictions such as unemployment. I construct a model of self-employment where I allow for on-the-job search in both paid employment and self-employment. Workers receive job offers from a wage distribution and business ideas from an income distribution. The model captures the fact that the self-employed earn less in median and in mean than the paid employed and that the distribution of self-employment earnings exhibits greater variation. Unemployed individuals choose self-employment with associated low incomes because their option values in self-employment are better than those in unemployment. Self-employment is a transitory state for these workers who see in self-employment a door to paid employment. The model is then used to analyze the e¤ects of some policies that encourage self-employment. In the second chapter, How does employment protection legislation in uence hiring and ring decisions by the smallest firms? (joint with J.M. Millán, C. Román and A. van Stel), we examine the impact of employment protection legislation (EPL) on hiring decisions by own-account workers and ring decisions by very small rms (1-4 employees). Using data from the EU-15 countries, our results show that the strictness of employment protection legislation is negatively related to both these types of decisions, and hence, to labor mobility among the smallest firms. This new evidence may be useful for governments aiming to create a more enabling macro-environment for employment and productivity growth. Finally, in the third chapter Unraveling the relationship between the business cycle and the own-account worker s decision to hire employees (joint with J.M. Millán, C. Román and A. van Stel), We study the role of the business cycle in the individual decision of own-account workers to hire employees. Using panel data from the European Community Household Panel for the EU-15 countries, we show that own-account workers are less likely to hire employees during recessions. Next, we focus on identifying the underlying mechanisms of this negative relationship, while bearing in mind that liquidity constraints and unemployment are more common during recessions. First, we observe how liquidity constraints reduce the probability of transitioning from own-account worker to employer. Second, we nd that non-higher educated own-account workers who were formerly unemployed are less likely to take on employees compared to those who were formerly in paid employment. This lower likelihood does however not seem to apply to formerly unemployed own-account workers who enjoyed tertiary education. These results suggest that formal education and former work experience are important assets for own-account workers which increase the probability that they create new jobs. This new evidence may be useful for governments aiming to stimulate employment growth. ; Mi tesis consta de tres capítulos. En el primer capítulo, The choice to become self- employed: acknowledging frictions , elaboro y calibro un modelo de búsqueda con autoempleo que es consistente cuantitativamente con las tasas de desempleo, empleo asalariado y autoempleo, las probabilidades de transición entre estos estados y las distribuciones de ganancias en el autoempleo y el empleo asalariado. Primero reporto evidencia que indica que un gran número de individuos elige el autoempleo como una vía de escape al desempleo. Usando datos del Panel de Hogares de la Unión Europea (ECHP; Eurostat), hallo que los desempleados son más propensos que los empleados asalariados a entrar en el autoempleo. También hallo que las rentas de los autoempleados que vienen del desempleo son menores que las rentas de los empleados asalariados que vienen del desempleo. Es más, los autoempleados que provienen del desempleo ganan menos que aquellos que provienen del empleo asalariado. Los modelos teóricos de autoempleo que asumen un entorno per- fectamente competitivo en el mercado laboral e ignoran la existencia de fricciones como es el caso del desempleo, no son capaces de capturar esta evidencia. Construyo un modelo de autoempleo donde permito búsqueda de empleo mientras se está trabajando tanto en el empleo asalariado como en el autoempleo. Los trabajadores reciben ofertas de trabajo e ideas de negocios. El modelo captura el hecho de que los autoempleados ganan menos en media y en mediana que los empleados asalariados y que la distribución de ganancias de los autoempleados presenta una varianza mayor. Los desempleados eligen el autoempleo aunque sus ingresos sean bajos porque sus alternativas en el autoempleo son mejores que en el desempleo. El autoempleo es un estado transitorio para aquellos trabajadores que lo consideran como una entrada al empleo asalariado. Después, el modelo se usa para analizar el efecto de algunas políticas que promueven el autoempleo. En el Segundo capítulo, How does employment protection legislation in uence hiring and ring decisions by the smallest fi rms? (junto con J.M. Millán, C. Román and A. van Stel), examinamos el impacto de la legislación de protección al empleo sobre las decisiones de contratación por parte de los autónomos y las decisiones de despido por parte de las pequeñas empresas (1-4 trabajadores). Usando datos de los países de la EU-15, nuestros resultados muestran que la rigurosidad de de la legislación de protección al empleo está relacionada negativamente con ambos tipos de decisiones, y por tanto, con la movilidad laboral entre las empresas más pequeñas. Esta nueva evidencia podría ser útil para los gobiernos que pretenden crear un entorno macroeconómico para el empleo y el crecimiento de la productividad. Finalmente, en el tercer capítulo Unraveling the relationship between the business cycle and the own-account worker s decision to hire employees (junto con J.M. Millán, C. Román and A. van Stel), estudiamos el papel del ciclo economico en la decisión individual por parte de los autónomos de contratar trabajadores. Usando datos de los países de la EU-15, mostramos que los autónomos son menos propensos a contratar trabajadores durante las recesiones. A continuación, nos centramos en identi car los mecanismos subyacentes a esta relación negativa, mientras tenemos en cuenta que las restricciones de liquidez y el desempleo son más comunes durante los periodos de recesión. Primero observamos cómo las restricciones de liquidez reducen la probabilidad de transitar de autónomo a empleador. Segundo, hallamos que los autónomos que no possen educación superior y que previamente fueron desempleados son menos propensos a contratar trabajadores que aquellos que previamente fueron empleados asalariados. Sin embargo, esta menor probabilidad no parece ser aplicable a los autónomos previamente desempleados con educación terciaria. Estos resultados sugieren que la educación formal y la experiencia laboral previa son recursos importantes para los autónomos ya que incrementan la probabilidad de que creen nuevos puestos de trabajo. Esta nueva evidencia podría ser útil para los gobiernos que pretenden estimular el crecimiento del empleo.

A locus at 19p13 is associated with breast cancer (BC) and ovarian cancer (OC) risk. Here we analyse 438 SNPs in this region in 46,451 BC and 15,438 OC cases, 15,252 BRCA1 mutation carriers and 73,444 controls and identify 13 candidate causal SNPs associated with serous OC (P=9.2 × 10(-20)), ER-negative BC (P=1.1 × 10(-13)), BRCA1-associated BC (P=7.7 × 10(-16)) and triple negative BC (P-diff=2 × 10(-5)). Genotype-gene expression associations are identified for candidate target genes ANKLE1 (P=2 × 10(-3)) and ABHD8 (P<2 × 10(-3)). Chromosome conformation capture identifies interactions between four candidate SNPs and ABHD8, and luciferase assays indicate six risk alleles increased transactivation of the ADHD8 promoter. Targeted deletion of a region containing risk SNP rs56069439 in a putative enhancer induces ANKLE1 downregulation; and mRNA stability assays indicate functional effects for an ANKLE1 3'-UTR SNP. Altogether, these data suggest that multiple SNPs at 19p13 regulate ABHD8 and perhaps ANKLE1 expression, and indicate common mechanisms underlying breast and ovarian cancer risk. ; We thank all the individuals who took part in these studies and all the researchers, clin- icians, technicians and administrative staff who have enabled this work to be carried out, in particular those involved in the COGS project: Rosalind A. Eeles, Ali Amin Al Olama, Zsofia Kote-Jarai, Sara Benlloch (PRACTICAL), Andrew Lee, and Ed Dicks, Craig Luccarini and the staff of the Centre for Genetic Epidemiology Laboratory, the staff of the CNIO genotyping unit, Daniel C. Tessier, Francois Bacot, Daniel Vincent, Sylvie LaBoissie ` re and Frederic Robidoux and the staff of the McGill University and Ge ́ nome Que ́ bec Innovation Centre, Sune F. Nielsen, Borge G. Nordestgaard, and the staff of the Copenhagen DNA laboratory, and Julie M. Cunningham, Sharon A. Windebank, Christopher A. Hilker, Jeffrey Meyer and the staff of Mayo Clinic Genotyping Core Facility. BCAC (acknowledgements by study) (ABCFS) : Maggie Angelakos, Judi Maskiell, Gillian Dite. (ABCS) C Ellen van der Schoot, Sanquin Amsterdam. (ACP) The ACP study wishes to thank the participants in the Thai Breast Cancer study. Special Thanks also go to the Thai Ministry of Public Health (MOPH), doctors and nurses who helped with the data collection process. Finally, the study would like to thank Dr Prat Boonyawongviroj, the former Permanent Secretary of MOPH and Dr Pornthep Siriwanarungsan, the Department Director-Generalof Disease Control who have supported the study throughout. (BBCS) Eileen Williams, Elaine Ryder-Mills, Kara Sargus (BIGGS) Niall McInerney, Gabrielle Colleran, Andrew Rowan, Angela Jones. (BSUCH) Peter Bugert, Medical Faculty Mannheim (CGPS) Staff and participants of the Copenhagen General Population Study. For the excellent technical assistance: Dorthe Uldall Andersen, Maria Birna Arnadottir, Anne Bank, Dorthe Kjeldgård Hansen (CNIO-BCS) Guillermo Pita, Charo Alonso, Daniel Herrero, Nuria A ́ lvarez, Pilar Zamora, Primitiva Menendez, the Human Genotyping-CEGEN Unit (CNIO)(CTS). The CTS Steering Committee includes Leslie Bernstein, Susan Neuhausen, James Lacey, Sophia Wang, Huiyan Ma, Yani Lu, and Jessica Clague DeHart at the Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Dennis Deapen, Rich Pinder, Eunjung Lee, and Fred Schumacher at the University of Southern California, Pam Horn-Ross, Peggy Reynolds, Christina Clarke Dur and David Nelson at the Cancer Prevention Institute of California, and Hoda Anton-Culver, Argyrios Ziogas, and Hannah Park at the University of California Irvine. (ESTHER) Hartwig Ziegler, Sonja Wolf, Volker Hermann. (GC-HBOC) Heide Hellebrand, Stefanie Engert and GC-HBOC (Supported by Deutsche Krebshilfe). (GENICA) The GENICA Network: Dr Margarete Fischer-Bosch-Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, Stuttgart, and University of Tu ̈bingen, Germany [HB, Wing-Yee Lo, Christina Justenhoven], German Cancer Consortium (DKTK) and German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) [HB], Department of Internal Medicine, Evangelische Kliniken Bonn gGmbH, Johanniter Krankenhaus, Bonn, Germany [Yon-Dschun Ko, Christian Baisch], Institute of Pathology, University of Bonn, Germany [Hans-Peter Fischer], Molecular Genetics of Breast Cancer, Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany [UH], Institute for Prevention and Occupational Medicine of the German Social Accident Insurance, Institute of the Ruhr University Bochum (IPA), Bochum, Germany [Thomas Bru ̈ning, Beate Pesch, Sylvia Rabstein, Anne Lotz]; and Institute of Occupational Medicine and Maritime Medicine, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany [Volker Harth] (HEBCS) Kirsimari Aaltonen, Karl von Smitten, Sofia Khan, Tuomas Heikkinen, Irja Erkkila ̈ . (HMBCS) Natalia Antonenkova, Peter Hillemanns, Hans Christiansen and Johann H. Karstens (KBCP) Eija Myo ̈ ha ̈ nen, Helena Kemila ̈ inen. (kConFab/AOCS) We wish to thank Heather Thorne, Eveline Niedermayr, all the kConFab research nurses and staff, the heads and staff of the Family Cancer Clinics, and the Clinical Follow Up Study (which has received funding from the NHMRC, the National Breast Cancer Foundation, Cancer Australia, and the National Institute of Health (USA)) for their contributions to this resource, and the many families who contribute to kConFab. (LAABC) We thank all the study participants and the entire data collection team, especially Annie Fung and June Yashiki. (LMBC) Gilian Peuteman, Dominiek Smeets, Thomas Van Brussel and Kathleen Corthouts. (MARIE) Petra Seibold, Judith Heinz, Nadia Obi, Alina Vrieling, Sabine Behrens, Ursula Eilber, Muhabbet Celik, Til Olchers and Stefan Nickels. (MCCS) MCCS cohort recruitment was funded by VicHealth and Cancer Council Victoria. The MCCS was further supported by Australian NHMRC grants 209057, 251553 and 504711 and by infrastructure provided by Cancer Council Victoria. Cases and their vital status were ascertained through the Victorian Cancer Registry (VCR) and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), including the National Death Index. (MBCSG) Bernard Peissel and Daniela Zaffaroni and Giulietta Scuvera of the Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori (INT), Milan, Italy; Monica Barile and Irene Feroce of the Istituto Europeo di Oncologia (IEO), Milan, Italy; and the personnel of the Cogentech Cancer Genetic Test Laboratory. (MTLGEBCS) We would like to thank Martine Tranchant (CHU de Que ́ bec Research Center), Marie-France Valois, Annie Turgeon and Lea Heguy (McGill University Health Center, Royal Victoria Hospital; McGill Uni- versity) for DNA extraction, sample management and skilful technical assistance. J.S. is Chairholder of the Canada Research Chair in Oncogenetics. (MYBRCA) Phuah Sze Yee, Peter Kang, Kang In Nee, Kavitta Sivanandan, Shivaani Mariapun, Yoon Sook-Yee, Daphne Lee, Teh Yew Ching and Nur Aishah Mohd Taib for DNA Extraction and patient recruitment. (NBHS) We thank study partcipants and research staff for their contributions and commitment to this study. (OBCS) Meeri Otsukka, Kari Mono- nen(OFBCR) Teresa Selander, Nayana Weerasooriya(ORIGO) We thank E. Krol-War- merdam, and J. Blom for patient accrual, administering questionnaires, and managing clinical information. The LUMC survival data were retrieved from the Leiden hospital- based cancer registry system (ONCDOC) with the help of Dr J. Molenaar. (PBCS) Louise Brinton, Mark Sherman, Neonila Szeszenia-Dabrowska, Beata Peplonska, Witold Zatonski, Pei Chao, Michael Stagner(pKARMA) The Swedish Medical Research Counsel. (RBCS) Petra Bos, Jannet Blom, Ellen Crepin, Elisabeth Huijskens, Annette Heemskerk, the Erasmus MC Family Cancer Clinic. (SASBAC) The Swedish Medical Research Counsel. (SBCGS) We thank study partcipants and research staff for their contributions and commitment to this study. (SBCS) Sue Higham, Helen Cramp, Ian Brock, Malcolm W. R. Reed, Sabapathy Balasubramanian and Dan Connley. (SEARCH) The SEARCH and EPIC teams. (SGBCC) We thank the participants and research coordinator Kimberley Chua. (SKKDKFZS) We thank all study participants, clinicians, family doctors, researchers and technicians for their contributions and commitment to this study. (TNBCC) Robert Pilarski and Charles Shapiro were instrumental in the formation of the OSU Breast Cancer Tissue Bank. We thank the Human Genetics Sample Bank for processing of samples and providing OSU Columbus area control samples. (UKBGS) We thank Breakthrough Breast Cancer and the Institute of Cancer Research for support and funding of the Breakthrough Generations Study, and the study participants, study staff, and the doctors, nurses and other health care providers and health information sources who have contributed to the study. We acknowledge NHS funding to the Royal Marsden/ ICR NIHR Biomedical Research Centre. OCAC (acknowledgements by study) : This study would not have been possible without the contributions of the following: J Dennis, P. Hall (COGS); D. C. Tessier, F. Bacot, D. Vincent, S. LaBoissie ` re and F. Robidoux and the staff of the genotyping unit, (Genome Quebec); D. C. Whiteman, P. M. Webb, A. C. Green, N. K. Hayward, P. G. Parsons, D. M. Purdie, B. M. Smithers, D. Gotley, A. Clouston, I. Brown, S. Moore. K. Harrap, T. Sadkowski, S. O'Brien, E. Minehan, D. Roffe, S. O'Keefe, S. Lipshut, G. Connor . Berry, F. Walker, T. Barnes, J. Thomas, L. Terry, M. Connard, L. Bowes, M-R. Malt, J. White, C. Mosse, N. Tait, C. Bambach, A. Biankan, R. Brancatisano, M. Coleman, M. Cox, S. Deane, G. L. Falk, J. Gallagher, M. Hollands, T. Hugh, D. Hunt, J. Jorgensen, C. Martin, M. Richardson, G. Smith, R. Smith, D. Storey, J. Avramovic, J. Croese, J. D'Arcy, S. Fairley, J. Hansen, J. Masson, L. Nathanson, B. O'Loughlin, L. Rutherford, R. Turner, M. Windsor, J. Bessell, P. Devitt, G. Jamieson, D. Watson, S. Blamey, A. Boussioutas, R. Cade, G. Crosthwaite, I. Faragher, J. Gribbin, G. Hebbard, G. Kiroff, B. Mann, R. Millar, P. O'Brien, R. Thomas, S. Wood, S. Archer, K. Faulkner, J. Hamdorf (ACS); R. Stuart-Harris, F. Kirsten, J. Rutovitz, P. Clingan, A.Glasgow, A. Proietto, S. Braye, G. Otton, J. Shannon, T. Bonaventura, J. Stewart, S. Begbie, M. Friedlander, D. Bell, S. Baron-Hay, G. Gard, D. Nevell, N. Pavlakis, S. Valmadre, B. Young, C Camaris, R. Crouch, L. Edwards, N. Hacker, D. Marsden, G. Robertson, P. Beale, J. Beith, J. Carter, C. Dalrymple, R. Houghton, P. Russell, L. Anderson, M. Links, J. Grygiel, J. Hill, A. Brand, K. Byth, R. Jaworski, P. Harnett, R. Sharma,.G Wain, D. Purdie, D. Whiteman, B. Ward, D. Papadimos, A. Crandon, M. Cummings, K. Horwood. A. Obermair, L. Perrin, D. Wyld, J. Nicklin, M. Davy, M. K. Oehler, C. Hall, T. Dodd, T. Healy, K. Pittman, D. Henderson, J. Miller, J. Pierdes, A. Achan, P. Blomfield, D. Challis, R. McIntosh, A. Parker, B. Brown, R. Rome, D. Allen, P. Grant, S. Hyde, R. Laurie, M. Robbie, D. Healy, T. Jobling, T. Manolitsas, J. McNealage, P Rogers, B. Susil, E. Sumithran, I. Simpson, I. Haviv, K. Phillips, D. Rischin, S. Fox, D. Johnson, S. Lade, P. Waring, M. Loughrey, N.O'Callaghan, B. Murray, L. Mileshkin, P. Allan; V. Billson, J. Pyman, D. Neesham, M. Quinn, A. Hamilton, C. Underhill, R. Bell, L. F Ng, R. Blum, V.Ganju, I. Hammond, C. Stewart, Y. Leung, M. Buck, N. Zeps (ACS); G. Peuteman, T. Van Brussel and D. Smeets (BEL); U. Eilber and T. Koehler (GER); L. Gacucova (HMO); P. Schu ̈rmann, F. Kramer, W. Zheng, T.-W. Park-Simon, K. Beer-Grondke and D. Schmidt (HJO); G.S. Keeney, S. Windebank, C. Hilker and J. Vollenweider (MAY); the state cancer registries of AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, VA, WA, and WYL (NHS); L. Paddock, M. King, U. Chandran, A. Samoila, and Y. Bensman (NJO); L. Brinton, M. Sherman, A. Hutchinson, N. Szeszenia- Dabrowska, B. Peplonska, W. Zatonski, A. Soni, P. Chao and M. Stagner (POL); ); C. Luccarini, P. Harrington the SEARCH team and ECRIC (SEA); the Scottish Gynaecological Clinical Trails group and SCOTROC1 investigators (SRO); W-H. Chow, Y-T. Gao (SWH); Information about TCGA and the investigators and institutions who constitute the TCGA research network can be found at http://cancergenome.nih.gov/ (TCGA); I. Jacobs, M. Widschwendter, E. Wozniak, N. Balogun, A. Ryan and J. Ford (UKO); Carole Pye (UKR); a full list of the investigators who contributed to the generation of the WTCCC data is available from http://www.wtccc.org.uk/ (WTCCC). CIMBA (acknowledgements by study) : (BCFR-AU) Maggie Angelakos, Judi Maskiell, Gillian Dite, Helen Tsimiklis. (BCFR-NY) We wish to thank members and participants in the New York site of the Breast Cancer Family Registry for their contributions to the study. (BCFR-ON) We wish to thank members and participants in the Ontario Familial Breast Cancer Registry for their contributions to the study. (BFBOCC-LT) We acknowledge Vilius Rudaitis, Laimonas Gris ˇ kevic ˇ ius, Ramu ̄ nas Janavic ˇ ius (if not in the authorship). BFBOCC-LV acknowledge Drs Janis Eglitis, Anna Krilova and Aivars Stengrevics. (BMBSA) We wish to thank the families who contribute to the BMBSA study. (BRICOH) We wish to thank Yuan Chun Ding and Linda Steele for their work in participant enrolment and biospecimen and data management.(CNIO) We thank Alicia Barroso, Rosario Alonso and Guillermo Pita for their assistance. (CONSIT TEAM) Alessandra Viel and Riccardo Dolcetti of the CRO Aviano National Cancer Institute, Aviano (PN), Italy; Laura Ottini of the 'Sapienza' University, Rome, Italy; Liliana Varesco of the IRCCS AOU San Martino - IST Istituto Nazionale per la Ricerca sul Cancro, Genoa, Italy; Laura Papi and Gabriele Capone of the University of Florence, Florence, Italy; Antonella Savarese and Aline Martayan of the Istituto Nazionale Tumori Regina Elena, Rome, Italy; Stefania Tommasi and Brunella Pilato of the Istituto Nazionale Tumori 'Giovanni Paolo II', Bari, Italy. (CORE) The CIMBA data management and analysis is funded through Cancer Research- UK grant C12292/A11174. ACA is a Senior Cancer Research - UK Research Fellow. (EMBRACE) RE is supported by NIHR support to the Biomedical Research Centre at The Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. (FCCC) We thank Ms. JoEllen Weaver and Dr Betsy Bove for their technical support. (GEMO) Genetic Modifiers of Cancer Risk in BRCA1/2 Mutation Carriers (GEMO) study: National Cancer Genetics Network ) UNICANCER Genetic Group * , France. We wish to thank all the GEMO collaborating groups for their contribution to this study. GEMO Collaborating Centres are: Coordinating Centres, Unite ́ Mixte de Ge ́ ne ́ tique Constitutionnelle des Cancers Fre ́ quents, Hospices Civils de Lyon - Centre Le ́ on Be ́ rard, and Equipe ) Ge ́ ne ́ tique du cancer du sein * , Centre de Recherche en Cance ́ rologie de Lyon: Olga Sinilnikova w , Sylvie Mazoyer, Francesca Damiola, Laure Barjhoux, Carole Verny-Pierre, Me ́ lanie Le ́ one, Nadia Boutry-Kryza, Alain Calender, Sophie Giraud; and Service de Ge ́ ne ́ tique Oncologique, Institut Curie, Paris: Dominique Stoppa-Lyonnet, Marion Gauthier-Villars, Bruno Buecher, Claude Houdayer, Etienne Rouleau, Lisa Golmard, Agne ` s Collet, Virginie Moncoutier, Ce ́ drick Lefol, Muriel Belotti, Antoine de Pauw, Camille Elan, Catherine Nogues, Emmanuelle Fourme, Anne-Marie Birot. Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif: Brigitte Bressac-de-Pail- lerets, Olivier Caron, Marine Guillaud-Bataille. Centre Jean Perrin, Clermont–Ferrand: Yves-Jean Bignon, Nancy Uhrhammer. Centre Le ́ on Be ́ rard, Lyon: Christine Lasset, Vale ́ rie Bonadona, Sandrine Handallou. Centre Franc ̧ ois Baclesse, Caen: Agne ` s Hardouin, Pascaline Berthet, Dominique Vaur, Laurent Castera. Institut Paoli Calmettes, Marseille: Hagay Sobol, Violaine Bourdon, Tetsuro Noguchi, Audrey Remenieras, Franc ̧ ois Eisinger. CHU Arnaud-de-Villeneuve, Montpellier: Isabelle Coupier, Pascal Pujol. Centre Oscar Lambret, Lille: Jean-Philippe Peyrat, Joe ̈ lle Fournier, Franc ̧ oise Re ́ villion, Philippe Vennin w , Claude Adenis. Centre Paul Strauss, Strasbourg: Danie ` le Muller, Jean-Pierre Fricker. Institut Bergonie ́ , Bordeaux: Emmanuelle Barouk-Simonet, Franc ̧ oise Bonnet, Virginie Bubien, Nicolas Sevenet, Michel Longy. Institut Claudius Regaud, Toulouse: Christine Toulas, Rosine Guimbaud, Laurence Gladieff, Viviane Feillel. CHU Grenoble: Dominique Leroux, He ́ le ` ne Dreyfus, Christine Rebischung, Magalie Peysselon. CHU Dijon: Fanny Coron, Laurence Faivre. CHU St-Etienne: Fabienne Prieur, Marine Lebrun, Caroline Kientz. Ho ˆ tel Dieu Centre Hospitalier, Chambe ́ ry: Sandra Fert Ferrer. Centre Antoine Lacassagne, Nice: Marc Fre ́ nay. CHU Limoges: Laurence Ve ́ nat-Bouvet. CHU Nantes: Capucine Delnatte. CHU Bretonneau, Tours: Isabelle Mortemousque. Groupe Hospitalier Pitie ́ -Salpe ́ trie ` re, Paris: Florence Coulet, Chrystelle Colas, Florent Soubrier, Mathilde Warcoin. CHU Vandoeuvre-les- Nancy: Johanna Sokolowska, Myriam Bronner. CHU Besanc ̧ on: Marie-Agne ` s Collonge- Rame, Alexandre Damette. Creighton University, Omaha, USA: Henry T. Lynch, Carrie L. Snyder. (G-FAST) We wish to thank the technical support of Ilse Coene en Brecht Crombez. (HCSC) We acknowledge Alicia Tosar for her technical assistance(HEBCS) HEBCS would like to thank Dr Kristiina Aittoma ̈ ki, Taru A. Muranen, Drs Carl Blomqvist and Kirsimari Aaltonen and RNs Irja Erkkila ̈ and Virpi Palola for their help with the HEBCS data and samples. (HEBON) The Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer Research Group Netherlands (HEBON) consists of the following Collaborating Centres: Coordinating center: Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, NL: M.A. Rookus, F.B.L. Hogervorst, F.E. van Leeuwen, S. Verhoef, M.K. Schmidt, N.S. Russell, J.L. de Lange, R. Wijnands; Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, NL: J.M. Colle ́ e, A.M.W. van den Ouweland, M.J. Hooning, C. Seynaeve, C.H.M. van Deurzen, I.M. Obdeijn; Leiden University Medical Center, NL: C.J. van Asperen, J.T. Wijnen, R.A.E.M. Tollenaar, P. Devilee, T.C.T.E.F. van Cronenburg; Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center, NL: C.M. Kets, A.R. Mensenkamp; University Medical Center Utrecht, NL: M.G.E.M. Ausems, R.B. van der Luijt, C.C. van der Pol; Amsterdam Medical Center, NL: C.M. Aalfs, T.A.M. van Os; VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, NL: J.J.P. Gille, Q. Waisfisz, H.E.J. Meijers-Heijboer; University Hospital Maastricht, NL: E.B. Go ́ mez- Garcia, M.J. Blok; University Medical Center Groningen, NL: J.C. Oosterwijk, A.H. van der Hout, M.J. Mourits, G.H. de Bock; The Netherlands Foundation for the detection of hereditary tumours, Leiden, NL: H.F. Vasen; The Netherlands Comprehensive Cancer Organization (IKNL): S. Siesling, J.Verloop; The Dutch Pathology Registry (PALGA): L.I.H. Overbeek. The HEBON study is supported by the Dutch Cancer Society grants NKI1998-1854, NKI2004-3088, NKI2007-3756, the Netherlands Organization of Scien- tific Research grant NWO 91109024, the Pink Ribbon grants 110005 and 2014- 187.WO76, the BBMRI grant NWO 184.021.007/CP46 and the Transcan grant JTC 2012 Cancer 12-054. HEBON thanks the registration teams of IKNL and PALGA for part of the data collection. (HRBCP) We wish to thank Hong Kong Sanatoriuma and Hospital for their continual support. (HUNBOCS) We wish to thank the Hungarian Breast and Ovarian Cancer Study Group members (Janos Papp, Tibor Vaszko, Aniko Bozsik, Timea Pocza, Judit Franko, Maria Balogh, Gabriella Domokos, Judit Ferenczi, Department of Molecular Genetics, National Institute of Oncology, Budapest, Hungary) and the clin- icians and patients for their contributions to this study.(HVH) We wish to thank the Oncogenetics Group (VHIO), and the High Risk and Cancer Prevention Unit of the University Hospital Vall d'Hebron.(ICO) We wish to thank the ICO Hereditary Cancer Program team led by Dr Gabriel Capella. (INHERIT) We would like to thank Dr Martine Dumont, Martine Tranchant for sample management and skilful technical assistance. J.S. is Chairholder of the Canada Research Chair in Oncogenetics. J.S. and P.S. were part of the QC and Genotyping coordinating group of iCOGS (BCAC and CIMBA). (IPOBCS) We wish to thank Drs Ana Peixoto, Catarina Santos, Patrı ́ cia Rocha and Pedro Pinto for their skilful contribution to the study. (KCONFAB) We wish to thank Heather Thorne, Eveline Niedermayr, all the kConFab research nurses and staff, the heads and staff of the Family Cancer Clinics, and the Clinical Follow Up Study (which has received funding from the NHMRC, the National Breast Cancer Foundation, Cancer Australia, and the National Institute of Health (USA)) for their contributions to this resource, and the many families who contribute to kConFab. (MODSQUAD) Modifier Study of Quantitative Effects on Disease (MODSQUAD): we acknowledge ModSQuaD members Csilla Szabo (National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA); Lenka Foretova and Eva Machackova (Department of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute and MF MU, Brno, Czech Republic); and Michal Zikan, Petr Pohlreich and Zdenek Kleibl (Oncogynecologic Center and Department of Biochemistry and Experimental Oncology, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic). (MSKCC) Anne Lincoln, Lauren Jacobs. (NICCC) We wish to thank the NICCC National Familial Cancer Consultation Service team led by Sara Dishon, the lab team led by Dr Flavio Lejbkowicz, and the research field operations team led by Dr Mila Pinchev. (NRG Oncology) We thank the investigators of the Australia New Zealand NRG Oncology group. (OCGN) We wish to thank members and participants in the Ontario Cancer Genetics Network for their contributions to the study. (OSU CCG) Leigha Senter, Kevin Sweet, Caroline Craven, and Michelle O'Conor were instrumental in accrual of study participants, ascertainment of medical records and database management. Samples were processed by the OSU Human Genetics Sample Bank. (SEABASS) We would like to thank Yip Cheng Har, Nur Aishah Mohd Taib, Phuah Sze Yee, Norhashimah Hassan and all the research nurses, research assistants and doctors involved in the MyBrCa Study for assistance in patient recruitment, data collection and sample preparation. In addition, we thank Philip Iau, Sng Jen-Hwei and Sharifah Nor Akmal for contributing samples from the Singapore Breast Cancer Study nd the HUKM-HKL Study respectively. The Malaysian Breast Cancer Genetic Study is funded by research grants from the Malaysian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Ministry of Higher Education (UM.C/HIR/MOHE/06) and charitable funding from Cancer Research Initiatives Foundation. (SMC) SMC team wishes to acknowledge the assistance of the Meirav Comprehensice breast cancer center team at the Sheba Medical Center for assistance in this study. (SWE-BRCA) Swedish scientists participating as SWE-BRCA collaborators are: from Lund University and University Hospital: Åke Borg, Håkan Olsson, Helena Jernstro ̈ m, Karin Henriksson, Katja Harbst, Maria Soller, Ulf Kristoffersson; from Gothenburg Sahlgrenska University Hospital: Anna O ̈ fverholm, Margareta Nordling, Per Karlsson, Zakaria Einbeigi; from Stockholm and Karolinska University Hospital: Anna von Wachenfeldt, Annelie Liljegren, Annika Lindblom, Brita Arver, Gisela Barbany Bustinza, Johanna Rantala; from Umeå University Hospital: Beatrice Melin, Christina Edwinsdotter Ardnor, Monica Emanuelsson; from Uppsala University: Hans Ehrencrona, Maritta Hellstro ̈ m Pigg, Richard Rosenquist; from Linko ̈ ping University Hospital: Marie Stenmark-Askmalm, Sigrun Lied- gren(UCHICAGO) We wish to thank Cecilia Zvocec, Qun Niu, physicians, genetic counsellors, research nurses and staff of the Cancer Risk Clinic for their contributions to this resource, and the many families who contribute to our programme. (UCLA) We thank Joyce Seldon MSGC and Lorna Kwan, MPH for assembling the data for this study. (UCSF) We would like to thank Dr Robert Nussbaum and the following genetic coun- sellors for participant recruitment: Beth Crawford, Kate Loranger, Julie Mak, Nicola Stewart, Robin Lee, Amie Blanco and Peggy Conrad. And thanks to Ms. Salina Chan for her data management. (UKFOCR) We thank Carole Pye, Patricia Harrington and Eva Wozniak for their contributions towards the UKFOCR. (VFCTG) Geoffrey Lindeman, Marion Harris, Martin Delatycki of the Victorian Familial Cancer Trials Group. We thank Sarah Sawyer and Rebecca Driessen for assembling this data and Ella Thompson for performing all DNA amplification. Grant Support : The COGS project is funded through a European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme grant (agreement number 223175—HEALTH-F2-2009- 223175). BCAC is funded by Cancer Research UK [C1287/A10118, C1287/A12014] and by the European Community ́ s Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement number 223175 (grant number HEALTH-F2-2009-223175) (COGS). The CIMBA data management and analytical work is funded by Cancer Research UK (C12292/A11174, C12292/A20861). Funding for the iCOGS infrastructure came from: the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement n ° 223175 (HEALTH-F2-2009-223175) (COGS), Cancer Research UK (C1287/A10118, C1287/A 10710, C12292/A11174, C1281/A12014, C5047/A8384, C5047/A15007, C5047/A10692, C8197/A16565), the National Institutes of Health (CA128978) and Post-Cancer GWAS initiative (1U19 CA148537, 1U19 CA148065 and 1U19 CA148112 - the GAME-ON initiative), the Department of Defence (W81XWH-10-1-0341), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) for the CIHR Team in Familial Risks of Breast Cancer, Komen Foundation for the Cure, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. The Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium is supported by a grant from the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund thanks to donations by the family and friends of Kathryn Sladek Smith (PPD/RPCI.07). The scientific development and funding for this project were in part supported by the US National Cancer Institute GAME-ON Post-GWAS Initiative (U19-CA148112). This study made use of data generated by the Wellcome Trust Case Control consortium. Funding for the project was provided by the Wellcome Trust under award 076113. The results published here are in part based on data generated by The Cancer Genome Atlas Project established by the National Cancer Institute and National Human Genome Research Institute. Personal support: K.L. is supported by a K99/R00 grant from the National Cancer Institute (Grant number 1K99CA184415-01). This project was supported in part by a Program Project Development Grant from the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund (S.A.G and A.M). The in vitro aspects of this project were performed within the Norris Cancer Centre at USC, which is supported in part by award number P30CA014089 from the National Cancer Institute. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Cancer Institute or the National Institutes of Health. D.F.E. is a Principal Research Fellow of Cancer Research UK. A.C.A. is a Cancer Research—UK Senior Cancer Research Fellow. G.C.-T. and P.M.W. are supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council. (WCP) B.Y.K is funded by the American Cancer Society Early Detection Professorship (SIOP- 06-258-01-COUN) and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), Grant UL1TR000124. L.E.K. is supported by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Investigator award (MSH-87734). S.P.K. is supported by a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. J.S. is Chairholder of the Canada Research Chair in Oncogenetics. RB was a Cancer Institute NSW Clinical Research Fellow. M.C.S. is a NHMRC Senior Research Fellow. A.K.G. was funded by 5U01CA113916, R01CA140323, and by the Chancellors Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Sciences Professorship. J.L.H. is a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Senior Principal Research Fellow. S.L.E. and J.D.F. are supported by Fellowships from the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF) Australia and NHMRC project grant (1058415). Funding : BCAC: The Australian Breast Cancer Family Study (ABCFS) was supported by grant UM1 CA164920 from the National Cancer Institute (USA). The content of this manuscript does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the National Cancer Institute or any of the collaborating centres in the Breast Cancer Family Registry (BCFR), nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the USA Government or the BCFR. The ABCFS was also supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, the New South Wales Cancer Council, the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (Australia) and the Victorian Breast Cancer Research Consortium. The ABCS study was supported by the Dutch Cancer Society [grants NKI 2007-3839; 2009 4363]. The ACP study is funded by the Breast Cancer Research Trust, UK. The BBCS is funded by Cancer Research UK and Breakthrough Breast Cancer and acknowledges NHS funding to the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, and the National Cancer Research Network (NCRN).ES is supported by NIHR Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre, Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust in partnership with King's College London, United Kingdom. IT is supported by the Oxford Biomedical Research Centre.The BSUCH study was supported by the Dietmar-Hopp Foundation, the Helmholtz Society and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ). The CGPS was supported by the Chief Physician Johan Boserup and Lise Boserup Fund, the Danish Medical Research Council and Herlev HospitalThe CNIO-BCS was supported by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, the Red Tema ́ tica de Investigacio ́ n Cooperativa en Ca ́ ncer and grants from the Asociacio ́ n Espan ̃ ola Contra el Ca ́ ncer and the Fondo de Investigacio ́ n Sanitario (PI11/00923 and PI12/00070). The CTS was initially supported by the California Breast Cancer Act of 1993 and the California Breast Cancer Research Fund (contract 97-10500) and is cur- rently funded through the National Institutes of Health (R01 CA77398). Collection of cancer incidence data was supported by the California Department of Public Health as part of the statewide cancer reporting program mandated by California Health and Safety Code Section 103885. HAC receives support from the Lon V Smith Foundation (LVS39420). The ESTHER study was supported by a grant from the Baden Wu ̈rttemberg Ministry of Science, Research and Arts. Additional cases were recruited in the context of the VERDI study, which was supported by a grant from the German Cancer Aid (Deutsche Krebshilfe). The GC-HBOC was supported by Deutsche Krebshilfe (107 352). The GENICA was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) Germany grants 01KW9975/5, 01KW9976/8, 01KW9977/0 and 01KW0114, the Robert Bosch Foundation, Stuttgart, Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (DKFZ), Heidelberg, the Institute for Prevention and Occupational Medicine of the German Social Accident Insurance, Institute of the Ruhr University Bochum (IPA), Bochum, as well as the Department of Internal Medicine, Evangelische Kliniken Bonn gGmbH, Johanniter Krankenhaus, Bonn, Germany. The HEBCS was financially supported by the Helsinki University Central Hospital Research Fund, Academy of Finland (266528), the Finnish Cancer Society, The Nordic Cancer Union and the Sigrid Juselius Foundation. The HMBCS was supported by a grant from the Friends of Hannover Medical School and by the Rudolf Bartling Foundation. The KBCP was financially supported by the special Government Funding (EVO) of Kuopio University Hospital grants, Cancer Fund of North Savo, the Finnish Cancer Organizations, and by the strategic funding of the University of Eastern Finland. kConFab is supported by a grant from the National Breast Cancer Foundation, and previously by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the Queensland Cancer Fund, the Cancer Councils of New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia, and the Cancer Foundation of Western Australia. Financial support for the AOCS was provided by the United States Army Medical Research and Materiel Command [DAMD17-01-1-0729], Cancer Council Victoria, Queensland Cancer Fund, Cancer Council New South Wales, Cancer Council South Australia, The Cancer Foundation of Western Australia, Cancer Council Tasmania and the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC; 400413, 400281, 199600). LAABC is supported by grants (1RB-0287, 3PB-0102, 5PB-0018, 10PB-0098) from the California Breast Cancer Research Program. Incident breast cancer cases were collected by the USC Cancer Surveillance Program (CSP), which is supported under subcontract by the California Department of Health. The CSP is also part of the National Cancer Institute's Division of Cancer Prevention and Control Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program, under contract number N01CN25403. LMBC is supported by the 'Stichting tegen Kanker' (232-2008 and 196-2010). Diether Lambrechts is supported by the FWO and the KULPFV/10/016-SymBioSysII.The MARIE study was supported by the Deutsche Krebshilfe e.V. [70-2892-BR I, 106332, 108253, 108419], the Hamburg Cancer Society, the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) Germany [01KH0402]. (MBCSG) is supported by grants from the Italian Association for Cancer Research (AIRC) and by funds from the Italian citizens who allocated the 5/1000 share of their tax payment in support of the Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale Tumori, according to Italian laws (INT-Institutional strategic projects '5x1000'). The work of MTLGEBCS was supported by the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research for the 'CIHR Team in Familial Risks of Breast Cancer' program – grant # CRN-87521 and the Ministry of Economic Development, Innovation and Export Trade – grant # PSR-SIIRI-701.MYBRCA is funded by research grants from the Malaysian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI), Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education (UM.C/HlR/MOHE/06) and Cancer Research Initiatives Foundation (CARIF). Additional controls were recruited by the Singapore Eye Research Institute, which was supported by a grant from the Biomedical Research Council (BMRC08/1/35/19/550), Singapore and the National medical Research Council, Singa- pore (NMRC/CG/SERI/2010). The NBHS was supported by NIH grant R01CA100374. Biological sample preparation was conducted the Survey and Biospecimen Shared Resource, which is supported by P30 CA68485. The OBCS was supported by research grants from the Finnish Cancer Foundation, the Academy of Finland (grant number 250083, 122715 and Center of Excellence grant number 251314), the Finnish Cancer Foundation, the Sigrid Juselius Foundation, the University of Oulu, the University of Oulu Support Foundation and the special Governmental EVO funds for Oulu University Hospital-based research activities. The Ontario Familial Breast Cancer Registry (OFBCR) was supported by grant UM1 CA164920 from the National Cancer Institute (USA). The content of this manuscript does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the National Cancer Institute or any of the collaborating centres in the Breast Cancer Family Registry (BCFR), nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the USA Government or the BCFR. The ORIGO study was supported by the Dutch Cancer Society (RUL 1997-1505) and the Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure (BBMRI-NL CP16). The PBCS was funded by Intramural Research Funds of the National Cancer Institute, Department of Health and Human Services, USA. The pKARMA study was supported by Ma ̈ rit and Hans Rausings Initiative Against Breast CancerThe RBCS was funded by the Dutch Cancer Society (DDHK 2004-3124, DDHK 2009-4318). The SASBAC study was sup- ported by funding from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research of Singapore (A*STAR), the US National Institute of Health (NIH) and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. The SBCGS was supported primarily by NIH grants R01CA64277, R01CA148667, and R37CA70867. Biological sample preparation was conducted the Survey and Biospecimen Shared Resource, which is supported by P30 CA68485. The scientific development and funding of this project were, in part, supported by the Genetic Associations and Mechanisms in Oncology (GAME-ON) Network U19 CA148065.The SBCS was supported by Yorkshire Cancer Research S295, S299, S305PA and Sheffield Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre.SEARCH is funded by a programme grant from Cancer Research UK [C490/A10124] and supported by the UK National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre at the University of Cambridge.SGBCC is funded by the NUS start-up Grant, National University Cancer Institute Singapore (NCIS) Centre Grant and the NMRC Clinician Scientist Award. Additional controls were recruited by the Singapore Consortium of Cohort Studies-Multi-ethnic cohort (SCCS-MEC), which was funded by the Biomedical Research Council, grant number: 05/ 1/21/19/425.SKKDKFZS is supported by the DKFZ. The TNBCC was supported by: a Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) in Breast Cancer (CA116201), a grant from the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, a generous gift from the David F. and Margaret T. Grohne Family Foundation, the Hellenic Cooperative Oncology Group research grant (HR R_BG/04) and the Greek General Secretary for Research and Technology (GSRT) Program, Research Excellence II, the European Union (European Social Fund – ESF), and Greek national funds through the Operational Program 'Education and Lifelong Learning' of the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) - ARISTEIA. The UKBGS is funded by Breakthrough Breast Cancer and the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), London. ICR acknowledges NHS funding to the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre. Funding : OCAC : Funding of the constituent studies was provided by the American Cancer Society (CRTG-00-196-01-CCE); the California Cancer Research Program (00-01389 V-20170, N01-CN25403, 2II0200); the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (MOP-86727); Cancer Council Victoria; Cancer Council Queensland; Cancer Council New South Wales; Cancer Council South Australia; Cancer Council Tasmania; Cancer Foundation of Western Australia; the Cancer Institute of New Jersey; Cancer Research UK (C490/A6187, C490/A10119, C490/A10124, C536/A13086, C536/A6689); the Celma Mastry Ovarian Cancer Foundation; the Danish Cancer Society (94-222-52); the ELAN Program of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg; the Eve Appeal; the Helsinki University Central Hospital Research Fund; Helse Vest; Imperial Experimental Cancer Research Centre (C1312/A15589); the Norwegian Cancer Society; the Norwegian Research Council; the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund; Nationaal Kankerplan of Belgium; Grant-in-Aid for the Third Term Comprehensive 10-Year Strategy for Cancer Control from the Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare of Japan; the L and S Milken Foun- dation; the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education (4 PO5C 028 14, 2 PO5A 068 27); Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education (UM.C/HlR/MOHE/06) and Cancer Research Initiatives Foundation; the Roswell Park Cancer Institute Alliance Foundation; the US National Cancer Institute (K07-CA095666, K07-CA143047, K22-CA138563, N01-CN55424, N01-PC067010, N01-PC035137, P01-CA017054, P01-CA087696, P30-CA15083, P50-CA105009, P50- CA136393, R01-CA014089, R01-CA016056, R01-CA017054, R01-CA049449, R01-CA050385, R01-CA054419, R01- CA058598, R01-CA058860, R01-CA061107, R01-CA061132, R01-CA063682, R01-CA064277, R01-CA067262, R01- CA071766, R01-CA074850, R01-CA076016, R01-CA080742, R01-CA080978, R01-CA083918, R01-CA087538, R01- CA092044, R01-095023, R01-CA106414, R01-CA122443, R01-CA112523, R01-CA114343, R01-CA126841, R01- CA136924, R01-CA149429, R03-CA113148, R03-CA115195, R37-CA070867, R37-CA70867, U01-CA069417, U01- CA071966, R01-CA063678 and Intramural research funds); the US Army Medical Research and Material Command (DAMD17-98-1- 8659, DAMD17-01-1-0729, DAMD17-02-1-0666, DAMD17-02-1- 0669, W81XWH-10-1-0280); the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (199600 and 400281); the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany Programme of Clinical Biomedical Research (01 GB 9401); the state of Baden-Wu ̈rttemberg through Medical Faculty of the University of Ulm (P.685); the Minnesota Ovarian Cancer Alliance; the Mayo Foundation; the Fred C. and Katherine B. Andersen Foundation; the Lon V. Smith Foundation (LVS-39420); the Oak Foundation; the OHSU Foundation; the Mermaid I project; the Rudolf-Bartling Foundation; the UK National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centres at the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, University College Hospital 'Womens Health Theme' and the Royal Marsden Hospital; WorkSafeBC. Funding : CIMBA (BCFR—all) : This work was supported by grant UM1 CA164920 from the National Cancer Institute. The content of this manuscript does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the National Cancer Institute or any of the collaborating centres in the Breast Cancer Family Registry (BCFR), nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the US Government or the BCFR. (BFBOCC-LT) BFBOCC is partly supported by: Lithuania (BFBOCC-LT): Research Council of Lithuania grant LIG-07/2012; (BIDMC) BIDMC is supported by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. (BMBSA) BRCA-gene mutations and breast cancer in South African women (BMBSA) was supported by grants from the Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA) to Elizabeth J. van Rensburg. (BRICOH) SLN was partially supported by the Morris and Horowitz Familes Endowed Professorship. (CBCS) This work was supported by the NEYE Foundation. (CNIO) This work was partially supported by Spanish Association against Cancer (AECC08), RTICC 06/0020/1060, FISPI08/1120, Mutua Madrilen ̃ a Foundation (FMMA) and SAF2010-20493 (COH-CCGCRN) City of Hope Clinical Cancer Genetics Community Network and the Hereditary Cancer Research Registry, supported in part by Award Number RC4CA153828 (PI: J. Weitzel) from the National Cancer Institute and the Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. (CONSIT TEAM) Funds from Italian citizens who allocated the 5x1000 share of their tax payment in support of the Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale Tumori, according to Italian laws (INT-Institutional strategic projects '5x1000') to Siranoush Manoukian. (CORE) The CIMBA data management and data analysis were supported by Cancer Research – UK grants C12292/A11174 and C1287/A10118.SH is supported by an NHMRC Program Grant to GCT. ACA is a Cancer Research -UK Senior Cancer Research Fellow. (DEMOKRITOS) This research has been co-financed by the European Union (European Social Fund – ESF) and Greek national funds through the Operational Program 'Education and Lifelong Learning' of the National Strategic Reference Frame- work (NSRF) - Research Funding Program of the General Secretariat for Research and Technology: ARISTEIA. Investing in knowledge society through the European Social Fund.(DKFZ) The DKFZ study was supported by the DKFZ. (EMBRACE) EMBRACE is supported by Cancer Research UK Grants C1287/A10118 and C1287/A11990. D. Gareth Evans and Fiona Lalloo are supported by an NIHR grant to the Biomedical Research Centre, Manchester. The Investigators at The Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust are supported by an NIHR grant to the Biomedical Research Centre at The Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. (FCCC) The authors acknowledge support from The University of Kansas Cancer Center (P30 CA168524) and the Kansas Bioscience Authority Eminent Scholar Program. (GC-HBOC) The German Consortium of Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer (GC-HBOC) is supported by the German Cancer Aid (grant no 109076, Rita K. Schmutzler) and by the Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne (CMMC). (GEMO) The study was supported by the Ligue Nationale Contre le Cancer; the Association 'Le cancer du sein, parlons-en!' Award; the Canadian Institutes of Health Research for the 'CIHR Team in Familial Risks of Breast Cancer' program and the French National Institute of Cancer (INCa). (GEORGETOWN) CI received support from the Non-Therapeutic Subject Registry Shared Resource at Georgetown University (NIH/NCI grant P30-CA051008), the Fisher Center for Familial Cancer Research, and Swing Fore the Cure. (G-FAST) Kim De Leeneer is supported by GOA grant BOF10/ GOA/019 (Ghent University) and spearhead financing of Ghent University Hospital. (HCSC) HCSC supported by a grant RD12/0036/0006 and 12/00539 from ISCIII (Spain), partially supported by European Regional Development FEDER funds. (HEBCS) The HEBCS was financially supported by the Helsinki University Hospital Research Fund, Academy of Finland (266528), the Finnish Cancer Society and the Sigrid Juselius Foundation. (HEBON) The HEBON study is supported by the Dutch Cancer Society grants NKI1998-1854, NKI2004-3088, NKI2007-3756, the Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research grant NWO 91109024, the Pink Ribbon grant 110005 and the BBMRI grant NWO 184.021.007/CP46. HEBON thanks the registration teams of the Comprehensive Cancer Centre Netherlands and Comprehensive Centre South (together the Netherlands Cancer Registry) and PALGA (Dutch Pathology Registry) for part of the data collection. (HRBCP) HRBCP is supported by The Hong Kong Hereditary Breast Cancer Family Registry and the Dr Ellen Li Charitable Foundation, Hong Kong (HUNBOCS) Hungarian Breast and Ovarian Cancer Study was supported by Hungarian Research Grants KTIA-OTKA CK-80745, OTKA K-112228 and the Norwegian EEA Financial Mechanism Hu0115/NA/2008-3/OP-9. (ICO) Contract grant sponsor: Asociacio ́ n Espan ̃ ola Contra el Ca ́ ncer, Spanish Health Research Fund; Carlos III Health Institute; Catalan Health Institute and Autonomous Government of Catalonia. Contract grant numbers: ISCIIIRETIC RD06/0020/1051, RD12/0036/008, PI10/01422, PI10/ 00748, PI13/00285, PIE13/00022, 2009SGR290 and 2014SGR364. (IHCC) The IHCC was supported by Grant PBZ_KBN_122/P05/2004(ILUH) The ILUH group was supported by the Icelandic Association 'Walking for Breast Cancer Research' and by the Landspitali University Hospital Research Fund. (INHERIT) This work was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research for the 'CIHR Team in Familial Risks of Breast Cancer' program, the Canadian Breast Cancer Research Alliance-grant #019511 and the Ministry of Economic Development, Innovation and Export Trade – grant # PSR-SIIRI- 701. (IOVHBOCS) IOVHBOCS is supported by Ministero della Salute and '5 1,000' Istituto Oncologico Veneto grant. (IPOBCS) This study was in part supported by Liga Portuguesa Contra o Cancro.(KCONFAB) kConFab is supported by a grant from the National Breast Cancer Foundation, and previously by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the Queensland Cancer Fund, the Cancer Councils of New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia, and the Cancer Foundation of Western Australia; (KOHBRA) KOHBRA is supported by a grant from the National R&D Program for Cancer Control, Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs,Republic of Korea (1020350). (MAYO) MAYO is supported by NIH grants CA116167, CA128978 and CA176785, an NCI Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) in Breast Cancer (CA116201), a U.S. Department of Defence Ovarian Cancer Idea award (W81XWH-10-1-0341), a grant from the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, a generous gift from the David F. and Margaret T. Grohne Family Foundation and the Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Foundation. (MCGILL) Jewish General Hospital Weekend to End Breast Cancer, Quebec Ministry of Economic Development, Innovation and Export Trade (MODSQUAD) MODSQUAD was supported by MH CZ - DRO (MMCI, 00209805) and by the European Regional Development Fund and the State Budget of the Czech Republic (RECAMO, CZ.1.05/2.1.00/03.0101) to LF, and by Charles University in Prague project UNCE204024 (MZ). (MSKCC) MSKCC is supported by grants from the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, the Robert and Kate Niehaus Clinical Cancer Genetics Initiative, and the Andrew Sabin Research Fund. (NAROD) 1R01 CA149429- 01. (NCI) The research of Drs MH Greene, JT Loud and PL Mai was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the US National Cancer Institute, NIH, and by support services contracts NO2-CP-11019-50 and N02-CP-65504 with Westat, Inc, Rockville, MD. (NICCC) NICCC is supported by Clalit Health Services in Israel. Some of it's activities are supported by the Israel Cancer Association and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF), NY. (NNPIO) This work has been supported by the Russian Federation for Basic Research (grants 13-04-92613, 14-04-93959 and 15-04-01744). (NRG Oncology) This study was supported by National Cancer Institute grants to the NRG Oncology Administrative Office and Tissue Bank (CA 27469), the NRG Oncology Statistical and Data Center (CA 37517), and NRG Oncology's Cancer Prevention and Control Committee (CA 101165). (OSU CCG) OSUCCG is supported by the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. (PBCS) This work was supported by the ITT (Istituto Toscano Tumori) grants 2011-2013. (SEABASS) Ministry of Science, Technol- ogy and Innovation, Ministry of Higher Education (UM.C/HlR/MOHE/06) and Cancer Research Initiatives Foundation. (SMC) This project was partially funded through a grant by the Isreal cancer association and the funding for the Israeli Inherited breast cancer consortium (SWE-BRCA) SWE-BRCA collaborators are supported by the Swedish Cancer Society. (UCHICAGO) UCHICAGO is supported by NCI Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) in Breast Cancer (CA125183), R01 CA142996, 1U01CA161032 and by the Ralph and Marion Falk Medical Research Trust, the Entertainment Industry Fund National Women's Cancer Research Alliance and the Breast Cancer research Foundation. OIO is an ACS Clinical Research Professor.(UCLA) Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center Foundation; Breast Cancer Research Foundation. (UCSF) UCSF Cancer Risk Program and Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. (UKFOCR) UKFOCR was supported by a project grant from CRUK to Paul Pharoah. (UPENN) National Institutes of Health (NIH) (R01-CA102776 and R01- CA083855; Breast Cancer Research Foundation; Susan G. Komen Foundation for the cure, Basser Research Center for BRCA. (UPITT/MWH) Frieda G. and Saul F. Shapira BRCA-Associated Cancer Research Program;Hackers for Hope Pittsburgh. (VFCTG) Victorian Cancer Agency, Cancer Australia, National Breast Cancer Foundation unding for the iCOGS infrastructure came from: the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement n ° 223175 (HEALTH-F2-2009-223175) (COGS), Cancer Research UK (C1287/A10118, C1287/A 10710, C12292/A11174, C1281/ A12014, C5047/A8384, C5047/A15007, C5047/A10692, C8197/A16565), the National Institutes of Health (CA128978) and Post-Cancer GWAS initiative (1U19 CA148537, 1U19 CA148065 and 1U19 CA148112 - the GAME-ON initiative), the Department of Defence (W81XWH-10-1-0341), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) for the CIHR Team in Familial Risks of Breast Cancer, Komen Foundation for the Cure, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund and grants R01-CA122443 and P50-CA136393. ; Sí

[eng] The accelerated impact of human activities is causing increasing damages to the Earth's life support systems. Consequently, the policy-making and scientific communities have advocated the urgent need for a change towards the sustainable use of natural resources and ecosystems. This thesis deals with the institutional conditions necessary for that change in coupled social-ecological systems, through an in-depth case study: the Doñana region, an estuarine social-ecological system affected by intricate water resources and wetland conservation problems located in the Guadalquivir Estuary (south-west Spain). In particular, I focus on the need for transitions from command-andcontrol schemes towards more flexible, participatory and adaptive approaches to policy and decision making: specifically, adaptive governance and adaptive management. For this purpose, I address three interrelated questions of broad research interest, using a theoretical framework that combines elements from resilience and institutional path dependence theories. The first question has implications for the implementation of participatory processes in the course of transitional designs towards adaptive governance and management, while the other two have implications at a theoreticanalytical level. The first research question focuses on assessing the usefulness of an action-research program aimed at introducing adaptive management tenets at the research-management interface of the Doñana region (Chapter 4). The program, which paralleled an adaptive restoration in the context of the hydro-ecological restoration project Doñana 2005, combined a formalised process of networking, interviews, focus groups and System Dynamics techniques that proved useful to engage and build trust among a wide range of actors who finally participated in two adaptive management workshops. The participation of stakeholders and agencies entrenched in long-standing conflicts and power struggles up to that date was considered a major success of the program. During the workshops, the participants collaboratively developed a set of policy recommendations, offering potential avenues to improve the research-management interface, water resources management and wetland conservation practices in the Doñana region and Guadalquivir Estuary. The action-research program was supported by preparatory research aimed at analysing the practices of, and learning from, best-in-class practitioners on adaptive management from British Columbia (Canada), where this approach was first conceived and implemented on a large scale (Chapter 3). Such preparatory research, which was based on a document review, interviews and a final workshop at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver), revealed that adaptive management has cycled, during the last four decades, through alternate phases of theoretical development, practical implementation and feedback, to which many scholars and practitioners have contributed. In particular, the workshop allowed current opportunities and constraints for the testing and implementation of adaptive management in Canada to be elicited, based on the direct, on-the-ground experience of practitioners and analysts. The results of that research provided the grounds and support for the strategic development of the action-research program in the Doñana region. The preliminary identification, during the action-research program, of major rigidities within Doñana's institutional framework and management agencies triggered the second part of the thesis, which addressed, through institutional analysis, the two additional research questions mentioned above. The second research question of the thesis focuses on enhancing the understanding of the roots of institutional rigidity in maladaptive social-ecological systems. Institutional rigidity that hinders change and smothers innovation represents a major constraint for adaptive governance and adaptive management. Therefore, to facilitate potential transitions towards more sustainable social-ecological systems characterised by adaptive approaches to decision-making, it is of utmost importance to understand and explain the origins of such institutional rigidity. In Chapter 5, by constructing a historical pattern, I identify the existence of a rigid institutional regime for water resources management and wetland conservation in the Doñana region, and explain, through a first theoretical iteration, the mechanisms underlying the genesis, amplification and persistence of such institutional rigidity. My explanation has two distinguishable parts: on one side, the deep-historical genesis of the regime at a critical juncture in the 19th century; and on the other side, the formation and continuity of the regime up to the last decades of the 20th century, despite its dysfunctionality for coping with crises and its inability to harmonise wetland conservation, water management and economic development. The historical pattern confirms that the Doñana's regime has followed a path-dependent dynamic, largely characterised by the historical recurrence on the application of command-andcontrol schemes. In a seeming paradox, these schemes, instead of driving the regime towards an efficient outcome, led to the formation of a rigid institutional regime that drove the Doñana region into a sub-optimal systemic rigidity trap. This rigid outcome may be theoretically qualified as contingent, for it defies the traditional expectations of neoclassical economics that lie at the logical core of the concept of institutional path dependence. The third research question of the thesis focuses on the explanatory potential of entrepreneurship and discourses, in their relationship with political-economic interests and power, as factors contributing to shape outcomes in local social-ecological systems. In particular, I discussed the explanatory potential of those factors, when the core logic of path dependence (composed by the mainstream principles of neoclassical economics) fails to predict observed outcomes in historical, evolutionary perspective, and qualifies such outcomes as contingent. In Chapter 6, I undertake a second theoretical iteration that re-examines the historical explanatory pattern developed in Chapter 5, in order to show how the Doñana's rigid outcome can be understood as more predictable. In particular, I argue that three mechanisms constituted necessary and sufficient conditions for the transformational process that led to the Doñana's rigid outcome: (1) a contextual political-discursive mechanism that mobilised power top-down and signalled increasing returns to actors downstream of the institutional regime; (2) the operation of increasing returns and self-reinforcing mechanisms bottom-up; (3) an endogenous entrepreneurial component that acted as a mechanism for action in an environment of extreme uncertainty. In the general discussion of the thesis (Chapter 7), I make the case for systematising the role of discourses and entrepreneurship factors, in their relationship with politicaleconomic interests and power, into the analysis. I argue that such systematisation contributes significantly to diminishing the degree of contingency associated to the Doñana's rigid outcome. More generally, my discussion deals with contingency as a property of the path dependence concept that can be modulated in explanations of institutional dynamics. This type of advancements could inform future policy and institutional designs for successful transitions towards adaptive governance and management in social-ecological systems, hence improving the prospects for the sustainable use of natural resources and ecosystems. Enriching the knowledge gathered during the action-research program with the in-depth analysis of institutional constraints rooted in historical factors, allowed a number of potential avenues to be identified that may aid the transition towards adaptive governance and management in the Doñana region (Chapter 9). It also allowed an informed speculation to be made about the potential role of action-research programs such as the one described in this thesis, to comply with (and complement) the requisites for public participation and social learning of European Union legislation: notably, the Water Framework Directive (Chapter 7, Section 7.4). ; [spa] El impacto acelerado de las actividades humanas está causando el aumento de los daños a los sistemas de soporte vital de la Tierra. En consecuencia, gestores y científicos gestores han defendido la necesidad urgente de un cambio hacia el uso sostenible de los recursos naturales y los ecosistemas. Esta tesis trata sobre las condiciones institucionales necesarias para dicho cambio en sistemas socio-ecológicos, a través de un estudio de caso en profundidad: la región de Doñana, un sistema socio-ecológico afectado por problemas complejos en términos de recursos hídricos y conservación de humedales, situado en el Estuario del Guadalquivir (suroeste de España). En particular, en esta tesis me centro en la necesidad de transiciones desde estrategias de mando y control hacia enfoques más flexibles, participativos y adaptativos para la elaboración de políticas y la toma de decisiones: específicamente, gobernanza adaptativa y gestión adaptativa. Para ello, abordo tres preguntas de interés de investigación, amplias e interrelacionadas, utilizando un marco teórico que combina elementos de las teorías de dependencia de la trayectoria institucional y la resiliencia. La primera pregunta tiene implicaciones para la implementación de procesos de participación en el curso del diseño de transiciones hacia la gobernanza y la gestión adaptativas, mientras que las otras dos tienen implicaciones a nivel teórico-analítico. La primera pregunta de investigación se centra en la evaluación de la utilidad de un programa de investigación-acción cuyo objetivo fue introducir principios de gestión adaptativa en la interfaz investigación-gestión de la región de Doñana (Capítulo 4). El programa, que se desarrolló paralelamente a una restauración adaptativa en el contexto del proyecto de restauración hidro-ecológica Doñana 2005, combina un proceso formalizado de networking, entrevistas, grupos focales y técnicas de Dinámica de Sistemas, que demostró ser útil para fomentar la confianza entre un amplio rango de actores que finalmente participaron en dos talleres de gestión adaptativa. La participación de partes interesadas y organismos que se habían visto anteriormente envueltos en situaciones conflictivas y disputas de poder fue considerada un gran éxito del programa. Durante los talleres, los participantes desarrollaron en colaboración una serie de recomendaciones de política, ofreciendo posibles vías para mejorar la interfaz investigación-gestión, la gestión de los recursos hídricos y la conservación de humedales en la región de Doñana y el Estuario del Guadalquivir. El programa de investigación-acción fue apoyado por una investigación preparatoria dirigida a analizar y aprender de las prácticas de profesionales líderes en gestión adaptativa de la Columbia Británica (Canadá), donde este enfoque fue concebido e implementado por primera vez a gran escala (Capítulo 3). Dicha investigación preparatoria se basó en una revisión documental, entrevistas y un taller final en la Universidad de la Columbia Británica (Vancouver), y reveló que la gestión adaptativa ha completado varias fases alternas de desarrollo teórico, aplicación práctica y retroalimentación durante las últimas cuatro décadas, a las que muchos académicos y profesionales han contribuido. En particular, el taller permitió extraer lecciones sobre oportunidades y limitaciones actuales para la implementación y evaluación de la gestión adaptativa en Canadá, basadas en la experiencia directa de profesionales y analistas sobre el terreno. Los resultados de esa investigación sirvieron de base y apoyo para el desarrollo estratégico del programa de investigación-acción en la región de Doñana. La identificación preliminar de importantes rigideces en el marco institucional y las agencias de gestión de Doñana durante el programa de investigación-acción, motivó la segunda parte de la tesis, la cual abordó las dos preguntas de investigación adicionales mencionadas anteriormente, mediante análisis institucional. La segunda pregunta de investigación de la tesis se centra en mejorar la comprensión de las raíces de la rigidez institucional en sistemas socio-ecológicos maladaptativos. La rigidez institucional representa un obstáculo importante para la gobernanza y gestión adaptativas, ya que impide el cambio y dificulta la innovación. Por lo tanto, para facilitar potenciales transiciones hacia sistemas socio-ecológicos más sostenibles caracterizados por enfoques adaptativos para la toma de decisiones, es de suma importancia entender y explicar los orígenes de la rigidez institucional. En el Capítulo 5, a través de la construcción de un patrón histórico, identifico la existencia de un régimen institucional rígido para la gestión de los recursos hídricos y la conservación de los humedales en la región de Doñana, y explico, a través de una primera iteración teórica, los mecanismos subyacentes a la génesis, amplificación y persistencia de tal rigidez institucional. Mi explicación tiene dos partes diferenciadas: por un lado, la génesis histórica profunda del régimen en una coyuntura crítica en el siglo XIX; y por otro, la formación del régimen y su continuidad hasta las últimas décadas del siglo XX, a pesar de su disfuncionalidad para hacer frente a las crisis y su incapacidad para armonizar la conservación de humedales, la gestión del agua y el desarrollo económico. El patrón histórico confirma que el régimen institucional de Doñana ha seguido una dinámica dependiente de la trayectoria, ampliamente caracterizada por la aplicación recurrente de estrategias de mando y control a lo largo de la historia. En una aparente paradoja, estas estrategias, en lugar de conducir al régimen hacia un resultado eficiente, llevaron a la formación de un régimen institucional rígido que condujo la región de Doñana a una trampa subóptima de rigidez sistémica. Este resultado rígido puede ser calificado por la teoría como contingente, ya que desafía las expectativas tradicionales de la economía neoclásica que yacen en el núcleo lógico del concepto de dependencia de la trayectoria institucional. La tercera pregunta de investigación de la tesis se centra en el potencial explicativo del emprendimiento y los discursos en su relación con los intereses político-económicos y el poder, como factores que contribuyen a la formación de sistemas socio-ecológicos a nivel local. En particular, centro mi discusión en el potencial explicativo de estos factores, cuando la lógica base de la dependencia de la trayectoria (compuesta por los principios dominantes de la economía neoclásica) fracasa en predecir los resultados observados desde una perspectiva evolutiva histórica, calificando estos resultados como contingentes. En el Capítulo 6, emprendo una segunda iteración teórica que reexamina el patrón explicativo histórico desarrollado en el Capítulo 5, con el fin de mostrar como el régimen institucional rígido Doñana puede entenderse como más predecible. En particular, sostengo que tres mecanismos constituyeron condiciones necesarias y suficientes para el proceso de transformación que llevó a la rigidez en Doñana: (1) un mecanismo político-discursivo contextual que movilizó el poder desde arriba hacia abajo e indicó rendimientos crecientes a los actores de los niveles operacionales del régimen institucional; (2) el funcionamiento de los rendimientos crecientes y mecanismos de auto-refuerzo de abajo hacia arriba; (3) un componente endógeno de emprendimiento que actuó como mecanismo de acción en un entorno de incertidumbre extrema. En la discusión general de la tesis (Capítulo 7), presento argumentos para la sistematización, en el análisis, de los discursos y el emprendimiento en relación con factores político-económicos y de poder. Sostengo que tal sistematización contribuye significativamente a disminuir el grado de contingencia asociado a la rigidez en Doñana. Más en general, mi discusión trata sobre la contingencia como una propiedad del concepto de dependencia de la trayectoria que se puede modular en explicaciones sobre dinámica institucional. Este tipo de avances podría informar futuras políticas y diseños institucionales para una transición exitosa hacia la gobernanza y la gestión adaptativas de los sistemas socio-ecológicos, y, por lo tanto, para incrementar la posibilidad de gestionar los recursos naturales y los ecosistemas de forma más sostenible. El enriquecimiento del conocimiento adquirido durante el programa de investigaciónacción con el análisis en profundidad de las limitaciones institucionales arraigadas en factores históricos, permitieron la identificación de una serie de posibles vías que pueden ayudar a la transición hacia la gobernanza y la gestión adaptativas en la región de Doñana (Capítulo 9). Asimismo, este enriquecimiento permitió una especulación informada sobre el papel potencial de programas de investigación-acción como el que se describe en esta tesis, para cumplir con (y complementar) los requisitos para la participación pública y el aprendizaje social de la legislación de la Unión Europea – en particular, la Directiva Marco del Agua (Capítulo 7, Sección 7.4).