Suchergebnisse

From to beginning of year 2002, the Spanish Autonomous Communities (CC. AA.) fiscal performance is conditioned by a new legal framework compounded from the financial agreement and the legislation on budget stability. This new framework implies a change in the CC. AA. fiscal behaviour. Are the CC. AA. ready to provide its citizens the public services they demand and fulfil its fiscal stability commitments? Are all the CC. AA. in the same position? Using political economic models and data on past budget execution, this paper is aimed at shedding light over the factors that jeopardize the CC. AA. budget stability in the future and the differences between CC. AA. relevant to its fiscal performance. JEL classification: H61, H62, H71, H72, H77

Geographical research on lithium and other renewable energy materials explores the geopolitical dimensions of resource supply and the 'new geographies' associated with an expanding resource frontier. The material characteristics and environmental conditions of lithium production, however, are largely overlooked in this perspective. In the context of a global speculative boom for lithium linked to its growing role in energy storage, this paper adopts a grounded, exploratory approach to investigate the dynamics of production and resource management at one of the world's most significant sources of lithium: the brine deposits of the Atacama Salt Flat/Salar de Atacama in northern Chile. We show how lithium production from brine has a distinctive 'eco-regulatory' character as it involves managing a series of hydrogeological conditions and physical processes that are largely external to capital. The paper highlights the infrastructures (pumps, pipes, ponds) associated with the harvesting of lithium from brine and examines how production on the salar generates a series of ecological contradictions (notably around water depletion) with potential to disrupt accumulation. We also examine the multiple flexibilities afforded by the eco- regulatory character of production, and show how these enable lithium producers to adapt fixed infrastructures to dynamic political economic conditions. By focusing on both contradictions and flexibilities of lithium production, the paper draws attention to trajectories of capitalisation in the lithium value chain and their environmental consequences; and considers the political-economic incentives shaping further capitalisation. The paper concludes by considering the implications of this exploratory case study for critical resource geography.

En la última década varios países de la región latinoamericana han visto como organizaciones y movimientos que venían desde hace tiempo trabajando por la democratización de las comunicaciones, han impulsado reformas en la legislación sobre medios audiovisuales con diferente grado de consecución de metas. Esta investigación tiene por objetivo evaluar la Ley 26.522 atendiendo a la propuesta de Oszlak y O´Donnell. Se analizan así, la incorporación de los problemas en la agenda, la toma de decisiones así como la implementación de los planes de acción y la evaluación de los efectos sobre el sistema mediático. Además se lleva a cabo un análisis de los actores que intervinieron en el proceso de policy making para reflejar el nivel de poder de cada uno de ellos. Cobra especial atención la última etapa, tratando de realizar un balance del proceso de implementación de la ley hasta el final de la segunda legislatura de Cristina Fernández de Kirchner en diciembre de 2015. Las conclusiones apuntan que el hecho de que el debate tuviera recorrido en la sociedad civil puede ser reconocido como uno de los logros más importantes de esta ley. No obstante, se pone de manifiesto una pérdida de intensidad progresiva de los objetivos iniciales que se marcaron actores fundamentales del proceso, tales como el gobierno y la Coalición por una Radiodifusión Democrática. ; In the last decade, organisations and movements in several Latin American countries that had been working towards the democratisation of communications for a long time have brought about reforms in the laws governing the media, with mixed success. This research aims to assess Act 26.522 following the proposal by Oszlak and O'Donnell. Thus, an analysis is conducted on the issues added to the agenda, the decision-making process, the implementation of action plans and the assessment of the impact upon the media system. The analysis also approaches the actors involved in the policy-making process aiming to determine the power each of them held. The last phase described is particularly important, as it intends to take stock of the implementation process of the Act until the end of the second term in office of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, in December 2015. The findings suggest that the debate having such an impact on civil society can be construed as one of the most important achievements of this public policy. However, evidence is also found of a progressive loss of intensity of the initial goals identified by key players in the process, such as the Government and the Coalition for Democratic Broadcasting.

STUDY OBJECTIVE—To find out whether bathing in sewage polluted waters implies a danger to bathers' health and to determine the best microbiological indicator to predict the relation between bathing and the appearance of some symptoms. DESIGN—Cohort study. SETTING—City of Santander (north of Spain). PARTICIPANTS—From the people going to four Santander beaches in the period from 1 July to 16 September 1998, a cohort of 2774 persons was recruited who agreed to participate in this study. Of those, 1858 successfully completed a follow up interview conducted in seven days. Respiratory, gastrointestinal, eye, and ear symptoms, and fever occurring during the seven day follow up were recorded. MAIN RESULTS—A total of 136 participants (7.5%) reported symptoms. Visitors reported experiencing symptoms with more frequency than residents. Incidence rates of gastrointestinal, cutaneous and high respiratory tract symptoms were higher in bathers, but the differences were not significant. Total symptoms were related with the amount of total coliforms, faecal coliforms, and faecal streptococci in the water. Gastrointestinal and skin symptoms kept a positive trend with the degree of water pollution by total coliforms in both crude and adjusted analyses. An increased risk was observed in 2500-9999 total coliforms per 100 ml, a figure over the proposed standard, although below the European Union mandatory limit. CONCLUSIONS—The results of this study suggest that total coliforms are the best predictors of the symptoms. Keywords: follow up study; water pollution; water microbiology; seawater; bathing beaches

Since 2006, our research team has been establishing in the islands of Livingston and Deception, (South Shetland archipelago, Antarctica) several monitoring stations of the active layer thickness within the international network Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring (CALM), and the ground thermal regime for the Ground Terrestrial Network-Permafrost (GTN-P). Both networks were developed within the International Permafrost Association (IPA). In the GTN-P stations, in addition to the temperature of the air, soil, and terrain at different depths, the snow thickness is also monitored by snow poles. Since 2006, a delay in the disappearance of the snow layer has been observed, which could explain the variations we observed in the active layer thickness and permafrost temperatures. Therefore, in late 2015 our research group started the PERMASNOW project (2015-2019) to pay attention to the effect of snow cover on ground thermal This project had two different ways to study the snow cover. On the first hand, in early 2017 we deployed new instrumentation, including new time lapse cameras, snow poles with high number of sensors and a complete and complex set of instruments and sensors to configure a snow pack analyzer station providing 32 environmental and snow parameters. We used the data acquired along 2017 and 2018 years with the new instruments, together with the available from all our already existing sensors, to study in detail the snow cover. On the other hand, remote sensing data were used to try to map the snow cover, not only at our monitoring stations but the entire islands in order to map and study the snow cover distribution, as well as to start the way for future permafrost mapping in the entire islands. MODIS-derived surface temperatures and albedo products were used to detect the snow cover and to test the surface temperature. Since cloud presence limited the acquisition of valid observations of MODIS sensor, we also analyzed Terrasar X data to over-come this limitation. Remote sensing data validation required the acquirement of in situ ground-true data, consisting on data from our permanent instruments, as well as ad hoc measurements in the field (snow cover mapping, snow pits, albedo characterization, etc.). Although the project is finished, the data analysis is still ongoing. We present here the different research tasks we are developing as well as the most important results we already obtained about the snow cover. These results confirm how the snow cover duration has been changing in the last years, affecting the ground thermal behavior. ; With funding from the Spanish government through the "María de Maeztu Unit of Excellence" accreditation (MDM-2017-0737)

This work has been supported by funds from the Ministry of Economy of the Spanish Government through the Polar Research Program (PERMAPLANET CTM2009-10165-E; ANTARPERMA CTM2011-15565-E; PERMASNOW CTM2014-52021-R) and the PERMATHERMAL arrangement between the University of Alcalá, the Spanish Institute of Geology and Mining, and the Spanish Polar Committee for the maintenance of the monitoring stations in Deception and Livingston Islands. Portuguese contribution was partially supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (PERMANTAR-3 PTDC/AAG-GLO/3908/2012).

This work has been supported by funds from the Ministry of Economy of the Government of Spain by the Polar Research Program (PERMASNOW CTM2014-52021-R) and the PERMATHERMAL arrangement between the University of Alcalá, the Spanish Institute of Geology and Mining, and the Spanish Polar Committee for the maintenance of the monitoring stations in Deception and Livingston Islands.

Context. The discovery of Proxima b marked one of the most important milestones in exoplanetary science in recent years. Yet the limited precision of the available radial velocity data and the difficulty in modelling the stellar activity calls for a confirmation of the Earth-mass planet. Aims. We aim to confirm the presence of Proxima b using independent measurements obtained with the new ESPRESSO spectrograph, and refine the planetary parameters taking advantage of its improved precision. Methods. We analysed 63 spectroscopic ESPRESSO observations of Proxima (Gl 551) taken during 2019. We obtained radial velocity measurements with a typical radial velocity photon noise of 26 cm s-1. We combined these data with archival spectroscopic observations and newly obtained photometric measurements to model the stellar activity signals and disentangle them from planetary signals in the radial velocity (RV) data. We ran a joint Markov chain Monte Carlo analysis on the time series of the RV and full width half maximum of the cross-correlation function to model the planetary and stellar signals present in the data, applying Gaussian process regression to deal with the stellar activity signals. Results. We confirm the presence of Proxima b independently in the ESPRESSO data and in the combined ESPRESSO+ HARPS+UVES dataset. The ESPRESSO data on its own shows Proxima b at a period of 11.218 ± 0.029 days, with a minimum mass of 1.29 ± 0.13 M? . In the combined dataset we measure a period of 11.18427 ± 0.00070 days with a minimum mass of 1.173 ± 0.086 M? . We get a clear measurement of the stellar rotation period (87 ± 12 d) and its induced RV signal, but no evidence of stellar activity as a potential cause for the 11.2 days signal. We find some evidence for the presence of a second short-period signal, at 5.15 days with a semi-amplitude of only 40 cm s-1. If caused by a planetary companion, it would correspond to a minimum mass of 0.29 ± 0.08 M? . We find that forthe case of Proxima, the full width half maximum of the cross-correlation function can be used as a proxy for the brightness changes and that its gradient with time can be used to successfully detrend the RV data from part of the influence of stellar activity. The activity-induced RV signal in the ESPRESSO data shows a trend in amplitude towards redder wavelengths. Velocities measured using the red end of the spectrograph are less affected by activity, suggesting that the stellar activity is spot dominated. This could be used to create differential RVs that are activity dominated and can be used to disentangle activity-induced and planetary-induced signals. The data collected excludes the presence of extra companions with masses above 0.6 M? at periods shorter than 50 days. ; With funding from the Spanish government through the "María de Maeztu Unit of Excellence" accreditation (MDM-2017-0737)