Applicability of a Neuroprobabilistic Integral Risk Index for the Environmental Management of Polluted Areas: A Case Study

Recently, we developed a GIS-Integrated Integral Risk Index (IRI) to assess human health risks in areas with presence of environmental pollutants. Contaminants were previously ranked by applying a self-organizing map (SOM) to their characteristics of persistence, bioaccumulation, and toxicity in order to obtain the Hazard Index (HI). In the present study, the original IRI was substantially improved by allowing the entrance of probabilistic data. A neuroprobabilistic HI was developed by combining SOM and Monte Carlo analysis. In general terms, the deterministic and probabilistic HIs followed a similar pattern: polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and light polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were the pollutants showing the highest and lowest values of HI, respectively. However, the bioaccumulation value of heavy metals notably increased after considering a probability density function to explain the bioaccumulation factor. To check its applicability, a case study was investigated. The probabilistic integral risk was calculated in the chemical/petrochemical industrial area of Tarragona (Catalonia, Spain), where an environmental program has been carried out since 2002. The risk change between 2002 and 2005 was evaluated on the basis of probabilistic data of the levels of various pollutants in soils. The results indicated that the risk of the chemicals under study did not follow a homogeneous tendency. However, the current levels of pollution do not mean a relevant source of health risks for the local population. Moreover, the neuroprobabilistic HI seems to be an adequate tool to be taken into account in risk assessment processes.     

The development of social pedagogy in Spain: The tension between social needs,political response and academic interests

The Spanish Civil War (1936—1939) interrupted the evolution and development of social pedagogy, which in Spain had reached similar levels as in other European countries. This was followed by a period when Spain was isolated from developments in social welfare and the changes that go along with the economic and social transformations of cities and give rise to community action, self-help and popular education programmes. The reinstatement of democracy and of new City Councils that are genuinely devoted to solve the problems of the population are the starting point for new social services, that is for social work and social pedagogy. Initially it was practical work that gave an answer to emerging demand, followed by theoretical analysis and efforts of conceptualisation. The professionals and later the universities lead the debate on methodology. The interest and involvement of the universities increased as the Diploma in Social Education was introduced as a new university degree.     

Religion as a Meaning System: Policy Implications for the New Millennium

The development of social policy related to religion has received increasing focus in recent years, yet psychology continues to play a relatively minor role in this important domain. In the current article, religion's positive and negative influences as a meaning system on individual, community, and societal well-being are delineated. The challenges facing psychology in contributing to public policy development in the religious arena are examined, challenges that stem from profound differences in the meaning systems of religion, government, and psychology. These challenges notwithstanding, a number of different pathways in the domains of applied research, community practice, and policy development are delineated through which psychology can help to maximize positive, and minimize negative, outcomes in the religion and social policy arena.     

Living with zombie companies: Do we know where the threat lies?

This paper shows the existence of extreme types of zombie firm, i.e. companies with negative equity that continue to do business despite having lost their entire equity. We explain how these firms are measured and how the riskier ones are defined with different determinants. Using a Spanish sample from 2010 to 2014 an index called the EZIndex is developed that includes four dimensions of the extreme zombie problem: extension, contagion, recovery signs and immediacy. The paper contributes to zombie theory on the one hand by developing a method for ranking zombie firms based on risks and changes over time, and on the other hand by using a log-linear model to detect the riskiest corporate profiles out of all these risky firms. It demonstrates significant implications that need to be considered by the competent authorities not only in terms of their impact as a whole but also in regard to the particular profile of extreme zombie firms: they are less regulated, large and located in regions with large business fabrics.     

Estimates of above-ground tree carbon after projected land-use and land cover change in a subtropical urban watershed

Urban Ecosystems - This study investigates the effect of land-use and land cover (LULC) change on above-ground tree carbon (AGTC) in a subbasin of the Tampa Bay Watershed, Florida. LULC change was...     

Critical capabilities for widening international new ventures’ geographical scope.

Current findings are still inconclusive with regard to the role played by the characteristics of social networks in INVs’ early geographical scope. This study analyses how entrepreneurial-oriented networks affect new ventures’ early geographical scope through critical capabilities. We have adopted a behavioural perspective to investigate the effect of social networks both on international new ventures’ geographical scope and on their critical capabilities such as absorptive and adaptive capabilities. Results from a sample of 183 Spanish international ventures confirm the importance of entrepreneurial orientation as a network characteristic for early geographical scope. Additionally, the positive effect of adaptive capability on new ventures’ early geographical dispersion has been confirmed but not so in the case of absorptive capabilities. Our results suggest that future research must be careful to assume international new ventures’ absorptive capability as a prerequisite to their cross-border expansion.     

A Simple Adaptive Procedure Leading to Correlated Equilibrium

We propose a new and simple adaptive procedure for playing a game: ‘regret‐matching.’ In this procedure, players may depart from their current play with probabilities that are proportional to measures of regret for not having used other strategies in the past. It is shown that our adaptive procedure guarantees that, with probability one, the empirical distributions of play converge to the set of correlated equilibria of the game.