Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

This paper addresses entrepreneurship in northern Spain between 1885 and 2010. We review first the theoretical and empirical literature and their use by economic historians. Then, from a Schumpeterian perspective, we make a longitudinal study of business creation rates in the Basque Country, Navarre, La Rioja, and Saragossa during this period. The aim is to make a comparative analysis with the Spanish rate to observe provincial differences in business creation. Finally, the role of regional and provincial governments as a source of incentives and opportunities for business is considered. The economic success of Álava and Navarre lay partly in their special economic and administrative systems —quite different from the rest of Spain— which offered tax incentives for business to locate there and therefore stimulated greater entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship in Spanish economic history

El trabajo presenta una historia del holding argentino Garovaglio y Zorraquín a lo largodel siglo xx. El énfasis se pone en sus múltiples emprendimientos y la evolución de su patrimonioy rentabilidad, en el marco de diversos escenarios económicos. La trayectoria del grupoilustra los resultados de distintos enfoques estratégicos, que se insertaron en una economíaaltamente volátil con reglas de juego cambiantes.

The original design of the planned Izmir Bay Immersed Tube Tunnel, considered it to be a continuous subsea tunnel for the whole length of about 7.6 km. But this was later changed into having 2 shorter tubes of 2.7 km long each connected thru’ a 2.2 km long artificial island created in the middle of the bay from the excess dredged material, a concept which also reduces costs and increases efficiency. This island will serve as a venue for the 2025 Expo Exhibition, which Izmir city will apply to organize in the future. Reason for the research study was to provide a preliminary design, using a dynamic analysis, during the current pre-feasibility stage, of the immersed tunnel to show whether it can be built across the Izmir Bay. This paper takes into account the new alignment and presents the results of a 2-D dynamic analysis conducted of the prefabricated 100m long tunnel elements, sitting within a backfilled dredged ditch, dug after the recommended ground improvement was carried out. Analyses considered staged construction and the results showed that: Tunnel units and its surrounding soils inside the dredged ditch act together to provide a better earthquake response with a damping effect of the earthquake force; Tunnel units do not float to the sea surface, but continued to stay inside the dredged ditch and applied positive stresses to the foundations during the design earthquakes. As there was no floating, there was no need for anchoring the tunnel to ditch bottom; Tunnel units and immersion joints (made of specified strong elastomer material) continued to stay in compression longitudinally and provided a superb water-tightness level; There were no risky (un-tolerable) ground deformations during, after striking of the design earthquakes. Total vertical and differential displacements of the tunnel units and in the surrounding soils were all at acceptable levels; Concrete surface crack widths occurring in the tunnel units, during striking of the design earthquakes were also found to be allowable. Study results show that the tunnel elements can withstand Mw=7 short duration (<10 sec) or Mw=6 long duration (>10 sec) earthquakes without major damages to their structure

The present research is focused on synthesizing and physically characterization different mixtures of concrete mortar reinforced with thermostable polymers from industrial waste. The mortars were made from the homogeneous mixture of cement, gravel, and water with additions of polyepoxide in different percentages. This polymer carried a milling process to obtain particle sizes of 1, 2 and 3mm. The mixtures were emptied in cubic bronze molds (5cm side) without vibrating compaction and allowed to stand for 24 hours before being removed. Ten mortars were prepared by mixture and they were cured in water for 28 days at room temperature before being characterized. Subsequently, the weight, compression strength and thermal conductivity of the samples were measured. The best results were for the mortars with additions of 100% polyepoxide (without gravel) and 3mm particle size, with a compression strength of 76.6kgcm-2 (higher than that required in mortars, 70kgcm-2), a thermal conductivity of 0.68Wm-1K-1 (59.93% less than conventional mortar, 1.70Wm-1K-1) and a weight of 141g (33.80% lower than the traditional mortar, 213g). According to the results obtained, a reliable alternative is presented to reuse waste material in the construction industry, replacing gravel by polyepoxide polymer particles in the process of manufacturing masonry elements providing the final product with the characteristics of lightness, thermal insulation, and acceptable compression strength, through simple, economical and sustainable processes.Keywords: mortar, thermostable polymer, industrial waste, thermal conductivity, compression strength.

Historically, the construction industry has presented high accident rates, and in order to get a deeper understanding and making right decisions, it is interesting to consider the risks from a worker’s point of view. This research addresses the perception of risks by construction workers from a psychometric paradigm and considering some sociodemographic variables. The study considered a sample consisted of a group of workers who belong to the Chilean construction industry, particularly from the building construction sector. Relevant risks associated with a high accident rate were identified through an extensive literature review. In addition, the relative risk related to physical overexertion and that related to the exposure to physical and chemical agents are considered. Based on a psychometric approach for the evaluation of qualitative attributes, a measurement instrument was applied; results were then statistically analyzed. Additionally, the incidence of sociodemographic variables was evaluated: age, profession, experience and educational level in relation to the perceived risk level. Statistically significant differences of the perceived risk associated to noise exposure, depending on the age of the workers were obtained. On the other hand, it was determined that workers with the most experience consider that those jobs that involve uncomfortable or forced postures constitute a relevant physical risk. Meanwhile, jobs such as: rebar workers, bricklayers and concrete workers, perceive the gravity and immediacy of the effect associated to risk significantly more in activities that involve repetitive movements

In this work, we studied the mechanical performance of an LDPE film (0.22 mm in thickness) used as a material in the design of greenhouse covers. We investigated the effects of ageing at different periods of its service life and applying chemical substance treatments used as pesticides on greenhouse crops and after breakage using mechanical traction. Numerical simulations were performed using the finite element method. For this purpose, one section of the complete geometry of the greenhouse cover and different load conditions (1-5 kPa) were considered for the modelling. The performance of the polymer was assumed to be linearly elastic to simplify the governing equations. The study demonstrated that the LDPE film used was no longer effective as a greenhouse cover film due to the degradation of its mechanical properties. It was shown that the general performance of this film was in the plastic zone and its performance was non-linear. The results deduced from the present study are of interest because they show the material failure process of greenhouse covers in relation to the degradation process.

Construction projects involve very different kinds of risks of distinct natures and demand an agile and flexible risk assessment methodology. This study has analyzed scholarly literature and best practices to find current weaknesses. Two main solutions are presented in this paper in response to the findings of the analysis: a general purpose, quantitative key risk indicator, the “Risk Visibility Factor” (Fv), that yields a single linear 0-100 value for each risk event out of its impact and likelihood; and a summarizing method based on Fv to obtain the overall risk for two or more risk events, expressed as a single equivalent risk event with its own impact and likelihood. The first solution improves current risk assessment by providing a more intuitive and understandable indicator to rate risks and projects; the second one, with recursive capability, allows risk scenarios (e.g., projects) to be seen as single risk event, without any kind of limitation on the number and nature of risks, making it easier to compare the risk severity of distinct projects. Both solutions can be used to define the risk appetite and to compare with it any risk event or scenario.

Buildings consume one-third of final energy consumption in the world and are graded as the largest sources of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Buildings energy consumption is driven by numerous factors that have direct or indirect effects on it. Identification of such factors could help building designers and architectures in introducing energy efficient designs of various types of buildings. Such studies are indispensable for countries such as Pakistan where a very limited research has been published in this area. This study attempts to fill this knowledge gap by investigating the effect of numerous factors on the residential electricity consumption and further, aims to establish an electricity usage intensity (EUI) value for the residential sector of Pakistan. Data were collected from 523 dwellings through site surveys and interviews with residents. Effect of 48 different variables, (five socioeconomic variables, 14 dwelling variables, 22 variables from electric appliances details, five demographic variables and two variables from renewable energy sources) was investigated on the residential buildings annual electricity consumption using SPSS software. It was found that 17 out of 48 variables have significant linear relationship with annual electricity consumption. Further, through a multivariate analysis, it was found that annual electricity usage intensity (EUI) for Pakistan’s residential buildings is 24kWh/m2. Finally, this EUI value is compared with the same of two major South Asian countries. It is observed that mean EUI of Pakistan is almost similar to that of India, i.e. 24kWh/m2 whereas Bangladesh has a higher value of mean EUI, i.e. 32kWh/m2.