Comparing the access conditions for minimum income support in four EU member states for national,EU and non-EU citizens

This research analyses the conditions imposed on national, EU and non-EU citizens who wish to access minimum income (MI) benefits within four EU Member States, specifically within Finland, France, Ireland and Spain. The primary aim is to identify and compare the required MI access conditions. Furthermore, focus is given to the residence requisites, which are discussed in relation to relevant supranational regulations in order to detect possible multilevel implications. The paper concludes with the identification of different MI conditions, such as stricter age requisites in France and Spain. Moreover, the study of national cases allows for consideration of how the EU social protection floor works at the national level. In this regard, the restrictions that affect EU/EEA migrant jobseekers and economically inactive population groups who wish to access MI in Finland, France and Ireland show the limits of the EU minimum social assistance floor, only recognised for EU/EEA migrant workers. Finally, implications arise according to human rights instruments such as the European Social Charter, which demands that social assistance shall not be confined to nationals or to certain categories of foreigners, allowing for comparison between the different personal scopes of the equal treatment principle required by the distinct supranational levels.     

Analyzing and Interpreting Lime Burials from the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939): A Case Study from La Carcavilla Cemetery

Over 500 victims of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) were buried in the cemetery of La Carcavilla (Palencia, Spain). White material, observed in several burials, was analyzed with Raman spectroscopy and powder XRD, and confirmed to be lime. Archaeological findings at La Carcavilla's cemetery show that the application of lime was used in an organized way, mostly associated with coffinless interments of victims of Francoist repression. In burials with a lime cast, observations made it possible to draw conclusions regarding the presence of soft tissue at the moment of deposition, the sequence of events, and the presence of clothing and other evidence. This study illustrates the importance of analyzing a burial within the depositional environment and taphonomic context.     

Multiple Giant Coronary Artery Aneurysms: A Rare Cause of Sudden Cardiac Death

Multiple giant aneurysms involving the coronary arteries are uncommon and rarely reported. In the presented case, a 63‐year‐old man with poorly controlled hypertension died suddenly. Gross autopsy examination showed multiple giant thrombus‐filled coronary artery aneurysms, atherosclerotic coronary artery disease, and cardiomegaly. Histological sections of the coronary aneurysms showed atherosclerotic changes with both organized and fresh thrombus. Giant coronary aneurysm is defined as a segmental enlargement of a coronary artery with a diameter exceeding 20 mm or more. The main etiology of this nebulous entity is attributed to atherosclerosis and inflammatory or inherited connective tissue disorders with the remainder being congenital, infectious, or idiopathic. Before its cataclysmic presentation, when ruptured or thrombosed, giant coronary aneurysm usually has a silent clinical course. Sudden death owing to giant multiple coronary aneurysms is rare and mandates careful classification of the aneurysms and prudent search for autoimmune‐mediated or genetically based factors for subsequent ancillary autopsy studies.     

Victimization and Poly-Victimization in Adolescent Outpatients from Mental Health Centers: A Case-Control Study

The aims of the present study were to establish interpersonal victimization rates in a clinical sample and to analyze this sample’s risk of victimization relative to the general population. The sample was composed of 472 adolescents (12–17 years of age): 118 outpatients from public mental health centers and 354 students who were matched by age and sex. Following previous studies, this research defined poly-victimization as four or more victimization types occurring during the previous year. The clinical group was more likely to report sexual victimization (OR = 9.540), conventional crime (OR = 3.120), caregiver victimization (OR = 3.469), witnessing and indirect victimization (OR = 3.466), electronic victimization (OR = 2.809), and poly-victimization (OR = 4.319) compared with the control group. Clinical samples present an increased risk of interpersonal poly-victimization compared with the general population. The influence of poly-victimization on mental health should be considered in the evaluation and treatment of adolescent outpatients.     

A novel network-based analysis to measure efficiency in science and technology parks: the ISA framework approach

In the last years, Science and Technology Parks (STPs) have been considered facilitators of inter-organizational relationships, as well as instruments of public policy, by creating networks and allowing access for the learning of local innovation. In this study, we propose a quantitative tool as support for measuring the efficiency of STPs through the analysis of the complex networks they form. We present a generic framework called the Inter-Relationship Science-Park Analysis (ISA) framework to study STPs at three different levels of management: (1) individual entities (research centres, universities, innovation companies, etc.); (2) STP global management; and (3) productive sector development. Moreover, we have applied the ISA framework to a real-world case study: the Walqa Science and Technology Park. Through it we have been able to know what relationships are established within this Science and Technology Park and which are the most important nodes in this network of interactions.     

Green Criminology Before ‘Green Criminology’: Amnesia and Absences

Although the first published use of the term ‘green criminology’ seems to have been made by Lynch (Green criminology. Aldershot, Hampshire, 1990/2006), elements of the analysis and critique represented by the term were established well before this date. There is much criminological engagement with, and analysis of, environmental crime and harm that occurred prior to 1990 that deserves acknowledgement. In this article, we try to illuminate some of the antecedents of green criminology. Proceeding in this way allows us to learn from ‘absences’, i.e. knowledge that existed but has been forgotten. We conclude by referring to green criminology not as an exclusionary label or barrier but as a symbol that guides and inspires the direction of research.     

Party Strategies,Constituency Links,and Legislative Speech

This article examines how parties organize legislative speech. Electoral incentives and legislative institutions affect speech participation. When electoral systems create personal vote‐seeking incentives, parties are less concerned with screening speeches and more supportive of members seeking to garner name recognition. But in many countries, legislative rules and norms constrain opportunities for individual position taking during the lawmaking debates. We argue that parties resolve this dilemma by organizing speech participation into nonlegislative speeches and lawmaking debates. In each instance, different types of legislators are more likely to speak. We examine the case of Chile and test the implications of our theory with data on congressional speeches.     

Differences in contract design between successful and less successful franchises

The aim of this paper is to identify differences in contract design between successful and less successful franchise chains. Comparing contracts from both groups of companies, we observe, on the one hand, that (1) franchise contracts are unbalanced irrespective of the chain’s success: contracts cover franchisees’ obligations more than franchisors’ obligations. On the other hand, we find that (2) contracts in successful franchise chains are more complete (i.e. cover a larger number of contingencies) than the less successful ones and (3) this difference lies in the contingencies regarding franchisees’ obligations, which are more fully covered in the contracts of more successful chains. More specifically, within the contingencies regarding franchisees’ obligations, (4) successful chains restrict the franchisee decision rights more frequently on day-to-day business operations than on financial conditions or post-contractual contingencies. These findings can be explained because successful chains are more sensitive to franchisees’ opportunistic behavior, because they have learned how to manage and solve any potential conflicts, or because of differences in bargaining power. Finally (5) franchisors’ obligations are not statistically different between groups, which we interpret as evidence that relational contracting mechanisms do not substitute formalization.     

Credit,crisis and contract enforcement: evidence from the Spanish loan market

A number of theoretical and empirical studies have shown that the development of credit markets is affected by the efficacy of enforcement institutions. A less explored question in this context is how these institutions interact with turns in the economic cycle and the impact of different types of legal procedures on credit market performance. This paper fills these gaps by analyzing how differences in the availability of credit and the evolution of non-performing loans ratios may be partially explained by regional variations in the quality of loan contract enforcement during recent periods of sustained growth (2001–2007) and recession (since 2008) in the Spanish economy. This research concludes that a rise in the clearance rate of executions (i.e., when a judge enforces the repayment of a debt) increases the ratio of total credit to GDP. However, the declaratory stage of the procedure (i.e., when a debt is firstly verified by a judge) does not seem to be statistically significant. A possible explanation to this finding is that, throughout the economic cycle, a relevant proportion of the defaults that take place are strategic (i.e., defaults by a solvent debtor). Furthermore, it is observed that, in regions where declaratory procedures are more efficient, less credit is declared as non-performing. The latter effect, however, is only observed after the onset of the “Great Recession” in 2008. This may be related to the increase of non-strategic defaults during a downturn.