Case Of Santiago Research Articles

Short-term dynamics of indoor and outdoor endotoxin exposure: Case of Santiago, Chile, 2012

Indoor and outdoor endotoxin in PM2.5 was measured for the very first time in Santiago, Chile, in spring 2012. Average endotoxin concentrations were 0.099 and 0.094 [EU/m3] for indoor (N=44) and outdoor (N=41) samples, respectively; the indoor–outdoor correlation (log-transformed concentrations) was low: R=−0.06, 95% CI: (−0.35 to 0.24), likely owing to outdoor spatial variability.A linear regression model explained 68% of variability in outdoor endotoxins, using as predictors elemental carbon (a proxy of traffic emissions), chlorine (a tracer of marine air masses reaching the city) and relative humidity (a modulator of surface emissions of dust, vegetation and garbage debris). In this study, for the first time a potential source contribution function (PSCF) was applied to outdoor endotoxin measurements. Wind trajectory analysis identified upwind agricultural sources as contributors to the short-term, outdoor endotoxin variability. Our results confirm an association between combustion particles from traffic and outdoor endotoxin concentrations.For indoor endotoxins, a predictive model was developed but it only explained 44% of endotoxin variability; the significant predictors were tracers of indoor PM2.5 dust (Si, Ca), number of external windows and number of hours with internal doors open. Results suggest that short-term indoor endotoxin variability may be driven by household dust/garbage production and handling. This would explain the modest predictive performance of published models that use answers to household surveys as predictors. One feasible alternative is to increase the sampling period so that household features would arise as significant predictors of long-term airborne endotoxin levels.

Green Infrastructure Systems Facing Fragmented Cities in Latin America - Case of Santiago, Chile

Reaching a balance between the protection of nature and the satisfaction of multiple social needs within highly dynamic metropolitan contexts - such as that of Santiago, Chile - is probably one of the main challenges facing territorial planning. This paper presents the progress made in the recognition of the green infrastructure system in Santiago, Chile and reflects on the opportunities and challenges for the development of a green infrastructure system to face socio-ecological fragmentation in Santiago.

Estimates of price elasticity of demand for urban freeway use with high-frequency control variables: the case of Santiago, Chile

Estimates are presented of toll and fuel price elasticities of demand for urban freeway use in Santiago, Chile. High-frequency toll and vehicle data were collected from four urban freeways for different route segments and times of day. Estimation was performed using log-linear regression models whose explanatory variables were tolls, fuel prices, city traffic levels and sets of dichotomous variables to control for daily, weekly and monthly seasonality. City traffic is a high frequency control of the activity level of the city. The elasticities to changes in tolls and fuel were all low in absolute value. The toll elasticities were below 0.05 for two freeways and 0.16 for the third, while for the fourth, which had more alternative routes, it was 0.47. The fuel price elasticities were also heterogeneous, with values of approximately 0.45 for two freeways and 0.21 for the third whereas for the fourth, which had the fewest alternatives, it was 0.07.

Towards the estimation of demand for recycling in Chile: The case of Santiago

In developing countries, the recycling of municipal solid waste (MSW) as an alternative to the traditional MSW management requires an economic sustainability valuation. From this perspective, the estimation of demand for recycling is crucial. In this paper, we study the case of recycling MSW in Santiago, Chile. We estimate the relation between the monthly amount of MSW separated voluntarily from apartments located in Santiago and the monthly price required to participate in a municipal recycling program. We consider the transference of the municipal cost savings to the owners of the apartments due to the amount of MSW separated for recycling, which is not collected and deposited in the current MSW system. For the estimation, we use concepts from environmental economics and psychology, analyzing the operation and municipal costs incurred by current MSW management and designing and applying a survey based on a contingent valuation method (CVM) approach. The results indicate that the percentage of MSW separated for recycling varies between a 27.98% and 33.18%, that only four MSW types are affected by a variation of the monthly price, and that a reduction of monthly collection trips in the current MSW system from 24 to 18 can be obtained. Additionally, we discuss a number of methodological aspects to be considered in a similar study of valuation of recycling in developing countries. Our conclusion is that Santiago has favorable conditions for the implementation of a recycling program as an alternative to the current MSW system.

Gentrificación y resistencia en las ciudades latinoamericanas El ejemplo de Santiago de Chile

Este artículo discute las modalidades mediante las cuales es posible aplicar el término “gentrificación” en las ciudades latinoamericanas. Para ello, se defiende en primer lugar la necesidad de disociar el término, en un ejercicio crítico, de los debates tradicionales del mundo anglosajón de los cuales procede. A raíz de ese proceso dialéctico, se propone su aplicación en dos dimensiones para las cuales parece tener una especial relevancia: la gentrificación liderada por los agentes inmobiliarios así como la interrelación entre gentrificación y las múltiples luchas vecinales. Son las dos vertientes que se estiman como apropiadas para evidenciar las consecuencias ocultadas de las políticas urbanas contemporáneas y re-politizar los estudios urbanos desde un horizonte que se relaciona con las reivindicaciones ciudadanas. Esta reflexión crítica nos lleva a una propuesta conceptual ejemplificada mediante el caso de la ciudad de Santiago de Chile, paradigmático para algunas de las políticas urbanas neoliberales que provocan la gentrificación.

Enacting Music Scenes: Mobility, Locality and Cultural Production

Cluster theories assume ‘locality’ to be a bounded and fixed spatiality characterized by shared worlds-of-life, strong ties and co-presence. This paper contests the immobility of such a definition. Drawing on the case of Santiago’s experimental music scene, in Chile, I argue for a mobile, transient and fluid approach to localized (cultural) economies. The empirical evidence indicates that Santiago’s experimental music scene – an innovative and productive de facto cluster – performs (and unrolls) a decentered, episodic and itinerant geography enacted by porous, technologically mediated and contingent projects. These results call for new perspectives when thinking about economic innovation in general and cultural clusters within transitional cities in particular.

Impacts of vehicle restrictions on urban transport flows: The case of Santiago, Chile

Regression models are employed to quantify the effects of vehicle restrictions on private and public transport passenger flows in Santiago, Chile using trip flow data for cars, buses and the city's Metro rail system. Estimates are derived for the effects of two restrictions: a permanent measure applied from April through August 2008 to vehicles without catalytic converters and additional measures that banned the use of vehicles with catalytic converters between 7:30 am and 9 pm on days declared as environmental “pre-emergencies” due to high air pollution levels. The estimates show that the permanent restriction had no impact on the use of private cars while the additional restriction curtailed their use by 5.5%. Also, on pre-emergency days the flow of passengers to the Metro increased by about 3% while the bus network showed no statistically significant increase. The pre-emergency restrictions thus had an effect on the ridership of the Metro but not on the bus network as alternatives to the use of private cars.

The young Ramón y Cajal as a cell-theory dissenter.

The intellectual development of scientists normally traverses several different phases as they mature in their professions. In many cases, strong support of certain ideas and theories gives way to more critical, productive views that set the stage for major theories and discoveries. This appears to have been the case of Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852-1934). In his youth, he supported the protoplasmic theory of life, and as he matured he maintained a critical, yet open view of the cell theory, which postulated that life phenomena could not take place below the cellular level. In later years, however, an older and wiser Ramón y Cajal abandoned all traces of dissent and joined in fully supporting a refined version of cell theory, to which his own discoveries significantly contributed.

La viola en el ámbito eclesiástico hispano: La orquesta de la capilla de música de la catedral de Santiago de Compostela y el uso de dos violas en la música de Melchor López (1783-1822)

Durante el último cuarto del siglo XVIII y primero del XIX, coincidiendo con el magisterio musical en la catedral de Santiago de Compostela de Buono Chiodi (1770-1782) y Melchor López (1783-1822), se produjo en el entorno gallego una proliferación inusitada de música instrumental, dinamizada en el caso de Santiago por un pujante influjo de las nuevas corrientes foráneas que llegaban desde Italia y la corte madrileña, e incluso desde París, Londres, Lisboa o Porto. En este ambiente, la orquesta catedralicia compostelana alcanzó un enorme protagonismo, del que anteriormente no había disfrutado y como muy pocos casos llegaron a igualar en todo el ámbito hispánico. En el contexto coetáneo, en donde habitualmente la música realizada por las capillas eclesiásticas españolas construía todavía sus plantillas instrumentales a partir del esquema sin violas del trío barroco, sobresale particularmente la introducción y presencia habitual de este instrumento en la plantilla orquestal compostelana. A la viola, que recibió un impulso sorprendente e insospechado, se dedicaron múltiples esfuerzos por parte de músicos y Cabildo (obras copiadas y adquiridas que exigían la participación de hasta dos violas, dotación de instrumentos a los músicos de la capilla, presencia de instrumentistas especializados, etc.), que concluyó con su adopción definitiva para la práctica instrumental diaria.

Comparison of Net Benefits of Incentive-Based and Command and Control Environmental Regulations: The Case of Santiago, Chile

The ambient permit system proposed in the literature for cost-effective pollution reduction is difficult to implement and may result in lower net benefits than using another instrument. The article develops a model for comparing the environmental net benefits of three policy instruments for Santiago, Chile, when the policy problem is to meet a given ambient quality standard. Two market-based instruments- the ambient permit system and a simpler emission permit system are examined along with an emission standard, a command and control instrument usually favored by regulators. Both emission permit system and emission standard are costlier than the ambient permit system, sometimes in large part because they improve ambient emission concentrations beyond the required target in much of the city, but the ambient permit system requires a lower degree of control to comply with the standard. The somewhat costlier emission permit system and emission standard provide much higher net benefits than the ambient permit system when the health benefits of their excessive air quality improvements are taken into account. These benefits are different from the fact that an ambient permit system is administratively costlier to implement.

Competition between the informal and formal sectors in retailing: The case of Santiago

In this paper, an analysis of the interrelationships of small shops was made using data from a survey undertaken in 1976 of one sector of Santiago. The results show that informal foodstuffs commercial establishments are able to compete successfully with modern units (supermarkets); that they represent an efficient use of resources given the overall framework of job scarcity in the modern sector, the low purchasing power which characterizes the market and the organization of production in the informal units; and that although a decrease in their share of the market can be expected in the long run, the rhythm is difficult to forecast and the trend could be the opposite in the medium run. Indeed, until the purchasing power of the majority of the population and the prevailing mode of production of these units is substantially changed, the author argues that it is highly likely that their ability to compete will assure their survival.

Migration, Mobility, and Occupational Achievement: The Case of Santiago, Chile

This study has been planned essentially in two parts. The first is descriptive attempting to determine differentials in mobility of migrants and non-migrants (e.g. what differences occur in upward and downward mobility or in inter- and intragenerational mobility). Also part of this initial analysis is an investigation of the process of occupational achievement that has been occurring and how migrants have been affected as compared to the natives using education and social origins as controls. The second part of the study consists of an analysis of four factors that should be considered as potential independent variables: age at arrival length of residence in Greater Santiago size of community at birth and importance of a farm background. (excerpt)

Migration, Mobility, and Occupational Achievement: The Case of Santiago, Chile

Migration, Mobility, and Occupational Achievement: The Case of Santiago, Chile