Enhanced open-circuit voltage in perovskite solar cells with open-cage [60]fullerene derivatives as electron-transporting materials

The synthesis, characterization, and incorporation of open-cage [60]fullerene derivatives as electron-transporting materials (ETMs) in perovskite solar cells (PSCs) with an inverted planar (p-i-n) structure is reported. Following optical and electrochemical characterization of the open-cage fullerenes 2a-c, p-i-n PSCs with a indium tin oxide (ITO)/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS)/perovskite/fullerene/Ag structure were prepared. The devices obtained from 2a-b exhibit competitive power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) and improved open-circuit voltage (Voc) values (>1.0 V) in comparison to a reference cell based on phenyl-C61-butyric-acid methyl-ester (PC61BM). These results are rationalized in terms of a) the higher passivation ability of the open-cage fullerenes with respect to the other fullerenes, and b) a good overlap between the highest occupied molecular orbital/lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (HOMO/LUMO) levels of 2a-b and the conduction band of the perovskit

Media multitasking impact in homework, executive function and academic performance in Spanish adolescents

The emergence of multi-function devices has created a perceived need to always be connected to multiple media devices, which is called media multitasking. This phenomenon is linked to defi cits in cognitive control affecting executive function and learning and academic achievement in adolescents. The present study aimed to explore the relationship of MM, executive functions and academic performance. Method: The sample comprised 977 students aged between 11 and 18 from 6 schools. Media multitasking while doing homework was assessed by the media multitasking index (MMI); executive function was assessed using the DEX-SP and three WISC-IV Subscales; participants' current school marks for mathematics and Spanish language were used to assess academic performance. Results: Media multitasking in adolescents is negatively related to executive function and academic achievement. Adolescents who media multitask more while doing homework report more dysexecutive problems. The results of a subsample (n=114) show worse cognitive functioning of the components related to working memory and process speed and lower academic achievement in language and mathematics. Conclusions: In the current environment of technology overload, where MM is increasingly frequent, it is necessary to develop adaptive strategies that allow adolescents to focus their attention on tasks and avoid distractionsLa aparición de dispositivos multifunción ha creado la necesidad de estar constantemente conectados a múltiples dispositivos multimedia simultáneamente, dando lugar al media multitasking. Este fenómeno se relaciona con défi cits de control cognitivo que pueden afectar a la función ejecutiva y el aprendizaje. El objetivo principal es explorar la relación entre media multitasking, funciones ejecutivas y rendimiento académico. Método: la muestra es de 977 estudiantes de 11-18 años de 6 centros educativos. Se calculó el Índice de media multitasking mientras realizaban tareas escolares; se evaluaron las funciones ejecutivas utilizando el DEX-SP y tres subescalas del WISC-IV; y se tuvieron en cuenta las notas de matemáticas y lengua. Resultados: el media multitasking está negativamente relacionado con la función ejecutiva y el rendimiento académico. Los adolescentes que realizaban más media multitasking mientras hacían los deberes informaron de más problemas disejecutivos. Los resultados obtenidos en una sub-muestra (n=114) indicaron un peor funcionamiento cognitivo en tareas que implicaban memoria de trabajo y velocidad de procesamiento e informaron de menor rendimiento académico en lengua y matemáticas. Conclusiones: para reducir un impacto negativo del media multitasking es necesario promover el desarrollo de estrategias que permitan a los adolescentes centrar su atención en las tareas evitando distraccione

Exploring the Role of Service Delivery in Remarkable Tourism Experiences

The purpose of the article is to analyze through a service-experience framework the consequences and contingency factors of Service Delivery (SD) in Remarkable Tourism Experiences (RTE) and explore to what extent these factors interact to evoke delight behaviors in customers. The proposal was validated with empirical data from 284 tourists collected through survey method on remarkable experiences in hotels and restaurants. Both an exploratory and a confirmatory analysis were developed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The result highlights to what extent SD components identified (service staff, service availability, and customer service interaction) affect RTE and aid to evoke CD in tourists with high-quality memories. The service-experience model goes beyond the frontline employees with a service-oriented perspective to better understand the emerging factors that provide happiness in customers. The organizational staff is the most important component influencing a customer’s happiness and love feelings. The empirical findings support a model and measurement scale that allows analysis of the impact of SD component statements about customer delight (CD). The study shows the antecedents and interactions among SD emergent factors in RTE, specifically regarding CD behavior. The model proposed in this study links SD components and basic emotions and has important practical implicationsThis work was supported by Secretariat for Universities and Research, from the Department Economy and Knowledge of the Government of Catalonia, Spain; the European Social Fund, the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation [ECO2017-86054-C3-1-R], and the Autonomous Government of Catalonia [2017 SGR 1259

¿Qué es UdG XeBook?

Guía de uso de la plataforma de préstamo de libros electrónicos UdG XeBook. Encontraréis las condiciones de préstamo, como buscar documentos, como leer en línea, como prestar y descargar libros, como hacer una devolución y el espacio personalGuia d'ús de la plataforma de préstec de llibres electrònics UdG XeBook. Hi trobareu les condicions de préstec, com cercar documents, com llegir en línia, com prestar i descarregar, com fer una devolució i l'espai personalGuide to use the UdG XeBook eBook loan platform. You will find the loan conditions, how to search documents, how to read online, how to loan and download, how to make a refund and personal spac

Mechanism of the Manganese-Pincer-Catalyzed Acceptorless Dehydrogenative Coupling of Nitriles and Alcohols

A recent study showed that a Mn-pincer could catalyze the acceptorless dehydrogenative coupling of nitriles and alcohols to yield acrylonitriles. The reaction mechanism proposed in that work contained some intermediates that, in most of the cases, were not characterized. Moreover, one of the intermediates involved a charged separation, which is unlikely in apolar solvents. To clarify the reaction mechanism of this critical reaction, we decided to perform a DFT study. Our results prove the existence of a cooperative effect of the metal and the ligand in several steps of the catalytic cycle. We also find the presence of several equilibria between isomeric intermediates where water, or the same alcohol reagent, takes part in assisting the proton transfer. Furthermore, we have analyzed the charge-separated structure proposed experimentally and have found a nearly pure covalent bond between the two expected charged moieties. Finally, the Knoevenagel condensation step that generates the acrylonitrile is found to be the rate-determining stepJ.A.L.U. thanks the Universitat de Girona for the IFUdG2017 Ph.D. fellowship. A.P. and M.S. are grateful to the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) of Spain (projects CTQ2014-59832-JIN and CTQ2017-85341-P), the Generalitat de Catalunya (project 2017SGR39, Xarxa de Referència en Quı́mica Teòrica i Computacional, the ICREA Academia prize 2014 awarded to M.S.), and the European Fund for Regional Development (FEDER) grant UNGI10-4E-80

Biocultural Heritages in Mallorca: Explaining the Resilience of Peasant Landscapes within a Mediterranean Tourist Hotspot, 1870–2016

This is a highly interesting and relevant paper which is well suited for publication. The scholarship of the paper is very convincing and the scope (tying past to present) is well carried out. However, there are quite a lot of language issues and Chapter 2 should be worked on a bit to be more condensed. In particular as the readership are not historians some of the detail provided could also be condensed to make the overall frame of the paper more clear. In addition, though bicultural heritage is introduced in the beginning and resilience in the very title of the paper there is very little use of the concepts in the actual paper. A few explanations here and there would suffice to make the link more clear. A definition and some refs to the concept of biocultural heritage should also be added. I have made quite a lot of language edits/suggestions in the text and also in comments. I should stress however that I think this is a very good paper, that deserves to be well understood and quoted, hence my extensive commentsThis work has been funded by the Spanish projects HAR2014-54891-P and HAR2015-69620-C2-1-P, and the international Partnership Grant SSHRC 895-2011-1020 on ‘Sustainable farm systems: long-term socio-ecological metabolism in Western agriculture’ funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canad

Payasas y xoxo clown show: marcos teóricos, metodológicos y epistemológicos de una investigación social y artística = Female clowns and the Cunt Clown Show: theoretical, methodological and epistemological frameworks of a social and artistic research projec

The article examines the place and function that the artistic project "Cunt Clown Show" has had within the framework of the research "Female Clowns: Herstories, Bodies and Ways of Representing Comicality from a Gender Perspective". To do so, there is a brief presentation of the research, with an overview of its methodological and epistemological frameworks: feminist research, artistic research and arts-based research. The article then presents the synopses, objectives and other relevant information with respect to the Cunt Clown Show. The reflections on this project provide the basis for an artistic research conducted within a broader framework of feminist research and social arts-based research. The artistic and academic projects feed each other in an enriching process of interchange between critical exercise, theoretical systemization and the artistic practice of bringing the show to the stageEste artículo busca reflexionar sobre el lugar y la función que el proyecto artístico Xoxo Clown Show ha tenido en el marco de la investigación «Payasas: historias, cuerpos y formas de representar la comicidad desde una perspectiva de género». Para esto, hago una breve presentación de dicha investigación, explicando sus marcos metodológico-epistemológicos: investigación feminista, investigación artística e investigación basada en las artes (IBA). En seguida, son presentados la sinopsis, los objetivos y otros puntos relevantes del proyecto Xoxo Clown Show. Las reflexiones sobre este apuntan hacia una indagación artística que se desarrolla dentro de un marco más amplio de investigación feminista e investigación social basada en las artes. Proyecto artístico y proyecto académico se nutren mutuamente, en un rico proceso de intercambio entre ejercicio crítico, sistematización teórica y práctica artística de puesta en escena del espectácul

Fungal treatment of metoprolol and its recalcitrant metabolite metoprolol acid in hospital wastewater: Biotransformation, sorption and ecotoxicological impact

Hospital wastewater (HWW) effluents represent an important source of contaminants such as pharmaceutical compounds and their human metabolites. To better evaluate dedicated treatment of hospital effluents for pollutant mitigation, not only the parent compounds should be considered but also the intermediates generated during treatment. The metabolite metoprolol acid (MTPA) has been found in urban wastewaters at higher concentration than its parent compound metoprolol (MTP), being more recalcitrant to biodegradation. The aim of this study was to investigate degradation, transformation and sorption of the β-blocker MTP, and its recalcitrant metabolite MTPA, during water treatment based on the fungi Ganoderma lucidum, Trametes versicolor and Pleurotus ostreatus. Fourteen intermediates were identified in MTP biotransformation while five of them also attributed to MTPA biodegradation and two to MTPA only. Their identification allowed their correlation in separate biotransformation pathways suggested. The highest degradation rate of metoprolol (up to 51%) and metoprolol acid (almost 77%) was found after 15-days treatment with Ganoderma lucidum, with an increase in toxicity up to 29% and 4%, respectively. This fungus was further selected for treating real HWW in a batch fluidized bed bioreactor (FBB). Treated wastewater and fungal biomass samples were used to evaluate the distribution of the target compounds and the intermediates identified between solid and liquid phases. While similar elimination capabilities were observed for the removal of metoprolol, and even higher for its persistent metabolite metoprolol acid, the extent on compound transformation diminished considerably compared with the study treating purified water: a high level of the persistent α-HMTP and TP240 were still present in effluent samples (15% and 6%, respectively), being both TPs present at high proportion (up to 28%) in fungal biomass. This is the first time that pharmaceutical TPs have been investigated in the fungal biomassThis work was supported funded by the Spanish Ministry ofEconomy and Competitiveness (CTM2013-48548-C2), partly fun-ded by the European Union through the European RegionalDevelopment Fund (ERDF) and supported by the Generalitat deCatalunya (Consolidate Research Group 2017 SGR 14, 2017 SGR1404 and ICRA-ENV 2017 SGR 1124). The Department of Chemical,Biological and Environmental Engineering of the UniversitatAut onoma de Barcelona is a member of the Xarxa de Refer encia enBiotecnologia de la Generalitat de Catalunya. A. Ja en-Gil acknowl-edges his PhD scholarship from AGAUR (2018FI_B1_00212), F.Castellet-Rovira acknowledges a predoctoral grant from UAB and S.Rodriguez-Mozaz acknowledges the Ramon y Cajal program (RYC-2014-16707). We would like to thank Sant Joan de D eu Hospitalstaff for their collaboration during the sampling campaig

Avaluació de l’ús de l’osmosi directa per a la concentració de l’aigua residual urbana

The growing need for the reuse of water and recovery of resources has awoken interest in the regeneration of wastewater through new processes of membrane treatment that generate high quality water. Forward osmosis is one of the promising technologies for wastewater treatment due to lower energy requirements, higher permeate purity and lower fouling tendency compared to the technologies that work at higher pressures. This system is based on the natural phenomenon of osmosis: water is transported via a difference in concentrations of solutes through a membrane that allows for the passage of water, but rejects most molecules and ions. The application of forward osmosis also allows concentrate the content of organic matter from wastewater and facilitates subsequent application of anaerobic digestion for energy recovery. In this study, the feasibility of using forward osmosis to concentrate a sample of urban wastewater was investigated and the composition of the concentrate was evaluated for its recovery as an influent in anaerobic digestion. Two modules have been compared with different membrane configurations: a submerged flat plate (Toray) and a hollow fiber (Aquaporin). In order to do it, the capacity of membrane modules has been quantified to concentrate in a pilot plant the organic matter of the wastewater from Quart’s WWTP under different operating conditions, as well as its performance (water and reverse solute fluxes), its fouling, the efficiency of various methods of cleaning and the influence of ionic species. Studies have shown that forward osmosis technology allows the concentration of organic matter from urban wastewater. The comparative analysis has shown that the Toray module allows concentrate more effectively the organic matter, especially in those situations where gas sparging was not used. However, this condition implies a lower water flux and a higher fouling degree. Regarding the Aquaporin module, the reverse solute flux has been lower, which implies a lower inhibition of the methanogenic activity in the subsequent anaerobic digestion. On the other hand, the results of the characterization of ionic species have shown that the sulphate concentration was higher in the experiments carried out with Aquaporin module and with the Toray module when gas sparging was applied. This fact causes the deterioration of the quality and the amount of the biogas produced by anaerobic digeste

Inside a 3D simulation: Realism, dramatism and challenge in the development of students' teacher digital competence

The universalisation of immersive technologies and digital 3D environments has enabled simulated experiences to be created in various contexts, one of which is education. These environments have immense potential for, for example, generating immersive situations in which students can experience real learning. Although realism, dramatism and challenge have been little explored in the field of education, they are increasingly viewed as interesting conditions to be satisfied when simulations aimed at ensuring meaningful learning in the virtual world are designed. This article reflects on these three qualities in a simulation experience for initial teacher training conducted under the Simul@b project, the main objective of which was to design, implement and evaluate a 3D simulations laboratory for developing teacher digital competence among primary and secondary schoolteachers. The results of this experience show that simulation in 3D environments is a productive strategy with enormous potential. Moreover, these environments enable the creation of realistic scenarios that allow teaching competences to be developed and whose simulation has a positive impact on learnin