4,282 research outputs found

    Teachers’ narratives of resistance to Madrid's bilingual programme: an exploratory study in secondary education

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    This paper looks at secondary teachers’ discourse about Madrid's Bilingual Programme (Spain). Madrid's Bilingual Programme is a large education plan whereby some content subjects are taught in a foreign language –mainly English– following Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and whose characteristics and ubiquity have had an impact on teachers’ daily lives and professional career. By drawing on both Grounded Theory and Positioning Theory as analytical tools, data were collected and analysed from the transcription and annotation of 30 semi-structured interviews with experienced secondary teachers working in CLIL and non-CLIL secondary schools. Our findings point to clear tensions in reconciling these teachers’ personal beliefs and professional motivations within the current organisational and political setting and describe a pattern of resistance towards the Bilingual Programme which manifests discursively through emphatic and emotional verbalisations. The results may be of interest to education authorities, policy makers and researchersThis work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Competitiveness (Research Project FFI2016-77540-P

    Pluralism in crisis: Transformations of the spanish DTT market in the context of the recession

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    [Abstract]: This article discusses the most significant aspects of DTT’s evolution in Spain since the analogue switch-off in April 2010. It underscores the severe cutbacks affecting public-service television broadcasters and their impact, as well as a return to government control over the Spanish Broadcasting Corporation (RTVE) in particular. It also emphasises the major tendency towards concentration in the national private DTT market and the inviability of most regional and local broadcasters. All of these issues are analysed from the perspective of their worrying impact on pluralism.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación; CSO2010-1789

    A Survey of Fuzzy Systems Software: Taxonomy, Current Research Trends, and Prospects

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    Fuzzy systems have been used widely thanks to their ability to successfully solve a wide range of problems in different application fields. However, their replication and application require a high level of knowledge and experience. Furthermore, few researchers publish the software and/or source code associated with their proposals, which is a major obstacle to scientific progress in other disciplines and in industry. In recent years, most fuzzy system software has been developed in order to facilitate the use of fuzzy systems. Some software is commercially distributed, but most software is available as free and open-source software, reducing such obstacles and providing many advantages: quicker detection of errors, innovative applications, faster adoption of fuzzy systems, etc. In this paper, we present an overview of freely available and open-source fuzzy systems software in order to provide a well-established framework that helps researchers to find existing proposals easily and to develop well-founded future work. To accomplish this, we propose a two-level taxonomy, and we describe the main contributions related to each field. Moreover, we provide a snapshot of the status of the publications in this field according to the ISI Web of Knowledge. Finally, some considerations regarding recent trends and potential research directions are presentedThis work was supported in part by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under Grants TIN2014-56633-C3-3-R and TIN2014-57251-P, the Andalusian Government under Grants P10-TIC-6858 and P11-TIC-7765, and the GENIL program of the CEI BioTIC GRANADA under Grant PYR-2014-2S

    Engineering, on-demand manufacturing, and scaling-up ofpolymeric nanocapsules

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    Polymeric nanocapsules are versatile delivery systems with the capacity to load lipophilic drugs in their oily nucleus and hydrophilic drugs in their polymeric shell. The objective of this work was to expand the technological possibilities to prepare customized nanocapsules. First, we adapted the solvent displacement technique to modulate the particle size of the resulting nanocapsules in the 50–500 nm range. We also produced nanosystems with a shell made of one or multiple polymer layers i.e. chitosan, dextran sulphate, hyaluronate, chondroitin sulphate, and alginate. In addition, we identified the conditions to translate the process into a miniaturized high-throughput tailor-made fabrication that enables massive screening of formulations. Finally, the production of the nanocapsules was scaled-up both in a batch production, and also using microfluidics. The versatility of the properties of these nanocapsules and their fabrication technologies is expected to propel their advance from bench to clinicThis work was funded by CDTI (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation) and (Fondo Tecnológico Xunta de Galicia, FEDER funds) COLIVAC-FEDER INNTERCONECTA-2012-CE277 and Grupos de referencia competitiva (ED431C 2017/09, Xunta de Galicia)S

    Digital terrestrial television roll-out policies in Spain and the changing television scene in the context of analogue switch-off

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    [Abstract]: This article describes and analyses the digital terrestrial television roll-out polices developed and applied in Spain by conservative and socialist governments (Partido Popular [1996–2004] and Partido Socialista Obrero Español [2004–2010], respectively) from the end of the 1990s until the analogue switch-off in April 2010. It also considers, from national, regional and local perspectives, the implications of this digitalization process for the terrestrial television scene in Spain. Finally, it points to a number of pending public policy issues and potential market trends. As a result of this process, Spain has become one of the first large Western European countries with a predominantly terrestrial television model to switch off analogue broadcasts

    Interaction between renewable energy consumption and dematerialization: insights based on the material footprint and the Environmental Kuznets Curve

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    This paper investigates the effect of renewable energy consumption on material consumption, considering the relationship between Material Footrprint and Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and testing the assumptions of the Environmental Kuznets Curve. A STIRPAT variation is used to specify a model relating the Material Footprint to renewable energy consumption and GDP. The effect is tested for the Material Footprint of fossil fuels and for the Material Footprint of the other categories. The analysis is applied to the seven European countries with the highest proportion of renewable energy consumption. The model estimation shows that the relationship between GDP and Material Footprint follows an inverted N-shaped form, and that the renewable energy favours the reduction of the material consumption of fossil fuels. However, there is a positive effect between the renewable energy consumption and the Material Footprint of the other categories beyond fossil fuels. These results must be interpreted considering the context, as the development of renewable energy coincides with the effects of the 2008 crisis, which may distort the relation between the variables. To pose dematerialization scenarios, it seems necessary to consider reducing energy consumption even if it comes from renewable sourcesS

    Using nanotechnology to deliver biomolecules from nose to brain — peptides, proteins, monoclonal antibodies and RNA

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    There is a growing number of biomolecules, including peptides, proteins, monoclonal antibodies and RNA, that could be potentially used for the treatment of central nervous system (CNS) diseases. However, the realization of their potential is being hampered by the extraordinary difculties these complex biomolecules have to reach the brain in therapeutically meaningful amounts. Nose-to-brain (N-to-B) delivery is now being investigated as a potential option for the direct transport of biomolecules from the nasal cavity to diferent brain areas. Here, we discuss how diferent technological approaches enhance this N-to-B transport, with emphasis on those that have shown a potential for clinical translation. We also analyse how the physicochemical properties of nanocarriers and their modifcation with cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) and targeting ligands afect their efcacy as N-to-B carriers for biomoleculesS

    Extractivism, ecologically unequal exchange and environmental impact in South America: a study using Material Flow Analysis (1990–2017)

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    With the economic and trade liberalisation policies of the late 20th century, the extraction of natural resources for export, known as extractivism, became the central axis of South American economies. This development model has a significant environmental impact and has generated imbalances in the South American productive structure that lead to chronically unfavourable terms of trade for the region. The different price dynamics of exports and imports trap South America in a vicious circle that leads to a progressive need to increase the volume of resources it extracts. Consequently, South America maintains a situation of ecologically unequal exchange that implies the absorption of an ever-increasing environmental impact from the rest of the world. All this calls into question the benefits of free trade, especially in ecological terms, as well as the compatibility between economic growth and the reduction of environmental impacS
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