Improving Room Carrying Capacity within Built Environments in the Context of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic that has struck the world since March 2019 has established an unusual modus operandi for all of us. During this transient situation, some of the activities have been severely altered, especially those which are performed in indoor spaces such as classrooms, restaurants, or libraries. As physical distance is mandatory in most countries, the capacity of these places has been severely reduced, causing unsustainable economic and logistical issues. This work aims to analyze the possible ways of distributing seats in symmetrical spaces for different uses and room sizes. For that purpose, the classical seat arrangement in rows and columns is compared with an equilateral triangle-based seat pattern, which is proposed as a better solution in most cases. Results show that a greater number of seats is achieved in most situations using the proposed patterns, with mean increases of 13% and peaks from 25% to 50% in some specific circumstances. A discussion about an optimized layout, shape and size of the furniture used in multiple seat tables is included. The outcome shall generate a positive impact on schools, colleges, restaurants, libraries, and similar built environments where seating capacity is crucial

Nonlinear growth of zonal flows by secondary instability in general magnetic geometry

We present a theory of the nonlinear growth of zonal flows in magnetized plasma turbulence, by the mechanism of secondary instability. The theory is derived for general magnetic geometry, and is thus applicable to both tokamaks and stellarators. The predicted growth rate is shown to compare favorably with nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations, with the error scaling as expected with the small parameter of the theory.Comment: New J. Phys. 201

Understanding nonlinear saturation in zonal-flow-dominated ion temperature gradient turbulence

We propose a quantitative model of ion temperature gradient driven turbulence in toroidal magnetized plasmas. In this model, the turbulence is regulated by zonal flows, i.e. mode saturation occurs by a zonal-flow-mediated energy cascade ("shearing"), and zonal flow amplitude is controlled by nonlinear decay. Our model is tested in detail against numerical simulations to confirm that both its assumptions and predictions are satisfied. Key results include (1) a sensitivity of the nonlinear zonal flow response to the energy content of the linear instability, (2) a persistence of zonal-flow-regulated saturation at high temperature gradients, (3) a physical explanation of the nonlinear saturation process in terms of secondary and tertiary instabilities, and (4) dependence of heat flux in terms of dimensionless parameters.Comment: Final journal version. Some clarifications and a new Fig.

Nouveau signalement de Cataetyx laticeps (Bythitidae) en Atlantique nord-ouest

2 pages, 2 figures.-- Ichtyologiques notes.[EN] The capture of C. laticeps off Newfoundland constitutes the first record of this species in the Northwestern Atlantic. Known until now from East Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea, this capture notably extends its range of distribution towards the Northwest.[FR] La capture d’un spécimen de C. laticeps au large de Terre-Neuve constitue le premier signalement de cette espèce dans l’Atlantique nord-ouest. Connue jusqu’à présent de l’Atlantique est et de la Méditerranée, cette capture étend notablement son aire de distribution vers le nord-ouest.The Instituto Español de Oceanografía (IEO) supported this study.Peer reviewe

Sociedad civil, ciudadanía y género

El principal objetivo de este artículo es ver y comprender la relación de tres conceptos: igualdad de género, sociedad civil y ciudadanía, con el interés de concluir cómo se puede hacer avanzar la agenda feminista. En la historia del movimiento feminista la relación de la sociedad civil y la ciudadanía y sus nexos con el estado han sido el centro de la lucha de las demandas feministas. La historia de los grupos feministas en sus luchas de finales del siglo XIX y principios del XX son un buen ejemplo de cómo las mujeres han sabido constituirse en asociaciones como parte de la sociedad civil para demandar derechos que los estados finalmente han incorporado a través de las leyes y las políticas de igualdad. Los actuales estados democráticos han alcanzado un gran nivel de igualdad legal, principalmente a través del mecanismo de la ciudadanía; pero, este mecanismo no parece suficiente para deshacer algunas desigualdades e injusticias que las mujeres sufren, especialmente en los ámbitos cultural, social y económico. Al analizar estas desigualdades podemos encontrar que la sociedad civil es un campo duro para ser transformado hacia la igualdad, más duro que el representado por el estado democráticoThe aim of this paper is to examine three concepts, gender equality, civil society and citizenship, in order to understand what kind of relationship there is between them, and to observe how the feminist agenda might gain from such a relationship. In the revision of feminist history, the link between civil society, citizenship and state appears as the logical development in the struggle for feminist demands. Late 19th century and early 20th century feminist groups are a good example of how women have been very successful in forming associational groups as part of civil society and have claimed the rights that states have finally incorporated through equality policies and laws. Current democratic states have achieved a high level of legal equality, mainly through the mechanism of citizenship, but this mechanism does not seem empowered to undo other constraints that women suffer, especially cultural, social and economic constraints. In searching these inequalities we may find that the civil society arena is much tougher than that represented by a democratic stat

Performatividad: la teoria especial y la general

Si en Gender Trouble (1990) Butler presentaba una propuesta de la teoría de la performatividad de los actos de habla aplicada a la construcción del género, en su último libro, Notes towards a Performative Theory of Assembly (2015), articula una teoría de la performatividad aplicada a la acción colectiva de minorías o poblaciones que son estimadas como “desechables”. El interés de la propuesta que presentamos es analizar cómo la teoría de la performatividad de género se ha ido ampliando a las formas de acción democrática; pasando así de ser una explicación centrada en las posibilidades identitarias de género a explicar las posibilidades para una vida vivible. Es lo que aquí llamamos la ampliación de la performatividad, del caso especial de género al caso general de una vida vivible.If in Gender Trouble (1990) Butler presented a proposal of the theory of performativity of speech acts applied to the construction of gender, in her last book, Notes towards a Performative Theory of Assembly (2015), she articulates a theory of performativity applied to collective and concerted action of minorities or populations that are estimated to be “disposable”. The interest of the proposal that we present in this paper is to analyze how the theory of performativity of gender is now extended to the forms of democratic action; going from being a structure that explains the possibilities of gender to explain the possibilities for a livable life. It is what we call here the extension of performativity, from the special case of gender to the general case of a livable life