Ciència, història i creació en Robert Musil a partir de L’home sense atributs

Treballs Finals de Grau d'Història de l'Art, Facultat de Geografia i Història, Universitat de Barcelona, Curs: 2014-2015, Tutor: Josep CasalsMusil té el prolongat propòsit de presentar el panorama de l’Europa del final de la modernitat, entre les dues terribles guerres, que paral·lelament sucumbia entre la irracionalitat i l’absurd. Per això, en les següents pàgines presentarem Musil dins d’un context de conflicte amb la modernitat, prenent com a base algunes de les seves obres i assajos així com estudis que se li refereixen, tot plegat enllaçat amb el tema de la creació literària, l’essència del creador i la seva elaboració de la realitat

A conceptual design of an advanced 23 m diameter IACT of 50 tons for ground-based gamma-ray astronomy

A conceptual design of an advanced Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescope with a 23 m diameter mirror and of 50 tons weight will be presented. A system photon detection efficiency of 15-17%, averaged over 300-600 nm, is aimed at to lower the threshold to 10-20 GeV. Prospects for a second generation camera with Geiger-mode Avalanche Photo Diodes will be discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, to appear in the proceedings of the 31th International Cosmic Ray Conference, Lodz, Poland, 200

Assistance strategies for robotized laparoscopy

Robotizing laparoscopic surgery not only allows achieving better accuracy to operate when a scale factor is applied between master and slave or thanks to the use of tools with 3 DoF, which cannot be used in conventional manual surgery, but also due to additional informatic support. Relying on computer assistance different strategies that facilitate the task of the surgeon can be incorporated, either in the form of autonomous navigation or cooperative guidance, providing sensory or visual feedback, or introducing certain limitations of movements. This paper describes different ways of assistance aimed at improving the work capacity of the surgeon and achieving more safety for the patient, and the results obtained with the prototype developed at UPC.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Trobat l'accelerador de partícules en la radiogalàxia Messier 87

Un equip internacional d'investigadors, dirigit per l'Institut de Física d'Altes Energies (IFAE), adscrit a la UAB, i de l'Institut Max Planck, ha descobert la localització exacta de la regió d'acceleració de partícules en la veïna radiogalàxia gegant Messier 87.Un equipo internacional de investigadores, dirigido por el Instituto de Física de Altas Energías (IFAE), adscrito a la UAB y del Instituto Max Planck, ha descubierto la localización exacta de la región de aceleración de partículas en la vecina radiogaláxia gigante Messier 87, un núcleo galáctico activo situado a unos 55 millones de años luz de la Tierra

The generalist inside the specialist: gut bacterial communities of two insect species feeding on toxic plants are dominated by enterococcus sp.

Some specialist insects feed on plants rich in secondary compounds, which pose a major selective pressure on both the phytophagous and the gut microbiota. However, microbial communities of toxic plant feeders are still poorly characterized. Here, we show the bacterial communities of the gut of two specialized Lepidoptera, Hyles euphorbiae and Brithys crini, which exclusively feed on latex-rich Euphorbia sp. and alkaloid-rich Pancratium maritimum, respectively. A metagenomic analysis based on high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene revealed that the gut microbiota of both insects is dominated by the phylum Firmicutes, and especially by the common gut inhabitant Enterococcus sp. Staphylococcus sp. are also found in H. euphorbiae though to a lesser extent. By scanning electron microscopy, we found a dense ring-shaped bacterial biofilm in the hindgut of H. euphorbiae, and identified the most prominent bacterium in the biofilm as Enterococcus casseliflavus through molecular techniques. Interestingly, this species has previously been reported to contribute to the immobilization of latex-like molecules in the larvae of Spodoptera litura, a highly polyphagous lepidopteran. The E. casseliflavus strain was isolated from the gut and its ability to tolerate natural latex was tested under laboratory conditions. This fact, along with the identification of less frequent bacterial species able to degrade alkaloids and/or latex, suggest a putative role of bacterial communities in the tolerance of specialized insects to their toxic diet.Financial support was provided by grant BFU2012-39816-C02-01 (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain) co-financed by FEDER funds to Amparo Latorre and CGL2008-00605 (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación) to Joaquín Baixeras. Cristina Vilanova is a recipient of a FPU fellowship from the Ministerio de Educación (Spain).Peer reviewe