Research support services in Spanish academic libraries: an analysis of their strategic plans and of an opinion survey administered to their directors

The transition from print to digital information has transformed the role of academic libraries, which have had to redefine themselves as intermediaries and partners in the learning and research processes. This study analyzes the evolution and current provision of research support services in Spanish academic libraries through an analysis of the three strategic plans published by the Spanish association of academic libraries (REBIUN) and a survey administered to the library directors. Results show that academic libraries are firmly embedded within universities' research activities, and that most of them depend on vice-rectorates for research or scientific policy. There is a relationship between the size of the library and its provision of research support services, although no correlation is observed between the size of the library and the staff devoted to research support. Library directors stress the value of institutional repositories, a vision also reflected in the importance assigned to open access in the strategic plans. Other current hot topics, such as data management, do not seem to be among the priorities of Spanish library directors as yet

La Moderna agronomia a les Observaciones sobre la historia natural, geografía, agricultura, población y frutos del Reyno de Valencia, d'Antoni Josep Cavanilles (1745-1804)

The Observaciones... of Cavanilles are analyzed from a agricultural point of view. This book contains a very interesting descriptive information about the Valencian Kigdom Economy at the end of the XVIIIth century, mainly in the basic agricultural aspects (Botany, Geology, Entomology...) and in the usual practices, but it results poor in the introduction of new technologies derived from «The New Methode» initiated by Tull

Programa de Intervención psicológica para la optimización del concepto de equipo (team building) en jóvenes futbolistas

This study aims to develop a team-building program, a multidimensional psychological intervention based on the principles of team building (TB) (Spink and Carron, 1993, Vicente, 1999), and assess whether it can foster the development of team satisfaction and cohesion. The participants were 20 young footballers from one team. The Cohesion and Satisfaction perception variables were accessed with the Portuguese version of the ASQp and GEQp. The results showed that after the TB intervention, social cohesion increased, task cohesion held steady and satisfaction associated with aspects that converged towards the goals decreased. In the follow-up phase, task cohesion was steady and social cohesion declined. In conclusion, a psychological intervention programme may be a catalyst of cohesion, team satisfaction and performance within the context of this group

Hey, Influencer! Message Delivery to Social Central Nodes in Social Opportunistic Networks

This paper presents a new strategy to efficiently deliver messages to influencers in social opportunistic networks. An influencer node is an important node in the network with a high social centrality and, as a consequence, it can have some characteristics such as high reputation, trustfulness and credibility, that makes it an interesting recipient. Social network analysis has already been used to improve routing in opportunistic networking, but there are no mechanisms to efficiently route and deliver messages to these network influencers. The delivery strategy proposed in this article uses optimal stopping statistical techniques to choose among the different delivery candidate nodes in order to maximise the social centrality of the node chosen for delivery. For this decision process, we propose a routing-delivery strategy that takes into account node characteristics such as how central a node is in terms of its physical encounters. We show, by means of simulations based on real traces and message exchange datasets, that our proposal is efficient in terms of influencer selection, overhead, delivery ratio and latency time. With the proposed strategy, a new venue of applications for opportunistic networks can be devised and developed using the leading figure of social influencer

Inhibition of HIV cell-to-cell fusion by antiretroviral drugs and neutralizing antibodies

Poster presented at the 7th iMed.ULisboa Postgraduate Students Meeting. Lisbon, 15 July 2015"Inhibition of HIV cell entry by antiretroviral drugs and neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) is typically measured in assays where cell-free virions enter reporter cell lines. However, direct Env-mediated cell-to-cell transmission is a major mechanism of HIV infection that also needs to be targeted. In this work we aimed to determine the ability of anti-HIV compounds in clinical or research use to inhibit HIV mediated cell-to-cell fusion (syncytia formation)."Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia - Portugal ; European Unio

Efficient Broadcast in Opportunistic Networks using Optimal Stopping Theory

In this paper, we present a broadcast dissemination protocol for messages in opportunistic networks (OppNet) that is efficient in terms of energy consumption and network capacity usage, while not increasing the number of excluded nodes (nodes not receiving messages). The majority of the OppNet broadcast delivery schemes proposed in the literature, do not take into consideration that reducing energy and buffer usage is of paramount importance in these wireless networks normally consisting of small devices. In our protocol, broadcast messages are limited by carefully selecting their prospective forwarders (storers). The keystone of our protocol is the use of Optimal Stopping Theory, which selects the best message storers at every stage of the algorithm, while holding back broad message dissemination until convenient conditions are met. The broadcast efficiency of the proposed protocol out competes other OppNet broadcast proposals in four well-known scenarios. Furthermore, the protocol reduces the number of both dropped messages and nodes not receiving messages, thus maximising network capacity usage, and the span of the message deliver

not so rare after all

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Comparative performance of diffused junction indium phosphide solar cells

A comparison is made between indium phosphide solar cells whose p-n junctions were processed by open tube capped diffusion, and closed tube uncapped diffusion, of sulfur into Czochralski grown p-type substrates. Air mass zero, total area, efficiencies ranged from 10 to 14.2 percent, the latter value attributed to cells processed by capped diffusion. The radiation resistance of these latter cells was slightly better, under 1 MeV electron irradiation. However, rather than being process dependent, the difference in radiation resistance could be attributed to the effects of increased base dopant concentration. In agreement with previous results, both cells exhibited radiation resistance superior to that of gallium arsenide. The lowest temperature dependency of maximum power was exhibited by the cells prepared by open tube capped diffusion. Contrary to previous results, no correlation was found between open circuit voltage and the temperature dependency of Pmax. It was concluded that additional process optimization was necessary before concluding that one process was better than another

Climate-driven changes in air quality over Europe by the end of the 21st century, with special reference to Portugal

Climate change alone may deeply impact air quality levels in the atmosphere because the changes in the meteorological conditions will induce changes on the transport, dispersion and transformation of air pollutants. The aim of this work was to evaluate the impact of climate change on the air quality over Europe and Portugal, using a reference year (year 1990) and a IPCC SRES A2 year (year 2100). The Hadley Centre global atmospheric circulation model (HadAM3P) was used to provide results for these two climatic scenarios, which were then used as synoptic forcing for the MM5-CHIMERE air quality modelling system. In order to assess the contribution of future climate change on 03 and PM concentrations, no changes in regional emissions were assumed and only climate change forcing was considered. The modelling results suggest that the O(3) monthly mean levels in the atmosphere may increase almost 50 mu g m(-3) across Europe in July under the IPCC SRES A2 scenario. In Portugal, this increase may reach 20 mu g m(-3). The changes of PM10 monthly average values over Europe will depend on the region. The increase in PM10 concentrations during specific months could be explained by the average reduction of the boundary layer height and wind speed. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved