Poplar borer, Saperda calcarata Say, in interior British Columbia

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A brief history of the poplar and willow borer, Sternochetus lapathi (L), in British Columbia

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A whole-bark method of rearing Dryocoetes Confusus SW.

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Auditoría universitaria y calidad

Consultable des del TDXTítol obtingut de la portada digitalitzadaLa Universidad española tiene en estos momentos ante sí uno de los retos más apasionantes que jamás esta Institución se haya planteado. En primer lugar, la adaptación a los grandes cambios socioeconómicos ocurridos en las últimas décadas que interaccionan desarrollo económico y calidad universitaria. En segundo lugar, como consecuencia de ello, a la búsqueda de la excelencia académica, profesional y científica, que se convierte en un tema clave para la competitividad y la calidad de un país. En tercer lugar, al cambio significativo que ha supuesto la implantación de una armonización universitaria europea a través de la integración y desarrollo en el Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior. Por último, resaltar que el cambio europeo ha quedado sobrepasado por un reto mayor como es la globalización y que ha puesto a las Universidades ya no sólo ante una calidad y competencia europea sino mundial. La calidad y la competitividad de un país no depende solo de la calidad y productividad de sus empresas sino que vendrá determinado en gran parte por la calidad, productividad y competitividad de las Universidades y de sus miembros, tanto en su aspecto investigador como docente. Igualmente el desarrollo económico y del conocimiento de un país tiene mucho que ver con la calidad de la enseñanza de sus universidades. Éstas, al tomar decisiones dentro del ámbito de sus competencias, deberán considerar seriamente su posición competitiva. La Declaración de Bolonia marca las directrices de lo que debe ser la Universidad Europea, de ella se desprende la necesidad de hacer competitiva y atractiva la enseñanza universitaria europea a escala mundial, enfocada a contactar con las necesidades sociales y a hacer más comparables los distintos sistemas educativos. Los Sistemas de Garantía de Calidad son los instrumentos de reforma social y progreso más efectivos que podemos ofrecer en el ámbito universitario, así como una herramienta fundamental para la competitividad y rendición de cuentas. De esta forma se pretende romper con el estereotipo dominante de confundir estos instrumentos con técnicas inherentes y provenientes de la empresa privada en sus manifestaciones más liberales y mercantilistas. En dicho espacio debemos tener en cuenta que el eje mas vertebrado de la armonización van a ser los Sistemas de Garantía de Calidad Universitaria. No podemos olvidar que el cambio europeo ha quedado sobrepasado por un reto mayor, la globalización y que ha situado a las universidades ante una calidad y competencia mundial. No debemos desaprovechar el espacio de educación superior natural, que es Latinoamérica. España tendrá mucho más peso en el Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior si sabe construir rápidamente el Espacio Iberoamericano de Educación Superior. No somos conscientes de que nuestra calidad en Europa depende de que aceleremos el Espacio Iberoamericano dirigido por nosotros mismos con un sistema de evaluación y unos estándares establecidos en ese ámbito Iberoamericano de más de quinientos millones de habitantes de habla española y portuguesa. Esta visión estratégica de acelerar el Espacio Iberoamericano de Educación Superior no es excluyente sino que nos va a reforzar en el Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior y además nos va a servir, como ha sucedido con la experiencia empresarial, para situarnos en la competencia universitaria mundial. Auditoria y evaluación, como a menudo equivocadamente se piensa no es un puro tecnicismo, sino que es un instrumento indispensable para introducir nuevos valores en la sociedad, en el Estado, en la universidad, en la empresa a través de nuevos estándares e indicadores, como son por ejemplo los de calidad ambiental, los de diversidad lingüística y racial en la Universidad, etc. Por tanto la auditoria y evaluación es un sistema muy efectivo de introducir nuevos derechos y valores.The Spanish University has in these moments one of the challenges more exciting that this Institution has never appeared. First, the adjustment to the big socioeconomic changes happened in the last decades that interconnect economic development and university quality. Secondly, as consequence of it, to the search of the academic, professional and scientific excellence, this turns into a key topic for the competitiveness and the quality of a country. Thirdly, to the significant change that has supposed the implantation of a European university harmonization across the integration and development in the European Space of High Education. Finally, to highlight that the European change has remained exceeded by a major challenge as is the globalization and that it has put to the Universities already not only before a quality and European but world competition. The quality and the competitiveness of a country does not depend only on the quality and productivity of its companies but it will come determined largely by the quality, productivity and competitiveness of the Universities and of its members, so much in its investigative as educational aspect. Equally the economic development and of the knowledge of a country there has much that to see with the quality of the education of its universities. These, on having taken decisions inside the area of its competitions, will have to consider seriously its competitive position. The Declaration of Bologna marks the directives what must be the European University, with it there parts the need to make competitive and attractive the university European education on a worldwide scale, focused to contacting with the social needs and to making the different educational systems more comparable. The Systems of guarantee of Quality are the instruments of social reform and progress more workforce that we can offer in the university area, as well as a fundamental tool for the competitiveness and account surrender. Of this form one tries to break with the dominant stereotype of confusing these instruments with technologies inherent and from the private company in its more liberal manifestations and mercantilists. In the above mentioned space we must bear in mind that the axis more vertebrate of the harmonization they are going to be the Systems of Guarantee of University Quality. We cannot forget that the European change has remained exceeded by a major challenge, the globalization and that it has placed to the universities before a quality and world competition. We must not fail to take advantage of the space of top natural education, which is Latin America. Spain will have much more weight in the European Space of High Education if it can construct rapidly the Latin-American Space of High Education. We are not conscious that our quality in Europe depends of that we accelerate the Latin-American Space directed by us themselves with a system of evaluation and a few standards established in this Latin-American area of more than five hundred million inhabitants of Spanish and Portuguese speech. This strategic vision of accelerating the Latin-American Space of High Education is not exclusive but it is going to reinforce us in the European Space of High Education and in addition it is going to serve us, since it has happened with the managerial experience, to place in the university world competition. Audit and evaluation, since often wrongly it is thought is not a pure technicality, but it is an indispensable instrument to introduce new values in the society, in the State, in the university, in the company across new standards and indicators, since they are for example those of environmental quality, those of linguistic and racial diversity in the University, etc. Therefore the audit and evaluation is a very effective system of introducing new rights and values

Ab initio parametrised model of strain-dependent solubility of H in alpha-iron

The calculated effects of interstitial hydrogen on the elastic properties of alpha-iron from our earlier work are used to describe the H interactions with homogeneous strain fields using ab initio methods. In particular we calculate the H solublility in Fe subject to hydrostatic, uniaxial, and shear strain. For comparison, these interactions are parametrised successfully using a simple model with parameters entirely derived from ab initio methods. The results are used to predict the solubility of H in spatially-varying elastic strain fields, representative of realistic dislocations outside their core. We find a strong directional dependence of the H-dislocation interaction, leading to strong attraction of H by the axial strain components of edge dislocations and by screw dislocations oriented along the critical slip direction. We further find a H concentration enhancement around dislocation cores, consistent with experimental observations.Comment: part 2/2 from splitting of 1009.3784 (first part was 1102.0187), minor changes from previous version

Critical Dynamics of Burst Instabilities in the Portevin-Le Chatelier Effect

We investigate the Portevin-Le Chatelier effect (PLC), by compressing Al-Mg alloys in a very large deformation range, and interpret the results from the viewpoint of phase transitions and critical phenomena. The system undergoes two dynamical phase transitions between intermittent (or "jerky") and "laminar" plastic dynamic phases. Near these two dynamic critical points, the order parameter 1/\tau of the PLC effect exhibits large fluctuations, and "critical slowing down" (i.e., the number $\tau$ of bursts, or plastic instabilities, per unit time slows down considerably).Comment: the published 4-page version is in the PRL web sit

Role of the antisymmetric exchange in quantum spin liquids

The quantum critical state of organic quantum spin liquids (QSL) exhibits large sensitivity even to weak perturbations. For example, the antisymmetric exchange, the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction, which is present in all spin systems without inversion symmetry, could result in a phase transition from the quantum critical phase to an antiferromagnetic phase already at moderate magnetic fields. Using the combination of multi-frequency Electron Spin Resonance spectroscopy (ESR) in the 1-500 GHz frequency range and muon spin rotation (mSR), we studied the influence of the DM interaction in two-dimensional and quasi-one-dimensional organic QSL candidates. In the triangular lattice QSL, k-(ET)2Ag2(CN)3 (J’/J=0.94, J=175 K), our ESR measurements found a static staggered moment of 6×10-3 mB at T=1.5 K and at B=15 T [1]. The magnetic field dependence of the ESR linewidth, which measures the spectral density of the antiferromagnetic fluctuations, proves that this staggered moment stems from the DM interaction (DM0=4 K) in a perfectly crystalline two-dimensional structure. In a new quasi-one-dimensional QSL candidate, (EDT-TTF-CONH2)2+BABCO-, which is a weak Mott insulator with a distorted triangular lattice (J’/J=3, J=360 K), our combined ESR and mSR study confirmed the absence of magnetic ordering down to 20 mK [2]. This remarkable observation is partially attributed to a unique structural motif of the (EDT-TTF-CONH2)2+BABCO- salt. Here, the (EDT-TTF-CONH2)2+ conducting layers are separated by the highly disordered BABCO- molecular rotors. Importantly, despite the presence of a sizable DM interaction (DM0=0.6 K), the staggered moment is smaller than 4×10-4 mB at T=1.5 K and B=15 T. The magnetic field dependence of the ESR linewidth does not show the effect of the DM interaction. Instead, the linear dependence is indicative of the presence of fast spin fluctuations, which is supported by longitudinal-field mSR measurements that reveal the spin excitations to possess one-dimensional diffusive character. The quenching of the effect of the DM interaction is explained by the strong disorder introduced by the anion layer. Despite the fact that the magnitude of the DM interaction is 2 to 3 orders of magnitude weaker than the symmetric exchange, it can substantially alter the phase diagram of QSLs. Our work gives a novel explanation to the field-induced phase transitions, and it demonstrates that high-frequency ESR is a powerful technique to study the spin dynamics of QSLs

Age-specific vaccine effectiveness of seasonal 2010/2011 and pandemic influenza A(H1N1) 2009 vaccines in preventing influenza in the United Kingdom

An analysis was undertaken to measure age-specific vaccine effectiveness (VE) of 2010/11 trivalent seasonal influenza vaccine (TIV) and monovalent 2009 pandemic influenza vaccine (PIV) administered in 2009/2010. The test-negative case-control study design was employed based on patients consulting primary care. Overall TIV effectiveness, adjusted for age and month, against confirmed influenza A(H1N1)pdm 2009 infection was 56% (95% CI 42–66); age-specific adjusted VE was 87% (95% CI 45–97) in <5-year-olds and 84% (95% CI 27–97) in 5- to 14-year-olds. Adjusted VE for PIV was only 28% (95% CI x6 to 51) overall and 72% (95% CI 15–91) in <5-year-olds. For confirmed influenza B infection, TIV effectiveness was 57% (95% CI 42–68) and in 5- to 14-year-olds 75% (95% CI 32–91). TIV provided moderate protection against the main circulating strains in 2010/2011, with higher protection in children. PIV administered during the previous season provided residual protection after 1 year, particularly in the <5 years age group

Long-term study of VOCs measured with PTR-MS at a rural site in New Hampshire with urban influences

A long-term, high time-resolution volatile organic compound (VOC) data set from a ground site that experiences urban, rural, and marine influences in the Northeastern United States is presented. A proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometer (PTR-MS) was used to quantify 15 VOCs: a marine tracer dimethyl sulfide (DMS), a biomass burning tracer acetonitrile, biogenic compounds (monoterpenes, isoprene), oxygenated VOCs (OVOCs: methyl vinyl ketone (MVK) plus methacrolein (MACR), methanol, acetone, methyl ethyl ketone (MEK), acetaldehyde, and acetic acid), and aromatic compounds (benzene, toluene, C&lt;sub&gt;8&lt;/sub&gt; and C&lt;sub&gt;9&lt;/sub&gt; aromatics). Time series, overall and seasonal medians, with 10th and 90th percentiles, seasonal mean diurnal profiles, and inter-annual comparisons of mean summer and winter diurnal profiles are shown. Methanol and acetone exhibit the highest overall median mixing ratios 1.44 and 1.02 ppbv, respectively. Comparing the mean diurnal profiles of less well understood compounds (e.g., MEK) with better known compounds (e.g., isoprene, monoterpenes, and MVK + MACR) that undergo various controls on their atmospheric mixing ratios provides insight into possible sources of the lesser known compounds. The constant diurnal value of ~0.7 for the toluene:benzene ratio in winter, may possibly indicate the influence of wood-based heating systems in this region. Methanol exhibits an initial early morning release in summer unlike any other OVOC (or isoprene) and a dramatic late afternoon mixing ratio increase in spring. Although several of the OVOCs appear to have biogenic sources, differences in features observed between isoprene, methanol, acetone, acetaldehyde, and MEK suggest they are produced or emitted in unique ways

Condom-use Skills Checklist: A Proxy for Assessing Condom-use Knowledge and Skills When Direct Observation Is Not Possible

Because of the continued importance of correct condom-use in controlling the HIV epidemic and the limited availability of tools for assessing correct condom-use, methods for assessing condom-application skills, especially when direct observation is not feasible, are needed. Accordingly, in the context of a high-risk population (The Bahamas) for HIV, a 17-item scale—the Condom-use Skills Checklist (CUSC)—was developed for use among young adolescents and adults. The rationale and approach to developing the scale and some measures of internal consistency, construct validity, and criterion-related validity have been described. It is concluded that the scale offers a reasonable alternative to direct observation among older subjects and that further development may make it more useful among pre-adolescents