Albus 1: A very bright white dwarf candidate

We have serendipitously discovered a previously-unknown, bright source (B_T = 11.75+/-0.07 mag) with a very blue V_T-K_s color, to which we have named Albus 1. A photometric and astrometric study using Virtual Observatory tools has shown that it possesses an appreciable proper motion and magnitudes and colors very similar to those of the well known white dwarf G 191-B2B. We consider Albus 1 as a DA-type white dwarf located at about 40 pc. If confirmed its nature, Albus 1 would be the sixth brightest isolated white dwarf in the sky, which would make it an excellent spectrophotometric standard.Comment: ApJ Letters, in pres

Banco Solidario S.A.: The Recovery Strategy, 2000–2004

Five years passed since, in April, 2000, Kurt Koenigsfest took over as the Chief Executive Officer at Banco Solidario S.A. (BancoSol), in La Paz, Bolivia. BancoSol had become the top Latin American bank specializing in providing microbusiness services. Since its beginning in 1992, BancoSol achieved excellent results and became an international reference in the microcredit area. In mid-2000, external and internal factors caused its performance to deteriorate. Kurt and his management team set and implemented a strategy that led the bank to be rated as the best financial institution in the Bolivian financial system in 2004. The time had come to plan for the future; the management team has to establish BancoSol\u27s primary lines of action for the next three years

In situ experimentation and numerical model validation of thermal flow in shallow crystalline rock, Otaniemi case

Nowadays more attention to environmental-friendly sources of energy has been given, aiming to slow down and counteract the damage to the ecosystem product of the abuse of fossil fuels. Different technologies on energy production, solar, wind, tidal, geothermic, etc., have been researched with the additional challenge of how to store it. From the different types of energy, heat represents a basic need in countries where the climate conditions lead to long and cold periods, namely countries at high latitudes where a big part of the produced energy is destined to household and district heating. The Academy of Finland implemented the New Solar Community Concept project to research the development and application of alternative technologies for production and storage of energy. The use of the local geological domains has been considered as a possible solution for seasonal and long-term energy storage, specifically heat. Aalto University participates in Tackling the challenges of a Solar-Community Concept in High Latitudes by researching the seasonal storage of thermal energy in the ground simulating and assessing thermal flow for different borehole heat exchangers arrays. To do this, numerical models have been implemented, special attention to the Weak Form Equations (WFE) and the Heat Transfer in Pipes (HTiP) models. These models are evaluated using the COSMOL® Multiphysics software, each of them with advantages and disadvantages over the other. An in situ experiment has been performed in Aalto’s research tunnel to validate the results of the numerical models. The aim of the experiment was to assess the performance of the models based on the result comparison between the simulated and the observed data under controlled conditions. The experiment consisted of a single U-pipe borehole heat exchanger operating under seasonal conditions. Two phases were defined, heating and cooling. In the first phase, a constant heat flux is provided to the rock by circulating a heated carrier fluid in the BHE. In the second phase, the circulation is stopped allowing the rock to cool down under normal conditions. The heated field in the rock was tracked with a monitoring borehole one meter away from the heat source. Several digital temperature sensors were installed at the monitoring point in customized equipment referred to this work as Thermal Multisensor Probes for this purpose. The comparison made between model and observed results returned an acceptable accuracy of the predicted values of the models for the heat flow in the rock mass. Additionally, it was identified the WFE model can be improved by calibrating the borehole thermal resistance parameter in the equations, parameter that must come from experimental data. Finally, it was seen that the few discontinuities present across the boreholes had a low impact on the flow of heat through the rock for this experiment. Currently, the tuning of the numerical models is being performed at Aalto University by increasing the weight of different parameters in the models matching the results of the experimentation process

An inverse problem in elastography involving Lamé systems

This paper deals with some inverse problems for the linear elasticity system with origin in elastography: we try to identify the material coefficients from some extra information on (a part of) the boundary. In our main result, we assume that the total variation of the coefficient matrix is a priori bounded. We reformulate the problem as the minimization of a function in an appropriate constraint set. We prove that this extremal problem possesses at least one solution with the help of some regularity results. Two crucial ingredients are a Meyers-like theorem that holds in the context of linear elasticity and a nonlinear interpolation result by Luc Tartar. We also perform some numerical experiments that provide satisfactory results. To this end, we apply the Augmented Lagrangian algorithm, completed with a limited-memory BFGS subalgorithm. Finally, on the basis of these experiments, we illustrate the influence of the starting guess and the errors in the data on the behavior of the iterates.Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y UniversidadesMinisterio de Economía y Competitivida

Análisis y desarrollo de un plan hemoterápico

Tesis doctoral inédita leída en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Facultad de Medicina, Departamento de Pediatría. Fecha de lectura: 13 de Julio de 201

La precariedad en los nuevos modelos de empleo = The new forms of precarious work

El mundo laboral ha sufrido cambios radicales con motivo de las distintas revoluciones en la humanidad, y hoy en día nos encontramos ante la última de ellas, caracterizada por la digitalización y la automatización de los procesos productivos esta 4ª Revolución Industrial está en proceso de modificar las relaciones laborales tradicionales. Los nuevos modelos de trabajo, liderados por el trabajo “on demand via app” y el “crowdwork” han conseguido atraer la atención de las grandes empresas gracias a un modelo caracterizado por un abaratamiento de costes, digitalización, descentralización y flexibilidad laboral. Características favorables para corporaciones gigantes pero que conllevan una precarización del empleo moderno. Entre los problemas surgidos, destaca la negativa de las plataformas de definirse como empleadores y de calificar a sus subordinados como trabajadores; lo cual ha alarmado a la legislación nacional y comunitaria, que ha tenido que adaptarse y evolucionar a ritmos nunca vistos; por otra parte, abanderados de los nuevos modelos de trabajo han tenido que rendir cuentas ante los tribunales laborales de sus actuaciones. Al ser una materia tan moderna y cambiante, ha provocado que sistemas legales y agentes sociales tengan que ajustar normas tradicionales y buscar soluciones imaginativas por cuanto hace a su clasificación

Aplicación web desarrollada con Google Web Toolkit, Google Maps, Android, Spring e Hibernate para la localización GPS

En los últimos años, se han empezado a desarrollar sistemas cada vez más sofisticados para la localización y el seguimiento de GPS de vehículos. Este tipo de aplicaciones resultan de gran utilidad para aquellas empresas que están buscando, la manera de realizar un seguimiento de los vehículos de dicha empresa, la visualización en tiempo real de la ruta que siguen los vehículos, la visualización en un mapa de la ruta que tiene que completar los vehículos y de las estadísticas de cada ruta. Con la realización de este proyecto de fin de carrera (PFC), buscamos construir una aplicación Web que consiga realizar la localización y seguimiento por GPS de una flota de vehículos con la tecnología de Android. Dado el avance de las nuevas tecnologías y las comunicaciones móviles, las personas tienen el alcance de usar la aplicación Web en cualquier momento desde su navegador Web de cualquier teléfono móvil o PDA con conexión a Internet. Dicha aplicación Web consiste en una aplicación Web basada en el lenguaje de programación JAVA, con la API v2 de Google Maps, que ofrece la posibilidad de realizar el seguimiento y visualización gráficamente (en un mapa de Google Maps) de una flota de vehículos, y la ruta seguida de cada uno de ellos sobre un mapa de Google Maps de manera dinámica y en tiempo real. La aplicación Web va ligada a una aplicación Android basada en el lenguaje de programación Java, que ofrece el envío de coordenadas a cada cierto tiempo, definido por la velocidad a la que se está circulando, para el seguimiento en tiempo real de la flota de vehículos. Para la realización de dichas aplicaciones se han utilizado el entorno de programación de Eclipse, con el paquete de Android-SDK-Windows, plugin de GWT, plugin Designer y el plugin de Hibernate.Albert Caballero, E. (2012). Aplicación web desarrollada con Google Web Toolkit, Google Maps, Android, Spring e Hibernate para la localización GPS. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/15320.Archivo delegad

The “A to Z” of Managing Type 2 Diabetes in Culturally Diverse Populations

Type 2 diabetes affects racial/ethnic minorities at an alarming rate in the US and in many countries around the world. The quality of health care provided to these groups is often suboptimal, resulting in worse patient-related outcomes when compared to those in mainstream populations. Understanding the complex biological elements that influence the development and course of the disease in high-risk populations is extremely important but often insufficient to implement effective prevention and treatment plans. Multiple factors must be addressed in routine diabetes clinical care. This paper discusses various key factors, organized in alphabetical order. These are acculturation, biology, clinician's cultural awareness, depression and diabetes-specific emotional distress, educational level, fears, group integration, health literacy, intimacy and sexual dysfunction, judging, knowledge of the disease, language, medication adherence, nutritional preferences, other forms of medicine (alternative), perception of body image, quality of life, religion and faith, socio-economic status, technology, unconscious bias, vulnerable groups, asking why?, exercise, “you are in charge” and zip it! Considering these factors in the development of type 2 diabetes prevention and treatment programs will help improve diabetes-related outcomes in culturally diverse populations and reduce health care disparities