The new urban paradigm

This paper argues in favor of a new urban model that harnesses the power that cities have to curb global warming. Such a model tackles fundamental management challenges in the energy, building and transport sectors to promote the growth of diverse and compact cities. Such a model is essential for meeting complex challenges in cities, such as promoting a cohesive social life and a competitive economic base while simultaneously preserving agricultural and natural systems crucial to soil, energy, and material resources. With most of the population living in urban areas, the G20 should recognize the key role that cities play in addressing global challenges such as climate change. Improved measures taken by cities should be an indispensable solution. The G20 Development Working Group, Climate Sustainability Working Group, and Energy Transitions Working Group should incorporate an urban approach to discussions related to climate change.Fil: Lanfranchi, Gabriel. Centro de Implementación de Políticas Públicas para la Equidad y el Crecimiento; ArgentinaFil: Herrero, Ana Carolina. Centro de Implementación de Políticas Públicas para la Equidad y el Crecimiento; ArgentinaFil: Rueda Palenzuela, Salvador. Agencia Ecología Urbana Barcelona; EspañaFil: Camilloni, Ines Angela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Centro de Investigaciones del Mar y la Atmósfera. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Centro de Investigaciones del Mar y la Atmósfera; ArgentinaFil: Bauer, Steffen. German Development Institute; Alemani

Recomendações para manipulação e sujeição de ratos e camundongos de laboratório

Cuando hablamos de experimentación con animales, generalmente se centra la atención en los protocolos de investigación, dejando de lado un tema fundamental que es el manejo de los sujetos experimentales. A fin de resaltar la importancia de esto último, nos hemos propuesto dar énfasis en las técnicas de manipulación y sujeción de ratas y ratones de laboratorio privilegiando el bienestar animal, la influencia en la investigación y la seguridad del personal.When we speak of experimentation with animals, we generally focus on research protocols, leaving aside the fundamental matter of handling experimental subjects. To underline the importance of this aspect, we have chosen to emphasize techniques for manipulation and subjection of laboratory rats and mice, prioritizing animal welfare, its influence on research and on the safety of personnel.Quando se fala de experimentação com animais, geralmente se centra a atenção nos protocolos de pesquisa e deixa-se de lado um tema fundamental que é o manejo dos sujeitos experimentais. A fim de ressaltar a importância deste último, propusemo-nos enfatizar as técnicas de manipulação e sujeição de ratos e camundongos de laboratório, o que privilegia o bem-estar animal, a influência na pesquisa e na segurança do pessoal.Fil: Mourelle, Ana Carolina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientiâ­ficas y Tecnicas. Oficina de Coordinacion Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral "profesor R. A. Margni"; ArgentinaFil: Herrero, Emiliana. Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Ricca, Micaela. Universidad Católica de Chile; Chil

Molecular Characterization of Apricot Germplasm from an Old Stone Collection

Increasing germplasm erosion requires the recovery and conservation of traditional cultivars before they disappear. Here we present a particular case in Spain where a thorough prospection of local fruit tree species was performed in the 1950s with detailed data of the origin of each genotype but, unfortunately, the accessions are no longer conserved in ex situ germplasm collections. However, for most of those cultivars, an old stone collection is still preserved. In order to analyze the diversity present at the time when the prospection was made and to which extent variability has been eroded, we developed a protocol in apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) to obtain DNA from maternal tissues of the stones of a sufficient quality to be amplified by PCR. The results obtained have been compared with the results from the profiles developed from apricot cultivars currently conserved in ex situ germplasm collections. The results highlight the fact that most of the old accessions are not conserved ex situ but provide a tool to prioritize the recovery of particular cultivars. The approach used in this work can also be applied to other plant species where seeds have been preserved

Is instrumental compression equally effective and comfortable for physiotherapists and physiotherapy students than manual compression? A comparative cross-sectional study

The objective of this work is to compare the homogeneity of instrumental and manual compression during the simulation of a pressure release technique, measured with a dynamometer, as well as to evaluate the comparative degree of comfort by physiotherapists and physiotherapy students when performing this technique. Methods: A comparative cross-sectional study was car-ried out with physiotherapists (lecturers with clinical experience) and 4th year students of the Physiotherapy Degree at Universidad San Jorge. The amount of pressure performed and how it was maintained during 80 s with both techniques was analysed using a digital dynamometer. The degree of comfort was evaluated using a modified numeric rating scale, with higher values represent-ing a higher degree of discomfort. Results: A total of 30 subjects participated. Significant differences were found between the techniques in terms of maintaining a constant pressure level for 80 s (p = 0.043). A statistically significant difference was found between both techniques in the period from 45 to 80 s. Regarding the degree of discomfort, the value obtained from the students’ responses was 4.67 (1.35) for the manual technique and 1.93 (0.88) for the instrumental technique. In the case of physiotherapists, the comfort was 4.87 (2.13) for the manual technique and 3.33 (1.54) for the instrumental technique. Conclusion: The sustained manual compression necessary in manual pressure release techniques in the treatment of myofascial trigger points can be performed with assistive tools that guarantee a uniform compression maintained throughout the development of the technique and are more comfortable for physiotherapists

Capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry of Spirulina platensis proteins obtained by pressurized liquid extraction

In this work, the usefulness of CE-MS to monitor and optimize the pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) of proteins from Spirulina platensis microalga is demonstrated. Crude and purified PLE extracts from microalga were analyzed by CE-MS. It was observed that the use of purification protocols of phycobiliproteins (namely, ultrafiltration or precipitation- dialysis-freeze drying) resulted in better CE resolution and MS signals, demonstrating that sample matrix plays an important role in CE-MS of proteins in real samples. Ultrafiltration was found less laborious and much faster than precipitationdialysis- freeze drying (1 vs. 48 h). Direct analysis of crude extracts was demonstrated to be also possible by CE-MS, providing less-quality information but enough to characterize PLE extracts in a much faster way. Therefore, the latter protocol was selected to monitor and optimize the extraction process of phycobiliproteins from S. platensis. To do that, different extraction conditions were tested, including time, temperature and pressure of extraction, nature of pressurized liquid, distribution of microalga inside the extraction cell, type of packing, etc. It is demonstrated that the combined use of PLE and CE-MS allows the attainment of extracts rich in phycobiliproteins in short extraction times (namely, yields of 20% can be obtained in less than 2 h under the optimum PLE process in an automatic way). To our knowledge, this work shows for the first time the usefulness of CE-MS for monitoring and optimizing a PLE process.Financial support from AGL2002–04621-C02–02 project (CICYT, Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnlogía) is acknowledged. M.H. thanks MCYT for an FPI grant. C.S. thanks Consejería de Educación y Cultura (Comunidad de Madrid) for a fellowship.Peer reviewe

Development of Efficient Techniques for the Analysis and Design of Antennas in Dual-Reflectarray Configuration

This thesis contributes to the analysis and design of printed reflectarray antennas. The main part of the work is focused on the analysis of dual offset antennas comprising two reflectarray surfaces, one of them acts as sub-reflector and the second one acts as mainreflector. These configurations introduce additional complexity in several aspects respect to conventional dual offset reflectors, however they present a lot of degrees of freedom that can be used to improve the electrical performance of the antenna. The thesis is organized in four parts: the development of an analysis technique for dualreflectarray antennas, a preliminary validation of such methodology using equivalent reflector systems as reference antennas, a more rigorous validation of the software tool by manufacturing and testing a dual-reflectarray antenna demonstrator and the practical design of dual-reflectarray systems for some applications that show the potential of these kind of configurations to scan the beam and to generate contoured beams. In the first part, a general tool has been implemented to analyze high gain antennas which are constructed of two flat reflectarray structures. The classic reflectarray analysis based on MoM under local periodicity assumption is used for both sub and main reflectarrays, taking into account the incident angle on each reflectarray element. The incident field on the main reflectarray is computed taking into account the field radiated by all the elements on the sub-reflectarray.. Two approaches have been developed, one which employs a simple approximation to reduce the computer run time, and the other which does not, but offers in many cases, improved accuracy. The approximation is based on computing the reflected field on each element on the main reflectarray only once for all the fields radiated by the sub-reflectarray elements, assuming that the response will be the same because the only difference is a small variation on the angle of incidence. This approximation is very accurate when the reflectarray elements on the main reflectarray show a relatively small sensitivity to the angle of incidence. An extension of the analysis technique has been implemented to study dual-reflectarray antennas comprising a main reflectarray printed on a parabolic surface, or in general in a curved surface. In many applications of dual-reflectarray configurations, the reflectarray elements are in the near field of the feed-horn. To consider the near field radiated by the horn, the incident field on each reflectarray element is computed using a spherical mode expansion. In this region, the angles of incidence are moderately wide, and they are considered in the analysis of the reflectarray to better calculate the actual incident field on the sub-reflectarray elements. This technique increases the accuracy for the prediction of co- and cross-polar patterns and antenna gain respect to the case of using ideal feed models. In the second part, as a preliminary validation, the proposed analysis method has been used to design a dual-reflectarray antenna that emulates previous dual-reflector antennas in Ku and W-bands including a reflectarray as subreflector. The results for the dualreflectarray antenna compare very well with those of the parabolic reflector and reflectarray subreflector; radiation patterns, antenna gain and efficiency are practically the same when the main parabolic reflector is substituted by a flat reflectarray. The results show that the gain is only reduced by a few tenths of a dB as a result of the ohmic losses in the reflectarray. The phase adjustment on two surfaces provided by the dual-reflectarray configuration can be used to improve the antenna performance in some applications requiring multiple beams, beam scanning or shaped beams. Third, a very challenging dual-reflectarray antenna demonstrator has been designed, manufactured and tested for a more rigorous validation of the analysis technique presented. The proposed antenna configuration has the feed, the sub-reflectarray and the main-reflectarray in the near field one to each other, so that the conventional far field approximations are not suitable for the analysis of such antenna. This geometry is used as benchmarking for the proposed analysis tool in very stringent conditions. Some aspects of the proposed analysis technique that allow improving the accuracy of the analysis are also discussed. These improvements include a novel method to reduce the inherent cross polarization which is introduced mainly from grounded patch arrays. It has been checked that cross polarization in offset reflectarrays can be significantly reduced by properly adjusting the patch dimensions in the reflectarray in order to produce an overall cancellation of the cross-polarization. The dimensions of the patches are adjusted in order not only to provide the required phase-distribution to shape the beam, but also to exploit the crosses by zero of the cross-polarization components. The last part of the thesis deals with direct applications of the technique described. The technique presented is directly applicable to the design of contoured beam antennas for DBS applications, where the requirements of cross-polarisation are very stringent. The beam shaping is achieved by synthesithing the phase distribution on the main reflectarray while the sub-reflectarray emulates an equivalent hyperbolic subreflector. Dual-reflectarray antennas present also the ability to scan the beam over small angles about boresight. Two possible architectures for a Ku-band antenna are also described based on a dual planar reflectarray configuration that provides electronic beam scanning in a limited angular range. In the first architecture, the beam scanning is achieved by introducing a phase-control in the elements of the sub-reflectarray and the mainreflectarray is passive. A second alternative is also studied, in which the beam scanning is produced using 1-bit control on the main reflectarray, while a passive subreflectarray is designed to provide a large focal distance within a compact configuration. The system aims to develop a solution for bi-directional satellite links for emergency communications. In both proposed architectures, the objective is to provide a compact optics and simplicity to be folded and deployed

Clasificación automática de imágenes de cielo mediante Inteligencia Artificial

Debido a los desafíos que ha supuesto a lo largo de la historia la predicción de la nubosidad, el desarrollo de la tecnología de inteligencia artificial es cada día más necesario para los meteorólogos. El objetivo de este trabajo es la clasificación de imágenes de cielo mediante inteligencia artificial. Para ello se ha realizado el etiquetado de imágenes procedentes de una cámara de cielo según el número de octas que se observan. El número de octas nos proporcionará la nubosidad de la imagen. A continuación utilizaremos dichas imágenes para el entrenamiento de una red neuronal que nos permita predecir el estado del cielo. En el presente trabajo se han realizado 18 modelos diferentes en el entrenamiento de la red neuronal para que aprenda a clasificar imágenes. Tras esto se procede a la validación del conjunto de imágenes, denominado ``conjunto de validación'', para analizar diferentes métricas de estudio y realizar las correspondientes valoraciones de los resultados y su viabilidad. Hemos obtenido buenos resultados para diferentes métricas alcanzando tasas de acierto, al permitir errores de una octa, del 92 \%.Due to the challenges that cloud prediction has posed throughout history, the development of artificial intelligence technology is increasingly necessary for meteorologists. The goal of this work is the classification of sky images using artificial intelligence. To achieve this, images from a sky camera have been labeled according to the number of oktas observed, which provides the cloudiness of the image. We will then use these images to train a neural network to predict the state of the sky. In this study, 18 different models were used to train the neural network to classify images. After training, a set of validation images, called the ”validation set,”was used to analyze different study metrics and evaluate the results and their feasibility. We have achieved good results for different metrics, with accuracy rates of 92 %, allowing errors of one oktaDepartamento de Física Teórica, Atómica y ÓpticaGrado en Físic

Aproximación a la lengua extranjera: inglés en educación infantil. Propuesta didáctica en el aula de Psicomotricidad

El sistema educativo español ofrece en el segundo ciclo de Educación Infantil una interesante aproximación a la lengua extranjera: una hora semanal divida en dos sesiones hace posible este acercamiento al inglés. En esta etapa educativa, la disposición del alumnado es la más indicada para iniciar el aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera porque utilizan los mismos mecanismos de asimilación que emplean para aprender su lengua materna. Con esta propuesta de TFM queremos resaltar la importancia de este acercamiento para desarrollar en un futuro una competencia lingüística adecuada en la lengua extranjera. Mediante una propuesta didáctica que combina inglés y psicomotricidad, pretendemos potenciar esa aproximación fortaleciendo al máximo las posibilidades de los niños. Las entrevistas a maestras especialistas en educación permiten conocer en profundidad los aspectos que rodean a esta materia respecto a otras.Máster en Investigación en Ciencias Sociales. Educación, Comunicación Audiovisual, Economía y Empres

Un paseo por la historia de Segovia: la Casa de la Moneda. Propuesta didáctica sobre la moneda

El presente trabajo Fin de Grado de carácter teórico-práctico se centra en presentar un diseño de una propuesta didáctica sobre la Casa de la Moneda de Segovia. Con esta propuesta se pretende demostrar que la enseñanza de la moneda sirve como medio didáctico para conocer el patrimonio cultural de la ciudad y favorecer así un aprendizaje interdisciplinar en el que los alumnos aprenden de forma globalizada en el ámbito de la Educación Infantil. Tras recoger los datos más relevantes sobre la Casa de Moneda de Segovia, que alcanzó una gran importancia hace siglos, he elaborado una propuesta mediante la cual se pueda abordar algunos de estos contenidos con alumnos de Educación Infantil. Teniendo presente su nivel de desarrollo, con base en la perspectiva globalizadora del ciclo, y buscando la motivación de los mismos durante todo el proceso.Grado en Educación Infanti

Circulating Extracellular Vesicles in Gynecological Tumors: Realities and Challenges

Although liquid biopsy can be considered a reality for the clinical management of some cancers, such as lung or colorectal cancer, it remains a promising field in gynecological tumors. In particular, circulating extracellular vesicles (cEVs) secreted by tumor cells represent a scarcely explored type of liquid biopsy in gynecological tumors. Importantly, these vesicles are responsible for key steps in tumor development and dissemination and are recognized as major players in cell-to-cell communication between the tumor and the microenvironment. However, limited work has been reported about the biologic effects and clinical value of EVs in gynecological tumors. Therefore, here we review the promising but already relatively limited data on the role of circulating EVs in promoting gynecological tumor spread and also their value as non-invasive biomarkers to improve the management of these type of tumors