Influence of the stop/start system on CO2 emissions of a diesel vehicle in urban traffic

This paper presents measurements of CO2 emission and efficiency of stop/start technology on a diesel vehicle in urban traffic. Two four-wheel-drive diesel vehicles with on-board exhaust emission and vehicle activity measurement systems were tested in two urban driving circuits representative of downtown Madrid. The vehicles had similar turbocharged and intercooled diesel engines fulfilling the same Euro 4 emissions regulation; but one had an improved engine incorporating stop/start technology. CO2 emission reduction of more than 20% for the car equipped with the stop/start system was obtained. Regardless of the variability in driving style, the grade and type of streets, traffic congestion, and the engine operating temperature, the car equipped with the stop/start system has intrinsically a lower CO2 emission factor

Influence of the stop/start system on CO2 emissions of a diesel vehicle in urban traffic

This paper presents measurements of carbon dioxide (CO2) emission and efficiency of stop/start technology on a diesel vehicle in urban traffic. Two four-wheel-drive diesel vehicles with on-board exhaust emission and vehicle activity measurement systems were tested in two urban driving circuits representative of downtown Madrid. The vehicles had similar turbocharged and intercooled diesel engines fulfilling the same Euro 4 emissions regulation; but one had an improved engine incorporating stop/start technology. CO2 emission reduction of more than 20% for the car equipped with the stop/start system was obtained. Regardless of the variability in driving style, the grade and type of streets, traffic congestion, and the engine operating temperature, the car equipped with the stop/start system has intrinsically a lower CO2 emission factor. Document type: Articl

Plausible Mechanisms for Brain Structural and Size Changes in Human Evolution

Encephalization has many contexts and implications. On one hand, it is concerned with the transformation of eating habits, social relationships and communication, cognitive skills and the mind. Along with the increase in brain size on the other hand, encephalization is connected with the creation of more complex brain structures, namely in the cerebral cortex. It is imperative to inquire into the mechanisms which are linked with brain growth and to find out which of these mechanisms allow it and determine it. There exist a number of theories for understanding human brain evolution which originate from neurological sciences. These theories are the concept of radial units, minicolumns, mirror neurons, and neurocognitive networks. Over the course of evolution, it is evident that a whole range of changes have taken place in regards to heredity. These changes include new mutations of genes in the microcephalin complex, gene duplications, gene co-expression, and genomic imprinting. This complex study of the growth and reorganization of the brain and the functioning of hereditary factors and their external influences creates an opportunity to consider the implications of cultural evolution and cognitive faculties

Augmentation of Brain Function: Facts, Fiction and Controversy. Volume III: From Clinical Applications to Ethical Issues and Futuristic Ideas

The final volume in this tripartite series on Brain Augmentation is entitled “From Clinical Applications to Ethical Issues and Futuristic Ideas”. Many of the articles within this volume deal with translational efforts taking the results of experiments on laboratory animals and applying them to humans. In many cases, these interventions are intended to help people with disabilities in such a way so as to either restore or extend brain function. Traditionally, therapies in brain augmentation have included electrical and pharmacological techniques. In contrast, some of the techniques discussed in this volume add specificity by targeting select neural populations. This approach opens the door to where and how to promote the best interventions. Along the way, results have empowered the medical profession by expanding their understanding of brain function. Articles in this volume relate novel clinical solutions for a host of neurological and psychiatric conditions such as stroke, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, epilepsy, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, autism spectrum disorders (ASD), traumatic brain injury, and disorders of consciousness. In disease, symptoms and signs denote a departure from normal function. Brain augmentation has now been used to target both the core symptoms that provide specificity in the diagnosis of a disease, as well as other constitutional symptoms that may greatly handicap the individual. The volume provides a report on the use of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in ASD with reported improvements of core deficits (i.e., executive functions). TMS in this regard departs from the present-day trend towards symptomatic treatment that leaves unaltered the root cause of the condition. In diseases, such as schizophrenia, brain augmentation approaches hold promise to avoid lengthy pharmacological interventions that are usually riddled with side effects or those with limiting returns as in the case of Parkinson’s disease. Brain stimulation can also be used to treat auditory verbal hallucination, visuospatial (hemispatial) neglect, and pain in patients suffering from multiple sclerosis. The brain acts as a telecommunication transceiver wherein different bandwidth of frequencies (brainwave oscillations) transmit information. Their baseline levels correlate with certain behavioral states. The proper integration of brain oscillations provides for the phenomenon of binding and central coherence. Brain augmentation may foster the normalization of brain oscillations in nervous system disorders. These techniques hold the promise of being applied remotely (under the supervision of medical personnel), thus overcoming the obstacle of travel in order to obtain healthcare. At present, traditional thinking would argue the possibility of synergism among different modalities of brain augmentation as a way of increasing their overall effectiveness and improving therapeutic selectivity. Thinking outside of the box would also provide for the implementation of brain-to-brain interfaces where techniques, proper to artificial intelligence, could allow us to surpass the limits of natural selection or enable communications between several individual brains sharing memories, or even a global brain capable of self-organization. Not all brains are created equal. Brain stimulation studies suggest large individual variability in response that may affect overall recovery/treatment, or modify desired effects of a given intervention. The subject’s age, gender, hormonal levels may affect an individual’s cortical excitability. In addition, this volume discusses the role of social interactions in the operations of augmenting technologies. Finally, augmenting methods could be applied to modulate consciousness, even though its neural mechanisms are poorly understood. Finally, this volume should be taken as a debate on social, moral and ethical issues on neurotechnologies. Brain enhancement may transform the individual into someone or something else. These techniques bypass the usual routes of accommodation to environmental exigencies that exalted our personal fortitude: learning, exercising, and diet. This will allow humans to preselect desired characteristics and realize consequent rewards without having to overcome adversity through more laborious means. The concern is that humans may be playing God, and the possibility of an expanding gap in social equity where brain enhancements may be selectively available to the wealthier individuals. These issues are discussed by a number of articles in this volume. Also discussed are the relationship between the diminishment and enhancement following the application of brain-augmenting technologies, the problem of “mind control” with BMI technologies, free will the duty to use cognitive enhancers in high-responsibility professions, determining the population of people in need of brain enhancement, informed public policy, cognitive biases, and the hype caused by the development of brain- augmenting approaches

El doctor Joan Navés i Janer (1914-1997) i la Guerra Civil Espanyola

Nota sobre l’activitat mèdica de Joan Navés i Janer (1914-1997) en els anys de la guerra civil. Activitat esportiva como a porter del RCD Español de Barcelona. Episodis durant la guerra en el front d’Aragó. Director de l’Hospital de Manresa. Graduació com a metge el novembre de 1936. Reincorporació a la postguerra Anulació del títol. Nova graduació el maig de 1939. Dedicació a la traumatologia de l’esport a la «Mutual Deportiva»

Laws of Conservation as Related to Brain Growth, Aging, and Evolution: Symmetry of the Minicolumn

Development, aging, and evolution offer different time scales regarding possible anatomical transformations of the brain. This article expands on the perspective that the cerebral cortex exhibits a modular architecture with invariant properties in regards to these time scales. These properties arise from morphometric relations of the ontogenetic minicolumn as expressed in Noether’s first theorem, i.e., that for each continuous symmetry there is a conserved quantity. Whenever minicolumnar symmetry is disturbed by either developmental or aging processes the principle of least action limits the scope of morphometric alterations. Alternatively, local and global divergences from these laws apply to acquired processes when the system is no longer isolated from its environment. The underlying precepts to these physical laws can be expressed in terms of mathematical equations that are conservative of quantity. Invariant properties of the brain include the rotational symmetry of minicolumns, a scaling proportion or “even expansion” between pyramidal cells and core minicolumnar size, and the translation of neuronal elements from the main axis of the minicolumn. It is our belief that a significant portion of the architectural complexity of the cerebral cortex, its response to injury, and its evolutionary transformation, can all be captured by a small set of basic physical laws dictated by the symmetry of minicolumns. The putative preservations of parameters related to the symmetry of the minicolumn suggest that the development and final organization of the cortex follows a deterministic process

Multi-technique approach to rockfall monitoring in the Montserrat massif (Catalonia, NE Spain)

Montserrat Mountain is located near Barcelona in Catalonia, in the northeast of Spain, and its massif is formed by conglomerate interleaved by siltstone/sandstone with steep slopes very prone to rockfalls. The increasing number of visitors in the monastery area, reaching 2.4 million per year, has highlighted the risk derived from rockfalls for this building area and also for the terrestrial accesses, both roads and the rack railway. A risk mitigation plan has been launched, and its first phase during 2014-2016 has been focused largely on testing several monitoring techniques for their later implementation. The results of the pilot tests, performed as a development from previous sparse experiences and data, are presented together with the first insights obtained. These tests combine four monitoring techniques under different conditions of continuity in space and time domains, which are: displacement monitoring with Ground-based Synthetic Aperture Radar and characterization at slope scale, with an extremely non-uniform atmospheric phase screen due to the stepped topography and atmosphere stratification; Terrestrial Laser Scanner surveys quantifying the frequency of small or even previously unnoticed rockfalls, and monitoring rock block centimetre scale displacements; the monitoring of rock joints implemented through a wireless sensor network with an ad hoc design of ZigBee loggers developed by ICGC; and, finally, monitoring singular rock needles with Total Station.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

«Para decir la palabra yo»: Una reflexión sobre la subjetividad en la obra de José Ángel Valente

The so-called Question on the subject in José Ángel Valente’s Works is going to be analysed in this essay. This essay is been thought from the writer’s reject to the definition of subjectivity as a representation of the consciousness, as a permanent request opposed to an ever-changing Reality. From this point, we’ll be able to see how at the same time his texts pose this conflict and look for the solution. This analyse will start from the following three levels: the treatment given to the lyrical self, the relationship between man and Reality, and the reformulation of the concept of authorship. This will take us from the first manoeuvres of ironical desubjectivation —in debt with an anguished perception of the existence as with to the necessity of treating the subjectivity from the compromise with the collective— to the writer’s assumption of a mystical focussing on this question, a question in which Nothingness and Otherness will play a decisive role.En el presente ensayo analizaremos el alcance de la llamada cuestión del sujeto dentro de la obra de José Ángel Valente. Partiendo de una definición de la subjetividad en clave de trasunto de la consciencia, de instancia permanente enfrentada a una realidad en constante cambio, observaremos el rechazo que el escritor experimenta ante tal concepción, así como el modo en que sus textos plantean el conflicto y buscan una resolución al mismo. Nuestro análisis atenderá fundamentalmente a tres niveles: tratamiento que recibe el yo lírico en esta obra, relación que se establece en ella entre el hombre y la realidad, y reformulación del concepto de autoría; y nos llevará desde unas primeras maniobras de desubjetivización irónica (deudoras por igual de una percepción angustiosa de la existencia y de la necesidad de abordar lo subjetivo desde el compromiso con el colectivo) hasta la adopción por parte del escritor de un enfoque místico de la cuestión en el que las figuras de la nada y de la alteridad tendrán un papel decisivo

Effectiveness of biological control of Phytophthora capsici in pepper by Trichoderma asperellum strain T34

Pepper (Capsicum annuum L.), one of the most widely grown vegetables worldwide, is susceptible to root rot caused by Phytophthora capsici. Many biocides have recently been banned in Europe because of human health and environmental concerns. Integrated pest management is a European priority, where biological control together with other agronomic practices should replace pesticide management of plant diseases in the future. Application of different concentrations of the fungus Trichoderma asperellum strain T34 (the in T34 Biocontrol®) on incidence of disease caused by P. capsici in pepper was studied. Different methods of application of the microbial control agent and inoculation of the pathogen were examined. T34 and etridiazole (Terrazole®) were compared for their ability to suppress P. capsici. T34 reduced disease in most of the assayed situations (up to 71% disease reduction), while etridiazole was effective only when applied at the same time as the pathogen. The results obtained are discussed on the basis of the different modes of action of T34 and etridiazole. T34 is a useful biological alternative to chemicals for the control of P. capsici in peppe

How does the mind handle uncertainty in ambiguous figures?

How does the mind select one interpretation from a bistable stimulus and how this eventually becomes conscious? We briefly presented 17 rotations of an ambiguous figure to observers and asked them to give a quick response. We were interested in determining how observer factors, stimulus properties and context influence the selected response. Data analysis revealed that observers assigned probabilistically each figure rotation to a category according to an implicit criterion of typicality or prototype. From discriminant analyses we ascertain how the standardized coefficients change as do the testing conditions, mainly when stimulus information is lacking or confusing. Results suggest that the proximity to the prototype expresses the uncertainty of the subject's response and may be gradually manipulated by the orientation of the figure. Depending on the uncertainty value, discriminant strength of the observer and contextual factors have greater influence on responses than the physical properties of the ambiguous stimulus