Explicación funcional en ciencias sociales: del "organicismo" a los equivalentes funcionales

Sí al comienzo del siglo veinte el funcionalismo social concebido análogamente al modelo de explicación funcional de la biología se presentaba como un modo de explicación poderoso y prometedor de los fenómenos sociales, las críticas que le fueron dirigidas con posterioridad tanto desde las ciencias sociales como desde la filosofía de la ciencia demostraron ser lo suficientemente contundentes como para acabar con el optimismo inicial. Ahora bien, entre otros autores, Niklas Lubmann ha considerado un error equiparar funcionalismo con "organicismo", rescatando el potencial inherente del primero como método comparativo que privilegia las ''equivalencias funcionales". Recorrer el camino hasta aquí esbozado será el objetivo de este trabajo

Cubesat mission with technological demonstrator payload for high data rate downlink and health monitoring

The HyperCube payload will be composed by two different technological experiment, an high data-rate C band antenna, and a demonstrator for a remote structural health monitoring system. The first one has been thought with the aim to give Cubesats the capability to download an high quantity of data; it could be useful either if the data requiring the high data-rate downlink is on-board generated or simply retransmitted. The applications for which this payload could be used are several; an example for the first category of application is to download the data generated by another payload; the high data-rate capability could be necessary due to the narrow visibility window with the ground station, affected also by the absence of an active AOCS subsystem, which makes difficult the alignment of the on board antenna with the ground one. But the C band antenna could also be used to act as a “space–repeater”, downloading up–linked information. The second payload is related to the need to take under strictly control the health of the structures (not only the ones strictly belonging to primary structures, but also that of any subsystem component). In order to do that, smart materials are integrated into the structural component that need to be monitored; in particular, piezoelectric patches are used as sensors. As the structure is stressed, and the integrated piezoelectric sensors are subjected to mechanical deformation, they produce an electric signal; acquiring and properly studying the produced signal it is possible to monitor the mechanical condition of the structures. The health monitoring system is completed by a MicroController Unit which acquires, samples and stores the signal produced, and a transmitting system, which could be the C band antenna, or the TT&C antenna which each satellite needs

Assessment of total antioxidant capacity in serum of heathy and stressed hens

Total antioxidant capacity (TAC) in healthy and dexamethasone-stressed hens was measured by applying four different spectrophotometric methods—the ferric reducing ability (FRAP) assay, the 2,2′-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzotiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS) radical cation decolorization assay, the free radical scavenging activity (FRSA), and the total thiol levels (TTL). TAC assessed by all four methods did not change throughout the experimental period in the control group, whereas significant changes were shown by all adopted assays in the stressed group with some remarkable differences. TAC increased in the stressed group when FRAP and ABTS assays were applied, while it was reduced when sera were assessed by FRSA and TTL assays. Furthermore, FRAP assay was the only test able to show a significant change in TAC immediately after the end of the induced stress. At the end of the experimental period, TAC assessed by ABTS and FRSA assays showed a complete recovery in the stressed group, whereas TAC assessed by FRAP and TTL assays still showed significant persistent differences when compared to the control group. The observed differences in TAC are discussed in the light of the different contribution in each assay of the various antioxidant substances present in the samples

Assessment of total (anti)oxidant status in goat kids

The redox potential of goat serum was assessed by different spectrophotometric assays. Among them, three methods are commonly applied for the evaluation of the oxidative (reactive oxygen metabolites, ROMs, and total oxidant status, TOS) and nitrosative (NO q metabolites, NOx ) stress, and four methods for the evaluation of the antioxidant status: the total antioxidant capacity (TAC) based on the ferric reducing ability of plasma (FRAP), the total antioxidant activity (TAA) based on the reduction of the coloured ABTS•+radical cation, the free radical scavenging activity (FRSA) based on the reduction of the purple DPPH•, and the total thiol levels (TTLs) based on their interaction with DTNB to form a highly coloured anion. Besides, myeloperoxidase (MPO) and ceruloplasmin oxidase (CP) activities were also assessed. Except for TAA, analytical data showed a great inter-individual variation for both oxidant and antioxidant assays. ROMs were strongly correlated with CP, while TOS with MPO and TAC. Furthermore, a tendency between TOS and FRSA was shown. NOx was correlated with TAC and TAA, and a tendency with TOS was shown. No correlations appeared among the antioxidant assays, even if a tendency between TAC and TAA was evidenced, but TAC was correlated with MPO activity. The observed correlation between ROMs and CP is discussed as a possible analytical interference. The absence of correlation among the antioxidant biomarkers suggests the simultaneous use of a panel of tests to verify any changes in the redox balance, mainly in livestock in which reference values for each biomarker are lacking

Exploring the relationship between education and obesity

An epidemic of obesity has been developing in virtually all OECD countries over the last 30 years. Existing evidence provides a strong suggestion that such an epidemic has affected certain social groups more than others. In particular, a better education appears to be associated with a lower likelihood of obesity, especially among women. This paper sheds light on the nature and the strength of the correlation between education and obesity. Analyses of health survey data from Australia, Canada, England, and Korea were undertaken with the aim of exploring this relationship. Social gradients in obesity were assessed across the entire education spectrum, overall and in different population sub-groups. Furthermore, investigations testing for mediation effects and for the causal nature of the links observed were undertaken to better understand the underlying mechanisms of the relationship between education and obesity. © OECD 2011

Study on an air-launched constellation of tactical micro-satellites for defence Use

The great attention on air-launched microsatellites is due on one hand to the possibilities given by the miniaturization push, making the same performances of traditional satellites achievable with smaller systems, and on the other hand to the disruptive advantages allowed by air-launch techniques, providing Italy not only with an autonomous launch capability, but also with the flexibility to choose the orbit inclination and the launch time, enabling a responsive approach at lower costs respect to ground based launches. In this study, several issues related to this subject are analyzed. A constellation of four microsatellites for electro-optical Earth Observation (EO) is conceived, namely ITAFμSAT (i.e. ITalian Tactical Formation of μ-SATellites). ITAFμSAT is designed to achieve a sub-metric spatial resolution and to offer a high revisit frequency on a specified target area to satisfy military needs. ITAFμSAT is designed to be responsive and the system is conceived to guarantee a fast access to space since the mission is called, through a Plug-and-Play (PnP) approach; to provide Italy with a proprietary system, built, launched and operated on-purpose for its contingent needs; and to complete the information supplied by other EO systems with high quality images captured in a very short time

Reflectionless tunneling in planar Nb/GaAs hybrid junctions

Reflectionless-tunneling was observed in Nb/GaAs superconductor/semiconductor junctions fabricated through a two-step procedure. First, periodic $\delta$-doped layers were grown by molecular beam epitaxy near the GaAs surface, followed by an As cap layer to protect the surface during {\it ex-situ} transfer. Second, Nb was deposited by dc-magnetron sputtering onto the GaAs(001) 2 $\times$ 4 surface {\it in-situ} after thermal desorption of the cap layer. The magnetotransport behavior of the resulting hybrid junctions was successfully analyzed within the random matrix theory of phase-coherent Andreev transport. The impact of junction morphology on reflectionless tunneling and the applicability of the fabrication technique to the realization of complex superconductor/semiconductor mesoscopic systems are discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, to be published in Appl. Phys. Let

Emulsion pcr (Epcr) as a tool to improve the power of dgge analysis for microbial population studies

To the authors\u2019 knowledge, this is the first report of the use of emulsion-Polymerase chain reaction (e-PCR) coupled with denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis. In the present work the effectiveness of ePCR in improving the power of the DGGE technique for microbial population studies was tested. Our results indicated that ePCR results in uniform amplification of several DNA molecules, overcoming the major limitations of conventional PCR, such as preferential amplification and DNA concentration dependence. Moreover, ePCR-DGGE resulted in higher sensitivity when compared to conventional PCR-DGGE methods used for studying microbial populations in a complex matrix. In fact, compared to conventional PCR, the DGGE profiles of ePCR products permitted the detection of a higher number of the species that were present in the tested sample

Acoustic charge transport in n-i-n three terminal device

We present an unconventional approach to realize acoustic charge transport devices that takes advantage from an original input region geometry in place of standard Ohmic input contacts. Our scheme is based on a n-i-n lateral junction as electron injector, an etched intrinsic channel, a standard Ohmic output contact and a pair of in-plane gates. We show that surface acoustic waves are able to pick up electrons from a current flowing through the n-i-n junction and steer them toward the output contact. Acoustic charge transport was studied as a function of the injector current and bias, the SAW power and at various temperatures. The possibility to modulate the acoustoelectric current by means of lateral in-plane gates is also discussed. The main advantage of our approach relies on the possibility to drive the n-i-n injector by means of both voltage or current sources, thus allowing to sample and process voltage and current signals as well.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to Applied Physics Letter

Polydimethylsiloxane-LiNbO3 surface acoustic wave micropump devices for fluid control into microchannels.

This paper presents prototypical microfluidic devices made by hybrid microchannels based on piezoelectric LiNbO3 and polydimethylsiloxane. This system enables withdrawing micropumping by acoustic radiation in microchannels. The withdrawing configuration, integrated on chip, is here quantitatively investigated for the first time, and found to be related to the formation and coalescence dynamics of droplets within the microchannel, primed by surface acoustic waves. The growth dynamics of droplets is governed by the water diffusion on LiNbO3, determining the advancement of the fluid front. Observed velocities are up to 2.6 mm s−1 for 30 dBm signals applied to the interdigital transducer, corresponding to tens of nl s−1, and the micropumping dynamics is described by a model taking into account an acoustic power exponentially decaying upon travelling along the microchannel. This straighforward and flexible micropumping approach is particularly promising for the withdrawing of liquids in lab-on-chip devices performing cycling transport of fluids and biochemical reactions