John Singleton, Central Banking in the Twentieth Century, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2011, 337 pp.

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The impact of cultural dissonance and acculturation orientations on immigrant students' academic performance

Indexación: Scopus; Scielo; Redalyc.Prior research has documented meaningful differences between school performance of immigrant and native students. Multicultural education has been associated with academic failure of foreign students. e aim of this study was to examine the impact of a set of psychosocial variables on the perceived academic achievement of first generation immigrant adolescents from public secondary schools in Northern Spain. Results showed that 46% of the variability in foreign students’ perceived academic performance was explained by home-school cultural dissonance. We also explored the impact of acculturation orientation to separation, perception of discrimination from teachers, school adjustment, and psychological well-being in academic performance. Any multicultural education context should take into account psychosocial adjustment, given its influence on academic performance of all studentsSe han hallado diferencias significativas entre el rendimiento académico de los inmigrantes y el de los estudiantes nativos. Sin embargo, hay una escasa evidencia acerca de los aspectos psicosociales de este fenómeno. El objetivo de este estudio fue examinar el impacto de un conjunto de variables psicosociales: disonancia cultural y orientaciones de aculturación en el rendimiento académico percibido de adolescentes inmigrantes de primera generación de centros de Educación Secundaria en el Norte de España. Los resultados mostraron que alrededor del 46% de la variabilidad en el rendimiento era explicada por la disonancia cultural entre escuela y hogar. Cualquier contexto de educación multicultural ha de tomar en consideración el ajuste psicosocial, dada su influencia en el rendimiento académico de los estudiantes.http://www.redalyc.org/jatsRepo/647/64753989003/index.htm

Propulsión del Segway RMP 200 mediante pilas de combustible tipo PEM

Presentado al III Iberian Symposium on Hydrogen, Fuel Cells and Advanced Batteries celebrado en Zaragoza del 27 al 30 de junio de 2011.Utilizando las últimas innovaciones en las tecno-logias de pilas de combustible y en el de almacenamiento de hidrogeno disponibles en el mercado, en este trabajo se pretende equiparar las prestaciones de un prototipo a las de un robot autónomo basado en la plataforma Segway RMP200. Mediante la utilización de pilas PEM el sistema pretende satisfacer las actuales prestaciones que ofrecen las baterías del vehículo Segway y proporcionar diferentes niveles de alimentación a los dis-positivos del robot (230VAC para PCs, 24VDC y 12VD para sensores y motores, 5VDC), los cuales son equiparables a los consumos de la propulsión del robot.Subvencionado con el proyecto CICYT DPI2010-15274 del Gobierno de España.Peer Reviewe

Estabilidad de precios y estabilidad monetaria: Una propuesta de una regla monetaria no activa

A new type of monetary policy rule designed to achieve both price and output stability has increasingly been recommended during the last business cycle expansion, prior to the 2007 crisis. This type of rule implies “active” reaction functions. Based on the new Keynesian approach to monetary economics, these rules prescribe an active response by the central bank in the face of any shock that shifts prices or output from target, which leads to excessive money creation. Here, a less active type of reaction function is proposed; one in which price stability is the long run target, but permitting prices to respond to changes originating in real disturbances. It is argued that the resulting policy delivers outcomes preferable to currently popular rulesDurante la última etapa expansiva de la economía, previa a la crisis iniciada en 2007, se propusieron nuevas reglas monetarias dirigidas a estabilizar tanto la inflación como la actividad económica alrededor de ciertos objetivos. Este tipo de reglas implican la intervención frecuente en la economía a través de la aplicación de funciones de reacción activas. Basadas en modelos Neo-Keynesianos, estas funciones de reacción prescriben la intervención activa del banco central para corregir cualquier desviación de la inflación y del output gap de sus objetivos, lo que conduce a un exceso de creación de liquidez en la economía. En su lugar, proponemos en este trabajo una función de reacción menos activa, que tenga un objetivo de estabilidad de precios a medio y largo plazo, pero que permita las variaciones de precios debidas a cambios en la productividad. Concluímos que este tipo de reglas menos activas conducen a mejores resultados que las funciones basadas en la conocida regla de TaylorThis paper was developed whilst Juan Castañeda was a visiting scholar in Cass Business School and received financial support from Fundación Caja de Madrid and UNE

Shedding light on photosystem I:From charge-transport to bio-photovoltaics

The goal of this doctoral project was to lay the groundwork for the fabrication of an unusual, microfluidic, bio-photovoltaic device that is bio-compatible and uses the protein complex, Photosystem I (PSI), as active material in the light reactions. Photosystem I is the single most important unit in the process of photosynthesis in plants and certain bacteria. This complex holds a reaction center where photons are absorbed and converted into useful, chemical energy.This project devised a way of converting this chemical energy into electrical energy that can be stored and used, as in the case of a solar cell.The work in this thesis sheds light on the mechanism of PSI on solid-state devices, demonstrates the possibility of incorporating biological complexes in solid and soft devices and shows a successful way of fabricating transparent and flexible devices responsive to light. The techniques used to fabricate these devices are transferrable to other fields. The ability to fabricate devices in a single photolithographic step, along with the ease of injecting a metal, opens up a wide range of possible applications. Having aligned, reticulated metallic fluids that span the whole length and width of the channel, can provide uniform electric fields, stable junctions and multiple spots for reactions throughout the device. This doctoral thesis should contribute towards furthering the integration of biological materials into electronics. It provides a basis for well-grounded research and a new approach on bio-photovoltaics and may be of benefit in the research towards cost-effective, greener, cleaner energy sources

Human myiasis in Ecuador.

We review epidemiological and clinical data on human myiasis from Ecuador, based on data from the Ministry of Public Health (MPH) and a review of the available literature for clinical cases. The larvae of four flies, Dermatobia hominis, Cochliomyia hominivorax, Sarcophaga haemorrhoidalis, and Lucilia eximia, were identified as the causative agents in 39 reported clinical cases. The obligate D. hominis, causing furuncular lesions, caused 17 (43.5%) cases distributed along the tropical Pacific coast and the Amazon regions. The facultative C. hominivorax was identified in 15 (38%) clinical cases, infesting wound and cavitary lesions including orbital, nasal, aural and vaginal, and occurred in both subtropical and Andean regions. C. hominivorax was also identified in a nosocomial hospital-acquired wound. Single infestations were reported for S. haemorrhoidalis and L. eximia. Of the 39 clinical cases, 8 (21%) occurred in tourists. Ivermectin, when it became available, was used to treat furuncular, wound, and cavitary lesions successfully. MPH data for 2013–2015 registered 2,187 cases of which 54% were reported in men; 46% occurred in the tropical Pacific coast, 30% in the temperate Andes, 24% in the tropical Amazon, and 0.2% in the Galapagos Islands. The highest annual incidence was reported in the Amazon (23 cases/100,000 population), followed by Coast (5.1/100,000) and Andes (4.7/100,000). Human myiasis is a neglected and understudied ectoparasitic infestation, being endemic in both temperate and tropical regions of Ecuador. Improved education and awareness among populations living in, visitors to, and health personnel working in high-risk regions, is required for improved epidemiological surveillance, prevention, and correct diagnosis and treatment

Macroscopic evidence of microscopic dynamics in the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam oscillator chain from nonlinear time series analysis

The problem of detecting specific features of microscopic dynamics in the macroscopic behavior of a many-degrees-of-freedom system is investigated by analyzing the position and momentum time series of a heavy impurity embedded in a chain of nearest-neighbor anharmonic Fermi-Pasta-Ulam oscillators. Results obtained in a previous work [M. Romero-Bastida, Phys. Rev. E {\bf69}, 056204 (2004)] suggest that the impurity does not contribute significantly to the dynamics of the chain and can be considered as a probe for the dynamics of the system to which the impurity is coupled. The ($r,\tau$) entropy, which measures the amount of information generated by unit time at different scales $\tau$ of time and $r$ of the observable, is numerically computed by methods of nonlinear time-series analysis using the position and momentum signals of the heavy impurity for various values of the energy density $\epsilon$ (energy per degree of freedom) of the system and some values of the impurity mass $M$. Results obtained from these two time series are compared and discussed.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, RevTeX4 PRE format; to be published in Phys. Rev.

The herpetofauna of Parque Nacional Pico Bonito, Honduras

Seventy-three species of amphibians and reptiles (six salamanders, 20 anurans, 20 lizards, and 27 snakes) are known from Parque Nacional Pico Bonito, Honduras. The physiography, climate, vegetation, and microhabitats of the park are briefly described. Forty-four species are recorded from Lowland Moist Forest, 45 from Premontane Wet Forest, and 14 from Lower Montane Wet Forest. The primary microhabitat and relative abundance of each species are indicated and population declines are discussed

User Selection and Precoding Techniques for Rate Maximization in Broadcast MISO Systems

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Towards an Anthropometric History of Latin America in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century

We examine the evolution of adult female heights in twelve Latin American countries during the second half of the twentieth century based on demographic health surveys and related surveys compiled from national and international organizations. Only countries with more than one survey were included, allowing us to cross-examine surveys and correct for biases. We first show that average height varies significantly according to location, from 148.3 cm in Guatemala to 158.8 cm in Haiti. The evolution of heights over these decades behaves like indicators of human development, showing a steady increase of 2.6 cm from the 1950s to the 1990s. Such gains compare favorably to other developing regions of the world, but not so much with recently developed countries. Height gains were not evenly distributed in the region, however. Countries that achieved higher levels of income, such as Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico, gained on average 0.9 cm per decade, while countries with shrinking economies, such as Haiti and Guatemala, only gained 0.25 cm per decade