From the street photographer to the amateur: Anonymous practices in the first expansion of photography in Spain (1914-1939)

El presente artículo se propone una aproximación a las prácticas fotográficas anónimas, profesionales y amateurs, del período de entreguerras en España para desplegar un mapa analítico de nuevos productores, pragmáticas, y concepciones de lo fotográfico, así como problemas concomitantes de lo que puede ser considerada la primera extensión y normalización de la fotografía personal o doméstica en el país. Argumentaremos que el desarrollo de una práctica fotográfica trasciende las facilidades técnicas del propio desarrollo científico-técnico al tratarse de una cultura eminentemente urbana. Partícipe de una red de referentes, discursos, imaginarios y prácticas vinculadas con la clase, el género, la edad, las geografías emocionales de la ciudad y el ocio. En consecuencia, hablaremos de prácticas fotográficas que van más allá del campo de la memoria para abrazar otras áreas como el juego, la demostración de afecto, la evasión o la comunicaciónThis paper focuses on anonymous photographic practices, both professional and amateur, in Spain during the inter-war period. This seeks a map of new agents, practices and different photographic meanings and experiences in a historical moment that we can consider as the first massive extension and normalisation of personal and domestic photography. We shall argue that the spread of photographic practice does not only follow technological improvements, being part of urban culture. Photographic practices take part of a network of references, discourses, imaginaries and habits linked with class, gender, age, emotional geographies of the city and leisure. In consequence, we discuss photographic practices that transcend memory in order to embrace other areas such as games, affects, leisure and communicatio

Smart Solutions: Smart Grid Demokit

Treball desenvolupat dins el marc del programa 'European Project Semester'.The purpose of this report is to justify the design choices of the smart grid demo kit. Something had to be designed to make a smart grid clear for people who have little knowledge about smart grids. The product had to be appealing and clear for people to understand. And eventually should be usable, for example, on an information market. The first part of the research consisted of looking how to shape the whole system. How the 'tiles' had to look to be interactive for users and what they should feature. One part of this was doing research to get to know more about the already existing knowledge amount users. Another research investigated what appeals the most to the users. After this, a concept was created in compliance with the group and the client. The concept consists of hexagonal tiles, each with a different function: houses, solar panels, wind turbines, factories and energy storages. These tiles are all different parts of a smart grid. When combining these tiles, it can be made clear to users how smart grids work. The tiles are fabricated using a combination of 3D printing and laser cutting. The tiles have laser cut symbols on top of them to show what part of the smart grid they are. Digital LED strips are on top of the tiles to show the direction of the energy flow, and the colors indicate if the tile is producing or consuming power from the grid. The tiles are connected to each other by the so called “grid blocks”. These blocks make up the central power grid and are also lighting up by LED strips. Each tile is equipped with a microcontroller which controls the LED strips and makes it possible for the different tiles to “talk” with each other. Using this, the central tile knows which tiles are connected to the system. The central tile controls all tiles and runs the simulation of the smart grid. For further development of the project, it can be investigated how to control and adjust the system from an external system, for example by a tablet. The final product consists of five tiles connected by seven grid blocks which show how a smart grid works

The role of the inflammasome in cellular responses to toxins and bacterial effectors

Invading pathogens are recognized by mammalian cells through dedicated receptors found either at the cell surface or in the cytoplasm. These receptors, like the trans-membrane Toll-like Receptors (TLR) or the cytosolic Nod-like Receptors (NLR), initiate innate immunity after recognition of molecular patterns found in bacteria or viruses, such as LPS, flagellin, or double-stranded RNA. Recognition of molecules produced only by a specific pathogen, such as a viral envelop protein or a bacterial adhesin does not appear to occur. Bacterial protein toxins, however, might compose an intermediate class. Considering the diversity of toxins in terms of structure, it is unlikely that cells respond to them via specific molecular recognition. It rather appears that different classes of toxins trigger cellular changes that are sensed by the cells as danger signals, such as changes in cellular ion composition after membrane perforation by pore-forming toxins or type III secretion systems. The signaling pathways triggered through toxin-induced cell alterations will likely play a role in modulating host responses to virulent bacteria. We will here describe the few studied cases in which detection of the toxin by the host cell was addressed. The review will include not only toxins but also bacteria effectors secreted by the bacterium in to the host cell cytoplas

Comportament de la taxa de multiplicació al llarg de successius subcultius, atenent l'època d'explantació, de C. Scolymus cv. "Blanca de Tudela"

Peer Reviewe

How are riparian plants distributed along the riverbank topographic gradient in Mediterranean rivers? Application to minimally altered river stretches in Southern Spain.

Species structure and composition in Mediterranean riparian forests are determined by hydrological features, longitudinal zonation, and riverbank topography. This study assesses the distribution of four native riparian plants along the riverbank topographic gradient in three river stretches in southern Spain, with special emphasis on the occupation of adult and young feet of each species. The studied stretches suffered minimal human disturbances, displayed semi-arid conditions, and had wide riparian areas to allow the development of the target species: black alder (Alnus glutinosa), salvia leaf willow (Salix salviifolia), narrow-leafed ash (Fraxinus angustifolia), and oleander (Nerium oleander). Thalweg height was used to define the riverbank topographic gradient. The results showed a preferential zone for black alder and salvia leaf willow in the range of 0-150 cm from the channel thalweg, with adult alders and willows being more common between 51 and 150 cm and young alders being more common under 50 cm. Conversely, narrow-leafed ash and oleander were much more frequent, and showed greater development, in the ranges of 151-200 cm and 201-250 cm, respectively, whereas the young feet of both species covered the entire topographic range. Adult feet of the four species were spatially segregated along the riverbank topographic gradient, indicating their differential ability to cope with water stress from the non-tolerant alders and willows to more tolerant narrow-leafed ash trees and oleanders. Young feet, however, showed a strategy more closely linked to the initial availability of colonisation sites within riparian areas to the dispersion strategy of each species and to the distribution of adult feet. In Mediterranean areas, where riparian management has traditionally faced great challenges, the incorporation of species preferences along riverbank gradients could improve the performance of restoration projects

Viscosity properties of bimodal bitumen emulsions: new approach

The emulsions used in the manufacture of half warm asphat should contain very little water in their formulation. Conventional monomodal emulsions have a maximum dispersed phase concentration, ϕ, of 0.69. Recent research in this field is focused on the development of concentrated emulsions, ϕ = 0.70-0.74, or highly concentrated emulsions, ϕ >0.74. The concentrated or highly concentrated emulsions have little water in their formulation, <30%, but consequently have very high viscosities. This article summarizes the main conclusions related with the design, formulation and viscosity of bimodal concentrated bitumen emulsions. To formulate a bimodal emulsion is necessary to firstly manufacture two monomodal emulsion with a controlled drop size distribution from 1 and 5 μm respectively. These emulsions should be prepared with a system able to control the final drop size. In this study we have used the HIPR (High Internal Phase Ratio) procedure. The emulsions formulated in this paper are characterized by having viscosities up to ten times lower than their small monomodal size counterparts.The authors would like to thank the Catalan Government for the quality accreditation given to their research group GREA (2014 SGR 123). GREA is certified agent TECNIO in the category of technology developers from the Government of Catalonia. Dr. Camila Barreneche would like to thank Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad de España for Grant Juan de la Cierva, FJCI-2014-22886 and Núria Querol would like to specially thank Sorigue Company for giving her the opportunity to develop this study using its manufacture production plant equipped with the most advanced technology to develop this kind of emulsions

A roadmap to vocational education and training systems around the world

With young people among the big losers of the recent financial crisis, vocational education and training (VET) is often seen as the silver bullet to the problem of youth joblessness. This paper provides a better understanding of VET around the world, dealing with three types of vocational systems: school-based education, a dual system in which school-based education is combined with firm-based training, and informal training. We first explore the motivation for these different types of training, before summarizing the institutional evidence, highlighting the key elements of each training system and discussing its main implementation strengths and challenges. We subsequently review the evidence on the effectiveness of VET versus general education and between the three VET systems. There are clear indications that VET is a valued alternative beyond the core of general education, while the dual system tends to be more effective than school-based VET. Informal training is effective, however relatively little is known of its relative strengths compared with other forms of vocational education