The reception in Spain of African literature written in English: Statistical data generation using the specialised bibliographic database BDÁFRICA

El presente artículo examina la recepción de la literatura africana en lengua inglesa en España basándonos en BDÁFRICA, una base de datos bibliográfica que recoge obras de autores nacidos en África y publicadas en español y en España entre 1972 y 2014. Se ofrece una reflexión crítica de las dificultades para definir la literatura africana como objeto de estudio, debido a su complejidad y heterogeneidad. Se propone, además, un conciso recorrido historiográfico por la conformación del canon de dicha literatura que se ha realizado desde Occidente. Asimismo, se demuestra la falta de estudios estadísticos sobre la recepción de literatura africana en lengua inglesa en España. Respondiendo a esta necesidad, el objetivo del artículo es detallar y analizar los datos estadísticos inéditos que proporciona la base de datos, adoptando una metodología descriptiva. Los resultados de este estudio, que aporta datos cuantitativos y cualitativos fiables y novedosos, son originales en tanto en cuanto reflejan y señalan los problemas de la traducción de la literatura africana en lengua inglesa en España. BDÁFRICA, que es gratuita y está disponible en red, pretende ser un recurso y una fuente que estimule el desarrollo de la investigación en literatura poscolonial en España. Sin duda, esta base de datos bibliográfica especializada es una herramienta muy valiosa, especialmente para investigadores, traductores y editoriales interesados en literatura africana.English translation of abstract: This paper explores the reception in Spain of African literature written originally in English by focusing on BDÁFRICA, a bibliographical database of works of fiction by African-born authors published in Spain, in Spanish between 1972 and 2014. It provides a critical reflection on the constraints of defining the object of study when African literature is discussed, due to the complexity and heterogeneity of such literature. It also proposes a concise historiographical journey through the Western canon formation of African literature in English. Additionally, it evidences the lack of quantitative studies on the reception in Spain of African literature in English. To cater to this need, the aim of this paper is to report and analyse the groundbreaking statistical data the database itself provides by following a descriptive approach. The findings of this study, which provides reliable and unprecedented quantitative and qualitative data, are original in the sense that they map and highlight the problems of the reception of African literature in English, and translated in Spain. This shows BDÁFRICA, which is free and available online, as a primary (re)source for work to pave the way for the development of postcolonial literature research in Spain. This specialised bibliographical database is undoubtedly an invaluable tool, especially for researchers, translators and publishing houses interested in African literature.Published versio

BDAFRICA: Design and implementation of a database of Postcolonial African literature published in Spain

Este trabajo demuestra que no existe un repositorio que incluya los autores poscoloniales africanos publicados hasta el momento en España y que permita, por ende, realizar estudios cuantitativos y cualitativos del impacto de esta literatura con la precisión deseable. Esto supone una carencia tanto para investigaciones académicas como para el sector editorial a la hora de analizar tendencias de selección y recepción en el mercado. Ante esta situación, el objetivo primordial de este trabajo es diseñar e implementar una base de datos, basada en MySQL y delimitada por unos parámetros muy concretos, que recoja todas las obras de autores africanos publicadas en castellano en España entre 1972 (año en que España se unió al sistema ISBN) y 2014. Tras determinar unos criterios de diseño y unos protocolos de compilación específcos, el desarrollo metodológico se ha dividido en cuatro fases: recopilación, almacenamiento, tratamiento y difusión de los datos. Así, la base de datos BDÁFRICA consigue un doble objetivo: por un lado, proporciona a los investigadores datos fables en los que basar sus estudios y, por otro, permitiría ofrecer por primera vez datos estadísticos de la evolución de la publicación de obras de autores africanos en España en los últimos 42 años.English version of abstract: This paper evidences the absence of a repository or database that scompiles the publications of Postcolonial African writing in Spain, thus precluding comprehensive quantitative or qualitative studies on the impact of these works. This is a significant obstacle for both academic research and the book market, which up to now has been unable to analyse market selection and reception trends. To cater for this need, the aim of this paper is to describe the design and implementation of a relational database, based on MySQL and set up using specific and accurate parameters, that includes all the literary works penned by African writers and published in Spain and in Spanish from 1972 (when Spain first joined the ISBN system) to 2014. After determining a number of specific design criteria and compilation protocols, the methodology has been divided into four steps: data collection, storage, statistical processing and online dissemination. Thus, the database BDAFRICA achieves a twofold objective: firstly, it provides researchers with unbiased data as a framework for their studies, and secondly, it offers unprecedented statistics on the evolution of the publication of African literature in Spain over the last 42 years.Published versio

Application of Deep Learning Long Short-Term Memory in Energy Demand Forecasting

The smart metering infrastructure has changed how electricity is measured in both residential and industrial application. The large amount of data collected by smart meter per day provides a huge potential for analytics to support the operation of a smart grid, an example of which is energy demand forecasting. Short term energy forecasting can be used by utilities to assess if any forecasted peak energy demand would have an adverse effect on the power system transmission and distribution infrastructure. It can also help in load scheduling and demand side management. Many techniques have been proposed to forecast time series including Support Vector Machine, Artificial Neural Network and Deep Learning. In this work we use Long Short Term Memory architecture to forecast 3-day ahead energy demand across each month in the year. The results show that 3-day ahead demand can be accurately forecasted with a Mean Absolute Percentage Error of 3.15%. In addition to that, the paper proposes way to quantify the time as a feature to be used in the training phase which is shown to affect the network performance

Moiré-Free Full Parallax Holoscopic 3D Display based on Cross-Lenticular

Holoscopic imaging also known as Integral imaging is a promising 3D solution that mimics the imaging system of insects, such as the fly, utilizing a single camera, equipped with a large number of microlens array, to capture a scene, offering rich parallax information and enhanced 3D feeling without the need of wearing specific eyewear. Recently, initial developments are made for designing a full parallax holoscopic 3D display using parallax barriers which suffers low lighting throughput as the constructed 3D scene is a rather dim. Also a first attempt was made designing an omnidirectional holoscopic 3D display using cross-lenticular which introduces moiré effect. This paper proposes and presents a moiré-free full parallax holoscopic 3D display which offers omnidirectional motion parallax and complete 3D depth

Review of magnetic nanostructures grown by focused electron beam induced deposition (FEBID)

We review the current status of the use of focused electron beam induced deposition (FEBID) for the growth of magnetic nanostructures. This technique relies on the local dissociation of a precursor gas by means of an electron beam. The most promising results have been obtained using the Co₂(CO)₈ precursor, where the Co content in the grown nanodeposited material can be tailored up to more than 95%. Functional behaviour of these Co nanodeposits has been observed in applications such as arrays of magnetic dots for information storage and catalytic growth, magnetic tips for scanning probe microscopes, nano-Hall sensors for bead detection, nano-actuated magnetomechanical systems and nanowires for domain-wall manipulation. The review also covers interesting results observed in Fe-based and alloyed nanodeposits. Advantages and disadvantages of FEBID for the growth of magnetic nanostructures are discussed in the article as well as possible future directions in this field.Financial support by several projects is acknowledged: MAT2014-51982-C2-1-R, MAT2014-51982-C2-2-R and MAT2015-69725-REDT from MINECO (including FEDER funding), CELINA COST Action CM1301, Aragón Regional Government through project E26, FP7 Marie Curie Fellowship 3DMAGNANOW, EPSRC Early Career Fellowship EP/M008517/1 and Winton Fellowship

Estudio sobre las Pallozas de la sierra de los Ancares/España

The object of this work is to make known the existence, in a small mountain area of the north-west of Spain, of a form of archaic constructions, the "Pallozas”, that have a great similarity to the first habitat built by man in the Iberian Peninsula more than 2000 years ago. The advanced deterioration and the possible disappearance of the "Pallozas" led the author to realize a study of the same in order to get to know them better and to prevent their definite falling into oblivion.El objeto de este trabajo es dar a conocer la existencia, en una pequeña zona de montañas, del noroeste de España, de un tipo de construcciones arcaicas, las pallozas, que tienen gran parecido con los primeros hábitat construidos por el hombre en la Península Ibérica hace más de 2000 años. El avanzado deterioro y la posible desaparición de las pallozas llevó al autor a realizar un estudio, sobre las mismas, con el fin de conocerlas mejor y de que no cayesen definitivamente en el olvido

The Structural Architecture of an Infectious Mammalian Prion Using Electron Cryomicroscopy

The structure of the infectious prion protein (PrPSc), which is responsible for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans and bovine spongiform encephalopathy, has escaped all attempts at elucidation due to its insolubility and propensity to aggregate. PrPSc replicates by converting the non-infectious, cellular prion protein (PrPC) into the misfolded, infectious conformer through an unknown mechanism. PrPSc and its N-terminally truncated variant, PrP 27-30, aggregate into amorphous aggregates, 2D crystals, and amyloid fibrils. The structure of these infectious conformers is essential to understanding prion replication and the development of structure-based therapeutic interventions. Here we used the repetitive organization inherent to GPI-anchorless PrP 27-30 amyloid fibrils to analyze their structure via electron cryomicroscopy. Fourier-transform analyses of averaged fibril segments indicate a repeating unit of 19.1 Å. 3D reconstructions of these fibrils revealed two distinct protofilaments, and, together with a molecular volume of 18,990 Å3, predicted the height of each PrP 27-30 molecule as ~17.7 Å. Together, the data indicate a four-rung β-solenoid structure as a key feature for the architecture of infectious mammalian prions. Furthermore, they allow to formulate a molecular mechanism for the replication of prions. Knowledge of the prion structure will provide important insights into the self-propagation mechanisms of protein misfolding

A Small Conductance Calcium-Activated K⁺ Channel in C. elegans, KCNL-2, Plays a Role in the Regulation of the Rate of Egg-Laying

In the nervous system of mice, small conductance calcium-activated potassium (SK) channels function to regulate neuronal excitability through the generation of a component of the medium afterhyperpolarization that follows action potentials. In humans, irregular action potential firing frequency underlies diseases such as ataxia, epilepsy, schizophrenia and Parkinson's disease. Due to the complexity of studying protein function in the mammalian nervous system, we sought to characterize an SK channel homologue, KCNL-2, in C. elegans, a genetically tractable system in which the lineage of individual neurons was mapped from their early developmental stages. Sequence analysis of the KCNL-2 protein reveals that the six transmembrane domains, the potassium-selective pore and the calmodulin binding domain are highly conserved with the mammalian homologues. We used widefield and confocal fluorescent imaging to show that a fusion construct of KCNL-2 with GFP in transgenic lines is expressed in the nervous system of C. elegans. We also show that a KCNL-2 null strain, kcnl-2(tm1885), demonstrates a mild egg-laying defective phenotype, a phenotype that is rescued in a KCNL-2-dependent manner. Conversely, we show that transgenic lines that overexpress KCNL-2 demonstrate a hyperactive egg-laying phenotype. In this study, we show that the vulva of transgenic hermaphrodites is highly innervated by neuronal processes and by the VC4 and VC5 neurons that express GFP-tagged KCNL-2. We propose that KCNL-2 functions in the nervous system of C. elegans to regulate the rate of egg-laying. © 2013 Chotoo et al

The Kondo effect in ferromagnetic atomic contacts

Iron, cobalt and nickel are archetypal ferromagnetic metals. In bulk, electronic conduction in these materials takes place mainly through the $s$ and $p$ electrons, whereas the magnetic moments are mostly in the narrow $d$-electron bands, where they tend to align. This general picture may change at the nanoscale because electrons at the surfaces of materials experience interactions that differ from those in the bulk. Here we show direct evidence for such changes: electronic transport in atomic-scale contacts of pure ferromagnets (iron, cobalt and nickel), despite their strong bulk ferromagnetism, unexpectedly reveal Kondo physics, that is, the screening of local magnetic moments by the conduction electrons below a characteristic temperature. The Kondo effect creates a sharp resonance at the Fermi energy, affecting the electrical properties of the system;this appears as a Fano-Kondo resonance in the conductance characteristics as observed in other artificial nanostructures. The study of hundreds of contacts shows material-dependent lognormal distributions of the resonance width that arise naturally from Kondo theory. These resonances broaden and disappear with increasing temperature, also as in standard Kondo systems. Our observations, supported by calculations, imply that coordination changes can significantly modify magnetism at the nanoscale. Therefore, in addition to standard micromagnetic physics, strong electronic correlations along with atomic-scale geometry need to be considered when investigating the magnetic properties of magnetic nanostructures.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

The enhancement of direct amide synthesis reaction rate over TiO 2 @SiO 2 @NiFe 2 O 4 magnetic catalysts in the continuous flow under radiofrequency heating

A series of TiO2@SiO2@NiFe2O4 composite magnetic catalyst with a core-double shell structure was synthesized by a sol-gel method. The morphology of the catalysts was studied by XRD, SEM, N2 physisorption and their magnetic properties were examined with magnetometry, and specific absorption rate measurements. The catalytic activity was determined in a direct amide synthesis reaction between aniline and phenylbutyric acid at 150 °C in a fixed bed flow reactor under radiofrequency heating. The intermediate silica layer of the catalyst increased the porosity of the outer titania layer and the specific absorbance rate of the catalyst. The initial reaction rate increased by 61% as compared to a similar core-shell TiO2@NiFe2O4 catalyst showing the detrimental effect of nickel ferrite on titania. The reaction rate was further increased by a factor of 3.5 after a sulfation treatment due to an optimum Lewis acid site strength. The highest specific reaction rate over TiO2@SiO2@NiFe2O4 was observed at a 7.5 wt% sulfate loading which was 2.6 times higher as compared to a mechanical mixture of the same composition. The initial reaction rate decreased by 36% after a period of 55 h on stream. The catalyst activity was restored after a treatment with a H2O2 solution