Formation of asymmetric arms in barred galaxies

ABSTRACTWe establish a dynamical mechanism to explain the origin of the asymmetry between the arms observed in some barred disc galaxies, where one of the two arms emanating from the bar ends is very well defined, while the second one displays a ragged structure, extending between its ridge and the bar. To this purpose, we study the invariant manifolds associated with the Lyapunov periodic orbits around the unstable equilibrium points at the ends of the bar. Matter from the galaxy centre is transported along these manifolds to the periphery, forming this way the spiral arms that emanate from the bar ends. If the mass distribution in the galaxy centre is not homogeneous, because of an asymmetric bar with one side stronger than the other, or because of a non-centred bulge, the dynamics about the two unstable Lagrange points at the ends of the bar will not be symmetric as well. One of their invariant manifolds becomes more extended than the other, enclosing a smaller section and the escaping orbits on it are fewer and dispersed in a wider region. The result is a weaker arm and more ragged than the one at the other end of the bar

Redefining the role of obstacles in pedestrian evacuation

The placement of obstacles in front of doors is believed to be an effective strategy to increase the flow of pedestrians, hence improving the evacuation process. Since it was first suggested, this counterintuitive feature is considered a hallmark of pedestrian flows through bottlenecks. Indeed, despite the little experimental evidence, the placement of an obstacle has been hailed as the panacea for solving evacuation problems. In this work, we challenge this idea and experimentally demonstrate that the pedestrians flow rate is not necessarily altered by the presence of an obstacle. This result - which is at odds with recent demonstrations on its suitability for the cases of granular media, sheep and mice - differs from the outcomes of most of existing numerical models, and warns about the risks of carelessly extrapolating animal behaviour to humans. Our experimental findings also reveal an unnoticed phenomenon in relation with the crowd movement in front of the exit: in competitive evacuations, an obstacle attenuates the development of collective transversal rushes, which are hazardous as they might cause falls.Fil: Garcimartín, A.. Universidad de Navarra; EspañaFil: Maza, D.. Universidad de Navarra; EspañaFil: Pastor, J. M.. Focke Meler Gluing Solutions S.A.; EspañaFil: Parisi, Daniel Ricardo. Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Martín Gómez, C.. Universidad de Navarra; EspañaFil: Zuriguel, I.. Universidad de Navarra; Españ

Retos y oportunidades de la implantación de los bancos de agua en España

Con el fin de conseguir una buena gobernanza del agua, que trate de alcanzar un equilibrio entre los objetivos de eficiencia económica y sostenibilidad ambiental, durante las últimas décadas se ha potenciado el uso de instrumentos económicos para una mejor gestión de la demanda de los recursos hídricos, dada la dificultad de seguir aumentando la oferta de los mismos. En este contexto, este trabajo se centra en los bancos de agua como mecanismo de mercado que aporta la necesaria flexibilidad institucional en la asignación de los recursos hídricos entre los diferentes usuarios. La investigación realizada en este sentido ha permitido desarrollar una tipología de los bancos de agua que actualmente operan a nivel mundial en base a sus características operativas. Esta caracterización ha permitido igualmente realizar un análisis crítico de las experiencias de bancos de agua implementadas hasta la fecha, con el fin poder valorar el desempeño de este instrumento económico para la mejora de la gestión pública del agua. La investigación llevada a cabo revela que los bancos de agua son un instrumento útil para la gestión de los recursos hídricos, aportando sugerencias para la mejora de su implementación operativa en España mediante la correspondiente reforma de la Ley de Aguas.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) AGL2013-48080-C2-1-RFondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) AGL2013-48080-C2-1-

Development and validation of the scale of psychological abuse in intimate partner violence (EAPA-P)

Background: In the context of intimate partner violence, psychological abuse (PA) has progressively gained scientific relevance. Even so, a greater effort is needed to define and evaluate psychological intimate partner abuse. A new exhaustive and operative taxonomy of PA strategies leads to the contribution of a new evaluation instrument. Method: Participants were 101 women between 24 and 82 years old, who were abused by their partners and attended to in different municipal Catalan services, specialized in the topic. Results: The analyses have shown the suitability of a 19-item instrument divided into two factors: (1) direct PA strategies and (2) indirect PA strategies. The former includes strategies that affect the emotional, cognitive and behavioral dimension of the victim. The latter includes items that measure the amount of control and domination over the victim’s context. This scale has adequate psychometric properties in terms of score reliability and the validity of the relationship with other women’s health variables. Conclusions: The EAPA-P, created based on a new definition and taxonomy of the forms of PA, is presented as a valid instrument to detect and measure intimate partner PA

Preliminary Results from the Experimental Study of CO2-Brine-Rock Interactions at Elevated T & P: Implications for the Pilot Plant for CO2 Storage in Spain

AbstractA new experimental program has been carried out in order to study CO2-brine-rock interactions susceptible to take place in conditions close to those expected in the pilot plant that is being developed in Spain (a carbonate reservoir located at more than 800 m depth, with 15% porosity, and a salinity of the native brine between 20 – 90g/L). The combination of preliminary experimental and numerical modeling (PHREEQC) results suggests that the main geochemical processes are calcite dissolution and anhydrite precipitation

A new model of meteoric calcium in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere

Meteoric ablation produces layers of metal atoms in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT). It has been known for more than 30 years that the Ca atom layer is depleted by over 2 orders of magnitude compared with Na, despite these elements having nearly the same elemental abundance in chondritic meteorites. In contrast, the Ca+ ion abundance is depleted by less than a factor of 10. To explain these observations, a large database of neutral and ion–molecule reaction kinetics of Ca species, measured over the past decade, was incorporated into the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM). A new meteoric input function for Ca and Na, derived using a chemical ablation model that has been tested experimentally with a Meteoric Ablation Simulator, shows that Ca ablates almost 1 order of magnitude less efficiently than Na. WACCM-Ca simulates the seasonal Ca layer satisfactorily when compared with lidar observations, but tends to overestimate Ca+ measurements made by rocket mass spectrometry and lidar. A key finding is that CaOH and CaCO3 are very stable reservoir species because they are involved in essentially closed reaction cycles with O2 and O. This has been demonstrated experimentally for CaOH, and in this study for CaCO3 using electronic structure and statistical rate theory. Most of the neutral Ca is therefore locked in these reservoirs, enabling rapid loss through polymerization into meteoric smoke particles, and this explains the extreme depletion of Ca

High-resolution study of a star-forming cluster in the Cep-A HW2 region

Due to its relatively small distance (725 pc), the Cepheus A East star-forming region is an ideal laboratory to study massive star formation processes. Based on its morphology, it has been suggested that the flattened molecular gas distribution around the YSO HW2 may be a 350-AU-radius massive protostellar disk. Goal of our work is to ascertain the nature of this structure. We have employed the Plateau de Bure Interferometer to acquire (sub-)arcsecond-resolution imaging of high-density and shock tracers, such as methyl cyanide (CH3CN) and silicon monoxide (SiO), towards the HW2 position. On the 1-arcsecond (about 725 AU) scale, the flattened distribution of molecular gas around HW2 appears to be due to the projected superposition, on the plane of the sky, of at least three protostellar objects, of which at least one is powering a molecular outflow at a small angle with respect to the line of sight. The presence of a protostellar disk around HW2 is not ruled out, but such structure is likely to be detected on a smaller spatial scale, or using different molecular tracers.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Fatiga y rendimiento en la velocidad y salto

El presente trabajo expone una comparación entre dos tipos de actividades fatigantes (pliometría y multisaltos) y su relación de dependencia con el rendimiento en la velocidad y la capacidad de salto, acciones propias de numerosas actividades deportivas. Para ello se utilizó un único grupo control de 11 sujetos universitarios que pasó por dos sesiones, separadas temporalmente una semana. En la primera sesión se utilizó como ejercicio de prefatiga los multisaltos, mientras que en la segunda sesión, la pliometría. Se realizó un análisis estadístico descriptivo, un análisis de contraste, t-Student y ANOVA, y un análisis de correlación de Pearson. Los resultados demostraron de forma significativa que se obtuvieron mejores registros en la capacidad de salto durante la sesión en la que se realizaron previamente ejercicios de pliometría, y en la velocidad durante la sesión de multisaltos

Kinect-based occupational therapy virtual environment for functional neurorehabilitation of the upper limb

The use of virtual reality technologies has attracted great interest in the area of functional neurorehabilitation [1]. These technologies have a strong ludic component that can increase motivation. Furthermore, Kinect-based motion tracking enables us to individualize the exercises and to generate knowledge [2]. The aim of this research is to perform a proof of concept test of a virtual environment for upper limb rehabilitation. To this end, we have designed two rehabilitation virtual scenarios based on occupational therapy activities. Activities are monitored by a control system based on Microsoft® Kinect sensor [3], for performing bilateral hand coordination and finger dissociation rehabilitation exercises. Both virtual scenarios have been validated by expert therapists at the Institut Guttmann of Nerurrehabilitación and a preliminary evaluation has been performed with four traumatic brain injury patients