Estudio sobre la efectividad del factor de sobre-resistencia del criterio columna fuerte-viga débil en el diseño sísmico de pórticos de hormigón mediante el análisis dinámico no lineal

Se analizarán normativas de diseño sísmico basado del contexto americano (FEMMA), europeo y otras de desarrollo reciente aún no normalizadas. Como casos de estudio, se dimensionarán estructuras tipo de gran altura de acuerdo y posteriormente se evaluarán su desempeño sísmico mediante análisis no lineal para diferentes intensidades sísmicas. Se extraerán conclusiones respecto al coste del diseño y la efectividad del diseño

Fractionation of spent sulphite liquor into monomeric sugars and lignosulphonates by an ultrafiltration series system

Spent sulphite liquor (SSL) is the main byproduct of acid sulphite pulping. Its main components are lignosulphonates (LS) and monomeric sugars. SSL is typically intended as binder, emulsifier or additive in concretes due to its high amount of LS. Sugars can be converted into high value-added products such as xylitol, PHB or biofuels among others; by means of fermentation processes. However, a separation step to remove the compounds that can act as fermentation inhibitors, as LS, is needed. Membrane technology allows the separation of sugars and LS from the SSL because of their different size of molecular weight. In the present study, ceramic membranes with different cut-offs (15 kDa, 5 kDa and 1 kDa) were used. 15 kDa membrane offered the best results according to LS concentration in the retentate stream, 5 kDa membrane the highest LS removal in permeate stream, and 1 kDa membrane the minimum sugar losses in the permeate stream. Because of this, the combination of the three membranes in a series system was proposed. In this way, an increase in LS removal in the final permeate was achieved (72.78 %), but also an increase in the sugar losses (26.80 %). Hence, further studies will determine the optimal configuration system of this process.Authors would like to thank the Department of Education, Universities and Investigation of the Basque Government (Postdoctoral Development Program and project IT672-13) and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (CTQ2013-41246-R) for financially supporting this work

Use of in-vivo induced antigen technology to identify bacterial genes expressed during Solea senegalensis infection with Photobacterium damselae subsp. piscicida

The marine fish pathogen Photobacterium damselae subsp. piscicida (Phdp) is responsible for important disease outbreaks affecting several fish species including flatfish Solea senegalensis (Kaup). Phdp is able to avoid host defences by invasion and intracellular survival in non-phagocytic cells, mainly epithelial cells. Virulence factors reported in Phdp include restricting complement-mediated activity, apoptosis of phagocytes caused by exotoxins secretion, iron acquisition mechanisms such as siderophores that enable the pathogen to obtain iron from transferrin and ability to bind haemin and antioxidant enzymatic activities capable to counteract superoxide radicals (Do Vale et al., 2005; Andreoni and Magnano, 2014). Commonly, genes expressed during pathogen infection are important for pathogenicity. In vivo-induced antigen technology (IVIAT) (Handfield et al., 2000) has been used to identify in vivo-induced genes using pooled sera from fish that have experienced photobacteriosis. Materials and methods Sera were obtained from surviving S. senegalensis specimens after sublethal infection with Phdp (Lg41/01) and subsequently pooled and adsorbed against in vitro grown Phdp Lg41/01 and Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) cells and lysates according to Handfield et al. (2000). The efficiency of sera adsorption was evaluated based on the immunoreactivity after each adsorption step with whole and lysed Phdp cells grown in vitro. A genomic expression library of Phdp Lg41/01 was generated in E. coli BL21 (DE3) using pET-30 expression system (Novagen, San Diego, CA, USA). The expression library was probed with adsorbed and non-absorbed sera using immunoblot technique. Reactive clones of in vivo-induced and in vitro antigens were obtained, purified and their inserted DNA sequenced (Macrogen Europe, Amsterdam, The Netherlands). Nucleotide sequences were compared against the NCBI protein database using BLASTx. Results A progressive reduction in sera immunoreactivity against in vitro grown Phdp cells was detected after the adsorption rounds, especially after the first adsorption step. Thus, following adsorption steps substantially removed antibodies against in vitro expressed antigens and resulted in relative enrichment in antibodies recognizing in vivo expressed antigens. The library from Phdp Lg14/01 constructed in E. coli BL21 (DE3) consisted of approximately 6500 recombinants. A total of 117 clones were selected for their reactivity with pooled adsorbed and non-adsorbed sera from convalescent S. senegalensis specimens after a first round of screening. In a second screening, 14 out of 117 candidate clones showed positive reaction, among which two clones were clearly positive and two gave weak reaction against adsorbed sera. Predicted proteins codified by inserted sequences have intracellular and membrane cell location and are involved in virulence, synthesis of intermediary products, energy metabolism and gene replication. Inosine-5’-monophosphate dehydrogenase (IMPDH) and alkyl hydroperoxide reductase (AhpC) have been identified as in vivo induced antigens expressed during S. senegalensis infection with Phdp. Iron/manganese superoxide dismutase (Fe/Mn-SOD) and alanyl-tRNA synthetase (AlaRS) proteins have also been identified, though with weak signal. Discussion and conclusion Identification of immunogenic bacterial proteins during Phdp infection is essential for understanding bacterial pathogenesis and development of effective vaccines. AhpC peroxidase activity has a protective role by reducing hydrogen peroxide, peroxynitrite and organic hydroperoxides. Immunization with AhpC conferred protection against Helicobacter pylori infection (O’Riordan et al., 2012). IMPDH catalyzes the conversion of products essential in de novo synthesis of guanine nucleotides. Adequate levels of purine nucleotides are critical for cell proliferation, nucleic acid replication, cell signaling and as a biochemical energy source. This gene is an important therapeutic target against bacterial diseases (Shu and Nair,2008). In conclusion, different genes expressed during Phdp infection in S. senegalensis have been identified. Among them, IMPDH and AhpC have been identified as in vivo induced antigens expressed during S. senegalensis infection with Phdp. Thus, they are likely to play a role in the virulence of Phdp. The antigenic character of these proteins makes them potential targets for the development of new vaccines. References Andreoni, F., and Magnani, M., 2014. Photobacteriosis: Prevention and Diagnosis. Journal of Immunology Research, 2014: 1-7. Do Vale, A., Silva, M.T., dos Santos, N.M., Nascimento, D.S., Reis Rodrigues, P., Costa Ramos, C., Ellis, A.E., and Azevedo, J.E., 2005. AIP56, a novel plasmid-encoded virulence factor of Photobacterium damselae subsp. piscicida with apoptogenic activity against sea bass macrophages and neutrophils. Molecular Microbiology, 58: 1025-1038. Handfield, M., Brady, L.J., Progulske-Fox, A., and Hillman, J.D., 2000. IVIAT: a novel method to identify microbial genes expressed specifically during human infections. Trends in Microbiology, 8: 336-339. O’Riordan A.A., Morales V.A., Mulligan L., Faheem N., Windle H.J., and Kelleher D.P., 2012. Alkyl hydroperoxide reductase: a candidate Helicobacter pylori vaccine. Vaccine, 30:3876-3884. Shu, Q., and Nair, V., 2008. Inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase (IMPDH) as a target in drug discovery. Medicinal Research Reviews, 28:219-232.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

The stories as links between the tourism and the cultural heritage

analysing the different multidisciplinary focuses and possible research lines. Particularly, the so called narrative focuses are valued. This debate is instructed with a professional experience taken by the initiative of the Consejería de Cultura y Turismo of the Junta de Extremadura, aimed at creating a promotional stuff called “En los confines de Terra Extrema” (In the confines of Extremearth

De los espacios de lectura a los espacios letrados

Comparados los conceptos de espacios letrado y de espacio de lectura, se plantea la hipótesis de que son conceptos bisagra que anticipan el cambio de paradigmas en la lectura. Espacio de lectura es un concepto físico, vinculado a instituciones como las bibliotecas o los centros académicos, mientras que espacio letrado subraya las interacciones de los sujetos y en con los medios en la cultura de la convergencia y en la participación. La lectura en su dimensión plenamente social es analizada con las categorías de los Nuevos Estudios de Literacidad. Se plantea como método el análisis comparativo de los diferentes ámbitos, por ejemplo, el papel de los espacios dentro de la Cultura Escrita, no como simples edificios o instalaciones, sino como ámbitos capaces de generar "ambientes letrados". Todo ello implica nuevos modos de sociabilidad, nuevos lugares y prácticas, y conciliar alfabetización básica y nuevos alfabetismos. Se revisa el concepto de sala letrada y su uso en educación formal y no formal. En esta línea, se subraya la necesidad de vincular la lectura y la escritura al emprendimiento y a las nuevas prácticas sociales y culturales. Comparing concepts like literate space and reading space, we consider the hypothesis that they are like hinge concepts that anticipate the change of paradigms in reading. Reading space is a physical concept, linked to institutions like libraries and academic centers, whereas literate space emphasizes the interactions among agents and with media in convergence culture and also in participation. Reading, in its whole social dimension, is analyzed with the categories of the New Literacy Studies. We suggest comparative analysis of different areas as method, for example, the role of the spaces inside the Written Culture, not as simple buildings or facilities, but as spheres able to generate literate environments. All of this implies new ways of sociability, new places and practices, and combining both basic and new literacies. It is revised the concept of literate room and its use in both formal and not formal learning. Along these lines, we emphasize the need of linking reading and writing to entrepreneurship and to new social and cultural practices

SANComSim: A scalable, adaptive and non-intrusive framework to optimize performance in computational science applications

Parallel processing has become the most common solution for developing and executing scientific computing applications. Actually, the best way to obtain good performance ratios is to exploit parallelism in both processing and communications. Although the study of computational performance has historically involved CPU power, currently the CPU is not the only concern in the overall performance. Due to the underlying design of parallel applications, communication networks play a very important role in the field of computational science. Despite the fact that networks used in multicore clusters are fast and have low latency, the amount of transferred data may cause a bottleneck in the communication system, as communication-intensive, parallel applications spend a significant amount of their total execution time exchanging data between processes. Moreover, in most cases, several users are executing different parallel applications at the same time in the cluster. In this paper we present SANComSim, a Scalable, Adaptive and Non-intrusive framework, based on simulation techniques, for optimizing the performance of the network system to execute complex applications. The main objective of this framework is to apply run-time compression, to reduce the data sent through the network, in order to increase the overall system performance. The main features of SANComSim are: adaptability, to dynamically adapt to the current state of the system; portability, the framework is neither focused on a specific programming language nor a platform; non-intrusive, since this framework is based on simulation techniques, which does not require exclusive access of the entire cluster system; scalability, any parallel application, independently of the number of processed and computing nodes, can use this framework to improve performance in cluster systems

From reading spaces to literate spaces

Comparados los conceptos de espacios letrado y de espacio de lectura, se plantea la hipótesis de que son conceptos bisagra que anticipan el cambio de paradigmas en la lectura. «Espacio de lectura» es un concepto físico, vinculado a instituciones como las bibliotecas o los centros académicos, mientras que «espacio letrado» subraya las interacciones de los sujetos y en esa media en la cultura de la convergencia de medios y en la participación. La lectura en su dimensión plenamente social es analizada con las categorías de los Nuevos Estudios de Literacidad. Se plantea como método el análisis comparativo de los diferentes ámbitos, por ejemplo, el papel de los espacios dentro de la Cultura Escrita, no como simples edificios o instalaciones, sino como ámbitos capaces de generar «ambientes letrados». Todo ello implica nuevos modos de sociabilidad, nuevos lugares y prácticas, y conciliar alfabetización básica y nuevos alfabetismos. Se revisa el concepto de sala letrada y su uso en educación formal y no formal. En esta línea, se subraya la necesidad de vincular la lectura y la escritura al emprendimiento y a las nuevas prácticas sociales y culturales.Comparing concepts like literate space and reading space, we put forward the hypothesis that they are «hinge concepts» that anticipate the change of paradigms in reading. A«Reading space» is a physical concept, linked to institutions such as libraries and academic centres, whereas a «literate space» focuses more on the interactions between agents and the degree to which culture and participation converge. The social context of reading is analysed using the categories of the New Literacy Studies. The method we propose using is the comparative analysis of different areas, for example the role of spaces within Written Culture, not as simple buildings or facilities, but as spheres able to generate «literate environments». All of this implies new ways of socialising, new places and practices, combining both basic and new literacies. It revises the concept of literate room and its use in both formal and informal learning. Along these lines, we emphasize the need to link reading and writing to entrepreneurship and to new social and cultural practices

Lecturas ecocríticas del patrimonio

Hoy está fuera de discusión la importancia del patrimonio y la memoria biocultural y, en concreto, de las sabidurías tradicionales y locales que se expresan de forma particular en las leyendas y otras ecoficciones (Dwyer, 2010; Martos Núñez, 2013), tanto de corpus de textos folklóricos como de textos literarios o multimodales. Los paradigmas de estudio en que se apoyan dichos estudios son varios, desde la etnoecología a la ecocrítica y otras corrientes críticas, y, por ello, el artículo pretende visibilizar las sabidurías ancestrales en el ámbito de los imaginarios del agua, y desde una perspectiva comparatista en relación a los distintos discursos aludidos. En particular, tratamos de explicar las ecologías animadas a través de los númenes aquae o personificaciones / deidades del agua, que son el eje de tales ecoficciones, buscando patrones y correlaciones más allá del contexto local. Relacionamos esta humanización del agua con los usos y claves simbólicas de la cultura del agua en su diversidad, como es su vinculación con el concepto de habitar poético y con las ecologías animadas