'Getting out of the closet': Scientific authorship of literary fiction and knowledge transfer

Some scientists write literary fiction books in their spare time. If these books contain scientific knowledge, literary fiction becomes a mechanism of knowledge transfer. In this case, we could conceptualize literary fiction as non-formal knowledge transfer. We model knowledge transfer via literary fiction as a function of the type of scientist (academic or non-academic) and his/her scientific field. Academic scientists are those employed in academia and public research organizations whereas non-academic scientists are those with a scientific background employed in other sectors. We also distinguish between direct knowledge transfer (the book includes the scientist's research topics), indirect knowledge transfer (scientific authors talk about their research with cultural agents) and reverse knowledge transfer (cultural agents give scientists ideas for future research). Through mixed-methods research and a sample from Spain, we find that scientific authorship accounts for a considerable percentage of all literary fiction authorship. Academic scientists do not transfer knowledge directly so often as non-academic scientists, but the former engage into indirect and reverse transfer knowledge more often than the latter. Scientists from History stand out in direct knowledge transfer. We draw propositions about the role of the academic logic and scientific field on knowledge transfer via literary fiction. We advance some tentative conclusions regarding the consideration of scientific authorship of literary fiction as a valuable knowledge transfer mechanism.Comment: Paper published in Journal of Technology Transfe

Fonts i protagonistes de la informació en la televisió de proximitat. El cas del Tele Elx

Following the process of regulation of local digital terrestrial television in Spain, some of the academic research has focused on the beleaguered sector of the so-called proximity television. Although some of the studies go back to the eighties, most of the research deals with historicist or legislative issues, not taking into account other aspects such as the content and programming of local broadcasters. This paper presents the case of Tele Elx, a local television channel born in 1987 in Elche, which we regard as a paradigm of the evolution of proximity television. Our objective is to analyze its news sources and the main actors in its newscasts. We have carried out a content analysis of several samples of its prime-time newscast, Tele nit, which has been broadcasted from its launch. The sample includes 35 newscasts, from 1991 to 2015, which allow us to diachronically carry out an analysis of the evolution of news in local television in Spain.Arran de la regulació de la televisió digital terrestre local (TDT-L) a Espanya s'ha reactivat l'atenció investigadora sobre el maltractat sector de la televisió de proximitat. Tot i que els estudis es remunten als anys huitanta, la majoria versen sobre aspectes historicistes o legislatius i menyspreen altres enfocaments sobre l'oferta de programació i continguts d'aquestes televisions. Aquest article presenta el cas de Tele Elx, un canal d'àmbit local nascut el 1987 a Elx i que considerem que és un paradigma de l'evolució de les televisions de proximitat. El propòsit és conèixer-ne les fonts d'informació i els protagonistes de les seues notícies. Per a això s'han realitzat mostres selectives en el seu informatiu capdavanter, Tele nit, que s'emet ininterrompudament des dels seus inicis. La mostra abasta trenta-cinc noticiaris, del 1991 al 2015, que permeten fer una anàlisi diacrònica de la progressió dels informatius locals en televisions de petita escala

Hallazgos electromiográficos y electroneurográficos en el pie cavo esencial

La etiología del pie cavo cuando ésta es conocida, suele ser debida a un trastorno de tipo neurológico o miopático, aunque en determinados casos nos encontramos con pacientes que padecen esta deformidad en el pie, en los cuales no podemos descubrir ningún antecedente de este tipo, por lo que lo calificamos de pie cavo «esencial». A un grupo de estos pacientes con pie cavo «esencial», en los que no hemos encontrado ningún tipo de antecedente neurológico, lo hemos sometido a una exploración electroneurográfica, encontrando que la mitad de ellos padecían algún trastorno neuropático/miopático, que no había sido detectado en la exploración clínica inicial.Neurological or myopathic diseases are frequently involved in the etiology of flat foot. In some cases, no antecedents of disease can be found and therefore these flat foots are classified as «essential». We have undertaken an electrophysiologic study in a series of patients with «essential» flat food in order to explore unsuspected neurological disorders. In half of the patients, neuropathic and myopathic electroneurographic patterns of different severity were detected

Carbon and oxygen abundances from recombination lines in low-metallicity star-forming galaxies. Implications for chemical evolution

We present deep echelle spectrophotometry of the brightest emission-line knots of the star-forming galaxies He 2-10, Mkn 1271, NGC 3125, NGC 5408, POX 4, SDSS J1253-0312, Tol 1457-262, Tol 1924-416 and the HII region Hubble V in the Local Group dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 6822. The data have been taken with the Very Large Telescope Ultraviolet-Visual Echelle Spectrograph in the 3100-10420 {\AA} range. We determine electron densities and temperatures of the ionized gas from several emission-line intensity ratios for all the objects. We derive the ionic abundances of C$^{2+}$ and/or O$^{2+}$ from faint pure recombination lines (RLs) in several of the objects, permitting to derive their C/H and C/O ratios. We have explored the chemical evolution at low metallicities analysing the C/O vs. O/H, C/O vs. N/O and C/N vs. O/H relations for Galactic and extragalactic HII regions and comparing with results for halo stars and DLAs. We find that HII regions in star-forming dwarf galaxies occupy a different locus in the C/O vs. O/H diagram than those belonging to the inner discs of spiral galaxies, indicating their different chemical evolution histories, and that the bulk of C in the most metal-poor extragalactic HII regions should have the same origin than in halo stars. The comparison between the C/O ratios in HII regions and in stars of the Galactic thick and thin discs seems to give arguments to support the merging scenario for the origin of the Galactic thick disc. Finally, we find an apparent coupling between C and N enrichment at the usual metallicities determined for HII regions and that this coupling breaks in very low-metallicity objects.Comment: 27 pages, 12 figures, Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societ

Integral field spectroscopy of selected areas of the Bright Bar and Orion-S cloud in the Orion Nebula

We present integral field spectroscopy of two selected zones in the Orion Nebula obtained with the Potsdam Multi-Aperture Spectrophotometer (PMAS), covering the optical spectral range from 3500 to 7200 A and with a spatial resolution of 1". The observed zones are located on the prominent Bright Bar and on the brightest area at the northeast of the Orion South cloud, both containing remarkable ionization fronts. We obtain maps of emission line fluxes and ratios, electron density and temperatures, and chemical abundances. We study the ionization structure and morphology of both fields, which ionization fronts show different inclination angles with respect to the plane of the sky. We find that the maps of electron density, O+/H+ and O/H ratios show a rather similar structure. We interpret this as produced by the strong dependence on density of the [OII] lines used to derive the O+ abundance, and that our nominal values of electron density-derived from the [SII] line ratio-may be slightly higher than the appropriate value for the O+ zone. We measure the faint recombination lines of OII in the field at the northeast of the Orion South cloud allowing us to explore the so-called abundance discrepancy problem. We find a rather constant abundance discrepancy across the field and a mean value similar to that determined in other areas of the Orion Nebula, indicating that the particular physical conditions of this ionization front do not contribute to this discrepancy.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Carbon and oxygen in HII regions of the Magellanic Clouds: abundance discrepancy and chemical evolution

We present C and O abundances in the Magellanic Clouds derived from deep spectra of HII regions. The data have been taken with the Ultraviolet-Visual Echelle Spectrograph at the 8.2-m VLT. The sample comprises 5 HII regions in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and 4 in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). We measure pure recombination lines (RLs) of CII and OII in all the objects, permitting to derive the abundance discrepancy factors (ADFs) for O^2+, as well as their O/H, C/H and C/O ratios. We compare the ADFs with those of other HII regions in different galaxies. The results suggest a possible metallicity dependence of the ADF for the low-metallicity objects, but more uncertain for high-metallicity objects. We compare nebular and B-type stellar abundances and we find that the stellar abundances agree better with the nebular ones derived from collisionally excited lines (CELs). Comparing these results with other galaxies we observe that stellar abundances seem to agree better with the nebular ones derived from CELs in low-metallicity environments and from RLs in high-metallicity environments. The C/H, O/H and C/O ratios show almost flat radial gradients, in contrast with the spiral galaxies where such gradients are negative. We explore the chemical evolution analysing C/O vs. O/H and comparing with the results of HII regions in other galaxies. The LMC seems to show a similar chemical evolution to the external zones of small spiral galaxies and the SMC behaves as a typical star-forming dwarf galaxy.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 17 pages, 11 figures, 8 table

Sinovitis villonodular pigmentada difusa: Revisión de 13 casos

Se hace un estudio retrospectivo de trece pacientes con Sinovitis Villonodular pigmentada, seis localizadas en la rodilla, dos en la muñeca y pie, y uno en tobillo, cadera y codo respectivamente. En cinco de los casos existía una afectación del hueso. Se hace una revisión bibliográfica sobre la etiopatogenia, radiología, métodos diagnósticos y tratamientoA retrospective study of thirteen patients with pigmented villonodular synovitis was made. Six cases were localized in the knee, two in the wrist and feet, and one in ankle, hip and elbow. Five case showed bone invasion, the pathogenesis, radiographical appearance, diagnosis and treatment are discussed

A novel approach for adapting the standard addition method to single particle-ICP-MS for the accurate determination of NP size and number concentration in complex matrices; 35414390

This paper presents a novel approach, based on the standard addition method, for overcoming the matrix effects that often hamper the accurate characterization of nanoparticles (NPs) in complex samples via single particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (SP-ICP-MS). In this approach, calibration of the particle size is performed by two different methods: (i) by spiking a suspension of NPs standards of known size containing the analyte, or (ii) by spiking the sample with ionic standards; either way, the measured sensitivity is used in combination with the transport efficiency (TE) for sizing the NPs. Moreover, such transport efficiency can be readily obtained from the data obtained via both calibration methods mentioned above, so that the particle number concentration can also be determined. The addition of both ionic and NP standards can be performed on-line, by using a T-piece with two inlet lines of different dimensions. The smaller of the two is used for the standards, thus ensuring a constant and minimal sample dilution. As a result of the spiking of the samples, mixed histograms including the signal of the sample and that of the standards are obtained. However, the use of signal deconvolution approaches permits to extract the information, even in cases of signal populations overlapping. For proofing the concept, characterization of a 50 nm AuNPs suspension prepared in three different media (i.e., deionized water, 5% ethanol, and 2.5% tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide-TMAH) was carried out. Accurate results were obtained in all cases, in spite of the matrix effects detected in some media. Overall, the approach proposed offers flexibility, so it can be adapted to different situations, but it might be specially indicated for samples for which the matrix is not fully known and/or dilution is not possible/recommended. © 2022 The Author

Determinación de residuos de plaguicidas en aceitunas empleando análisis por extracción líquida de la superficie seguida por cromatografía líquida / espectrometría de masas en tándem

Nowadays, pesticides are essential in modern agriculture for crop protection, however, this use supposes a potential risk for human health and the environment. Traditional techniques of pesticide determination require the use of laborious and complex extraction methods to separate pesticides from the matrix, above all in fatty matrices like olives. For this reason, a new simple, rapid, cheap and selective method for the extraction and quantification of the most frequently used pesticides in olive growing has been developed. Pesticide determination was carried out by ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) coupled with triple-quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). Mean recoveries were found in a range between 73 and 114% with relative standard deviations lower than 20% in most pesticides evaluated and the limits of detection (LODs) and quantification (LOQs) were lower than 4 μg· kg-1 and 8 μg· kg-1, respectively. Finally, this method was applied to the analysis of 25 olive samples where Dimethoate and Terbuthylazine were detected in some cases, but their results were lower than 15 μg· kg-1.Hoy en día los pesticidas son esenciales en la agricultura moderna para la protección de los cultivos pero su uso supone un riesgo para la salud y el medio ambiente. Las técnicas tradicionales de determinación de pesticidas requieren el uso de métodos de extracción complejos a fin de separar los pesticidas de la matriz, sobre todo en matrices grasas como las aceitunas. Por ello, se ha desarrollado un nuevo método simple, rápido, barato y selectivo para la extracción y cuantificación de los pesticidas más frecuentemente utilizados en el cultivo del olivo, empleando cromatografía líquida de ultra-resolución (UPLC) acoplada a espectrometría de masas (MS/MS). Las recuperaciones alcanzadas variaron entre el 73 y 114% obteniendo desviaciones estándar relativas inferiores al 20%. Los límites de detección (LD) y cuantificación (LQ) fueron inferiores a 4 y 8 μg·kg −1, respectivamente. Finalmente, este método fue aplicado en 25 muestras de aceitunas donde se detectaron Dimetoato y Terbutilazina en algunos casos pero con valores inferiores a 15 μg·kg−1

Exploitation of washing products of granitic tin-bearing sands from Conquista (Córdoba)

8 páginas, 10 figuras, 3 tablas, 21 referencias.[EN]: An argillaceous material, high in kaolinite, from washing products of granitic sands of Pedroches (Córdoba) formation, is studied. The following determinations were carried out: mechanical analysis, chemical analysis. X-ray diffraction study, DTA-TG and dilatometric analysis, as well as a ceramic study of pressed and fîred bodies for two hours up to 1.300°C, to obttain the sintering diagrams. Through mineralogical analysis, it is concluded that the raw material is very high in kaolinite with variable contents of quartz, illite, feldspars (potassic), an iron oxides (~5% F2O3) mainly as gel. Through firing up to 1.300°C of presssed bodies, we can observe by the X-ray study the appearance and development of new phases among which mullite stands out, together with great vitreous phase formation. The location and great potential of the deposit, as well as the good ceramic properties of this material, permit their use in the good ceramic properties of this material, permit their use in the floor and tile industry due to its iron oxide content, being possible the processing by pressing, extrusion and slip casting.[ES]: Se estudia un material arcilloso con alto contenido en caolinita, procedente del lavado de arenas graníticas de la formación de Los Pedroches (Córdoba). Se han realizado las siguientes determinaciones: análisis granulométrico, químico y mediante difracción de rayos X, estudio térmico por ATD-TG y dilatométrico, así como estudio de las propiedades cerámicas del material en probetas prensadas y cocidas durante dos horas hasta la temperatura de 1.300°C, obteniéndose los correspondientes diagramas de gresificación. El análisis mineralógico del material crudo lo señala,como altamente caolinítico, con variable contenido eh cuarzo, ilita, feldespatos (potásicos) y óxidos de hierro (~5% F2O3), en estado de gel en su mayor parte. Mediante cocción hasta 1.300°C de las probetas prensadas, el estudio mediante difracción de rayos X permite observar la aparición y desarrollo de nuevas fases, entre las que destaca la mullita, junto con abundante formación de fase vítrea. La situación y gran potencia del yacimiento, así como las buenas propiedades cerámicas de este material natural, permiten su empleo en la industria de pavimentos y revestimientos cerámicos gresificados de pasta roja dado su contenido en óxidos de hierro que preparados adecuadamente pueden modelarse por prensado, extrusión y colaje.Peer reviewe