Decomposing generalized transport costs using index numbers: A geographical analysis of economic and infrastructure fundamentals

We use the economic theory approach to index numbers in order to improve the existing definitions and decompositions of generalized transport costs (GTCs), and thus to obtain a better understanding of their economic and infrastructure determinants. Using this approach we accurately measure the contribution made to reducing GTCs by the variation in operating costs and accessibility variables, and discuss to what extent transportation policy has been successful in reducing GTCs in terms of market competition and infrastructure investments. To implement the optimizing behaviour of transportation firms when choosing minimum cost itineraries, we compile a new economic database on road freight transportation at a highly detailed provincial level, which is then embedded into a GIS to show the digitalized road networks corresponding to five-year intervals between 1980 and 2007. Average GTCs weighted by trade flows have decreased by -16.3% in Spain, with infrastructure policy leading the way in providing notable accessibility improvements in terms of lower times and distances. The contribution of infrastructure is double that of economic cost, whose trends are mainly driven by technological and market determinants rather than by specific competition and regulatory policies promoted by the administrations. We find large territorial disparities in GTC levels and variations, but also significant clusters where the market and network effects on GTC reduction show relevant and diverse degrees of spatial association. We finally conclude that after three decades of active transportation policy aimed mainly at intensifying investment in road infrastructure, there has been a significant increase in territorial cohesion in terms of GTCs and their components.Generalized transport costs; Index number theory; Infrastructure; GIS; Territorial cohesion.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in severe mental illness: A timely diagnosis to advance the process of quitting smoking

This study receives founding by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness, Instituto Carlos III (FIS PI16/00802).The authors would like to thank M. Osuna, M. Ayora, J. Caballero, P. Zurita, N. Novoa, J. Álvarez, J. Fernández, J. Redondo, M.S. López, I. Caro, F. Valdivia, C. Sádaba, R. Luque, and L. Padilla for their assistance. We also thank the altruistic and generous participation of all the patients in that project.Background. This study has two main objectives: to describe the prevalence of undetected chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in a clinical sample of smokers with severe mental illness (SMI), and to assess the value of the Tobacco Intensive Motivational Estimated Risk tool, which informs smokers of their respiratory risk and uses brief text messages to reinforce intervention. Method. A multicenter, randomized, open-label, and active-controlled clinical trial, with a 12-month follow-up. Outpatients with schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder were randomized either to the experimental group—studied by spirometry and informed of their calculated lung age and degree of obstruction (if any)—or to the active control group, who followed the 5 A’s intervention. Results. The study sample consisted of 160 patients (71.9% SZ), 78.1% of whom completed the 12-month follow-up. Of the patients who completed the spirometry test, 23.9% showed evidence of COPD (77.8% in moderate or severe stages). TIMER was associated with a significant reduction in tobacco use at week 12 and in the long term, 21.9% of patients reduced consumption and 14.6% at least halved it. At week 48, six patients (7.3%) allocated to the experimental group achieved the seven-day smoking abstinence confirmed by CO (primary outcome in terms of efficacy), compared to three (3.8%) in the control group. Conclusion. In this clinical pilot trial, one in four outpatients with an SMI who smoked had undiagnosed COPD. An intensive intervention tool favors the early detection of COPD and maintains its efficacy to quit smoking, compared with the standard 5 A’s intervention.Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness, Instituto Carlos III FIS PI16/0080

Presence of stratospheric humidity in the ozone column depletion on the west coast of South America

The ozone column depletion over the western coast of South America has been previously explained, based on the existence of winds in the area of the depletion, which cause compression and thinning of the ozone layer. However, the presence of humidity and methane transported by these winds to the stratosphere where the ozone depletion is present gives evidence that these compounds also participate in the depletion of the ozone layer. These two compounds, humidity and methane, are analysed during the ozone depletion of January, 1998. It is observed that when humidity presents fluctuations, ozone has fluctuations too. A maximum of humidity corresponds to a minimum of ozone, but there is a shift in altitude between them. This shift is observed in the stratosphere and upper troposphere and corresponds to approximately 500 m. It is important to point out that during this event El Ni˜no was present and the sources of methane are the Amazon forest and the Pacific Ocean. The data for this study was obtained from NASA and HALOE

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This research proposes a novel minimal-overlap centrality-driven gateway designation method for real-time wireless sensor networks (WSNs). The goal is to enhance network schedulability by design, particularly, by exploiting the relationship between path node-overlaps and gateway designation. To this aim, we define a new metric termed minimal-overlap network centrality which characterizes the overall overlapping degree between all the active flows in the network when a given node is selected as gateway. The metric is then used to designate as gateway the node which produces the least overall number of path overlaps. For the purposes of evaluation, we assume a time-synchronized channel-hopping (TSCH) WSN under centralized earliest-deadline-first (EDF) scheduling and shortest-path routing. The assessment of the WSN traffic schedulability suggests our approach is dominant over classical network centrality metrics, namely, eigenvector, closeness, betweenness, and degree. Notably, it achieves up to 50% better schedulability than a degree centrality benchmark.This work was partially supported by National Funds through FCT/MCTES (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology), within the CISTER Research Unit (UIDB/04234/2020); by the Operational Competitiveness Programme and Internationalization (COMPETE 2020) under the PT2020 Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF); also by FCT and the ESF (European Social Fund) through the Regional Operational Programme (ROP) Norte 2020, under PhD grant 2020.06685.BDN/

Topological Progression in Proliferating Epithelia Is Driven by a Unique Variation in Polygon Distribution

Morphogenesis is consequence of lots of small coordinated variations that occur during development. In proliferating stages, tissue growth is coupled to changes in shape and organization. A number of studies have analyzed the topological properties of proliferating epithelia using the Drosophila wing disc as a model. These works are based in the existence of a fixed distribution of these epithelial cells according to their number of sides. Cell division, cell rearrangements or a combination of both mechanisms have been proposed to be responsible for this polygonal assembling. Here, we have used different system biology methods to compare images from two close proliferative stages that present high morphological similarity. This approach enables us to search for traces of epithelial organization. First, we show that geometrical and network characteristics of individual cells are mainly dependent on their number of sides. Second, we find a significant divergence between the distribution of polygons in epithelia from mid-third instar larva versus early prepupa. We show that this alteration propagates into changes in epithelial organization. Remarkably, only the variation in polygon distribution driven by morphogenesis leads to progression in epithelial organization. In addition, we identify the relevant features that characterize these rearrangements. Our results reveal signs of epithelial homogenization during the growing phase, before the planar cell polarity pathway leads to the hexagonal packing of the epithelium during pupal stages.LME is supported by the Miguel Servet (Instituto Carlos III) program that also funded the work. LME and DSG are funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science (BFU2011-25734). AS is funded by the Consejería de Innovación, Ciencia y Empresa of the Junta de Andalucía.Peer Reviewe

Percepción y valoración del alumnado sobre las propuestas blearning en grados de ingenierías industriales y de telecomunicación

This study is included in a research project, which has been developed for 3 years (2013-2015) at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Terrassa Engineering School (EET), in order to know the uses and pedagogical conceptions with educational proposals, blended learning mode, hosted on the virtual platform Athena, conceived and designed by Moodle, a system for management courses which is freely distributable. The investigation was applied to 7 degree courses in the field of engineering, currently issued by the EET, including 144 subjects, 192 teachers and 1,559 students. The main purpose of the study presented here was to investigate on the assessment made by the students about the courses included on the digital campus referring to two aspects: the usefulness and the use of some tools and the influence of this technology, which contributes to a better learning of the contents of different subjects. Even though this is part of a mixed methodological design, in order to conclude collecting the processed and analyzed information of this study, it was used the questionnaire which had been previously filled in by students. The results have brought us closer to an intense use of the platform as a documentary resource or content repository, activities and access to other types of information, and to be more independent, learn more and a further customization of the learning process. Virtual communication through tools platform is underused and unidirectional, ruining a basic resource to enhance opportunities for coordination, collaboration and knowledge generation between teachers and students.Este estudio se engloba en un proyecto de investigación desarrollado durante 3 años (2013-2015) en la Escuela de Ingeniería de Terrassa (EET), centro perteneciente a la Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña, cuya finalidad es conocer los usos y las concepciones pedagógicas que subyacen a las propuestas docentes, en modalidad blended learning, alojadas en la plataforma virtual Atenea, diseñada bajo el sistema Moodle. La investigación se extendió a las 7 titulaciones de grado del ámbito de las ingenierías actualmente impartidas por la EET, comprendiendo un total de 144 asignaturas, 192 docentes y 1559 discentes. El objetivo del estudio fue indagar sobre la valoración que hace el alumnado de los cursos alojados en el campus digital desde una doble vertiente: la utilidad y el uso de algunas herramientas y el grado en que esta tecnología contribuye a un mejor aprendizaje de los contenidos de las diferentes asignaturas. Partiendo de un diseño metodológico mixto, para recabar la información procesada y analizada en este estudio se recurrió al cuestionario de opinión para el alumnado. Los resultados obtenidos nos acercan a un uso intenso de la plataforma como recurso documental o repositorio de contenidos, actividades y de acceso a otra tipología de información, así como para ser más autónomos, aprender más y tender a una mayor personalización del proceso de aprendizaje. La comunicación virtual mediante herramientas de la plataforma es poco utilizada y unidireccional, malogrando un recurso básico para potenciar espacios de coordinación, colaboración y generación de conocimiento entre profesorado y alumnado

EDF Scheduling and Minimal-Overlap Shortest-Path Routing for Real-Time TSCH Networks

With the scope of Industry 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), wireless technologies have gained momentum in the industrial realm. Wireless standards such as WirelessHART, ISA100.11a, IEEE 802.15.4e and 6TiSCH are among the most popular, given their suitability to support real-time data traffic in wireless sensor and actuator networks (WSAN). Theoretical and empirical studies have covered prioritized packet scheduling in extenso, but only little has been done concerning methods that enhance and/or guarantee real-time performance based on routing decisions. In this work, we propose a greedy heuristic to reduce overlap in shortest-path routing for WSANs with packet transmissions scheduled under the earliest-deadline-first (EDF) policy. We evaluated our approach under varying network configurations and observed remarkable dominance in terms of the number of overlaps, transmission conflicts, and schedulability, regardless of the network workload and connectivity. We further observe that well-known graph network parameters, e.g., vertex degree, density, betweenness centrality, etc., have a special influence on the path overlaps, and thus provide useful insights to improve the real-time performance of the network.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio