Presentación

A partir de la década de 1980, los Estados han actuado en conformidad con losmercados, esto es, han ido postulando la libertad y autorregulación absoluta delmercado, apoyando la revolución tecnológica y la globalización e implementandopolíticas de recortes de los derechos sociales y laborales. Con ello han optadopor el modelo capitalista anglosajón, el cual ha ido barriendo al modelo renano,socialdemócrata o escandinavo, más proclives a los elementos de corrección, lospactos interclasistas, las garantías sociales… El modelo anglosajón (financiarizadoy globalizado), que ha tenido desde finales del siglo xx y principios del xxi uncrecimiento desmesurado, ha estado introduciendo, a través de las élites gerenciales,una serie de cambios en los procesos productivos y en la organización deltrabajo. Transformaciones que han implicado la deslocalización de empleos haciaotros países y la automatización de funciones que antes desempeñaban trabajadores,y que han afectado a la composición de la clase trabajadora, y además hanensanchado la brecha de renta entre la élite de una sociedad y su cuerpo generaltanto en el mundo Occidental como más allá

Methodology for development of drought Severity-Duration-Frequency (SDF) Curves

Drought monitoring and early warning are essential elements impacting drought sensitive sectors such as primary production, industrial and consumptive water users. A quantitative estimate of the probability of occurrence and the anticipated severity of drought is crucial for the development of mitigating strategies. The overall aim of this study is to develop a methodology to assess drought frequency and severity and to advance the understanding of monitoring and predicting droughts in the future. Seventy (70) meteorological stations across Victoria, Australia were selected for analysis. To achieve the above objective, the analysis was initially carried out to select the most applicable meteorological drought index for Victoria. This is important because to date, no drought indices are applied across Australia by any Commonwealth agency quantifying drought impacts. An evaluation of existing meteorological drought indices namely, the Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI), the Reconnaissance Drought Index (RDI) and Deciles was first conducted to assess their suitability for the determination of drought conditions. The use of the Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI) was shown to be satisfactory for assessing and monitoring meteorological droughts in Australia. When applied to data, SPI was also successful in detecting the onset and the end of historical droughts. Temporal changes in historic rainfall variability and the trend of SPI were investigated using non-parametric trend techniques to detect wet and dry periods across Victoria, Australia. The first part of the analysis was carried out to determine annual rainfall trends using Mann Kendall (MK) and Sen’s slope tests at five selected meteorological stations with long historical records (more than 100 years), as well as a short sub-set period (1949-2011) of the same data set. It was found that different trend results were obtained for the sub-set. For SPI trend analysis, it was observed that, although different results were obtained showing significant trends, SPI gave a trend direction similar to annual precipitation (downward and upward trends). In addition, temporal trends in the rate of occurrence of drought events (i.e. inter-arrival times) were examined. The fact that most of the stations showed negative slopes indicated that the intervals between events were becoming shorter and the frequency of events was temporally increasing. Based on the results obtained from the preliminary analysis, the trend analyses were then carried out for the remaining 65 stations. The main conclusions from these analyses are summarized as follows; 1) the trend analysis was observed to be highly dependent on the start and end dates of analysis. It is recommended that in the selection of time period for the drought, trend analysis should consider the length xvi of available data sets. Longer data series would give more meaningful results, thus improving the understanding of droughts impacted by climate change. 2) From the SPI and inter-arrival drought trends, it was observed that some of the study areas in Victoria will face more frequent dry period leading to increased drought occurrence. Information similar to this would be very important to develop suitable strategies to mitigate the impacts of future droughts. The main objective of this study was the development of a methodology to assess drought risk for each region based on a frequency analysis of the drought severity series using the SPI index calculated over a 12-month duration. A novel concept centric on drought severity-duration-frequency (SDF) curves was successfully derived for all the 70 stations using an innovative threshold approach. The methodology derived using extreme value analysis will assist in the characterization of droughts and provide useful information to policy makers and agencies developing drought response plans. Using regionalisation techniques such as Cluster analysis and modified Andrews curve, the study area was separated into homogenous groups based on rainfall characteristics. In the current Victorian application the study area was separated into six homogeneous clusters with unique signatures. A set of mean SDF curves was developed for each cluster to identify the frequency and severity of the risk of drought events for various return periods in each cluster. The advantage of developing a mean SDF curve (as a signature) for each cluster is that it assists the understanding of drought conditions for an ungauged or unknown station, the characteristics of which fit existing cluster groups. Non-homogeneous Markov Chain modelling was used to estimate the probability of different drought severity classes and drought severity class predictions 1, 2 and 3 months ahead. The non-homogeneous formulation, which considers the seasonality of precipitation, is useful for understanding the evolution of drought events and for short-term planning. Overall, this model predicted drought situations 1 month ahead well. However, predictions 2 and 3 months ahead should be used with caution. Many parts of Australia including Victoria have experienced their worst droughts on record over the last decade. With the threat of climate change potentially further exacerbating droughts in the years ahead, a clear understanding of the impact of droughts is vital. The information on the probability of occurrence and the anticipated severity of drought will be helpful for water resources managers, infrastructure planners and government policy-makers with future infrastructure planning and with the design and building of more resilient communities

The benefits of active portfolio management. A reform proposal to Michoacan State’s Public Pension Fund Office

El presente artículo estudia el contexto legal y administrativo de uno de los fondos de pensiones de beneficio definido políticamente más relevantes en México, la Dirección de Pensiones Civiles del Estado de Michoacán. Como consecuencia de esto, se hace la propuesta de una política, estructura y proceso de gestión activa de carteras para su reserva técnica. Para probar la pertinencia de la propuesta, se realizó una simulación de eventos discretos con tres tipos de matrices de covarianzas, empleando el modelo Markowitz- Tobin-Sharpe-Lintner. Los resultados demuestran que se superan los objetivos actuariales planteados y se logra incrementar, como consecuencia, el periodo de suficiencia financiera del plan de pensiones

Scientific evidence of the benefits of virgin olive oil for human health

Olive oil is considered to be one of the most healthy dietary fats. There are, however, several types of olive oil present on the market. With the data at present available, the most healthy of them is the virgin olive oil (VOO), rich in phenolic compounds. On November 2011, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) released a claim concerning the benefits of the daily ingestion of olive oil rich in phenolic compounds, such as the VOO. In this review, we will summarize the work which have provided scientific evidence of the benefits of VOO consumption over other type of edible oils even olive oils. Data from randomized, controlled human studies, will be presented. This type of studies are able to provide evidence of Level I which is that required for performing nutritional recommendations at population level.Se considera al aceite de oliva una de las grasas más saludables de la dieta. Hay, sin embargo, varios tipos de aceite de oliva presentes en el mercado. Con los datos actualmente disponibles, el más saludable de ellos es el aceite de oliva virgen (AOV), rico en compuestos fenólicos. En noviembre de 2011, la Autoridad Europea de Seguridad Alimentaria (EFSA) publicó un declaración acerca de los beneficios de la ingesta diaria de aceite de oliva rico en compuestos fenólicos, como el VOO. En esta revisión, vamos a resumir el trabajo que ha proporcionado la evidencia científica de los beneficios del consumo de AOV sobre otro tipo de aceites comestibles e incluso sobre los otros tipos de aciete de oliva. Presentamos, asimismo, los datos de estudios aleatorizados y controlados en humanos. Este tipo de estudios proporcionan evidencia de nivel I, que es el nivel requerido para ofrecer recomendaciones nutricionales a nivel poblacional

Clinkering and hydration study of non-active and active Belite-Alite-Ye'elimite (BAY) cements

The aim of AIM is to promote industry-driven, interdisciplinary research in material science and engineering in order to provide leading-edge, sustainable solutions to the challenges facing engineers in today’s changing society and environment. http://www.ucl.ac.uk/aim/conference-info/37ccsThe manufacturing process of ye'elimite rich cements emit about 15-37% less CO2 to the atmosphere than OPC. Cements that contain belite, ye’elimite and ferrite, known as BYF cements, are promising eco-friendly binders. However, belite, their main phase, shows a slow hydrating behaviour; therefore the corresponding mortars present lower mechanical strengths than OPC at early ages. To solve this problem, BYF clinkers can be activated by: i) forming alite jointly with belite and ye’elimite during clinkering, known as BAY clinkers. The alite and ye’elimite reaction with water should develop high mechanical strengths at early ages, besides, belite contributes to later curing times. ii) A second activation is based on the stabilisation of alpha forms of belite by dopants. The objective of this work is to obtain two types of BAY clinkers (standard and active BAY) using CaF2 as mineraliser and borax as dopant agent to stabilize alpha forms of belite phase. After that, anhydrite was added as sulphate source to obtain the corresponding cements. The hydration behaviour of these cements has been studied through rheological and x-ray diffraction measurements, the latter combined with Rietveld quantitative phase analysis. In addition, mechanical and dimensional properties of BAY mortars are also presented and discussed.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

La transición energética y el consumidor doméstico

La universalización del uso creciente de energía genera una presión constante de la demanda energética a nivel mundial para acceder a los beneficios derivados de su aplicación. Esta presión implica conseguir un mayor equilibrio en la extensión de su consumo para lograr mayores cotas en la distribución equitativa del bienestar social y, al mismo tiempo, combatir los efectos ambientales negativos, derivados del incremento de las emisiones de CO2, producidas principalmente por las fuentes tradicionales de la generación de energía, consideradas unas de las causas del actual cambio climático. Los objetivos prioritarios para conseguir la deseada transición energética son reducir los costes de generación, mejorar la eficiencia energética, garantizar el suministro y disminuir las emisiones de CO2, tal como se sintetiza en el objetivo 7 de la Agenda 2030: “Garantizar el acceso a una energía asequible, fiable, sostenible y moderna para todos”. Su logro es posible con el desarrollo de fuentes de energías renovables, la utilización eficiente de la energía, la garantía de redes eficaces de distribución y una responsabilidad generalizada en los usuarios de energía. ¿Es factible alcanzar estos objetivos en el plazo establecido por la Agenda 2030?. Lograr el cambio hacia un nuevo modelo energético requiere la coordinación efectiva de los agentes que intervienen en los procesos de generación, distribución, comercialización y consumo de energía en un mercado regulado y vigilado por la administración, sometido a tensiones internas de intereses y a continuos incentivos promovidos por el desarrollo y la innovación tecnológica. El presente artículo analiza la situación de los usuarios domésticos de energía en el proceso de transición energética en España, a partir de la evolución de los hábitos de consumo y las tendencias en los patrones de conducta, orientados a incrementar la utilización eficiente de la energía y las fuentes de energía sostenible en los hogares y en los lugares de trabaj

Desarrollo y evaluación de una aplicación Web estandarizada para el almacenamiento e intercambio de Historiales Clínicos Electrónicos (HCEs) en oftalmología: TeleOftalWeb

El objetivo de la presente Tesis es el desarrollo, puesta en marcha y evaluación de la aplicación Web, TeleOftalWeb, en sus cuatro versiones, destinada al almacenamiento e intercambio de Historiales Clínicos Electrónicos (HCEs) y retinografías. Cada una de las versiones está desarrollada con diferentes modelos de bases de datos (BDs): dbXML 2.0 más MySQL 5.0, eXist 1.1.1 más MySQL, Xindice 1.2. más MySQL 5.0 y Oracle 10g. A su vez, se estudiarán los estándares de HCE más relevantes entre ellos: Health Level 7 (HL7) y Digital Imaging Communications in Medicine (DICOM). Los resultados de la investigación han sido publicados en revistas indexadas en el Journal Citation Report (JCR), entre ellas Journal of Medical Systems. Mediante el empleo de TeleOftalWeb por oftalmólogos del Instituto de Oftalmobiología Aplicada (IOBA) de la Universidad de Valladolid se comprueba su correcto funcionamiento con la inserción de más de 1000 HCs y más de 2000 retinografías.Departamento de Teoría de la Señal y Comunicaciones e Ingeniería Telemátic