Family Vacation Decision Making: The Role of Woman

Most people spend their vacations with their family and decide where, how, and when with their spouses. The woman’s role within the couple has become more and more influential in certain purchase decisions. This influence is strongly related to their lifestyles and values. For the tourism sector and its marketing strategy, it would be very useful to know the role that women play in vacation decisions. So, this article aims to analyze the influence of women’s lifestyles and values on family vacation decisions. The information is based on 300 questionnaires addressed to married or cohabiting women. The results show differences in vacation decisions depending on the profile of the women (professional vs. traditional) and their preferences in activities

Variability of cranial morphometrical traits in Suffolk Down Sheep

The widespread use of measures and indices associated with the head for racial analysis suggests that such measures have a strong relationship with the underlying bone structure. Few studies analyse the variability of the bones of the head and the relationship with their external expression. The objective of this work was to identify and measure the magnitudes of the main skull parameters in Suffolk Down adult sheep. This study was carried out on sixteen adult Suffolk Down sheep skulls at INIA Butalcura. Their skeletons were obtained and digital morphometry was performed. Each skull was photographed from dorsal, ventral, lateral and nuchal views with a total of 28 parameters evaluated (10 dorsal, 5 ventral, 6 lateral and 6 nape). The results indicate that the externally observable variability in the cranial zone of a sheep cannot be extrapolated to the rest of the bony components of the cranial zone, either in length, width or height. It was observed that the variability of a cephalic dimension can be contrasted with the variability of individual bones that participate in a certain dimension as part of a plasticity adjustment mechanism independent of the genetic variability of each bone separately. The cranial dimensions are still useful in defining the productive potential of a sheep population; however, they should be taken cautiously for racial definitions, where the individual variability of the bones could be a better reflection of the genetic structure of the population and the dimensionality could be biased by adaptive plasticity

Surface-enhanced ordering and layer-thinning transitions in freely suspended smectic-A films

4 pages, 3 figures.-- PACS nrs.: 61.30.Cz, 64.70.Md, 68.45.Gd.We propose a physical mechanism which leads to surface-enhanced smectic-A ordering (SESO) at the free surface of a model liquid crystal. We also provide an explanation, based on a density-functional theory, for recent experimental results for the melting behavior of freely suspended smectic (FSS) films. It is shown that stepwise layer-thinning transitions do not usually occur during melting of FSS films, despite the presence of SESO. We find that thinning transitions similar to those observed experimentally occur under conditions such that the film interior melts to a nematic rather than isotropic liquid phase.This work was supported by the DGICyT of Spain (Grant No. PB94-0005-C02) and NSERC of Canada.Publicad

Richness and distribution of porcupines (Erethizontidae: Coendou) from Colombia

In spite of previous reviews, there is still no consensus on the information associated to the richness of the genus Coendou in Colombia. To clarify some issues concerning the distribution and the taxonomic identity of the species of Coendou in the country, we reviewed specimens from five natural history collections. We introduce the first record of Coendou ichillus from the Orinoco river basin of the country, extending the distribution of the species by more than 600 km to the north from previous known localities in Ecuador and Peru. Additionally, we present new records of C. pruinosus and C. quichua from the Amazonia and inter-Andean valleys, respectively. Only one skull presents the diagnostic characters of C. bicolor; thus, previous records of this species for the country were based on misidentifications. Coendou is distributed in seven of the nine geographic provinces of Colombia. Coendou prehensilis was found in five provinces and is expected to be present in the Amazonia, whereas C. pruinosus was documented in three provinces (North Andean, Orinoco and Guyana). The rest of the species of Coendou were distributed in one or two provinces. The richest provinces were North Andean and Orinoco with six and four Coendou species, respectively. The elevational ranges of C. prehensilis and C. pruinosus are revised to 0-1975 and 90-2200 m, respectively

Whole transcriptome approach to evaluate the effect of aluminium hydroxide in ovine encephalon

Aluminium hydroxide adjuvants are crucial for livestock and human vaccines. Few studies have analysed their effect on the central nervous system in vivo. In this work, lambs received three different treatments of parallel subcutaneous inoculations during 16 months with aluminium-containing commercial vaccines, an equivalent dose of aluminium hydroxide or mock injections. Brain samples were sequenced by RNA-seq and miRNA-seq for the expression analysis of mRNAs, long non-coding RNAs and microRNAs and three expression comparisons were made. Although few differentially expressed genes were identified, some dysregulated genes by aluminium hydroxide alone were linked to neurological functions, the lncRNA TUNA among them, or were enriched in mitochondrial energy metabolism related functions. In the same way, the miRNA expression was mainly disrupted by the adjuvant alone treatment. Some differentially expressed miRNAs had been previously linked to neurological diseases, oxidative stress and apoptosis. In brief, in this study aluminium hydroxide alone altered the transcriptome of the encephalon to a higher degree than commercial vaccines that present a milder effect. The expression changes in the animals inoculated with aluminium hydroxide suggest mitochondrial disfunction. Further research is needed to elucidate to which extent these changes could have pathological consequences

Anti-de Sitter space and black holes

Anti-de Sitter space with identified points give rise to black-hole structures. This was first pointed out in three dimensions, and generalized to higher dimensions by Aminneborg et al. In this paper, we analyse several aspects of the five dimensional anti-de Sitter black hole including, its relation to thermal anti-de Sitter space, its embedding in a Chern-Simons supergravity theory, its global charges and holonomies, and the existence of Killing spinors.Comment: 15 pages (twocolumn), 2 Postscript figure

Comparación por simplicidad de métodos de aprendizaje en estimación de funciones

One of the problems they solve Intelligent Systems, is the estimation of functions, forwhich part of a finite number of data from one process and the goal is to find betterrole models. Among the unsupervised learning methods, optimization methods likegradient descent and conjugate gradient have been traditionally used in such problems, with advantages such as simplicity CO in the first and the speed of convergence in the latter. According to the principle of simplicity, we choose the method that is simple yet the most accurate, so that neither of the two methods can strongly considered better than another, why not simultaneously satisfy both conditions. This paper evaluates the two methods in the estimation of linear and quadratic functions and suggests improvements in its definition with the objective of proportional method that is best in terms of "simplicity."Uno de los problemas que resuelven los sistemas inteligentes consiste en la estimación de funciones, para lo cual se parte de un número finito de datos de un proceso y el objetivo es encontrar la función que mejor los modela. Dentro de los métodos de aprendizaje, los métodos de optimización, como el descenso de gradiente y el gradiente conjugado, han sido tradicionalmente utilizados en este tipo de problemas, con ventajas como la sencillez en los primeros y la rapidez de convergencia en los segundos. De acuerdo con el principio de simplicidad, se escoge el método que sea más sencillo, pero a la vez el más preciso, de tal forma que ninguno de los dos puede a priori considerarse rotundamente mejor que el otro, porque no satisface simultáneamente las dos condiciones. En este trabajo se evalúan los dos métodos en la estimación de funciones lineales y cuadráticas y se proponen mejoras con el objetivo de proporcionar un método que sea el mejor en términos de "simplicidad"

Calibration of semi-analytic models of galaxy formation using Particle Swarm Optimization

We present a fast and accurate method to select an optimal set of parameters in semi-analytic models of galaxy formation and evolution (SAMs). Our approach compares the results of a model against a set of observables applying a stochastic technique called Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), a self-learning algorithm for localizing regions of maximum likelihood in multidimensional spaces that outperforms traditional sampling methods in terms of computational cost. We apply the PSO technique to the SAG semi-analytic model combined with merger trees extracted from a standard $\Lambda$CDM N-body simulation. The calibration is performed using a combination of observed galaxy properties as constraints, including the local stellar mass function and the black hole to bulge mass relation. We test the ability of the PSO algorithm to find the best set of free parameters of the model by comparing the results with those obtained using a MCMC exploration. Both methods find the same maximum likelihood region, however the PSO method requires one order of magnitude less evaluations. This new approach allows a fast estimation of the best-fitting parameter set in multidimensional spaces, providing a practical tool to test the consequences of including other astrophysical processes in SAMs.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in ApJ. Comments are welcom

Evaluation of CO2-doped blends in single-stage with IHX and parallel compression refrigeration architectures

CO2 is the standard for medium to large-sized commercial applications, as it combines security and low environmental impact. However, it requires the use of advanced and complex cycles. Recently, CO2-doping (the addition of a small quantity of another fluid) has attracted scientific attention, as when CO2 is mixed with fluids with higher critical temperatures, the optimum operation moves to subcritical, providing COP increments in relation to pure-CO2 operation. This work, from a theoretical perspective, evaluates CO2-doping with the fluids R-152a, R-1234yf, R-1234ze(E) and R-1233zd(E) considering the two most used CO2 cycles: the base cycle with an internal heat exchanger (IHX) and the cycle with parallel compression (PC), fractionation taking place. The work analyses the COP improvements for an evaporating level of -10°C and from 10 to 40°C of environment temperature. Predicted maximum COP increments reach up to 5.8% for the IHX cycle and 10.0% for the PC cycle

A factor confirmation and convergent validity of the " areas of worklife scale" (AWS) to Spanish translation

Background: Perceived incongruity between the individual and the job on work-life areas such as workload, control, reward, fairness, community and values have implications for the dimensions of burnout syndrome. The “Areas of Work-life Scale” (AWS) is a practical instrument to measure employees´ perceptions of their work environments. AIMS: Validate a Spanish translation of the AWS, and it relationship with Masclach Burnout Inventory dimensions. Methods: The study was conducted in three medium-sized hospitals and seven rural and urban Primary Care centres (N = 871) in Spain. The “Maslach Burnout Inventory General Survey” (MBI-GS) and AWS were applied. We developed a complete psychometric analysis of its reliability, and validity. Results: Data on the reliability supported a good internal consistency (Cronbach a between .71, and .85). Construct validity was confirmed by a six factor model of the AWS as a good measure of work environments (¿2 (352) = 806.21, p < 0.001; ¿2/df = 2.29; CFI = 0.935, RMSEA = 0.039); concurrent validity was analysed for its relationship with other measures (opposing dimensions to burnout, and MBI), and each correlation between dimensions and subdimensions were statistically significant; as well, predictive validity, by a series of Multiple Regression Analysis examined the resulting patterns of the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) confirms the relationship between the work-life areas and burnout dimensions. Conclusions: Leiter and Maslach’s AWS has been an important instrument in exploring several work-life factors that contribute to burnout. This scale can now be used to assess the quality of work-life in order to design and assess the need for intervention programs in Spanish-speaking countries