A guide to studying the socio-ecological transition in european agriculture

This paper shows the potential of the Social Metabolism approach to study the industrialization of the agriculture. It provides information about the physical functioning of agrarian systems over time and their spatial differences. It also sheds light on how the industrialisation of agriculture occurred; in other words, how the Socio-Ecological Transition (SET) took place in agriculture. The paper begins defining the characteristic features of the Organic Agrarian Metabolism (OAM), the starting point of Sociecological Transition. The next section examines the main changes there been in agrarian metabolism until its complete industrialization. This analysis is enriched by the concept of the SET since, by showing the paths followed by industrialisation from a physical perspective, it establishes the research agenda or points out a series of issues that should be prioritised in research; it facilitates identification of the driving forces for change that interact between social and environmental factors; and it establishes special scales in which transition occurs and the relationship between them. The paper ends with the application of this conceptual fremework to teh First Wave of industrialization in European Agriculture during 19th century.Social Metabolism; Socio-Ecological Transition; Preindustrial Agriculture; Industrialised Agriculture; Agricultural Change

New efficient constructive heuristics for the hybrid flowshop to minimise makespan: A computational evaluation of heuristics

This paper addresses the hybrid flow shop scheduling problem to minimise makespan, a well-known scheduling problem for which many constructive heuristics have been proposed in the literature. Nevertheless, the state of the art is not clear due to partial or non homogeneous comparisons. In this paper, we review these heuristics and perform a comprehensive computational evaluation to determine which are the most efficient ones. A total of 20 heuristics are implemented and compared in this study. In addition, we propose four new heuristics for the problem. Firstly, two memory-based constructive heuristics are proposed, where a sequence is constructed by inserting jobs one by one in a partial sequence. The most promising insertions tested are kept in a list. However, in contrast to the Tabu search, these insertions are repeated in future iterations instead of forbidding them. Secondly, we propose two constructive heuristics based on Johnson’s algorithm for the permutation flowshop scheduling problem. The computational results carried out on an extensive testbed show that the new proposals outperform the existing heuristics.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación DPI2016-80750-

Archives and Bookkeeping in Southern Mesopotamia during the Ur III period

The Ur III period (2110-2003 BC) is documented through an imposing corpus of administrative cuneiform tablets. It is estimated that some 120,000 documents, plus an indeterminate number of texts stored in the Iraq Museum, are currently kept in collections all over the world. Unfortunately, most of them are deprived of archaeological context, which makes it difficult to identify their provenance and reconstruct their archival relationships. This contribution provides an overview of the physical features of Ur III texts, their administrative typology, the places and the kinds of archives where they were kept, and some of the administrative procedures followed in large institutions.La période d’Ur III (2110-2003 av. J.-C.) est documentée par un impressionnant corpus de tablettes administratives écrites en cunéiforme. On estime qu’environ 120 000 documents, plus un nombre indéterminé de textes de l’Iraq Museum, sont actuellement conservés dans des collections du monde entier. Malheureusement, le contexte archéologique de beaucoup de ces documents est inconnu, ce qui rend difficile d’identifier leur provenance et de reconstruire les relations entre les différentes archives. Cette contribution propose un aperçu des caractéristiques matérielles des textes d’Ur III, de leur typologie administrative, de leurs lieux d’origine, des types d’archives dans lesquelles ces documents étaient conservés et de quelques procédures administratives suivies dans les grandes institutions.Das Periode Ur III (2110-2003 v. Chr.) ist durch ein beeindruckendes Korpus von Verwaltungstäfelchen dokumentiert, die in Keilschrift geschrieben sind. Man schätzt, dass ungefähr 120.000 Dokumente in den Sammlungen der ganzen Welt aufbewahrt werden, zu denen noch eine unbestimmte Zahl von Texten aus dem Irak-Museum kommen. Leider ist der archäologische Kontext vieler dieser Dokumente unbekannt, was es schwer macht, ihre Herkunft zu identifizieren und zu bestimmen, in welcher Beziehung die verschiedenen Archive zueinander stehen. Dieser Beitrag bietet einen Überblick über die materiellen Charakteristika der Texte der Periode Ur III und eine verwaltungstechnische Typologie. Er zeigt ferner, an welchen Orten sie konserviert wurden, und präsentiert einige verwaltungstechnische Verfahren, die in den damaligen großen Institutionen angewandt wurden.El periodo de Ur III (2110-2003 a.C.) es conocido por su impresionante corpus de tablillas cuneiformes de carácter administrativo. Se calcula que alrededor de 120.000 documentos, más un número indeterminado de textos del Museo de Irak, se conservan actualmente en colecciones de todo el mundo. Lamentablemente, la mayor parte de ellos carecen de contexto arqueológico, circunstancia que complica notablemente la identificación de su procedencia y la reconstrucción de sus relaciones de archivo. En este artículo se ofrece una panorámica de las características físicas de los textos de Ur III, su tipología administrativa, los lugares de procedencia y los tipos de archivo donde se guardaban, así como algunos de los procedimientos administrativos empleados en las grandes instituciones

Tourist attractions as a moderating element in explanatory models for loyalty development

Many studies have analysed the impact of destination image on tourist satisfaction and loyalty, including different mediating variables, both affective and cognitive. This article will attempt to determine whether the representative model of visitors' future behaviour (satisfaction and loyalty) – viewed in terms of destination image, quality, value, disconfirmation, and emotions – follows a common, universal pattern or whether that behaviour actually differs when the model is applied to destinations offering different attractions.The paper below analyses disparate emotional behaviour in relation to destinations mentioned in the literature, when value does not play a mediating role between perception of quality and satisfaction with coastal destinations. This study concludes that there is a common pattern for purely urban cultural destinations while a different pattern exists for urban cultural destinations that include beaches among their attractions.Múltiples estudios han analizado el impacto de la imagen de los destinos en la satisfacción y lealtad de los turistas, incluyendo diversas variables mediadoras tanto afectivas como cognitivas. Este artículo intentará determinar si el modelo de comportamiento futuro del visitante (satisfacción y lealtad), analizado en términos de imagen del destino, calidad, valor, disconfirmación y emociones, sigue un modelo común y universal, o si por el contrario difiere entre destinos que ofrecen diferente tipo de atracciones al visitante.El trabajo contrasta la existencia de un comportamiento dispar de las emociones en relación con lo expuesto en la literatura, al tiempo que se señala que el valor no juega un rol mediador entre la calidad y la satisfacción para los destinos costeros. Como conclusión se extrae que hay un modelo de comportamiento común entre destinos puramente urbanos, mientras que existe otro diferente para destinos culturales urbanos que cuentan con playa entre sus atractivos turísticos

Physical basis of quantum computation and cryptography. Poster

Quantum computing combines two of the main scientific achievements of the 20th century: Information Theory and Quantum Mechanics. Its interdisciplinary character is one of the most stimulating and appealing attributes. The new Quantum Information Theory augurs powerful machines that obey the “entangled” logic of the subatomic world. Parallelism, entanglement, teleportation, no-cloning and quantum cryptography are typical peculiarities of this novel way of understanding computation. In this article, we highlight and explain these fundamental ingredients that make Quantum Computing potentially powerful

Cancer immunotherapy as a new treatment option

Cancer can coaptate the immune control of the immune system (IS), evade immunity and its destruction. So, could we say openly that immunotherapy is a viable treatment option for patients with advanced cancer? Yes, immunotherapy would give us great advances in the war against cancer. Therefore, the development of a new generation of immune modulators (which have been analyzed in the following article) is necessary. In addition, these will be more effective if we use them in combination, taking advantage of their synergy.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Estudio de viabilidad de los materiales compuestos híbridos para aplicaciones en vehículos de competición

 El objeto principal de este trabajo es diseñar y simular laminados de carbono con tejidos y materiales embebidos que minimicen la fragmentación de estructuras de material compuesto y absorban parte de la energía en impactos de vehículos de competición. Se estudiarán las nuevas propiedades mecánicas del material y serán comparadas con las propiedades originales obtenidas en ensayos de tracción, modal y de carga cuasi-estática