¿Se Necesita «algo más» antes de un Consejo de Familia? El Papel de la Comunicación en las Familias Empresarias

Establishing a family council can be beneficial for business families. However, determining the optimal circumstances to do so can be challenging. While some experts argue that a family council always provides long-term benefits, recent research on family councils suggests that there are certain prerequisites for successful family council implementation. This paper explores the nature of these prerequisites by examining communication dynamics within business families. Olson’s Circumplex Model is transferred from family therapy to the context of the family council by applying Habermas’s criteria for an ideal speech situation. Within this framework, a communication continuum on which to position business families is developed. This continuum is then applied to three Spanish business families. The findings suggest that a family council is functional only when minimum communication standards are met within the business family. Otherwise, the family council may have a minimal or even a negative impact. Families with an active family council should prioritise its use as a space for dialogue to enhance the business family’s functionality before tackling any other tasks or functions.Establecer un consejo de familia puede ser beneficioso para las familias empresarias. Sin embargo, determinar las circunstancias óptimas para hacerlo puede ser todo un reto. Aunque algunos expertos sostienen que un consejo de familia siempre aporta beneficios a largo plazo, investigaciones recientes sobre consejos de familia sugieren que existen ciertos requisitos previos para que la implantación de un consejo de familia tenga éxito. Este artículo explora la naturaleza de estos prerrequisitos examinando la dinámica de comunicación dentro de las familias empresarias. El Modelo Circumflejo de Olson se traslada de la terapia familiar al contexto del consejo de familia aplicando los criterios de Habermas para una situación de habla ideal. Dentro de este marco, se desarrolla un continuo de comunicación en el que situar a las familias empresarias. Este continuo se aplica a tres familias empresarias españolas. Los resultados sugieren que un consejo familiar sólo es funcional cuando se cumplen unas normas mínimas de comunicación dentro de la familia empresaria. De lo contrario, el consejo de familia puede tener un impacto mínimo o incluso negativo. Las familias con un consejo de familia activo deberían priorizar su uso como espacio de diálogo para mejorar la funcionalidad de la familia empresaria antes de abordar cualquier otra tarea o función

Voluntariado de mayores: ejemplo de envejecimiento participativo y satisfactorio

El objetivo general de este trabajo estriba en desarrollar el tema del voluntariado de mayores como un claro ejemplo de envejecimiento participativo y saludable. En la primera parte se definen los conceptos utilizados y se refleja el «envejecimiento activo» como expresión de una necesidad social más que sólo una tendencia en boga. La participación social de los mayores es destacada como interés prioritario tanto desde las instituciones políticas como socio-económicas. En la segunda, se ofrecen algunos datos e informaciones que ayudan a dibujar una panorámica internacional sobre la situación de los mayores como voluntarios. En la tercera se desarrollan las distintas actividades, tipología, opiniones y vivencias de voluntarios mayores en nuestro contexto español. Al final, entre otras conclusiones y propuestas, se subraya la relevancia de continuar y hacer realidad un «envejecimiento participativo», pero, eso sí, evitando el derrumbe hacia la «explotación» humana para construir una vejez más saludable y justa acorde con los principios básicos de toda sociedad democráticaThe general aim of this work is to develop an approach to elderly people as a volunteer group, in order to analyse a case of participatory and healthy ageing. The article is divided into 4 parts. The first one explains the concepts used and shows «active ageing» as a symbol of social need more than just as a fashionable theme. Older people’s activities are remarked as a predominant interest for socio-economic and political organisms. The second part sets the scene by describing some international data and global information. The third part focuses on different discourses, typology and experiences of older volunteers in Spain. The last section provides some conclusions and proposals stating, among other comments, the need for participatory ageing for a satisfactory and fair old age. References close the article

Purification of Starch Granules from Arabidopsis Leaves and Determination of Granule-Bound Starch Synthase Activity

Starch constitutes the most important carbon reserve in plants and is composed of branched amylopectin and linear amylose. The latter is synthesized exclusively by the Granule-Bound Starch Synthase (GBSS, EC 2.4.1.21). Here we report a readily reproducible, specific and highly sensitive protocol, which includes the isolation of intact starch granules from Arabidopsis thaliana leaves and the subsequent determination of GBSS activity. We have applied this method to study GBSS activity in diurnal cycles in vegetative growth and during the photoperiodic transition to flowering in Arabidopsis (Tenorio et al., 2003; Ortiz-Marchena et al., 2014).España,MINECO CSD2007-00057, BIO2008-02292, and BIO2011-28847-C02-00España, Junta de Andalucía P06-CVI-01450 and P08-AGR-0358

Kinetic study of methanol dehydration over Zro2 supported-activated carbons

The growing concerns about climate change and energy consumption have been the driving force in seek of alternative fuels such as DME, mainly produced via methanol dehydration over a solid acid catalyst. The use of activated carbons for this aim has been little studied up to date. Only a few studies can be found in the literature, reporting all of them materials with a low thermal stability of the acid surface groups, which results into a fast deactivation of the catalyst. In this work, the preparation of activated carbons via chemical activation with phosphoric acid, their modification with different ZrO2 loads, and their application as methanol dehydration catalysts have been studied. The catalytic results showed that the best methanol conversion and selectivity towards DME were achieved with the activated carbon prepared with an impregnation mass ratio value (H3PO4 /precursor) of 2 and an activation temperature of 800 ºC, loaded with a 7 % (wt) of ZrO2 . This catalyst exhibits high steady state methanol conversion values even at temperatures as high as 400 ºC (XCH3OH= 80%, 0.1 g·s/μmol, PCH3OH= 0.08 atm in helium), keeping a selectivity to DME higher than 96%. The effect of oxygen in the reaction atmosphere was also analysed. In this sense, an increase of 15 % in the DME yield was obtained when using air instead of helium as reaction atmosphere (350 ºC, 0.1 g·s/μmol, PCH3OH= 0.04 atm). A kinetic study has been carried out on this catalyst in which two mechanisms (Eley Rideal and Langmuir Hinshelwood) for methanol dehydration have been analysed. The models proposed also consider the presence of oxygen in the reaction media.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. MINECO (CTQ2015-68654-R). MECD (FPU13/02413)

Discursos juveniles sobre inmigración : un análisis psicosociológico en estudiantes de ESO

El objetivo de este trabajo consiste en analizar, a través de una aproximación psicosocial, los discursos juveniles sobre inmigración de una muestra de estudiantes asturianos, autóctonos e inmigrantes, que cursan estudios de Educación Secundaria y Bachiller. Utilizando el grupo de discusión como técnica central de la investigación, y complementándola con otras técnicas como son la observación participante, la entrevista a expertos en temas relacionados con el fenómeno migratorio, y diferentes técnicas de documentación, buscamos desentrañar la forma en que estos estudiantes organizan y dotan de sentido a esta nueva realidad multicultural, pues se considera que el conocimiento de sus discursos es crucial y decisivo para favorecer y propiciar la integración escolar del inmigrante, y por ende, para intervenir adecuada y eficazmente en los problemas de segregación y racismo que surgen o pudieran surgir en el contexto socioeducativo

Tuning structural control devices with genetic algorithms for a floating wind turbine

Floating offshore wind turbines present several advantages over land-based and bottom-fixed offshore wind turbines, but they are also exposed to strong environmental loads, especially wind and waves, which generate vibrations in the structure and compromise their efficiency and useful life. In this paper, a simplified theoretical model of a barge-type 5MW floating offshore wind turbine is developed and validated with reference software FAST, and used to study the effects of structural control. A tuned mass damper (TMD) is tuned using genetic algorithms for free decay different pitch angles of the platform, which could simulate different heights of waves impacting the turbine, with the goal of reducing the fore-aft tower top displacement. The proposed structural control improves the dynamic response of the system, with a vibration suppression rate of 34.9%.Peer Reviewe

Characterization of the sucrose phosphate phosphatase (SPP) isoforms from Arabidopsis thaliana and role of the S6PPc domain in dimerization

Sucrose-phosphate phosphatase (SPP) catalyses the final step in the sucrose biosynthesis pathway. Arabidopsis thaliana genome codifies four SPP isoforms. In this study, the four Arabidopsis thaliana genes coding for SPP isoforms have been cloned, expressed in Escherichia coli and the kinetic and regulatory properties of the purified enzymes analysed. SPP2 is the isoform showing the highest activity, with SPP3b and SPP3a showing lower activity levels. No activity was detected for SPP1. We propose that this lack of activity is probably due to the absence of an essential amino acid participating in catalysis and/or in the binding of the substrate, sucrose-6-phosphate (Suc6P). The expression patterns of Arabidopsis SPP genes indicate that SPP2 and SPP3b are the main isoforms expressed in different tissues and organs, although the non-catalytic SPP1 is the main isoform expressed in roots. Thus, SPP1 could have acquired new unknown functions. We also show that the three catalytically active SPPs from Arabidopsis are dimers. By generating a chimeric SPP composed of the monomeric cyanobacterial SPP fused to the higher plant non-catalytic S6PPc domain (from SPP2), we show that the S6PPc domain is responsible for SPP dimerization. This is the first experimental study on the functionality and gene expression pattern of all the SPPs from a single plant species.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TRANSPLANTA Consolider 28317Junta de Andalucía P08-AGR-03582 y CVI-28

Efficacy of the Flipped Classroom method at the University: Meta-analysis of impact scientific production

La particularidad del método flipped classroom se halla en el cambio de los roles de aprendizaje, donde el profesorado adquiere un rol secundario como guía y el estudiante un rol primario como agente activo. En esta línea, la tendencia en su implementación en la etapa de educación superior va en aumento y cada vez es más habitual escuchar experiencias docentes que giran en torno a su aplicación en el aula. Por ello, este trabajo tiene como objetivo analizar el efecto de la metodología flipped classroom en el rendimiento académico de los estudiantes universitarios a partir de los estudios indexados en las bases de datos WOS y Scopus. Se ha seguido una metodología propia de los estudios de meta-análisis, con la finalidad de medir el tamaño del efecto global y particular de las investigaciones analizadas y constatar empíricamente la ganancia a favor del grupo experimental o control. Los resultados muestran que la diferencia entre grupos es estadísticamente significativa y la mayor parte de los estudios confirma el aumento del rendimiento académico en el grupo experimental. No obstante, se evidencia un posible sesgo de los artículos publicados a favor del método flipped classroom. Finalmente, el método flipped classroom se alza como una metodología docente que puede mejorar los resultados académicos y facilitar al estudiantado la autorregulación de su aprendizajeThe peculiarity of the flipped classroom method lies in the change of learning roles, where the teacher acquires a secondary role as a guide and the student a primary role as an active agent. The trend of implementation in the stage of higher education is increasing and it is increasingly common to hear teaching experiences that revolve around its application in the classroom. Therefore, this paper aims to assess the effect of the flipped classroom methodology on the academic performance of university students from the studies indexed in the WOS and Scopus databases. A methodology of meta-analysis studies has been followed, with the purpose of measuring the size of the global and particular effect of the researchers and empirically verifying the gain in favour of the experimental or control group. The results show that the difference between groups is statistically significant and most of the studies confirm the increase in academic performance in the experimental group. However, there is evidence of a possible bias in the articles published in favour of the flipped classroom method. Finally, the flipped classroom method is raised as a teaching methodology that can improve academic results and make it easier for students to self-regulate their learnin