And ... What about families and their leadership in a democratic school?

En la escuela democrática es fundamental abrir puertas a la transformación sobre la manera de organizarnos y de relacionarnos. Para ello, resulta esencial la descentralización de poder por parte de aquellos que se encuentran en el primer eslabón de la estructura formal y jerárquica de la institución escolar, el equipo directivo, hacia los demás miembros que conforman la comunidad educativa, entre los que encontramos a las familias. Por tanto, la pretensión de este trabajo es conocer cómo se ven las familias desde el punto de vista del liderazgo escolar y cómo las sitúan el resto de estamentos de la CE en una escuela definida como democrática de la provincia de Valencia. Para ello, hemos desarrollado un estudio de caso intrínseco, enmarcado bajo el paradigma de la investigación cualitativa. Los resultados evidencian que las familias se sitúan de forma muy superficial sobre el liderazgo de la escuela. Ante esta realidad, consideramos necesario avanzar hacia un tipo de liderazgo distribuido, más plural y menos profesional, donde ellas lideren desde dentro y no de manera tan periféricaIn a democratic school, it is fundamental to open doors to transformation on the way to organize and relate. For this reason, the decentralization of power by those who are in the first link of the formal and hierarchical structure of the school institution, the management team, towards the other members that make up the educational community, among which we find the families. Therefore, the aim of this work is to know how families are seen from the point of view of school leadership and how they are located by the rest of the CE estates in a school defined as democratic in the province of Valencia. For this, we have developed an intrinsic case study, framed under the paradigm of qualitative research. The results show that families are placed very superficially on the leadership of the school. Given this reality, we consider it necessary to move towards a type of distributed leadership, more plural and less professional, where they lead from within and not so peripherall

Leadership in a democratic school: a case study examining the perceptions and aspirations of an educational community

In this case study, we aim to understand the leadership practices in a two-site rural school (schools in rural areas located on two or more sites) in the province of Valencia (Spain), by examining the perceptions and aspirations of the educational community. Results reveal two points of view in perceptions of leadership in the school: on one hand community members hold a classic, traditional view of leadership; on the other hand, they recognize that leadership is opening up to all the groups in the educational community, which inspires positive attitudes to taking part in leadership processes. The types of leaders identified in the school, educational community participation in decision making, and teamwork are some of the aspects that advance the development of a more distributed form of leadership. However, resistance to change by some families has hindered the community’s aspirations to distributed leadership. There is therefore a need to revisit the way this concept and its characteristics are constructed, and to pool ideas to decide what direction the community wants to take in the future. Additionally, one way to advance the school’s democratic, distributed leadership model is to continue working on the relationships between sections of the educational community through cooperative organization in the school

A review of CNN accelerators for embedded systems based on RISC-V

One of the great challenges of computing today is sustainable energy consumption. In the deployment of edge computing this challenge is particularly important considering the use of embedded equipment with limited energy and computation resources. In those systems, the energy consumption must be carefully managed to operate for long periods. Specifically, for embedded systems with machine learning capabilities in the Internet of Things (EMLIoT) era, the convolutional neural networks (CNN) model execution is energy challenging and requires massive data. Nowadays, high workload processing is designed separately into a host processor in charge of generic functions and an accelerator dedicated to executing the specific task. Open-hardware-based designs are pushing for new levels of energy efficiency. For achieving energy efficiency, open-source tools, such as the RISC-V ISA, have been introduced to optimize every internal stage of the system. This document aims to compare the EMLIoT accelerator designs based on RISC-V and highlights open topics for research.This work has been partially supported by the Mexican Government F-PROMEP-01/Rev-04 SEP-23-002-A; the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (contract PID2019- 107255GB-C21/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) and by the Generalitat de Catalunya (contract 2017-SGR-1328); and DTS21/00089 del Instituto Carlos III.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Tackling the relevance of packaging in life cycle assessment of virgin olive oil and the environmental consequences of regulation

Production and consumption of olive oil is very important in Europe, being this product a basic element in the Mediterranean diet since long ago. The project objective is two-fold: a study of the contribution of virgin olive oils (VOOs) usual packaging to the whole life cycle of the product and a study of the environmental consequences of the Spanish Government regulation on VOO packaging. A life cycle assessment (LCA) according to ISO 14044 has been performed using the CML methodology for the impact assessment. The results show that the packaging influence varies from 2 to 300%, depending on the impact category and type of packaging (glass, tin or polyethylene terephtalate). Glass, which is related to higher quality perception by consumers, was found to be the most influencing material (due to its weight); however, this impact may be fairly reduced by applying ecodesign strategies (such as weight reduction and recycled-glass percentage increase). A new Spanish regulation on the mandatory use of non-refillable oilers in HORECA establishments (hotels, restaurants and caterings) aims to provide more quality assurance and better information to consumers; however, it was also found to mean a 74% increase in greenhouse gases emissions. This regulation was deeply discussed at European level and its application was withdraw due to consumers rejection, except for Spain. The findings of the present case study show that LCA and ecodesign should be important tools to be promoted and applied in policy making to reduce non-desirable consequences of regulation

“No a la ampliación del aeropuerto” Capacidad movilizadora del marco decrecentista a partir del conflicto en torno a la ampliación del aeropuerto de Barcelona

El artículo tiene por finalidad analizar las limitaciones del discurso decrecentista para articular movilizaciones contra grandes infraestructuras de movilidad. Para ello, se parte del marco de la ecología política urbana para analizar la oposición, a la propuesta de ampliación del aeropuerto de Barcelona a través de la metodología del análisis de marcos. En los resultados se evidencia como el decrecimiento, a pesar de ser un tema relevante en el debate, no consigue articular una movilización amplia contra el modelo económico. Los resultados concluyen que no siempre los marcos más relevantes para la organización del movimiento son los que consiguen una mayor participación. Por el contrario, se evidencia que los marcos con una mayor resonancia en la cultura política y el imaginario popular consiguen una mayor capacidad de movilización. Por ejemplo, se evidencia como el conservacionismo y la defensa del espacio tuvieron mayor capacidad para extender y amplificar la motivación para la acción colectiv

Band gap alignment of structured microporous graphitic carbons by N doping and its influence on photocatalytic overall water splitting

[EN] Hydrogen generation from water using solar light could be a process of paramount importance in the forthcoming decarbonized society. This reaction requires efficient photocatalysts based on earthabundant elements. Metal-free carbon semiconducting materials are very appealing in this regard. This manuscript shows that N-doping is a convenient strategy to increase the photocatalytic activity of microporous graphitic carbons obtained from the pyrolysis of a-, b- and g-cyclodextrins. These (N)C carbons exhibit enhanced photocatalytic activity for H2 generation in the presence of methanol with respect to their undoped analogs. The optimal (N)C material (pore size, 0.65 nm) was the one derived from a-cyclodextrin at a N content of 3.1%, achieving a H2 productivity of 1.8 mmol g1 at 4 h in the presence of methanol. These materials also exhibit photocatalytic activity for overall water splitting, although with lower efficiency than for H2 generation in the presence of sacrificial electron donors. The present results illustrate the tuning of band alignment by N-doping in the graphitic matrixFinancial support by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Severo Ochoa and CTQ2018-98237-CO2-1) and Generalitat Valenciana (Prometeo 2017-083) is gratefully acknowledged. AR and AP thanks the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for a postgraduate scholarship and a Ramon y Cajal research associate contract, respectively.Rendon-Patiño, A.; Torres-Martí, F.; Primo Arnau, AM.; García Gómez, H. (2022). Band gap alignment of structured microporous graphitic carbons by N doping and its influence on photocatalytic overall water splitting. Sustainable Energy & Fuels. 6(9):2170-2178. https://doi.org/10.1039/D2SE00078D217021786

Entre la movilidad social y el desplazamiento. Una aproximación cuantitativa a la gentrificación en Quito

This paper addresses the debate on the relationship between social stratification and gentrification processes –which has prevailed in the English-speaking world. The objective of this approach is to interpret gentrification either as the result of the “natural” evolution of socio-occupational structures in post-industrial societies of the Global North or as a revanchist mechanism for the colonization of central working-class areas. The relationship between the increase in research on gentrification and the expansion of the Latin American middle class over the last 10 years is not coincidental. Bearing in mind the different historic configuration of social classes in Latin America, this paper argues that the emergence of new social segments in urban central areas is the reason behind the dispute and displacement of lower-income groups. However, the analysis of the situation of Quito (2000-2010) shows that people are not “returning to central areas” but colonizing new peri-urban zones, thus adding depth to segregation and replacement processes in the periphery of the consolidated city.En este artículo abordamos el debate sobre el vínculo entre cambios en la estratificación social y los procesos de gentrificación, el cual ha sido intenso en el mundo anglosajón a fin de interpretar la gentrificación como reflejo de la evolución “natural” de la estructura socio-ocupacional en las sociedades post-industriales del Norte Global o bien como un revanchismo de clase para colonizar las centralidades obreras de las ciudades. No parece casual que el auge de los estudios sobre gentrificación durante la última década en América Latina haya ido de la mano de una ampliación de la clase media en la región. Teniendo en cuenta la diferente configuración histórica de las clases sociales en América Latina, asumimos la tesis que es principalmente la aparición de nuevos grupos sociales atraídos por la centralidad urbana lo que explica la disputa y el desplazamiento de otros grupos de bajos ingresos. Sin embargo, nuestro análisis de la ciudad de Quito muestra que en el periodo analizado (2000-2010) no se detecta, por ahora, una “vuelta al centro”, sino fundamentalmente procesos de colonización de nuevas áreas periféricas, complejizando los procesos de segregación iniciados décadas atrás así como posibles procesos de reemplazamiento en los bordes de la ciudad consolidada

Antimicrobial PHAs coatings for solid and porous tantalum implants

Biomaterial-associated infections (BAI) are the major cause of failure of indwelling medical devices. The risk of BAI can end dramatically in the surgical removal of the affected device. Therefore, a major effort must be undertaken to guarantee the permanence of the implant. In this regard, we have developed antimicrobial coatings for tantalum (Ta) implants, using polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) as matrices for carrying an active principle. The dip-coating technique was successfully used for covering solid Ta discs. An original PHA emulsion flow process was developed for the coating of porous Ta structures, specially for the inner surfaces. The complete characterization of the biopolymer coatings, their antibacterial properties, toxicity and biointegration were analyzed. Thus, non-toxic, well-biointegrated homogeneous biopolymer coatings were attained, which showed antibacterial properties. By using biodegradable PHAs, the resulting drug delivery system assured the protection of Ta against bacterial infections for a period of time.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Customized screen-printed electrodes based on Ag-nanoseeds for enhanced electroanalytical response towards Cd(II), Pb(II) and As(V) in aqueous samples

Electrochemical analysis based on screen-printed electrodes (SPEs) represents a great alternative to conventional analytical methods such as ICP-MS or LC-MS due to their portability, sensitivity, selectivity, and cost-effectiveness. In addition, the functionalization of SPEs with nanomaterials has been reported to provide an enhanced analytical performance. In this regard, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were synthesized and appropriately characterized, showing spherical silver nanoseeds (Ag-NS) with a diameter of 12.20 ± 0.04 nm. Using the drop-casting methodology, the synthesized AgNPs were used to modify screen-printed carbon nanofiber electrodes (SPCNFEs). Ag-NS deposition onto the electrode surface was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Furthermore, the analytical response of the modified electrodes (Ag-NS-SPCNFE) was evaluated for the determination of trace Pb(II), Cd(II), and As(V) using differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetry (DPASV), obtaining detection limits of 3.3, 3.7, and 2.6 µg L-1, for Pb(II), Cd(II) and As(V), respectively. Finally, Ag-NS-SPCNFE was tested towards the determination of As(V) in a spiked tap water sample, showing a good agreement with concentrations determined by ICP-MS.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Direct As(V) Determination Using Screen-Printed Electrodes Modified with Silver Manoparticles

Carbon-nanofiber-based screen-printed electrodes modified with silver nanoparticles (Ag-NP-SPCNFEs) were tested in a pioneering manner for the direct determination of As(V) at low µg L–1 levels by means of differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetry. Screen-printed electrodes were modified with two different types of Ag-NPs, nanoseeds (NS), and nanoprisms (NPr) and characterized both microscopically and electrochemically. Furthermore, after optimizing the direct voltammetric determination of As(V), the analytical performance of considered sensors was compared for the direct determination of As(V). These results suggest that Ag-NS offer a better analytical response compared to Ag-NPr, with a detection and quantification limit of 0.6 and 1.9 µg L–1, respectively. The proposed methodology was validated using a spiked tap water sample with a very high reproducibility and good agreement with inductively coupled plasma - mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) measurementsPeer ReviewedPostprint (published version