Frankenstein and the Theory of the Mental Iceberg.

Este ensayo propone la aplicación de la teoría del Iceberg Mental de Sigmund Freud a la segunda parte de Frankenstein de Mary Shelley. Los procesos mentales ocurrentes en la psique humana como se plantean en Freud han sido comparados y tratados en profundidad. Los diagramas de Freud i lustrando tales hallazgos han ayudado a formular paralelismos y descubrimientos más a fondo en cuanto al encuentro entre Víctor y su criatura durante el punto de inflexión en la novela. Mediante aspectos morfo semánticos y etimológicos, este análisis ofrece una lectura psicoanalítica detallada del encuentro Víctor/Criatura en las colinas rocosas con aspecto de iceberg. <br /

ArchiTech: tool support for NFR-guided architectural decision-making

© 2012 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes,creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.Researchers from requirements engineering and software architecture had emphasized the importance of NonFunctional Requirements and their influence in the architectural design process. To improve this process we have designed a tool, ArchiTech, which aims to support architects during the design process by suggesting alternative architectural decisions that can improve some types of non-functional requirements in a particular project, and facilitate the reuse of architectural knowledge shared between projects of the same architectural domain (e.g., web-based applications).Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft

Nautical and environment: present and future of environmental quality in areas of anchorage in marine protected areas

Recreational boating has experienced in recent decades a boom supported by the construction and development of port infrastructure. The establishment of marine protected areas attracts yachts and professionals seeking that prefer a well-preserved environment to develop their activities. Numerous studies have shown that the large volume of ships that frequent these areas has a significant impact on seagrass beds and other sensitive biological communities, due to the use of anchors and chains, which have a destructive effect of the seabed. There are different alternatives of “ecological mooring” depending on the type of substrate and desired strength. In Irta Marine Reserve (Peniscola, Spain) were installed a total of 33 mooring points using the Ellipse III anchoring system. Keywords: anchorage, seagrasses, Ellipse, ecological mooring.Peer Reviewe

Air quality in Barcelona during the COVID-19 lockdown and the global effect on CO2 emissions

Abstract. The COVID-19 pandemic is having an enormous negative impact on human health, with more than 4.44 million deaths worldwide; on the economy, with an unprecedented deep and abrupt crisis; and on society, with millions of people facing unemployment and dependent, in the best-case scenario, on public welfare or social aid systems. Home confinement, measures to limit non-essential economic activity and travel restrictions in many countries during the spring of 2020 led to rapid air quality improvements in cities. A detailed analysis of Barcelona's daily immissions of seven pollutants (CO, SO2, NO, NO2, NOx, PM10 and O3) shows a clear decrease from mid-March to June, with the peak in April and the nitrogen oxides. For these pollutants the reduction of traffic density is very likely the main cause of their immissions decrease. On another note, the global reduction of CO2 emissions derived from the use of fossil fuels was estimated at approximately 8 % in 2020, which, despite constituting an unprecedented drop, will have little impact on concentrations of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The current situation must be seen as an opportunity to push, without delay, for a drastic change in the energy and economy models towards a socio-environmental paradigm based on sustainability, economic efficiency and solidarity between peoples. Resumen. La pandemia de la COVID-19 está teniendo un enorme impacto negativo en la salud humana, con más de 4,44 millones de muertos en todo el mundo; en la economía, con una profunda y abrupta crisis sin precedentes; y en la sociedad, con millones de personas en situación de desempleo y dependientes, en el mejor de los casos, de los sistemas de asistencia social o de bienestar público. El confinamiento domiciliario, las medidas para limitar la actividad económica no esencial y las restricciones de los viajes en muchos países durante la primavera de 2020 llevaron a mejoras rápidas en la calidad del aire de las ciudades. Un análisis detallado de las inmisiones diarias de Barcelona de siete contaminantes (CO, SO2, NO, NO2, NOx, PM10 y O3) muestra una clara disminución desde mediados de marzo hasta junio, con el pico en abril y en los óxidos de nitrógeno. Para estos contaminantes, la reducción de la densidad del tráfico es muy probablemente la principal causa de la disminución de sus inmisiones. Por otro lado, la reducción global de las emisiones de CO2 derivadas del uso de combustibles fósiles se estimó en aproximadamente un 8 % en 2020, lo que, a pesar de constituir una caída sin precedentes, tendrá poco impacto en las concentraciones de CO2 y de otros gases de efecto invernadero en la atmósfera. La situación actual debe ser vista como una oportunidad para impulsar, sin demora, un cambio drástico en los modelos energético y económico hacia un paradigma socioambiental basado en la sostenibilidad, la eficiencia económica y la solidaridad entre los pueblos

Staphylococcus epidermidis' Overload During Suckling Impacts the Immune Development in Rats

Mastitis is an inflammation of the mammary gland occurring in 3-33% of the breastfeeding mothers. The majority of mastitis cases have an infectious etiology. More than 75% of infectious mastitis are caused by Staphylococcus epidermidis and Staphylococcus aureus and involves breast milk microbiota alteration, which, may have an impact in lactating infant. The aim of this study was to analyze in rats during the suckling period and later in life the impact of a high and a low overload of Staphylococcus epidermidis, similarly as it occurs during the clinical and the subclinical mastitis, respectively. From days 2 to 21 of life, suckling rats were daily supplemented with low (Ls group) or high (Hs group) dose of S. epidermidis. Body weight and fecal humidity were periodically recorded. On days 21 and 42 of life, morphometry, hematological variables, intestinal gene expression, immunoglobulin (Ig) and cytokine profile and spleen cells' phenotype were measured. Although no differences were found in body weight, Ls and Hs groups showed higher body length and lower fecal humidity. Both doses induced small changes in lymphocytes subpopulations, reduced the plasma levels of Ig and delayed the Th1/Th2 balance causing a bias toward the Th2 response. No changes were found in cytokine concentration. The low dose affected the Tc cells intestinal homing pattern whereas the high dose had an impact on the hematological variables causing leukocytosis and lymphocytosis and also influenced the intestinal barrier maturation. In conclusion, both interventions with Staphylococcus epidermidis overload during suckling, affects the immune system development in short and long term

Terminal Crossbreeding of Murciano-Granadina Goats with Boer Bucks: Characteristics of the Carcass and the Meat

[EN] In Murciano-Granadina-breed dairy goat farms, meat production from purebred kids is not very profitable due to its high costs, so it is proposed to cross unused dairy females to produce a replacement for the herd with a breed specialised for meat production, i.e., the Boer breed. Our previous results verified that this crossbreeding strategy improved the productive characteristics of the kids (growth and costs), so the aim of this work was to ascertain its consequences on the carcass and meat characteristics of suckling kids (9 kg weight at slaughter) of both sexes. Ninety-four kids were used. It was found that crossbred kids reached slaughter weight at a younger age, and although their carcass yield did not improve, they did show higher muscle/bone and meat/bone ratios and better meat texture (less firmness). In turn, males slightly improved the proportion of expensive cuts, but their carcasses contained a lower proportion of intermuscular fat and lower muscle/bone and meat/bone ratios than females. There were no sensory differences in any case. It is concluded that this crossbreeding also improves the carcass and meat characteristics, constituting a valid alternative to improve the economic results of Murciano-Granadina breed herds. After verifying productive improvements from the crossbreeding (MB) of Boer males with females of the Murciano-Granadina (MG) breed, the aim of this work was to determine its consequences on the carcass and meat characteristics of suckling kids (9 kg of weight at slaughter) of both sexes. A total of 94 kids (25 purebred MG males, 19 purebred MG females, 25 crossed MB males and 25 crossed MB females) were used. It was found that MB kids reached slaughter weight at a younger age (44 +/- 1 vs. 63 +/- 1 days, p < 0.001). For carcass yield, the interaction genotype x sex was observed, where MB females presented a higher value (51.71 +/- 0.34%) than the rest of the animals (MB males 50.53 +/- 0.34, p < 0.05; MG males 50.60 +/- 0.34, p < 0.05; MG females 49.62 +/- 0.39, p < 0.001). MB kids had greater leg compactness, (36.28 +/- 0.27 vs. 34.71 +/- 0.29 g/cm, p < 0.001), slightly improved expensive carcass cuts (75.93 +/- 0.31 vs. 74.77 +/- 0.34%, p = 0.014) and higher muscle/bone (2.93 +/- 0.03 vs. 2.76 +/- 0.03, p < 0.001) and meat/bone ratios (3.56 +/- 0.04 vs. 3.36 +/- 0.04, p < 0.001) than MG kids. They also showed a somewhat more intense red colour (8.57 +/- 0.25 vs. 7.74 +/- 0.27, p = 0.027), higher colour saturation (9.06 +/- 0.24 vs. 8.20 +/- 0.26, p = 0.016) and less meat firmness (1.95 +/- 0.08 vs. 2.23 +/- 0.081 kg/cm(2), p = 0.021). On the other hand, males had a slightly improved proportion of expensive cuts (75.98 +/- 0.31 vs. 74.73 +/- 0.34, p = 0.008), but their carcass contained a higher proportion of bone (22.16 +/- 0.21 vs. 21.17 +/- 0.17%; p < 0.001), a lower proportion of intermuscular fat (9.54 +/- 0.24 vs. 10.93 +/- 0.24, p < 0.001), a higher muscle/fat ratio (5.01 +/- 0.10 vs. 4.41 +/- 0.10, p < 0.001) and lower muscle/bone (2.80 +/- 0.03 vs. 2.89 +/- 0.03%, p = 0.016) and meat/bone ratios (3.36 +/- 0.04 vs. 3.56 +/- 0.04%, p < 0.001) than females. There were no sensory differences in any case. It is concluded that this crossbreeding strategy also improves the carcass and meat characteristics, making it a valid alternative to improve the productive results of MG dairy goat herds.This research was funded by the project RTA2013-00107 (INIA) with FEDER funds.Pérez Baena, I.; Peris Ribera, CJ.; Fernández Martínez, N.; Franch-Dasí, J.; Sagbay, C.; Teran-Piña, JC.; Rodríguez Garcia, M. (2022). Terminal Crossbreeding of Murciano-Granadina Goats with Boer Bucks: Characteristics of the Carcass and the Meat. Animals. 12(19):1-17. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12192548117121

An Approach to Temporal-Aware Procurement of Web Services

Es también una ponencia de: International Conference on Service-Oriented Computing: ICSOC 2005: Service-Oriented Computing - ICSOC 2005 pp 170-184. book ISBN: 978-3-540-30817-1 e-ISBN: 978-3-540-32294-8In the context of web service procurement (WSP), temporal–awareness refers to managing service demands and offers which are subject to validity periods, i.e. their evaluation depends not only on quality of service (QoS) values but also on time. For example, the QoS of some web services can be considered critical in working hours (9:00 to 17:00 from Monday to Friday) and irrelevant at any other moment. Until now, the expressiveness of such temporal–aware specifications has been quite limited. As far as we know, most proposals have considered validity periods to be composed of a single temporal interval. Other proposals, which could allow more expressive time–dependent specifications, have not performed a detailed study about all the underlying complexities of such approach, in spite of the fact that dealing with complex expressions on temporality is not a trivial task at all. As a matter of fact, it requires a special design of the so–called procurement tasks (consistency and conformance checking, and optimal selection). In this paper, we present a constraint–based approach to temporal–aware WSP. Using constraints allows a great deal of expressiveness, so that not only demands and offers can be assigned validity periods but also their conditions can be assigned (possibly multiple) validity temporal subintervals. Apart from revising the semantics of procurement tasks, which we previously presented in the first edition of the ICSOC conferences, we also introduce the notion of the covering set of a demand, a topic which is closely related to temporality.Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología TIC2003-02737-C02-0

Effect of cocoa's theobromine on intestinal microbiota of rats

SCOPE: To establish the role of cocoa theobromine on gut microbiota composition and fermentation products after cocoa consumption in rats. METHODS AND RESULTS: Lewis rats were fed either a standard diet (RF diet), a diet containing 10% cocoa (CC diet) or a diet including 0.25% theobromine (TB diet) for 15 days. Gut microbiota (fluorescence in situ hybridization coupled to flow cytometry and metagenomics analysis), SCFA and IgA-coated bacteria were analyzed in fecal samples. CC and TB diets induced lower counts of E. coli whereas TB diet led to lower counts of Bifidobacterium spp., Streptococcus spp. and Clostridium histolyticum-C. perfingens group compared to RF diet. Metagenomics analysis also revealed a different microbiota pattern among the studied groups. The SCFA content was higher after both CC and TB diets, which was mainly due to enhanced butyric acid production. Furthermore, both diets decreased the proportion of IgA-coated bacteria. CONCLUSION: Cocoa's theobromine plays a relevant role in some effects related to cocoa intake, such as the lower proportion of IgA-coated bacteria. Moreover, theobromine modifies gut microbiota although other cocoa compounds could also act on intestinal bacteria, attenuating or enhancing the theobromine effects

Unravelling the genetic basis of simplex Retinitis Pigmentosa cases

Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) is the most common form of inherited retinal dystrophy (IRD) characterized ultimately by photoreceptors degeneration. Exhibiting great clinical and genetic heterogeneity, RP can be inherited as an autosomal dominant (ad), autosomal recessive (ar) and X-linked (xl) disorder. Although the relative prevalence of each form varies somewhat between populations, a major proportion (41% in Spain) of patients represent simplex cases (sRP) in which the mode of inheritance is unknown. Molecular genetic diagnostic is crucial, but also challenging, for sRP patients because any of the 81 RP genes identified to date may be causative. Herein, we report the use of a customized targeted gene panel consisting of 68 IRD genes for the molecular characterization of 106 sRP cases. The diagnostic rate was 62.26% (66 of 106) with a proportion of clinical refinements of 30.3%, demonstrating the high efficiency of this genomic approach even for clinically ambiguous cases. The high number of patients diagnosed here has allowed us to study in detail the genetic basis of the sRP. The solved sRP cohort is composed of 62.1% of arRP cases, 24.2% of adRP and 13.6% of xlRP, which implies consequences for counselling of patients and families.Union Europea PI15-01648España Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad PI11-02923Junta de Andalucía,Ministerio de Economía, Innovación, Ciencia y Empleo CTS-166

Differences in Free-Living Patterns of Sedentary Behaviour between Office Employees with Diabetes and Office Employees without Diabetes: A Principal Component Analysis for Clinical Practice

Aims: To identify principal components of free-living patterns of sedentary behaviour in office employees with type 2 diabetes (T2D) compared to normal glucose metabolism (NGM) office employees, using principal component analysis (PCA). Methods: 213 office employees (n = 81 with T2D; n = 132 with NGM) wore an activPAL inclinometer 24 h a day for 7 consecutive days. Comparions of sedentary behaviour patterns between adults with T2D and NGM determined the dimensions that best characterise the sedentary behaviour patterns of office employees with T2D at work, outside work and at weekends. Results: The multivariate PCA technique identified two components that explained 60% of the variability present in the data of sedentary behaviour patterns in the population with diabetes. This was characterised by a fewer number of daily breaks and breaks in time intervals of less than 20 min both at work, outside work and at weekends. On average, adults with T2D took fewer 31 breaks/day than adults without diabetes. Conclusion: Effective interventions from clinical practice to tackle prolonged sedentary behaviour in office employees with T2D should focus on increasing the number of daily sedentary breaks.The study was funded by Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria, Instituto de Salud Carlos III (PI17/01788), the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (DEP2021-37169), grant Jose Luís Torres from redGDPS Foundation (redgdps/BJLTB/02/2022), the predoctoral research grant Isabel Fernández 2020 from the Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine (semFYC) and another grant from the Càtedra Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB)—Novartis for research in Family and Community Medicine. The funders had no role in the design, analysis, data interpretation or writing of the manuscript