Uniqueness of the Fock quantization of scalar fields under mode preserving canonical transformations varying in time

We study the Fock quantization of scalar fields of Klein-Gordon type in nonstationary scenarios propagating in spacetimes with compact spatial sections, allowing for different field descriptions that are related by means of certain nonlocal linear canonical transformations that depend on time. More specifically, we consider transformations that do not mix eigenmodes of the Laplace-Beltrami operator, which are supposed to be dynamically decoupled. In addition, we assume that the canonical transformations admit an asymptotic expansion for large eigenvalues (in norm) of the Laplace-Beltrami operator in the form of a series of half integer powers. Canonical transformations of this kind are found in the study of scalar perturbations in inflationary cosmologies, relating for instance the physical degrees of freedom of these perturbations after gauge fixing with gauge invariant canonical pairs of Bardeen quantities. We characterize all possible transformations of this type and show that, independently of the initial field description, the combined criterion of requiring (i) invariance of the vacuum under the spatial symmetries and (ii) a unitary implementation of the dynamics, leads to a unique equivalence class of Fock quantizations, all of them related by unitary transformations. This conclusion provides even further robustness to the validity of the proposed criterion, completing the results that have already appeared in the literature about the uniqueness of the Fock quantization under changes of field description when one permits exclusively local time dependent canonical transformations that scale the field configuration.Comment: 12 pages, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Crítica a la sociedad contemporánea y tecnológica bajo la mirada de Byun-Chul-Han y Heidegger

A través de las lecturas de Heidegger, podemos considerar nuestra era como la era de la técnica. Un siglo después de que él empezase a considerar esta afirmación, nos hallamos completamente inmersos en un mundo tecnológico. Es importante no preguntarse solamente por la utilidad de la técnica -o la tecnología-, que es la esfera en la que solemos centrarnos, sino preguntarse también qué es la técnica, cuál es su origen y cuáles son sus consecuencias. Solemos enfocarnos en investigar sus efectos, pero no en el resto de preguntas. Sería interesante evaluar la tecnología moderna y sus efectos a nivel existencial a través de autores como Heidegger y Byung-Chul Han. Este problema, que nace en la Modernidad con las grandes revoluciones industriales, acaba afectando a nuestra relación con la existencia, a nuestra cotidianidad y nuestra manera de vivir y concebir la propia vida.Through Heidegger's readings, we can consider our era as the age of technology. A century after he began to consider this statement, we find ourselves completely immersed in a technological world. It is important not to ask only about the utility of technique - or technology - which is the sphere we tend to focus on, but also to ask what technique is, what is its origin and which are its consequences. We tend to focus on investigating its effects, but not on the rest of the questions. It would be interesting to evaluate modern technology and its effects at the existential level through authors like Heidegger and Byung-Chul Han. This problem, which was born in Modernity with the great industrial revolutions, ends up affecting our relationship with existence, our everyday life and our way of living and conceiving life itself.Universidad de Sevilla. Doble Máster Universitario en Filosofía y Cultura Moderna y Profesorado de Enseñanza Secundaria Obligatoria y Bachillerato, Formación Profesional y Enseñanza de Idiomas

Feminist or Paternalistic: Understanding Men’s Motivations to Confront Sexism

The role of men in fighting gender inequality is a controversial issue. Literature has shown that advantaged group members can promote social change but also perpetuate status quo. We conducted three studies to examine two motivational processes that may lead men to confront sexism: an egalitarian path and a paternalistic one. Studies 1– 3 revealed that men high in benevolent sexism were more willing to confront sexism for paternalistic reasons, whereas Studies 2–3 found that men high in feminist identification were more likely to confront sexism for egalitarian reasons. Pooled analyses (Studies 1–3) supported the egalitarian and paternalistic paths underlying sexism confrontation. Moreover, Studies 2 and 3 extended these findings to collective action and engagement in the men’s activist movement that aims to reflect on male privilege (i.e., the Men for Equity movement). These results highlight the existence of various underlying motivations to confront sexism by men, as well as the limits of paternalism and the potential of feminism to motivate men to take part in other kinds of actions beyond confrontation to foster social change.This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the predoctoral contract granted to LE-R (FPU14/0511) and through the excellence project granted to SL (PSI2016-79971-P)

La Educación Mediática en la formación profesional de imagen y sonido. Pautas para su implementación

This document takes a tour throughout the evolution of the concept of Media Education, from its beginnings to the most current definitions, making relevant contributions linked to the updating of a concept in continuous evolution and that serves to address the phase experiment of this work. In the research phase more strictly speaking, the purpose of the doctoral thesis is to firstly analyze the level of presence of competences in Media Education within the content of the curricula of a representative part of the studies related to future communication professionals. and information: the university degrees of Journalism and Audiovisual Communication, and the professional training degrees of the Image and Sound branch (Realization of audiovisual projects and events; 3D animations, games and interactive environments; Sound for audiovisuals and shows; Production of audiovisuals and shows; Lighting, capturing and image treatment; and Video DJ and sound). Secondly, this experimental phase focuses on determining the level of self-perception of the teachers and students of the aforementioned Vocational Training cycles in media education skills, as well as determining the importance they give to these skills within their study plans. To achieve these objectives, we have carried out a mixed-methods investigation, where in the qualitative phase the educational curricula of future communication and information professionals have been analyzed, and in the quantitative phase we have had the collaboration at the national level of a sample of 207 professors who currently teach image and sound VET, and a sample of 416 students of these cycles. The results obtained with this research demonstrate: a) The great absence of contents related to Media Education in the study plans of the FP of Image and Sound. b) The high level of importance that both teachers and students give to the competences in Media Education analyzed within their study plans.El presente documento realiza un recorrido a lo largo de la evolución del concepto de la Educación Mediática, desde sus inicios hasta las más actuales definiciones, realizando aportaciones relevantes vinculadas a la puesta al día de un concepto en continua evolución y que sirve para abordar la fase experimental de este trabajo. En la fase de investigación más propiamente dicha, el propósito de la tesis doctoral es analizar en primer lugar el nivel de presencia de competencias en Educación Mediática dentro del contenido de los currículos de una parte representativa de los estudios relacionados con los futuros profesionales de la comunicación y de la información: los grados universitarios de Periodismo y Comunicación Audiovisual, y los grados de Formación Profesional de la rama de Imagen y Sonido (Realización de proyectos audiovisuales y eventos; Animaciones 3D, juegos y entornos interactivos; Sonido para audiovisuales y espectáculos; Producción de audiovisuales y espectáculos; Iluminación, captación y tratamiento de imagen; y Video DJ y sonido). En segundo lugar, esta fase experimental se centra en determinar el nivel de autopercepción del profesorado y alumnado de los citados ciclos de Formación Profesional en competencias en educación mediática, así como determinar la importancia que le dan a dichas competencias dentro de sus planes de estudio. Para alcanzar estos objetivos hemos realizado una investigación con métodos mixtos, donde en la fase cualitativa se han analizado los currículos educativos de los futuros profesionales de la comunicación y de la información, y en la fase cuantitativa hemos contado con la colaboración a nivel nacional de una muestra de 207 profesores que actualmente imparten clase en la FP de imagen y sonido, y una muestra de 416 estudiantes de estos ciclos. Los resultados obtenidos con esta investigación demuestran: a) La gran ausencia de contenidos relacionados con la Educación Mediática en los planes de estudio de la FP de Imagen y Sonido. b) El alto nivel de importancia que tanto profesorado como alumnado otorga a las competencias en Educación Mediática analizadas dentro de sus planes de estudio.Escuela de DoctoradoDoctorado en Investigación Transdisciplinar en Educació

Promoting Social Media Dissemination of Digital Images Through CBR-Based Tag Recommendation

Multimedia content has become an essential tool to share knowledge, sell products or disseminate messages. Some social networks use multimedia content to promote information and create social communities. In order to increase the impact of the digital content, those images or videos are labeled with different words, denominated tags. In this paper, we propose a recommender system which analyzes multimedia content and suggests tags to maximize its influence in the social community. It implements a Case-Based Reasoning architecture (CBR), which allows to learn from previous tagged content. The system has been evaluated through cross fold validation with a training and validation sets carefully constructed and extracted from Instagram. The results demonstrate that the system can suggest good options to label our image and maximize the influence of the multimedia content

Anaerobic co-digestion of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste with FOG waste from a sewage treatment plant : recovering a wasted methane potential and enhancing the biogas yield

Anaerobic digestion is applied widely to treat the source collected organic fraction of municipal solid wastes (SC-OFMSW). Lipid-rich wastes are a valuable substrate for anaerobic digestion due to their high theoretical methane potential. Nevertheless, although fat, oil and grease waste from sewage treatment plants (STP-FOGW) are commonly disposed of in landfill, European legislation is aimed at encouraging more effective forms of treatment. Co-digestion of the above wastes may enhance valorisation of STP-FOGW and lead to a higher biogas yield throughout the anaerobic digestion process. In the present study, STP-FOGW was evaluated as a co-substrate in wet anaerobic digestion of SC-OFMSW under mesophilic conditions (37 °C). Batch experiments carried out at different co-digestion ratios showed an improvement in methane production related to STP-FOGW addition. A 1:7 (VS/VS) STP-FOGW:SC-OFMSW feed ratio was selected for use in performing further lab-scale studies in a 5 L continuous reactor. Biogas yield increased from 0.38 ± 0.02 L g VSfeed⁻¹ to 0.55 ± 0.05 L g VSfeed⁻¹ as a result of adding STP-FOGW to reactor feed. Both VS reduction values and biogas methane content were maintained and inhibition produced by long chain fatty acid (LCFA) accumulation was not observed. Recovery of a currently wasted methane potential from STP-FOGW was achieved in a co-digestion process with SC-OFMSW

Polypeptidic Micelles Stabilized with Sodium Alginate Enhance the Activity of Encapsulated Bedaquiline

The coating of polypeptidic micelles with sodium alginate is described as a strategy to improve the stability of micelles for drug delivery. Bedaquiline, approved in 2012 for the treatment of multidrug resistant tuberculosis, has been used as an example of hydrophobic drug to study the loading efficiency, the release of the encapsulated drug in different media, and the in vitro antimicrobial activity of the system. Alginate coating prevents the burst release of the drug from micelles upon dilution and leads to a sustained release in all tested media. In view of possible oral administration, the alginate coated micelles show better stability in gastric and intestinal simulated media. Notably, the encapsulated bedaquiline shows increased in vitro activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis compared to free bedaquiline

Media and information literacy in Schools of Image and Sound. Perceptions of teachers and students

En la era digital tanto la ciudadanía como los profesionales de los medios requieren competencias en alfabetización mediática e informacional para los nuevos entornos reales, virtuales e híbridos. Con esta investigación se pretende, primero, conocer la presencia de competencias en educación mediática en los curricula de los ciclos de formación profesional de la rama de Imagen y Sonido, y posteriormente conocer el nivel autopercibido del alumnado y del profesorado, así como la importancia que dan a cada una de ellas. Se utiliza un diseño mixto de triangulación concurrente donde el diseño cualitativo es un análisis de contenido y el diseño cuantitativo es transversal de alcance exploratorio. Se comprueba una escasa presencia de contenidos relacionados con la educación mediática en los planes de estudio de los profesionales de la información. Alumnado y profesorado muestran un adecuado nivel competencial autopercibido y asignan mayor importancia a la detección de noticias falsas en redes sociales, a la protección de la información personal en línea al impacto de la Inteligencia Artificial, y a la participación crítica en debates. Se concluye que en la formación de los profesionales de Imagen y Sonido deberían contemplarse, no solo las habilidades técnicas, sino también las competencias en AMI.In the digital age, both citizens and media professionals require media and information literacy skills for the new real, virtual and hybrid environments. The aim of this research is, first, to know the presence of competences in media education in the curricula of vocational training cycles in the field of Image and Sound, and then to know the selfperceived level of students and teachers, as well as the importance they give to each of them. A mixed design of concurrent triangulation is used where the qualitative design is a content analysis, and the quantitative design is transversal of exploratory scope. A scarce presence of contents related to media education in the curricula of information professionals is verified. Students and teachers consider themselves to have an adequate level of competence and assign greater importance to the detection of fake news in social networks, the protection of personal information online, the impact of Artificial Intelligence, and critical participation in debates. It is concluded that the training of Image and Sound professionals should include not only technical skills, but also MIL competencies

Valoración ecográfica de la vesícula como marcador diagnóstico de la atresia de vias biliares : Gallbladder Ghost Triad (tríada fantasma de la vesícula) VS Pseudo Gallbladder Sign (signo de la pseudovesícula)

Estudi retrospectiu de les troballes ecogràfiques abdominals en 37 bebés menors de 5 mesos amb icterícia colestásica amb revisió de les dades clíniques, patológiques i d'imatge desde l'any 2000 al 2010. L'ecografia es l'estudi d'imatge inicial i es imprescindible distinguir entre les dues entitats més freqüents: atresia de vies biliars i hepatitis neonatal idiopàtica. Les troballes referides a la vesícula, arteria hepàtica i a les característiques del fetge van ser estadísticamente significatives. La valoració conjunta de les mateixes demostra que l'ecografia abdominal és una eina imprescindible per el diagnóstic de l'atresia de vies biliars.Estudio retrospectivo de los hallazgos ecográficos abdominales en 37 bebés menores de 5 meses con ictericia colestásica con revisión de los datos clínicos, patológicos y de imagen desde el año 2000 al 2010. La ecografía es el estudio de imagen inicial y es imprescindible distinguir entre las dos entidades más frecuentes: atresia de vías biliares y hepatitis neonatal idiopática. Los hallazgos referidos a la vesícula, arteria hepática y a las características del hígado fueron estadísticamente significativas. La valoración conjunta de los mismos demuestra que la ecografía abdominal es una herramienta imprescindible para el diagnóstico de la atresia de vías biliares