Electromechanical performance comparison for different CMUT element geometries

Conferencia celebrada en Sevilla (España) del 19 al 21 de septiembre del 2012.Different capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers (CMUTs) element geometries and fabrication techniques have been proposed through the years though the questions of which element geometry suits each application best as well as further geometrical, array and design parameter optimization techniques still remain open. This paper proposes a thorough comparison between square, hexagonal and circular CMUT elements and geometries through finite element method (FEM) simulations and provides results comparing their respective electromechanical parameters.Peer reviewe

Perspectiva de Género y Política Pública deportiva: El Caso de (CONADE)

This article is a revision about the incorporation of the gender mainstreaming in the CONADE, the objective was to identify with interviews and an analysis from a qualitative perspective the situation of the incorporation of the gender mainstreaming in the sports public policy of high performance between the 2012 and 2018, and also to identify some gender gaps. The method was the grounded theory where the theory is created from the information.  It was found that women have been gradually accessing decision-making positions but there is still a long way to go, also the lack of policies of conciliation of work, family and social life, as well as attention in cases of harassment. It is concluded that progress in terms of gender perspective and sport has been slow since it is observed that some measures are still a sample of good actions without major importance as the lack of giving information to athletes about harassment.El presente artículo es una revisión sobre la incorporación de la perspectiva de género en la CONADE, cuyo objetivo consistió en identificar a través de entrevistas y análisis desde un enfoque cualitativo la situación de la incorporación de la perspectiva de género en el ámbito de la política pública de deporte de alto rendimiento en México, entre el 2012 y el 2018.  , así como la identificación de algunas brechas de género. El acercamiento fue desde el método de teoría fundamentada donde los datos van construyendo la teoría. Se encontró que las mujeres han ido accediendo de manera gradual a puestos de toma de decisiones pero aún hay un gran camino por recorrer, también se evidenció la falta de políticas de conciliación de la vida laboral, familiar y social, así como las estrategias de atención ante casos de acoso y hostigamiento. Se concluye que el avance en materia de perspectiva de género y deporte ha sido lento pues se observa que algunas medidas se quedan en un punto de buenas acciones sin mayor trascendencia como la falta de capacitación a deportistas sobre temas de acoso y hostigamiento

Shedding light on the formation of the pre-biotic molecule formamide with ASAI

Formamide (NH2CHO) has been proposed as a pre-biotic precursor with a key role in the emergence of life on Earth. While this molecule has been observed in space, most of its detections correspond to high-mass star-forming regions. Motivated by this lack of investigation in the low-mass regime, we searched for formamide, as well as isocyanic acid (HNCO), in 10 low- and intermediate-mass pre-stellar and protostellar objects. The present work is part of the IRAM Large Programme ASAI (Astrochemical Surveys At IRAM), which makes use of unbiased broadband spectral surveys at millimetre wavelengths. We detected HNCO in all the sources and NH2CHO in five of them. We derived their abundances and analysed them together with those reported in the literature for high-mass sources. For those sources with formamide detection, we found a tight and almost linear correlation between HNCO and NH2CHO abundances, with their ratio being roughly constant -between 3 and 10- across 6 orders of magnitude in luminosity. This suggests the two species are chemically related. The sources without formamide detection, which are also the coldest and devoid of hot corinos, fall well off the correlation, displaying a much larger amount of HNCO relative to NH2CHO. Our results suggest that, while HNCO can be formed in the gas phase during the cold stages of star formation, NH2CHO forms most efficiently on the mantles of dust grains at these temperatures, where it remains frozen until the temperature rises enough to sublimate the icy grain mantles. We propose hydrogenation of HNCO as a likely formation route leading to NH2CHO.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures. Accepted by Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societ

Specialized business incubators as a strategy for small and medium-sized enterprises in the industry 4.0 era – a systemic approach

The present research aims to get a holistic view of the characteristics of specialization in business incubators models. This paper centers on building a general framework by taking into account a holistic look at the features, profiles, advantages, and disadvantages of specialization in business incubators models. The strategy aims to impact mainly stakeholders by adopting business incubators strategies, especially to those tenant firms of the manufacturing sector related to emerging technologies such as Industry 4.0 technologies. Moreover, the framework is built based on the discussion of the leading representatives' heads of the specialization in the field of specialized business incubators' models. The strategy aims to reduce the current short-term death rate expectancy prevailing in the contemporary economic context by a robust business model for business incubation. Business incubators hold tenants into a hub with not only supportive facilities for the business without investing vital capital, which is not part of their core chain value but also harnessing the closer source of knowledge transfer and skilfully workforce-related on these technologies. Finally, remarks and recommendations are proposed for futures tenant companies' prospects, who wish to reduce the bankruptcy risk by boosting innovative goods and services with high technological development in a specific field of knowledge.N/

Surface shape resonances in lamellar metallic gratings

The specular reflectivity of lamellar gratings of gold with grooves 0.5 microns wide separated by a distance of 3.5 microns was measured on the 2000 cm$^{-1}$ - 7000 cm$^{-1}$ spectral range for p-polarized light. For the first time, experimental evidence of the excitation of electromagnetic surface shape resonances for optical frequencies is given. In these resonances the electric field is highly localized inside the grooves and is almost zero in all other regions. For grooves of depth equal to 0.6 microns, we have analyzed one of these modes whose wavelength (3.3 microns) is much greater than the lateral dimension of the grooves.Comment: 4 pages (LaTex), 5 postscript figures, to be published in Physical Review Letter

The Mating System of the Wild-to-Domesticated Complex of Gossypium hirsutum L. Is Mixed

The domestication syndrome of many plants includes changes in their mating systems. The evolution of the latter is shaped by ecological and genetic factors that are particular to an area. Thus, the reproductive biology of wild relatives must be studied in their natural distribution to understand the mating system of a crop species as a whole. Gossypium hirsutum (upland cotton) includes both domesticated varieties and wild populations of the same species. Most studies on mating systems describe cultivated cotton as self-pollinated, while studies on pollen dispersal report outcrossing; however, the mating system of upland cotton has not been described as mixed and little is known about its wild relatives. In this study we selected two wild metapopulations for comparison with domesticated plants and one metapopulation with evidence of recent gene flow between wild relatives and the crop to evaluate the mating system of cotton’s wild-to-domesticated complex. Using classic reproductive biology methods, our data demonstrate that upland cotton presents a mixed mating system throughout the complex. Given cotton’s capacity for outcrossing, differences caused by the domestication process in cultivated individuals can have consequences for its wild relatives. This characterization of the diversity of the wild relatives in their natural distribution, as well as their interactions with the crop, will be useful to design and implement adequate strategies for conservation and biosecurity

Nuclear masses and the number of valence nucleons

An improved version of the liquid drop model is presented. The addition of two terms, linear and quadratic in the total number of valence nucleons (particles or holes), improves the description of atomic masses, which can be fitted with an r.m.s. error of 1.2 MeV. Predictions are analysed an compared with those of established models. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Effectiveness of 3 COVID-19 vaccines in preventing SARS-CoV-2 infections, January–May 2021, Aragon, Spain

Reducing severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission is a worldwide challenge; widespread vaccination could be one strategy for control. We conducted a prospective, population-based cohort study of 964, 258 residents of Aragon, Spain, during December 2020–May 2021. We used the Cox proportional-hazards model with vaccination status as the exposure condition to estimate the effectiveness of 3 coronavirus disease vaccines in preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection. Pfizer-BioNTech had 20.8% (95% CI 11.6%–29.0%) vaccine effectiveness (VE) against infection after 1 dose and 70.0% (95% CI 65.3%–74.1%) after 2 doses, Moderna had 52.8% (95% CI 30.7%–67.8%) VE after 1 dose and 70.3% (95% CI 52.2%–81.5%) after 2 doses, and Oxford-AstraZeneca had 40.3% (95% CI 31.8%–47.7%) VE after 1 dose. All estimates were lower than those from previous studies. Results imply that, although high vaccination coverage remains critical to protect people from disease, it will be difficult to effectively minimize transmission opportunities

Image reconstruction techniques applied to nuclear mass models

A new procedure is presented that combines well-known nuclear models with image reconstruction techniques. A color-coded image is built by taking the differences between measured masses and the predictions given by the different theoretical models. This image is viewed as part of a larger array in the (N,Z) plane, where unknown nuclear masses are hidden, covered by a "mask." We apply a suitably adapted deconvolution algorithm, used in astronomical observations, to "open the window" and see the rest of the pattern. We show that it is possible to improve significantly mass predictions in regions not too far from measured nuclear masses