The Contribution of Global Alliances to Airlines’ Environmental Performance

Global alliances have traditionally been related to improvements in the economic and operational performances of companies, particularly in the airline industry. However, we still do not know the effect of the participation in this kind of multilateral agreement on the environmental performance of airlines. The main aim of this work is to analyze whether the alliance membership of airlines has an effect upon their environmental performance, and if so, whether or not the characteristics of the global alliance, as well as the business model of the airline, may influence this relation to a greater or lesser extent. The results of regression and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) in a sample of 252 airlines (58 included in one of the three global alliances: Star Alliance, Oneworld, and SkyTeam) show a strong and inverse relationship between environmental performance and belonging to an alliance. The paper also shows empirical evidence of the influence of the business model of the airline on environmental performance. These results suggest important implications for managers facing challenges regarding sustainability

Prions: an evolutionary perspective

Studies in both prion-due diseases in mammals and some non-Mendelian hereditary processes in yeasts have demonstrated that certain proteins are able to transmit structural information and self-replication. This induces the corresponding conformational changes in other proteins with identical or similar sequences. This ability of proteins may have been very useful during prebiotic chemical evolution, prior to the establishment of the genetic code. During this stage, proteins (proteinoids) must have molded and selected their structural folding units through direct interaction with the environment. The proteinoids that acquired the ability to propagate their conformations (which we refer to as conformons) would have acted as reservoirs and transmitters of a given structural information and hence could have acted as selectors for conformational changes. Despite the great advantage that arose from the establishment of the genetic code, the ability to propagate conformational changes did not necessarily disappear. Depending on the degree of involvement of this capacity in biological evolution, we propose two not mutually exclusive hypotheses: (i) extant prions could be an atavism of ancestral conformons, which would have co-evolved with cells, and (ii) the evolution of conformons would have produced cellular proteins, able to transmit structural information, and, in some cases, participating in certain processes of regulation and epigenesis. Therefore, prions could also be seen as conformons of a conventional infectious agent (or one that co-evolved with it independently) that, after a longer or shorter adaptive period, would have interacted with conformons from the host cells

Gentilicios en la prensa de Castilla y León: ¿innovación o conservadurismo?

[Resumen] Tradicionalmente, los gentilicios se han considerado unidades de una gran disparidad derivativa carente de toda sistematicidad, algo que, unido a las motivaciones culturales e históricas que provocan su aparición, suelen hacer de ellos un grupo de unidades léxicas de difícil clasificación y estudio. El presente artículo tiene un doble objetivo: por un lado, reflexiona sobre la naturaleza de este tipo de adjetivos y las implicaciones de su análisis diacrónico y sincrónico. Por el otro, se centra en los aparecidos en una muestra de textos publicados en la prensa castellanoleonesa con el fin de intentar determinar hasta qué punto su uso y su variación pueden considerarse como marca de conservadurismo lingüístico o, por el contrario, de innovación, en el español escrito en esa comunidad autónoma.Junta de Castilla y León; SA030A10-

Evolución de los pacientes con diagnóstico cardiológico prenatal

Las cardiopatías congénitas tienen una incidencia de 9/1000 nacidos vivos, siendo graves en la cuarta parte de los casos. El objetivo del estudio consiste en describir las características de las pacientes remitidas a la consulta de Cardiología Perinatal del Hospital Universitario del Río Hortega. Se realizó un estudio retrospectivo, descriptivo en el que se estudió a una población de mujeres de 237, con un número total de consultas de 478 entre 2007 hasta 2016. La estadística descriptiva de la muestra se realizó por medio del software STATGRAPHICS Centurión XVII. Se realizaron un total de 478 consultas con 237 pacientes diferentes, de distintas provincias de Castilla y León. De las pacientes atendidas un 37,55% vinieron por sospecha de alteración morfológica, seguido de 27,85% por antecedentes familiares, un 16,3% por patología fetal, un 9,28% a demanda, un 5,91% por arritmia, un 1,69% por madre cardiópata y un 1,69% por patología materna. De los cuales el diagnóstico preprenatal ha sido 54,01% normal, 31,22% cardiopatía, 11,39% variante de la normalidad y 3,38% de arritmias. Se realizaron en 15,38% interrupciones voluntarias del embarazo (16 pacientes). Tras la confirmación el 88,89% han nacido en el hospital de origen; un 10% han nacido en el hospital de referencia, un total de 13 pacientes, siendo necesaria cirugía neonatal en 11 de ellos, en uno de ellos se realizó un trasplante cardiaco, 1 cirugía fuera del periodo neonatal y 1 estabilidad clínica sin intervencionismo con una evolución satisfactoria salvo 4 exitus tras cirugía por complicaciones con su enfermedad; y un 1,71%han sido exitus intraútero. Una de las razones más importantes que avalan la ecocardiografía fetal como herramienta para el screening cardiológico prenatal es la posibilidad de realizar un diagnóstico precoz y por consiguiente poder planificar el curso del embarazo y el lugar y el momento del parto si se decide continuar. La capacidad diagnóstica de cardiopatías congénitas se ve mejorada por el trabajo conjuntos entre unidades de cardiología pediátrica y servicios de obstetricia.Grado en Medicin

Simplified Hand Configuration for Object Manipulation

This work is focused on obtaining realistic human hand models that are suitable for manipulation tasks. Firstly, a 24 DOF kinematic model of the human hand is defined. This model is based on the human skeleton. Intra-finger and inter-finger constraints have been included in order to improve the movement realism. Secondly, two simplified hand descriptions (9 and 6 DOF) have been developed according to the constraints predefined. These simplified models involve some errors in reconstructing the hand posture. These errors are calculated with respect to the 24 DOF model and evaluated according to the hand gestures. Finally, some criteria are defined by which to select the hand description best suited to the features of the manipulation task

A hydrated ion model of [UO2]2+ in water: Structure, dynamics, and spectroscopy from classical molecular dynamics

A new ab initio interaction potential based on the hydrated ion concept has been developed to obtain the structure, energetics, and dynamics of the hydration of uranyl in aqueous solution. It is the first force field that explicitly parameterizes the interaction of the uranyl hydrate with bulk water molecules to accurately define the second-shell behavior. The [UO2(H2O)5 ] 2+ presents a first hydration shell U–O average distance of 2.46 Å and a second hydration shell peak at 4.61 Å corresponding to 22 molecules using a coordination number definition based on a multisite solute cavity. The second shell solvent molecules have longer mean residence times than those corresponding to the divalent monatomic cations. The axial regions are relatively de-populated, lacking direct hydrogen bonding to apical oxygens. Angle-solved radial distribution functions as well as the spatial distribution functions show a strong anisotropy in the ion hydration. The [UO2(H2O)5 ] 2+ solvent structure may be regarded as a combination of a conventional second hydration shell in the equatorial and bridge regions, and a clathrate-like low density region in the axial region. Translational diffusion coefficient, hydration enthalpy, power spectra of the main vibrational modes, and the EXAFS spectrum simulated from molecular dynamics trajectories agree fairly well with the experiment.Junta de Andalucía de España, Proyecto de Excelencia-P11-FQM 760