Solitary-wave vortices in quadratic nonlinear media

We find families of vortex solitary waves in bulk quadratic nonlinear media under conditions for second-harmonic generation. We show that the vortex solitary waves are azimuthally unstable and that they decay into sets of stable spatial solitons. We calculate the growth rates of the azimuthal perturbations and show how those affect the pattern of output light. © 1998 Optical Society of AmericaPeer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Estudio del tiempo de reacción ante estímulos sonoros y visuales.

Tradicionalmente se ha aceptado que el tiempo de reacción (TR) ante estímulos sonoros es menor que ante estímulos visuales. Sin embargo, planteamos la hipótesis de que el TR ante estímulos visuales sea más rápido que ante estímulos sonoros, lo que cobra gran importancia en algunas pruebas deportivas. Se analizaron las diferencias en el TR electivo manual según estímulos sonoros y visuales en una muestra suficiente de sujetos físicamente activos, relacionando factores como el género, el nivel de práctica deportiva y el deporte practicado. El diseño del estudio fue de tipo correlacional, participando 80 voluntarios, con una edad media de 22.6 ±3.7 años. Para la medición del TR se utilizó el programa SuperLab®, comparándose el TR ante estímulos visuales y sonoros por cada sujeto participante. Los resultados obtenidos muestran que el TR medio fue significativamente menor ante estímulos visuales que ante estímulos sonoros. Así mismo, los varones presentaron un TR significativamente más corto que las mujeres para el TR visual, no siendo significativas estas diferencias para el estímulo auditivo. No se registraron diferencias significativas según estímulo para el resto de factores estudiados. Finalmente se presentan sugerencias de futura indagación en base a los hallazgos obtenidos

Physical Education Classes as a Precursor to the Mediterranean Diet and the Practice of Physical Activity

Physical activity and a healthy, balanced diet are remaining unresolved issues among young people. According to the World Health Organization, young people do not get enough exercise during the week, and physical education classes are the best way to promote healthy habits. This study aims to analyze how the role of the teacher influences the frustration of psychological needs, coping strategies, motivation, and the adoption of healthy eating habits through the Mediterranean diet and the regular practice of physical activity. The study involved 1031 boys and 910 girls between the ages of 13 and 18. To explain the relationships between the different variables included in this study, a model of structural equations has been developed. The results showed that autonomy support negatively predicted the frustration of four psychological needs. The failure to meet four psychological needs negatively predicted resilience. Likewise, resilience positively predicted autonomous motivation, and this positively predicted the Mediterranean diet and the practice of physical activity. Thus, the results obtained in the present study are in line with those of various studies wherein physical education classes were seen to help consolidate healthy living habits

Rehabilitación energética en función del grado de mejoramiento. Evaluación de la simulación frente a la realidad de las viviendas en Chile.

Homes are one of the major energy consumers and generate significant environmental impact in Chile and globally. The improvement of existing buildings or new projects is a procedure based on multidimensional simulations and the energy evaluation of housing. However, there is a lack of strategies to identify appropriate modifications. Normally, the original situation is compared with an improved scenario according to general estimates, but without analyzing the most effective alternatives, building process, economic projections or acceptability for the occupants. Based on the study of a dozen, representative dwellings in south-central Chile, in which construction records, computer models, environmental monitoring, and occupancy patterns were compared, this work presents a methodology for the effective analysis of residential environmental improvement. Considering a selection of relevant existing or projected conditions, energy simulation was carried out according to consolidated background information, and alternatives were identified according to a catalog of suitable building solutions for each type of housing studied. Thus, performance results were analyzed using a methodology known as Life-Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) for the financial analysis of the simulated alternatives in order to determine the most effective action packages. In this way, construction proposals were created, applied through computer simulations and implemented in reality. The purpose of this work is to compare the values of energy savings produced by improvements obtained with energy efficiency analysis programs, with the results of building monitoring.Las viviendas constituyen uno de los principales consumidores energéticos y generan un relevante impacto ambiental en Chile y a nivel global. El mejoramiento de construcciones existentes o de nuevos proyectos, es un procedimiento que se apoya en simulaciones multidimensionales y de evaluación energética de las edificaciones. Sin embargo se carece de estrategias para identificar las alternativas más apropiadas. Normalmente se compara una situación original con una mejorada según estimaciones generales, pero sin analizar las alternativas más efectivas, ejecución constructiva, proyección económica o aceptabilidad de los ocupantes. Basado en el estudio de una docena de viviendas representativas del centro sur de Chile, en que se compararon registros constructivos, modelos computacionales, monitorizaciones ambientales y patrones de ocupación, este trabajo plantea una metodología de análisis efectivo para el mejoramiento ambiental residencial. Considerando una selección de condiciones relevantes existentes o proyectadas, se elaboraron simulaciones energéticas según antecedentes consolidados, y se determinaron alternativas según un catálogo de soluciones constructivas adecuadas a cada tipología estudiada. Así, los resultados de desempeño se analizaron bajo una metodología conocida como de análisis de costos de ciclo de vida o Life-Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA), para el estudio financiero de las alternativas simuladas, y con la finalidad de determinar los paquetes de acciones más efectivas. De esta manera, se conformaron propuestas constructivas, las que se aplicaron, a través de simulaciones informáticas y ejecutadas en la realidad. El propósito es confrontar valores de ahorro energéticos y costos asociados, producidos por mejoramientos, obtenidos de programas de análisis de eficiencia energética respecto de resultados de monitorizació

Modeling the effect of the electrode potential in SERS by electronic structure calculations.

Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS), due to the ability of greatly intensify the weak Raman signal of molecules adsorbed to metal surfaces, has proven to be a very useful tool to investigate changes in the electronic structure of metal-molecule surface complex. A deep knowledge of the electronic structure of these metal-molecule hybrid systems is key in electrochemistry, catalysis, plasmonics, molecular electronics, and in the development of selective and ultra-sensitive analytical sensors. The origin of this huge enhancement in SERS is due to two contributions: the electromagnetic (EM), related to surface plasmons, and the chemical mechanism, due to resonant charge transfer (CT) process between the adsorbate and the metal (CTSERS). Unfortunately, the SERS implies very complex phenomena where the molecule and the metal nanoparticle are involved. This fact makes challenging to build realistic theoretical models that take into account both the metal and the molecule at quantum level. We propose a methodology, based on DFT and ab initio electronic calculations, to simulate the effect of the electrode potential on the absorption, on the charge transfer states energies, and on the electronic excitations in metal-molecule hybrid systems from a microscopic point of view. This methodology consists on the prediction of Raman intensities from ab initio calculations of the geometries or the energy gradients at the excited states Franck-Condon point, bringing the possibility to predict the intensities in CTSERS as well as in resonance Raman without the need to know the excited state geometries, not always feasible to compute. The microscopic model adopted to mimic the effect of the interphase electric potential consist in a molecule adsorbed to a linear silver cluster [Agn-Adsorbate]q, were n is the number of silver atoms, and the total charge of the system (q) is zero for n=2 and q=±1 for n=1, 3 and 7.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Clinical outcomes at one year following keratoconus treatment with accelerated transepithelial cross-linking

This study evaluated the clinical outcomes in keratoconus corneas following accelerated transepithelial corneal collagen cross-linking (CXL) (Avedro KXL® system, Waltham, MA, USA) over one year of follow-up. The mean depth of the demarcation line measured by optical coherence tomography (OCT) was 205.19 μm. One month after surgery, a non-statistically significant change was noted in sphere (P=0.18) and in spherical equivalent (P=0.17), whereas a significant improvement was observed in corrected distance visual acuity (P=0.04). A significant change was observed in topographic astigmatism (P=0.03) and posterior corneal a sphericity (P=0.04). Accelerated transepithelial CXL may be a useful technique for the management of progressive keratoconus

Performance Evaluation of Distributed Mobility Management Protocols: Limitations and Solutions for Future Mobile Networks

Mobile Internet data traffic has experienced an exponential growth over the last few years due to the rise of demanding multimedia content and the increasing number of mobile devices. Seamless mobility support at the IP level is envisioned as a key architectural requirement in order to deal with the ever-increasing demand for data and to efficiently utilize a plethora of different wireless access networks. Current efforts from both industry and academia aim to evolve the mobility management protocols towards a more distributed operation to tackle shortcomings of fully centralized approaches. However, distributed solutions face several challenges that can result in lower performance which might affect real-time and multimedia applications. In this paper, we conduct an analytical and simulated evaluation of the main centralized and proposed Distributed Mobility Management (DMM) solutions. Our results show that, in some scenarios, when users move at high speed and/or when the mobile node is running long-lasting applications, the DMM approaches incur high signaling cost and long handover latency.This work was supported by the Government of Extremadura under Grant no. GR15099 and by the European Regional Development Fund Programme (2014–2020) and the Regional Fund, through Computing and Advanced Technologies Foundation of Extremadura (COMPUTAEX)

Field evaluation of Cryptolaemus montrouzieri (Mulsant) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) as biological control agent of the mealybug Delottococcus aberiae De Lotto (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae)

[EN] Delottococcus aberiae De Lotto (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) is one of the latest invasive mealybugs in Europe. It causes severe fruit distortion and reduced fruit size leading into important economic losses in citrus. Cryptolaemus montrouzieri (Mulsant) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) is probably one of the most-used predators of mealybugs in biological control programs worldwide. However, its impact on D. aberiae is still unknown. Here, we conducted a two-year field study in nine citrus orchards located in eastern Spain in order to describe the population dynamics of D. aberiae and C. monirouzieri and evaluate the effect of the predator on D. aberiae using different approaches. Our results showed that C. monirouzieri and D. aberiae had two main synchronised population peaks per year: early spring and summer. Although D. aberiae and C. monirouzieri seasonal trends were synchronised, C. montrouzieri neither reduced mealybug density within the same year nor prevented fruit damage, which occurs early in the season. Moreover, D. aberiae population growth rates were not correlated with C. montrouzieri density. When two consecutive years were analyzed, the increase of D. aberiae in the second year was negatively correlated with the density of C. monirouzieri in summer of the previous year. Based on our two years of data, C. monirouzieri was not able to regulate D. aberiae on its own or prevent the damages produced by the mealybug but might become a valuable addition to the natural enemy guild when combined with other natural enemies and rational control measures.We thank the owners of the citrus orchards for giving us permission to use their plantations. This research was supported by two pre-doctoral grants (FPU to V. M. and Val I + D to J. P-R.) from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sport and Generalitat Valenciana, respectively, two national projects provided by INIA (Project no. RTA 2014-00067; RTA 2014-00095) and a European grant (FP7-IAPP 324475 'Colbics').Pérez-Rodríguez, J.; Miksanek, JR.; Selfa, J.; Martínez-Blay, V.; Soto Sánchez, AI.; Urbaneja, A.; Tena, A. (2019). Field evaluation of Cryptolaemus montrouzieri (Mulsant) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) as biological control agent of the mealybug Delottococcus aberiae De Lotto (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae). Biological Control. 138:1-7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocontrol.2019.104027S1713

Aggregation Patterns, Sampling Plan, and Economic Injury Levels for the New Citrus Pest Delottococcus aberiae (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae)

[EN] Delottococcus aberiae De Lotto (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) is the latest exotic mealybug species introduced in citrus in the Mediterranean basin. It causes severe distortion and size reduction on developing fruits. Due to its first interaction with citrus, D. aberiae economic thresholds are still unknown for this crop and the current Integrated Pest Management programs have been disrupted. The objectives of this study were to determine the aggregation patterns of D. aberiae in citrus, develop an efficient sampling plan to assess its population density, and calculate its Economic and Economic Environmental Injury Levels (EIL and EEIL, respectively). Twelve and 19 orchards were sampled in 2014 and 2015, respectively. At each orchard, population densities were monitored fortnightly in leaves, twigs, and fruit, and fruit damage was determined at harvest. Our results showed a clumped aggregation of D. aberiae in all organs with no significant differences between generations on fruit. 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