Historical deadly typhoons in the Philippines

© Royal Meteorological Society, 2008. We wish to thank the Archivo General de Indias (Seville) for their kind permission for the publication of two of the images included in this paper.Depto. de Física de la Tierra y AstrofísicaFac. de Ciencias FísicasTRUEpu

Interannual oscillations and trend of snow occurrence in the Andes region since 1885

Using documentary sources, a series of the annual number of snow days in the Mendoza area of Argentina has been constructed. Analysis of the series using Singular Spectrum Analysis (SSA) and the Maximum Entropy Method (MEM) showed that the number of snow days exhibits interdecadal and interannual oscillations with periods of about 28 and five years. Furthermore a positive trend was detected. This temporal pattern is consistent with studies of the variability of global surface temperature, indicating a strong relationship between temperature and snow occurrence in the climate system and the potential for using snow occurrence as an indicator of climate change

Identification of Caribbean basin hurricanes from Spanish documentary sources

This paper analyses five hurricanes that occurred in the period 1600 to 1800. These examples were identified during a systematic search in the General Archive of the Indies (AGI) in Seville. The research combined the expertise of climatologists and historians in order to optimise the search and analysis strategies. Results demonstrate the potential of this archive for the assessment of hurricanes in this period and show some of the difficulties involved in the collection of evidence of hurricane activity. The documents provide detailed descriptions of a hurricane's impacts and allow us to identify previously unreported hurricanes, obtain more precise dates for hurricanes previously identified, better define the area affected by a given hurricane and, finally, better assess a hurricane's intensity

Mathematical foundations for efficient structural controllability and observability analysis of complex systems

The relationship between structural controllability and observability of complex systems is studied. Algebraic and graph theoretic tools are combined to prove the extent of some controller/observer duality results. Two types of control design problems are addressed and some fundamental theoretical results are provided. In addition new algorithms are presented to compute optimal solutions for monitoring large scale real networks

Avaluació de la formació inicial dels mestres de música de la UAB en l'àmbit de la direcció musical

En aquest treball analitzem el procés de formació dels mestres de música de la UAB en l'àmbit de la direcció musical i avaluem si allò que han après els serveix per donar resposta a les necessitats que tindran com a professionals de l'educació. Igualment deixem les portes obertes a possibles estudis en altres universitats

A combined algorithm for analyzing structural controllability and observability of complex networks

In this paper a combined algorithm for analyzing structural controllability and observability of complex networks is presented. The algorithm addresses the two fundamental properties to guarantee structural controllability of a system: the absence of dilations and the accessibility of all nodes. The first problem is reformulated as a Maximum Matching search and it is addressed via the Hopcroft- Karp algorithm; the second problem is solved via a new wiring algorithm. Both algorithms can be combined to efficiently determine the number of required controllers and observers as well as the new required connections in order to guarantee controllability and observability in real complex networks. An application to a Twitter social network with over 100,000 nodes illustrates the proposed algorithms

Hydrophobization and Photo-Stabilization of Radiata Pinewood: The Effect of the Esterification on Thermal and Mechanical Properties

Wood protection through chemical modification has received increasing interest over the last decades due to the environmental issues related to conventional biocides or protecting products. Consequently, a wide range of new treatments are developed in laboratories, which are later scaled up in the industrial environment. The main goal of modifying wood for indoor–outdoor application is to change its hydrophilic character, which in turn improves the intrinsic properties of the material and its durability against external factors. Wood can be esterified through its hydroxyl groups to obtain a hydrophobic and photo-stable material. Chemical modifications of Pinus radiata D. Don wood using hexanoyl chloride (P6), dodecanoyl chloride (P12), and stearoyl chloride (P18) were carried out at different concentrations. Esterification was confirmed by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) technique combined with a discriminatory analysis. Weight percent gain was associated with the number of carbons of the aliphatic chain of the fatty acid (P6 > P12 > P18). Moreover, an increase of wood density as a consequence of modification treatments was observed. A substantial improvement of the hydrophobicity of wood was observed by dynamic contact angle measurements. In addition, the effect of ultraviolet (UV) radiation on color changes was reduced with the treatments. Furthermore, the P6 treatment presented acceptable values of modulus of elasticity (MOE) and modulus of rupture (MOR), being suitable for similar mechanical uses as non-treated pinewood. However, only treatments P12 and P18 enhanced thermal resistance of the pinewood in an oxidative atmosphere.This research was funded by the Basque Government, grant number IT1008-16 and the APC was funded by the Basque Government, grant number IT1008-16. The author gratefully acknowledges the European Commission for funding the InnoRenew project [Grant Agreement # 739574] under the Horizon2020 Widespread-Teaming program, the Republic of Slovenia (investment funding of the Republic of Slovenia and the European Union European Regional Development Fund) and infrastructural ARRS program IO-0035. Part of this work was conducted during the project Multi-spec (BI-IT/18-20-007) funded by ARRS. RH is grateful to the Department of Education of the Basque Government (post-doc INGVTCL4-D00112-7) and the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU

Turismo rural y desarrollo rural: perspectivas y futuro en Cataluña, Baleares y Galicia

En este artículo se presentan los primeros resultados de un proyecto de investigación\ud centrado en analizar el turismo rural en las comunidades de Cataluña, Baleares y\ud Galicia. Las tres comunidades presentan una distinta orientación en su turismo rural y\ud unos objetivos diferentes de desarrollo rural. La metodología del estudio se ha basado en la realización de 568 encuestas (realizadas en verano de 2001) a los usuarios de turismo rural (45 en Baleares, 404 en Cataluña y 119 en Galicia), 241 encuestas a los propietarios de las casas de turismo rural (8 en Baleares, 147 en Cataluña y 86 en Galicia) y 35\ud entrevistas en profundidad (20 en Cataluña, 5 en Baleares y 10 en Galicia) a los\ud propietarios de casas de turismo rural seleccionadas para analizar con más detalle su diversidad. La base de la encuesta han sido las casas que pertenecen a una asociación de Turismo Rural, entendiendo que la profesionalización de este sector se vincula a la pertenencia a una asociación de tipo local, comarcal o regional. En este estudio nos centramos en los aspectos de la demanda del turismo rural, en las consecuencias de este turismo en las economías locales, en los efectos del turismo sobre el medio y finalmente en el futuro del turismo rural y en las repercusiones para el territorio y el\ud desarrollo rural.This article presents the first results of a research project focusing on rural tourism in the\ud Spanish Autonomous communities of Catalonia, Balearic Islands and Galicia. The\ud objectives of rural development and the approach to rural tourism have been shown to\ud vary greatly in the three regions. The main methodological instrument used in the study is\ud the analysis of a questionnaire and in-depth interviews. A total of 568 questionnaires were\ud carried out among rural tourism clients during the summer of 2001 (45 in the Balearic\ud Islands, 404 in Catalonia, and 86 in Galicia), while 35 proprietors (5 in the Balearic Islands,\ud 20 in Catalonia, and 10 in Galicia) were interviewed in order to acquire a more profound\ud understanding of the diversity that was identified. The statistical base for selection was\ud those enterprises that belonged to an association, based on the hypothesis that the\ud professionalisation of the activity implies membership of a sectorial organisation, be it at a\ud local, county or regional level. The study focuses on the analysis of the demand, the\ud repercussions on the local economy, the environmental impacts and, finally, on future\ud perspectives for rural tourism and the implications for rural development and the local\ud region