Forecasting accuracy of behavioural models for participation in the arts

A first version of this paper was presented at the University of Catania, 2011 and at the fifth European Workshop on Applied Cultural Economics in Dublin, 2011.forecasting, count data, prediction intervals, Brier scores, bootstrapping, arts

La planificación de decisiones anticipadas en pacientes crónicos

Trabajo fin de grado en EnfermeríaIntroducción: La planificación de decisiones anticipadas (PDA) se postula como un nuevo método de cuidado que permite a los pacientes desarrollar junto con un profesional, la atención sanitaria que desea recibir, preservando su autonomía y empoderándoles en la toma de decisiones. Objetivos: Analizar la PDA como método de cuidado en personas con enfermedades crónicas. Así como describir la percepción que tienen los pacientes sobre el impacto de la PDA en su vida, identificar beneficios y limitaciones de la PDA y determinar las estrategias a llevar a cabo para su implementación. Métodos: Se realizó una revisión bibliográfica a partir de la búsqueda llevada a cabo en la biblioteca Cochrane, las bases de datos Pubmed, Cinahl y Cuiden además del buscador académico “Google Scholar”; utilizando vocabulario controlado y lenguaje libre, combinados con operadores booleanos y se establecieron unos criterios de inclusión y exclusión, contando con un total final de 24 artículos. Resultados y discusión: Tras la revisión, se clasificaron los resultados en tres categorías: experiencia e impacto de la PDA en pacientes; dificultades y beneficios de la implementación; y estrategias y recomendaciones de implantación. Conclusiones: Lejos de ser un modelo exento de problemas, la PDA se presenta como un proceso prometedor que aporta grandes beneficios a los pacientes crónicos y la enfermera comunitaria se postula como profesional ideal para liderar el proceso. No obstante, es preciso seguir investigando sobre la materia para favorecer una mejor implementación del mismo.Introduction: Advance care planning (ACP) presents itself as a new method of care which allows patients to actively approach their treatment alongside professionals, establishing the care they wish to receive, preserving their level of independence and giving them power of choice. Objectives: To analyze ACP as a method of care for patients with chronic disease. Also, to describe perceptions patients may have regarding the impact of ACP on their lives, identifying benefits and limitations and determining implementation strategies. Methods: A systematic review of literature was carried out using the Cochrane library, the Pubmed, Cinahl and Cuiden databases as well as the academic search engine Google Scholar; using controlled vocabulary and natural language, combined with boolean operators, having established exclusion and inclusion criteria, rendering a total of 24 articles. Results and discussion: After review, the results were classified in three categories: patient experiences and ACP impact; difficulties and benefits of implementation; and implementation strategies and recommendations. Conclusions: Far from a perfect model, ACP presents itself as a promising process which may afford great benefits for chronic patients. The community nurse seems to be the ideal professional to lead the process. However, more research is necessary to improve implementatio

Women & Politics in the Americas: Political Representation and Policy Agendas in the Executive Branch, PRP 179

The report analyzes the extent of women’s engagement in political activities in the executive branch of government throughout the Americas. The first part examines women’s political representation worldwide and sets the international context for the analysis of the Americas. The second part focuses on specific case studies of women who have held executive power in the Americas. The report concludes by pulling together the main findings of the individual case studies and assessing the common themes that emerge from our analysis.Public Affair

Influence of the viscosity of poly(methyl methacrylate) on the cellular structure of nanocellular materials

Three different grades of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) with different rheological properties are used for the production of nanocellular materials using gas dissolution foaming. The influences of both the viscosity of the different polymers and the processing parameters on the final cellular structure are studied using a wide range of saturation and foaming conditions. Foaming conditions affect similarly all cellular materials. It is found that an increase of the foaming temperature results in less dense nanocellular materials, with higher cell nucleation densities. In addition, it is demonstrated that a lower viscosity leads to cellular polymers with a lower relative density but larger cell sizes and smaller cell nucleation densities, these differences being more noticeable for the conditions in which low solubilities are reached. It is possible to produce nanocellular materials with relative densities of 0.24 combined with cell sizes of 75 nm and cell nucleation densities of 1015 nuclei cm−3 using the PMMA with the lowest viscosity. In contrast, minimum cell sizes of around 14 nm and maximum cell nucleation densities of 3.5 × 1016 nuclei cm−3 with relative densities of 0.4 are obtained with the most viscous one. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industr

Routing design for less-than-truckload motor carriers using ant colony techniques

One of the most important challenges for Less-Than-Truck-Load carriers consists of determining how to consolidate flows of small shipments to minimize costs while maintaining a certain level of service. For any origin-destination pair, there are several strategies to consolidate flows, but the most usual ones are: peddling/collecting routes and shipping through one or more break-bulk terminals. Therefore, the target is determining a route for each origin-destination pair that minimizes the total transportation and handling cost guaranteeing a certain level of service. Exact resolution is not viable for real size problems due to the excessive computational time required. This research studies different aspects of the problem and provides a metaheuristic algorithm (based on Ant Colonies Optimization techniques) capable of solving real problems in a reasonable computational time. The viability of the approach has been proved by means of the application of the algorithm to a real Spanish case, obtaining encouraging results

Key Production Parameters to Obtain Transparent Nanocellular PMMA

Transparent nanocellular polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) with relative density around 0.4 is produced for the first time by using the gas dissolution foaming technique. The processing conditions and the typical characteristics of the cellular structure needed to manufacture this novel material are discovered. It is proved that low saturation temperatures (−32 °C) combined with high saturation pressures (6, 10, 20 MPa) allow increasing the solubility of PMMA up to values not reached before. In particular, the highest CO2 uptake ever reported for PMMA, (i.e., 48 wt%) is found for a saturation pressure of 20 MPa and a saturation temperature of −32 °C. Due to these processing conditions, cell nucleation densities of 1016 nuclei cm−3 and cell sizes clearly below 50 nm are achieved. The nanocellular polymers obtained, with cell sizes ten times smaller than the wavelength of visible light and very homogeneous cellular structures, show a significant transparency

Ferry, G. (1991). El trayecto de Información. Los enseñantes entre la teoría y la práctica.

Sin resume

Complejos metálicos con carbenos N-Heterociclicos como agentes anticancerígenos

El cáncer es una enfermedad cada vez más prevalente en España y, a su vez, cada vez más investigada. En este contexto, un compuestoquímico que ha sido muy empleadopor su acción anticancerígena y que a día de hoy sigue presente en muchas terapias contra el cáncer es el llamado cisplatino. A pesar del evidente potencial de este fármaco como agente anticancerígeno, son varios los efectos adversos que han sido detectados y que derivan de su actividad. Por ello, numerosos grupos de investigaciónhanllevado a cabo, a lo largo de los años,múltiples ensayos encaminados asintetizar y caracterizar moléculasparecidas estructuralmente al cisplatino, pero que, a diferencia de éste, no produzcanlos efectos adversos a los que nos hemos referido anteriormente. El cisplatino contiene un átomo de platino en su estructura química, por lo que los ensayos iniciales se basaron en la búsqueda de moléculas que también contuvieran metales de transición como el oro, la plata, el cobre yel paladio, entre otros. A raíz del interés por la búsqueda de nuevas sustancias que presenten un mejor perfil terapéutico, se ha comenzado a explorar el uso delos ligandos de tipocarbeno N-heterocíclico(NHC), con el fin de preparar compuestos más estables que presenten acción anticancerígena.Para ello se ha seguido una estrategia que consiste enincorporar a la estructura de la molécula ligandos que actúen como fuertes donadores para que, gracias a esta característica química, se generen enlaces fuertesentre el metal y los ligandos que forman parte del compuesto. El primero fármaco que se preparóy que superó la resistencia decisplatino frente a un tipo de carcinomafue el oxaliplatino. A raíz de ello, se han sintetizado numerosos complejos metálicos con NHC que han demostrado ser capaces de actuar como potentes agentes anticancerígenos.Universidad de Sevilla. Grado en Farmaci