Nonequilibrium Phase Transitions in Directed Small-World Networks

Many social, biological, and economic systems can be approached by complex networks of interacting units. The behaviour of several models on small-world networks has recently been studied. These models are expected to capture the essential features of the complex processes taking place on real networks like disease spreading, formation of public opinion, distribution of wealth, etc. In many of these systems relations are directed, in the sense that links only act in one direction (outwards or inwards). We investigate the effect of directed links on the behaviour of a simple spin-like model evolving on a small-world network. We show that directed networks may lead to a highly nontrivial phase diagram including first and second-order phase transitions out of equilibrium.Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX format, 4 postscript figs, uses eps

Chrowned by an Extension: Abusing the Chrome DevTools Protocol through the Debugger API

The Chromium open-source project has become a fundamental piece of the Web as we know it today, with multiple vendors offering browsers based on its codebase. One of its most popular features is the possibility of altering or enhancing the browser functionality through third-party programs known as browser extensions. Extensions have access to a wide range of capabilities through the use of APIs exposed by Chromium. The Debugger API -- arguably the most powerful of such APIs -- allows extensions to use the Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP), a capability-rich tool for debugging and instrumenting the browser. In this paper, we describe several vulnerabilities present in the Debugger API and in the granting of capabilities to extensions that can be used by an attacker to take control of the browser, escalate privileges, and break context isolation. We demonstrate their impact by introducing six attacks that allow an attacker to steal user information, monitor network traffic, modify site permissions (\eg access to camera or microphone), bypass security interstitials without user intervention, and change the browser settings. Our attacks work in all major Chromium-based browsers as they are rooted at the core of the Chromium project. We reported our findings to the Chromium Development Team, who already fixed some of them and are currently working on fixing the remaining ones. We conclude by discussing how questionable design decisions, lack of public specifications, and an overpowered Debugger API have contributed to enabling these attacks, and propose mitigations

But Still Enthusiastic: The Unchanged Europeanness of the Spanish Parliamentary Elite During the Eurozone Crisis

Since the adhesion of Spain to the EEC in 1986, the Spanish electorate has shown a high level of support for the European integration process. Even more enthusiastic than their fellow citizens, Spanish political elites also expressed a strong commitment to the European integration project, based in a pro-EU consensus beyond party and ideological divides. However, Spain has also been one of the countries most affected by the economic and financial crisis that has hit the EU (particularly the Eurozone) since 2010. The main questions we aim to answer in this paper is whether this crisis and its management by EU institutions has eroded the traditional support for the EU shown by Spanish domestic political elites and, if so, to what extent. To this end, we draw on survey data provided by the InTune and ENEC-2014 projects on the attitudes of Spanish MPs towards the EU in the years 2007, 2009, and 2014. Results show that the traditional pro-EU stance of Spanish MPs has remained mostly stable during the crisis, yet such stability has increased the representation gap with citizens in this area

Vasotocin and isotocin regulate aquaporin 1 function in the sea bream

Aquaporins (AQPs) are specific transmembrane water channels with an important function in water homeostasis. In terrestrial vertebrates, AQP2 function is regulated by vasopressin (AVP) to accomplish key functions in osmoregulation. The endocrine control of aquaporin function in teleosts remains little studied. Therefore, in this study we investigated the regulatory role of vasotocin (AVTR) and isotocin (ITR) receptors in Aqp1 paralog gene function in the teleost gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata). The complete coding regions of Aqp1a, Aqp1b, AVTR V1a2-type, AVTR V2-type and ITR from sea bream were isolated. A Xenopus oocyte-swelling assay was used to functionally characterize AQP1 function and regulation by AVT and IT through their cognate receptors. Microinjection of oocytes with Aqp1b mRNA revealed regulation of water transport via PKA (IBMX+forskolin sensitive), whereas Aqp1a mRNA injection had the same effect via PKC signaling (PDBU sensitive). In the absence of expressed receptors, AVT and IT (10(-8) mol l(-1)) were unable to modify AQP1 function. AVT regulated AQP1a and AQP1b function only when the AVTR V2-type was co-expressed. IT regulated AQP1a function, but not AQP1b, only when ITR was present. Considering that Aqp1a and Aqp1b gene expression in the sea bream intestine is highly salinity dependent in vivo, our results in ovo demonstrate a regulatory role for AVT and IT in AQP1 function in the sea bream in the processing of intestinal fluid to achieve osmoregulation.Ministry of Education (Spain) [FPU AP2008-01194]; Portuguese National Science Foundation [SFRH/BPD/66808/2009]; Ministry of Science and Education, Spain [AGL2010-14876]; National Science Foundation (FCT, Portugal) [PTDC/MAR-BIO/3811/2012

Activation of waste tire char upon cyclic oxygen chemisorption-desorption

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research, © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ie801764xActivation of waste tire char upon cyclic oxygen chemisorption-desorption permits a controlled development of porosity versus burnoff using air as feed gas for the activation process. A slow but monotonical increase of BET surface area is obtained from cycle to cycle. Initially the process led to the development of mesoporosity without generating micropores and then the micropore volume is increased whereas a decrease of narrow mesopore (20-80 nm) volume is observed, probably as a consequence of mesopore widening. Although the S BET reaches relatively low values (below 250 m2/g) even after 15 cycles, this surface development is associated with low burnoff values (around 22% for indicated BET surface area) and corresponds in an important percentage (up to about 50%) to external (nonmicropore) area. Temperatures around 210 and 550 °C for chemisorption and desorption, respectively, have been found as optimum for the purpose of preparing granular mesoporous carbons which can be interesting candidates as catalytic supports for liquid phase applicationsThe authors greatly appreciate financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (CTQ2006-13512

Aportaciones sobre la implantación del Plan Bolonia. Un giro copernicano para los alumnos

La implantación del Sistema del denominado Plan Bolonia no sólo representa un reto para el profesorado sino también para el alumnado, acostumbrado a seguir la clase de lejos, participar poco en ella y darse un atracón de estudiar los días previos al examen. Un sistema basado en la asistencia a clase de forma activa, haciendo ejercicios y trabajos en grupo asiduamente, representa para muchos de nuestros alumnos un giro copernicano. En este trabajo se presenta el seguimiento de una cierta evaluación continua en una asignatura que aunque está situada en 2º curso es específica de los estudios que nos ocupa de la Ingeniería Naval, lo que podría dar lugar a pensar un cierto interés o al menos motivación por parte del alumno. Una vez planteada la metodología de la evaluación continua, se analizan la participación de los alumnos, su asistencia a clase, la evolución de los abandonos y la influencia de este sistema en los resultados académicos. Los resultados pondrán de manifiesto las dificultades que la implantación del Plan Bolonia tiene entre el alumnado acostumbrado a otros esquemas de funcionamiento

Relevancia de la educación ambiental en el sector agrícola. Líneas socioeducativas de actuación a partir de una investigación con regantes de Andalucía.

A pesar de que la mayor parte del consumo de agua en España se realiza en el sector de la agricultura (80%), y es mucho menor el que se emplea en abastecimientos urbanos (14%), los programas de educación ambiental relacionados con el agua se vienen principalmente dirigiendo a ámbitos ciudadanos. El estudio que se presenta, que es parte de una investigación más amplia de ámbito andaluz sobre el consumo responsable del agua , se centra específicamente en una muestra de agricultores andaluces (n=1030). En este trabajo se construyó y aplicó un cuestionario para conocer diversos aspectos relacionados con el uso y el consumo, con los valores y la cultura del agua desde la propia perspectiva de los agricultores. La agricultura, clave en el consumo del agua, engloba a un sector de la población de difícil acceso y con una cultura y tradición propias. El cuestionario (escala tipo Likert), fue construido a partir de la información recabada en una fase anterior de la investigación, en la que se entrevistó en profundidad a diversos sectores de la población andaluza con un rol relevante en la gestión y el uso responsable del agua (empresas, administración, asociaciones conservacionistas y de educación ambiental, medios de comunicación especializados, investigación y agricultura-regantes). El cuestionario definitivo contenía 30 ítems, organizados en 3 dimensiones, correspondientes a otras tantas funciones: a) representativa (6 ítems), para obtener información de algunos aspectos relevantes del uso del agua; b) emotiva (17 ítems), para recabar sentimientos, actitudes y estados de ánimo de los agricultores y regantes; y c) apelativa (7 ítems), para conocer su valoración de propuestas de cambio y mejora dirigidas a diversos sectores. En la elaboración del cuestionario se tuvieron en cuenta varios procedimientos de validación (evaluación por expertos, aplicación a una muestra piloto), y se obtuvieron medidas de fiabilidad (consistencia interna) y de validez (análisis factorial de componentes principales). A partir de los datos descriptivos de la muestra se evaluó la representatividad de la misma en relación a algunos rasgos relevantes la población andaluza de regantes considerada. El análisis de resultados del cuestionario arrojan resultados sustanciales en relación a concepciones y valores utilizados en la justificación de sus comportamientos (tanto desde el punto de vista cognitivo-representativo, como del afectivo-expresivo), así como las apelaciones que realizan desde su perspectiva, los regantes, a otros sectores claves en la gestión responsable del uso y el consumo del agua. Los resultados y conclusiones ilustran diversas líneas de actuación que pueden ayudar al diseño de programas de educación ambiental dirigidos a este sector clave en el consumo de agua.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Toward an automatic full-wave inversion: Synthetic study cases

Full-waveform inversion (FWI) in seismic scenarios continues to be a complex procedure for subsurface imaging that might require extensive human interaction in terms of model setup, constraints, and data preconditioning. The underlying reason is the strong nonlinearity of the problem that forces the addition of a priori knowledge (or bias) in order to obtain geologically sound results. In particular, when the use of a long-offset receiver is not possible or may not favor the reconstruction of the fine structure of the model, one needs to rely on reflection data. As a consequence, the inversion process is more prone to becoming stuck in local minima. Nevertheless, misfit functionals can be devised that can either cope with missing long-wavenumber features of initial models (e.g., cross-correlation-based misfit) or invert reflection-dominated data whenever the models are sufficiently good (e.g., normalized offset-limited least-squares misfit). By combining both, high-frequency data content with poor initial models can be successfully inverted. If one can figure out simple parameterizations for such functionals, the amount of uncertainty and manual work related to tuning FWI would be substantially reduced. Thus, FWI might become a semiautomatized imaging tool.We want to thank Repsol for funding this research by means of the Aurora project. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 644202. Additionally, the research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme (2014-2020) and from Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation through Rede Nacional de Pesquisa (RNP) under the HPC4E Project (www.hpc4e.eu), grant agreement No 689772. We acknowledge Chevron for the dataset that was used in our second example.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft