Concrete Swelling in Existing Dams

Several chemical reactions are able to produce swelling of concrete for decades after its initial curing, a problem that affects a considerable number of concrete dams around the world. Principia has had several contracts to study this problem in recent years, which have required reviewing the state-of-the-art, adopting appropriate mathematical descriptions, programming them into user routines in Abaqus, determining model parameters on the basis of some parts of the dams’ monitored histories, ensuring reliability using some other parts, and finally predicting the future evolution of the dams and their safety margins. The paper describes some of the above experience, including the programming of sophisticated non-isotropic swelling models, that must be compatible with cracking and other nonlinearities involved in concrete behaviour. The applications concentrate on two specific cases, an archgravity dam and a double-curvature arch dam, both with a long history of concrete swelling and which, interestingly, entailed different degrees of success in the modelling effort

MEASURING POVERTY IN AN ULTRAPERIPHERAL REGION - THE CASE OF THE CANARY ISLANDS

The Canary Islands (one of Spain's 17 autonomous communities) is considered in the EC Treaty "ultra-peripheral region" which means: i) differences in the development processes and integration that justify certain specific policies (six out of the seven regions involved are among the poorest in the EU). This is related with remoteness, insularity, small size, difficult topography and climate, and the dependence on a small number of products; ii) the remoteness from the mainland countries and climatic conditions (tropical or subtropical) and, iii) the role of EU frontier and the geographical structure characterized by size and distance. With data of the Survey of Social Conditions (2001) we study the income inequality of individuals in The Canary Islands. Individuals are divided into various subgroups along several dimensions, such as island of residence, age, employment status etc. The difference in inequality between and within the various subgroups is studied using absolute-relative poverty line. We estimate poverty using a subjective approach too, where the level of the poverty line is derived using the opinion of the individual, rich or poor, on poverty. The subjective poverty line used is the Leyden Poverty Line based on subjective questions regarding income and economic welfare.

Does diversity in top management teams contribute to organizational performance? The response of IBEX 35 companies

This study contributes to the spread of theoretical and empirical knowledge regarding the Upper Echelons Theory, considering the training and demographic diversity in the Top Management Team (TMT) as a singular characteristic of each company, in our case those belonging to the IBEX35 index. Taking into account the skills of the members, a greater financial performance is expected. Once we obtained the statistical results, we concluded that the inclusion of women in the TMT increased Net Sales and EBITDA. Features such as age, training and nationality are also examined in this work.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Innovación en la política turística española: análisis desde una perspectiva histórica

Comunicación presentada en el XVIII Congreso AECIT, Benidorm, 26-28 Noviembre 2014.El Estado es un agente favorecedor clave de la innovación que tiene lugar en el sistema turístico, tanto en el ejercicio de su función de diseñar e implantar política pública, como a partir del estímulo deliberado a la innovación. En esta investigación el análisis se centra en la innovación generada dentro de la política turística española que afecta a sus propias estructuras e instrumentos y se hace desde perspectiva histórica. El objetivo de este estudio es aplicar el concepto de la innovación, sobre el que se ha reflexionado fundamentalmente en un ámbito de mercado, al ámbito del diseño e implantación de políticas públicas que se rige por unos objetivos y reglas de funcionamiento distintas a la lógica del mercado. A partir de la observación rigurosa y sistemática de los instrumentos de la política turística del gobierno central se ha tratado de discriminar qué novedades reúnen las características necesarias para ser consideradas innovación por cuanto intensidad de cambio inducido, efectiva ejecución, impacto generado y ruptura respecto a lo previamente existente, requisitos considerados condición ineludible para su identificación como tal. El análisis demuestra que gobierno central en su ejercicio de diseño de políticas ha dado muestras de abundante creatividad y de un esfuerzo notable por introducir soluciones nuevas y cambios para dar respuesta a nuevos y antiguos problemas aunque no todos los intentos han desembocado en innovación. Se confirma, por tanto, que la innovación como resultado no es un fenómeno fácil ni frecuente. Ésta se ha identificado fundamentalmente en los instrumentos organizativos y programáticos de dicha política turística. Asimismo, los cambios institucionales radicales o las situaciones de crisis del sector han forzado a la búsqueda de estrategias más innovadoras y han constituido entornos más fértiles para la innovación.The estate is a key agent that influences innovation in the tourism system via its actions of public policy design and implementation and also its direct intervention to stimulate innovation. The analysis focuses on innovation in tourism policy that affects its own structures and instruments from a historical perspective in Spain. The aim of this study is to apply the concept of innovation, mainly thought from a market perspective, to the domain of public policies design and implementation which obeys rules and objectives different than the market. From a systematic and rigorous observation of central government tourism policy instruments an attempt to distinguish innovation has been made based on criteria such as intensity of induced change, effective implementation, impact and disruption from previous existent knowledge and action. The analysis shows that central government in its exercise of policy design has demonstrated a great deal of creativity and has made efforts to introduce new solutions and induce change to solve new and old problems. However, not all creative efforts have become innovation. It is thus confirmed that innovation is not frequent or an easy phenomenon. It has mainly been identified in the management and programmatic tourism policy instruments. Also radical institutional changes and crisis situations have stimulated the search for more innovative strategies and have constituted more fertile environments to innovation.La investigadora Isabel Rodríguez desarrolla su tesis doctoral en el marco del proyecto de investigación “Metodología, criterios y aplicaciones para la configuración de clusters en áreas turísticas consolidadas: innovación, complementariedad y competitividad territorial” (CSO2011-26396), financiado por el Plan Nacional de I+D+i del Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad

Statistical mechanics approaches to granular media: between micromechanics and macromechanics

The mechanical behavior of granular materials has been traditionally approached through two theoretical and computational frameworks: macromechanics and micromechanics. Macromechanics focuses on continuum based models. In consequence it is assumed that the matter in the granular material is homogeneous and continuously distributed over its volume so that the smallest element cut from the body possesses the same physical properties as the body. In particular, it has some equivalent mechanical properties, represented by complex and non-linear constitutive relationships. Engineering problems are usually solved using computational methods such as FEM or FDM. On the other hand, micromechanics is the analysis of heterogeneous materials on the level of their individual constituents. In granular materials, if the properties of particles are known, a micromechanical approach can lead to a predictive response of the whole heterogeneous material. Two classes of numerical techniques can be differentiated: computational micromechanics, which consists on applying continuum mechanics on each of the phases of a representative volume element and then solving numerically the equations, and atomistic methods (DEM), which consist on applying rigid body dynamics together with interaction potentials to the particles. Statistical mechanics approaches arise between micro and macromechanics. It tries to state which the expected macroscopic properties of a granular system are, by starting from a micromechanical analysis of the features of the particles and the interactions. The main objective of this paper is to introduce this approach

Normas Internacionales de Información Financiera para Pequeñas y Medianas Entidades (NIIF para Pymes) : Registro contables del arrendamiento operativo con base a las normas internacionales de información financiera para pequeñas y medianas entidades sección 20 en la empresa AISA Inversiones Energéticas de Nicaragua,S.A. durante el periodo del 2015

Con el fin de identificar el impacto que tendría la aplicación de estas Normas, se desarrolló este tema delimitado “Analizar los Registros Contables del Arrendamiento Operativo con base a las Normas Internacionales de Información Financiera para Pequeñas y Medianas Entidades (Sección 20) en la Empresa AISA Inversiones Energética de Nicaragua, S.A durante el periodo 2015”, ya que estas Normas están diseñadas para lograr uniformidad en la información, con lo cual mejoran la organización y la competitividad empresarial a nivel mundial. Se consideró que las NIIF para PYMES es un tema muy poco abordado, por eso se precisó realizar un estudio más profundo, a la necesidad de aquellas empresas que decidieron adoptar dichas Normas, logren esa uniformidad en la información que presenten en sus Estados Financieros. Además, se pensó que este tema es de gran interés, principalmente para los profesionales de la contabilidad, ya que les permitirá conocer la normativa contenida en las NIIF para las PYMES y la contabilización correcta del Arrendamiento Operativo. En conclusión, las ventajas de la aplicación de NIIF para PYMES son muchas, pero en particular el mejoramiento de la presentación de Estados Financieros y confiabilidad de la información que se presenta a terceros, es decir, que son más detallados y entendibles. Por tanto, esta investigación tiene gran importancia, ya que conlleva a la estandarización de la contabilidad de todos los países que las adopten, permitiéndoles a los clientes y proveedores que estén en el extranjero, no tengan que hacer una traducción de los Estados Financieros a las normas locales, porque en su marco general son los mismos

Statistical distributions obtained from the compression of monodisperse, soft and frictionless particles

The cyclic compression of several granular systems has been simulated with a molecular dynamics code. All the samples consisted of bidimensional, soft, frictionless and equal-sized particles that were initially arranged according to a squared lattice and were compressed by randomly generated irregular walls. The compression protocols can be described by some control variables (volume or external force acting on the walls) and by some dimensionless factors, that relate stiffness, density, diameter, damping ratio and water surface tension to the external forces, displacements and periods. Each protocol, that is associated to a dynamic process, results in an arrangement with its own macroscopic features: volume (or packing ratio), coordination number, and stress; and the differences between packings can be highly significant. The statistical distribution of the force-moment state of the particles (i.e. the equivalent average stress multiplied by the volume) is analyzed. In spite of the lack of a theoretical framework based on statistical mechanics specific for these protocols, it is shown how the obtained distributions of mean and relative deviatoric force-moment are. Then it is discussed on the nature of these distributions and on their relation to specific protocols

Equations of state in soil compression based on statistical mechanics

The authors have published a very interesting contribution in which they present a new and general relationship between void ratio and overburden pressure in the compression process of soils. The study is based on the law of interparticle energy distribution used in statistical mechanics and, in particular, the compression process of a soil is described according to its initial and final void ratios, and to a parameter /? which is related to the potential energy of a soil element. Such potential energy depends not only on the mass and elevation of soil particles, but also on the interactions between them. To account for such interactions, the authors introduce the concept of "imaginary particles", which allows them to use empirically-calibrated P values in the formulation without the need to consider interparticle interactions explicitly. In fact, the results presented by the authors show that such approach reproduces successfully the compression behaviour of a wide range of situations and soils