Inspección y análisis científico de las torres atalaya que defendieron el último reino islámico de la Península Ibérica

The Islamic Nasrid kingdom of Granada occupied the mountainous areas of the south-eastern area of the Iberian Peninsula. The Baetic mountain range worked as a natural frontier between the Nasrid kingdom and the Christian kingdom of Castile from 1232 to 1492. An extensive network of watchtowers was built by Nasrid to control this frontier stablishing visual communication between them and the Nasrid centre at the Alhambra citadel. Many of them are still standing, disperse through the provinces of Granada, Malaga, Almeria and the eastern parts of Jaen, Cordoba and Cadiz. Even being this military architecture protected by Spanish Heritage law, many of these medieval towers and their cultural landscapes are in severe risk. There are studies of individual towers, but any global comparative study has been developed. For this reason, within the framework of the R&D project called ‘Las atalayas que defendieron el reino nazarí de Granada. Análisis y documentación científica (Nazalaya)” (HAR2016-79689-P) financed by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness of Spain, the towers are being studied as individual exemplars as well as components of the same typological group. This generates a complete documentation constituted by a homogenous and exhaustively planimetry which supplements the existing information and enabling comparative analysis. Furthermore complete architectural surveys are being carried out using techniques as photogrammetry. In addition to the analysis of construction systems, the structural safety of these towers is evaluated formulating guidelines for its restoration.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. Proyecto del Plan Nacional I+D+i (Programa Estatal de Fomento de la Investigación Científica y Técnica de Excelencia) entitled ‘Las atalayas que defendieron el reino nazarí de Granada. Análisis y documentación científica (Nazalaya)’ (HAR2016-79689-P) Proyecto de Investigación Precompetitivo (mod. A) del Plan Propio de la Universidad de Málaga ‘La construcción de un paisaje: arquitectura de tapial en la Alta Andalucía en el siglo XIII. Estudio y análisis del sistema de torres andalusíes en el valle de Segura de la Sierra’ X Convocatoria de Proyectos de Investigación de la Fundación Pública Andaluza Centro de Estudios Andaluces en la modalidad de proyectos individuales, PRY/259/17 ‘Torres medievales y modernas conservadas en Andalucía. Documentación gráfica, análisis científico e interrelaciones

Customer orientation of service employees in family businesses in the hotel sector

Las interactuaciones de los empleados de servicios con los clientes son cruciales para el reflejo de la calidad del servicio, y para los beneficios de la empresa. Se ha identificado un hueco sin cubrir dentro de la literatura de Customer Orientation of Service Employees(COSE) y Family Businesses (FBs), los dos conceptos nunca se han investigado juntos antes. Debido a este hecho, se presenta un artículo conceptual que desarrolla un modelo teórico basado en Hennig-Thurau (2004). Las dos principales contribuciones son: (1) electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM) se propone como consecuencia de COSE, (2) se ha desarrollado un cuestionario, a raíz de importantes subescalas, para medir COSE y dos posibles consecuencias que derivan del concepto (satisfacción del cliente y eWOM). Una base de datos procedente de SABI se ha seleccionado para estudiar estas variables en el sector hotelero, lo cual se propone para en un futuro trabajo, y que se espera que le se soporte empírico a la teoría aportada.The business interactions between front-line employees and customers are crucial to evaluating service quality and for a business’ performance. A gap has been identified in the literature on both the customer orientation of service employees (COSE) and family businesses (FBs); both concepts never have been studied together before. Due to this fact, we present a concept that develops a theoretical model based on Hennig-Thurau (2004). This model drives research about the COSE and FBs in the hotel sector. The two main contributions are the following: (1) electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) is proposed as a consequence of COSE within FBs and (2) a questionnaire has been developed from relevant subscales to measure COSE and two possible consequences derived from it (Customer Satisfaction and eWOM). A database from Iberic Balance Analysis System (SABI) has been selected to study these variables in the hotel sector, and it will be used in a proposed future empirical study that is expected to provide support for the theory. &nbsp

Validación del Modelo CKLS para los tipos de interés a corto plazo en España: Un enfoque paramétrico

En este trabajo se realiza un análisis no paramétrico de la dinámica en tiempo continuo de los tipos de interés a corto plazo en España en el marco de los modelos unifactoriales homogéneos. Las estimaciones obtenidas, en concordancia con otros autores, inducen a pensar que la deriva del modelo es no lineal y que la volatilidad está en consonancia con la propuesta en el modelo de Chan, Karolyi, Longsta®, y Sanders (1992) (modelo CKLS). Chapman y Pearson (2000) plantean que la no linealidad de la deriva estimada podría ser espúrea y deberse a un efecto en la frontera del procedimiento de estimación no paramétrico seguido. Así, se aplica el contraste de especificación de modelos no paramétricos investigado en Kim y Wang (2006) para validar o no la posible no linealidad de la deriva con los datos de la Economía española. Como conclusión m´ss significativa cabe destacar que el test no lleva a una evidencia contundente para rechazar la linealidad de la deriva. Además, el test lleva a aceptar la forma funcional para la volatilidad propuesta en el modelo CKLS. Por otro lado, se realiza un estudio del efecto que en la valoración de bonos cupón cero tiene la imposición de una deriva lineal y la consideración del modelo paramétrico CKLS, en comparación con el planteamiento no paramétrico más general. Encontramos que todos los modelos considerados llevan a precios muy similares para tipos de interés bajos o medios y periodo de vencimiento no superior a 3 años; en general, las diferencias aumentan con el nivel inicial de los tipos de interés y con el periodo de vencimiento

Institutions and business customer experience: the role of interfunctional coordination and service co-design.

This paper contributes to a better understanding of the complex phenomenon of institutions and the moderation of the main antecedents of business customer experience. Following a combination of literature review and three fieldworks, the main antecedents of business customer experience have emerged: interfunctional coordination, customer engagement and participation in the co-design of services. The role of institutions (level of formalisation) has also been considered as a possible moderator. Consequently, a conceptual framework has been developed which includes seven research propositions. The first four research propositions are related to the main elements of the model and suggest new relationships among constructs. The other three research propositions are suggested and empirically examined using Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis to find causal configurations and to identify pathways that lead to business customer experience. Necessity and sufficiency of conditions that lead to a positive business customer experience are discussed for both scenarios of high and low formalisation of institutions

Sectorial evaluation and characterization of internal marketing orientation through multicriteria analysis

This research carries out a comparative analysis of the Internal Market Orientation (IMO) to a sample of small and medium enterprise companies, which has been divided into nine groups based on their business sectors. Applying the statistical technique of structural equations, the coefficients of four IMO inputs in each busi- ness sector are obtained. Next, the PROMETHEE multicriteria technique is applied to obtain a composite indicator of the IMO implementation of each business sector. The value of the composite indicator together with the GAIA plane allow to dis- tinguish the differences of the IMO profiles, their strengths and their weaknesses. The results show the divergences in the IMO inputs according to the sector, which is evidence that the business sector is a predictor of the IMO implementation of a company.Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga / CBU

Urinary metabolic signatures detect recurrences in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer

Patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) undergo lifelong monitoring based on repeated cystoscopy and urinary cytology due to the high recurrence rate of this tumor. Nevertheless, these techniques have some drawbacks, namely, low accuracy in detection of low-grade tumors, omission of pre-neoplastic lesions and carcinomas in situ (CIS), invasiveness, and high costs. This work aims to identify a urinary metabolomic signature of recurrence by proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopy for the follow-up of NMIBC patients. To do this, changes in the urinary metabolome before and after transurethral resection (TUR) of tumors are analyzed and a Partial Least Square Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) model is developed. The usefulness of this discriminant model for the detection of tumor recurrences is assessed using a cohort of patients undergoing monitoring. The trajectories of the metabolomic profile in the follow-up period provide a negative predictive value of 92.7% in the sample classification. Pathway analyses show taurine, alanine, aspartate, glutamate, and phenylalanine perturbed metabolism associated with NMIBC. These results highlight the potential of 1H NMR metabolomics to detect bladder cancer (BC) recurrences through a non-invasive approach

Control de plantas de destilación por membranas con apoyo de energía solar

La destilación por membranas es una tecnología de desalación de agua no implantada industrialmente y en la que existen numerosas incógnitas sobre su funcionamiento y producción en condiciones intermitentes de operación como las que se pueden alcanzar cuando se usa energía solar como fuente primaria de energía. Una de las pocas plantas piloto actuales está ubicada en la Plataforma Solar de Almería (PSA). En este trabajo se incluye una descripción sobre la instalación y los esquemas de control que se han propuesto para conseguir unas condiciones adecuadas de flujo másico y temperatura a la entrada del sistema de destilación. En la segunda parte se expondrán resultados representativos

Integrative Metabolomic and Transcriptomic Analysis for the Study of Bladder Cancer

[EN] Metabolism reprogramming is considered a hallmark of cancer. The study of bladder cancer (BC) metabolism could be the key to developing new strategies for diagnosis and therapy. This work aimed to identify tissue and urinary metabolic signatures as biomarkers of BC and get further insight into BC tumor biology through the study of gene-metabolite networks and the integration of metabolomics and transcriptomics data. BC and control tissue samples (n = 44) from the same patients were analyzed by High-Resolution Magic Angle Spinning Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and microarrays techniques. Besides, urinary profiling study (n = 35) was performed in the same patients to identify a metabolomic profile, linked with BC tissue hallmarks, as a potential non-invasive approach for BC diagnosis. The metabolic profile allowed for the classification of BC tissue samples with a sensitivity and specificity of 100%. The most discriminant metabolites for BC tissue samples reflected alterations in amino acids, glutathione, and taurine metabolic pathways. Transcriptomic data supported metabolomic results and revealed a predominant downregulation of metabolic genes belonging to phosphorylative oxidation, tricarboxylic acid cycle, and amino acid metabolism. The urinary profiling study showed a relation with taurine and other amino acids perturbed pathways observed in BC tissue samples, and classified BC from non-tumor urine samples with good sensitivities (91%) and specificities (77%). This urinary profile could be used as a non-invasive tool for BC diagnosis and follow-up.This research was funded by FEDER cofounded MINECO grant SAF2015-66015-R, MAT2015-64139-C4-1-R, MAT2015-64139-C4-3-R, ISCIII-RETICRD12/0036/0009, PIE 15/00076, CB/16/00228, CTQ2016-79561-P; and the PROMETEO II/2014/047 and PROMETEO 2018/24 projects.Loras, A.; Suárez-Cabrera, C.; Martínez-Bisbal, M.; Quintás, G.; Paramio, JM.; Martínez-Máñez, R.; Gil Grau, S.... (2019). Integrative Metabolomic and Transcriptomic Analysis for the Study of Bladder Cancer. Cancers. 11(5):1-19. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers1105068611911

Laser-induced highly oriented pyrolytic graphite for high-performance screen-printed electrodes

Screen-printed carbon electrodes (SPCEs) are enjoying increasing popularity in different electrochemistry areas, from electroanalysis to energy storage and power generation. Highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG), an ordered form of graphite, displays excellent electrochemical properties. However, its application in screen-printed electrodes has remained elusive. In this work, we present a straightforward laser-based process to selectively transform, in ambient conditions, the surface of conventional SPCEs into highly homogeneous HOPG. Energy densities between 6.8 and 7.7 mJ cm(-2) result in a binder-free, high-purity HOPG surface with very fast electron transfer rates. The electrode transformation to HOPG has been followed by SEM, Raman spectroscopy and XPS. Cyclic voltammetry of model systems ferrocyanide, ferrocenecarboxylic acid, dopamine and hydroquinone has been used to determine variations in electrode kinetics (from 50% increase for ferrocenecarboxylic acid, up to ca. 2 orders of magnitude for ferrocyanide and dopamine) and interfacial capacitance (from 40 up to 220 mu F cm(-2)). Finally, differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) has been used to demonstrate the ability of these electrodes to detect dopamine in the presence of an excess amount of ascorbic acid.The authors are grateful for the technical and human support provided by SGIker of UPV/EHU and European funding (ERDF and ESF). We acknowledge funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Programme for Research, ICT-02-2018 - Flexible and Wearable Electronics, Grant agreement no. 825339 - WEARPLEX. Lia Campos-Arias thanks the University of Basque Country (UPV/EHU) for doctoral grant PIFI20/04. Project number PID2020-113154RB-C22 from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation is also gratefully acknowledged