Preparation of homogeneous CNT coatings in insulating capillary tubes by an innovative electrochemically-assisted method

Preparation of homogeneous CNT coatings in insulating silica capillary tubes is carried out by an innovative electrochemically-assisted method in which the driving force for the deposition is the change in pH inside the confined space between the inner electrode and the capillary walls. This method represents a great advancement in the development of CNT coatings following a simple, cost-effective methodology.Authors gratefully acknowledge the Explora program (MAT2011–13877–e) and funding from the Generalitat Valenciana, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad and FEDER (Projects CTQ2012-31762, MAT2010-15273, PROMETEO /2009/047 and RyC 2009-03913)

Switchable surfactant-assisted carbon nanotube coatings: innovation through pH shift

The inner surface of fused-silica capillaries has been coated with a dense/homogeneous coating of commercial multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) using a stable ink as deposit precursor. Solubilization of the MWCNTs was achieved in water/ethanol/dimethylformamide by the action of a surfactant, which can switch between a neutral or an ionic form depending on the pH of the medium, which thus becomes the driving force for the entire deposition process. Careful control of the experimental conditions has allowed us to selectively deposit CNTs on the inner surface of insulating silica capillaries by a simple, reproducible, and easily adaptable method.The authors gratefully acknowledge the funding from the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Generalitat Valenciana, and FEDER (Projects CTQ2012-31762, MAT2013-42007-P, PrometeoII/2014/10, JCI-2012-12664, and RyC 2009-03913)

Análisis de patrones en asaltos de espada de alto nivel

El objetivo de este estudio fue la caracterización técnico-táctica de las acciones de combate en asaltos de esgrima de competición, determinando su eficacia en función del período del asalto en que se realizan, analizando el tiempo efectivo de combate y de pausa, e identificando si existen regularidades en las conductas de los esgrimistas en competición. Para ello se utilizó un diseño observacional puntual, nomotético y multidimensional. El instrumento observacional ESGRIMOBS fue validado mediante un panel de expertos compuesto por 17 especialistas. Se utilizó como instrumento de registro el programaLINCE, y los registros obtenidos fueron tratados y recodi&cados a través del programa Microsoft® Office Excel® 2013. El análisis estadístico descriptivo e inferencial se realizó mediante el programa PASW Statistics para Windows y el análisis de patrones a través de <eme. La &abilidad en la observación se determinó mediante el grado de concordancia intra e interobservador. Se analizaron 14 asaltos del Campeonato del Mundo de espada masculina de categoría absoluta. El 43,1% (±13,3) de las acciones analizadas fueron eficaces, apreciándose un claro incremento de la e&cacia en el transcurso del asalto. A medida que avanza el asalto el tiempo efectivo de combate disminuye y se alargan los tiempos de pausa. Se identificaron 72 T-Patterns que mostraron distintas regularidades en los 14 combates analizados. En conclusión, se dispone de una herramienta válida para el análisis técnico-táctico y de la estructura temporal de asaltos de esgrima, pudiendo configurarse la detección de T-Patterns como una nueva estrategia cualitativa en el análisis táctico de la esgrima

Physical fitness reference standards for preschool children: The PREFIT project

Objectives Reference values are necessary for classifying children, for health screening, and for early prevention as many non-communicable diseases aggravate during growth and development. While physical fitness reference standards are available in children aged 6 and older, such information is lacking in preschool children. Therefore, the purposes of this study were (1) to provide sex-and age-specific physical fitness reference standards for Spanish preschool children; and (2) to study sex differences across this age period and to characterise fitness performance throughout the preschool period. Design Cross-sectional. Methods A total of 3179 preschool children (1678 boys) aged 2.8–6.4 years old from Spain were included in the present study. Physical fitness was measured using the PREFIT battery. Results Age- and sex-specific percentiles for the physical fitness components are provided. Boys performed better than girls in the cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength, and speed-agility tests over the whole preschool period studied and for the different percentiles. In contrast, girls performed slightly better than boys in the balance test. Older children had better performance in all fitness tests than their younger counterparts. Conclusions Our study provides age- and sex-specific physical fitness reference standards in preschool children allowing interpretation of fitness assessment. Sexual dimorphism in fitness tests exists already at preschool age, and these differences become larger with age. These findings will help health, sport, and school professionals to identify preschool children with a high/very low fitness level, to examine changes in fitness over time, and to analyse those changes obtained due to intervention effects

Post-Franco Theatre

In the multiple realms and layers that comprise the contemporary Spanish theatrical landscape, “crisis” would seem to be the word that most often lingers in the air, as though it were a common mantra, ready to roll off the tongue of so many theatre professionals with such enormous ease, and even enthusiasm, that one is prompted to wonder whether it might indeed be a miracle that the contemporary technological revolution – coupled with perpetual quandaries concerning public and private funding for the arts – had not by now brought an end to the evolution of the oldest of live arts, or, at the very least, an end to drama as we know it

Search for eccentric black hole coalescences during the third observing run of LIGO and Virgo

Despite the growing number of confident binary black hole coalescences observed through gravitational waves so far, the astrophysical origin of these binaries remains uncertain. Orbital eccentricity is one of the clearest tracers of binary formation channels. Identifying binary eccentricity, however, remains challenging due to the limited availability of gravitational waveforms that include effects of eccentricity. Here, we present observational results for a waveform-independent search sensitive to eccentric black hole coalescences, covering the third observing run (O3) of the LIGO and Virgo detectors. We identified no new high-significance candidates beyond those that were already identified with searches focusing on quasi-circular binaries. We determine the sensitivity of our search to high-mass (total mass M>70 M⊙) binaries covering eccentricities up to 0.3 at 15 Hz orbital frequency, and use this to compare model predictions to search results. Assuming all detections are indeed quasi-circular, for our fiducial population model, we place an upper limit for the merger rate density of high-mass binaries with eccentricities 0<e≤0.3 at 0.33 Gpc−3 yr−1 at 90\% confidence level

Ultralight vector dark matter search using data from the KAGRA O3GK run

Among the various candidates for dark matter (DM), ultralight vector DM can be probed by laser interferometric gravitational wave detectors through the measurement of oscillating length changes in the arm cavities. In this context, KAGRA has a unique feature due to differing compositions of its mirrors, enhancing the signal of vector DM in the length change in the auxiliary channels. Here we present the result of a search for U(1)B−L gauge boson DM using the KAGRA data from auxiliary length channels during the first joint observation run together with GEO600. By applying our search pipeline, which takes into account the stochastic nature of ultralight DM, upper bounds on the coupling strength between the U(1)B−L gauge boson and ordinary matter are obtained for a range of DM masses. While our constraints are less stringent than those derived from previous experiments, this study demonstrates the applicability of our method to the lower-mass vector DM search, which is made difficult in this measurement by the short observation time compared to the auto-correlation time scale of DM

Search for gravitational-lensing signatures in the full third observing run of the LIGO-Virgo network

Gravitational lensing by massive objects along the line of sight to the source causes distortions of gravitational wave-signals; such distortions may reveal information about fundamental physics, cosmology and astrophysics. In this work, we have extended the search for lensing signatures to all binary black hole events from the third observing run of the LIGO--Virgo network. We search for repeated signals from strong lensing by 1) performing targeted searches for subthreshold signals, 2) calculating the degree of overlap amongst the intrinsic parameters and sky location of pairs of signals, 3) comparing the similarities of the spectrograms amongst pairs of signals, and 4) performing dual-signal Bayesian analysis that takes into account selection effects and astrophysical knowledge. We also search for distortions to the gravitational waveform caused by 1) frequency-independent phase shifts in strongly lensed images, and 2) frequency-dependent modulation of the amplitude and phase due to point masses. None of these searches yields significant evidence for lensing. Finally, we use the non-detection of gravitational-wave lensing to constrain the lensing rate based on the latest merger-rate estimates and the fraction of dark matter composed of compact objects

Diseño e implementación de un sistema sintético de comunicación celular en Saccharomyces cerevisiae basado en histidina kinasas

El desarrollo de comunidades microbianas sintéticas es uno de los retos actuales dentro del campo de la biología sintética. El objetivo es diseñar de forma racional poblaciones microbianas que resuelvan, de forma cooperativa, problemas humanos o medioambientales. Para implementar comportamientos coordinados en estas poblaciones sintéticas, es necesario contar con sistemas de comunicación celular ortogonales y bien caracterizados. En trabajos previos, se han desarrollado receptores celulares artificiales basados en arquitecturas que ya existen en la naturaleza. Los sistemas de dos componentes son sistemas de transducción de señal altamente conservados y muy bien caracterizados, que se han utilizado previamente con este propósito en diferentes organismos huésped. En este trabajo intentamos implementar un sistema artificial de comunicación celular en Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Para ello, la histidina kinasa nativa Sln1 de levadura se modificó a dos niveles: a nivel de input, para hacerla sensible a un péptido sintético secretado por una cepa emisora, y a nivel de output, para desviar su señalización hacia una ruta ortogonal de origen bacteriano. No se obtuvo respuesta a través del mecanismo de activación que se había propuesto inicialmente, pero sí se obtuvieron niveles altos de señal al co-cultivar la cepa receptora con con células de S. cerevisiae BY4741 sin transformar. Experimentos posteriores sugieren que la activación está disparada por contacto directo entre células de ambas cepas, y posiblemente está mediada por proteínas de adhesión celular y señalización de estrés de pared. Proponemos un modelo que explica este comportamiento, donde la señalizaión nativa de Sln1 es desviada a una ruta paralela a través de nuestro sistema sintético. Estos resultados abren la puerta al desarrollo de un sensor de contacto celular, artificial y específico de cepa, que se podría usar para implementar comportamientos coordinados y espacialmente estructurados en sistemas sintéticos multicelulares