El Trabajo Social como opción de lucha contra la desigualdad, el empobrecimiento y la exclusión social: trayectorias y estrategias de la coordinación Baladre

El presente artículo describe cuáles han sido algunas de las claves teóricas y las estrategias metodológicas del Trabajo Social que los diferentes grupos de la Coordinación de luchas contra el paro, el empobrecimiento y la exclusión social, llamada Baladre, ha ido desarrollando a la largo de sus ¿ya más de¿ treinta años de historia. Se trata de poner en valor un conjunto de prácticas de Trabajo Social a través de las cuales¿en opo- sición al Trabajo Social como saber y poder del gobierno neoliberal sobre lo social¿ se han intentado actualizar y recrear concepciones críticas, liberadoras y emancipadoras de Trabajo Social en contextos caracterizados por la precariedad, el empobrecimiento y la exclusión social. Este conjunto de prácticas se han ido configurando en el contexto social e histórico estrechamente marcado por la tendencia hacia la privatización progresiva de las condiciones básicas de la sociabilidad y existencia humana, bajo la hegemonía política e ideológica del neoliberalismo. Para finalizar, se expone una breve sistematización del conjunto de reflexiones que han conducido, a los diversos grupos, colectivos y personas que participan en Baladre, a reivindicar el derecho social incondicional a la «Renta Básica de las Iguales»

De las rentas mínimas a la renta básica de las iguales y mucho más

El presente artículo describe la Renta Básica de las Iguales y la contrapone a las rentas mínimas, incluyendo una descripción de la renta garantizada de ciudadanía del País Valencià. La Renta Básica de las Iguales es una herramienta de transformación social vinculada a una intervención social emancipadoraThe present article describes Citizens' Basic Income, and sets this in contrast to minimum incomes, including a description of the guaranteed citizenship income of the País Valencià. Citizens' Basic Income is a tool for social transformation linked to emancipating social intervention

Interferometric microstructured polymer optical fiber ultrasound sensor for optoacoustic endoscopic imaging in biomedical applications

We report a characterization of the acoustic sensitivity of microstructured polymer optical fiber interferometric sensors at ultrasonic frequencies from 100kHz to 10MHz. The use of wide-band ultrasonic fiber optic sensors in biomedical ultrasonic and optoacoustic applications is an open alternative to conventional piezoelectric transducers. These kind of sensors, made of biocompatible polymers, are good candidates for the sensing element in an optoacoustic endoscope because of its high sensitivity, its shape and its non-brittle and non-electric nature. The acoustic sensitivity of the intrinsic fiber optic interferometric sensors depends strongly of the material which is composed of. In this work we compare experimentally the intrinsic ultrasonic sensitivities of a PMMA mPOF with other three optical fibers: a singlemode silica optical fiber, a single-mode polymer optical fiber and a multimode graded-index perfluorinated polymer optical fiber. © 2014 SPIE

Have Health Inequalities Increased during the COVID-19 Pandemic? Evidence from Recent Years for Older European Union Citizens

Reducing inequality is one of the current challenges that most societies are facing. Our aim was to analyze the evolution of inequalities in self-assessed health among older Europeans in a time period spanning the 2008 economic crisis and the COVID-19 health crisis. We used data from Waves 2, 4 and 8 of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. We used inequality indices that accept ordinal variables. Our empirical results suggest that average inequality declines over time. Gender significantly influences the results. Some of the countries with the highest level of inequality are Denmark and Sweden, and some with the lowest are Estonia and the Netherlands. Our results may be of interest for the development of public policies to reduce inequalities. Special attention should be paid to vulnerable groups, such as the elderly

Mode-selective couplers for two-mode transmission at 850 nm in standard SMF

© 2016 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.The optimal design of a low-loss fused fiber mode-selective coupler for two-mode fiber transmission in the 850-nm band is presented. The coupler is based on precise phase matching of the propagation constants in each arm of a weakly fused fiber coupler. The designed component permits both mode converter and mode multiplexer/demultiplexer operation, thus enabling modal multiplexing transmission in this band with no additional component. The presented design is evaluated by simulation considering two types of structures, leading to asymmetric and symmetric coupler configurations. Mode converter and mode multiplexer operation is achieved with 93.5% efficiency in the band of 845 855 nm. Mode demultiplexer operation is achieved with an extinction ratio better than 20.4 dB in the same band.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad under Project RTC-2014-2232-3 HIDRASENSE and Project TEC2012-38558-C02-01.Corral, JL.; García Rodríguez, D.; Llorente Sáez, R. (2016). Mode-selective couplers for two-mode transmission at 850 nm in standard SMF. IEEE Photonics Technology Letters. 28(4):425-428. https://doi.org/10.1109/LPT.2015.2497080S42542828

Reverse engineering of logic-based differential equation models using a mixed-integer dynamic optimization approach

9 páginas, 6 figuras.-- This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution LicenseMotivation: Systems biology models can be used to test new hypotheses formulated on the basis of previous knowledge or new experimental data, contradictory with a previously existing model. New hypotheses often come in the shape of a set of possible regulatory mechanisms. This search is usually not limited to finding a single regulation link, but rather a combination of links subject to great uncertainty or no information about the kinetic parameters. Results: In this work, we combine a logic-based formalism, to describe all the possible regulatory structures for a given dynamic model of a pathway, with mixed-integer dynamic optimization (MIDO). This framework aims to simultaneously identify the regulatory structure (represented by binary parameters) and the real-valued parameters that are consistent with the available experimental data, resulting in a logic-based differential equation model. The alternative to this would be to perform real-valued parameter estimation for each possible model structure, which is not tractable for models of the size presented in this work. The performance of the method presented here is illustrated with several case studies: a synthetic pathway problem of signaling regulation, a two-component signal transduction pathway in bacterial homeostasis, and a signaling network in liver cancer cellsD.H., J.R.B. and J.S.R. acknowledge funding from the EU FP7 projects ‘NICHE’ (ITN Grant number 289384) and ‘BioPreDyn’ (KBBE grant number 289434). J.R.B. also acknowledges funding from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (and the FEDER) through the project MultiScales (DPI2011-28112-C04-03).Peer reviewe

Mode Conversion for Mode Division Multiplexing at 850 nm in Standard SMF

[EN] A mechanical mode converter for mode division multiplexed systems over SSMF at 850 nm is proposed and evaluated experimentally by the transmission of OOK-modulated optical signals. The proposed mode converter is based on a periodic structure defined by the grating period (&#923;) parameter and the number of mode coupling points, N. A mechanical grating with N=50 points and a tunable grating period (&#923; form 440 to 456 &#956;m) has been designed offering a 124-nm tuning bandwidth. The LP01 mode to LP11 mode conversion has been experimentally assessed and a conversion efficiency of 89 % has been achieved in the designed device. Optical transmission of OOK-modulated signals with 1.25 and 2.5 Gb/s bitrates on LP01 mode or a converted LP11 mode is demonstrated achieving BER < 10&#8722;9 after 1-km optical transmission over SSMF at 850 nmThis work was supported in part by the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad MINECO/FEDER, European Union under Project TEC2015-70858-C2-1-R XCORE and in part by MINECO under Project RTC-2014-2232-3 HIDRASENSE.García Rodríguez, D.; Corral González, JL.; Llorente Sáez, R. (2017). Mode Conversion for Mode Division Multiplexing at 850 nm in Standard SMF. IEEE PHOTONICS TECHNOLOGY LETTERS. 29(11):929-932. https://doi.org/10.1109/LPT.2017.2694605S929932291

Portable polymer optical fibre cleaver

Polymer optical fibre (POF) is a growing technology in short distance telecommunication due to its flexibility, easy connectorization, and lower cost than the mostly deployed silica optical fibre (SOF) technology. Microstructured POFs (mPOFs) have particular promising potential applica-tions in the sensors and telecommunications field, they could specially help to reduce losses in poly-mer fibres by using hollow-core fibres. However, mPOFs are intrinsically more difficult to cut due to the cladding hole structure and it becomes necessary to have a high quality polymer optical cleaver. In the well-known hot-blade cutting process, fibre and blade are heated, which requires electrical compo-nents and increases cost. A new method has recently been published to cut POF without the need for heating the blade/fibre, therefore electronically devices are not required if it is used a proper mechani-cal system. In this paper, we present a passive and portable polymer optical cleaver implemented with a mechanical system formed by a constant force spring and a damper

3D printed sensing patches with embedded polymer optical fibre Bragg gratings

The first demonstration of a polymer optical fibre Bragg grating (POFBG) embedded in a 3-D printed structure is reported. Its cyclic strain performance and temperature characteristics are examined and discussed. The sensing patch has a repeatable strain sensitivity of 0.38 pm/μepsilon. Its temperature behaviour is unstable, with temperature sensitivity values varying between 30-40 pm/°C

Embedding silica and polymer fibre Bragg gratings (FBG) in plastic 3D-printed sensing patches

This paper reports the first demonstration of a silica fibre Bragg grating (SOFBG) embedded in an FDM 3-D printed housing to yield a dual grating temperature-compensated strain sensor. We also report the first ever integration of polymer fibre Bragg grating (POFBG) within a 3-D printed sensing patch for strain or temperature sensing. The cyclic strain performance and temperature characteristics of both devices are examined and discussed. The strain sensitivities of the sensing patches were 0.40 and 0.95 pm/μϵ for SOFBG embedded in ABS, 0.38 pm/μμ for POFBG in PLA, and 0.15 pm/μμ for POFBG in ABS. The strain response was linear above a threshold and repeatable. The temperature sensitivity of the SOFBG sensing patch was found to be up to 169 pm/°C, which was up to 17 times higher than for an unembedded silica grating. Unstable temperature response POFBG embedded in PLA was reported, with temperature sensitivity values varying between 30 and 40 pm/°C