La actividad de las Cortes Generales entre 1979 y 2000 desde la perspectiva del «gobierno de partido»

En este artículo se analiza la actividad de las Cortes Generales en la producción de leyes y el control parlamentario del Gobierno durante las seis primeras legislaturas. Se pone la atención principalmente en la actividad de la cámara baja, debido al bicameralismo asimétrico y al débil status del Senado. La actividad legislativa y de control se analizan tomando en consideración las diferentes situaciones de «gobierno de partido». En términos generales, las Cortes han sido siempre muy activas en el control del ejecutivo y, además, su participación en la producción legislativa ha sido muy relevante cuando se ha dado la situación de gobierno minoritario. Al ser los partidos políticos los actores centrales en el parlamento, y debido a la fuerte disciplina de partido que se da en el caso español, en este trabajo se considera el output del parlamento desde la perspectiva de las estrategias seguidas por los grupos de oposición. Algunas veces los partidos actúan a través de los procedimientos parlamentarios en un sentido competitivo, mientras que otras veces se comportan de manera cooperativa. La mitad de las legislaturas tuvieron gobiernos minoritarios en las que los pequeños partidos nacionalistas jugaron un papel muy relevante como soporte del Gobierno en el parlamento; por otro parte, el principal partido de oposición nunca ha sido el mismo, ya que ha habido dos alternancias en el poder.In this paper we will consider the activity of the Spanish Cortes in law production and the control of the executive during the six parliaments of the democratic government. We mainly pay attention to the output of the lower chamber due to the asymmetrical bicameralism and weak status of the Senate. In Spain the legislative output has been dependent on different situations of party government. In general terms the Cortes have been always very active in controlling the executive and its participation in law-making was highly relevant when there was a minority government. Because parties are central actors in parliament and due to the strong party discipline in the Spanish case we mainly studied parliament output from the viewpoint of strategies of opposition parties. Sometimes parties behaved through parliament procedures in a competitive way while in others they behave cooperatively. There was a great variety of patterns of strategic behavior on account of the different situations of party government and the diverse opposition parties. Half of the parliaments had minority governments in which minority parties were playing a very relevant role supporting the government in parliament; however, the main opposition party was never the same since there were two alternations in governmen

El cambio de los sistemas de partidos en el siglo XXI / The Party Systems Change in the 21st. Century

En este trabajo se revisan los criterios de análisis e indicadores que explican los cambios en los sistemas de partidos. Se examinan la teoría del declive de los partidos, la cuestión de la identidad partidista y la pervivencia de los cleavages tradicionales, la sustitución de los partidos catch-all por partidos cartel, el realineamiento de los votantes, la creación de nuevos partidos y la influencia de los movimientos sociales. Se tienen en cuenta los indicadores de participación, volatilidad electoral, fragmentación y polarización ideológica. Estos criterios e indicadores se valoran en relación con los sistemas de partidos de las democracias de Europa occidental en las cinco últimas décadas. / This paper reviews the analysis criteria and indicators that explain changes in party systems. The theory of parties decline, the question around party identity and the persistence of traditional cleavages, the replacement of catch-all parties by cartel parties, voters’ realignment, the creation of new parties and the influence of social movements are examined. Participation, electoral unsteadiness, fragmentation and ideological polarization indicators are considered. These criteria and indicators are evaluated vis-à-vis party systems in Western Europe’s democracies during the last five decades

Comparative Study of Railway Drive Systems Using Bond-Graph

Since the first railways were built, they have not ceased to increase their capacity for transport, speed and energy consumption. This paper presents a comparative study of how present-day railway drive systems perform. Special emphasis is placed on consumption and energy efficiency. By using theoretical computer simulation models, simulations are conducted of the performance of present-day railway drive systems under certain specific boundary conditions. Bond-Graph Technique has been used to design the models. This technique is widely known and accepted for its suitability and capability for modeling dynamic systems in any field of science or technology, and particularly for modeling vehicular systems. Modeling is done systematically taking account of all the mechanical, dynamic, electrical, electromagnetic and regulation phenomena involved in the operation of railway drive systems. A detailed study of the simulation results has enabled a comparative analysis to be conducted of the most significant variables. Important conclusions have been drawn from this analysis about the drive systems that have been shown to be comparatively more efficient

The Thermal Dissipation of LED Outdoor Lighting Luminaires: Comparative Analysis for a Real Case of Study

Today LED technology is being imposed, day by day, in our cities and homes as an efficient way of lighting. The performance of its lighting, durability, energy efficiency, and light, coupled with the economy of its use, is shifting to other classic forms of lighting. However, some problems associated with the durability of equipment associated with thermal dissipation and high-temperature problems, which end up affecting the light intensity and service life, are beginning to be detected. The objective of this paper is to compare the results obtained previously, at different contour temperatures, with the current practical results obtained with a FLUKETI25 thermal imaging camera. The theoretical results will be compared with the current results applied to the different luminaires. Where real thermal dissipation is studied, it is obtained for each of them in the laboratory of illumination with the thermographic camera FLUKE TI. The theoretical and experimental results are evaluated, and the results are discussed. This study shows that instead of LED technology, it is less risky for quality depreciation and durability of lighting if a project has already been achieved that favors optimal thermal dissipation, supported by the importance of choosing an appropriate design and appropriate materials

Using Bond-Graph Technique for Modelling and Simulating Railway Drive Systems

This work presents the application of Bond-Graph Technique to modelling and simulating the behaviour of railway transport as a tool for studying its dynamic behaviour, consumption and energy efficiency, and environmental impact. The basic aim of this study is to make a contribution to the research and innovation into new technologies that will lead to the discovery of ever more efficient environmentally-friendly transport. We begin with an introduction to the study of longitudinal train dynamics as well as a description of the most currently used railway drive systems. Bond-Graph technique enables this modelling to be done systematically taking into account all the fields of science and technology involved while bringing together all the mechanical, electrical, electromagnetic, thermal, dynamic and regulatory aspects. Once the models have been developed, the behaviour of the drive systems is simulated by reproducing actual railway operating conditions along a standard section of track. Through a detailed study of the simulation results and choosing the most significant parameters, a comparison can be made of how the different systems perform. We end with the most important conclusions from which it can be deduced which drive systems are comparatively more efficient and environmentally-friendly

Application of virtual certification techniques to vehicle design and track maintenance

Virtual certification partially substitutes by computer simulations the experimental techniques required for rail vehicle certification. In this paper, several works were these techniques were used in the vehicle design and track maintenance processes are presented. Dynamic simulation of multibody systems was used to virtually apply the EN14363 standard to certify the dynamic behaviour of vehicles. The works described are: assessment of a freight bogie design adapted to meter-gauge, assessment of a railway track layout for a subway network, freight bogie design with higher speed and axle load, and processing of the data acquired by a track recording vehicle for track maintenance

Visible Light Communication System Using an Organic Bulk Heterojunction Photodetector

A visible light communication (VLC) system using an organic bulk heterojunction photodetector (OPD) is presented. The system has been successfully proven indoors with an audio signal. The emitter consists of three commercial high-power white LEDs connected in parallel. The receiver is based on an organic photodetector having as active layer a blend of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and phenyl C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM). The OPD is opto-electrically characterized, showing a responsivity of 0.18 A/W and a modulation response of 790 kHz at -6 V.This work has been supported by Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid under project S2009/ESP-1781.Publicad

Thyroid Disorders Change the Pattern of Response of Angiotensinase Activities in the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis of Male Rats

Thyroid disorders affect the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis with important consequences on the cardiovascular function in which the renin-angiotensin system plays a major role. Hypo and hyperthyroidism influence the classic main components of the renin-angiotensin system. However, the behavior of other elements of the renin-angiotensin system such as Ang III, Ang 2-10, Ang IV, or AT4, regulated by angiotensinase enzymes such as alanyl- (AlaAP), cystinyl- (CysAP), glutamyl- (GluAP), or aspartyl-aminopeptidase (AspAP), has not yet been described. In order to obtain a comprehensive view on the response of the renin-angiotensin system in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis of animals with thyroid disorders, these enzyme activities were simultaneously analyzed fluorometrically, using arylamide derivatives as substrates in hypothalamus, anterior and posterior pituitary, adrenals and plasma of euthyroid, hypothyroid, and hyperthyroid rats, and their intra- and inter-tissue correlations were evaluated. The response is depending on the type of enzyme studied, its location and the thyroid status. Anterior pituitary, adrenals and plasma were mainly affected by the thyroid disorders. In the anterior pituitary, GluAP and AspAP increased in hypothyroid rats. In adrenals, AlaAP and CysAP decreased in hypothyroid whereas GluAP and AspAP decreased in hyperthyroid rats. In plasma, while AlaAP increased in hypo- and hyperthyroid rats, CysAP and GluAP decreased only in hyperthyroid. In comparison with euthyroid, intra-tissue correlations decreased in hypothyroid but inter-tissue correlations decreased mainly in hyperthyroid rats. Thyroid disorders also produced a disruption in the pattern of inter-tissue correlations observed in euthyroid. These results suggest that thyroid hormone levels hit components of the renin-angiotensin system and may influence the paracrine and endocrine cross talk between cells

The effects of electron cyclotron heating and current drive on toroidal Alfven eigenmodes in tokamak plasmas

Dedicated studies performed for toroidal Alfvén eigenmodes (TAEs) in ASDEX-Upgrade (AUG) discharges with monotonic q-profiles have shown that electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) can make TAEs more unstable. In these AUG discharges, energetic ions driving TAEs were obtained by ion cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH). It was found that off-axis ECRH facilitated TAE instability, with TAEs appearing and disappearing on timescales of a few milliseconds when the ECRH power was switched on and off. On-axis ECRH had a much weaker effect on TAEs, and in AUG discharges performed with co- and counter-current electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD), the effects of ECCD were found to be similar to those of ECRH. Fast ion distributions produced by ICRH were computed with the PION and SELFO codes. A significant increase in Te caused by ECRH applied off-axis is found to increase the fast ion slowing-down time and fast ion pressure causing a significant increase in the TAE drive by ICRH-accelerated ions. TAE stability calculations show that the rise in Te causes also an increase in TAE radiative damping and thermal ion Landau damping, but to a lesser extent than the fast ion drive. As a result of the competition between larger drive and damping effects caused by ECRH, TAEs become more unstable. It is concluded, that although ECRH effects on AE stability in present-day experiments may be quite significant, they are determined by the changes in the plasma profiles and are not particularly ECRH specific.EURATOM 633053RCUK Energy Programme P012450/