Fuel poverty as a determinant in energy retrofitting actions

Fuel poverty can be defined as “the inability to afford adequate warmth in the home" and it is the result of the combination of three items: low household income, housing lack of energy efficiency and high energy bills. Although it affects a growing number of households within the European Union only some countries have an official definition for it. In 2013, the European Parliament claimed the Commission and Estate Members to develop different policies in order to fight household energy vulnerability. The importance of tackling fuel poverty is based on the critical consequences it has for human health living below certain temperatures. In Spain some advances have been made in this field but main existing studies remain at the statistical level and do not deepen the understanding of the problem from the perspective of dwelling indoor habitability conditions. What is more, this concept is yet to be officially defined. This paper presents the evaluation of fuel poverty in a building block of social housing located in the centre of Zaragoza and how this issue determined the strategies implemented in the energy retrofitting intervention project. At a first step, fuel poverty was appraised through the exploration of indoor thermal conditions. The adaptive thermal comfort (UNE-EN 15251:2008) method was used to establish the appropriate indoor temperatures and consequently to determine what can be called 'comfort gap'. Results were collated and verified with energy bills collection and a survey work that gathered data from neighbours. All this permitted pointing out those households more in need. Results from the social analysis combined with the evaluation of the building thermal performance determined the intervention. The renovation project was aimed at the implementation of passive strategies that improve households thermal comfort in order to alleviate households fuel poverty situation. This research is part of the project NewSolutions4OldHousing (LIFE10 ENV/ES/439) cofounded by the European Commission under the LIFE+ Programme

Is Europe ready to provide a pan-European Identity Management System?

European public administrations must manage citizens' digital identities, particularly considering interoperability among different countries. Owing to the diversity of electronic identity management (eIDM) systems, when users of one such system seek to communicate with governments using a different system, both systems must be linked and understand each other. To achieve this, the European Union is working on an interoperability framework. This article provides an overview of eIDM systems' current state at a pan-European level. It identifies and analyzes issues on which agreement exists, as well as those that aren't yet resolved and are preventing the adoption of a large-scale model

Contributions to traditional electronic voting systems in order to reinforce citizen confidence

This document provides a general description of the telematic voting scenario designed by the author?s research group. This scenario reinforces verification procedures as key elements to achieve full acceptance of the system on the part of voters. To frame this work, a general overview of electronic voting is given and the conditions entailed by these systems are specified

Características de las directoras de los centros escolares andaluces: análisis y propuestas para el cambio social

Aunque el número de profesoras es mayor que el de profesores en las escuelas e institutos los puestos de dirección han sido y son ocupados mayoritariamente por los hombres. En esta ponencia se presentan los resultados y una reflexión sobre las características personales y profesionales de las mujeres en las organizaciones educativas y los puestos de dirección. Entre los hallazgos de nuestra investigación se pone de manifiesto que el porcentaje de nuevas directoras va acercándose progresivamente al de sus colegas varones, sobre todo en mujeres que superan los 40 años, aunque todavía siguen dirigiendo mayoritariamente centros de Educación Infantil y Primaria y se concentran prioritariamente en centros de tamaño pequeño o mediano

A Poglut1 mutation causes a muscular dystrophy with reduced Notch signaling and satellite cell loss

Skeletal muscle regeneration by muscle satellite cells is a physiological mechanism activated upon muscle damage and regulated by Notch signaling. In a family with autosomal recessive limbgirdle muscular dystrophy, we identified a missense mutation in POGLUT1 (protein O-glucosyltransferase 1), an enzyme involved in Notch posttranslational modification and function. In vitro and in vivo experiments demonstrated that the mutation reduces Oglucosyltransferase activity on Notch and impairs muscle development. Muscles from patients revealed decreased Notch signaling, dramatic reduction in satellite cell pool and a muscle-specific adystroglycan hypoglycosylation not present in patients’ fibroblasts. Primary myoblasts from patients showed slow proliferation, facilitated differentiation, and a decreased pool of quiescent PAX7+ cells. A robust rescue of the myogenesis was demonstrated by increasing Notch signaling. None of these alterations were found in muscles from secondary dystroglycanopathy patients. These data suggest that a key pathomechanism for this novel form of muscular dystrophy is Notch-dependent loss of satellite cells.Junta de Andalucía PI-0017-201

Social and Legal Implications of Digital Identity in a Multi-national Environment

The i2010 e-Government Action Plan from the European Union forces Public Administrations (national, regional and local) of all Member States that by 2010 to meet all administrative acts of the citizens through the Internet. This implies the need for mechanisms and systems to be able to unequivocally identify people on the Internet, together with a reliable system of interoperable electronic identification management (eIDM), in such a way that citizens, businesses and government departments (even in different Member States) can identify themselves and certify their transactions accurately, quickly and simply. However, despite the clear advantages that this entails for EU citizens, namely the fact that they possess a digital identity which allows them secure and identified access to the services offered by the various public administrations in Member States, the implementation of a solution of this kind involves a series of risks which, if they are not duly dealt with, may engender a reduction in the effectiveness of public institutions and citizens' trust in them. This article will analyse the problems associated with digital identity in the EU framework and the extent to which the solutions adopted to date meet the constitutional requirements, or fail to, highlighting aspects which may entail a risk or detriment to the freedoms of citizens and those relating to the handling of digital identity which have not yet been tackled but which, given their particular relevance, necessitate an immediate solution

The DNA damage response acts as a safeguardagainst harmful DNA–RNA hybrids ofdifferent origins

Despite playing physiological roles in specific situations, DNA–RNA hybrids threat genome integrity. To investigate how cells do counteract spontaneous DNA–RNA hybrids, here we screen an siRNA library covering 240 human DNA damage response (DDR) genes and select siRNAs causing DNA–RNA hybrid accumulation and a significant increase in hybrid‐dependent DNA breakage. We identify post‐replicative repair and DNA damage checkpoint factors, including those of the ATM/CHK2 and ATR/CHK1 pathways. Thus, spontaneous DNA–RNA hybrids are likely a major source of replication stress, but they can also accumulate and menace genome integrity as a consequence of unrepaired DSBs and post‐replicative ssDNA gaps in normal cells. We show that DNA–RNA hybrid accumulation correlates with increased DNA damage and chromatin compaction marks. Our results suggest that different mechanisms can lead to DNA–RNA hybrids with distinct consequences for replication and DNA dynamics at each cell cycle stage and support the conclusion that DNA–RNA hybrids are a common source of spontaneous DNA damage that remains unsolved under a deficient DDR.European Research Council (ERC2014AdG669898TARLOOP)Worldwide Cancer Research (WCR15-00098

Analysis of electronic and telematic voting systems in binding experiences

This paper is about analysis and assess of three experiences on telematic and electronic voting dealing with such aspects as security and achievement of the social requirements. These experiences have been chosen taking into account the deepness of the public documentation and the technological challenge they faces

Una brecha en el poder de las organizaciones educativas: las directoras de los centros escolares andaluces

La dirección escolar se presenta en la literatura científica como un factor clave en los resultados escolares del alumnado y la buena marcha de los centros educativos. Sin embargo, aunque el número de profesoras es mayor que el de profesores en las escuelas e institutos, a nivel internacional, los puestos de dirección han sido y son ocupados mayoritariamente por los hombres. Esta situación está cambiando en Andalucía, como lo demuestra la investigación realizada; el porcentaje de nuevas directoras va acercándose progresivamente al de sus colegas varones, sobre todo en mujeres que superan los 40 años, aunque todavía siguen dirigiendo mayoritariamente centros de Educación Infantil y Primaria y se concentran prioritariamente en centros de tamaño pequeño o mediano.School management is presented in the scientific works as a key factor in the students’ performance and in the smooth running of schools. However, although the number of female teachers is greater than that of male teachers in schools and high schools, all over the world management positions have been and are predominantly occupied by men. This situation is changing in Andalusia, as this research tries to show; the percentage of new female directors is gradually approaching that of their male counterparts, especially in women over 40 years, although still leading centers of primary and kindergarden educational levels and focused on centers of small to medium size

Aplicación de los patrones principales de acoplamiento al estudio de la predecibilidad en el Atlántico Norte

Ponencia presentada en: II Congreso de la Asociación Española de Climatología “El tiempo del clima”, celebrado en Valencia del 7 al 9 de junio de 2001[EN]En este trabajo se presenta una aplicación de los patrones de variabilidad acoplada a la predicción. Los patrones se obtienen mediante la Descomposición en Valores Singulares de la matriz de covarianza cruzada entre dos campos climatológicos: el predictor y el predictando. La matriz de covarianza cruzada se calcula con un determinado desfase entre el campo predictor (el que precede) y el campo predictando. Se han realizado diversos experimentos de predicción, con tres predictores: las temperaturas de la superficie del mar y la temperatura del aire a 850 hPa en la cuenta noratlántica, y las temperaturas de la superficie del mar en todo el Atlántico. El predictando en ambos casos es el campo de la temperatura del aire a 850 hPa en el Atlántico Norte. También se han llevado a cabo distintas pruebas atendiendo al filtrado preliminar de los datos. Los resultados del modelo muestran una "habilidad de predicción" útil en dos regiones: la primera en el subtrópico y la segunda centrada en la Península Ibérica. En algunas de estas zonas se puede llegar a predecir hasta un 50% de la varianza del predictando original.[ES]In this work the patterns which represent the coupled features between two fields are used with forecast purposes. These patterns are obtained by the Singular Value Decomposition of the crosscovariance matrix between the predictor and predictand fields at the lag requested for the forecast. Several forecast experiments have been carried out, using three different predictor fields: the anomalies of the sea surface temperature and air temperature anomalies at 850hPa over the North Atlantic basin, and sea surface temperature anomalies over the whole Atlantic Ocean. As predictand field the 850hPa air temperature anomalies over the North Atlantic has been considered. Also other experiments have been performed with three smoothing methodologies applied to the predictand and predictor fields. Results show good values of the skill of forecast over two regions: the first one centered over Bermuda (near the tropics) and the latted situated around Iberian Peninsula. In these zones it is possible to forecast up to about a 50% of the variance of the original predictand field.El trabajo ha sido financiado por el Programa Medio Ambiente y Clima de la Unión Europea, contrato ENV4-CT98-0714 (SINTEX)