Selecting SUDS in the Valencia Region of Spain

This paper reports on a study of the implementation of sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) in two Spanish towns (Xàtiva and Benaguasil) as part of the EU LIFE+ Project AQUAVAL, which has been conceived to introduce examples of sustainable drainage to the Valencia Region of Spain. Six sites in a range of common urban spaces and land uses are selected and appropriate SUDS techniques proposed by means of a decision-support process. This primarily consisted of the systematic application of key selection criteria through matrices and scores, followed by a brief sustainability analysis. Stakeholders’ preferences and opinions as well as educational and social opportunities are highly considered throughout the process. General monitoring requirements and major limitations in using the methodology are outlined, stressing the need for improvement of four main aspects: local data regarding SUDS performance, detail of the sustainability analysis, support through comprehensive modelling tools, and level of stakeholder engagement. The importance of creating showcases for SUDS in Mediterranean Regions, thus adapting key selection criteria as to foster sustainable drainage understanding and expertise is highlighted

Continuity of spectrum and approximate point spectrum on operator matrices

AbstractLet X and Y be given Banach spaces. For A∈B(X), B∈B(Y) and C∈B(Y,X), let MC be the operator defined on X⊕Y by MC=[AC0B]. In this paper we give conditions for continuity of τ at MC through continuity of τ at A and B, where τ can be equal to the spectrum or approximate point spectrum

Tackling the muon identification in water Cherenkov detectors problem for the future Southern Wide-field Gamma-ray Observatory by means of Machine Learning

We would like to thank to A. Bueno for all the support and useful discussions during the development of this work. The authors thank also for the financial support by OE - Portugal, FCT, I. P., under project PTDC/FIS-PAR/29158/2017. R. C. is grateful for the financial support by OE-Portugal, FCT, I. P., under DL57 /2016/cP1330/cT0002. A. G. is grateful for the financial support by the projects MINECO FPA2017-85197-P and PID2019-104676GB-C32. B.S.G. is grateful for the financial support by grant LIP/BI - 14/2020, under project IC&DT, POCI-01-0145-FEDER-029158.This paper presents several approaches to deal with the problem of identifying muons in a water Cherenkov detector with a reduced water volume and 4 PMTs. Different perspectives of information representation are used, and new features are engineered using the specific domain knowledge. As results show, these new features, in combination with the convolutional layers, are able to achieve a good performance avoiding overfitting and being able to generalise properly for the test set. The results also prove that the combination of state-of-the-art machine learning analysis techniques and water Cherenkov detectors with low water depth can be used to efficiently identify muons, which may lead to huge investment savings due to the reduction of the amount of water needed at high altitudes. This achievement can be used in further research to be able to discriminate between gamma and hadron-induced showers using muons as discriminant.OE - Portugal, FCT, I. P. PTDC/FIS-PAR/29158/2017 DL57 /2016/cP1330/cT0002Spanish Government FPA2017-85197-P PID2019-104676GB-C32 LIP/BI - 14/2020 POCI-01-0145-FEDER-02915

Supervised physical activity during pregnancy improves fetal cardiac response

Objetivo: Valorar la influencia de un programa de ejercicio físico durante la gestación en la adaptación de la frecuencia cardiaca fetal (FCF). Se espera encontrar una mejor adaptación de la FCF especialmente en cuanto a recuperaciones más rápidas. Método: 45 gestantes participantes en un ensayo clínico aleatorizado sin complicaciones ni contraindicaciones para el ejercicio fueron estudiadas durante el tercer trimestre de embarazo. Se midieron las siguientes variables: FCF en reposo, FCF post-ejercicio y tiempo de recuperación de la FCF a los niveles de reposo. Resultados: La FCF en reposo fue similar en ambos grupos. La FCF post-ejercicio fue significativamente mayor en el grupo control (GC) que en el grupo ejercicio (GE) en ambas pruebas, al 40% GE=138,5±6,4GE vs 141±7,5 GC (p=0,001), al 60% 141,6±10,8 GE vs 150,3±16,8GC. Lo mismo ocurre en los tiempos de recuperación, al 40% 78,2±95,7GE vs 328,4±315,2GC (p=0,001), al 60% 193,3±257,8 GE vs 542,6±482,9GC (p=0,003). Conclusión: El ejercicio físico desarrollado durante el embarazo tiene como consecuencia una mejor adaptación de la FCF post-ejercicio, así como recuperaciones más rápidas.Objective: To assess the influence of a physical activity program during pregnancy on the adaptation of the fetal heart rate (FHR). Greater adaptations and faster recovery are expected to find. Methods: 45 pregnant women included in a randomized control trial, all with uncomplicated pregnancies for exercise were studied in their third trimester of pregnancy. Rest FHR, post-exercise FHR and recovery time were assessed. Results: Rest FHR was similar in both groups. Post-exercise FHR were significantly higher in control group (CG) than in exercise group (EG) in both test, 40% 138,5±6,4EG vs 141±7,5CG (p=0,001), 60% 141,6±10,8EG vs 150,3±16,8CG. The same was found in recovery time, 40% 78,2±95,7EG vs 328,4±315,2CG (p=0,001), al 60% 193,3±257,8EG vs 542,6±482,9CG (p=0,003)

Penning collisions of laser-cooled metastable helium atoms

We present experimental results on the two-body loss rates in a magneto-optical trap of metastable helium atoms. Absolute rates are measured in a systematic way for several laser detunings ranging from -5 to -30 MHz and at different intensities, by monitoring the decay of the trap fluorescence. The dependence of the two-body loss rate coefficient $\beta$ on the excited state ($2^3P_2$) and metastable state ($2^3S_1$) populations is also investigated. From these results we infer a rather uniform rate constant $K_{sp}=(1{\pm}0.4)\times10^{-7}$ cm$^3$/s.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, Revte

Excellent mathematical achievement in PISA: results for Spain and Portugal

Se realiza un análisis longitudinal para la competencia matemática de los resultados de España y Portugal en las evaluaciones PISA en sus ediciones de los años 2000, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2012 y 2015. PISA es el mecanismo utilizado por la OCDE para evaluar las competencias clave de los sistemas educativos. Es por ello que, a partir de sus conclusiones, dichos países cuentan con un marco de actuación para el desarrollo de políticas educativas propias de la mejora de sus prácticas educativas, en este caso para la competencia matemática, incluidas las dirigidas a alumnos con rendimiento matemático excelente.It is a longitudinal analysis for mathematical competence results from Spain and Portugal in the PISA assessments in their editions of the years 2000, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015. PISA is the mechanism used by the OECD to assess the key competences of the education systems. That is why, from its conclusions, such countries with a framework for the development of own educational policies for the improvement of their educational practices, in this case for mathematical competence, including those aimed at students with excellent mathematical performance.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Fast Cars and No Brakes: Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation as a Platform for Novel Immunotherapies

AbstractAutologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) is indicated in a number of hematologic malignancies, including multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and Hodgkin lymphoma. Relapse, however, remains 1 of the main causes of post-ASCT failure, and several strategies are being investigated to decrease the risk of relapse of progression. Recent advances in the treatment of hematological malignancies have included adoptive transfer of genetically modified T cells that express chimeric antigen receptors or T cell receptors, as well the use of checkpoint inhibitors. Early clinical results in nontransplantation patients have been very promising. This review will focus on the use of gene-modified T cells and checkpoint inhibitors in stem cell transplantation

Toward emotional interactive videogames for children with autism spectrum disorder

Technology and videogames have been proven as motivating tools for working attention and complex communication skills, especially in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In this work, we present two experiences that used interactive games for promoting communication and attention. The first game considers emotions in order to measure children’s attention, concentration and satisfaction, while the second uses tangible tabletops for fostering cognitive planning. The analysis of the results obtained allows to propose a new study integrating both, in which the tangible interactive game is complemented with the emotional trainer in a way that allows identifying and classifying children’s emotion with ASD when they collaborate to solve cognitively significant and contextualized challenges. The first application proposed is an emotional trainer application in which the child can work out the seven basic emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, disgust, anger, surprise and neutral). Further, a serious videogame is proposed: a 3D maze where the emotions can be captured. The second case study was carried out in a Special Education Center, where a set of activities for working cognitive planning was proposed. In this case, a tangible interactive tabletop was used to analyze, in students with ASD, how the communication processes with these interfaces affect to the attention, memory, successive and simultaneous processing that compose cognitive planning from the PASS model. The results of the first study, suggest that the autistic children did not act with previous planning, but they used their perception to adjust their actions a posteriori (that explains the higher number of collisions). On the second case study, the successive processing was not explored. The inclusion of the mazes of case study 1 to a semantic rich scenario could allow us to measure the prior planning and the emotions involved in the maze game. The new physiological sensors will also help to validate the emotions felt by the children. The first study has as objective the capability to imitate emotions and resolve a maze without semantic context. The second study organized all the actions from a semantic context close to users. The attention results presented by the second study are coherent with the first study and complement it showing that attention can be receptive or selective. In the first study case, the receptive attention was the focus of analysis. In the second case, both contributed to explain and understand how it can be developed from a videogame

Learning achievemen ts using a pbl - based methodology in an introductory electronic course

Teaching electronics in an introductory course is classically implemented by means of theoretical classes to settle the basics of analog and digital electronics. This approach has shown not to be much attractive, especially on a global course targeted for many different students, not specifically interested in electronics. A new course has been developed, based on a top-down learning strategy and the implementation of a pbl-based experience. This course has been held since 2011, with very good results, in terms of academic achievement and interest shown by the students. Results are presented,showing the success obtained with this methodology

High-pressure structural investigation of several zircon-type orthovanadates

Room temperature angle-dispersive x-ray diffraction measurements on zircon-type EuVO4, LuVO4, and ScVO4 were performed up to 27 GPa. In the three compounds we found evidence of a pressure-induced structural phase transformation from zircon to a scheelite-type structure. The onset of the transition is near 8 GPa, but the transition is sluggish and the low- and high-pressure phases coexist in a pressure range of about 10 GPa. In EuVO4 and LuVO4 a second transition to a M-fergusonite-type phase was found near 21 GPa. The equations of state for the zircon and scheelite phases are also determined. Among the three studied compounds, we found that ScVO4 is less compressible than EuVO4 and LuVO4, being the most incompressible orthovanadate studied to date. The sequence of structural transitions and compressibilities are discussed in comparison with other zircon-type oxides.Comment: 34 pages, 2 Tables, 11 Figure