Noncoperative game theory : general overview and its application to the study of cooperation

Treballs Finals de Grau de Matemàtiques, Facultat de Matemàtiques, Universitat de Barcelona, Any: 2015, Director: Josep Vives i Santa EulàliaA game, in Game Theory, is a tool that can model any situation in which there are people that interact (taking decisions, making moves, etc) in order to attain a certain goal. This mathematical description of conflicts began in the twentieth century thanks to the work of John Von Neumann, Oskar Morgenstern and John Nash and one of its first motivations was to help military officers design optimal war strategies. Nowadays, however, Game Theory is applied to a wide range of disciplines, like Biology or Political Science, but above all, to Economy. Interestingly, eleven game-theorists have won the Economics Nobel Prize up to date but never has a Fields Medal been awarded to an expert in this field. This shows to what great extent Game Theory is important for Economy and at the same time how mathematicians regard it as a secondary discipline compared to other areas of Mathematics. This undergraduate thesis clearly falls under the category of applied mathematics or mathematical modeling and therefore its goal is far from just accurately proving a series of theorems. Instead, even if the foundations of Game Theory will be laid, I will focus on showing how Game Theory can be applied to solve a great number of different problems, like, for example, the emergence of cooperative dispositions towards strangers. Bearing this in mind, I will begin this undergraduate thesis by analyzing a military conflict between two countries whose officials will have a symbolic name: Nash and Neumann. To so do, I warn the reader that I will informally explain and use certain results that will be accurately justified later in this thesis

Las representaciones figurativas y la literatura fantástica

Hay indicios para pensar que la literatura fantástica habrá atribuido, en algunos de sus textos, propiedades sobrenaturales a las representaciones figurativas. Este artículo empieza analizando qué razones hay para sospecharlo y estudia cómo, a partir de El castillo de Otranto (1764), donde aparece tímidamente un retrato que cobra vida y sale de su marco, este tipo de sucesos sobrenaturales dominaron la narración de un buen número de relatos del siglo XIX. Nuestro objetivo, además, es estudiar cómo se prepara al lector para la irrupción de este tipo de elementos fantásticos y encontrar tendencias repetidas entre los textos en los que aparece, o se flirtea con la idea de que aparezca, un retrato o una estatua con propiedades sobrenaturales.There are several reasons to suspect that fantastic literature will have conferred supernatural properties on figurative representations in some of its texts. This paper starts by analyzing such evidence and studies how, starting with The Castle of Otranto (1764), supernatural portraits and statues became prominent in 19th century literature. Our goal is to study the mechanisms that are used to prepare the reader for the incursion of these fantastic elements and to find repeated trends among the texts in which these appear

Heritage as a source of studies into industrial history: using digital tools to explore the geography of the industrialization

The main objective of this article is to explore the possibility of combining two very different sources in order to study the distribution of industrial activity throughout history. The traditional primary sources to use for this purpose are the official censuses on population and economic activity that have been conducted in the majority of countries since the mid-nineteenth century. However, the majority of these lack detail at the regional level and also with respect to the types of professional occupations that they quantify. In order to complement and profile these census data, we propose the use of another type of information which can also be quantified, but whose characteristics are very different. We refer to the industrial heritage sites identified in digital format in a given territory, which in this case is Catalonia, Spain. This innovative dataset was obtained using digital tools such as web scraping and data mining techniques. This type of historical information was used to check whether it is reliable and valid for interpreting the spatial impact of the introduction of industrial activity. The article also shows that the systematic identification of elements of industrial heritage offers a new and very useful source of information for interpreting the history of industrial geography.This research has been financed by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Spanish Ministry for the Economy and Competitiveness—CSO2015-65733-P), ICREA-Academia and also supported by RecerCaixa, and the EU (Jean Monnet 586912-EPP-1-2017-1-ES-EPPJMO-PROJEC)

Music and the perception of the mountains through the symphonic poems of Liszt, Franck and Strauss

Le but de cet article est d'étudier la contribution de la musique à la perception de la haute montagne. En particulier, nous présentons les façons dont la musique symphonique a contribué à intégrer la haute montagne dans l'espace connu et habité par la société. C'est un processus qui a commencé et s'est développé en Europe au cours du XIXe siècle. Pour ce faire, nous proposons une étude de deux poèmes symphoniques que César Franck (1822-1890) et Ferenc Liszt (1811-1866) ont composé sous le même tire, « Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne », et de « Eine Alpensinfonie » de Richard Strauss (1864-1949). Les zones sur lesquelles nous nous concentrons sont les Alpes et les Pyrénées car ce sont les endroits qui leur ont apporté l'inspiration nécessaire. Nous montrerons comment le discours sonore offre différents niveaux de sens liés aux valeurs romantiques associées à ces paysages. Dans cet article, nous cherchons à examiner la contribution de la musique symphonique à la connaissance et à l'appréciation des zones de haute montagne par la société de l'époque. Les ¿uvres choisies comme références ont été créées entre 1850 et 1915, et appartiennent à un contexte culturel spécifique dont nous présentons les points clés.The aim of this article is to study the contribution that music has made to the perception of a very specific place: that of the high mountains. In particular, we present the ways in which symphonic music has helped to incorporate the high mountains into the known and inhabited space. This is a process that began and was developed in Europe in the course of the 19th century. To do so, we propose a study of the symphonic poems entitled “Ce qu’on entend sur la montagne” by César Franck (1822-1890) and Franz Liszt (1811-1866), and “Eine Alpensinfonie”, by Richard Strauss (1864 – 1949). The areas that we focus on are the Alps and the Pyrenees as these areas are where these works were set. By doing this, we will show how sonic discourse offers a multitude of levels of meaning relating to the romantic values associated with these European landscapes. In this article, we seek to examine the contribution that symphonic music made to the knowledge and appreciation of high-mountain areas by part of society. The works that we have chosen as references were premiered between 1850 and 1915 and belong to a specific cultural context whose key points we shall present in the curse of this study

Hereditary Leiomyomatosis and Renal Cell Cancer Syndrome in Spain: Clinical and Genetic Characterization

Simple Summary Hereditary leiomyomatosis and renal cell cancer (HLRCC) syndrome is a very rare hereditary disorder characterized by cutaneous leiomyomas (CLMs), uterine leiomyomas (ULMs), renal cysts (RCys) and renal cell cancer (RCC), with no data on its prevalence worldwide. No genotype-phenotype associations have been described. The aim of our study was to describe the genotypic and phenotypic features of the largest series of patients with HLRCC from Spain reported to date. Of 27 FH germline pathogenic variants, 12 were not previously reported in databases. Patients with missense pathogenic variants showed higher frequencies of CLMs, ULMs and RCys, than those with loss-of-function variants. The frequency of RCCs (10.9%) was lower than those reported in the previously published series. Hereditary leiomyomatosis and renal cell cancer syndrome (HLRCC) is a very rare hereditary disorder characterized by cutaneous leiomyomas (CLMs), uterine leiomyomas (ULMs), renal cysts (RCys) and renal cell cancers (RCCs). We aimed to describe the genetics, clinical features and potential genotype-phenotype associations in the largest cohort of fumarate hydratase enzyme mutation carriers known from Spain using a multicentre, retrospective study of individuals with a genetic or clinical diagnosis of HLRCC. We collected clinical information from medical records, analysed genetic variants and looked for genotype-phenotype associations. Analyses were performed using R 3.6.0. software. We included 197 individuals: 74 index cases and 123 relatives. CLMs were diagnosed in 65% of patients, ULMs in 90% of women, RCys in 37% and RCC in 10.9%. Twenty-seven different pathogenic variants were detected, 12 (44%) of them not reported previously. Patients with missense pathogenic variants showed higher frequencies of CLMs, ULMs and RCys, than those with loss-of-function variants (p = 0.0380, p = 0.0015 and p = 0.024, respectively). This is the first report of patients with HLRCC from Spain. The frequency of RCCs was lower than those reported in the previously published series. Individuals with missense pathogenic variants had higher frequencies of CLMs, ULMs and RCys

Climate determines transmission hotspots of Polycystic Echinococcosis, a life-threatening zoonotic disease, across Pan-Amazonia

Polycystic Echinococcosis (PE), a neglected life-threatening zoonotic disease caused by the cestode is endemic in the Amazon. Despite being treatable, PE reaches a case fatality rate of around 29% due to late or missed diagnosis. PE is sustained in Pan-Amazonia by a complex sylvatic cycle. The hunting of its infected intermediate hosts (especially the lowland paca ) enables the disease to further transmit to humans, when their viscera are improperly handled. In this study, we compiled a unique dataset of host occurrences (~86000 records) and disease infections (~400 cases) covering the entire Pan-Amazonia and employed different modeling and statistical tools to unveil the spatial distribution of PE's key animal hosts. Subsequently, we derived a set of ecological, environmental, climatic, and hunting covariates that potentially act as transmission risk factors and used them as predictors of two independent Maximum Entropy models, one for animal infections and one for human infections. Our findings indicate that temperature stability promotes the sylvatic circulation of the disease. Additionally, we show how El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) extreme events disrupt hunting patterns throughout Pan-Amazonia, ultimately affecting the probability of spillover. In a scenario where climate extremes are projected to intensify, climate change at regional level appears to be indirectly driving the spillover of . These results hold substantial implications for a wide range of zoonoses acquired at the wildlife-human interface for which transmission is related to the manipulation and consumption of wild meat, underscoring the pressing need for enhanced awareness and intervention strategies

Jardins per a la salut

Facultat de Farmàcia, Universitat de Barcelona. Ensenyament: Grau de Farmàcia. Assignatura: Botànica farmacèutica. Curs: 2014-2015. Coordinadors: Joan Simon, Cèsar Blanché i Maria Bosch.Els materials que aquí es presenten són el recull de les fitxes botàniques de 128 espècies presents en el Jardí Ferran Soldevila de l’Edifici Històric de la UB. Els treballs han estat realitzats manera individual per part dels estudiants dels grups M-3 i T-1 de l’assignatura Botànica Farmacèutica durant els mesos de febrer a maig del curs 2014-15 com a resultat final del Projecte d’Innovació Docent «Jardins per a la salut: aprenentatge servei a Botànica farmacèutica» (codi 2014PID-UB/054). Tots els treballs s’han dut a terme a través de la plataforma de GoogleDocs i han estat tutoritzats pels professors de l’assignatura. L’objectiu principal de l’activitat ha estat fomentar l’aprenentatge autònom i col·laboratiu en Botànica farmacèutica. També s’ha pretès motivar els estudiants a través del retorn de part del seu esforç a la societat a través d’una experiència d’Aprenentatge-Servei, deixant disponible finalment el treball dels estudiants per a poder ser consultable a través d’una Web pública amb la possibilitat de poder-ho fer in-situ en el propi jardí mitjançant codis QR amb un smartphone

Las representaciones figurativas y la literatura fantástica

Hay indicios para pensar que la literatura fantástica habrá atribuido, en algunos de sus textos, propiedades sobrenaturales a las representaciones figurativas. Este artículo empieza analizando qué razones hay para sospecharlo y estudia cómo, a partir de El castillo de Otranto (1764), donde aparece tímidamente un retrato que cobra vida y sale de su marco, este tipo de sucesos sobrenaturales dominaron la narración de un buen número de relatos del siglo XIX. Nuestro objetivo, además, es estudiar cómo se prepara al lector para la irrupción de este tipo de elementos fantásticos y encontrar tendencias repetidas entre los textos en los que aparece, o se flirtea con la idea de que aparezca, un retrato o una estatua con propiedades sobrenaturales.There are several reasons to suspect that fantastic literature will have conferred supernatural properties on figurative representations in some of its texts. This paper starts by analyzing such evidence and studies how, starting with The Castle of Otranto (1764), supernatural portraits and statues became prominent in 19th century literature. Our goal is to study the mechanisms that are used to prepare the reader for the incursion of these fantastic elements and to find repeated trends among the texts in which these appear