Use of clickbait in the online news media of the 28 EU member countries

This article offers an analysis of “clickbait”, one of the latest strategies employed by online news media to lure users into clicking a hyperlink through the use of non-journalistic values. Methods. The study is based on the analysis of the news headlines found on the front and inner pages of general-information newspapers of the 28 EU member countries. Results. The main consequence of the use of clickbait is that the news headline has gone from being just a key element to provide information to also crucial element to persuade the reader to stay on the page for as long as possible. Discussion. The results confirm the presence of clickbait in most of the newspapers analysed, to the detriment of traditional journalistic values in the writing and editing of headlines. Conclusions. The study concludes that general-information newspapers in the 28 EU member countries generate clicks not through quality content but rather, in nearly half the cases, through catchy, provocative and sensationalist front-page headlines that aim to exploit the curiosity in usersThis article was developed within the framework of the research project titled “Informative uses and preferences on the new media landscape in Spain: journalism models for mobile devices” (Reference: CSO2015-64662-C4-4-R), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and CompetitivenessS

The Development of Wind Farm Businesses and the Central Control of the Smart Grid in Spain: Making a Virtue of Necessity

[ES] Este documento expone el papel del primer centro del mundo para la integración en la red eléctrica de la electricidad procedente de energías renovables (cuyas siglas en español son CECRE (Centro de Control de Energías Renovables)) y el desarrollo industrial de los grandes proveedores de energía y fabricantes de aerogeneradores en España. Estas dos iniciativas permitieron el desarrollo de uno de los primeros mercados integrados para este tipo de fuente de energía. Las contribuciones clave fueron el desarrollo de dos programas informáticos (gestión del viento y gestión de la incidencia de la luz solar), su implantación visual y el control digital centralizado. Se utiliza un enfoque de historia económica y empresarial para mostrar el auge y el fracaso relativo de la industria eólica española durante el periodo 2004-2015, en el que España se convirtió en el cuarto país tras China, EE.UU. y Alemania en capacidad instalada de energías renovables y, en términos relativos, en el segundo tras Dinamarca. Este estudio es único porque aporta una visión integrada de las razones de la caída relativa de España en el ranking mundial de productores de energía eólica. La metodología del análisis económico de las políticas industriales permite explicar la caída de la importancia relativa de España en el panorama internacional de parques eólicos. [EN] This paper lays out the role of the first centre in the world for the integration into the electrical grid of electricity coming from renewable energy (the Spanish acronym for which is CECRE (Centro de Control de Energías Renovables; Control Centre for Renewable Energies)) and the industrial development of large energy suppliers and wind turbine manufacturers in Spain. These two initiatives enabled the development of one of the first integrated markets for this type of energy source. The key contributions were the development of two software programs (wind management and management of solar light incidence), their visual implementation, and centralized digital control. An economic and business history approach is used to show the rise and relative failure of the Spanish wind industry during the period 2004–2015, when Spain became the fourth country after China, the US, and Germany in terms of installed capacity of renewable energy and, in relative terms, the second country after Denmark. This study is unique in that it provides an integrated vision of the reasons for the relative fall of Spain in the world ranking of wind energy producers. The methodology of the economic analysis of industrial policies makes it possible to explain the fall in the relative importance of Spain in the international panorama of wind farms

Characterization of the catalytic flexible loop in the dihydroorotase domain of the human multi-enzymatic protein CAD

The dihydroorotase (DHOase) domain of the multifunctional protein carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase 2, aspartate transcarbamoylase, and dihydroorotase (CAD) catalyzes the third step in the de novo biosynthesis of pyrimidine nucleotides in animals. The crystal structure of the DHOase domain of human CAD (huDHOase) revealed that, despite evolutionary divergence, its active site components are highly conserved with those in bacterial DHOases, encoded as monofunctional enzymes. An important element for catalysis, conserved from Escherichia coli to humans, is a flexible loop that closes as a lid over the active site. Here, we combined mutagenic, structural, biochemical, and molecular dynamics analyses to characterize the function of the flexible loop in the activity of CAD's DHOase domain. A huDHOase chimera bearing the E. coli DHOase flexible loop was inactive, suggesting the presence of distinctive elements in the flexible loop of huDHOase that cannot be replaced by the bacterial sequence. We pinpointed Phe-1563, a residue absolutely conserved at the tip of the flexible loop in CAD's DHOase domain, as a critical element for the conformational equilibrium between the two catalytic states of the protein. Substitutions of Phe-1563 with Ala, Leu, or Thr prevented the closure of the flexible loop and inactivated the protein, whereas substitution with Tyr enhanced the interactions of the loop in the closed position and reduced fluctuations and the reaction rate. Our results confirm the importance of the flexible loop in CAD's DHOase domain and explain the key role of Phe-1563 in configuring the active site and in promoting substrate strain and catalysi