Household water consumption in Spain: disparities between region

This paper studies the regional consumption of household water in Spain in the period 2000–2018. The use of the methodology proposed by Phillips and Sul allows us to conclude that there is no single pattern of behavior across the Spanish regions. By contrast, we can determine the existence of three convergence clubs, confirming serious regional disparities in water consumption. Navarra, País Vasco, La Rioja, and Cataluña are included in the convergence club that shows the lowest levels of household water consumption, while the Islas Canarias, Comunidad Valenciana, Castilla y León and Cantabria belong to that with the highest consumption. The determinants of the forces that drive these convergence clubs are difficult to identify because the demographic, economic and structural variables of the network interact in different ways. Nevertheless, we can select a group of explanatory variables that help to explain the formation of the convergence clubs. These are regional household income, the birth rate in the regions, and the regional spending on environmental protection. Increments in the levels of these variables are helpful for reducing household water consumption. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Mechanical behavior of surgical meshes for abdominal wall repair: In vivo versus biaxial characterization

Despite the widespread use of synthetic meshes in the surgical treatment of the hernia pathology, the election criteria of a suitable mesh for specific patient continues to be uncertain. Thus, in this work, we propose a methodology to determine in advance potential disadvantages on the use of certain meshes based on the patient-specific abdominal geometry and the mechanical features of the certain meshes. To that purpose, we have first characterized the mechanical behavior of four synthetic meshes through biaxial tests. Secondly, two of these meshes were implanted in several New Zealand rabbits with a total defect previously created on the center of the abdominal wall. After the surgical procedure, specimen were subjected to in vivo pneumoperitoneum tests to determine the immediate post-surgical response of those meshes after implanted in a healthy specimen. Experimental performance was recorded by a stereo rig with the aim of obtaining quantitative information about the pressure-displacement relation of the abdominal wall. Finally, following the procedure presented in prior works (Simón-Allué et al., 2015, 2017), a finite element model was reconstructed from the experimental measurements and tests were computationally reproduced for the healthy and herniated cases. Simulations were compared and validated with the in vivo behavior and results were given along the abdominal wall in terms of displacements, stresses and strain. Mechanical characterization of the meshes revealed Surgipro TM as the most rigid implant and Neomesh SuperSoft® as the softer, while other two meshes (Neomesh Soft® Neopore®) remained in between. These two meshes were employed in the experimental study and resulted in similar effect in the abdominal wall cavity and both were close to the healthy case. Simulations confirmed this result while showed potential objections in the case of the other two meshes, due to high values in stresses or elongation that may led to discomfort in real tissue. The use of this methodology on human surgery may provide the surgeons with reliable and useful information to avoid certain meshes on specific-patient treatment

Deep Spiking Neural Network model for time-variant signals classification: a real-time speech recognition approach

Speech recognition has become an important task to improve the human-machine interface. Taking into account the limitations of current automatic speech recognition systems, like non-real time cloud-based solutions or power demand, recent interest for neural networks and bio-inspired systems has motivated the implementation of new techniques. Among them, a combination of spiking neural networks and neuromorphic auditory sensors offer an alternative to carry out the human-like speech processing task. In this approach, a spiking convolutional neural network model was implemented, in which the weights of connections were calculated by training a convolutional neural network with specific activation functions, using firing rate-based static images with the spiking information obtained from a neuromorphic cochlea. The system was trained and tested with a large dataset that contains ”left” and ”right” speech commands, achieving 89.90% accuracy. A novel spiking neural network model has been proposed to adapt the network that has been trained with static images to a non-static processing approach, making it possible to classify audio signals and time series in real time.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC2016-77785-

Janus emulsion solar concentrators as photocatalytic droplet microreactors

Efficiently harvesting and conveying photons to photocatalytic reaction centers is one of the great obstacles in photocatalysis. To address this challenge, a new approach is reported that is based on employing biphasic complex emulsions as droplet-based solar concentrators. Specifically, substrates and photocatalysts are compartmentalized into the confined space of Janus emulsion droplets comprised of a hydrocarbon partially encapsulated inside fluorocarbon oil with a large refractive index contrast. Optical confinement of the incident light due to total internal reflection at the concave internal interface of the biphasic emulsion droplets leads to a strong increase of the light intensity inside the reaction medium. In addition, the high gas solubility within the outer fluorocarbon phase promotes oxygen delivery in photocatalytic oxidation reactions. Both effects mutually contribute to a strong performance increase of a series of homogeneous and heterogeneous photocatalytic reactions even under diffuse sunlight conditions

Crown ether-functionalized complex emulsions as an artificial adaptive material platform

Responsive materials capable of autonomously regulating and adapting to molecular recognition-induced chemical events hold great promise in the design of artificial chemo-intelligent life-like soft material platforms. In this context, the design of a synthetically minimal artificial emulsion platform that, regulated by interfacial supramolecular recognition events, is capable to autonomously and reversibly adapt to its chemical environment is reported. The systems exhibit programmed up- and down-regulating capabilities that are realized via selective assembly of synthesized crown ether surfactants onto one hemisphere of anisotropic biphasic emulsion droplets. Dynamic and reversible interfacial host–guest complexation of, for example, metal and ammonium ions or amino acids transduce into interface-triggered morphological reconfigurations of the complex emulsion droplets, which mediate their ability to selectively present, hide, or expand liquid–liquid interfaces. The separate responsive modalities are then used to showcase the utility of such adaptive soft material platforms for a self-regulated uptake and release of metal ions or phase-transfer catalysts, a biomimetic recognition of biomolecules including amino acids, carbohydrates, and antibodies, and for triggered surface-encoded payload release applications

Developing a new methodology to characterize in vivo the passive mechanical behavior of abdominal wall on an animal model

The most common surgical repair of abdominal wall hernia goes through implanting a mesh that substitutes the abdominal muscle/fascia while it is healing. To reduce the risk of relapse or possible complications, this mesh needs to mimic the mechanical behavior of the muscle/fascia, which nowadays is not fully determined. The aim of this work is to develop a methodology to characterize in vivo the passive mechanical behavior of the abdominal wall. For that, New Zealand rabbits were subjected to pneumoperitoneum tests, taking the inner pressure from 0 mmHg to 12 mmHg, values similar to those used in human laparoscopies. Animals treated were divided into two groups: healthy and herniated animals with a surgical mesh (polypropylene SurgiproTM Covidien) previously implanted. All experiments were recorded by a stereo rig composed of two synchronized cameras. During the postprocessing of the images, several points over the abdominal surface were tracked and their coordinates extracted for different levels of internal pressure. Starting from that, a three dimensional model of the abdominal wall was reconstructed. Pressure–displacement curves, radii of curvature and strain fields were also analysed. During the experiments, animals tissue mostly deformed during the first levels of pressure, showing the noticeable hyperelastic passive behavior of abdominal muscles. Comparison between healthy and herniated specimen displayed a strong stiffening for herniated animals in the zone where the high density mesh was situated. Cameras were able to discern this change, so this method can be used to measure the possible effect of other meshes

Acerca de la clasificación de los espacios arquimedianos.

En esta investigación se exponen las ideas principales que han servido para clasificar los espacios arquimedianos. Dicha clasificación se ha realizado, básicamente ateniéndose a Propiedades de Proyección y a Propiedades de Completitud. También, se introduce una nueva propiedad de proyección y se verifica que la misma define una clase estricta de espacios arquimedianos y se la ubica dentro del esquema de inclusión principal. Además, se incluye un apéndice en el que se demuestra el teorema Espectral de Freudenthal

Phase separation and valence instabilities in cuprate superconductors. Effective one-band model approach

We study the Cu-O valence instability (VI) and the related phase separation (PS) driven by Cu-O nearest-neighbor repulsion $U_{pd}$, using an effective extended one-band Hubbard model ($H_{eff}$) obtained from the extended three-bandHubbard model, through an appropriate low-energy reduction. $H_{eff}$ is solved by exact diagonalization of a square cluster with 10 unit cells and also within a slave-boson mean-field theory. Its parameters depend on doping for $U_{pd}\neq 0$ or on-site O repulsion $U_p\neq 0$. The results using both techniques coincide in that there is neither VI nor PS for doping levels $x<0.5$ if $U_{pd}\lesssim 2$ eV. The PS region begins for $U_{pd}\gtrsim 2$ eV at large doping $x>0.6$ and increases with increasing $U_{pd}$. The PS also increases with increasing on-site Cu repulsion $U_d$.Comment: 16 pages and 10 figures in postscript format, compressed with uufile