The challenge of umbelief and religious indifference

La fe cristiana, en general, en personas antes tradicionalmente católicas, se ha difuminado o se ha olvidado la práctica y la vida cristianas. Naciones enteras, antes de fuerte raigambre cristiana, necesitan ser recristianizadas. Intranquiliza el secularismo imperante; la confusión doctrinal en temas religiosos; las informaciones malsanas o las defromaciones dañinas en cuestiones sobre la moral y las buenas costumbres cristianas; la reticencia en negar, en la vida y en los hechos, cualquier referencia a la verdad relacionada con las cuestiones más fundamentales de la persona humana: Dios-hombre, cosmos; considerar el hombre como centro y fin, árbitro y juez al margen de la ley natural y de la ley divina positiva; creer y presuponer que sólo la ciencia y la técnica son los únicos medios eficaces para el bienestar del hombre. ¿Que causas y factores han conseguido crear este estado delicuescente de pensar que se puede vivir sin la inquebrantable creencias en Dios y hacer caso omiso, enfáticamente, de uss promesasde salvación?, ¿Cómo se ha llegado a tales actitudes de increencia e indiferencia?

Unusual magneto-transport of YBa2Cu3O7-d films due to the interplay of anisotropy, random disorder and nanoscale periodic pinning

We study the general problem of a manifold of interacting elastic lines whose spatial correlations are strongly affected by the competition between random and ordered pinning. This is done through magneto-transport experiments with YBa2Cu3O7-d thin films that contain a periodic vortex pinning array created via masked ion irradiation, in addition to the native random pinning. The strong field-matching effects we observe suggest the prevalence of periodic pinning, and indicate that at the matching field each vortex line is bound to an artificial pinning site. However, the vortex-glass transition dimensionality, quasi-2D instead of the usual 3D, evidences reduced vortex-glass correlations along the vortex line. This is also supported by an unusual angular dependence of the magneto-resistance, which greatly differs from that of Bose-glass systems. A quantitative analysis of the angular magnetoresistance allows us to link this behaviour to the enhancement of the system anisotropy, a collateral effect of the ion irradiation

Immigració estrangera a Catalunya des d'una perspectiva local: Reus, segles XVI-XX

Anàlisi de la presència d'estrangers europeus a la ciutat de Reus, centre econòmic del sud de Catalunya i proper a la costa del Mediterrani, a través de llibres parroquials i padrons municipals. En el segle XVI destaca l'allau d'occitans (França) i en el segle XVIII la diversitat és més gran a causa de l'increment dels intercanvis comercials amb el nord d'Europa (venda d'aiguardent i fruita seca i compra de pesca salada i fusta per a bótes). Altres moments d'elevada mobilitat són les diferents guerres, en especial les internacionals.Analysis of the presence of European foreigners in the city of Reus (economic center of the south of Catalonia near to the Mediterranean coast) through parish books and municipal censuses. It is remarkable the avalanche of Occitan people (from France) during the 16th century. During the 18th century there is more variety, because of the increase in the commercial exchanges with the north of Europe (liquor and dried fruit sales, and purchases of salty fish and wood to make barrels). Other periods with high mobility are the different wars, specially the international ones

Confinement and Quantization Effects in Mesoscopic Superconducting Structures

We have studied quantization and confinement effects in nanostructured superconductors. Three different types of nanostructured samples were investigated: individual structures (line, loop, dot), 1-dimensional (1D) clusters of loops and 2D clusters of antidots, and finally large lattices of antidots. Hereby, a crossover from individual elementary "plaquettes", via clusters, to huge arrays of these elements, is realized. The main idea of our study was to vary the boundary conditions for confinement of the superconducting condensate by taking samples of different topology and, through that, modifying the lowest Landau level E_LLL(H). Since the critical temperature versus applied magnetic field T_c(H) is, in fact, E_LLL(H) measured in temperature units, it is varied as well when the sample topology is changed through nanostructuring. We demonstrate that in all studied nanostructured superconductors the shape of the T_c(H) phase boundary is determined by the confinement topology in a unique way.Comment: 28 pages, 19 EPS figures, uses LaTeX's aipproc.sty, contribution to Euroschool on "Superconductivity in Networks and Mesoscopic Systems", held in Siena, Italy (8-20 september 1997