Hacia un nuevo urbanismo y los retos de la ciudad del siglo XXI

Actualmente, sumergidos en un mundo globalizado, es posible observar que nuestra forma de generar, percibir y vivir la ciudad ha cambiado. Hoy la visualizamos como un complejo conglomerado que involucra tanto a las más diversas actividades humanas como a procesos urbanos que tienen influencia sobre otras ciudades de escala regional o global en las que los flujos de capital y de mercancías, así como la movilidad de la población, son quizá su mayor constante. Este momento histórico denominado tercera modernidad encierra un conjunto de cambios globales al interior de la sociedad, la economía, la política y el urbanismo. Desde esta perspectiva teórica se presenta cómo este nuevo urbanismo se enfrenta hoy a una sociedad cambiante y compleja, donde la incertidumbre y el azar son tan sólo algunas de las características que nos obligan a cuestionarnos respecto al tipo de ciudad que hemos construido y la que queremos construir para este Siglo XXI

Measuring Regional Cohesion Effects of Large-scale Transport Infrastructure Investments: An Accessibility Approach.

Cohesion is considered one of the main policy goals both at a EU an national level. However, there is currently a lack of a common approach to measure cohesion effects of large-scale transport infrastructure investments. Accessibility indicators have an unexploited potential in transportation assessment methodologies. Accessibility is considered an added value of locations, which represents one of the elements contributing to a region’s welfare. Therefore, spatial distribution of accessibility may be used as a proxy to assess regional cohesion. This paper suggests an approach consisting in measuring changes in the spatial distribution of four different accessibility indicators, computed and mapped using a GIS support. Cohesion is subsequently measured calculating a set of inequality indices of the resulting accessibility distribution. It is possible then to assess whether disparities in regional accessibility are increased or reduced after the implementation of a new transport infrastructure. This approach is tested assessing regional cohesion effects of road and rail network developments in Spain in the period 1992-2004. Comparing the results obtained with accessibility indicators and inequality indices allows identifying the main critical factors and sources of bias. The conclusion is that for the rode mode, cohesion has improved, while regional disparities have increased for the rail mode

Okara: A nutritionally valuable by-product able to stabilize lactobacillus plantarum during freeze-drying, spray-drying, and storage

Okara is a nutritionally valuable by-product produced in large quantities as result of soymilk elaboration. This work proposes its use as both culture and dehydration medium during freeze-drying, spray-drying, and storage of Lactobacillus plantarum CIDCA 83114. Whole and defatted okara were employed as culture media for L. plantarum CIDCA 83114. The growth kinetics were followed by plate counting and compared with those of bacteria grown in MRS broth (control). No significant differences in plate counting were observed in the three media. The fatty acid composition of bacteria grown in whole and defatted okara showed a noticeable increase in the unsaturated/saturated (U/S) fatty acid ratio, with regard to bacteria grown in MRS. This change was mainly due to the increase in polyunsaturated fatty acids, namely C18:2. For dehydration assays, cultures in the stationary phase were neutralized and freeze-dried (with or without the addition of 250 mM sucrose) or spray-dried. Bacteria were plate counted immediately after freeze-drying or spray-drying and during storage at 4°C for 90 days. Freeze-drying in whole okara conducted to the highest bacterial recovery. Regarding storage, spray-dried bacteria previously grown in whole and defatted okara showed higher plate counts than those grown in MRS. On the contrary, freeze-dried bacteria previously grown in all the three culture media were those with the lowest plate counts. The addition of sucrose to the dehydration media improved their recovery. The higher recovery of microorganisms grown in okara after freeze-drying and spray-drying processes and during storage was ascribed to both the presence of fiber and proteins in the dehydration media, and the increase in U/S fatty acids ratio in bacterial membranes. The obtained results support for the first time the use of okara as an innovative matrix to deliver L. plantarum. Considering that okara is an agro-waste obtained in large quantities, these results represent an innovative strategy to add it value, providing a symbiotic ingredient with promising industrial applications in the development of novel functional foods and feeds.Fil: Quintana, Gabriel Sebastian. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de Alimentos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de Alimentos. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de Alimentos; ArgentinaFil: Gerbino, Oscar Esteban. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de Alimentos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de Alimentos. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de Alimentos; ArgentinaFil: Gomez Zavaglia, Andrea. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de Alimentos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de Alimentos. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de Alimentos; Argentin

The Non-Standardization of Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder: A Call to Action

Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most diagnosed disorders in adults and children, yet there is no standardized method to assess for ADHD. The similarity of symptoms shared across other disorders (comorbidity) makes the assessment of ADHD a very delicate process. This is not aided by the fact that the assessment of ADHD is not standardized. This allows individuals able to assess for ADHD to give a test or a combination of tests that they find fitting. This in turn brings into question the quality of testing and disagreement in diagnosing across fields. Lastly, ADHD-focused measures typically fail to address the overlap in symptoms with other disorders, which can help assist clinicians with differential diagnoses. The question then becomes, how does one attempt to standardize ADHD testing while providing testing that shows adequate clinical validity in both the diagnosis of ADHD and differential diagnosing? This paper aims to produce insight into the complications of ADHD diagnosis and suggest a solution to current testing, in the form of an assessment battery

Simulating development in a real robot: on the concurrent increase of sensory, motor, and neural complexity

We present a quantitative investigation on the effects of a discrete developmental progression on the acquisition of a foveation behavior by a robotic hand-arm-eyes system. Development is simulated by (a) increasing the resolution of visual and tactile systems, (b) freezing and freeing mechanical degrees of freedom, and (c) adding neuronal units to the neural control architecture. Our experimental results show that a system starting with a low-resolution sensory system, a low precision motor system, and a low complexity neural structure, learns faster that a system which is more complex at the beginning

AN EVALUATION OF TRAFFIC CONTROL DEVICES AND DRIVER DISTRACTION ON DRIVER BEHAVIOR AT RAILWAY-HIGHWAY GRADE CROSSINGS

At-grade crossings (grade crossings) are those crossings in which any part of a roadway intersects with railroad tracks. Safety at these railroad-highway grade crossings is a major concern, with traffic control warning devices serving as the main mechanisms for improving safety. There are three factors that influence a driver’s behavior at a given crossing. First, traffic control devices, including warning devices at the railroad-highway grade crossings, provide the driver with information whose impact will depend in part on the likelihood that the driver knows whether to glance in the direction of the device based on prior experience, and in part on what the driver understands the warning device to mean. Second, assuming that the driver identifies the warning, the driver’s prior knowledge influences his or her expectancy regarding various railroad-highway grade crossing situations and, therefore, the way in which the driver responds to the hazard presented by the crossing. Finally, the driver’s own physiological (e.g., impaired) and psychological (e.g., distracted) state will modify the role that conspicuity and expectancy have on the driver’s behavior. This dissertation centers on the impact of distraction and the effect of traffic control and warning devices have on stopping behavior and glance behaviors at non-gated railroad-highway grade crossings and studies a possible countermeasure which when combined with traffic control and warning devices can mitigate the effects of distraction due to less than optimal glance patterns. Two driving simulator experiments were conducted that arguably targeted the most critical need, in particular the need to identify the role that distraction has on the effectiveness of traffic control and warning devices at grade crossings. Ninety-nine participants were evaluated across two driving simulator experiments. For the first experiment, the role distraction plays in reducing the benefit of crossbuck and flashing lights was analyzed. Participants either engaged in a distracting task or did not engage. The secondary tasks included a mock cell phone conversation or an in-vehicle task where the participant driver was asked to change the radio station. The first experiment showed participants in all groups had trouble navigating the grade crossing environment thus pointing to the need to evaluate supplementary treatments which may benefit driver behavior at these crossings. The second simulator experiment evaluated the impact of the dynamic envelope pavement markings on driver glance pattern and behavior as they approached grade crossings while drivers also performed a distracting or non-distracting task. Results show that the addition of these markings can alert drivers of the presence of a grade crossing with anticipation, and as a result induce drivers to glance more and potentially stop in higher proportions than when the markings are not present