La irrupción de Hispania en los movimientos socioeconómicos del Mediterráneo Occidental durante las Guerras Civiles

The present study analyses the changes experienced by the Hispanic economy at the end of the Republican era, enabling production to exceed modest levels and to penetrate into the Mediterranean markets, including Rome itself. We have maintained that the inrush of Hispanic goods must have taken place before the August era, during the Civil War period. We have also provided new elements that focus on this period, and especially that the Caesar, as being a key moment in the Hispanic economy that was to become a main focus in migratory movements, investments and new techniques, as well as approaches in agricultural and commercial production. Likewise, we have pointed out some of the repercussions that this peak in the Hispanic economy had, for example, in the investments that took place in the Italian peninsula, or the decadence of Apulian agriculture

Human oocytes and zygotes are ready for ultra-fast vitrification after 2 minutes of exposure to standard CPA solutions

Vitrification of human oocytes and embryos in different stages of development is a key element of daily clinical practice of in vitro fertilization treatments. Despite the cooling and warming of the cells is ultra-fast, the procedure as a whole is time consuming. Most of the duration is employed in a long (8–15 minutes), gradual or direct exposure to a non-vitrifying cryoprotectant solution, which is followed by a short exposure to a more concentrated vitrifying solution. A reduction in the duration of the protocols is desirable to improve the workflow in the IVF setting and reduce the time of exposure to suboptimal temperature and osmolarity, as well as potentially toxic cryoprotectants. In this work it is shown that this reduction is feasible. In silico (MatLab program using two-parameter permeability model) and in vitro observations of the oocytes’ osmotic behaviour indicate that the dehydration upon exposure to standard cryoprotectant solutions occurs very fast: the point of minimum volume of the shrink-swell curve is reached within 60 seconds. At that point, intracellular water ejection is complete, which coupled with the permeation of low molecular weight cryoprotectants results in similar intracellular and extracellular solute concentrations. This shows that prolonging the exposure to the cryoprotectant solutions does not improve the cytosolic glass forming tendency and could be avoided. To test this finding, human oocytes and zygotes that were donated for research were subjected to a shortened, dehydration-based protocol, consisting of two consecutive exposures of one-minute to two standard cryoprotectant solutions, containing ethylene glycol, dimethyl sulfoxide and sucrose. At the end of this two-minute dehydration protocol, the critical intracellular solute concentration necessary for successful vitrification was attained, confirmed by the post-warming survival and ability to resume cytokinesis of the cells. Further studies of the developmental competency of oocytes and embryos would be necessary to determine the suitability of this specific dehydration protocol for clinical practice, but based on our results, short times of exposure to increasingly hypertonic solutions could be a more time-efficient strategy to prepare human oocytes and embryos for vitrification

La reinserción laboral: un nuevo reto en el paciente con cáncer

With improvements in diagnosis and treatment, returning to work after cancer is an important issue in survivors. This is a review of the studies have investigated the frequency of changes in work situation due to cancer and analyzed the association with different variables but more information and support is needed to help patients with cancer to manage impairments in workplace.Los avances en el diagnóstico y tratamiento de los tumores malignos han dado relevancia a temas psicosociales como la reinserción labo¬ral en los supervivientes a un cáncer. En esta revisión se analizan los trabajos más impor¬tantes acerca de los cambios laborales que tie¬nen estos pacientes y su relación con distintas variables de la enfermedad y de su entorno. Es necesario promover la investigación en este campo y establecer los mecanismos necesarios que faciliten el proceso

Situaciones sinópticas de lluvias intensas en la Meseta castellana.

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A new multisensor software architecture for movement detection: Preliminary study with people with cerebral palsy

A five-layered software architecture translating movements into mouse clicks has been developed and tested on an Arduino platform with two different sensors: accelerometer and flex sensor. The archi-tecture comprises low-pass and derivative filters, an unsupervised classifier that adapts continuously to the strength of the user's movements and a finite state machine which sets up a timer to prevent in-voluntary movements from triggering false positives. Four people without disabilities and four people with cerebral palsy (CP) took part in the experi-ments. People without disabilities obtained an average of 100% and 99.3% in precision and true positive rate (TPR) respectively and there were no statistically significant differences among type of sensors and placement. In the same experiment, people with disabilities obtained 97.9% and 100% in precision and TPR respectively. However, these results worsened when subjects used the system to access a commu-nication board, 89.6% and 94.8% respectively. With their usual method of access-an adapted switch- they obtained a precision and TPR of 86.7% and 97.8% respectively. For 3-outof- 4 participants with disabilities our system detected the movement faster than the switch. For subjects with CP, the accelerometer was the easiest to use because it is more sensitive to gross motor motion than the flex sensor which requires more complex movements. A final survey showed that 3-out-of-4 participants with disabilities would prefer to use this new technology instead of their tra-ditional method of access

Lima, un clima de desierto litoral.

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Archaeological Quantification of Pottery: The Rims Count Adjusted using the Modulus of Rupture (MR)

Archaeological quantification is a recurrent issue in research about pottery, its typologies and its distribution. We accept the validity of other methods of quantification—sherd count, minimum number of individuals (MNI) or sherd weight—but the methodology that we have proposed for quantification of assemblages of archaeological contexts is the rims count, which has to be transformed into coefficients of reference through a correction using the modulus of rupture (MR). Such correctors are obtained through measuring the percentage of preserved rim of a significant number of sherds of each type and establishing the average of that percentage. This quantification method is easily applicable to all pottery types and it is also statistically reliable. Besides, it can be used in any study in which the gross number of rims is published. Finally, in the case of ceramic transport containers, a second correction can be applied by multiplying the corrected coefficient (number of rims × MR) by its average capacity (AC), another corrector that will allow us to gather statistics according to the litres of transported product. We believe that the rims count (the easiest part to classify) is a fast, relatively easy and very reliable method that needs to be corrected using the MR.This research has been developed in the context of the projects HAR2012-37003-C03-02, HAR2012-32881, HAR2011-28244, ARCHÉOSTRAITS and SIDPH/DI

The influence of fly ash as substitute of cement in the durability of concrete

Limitation of transport capacity through the concrete is one of the key points in the improvement of the material’s durability. The use of fly ash as an admixture to concrete is widely extended; a general consensus has been established due to the pore size reduction produced by the ashes. Nevertheless, the importance of the micro-structural and composition changes in mechanical and durable properties is not well defined. In the present study the use of fly ash has been considered as substitute of cement in the design limits. The concrete mechanical properties and its porous structure were evaluated. The tests included porosimetry and water permeability tests. In order to characterize the hydration products and its evolution with time TG and DTA analysis were performed. This work studies the fly ash concrete hydration process, their influence in the porous distribution, and the mechanical and durable properties of the material