Spreading the use of economic methods in coastal risk management: a simple but insightful “calculator”

Navas, F.; Malvárez, G.; Penning-Rowsell, E., and Parker, D.J., 2020. Spreading the use of economic methods in coastal risk management: A simple but insightful "calculator". In: Malvárez, G. and Navas, F. (eds.), Global Coastal Issues of 2020. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 95, pp. 1217–1222. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. European Directives, such as the EU Floods Directive (2007/60/EC) require that decision makers include objective methodologies, such as benefit-cost analysis, in their assessments of flood risk reduction measures. Methodologies to establish a sustainable knowledge framework addressing the costs and benefits of prevention and response to coastal hazards resulting from hydro-meteorological, hydrographic and other natural events and processes (e.g. flooding, beach erosion, cliff erosion, sea level rise) are not homogeneously implemented in the European Union. Until now, investment decisions in this field have been made more on local political imperatives than logical economic risk assessments. This paper aims to overcome some these limitations by demonstrating the usefulness of a simplified benefit-cost methodology and its application to a coastal case where a number of alternative flood risk reduction schemes are considered. The method allows the economically optimal scheme to be identified. The method is discussed within the context of generally poorly comprehended aspects; issues presented in coupling benefit-cost methods with vulnerability and related assessments; and key data uncertainties

Juego de vídeo a partir de la metodología game-based learning como medio de comunicación para la formación de hábitos alimentarios en niños con enfermedad celíaca

This study proposes the design of a video game based on the game-based learning methodology as a means of communication to facilitate the formation of healthy eating habits in children with a diagnosis of Celiac Disease (CD). The need arises from what is observed in the professional practice in the nutrition consultation, where mothers of celiac patients express as their main concern the fact that the child, exposed to various social and academic activities, in which they are not necessarily with their company, be able to comply with the gluten-free diet, the only treatment for CD. The research is based on the concept and clinical manifestations of CD, the use of games as a teaching resource (game-based learning), and the theoretical vision of the constructivist paradigm of learning. Due to its characteristics, this research is congruent with the Feasible Project, at a descriptive level and is supported by documentary research using the analysis technique and the documentary record as an instrument for obtaining information. It was developed in two phases, a preparatory phase where the necessary documentary information was obtained to fulfill the proposed objectives and a design phase that consisted of the development of the instructional components of the video game and the approach to a prototype. The video game designed is then an educational game (serious game) called El Mundo de Celia, which consists of a world in the form of a board, composed of three levels, where the participant must overcome nine challenges in total, and by practicing the game, you can achieve a greater understanding of the disease and finally apply this knowledge in daily life, achieving the consolidation of healthy eating habits adapted to the celiac condition that allow you to improve your health.En este estudio se propone el diseño de un videojuego basado en la metodología game-based learning como medio de comunicación para facilitar la formación de hábitos alimentarios saludables en niños con diagnóstico de Enfermedad Celiaca (EC). La necesidad surge de lo observado en la práctica profesional en la consulta de nutrición, donde madres de pacientes celiacos manifiestan como preocupación principal el hecho de que el niño, expuesto a diversas actividades sociales y académicas, en la cuales no necesariamente se encuentra con su compañía, sea capaz de cumplir la dieta libre de gluten, único tratamiento para la EC. La investigación se fundamenta en el concepto y manifestaciones clínicas de la EC, el uso del juego como recurso para la enseñanza (game-based learning), y la visión teórica del paradigma constructivista del aprendizaje. Por sus características, esta investigación resulta congruente con el Proyecto Factible, en un nivel descriptivo y se apoya en la investigación documental utilizando la técnica de análisis y el registro documental como instrumento para la obtención de información. Se desarrolló en dos fases, una fase preparatoria donde se obtuvo la información documental necesaria para el cumplimiento de los objetivos propuestos y una fase de diseño que consistió en el desarrollo de los componentes instruccionales del videojuego y la aproximación a un prototipo. El videojuego diseñado es entonces un juego educativo (serious game) llamado El Mundo de Celia, que se compone de un mundo en forma de tablero, compuesto por tres niveles, donde el participante debe superar nueve retos en total, y mediante la práctica del juego, puede lograr una mayor comprensión de la enfermedad y finalmente aplicar estos conocimientos en la vida diaria logrando la consolidación de hábitos alimentarios saludables adaptados a la condición celiaca que permitan mejorar su estado de salud

Combination of DROOL rules and Protégé knowledge bases in the ONTO-H annotation tool

ONTO-H is a semi-automatic collaborative tool for the semantic annotation of documents, built as a Protégé 3.0 tab plug-in. Among its multiple functionalities aimed at easing the document annotation process, ONTO-H uses a rule-based system to create cascading annotations out from a single drag and drop operation from a part of a document into an already existing concept or instance of the domain ontology being used for annotation. It also gives support to the detection of name conflicts and instance duplications in the creation of the annotations. The rule system runs on top of the open source rule engine DROOLS and is connected to the domain ontology used for annotation by means of an ad-hoc programmed Java proxy

Resource bounds analysis.

We present a generic analysis that infers both upper and lower bounds on the usage that a program makes of a set of user-definable resources. The inferred bounds will in general be functions of input data sizes. A resource in our approach is a quite general, user-defined notion which associates a basic cost function with elementary operations. The analysis then derives the related (upper- and lower- bound) cost functions for all procedures in the program. We also present an assertion language which is used to define both such resources and resource-related properties that the system can then check based on the results of the analysis. We have performed some experiments with some concrete resource-related properties such as execution steps, bits sent or received by an application, number of arithmetic operations performed, number of calls to a procedure, number of transactions, etc. presenting the resource usage functions inferred and the times taken to perform the analysis. Applications of our analysis include resource consumption verification and debugging (including for mobile code), resource control in parallel/distributed computing, and resource-oriented specialization

Inductive hot-pressing of titanium and titanium alloy powders

Inductive hot-pressing is a field-assisted sintering process (FAST) in which an electrical current is used to enhance the densification of the powder. Inductive hot-pressing could be employed to enable titanium powder to reach a higher density in less time than the pressing and sintering process. In this study, titanium and titanium alloy powders with different features were processed by means of inductive hot-pressing. The influence of processing temperature on density, microstructure, quantity of interstitial elements and hardness was investigated. Generally, practically fully dense materials were obtained without any carbon pick-up, even if the materials were in contact with the graphite matrix during processing. Nevertheless, there was an increment of the nitrogen content and some oxygen pick-up, especially for the powders with smaller particle size. Hardness is not significantly affected by the pressing temperature, but it strongly depends on the amount of interstitials.The authors are thankful for the financial support from Comunidad de Madrid through the ESTRUMAT (S-2009/MAT-1585) project and from the Spanish Ministry of Education through the R&D MAT2009-14448 ProjectPublicad

Parameter-uniform numerical methods for singularly perturbed linear transport problems

Pointwise accurate numerical methods are constructed and analysed for three classes of singularly perturbed first order transport problems. The methods involve piecewise-uniform Shishkin meshes and the numerical approximations are shown to be parameter-uniformly convergent in the maximum norm. A transport problem from the modelling of fluid–particle interaction is formulated and used as a test problem for these numerical methods. Numerical results are presented to illustrate the performance of the numerical methods and to confirm the theoretical error bounds established in the paper. © 2022 The Authors. Mathematical Methods in the Applied Sciences published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Changes in serotypes causing invasive pneumococcal disease (2005–2007 vs. 1997–1999) in children under 2 years of age in a population with intermediate coverage of the 7-valent pneumococcal conjugated vaccine

AbstractSerotypes causing invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) in children aged <2 years in Catalonia (Spain) before and after licensing of the 7-valent pneumococcal conjugated vaccine (7vPCV) were assessed, using samples taken during 1997–1999 and 2005–2007 respectively. The distribution of serotypes causing IPD within these groups was obtained by serotyping strains sent by 22 Catalan hospitals to the Carlos III Health Institute, Madrid. Between 1997–99 and 2005–2007, the proportion of vaccine serotypes causing IPD in Catalonia fell from 70.54% to 31.67% (p <0.0001). The proportion of vaccine-related serotypes, mainly serotype 19A, increased from 9.82% to 32.50% (p <0.0001). The proportion of non-vaccine, non-related serotypes (serotypes not related to vaccine serotypes) rose from 19.64% to 35.83% (p <0.05). Within this group, the proportions of serotype 24F increased significantly. There has been a change in the distribution of serotypes isolated from cases of IPD in children <2 years old in Catalonia, comprising a reduction in the proportion of 7-valent vaccine serotypes, a rise in vaccine-related serotypes, especially 19A, and a smaller rise in non-vaccine, non-related serotypes, especially serotype 24F. A new 13-valent vaccine will cover 77.91% of the serotypes causing IPD in children <2 years old in Catalonia from 2005 to 2007