Applying FRAM to the construction of concrete frame structures

So far the FRAM has been applied to different sectors of high risk and complexity such as aviation, including air traffic control, health care, nuclear power plants, chemical and petrochemical industry, railways, maritime sector... obtaining very positive results, which have led to an improvement in safety management in them. However, its application to the construction sector has not yet been developed in depth. In the European Union, the construction sector is the sector with the highest number of accidents, so safety in construction is a priority. Structures construction is one of the most hazardous construction phases or activities. For this reason, the project "Composite Leading Indicators for the improvement of the resilience of occupational safety, in the activities of design and execution of structures" (BIA2016-79270-P) aims to improve the management and monitoring of occupational safety in these activities using novel vision of Safety II developed by the Resilience Engineering. In this way, the FRAM approach has been applied to know the work-as-done, that is, to identify the adjustments and variability of daily performance. For this purpose, observations and interviews at the place of work have been carried out. With the information collected and the help of the FRAM Model Visualiser (FMV) the functions of the FRAM model have been defined. Thus, the FRAM analysis for the construction of concrete frame structures is presented. Based on these results, leading indicators will be designed to monitor and control these activities adequately in the next phase of the project.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech.We wish to thank the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for financing the project BIA2016-79270-P, of which this study is part. It is also important to acknowledge the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports of the Government of Spain for it support through the predoctoral program (FPU 2016/03298)

Dendrites and conformal symmetry

Progress toward characterization of structural and biophysical properties of neural dendrites together with recent findings emphasizing their role in neural computation, has propelled growing interest in refining existing theoretical models of electrical propagation in dendrites while advocating novel analytic tools. In this paper we focus on the cable equation describing electric propagation in dendrites with different geometry. When the geometry is cylindrical we show that the cable equation is invariant under the Schr\"odinger group and by using the dendrite parameters, a representation of the Schr\"odinger algebra is provided. Furthermore, when the geometry profile is parabolic we show that the cable equation is equivalent to the Schr\"odinger equation for the 1-dimensional free particle, which is invariant under the Schr\"odinger group. Moreover, we show that there is a family of dendrite geometries for which the cable equation is equivalent to the Schr\"odinger equation for the 1-dimensional conformal quantum mechanics.Comment: 19 page

Efficient harmonic oscillator chain energy harvester driven by colored noise

We study the performance of an electromechanical harmonic oscillator chain as an energy harvester to extract power from finite-bandwidth ambient random vibrations, which are modelled by colored noise. The proposed device is numerically simulated and its performance assessed by means of the net electrical power generated and its efficiency in converting the external noise-supplied power into electrical power. Our main result is a much enhanced performance, both in the net electrical power delivered and in efficiency, of the harmonic chain with respect to the popular single oscillator resonator. Our numerical findings are explained by means of an analytical approximation, in excellent agreement with numerics

Determinants of innovativeness in SMEs. disentangling core innovation and technology adoption capabilities

This paper studies innovativeness in SMEs from a set of innovation indicators at the firm level, capturing various types of innovation (product, process, organisational, and marketing innovations) and the level of innovativeness in these firm’s developments. The article identifies two separate dimensions in the innovativeness of Spanish SMEs, using factor analysis techniques. One dimension is associated with the capabilities for core/internal innovation and the other with the capabilities for the adoption of technology. The paper shows that significant differences exist in the personal and organisational factors that favour these two dimensions. The entrepreneur’s motivation, business planning, and cooperation in R&D activities constitute significant factors when considering the core dimension of a firm’s innovativeness, but have no effect on the firm’s capabilities for technology adoption. However, the use of external consultancy services seems to have no significant effect on the core dimension of the innovativeness of anSME, whereas it is a relevant factor for its technology adoption. Furthermore, it is shown that the entrepreneur’s education plays a more significant role in the core dimension of a firm’s innovativeness than in its capabilities for technology adoption. Depending on the policy objectives, these differences should lead to the application of specific policy approaches when an attempt to stimulate innovation in SMEs is made