Some Notes on the Battle of Rioseco (1808): Opinions of English and Spanish Historians

In this article we endeavour to explain events leading up to and the outcome of the battle of Monchín in Medina de Rioseco (in Valladolid) during the Peninsular war (1808 - 1814). We examine the different points of view of English historians such as Robert Southey, William Napier, Charles Stuart and Charles Esdaile, whose opinions don't differ greatly concerning the different phases of the battle itself, the outcome and the consequences of the Spanish defeat

"A Connecticut Yankee": la afirmación de la cultura americana

As we all know, the famous novel by Mark Twain can be interpreted in different ways; as a travel book, as an adventure story, as a book of humour, as a satire or criticism of society, etc. Whenever we reread it, we discover a novel which sums up the most essential elements of American culture which underlines its most traditional values. Even more than this, the Yankee not only wishes to reform and modernize King Arthur's Court, but he also wished to impose American culture and civilization on it. This is clear case of literature at the service of politics

Sintering to Transparency of Polycrystalline Ceramic Materials

Open Access: InTech Open.Peer Reviewe

Tratamiento de la pseudoartrosis de fracturas intertrocantéreas: a propósito de dos casos

Las fracturas intertrocantéreas se tratan en la mayoría de los casos mediante fijación interna con una tasa de éxitos cercana al 100%. En el caso de fracaso se puede optar por la re-osteosíntesis o por la reconversión a artroplastia de cadera. Se presenta un caso de cada solución. Caso 1: paciente de 69 años que presenta fractura pertrocantérea intervenida mediante sistema cefalomedular con defectos técnicos; pseudoartrosis a los 10 meses, rescate con el mismo sistema de fijación interna a foco cerrado y percutáneo con buen resultado y sin necrosis aséptica tras cuatro años de seguimiento. Caso 2: paciente de 43 años con fractura pertrocantérea intervenida mediante sistema cefalomedular que presenta "cutout" a los 16 meses, es reintervenido mediante la colocación de una artroplastia total de cadera híbrida. Se realiza revisión de la bibliografía existente sobre el tema.Most intertrochanteric fractures can be treated successfully with internal fixation. Nevertheless, in a small percentage of patients, the fracture fails to heal. The two mains treatment options are internal fixation of the ununited fracture or salvage treatment with a hip arthroplasty. We pre- sent one case of each treatment. Case 1: female 69 years old with intertrochanteric fracture treated by cephalomedullary internal fixation system, ten months later the fracture didn ́t heal. She was re-operated with same internal fixation system without fracture exposure and fracture healed. Case 2: male 43 years old with intertrochanteric fracture treated with cepa- lomedullary system, 16 months later it was ununited. It was salvaged with hybrid total hip arthroplasty. A is done biblio- graphy rewiew

Study and Optimization of Design Parameters in Water Loop Heat Pump Systems for Office Buildings in the Iberian Peninsula

Water loop heat pump (WLHP) air conditioning systems use heat pumps connected to a common water circuit to fulfill the energy demands of different thermal zones in a building. In this study, the energy consumption was analyzed for the air conditioning of an office building in the typical climate of four important cities of the Iberian Peninsula. The energy consumption of one water loop heat pump system was compared with a conventional water system. Two design parameters, the range in the control temperatures and the water loop thermal storage size, were tested. Energy redistribution is an important advantage of the WLHP system, but significant savings came from high efficiency parameters in the heat pumps and minor air flow rates in the cooling tower. The low thermal level in the water loop makes this technology appropriate to combine with renewable sources. Using natural gas as the thermal energy source, a mean decrease in CO2 emissions of 8.1% was reached. Simulations showed that the installation of big thermal storage tanks generated small energy savings. Besides, the total annual consumption in buildings with high internal loads can be reduced by keeping the water loop as cool as possible

Seguimiento de múltiples objetos basado en el algoritmo de Viterbi

El seguimiento de objetos en secuencias de imágenes es actualmente un tema investigación importante debido a que tiene un amplio rango de aplicaciones tales como video vigilancia, análisis deportivo, etc. Un ejemplo común es el análisis de jugadores en un partido de fútbol. Mediante el procesamiento de las imágenes se puede establecer la trayectoria de cada jugador durante el partido y así proveer información importante sobre su actividad. El problema del seguimiento de objetos tiene dos grandes pasos principales, el primero es detectar y localizar los objetos dentro de los fotogramas del video y el segundo es la parte de seguimiento, esto implica implementar un método que obtenga las trayectorias de los objetos detectados resolviendo las oclusiones que pueden establecer entre ellos. En este trabajo se propone un método para el seguimiento de múltiples objetos. Se parte de un trabajo previo donde se detectó a los jugadores en la imagen y se estableció la localización de todos ellos en el terreno de juego, afrontando el segundo problema explicado, es decir, la asignación de una etiqueta inequívoca para cada jugador a lo largo de todo el partido. Para llevar a cabo esta tarea previamente se ha procedido a un etiquetado manual de todos los jugadores para posteriormente verificar la fiabilidad del método propuesto. El método planteado sigue un análisis de probabilidades de presencia de cada jugador en una posición determinada del campo y un método robusto de asignación temporal de todas las posiciones de los jugadores mediante el algoritmo de Viterbi

Testing different methods of estimating edaphic inputs in moss biomonitoring

Although soil is known to contribute to the concentrations of elements in moss, protocols for atmospheric biomonitoring with terrestrial moss do not include recommendations on how to address this factor. As a result, researchers indiscriminately use a wide range of detection/correction methods without considering whether the results are equivalent. In this study, three of these methods were compared: i) use of the enrichment factor (EF) index; ii) calculation of the ratios of different elements in soil and moss, and subtraction of the contribution of soil concentrations from the raw concentrations of elements in mosses (SCS); and iii) positive matrix factorization (PMF), a receptor modelling method for source apportioning based on multivariate analysis techniques. The aim of the comparison was to determine whether the methods produce equivalent results and, if not, which method is the most appropriate for use in moss biomonitoring surveys. The data used corresponded to 146 samples of Pseudoscleropodium purum collected from a regular sampling grid of 15 × 15 km in Galicia (NW Spain). Comparison of the methods revealed that, although they yield relatively similar results, the corresponding interpretations are not equivalent and none of the methods provides a reliable estimate of the soil contribution to the concentrations of elements in moss samples. Independently of the technique applied, use of Ti as a reference element is not recommended, because, at least in this study, it was present at unusually high levels in moss. Given the absence of a reliable correction method and the fact that most elements are present in fairly high amounts in the soil, we recommend using atmospheric biomonitoring with moss only for Cu, Zn and Cd, i.e. for those elements in moss for which the soil contributes very low amounts and corrections are not therefore necessaryThe authors belong to the Galician Competitive Research Group GRC/GPC2016-002 and to the CRETUS Strategic Partnership (AGRUP2015/02) which are co-funded by FEDER (EU). Authors would like to thank RIAIDT-USC for the use of analytical facilities. P. Giráldez is grateful to the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades for a grant awarded within the Programa de Formacion de Profesorado Universitario (FPU 2018 [grant number FPU18/04134]). Z. Varela was supported by a postdoctoral research grant awarded by the Autonomous Government of Galicia (Spain)S