School attendance and problematic school absenteeism in youth

journalPathways through Adolescenc

Development and validation of a dynamic thermal model of a minibus using TRNSYS

[EN] The current paper presents a dynamic thermal model of a vehicle including two thermal zones, one for the front region (driver) and one for the back (passengers). The model, developed in TRNSYS, is able to predict the cabin¿s thermal behaviour under variable ambient temperatures and solar radiation. A minibus was used to validate the model using experimental data for ambient temperature, solar radiation and the indoor temperature of a minibus parked both inside and outside a garage in Torino (Italy). The proposed model accurately reproduces the warm-up and cool-down of the cabin. In addition, the model has been used to calculate the cooling load of the cabin during a summer day, and to quantify the thermal loads under variable ambient conditions. In future work, the model will be used to predict the dynamic performance of the A/C system in an urban driving cycle and to optimise the compressor control strategy.Daniela C. Vásconez-Núñez acknowledges the financial support provided by the CONVOCATORIA ABIERTA 2013-SEGUNDA FASE program, which was funded by the SENESCYT (Secretaría Nacional de Educación Superior, Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación) (Grant No 2014-AR3R7463) of Ecuador.Vásconez-Núñez, DC.; Gonzálvez-Maciá, J.; Corberán, JM.; Payá-Herrero, J. (2018). Development and validation of a dynamic thermal model of a minibus using TRNSYS. International Journal of Vehicle Design. 77(1/2):87-107. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJVD.2018.098272S87107771/

Assessing DESS solution for the long-term preservation of nematodes from faecal samples

Preservation of biological samples is a relevant issue for many scientific disciplines. Although traditional preservers, such as formaldehyde or ethanol, imply major disadvantages related to health risks, DNA degradation and distortion of structures, they are widely used. Hence, the search for viable alternatives preserving morphometry and genetics seems necessary. Here we assess the suitability of DESS solution to preserve adult nematodes and their eggs in faeces. Concretely, faecal samples of terrestrial tortoises with oxyurids were used to: (i) compare the 1-month storage efficacy of eggs from different conservation protocols (faeces without preserver at -20 °C, faeces with DESS solution at room temperature, faeces with DESS solution at -20 °C and faeces with ethanol 70% at room temperature); (ii) address morphological nematode identification after 2 years of storage with DESS. We also corroborated that nematode DNA remained viable after 2 years. Overall, our results showed that DESS solution at room temperature is an advisable alternative to conserve both parasite eggs and adult nematodes for morphological identification and genetic purposes. It also offers the advantages of being low-cost, safe and suitable for fieldwork conditions and shipments without refrigeration for nematode preservation.MG was supported by a contract for postdoctoral researchers from the Generalitat Valenciana with reference APOSTD/2021/181. RCRC was supported by the European Union-Next Generation EU in the Maria Zambrano Program (ZAMBRANO 21-26). This research had the financial support of project PID2019-105682RA-I00, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033

Evolución temporal de los diseños de grandes presas en Gran Canaria (Islas Canarias)

The usefulness of ensuring the irrigation of their lands, made the farmers ask the engineers to draw up projects for large dams on the island of Gran Canaria, and more than 300 walls were designed between 1862 and 1980: a figure more than sufficient to gauge the importance of what was built during the water battle (79 large dams on 1,558 km²). From the rationalism of the first decades, with some very daring projects in the 30’s, functional pragmatism was imposed in the 50’s. In the 60’s, Dam Surveillance noted a certain technical lag with the dams of peninsular Spain. Not only in design criteria, but also in terms of materials, means and construction techniques, which led to new designs of large dams and materials in the 1970s. Thus, in these lines we intend to sketch briefly, then, the temporal evolution of the design, with special attention to the expressive power of the innovative projects.La utilidad de asegurar el riego de sus terrenos hizo que los agricultores encargaran a los ingenieros redactar proyectos de grandes presas en la isla de Gran Canaria, llegándose a diseñar más de 300 muros entre 1862 y 1980, cifra ésta más que suficiente para calibrar la importancia de lo construido durante la batalla del agua (79 grandes presas en 1.558 km²). Del racionalismo de las primeras décadas, con algunos proyectos muy atrevidos en los años 30, se impuso luego el pragmatismo funcional en los 50. Vigilancia de Presas constató en los 60 cierto retraso técnico con las presas de la España peninsular. No sólo en criterios de diseño, sino también en lo que se refiere a los materiales, medios y técnicas constructivas, lo que derivó en nuevos diseños de grandes presas y materiales en los 70. De este modo, en estas líneas pretendemos dibujar someramente, pues, la evolución temporal de lo diseñado, con especial atención a la potencia expresiva de los proyectos innovadores

ORGANIC FARMING INTEGRITY IN MAIZE CULTIVATION IN SPAIN

Although now Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) maize varieties (Zea mays L. ) are legal in all EU Member States, Spain was the first European Union (EU) country where this type of varieties were cultivated, since 1998. Currently the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fish and Food (MAPA), estimate ca. 12 % of the total conventional maize area was sown last year 2006 with these varieties. In the last five years 9 organic maize contamination cases have been report by 3 different EU organic certification bodies in Navarra, Aragón and Cataluña. But no actions to search sources of contamination, lessons to develop an improved coexistence regulation, were taken. Organic farmers never received any compensation for their losses. This paper analyse existing information, research studies and also interviews and visits to organic farms with maize, concluding that organic maize integrity is still not granted in Spain

A blind detection of a large, complex, Sunyaev--Zel'dovich structure

We present an interesting Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) detection in the first of the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager (AMI) 'blind', degree-square fields to have been observed down to our target sensitivity of 100{\mu}Jy/beam. In follow-up deep pointed observations the SZ effect is detected with a maximum peak decrement greater than 8 \times the thermal noise. No corresponding emission is visible in the ROSAT all-sky X-ray survey and no cluster is evident in the Palomar all-sky optical survey. Compared with existing SZ images of distant clusters, the extent is large (\approx 10') and complex; our analysis favours a model containing two clusters rather than a single cluster. Our Bayesian analysis is currently limited to modelling each cluster with an ellipsoidal or spherical beta-model, which do not do justice to this decrement. Fitting an ellipsoid to the deeper candidate we find the following. (a) Assuming that the Evrard et al. (2002) approximation to Press & Schechter (1974) correctly gives the number density of clusters as a function of mass and redshift, then, in the search area, the formal Bayesian probability ratio of the AMI detection of this cluster is 7.9 \times 10^4:1; alternatively assuming Jenkins et al. (2001) as the true prior, the formal Bayesian probability ratio of detection is 2.1 \times 10^5:1. (b) The cluster mass is MT,200 = 5.5+1.2\times 10^14h-1M\odot. (c) Abandoning a physical model with num- -1.3 70 ber density prior and instead simply modelling the SZ decrement using a phenomenological {\beta}-model of temperature decrement as a function of angular distance, we find a central SZ temperature decrement of -295+36 {\mu}K - this allows for CMB primary anisotropies, receiver -15 noise and radio sources. We are unsure if the cluster system we observe is a merging system or two separate clusters.Comment: accepted MNRAS. 12 pages, 9 figure

"Author! Author!" : Shakespeare and biography

Original article can be found at: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t714579626~db=all Copyright Informa / Taylor & Francis Group. DOI: 10.1080/17450910902764454Since 1996, not a year has passed without the publication of at least one Shakespeare biography. Yet for many years the place of the author in the practice of understanding literary works has been problematized, and even on occasions eliminated. Criticism reads the “works”, and may or may not refer to an author whose “life” contributed to their meaning. Biography seeks the author in the works, the personality that precedes the works and gives them their characteristic shape and meaning. But the form of literary biography addresses the unusual kind of “life” that puts itself into “works”, and this is particularly challenging where the “works” predominate massively over the salient facts of the “life”. This essay surveys the current terrain of Shakespeare biography, and considers the key questions raised by the medium: can we know anything of Shakespeare's “personality” from the facts of his life and the survival of his works? What is the status of the kind of speculation that inevitably plays a part in biographical reconstruction? Are biographers in the end telling us as much about themselves as they tell us about Shakespeare?Peer reviewe

AMI observations of unmatched Planck ERCSC LFI sources at 15.75 GHz

The Planck Early Release Compact Source Catalogue includes 26 sources with no obvious matches in other radio catalogues (of primarily extragalactic sources). Here we present observations made with the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager Small Array (AMI SA) at 15.75 GHz of the eight of the unmatched sources at declination > +10 degrees. Of the eight, four are detected and are associated with known objects. The other four are not detected with the AMI SA, and are thought to be spurious.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, 4 table

Radio continuum observations of Class I protostellar disks in Taurus: constraining the greybody tail at centimetre wavelengths

We present deep 1.8 cm (16 GHz) radio continuum imaging of seven young stellar objects in the Taurus molecular cloud. These objects have previously been extensively studied in the sub-mm to NIR range and their SEDs modelled to provide reliable physical and geometrical parametres.We use this new data to constrain the properties of the long-wavelength tail of the greybody spectrum, which is expected to be dominated by emission from large dust grains in the protostellar disk. We find spectra consistent with the opacity indices expected for such a population, with an average opacity index of beta = 0.26+/-0.22 indicating grain growth within the disks. We use spectra fitted jointly to radio and sub-mm data to separate the contributions from thermal dust and radio emission at 1.8 cm and derive disk masses directly from the cm-wave dust contribution. We find that disk masses derived from these flux densities under assumptions consistent with the literature are systematically higher than those calculated from sub-mm data, and meet the criteria for giant planet formation in a number of cases.Comment: submitted MNRA

AMI-LA radio continuum observations of Spitzer c2d small clouds and cores: Perseus region

We present deep radio continuum observations of the cores identified as deeply embedded young stellar objects in the Perseus molecular cloud by the Spitzer c2d programme at a wavelength of 1.8 cm with the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager Large Array (AMI-LA). We detect 72% of Class 0 objects from this sample and 31% of Class I objects. No starless cores are detected. We use the flux densities measured from these data to improve constraints on the correlations between radio luminosity and bolometric luminosity, infrared luminosity and, where measured, outflow force. We discuss the differing behaviour of these objects as a function of protostellar class and investigate the differences in radio emission as a function of core mass. Two of four possible very low luminosity objects (VeLLOs) are detected at 1.8 cm.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures, accepted MNRA