Black Holes, Cosmological Solutions, Future Singularities, and Their Thermodynamical Properties in Modified Gravity Theories

Along this review, we focus on the study of several properties of modified gravity theories, in particular on black-hole solutions and its comparison with those solutions in General Relativity, and on Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker metrics. The thermodynamical properties of fourth order gravity theories are also a subject of this investigation with special attention on local and global stability of paradigmatic f(R) models. In addition, we revise some attempts to extend the Cardy-Verlinde formula, including modified gravity, where a relation between entropy bounds is obtained. Moreover, a deep study on cosmological singularities, which appear as a real possibility for some kind of modified gravity theories, is performed, and the validity of the entropy bounds is studied

Búsqueda de microorganismos degradados de BTX a partir de suelos contaminados con hidrocarburos

RESUMEN: Las actividades derivadas de la industria petrolífera, el peligro de vertidos y derrames, así como las emisiones procedentes de vehículos con motor de combustión, conforman un conjunto de actuaciones que suponen un grave peligro para el ecosistema y la salud de los organismos que lo habitan. Por ello, es necesario encontrar soluciones con las que se pueda hacer frente de una manera eficaz, a nivel técnico, y asumible, a nivel económico, a esta problemática creciente. El objetivo de este Trabajo Fin de Grado consistió en la búsqueda e identificación de microorganismos con capacidad biodegradadora de Benceno, Tolueno y Xileno (BTX), como componentes principales del petróleo, para ser utilizados en futuras tareas de biorremediación. Para ello se tomaron muestras del suelo de tres gasolineras pertenecientes al término municipal de Quesada (Jaén) y mediante procedimientos de siembra en medios selectivos constituidos por BTX, se consiguió obtener una colección de bacterias tolerantes a dichos compuestos. A continuación, éstas fueron sometidas a ensayos de metabolismo y cometabolismo con objeto de determinar su capacidad degradativa sobre los compuestos BTX. Finalmente, las bacterias que produjeron mejores resultados fueron seleccionadas para su posterior identificación molecular. De las muestras de suelo potencialmente contaminadas por hidrocarburos, se seleccionaron en total 17 cepas que constituyeron la colección de estudio. Las cepas 1.1.2, 1.2.7, 1.3.1, 3.1.2 y 3.3.3 mostraron la capacidad no sólo de tolerar la presencia de BTX, sino de utilizar dichos compuestos aromáticos para su metabolismo. Adicionalmente, las cepas 1.2.7, 1.3.1 y 3.3.3 mostraron la capacidad de crecer sin una fuente directa de nitrógeno. ABSTRACT: The activities derived from the oil industry, the accidental and caused spills, as well as the transmissions of combustion engine vehicles, make up a set of actions that represent a serious danger to the ecosystem and the health of the organisms that inhabit it. Therefore, it is necessary to find solutions that address this growing problem in an effective and affordable way. This bachelor thesis aims at searching and identifying microorganisms that have the ability to biodegrade Benzene, Toluene and Xylene (BTX), main components of petroleum, to be used in future bioremediation tasks. For this purpose, soil samples were taken from three gas stations of the municipality of Quesada (Jaén, Spain). By inoculating procedures in selected media made of BTX, a bacteria collection was obtained. Subsequently, they were subjected to metabolism and cometabolism tests in order to determine their degradative capacity on BTX. Finally, the bacteria with better results were selected for ulterior molecular identification. A total of 17 strains, previously isolated from contaminated soil samples, were selected as the work collection. Bacteria strains 1.1.2, 1.2.7, 1.3.1, 3.1.2 and 3.3.3 showed the ability not only to tolerate the presence of BTX, but also to use these aromatic compounds for their metabolism. In addition, the strains 1.2.7, 1.3.1 and 3.3.3 showed the ability to grow without a direct source of nitrogen

Estereotipos hacia el sobrepeso/obesidad y ajuste escolar en niños de educación primaria en España

The aim of the present study was to investigate stereotypes and prejudices among children and schoolteachers toward overweight/obesity. Two thousand fifty-five 8- to 12-year-olds and their teachers took part in the study. Children’s body mass index, children’s perceptions of overweight/obesity and teachers’ assessment of school adjustment were measured. Students, particularly younger children, ascribed less positive attributes and more negative attributes to fat figures. Furthermore, in a task to assess their behavioral intentions to participate in social and recreational activities according to target’s body size, the fat figure was the least frequently chosen. Teachers reported lower overall school adjustment for overweight/obese students. Both children and teachers showed anti-fat bias. Future research should examine cost-effective interventions to prevent anti-fat bias and to promote healthy school climate.El objetivo del presente estudio fue investigar los estereotipos y prejuicios de los niños y maestros hacia el sobrepeso/obesidad. Dos mil cincuenta y cinco niños de 8 a 12 años y sus profesores participaron en el estudio. Se midió el Índice de Masa Corporal y la percepción hacia el sobrepeso/obesidad en los niños, y la evaluación de ajuste escolar por parte de los profesores. Los escolares, particularmente los más jóvenes, eligieron menos atributos positivos y más negativos para las figuras gruesas. Además, en una tarea para evaluar su disposición a participar en actividades sociales y recreativas en función del tamaño corporal, la figura gruesa fue la elegida con menos frecuencia. Los profesores puntuaron con un menor ajuste escolar a los estudiantes con sobrepeso/obesidad. Futuras investigaciones deberían centrarse en intervenciones de prevención eficaces y en promover un clima escolar saludable

Coupling between counterpropagating cladding modes in fiber Bragg gratings

We present an experimental demonstration of energy transfer between counterpropagating cladding modes in a fiber Bragg grating (FBG). A strong FBG written in a standard photosensitive optical fiber is illuminated with a single cladding mode, and the power transferred between the forward propagating cladding mode and different backward propagating cladding modes is measured by using two auxiliary long period gratings. Resonances between cladding modes having 30 pm bandwidth and 8 dB rejection have been observed

Stability metrics for multi-source biomedical data based on simplicial projections from probability distribution distances

[EN] Biomedical data may be composed of individuals generated from distinct, meaningful sources. Due to possible contextual biases in the processes that generate data, there may exist an undesirable and unexpected variability among the probability distribution functions (PDFs) of the source subsamples, which, when uncontrolled, may lead to inaccurate or unreproducible research results. Classical statistical methods may have difficulties to undercover such variabilities when dealing with multi-modal, multi-type, multi-variate data. This work proposes two metrics for the analysis of stability among multiple data sources, robust to the aforementioned conditions, and defined in the context of data quality assessment. Specifically, a global probabilistic deviation (GPD) and a source probabilistic outlyingness (SPO) metrics are proposed. The first provides a bounded degree of the global multi-source variability, designed as an estimator equivalent to the notion of normalized standard deviation of PDFs. The second provides a bounded degree of the dissimilarity of each source to a latent central distribution. The metrics are based on the projection of a simplex geometrical structure constructed from the Jensen-Shannon distances among the sources PDFs. The metrics have been evaluated and demonstrated their correct behaviour on a simulated benchmark and with real multi-source biomedical data using the UCI Heart Disease dataset. The biomedical data quality assessment based on the proposed stability metrics may improve the efficiency and effectiveness of biomedical data exploitation and research.The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by own IBIME funds under the UPV project Servicio de evaluacion y rating de la calidad de repositorios de datos biomedicos [UPV-2014-872] and the EU FP7 Project Help4Mood - A Computational Distributed System to Support the Treatment of Patients with Major Depression [ICT-248765].Sáez Silvestre, C.; Robles Viejo, M.; García Gómez, JM. (2014). Stability metrics for multi-source biomedical data based on simplicial projections from probability distribution distances. Statistical Methods in Medical Research. 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1177/0962280214545122S12

Conglomerados sostenibles realizados con residuos de construcción generados en obras de rehabilitación energética

Currently the European Commission is encouraging a circular economy in the construction industry. This type of economy is an alternative to traditional linear economy were resources are used as long as possible --extracting the maximum value from them whilst in use-- then recovered and transformed into products at the end of each service life. The circular economy will definitely contribute to closing the loop of construction product lifecycles through greater recycling and re-use, helping to build a market for reused construction materials generated in construction and demolition sites. In this context, the research group TEMA from the UPM is working on the research project called "Waste to resources (W2R)". This project seeks new ways of CDW recycling as raw materials for gypsum, mortar and concrete. In this paper the results obtained in the first phase of the project are presented. Several tests (density, mechanical strength, thermal behavior, etc.) were performed to gypsum samples containing different building retrofitting waste categories (insulation, glass, plastic, ceramic tiles, etc.). Results show not only the values obtained in each test but also the proportions achieving the best behavior (indicating the percentage of added waste). Finally, the gypsum composite achieving the best value was highlighted in each test, distinguishing those eco-materials suitable for reinforcing, lightening, or improving thermal behavior

Emulador del Motorola 68000

El de LEC es uno de los laboratorios que tradicionalmente más quebraderos de cabeza han venido dando a los alumnos, y, realmente una gran parte de la dificultad de la asignatura radica en el hecho de que para probar las prácticas realizadas en casa es preciso acudir explícitamente al laboratorio a depurarlas sobre el hardware específico. La masificación en la asignatura respecto al número de equipos disponibles, bastante limitado, hace que incluso tomar sitio en horas libres fuera casi imposible. Es por ello que se nos ocurrió la idea de desarrollar un software que emulara el comportamiento del motorola 68.000 tanto con los periféricos disponibles en el laboratorio como con el software propio asociado al procesador. Con este emulador, ya no sólo los alumnos no tendrán la necesidad de acudir a los laboratorios a probar y depurar sus programas, sino que tampoco debería ser necesaria una ampliación del número de equipos, por otra parte costosos y difíciles de adquirir. El sistema simulará tanto el programa monitor como el 68000 y los periféricos, partiendo de ficheros de código objeto s-record previamente generados mediante un compilador de motorola 68000 real. Además, el hecho de haber sido desarrollada esta herramienta en Java le dota de la potencia de un lenguaje portable. Incluso podría ser utlizada desde el campus virtual por los alumnos que cursaran la asignatura. Es por ello que creemos que nuestro proyecto, aparte de ser una idea práctica y útil puede ser una herramienta bastante pedagógica y de gran uso docente en la carrera. En los sucesivos apartados de esta memoria iremos explicando desde una introducción previa al 68000, Programa Monitor e Interfaz de E/S asi como al puesto de trabajo, cómo a través de una organización del modelo en paquetes lo más fiel posible a la realidad hemos sido capaces de emular el correcto comportamiento de las prácticas vistas en el laboratorio. [ABSTRACT] The main aim of this proyect is to provide the LEC students of a Motorola 68000 software emulator so that the necessity of taking presence into the laboratories which the hardware is available was unecessary. With this tool we emulate not only the 68000 and his software, but all the devices asociated, starting from the s-record code object previously generated by a real 68000 compilator

A novel parametrization of α-spline functions: application to digital filter design

α-spline functions, which are a generalization of conventional B-splines, are defined with several parameters which provide more flexibility in terms of the variety of shapes that the functions can adopt. Because of this feature, the α-spline spline functions have shown improvements in the performance of several applications, including the design of digital filters. This article proposes a novel parametrization to generate new families of α-spline functions that allows a more efficient control of the shape of these functions. Different combinations of parameters are presented, and a detailed analysis of the properties of the new functions is carried out. In addition, the new α-spline functions are applied to the design of digital filters, providing an appropriate design procedure. The characteristics of the new filters are analysed and compared with previous design techniques, demonstrating the remarkable superiority of their performance

La incorporación de la voz del alumnado en el desarrollo de una estructura curricular modular. La experiencia del grado de educación social en la UPV-EHU

Con el objetivo de acercar las prácticas universitarias al discurso de democratización educativa, este artículo recoge la experiencia de la incorporación de la voz del alumnado en el desarrollo de la estructura modular del Grado de Educación Social de la UPV-EHU. Centrándonos en un análisis del efecto de la incorporación de la voz del alumnado en las estructuras organizativas, en diferentes contextos, en su propio aprendizaje y en el cambio de las prácticas docentes, hemos intentado desvelar el sentido otorgado a la participación del alumnado en la vida formativa y universitaria, detectar los claroscuros que se visualizan a su acción como sujeto y analizar el efecto producido en su aprendizaje.With the aim of bringing university practices to address educational democratization, this article describes the experiences of incorporating student voice in the development of the modular structure of Social Education degree from the UPV-EHU. Focusing on an analysis of the effect of the incorporation of student voice in organizational structures, in different contexts, in their own learning and changing teaching practices, we tried to reveal the meaning given to student participation in the life training and university detect shades that are displayed to its action as a subject and analyze the effect on their learning

Open innovation in the food and beverage industry

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to extend our knowledge into the relationship between open innovation and firm innovative performance. Specifically, we aim to determine whether the benefits of OI practices are different for Food and Beverage (FnB) firms as compared to those of other sectors. The FnB industry is relevant in terms of employment GDP generation in the UE, characterised by high integration and low-tech intensity. Methodology: In order to achieve our goal and obtain robust results, we consider four open innovation dimensions and four innovation performance measures using panel data (2004-2011) from 10,771 FnB and non-FnB firms using Tobit and Logit models with random effects. Findings: We test and confirm the presence of the classical inverted U-shape relationship between OI and firm innovative performance for FnB and non-FnB companies. However, the optimal number of external sources of knowledge used is lesser for FnB than the rest of the companies. Originality: The article compares the OI effects in a traditional and low-tech industry vs other industries considering four innovation outputs (product innovations, process innovations, incremental and radical innovation)