Modeling the thermal behavior of biosphere 2 in a non-controlled environment using bond graphs

Biosphere 2 is a closed ecological system of high complexity built to deepen the understanding of ecological systems, to study the dynamics of closed ecologies, and to learn to control their behavior. The use of modeling and simulation is crucial in the achievement of these goals. Understanding a physical system is almost synonymous with possessing a model of its comportment. The main goal of this study is the development of a dynamic bond graph model that represents the thermal behavior of the complex ecological system under study, Biosphere 2. In this work, a first model that captures the behavior of the ecological system in a non-controlled environment is presented.Postprint (published version

The signal of ill-defined CPT weakening entanglement in the BdB_d system

In the presence of quantum gravity fluctuations (space-time foam), the CPT operator may be ill-defined. Its perturbative treatment leads to a modification of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen correlation of the neutral meson system by adding an Entanglement-weakening term of the wrong exchange symmetry, the $\omega$-effect. In the current paper we identify how to probe the complex $\omega$ in the entangled $B_d$-system using Flavour(f)-CP(g) eigenstate decay channels: the connection between the Intensities for the two time-ordered decays (f, g) and (g, f) is lost. Appropriate observables are constructed allowing independent experimental determinations of Re($\omega$) and Im($\omega$), disentangled from CPT violation in the evolution Hamiltonian Re($\theta$) and Im($\theta$). 2-$\sigma$ tensions for both Re($\theta$) and Im($\omega$) are shown to be uncorrelated.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

Exploring and linking biomedical resources through multidimensional semantic spaces

Background The semantic integration of biomedical resources is still a challenging issue which is required for effective information processing and data analysis. The availability of comprehensive knowledge resources such as biomedical ontologies and integrated thesauri greatly facilitates this integration effort by means of semantic annotation, which allows disparate data formats and contents to be expressed under a common semantic space. In this paper, we propose a multidimensional representation for such a semantic space, where dimensions regard the different perspectives in biomedical research (e.g., population, disease, anatomy and protein/genes). Results This paper presents a novel method for building multidimensional semantic spaces from semantically annotated biomedical data collections. This method consists of two main processes: knowledge and data normalization. The former one arranges the concepts provided by a reference knowledge resource (e.g., biomedical ontologies and thesauri) into a set of hierarchical dimensions for analysis purposes. The latter one reduces the annotation set associated to each collection item into a set of points of the multidimensional space. Additionally, we have developed a visual tool, called 3D-Browser, which implements OLAP-like operators over the generated multidimensional space. The method and the tool have been tested and evaluated in the context of the Health-e-Child (HeC) project. Automatic semantic annotation was applied to tag three collections of abstracts taken from PubMed, one for each target disease of the project, the Uniprot database, and the HeC patient record database. We adopted the UMLS Meta-thesaurus 2010AA as the reference knowledge resource. Conclusions Current knowledge resources and semantic-aware technology make possible the integration of biomedical resources. Such an integration is performed through semantic annotation of the intended biomedical data resources. This paper shows how these annotations can be exploited for integration, exploration, and analysis tasks. Results over a real scenario demonstrate the viability and usefulness of the approach, as well as the quality of the generated multidimensional semantic spaces

Estudio comparativo de la incidencia de la Directiva Seveso por ámbitos territoriales. El caso particular de la región de Andalucía

Desde la entrada en vigor de la primera Directiva Seveso en Europa, el concepto de prevención de accidentes graves por sustancias peligrosas ha evolucionado de forma diferente dependiendo de la transposición particular de cada Estado Miembro a su propio ordenamiento jurídico. Adicionalmente, cada región con competencias en materia de seguridad industrial o protección civil ha contribuido, aún más, a la dispersión normativa existente lo que no favorece una regulación de forma universal o estándar. Uno de los aspectos normativos merecedor de una profunda actualización ante la próxima puesta en vigor de la nueva Directiva Seveso III, es aquel que incide sobre las zonas de influencia donde existen establecimientos industriales afectados por la Directiva. En el presente trabajo se va a realizar una evolución histórica de la afectación por ámbito geográfico en la década 2002-2012. El análisis territorial comienza con la distribución geográfica de laafectación en la Unión Europea. De manera similar, se vadescendiendo geográficamente hasta estudiar el estadoespañol y, finalmente, alcanzará a la región de Andalucíadonde, se profundizará aún más, hasta alcanzar el nivelterritorial de provincias y, municipios. Del análisis se deducenunas primeras conclusiones particulares relativas tanto a las concentraciones de establecimientos Seveso y de los sectores industriales más significativos cubiertos por dicha normativa

Building conceptual spaces for exploring and linking biomedical resources

The establishment of links between data (e.g., patient records) and Web resources (e.g., literature) and the proper visualization of such discovered knowledge is still a challenge in most Life Science domains (e.g., biomedicine). In this paper we present our contribution to the community in the form of an infrastructure to annotate information resources, to discover relationships among them, and to represent and visualize the new discovered knowledge. Furthermore, we have also implemented a Web-based prototype tool which integrates the proposed infrastructure

Desigualdades en salud materno-infantil: impacto de una intervención

ResumenSe evalúa en términos del impacto poblacional una intervención sociosanitaria materno-infantil en un área urbana de Barcelona (el distrito de Ciutat Vella) de renta familiar baja. La intervención se basó en facilitar el acceso a los servicios sociales y sanitarios a embarazadas y recién nacidos. Eldiseño del estudio es cuasiexperimental con un grupo de control no equivalente y medidas múltiples en el tiempo. Se comparan las tasas de mortalidad infantil y perinatal acumuladas del distrito de Ciutat Vella con las del resto de la ciudad antes (1983-86) y después de la intervención (1987-89, 1990-92).Los resultados muestran que las diferencias iniciales existentes entre las tasas de mortalidad de las dos poblaciones desaparecen después del desarrollo del programa. La mortalidad infantil en Ciutat Vella pasó de 17,7/1.000 nacimientos en 1983-86 a 13,1/1.000 nacimientos en 1987-89 y a a 13,4/1.000 nacimientos en 1990-92, mientras que en el resto de la ciudad las tasas pasan de 9,5 a 8, 8 y 7,7/1.000 nacimientos, respectivamente.Se concluye que los programas sociosanitarios integrados en zonas urbanas pequeñas de baja renta familiar pueden contribuir a la reducción de las desigualdades en salud materno-infantil.SummaryWe present the evaluation of the population impact of a social and health maternal and child intervention, implemented in a low income urban area (Ciutat Vella) in Barcelona, Spain. Intervention was based on increasing access to health and social services for pregnant women and for the children. A quasiexperimental design with a nonequivalent control group and multiple measurements was used. We compared infant and perinatal cumulative mortality rates between Ciutat Vella District and the rest of the city, before (1983-86) and after the intervention (1987-89, 1990-92).Results showed that the significant differences found previously to the program betwen the mortality rates disappeared with the development of the program. Infant mortality in Ciutat Vella was 17.7/.000 births in 1983-86, and became 13.1/1.000 births in 1987-89, and 13,4 in 1990-92; in the rest of the city, infant mortality was 9.5/1.000 births in 1983-86, and became 8.8/ and 7.7/1000 births respectively.A comprehensive social and health care program implemented in small low income areas may contribute to reduce inequalities in maternal and child health

¿Por qué decidimos ser voluntarios?

VIII Jornades de Foment de la Investigació de la FCHS (Any 2002-2003)El voluntariado es un recurso humano que por su importancia como fenómeno social en auge, desde hace ya algunos años, merece su estudio desde la psicología social. Esta destacabilidad del voluntariado se refleja en las leyes, planes e incluso el código ético, creados para su definición dentro de unos parámetros y su equiparación, ya que existen muchos tipos de voluntariado y en muy diversos campos, poniendo límites, así, a la expresión de la conducta de ayuda, prosocial y altruista. Esta investigación es una parte de otra más extensa, y el objeto fundamental del fragmento que aquí se presenta pasa por hallar qué motivos llevan a iniciar el voluntariado en una organización. Concretamente, se ha estudiado el voluntariado en las organizaciones dedicadas a la acogida, rehabilitación y reinserción de drogodependientes, partiendo de una muestra de 52 sujetos, a la que se ha aplicado el “Cuestionario: Perfil del Voluntariado. 2001. Versión 1” Surgen así, como motivos más importantes las circunstancias personales, tales como tener un familiar tratado en la organización o ser uno mismo el que pasó como usuario de la organización y tras la rehabilitación y reinserción decidió hacerse voluntario. Son, por tanto, motivos internos, autocentrados, los más destacables. La importancia de este estudio subyace en su aprovechamiento para el reclutamiento y estrategias de sensibilización de los/las voluntarios/as de una organización. Y, por supuesto, en su profundización en un tema que no ha recibido la atención científica que merece

Monte Carlo simulations of post-common-envelope white dwarf + main sequence binaries: comparison with the SDSS DR7 observed sample

Detached white dwarf + main sequence (WD+MS) systems represent the simplest population of post-common envelope binaries (PCEBs). Since the ensemble properties of this population carries important information about the characteristics of the common-envelope (CE) phase, it deserves close scrutiny. However, most population synthesis studies do not fully take into account the effects of the observational selection biases of the samples used to compare with the theoretical simulations. Here we present the results of a set of detailed Monte Carlo simulations of the population of WD+MS binaries in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 7. We used up-to-date stellar evolutionary models, a complete treatment of the Roche lobe overflow episode, and a full implementation of the orbital evolution of the binary systems. Moreover, in our treatment we took into account the selection criteria and all the known observational biases. Our population synthesis study allowed us to make a meaningful comparison with the available observational data. In particular, we examined the CE efficiency, the possible contribution of internal energy, and the initial mass ratio distribution (IMRD) of the binary systems. We found that our simulations correctly reproduce the properties of the observed distribution of WD+MS PCEBs. In particular, we found that once the observational biases are carefully taken into account, the distribution of orbital periods and of masses of the WD and MS stars can be correctly reproduced for several choices of the free parameters and different IMRDs, although models in which a moderate fraction (<=10%) of the internal energy is used to eject the CE and in which a low value of CE efficiency is used (<=0.3) seem to fit better the observational data. We also found that systems with He-core WDs are over-represented in the observed sample, due to selection effects.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Patrimonio audiovisual y memoria histórica cinematográfica de la primera mitad del siglo XX

[ES] El presente trabajo final de grado ofrece un breve estudio sobre el patrimonio audiovisual cinematográfico y su relación con la memoria histórica de la primera mitad del siglo XX. Así, se define el concepto de patrimonio audiovisual además de exponer el origen y evolución del cine durante sus primeros cincuenta años y la historia de la conservación y restauración audiovisual. Este trabajo también presenta un acercamiento al papel de la sociedad en el desarrollo del cinematógrafo, junto con el planteamiento del género cinematográfico de la no-ficción como evidencia histórica, abarcando los reportajes familiares, documentales y noticiarios.[EN] This final degree project offers a brief study about film heritage and its relationship with the first half of 20th century historical memory. Thus, it is defined the concept of audiovisual heritage in addition to the exposition of the origin and evolution of cinema during its first fifty years and the history of film conservation and restoration. This work also presents as well an approach to the role of society in the development of the cinematograph, along with the proposal of the non-fiction film genre as historical evidence, covering home movies, documentaries and newsreels.Nebot Soler, ME. (2020). Patrimonio audiovisual y memoria histórica cinematográfica de la primera mitad del siglo XX. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/148423TFG