Science communication through mass media

[Resumo]: Pódese facer divulgación científica de diferentes maneiras. O presente Traballo de Fin de Grao supón o primeiro contacto do autor coa divulgación científica a nivel profesional, centrándose principalmente no formato radiofónico. Para iso, o autor colaborou co programa de Radio Galega Efervesciencia desde febreiro a xuño de 2018. Concretamente, elaborou contidos para unha nova sección titulada “Juan desde Londres” aproveitando a súa residencia nesa cidade. En total, graváronse cinco pezas radiofónicas, das cales catro xa foron emitidas. Unha delas foi adaptada para prensa escrita, en concreto para o medio dixital GCiencia. Tamén fíxose un test beta co gallo de estudiar como valoran os oíntes os diferentes contidos de Efervesciencia.[Resumen]: Es posible hacer divulgación científica de diferentes maneras. Este Trabajo de Fin de Grado supone el primer contacto del autor con la divulgación científica a nivel profesional, centrándose principalmente en el formato radiofónico. Para eso, el autor colaboró con el programa de Radio Galega Efervesciencia desde febrero a junio de 2018. Concretamente, elaboró contenidos para una nueva sección titulada “Juan desde Londres” aprovechando su estancia en esa ciudad. En total se grabaron cinco piezas radiofónicas, de las cuales cuatro fueron ya emitidas. Una de ellas fue adaptada para prensa escrita, en concreto para el medio digital GCiencia. También se hizo un test beta con el objetivo de estudiar cómo valoran los oyentes los diferentes contenidos de Efervesciencia.[Abstract]: It is possible to do science communication in different ways. This Final Degree Project is the first contact of the author with the science communication at a professional level, focusing mainly on the radio format. For this, the author cooperated with Efervesciencia, a popular science magazine broadcasted by Radio Galega from February to June 2018. Specifically, he elaborated contents for a new section entitled "Juan from London" taking advantage of his residence in that city. In total, five radio pieces were recorded, of which four were already broadcast. One of them was adapted for written media, specifically for the digital newspaper GCiencia. A beta test was also carried out in order to study how listeners value the different contents of Efervesciencia.Traballo fin de grao (UDC.CIE). Bioloxía. Curso 2017/201

Los textos de Juan Cruz Varela sobre la expedición de Rauch

Fil: Varela, Juan Cruz

Control over stress induces plasticity of individual prefrontal cortical neurons: A conductance-based neural simulation

Behavioral control over stressful stimuli induces resilience to future conditions when control is lacking. The medial prefrontal cortex(mPFC) is a critically important brain region required for plasticity of stress resilience. We found that control over stress induces plasticity of the intrinsic voltage-gated conductances of pyramidal neurons in the PFC. To gain insight into the underlying biophysical mechanisms of this plasticity we used the conductance- based neural simulation software tool, NEURON, to model the increase in membrane excitability associated with resilience to stress. A ball and stick multicompartment conductance-based model was used to realistically fit passive and active data traces from prototypical pyramidal neurons in neurons in rats with control over tail shock stress and those lacking control. The results indicate that the plasticity of membrane excitability associated with control over stress can be attributed to an increase in Na+ and Ca2+ T-type conductances and an increase in the leak conductance. Using simulated dendritic synaptic inputs we observed an increase in excitatory postsynaptic summation and amplification resulting in elevated action potential output. This realistic simulation suggests that control over stress enhances the output of the PFC and offers specific testable hypotheses to guide future electrophysiological mechanistic studies in animal models of resilience and vulnerability to stress

Leveraging Final Degree Projects for Open Source Software Contributions

(1) Background: final year students of computer science engineering degrees must carry out a final degree project (FDP) in order to graduate. Students’ contributions to improve open source software (OSS) through FDPs can offer multiple benefits and challenges, both for the students, the instructors and for the project itself. This work reports on a practical experience developed by four students contributing to mature OSS projects during their FDPs, detailing how they addressed the multiple challenges involved, both from the students and teachers perspective. (2) Methods: we followed the work of four students contributing to two established OSS projects for two academic years and analyzed their work on GitHub and their responses to a survey. (3) Results: we obtained a set of specific recommendations for future practitioners and detailed a list of benefits achieved by steering FDP towards OSS contributions, for students, teachers and the OSS projects. (4) Conclusions: we find out that FDPs oriented towards enhancing OSS projects can introduce students into real-world, practical examples of software engineering principles, give them a boost in their confidence about their technical and communication skills and help them build a portfolio of contributions to daily used worldwide open source applications

Image encryption system based on a nonlinear joint transform correlator for the simultaneous authentication of two users

We propose a new encryption system based on a nonlinear joint transform correlator (JTC) using the information of two biometrics (one digital fingerprint for each user) as security keys of the encryption system. In order to perform the decryption and authentication in a proper way, it is necessary to have the two digital fingerprints from the respective users whose simultaneous authentication is pursued. The proposed security system is developed in the Fourier domain. The nonlinearity of the JTC along with the five security keys given by the three random phase masks and the two digital fingerprints of the two users allow an increase of the system security against brute force and plaintext attacks. The feasibility and validity of this proposal is demonstrated using digital fingerprints as biometrics in numerical experiments.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Effects of using an encrypted image corrupted by noise and occlusion in a security system based on joint transform correlator and Gyrator transform

Postprint (published version

Image quality and security through nonlinear joint transform encryption

Postprint (published version

Entre cielo y tierra : la ligazón y el abismo en el Convivio

This article goes through the main ideas in Dante’s Convivio interpreting them as a sample of a historical desacralization crisis caused by the spreading of the commercial production mode, which translates into an intellectual crisis where the author tries to reformulate the link binding Heaven with Earth, meaning the matrix itself of feudal sacralised ideological unconsciousness. To do so, Dante goes through the process of creation-generation of the World, on the one hand; and the process of knowledge, taking mankind to heavenly Wisdom. In doing this, Dante unsuccessfully attempts to create a ‘civil sacralisation’ or a ‘commercial sacralisation’. Without this, in any case, he wouldn’t have been able to later write the Commedia.Este artículo repasa las ideas principales del Convivio de Dante interpretándolas como muestra de una crisis histórica de desacralización provocada por la difusión del modo de producción mercantil, que se traduce en una crisis intelectual en la que el autor trata de reformular el vínculo que une al Cielo y la Tierra, es decir, la matriz misma del inconsciente ideológico sacralizado feudal. Para ello, Dante recorre el proceso de creación-generación del mundo, por una parte, y el proceso de conocimiento que remonta al ser humano hasta la Sabiduría celeste. Dante trata así, infructuosamente, de crear una «sacralización civil» o «sacralización mercantil», sin lo cual, en todo caso, no será posible la escritura futura de la Commedia

Por el gran mar del ser (Paradiso 1, 103-141).

Sin resume