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In this note we revisit the paper by Fonseca et al. (Series 11: 83-103, 2020) who find that education has a positive effect on health. They use several compulsory schooling reforms as instruments for education. Our objective is to replicate this causal finding, so we start by thoroughly discussing their identification strategy. In particular, we emphasize the importance of carefully defining birth cohort groups and using country-specific time trends. Once we take these issues into account, we show that the instrument they use is too weak.

In this paper an efficient and reliable method for stochastic yield estimation is presented. Since one main challenge of uncertainty quantification is the computational feasibility, we propose a hybrid approach where most of the Monte Carlo sample points are evaluated with a surrogate model, and only a few sample points are reevaluated with the original high fidelity model. Gaussian process regression is a non-intrusive method which is used to build the surrogate model. Without many prerequisites, this gives us not only an approximation of the function value, but also an error indicator that we can use to decide whether a sample point should be reevaluated or not. For two benchmark problems, a dielectrical waveguide and a lowpass filter, the proposed methods outperform classic approaches.

This paper presents a recent study on a Roman period marble sculpture depicting Empress Livia and the portraits of Germanicus and Drusus Minor, found at the praesidium of Asido (Medina Sidonia, Cádiz, Spain). The sculptures retain extensive evidence of their original polychromy. The properties and spatial distribution of these pigment remains were investigated by portable non-invasive and micro-destructive techniques, applying digital microscopy, and UV/VIS/NIR/SWIR spectroscopy, portable XRF and SEM–EDS analysis. The study revealed the presence of Egyptian blue and ochre on Livia’s mantle and charcoal black on Livia’s eyes and hair, remains that were not clearly visible to the naked eye. This is a signifcant approach, used to identify colours on ancient marble sculpture, which transforms our understanding of these unique pieces. Elemental composition analysis by pXRF has confrmed the evidence of pigments, furthermore supported by the Raman results, making it possible to develop and reconstruct the colour palette that originally brought these sculptures to life in vibrant polychrome. The research ofers a new methodology for identifying pigments on marble sculpture and opens new ways for investigating other types of material culture aided by the development of the analytical equipment mentioned. info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/MINECO/Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2013-2016/HAR2017-89004-P/Proyecto Colonia Aelia Augusta Italica. Arqueología del Sector Ne de la Vetus Urbs de Italica en el Marco del Proceso de Romanización en el Guadalquivir Inferior

This paper describes the next generation X-ray observatory XEUS which has been submitted to the European Space Agency in the framework of the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 competition and has been selected for an assessment study. The paper summarizes the scientific goals and instrumental concepts of the proposed X-ray telescope with 5 m2 effective area and angular resolution better than 5 arc sec.

Background Although bivalves are among the most-studied marine organisms because of their ecological role and economic importance, very little information is available on the genome sequences of oyster species. This report documents three large-scale cDNA sequencing projects for the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas initiated to provide a large number of expressed sequence tags that were subsequently compiled in a publicly accessible database. This resource allowed for the identification of a large number of transcripts and provides valuable information for ongoing investigations of tissue-specific and stimulus-dependant gene expression patterns. These data are crucial for constructing comprehensive DNA microarrays, identifying single nucleotide polymorphisms and microsatellites in coding regions, and for identifying genes when the entire genome sequence of C. gigas becomes available. Description In the present paper, we report the production of 40,845 high-quality ESTs that identify 29,745 unique transcribed sequences consisting of 7,940 contigs and 21,805 singletons. All of these new sequences, together with existing public sequence data, have been compiled into a publicly-available Website http://public-contigbrowser.sigenae.org:9090/Crassostrea_gigas/index.html. Approximately 43% of the unique ESTs had significant matches against the SwissProt database and 27% were annotated using Gene Ontology terms. In addition, we identified a total of 208 in silico microsatellites from the ESTs, with 173 having sufficient flanking sequence for primer design. We also identified a total of 7,530 putative in silico, single-nucleotide polymorphisms using existing and newly-generated EST resources for the Pacific oyster. Conclusion A publicly-available database has been populated with 29,745 unique sequences for the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas. The database provides many tools to search cleaned and assembled ESTs. The user may input and submit several filters, such as protein or nucleotide hits, to select and download relevant elements. This database constitutes one of the most developed genomic resources accessible among Lophotrochozoans, an orphan clade of bilateral animals. These data will accelerate the development of both genomics and genetics in a commercially-important species with the highest annual, commercial production of any aquatic organism.

A new method to screen and to identify genetically modified organisms (GMO) is presented in this paper. It is based on the detection of multiple genetic elements common to GMO by their amplification via PCR followed by direct hybridisation of the amplicons on microarray. The pattern of the elements is then compared to a database of the composition of EU-approved GMO and an identification of the GMO is then proposed. The limit of detection of the method was ≤0.1% GMO content (w/w) expressed as the amount of target DNA present in the template for single unprocessed material. The DNA targets were detected both in reference materials and in mixtures with the same detection limit. The specificity for the detection of the different elements was found to be very good with no cross-reaction even in samples with two GMO present at different concentrations. The paper presents examples of GMO identification and discusses the potential and limitation of such approaches and how they can facilitate the work of private and enforcement detection laboratories., This study was supported by the European Commission through the FP5 program “GMOchips” (contract G6RD-CT2000-00419 2000-2003), the Belgian SSCT program and the Integrated Project “Co-Extra”, contract no. 007158 2005-2009, under the 6th Framework Programme, priority 5, food quality and safety.

Part of the Managing Forest Ecosystems book series (MAFE, volume 38), Only a handful of bird species can be considered specialists of Mediterranean pine forests; however, many forest birds occupy pine and mixed forest, due to the biogeographic history of Mediterranean forest birds. Nevertheless, pine forest bird communities show clear-cut responses to changes in forest distribution, structure and composition at both local and landscape scales. Both forest management (especially plantation and harvesting strategies, forest fragmentation and landscape distribution of pine stands) and climate change may have strong effects on bird communities, and potential interactions between these two drivers may mitigate, or amplify, negative effects, depending on management strategies. Relationships are non-linear, with saturation points at which biodiversity increases no further (and may even decrease). Furthermore, relationships vary geographically and temporally due to interactions with climate and landscape-scale land uses. Bird diversity provides direct regulating ecosystem services of pest control and seed dispersal, cultural services, and even provisioning services in the case of game birds. Knowledge of the variable relationships between bird diversity, societal attitudes and the effects of global change drivers on pine forests is essential for designing realistic, regionally adapted management strategies aimed at enhancing the multifunctional role of forests beyond the market., This paper is a contribution to the projects RTA2013-00048-C03-01 and RTI2018-096348-R-C21, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness; BiodivERsA 3-2015-180, funded by the Spanish National Research Agency, the Bulgarian Science Fund, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, and the European Commission within the ERA-Net BiodivERsA Co-Fund scheme; and to the thematic network REMEDINAL3-CM (S2013/MAE-2719).

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of fuzzy variational- like inequalities and to study the existence problem and the iterative approximation problem for solutions of certain kinds of fuzzy variational- like inequalities in Hilbert spaces. By using the general auxiliary principle technique, Ky Fan's KKM theorem, Nadler's fixed point theorem, and some new analytic techniques, some existence theorems and some iterative approximation schemes for solving this kind of fuzzy variational- like inequalities are established. The results presented in this paper are new and they generalize, improve, and unify a number of recent results.

International Conference on Flow Induced Noise and Vibration Issues and Aspects Flinovia—Flow Induced Noise and Vibration Issues and Aspects-III. FLINOVIA 2019; 32 páginas; 18 figuras, Mitigating flow-induced noise is currently a major goal in the acoustic design of automotive and aircraft cabins. In order to avoid the introduction of active or massive components, structures made up of backed or unbacked micro-perforated panels (MPP) are potential lightweight solutions that could enhance the absorption and decrease the transmission of flow-induced noise. The present work describes experimental and modelling studies that examine the effect of MPPs, either flush-mounted or in a recessed configuration, on the wall-pressure fluctuations induced by a low-speed turbulent boundary layer (TBL) of air. The first part of this paper focuses on the vibro-acoustic properties of flush-mounted MPP-Cavity-Panel partitions forced by an aero-acoustic excitation. Parametric studies are carried out that show the influence of the MPP and of the excitation parameters on the absorption and transmission loss of the partition. In a second part, experimental studies and Lattice-Boltzmann simulations are presented that examine the effect of a recessed MPP, located at the floor of a shallow cavity, on the attenuation of the tunnel-cavity resonances and of the broadband noise components under a low-speed TBL.

Based on Bohr’s equivalence relation for general Dirichlet series, in this paper we connect the families of equivalent exponential polynomials with a geometrical point of view related to lines in crystal-like structures. In particular we characterize this equivalence relation, and give an alternative proof of Bochner’s property referring to these functions, through this new geometrical perspective. The first author’s research was partially supported by PGC2018-097960-B-C22 (MCIU/AEI/ERDF, UE).

In this paper we study vakonomic dynamics on contact systems with nonlinear constraints. In order to obtain the dynamics, we consider a space of admisible paths, which are the ones tangent to a given submanifold. Then, we find the critical points of the Herglotz action on this space of paths. This dynamics can be also obtained through an extended Lagrangian, including Lagrange multiplier terms. This theory has important applications in optimal control theory for Herglotz control problems, in which the cost function is given implicitly, through an ODE, instead of by a definite integral. Indeed, these control problems can be considered as particular cases of vakonomic contact systems, and we can use the Lagrangian theory of contact systems in order to understand their symmetries and dynamics., M. de León and M. Lainz acknowledge the partial finantial support from MINECO Grants MTM2016-76-072-P and the ICMAT Severo Ochoa project SEV-2015-0554. M. Lainz wishes to thank MICINN and ICMAT for a FPI-Severo Ochoa predoctoral contract PRE2018-083203. M.C. Muñoz-Lecanda acknowledges the financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades project PGC2018-098265-B-C33 and the Secretary of University and Research of the Ministry of Business and Knowledge of the Catalan Government project 2017-SGR-932.

The goal of this paper is the characterisation of seven clays of the province of Alicante (SE Spain) and their possible use to improve the fertility, water absorption and contaminant-retaining capacity of degraded soils. Three soils affected by the dumping of construction debris were also studied to diagnose the problems and possible recovery strategies. Several physicochemical properties were measured, such as the water holding capacity, soil organic matter, lime, pH, EC and CEC. A high correlationship between mineralogical and elemental composition was obtained. Illite was present in all clays and soils. Some of the samples also contained kaolinite and significant amounts of lime. The CEC, as expected, was more closely related to the organic matter content. Soil organic matter was detected in the second derivative of the FTIR spectra by the signals of the CH2 groups at 2850 and 2919. This way, the FTIR spectrum for the soils of the area would make it possible to estimate both the organic matter content and the CEC. Despite their origin, soils did not show heavy metal pollution; however, salinisation risk seemed to be the most probable cause of degradation. According to the organic matter, lime and illite content, two clays were selected as the most suitable for soil degradation recovery. Furthermore, organic matter additions may help to improve the self-depurative ability of the soil.

This paper presents a full generalization of Bohr’s equivalence theorem for the case of almost periodic functions, which improves a recent result that was uniquely formulated in the case of existence of an integral basis for the set of exponents of the associated Dirichlet series. J.M. Sepulcre research was partially supported by MICIU of Spain under Project Number PGC2018-097960-B-C22.

Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEET) and its Spanish equivalent ‘nini’ (Ni estudia, Ni trabaja) have dominated youth policy discourses in recent years. Within the European Union, Spain is one of the countries with the highest proportion of young people in NEET situations. In this article, it is argued that the idea of NEET has been weaponised to stigmatise youth, by evoking the phantom of a demotivated young person with scarce training. This stigmatisation has little to do with the reality of many young Spaniards who can find themselves in different situations, such as unemployment, precarious employment, training and education in a matter of days. Thus, there is a need to consider the different experiences and structural circumstances of so-called NEETs rather than viewing them as a homogenous and static group. Using documentary analysis and secondary data, this article examines the diversity of NEET situations for the youth in Spain, which is generally not captured in large national statistics data-sets and policies. Furthermore, it analyses the EU Youth Guarantee and its application in Spain, highlighting where official objectives have not been met, and includes an overview of the current effects of the coronavirus crisis. Ultimately, the paper shows that public discourses centred on an artificially created social group (NEET) legitimise and produce policies that do not respond to young people’s actual needs and problems, especially for the most vulnerable among them.

Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. This research was funded by the Junta de Andalucia, Consejeria de Educacion, Cultura y Deporte: Orce Research Project "Primeras ocupaciones humanas y contexto paleoecologico a partir de los depositos pliopleistocenos de la cuenca Guadix-Baza: zona arqueologica de la Cuenca de Orce (Granada, Espana), 2017-2020 (Ref. BC.03.032/17)". We also received support from the PALARQ Foundation with the convocatory of Analitics 2019: "Identificando Carnivoros a partir de analisis Tafonomicos de ultima generacion aplicando Fotogrametria y Morfometria Geometrica de las Marcas de Diente. Aplicacion a Yacimientos del Pleistoceno Inferior Iberico: FN3, Venta Micena 3 y 4 (Granada), Ponton de la Oliva (Patones, Madrid)". Lloyd Austin Courtenay is also funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities with an FPI Predoctoral Grant (Ref. PRE2019-089411) associated to project RTI2018-099850-B-I00 and the University of Salamanca. The Institut Catala de Paleoecologia Humana I Evolucio Social (IPHES-CERCA) has received financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the "Maria de Maeztu" program for Units of Excellence (CEX2019-000945-M)., Over the last few decades, several types of evidence such as presence of hominin remains, lithic assemblages, and bones with anthropogenic surface modifications have demonstrated that early human communities inhabited the European subcontinent prior to the Jaramillo Subchron (1.07–0.98 Ma). While most studies have focused primarily on early European lithic technologies and raw material management, relatively little is known about food procurement strategies. While there is some evidence showing access to meat and other animal-based food resources, their mode of acquisition and associated butchery processes are still poorly understood. This paper presents a taphonomic and zooarchaeological analysis of the Fuente Nueva-3 (FN3) (Guadix-Baza, Spain) faunal assemblage, providing a more in-depth understanding of early hominin subsistence strategies in Europe. The present results show that hominins had access to the meat and marrow of a wide range of animal taxa, including elephants, hippopotami, and small- and medium-sized animals. At the same time, evidence of carnivore activity at the site suggests that these communities likely faced some degree of competition from large predators when acquiring and processing carcasses., CRUE-CSIC agreement, Springer Nature, Junta de Andalucia BC.03.032/17, PALARQ Foundation, Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia PRE2019-089411 RTI2018-099850-B-I00, University of Salamanca, Spanish Government CEX2019-000945-M

Soil is the largest terrestrial carbon pool, making it crucial for climate change mitigation. Soil organic carbon (SOC) is suggested to depend on biodiversity components, but much evidence comes from diversity-function experiments. To disentangle the relationships of plant guild diversity with SOC storage (kg m−2) at broad spatial scales, we applied diversity-interaction models to a regional grassland database (n = 96) including wide environmental conditions and management regimes. The questions were: (1) Are the effects of plant guilds on SOC stocks in natural grasslands consistent with those found in experimental systems? (2) Are plant guild effects on SOC stocks independent of each other or do they show interactive—synergistic or antagonistic—effects? (3) Do environmental variables, including abiotic and management, modify guild effects on SOC stocks? Among our most novel results we found, legume effects on grassland SOC vary depending on legume proportion consistently across broad spatial scales. SOC increased with legume proportion up to 7–17%, then decreased. Additionally, these effects were strengthened when grasses and forbs were codominant. Grazing intensity modulated grass proportion effects on SOC, being maximum at relatively high intensities. Interpreting our results in terms of existing contrasted ecological theories, we confirmed at broad spatial scales and under wide-ranging environmental conditions the positive effects of plant guild diversity on SOC, and we showed how legumes exert a keystone effect on SOC in natural grasslands, probably related to their ability to fix inorganic N. Niche complementarity effects were illustrated when codominance of forbs and grasses at optimum legume proportions boosted SOC storage, whereas grass dominance increased SOC stocks at medium–high grazing intensities. These findings can facilitate the preparation of regional and local strategies to ameliorate the soil capacity to absorb carbon. Research in this paper is based on the PASTUS database, compiled from different funding sources over time, the most relevant being: the EU Interreg III- A Programme (I3A- 4- 147- E) and the POCTEFA Programme/Interreg IV- A (FLUXPYR, EFA 34/08); the Spanish Science Foundation FECYT- MICINN (CARBOPAS: REN2002- 04300- C02- 01; CARBOAGROPAS: CGL2006- 13555- C03- 03 and CAPAS: CGL2010- 22378- C03- 01); the Foundation Catalunya- La Pedrera; and the Spanish Institute of Agronomical Research INIA (CARBOCLUS: SUM2006- 00029- C02- 0). This work was funded by the Spanish Science Foundation FECYT- MINECO (BIOGEI: CGL2013-49142-C2-1-R and IMAGINE: CGL2017-85490-R) and the University of Lleida (PhD Fellowship to AR). This research article has received a grant for its linguistic revision from the Language Institute of the University of Lleida (2021 call).

[Background]: The presence of women in decision-making positions, such as on editorial committees of biomedical journals, is not the same as that of men. This paper analyzes the gender composition of editorial committees (EBMs) and editors-in-chief (ECs) positions of pediatric journals., [Methods]: The gender of EBMs and ECs of 125 journals classified in the pediatrics area of the Journal Citation Report (JCR) was analyzed. The following indicators were calculated: gender distribution of ECs and EBMs by journal, publisher, subject speciality, country, quartile of the journal in JCR and country of affiliation of the members., [Results]: The total number of EBMs was 4242. The distribution by sex of the ECs was 19.44% women and 80.56% men, while that of the EBMs were 33.05% women and 66.95% men. Twenty journals exhibited a greater representation of women than of men, and in four there was parity. Journals with greater participation of women specialized in nursing and physical therapy and were related to nutrition (lactation and breastfeeding)., [Conclusions]: Only one-fifth of ECs and one-third of EBMs are females. Women’s participation is higher in journals related to nursing, physical and occupational therapy, and nutrition. The United States has the highest number of EBMs, followed by the European Union.

This paper analyses what occurs when in-service secondary teachers face a new subject, Landscape and Sustainability. Recently implemented in Galicia (NW Spain), this subject has no strong curricular constrictions. It is opened to diverse contents that can be integrated into Social Sciences. It promotes an environmental, social and critical consciousness. The hypothesis was that teachers may present deficiencies when approaching a subject which, due to its characteristics, requires training extending beyond disciplinary knowledge, thus impeding better performance and a greater degree of learning among pupils. The study was organised in three axes: (a) observation of the teaching and learning process in schools (n = 3); (b) teacher’s conceptions (n = 38) on the subject, its context and their pupils’ learning; and (c) pupils’ reflections (n = 70) derived from their learning process. The objectives were: (1) to elaborate a theoretical substantiation for the subject and, in accordance with it, making a critical analysis of the practices observed; (2) to analyse how teachers conceive the subject; and (3) to analyse the pupils’ reflections regarding the experience and to what extent they acquire social, civic and/or academic skills. The methodology was qualitative, using in the data analysis a quantitative perspective too. The instruments used were the participant observation, interviews, a closed questionnaire and a semi-opened questionnaire. The results are presented in a descriptive-interpretative way, but also quantitative. It can be advanced that teachers designed the subject in line with Place-Based Education and Heritage Education, but the lack of specific training in those theories ends up blurring their holistic approach in the nearby places. Teachers show similar conceptions about the subject and its teaching process. And the majority of students value positively the methodology used in the initiatives and acquire a socio-critical consciousness.

Studies about child development emphasize the importance of play in children’s early years. However, there is an existing controversy about the role educators should have in young children’s free play. This research work studies the approach to early playful activity from Pikler-Lóczy education. A systematic observation was conducted to deepen in the educational activity of free play accompanying. We studied how an experienced educator combines the instrumental and relational dimensions of her educational activity while children are playing, and the intervention levels they accordingly shape: no intervention, indirect intervention and direct intervention. Two complementary techniques were used in order to discover the relational behaviors that modulate each instrumental action: lag sequential analysis and polar coordinate analysis. Results show that the educator’s focus of attention is adaptive to the instrumental action she is performing; that the relational dimension of her educational activity modulates the instrumental actions; and that specific kinetic behaviors announce the beginning, mediate the developing and mark the closing of each instrumental action. Therefore, we demonstrated that the educator masterly combines the instrumental and relational dimensions of her educational activity, thus, shaping three different intervention levels towards children’s free play. This positioning is beneficial to children’s development given its active attempt to promote their intrinsic motivation and will to autonomously discover and learn. The first author of the paper is a PhD candidate of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) and counts with a scholarship to develop her thesis (PIF 18/104).The third author acknowledges the support of a Spanish government subproject Integration ways between qualitative and quantitative data, multiple case development, and synthesis review as main axis for an innovative future in physical activity and sports research [PGC2018-098742-B-C31] (2019-2021) (Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades / Agencia Estatal de Investigación / Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional).

In this paper we will get a class of functional equations involving a countable set of terms, summed by the well known Bochner–Fejér summation procedure, which are closely associated with the set of almost periodic functions. We will show that the zeros of a prefixed almost periodic function determine analytic solutions of such a functional equation associated with it, and we will obtain other solutions which are analytic or meromorphic on a certain domain. J. M. Sepulcre was supported by PGC2018-097960-B-C22 (MCIU/AEI/ERDF, UE).

To reduce the impact of droughts and increase the resilience of regional water systems, various competing demands, such as hydropower, supply, irrigation and river ecosystems, need to be reconciled. In this perspective, for a sustainable and efficient management of the water resources, planners and practitioners would benefit from using the most recent data and easily accessible analysis tools, that can make hydrological model applications easier to apply. In this paper, a web-based open-source geoinformation tool for estimating Flow Duration Curves (FDCs) in ungauged basins is presented. The FDC estimation derives from a regional statistical model, that relates basin topographic parameters, climatic characteristic and other environmental factors to FDC features via multivariate regression. The software tool has the primary function of simplifying the GIS-intensive application of the multivariate methodology, allowing computation of the necessary basin features through web services. These are developed in compliance with the OGC specifications for geospatial Web Processing Service (WPS), while scripting and model implementation are developed server-side, which ensures the user access to always updated data, and to procedures free from software client compatibility issues. An operational application is available for the North-Western Italy.

In today’s digital age, transactions are made increasingly in the virtual universe. Some do all financial transactions online, but some do not even want to think about this possibility since the consideration is unreliable. To make online financial transactions more reliable, many technologies have already been tested. Since passwords, tokens, physical code generation accessories, there have been many attempts, being the most elaborate, the blockchain. Governments, especially in developed countries, often find it difficult to gain the trust of their citizens, especially when it comes to evidence of service provision and improvement of existing services. In developing countries, blockchain requests from governments would be useful in eliminating some important problems, such as corruption, while ensuring more effective deployment and distribution of resources. The adoption of such technologies can also help to facilitate better use of resources. In this paper, we will analyze the impact of the application of blockchain technology on e-government. 2020-21

The radius of robust feasibility provides a numerical value for the largest possible uncertainty set that guarantees robust feasibility of an uncertain linear conic program. This determines when the robust feasible set is non-empty. Otherwise the robust counterpart of an uncertain program is not well-defined as a robust optimization problem. In this paper, we address a key fundamental question of robust optimization: How to compute the radius of robust feasibility of uncertain linear conic programs, including linear programs? We first provide computable lower and upper bounds for the radius of robust feasibility for general uncertain linear conic programs under the commonly used ball uncertainty set. We then provide important classes of linear conic programs where the bounds are calculated by finding the optimal values of related semidefinite linear programs (SDPs), among them uncertain SDPs, uncertain second-order cone programs and uncertain support vector machine problems. In the case of an uncertain linear program, the exact formula allows us to calculate the radius by finding the optimal value of an associated second-order cone program., 25 pages

Two important issues characterize the design of bootstrap methods to construct confidence intervals for the correlation between two time series sampled (unevenly or evenly spaced) on different time points: (i) ordinary block bootstrap methods that produce bootstrap samples have been designed for time series that are coeval (i.e., sampled on identical time points) and must be adapted; (ii) the sample Pearson correlation coefficient cannot be readily applied, and the construction of the bootstrap confidence intervals must rely on alternative estimators that unfortunately do not have the same asymptotic properties. In this paper it is argued that existing proposals provide an unsatisfactory solution to issue (i) and ignore issue (ii). This results in procedures with poor coverage whose limitations and potential applications are not well understood. As a first step to address these issues, a modification of the bootstrap procedure underlying existing methods is proposed, and the asymptotic properties of the estimator of the correlation are investigated. It is established that the estimator converges to a weighted average of the cross-correlation function in a neighborhood of zero. This implies a change in perspective when interpreting the results of the confidence intervals based on this estimator. Specifically, it is argued that with the proposed modification of the bootstrap, the existing methods have the potential to provide a useful lower bound for the absolute correlation in the non-coeval case and, in some special cases, confidence intervals with approximately the correct coverage. The limitations and implications of the results presented are demonstrated with a simulation study. The extension of the proposed methodology to the problem of estimating the cross-correlation function is straightforward and is illustrated with a real data example. Related applications include the estimation of the autocorrelation function and the periodogram of a time series. This work was supported by Spain Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities grant number RTI2018-093874-B-100.

Given a smooth complex toric variety we will compare real Lagerberg forms and currents on its tropicalization with invariant complex forms and currents on the toric variety. Our main result is a correspondence theorem which identifies the cone of invariant closed positive currents on the complex toric variety with closed positive currents on the tropicalization. In a subsequent paper, this correspondence will be used to develop a Bedford-Taylor theory of plurisubharmonic functions on the tropicalization., Final version, 50 pages, 1 figure, to appear in Mathematische Zeitschrift

[Abstract] The four new briarane diterpenoids 2-butyryloxybriarane B-3 (2), 9-acetylbriarenolide S (3), briarenolide W (4), and 12-isobriarenolide P (5), along with briarane B-3 (1) and the five known diterpenes 6–10 were isolated from the gorgonian coral Briareum asbestinum collected from the Mexican Caribbean Sea. The structures were elucidated by 1D and 2D NMR and MS measurements. Since the structure of briarane B-3 (1) was only suggested and published without any spectroscopic support, it was herein confirmed, and the supporting data are now provided. In addition, 1 provided the opportunity to explore the sensitivity of vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) to determine the configuration of a single stereogenic center in the presence of eight other stereogenic centers in a molecule possessing a highly flexible ten-member ring. A single-crystal X-ray diffraction study, in which the Flack and Hooft parameters of 1 were determined, further confirmed that briarane B-3 is (1S,2S,6S,7R,8R,9S,10S,11R,17R)-1. This paper reports for first time the use of VCD in briarane diterpenes and with the presence of chlorine atoms. Biological evaluation of seven isolated compounds evidenced a moderate anti-inflammatory activity for compounds 6 and 9 but it did not show any cytotoxic, antiviral, antibacterial, and topoisomerase inhibitory activity. This work was supported by Grants RTI2018-093634-B-C22 (AEI/FEDER, EU) from the State Agency for Research (AEI) of Spain, co-funded by the FEDER Programme from the European Union. We thank to Xunta de Galicia for the support of Grants GRC2018/039 and ED431E 2018/03 for CICA-INIBIC strategic group and BLUEBIOLAB (o474_BLUEBIOLAB_1_E, Programme INTERREG V A of Spain-Portugal (POCTEP). JR, CJ, and D.P.-P. acknowledge CESGA for the use of the computational facilities. PJ-N acknowledges partial financial support from CONACYT-Mexico Grant No. 284194. D.P.-P. received a postdoctoral fellowship from the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT) of Mexico. The work was also supported by UIDB/50006/2020 with funding from FCT/MCTES through national funds Xunta de Galicia; GRC2018/039 Xunta de Galicia; ED431E 2018/03 México. Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología; 284194 Portugal. Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia; UIDB/50006/2020

This paper proposes to enrich robot motion data with trajectory curvature information. To do so, we use an approximate implementation of a topological feature named writhe, which measures the curling of a closed curve around itself, and its analog feature for two closed curves, namely the linking number. Despite these features have been established for closed curves, their definition allows for a discrete calculation that is well-defined for non-closed curves and can thus provide information about how much a robot trajectory is curling around a line in space. Such lines can be predefined by a user, observed by vision or, in our case, inferred as virtual lines in space around which the robot motion is curling. We use these topological features to augment the data of a trajectory encapsulated as a Movement Primitive (MP). We propose a method to determine how many virtual segments best characterize a trajectory and then find such segments. This results in a generative model that permits modulating curvature to generate new samples, while still staying within the dataset distribution and being able to adapt to contextual variables., Thiswork has been carried out within the projectCLOTHILDE (“CLOTH manIpulation Learning from DEmonstrations”) funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Advanced Grant agreementNo 741930).Research at IRI is also supported by the Spanish State Research Agency through theMaría de Maeztu Seal of Excellence to IRI MDM-2016-0656.

In this paper, we document changes in political trust in the UK throughout 2020 so as to consider wider implications for the ongoing handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. We analysed data from 18 survey organisations with measures on political trust (general, leadership, and COVID-19-related) spanning the period December 2019–October 2020. We examined the percentage of trust and distrust across time, identifying where significant changes coincide with national events. Levels of political trust were low following the 2019 UK General Election. They rose at the onset of UK lockdown imposed in March 2020 but showed persistent gradual decline throughout the remainder of the year, falling to pre-COVID levels by October 2020. Inability to sustain the elevated political trust achieved at the onset of the pandemic is likely to have made the management of public confidence and behaviour increasingly challenging, pointing to the need for strategies to sustain trust levels when handling future crises.

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in International Journal of Parallel Programming. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10766-021-00709-y. [Abstract] The Divide-and-conquer (D&C) pattern appears in a large number of problems and is highly suitable to exploit parallelism. This has led to much research on its easy and efficient application both in shared and distributed memory parallel systems. One of the most successful approaches explored in this area consists of expressing this pattern by means of parallel skeletons which automate and hide the complexity of the parallelization from the user while trying to provide good performance. In this paper, we tackle the development of a skeleton oriented to the efficient parallel resolution of D&C problems with a high degree of imbalance among the subproblems generated and/or a deep level of recurrence. The skeleton achieves in our experiments average speedups between 11 and 18% higher than those of other solutions, reaching a maximum speedup of 78% in some tests. Nevertheless, the new proposal requires an average of between 13 and 29% less programming effort than the usual alternatives. Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación de España; TIN2016-75845-P Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación de España; PID2019-104184RB-I00 Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación de España; PID2019-104834GB-I00 Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación de España; 10.13039/501100011033 Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación de España; BES-2017-081320 Xunta de Galicia; ED431C 2017/04 Xunta de Galicia; ED431C 2018/19 Xunta de Galicia; ED431G 2019/01 Xunta de Galicia; ED431G 2019/04

PRICKLE2 encodes a member of a highly conserved family of proteins that are involved in the non-canonical Wnt and planar cell polarity signaling pathway. Prickle2 localizes to the post-synaptic density, and interacts with post-synaptic density protein 95 and the NMDA receptor. Loss-of-function variants in prickle2 orthologs cause seizures in flies and mice but evidence for the role of PRICKLE2 in human disease is conflicting. Our goal is to provide further evidence for the role of this gene in humans and define the phenotypic spectrum of PRICKLE2-related disorders. We report a cohort of six subjects from four unrelated families with heterozygous rare PRICKLE2 variants (NM_198859.4). Subjects were identified through an international collaboration. Detailed phenotypic and genetic assessment of the subjects were carried out and in addition, we assessed the variant pathogenicity using bioinformatic approaches. We identified two missense variants (c.122���C���>���T; p.(Pro41Leu), c.680���C���>���G; p.(Thr227Arg)), one nonsense variant (c.214���C���>���T; p.(Arg72*) and one frameshift variant (c.1286_1287delGT; p.(Ser429Thrfs*56)). While the p.(Ser429Thrfs*56) variant segregated with disease in a family with three affected females, the three remaining variants occurred de novo. Subjects shared a mild phenotype characterized by global developmental delay, behavioral difficulties��������epilepsy, autistic features, and attention deficit hyperactive disorder. Computational analysis of the missense variants suggest that the altered amino acid residues are likely to be located in protein regions important for function. This paper demonstrates that PRICKLE2 is involved in human neuronal development and that pathogenic variants in PRICKLE2 cause neurodevelopmental delay, behavioral difficulties and epilepsy in humans.

This paper seeks to compare income distributions from the opportunity advantage viewpoint. That is a measure of how likely it is for a representative individual of one society to receive a higher income than a representative individual of another. Opportunity advantage tries to measure the income opportunities a society offers to an individual, relative to other societies, evaluated from the “veil of ignorance” viewpoint. We show that this notion can be precisely formalised and results in a complete and cardinal income distribution evaluation. We also present an empirical illustration of the gender differences in wage distributions in Spain after the financial crisis. The results show that this criterion offers new insights into the evaluation of differences in opportunity. The first author acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad under projects ECO2015-65820P and PID2019-107081GB-I00, the Generalitat Valenciana under PROMETEO 2109/037, and IMeRA. The second author acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad under project ECO2015-65408-R (MINECO/FEDER).

University–industry interaction has many supporters and some detractors in the scholarly literature. Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) policy frameworks emphasise interactions between universities and stakeholders other than industry, and the contribution made by these interactions to a range of goals such as environmental sustainability. Given the significance of discourse to shape public opinion, it is important that academic and policy actors convey positive views of university interaction. We investigate whether this is happening by examining representations of university interactions in popular culture. Since public opinion can shape science, our investigation could also suggest new research questions. Our sample includes science fiction novels that won prestigious awards (Hugo, Nebula and Locus) for the genre, from the 1970s to the 2010s. The use of an objective corpus of the literature increases external validity, a methodological novelty in representations of science studies. We show how science fiction, predominantly, is critical of university interactions, reflecting a lack of convincing institutional narratives on their benefits. The apprehensions expressed about interactions with industry or other stakeholders are equivalent. We offer some recommendations for research on STI policy frameworks to incorporate critical views of university–society interaction, including threats to sustainability, and new research questions related to defence of non-disclosure of information for political reasons and conflicts of equity due to the lack of career progression for ‘disengaged’ academics., The Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities funded this research through Project CSO2016-79045-C2-2-R of the Spanish National R&D&I Plan. CSIC funded Laura’s stay at INGENIO who worked on Aid JAEINT17_EX_0661 as part of the JAE Intro Programme. David A. Kirby revised an earlier version of the paper and provided feedback that improved the manuscript.

The concept of the human beast is assigned to the French novelist, Émile Zola, who is the first to codify principles of Naturalism, against which all future naturalist works would be compared. In his novels, especially in the saga Les Rougon-Macquart, the human beast, «la bête humaine», appears as a literary character embedded in the lower social strata, who, due to harsh working and living conditions in the French capital during the Second Empire, acts according to its most basic instincts. The actions of a human beast are violent and brutal and its behavior conditioned by limited education. In his novels, Zola applies the doctrines of biological determinism as well as the laws of heredity attained from scientific readings that were very popular among the intellectuals of the period. However, the theoretical principles recollected in Le roman expérimental (G. Charpentier et Cie Éditeurs, 1880) were not equally applied in other countries due to different literary precedents as well as diverse socio-historical and philosophical backgrounds. This paper aims to examine the nuances in the aesthetic representation of the human beast in Zola’s L’Assommoir (1877), Galdós’ La Desheredada (1881) and Crane’s Maggie, a Girl of the Streets (1843), delving into the behavioral patterns which shape the unique characteristics of their human beasts.

Maternal allocation of androgens to the egg yolk allows mothers to adaptively manipulate offspring phenotype. Increases of eggandrogen levels have often been shown to induce sex-specific effects. Some previous studies suggest that females specificallymay suffer a fitness reduction after early exposure to high androgen levels. In this study, we explored whether female birds thatdeveloped exposed to high yolk androgen concentrations would reduce their maternal investment later in life. We explored twodifferent aspects of female reproduction in spotless starlings (Sturnus unicolor): egg coloration (a post mating sexual signal in thisspecies) and egg size. We manipulated androgen yolk levels in a large sample of clutches of this species. We monitored thereproduction of the females that hatched from these eggs, measuring the size and colour of the eggs they laid throughout their life(from 1 to 7 years of age). We found no overall difference in egg colour in relation to treatment, clutch number or age. However,females exposed to high egg androgen levels showed a steeper decrease in egg size along the laying order than controls. Thispattern likely results in a more unbalanced distribution of resources within the clutch, possibly favouring brood size reductions inexperimental females. In addition, control and experimental females differed in how egg volume changed with age. These resultsshow that some egg characteristics may be affected by the female’s exposure to yolk androgens during her own embryonicdevelopment. Our research calls for further long-term research on the influence of prenatal androgens on the fitness mechanismsregulating reproductive investment and its potential signalling role in a perspective of sexual selection., This paper is the result of a long-term study financed by a series of research grants by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades to DG (refs.: CGL2008-03501/BOS, CGL2011-26318 and CGL2017-83843-C2-1-P) and LP-R (ref.: PGC2018-099596-B-I00, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund -ERDF-). From 2009 to 2013, JM was supported by a FPI grant (BES-2009-021383) from the MICINN and currently by a postdoctoral grant from the Juan De La Cierva Subprogram (FJCI-2017-34109), with the financial sponsorship of the MICINN. RM was funded by a Marie Skłodowska Curie Action within the Horizon 2020 Initiative from the European Commission.

The authors would like to correct the errors caused by a wrong equation (A=B+z), at the end of the proof of Lemma 2.1 in the original article, which affects this lemma, two subsequent examples, as well as other statements spread along the paper.

In this paper, we present a robotic workcell for task automation in footwear manufacturing such as sole digitization, glue dispensing, and sole manipulation from different places within the factory plant. We aim to make progress towards shoe industry 4.0. To achieve it, we have implemented a novel sole grasping method, compatible with soles of different shapes, sizes, and materials, by exploiting the particular characteristics of these objects. Our proposal is able to work well with low density point clouds from a single RGBD camera and also with dense point clouds obtained from a laser scanner digitizer. The method computes antipodal grasping points from visual data in both cases and it does not require a previous recognition of sole. It relies on sole contour extraction using concave hulls and measuring the curvature on contour areas. Our method was tested both in a simulated environment and in real conditions of manufacturing at INESCOP facilities, processing 20 soles with different sizes and characteristics. Grasps were performed in two different configurations, obtaining an average score of 97.5% of successful real grasps for soles without heel made with materials of low or medium flexibility. In both cases, the grasping method was tested without carrying out tactile control throughout the task. Research work was completely funded by the European Commission and FEDER through the COMMANDIA project (SOE2/P1/F0638), supported by Interreg-V Sudoe. Part of the facilities used were provided by the Footwear Technological Institute (INESCOP).

In this paper, we study flag codes on the vector space $${{\mathbb {F}}}_q^n$$ F q n , being q a prime power and $${{\mathbb {F}}}_q$$ F q the finite field of q elements. More precisely, we focus on flag codes that attain the maximum possible distance (optimum distance flag codes) and can be obtained from a spread of $${{\mathbb {F}}}_q^n$$ F q n . We characterize the set of admissible type vectors for this family of flag codes and also provide a construction of them based on well-known results about perfect matchings in graphs. This construction attains both the maximum distance for its type vector and the largest possible cardinality for that distance.

Coastal wetlands are among the most productive and valuable ecosystems worldwide, although one of the main factors affecting their survival is the coexistence between agriculture and conservation. This paper analyses the complex balance between agriculture and conservation coexistence in El Hondo Natural Park (Alicante, Spain) coastal wetland by examining stakeholders’ narratives, perceptions, and interactions. The aim is to highlight the concurrence between socio-economic progress and socio-environmental justice perspectives by identifying those driving factors motivating stakeholders’ conflicts while expanding stakeholders’ behaviour and interaction when discussing the current and future management of this socio-ecological system. Data were collected between April and June 2019 from semi-structured interviews and questionnaires to river basin authorities, regional governments, municipalities, irrigation communities, union farms, regional and local ecologist groups, and social movements; and scrutinized through qualitative data analysis and descriptive statistics. Stakeholders discussed the main driving factors identified through the local newspapers to motivating current conflicts and confronting perspectives in El Hondo Natural Park: (1) the origin and evolution of the coastal wetland, (2) the provision and value of ecosystem services, (3) the management of water scarcity and water quality standards, (4) the guarantee and management of public and private investment, and (5) consequences of a natural park declaration. Likewise, the triple-loop analysis of stakeholders’ representativeness, relevance and collaboration highlighted examples of stakeholders’ underrepresentation and power imbalance, a negative assessment of the stakeholders’ actions, and how agreements are based on both stakeholders’ predisposition to collaborate and affinity. Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. This study were funded by Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (FJCI-2015-24346) and University of Alicante (I-PI-88-18).

The conception at which, modernly, buildings are being aspired to achieve to be net zero-energy buildings (NZEBs) are broadly recognized. The heat loss through the windows of buildings is one of the factors contributing to high energy consumption for space heating ensuing in preventable carbon emissions. This talk/paper aims to present the novel constructions and performance attributes of the advanced smart vacuum insulation technologies that are: (i) Vacuum Glazing (VG), (ii) Triple Vacuum Glazing (TVG), (iii) Electrochromic Vacuum Glazing (EVG), (iv) Semi-transparent Photovoltaic Electrochromic Vacuum Quadruple Glazing (STPV-EVQG), (v) Translucent Vacuum Insulation Panel (TVIP), and (vi) Fusion-sealed Vacuum Glazing (FVG). The experimental results show VG achieved U-value of 0.97 Wm-2K-1, it was further reduced with TVG that achieved U-value of 0.33 Wm-2K-1. To control the solar heat gains from 0.41 (transparent mode) to 0.13 (opaque mode), ECG is constructed that achieved a U-value of 0.82 Wm-2K-1, it required electrical power of < 0.4 Wm-2. To make it self-reliant, the semi-transparent PV glazing was integrated to EVG to supply the power and store the generated energy using NiMH battery, the STPV-EVQG achieved U-value of 0.7 Wm-2K-1. Due to the cost/edge-effects of hermetic glass edge-sealing materials, a new structured core transparent vacuum insulation panel (TVIP) is constructed, to accomplish insulation for the windows without edge sealing effects, that achieved U-value of 1.72 Wm-2K-1 but suffered the vacuum pressure degradation. The development of a novel cost-effective fusion seal for the construction of fusion-sealed vacuum glazing (FVG) is detailed that achieved the U-value of 1.24 Wm-2K-1.

In this paper we analyse the performance of machine learning methods in predicting patient information such as age or sex solely from retinal imaging modalities in a heterogeneous clinical population. Our dataset consists of N = 135,667 fundus images and N = 85,536 volumetric OCT scans. Deep learning models were trained to predict the patient’s age and sex from fundus images, OCT cross sections and OCT volumes. For sex prediction, a ROC AUC of 0.80 was achieved for fundus images, 0.84 for OCT cross sections and 0.90 for OCT volumes. Age prediction mean absolute errors of 6.328 years for fundus, 5.625 years for OCT cross sections and 4.541 for OCT volumes were observed. We assess the performance of OCT scans containing different biomarkers and note a peak performance of AUC = 0.88 for OCT cross sections and 0.95 for volumes when there is no pathology on scans. Performance drops in case of drusen, fibrovascular pigment epitheliuum detachment and geographic atrophy present. We conclude that deep learning based methods are capable of classifying the patient’s sex and age from color fundus photography and OCT for a broad spectrum of patients irrespective of underlying disease or image quality. Non-random sex prediction using fundus images seems only possible if the eye fovea and optic disc are visible.

The optimal design of single mixed refrigerant (SMR) natural gas liquefaction process is decisive for upgrading the liquefied natural gas (LNG) value chain and can be achieved using process simulators and derivative-free optimization techniques in simulation–optimization frameworks. The process work consumption can be reduced by modifying process flowsheet and manipulating refrigeration cycle thermodynamic conditions and refrigerant composition. The goal of this paper is the design of energy-efficient SMR liquefaction process for LNG production using simulation–optimization approach, in Aspen HYSYS® and MATLAB®, that considers more decision variables to be optimized with a Nelder–Mead simplex algorithm and small flowsheet modifications, such as hydraulic turbines and flash separators in between compression stages. The present approach resulted in liquefaction process with network duty of 750.2 kJ per kg of natural gas, which is considerably smaller than those reported in the literature. The authors acknowledge the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development-CNPq (Brazil), processes 148184/2019-7, 440047/2019-6, 311807/2018-6, 428650/2018-0, 305055/2017-8, and Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel-CAPES (Brazil) for the financial support.

This paper assesses capital mobility for the Eurozone countries by studying the long-run relationship between domestic investment and savings for the period 1970-2019. Our main goal is to analyze the impact of economic events on capital mobility during this period. We apply the cointegration methodology in a setting that allows us to identify endogenous breaks in the long-run saving-investment relationship. Precisely, the breaks coincide with relevant economic events. We find a downward trend in the saving-investment retention since the 70s for the so-called “core countries”, whereas this trend is not so evident in the peripheral, where the financial and sovereign crises have had a more substantial impact. In addition, our analysis captures other economic events: the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) crisis, the German reunification, the European financial assistance program, and the post-crisis period. Our results also indicate that the original euro design had some flaws that remain unsolved.

Background and aims: Plant parasitic nematodes (PPNs) are among the most important pests in agriculture. Chemical inputs are widely used for their control; however, the negative impact of these agrochemicals on environmental and human health is a current concern. Biological control and interventions on rhizosphere signaling are promising ecofriendly alternatives for managing these pests in the field. Nevertheless, the molecular mechanisms involved in plant-PPN interaction need to be unraveled in order to develop appropriate management strategies. Strigolactones (SLs) are phytohormones that are exuded from roots, acting as signaling molecules in the rhizosphere. They are important cues in the establishment of arbuscular mycorrhizal and Rhizobium-legume symbioses. Recently, it has been shown that SLs can also affect the interaction between plants and certain PPN species; however, data are scarce and ambiguous. Some studies propose that SLs positively regulate PPN species performance acting as attractants to roots, or by inhibiting plant defense responses. On the contrary, other studies suggest that SLs could negatively regulate PPN performance by reducing abscisic acid, or by promoting plant interactions with beneficial soil microorganisms. In the present Opinion paper, we discuss these controversial results and propose future research challenges to develop new management strategies against these harmful PPN species., European Regional Development Fund, Grant RTI2018-09450-B-C31 and Bec.ar program (call 2016) from Ministerio de Modernización (República Argentina).

OBJECTIVES: There is a notable lack of research on the risk factors for multimorbidity, which has become more common over recent decades. Black Americans experience discrimination more often than their White counterparts, and also have significantly higher prevalence of multimorbidity. This paper examines the associations between discrimination and multimorbidity among Black Americans. METHODS: We analyzed data from the National Survey of American Life to calculate the prevalence of two types of discrimination (everyday discrimination, major discriminatory events) and multimorbidity (physical, psychiatric, mixed, any). Using multivariable logistic regression, we examined the associations between discrimination and multimorbidity, adjusting for age, sex, years of education, income-to-poverty ratio, and ethnicity. The everyday discrimination scale was discretized into five categories (none, low, medium, high, very high), but was also treated as a continuous variable. The major discriminatory events were analyzed in separate adjusted models, and as a count of events. RESULTS: When compared with those who did not experience any discrimination, people who experienced everyday discrimination were significantly more likely to report all types of multimorbidity in a dose-response fashion at a conventional level of statistical significance. Most major discriminatory events were associated with greater odds of reporting all types of multimorbidity, as were the counts of major discriminatory events, in a dose-response fashion. CONCLUSIONS: We found strong evidence to suggest that discrimination was associated with greater odds of reporting multimorbidity. Future studies can expand on these findings using longitudinal data to capture the relations between discrimination and health over time, or by testing preventive interventions that allay the damaging health effects of discrimination.

28 pags., 21 figs., 9 tabs. -- This paper is dedicated to the memory of Bruce Swinyard, for his mentorship and his major contributions to the SPIRE-FTS performance and calibration., Context. Star-forming galaxies emit bright molecular and atomic lines in the submillimeter and far-infrared (FIR) domains. However, it is not always clear which gas heating mechanisms dominate and which feedback processes drive their excitation. Aims. The Sgr B2 complex is an excellent template to spatially resolve the main OB-type star-forming cores from the extended cloud environment and to study the properties of the warm molecular gas in conditions likely prevailing in distant extragalactic nuclei. Methods. We present 168 arcminspectral images of Sgr B2 taken with Herschel/SPIRE-FTS in the complete ∼450-1545 GHz band. We detect ubiquitous emission from mid-J CO (up to J = 12-11), HO 2-2, [C I] 492, 809 GHz, and [N II] 205 μm lines. We also present velocity-resolved maps of the SiO (2-1), NH, HCN, and HCO(1-0) emission obtained with the IRAM 30 m telescope. Results. The cloud environment (∼1000 pcaround the main cores) dominates the emitted FIR (∼80%), HO 752 GHz (∼60%) mid-J CO (∼91%), [C I] (∼93%), and [N II] 205 μm (∼95%) luminosity. The region shows very extended [N II] 205 μm emission (spatially correlated with the 24 and 70 μm dust emission) that traces an extended component of diffuse ionized gas of low ionization parameter (U 10) and low L/M4-11 LMratios (scaling as ≈ T). The observed FIR luminosities imply a flux of nonionizing photons equivalent to G≈ 10. All these diagnostics suggest that the complex is clumpy and this allows UV photons from young massive stars to escape from their natal molecular cores. The extended [C I] emission arises from a pervasive component of neutral gas with n≃ 10cm. The high ionization rates in the region, produced by enhanced cosmic-ray (CR) fluxes, drive the gas heating in this component to T≃ 40-60 K. The mid-J CO emission arises from a similarly extended but more pressurized gas component (P/≃ 10K cm): Spatially unresolved clumps, thin sheets, or filaments of UV-illuminated compressed gas (n≃ 10cm). Specific regions of enhanced SiO emission and high CO-to-FIR intensity ratios (I/I≃ 10) show mid-J CO emission compatible with C-type shock models. A major difference compared to more quiescent star-forming clouds in the disk of our Galaxy is the extended nature of the SiO and NHemission in Sgr B2. This can be explained by the presence of cloud-scale shocks, induced by cloud-cloud collisions and stellar feedback, and the much higher CR ionization rate (>10s) leading to overabundant Hand NH. Conclusions. Sgr B2 hosts a more extreme environment than star-forming regions in the disk of the Galaxy. As a usual template for extragalactic comparisons, Sgr B2 shows more similarities to nearby ultra luminous infrared galaxies such as Arp 220, including a "deficit" in the [C I]/FIR and [N II]/FIR intensity ratios, than to pure starburst galaxies such as M 82. However, it is the extended cloud environment, rather than the cores, that serves as a useful template when telescopes do not resolve such extended regions in galaxies., We thank the Spanish MICIU for funding support under grants AYA2017-85111-P and PID2019-106110GB-I00.

NoSQL technologies have become a common component in many information systems and software applications. These technologies are focused on performance, enabling scalable processing of large volumes of structured and unstructured data. Unfortunately, most developments over NoSQL technologies consider security as an afterthought, putting at risk personal data of individuals and potentially causing severe economic loses as well as reputation crisis. In order to avoid these situations, companies require an approach that introduces security mechanisms into their systems without scrapping already in-place solutions to restart all over again the design process. Therefore, in this paper we propose the first modernization approach for introducing security in NoSQL databases, focusing on access control and thereby improving the security of their associated information systems and applications. Our approach analyzes the existing NoSQL solution of the organization, using a domain ontology to detect sensitive information and creating a conceptual model of the database. Together with this model, a series of security issues related to access control are listed, allowing database designers to identify the security mechanisms that must be incorporated into their existing solution. For each security issue, our approach automatically generates a proposed solution, consisting of a combination of privilege modifications, new roles and views to improve access control. In order to test our approach, we apply our process to a medical database implemented using the popular document-oriented NoSQL database, MongoDB. The great advantages of our approach are that: (1) it takes into account the context of the system thanks to the introduction of domain ontologies, (2) it helps to avoid missing critical access control issues since the analysis is performed automatically, (3) it reduces the effort and costs of the modernization process thanks to the automated steps in the process, (4) it can be used with different NoSQL document-based technologies in a successful way by adjusting the metamodel, and (5) it is lined up with known standards, hence allowing the application of guidelines and best practices. This work was supported in part by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities through the Project ECLIPSE under Grants RTI2018-094283-BC31 and RTI2018-094283- B-C32. Furthermore, it has been funded by the AETHER-UA (PID2020-112540RB-C43) Project from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.

Metal-organic framework (MOF) glasses have become a subject of study due to their novelty as an entirely new category of melt quenched glass and their potential applications in areas such as ion transport and sensing. In this paper we show how MOF glasses can be combined with inorganic glasses in order to fabricate a new family of optically transparent materials composed of both MOF and inorganic glass domains. We present the design rules for this family of materials, use an array of experimental techniques to propose the bonding between inorganic and MOF domains, and show that the composites produced are more mechanically pliant than the inorganic glass itself.

Optical fibre networks are advancing rapidly to meet growing traffic demands. Security issues, including attack management, have become increasingly important for optical communication networks because of the vulnerabilities associated with tapping light from optical fibre links. Physical layer security often requires restricting access to channels and periodic inspections of link performance. In this paper, we report how quantum communication techniques can be utilized to detect a physical layer attack. We present an efficient method for monitoring the physical layer security of a high-data-rate classical optical communication network using a modulated continuous-variable quantum signal. We describe the theoretical and experimental underpinnings of this monitoring system and the monitoring accuracy for different monitored parameters. We analyse its performance for both unamplified and amplified optical links. The technique represents a novel approach for applying quantum signal processing to practical optical communication networks and compares well with classical monitoring methods. We conclude by discussing the challenges facing its practical application, its differences with respect to existing quantum key distribution methods, and its usage in future secure optical transport network planning., Optical communication security: Sound the quantum alarm A quantum alarm system can detect eavesdropping on optical communication links faster than classical methods. The system was developed by Yupeng Gong and colleagues at the University of Cambridge, UK, and involves transmitting two modes that are indistinguishable to an eavesdropper over the same channel and at the same wavelength. One mode sends a classical data signal and the other sends the security-monitoring quantum modulated signal. The alarm system is low-cost and can easily be used with high data-rate communication links that are hundreds of kilometers long. It can also be used with other encryption methods. The quantum alarm overcomes issues in other attack detection techniques, including quantum key distribution, which is challenging to implement in high data-rate optical communication networks.

This paper presents a worldsheet theory describing holomorphic maps to twistor space with N fermionic directions. The theory is anomaly free when N=8. Via the Penrose transform, the vertex operators correspond to an N=8 Einstein supergravity multiplet. In the first instance, the theory describes gauged supergravity in AdS_4. Upon taking the flat space, ungauged limit, the complete classical S-matrix is recovered from worldsheet correlation functions., 53 pages

This paper reports on the cathodoluminescence (CL) emission of kamphaugite-(Y) (CaY(CO)(OH)·HO) and kristiansenite [CaScSn(SiO)(SiOOH)] that display very complex spectra. The carbonate sample, growing in spheres no longer than 3 mm, contains significant concentrations of REE giving rise to sharp and narrow wavebands peaked at 312, 486, 546, 574 and 626 nm. These wavebands would be, respectively, associated with the presence of Gd (P → S transition), Dy (F → H), Tb (D → F), Dy (F → H) and Sm (G → H). Kristiansenite, appearing as an isolated pseudo-hexagonal pyramidal crystal smaller than 600 µm, hardly has lanthanide elements and the CL emission is composed of broad wavebands peaked at 298 nm (linked to defect-sites caused by the presence of the Na-0.49%), 334 (due to oxygen vacancies and Me–O bonding defects), 422 (–O–O– type defects and/or O intrinsic defects), 494 (self-trapped excitons), 578 [Mn giving rise to T(G) → A(S) transition and/or Ti/Sn redox reactions] and 654 nm [due to FeT(G) → A(S) transitions]., This work has been partially supported by the CIEMAT-266-DORES.