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This study aimed to compare the water age in a drinking water distribution network (DWDN) using tracers and EPANET. The results indicate that all DWDN have residence times within the “short” time. established by the EPA and does not represent quality problems. These two techniques provided similar estimates of water age with small differences at points close to the treatment plant. This difference may be due to the fact that tracers can be retained in pipes, which overestimates the age of the water; meanwhile, EPANET could underestimate residence times due to the calibration or simplified representation of the network.

The introduction of autonomous vehicles (AVs) has the potential to drastically change society, planning, design, and development strategies. This study uses the PRISMA protocol to carry out a systematic literature review, focusing on the backcasting method as an analytic tool. By examining. 21 studies published between 2003 and 2024, this paper highlights the phases of backcasting: visioning, policy packaging, and appraisal, and identifies critical factors necessary for the successful integration of AVs. Visioning for future driverless cities includes high-quality urban areas, active mobility, and innovative developments. Policies and Packaging suggested a focus on restricting vehicular access, transit-oriented development, and encouraging public transportation. Appraisal reveals skepticism about the positive impacts of AVs, urging policies that limit access to urban areas and promote sustainable modes of transportation. The main contribution of this study lies in its comprehensive application of backcasting to AV implementation, offering a structured approach to envisioning future urban scenarios, formulating supportive policies, and evaluating their impact. This analysis provides a solid foundation for future research, urging us to explore the intersection between AVs, citizen participation, and environmental sustainability to achieve more efficient and sustainable cities.

Resumen El artículo analiza la vida, el exilio y la obra artística del pintor republicano José Luis Fernández Martínez (pintor Sarralde-“Pasajes”) bajo el gobierno republicano y el sucesivo régimen franquista. Alistado como voluntario en el ejército de la República, fue afectado en la Sección de Cultura del Comisariado General de Guerra trabajando codo a codo con otros artistas; sobrevivió a los vencedores enmascarando su pasado durante la posguerra y haciendo frente a los estragos de una España ennegrecida durante la etapa del primer franquismo. Tuvo la suerte de viajar a América muy pronto, en 1945, y la osadía, de cara al gobierno franquista, de entablar amistad con exiliados republicanos en México, en donde se casó y formó familia. Desde entonces y durante largos años residió entre las dos orillas. Su pincel retrató a ilustres personajes del ámbito de la cultura y política durante el gobierno republicano, el régimen franquista y la república de México; pero también aquellos otros exiliados republicanos o personajes afines a la causa en América. Fue único en conectar uno y otro mundo, tan distintos, gracias a su arte.

Katydids produce sound for signaling and communication by stridulation of the tegmina. Unlike crickets, most katydids are known to sing at ultrasonic frequencies. This has drawn interest in the investigation of the biophysics of ultrasonic sound production, detection, evolution, and ecology (including predator–prey interactions) of these katydids. However, most of these studies are based on species from the Neotropics, while little is known about katydid species from the hyperdiverse region of Southeast Asia. To address this, a concerted effort to document, record, and describe the calling songs of Southeast Asian katydids, especially species that call at ultrasonic frequencies, was made. A study spanning two years (2018–2020) in the Malay Peninsula (Singapore and Malaysia), Borneo (Brunei Darussalam and Sabah), and the Philippines revealed previously unknown calls of 24 katydid species from four subfamilies. The calling songs of Southeast Asian katydid species are highly diversified in terms of time and frequency. Call structure can range from isolated syllables (e.g., Holochlora), continuous trills (e.g., Axylus philippinus), to short pulse-trains (e.g., Euanisous teuthroides) and complex echemes (e.g., Conocephalus spp.), with 87.5% of species having ultrasonic peak frequencies and 12.5% being considered extreme ultrasonic callers (peak frequency >40 kHz). The call spectrum ranges from tonal (e.g., spectral entropy is 6.8 in Casigneta sp. 2) to resonant (entropy is 8.8 in Conocephalus cognatus). Of the 24 species whose calls are described here, we imaged and described the sound-producing structures of 18. This study provides a preliminary overview of the acoustic diversity of katydids in Southeast Asia, and the authors hope to inspire further investigation into the bioacoustics of little-known katydids from these areas. Amassing a database of calling songs and sound-producing organ illustrations from different species is important to address taxonomic impediments while advancing our knowledge about the bioacoustics of Southeast Asian katydids.

Many studies have shown that air quality in cities is affected due to emissions of carbon from vehicles. As a result, policymakers (e.g., municipalities) intensely search for new ways to reduce air pollution due to its relation to health diseases. With this concern, connected vehicle technologies can leverage alternative on-road emissions control policies. The present investigation studies the impact on air pollution by (i) updating vehicles’ routes to avoid pollution exposure (route choice policy), (ii) updating vehicles’ speed limits (speed control policy), and (iii) considering electric vehicles (EVs). Vehicles are informed in advance about route conditions (i.e., on-road emissions) using the vehicular network. We found that by updating vehicle routes, 7.43% less CO emissions are produced within the evaluated region. Also, we find no evidence of significant emissions reductions in the case of limiting vehicles’ speed. Lastly, with 30% of EV penetration, safe CO emissions levels are reached.

Analizar el anarquismo desde un punto de vista microhistórico ha sido el principal objetivo del presente artículo. Para ello, nos hemos apoyado en la figura del exiliado republicano anónimo Manuel Hibernón con el fin de trazar esta acción ideológica en el contexto de preguerra y guerra civil española y exilio en Francia y Argentina. A través de esta experiencia de vida anónima, el estudio se adentra en el mosaico del movimiento anarquista de la primera mitad del siglo XX, especialmente en el contexto barcelonés.

With emerging technologies like cloud computing and big data, managing traditional networks has become more demanding. Software-defined networking (SDN) promises faster implementation, flexibility, and simplified network management. However, due to SDN’s centralized nature, it encounters limitations. SDN controllers should have enough processing power to deal with a high amount of flow. In addition, a single point of failure may affect the network’s resiliency. For these issues, multi-instance implementation enables distributed control. However, this solution implies an intrinsic controller-to-controller synchronization channel. In this article, we propose different failure scenarios in both the data and control planes to provide network administrators with a clear view of the constraints of network reliability, load balancing, and scalability in SDN environments. The simulation results show that, regarding resiliency, SDN networks require half the time compared to traditional networks in order to recover from a link failure. Regarding load-balancing capabilities, load balancing is not guaranteed with the reactive forwarding approach (on-demand flow installation). Lastly, the SDN multi-instance solution impacts the network performance by between 1% and 21% compared to the single-instance case.

La experiencia mundial sobre la pérdida de bienes históricos corrobora que los asentamientos urbanos patrimoniales construidos con tierra se encuentran en evidente riesgo sísmico. Esta problemática posiciona a las intervenciones de refuerzo estructural como una alternativa para proteger estas edificaciones. En el presente artículo se plantea una propuesta arquitectónica para el refuerzo sísmico con carrizo (Phragmites australis) para muros de mampostería de adobe; el proceso metodológico incluye la caracterización del material, construcción de arquetipos, diseño y validación del refuerzo a partir de ensayos físicos que representen el efecto de cargas horizontales en arquetipos con y sin refuerzo estructural. Los resultados experimentales muestran que el ángulo de inclinación de los arquetipos reforzados supera a aquellos sin refuerzo en 17,49%, y el ancho de las fisuras se reduce en 71,47%. También se incrementa la capacidad a flexión y se adapta en 87,32% para uso según criterios de autenticidad, mínima intervención y compatibilidad.

Honey has become one of the prime targets for adulteration and mislabeling. As the demand for honey increases, adulteration becomes more rampant. This study is an offshoot of the previous findings of the significant prevalence of C4-sugar adulterated honey from the local market analyzed using the International Standard Carbon Isotope Ratio Analysis AOAC 998.12 (ISCIRA) method. Employing a combination of handheld X-ray fluorescence (hXRF) spectrometry and logistic regression, we analyzed 25 authentic and 25 adulterated honey samples previously identified with ISCIRA. The point-and-shoot hXRF method detects six elements (Ca, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, and Ni) in both authentic and adulterated samples. Logistic regression models, optimized for 70-30 and leave-one-out cross-validation, achieve accuracies between 80.0-86.7% based on three elements (K, Cr, and Ni). Setting threshold probabilities at 0.5 and 0.8 prevents the misclassification of adulterated samples as authentic, but some authentic samples can be misclassified. The proposed portable hXRF method demonstrates remarkable capability in rapidly and cost-effectively detecting C4 sugar adulteration in honey, potentially alleviating reliance on resource-intensive laboratory techniques. While additional validation steps remain essential for precise classification, our study significantly contributes to ensuring the authenticity of local honey products in the Philippine market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of autonomous vehicles (AVs) has the potential to drastically change society, planning, design, and development strategies. This study uses the PRISMA protocol to carry out a systematic literature review, focusing on the backcasting method as an analytic tool. By examining. 21 studies published between 2003 and 2024, this paper highlights the phases of backcasting: visioning, policy packaging, and appraisal, and identifies critical factors necessary for the successful integration of AVs. Visioning for future driverless cities includes high-quality urban areas, active mobility, and innovative developments. Policies and Packaging suggested a focus on restricting vehicular access, transit-oriented development, and encouraging public transportation. Appraisal reveals skepticism about the positive impacts of AVs, urging policies that limit access to urban areas and promote sustainable modes of transportation. The main contribution of this study lies in its comprehensive application of backcasting to AV implementation, offering a structured approach to envisioning future urban scenarios, formulating supportive policies, and evaluating their impact. This analysis provides a solid foundation for future research, urging us to explore the intersection between AVs, citizen participation, and environmental sustainability to achieve more efficient and sustainable cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

La calidad es un principio fundamental de las políticas educativas en Ecuador. En ese sentido, el objetivo de la investigación es describir los indicadores bibliométricos de la producción científica indexada en la base de datos de espectro amplio Web of Science relacionada con la calidad educativa en el contexto de la educación ecuatoriana. La investigación es descriptiva, comparativa y de carácter retrospectiva, se seleccionaron 15 documentos usando ecuaciones de búsqueda aplicadas a la base de datos Web of Science. Los resultados proporcionan indicadores de producción, visibilidad, impacto y colaboración, identificando un ritmo de producción decreciente con una tasa de variación del -85,71%. Se concluye que existe un reducido interés por realizar estudios que conlleven a entender y proponer procesos que mejoren la calidad educativa y, los estudios realizados en el periodo de estudio se enfocan en determinar diversas estrategias que permitan mejorar la calidad de la educación ecuatoriana, especialmente en la gerencia y evaluación educativa, así como la adaptación curricular inherente en los procesos de formación estudiantil.

La existencia de fallas de mercado induce a que la inversión privada en actividades de innovación sea menor a la socialmente óptima. De ahí que la intervención del estado puede ser fundamental para promover actividades de innovación tendientes a corregir este problema. El presente artículo, mediante la estimación de un sistema de ecuaciones en su forma reducida, evalúa si la financiación pública estimula la inversión en innovación y mejora el desempeño innovador y económico empresarial en el Ecuador, utilizando la Encuesta de Actividades de Innovación del Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos, versiones 2009-2011/2012-2014. Se encontró que el apoyo público incrementa la inversión en innovación, promoviendo fundamentalmente la innovación exógena. En cuanto a los efectos sobre la capacidad de innovar en producto o proceso y a los efectos sobre la productividad, se encontraron resultados que difieren de acuerdo al periodo de análisis y al sector económico.