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Agricultura mediada: infraestructura y representación en el Mar de Plástico desde una perspectiva ecocrítica
No full textMención Internacional en el título de doctorEsta tesis doctoral realiza un análisis mediático del Mar de Plástico almeriense desde una perspectiva ecocrítica, examinando su evolución material y cultural desde sus orígenes, cuando se proyecta como parte de los planes de colonización interna del régimen franquista, hasta la contemporaneidad, cuando empiezan a evidenciarse tensiones en los pilares económicos, sociales y ecológicos que lo sostienen. La investigación explora en términos generales las imbricaciones entre las realidades materiales y los relatos culturales en un contexto de crisis ecosocial, atendiendo específicamente a la conexión entre los sistemas agroalimentarios y los medios audiovisuales, utilizando el Mar de Plástico como caso de estudio. A través de una discusión teórica en la intersección entre las humanidades ecológicas, los estudios de comunicación, y los estudios culturales-ambientales, se conceptualiza el Mar de Plástico como una infraestructura en la que convergen dos regímenes de mediación: uno tecnológico-materialista y otro simbólico-cultural. Estos generan una realidad mediática específica, atravesada tanto por infraestructuras de gestión y control climático como por una serie de imaginarios audiovisuales en torno a este espacio, que se examinan en profundidad a lo largo de la tesis. Metodológicamente, la investigación combina trabajo de archivo, revisión bibliohemerográfica, trabajo de campo, entrevistas en profundidad y análisis audiovisual. Esta aproximación permite articular un análisis historiográfico ambiental del proceso de industrialización del Mar de Plástico y un estudio materialista de su infraestructura, al tiempo que se examinan las intervenciones audiovisuales producidas sobre este espacio. El objetivo final es desentrañar la configuración mediática de uno de los nodos más importantes del sistema agroalimentario español en la confluencia de sus ejes histórico, cultural y ecológico. La investigación visibiliza tanto la realidad infraestructural del Mar de Plástico como las tensiones generadas entre los regímenes visuales que han institucionalizado, legitimizado, instrumentalizado, o cuestionado este modelo extractivista. En última instancia, esta investigación cartografía la heterogeneidad de imágenes generadas en torno a este espacio, examinando los relatos culturales del Mar del Plástico desde una perspectiva ecocrítica.This dissertation offers a media analysis of the Sea of Plastic from an ecocritical perspective, examining its material and cultural evolution from its origins—as part of the Francoist regime’s internal colonization plans—to the present, where tensions have begun to emerge in the economic, social, and ecological pillars that sustain it. The research broadly explores the entanglements between material realities and cultural narratives in a context of socio ecological crisis, focusing specifically on the connection between agri-food systems and audiovisual media, using the Sea of Plastic as a case study. Through a theoretical discussion at the intersection of the environmental humanities, communication studies, and cultural-environmental studies, the Sea of Plastic is conceptualized as an infrastructure in which two mediation regimes converge: a techno materialist one and a symbolic-cultural one. These generate a specific mediated reality, shaped both by infrastructures of climate control and by a set of audiovisual imaginaries surrounding this space, which are examined in depth throughout the thesis. Methodologically, the research combines archival work, bibliographic and press review, fieldwork, in-depth interviews, and audiovisual analysis. This approach allows for both a historiographical environmental analysis of the industrialization process of the Sea of Plastic and a materialist study of its infrastructure, while also examining the audiovisual interventions produced about this space. The ultimate aim is to unravel the media configuration of one of the most important nodes of the Spanish agri-food system, at the confluence of its historical, cultural, and ecological dimensions. The research makes visible both the infrastructural reality of the Sea of Plastic and the tensions generated among the visual regimes that have institutionalized, legitimized, instrumentalized, or questioned this extractivist model. Ultimately, this research maps the heterogeneity of images generated around this space, examining the cultural narratives of the Sea of Plastic from an ecocritical perspective.Programa de Doctorado en Investigación en Medios de Comunicación por la Universidad Carlos III de MadridPresidente: Luis Ignacio Prádanos García.- Secretario: José Francisco Cerdán los Arcos.- Vocal: Beatriz Rodríguez Labajo
Modelos culturales culinarios y protocolarios andinos en la ciudad de Quito de 1822 a 1897
Get PDFPrograma de Doctorado en Humanidades por la Universidad Carlos III de MadridPresidente: Andrés Galera Gómez.- Secretario: Enrique Villalba Pérez.- Vocal: Rafael Cartay Angul
Modelling time series with multiple seasonalities: an application to hourly NO2 pollution levels
Get PDFMultiple seasonalities often appear in high-frequency data such as hourly measurements of air pollutants. These multiple seasonalities are due to human activities, with daily and weekly cycles, and climatic conditions, with daily and annual cycles. Multiple seasonal components were in the past often modelled in a deterministic way by trigonometric functions or dummy variables. Since pollution seasonalities vary over time, the deterministic assumption is very strict and a more flexible model is needed. We propose to allow seasonality to slowly change as a seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model, where the seasonality is modelled as a stochastic process (combining different seasonal ARIMA models). We apply the proposed methodology to hourly measurements of pollutants in Madrid with daily, weekly, and annual seasonalities, and demonstrate the usefulness of our approach by comparing it with other methodological approaches proposed for this type of data. In an extensive exercise involving 15-year hourly forecasts, we show that the proposed procedure performs very well in predicting hourly pollution over a 24-h horizon and improves on deep neural network procedures. Unlike most papers on pollution forecasting, we incorporate a clear exploratory analysis of Madrid's pollution levels based on a deep understanding of the underlying meteorological phenomena. Additionally, the impact on the predictions of covariates such as wind speed, temperature, and festivities was evaluated.The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Spanish government through the Ministry of Science and Innovation projects PID2019-109196GB-I00 and PID2022-138114NB-I00. Daniel Peña also thanks FUNCAS for the support provided for his research. A.M. Alonso also acknowledges the funding by Grant PID2023-151013NB-I00, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by FEDER/UE
Navigating transitions: A longitudinal exploration of career decision-making process dynamics in adolescents
Get PDFIn times of changing labor markets and rapid technological development, individuals are repeatedly faced with career decision-making to manage frequent and complex transitions within and between learning and work. Thus, it is crucial to understand the dynamic process of career decision-making. Career decision-making models propose specific sequences of key aspects, such as actions of career exploration, gaining career knowledge, and making a career decision. However, how such key aspects are related over time remains not well understood. In this six-wave longitudinal study across 30 months, we investigate the intra-personal dynamics between career self management actions (i.e., environmental exploration), career knowledge (i.e., labor market knowledge), and attitudes (i.e., career decidedness). Based on a sample of 1132 students in 8th grade in Switzerland, we tested a random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) to examine within-person dynamics while accounting for stable between-person differences. We found a dynamic link between these variables, in that increases in environmental career exploration predicted subsequent increases in career knowledge and career decidedness. Moreover, increased career knowledge and career decidedness predicted subsequent increases in environmental exploration. We discuss the findings considering a dynamic intra-person approach to understanding the career decision-making process.This research was supported by a research grant awarded to Andreas Hirschi by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research, and Innovation (SERI
Score-driven global climate zones from 1940 to 2024: A new objective climate classification method
No full textWe use a novel score-driven climate clustering model to study climate changefrom 1940 to 2024. The model performs a dynamic reclassification of global geographic locations using climate variables. We obtained data from ERA5, the fifth-generation European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis. Global climate and weather data are taken from 930 locations worldwide. The climate clustering model, which involves a smallnumber of parameters, is a multivariate score-driven multi-regime-switching model of the conditional mean vector and the conditional covariance matrix of climate variables. The model specifies a dynamic transition probability matrix for regimes, representing climate clusters. We consider alternative specifications of the model, influenced by model performance and statisticalestimation quality. Motivated by the literature, we consider five climate clusters and report the evolution of the predictive probability of each climate cluster for the geographic locations where climate change is observed. The results indicate several geographic locations in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres that switch to higher temperature clusters during the sample period.A. Escribano acknowledges the funding received from grants PID2022-151414OB-100 and CEX2021-001181 M, funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/50110001103
Thermal performance estimation and optimisation of a shallow geothermal compound heat pumping system for combined process heating and cooling
Get PDFThe present study proposes a unique thermal loop assembly, between a ground-source vapour compression cycle and an absorption heat pump, for combined heating and cooling production. The feasibility of the setup is conducted through a, data-driven, thermal modelling approach. This is complemented by an optimisation implementation, as well as an economic assessment, based on a detailed case study. Performance was estimated using R134a, as well as 5 alternative refrigerants. The results show, that for all analysed cases, the proposed assembly meets required thermal needs, with adequate efficiency levels, i.e., COP > 3. Contrarily, changing working fluids does not exert a significant effect on the absorption loop performance. From the introduced operational stress indicators, it was found that, albeit yielding the highest COP, R1233zd(E) requires the highest displacement capacity of the analysed lot, making it unsuitable for this application. From the optimisation, it was found that R1234yf, is most suitable working fluid, with the smallest footprint whilst keeping manageable capacity requirements. Finally, the complementary economic assessment showed that this setup, on average, resulted in a 10.5 % gross energy cost reduction, based on doubling the batch processing rate. Based on this information, the presented compound system, is capable of boosting available source capacity, whilst simultaneously producing serviceable heating, cooling and residual outputs. Therefore, it is proposed as a viable alternative for heat pump loop assembly, as well as an alternative for applications beyond the case study here discussed.The research work described in this paper was fully supported by the grants from the National Council of Science and Technology of Mexico, CONACyT
Terahertz-Induced Resistance Oscillations in MgZnO/ZnO Heterostructures
Get PDFHerein, a theoretical work is presented on the radiation-induced magnetoresistance oscillations in MgZnO/ZnO heterostructures in the terahertz (THz) band. It is demonstrated that the photo-oscillations are much better observed in that band in contrast with microwaves where a reduced number of oscillations are obtained, as experiments show. In fact the large effective mass of electrons in this material makes terahertz the more suitable to be used in this kind experiments. For the simulations obtained here, the radiation-driven electron orbit model is used. Thus, it is shown that all photo-oscillations present the main features of the well-known microwave-induced resistance oscillations where one wants to stand out that with MgZnO/ZnO they present the shift of 1/4 of the cycle. The frequency and power dependence obtaining the same behavior as photo-oscillations, based on microwaves, are also studied.This work is supported by the MINECO (Spain) under grant PID2023-149072NB-I00
Resolución del Rector de la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid por la que se delega la firma de determinados actos cuya competencia corresponde al Rector
No full textOptimizing standardized lab-grown skin substitutes evidences a proliferation-differentiation switch based on ascorbic acid
No full textDeveloping standardized bioengineered constructs that accurately replicate human skin is a largely sought-after goal. Pathways initiated at the nurturing interface with the dermal compartment have the potential to modulate the developing epidermal architecture. Here, we identified ascorbic acid, a dermis-donated metabolite, as key in modulating the phenotypical identity of immortalized keratinocytes. Priming monolayers with 2 μg/mL of the culture-stable derivative L-ascorbic acid 2-phosphate (A2P) led to the emergence of a basal-like phenotype within the cells, which showed increased clonogenicity, nuclear/cytoplasmic ratio, and upregulation of progenitor markers. Instead, surpassing this dose induced intracellular ascorbic acid accumulation and promoted a motile status. In organotypic cultures, pre-incubation of founding keratinocytes with 2 μg/mL of A2P improved epithelial layering, whereas higher pretreatments resulted in poor stratification. These findings suggest that ascorbic acid levels in the self-renewing epithelium have a fundamental role in determining whether cells initially commit to differentiation, ultimately influencing regenerative outcomes.This work was supported through grants from the Madrid Government (Comunidad de Madrid) under the multiannual agreement with UC3M in the line of “Research Funds for Beatriz Galindo Fellowships” (REDOXSKIN-CM-UC3M to I.M.-F.), and in the context of the V PRICIT (Regional Programme of Research and Technological Innovation), and by “Proyectos de I + D + I” (PID2020-114230 GA-I00 to I.M.-F.) funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/. A.K.M.-O. was supported by a UC3M-PhD research training scholarship (PIPF), and I.S. has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action Individual postdoctoral fellowship (grant agreement No [101111496]). C.C. is supported by “Proyectos de I + D + I” (PID2021-123199OB-I00 to C.C.), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) and by the European Union. I.C.-P.’s salary is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) and by the European Union through its program “Ayudas para Contratos Predoctorales para la Formación de Doctores” (Predoctoral Fellowship: PRE2022-101403). The CBMSO, in whose installations we performed part of this work, is a “Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence” (grant CEX2021-001154-S) funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and also receives an institutional grant from the Fundación Ramón Areces
Serious Gaming for Upper Limbs Rehabilitation - Game Controllers Features: A Scoping Review
No full textThe use of exergames in the rehabilitation of patients with upper limb dysfunctions has increased significantly. This scoping review aimed to investigate the game controllers (GCs) employed in exergame systems used for rehabilitation, offering insights into the platforms, sensors, and techniques used in their development, implementation, and utilization. We conducted a comprehensive search of Scopus and PubMed databases, encompassing articles published between February 2013 and February 2023. The eligibility criteria included studies on upper limbs (UL) rehabilitation using exergames published in English-language journals, resulting in the identification of 175 pertinent articles. Seven key categories were identified: pathology, participants" conditions, dosage of sessions, GCs, sensors, specific part of the UL rehabilitated, and ergonomics. Stroke (55.4%) and cerebral palsy (6.3%) were the most frequently addressed medical conditions in the exergame-based rehabilitation. The number of participants in the reviewed articles was from one to several hundred. Three types of participants were identified: patients, specialists, and volunteers. Randomized controlled trial (RCT) studies consistently featured a controlled number of sessions (ranging from 6 to 40) lasting an average of 20 minutes, while non-RCT studies displayed more variability. Commercial platforms were favored, accounting for 74.3% of GCs, with physical controllers (57.1%) surpassing virtual ones. Cameras were the predominant sensors (50.3%), although a wide array of sensor types including IMUs, push buttons, and force sensors were also used. Rehabilitation focuses 68% on general UL, 20.6% on hands, 4% on elbows, and 3.4% on arms and shoulders. Notably, only 26.3% of the studies considered ergonomics in the rehabilitation system. Although exergame systems are advancing rehabilitation treatments, there remains a need for further development and research on various aspects, such as ergonomics, controller design, and sensor integration, to enhance their suitability for patient use.This study was funded by the National Polytechnic School of Ecuador. Funding The research leading to these results has received funding from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness as part of the project: "ROBOASSET: Intelligent robotic systems for assessment and rehabilitation in upper limb therapies" (PID2020-113508RB-I00), funded by AEI/10.13039/501100011033, and from the i-REHAB project ``AI-powered Robotic Personalized Rehabilitation” (DTS22/00105), financiado por el Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) y cofinanciado con fondos FEDER de la Unión Europea''