The patents in the introduction of reinforced concrete in Spain: "Alhondiga de Bilbao" case study

Reinforced concrete structures are introduced in Spain mainly by French influence. This happens in the late nineteenth century, following the scheme operating through proprietary systems prevailing in Europe. Systems initially have poor scientific support reaching, even early twentieth century, an impediment to the development of concrete structures, due to the lack of knowledge shown, as well as due to a series of accidents. Therefore, from the end of the first decade of the past century are enacted a series of regulations in many countries, that will change the design and calculation of reinforced concrete structure. The knowledge of the environment of the patent systems, its beginnings and the circumstances of their application allow us to understand the constraints of the early concrete structures, as presented in the Bilbao wine store (1906).

Un uso metafórico del vino en Aristófanes: las vinosas treguas de «Acarnienses», 186-200

[ES] Aristófanes es un autor que muestra en sus obras una predilección especial por el vino, al que hace numerosas alusiones de todo tipo, relacionándolo con la celebración y la fiesta. Podemos destacar en particular algunos usos metafóricos en los que se muestra la estrecha relación que existe entre éste y la paz, con la que en cierta manera puede llegar a identificarse. Tal es el caso de un pasaje de Aristófanes (Acarnienses, 186-200) en el que las diversas propuestas de tregua se presentan como si fueran vinos de diversas añadas que el protagonista debe catar.

What Can the Brain Teach Us about Winemaking? An fMRI Study of Alcohol Level Preferences

Over the last few decades, wine makers have been producing wines with a higher alcohol content, assuming that they are more appreciated by consumers. To test this hypothesis, we used functional magnetic imaging to compare reactions of human subjects to different types of wine, focusing on brain regions critical for flavor processing and food reward. Participants were presented with carefully matched pairs of high- and low- alcohol content red wines, without informing them of any of the wine attributes. Contrary to expectation, significantly greater activation was found for low- alcohol than for high- alcohol content wines in brain regions that are sensitive to taste intensity, including the insula as well as the cerebellum. Wines were closely matched for all physical attributes except for alcohol content, thus we interpret the preferential response to the low- alcohol content wines as arising from top-down modulation due to the low alcohol content wines inducing greater attentional exploration of aromas and flavours. The findings raise intriguing possibilities for objectively testing hypotheses regarding methods of producing a highly complex product such as wine.