The Costs of Drought: the Exceptional 2007-2008 Case of Barcelona

35 p.

Las comunidades de montes en Guipúzcoa en el tránsito del Medievo a la Edad Moderna

Ejemplar dedicado a: Élites sociales y poder territorial.

About the limits of metalanguage: An essay on the modelisation of Latin grammatical lexicography

[EN] Progress in methodology in specific fields is usually very closely linked to the technological progress in other areas of knowledge. This justifies the fact that lexicographical techniques have had to wait for the arrival of the IT era of the last decades of the 20th century in order to be able to create specialised electronic dictionaries which can house and systemise enormous amounts of information which can later be dealt with quickly and efficiently. This study proposes a practical-methodological model which aims to solve the grammatical treatment of adverbs in Ancient Latin. We have suggested a list of 5 types, in a decreasing order from a greater to lesser degree of specialisation; technical (T), semi-technical (S-T), instrumental-valued (I-V), instrumental- descriptive (I-D), instrumental-expository (I-E).

Classification of neocortical interneurons using affinity propagation

In spite of over a century of research on cortical circuits, it is still unknown how many classes of cortical neurons exist. Neuronal classification has been a difficult problem because it is unclear what a neuronal cell class actually is and what are the best characteristics are to define them. Recently, unsupervised classifications using cluster analysis based on morphological, physiological or molecular characteristics, when applied to selected datasets, have provided quantitative and unbiased identification of distinct neuronal subtypes. However, better and more robust classification methods are needed for increasingly complex and larger datasets. We explored the use of affinity propagation, a recently developed unsupervised classification algorithm imported from machine learning, which gives a representative example or exemplar for each cluster. As a case study, we applied affinity propagation to a test dataset of 337 interneurons belonging to four subtypes, previously identified based on morphological and physiological characteristics. We found that affinity propagation correctly classified most of the neurons in a blind, non-supervised manner. In fact, using a combined anatomical/physiological dataset, our algorithm differentiated parvalbumin from somatostatin interneurons in 49 out of 50 cases. Affinity propagation could therefore be used in future studies to validly classify neurons, as a first step to help reverse engineer neural circuits.

Breaking the 400 ppm barrier: Physical and Social implications of the recent CO2 rise

6 p.

Changes in social inequalities in disability-free life expectancy in Southern Europe: the case of the Basque Country

Background: Health expectancy is a useful tool to monitor health inequalities. The evidence about the recent changes in social inequalities in healthy expectancy is relatively scarce and inconclusive, and most studies have focused on Anglo-Saxon and central or northern European countries. The objective of this study was to analyse the changes in socioeconomic inequalities in disability-free life expectancy in a Southern European population, the Basque Country, during the first decade of the 21st century. Methods: This was an ecological cross-sectional study of temporal trends on the Basque population in 1999-2003 and 2004-2008. All-cause mortality rate, life expectancy, prevalence of disability and disability free-life expectancy were calculated for each period according to the deprivation level of the area of residence. The slope index of inequality and the relative index of inequality were calculated to summarize and compare the inequalities in the two periods. Results: Disability free-life expectancy decreased as area deprivation increased both in men and in women. The difference between the most extreme groups in 2004-2008 was 6.7 years in men and 3.7 in women. Between 1999-2003 and 2004-2008, socioeconomic inequalities in life expectancy decreased, and inequalities in disability-free expectancy increased in men and decreased in women. Conclusions: This study found important socioeconomic inequalities in health expectancy in the Basque Country. These inequalities increased in men and decreased in women in the first decade of the 21st century, during which the Basque Country saw considerable economic growth.

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).

From the Cajal alumni Achucarro and Rio-Hortega to the rediscovery of never-resting microglia

Under the guidance of Ramon y Cajal, a plethora of students flourished and began to apply his silver impregnation methods to study brain cells other than neurons: the neuroglia. In the first decades of the twentieth century, Nicolas Achucarro was one of the first researchers to visualize the brain cells with phagocytic capacity that we know today as microglia. Later, his pupil Pio del Rio-Hortega developed modifications of Achucarro's methods and was able to specifically observe the fine morphological intricacies of microglia. These findings contradicted Cajal's own views on cells that he thought belonged to the same class as oligodendroglia (the so called "third element" of the nervous system), leading to a long-standing discussion. It was only in 1924 that Rio-Hortega's observations prevailed worldwide, thus recognizing microglia as a unique cell type. This late landing in the Neuroscience arena still has repercussions in the twenty first century, as microglia remain one of the least understood cell populations of the healthy brain. For decades, microglia in normal, physiological conditions in the adult brain were considered to be merely "resting," and their contribution as "activated" cells to the neuroinflammatory response in pathological conditions mostly detrimental. It was not until microglia were imaged in real time in the intact brain using two-photon in vivo imaging that the extreme motility of their fine processes was revealed. These findings led to a conceptual revolution in the field: "resting" microglia are constantly surveying the brain parenchyma in normal physiological conditions. Today, following Cajal's school of thought, structural and functional investigations of microglial morphology, dynamics, and relationships with neurons and other glial cells are experiencing a renaissance and we stand at the brink of discovering new roles for these unique immune cells in the healthy brain, an essential step to understand their causal relationship to diseases.