A first approach to earthquake damage estimation in Haiti: advices to minimize the seismic risk

This study is in the frame of the cooperative line that several Spanish Universities and other foreign partners started with the Haitian government in 2010. According to our studies (Benito et al. in An evaluation of seismic hazard in La Hispaniola, after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, 33rd General Assembly of the European Seismological Commission, Moscow, Russia, 2012) and recent scientific literature, the earthquake hazard in Haiti remains high (Calais et al. in Nat Geosci 3:794–799, 2010). In view of this, we wonder whether the country is currently ready to face another earthquake. In this sense, we estimated several damage scenarios in Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haitien associated to realistic possible major earthquakes. Our findings show that almost 50 % of the building stock of both cities would result uninhabitable due to structural damage. Around 80 % of the buildings in both cities have reinforced concrete structure with concrete block infill; however, the presence of masonry buildings becomes significant (between 25 and 45 % of the reinforced concrete buildings) in rural areas and informal settlements on the outskirts, where the estimated damage is higher. The influence of the soil effect on the damage spatial distribution is evident in both cities. We have found that the percentage of uninhabitable buildings in soft soil areas may be double the percentage obtained in nearby districts located in hard soil. These results reveal that a new seismic catastrophe of similar or even greater consequences than the 2010 Haiti earthquake might happen if the earthquake resilience is not improved in the country. Nowadays, the design of prevention actions and mitigation policies is the best instrument the society has to face seismic risk. In this sense, the results of this research might contribute to define measures oriented to earthquake risk reduction in Haiti, which should be a real priority for national and international institutions.

Culturable aerobic and facultative bacteria from the gut of the polyphagic dung beetle Thorectes lusitanicus Jeckel

Unlike other dung beetles, the Iberian geotrupid Thorectes lusitanicus exhibits polyphagous behavior; for example, it is able to eat acorns, fungi, fruits, and carrion in addition to the dung of different mammals. This adaptation to digest a wider diet has physiological and developmental advantages and requires key changes in the composition and diversity of the beetle's gut microbiota. In this study, we isolated aerobic, facultative anaerobic, and aerotolerant microbiota amenable to grow in culture from the gut contents of T. lusitanicus and resolved isolate identity to the species level by sequencing 16S rRNA gene fragments. Using BLAST similarity searches and maximum likelihood phylogenetic analyses, we were able to reveal that the analyzed fraction (culturable, aerobic, facultative anaerobic, and aerotolerant) of beetle gut microbiota is dominated by the phyla Proteobacteria, Firmicutes and Actinobacteria. Among Proteobacteria, members of the order Enterobacteriales (Gammaproteobacteria) were the most abundant. The main functions associated with the bacteria found in the gut of T. lusitanicus would likely include nitrogen fixation, denitrification, detoxification, and diverse defensive roles against pathogens.

Marketing de información en empresas de franquicia

Se realiza un análisis descriptivo de las técnicas de marketing utilizadas por las empresas de franquicia españolas y las extranjeras operativas en España. El objetivo es describir y analizar los recursos de comunicación utilizados por este tipo de empresas para proveer de información a sus tres principales públicos objetivos: las unidades operativas con que cuenta la cadena (franquiciados), los inversores dispuestos a abrir nuevas unidades (posibles franquiciados) y los clientes finales de la empresa. Se analiza la pertinencia de tales recursos desde la propia perspectiva de los empresarios franquiciadores. Los resultados apuntan a un alto uso de los medios disponibles, y en las conclusiones se plantea su interrelación desde la nueva teoría estratégica de comunicación.

Ethanol dehydration via azeotropic distillation with gasoline fractions as entrainers: A pilot-scale study of the manufacture of an ethanol–hydrocarbon fuel blend

We establish experimentally and through simulations the economic and technical viability of dehydrating ethanol by means of azeotropic distillation, using a hydrocarbon as entrainer. The purpose of this is to manufacture a ready-to-use ethanol–hydrocarbon fuel blend. In order to demonstrate the feasibility of this proposition, we have tested an azeotropic water–ethanol feed mixture, using a hydrocarbon as entrainer, in a semi pilot-plant scale distillation column. Four different hydrocarbons (hexane, cyclohexane, isooctane, and toluene) that are representative of the hydrocarbons present in ordinary gasoline have been tested. Each of these hydrocarbons was tested separately in experiments under conditions of constant feed rate and variable reboiler heat duty. The experimentally obtained results are compared with results calculated by a simulator. Finally, the proposed and traditional ethanol dehydration processes are compared to ascertain the advantages of the former over the latter.

La comunicación de la innovación de las agencias de medios. Big data en las webs propias

Las agencias de medios constituyen uno de los sectores publicitarios en el que la aplicación de big data proporciona soluciones innovadoras que debieran ser comunicadas a través, entre otros canales, de sus webs corporativas. Con el propósito de facilitar tal comunicación, las webs deben estar preparadas para ser consultadas por varios dispositivos. Así, este estudio pretende averiguar su uso para comunicar innovaciones relacionadas con big data, cuidando el responsive design, de las 20 primeras agencias de medios españolas, y reflexiona sobre las debilidades, amenazas, fortalezas y oportunidades de tal innovación.