The ager tarraconensis project (right side of river Francoli) (PAT): the application of geophysical survey to identify rural Roman settlement typologies

The methodology of the ager Tarraconensis project also included geophysical surveys aiming to distinguish different categories of rural settlements. Two geophysical techniques (resistivity and magnetometry) were combined to reveal traces of unearth structures from a selection of sites identified from the field survey. Results of geophysical surveys of these seven sites as well as conclusions obtained from this approach are discussed here.

The ambiguous disruption of gender-role expectations in the law and the lady name

The main purpose of this research project is to analyse the major female figures in Wilkie Collins' work of fiction The Law and the Lady, in relation to the times in which the novel was produced and the situation of women in the Victorian era. After taking into account the major events of the life of the author, as well as the sociohistorical conditions of the Victorian period, I try to reach conclusions about whether the author challenges gender-role expectations, presenting the readers with a new form of femininity, of if, on the contrary, he preserves and maintains a conservative, traditional perspective of femininity and female conventions proper to the established parameters of the times in which he lived. Keywords:

Impact of the Spanish smoking law on exponsure to secondhand smoke in offices and hospitality venues: before-and-after study

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: A smoking law was passed by the Spanish Parliament in December 2005 and was enforced by 1 January 2006. The law bans smoking in all indoor workplaces but only in some hospitality venues, because owners are allowed to establish a smoking zone (venues>100 m2) or to allow smoking without restrictions (venues<100 m2). The objective of the study is to assess the impact of the Spanish smoking law on exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) in enclosed workplaces, including hospitality venues. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study design is a before-and-after evaluation. We studied workplaces and hospitality venues from eight different regions of Spain. We took repeated samples of vapor-phase nicotine concentration in 398 premises, including private offices (162), public administration offices (90), university premises (43), bars and restaurants (79), and discotheques and pubs (24). RESULTS: In the follow-up period, SHS levels were markedly reduced in indoor offices. The median decrease in nicotine concentration ranged from 60.0% in public premises to 97.4% in private areas. Nicotine concentrations were also markedly reduced in bars and restaurants that became smoke-free (96.7%) and in the no-smoking zones of venues with separate spaces for smokers (88.9%). We found no significant changes in smoking zones or in premises allowing smoking, including discotheques and pubs. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, this study shows the positive impact of the law on reducing SHS in indoor workplaces. However, SHS was substantially reduced only in bars and restaurants that became smoke-free. Most hospitality workers continue to be exposed to very high levels of SHS. Therefore, a 100% smoke-free policy for all hospitality venues is required.

Who is afraid of the big bad ban? An evaluation of the effects of the Spanish clean air law on expenditure at hospitality venues

Background:In January 2011 Spain modified clean air legislation in force since 2006, removing all existing exceptions applicable to hospitality venues. Although this legal reform was backed by all political parties with parliamentary representation, the government's initiative was contested by the tobacco industry and its allies in the hospitality industry. One of the most voiced arguments against the reform was its potentially disruptive effect on the revenue of hospitality venues. This paper evaluates the impact of this reform on household expenditure at restaurants and bars and cafeterias. Methods and empirical strategy:We use micro-data from the Encuesta de Presupuestos Familiares (EPF) for years 2006 to 2012 to estimate "two part" models where the probability of observing a positive expenditure and, for those who spend, the expected level of expenditure are functions of an array of explanatory variables. We apply a before-after analysis with a wide range of controls for confounding factors and a flexible modeling of time effects.Results:In line with the majority of studies that analyze the effects of smoking bans using objective data, our results suggest that the reform did not cause reductions in households' expenditures on restaurant services or on bars and cafeteria services.

Analysis of the present (and impact) of women in business organizations in contemporany Spanish democracy. The impact of Spanish law of equality reviewed

Since its approval, in 2007, the Spanish Law of Equality (LO 3/2007) has been the target of many scholars on gender issues. Those analyses (and those previous to the first observable results of the Spanish Law of Equality), have largely prioritized political representative institutions and political parties as the main arenas to assess the impact of the new regulation. Nevertheless, to make a comprehensive analysis of the increase and impact of the presence of women in contemporary democracies one cannot exclude the existence of many other crucial actors in our pluralist systems, such as business organizations.In this line, in order to widen the knowledge on the presence of women in Spanish contemporary democracy, as well as to further assess the impact of Spanish Law of Equality on the presence of women in economic and political life, our paper will look at the gender bias of the executive committees in the Spanish Chambers of Commerce and business associations during the period 20010-2012. By placing those actors at the front sight, we aim to contribute with new empirical insights to the current debate on this topic.

Weber's law in decision making: integrating behavioral data in humans with a neurophysiological model

Recent single-cell studies in monkeys (Romo et al., 2004) show that the activity of neurons in the ventral premotor cortex covaries with the animal's decisions in a perceptual comparison task regarding the frequency of vibrotactile events. The firing rate response of these neurons was dependent only on the frequency differences between the two applied vibrations, the sign of that difference being the determining factor for correct task performance. We present a biophysically realistic neurodynamical model that can account for the most relevant characteristics of this decision-making-related neural activity. One of the nontrivial predictions of this model is that Weber's law will underlie the perceptual discrimination behavior. We confirmed this prediction in behavioral tests of vibrotactile discrimination in humans and propose a computational explanation of perceptual discrimination that accounts naturally for the emergence of Weber's law. We conclude that the neurodynamical mechanisms and computational principles underlying the decision-making processes in this perceptual discrimination task are consistent with a fluctuation-driven scenario in a multistable regime.

The Case for Linking World Law Data

The present paper advocates for the creation of a federated, hybrid database in the cloud, integrating law data from all available public sources in one single open access system - adding, in the process, relevant meta-data to the indexed documents, including the identification of social and semantic entities and the relationships between them, using linked open data techniques and standards such as RDF. Examples of potential benefits and applications of this approach are also provided, including, among others, experiences from of our previous research, in which data integration, graph databases and social and semantic networks analysis were used to identify power relations, litigation dynamics and cross-references patterns both intra and inter-institutionally, covering most of the World international economic courts.

Net Neutrality and other challenges for the future of the Internet. Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Internet, Law & Politics. Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, 11-12 July, 2011

Peer-reviewed

Proposta 23 habitatges c. Sant Pere Romaní. Molins de Rei

El projecte dona resposta a un programa de residència col•lectiva de promoció pública, consistent en un màxim de 24 habitatges agrupats en un bloc plurifamiliar, amb les seves corresponents places d’aparcament.L’emplaçament del concurs promogut per l’Institut Català del Sol (INCASOL) és força peculiar. Es tracta d’un solar en el límit NE de la població de Molins de Rei, ubicat precisament en uns terrenys a cavall entre un sol rústic de bosc mediterrani amb una forta pendent i unes preexistències històriques molt puntuals (una masia i una ermita al cim de la muntanya), i un sol industrial de pendent suau, ocupat per grans naus, que s’obre a la plana del Llobregat. El solar es troba deprimit en la seva cara NE, és a dir, el seu nivell base està bastant per sota de la cota del camí que condueix cap el bosc. Per tant, el seu límit és el talús de terra que marca l’inici del terreny feréstec. En canvi, en la vessant SO, no existeix cap impediment a les vistes i a la ventilació, doncs la obertura a la plana del Llobregat és total.Enfront d’aquestes preexistències i atenent també els requeriments tècnics i funcionals presents tant en les bases del concurs com en les necessitats d’avui en dia, el projecte desenvolupat ofereix un conjunt de respostes innovadores als següents temes considerats crucials:1. El respecte al medi ambient i a la cultura del llocEnfront al repte topogràfic, el projecte proposa concentrar els habitatges i garatges en un sol bloc de PB + 3 plantes que no sobrepassa la cota del camí superior, però que se separa el suficient del talús natural posterior per garantir la ventilació creuada. D’aquesta manera es produeixen pocs moviments de terres i l’edifici final, d’ajustada fondària, respecta la muntanya del seu darrera i no manlleva terreny forestal.Vinculant-se també a la cultura del lloc, els acabats exteriors dels habitatges es proposen cromàtica i materialment semblants a la pedra existent en l’entorn, la mateixa que es visualitza en la masia i en l’ermita del bosc. Igualment, el bloc segueix la corbatura natural del carrer, ajustant-se a la alineació de vial per tal de no imposar-se a la morfologia traçada des de temps pretèrits.2. La relació amb l’exteriorLa resposta al lloc comporta també la configuració interna dels habitatges des del conjunt i des de la unitat habitable. Així, la cara NE, junt a la muntanya, es reserva per el corredor de distribució comunitari, al que s’obren de manera tamisada les cambres de rentat i, com a molt, un dormitori. En canvi, la cara SO, oberta a les vistes de la plana, al sol i a la llum més intensa, concentra les sales d’estar i la majoria de dormitoris. Aquestes cambres, a més a més, es perllonguen cap a l’exterior per mitjà duna terrassa coberta susceptible de tancar-se o obrir-se segons els requeriments climàtics de cada moment del dia o de l’època del any, convertint-se així en una estança més de la casa. Climàticament, la terrassa fa les funcions de cambra d’aire quiet al hivern, i de doble protecció solar al estiu.D’altra banda, tenint en compte el caràcter rural del lloc, i considerant que es tracta de l’última edificació de la població abans d’accedir al terreny boscós, es proposen uns habitatges que reforcen el caràcter veïnal del carrer, situats a 80-150 cm de la cota de vial, que gaudeixen d’un jardí privat.3. La innovació tipològica i la optimització del espaiInteriorment, la superfície dels habitatges s’optimitza de manera que en ells hi apareixen els mínims distribuïdors, per tal d’evitar passadissos i passos constrenyits. La relació de la sala i el menjador es produeix en diagonal, proposant-se la ubicació de la cuina en el centre de la casa. D’aquesta manera, es dona resposta a les necessitats de vida actuals, on els espais principals dels habitatges demanen una certa flexibilitat en les seves funcions.Igualment es proposa de manera innovadora la generació d’un distribuïdor amb un rentamans doble, que dona accés tant al bany de la casa com a la zona de rentat, tant necessària en qualsevol habitatge. Aquesta peça ventila a l’exterior a través d’una gelosia i garanteix les funcions d’estenedor. D’aquesta manera, la ‘pica exterior’ pot satisfer a través d’un sol element diverses funcions, estalviant així espai i flexibilitzant el seu ús. 4. L’accessibilitat i la mobilitat interiorTots els habitatges son visitables amb cadira de rodes a la sala, la cuina, el bany i, com a mínim, una habitació. La manca de passadissos i l’amplitud dels passos i portes així ho permet.De la mateixa manera, existeix un itinerari practicable que uneix la via pública amb l’entrada de cada habitatge, havent-se suprimit en ell totes les barreres arquitectòniques.5. La ecoeficiència i l’acompliment del Codi Tècnic de l’EdificacióLa sostenibilitat de la proposta satisfà diversos paràmetres i alhora aporta solucions novetoses:-minimització de moviments de terres-garatges en planta baixa oberts al pati posterior i, per tant, sense extractors-ventilació creuada en tots els habitatges-assoleiament garantit en tots els habitatges durant les 10 i les 14 hores durant el solstici d’hivern-protecció solar durant l’estiu-safareig ventilat per estendre la roba i per l’estalvi de l’aparell de secadora-façana prefabricada amb cambra interna: transmitància tèrmica idònia per la zona-forats de façana de menys del 40% de la superfície total, tal i com marca el CTE -finestres amb vidres dobles per aïllament del so aeri-utilització de sistemes pre-industrialitzats en un 80% de la superfície d’estructura i en un 80% dels tancaments exteriorsLes instal•lacions tenen en compte els requeriments mediambientals:-diferenciació de canyeries d’aigües negres i pluvials-aparells amb mecanismes d’estalvi d’aigua-tuberies de calefacció vistes que aporten calor suplementari als radiadors-producció d’aigua calenta sanitària amb energia solar-instal•lació d’un aljub de reaprofitament d’aigües pluvials per al rec del jardí-espai de recollida selectiva de residus a les cuines-circuit de pre-instal•lació domòtica

Asymptotic equivalence between the unconditional maximum likelihood and the square-law nonlinearity symbol timing estimation

This paper provides a systematic approach to theproblem of nondata aided symbol-timing estimation for linearmodulations. The study is performed under the unconditionalmaximum likelihood framework where the carrier-frequencyerror is included as a nuisance parameter in the mathematicalderivation. The second-order moments of the received signal arefound to be the sufficient statistics for the problem at hand and theyallow the provision of a robust performance in the presence of acarrier-frequency error uncertainty. We particularly focus on theexploitation of the cyclostationary property of linear modulations.This enables us to derive simple and closed-form symbol-timingestimators which are found to be based on the well-known squaretiming recovery method by Oerder and Meyr. Finally, we generalizethe OM method to the case of linear modulations withoffset formats. In this case, the square-law nonlinearity is foundto provide not only the symbol-timing but also the carrier-phaseerror.