Grupos topológicos

The main goal of this work is to give the reader a basic introduction into the subject of topological groups, bringing together the areas of topology and group theory.

Energy retrofits in social housing. Analysis of its thermal behaviour.

468 p.

Inflazio kosmikoaren Fisika: Unibertsoaren egituraren jatorri kuantikoa

[ES] Analizamos el modelo de inflación cósmica más sencilla, y cómo este, a la vez que soluciona los problemas del modelo cosmológico estándar, es capaz de explicar el origen de la estructura a gran escala del universo.

Intercambio iónico en estado sólido de cobre sobre zeolitas

La creciente preocupación por reducir las emisiones de CO2, responsable entre otros del efecto invernadero, ha promovido el desarrollo de vehículos de bajo consumo de combustible, como son los vehículos ligeros, híbridos y vehículos con motores diésel. Los motores diésel tienen varias ventajas sobre los motores de gasolina: menor consumo de combustible (menor producción de CO2), mayor par motor y mayor durabilidad. Sin embargo, la efectividad de los catalizadores de estos vehículos a la hora de eliminar los NOx producidos durante la combustión es limitada, por lo que se buscan nuevas alternativas a los catalizadores clásicos, que puedan eliminar en mayor medida estos compuestos, como la tecnología SCR. Los catalizadores estudiados para esta tecnología son zeolitas intercambiadas con metales de transición, como son el Cu o el Fe, puesto que presentan una muy buena relación entre conversión de los NOx y estabilidad a altas temperaturas.

Memoria asociativa en redes tipo Hopfield balanceadas

[ES] Análisis computacional de un modelo (además de su fenomenología emergente) de red asociativa tipo Hopfield que se ha modificado para de cabida a evidencias biológicas como es la del balanceado entre las neuronas excitadoras e inhibidoras en la corteza cerebral.

Poblaciones urbanas de anfibios y reptiles de Bilbao: inventario y estudio del estado de salud de Podarcis muralis

Se realizó un inventariado de las poblaciones urbanas de reptiles y anfibios de la ciudad de Bilbao. Posteriormente, se eligió una especie adecuada ("Podarcis muralis") para analizar su estado de salud y compararlo con el de poblaciones no urbanas. El trabajo está escrito en castellano.

Spectroscopic study of galaxies in the Herschel Reference Sample

Galaxies are clusters of millions and billions of stars dynamically stable, with gas, dust and dark matter. They are the biggest isolated objects known in the Universe . Even though they are very complex systems, today we have a clear knowledge about their evolution and about their physical phenomena. Aside from the stellar component there is a gaseous component, principally neutral Hydrogen (HI), and dust that, although is not a significant component in terms of the mass, plays an important role on the absorption phenomena. Finally, cinematic and other kind of observations suggest the existence of a spheric dark matter halo, dominant in terms of mass and more extensive than the barionic component.

Surface plasmons and effects of losses in propagating modes in a chain of silver nanoparticles

In this work a chain of 4000 silver nanoparticles embedded in a glass medium is considered, and its leftmost particle is excited by an electric field pulse of Gaussian shape. Considering Drude’s model, losses of the system are taken into account by γ factor, which stands for the Ohmic losses, and different quantities, such as frequencies of excited modes and group velocities are calculated. Besides, these results are compared to those obtained from the dispersion relation of an infinite chain. The increase of losses affects the lifetime and propagation length of the plasmon; besides, although the response dispersion relation for an infinite chain seems to remain invariable, this is not the case for a finite chain. The mismatches are bigger for higher losses. Furthermore, plasmon propagation velocities are analysed, and an explanation for the mismatch of longitudinal modes close to the intersection point with the dispersion of light is suggested. Finally, some concepts to treat this problem from the energy transport point of view are introduced.

Fitting BICEP2 with defects, primordial gravitational waves and dust

In this work we discuss the possibility of cosmic defects being responsible for the B-mode signal measured by the BICEP2 collaboration. We also allow for the presence of other cosmological sources of B-modes such as inflationary gravitational waves and polarized dust foregrounds, which might contribute to or dominate the signal. On the one hand, we find that defects alone give a poor fit to the data points. On the other, we find that defects help to improve the fit at higher multipoles when they are considered alongside inflationary gravitational waves or polarized dust. Finally, we derive new defect constraints from models combining defects and dust. This proceeding is based on previous works [1, 2].

Magnetoelectric metallic glass/polymer laminated composites: from fabrication to applications

131 p.

Expression and Localization of Opioid Receptors in Male Germ Cells and the Implication for Mouse Spermatogenesis

The presence of endogenous opioid peptides in different testicular cell types has been extensively characterized and provides evidence for the participation of the opioid system in the regulation of testicular function. However, the exact role of the opioid system during the spermatogenesis has remained controversial since the presence of the mu-, delta-and kappa-opioid receptors in spermatogenic cells was yet to be demonstrated. Through a combination of quantitative real-time PCR, immunofluorescence, immunohistochemistry and flow cytometry approaches, we report for the first time the presence of active mu-, deltaand kappa-opioid receptors in mouse male germ cells. They show an exposition time-dependent response to opioid agonist, hence suggesting their active involvement in spermatogenesis. Our results contribute to understanding the role of the opioid receptors in the spermatogenesis and could help to develop new strategies to employ the opioid system as a biochemical tool for the diagnosis and treatment of male infertility.

Deepwater and Other Sharks of the U.S. Atlantic Ocean Exclusive Economic Zone

Fifty-one deepwater and other shark species of the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico, which currently are not included in any Federal fishery management plan, are described, with a focus on primary distribution. Many of these shark species are not well known, while others which are more common may be of particular interest. Owing to concerns regarding possible increases in fishing effort for some of these species, as well as possible increases in bycatch rates as other fisheries move farther offshore, it is important that these sharks be considered in marine ecosystem management efforts. This will necessitate a better understanding of their biology and distribution. Primary distribution maps are included, based on geographic information system (GIS) analyses of both published and unpublished data, and a review of the literature. The most recent systematic classification and nomenclature for these species is used.

The California Red Sea Urchin, Strongylocentrotus franciscanus, Fishery: Catch, Effort, and Management Trends

California's red sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus franciscanus, catch peaked at 23,577 metric tons (t) in 1988. Since then, catches and CPUE have trended downward at different rates in northern and southern California, with 10,086 t landed statewide in 1995. West coast sea urchin catches and CPUE from British Columbia, Can., to Baja California, Mex., have generally declined during this period which followed a decade of rapid fishery expansion. This expansion was in response to increasing demand from Japan fueled by rising prices based largely on a more favorable export currency exchange rate. West coast stock assessment methods have been based on integrating a combination of fisheries dependent data and population surveys into models at various levels of complexity. California management policy has centered on technical measures such as size limits and seasonal closures and has been largely ineffective in stabilizing declining catches.

Horizontal and vertical movements of juvenile bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) in relation to oceanographic conditions of the western North Atlantic, determined with ultrasonic telemetry

We employed ultrasonic transmitters to follow (for up to 48 h) the horizontal and vertical movements of five juvenile (6.8–18.7 kg estimated body mass) bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) in the western North Atlantic (off the eastern shore of Virginia). Our objective was to document the fishes’ behavior and distribution in relation to oceanographic conditions and thus begin to address issues that currently limit population assessments based on aerial surveys. Estimation of the trends in adult and juvenile Atlantic bluefin tuna abundance by aerial surveys, and other fishery-independent measures, is considered a priority. Juvenile bluefin tuna spent the majority of their time over the continental shelf in relatively shallow water (generally less then 40 m deep). Fish used the entire water column in spite of relatively steep vertical thermal gradients (≈24°C at the surface and ≈12°C at 40 m depth), but spent the majority of their time (≈90%) above 15 m and in water warmer then 20°C. Mean swimming speeds ranged from 2.8 to 3.3 knots, and total distance covered from 152 to 289 km (82–156 nmi). Because fish generally remained within relatively con-fined areas, net displacement was only 7.7–52.7 km (4.1–28.4 nmi). Horizontal movements were not correlated with sea surface temperature. We propose that it is unlikely that juvenile bluefin tuna in this area can detect minor horizontal temperature gradients (generally less then 0.5°C/km) because of the steep vertical temperature gradients (up to ≈0.6°C/m) they experience during their regular vertical movements. In contrast, water clarity did appear to influence behavior because the fish remained in the intermediate water mass between the turbid and phytoplankton-rich plume exiting Chesapeake Bay (and similar coastal waters) and the clear oligotrophic water east of the continental shelf.

Inference approach to grammar construction

A system of computer assisted grammar construction (CAGC) is presented in this paper. The CAGC system is designed to generate broad-coverage grammars for large natural language corpora by utilizing both an extended inside-outside algorithm and an automatic phrase bracketing (AUTO) system which is designed to provide the extended algorithm with constituent information during learning. This paper demonstrates the capability of the CAGC system to deal with realistic natural language problems and the usefulness of the AUTO system for constraining the inside-outside based grammar re-estimation. Performance results, including coverage, recall and precision, are presented for a grammar constructed for the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) corpus using the Penn Treebank.