Universidad Autonoma De Madrid Research Articles

RivEr/Generation_LAB-Linking Resilience with Inclusiveness in the Urban-Built Environment of Rome

The impact of metropolization processes and climate change effects on natural and anthropic environments, together with energy waste, the excessive consumption of agricultural and natural soils and their progressive waterproofing and a reduction in vegetation cover, highlights the need for sustainable management of existing resources, in terms of equitable and ethical development, towards sustainable and inclusive communities able to adapt to the negative effects of emergency phenomena. This contribution presents the results of the activities conducted in the RivEr/Generation_LAB, a project organized by three CIVIS members (Sapienza University of Rome, Universitè libre de Bruxelles, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid) as a part of the CIVIS Project “RivEr/Generation_LAB. Linking resilience with inclusiveness in the urban built environment of Rome, Brussels, and Madrid”, financed by the Hub4 Cities, Territories & Mobilities’ Call for proposals 2021. The project proposes a methodology of intervention in the Flaminio district, in particular in the Olympic Village and its relationship with the Tiber River, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and the New European Bauhaus, to establish new relationships between cities and the natural environment, favoring sustainable and inclusive public spaces.

Recent Advances Towards Sustainable Materials and Processes for Energy Conversion and Storage

Recent Advances Towards Sustainable Materials and Processes for Energy Conversion and Storage

The British Cardiovascular Society Young Investigator Award 2021

Five finalists were selected for the 2021 British Cardiovascular Society (BCS) Young Investigator Award (YIA) from a competitive pool of young researchers. At the virtual BCS meeting in June, each...

Estudio y análisis de la evolución de los estudiantes matriculados en titulaciones de Educación Musical en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

Este artículo muestra una investigación descriptiva y analítica de datos institucionales a lo largo del tiempo. Los objetivos planteados se circunscriben a la descripción de la evolución de la antigua especialidad de Música en la Facultad de Formación de Profesorado de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, así como a los factores determinantes de esta evolución en la pérdida tanto cualitativa, desde el punto de vista curricular, como cuantitativa en lo que respecta al cómputo en créditos/horas con la aparición de las menciones. Por otra parte, se referencia el lugar que ocupa la Mención de Educación Musical en el conjunto de menciones de la citada Facultad, tanto para el Grado de Maestro de Primaria como de Infantil. Los resultados evidencian de forma definida el concepto de maestro especialista frente al de maestro generalista en la evolución legislativa. Por otra parte, la conclusión más notable es que, con las nuevas menciones, la Educación Musical, ha perdido de forma relevante un espacio formativo para la Educación Musical en la Educación Infantil y Primaria, considerando las cifras de estudiantes de nuevo ingreso y comparándolas con las de la antigua Diplomatura de la Especialidad de Música y las de las demás menciones ofertadas actualmente.

Refined electron-spin transport model for single-element ferromagnetic systems: Application to nickel nanocontacts

This work was supported by the Generalitat Valenciana through Grant No. PROMETEO2017/139. C.S. gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Dean Fellowship of the Weizmann Institute of Science and Generalitat Valenciana (Grant No. CDEIGENT2018/028). O.T. appreciates the support of the Harold Perlman family, and acknowledges funding by a research grant from Dana and Yossie Hollander, the Israel Science Foundation (Grant No. 1089/15), the Minerva Foundation (Grant No. 120865), and The Ministry of Science and Technology of Israel (Grant No. 3-16244). J.J.P. acknowledges financial support from Spanish MINECO through Grants No. FIS2016-80434-P and No. PID2019-109539GB-C43, the Fundacion Ramon Areces, the Maria de Maeztu Program for Units of Excellence in R&D (Grant No. CEX2018-000805-M), the Comunidad Autonoma de Madrid through the Nanomag COST-CM Program (Grant No. S2018/NMT-4321), the European Union Seventh Framework Programme under Grant Agreement No. 604391 Graphene Flagship, the Centro de Computacion Cientifica of the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid and the computer resources at MareNostrum and the technical support provided by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (Grant No. FI-2019-2-0007). The SLD and DFT calculations in this paper were performed on the high-performance computing facilities of the University of Alicante and the University of South Africa.

Nuevos museos para la enseñanza del patrimonio cultural. El “museo vivo” de Historia del Arte

Upon reviewing currently new practices in museums, this paper presents an innovative educational project that comes from the Specific Didactics Department from Universidad Auto-noma de Madrid: Living Museum of Art History, which claims to be a useful tool for teaching and learning this subject and social sciences in the academic field. It is based on the creation of an everyday objects collection, which indicates that the heritage is at our fingertips. In this case, around the coin and its capacity to create meeting points among mathematics, art and social sciences.

Long-term Apomorphine Infusion Users Versus Short-term Users: An International Dual-center Analysis of the Reasons for Discontinuing Therapy

A retrospective analysis at 2 specialist centers was undertaken to determine the long-term efficacy of subcutaneous apomorphine infusion (APO), rates and reasons for discontinuation, and factors that might contribute to discontinuation. Demographics, clinical outcomes data, and reasons for discontinuation were collected for patients treated with APO at Chulalongkorn Centre of Excellence for Parkinson's Disease and Related Disorders, Bangkok, Thailand (n = 36) and Fundacion Jimemez Diaz Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain (n = 16). There were 19 (52.7%) patients in the Thai cohort and 10 (62.5%) patients in the Spanish cohort who discontinued treatment within around 6 months of initiation, most commonly due to skin nodules (Thai cohort) and perceived lack of efficacy (Spanish cohort). Those who continued APO tended to stay on treatment. In both cohorts, APO resulted in significant reductions in Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale 3 motor scores, daily OFF time, and levodopa-equivalent dose in patients who subsequently stopped therapy, suggesting APO is clinically effective even when "lack of efficacy" is stated as a reason for discontinuing. Daily OFF hours after APO therapy was found to be a significant predictive factor for APO discontinuation with an odds ratio of 5.952 (P = 0.040). The cutoff point that determined APO discontinuation was calculated to be 1.75 or more OFF hours (sensitivity, 84.6%; specificity, 63.2%). Apomorphine infusion is a minimally invasive therapy and therefore very easy to discontinue if difficulties arise. This fact might explain the high dropout rate of this technique. Successful long-term adherence to APO therapy requires a multidisciplinary health care team approach including regular patient follow-up and assessment and prompt resolution of queries and concerns.

Understanding Comics. A Comparison between Children and Adults through a Coherence/Incoherence Paradigm in an Eye-tracking Study

Theories about visual narrative understanding accentuate the difference between patterns of reading comprehension in children and adults when they read text and images. This study was conducted to explore the differences in eye movement patterns when children and adults read different comic stories using a coherence/incoherence paradigm. A total of 63 participants, 31 children (10-12 years old) and 32 undergraduate university students from the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, read 20 comic stories, each of them with both coherent and incoherent versions, for the two ending frames. Fixation durations, number of fixations, and number of regressions were recorded by an eye-tracker, Tobii x-120. A crossed random effects model was applied. Results showed that even though children reach a similar level of understanding than adults they spend more time and have longer fixations than adults, showing more effort to reach the whole comprehension of the stories. Besides, results do not detect significant differences between eye movements’ patterns in peak and release for the two groups studied, and therefore both components of the visual narrative grammar are considered equally relevant in the understanding of comics.

Crónica latinoamericana: las revistas, hábitat natural del periodismo bien hecho

This article is a result of the research project Cronica latinoamericana actual: lo maravilloso real. Analisis del periodismo narrativo de Alberto Salcedo Ramos presented by the author for the degree of Doctor in Lenguajes y Manifestaciones Artisticas y Literarias at Universidad Autonoma de Madrid and tries to show the role played by magazines in the vitality of the current Latin American chronicle. The fact that this has been developed by magazines links it to New Journalism in the United States, and such publications have allowed a boom in narrative journalism in Latin America.

¿Aulas inclusivas o excluyentes?: barreras para el aprendizaje y la participación en contextos universitarios

El objetivo de este estudio es delimitar las barreras que se encuentran los estudiantes universitarios en las aulas referidas principalmente a: espacios y recursos, contenidos, metodología y participación. Para ello, hemos partido de la propuesta del Diseño Universal de Instrucción (DUI) desarrollada en la Universidad de Guelph (Canadá) adaptada por Dalmau et al., (2015). Se ha contado con la participación de 652 estudiantes pertenecientes a tres Facultades de Formación de Profesorado y Educación, dos españolas (Universidad Complutense de Madrid y Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) y una de EEUU (Universidad del Norte de Arizona). Los datos se han recogido a través de un cuestionario diseñado ad hoc por el equipo investigador en torno a los ámbitos señalados. os resultados muestran las principales barreras que los estudiantes experimentan en las aulas. La discusión se centra en la necesidad de introducir en el desarrollo profesional de los docentes universitarios formación en torno a estrategias que permitan diseñar los contenidos que imparten conforme a los principios del diseño universal para la enseñanza.

UNIVERSITY AND SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS FOR ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION

University is an institution with a high potential to promote changes that lead to better social outcomes in terms of sustainability and social responsibility. Therefore, it is seems highly necessary to know what sustainability strategies Universities are following, to what extent they are assuming their role as agents of change and in what lines of work they should deepen in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The objective of this paper is to present the results of a research work that analyses and evaluates, from an interdisciplinary approach, the role of universities in sustainable development. More specifically, the paper carries out an evaluation of the strategies adopted by three Spanish universities: Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Universidad Carlos III of Madrid and Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha. The final output of this work is a system of University Sustainability Assessment Indicators, which will allow, on the one hand, monitoring of university actions in sustainability and, on the other, formulate new initiatives that improve university sustainability performance.

La innovación docente en evaluación formativa y metodología participativa: Un proyecto compartido a raíz de la implantación de los nuevos grados

Resumen: El artículo se centra en exponer y analizar los procesos de innovación que se han puesto en marcha durante tres cursos académicos por un grupo de profesores y profesoras universitarios que imparten docencia en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, en la nueva titulación de Grado en Ciencias de la Actividad Física y del Deporte. El principal objetivo es dar respuesta a los interrogantes planteados sobre las nuevas formas de enseñar, mediante metodologías participativas y sistemas de evaluación formativos. Se presentan las fases del proceso seguido, las acciones emprendidas en cada una de ellas, así como los resultados obtenidos, ventajas e inconvenientes encontrados en su desarrollo y las soluciones aportadas. Se incide en las repercusiones que ha tenido sobre la mejora de la docencia, además de la utilidad de los resultados obtenidos en otros contextos similares. Educational innovation in formative assessment and participatory methodology: following the introduction of new degrees Abstract: This paper is aimed at presenting and analysing the innovation processes implemented during three academic years by a group of teachers from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in the Science Degree in Physical Activity and Sport. The main objective is to provide response to the questions raised on the new ways of teaching, by means of participatory methodologies and formative assessment systems. The stages of the process followed, the actions undertaken for each of them, their outcomes, advantages and drawbacks encountered during their development, as well as the solutions provided for them are presented herein. The focus is on its impact on the improvement of teaching and the usefulness of the results for other similar contexts.

Percepciones de los docentes en formación sobre la investigación educativa

This article presents a research that seeks to identify the perception of in training-Primary Education teachers regarding the educational research. To develop this research, a qualitative study with a phenomenographic approach was applied to twenty students of the Elementary Education Program from Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. The results, in contrast to previous studies, suggest that future teachers perceive research as important and necessary in their profession and value positively the work of researchers. However, they believe that the training they receive in terms of research should be better and more useful for their teaching performance.

Tablets para el acceso a recursos electrónicos y apoyo a la docencia desde la biblioteca universitaria: un caso práctico

The experience of the Library of the Faculty of Law of the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (UAM) is presented, where patrons use tablets to access books that have been acquired in electronic format. In recent years, there has been an increasing number of titles that are being distributed in paper with an electronic copy attached (duo). These are characterized by the indivisibility of the pack and the increase in their price. This system encourages both the individual and private use of the copies by using a code associated with the user’s profile. The creation of a specific system based on the use of a tablet in order to provide the user public access to these copies is described. The system duplicates the number of copies available to users. In addition to access to e-books, a selection of electronic resources and programs previously offered by the University has been included in the tablets. The tablets are also configured for teaching uses, both for seminars and exams.

Regularity of solutions of the fractional porous medium flow with exponent $1/2$

We study the regularity of a porous medium equation with nonlocal diffusion effects given by an inverse fractional Laplacian operator. The precise model is ut = ∇·(u∇(−∆)−1/2u). For definiteness, the problem is posed in {x ∈ RN , t ∈ R} with nonnegative initial data u(x, 0) that are integrable and decay at infinity. Previous papers have established the existence of mass-preserving, nonnegative weak solutions satisfying energy estimates and finite propagation, as well as the boundedness of nonnegative solutions with L1 data, for the more general family of equations ut = ∇ · (u∇(−∆)−su), 0 < s < 1. Here we establish the Cα regularity of such weak solutions in the difficult fractional exponent case s = 1/2. For the other fractional exponents s ∈ (0, 1) this Holder regularity has been proved in [5]. The method combines delicate De Giorgi type estimates with iterated geometric corrections that are needed to avoid the divergence of some essential energy integrals due to fractional long-range effects. ∗University of Texas; caffarel@math.utexas.edu †Universidad Autonoma de Madrid; juanluis.vazquez@uam.es

Neodymium‐Based Stoichiometric Ultrasmall Nanoparticles for Multifunctional Deep‐Tissue Photothermal Therapy

Nanoparticle‐mediated photothermal therapy (NP‐PTT) constitutes a flexible, highly selective, cost effective, and accurate tool for cancer treatment alone or in combination with other therapies such as radiotherapy or chemotherapy. The future application of NP‐PTT in real life mainly depends on the design and synthesis of novel multifunctional nanoparticles that could overcome the current limitations of NP‐PTT such as limited penetration depth and absence of therapy control. In this work, ultrasmall (≈2.4 nm) NdVO4 stoichiometric (100% constituent Nd3+ ions) nanoparticles are reported, which are capable of in vivo sub‐tissue localized heating under 808 nm optical excitation while providing, simultaneously, the possibility of high penetration near‐infrared fluorescence imaging. Ultrasmall stoichiometric NdVO4 nanoparticles have evidenced a superior light‐to‐heat conversion efficiency. This is explained in terms of their large absorption cross‐section at 808 nm (consequence of the particular spectroscopic properties of neodymium ions in NdVO4 and of the high neodymium content) as well as to their ultrasmall size that leads to large nonradiative decay rates. Results included in this work introduce ultrasmall, NdVO4 stoichiometric nanoparticles to the scientific community as multifunctional photothermal agents that could be considered as an alternative to traditional systems such as metallic, organic, or carbon‐based nanoparticles.

Mapping the Dissociative Ionization Dynamics of Molecular Nitrogen with Attosecond Time Resolution

We acknowledge support from the European Research Council under ERC Grants No. 637756 STARLIGHT, No. 227355 ELYCHE, and No. 290853 XCHEM, from LASERLAB-EUROPE (Grant Agreement No. 284464, EC’s Seventh Framework Programme), from European COST Action CM1204 XLIC, the MICINN Project FIS2013-42002-R, the ERA-Chemistry Project PIM2010EEC-00751, the European Grant MC-ITN CORINF. Calculations were performed at the Centro de Computacion of the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (CC-UAM) and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC). G. S. acknowledges the Italian Ministry of Research Project FIRB No. RBID08CRXK. R. L. and M. H. acknowledge a Marie Curie International Research Staff Exchange Scheme Fellowship (Grant Agreement No. PIRSES-GA-2012-31754, EC’s Seventh Framework Programme) and the COST Action CM1405 MOLIM. C. L. acknowledges National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants No. 11127901, No. 61221064, and No. 11404356), 973 Project (Grant No. 2011CB808103). We are very grateful to Alicia Palacios for fruitful discussions on the ionization model

Energy- and angle-resolved ionization ofH2+interacting with xuv subfemtosecond laser pulses

We gratefully acknowledge fruitful discussions with Dr. A. Palacios. This work was accomplished with an allocation of computer time from Mare Nostrum BSC and CCCUAM and was partially supported by European Research Council Advanced Grant No. XCHEM 290853, MINECO Project No. FIS2013-42002-R, ERA-Chemistry Project No. PIM2010EEC-00751, European Grant No. MC-ITN CORINF, European COST Action XLIC CM1204, and the CAM project NANOFRONTMAG. H.B. acknowledges support for mobility from ITN CORINF and is grateful for the hospitality of the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. R.E.F.S. acknowledges FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia, Portugal, Grant No. SFRH/BD/84053/2012

Urology at the European university: Adaptations to the Bologna Plan. The model of the Autonomous University of Madrid

The fundamental objective of the Convergence Plan of Bologna is to normalize, harmonize and standardize the teaching of medicine in European medical schools by implementing a similar curriculum. This objective assumes the presence of Urology as a university discipline in all European medical schools. At the same time, the teaching techniques and subject distributions have been modified, emphasizing practical teaching and active participation of the student in the acquisition of expertise and skills. This approach enhances the curricular presence of Urology and requires increased dedication from the teaching staff. These staff members, with limited face-to-face and classroom time, must inform and educate medical students on the broad healthcare commitment of Urology as a surgical/medical specialty. The adaptation of the numerous European medical schools to the Bologna Plan raises a number of problems that can be easily overcome, as can be seen in the plan designed by the Faculty of Medicine at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid.

Consideraciones paleogeográficas en la bahía de Algeciras. Acerca de un posible tsunami en la Carteia romana (San Roque, Cádiz)

Las excavaciones de urgencia llevadas a cabo en una barriada industrial alfarera de época romana en Puente Mayorga (San Roque, Cádiz), entre los años 2003 y 2004 proporcionó, además de una completa visión acerca de los establecimientos periurbanos de la ciudad de Carteia, una interesante documentación acerca de un posible tsunami. A través de análisis granulométricos, del estudio morfoscópico y de la identificación de su malacofauna el potente nivel de arenas documentado, interpretado arqueológicamente como un hiatus entre dos fases productivas de la citada barriada alfarera, pudo ser identificado como una ola de alta energía sobre cuyo sedimento se apoyaron nuevos vertidos de fallos de cocción y hornadas perdidas de posteriores cocciones.La necesidad de confirmación de tan importante hallazgo y el hecho de que estos estudios, llevados a cabo por un equipo interinstitucional entre la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid y la Universidad de Cádiz, estuvieran enmarcados en otro mayor que, manteniendo el carácter interdisciplinar, dirigía ya la citada UAM bajo el nombre genérico de Proyecto Carteia, posibilitó en 2010 llevar a cabo una campaña de sondeos geoarqueológicos en relación ya directa con esta importante ciudad púnico-romana.Se abarcó así un área que, partiendo de la actual desembocadura del río Guadarranque, en su margen izquierda, llegaba a Carteia y se prolongaba hasta el asentamiento fenicio del Cerro del Prado, o Carteia la Vieja, donde estuvo en el s. VII a.C. la original desembocadura. Fueron un total de ocho los sondeos realizados de los que presentamos ahora un avance de los cuatro primeros, es decir, entre la actual línea de costa y la ladera amurallada de la ciudad de Carteia. Se abarca, así, una parte más que significativa de la bahía de Algeciras, hoy desecada en esta zona y que, para el tema que nos ocupa, parecen confirmar la existencia e importancia del evento detectado en 2003.