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Plastic is a persistent problem in westernised cities. Yet it is also a key mediator, affording and assisting the everyday. In small apartments, it supports daily life by assisting with waste management, storage, and provisioning of affordable ornaments and furniture. Plastic, in this context, is a mundane and utilitarian substrate to apartment life, as well as being a problematic potential pollutant. Recognising the diverse contributions to research on high‐density living, this paper draws on vertical urbanism and relational ideas of home. It explores the socio‐material entanglements of plastic in apartments through household interviews across Melbourne, London, Barcelona, and Perth. The research reveals ways in which plastic mediates the material inequalities of high‐rise living, typified by entanglements of space constraint, transience, and waste management. The contribution is twofold. Theoretically, our work suggests a direction for socio‐materialities research in reframing ideas of home as a static, physical site, to one that is more contingent materially and spatially. As various households adapt and make do, their refuges in the sky are being reconfigured physically and symbolically by and through plastic. Relational approaches can help to reveal the mundane but critical entanglements of plastic and everyday life in apartments. Second, empirically, we show that mundane infrastructures matter; they shape the spaces and places of plastic and apartment inequalities. Thus, policy interventions that target household behaviours can only have a marginal impact on plastic consumption where uneven infrastructures remain. Moreover, they may direct attention away from where change might be more promising, such as wider social rules and meanings around plastic, and the materialities of building design/management for waste infrastructures both inside and outside the apartment. As a problem material, the elimination of plastic waste globally presents a particular challenge to ordinary and lower income apartment households that "make do" with the use of plastic. From a large empirical study, this paper analyses households' own accounts, revealing the socio‐material entanglements of plastic with waste, space, and time management. The authors point to the importance of spatial dimensions of domestic practices and the ways in which transience entangles with practice, influencing the meanings and logics of home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Science Policy & Practice is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Research infrastructures are commonly used by scientific and industrial communities to conduct research and experiments which translate in the creation of new knowledge. This knowledge may generate different outcomes (e.g., publications, patents) and find applications in different sectors and domains, ultimately triggering innovation developments. However, the pathway from knowledge creation to innovation is complex: it is split among different players, from the scientific community to industrial actors (even those not directly involved in the experiments) and may take time and significant investments. The objective of this paper is to assess innovation impacts arising from a Research Infrastructure and specifically tracing and describing the pathways according to which these impacts may materialize. The example used is the ALBA Synchrotron Light source facility located in Barcelona and in operation since 2012. The paper builds on the evidence collected through two surveys to direct and indirect users of ALBA (overall 384 questionnaires collected), in‐depth interviews as well as an analysis of patents' citations. It draws from a pilot exercise carried out in the framework of the Horizon 2020 Ri‐Paths project. It contributes to the broader discussion on the socio‐economic impact assessment of Research Infrastructures and relevant methodologies and metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Antipode is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper analyzes patterns of residential segregation for many nationalities in Barcelona and Madrid during the 2008–2018 period. In the first year, the financial bubble burst, halting the exponential growth of immigrants and in the second, after the great recession, the arrival of immigrant population resumes. The multilevel analysis for the dissimilarity index is applied for the first time to Spanish cities. Complementing the results of global indices with the multilevel framework provides a richer and more detailed profile of segregation patterns. Based on these results, a typology of segregation patterns by nationalities was carried out. Global indices show higher segregation in Madrid than in Barcelona, and multilevel results evidence increasing and extending areas of high concentration of immigrants and mixing neighbourhoods. The cluster analysis demonstrates that, in this case, segregation patterns are not the same for continents or income levels of countries of origin. The results provide nuanced empirical evidence of place stratification and ethnic enclave models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A description of a mentalization informed home‐based project, an adaptation of the ECID project (Equipo Clínico de Intervención a Domicilio), into a time‐limited first aid mental health team in response to heightened mental health needs during the COVID Pandemic in Barcelona, Spain is offered. ECID is a project with a developmental psychodynamic understanding of psychopathology and relational dynamics informing a highly flexible treatment approach. This paper describes a focus on the need for clinicians to take an active role whilst adapting to the specific needs and situation of each child and family, instead of continuing to ask them to adapt to what services can or are prepared to offer. Clinical examples are given to illustrate the value of an integrative community approach informed by both systemic and psychodynamic lenses. Specifically, we reflect on the benefits of a mentalization informed approach to working with families during high levels of psychosocial stress for both families and practitioners. We illustrate how of a mentalization informed clinical service can promote and support the development of a therapeutic alliance when internal safety is impacted by a very real external threat. Finally, preliminary data is presented regarding the impact of parental stress and trauma on children and adolescents' adaptation to a potentially traumatic situation as well as their capacity for returning to a progressive development pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars of participatory democracy have long noted dynamic interactions and transformations within and between political spaces that can foster (de)democratisation. At the heart of this dynamism lie (a) the processes through which top‐down "closed" spaces can create opportunities for rupture and democratic challenges and (b) vice‐versa, the mechanisms through which bottom‐up, open spaces can be co‐opted through institutionalisation. This paper seeks to unpick dynamic interactions between different spaces of participation by looking specifically at two forms of participatory governance, or participatory forms of political decision making used to improve the quality of democracy. First, Mark Warren's concept of 'governance‐driven democratization' describes top‐down and technocratic participatory governance aiming to produce better policies in response to bureaucratic rationales. Second, we introduce a new concept, democracy‐driven governance, to refer to efforts by social movements to invent new, and reclaim and transform existing, spaces of participatory governance and shape them to respond to citizens' demands. The paper defines these concepts and argues that they co‐exist and interact in dynamic fashion; it draws on an analysis of case study literature on participatory governance in Barcelona to illuminate this relationship. Finally, the paper relates the theoretical framework to the case study by making propositions as to the structural and agential drivers of shifts in participatory governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Antipode is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Anticyclonic mesoscale eddies are often observed in the Balearic Sea (BS) toward the end of summer and autumn. In some years, these eddies become strong and persistent, modifying the local water mass properties. In this study, we analyze two of the most significant recent long‐lived anticyclonic eddies, occurring in 2010 and 2017, using data from a high‐resolution circulation model, altimetry and satellite‐borne sea surface temperature observations. These eddies lasted around 2 and 4 months, respectively, with a radius varying between 40 and 75 km. The generation and intensification mechanisms of these long‐lived anticyclonic eddies are studied by means of (a) energy conversion terms associated with eddy‐mean flow interaction and (b) model sensitivity tests. Results show that these eddies were formed and intensified through mixed barotropic and baroclinic instabilities. The former are produced under the action of intense northwesterly (NW) winds. The latter are related to the existence of an intense summer thermal front between the BS and the Gulf of Lion, and to northward inflows of relatively lower salinity waters. Both the wind events and the presence of the thermal front are necessary for the formation of the eddies. The intensification process varied between both events. While in 2010 it was driven by significant salinity gradients produced by northwards inflows, in 2017 it was produced by additional intense NW winds. Both long‐lived anticyclonic eddies created long‐lasting surface temperature anomalies up to 2.5°C, which have characteristics of local marine heatwaves. Plain Language Summary: Eddies are closed circular currents present in the oceans. They are important phenomena due to their capacity to isolate water masses, retain floating particles and modify ocean circulation. In the Western Mediterranean Sea there is a recognized area of anticyclonic eddy presence between Barcelona and the Balearic Islands, especially during late summer. Specifically, in 2010 and 2017 two such eddies were identified with lifetimes of 2 and 4 months, respectively. In this paper, we investigate why these eddies were so long and persistent in comparison with other years. Results confirm that these eddies are generated as a result of northwesterly (NW) winds events blowing over an area with two water masses of different temperature. In 2010, low salinity northward water inflows sustained this eddy during two months, while in 2017 the eddy remained active for a period of four months under the influence of additional intense NW winds. Both eddies created long‐lasting surface temperature anomalies, in particular in 2017, the sea surface temperature within the eddy influence area was 2.5°C warmer in comparison to other years. Key Points: Northwesterly (NW) wind events and the existence of the Pyrenees thermal front are both necessary for the formation of strong long‐lived Balearic Sea eddiesEddy intensification was driven by salinity gradients in 2010 and by additional NW wind events in 2017Both events created long‐lasting surface temperature anomalies that have the characteristics of local marine heatwaves [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Statistical analysis of point processes often assumes that the underlying process is isotropic in the sense that its distribution is invariant under rotation. For point processes on ℝ2, some tests based on the K‐function and nearest neighbour orientation function have been proposed to check such an assumption. However, anisotropy and directional analysis need proper caution when dealing with point processes on linear networks, as the implicit geometry of the network forces particular directions that the points of the pattern have to necessarily meet. In this paper, we adapt such tests to the case of linear networks and discuss how to use them to detect particular directional preferences, even at some angles that are different from the main angles imposed by the network. Through a simulation study, we check the performance of our proposals under different settings, over a linear network and a dendrite tree, showing that they are able to precisely detect the directional preferences of the points in the pattern, regardless the type of spatial interaction and the geometry of the network. We use our tests to highlight the directional preferences in the spatial distribution of traffic accidents in Barcelona (Spain), during 2019, and in Medellin (Colombia), during 2016. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Located between Marseille and Barcelona, Montpellier is one of the most attractive cities of the Mediterranean coast. It has more than 460,000 inhabitants and grows by 7,500 more inhabitants every year. This is largely due to its positive image and its freshly constructed neighbourhoods "Antigone" and "Port‐Marianne." From the late 1970s, the municipality's strategy was to organise the urban sprawl to the east and then towards the sea in the south of the city. The Lez, a small coastal river, well known for its spectacular flash floods, was the spine of this new urban growth. Internationally renowned architects and planners have been recruited to build these new "green" neighbourhoods (in French "éco‐quartiers") located on lands that used to be flooded regularly. This urban policy is largely due to the Montpellier's former mayor Georges Frêche and his deputy, the geographer Raymond Dugrand. The "urban planning" concept, or "urban design" projects, have largely been used by the local experts and officials to describe this development, but seem to be misused in this case. It has being mostly a political city‐project, still having the same objective as more than 30 years ago: to turn Montpellier towards the seaside. This paper will return to the strategy used at that time and, in retrospect, all the interrogations that have followed in terms of sustainable development and flood risk management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Outcomes in the form of rates, fractions, proportions and percentages often appear in various fields. Existing beta and simplex distributions are frequently unable to exhibit satisfactory performances in fitting such continuous data. This paper aims to develop the normalised inverse Gaussian (N‐IG) distribution proposed by Lijoi, Mena & Prünster (2005, Journal of the American Statistical Association, 100, 1278–1291) as a new tool for analysing continuous proportional data in (0,1) and renames the N‐IG as proportional inverse Gaussian (PIG) distribution. Our main contributions include: (i) To overcome the difficulty of an integral in the PIG density function, we propose a novel minorisation–maximisation (MM) algorithm via the continuous version of Jensen's inequality to calculate the maximum likelihood estimates of the parameters in the PIG distribution; (ii) We also develop an MM algorithm aided by the gradient descent algorithm for the PIG regression model, which allows us to explore the relationship between a set of covariates with the mean parameter; (iii) Both the comparative studies and the real data analyses show that the PIG distribution is better when comparing with the beta and simplex distributions in terms of the AIC, the Cramér–von Mises and the Kolmogorov–Smirnov tests. In addition, bootstrap confidence intervals and testing hypothesis on the symmetry of the PIG density are also presented. Simulation studies are conducted and the hospital stay data of Barcelona in 1988 and 1990 are analysed to illustrate the proposed methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the local policy that has promoted the formation of a cluster of knowledge-based activities in the city of Barcelona. After decades of economic and industrial stagnation in a district called Poblenou, in the year 2000 the City Council of Barcelona implemented a plan to renew the area's urban and economic structure. Under the development plan, knowledge-based firms were encouraged to set up in the area and thus to create a cluster of advanced activities. This paper examines the success of this local policy and aims to determine whether cluster amenities have played a part in attracting knowledge-based firms. First, we evaluated the cluster implementation via a 'difference-in-differences' analysis, comparing the increase in the percentage of knowledge-based firms in this specific area with the increase of these firms in other local areas. Second, to determine whether the cluster amenities are an important element in attracting knowledge-based activities, we perform a multivariate regression to see if cluster amenities (as valued by firms in a survey) do have an effect on the decision of knowledge-intensive firms to locate in the district. El propósito de este artículo es evaluar la política local que ha favorecido la formación de un conglomerado de actividades basadas en conocimiento en la ciudad de Barcelona. Después de décadas de estancamiento económico e industrial en un distrito llamado Poblenou, el Ayuntamiento de Barcelona implementó en el año 2000 un plan para renovar la estructura urbana y económica de la zona. Siguiendo el plan de desarrollo, se animó a las empresas de actividades basadas en conocimiento a que se establecieran en este área, creando con ello un conglomerado de actividades avanzadas. Este artículo examina el éxito de esta política local e intenta determinar si los servicios de conglomerado han jugado un papel a la hora de atraer a empresas de actividades basadas en conocimiento. Primero, evaluamos la implementación del conglomerado por medio de un análisis de diferencia en diferencias, al comparar el aumento del porcentaje de empresas de actividades basadas en conocimiento en este área específica con el aumento de estas empresas en otras áreas locales. Segundo, para determinar si las amenidades de conglomerado son un elemento importante a la hora de atraer actividades basadas en conocimiento, realizamos una regresión multivariante para observar si las amenidades de conglomerado (así valoradas por las empresas en una encuesta) afectan a la decisión de las empresas basadas en conocimiento de ubicarse en este distrito. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Papers in Regional Science is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract: The collective dimension of everyday life plays a key role on how daily mobility patterns are drawn, especially considering relationships at the household level. However, previous literature regarding spatiotemporal behaviour has, above all, focused on individual characteristics detached from their immediate social contexts. By adopting a relational perspective this paper aims to explore how the combination of individual and household‐related variables can exert different mobilities in a Mediterranean metropolis such as Barcelona. Based on travel times and trip purposes reported in a traditional travel survey, both gender and social status are first confirmed as significant factors shaping daily mobility. Second, the relationships in the household emerge as relevant as individual characteristics when understanding one's everyday mobility patterns. In particular, the presence of children is regarded as a clear spatiotemporal constrictor, which is especially acute for women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Nowadays, the popular 2.4‐GHz band is used in different systems, such as Wi‐Fi, Bluetooth, wireless sensor systems, and wireless cameras. Instead of the over‐crowded 2.4‐GHz Wi‐Fi band, this research offers the experience of using the 5‐GHz Wi‐Fi band, which provides more spectrum availability, more channels, larger bandwidth, faster data transmission, higher data rates, higher speed, and better quality of service compared to those of the 2.4‐GHz band. In this paper, practical implementation and testing of a cooperative spectrum sensing system are presented. The spectrum utilization in the 5‐GHz Wi‐Fi licensed band at six different locations is investigated to allow the transition of secondary users (SUs) to free bands. The spectrum measurement is performed on a centralized cooperative spectrum sensing system, which consists of a master cognitive radio node and five cognitive radio stations. The measurement and simulation results for the practical system are compared with the previous related measurements obtained in Singapore, Barcelona, North Dakota (USA), and Germany. They all agree that the spectrum is underutilized, and it needs to be better utilized for increasing the spectrum efficiency. The practical results show that the newly implemented system in the 5‐GHz range fulfills the requirements of users with high efficiency and high quality of service compared to those of the 2.4‐GHz system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the nationalist conflict in Catalonia and how it is lived and experienced by actors within it. It focuses on the people mobilised against independence who see themselves primarily as defenders of the Spanish Constitution and not of Spanish nationalism. Critics of civic nationalism in political theory and Nationalism Studies argue that anti‐nationalist rhetoric tends to be the expression of structural or hegemonic nationalism. Drawing on fieldwork carried out in Barcelona, I look at how the conflict has influenced discourse and language used in everyday life, how participants negotiate their identity, why people do (and do not) get involved in organisations that defend their political ideas, how they see themselves within the conflict and their perceptions of public space and its significance in relation to the constitution. An ethnographic approach explores these issues and discovers that although anti‐independence actors base their mobilisation in nationalism, civic nationalism cannot be reduced to just another form of nationalism. I aim to go beyond critics of civic nationalism to explore how my interlocutors act within and against nationalism, reproducing nationalist discourse in some aspect (boundaries of the nation) in order to challenge it in others (content and relevance of nationalism in everyday life). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at the divergent economic trajectories of Barcelona and Madrid since Spain's transition to democracy. It highlights how Barcelona, the city that was better positioned four decades ago to emerge as the main Spanish economic hub, has lost out to Madrid. We argue that the contrasting trajectories of the two cities have less to do with the pull of Madrid as the capital of Spain, with the development of new infrastructure in the country, or with agglomeration economies, and more with institutional factors. A growing societal divide in Barcelona along economic, social, and identity lines has led to a greater breakdown of trust and to the development of strong groups with limited capacity to bridge with one another than in Madrid. This has entailed the emergence of negative externalities that have limited the economic potential for growth in Barcelona and facilitated the rise of Madrid as the main economic hub within Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an unprecedented set of data in a challenging underground environment: the visitable sewers of Barcelona. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first data set involving ground and aerial robots in such scenario: the sewer inspection autonomous robot (SIAR) ground robot and the autonomous robot for sewer inspection aerial platform. These platforms captured data from a great variety of sensors, including sequences of red green blue‐depth (RGB‐D) images with their onboard cameras. The set consists of 14 logs of experiments that were obtained in more than 10 different days and in four different locations. The complete length of the experiments in the data set exceeds 5 km. In addition, we provide the users with a partial ground‐truth and baselines of the localization of the platforms, which can be used for testing their localization and simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithms. We also provide details on the setup and execution of each mission and a partial labeling of the elements found in the sewers. All the data were recorded by using the rosbag tool from robot operating system framework. Our goal is to make the data available to the scientific community as a benchmark to test localization, SLAM and classification algorithms in underground environments. The data set are available at https://robotics.upo.es/datasets/echord. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pay what you want (PWYW) is an increasingly popular sales strategy in which consumers voluntarily decide how much to pay for a product or service. PWYW has often been described as an exercise in the "empathy economy," where consumers' payment choices might be seen as empowered expressions of their tastes and preferences, and sellers have a stronger incentive for empathizing with them. Beyond their economic interest, PWYW experiences also deserve significant attention in the social sciences given that they challenge several key assumptions of rational choice and neoclassical economic theory, as well as conventional consumer behavior and pricing theories. This paper analyzes three plays performed at the Beckett Theater in Barcelona using PWYW with very profitable outcomes. Our analysis shows that socio‐psychological factors, such as payments attributed to others and satisfaction with the play, are the best predictors of customer payments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Papers in Regional Science is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Ancient cities and castles are ubiquitous cultural heritage structures all over Europe, and countless digital creations (e.g. movies and games) use them for storytelling. However, they got little or no attention in the computer graphics literature. This paper aims to close the gap between historical and geometrical modelling, by presenting a framework that allows the forward and inverse design of ancient city (e.g. castles and walled cities) evolution along history. The main component is an interactive loop that cycles over a number of years simulating the evolution of a city. The user can define events, such as battles, city growth, wall creations or expansions, or any other historical event. Firstly, cities (or castles) and their walls are created, and, later on, expanded to encompass civil or strategic facilities to protect. In our framework, battle simulations are used to detect weaknesses and strengthen them, evolving to accommodate to developments in offensive weaponry. We conducted both forward and inverse design tests on three different scenarios: the city of Carcassone (France), the city of Gerunda (Spain) and the Ciutadella in ancient Barcelona. All the results have been validated by historians who helped fine‐tune the different parameters involved in the simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper provides a bridge between the literature examining the economic impact of air services and the literature analyzing the determinants of bilateral FDI flows. I estimate a gravity equation for the determinants of bilateral FDI flows between the Spanish region of Catalonia, home to the airport of Barcelona, and countries of all over the world for the period 2002-2015. I find evidence that the reduction in travel time due to the availability of nonstop flights scheduled with sufficient frequency increases the amount of FDI due to the enhanced transmission of information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a fully autonomous navigation solution for urban, pedestrian environments. The task at hand, undertaken within the context of the European project URUS, was to enable two urban service robots, based on Segway RMP200 platforms and using planar lasers as primary sensors, to navigate around a known, large (10,000 m), pedestrian-only environment with poor global positioning system coverage. Special consideration is given to the nature of our robots, highly mobile but two-wheeled, self-balancing, and inherently unstable. Our approach allows us to tackle locations with large variations in height, featuring ramps and staircases, thanks to a three-dimensional, map-based particle filter for localization and to surface traversability inference for low-level navigation. This solution was tested in two different urban settings, the experimental zone devised for the project, a university campus, and a very crowded public avenue, both located in the city of Barcelona, Spain. Our results total more than 6 km of autonomous navigation, with a success rate on go-to requests of nearly 99%. The paper presents our system, examines its overall performance, and discusses the lessons learned throughout development. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Swimming pools constitute an important part of the expanding suburban landscapes of many cities of southern Europe. Yet we know relatively little about their characteristics and especially about whether or not they capture a substantial part of urban water for the benefit of a few that could be used for other more essential tasks, especially in periods of scarcity. In this paper, taking the metropolitan region of Barcelona as a case study, we estimate the number of residential (private) swimming pools in this area, their characteristics and their water consumption. Our analysis is set against the context of important changes in the nature of the urbanisation process in Barcelona and in other southern European cities, namely the expansion of low-density growth and with this the expansion of outdoor water uses such as gardens planted with turf grass and swimming pools. However, results do not seem to support the assumption that swimming pools take a substantial part of the domestic water resources of the region or that they are a luxury affordable only by the very rich. Swimming pools represent little over 1 per cent of total domestic water consumption of the Barcelona region and they can be found in both higher and lower income municipalities. Nevertheless, swimming pools tend to be more often found in richer municipalities, which are also those observing higher per capita water consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive scientists have long used distributional semantic representations of categories. The predominant approach uses distributional representations of category‐denoting nouns, such as "city" for the category city. We propose a novel scheme that represents categories as prototypes over representations of names of its members, such as "Barcelona," "Mumbai," and "Wuhan" for the category city. This name‐based representation empirically outperforms the noun‐based representation on two experiments (modeling human judgments of category relatedness and predicting category membership) with particular improvements for ambiguous nouns. We discuss the model complexity of both classes of models and argue that the name‐based model has superior explanatory potential with regard to concept acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the transition in Barcelona's city council's urban policy during 20 years of uninterrupted political control. It focuses particularly on several trends within Pasqual Maragall's period in office (1982-1997) and argues that issues of leadership, extramunicipal policy and electoral rationality are fundamental to understanding the full complexity of this transition. The paper seeks to locate the Barcelona experience in a comparative context and calls for a greater sensitivity to the contemporary political geography of the European urban left. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geophysical surveys have been one of the most useful tools for non‐invasive archaeological field assessment. Whereas they have been regularly put into practice at the archaeological site of Santa Margarida (Martorell, Barcelona, Spain), the particular features of the site required a more specific strategy to identify the contact interface between anthropogenic and natural deposits and, therefore, to conclude the archaeological excavation. As the archaeological site is settled on Quaternary alluvia at the confluence of two rivers, and in the absence of built structures in some areas, it was extremely difficult to distinguish between anthropic layers and those silty or sandy natural deposits during fieldwork. Extensive soil survey by means of borehole logging, full‐coring, and Dynamic Penetrometer Super Heavy testing within this site has proved to be a useful strategy to identify the geological horizon and to map the original relief of past landscape before excavation tasks. This enabled us to plan our fieldwork better and to interpret particular features of the site. This paper aims at summarising the results of recent surveys and discussing the potential of this approach for the study of rural settlements and agrarian landscapes in the Middle Age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While earlier accounts approach the informal economy as a sign of underdevelopment, particularly in the Global South, recent studies tend to re‐frame informal economic practices by acknowledging how it allows various actors to create spaces to manoeuvre. In this context, scholars emphasise the multiple linkages between formal and informal economic domains. To push this notion of intersected practices further, we move away from the notion of the 'informal sector' – as a domain with clear demarcations and introduce the notion of in/formal circuits. The latter highlights the multiple interrelations between activities and fluid geographies involved. From this starting point we analyse the socio‐economic activities of Senegalese and Gambian migrants living in Europe. Based on ethnographic fieldwork that started in Barcelona but also involved other places, we illustrate the ways they navigate in/formal circuits and the extent to which these navigations come with mobility within Europe, and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes the main observations related to geotechnical properties and tool changes that characterize the different tunnel drives in a database of 33 km of EPB tunnel records from the Barcelona area. The data have been examined in detail with regard to cutting tool replacement and performance of the mechanized excavation. The database includes tunnels in soft soils, in hard and medium rocks and in mixed soil-rock conditions; tool changing records and geotechnical properties. Transverse and longitudinal geotechnical heterogeneity are accounted for systematically. Longitudinal heterogeneity is used to subdivide the drives in the database into homogeneous units. Transverse (within section) heterogeneity is described by a set of newly developed impact factors FI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the drainage system of a city, the set of inlets is in charge of taking the runoff produced by local storms to the stormwater/sewer. In the drainage system design the selection of appropriate inlet models and their location is one of the fundamental aspects. The hydraulics of these inlets has received great attention within the last years; however, few inlet makers provide the hydraulic capacity of their products. In addition, these data usually consider clean water, while in reality, numerous inlets can be either totally or partially clogged. This aspect should be kept in mind within the design process. In this paper, a methodology to consider the hydraulic effects of clogging phenomena is presented. The work started from a visual inspection of the grated inlets throughout the urban catchment of Sant Martí, Barcelona, as a means of identifying clogging patterns, their repetitive forms and their associated frequency. After that, clogged patterns were reproduced in laboratory testing of typical inlets types, thereby obtaining the real quantity of water that could be captured by each of them. It was shown that the same expression employed to describe the efficiency of clean inlets can be used to assess the efficiency of those clogged. A reduction factor in terms of hydraulic capacity and related to each clogging pattern has been defined for use in hydraulic studies of runoff along streets. Finally, the paper compares the obtained results in terms of clogging coefficient with another experimental campaign carried out in other catchment of the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Light is a key resource for plants as it fuels photosynthesis. It also provides essential information about their habitat. Thus, light tracking is of great importance to plants throughout their life cycle. To gain information about their light environment, plants possess light receptors that cover the perception of the complete light spectrum, including light invisible to the human eye (far‐red and ultra‐violet light). The information sensed by these photoreceptors is utilized for optimal growth during day–night cycles and in sub‐optimal light conditions, such as shaded areas and high‐light sun flecks. Plant photobiology research focuses on the perception of light by plants, their developmental adaptations to a changing light environment and the mechanistic and genetic basis of these adaptations. The International Symposium on Plant Photobiology (ISPP) is a biannual meeting where the world's leaders, as well as upcoming talents in the field, gather to share their latest results and discuss future directions. The past edition was held between June 3 and 8 of 2019 in the beautiful PRBB research park building on the seafront of the city of Barcelona (Spain). The ISPP2019 was organized by a gender‐balanced committee formed by two junior (Lot Gommers and Jordi Moreno‐Romero) and two senior researchers (Jamie F. Martínez‐Garcia and Elena Monte). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Augustan Roman temple at Barcino has been a key element during the last 60 years in the research of the colony's urban development. Its peculiar elongated and narrow plan, first proposed in 1835, and its location at the highest point of the ancient city have dictated our understanding of the urban layout of Barcino by conditioning the shape of the city's forum and affecting the interpretation of the archaeological excavations carried out in the area since then. This paper proposes an alternative plan of the temple, based on data drawn from recent archaeological excavations, topographical analysis, typological comparisons, and the study of written sources. Our alternative hypothesis for the temple permits an in-depth reinterpretation of the plan of the forum and the evolution of the urban plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debates on the total or partial privatization of water usually follow the rationale that efficient and rational management is best left to the private sphere. In this paper and using a historical example, we attempt to assess critically this assumption arguing that efficiency and rationality in resource management are and have been an asset of collective management as well. We present the case of the Barcelona Water Company, run by its workers during the Spanish Civil War, to illustrate how in certain cases, gains in economic efficiency and rational management that had been impossible to accomplish under standard private management, were achieved by collective action. Workers management during this period not only improved efficiency and rationality but to a large extent did so also procuring equity and fairness in the provision of water to the citizens of Barcelona despite the harsh conditions brought about by the war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Please cite this paper as: Dadvand P, Basagana X, Figueras F, Sunyer J, Nieuwenhuijsen M. Climate and group B streptococci colonisation during pregnancy:present implications and future concerns. BJOG 2011;118:1396-1400. The available evidence on the impact of climate on human bacterial infections is very limited. We studied the impact of climatic factors on maternal group B streptococci (GBS) colonisation during pregnancy in Barcelona, Spain, in the period 2001-2005. Averages of daily temperature, relative humidity, and heat index (perceived temperature) over weeks 32-36 of gestation, measured by the closest of three meteorological monitors to the maternal place of residence were assigned to each subject. Logistic regression models were developed to extract adjusted odds ratios for continuous and categorical (quartiles) exposures. We detected increased risks of GBS colonisation in higher ambient temperatures and humidity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical accounts of the development of a modern city have paid a great deal of attention to the evolution of the water supply and the sanitation systems while the recognition of water as an element of social power and political conflict remains less studied. This paper highlights the relationship between the water cycle and its management and social conflicts in the development of the city of Barcelona in the twentieth century. Necessities, perceptions, and visions of water have changed during the last century influenced by economic, political, social and environmental contexts, prompting a new water culture not free of contradictions. The Barcelona case also provides an opportunity to examine the discourses of public managers shifting from the supply-led strategies towards water-demand management approaches, the impact of the most polemical decisions related to water policy, and the vision of water as a source of social conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper looks at how cities can function in much the same way as nations in the construction of political projects. Taking Pasqual Maragall’s mobilization of Barcelona during his period as mayor of the city (1982–97) as an example, it explores how locally dependent politicians attempt to exploit ‘spaces of engagement’ (Cox 1998) to escape from the territorial and scalar limitations which city councils have to operate within. It argues that mayors can embody cities, and explores how Maragall located himself within a set of performatively, discursively and institutionally constructed visions of Barcelona embedded in wider economic, political and cultural spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bird remains recovered from two trial pits and a rubbish dump dated from the 14th to 19th centuries AD at the Monastery of Santa Maria de Pedralbes in Barcelona (northeast Spain) are studied. The variety of avian taxa is low, with domestic fowl (Gallus gallus domesticus) clearly dominating the assemblage. The age at death and the sex profile data suggest that both chickens and hens were preferably consumed. The analysis of body parts indicates a preponderance of the meaty parts of legs, breast, and wings. Chops and cuts also suggest an interest in these anatomical parts. In addition, eggshell remains were recovered, indicating that eggs also played a role in the kitchen of this monastic community. Finally, our data are contrasted with available documentary evidence on historical monastic dietary practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change effects on subdaily rainfall (from 5 min to a few hours) can hardly be measured in mid‐latitude climates due to the high natural variability of the precipitation patterns and their effects on local topography. The goal of this study was to obtain change projections of intensity–duration–frequency (IDF) curves, for up to 2‐h precipitation events, comparing two approaches that use the daily outputs of the downscaled Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) multi‐model projections: (a) direct scaling of the expected probable precipitation, from 2‐year to 500‐year return periods of daily rainfall and (b) a new semi‐stochastic approach, built by combining the physically forced outputs of climate models (on a daily scale) and stochastic simulation given by the probability distribution of a concentration index (n‐index) for individual rainfall events (on a subdaily scale). The approaches were applied to a set of 27 stations located around Barcelona, Spain, including a long reference series (with 5‐min rainfall records since 1927), representing the highly variable Mediterranean climate. The validation process showed a systematic error (bias) generally smaller than 10%, especially for rainfall extreme events with durations of less than 2 h. The concentration n‐index and IDF curves were projected by 10 downscaled CMIP5 climate models under 2 emission scenarios (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5), obtaining a consensual increase in both relative concentration and absolute intensities in Barcelona. Ensemble projection of rainfall concentration (n‐index) showed an increase up to 10% by 2071–2100 and about 20% (15%–30% range) for maximum intensities of 2‐year to 500‐year return periods. Results provide robustness in decision‐making regarding the design of stormwater management infrastructure at a local scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Cannabis social clubs (CSC) are community‐based non‐profit organisations that aim to minimise cannabis‐related harm for their members. This contribution seeks to: (i) compare the cost of cannabis flower and resin in CSCs to the national average retail price on the illegal market; and (ii) identify possible quantity discounts for cannabis flower and resin distributed to members of CSCs. Methods: Routine data from four CSCs located in Barcelona, Spain, contained information on n = 220,465 collections of cannabis resin and flower (0.01–39 g per collection). The costs for 1 g of cannabis flower and resin per collection were determined. The mean national prices on illicit cannabis were obtained from Spanish police reports. Results: On average, members paid 6.19€ for 1 g flower (median: 6€; interquartile range: 6–7€) and 8.54€ for 1 g resin (median: 7€; interquartile range: 6–9€), with less variations for flower than for resin. Compared to the national average, prices appeared to be higher for cannabis products distributed in CSCs, but comparisons were limited by a lack of data on the variation of national prices. For resin, doubling the quantity was associated with a 20.7% (95% confidence interval 20.4–21.2%; p < 0.001) fee discount. Discussion and conclusions: Cannabis in CSCs may be more costly than the estimated national average for the illicit market. No meaningful price discount could be observed for flower but for resin. Pricing policies pursued by CSCs may help to disincentivise consumption of larger amounts but may also bar socioeconomically disadvantaged users from accessing safer alternatives than the illegal market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of a smoking control programme carried out in Sant Jraume I Santa Magdalena Hospital in Mataró (Barcelona, Spain) involving the entire hospital staff. The general objectives of the programme were: (1) to reduce tobacco consumption among hospital staff and (2) to create an awareness of their exemplary role as health professionals. In order to achieve these aims, different activities were carried out: lectures on the consequences of smoking; restrictions on smoking in hospital areas; and smoking cessation help for those who wished to give up smoking. To measure the effectiveness of the intervention, a survey of smoking habits and attitudes among the hospital staff was conducted before the start of the programme in 1986 and repeated two and a half years later in 1989. The population studied in both surveys (n = 298 and n = 304) was similar by sex, age, and professional status. Regarding tobacco consumption there was the same proportion of never smokers, while the percentage of current smokers was reduced by 11 between the two surveys (51 to 40%), and the ex-smokers group showed an increase (16 to 23%). These differences were significant. There was also a remarkable change in attitudes among the health professionals, especially with regard to their disposition to give advice to stop smoking. The results show a reduction of the prevalence of smoking among the hospital staff and a positive change in their attitudes towards smoking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Background: Patients with acromegaly have often several comorbidities, including decreased quality of life, mood alterations and chronic pain. Mindfulness is effective at improving mood, quality of life and pain management; however, there is no data available on its effect in patients with acromegaly. Objective: We aimed at evaluating changes in quality of life, mood, pain, sleep, self‐compassion, life satisfaction, blood pressure and heart rate after a mindfulness program. Design and Patients: This was a randomized, multicentre, international clinical trial (Barcelona‐BCN and Bergamo‐BG) of 60 patients, 30 per centre. Measurements: The intervention group participated in an 8‐week face‐to‐face group program; the control group followed normal clinical routine. In BG, patients performed a classic Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction program; in BCN they performed an adapted program including elements of mindfulness and compassion with a greater focus on daily life. Results: In the BCN intervention group there was an increase in night‐time hours in bed (p = 0.05) after the program. In both centres there was a trend to a reduction of the time to start sleeping (p = 0.06 BCN, p = 0.07 BG). In BCN, the intervention group reduced the pain score compared to the control group (p =.02), and an improvement in self‐compassion was found (p =.04). In both centres, heart rate decreased significantly in the intervention group during a single 2‐hour session. This was evidenced at the first and the last program session (BCN p =.013 and p =.009; BG < 0.001 and p =.04). A training effect was found in BG, where heart rate fell more in the last session than in the first (p = 002). Conclusions: We have demonstrated for the first time the value of a mindfulness program in patients with acromegaly, analysing possible effects and advantages, and clarifying the usefulness of a specific protocol for the disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dried blood spots (DBS) are a reliable tool to diagnose viremic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. We evaluated the clinical performance of a DBS‐based molecular assay for the assessment of cure and reinfection after on‐site treatment at a harm reduction center (HRC). Genotyping from DBS samples was also assessed to discriminate reinfection from treatment failure. People who inject drugs (PWID) from an ongoing test‐and‐treat pilot at the largest HRC in Barcelona were included in the study. HCV‐RNA detection from DBS collected after treatment (with follow‐up at 12, 36, and 60 weeks) was compared with a molecular point‐of‐care test using finger‐stick blood (GeneXpert). Baseline and follow‐up DBS samples were genotyped by NS5B sequencing or commercial real‐time PCR. Among treated patients, 193 follow‐up DBS samples were tested. The DBS‐based assay showed 100% specificity (129/129), and sensitivity ranged from 84.4% to 96.1% according to different viral load cut‐offs (from detectable to 3000 IU/mL). Sensitivity as test of cure (follow‐up 12) ranged from 85.1% to 97.4%. Among the 64 patients with recurrent viremia, 10.9% had low viral loads (≤1000 IU/mL); HCV genotyping allowed us to classify 73.5% of viremic cases either as reinfection or as treatment failure. DBS samples are useful to assess cure and differentiate reinfection from relapse after HCV antiviral treatment in the real world, facilitating decentralization of treatment and posttreatment follow‐up in PWID. However, a fraction of patients presented with low viral loads, limiting viremia detection and genotyping in DBS and, therefore, repeat testing is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A long and complete series of monthly rainfall amounts corresponding to Barcelona city (Catalonia, NE Spain), exceeding two centuries (years 1786–2019), is analysed in detail. The obtained results of periodicity (annual scale), time trends (monthly, seasonal and annual scales), statistical distribution (seasonal and annual scale) and fractal/multifractal structures and self‐similarity at monthly scale depict the complex structure of this pluviometric regime, which is characterized by moderate increasing and decreasing trends on rain amounts, varying from +0.08 mm·year−1 (February) to −0.07 mm·year−1 (September) and quite evident changes on the pluviometric trends at annual and seasonal scales when the rainfall data are analysed for segments of 50 years from 1800 up to 2019. A good example could be the relevant change on the annual scale time trend, from +0.77 mm·year−1 (years 1800–1850) to −0.17 mm·year−1 (years 1950–2019). Clear evidences of decreasing pluviometry for spring, summer and autumn for the last segment (1950–2019) in comparison with the other three segments, including years 1800–1950, are also detected. Additionally, increasing rainfall patterns complexity, expected difficulties on monthly rainfall forecasting and the increasing irregularity of monthly amounts is also detected by interpreting fractal and multifractal results. Irregularity increases on the monthly rainfall series and on the rainfall regime complexity derived from multifractal parameters, could be associated with the very notable increase of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, globally varying from 51.1 × 106 metric tonnes (year 1820) to 36.6 × 109 metric tonnes (year 2019) and the tropospheric concentration increasing from 280.8 ppm (year 1850) to 397.5 ppm (year 2014), being the probable relationship between tropospheric concentrations and changes on rainfall patterns the objective of future researches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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When mapping life expectancy, and investigating its local variation in time, there is a conflict between using large areas and/or mortality data from long periods of time to have low variance life expectancy estimates, and using small areas and single‐year mortality data to explore the space–time variation of life expectancy in detail, without bias. Here a Bayesian model is proposed to smooth annual small‐area life expectancy estimates and help deal with that trade‐off. The specific area effect on life expectancy, together with its spatial and temporal dependencies are modeled through random effects, while the effect of covariates is modeled through a fixed effect component. By smoothing life expectancy estimates directly, instead of smoothing age‐specific mortality rates first the way done in the literature, the model used is easier to implement and interpret. The approach is illustrated, by using it to explore how life expectancy at birth of males and of females, and their gap, varied in space and in time in the city of Barcelona between 2007 and 2018, and their relationship with covariates. It is found that, on average, life expectancy has been growing by 0.23 years per year for males and 0.15 years per year for females. The female life expectancy is becoming more spatially homogeneous than the male one, while the rate of life expectancy growth for males turns out to be more homogeneous than for females. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A composite bridge located in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona represents one of the sites for demonstrating the capabilities of digital twins on maintenance of built assets. Digital twins can be deemed to as digital living replica of the physical one that provides real time information throughout adequate connectivity (sensors, images, remote sensing) and provides automated visualization of the asset for decision‐making purposes (performance indicators that are assessed regularly). This demonstrator is an 846 meters long composite bridge with plates and a concrete slab. The plates are tapered along a portion of its length. The bridge is horizontally curved with a bifurcation at its end. One of the challenges in this demonstrator is to reproduce realistically the "as built" shape of the plates using a terrestrial laser scanner for simulation purposes. The outcome of this specific side of the digital twinning (other sides also include many sensor‐ and image‐based methods) is of great interest for maintenance managers. Understanding the real configuration of the asset represents an accurate starting point for subsequent modelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]