On the basis of plastic bounding surface model, the damage theory for structured soils and unsaturated soil mechanics, an elastoplastic model for unsaturated loessic soils under cyclic loading has been elaborated. Firstly, the description of bond degradation in a damage framework is given, linking the damage of soil’s structure to the accumulated strain. The Barcelona Basic Model (BBM) was cons...

Hourly measurements of pollen near-surface concentration and lidar-derived profiles of particle backscatter coefficients and of volume and particle depolarization ratios during a 5-day pollination event observed in Barcelona, Spain, between 27 – 31 March, 2015, are presented. Maximum hourly pollen concentrations of 4700 and 1200 m h were found for Platanus and Pinus, respectively, which represe...

In this paper, we present an agent-based model for exploring the interplay of basic structural and socio-cognitive factors conventional water saving measures in evolution domestic use metropolitan areas. Using data Barcelona, discuss three scenarios that involve plausible demographic cultural trends. Results show that, scenarios, aggregate outcomes are consistent with available modelling (while...

Accurate automatic segmentation of subcortical brain structures in Magnetic Resonance Images (MRI) is of great interest in the analysis of developmental disorders. Segmentation methods based on a single or multiple atlases have been shown to suitably localize brain structures. However, the atlas prior information may not represent the structure of interest correctly. It may therefore be useful ...

Capture-recapture, an indirect method widely used to estimate undetected populations, has been criticized because it causes problems due to a lack of compliance with several important assumptions and model selection strategies. This paper expands on the problems encountered when applying this methodology to drug abuse estimations, specifically the prevalence of opiate use in the metropolitan ar...

From 1995 to 1998, the European Commission supported the “Basic Ethical Principles in European Bioethics and Biolaw” research project (1995–1998). The project was based on cooperation between 22 partners coming from most EU countries. Its aim was to identify the ethical principles relating to autonomy, dignity, integrity and vulnerability as four important ideas or values for a European bioethi...

The mechanical behaviour of unsaturated soils is one of the challenging topics in the field of geotechnical engineering. The use of finite element technique is considered as a promising method to solve settlement and heave problems, as associated with unsaturated soil. Nevertheless, the success of the numerical analysis is strongly dependent on constitutive model being used. The well-known Barc...

Author details Department of Clinical Microbiology, Hospital Clinic, School of Medicine, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. Barcelona Centre for International Health Research (CRESIB, Hospital Clinic-Universitat de Barcelona), Barcelona, Spain. Infectious Diseases Unit, Hospital Clinic-IDIBAPS, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. Public Health Agency of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spai...