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The purpose of this paper is to present SMARTxAC, a tailor‐made passive monitoring and analysis system for high‐speed IP networks. The authors also discuss the design challenges we had to face to cope with the requirements of such a system.

This system has been designed to operate at gigabit speeds without packet loss, while providing very detailed information about the network usage.

SMARTxAC has become a very powerful tool for the network operators of the Catalan Research and Education Network (Anella Científica) to know, in detail, the usage of their network and to detect network faults, anomalies and attacks when they occur.

In the design of this system, the authors had to trade generality for performance in order to address the current limitations of monitoring high‐speed links.

Since 2003, SMARTxAC has been used for continuously monitoring the Anella Científica.

The main difference between SMARTxAC and other monitoring systems and infrastructures for high‐speed networks is that SMARTxAC has been explicitly designed to analyse the network traffic online, whereas in other approaches, traffic analysis tasks are usually postponed to an off‐line stage.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the mechanical properties of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) parts manufactured through fused filament fabrication and compare these results to analogous ones obtained on polylactic acid (PLA) and PLA–wood specimens to contribute for a wider understanding of the different materials used for additive manufacturing.

With that aim, an experimental based on an L27 Taguchi array was used to combine the specific parameters taken into account in the study, namely, layer height, nozzle diameter, infill density, orientation and printing velocity. All samples were subjected to a four-point bending test performed according to the ASTM D6272 standard.

Young’s modulus, elastic limit, maximum stress and maximum deformation of every sample were computed and subjected to an analysis of variance. Results prove that layer height and nozzle diameter are the most significant factors that affect the mechanical resistance in pieces generated through additive manufacturing and subjected to bending loads, regardless of the material.

The best results were obtained by combining a layer height of 0.1 mm and a nozzle diameter of 0.6 mm. The comparison of materials evidenced that PLA and its composite version reinforced with wood particles present more rigidity than ABS, whereas the latter can experience further deflection before break.

This study is of interest for manufacturers that want to decide which is the best material to be applied for their application, as it derives in a practical technical recommendation of the best parameters that should be selected to treat the material during the fused filament fabrication process.

This paper aims to address the privacy problem associated with the use of internet search engines. The purpose of the paper is to propose and validate a set of methods and protocols to guarantee the privacy of users' queries.

In this paper h(k)‐private information retrieval (h(k)‐PIR) is defined as a practical compromise between computational efficiency and privacy. Also presented are h(k)‐PIR protocols that can be used to query any database, which does not even need to know that the user is trying to preserve his or her privacy.

The proposed methods are able to properly protect the privacy of users' queries. When internet users apply the protocols, search engines (e.g. Google) are not able to determine unequivocally the real interests of their users. The quality of the results does decrease with the increase in privacy, but the obtained trade‐off is excellent.

Current private information retrieval (PIR) protocols suffer from two significant shortcomings: their computational complexity is O(n) where n is the number of records in the database, which precludes their use for very large databases and web search engines; and they assume that the database server cooperates in the PIR protocol, which prevents deployment in real‐life uncooperative settings. The proposed protocols overcome both problems.

This is the first set of protocols that offer practical protection for the privacy of the queries that internet users submit to an internet search engine. The proposal has been implemented and it will be released to the general public soon. It will help to protect the right to privacy of millions of internet users.

The authors present the application of the López-Fresno approach in designing an integrated management system (IMS) for an aviation company to the development of an IMS in a government-run organization responsible for the medical evaluation of work disabilities. The purpose of this paper is to share the design process, with the intention of showing that this approach is applicable to other sectors and proposing generalization and applicability strategies to other smaller government entities.

The study involves two phases. Phase I applies the López-Fresno approach to design a basic IMS-I and ends with a European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) evaluation, whose suggestions were taken into consideration for the final design of IMS-II during phase II. The data were obtained from the organization's own functioning. There was a significant degree of personal involvement by the authors, external consultants and members of the management committee in areas ranging from the approach itself to the various components analyzed.

The approach led to a better use of human and material resources and produced various advances in both internal and external communication and significant progress in employee motivation in their dealings with users and stakeholders.

The study offers guidelines and recommendations for designing an IMS adapted to small, compact, administrative organizations that operate with stakeholders with highly disparate outlooks and interests, with different quality levels, in a context related to competitiveness and economic development.

In the early 1990s sponsorship be came established as a widely-used marketing tool in Spain. The Barcelona Olympics, the Universal Exposition in Seville and the naming of Madridas the Capital of European Culture were largely responsible for this. However, intensive sponsorship use does not necessarily mean appropriate sponsorship management. CarlosIlla, Sponsorship Manager of Spanish telecommunications firm Telefonica, has been always one of those few professionals who has managed to combine intensive use and appropriate management. In this interview he addresses various issues involved in sponsor ship management including the combination of local and transnational sport marketing, sponsor ship decision making and selection criteria, and different evaluation methods.