An evaluation of public aids towards renewable energy sources in Spain

Public aids towards renewable energy sources in Spain have had the consequence of a great increase in their use. This is particularly true for the case of wind generation. For the year 2007, we show that the savings in social costs due to carbon emissions account for a figure between 25% and 78% of total aids. Since some of the public aids are just a money transfer with no effect on total social welfare the justification of the net costs of the aids is higher. For the particular case of wind generation, we find that in the worst case scenario 45% of the social cost implied by the public aids is justified by the reduction in carbon emissions, and that the benefits of CO2 reductions are 135% higher than the costs in the best case scenario

Pig slurry incorporation with tillage does not reduce short-term soil CO2 fluxes

Tillage and organic fertilization impact short-term soil CO2 fluxes. However, the interactive effect of these two management practices has been rarely studied under field conditions. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of tillage (NT, no-tillage, and CT, conventional tillage) and fertilization strategy (PS, pig slurry, and MF, mineral fertilizer) on short-term soil CO2 fluxes in a rainfed Mediterranean agroecosystem. Soil CO2 fluxes were measured several times during two tillage and pre-sowing fertilization periods in 2012 and 2013 (7 and 6 times in 2012 and 2013, respectively). In the two years studied, tillage and fertilization significantly affected soil CO2 fluxes, but the interaction between both factors was not significant. The application of PS resulted in a sharp and immediate increase in the soil CO2 flux. One hour after the application of the organic fertilizer, soil CO2 emissions increased from 0.05 to 0.70 g CO2 m−2 h−1 and from 0.08 to 0.82 g CO2 m−2 h−1 in 2012 and 2013, respectively. Unlike fertilization, 1 h after tillage similar soil CO2 fluxes were observed in CT and NT plots. However, after 7 h, larger fluxes were observed in CT compared with NT in both years. Cumulative CO2 flux during the first 24 h after fertilization and tillage was about three- and two-fold greater in PS than in MF and in CT than in NT, respectively. The results of this study showed that in rainfed Mediterranean systems, soil management and fertilization have a noteworthy impact on short-term soil CO2 losses though no interactive effects were observed between both management practices.This research was supported by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain (AGL2010-22050-C03-01/02; AGL2013-49062- C4-4-R) and the COMET-Global project (FACCE-JPI grant)

AmbienNet: An Intelligent Environment to Support People with Disabilities and Elderly People

AmbienNet is an ongoing project aiming to demonstrate the viability of accessible intelligent environments to support people with disabilities and elderly people living autonomously. Based on the Ambient Intelligence paradigm, it tries to study in depth its advantages and disadvantages for people with sensory, physical or cognitive restrictions. To this end diverse supporting technologies and applications have been designed, in order to test their accessibility, usability and validity. After introducing the objectives and findings of the project, in this paper a number of preliminary results are presented and discussed

Chionanthus megistocarpus (Oleaceae), a new species from the Western Cordillera of Colombia

[EN] We describe a new species of Chionanthus (Oleaceae), from the Subandean forests of the Western Cordillera of Colombia. C. megistocarpus is similar to the Ecuadorian species C. colonchensis, but presents leaves with longer petioles [(12–)15–30(–35) mm], with obtuse leaf blades, without abaxial domatia, with longer inflorescences (10–20 cm long) and the largest fruits for this genus in the Neotropics (4.5–5 cm long).[ES] Se describe una especie nueva de Chionanthus (Oleaceae) de los bosques subandinos de la Cordillera Occidental de Colombia. Chionanthus megistocarpus es afín a la especie ecuatoriana C. colonchensis, pero presenta hojas con peciolos más largos [(12–)15–30(–35) mm], láminas obtusas, sin domacios axilares asociados a las venas del envés, inflorescencias más largas (10–20 cm) y los frutos más grandes en este género en el Neotrópico (4.5–5 cm de largo).To the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), and the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for financing the project CGL 2010–19747Peer reviewe

Chionanthus abriaquiensis Fern. Alonso & Cogollo (Oleaceae), una nueva especie de Colombia

[EN] Chionanthus abriaquiensis Fern. Alonso & Cogollo (Oleaceae), a new species from the cloud forests of Colombia, is described and illustrated. This species clearly differs from the previously known Chionanthus L. in Mesoamerica and Northern South America for the long petiolate leaves, the number of secondary veins on the blades, and very long axillary inflorescences. An identification key for the species of Chionanthus from Northern South America and Panama is also presented.[ES] Se describe e ilustra Chionanthus abriaquiensis Fern. Alonso & Cogollo (Oleaceae), una nueva especie de los bosques nublados de Colombia. Esta especie se diferencia claramente de las previamente conocidas de Mesoamérica y del Norte de Suramérica por presentar hojas largamente pecioladas, el número de venas secundarias en las láminas foliares y las inflorescencias axilares muy largas. Se presenta también una clave para identificar las especies de Chionanthus del norte de Sudamérica y Panamá.Al Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) y al Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad por la financiación del proyecto CGL 2010-19747Peer reviewe

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Sin resume

Robust sensor fusion in real maritime surveillance scenarios

8 pages, 14 figures.-- Proceedings of: 13th International Conference on Information Fusion (FUSION'2010), Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, Jul 26-29, 2010).This paper presents the design and evaluation of a sensor fusion system for maritime surveillance. The system must exploit the complementary AIS-radar sensing technologies to synthesize a reliable surveillance picture using a highly efficient implementation to operate in dense scenarios. The paper highlights the realistic effects taken into account for robust data combination and system scalability.This work was supported in part by a national project with NUCLEO CC, and research projects CICYT TEC2008-06732-C02-02/TEC, CICYT TIN2008-06742-C02-02/TSI, SINPROB, CAM CONTEXTS S2009/TIC-1485 and DPS2008-07029-C02-02.Publicad

Representaciones sociales de la mujer

Una de las principales teorías en la psicología social actual es la de las Representaciones Sociales. Desde que el psicólogo social Serge Moscovici desarrollara su teoría de las representaciones sociales para explicar cómo una teoría científica como el psicoanálisis se transforma en un conocimiento de sentido común son muchos los estudios realizados por diferentes psicólogos sociales. El análisis de las representaciones sociales de la mujer, reflejado en los mitos y creencias populares, es un marco idóneo para analizar cómo la teoría puede ser aplicada a este campo representacional al tiempo que ayuda a comprender la formación de actitudes sociales hacia la mujer.Social Representations is one of the most important theories in contemporary social psychology. Since the social psychologist Serge Moscovici developed his theory of social representations to explain how a scientific theory such as the psychoanalysis turns into a common sense knowledge many studies have been done by different social psychologists. The analysis of the social representations of women as represented in myths and popular beliefs is an excellent opportunity to study how this theory can be applied to this representational field. At the same time it makes possible to understand the formation of attitudes towards women

Sperm flagellum volume determines freezability in red deer spermatozoa

The factors affecting the inter-individual differences in sperm freezability is a major line of research in spermatology. Poor sperm freezability is mainly characterised by a low sperm velocity, which in turn is associated with low fertility rates in most animal species. Studies concerning the implications of sperm morphometry on freezability are quite limited, and most of them are based on sperm head size regardless of the structural parts of the flagellum, which provides sperm motility. Here, for the first time, we determined the volumes of the flagellum structures in fresh epididymal red deer spermatozoa using a stereological method under phase contrast microscopy. Sperm samples from thirty-three stags were frozen and classified, as good freezers (GF) or bad freezers (BF) at two hours post-thawing using three sperm kinetic parameters which are strongly correlated with fertility in this species. Fourteen stags were clearly identified as GF, whereas nineteen were BF. No significant difference in sperm head size between the two groups was found. On the contrary, the GF exhibited a lower principal piece volume than the BF (6.13 μm3 vs 6.61 μm3, respectively, p = 0.006). The volume of the flagellum structures showed a strong negative relationship with post-thawing sperm velocity. For instance, the volume of the sperm principal piece was negatively correlated with sperm velocity at two hours post-thawing (r = -0.60; p<0.001). Our results clearly show that a higher volume of the sperm principal piece results in poor freezability, and highlights the key role of flagellum size in sperm cryopreservation success.JLRS was supported by I3P program (Spanish National Research Council, CSIC, Spain), post-doctoral fellowship no. 99830/1181/1822 (Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic), and by the project CIGA 20145001 (Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic).Peer Reviewe

Simulating climate change and land use effects on soil nitrous oxide emissions in Mediterranean conditions using the Daycent model

In Mediterranean agroecosystems, limited information exists about possible impacts of climate change on soil N2O emissions under different land uses. This paper presents a modelling study with a dual objective. Firstly, the biogeochemical Daycent model was evaluated to predict soil N2O emissions in different land uses in a typical Mediterranean agroecosystem. Secondly, the study aimed to determine the impact of climate change on soil N2O emissions in different Mediterranean land uses over an 85-year period. Soil N2O emissions were measured in three land uses (cropland, abandoned land and afforested land) over 18 months (December 2011 to June 2013) in a characteristic Mediterranean site in Spain. For climate change simulations, Daycent was run with and without atmospheric CO2 enrichment using climate data from the CGCM2-A2 model. The cumulative N2O emissions predicted by the Daycent model agreed well with the observed values. The lack of fit (LOFIT) and the relative error (E) statistics determined that the model error was not greater than the error in the measurements and that the bias in the simulation values was lower than the 95% confidence interval of the measurements. For the different land uses and climate scenarios, annual cumulative N2O emissions ranged from 126 to 642 g N2O-N ha−1 yr−1. Over the simulated 85-year period, climate change decreased soil N2O emissions in all three land uses. At the same time, under climate change, water filled pore space (WFPS) values decreased between 4% and 15% depending on the land use and climate change scenario considered. This study demonstrated the ability of the Daycent model to simulate soil N2O emissions in different land uses. According to model predictions, in Mediterranean conditions, climate change would lead to reduced N2O emissions in a range of land uses.Jorge Álvaro-Fuentes acknowledges the receipt of a fellowship from the OECD Co-operative Research Programme: Biological Resource Management in Sustainable Agricultural Systems in 2013. Daniel Plaza-Bonilla received a “Juan de la Cierva” grant from the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of Spain. This study was also possible through funds provided by the Aragon Regional Government and La Caixa (grant GA-LC-050/2011), the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain (grant AGL2013-49062-C4-4-R) and the COMET-Global project (FACCE-JPI grant). We are grateful to María José Salvador and Javier Bareche for laboratory assistance