Implications of climate change for rice farming in the Doñana wetland (SW Spain)

Climate change impacts are expected to affect rice farming and wetlands welfare in the Doñana protected Area, due to decreases in quantity and quality water supply and higher temperatures. The largest rice farming area is closely located to the Doñana wetlands in the Guadalquivir river basin estuary (South Western of Spain)

Las Nuevas Tecnologias en procesos de inclusion social: evaluacion de una metodologia blended learning

Esta investigación forma parte de un estudio más amplio, en el que analizamos el uso de las NTIC como herramientas realmente eficaces a la hora de abordar procesos de formación y empleo con grupos en situación de exclusión social. Para ello examinamos el proceso de implementación y desarrollo de una metodología blended learning en un programa de formación para el empleo financiado por el FSE, dirigido a colectivos desfavorecidos residentes en contextos rurales. La utilización de una doble metodología cuantitativa y cualitativa nos ha permitido evaluar la calidad del proyecto así como la medición de indicadores de eficacia, eficiencia e innovación del mismo, fundamentales para determinar la carga de la inversión. Se han realizado 204 encuestas telefónicas, 132 encuestas a alumnos, 4 encuestas a profesores, y 11 entrevistas. Se ha trabajado con un total de 1053 documentos normalizados siguiendo parámetros EFQM. La investigación demuestra que la metodología blended learning constituye una herramienta “inclusiva” en el sentido de que favorece la participación de la población más sensible en procesos de formación para el empleo, y su posterior inserción en el mercado laboral.This research is part of a larger study, which analyzes the use of ICTS as tools really effective in dealing with employment and training processes with groups in a situation of social exclusion. To do it, we examined the implementation process and the development of a blended learning methodology in a program of job training funded by the ESF (European Social Fond). Aimed at disadvantaged groups living in rural contexts. The use of a double quantitative and qualitative methodology allowed us to assess the quality of the project and the measurement of effectiveness and efficiency indicators as well as the innovation of the same fundamental in order to determine the burden of investment. There have been 204 telephone surveys, 132 surveys to students, 4 faculty surveys and 11 interviews. He has worked with a total of 1053 normalized parameters following documents EFQM. Research shows that blended learning methodology is a tool “inclusive“ in the sense that it favors the participation of the most sensitive processes for the population as far as it concerns job training, and its subsequent insertion into the labor market.peerReviewe

Anonimytext: anonimization of unstructured documents

Proceedings of: The International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Information Retrieval, October, 2009 (KDIR 2009). First International Joint Conference on Knowledge Discovery, Knowledge Engineering and Knowledge Management (IC3K 2009), Funchal (Madeira, Portugal)The anonymization of unstructured texts is nowadays a task of great importance in several text mining applications. Medical records anonymization is needed both to preserve personal health information privacy and enable further data mining efforts. The described ANONYMITEXT system is designed to de identify sensible data from unstructured documents. It has been applied to Spanish clinical notes to recognize sensible concepts that would need to be removed if notes are used beyond their original scope. The system combines several medical knowledge resources with semantic clinical notes induced dictionaries. An evaluation of the semi automatic process has been carried on a subset of the clinical notes on the most frequent attributes.This work has been partially supported by MAVIR (S 0505/TIC 0267) and by the TIN2007 67407 C03 01 project BRAVO

Coeducación: feminismo en acción

Coeducation is born as political project for the transformation of a sexist and, therefore, unequal, unfair and excluding society. Coeducation engages with a social model that definitively breaks hierarchical gender relations and seeks to guarantee the possibility of a freely chosen individuality. This was evidenced by the legislative reforms of the present century because, by recognizing the existence of gender-based discriminations, they insisted on the need to promote equality between women and men in education, and introduced different measures aimed at eliminating the inequalities depending on this variable. The coeducational project draws on feminist studies that, using the concept of gender to highlight the cultural origin and social construction of these inequalities, place in a relevant position the fight against stereotypes, due to their great power in defining skills, qualities, interests and future perspectives.La coeducación nace como proyecto político de transformación de una sociedad sexista y, por tanto, desigual, injusta y excluyente; comprometida con un modelo social que rompe definitivamente las relaciones de género jerarquizadas y busca garantizar la posibilidad de una individualidad libremente elegida. Así lo evidenciaban las reformas legislativas que caracterizaron el comienzo del presente siglo pues, al reconocer la existencia de discriminaciones en función del género, insistían en la  necesidad de potenciar la igualdad entre mujeres y hombres en los ámbitos educativos, e introducían diferentes medidas encaminadas a eliminar las desigualdades en función de esta variable.  El proyecto coeducativo bebe de los estudios feministas que, valiéndose del concepto de género para resaltar el origen cultural y de construcción social de estas desigualdades, coloca en un lugar relevante la lucha en contra los estereotipos por su gran poder para definir capacidades, cualidades, intereses y perspectivas de futuro de manera sexuada

Immediate Effects of Bilateral Sacroiliac Joint Manipulation on Plantar Pressure Distribution in Asymptomatic Participants

[EN] Objective: To investigate the immediate effects of manipulation of bilateral sacroiliac joints (SIJs) on the plantar pressure distribution in asymptomatic participants in the standing position. Design: Randomized, controlled, double-blind clinical trial. Participants: Sixty-two asymptomatic men and women (mean age, 20.66 – 2.56 years) randomly assigned to 2 groups. Interventions: The experimental group underwent mobilization without tension of the hips in the supine position and high-velocity, low-amplitude manipulation in the SIJs bilaterally. The control group underwent only mobilization, without tension of the hips in supine position. Outcome Measures: Pre- and postintervention outcomes measured by an assessor blinded to the treatment allocation of the participants included a baropodometric analysis performed by using a force platform. Baseline between-group differences were examined with a Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. A chi-square test was used for categorical data. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to assess differences between groups, with the preintervention value as covariant (95% confidence level). Results: At baseline, no variables significantly differed between groups. Baropodometric analysis showed statistically significant differences in the location of the maximum pressure point in the experimental group ( p = 0.028). Pre- and postintervention analysis with ANCOVA showed statistically significant differences between both groups in the left hindfoot load percentage (interaction p = 0.0259; ANCOVA p = 0.0277), right foot load percentage (ANCOVA p = 0.0380), and surface of the right forefoot (interaction p = 0.0038). There was also a significant effect in the variables that analyze the entire foot (left foot: surface [interaction p = 0.0452], percentage of load [ANCOVA p = 0.0295]) and between both groups (right foot: weight [interaction p = 0.0070; ANCOVA p = 0.0296]). Conclusions: Sacroiliac joint manipulation applied bilaterally in asymptomatic persons resulted in immediate changes in load distribution on plantar support in the standing position. Study limitations and suggestions for future studies are discussed

Residues K128, 132, and 134 in the thyroid hormone receptor-α are essential for receptor acetylation and activity

The thyroid hormone receptor (TR)-α is a nuclear receptor that mediates both transrepression and ligand-dependent transactivation. Here we show that TRα is posttranslationally modified by acetylation in response to its own ligand (T3). Acetylation increases binding to DNA. Using mutagenesis, we identified three conserved lysine residues in the carboxi-terminal extension (CTE) of the DNA binding domain that are targets of the cAMP-response element-binding protein acetyltransferase. Substitution of these lysines by arginines in TRα decreased ligand binding affinity and precluded ligand-dependent release of corepressors and recruitment of coactivators. The acetylation TRα mutant lost the ability to transactivate even at high T3 concentrations and acts as a dominant-negative inhibitor of wild-type TR activity. In addition, whereas native TRα interferes with AP-1 function, the mutant is unable to mediate transrepression. Finally, TRα suppresses NIH-3T3 fibroblast transformation by the Ras oncogene both in a ligand-dependent and -independent manner, but the CTE mutant is unable to mediate ligand-dependent repression of transformation. These results reveal a key role for the CTE region on acetylation, ligand affinity, transactivation, transrepression, and antitransforming properties of TRα. Copyright © 2009 by The Endocrine Society.This work was supported by Grant BFU2006-13497/2007-62402 from the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia and from the Fundación Médica Mutua Madrileña, Red Temática de Investigacion Cooperativa en Cancer from Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias, and Consortium for Research into Nuclear Development and Aging from the European Union.Peer Reviewe

Towards mitigation of greenhouse gases by small changes in farming practices: understanding local barriers in Spain.

Small changes in agricultural practices have a large potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, the implementation of such practices at the local level is often limited by a range of barriers. Understanding the barriers is essential for defining effective measures, the actual mitigation potential of the measures, and the policy needs to ensure implementation. Here we evaluate behavioural, cultural, and policy barriers for implementation of mitigation practices at the local level that imply small changes to farmers. The choice of potential mitigation practices relevant to the case study is based on a literature review of previous empirical studies. Two methods that include the stakeholders? involvement (experts and farmers) are undertaken for the prioritization of these potential practices: (a) Multi-criteria analysis (MCA) of the choices of an expert panel and (b) Analysis of barriers to implementation based on a survey of farmers. The MCA considers two future climate scenarios ? current climate and a drier and warmer climate scenario. Results suggest that all potential selected practices are suitable for mitigation considering multiple criteria in both scenarios. Nevertheless, if all the barriers for implementation had the same influence, the preferred mitigation practices in the case study would be changes in fertilization management and use of cover crops. The identification of barriers for the implementation of the practices is based on the econometric analysis of surveys given to farmers. Results show that farmers? environmental concerns, financial incentives and access to technical advice are the main factors that define their barriers to implementation. These results may contribute to develop effective mitigation policy to be included in the 2020 review of the European Union Common Agricultural Policy

Correlation between Spectroscopic and Mechanical Properties of Gold Nanocrystals under Pressure

The effects of nonhydrostatic pressure on the morphology and stability of gold nanorods (AuNRs) and nanospheres (AuNSs) in 4:1 methanol-ethanol mixtures were studied by optical absorption spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy at pressures of up to 23 and 30 GPa, respectively. Solvent solidification and associated nonhydrostatic stresses were found to have a negligible effect on the shape and size of AuNSs. On the contrary, while AuNRs maintained their initial morphology in the hydrostatic range, the uniaxial stress component induced under nonhydrostatic conditions had a shearing effect on the AuNRs, breaking them into smaller particles. Interestingly, colloidal stability was maintained in all cases, and the particles showed no sign of aggregation, despite the severe nonhydrostatic conditions to which both AuNR and AuNS colloids were subjected.Financial support from Projects PGC2018-101464−B-I00 (Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades) and MALTA-Consolider Team (RED2018-102612-T) is acknowledged. We acknowledge J. A. Barreda-Argüeso and J. RuizFuertes for support with high-pressure measurements. P.M. thanks the ARC for grant CE170100026. L.M.L.-M. acknowledges grant PID2020-117779R and the Maria de Maeztu Units of Excellence Program (grant MDM-2017-0720) from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación

Towards adaptation to climate change: water for rice in the coastal wetlands of Doñana, Southern Spain

Rice production in coastal wetlands provides critical ecosystem services that range from flood control to wildlife habitat. In the Iberian Peninsula rice was introduced in the 10th Century. Today Iberian rice accounts for about one quarter of the total rice production of the European Union, almost exclusively cultivated in the coastal wetlands of Spain, with permanent flooding. The intensive water management required to produce rice stands at a crucial point since freshwater supply is deteriorating at an unprecedented rate. Here we explore flexible adaptation options to climate change in the Doñana wetlands - a world heritage and biodiversity site - from two points of view: What are the policy options for agricultural water management in view of climate change? How can informed stakeholders contribute to better adaptation? The first question is addressed by simulating water availability to farmers with the WAAPA model under a range of adaptation policy options derived from the view of the local communities. The second question was addressed by means of participatory research. Adaptation options are framed according to the local environmental, social and policy context. Results suggest that perception on the potential role of new water infrastructure and farming subsidies dominates the view of local communities. The choices of the stakeholders that could be simulated with the hydrological model, were quantified in terms of additional water availability for the rice farming, therefore providing a quantitative measure to the qualitative solutions. Information provided during the study shaped the final adaptation options developed. Our research contributes to the definition of sustainable rice production in Europe