Land Use Changes and Their Perception in the Hinterland of Barranquilla, Colombian Caribbean

The coastal strip of the western peri-urban area of Barranquilla in the Atlántico Department (Colombia) is experiencing changes in human-environment interactions through infrastructure, residential, and tourism projects in a vulnerable landscape. In the hilly area, fragments of biodiverse tropical dry forest still exist in various states of conservation and degradation. To understand the interrelated social, economic, and ecological transformations in the area, we analyzed land use change on the local scale including the local community’s perception, because the local community is a key actor for sustainable land use. For the analysis of the interrelated social, economic, and ecological processes, we combined visual interpretation of high-resolution satellite imagery, on-site field land use mapping, and a spatial statistical analysis of the distribution of land use classes with in-depth interviews and a participatory GIS workshop, thus benefitting from the complementary methodological strengths of these approaches. The case study is the rural community of El Morro, which exhibits the typical social, economic, and ecological changes of the coastal strip of the western peri-urban area of Barranquilla. The local community perceives a continuous loss of forest area, but observations from on-site field mapping cannot confirm this linear trend. We observed a gradual replacement of traditional land uses such as smallholder agriculture, charcoal production, and cattle breeding by services for tourism, gated community projects for urban dwellers, and infrastructure projects; these spatial developments have several characteristics of rural gentrification. We conclude that the drivers of environmental degradation have changed and the degradation increased. The development projects of external companies have been rejected by the local community and have induced environmental consciousness among community members. Thus, the local community has become an advocate for sustainable land use in the study area

Víctor Eusa's basilica of "Our lady of the Puy", a work in the religious legacy of Otto Bartning and Dominikus Böhm

[EN] The work of D. Bohm and O. Bartning is a model in the quest to give a new expression to contemporary religious space. Both referred their architectural form to the Gothic model, as the inspiring designer of liturgical space. Víctor Eusa, in his work of the Basilica del Puy, completes the exploration by Böhm and Bartning, based on the historical models of the Renaissance and Baroque, with their central and bifocals floorplans and contributing to the characterization of that space with the invention of forms derived from the Spanish-Muslim tradition that was front and centre in Eusa’s cultural education[ES] La obra de D. Böhm y O. Bartning constituye un modelo en la búsqueda por dar al espacio religioso contemporáneo una nueva expresión. Ambos refirieron su forma arquitectónica al modelo gótico como inspirador del espacio litúrgico. Víctor Eusa en su obra de la Basílica del Puy completa la búsqueda de Böhm y Bartning basada en los tipos históricos del Renacimiento y Barroco con sus plantas centrales y bifocales, aportando a la caracterización de ese espacio la invención de formas derivadas de la tradición hispano-musulmana tan presente en la formación cultural de Eusa.Caballero Lobera, A. (2016). La basílica del Puy de Víctor EUSA, una obra en el legado religioso de O. Bartning y D. Böhm. EN BLANCO. Revista de Arquitectura. 8(21):73-78. doi:10.4995/eb.2016.6374.SWORD737882

Physiological stress detection using neurocognitive games

Stress has been defined as a reaction from a calm state to an excited state in order to preserve the integrity of the organism. This reaction is given by changes and pressures which provoke physical and physiological responses. Within description, stress occur in order to preserve the individuals integrity, and could appear in human signals such as heart activity, sweating or pupil dilatation. However, the presence of stress has been associated with a decrease in performance. Continuous daily stress can have negative effects on individuals’ physical and mental well-being, being linked to chronic health risks, such as cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and coronary diseases. The main goal of this Bachelor Thesis is to provide a system that determines different levels of stress using physiological signals. To achieve this goal, an experiment has been developed to induce stress to participants while their physiological signals were collected using wearable sensors. The experiment consists on a set of cognitive tasks developed by Lumosity Labs that elicits different anxiety scenarios: attention, memory, flexibility, resolve tasking and speed. Three physiological parameters have been acquired aiming to classify different stress levels: heart rate, galvanic skin response and cortisol hormone. Three devices were used to measure physiological signals; Q sensor, Garmin forerunner 310XT and Microsoft Band 2, along with a cortisol test. Finally, the classifier of stress reactions using physiological signals has been developed based on a linear regression. This complete method take into account four factors: individual performance, tasks that is been involved, chronic stress and real-time reactions. Results shows a individual scheme for different abilities played on the experiment. A characterization of Yerkes & Dodson curve is performed to evaluate his personal stress abilities using a linear normalization. Besides, features of electrodermal activity (area under the curve) and cardiac activity (ratio between low and high frequency) are selected as the ones that have more influence in terms of stress reactions. The design obtains an individual performance characterization and determine the feature more relevant on the stress detection achieving the target expectations.Ingeniería Biomédic

Bridge of San Jorge of Alcoy (1925-1928): the technical form as an architectural form

[EN] The Bridge of San Jorge of Alcoy is the development of an architecture that faces a double challenge: to be expressed in the Art Decolanguage of his time and to give legitimacy to the reinforced concrete as a material its own right in the world of architecture. To this end, following the path that A. Perret, Eusa transfers to the construction system of concrete, the cultural content of the tectonic Greco-Gothic model, fulfilling the requirement of constructive sincerity, for which the generation of architectural form should be manifested as a consequence of its mechanical function.[ES] El puente de San Jorge de Alcoy supone la realización de una arquitectura que se enfrenta a un doble reto: expresarse en el lenguaje art déco de su tiempo, y dar carta de naturaleza al hormigón armado como material de pleno derecho en el ámbito arquitectónico. para ello y siguiendo la estela de A. perret, Eusa transfiere al sistema constructivo del hormigón, el contenido cultural del modelo tectónico greco-gótico, cumpliendo así la máxima que exige sinceridad constructiva, para lo cual la generación de la forma arquitectónica debía manifestarse como consecuencia de la función mecánica.Caballero Lobera, A. (2015). Puente de San Jorge de Alcoy (1925-28): la forma técnica como forma arquitectónica. EN BLANCO. Revista de Arquitectura. 7(18):78-83. doi:10.4995/eb.2015.4468SWORD7883718BANHAM Reyner. Teoría y dise-o en la primera era de la máquina. Fabricant, Luis (trad.). 1ª ed. Barcelona: Ediciones Paidós Ibérica, S.A., 1985. ISBN: 84-7509-347-7.COLQUHOUN, Alan. La arquitectura moderna: una historia desapasionada. Sainz, Jorge (trad.). Barcelona: Ed. G.G. 2005. ISBN: 84-252-1988-4.CHOISY, August. Histoire de l'architecture, Tome I. Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1899.Durand, J.N.L. Compendio de lecciones de arquitectura y Parte gráfica de los cursos de arquitectura. Moneo, Rafael (pro.). Blanco Lage, Manuel (trad.). 1ª ed. Madrid: Ediciones Pronaos, 1981. ISBN: 84-8541-00-4.LEACHE, Jesús y TABUENCA, Fernando. Víctor Eusa arquitecto. Colegio de Arquitectos Vasco-Navarro. Pamplona: 1989.Polo BENITO, José. El arquitecto Víctor Eusa. Madrid: Ediciones de Arquitectura Edarba, 1934

Crop residues in corn-wheat rotation in a semi-arid region increase CO2 efflux under conventional tillage but not under no-tillage system

Appropriate management of crop residue plays a key role in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. However, it has been inadequately implemented in general agricultural management practices. In a field investigation using static chambers, we evaluated the effects of crop residue at three different rates - 100 % (R100), 50 % (R50), and residue removal (R0) - on carbon dioxide (CO2) efflux. The field study was conducted in corn-wheat rotation under conventional (CT) and no-tillage (NT) systems in a semi-arid region. The main results showed that CO2 efflux was positively correlated with higher soil temperature (0.43–0.79) and microbial biomass carbon (0.66–0.89). The crop residue treatments affected these traits. A strong positive relationship between CO2 efflux and the crop residue (R2 = 0.96, CT and R2 = 0.9 for NT) was observed. In the CT system, significant increases were detected among residue rates on cumulative CO2 efflux, where R100 and R50 resulted in 36 % and 25 % higher cumulative CO2 efflux, respectively, than R0. In contrast, there was no significant difference in cumulative CO2 efflux among the crop residue retention (R100 and R50) and removal (R0) treatments under the NT system. Our study revealed that crop residue retention led to increased CO2 efflux under the CT system in semi-arid conditions during the first year of application, while under the NT system, CO2 efflux was not impacted by crop residue. Our results indicate that there is considerable potential for improving soil management practices in the context of soil degradation, climate change, increasing crop productivity, and carbon (C) sequestration

Las dinámicas institucionales del éxito y del fracaso económico : un análisis institucional histórico y comparativo de España y Argentina (1950-2000)

Este artículo realiza un análisis institucional histórico y comparativo de las experiencias económicas de España y Argentina en la segunda mitad del siglo XX. ¿Por qué la economía española logró el salto hacia la prosperidad económica en ese periodo mientras la economía argentina no encontró la senda del éxito? ¿Qué variables institucionales permiten explicar la evolución en el tiempo de dos economías a través de sendas divergentes? ¿Se pueden extraer ciertas lecciones a partir de un análisis de ambas experiencias? Este trabajo intenta responder a estos interrogantes desde un enfoque propio de la Nueva Economía Institucional. La variable clave para hacerlos es el cambio institucional.__________________________This article develops an historical and comparative institutional analysis of the economic experiences of Spain and Argentina in the second half of the XX Century. Why did the Spanish economy obtain the jump towards the economic prosperity in that period while the Argentine economy did not find the path of success? Which institutional variables do allow us to explain the dynamic evolution of the two economies through divergent paths? Can we extract some lessons from the analysis of both experiences? This work tries to answer to these questions from the perspective of the New Institutional Economics. The key variable is institutional change

Soil Nitrous Oxide Emissions Following Crop Residues Management in Corn-Wheat Rotation Under Conventional and No-Tillage Systems

Agricultural activity is the major anthropogenic source of nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from terrestrial ecosystems. Conservation agriculture including crop residue management can play a key role in enhancing soil resilience to climate change and mitigating N2O emissions. We investigated the effects of crop residue rates, including 100 % (R100), 50 % (R50), and residue removal (R0), on N2O emissions in corn-wheat rotation under conventional (CT) and no-tillage (NT) systems. The key factors evaluated affecting N2O emissions included soil temperature, soil moisture, soil ammonium, and soil nitrate concentrations. Results showed that the N2O emissions increased with the increasing rate of residue under both CT and NT systems. Both R100 and R50 significantly (p < .05) increased the N2O emissions compared to R0 during the annual rotation cycle. Soil moisture and mineral nitrogen (ammonium and nitrate) were the main driving factors that stimulated N2O emission in both CT and NT systems. In the NT and CT systems, cumulative N2O emissions showed a significant increase with R50 (+75.5 % in NT, +36.5 % in CT) and R100 (+134 % in NT, +40 % in CT) as compared to R0. Furthermore, no significant differences were found between R100 and R50 in the CT system, while in the NT system significant increases were observed for R100 compared to R50. Overall, our study justified as a first approach only during the first year that crop residue removal led to decreased N2O emissions under semi-arid conditions. However, due to the deteriorating impact of crop residue removal on crop productivity and soil C sequestration, this management method cannot be considered a sustainable agronomic practice. We suggest long-term studies to determine the appropriate rate of postharvest crop residue to achieve less N2O emissions and climate-friendly agricultural practices.Iran National Science Foundation (INSF)National Research, Development & Innovation Office (NRDIO) - Hungary TNN 12345

Environmental impacts of corn silage production: influence of wheat residues under contrasting tillage management types

Acknowledgements The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by Iran National Science Foundation (INSF). Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Granada / CBUA.Funding Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Granada / CBUA. This study received financial support provided by the Iran National Science Foundation (INSF).Data Availability The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, (A. C. C.), upon reasonable request.The intensification of specific land management operations (tillage, herbicide, etc.) is increasing land degradation and contributing to ecosystem pollution. Mulches can be a sustainable tool to counter these processes. This is particularly relevant for rural areas in low-income countries where agriculture is a vital sector. In this research, the environmental impact of different rates of wheat residues (no residues, 25, 50, 75, and 100%) in corn silage cultivation was evaluated using the life cycle assessment (LCA) method under conventional tillage (CT) and no-tillage (NT) systems in a semi-arid region in Karaj, Iran. Results showed that in both tillage systems, marine aquatic ecotoxicity (ME) and global warming potential (GWP) had the highest levels of pollution among the environmental impact indicators. In CT systems, the minimum (17,730.70 kg 1,4-dichlorobenzene (DB) eq.) and maximum (33,683.97 kg 1,4-DB eq.) amounts of ME were related to 0 and 100% wheat residue rates, respectively. Also, in the CT system, 0 and 100% wheat residue rates resulted in minimum (176.72 kg CO2 eq.) and maximum (324.95 kg CO2 eq.) amounts of GWP, respectively. However, in the NT system, the 100% wheat residue rate showed the minimum amounts of ME (11,442.39 kg 1,4-DB eq.) and GWP (120.21 kg CO2 eq.). Also, in the NT system, maximum amounts of ME (17,174 kg 1,4-DB eq.) and GWP (175.60 kg CO2 eq.) were observed with a zero wheat residue rate. On-farm emissions and nitrogen fertilizers were the two factors with the highest contribution to the degradation related to environmental parameters at all rates of wheat residues. Moreover, in the CT system, the number of environmental pollutants increased with the addition of a higher wheat residue rate, while in the NT system, increasing residue rates decreased the amount of environmental pollutants. In conclusion, this LCA demonstrates that the NT system with the full retention of wheat residues (100%) is a more environmentally sustainable practice for corn silage production. Therefore, it may be considered one of the most adequate management strategies in this region and similar semi-arid conditions. Further long-term research and considering more environmental impact categories are required to assess the real potential of crop residues and tillage management for sustainable corn silage production.Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Granada/CBUAIran National Science Foundation (INSF