Ecología reproductiva de los olmos de ribera

This paper review our current knowledge of the reproductive ecology in the genus Ulmus, for which few investigations has been conducted and relatively little information is available. In the genus Ulmus, as in other riparian or sub-riparian genera, trees reproduce either vegetatively (by sprouting) or sexually. These mechanisms work differently. Sprouting permits colonization of open areas close to the trees, being especially frequent from large trees following death of their stem. Sprouting from the surviving roots of trees affected with Dutch Elm Disease is abundant in Spanish Ulmus minor. Sexual reproduction is infrequent, and requires some special conditions to be successful. It probably occurs coincidently with massive river floods that remove riparian vegetation and deposit a fertile muddy bed suitable for seed germination. Many Ulmus minor genotypes do not produce seed owing to seed abortion and other mechanisms. As a result, two gender-classes, male and cosexual, are presumably present in Spain, although this requires confirmation. A hypothesis trying to explain female sterility as the result of a trade-off between sexual and vegetative reproduction has been recently proposed, but it requires to be confirmed. Further research is also necessary for a better knowledge of flooding effect on elm regeneration and for evaluating other aspects of its reproductive ecology.Este artículo revisa el actual conocimiento de la ecología reproductiva en el género Ulmus, del que hay poca información disponible. Las especies del género Ulmus se reproducen, al igual que ocurre en otras especies riparias o sub-riparias, tanto sexual como vegetativamente (a través de renuevos). Estos mecanismos son efectivos en situaciones distintas. Así, los renuevos permiten la colonización de zonas abiertas próximas a los árboles, y son especialmente frecuentes tras la muerte del tronco principal de grandes árboles, como se ha observado en España, donde el rebrote a partir de raíces supervivientes de ejemplares de Ulmus minor afectados por la grafiosis es muy abundante. La reproducción sexual, por otra parte, es infrecuente, y requiere ciertas condiciones especiales para ser exitosa, teniendo lugar, probablemente, cuando se producen grandes inundaciones que eliminan la vegetación riparia y depositan una fértil capa de barro adecuada para que las semillas germinen. Gran número de genotipos de Ulmus minor no producen semilla debido a distintos mecanismos, entre los que destaca el aborto de la semilla. Como consecuencia, en España se encuentran presumiblemente dos géneros distintos de árboles en relación con sus características sexuales, masculino y cosexual, aunque esto requiere confirmación. Recientemente se ha propuesto una hipótesis que trata de explicar la presencia de esterilidad femenina como resultado de un equilibrio entre la reproducción sexual y vegetativa, pero esto requiere igualmente confirmación. También es necesario realizar nuevos estudios para conocer mejor el efecto de las inundaciones en la regeneración del olmo y para evaluar otros aspectos poco conocidos de su ecología reproductiva

Influence of tank bottom surface on growth and welfare of Senegalese sole (Solea senegalensis)

Tank bottom surface is an important question to take into account in flatfish aquaculture considering the intimate contact that the fish have with it. The most usual materials in aquaculture tank surfaces are inert materials such as epoxy resins or plastics with null porosity, and cement that presents a high alkalinity, roughness and porosity. To improve the cement characteristics, silica fume admixture is usually added in construction industry. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of three types of tank bottom surfaces on growth and welfare over a Solea senegalensis population. Moreover, the degree of fin erosion, the appearance of skin lesions and malpigmentation patterns were also monitored. The bottom surfaces tested were plain cement (CE), the same plain cement blended with silica fume (10%) (SF) and epoxy coated surface (EP). Specific growth rate for each bottom surface were compared. The Image Processing Activity Index (IPAI) was used to evaluate the Senegalese sole welfare. Higher SGR and lower IPAI values were obtained in the surface of cement with silica fume, suggesting a higher welfare. The use of plain cement affected negatively the performance of fish, probably due to the high pH and alkalinity of the water in direct contact with fish skin. The null porosity of EP seems to be related to the main cause of higher activity level of fish kept on it outcoming in lower growth. Silica fume that is frequently use to improve the mechanical characteristics of plain cement, also provides benefits in terms of fish welfare.Postprint (author's final draft

Deep Learning for Vanishing Point Detection Using an Inverse Gnomonic Projection

We present a novel approach for vanishing point detection from uncalibrated monocular images. In contrast to state-of-the-art, we make no a priori assumptions about the observed scene. Our method is based on a convolutional neural network (CNN) which does not use natural images, but a Gaussian sphere representation arising from an inverse gnomonic projection of lines detected in an image. This allows us to rely on synthetic data for training, eliminating the need for labelled images. Our method achieves competitive performance on three horizon estimation benchmark datasets. We further highlight some additional use cases for which our vanishing point detection algorithm can be used.Comment: Accepted for publication at German Conference on Pattern Recognition (GCPR) 2017. This research was supported by German Research Foundation DFG within Priority Research Programme 1894 "Volunteered Geographic Information: Interpretation, Visualisation and Social Computing

In vivo metabolism of unsaturated fatty acids in Sepia officinalis hatchlings

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Pulpos: Una reproducción que les cuesta la vida

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Reinforced brick-masonry light vaults : semi-prefabrication, construction, testing and numerical modeling

This work deals with short to mid span-length light vaults made of reinforced brick-masonry. The research is oriented at proposing semi-prefabrication and construction techniques. Numerical models for predicting the structural behavior of this type of structures are developed. Experimental research is performed with the following three main objectives: (i) validating the proposed construction techniques, (ii) investigating the structural performance, and (iii) calibrating the numerical models. The obtained results show that the proposed techniques are feasible, and that the structural behavior is adequate in terms of ductility and of strength. The structural system can be modeled with the developed numerical tools.This work has received financial support from the Catalonian Government (CIDEM, "CERARMAT" IT - Technological Innovation - project 605) the Spanish Government (Ministry of Industry and Energy, "PRECERAM" ATYCA project M172/1999) and the European Commission ("ISO-BRICK" CRAFT - Cooperative Research - Project G5ST-CT-2001-50095). All these supports are gratefully acknowledged

A new method for nocturnal aerosol measurements with a lunar photometer prototype

This paper presents the preliminary results of nocturnal Aerosol Optical Depth (τa) and Angström Exponent (α) obtained from a new lunar photometer prototype, trade name Cimel CE-318U. Due to the variation of the moon's illumination inherent to the lunar cycle, the typical Langley-plot Method used in solar photometry to calibrate these instruments cannot be applied. In this paper, we propose three different methods to carry out the lunar-photometer calibration. In order to validate the results, we have selected three events which encompass seven nights and ten days under different atmospheric conditions, including several saharan dust intrusions episodes. Method#1 is introduced in this work as a modification of the usual Langley Method. This technique, called Lunar-Langley Method, requires the extraterrestrial irradiances from a lunar irradiance model, providing similar accuracies on τa to those of AERONET (±0.01-0.02). It makes comparable daytime and nighttime measurements. Method#2 consists of transferring the current calibration from a master used by sunphotometers. Its results are again within the limit of accuracy expected for the instrument. Method#3 uses an integrating sphere and the methodology proposed by Li et al. (2008) to determine sky calibration coefficients (Cj) and the instrument's solid angle field-of-view (Ω), respectively. We observe significant τa differences between Method#1 and #3 (up to 0.07), which might be attributed to the errors propagation in Method#3. The good results obtained from the comparison against a second CE-318U prototype, and against daytime data from a Precision Filter Radiometer (PFR), constitute a valuable assessment of CE-318U performance. Results of α and its spectral variation (δα) show good agreement between daytime and nighttime, being able to identify the aerosol properties associated with each event. © Author(s) 2013

Dietary Effect on the Proteome of the Common Octopus (Octopus vulgaris) Paralarvae

Nowadays, the common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) culture is hampered by massive mortalities occurring during early life-cycle stages (paralarvae). Despite the causes of the high paralarvae mortality are not yet well-defined and understood, the nutritional stress caused by inadequate diets is pointed out as one of the main factors. In this study, the effects of diet on paralarvae is analyzed through a proteomic approach, to search for novel biomarkers of nutritional stress. A total of 43 proteins showing differential expression in the different conditions studied have been identified. The analysis highlights proteins related with the carbohydrate metabolism: glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate-dedydrogenase (GAPDH), triosephosphate isomerase; other ways of energetic metabolism: NADP+-specific isocitrate dehydrogenase, arginine kinase; detoxification: glutathione-S-transferase (GST); stress: heat shock proteins (HSP70); structural constituent of eye lens: S-crystallin 3; and cytoskeleton: actin, actin-beta/gamma1, beta actin. These results allow defining characteristic proteomes of paralarvae depending on the diet; as well as the use of several of these proteins as novel biomarkers to evaluate their welfare linked to nutritional stress. Notably, the changes of proteins like S-crystallin 3, arginine kinase and NAD+ specific isocitrate dehydrogenase, may be related to fed vs. starving paralarvae, particularly in the first 4 days of development.En prens

Common Octopus Aquaculture in

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