An eMath Teacher TOOL for ACTIVE LEARNING FLEURY'S ALGORITHM

An eMathTeacher [Sánchez-Torrubia 2007a] is an eLearning on line self assessment tool that help students to active learning math algorithms by themselves, correcting their mistakes and providing them with clues to find the right solution. The tool presented in this paper is an example of this new concept on Computer Aided Instruction (CAI) resources and has been implemented as a Java applet and designed as an auxiliary instrument for both classroom teaching and individual practicing of Fleury’s algorithm. This tool, included within a set of eMathTeacher tools, has been designed as educational complement of Graph Algorithm active learning for first course students. Its characteristics of visualization, simplicity and interactivity, make this tutorial a great value pedagogical instrument

Climate change effects on soil carbon dynamics: CO2 flux from water-repellent and fire-affected soils

Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of droughts and this is expected to enhance the development of soil water repellency: a very common property of both dry and fire-affected soils. In some regions climate change is also increasing the occurrence and severity of wildfires. Large pulses of CO2 flux from soil to the atmosphere caused by heavy rainfall events (i.e. the Birch effect) can contribute substantially to annual C emissions from soils. However, the effect of the first rainfall after a drought on water-repellent soils and the first post-fire rainfall event on soil CO2 flux remain poorly understood. To address these knowledge gaps this research focuses on: i) investigating the effects of soil water repellency on the CO2 pulse after wetting; ii) improving understanding of the effects of vegetation fires on post-fire soil CO2 flux; and iii) studying the role of ash produced naturally during vegetation fires in post-fire soil CO2 flux. The results from this research clearly indicate that water repellency is a key controller of the CO2 pulse following the wetting of dry and fire-affected soils. Both the amount of water and the increase in soil water content after wetting are used as indicators of the magnitude of the Birch effect, but this research suggests that their application in water-repellent soils should be re-evaluated. The findings presented here challenge the conceptual notion that the Birch effect is comprised of one large pulse of CO2 and highlights the need to incorporate high-frequency observations during the period following wetting to capture the entire CO2 response to wetting. The results from this thesis suggest that ash is a key player in post-fire C fluxes and should be considered in post-fire C investigations in order to make realistic predictions of the impacts of vegetation fires on C dynamics

Finding common ground: Co-producing national soil policy in Wales through academic and government collaboration

Several agricultural reforms are in progress in the UK following its withdrawal from the EU. This is an opportunity to formulate a Welsh Soils Policy Statement (SPS) that raises the status of soils and ensures that their protection and sustainable management are integrated into future policy. We share and reflect on our novel approach at co-producing a SPS for Wales involving academic researchers and policy teams and provide clear insights into soil policy development. Building consensus among the various government departments and agencies formed the basis of our approach. For pragmatic reasons, it was decided to focus on agricultural soils, which cover 85% of Wales. A rigorous evidence review and synthesis formed the foundation for the development of the SPS, which devises a vision, and primary and secondary objectives for Welsh agricultural soils. A first draft was conceived by the researchers, with further iterations developed between the researchers and the policy team. The researchers were embedded into the policy teams, and this proved to be an effective mechanism for evidence-based policy development that also enhances the science-policy relationship in the longer term. New structures and incentives that promote the engagement between researchers and policymakers should be developed to support environmental policymaking across the board

DETECTING MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE INTERACTIONS IN PROTEIN-PROTEIN INTERACTION MAPS

Proteins are responsible for an impressive large variety of functions. To properly understand the significance of protein-protein interactions in the cell it is important to address two problems: first, is identification of the different interactions that are involved in each biological function, and, second, is determining how proteins interact and the consequences of the interaction. The identification of protein interactions by high-throughput experiments has led to the development of a number of methods for their analysis, producing, in the last years, a vast amount of interacting data. However, there are at least two issues that arise from the analysis of such experimental maps, these are, on one side, the significant number of false positives they contain and, on the other, the difficulty in distinguishing whether, when more than one protein interact with the same partner, they can do so simultaneously, i.e. whether their interaction is mutually exclusive. The general strategy we describe is based on the combination of known three-dimensional structures with protein-protein interaction networks to determine which of the multiple interactions or connections that are made by a hub can occur in mutually exclusive fashion, and, in such cases, identify, whenever is possible, the shared similarities in their binding regions, concluding that their interaction has to be mutually exclusive (i.e. not simultaneous) and that the region identified by similarity is indeed the interaction site. We applied this strategy to the interactomes of seven organisms. We show that our methodology allows the identification of mutually exclusive interactions with accuracy higher than 77%. The procedure also allows us to predict which residues are likely to be in the binding interface of the nodes, and in a significant number of cases (between 63% and 75%) we correctly identify at least one of them (5 on average) and this has obvious implications for helping to reduce the search space in docking procedures. The coverage of the method varies substantially for different organisms, as it could be expected, however it does reach 42% for human and more than 36% for yeast averaging at about 25%. These figures are bound to increase with time both thanks to the progress in experimental methods and, possibly, to the increasing reliability of modeling techniques. For this reason, we also introduce here the Estrella server that embodies this strategy, is designed for users interested in validating specific hypotheses about the functional role of a protein-protein interaction and it also allows access to pre-computed data for seven organisms

El Tribunal Europeo de Derechos Humanos ante las nuevas formas de reproducción humana

La gestación médica asistida ha supuesto un avance importante en materia de reproducción, pero también un cambio trascendental para la familia. Práctica siempre rodeada de una fuerte polémica atendiendo a sus modalidades, la más reciente es la que se presenta como consecuencia de la gestación por sustitución. Aceptada o no es una realidad fáctica establecida generadora de conflictos a los que en la actualidad se le ofrecen dos soluciones diferentes según se trate de una gestación nacional o internacional. Frente a esa dualidad una misma realidad en la que los intereses en conflicto coinciden: gestante, menor y padres comitentes son los elementos personales que deben ser objeto de protección con independencia del lugar y la forma de concepción. La respuesta dispar ante el común problema de la inscripción o no de nacidos mediante esta técnica en España y, en determinados países extranjeros, mantiene abierto el debate en torno a su posible regulación en nuestro país, en el que ha adquirido especial relevancia la jurisprudencia del Tribunal Europeo de Derechos Humanos. En el presente trabajo se lleva a cabo un replanteamiento de la situación actual con el ánimo de ofrecer unas bases para la regulación de la gestación por sustitución en España, sin olvidar la necesaria iniciativa internacional.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. Facultad de Derecho de Lisboa Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad de Málaga Proyecto DER2015-67512-P Instituto de Direito Penal e Ciências Criminai