Water as a scarce natural resource and streamlining its use for irrigation

Se hacen algunas reflexiones acerca del agua como recurso escaso que es en el ámbito planetario, así como sus principales usos, entre los que destaca el regadío. Tanto en España como en Andalucía los usos del agua para riego son los más importantes, pero lo que se ha pretendido destacar es su irracionalidad, puesto que en un porcentaje importante de las hectáreas con regadío, estas no generan valor añadido para pagar el coste del agua puesto en la parcela. Como el agua para riego se subvenciona en general y en un porcentaje muy importante, se producen problemas, ya sea, de escasez del recurso, de despilfarro por un consumo mayor al no instalar sistemas de riego que consumen menos agua, y de contaminación de los acuíferos. En el artículo se hace finalmente una reflexión acerca del ahorro de este recurso que se produciría si lo gestionamos mejor, y si de verdad acabamos implantando la Directiva Marco del Agua.This paper offers a critical overview of water, a scarce resource on our planet, and its main uses, predominantly for agricultural purposes. Both in Spain and in Andalucía, the major part of our water resources are used for irrigation. Yet there are irrational aspects of this use, as a very considerable proportion of the hectares being irrigated do not yield any additional value that would compensate the cost of the water destined to that terrain. Given that irrigation water is subsidized in general, when its use is problematic, we must address issues such as the scarcity of hydric resources, the wastefulness of excessive consumption without installing irrigation systems to consume less water, and the contamination of aquifers. Some final reflections are concerned with the protection of water resources and their improved management, including our real adherence to the Water Framework Directive

Regional polycentricity: an indicator framework for assessing cohesion impacts of railway infrastructures

Territorial cohesion has become one of the main objectives in transport planning. This has fostered the development of assessment methodologies to quantitatively estimate the territorial impact of major transport infrastructures, which are particularly scarce at the intra-regional level. Linked to cohesion, polycentricity has been defined as the best spatial configuration to achieve balanced regions where population and opportunities are distributed among several entities linked by functional relationships. This paper aims to present a methodology to estimate these impacts based on the use of a new regional composite polycentricity indicator. The proposed indicator is tested by comparing the effects of conventional and high-speed railway (HSR) alternatives in the territorial system of a northern region of Spain. This quantitative assessment is a ranking tool for prioritizing rail network alternatives in terms of achieving the most balanced territory, which is especially relevant in countries where HSR networks follow cohesion goals. Our results show that new HSR links should only be complementary to regional railway services, and that the suppression of secondary lines should be avoided if a reduction in polarization is to be achieved.E. González-González gratefully acknowledges a predoctoral fellowship (FPI) from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (reference BES-2008–00436)

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ABSTRACT. The tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) gene plays an important role in cell proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, lipid metabolism, coagulation, insulin resistance, and endothelial function. Polymorphisms of TNF-α have been associated with cancer. We examined the role of the -308G>A polymorphism in this gene by comparing the genotypes of 294 healthy Mexican women with those of 465 Mexican women with breast cancer. The observed genotype frequencies for controls and breast cancer patients were 1 and 14% for AA, 13 and 21% for GA, and 86 and 65% for GG, respectively. We found that the odds ratio (OR) for AA genotype was 2.4, with a 95% confidence interval (95%CI) of 5.9-101.1 (P = 0.0001). The association was also evident when comparing the distribution of the AA-GA genotype in patients in the following categories: 1) premenopause and obesity I (OR = 3.5, 95%CI = 1.3-9.3, P = 0.008), 2) Her-2 neu and tumor stage I-II (OR = 2.5, 95%CI = 1.31-4.8, P = 0.004), 3) premenopause and tumor stage III-IV (OR = 1.7, 95%CI = 1.0-2.9, P = 0.034), 4) chemotherapy non-response and abnormal hematocrit (OR = 2.4, 95%CI = 1.2-4.8, P = 0.015), 5) body mass index and Her-2 neu and III-IV tumor stage (OR = 2.8, 95%CI = 1.2-6.6, P = 0.016), and 6) nodule metastasis and K-I67 (OR = 4.0, 95%CI = 1.01-15.7, P = 0.038). We concluded that the genotypes AA-GA of the -308G>A polymorphism in TNF-α significantly contribute to breast cancer susceptibility in the analyzed sample from the Mexican population

Origen, evolución y situación actual del perro Alano Español

Existen varias hipótesis sobre el origen del Alano Español aunque parece ser más sólida una que le atribuye una procedencia centroeuropea sobre el siglo V y otra más antigua con la llegada del pueblo fenicio a España. Posiblemente, el Alano fuese la raza española más importante desde la Edad Media hasta finales del siglo XIX, siendo utilizado como perro de combate, perro de caza y perro de ganado. En el siglo XX esta raza llegó casi a desaparecer encontrándose en la actualidad inmersa en un programa de recuperación y conservación