Establishing a lesser kestrel colony in an urban environment for research purposes

[ES] Debido al declive reciente de las poblaciones de Falco naumanni, se han llevado a cabo numerosos proyectos de reintroducción y refuerzo de sus poblaciones en varios países mediterráneos. Aprovechando la experiencia de proyectos previos, intentamos establecer una colonia de F. naumanni en la cubierta de la sede central de la Estación Biológica de Doñana, un edificio moderno y recientemente construido en Sevilla, sur de España. Nuestro objetivo es obtener un acceso fácil a una población urbana y silvestre de esta especie modelo con fines científicos. Después de la liberación de los primeros individuos mediante el método de crianza campestre hace cinco años, nuestra colonia experimental parece haberse establecido. Tres, seis y tres parejas intentaron reproducirse en los años 2010, 2011 y 2012, respectivamente.Peer reviewe

Multiple Cytochrome P450 Isozymes in Murine Skin: Induction of P450 1A, 2B, 2E, and 3A by Dexamethasone

Cytochrome P450s (P450s) are a supergene family of enzymes responsible for the metabolism of a wide range of endogenous and foreign compounds. P450 isozymes possess overlapping substrate specificity. Systemic administration of dexamethasone, a widely used topical agent in dermatologic practice, to animals is known to result in the induction of multiple P450 isozymes in liver. In this study the effect of topical application of dexamethasone to mice on P450-dependent monooxygenase activities, expression of P450 isozymes, and P450 mRNA levels in skin was assessed. The treatment of mice with dexamethasone resulted in significant induction of 7-ethoxyresorufin O-deethylase (2.3 times), 7-pentoxyresorufin O-depentylase (19.2 times), para-nitrophenol hydroxylase (7.5 times), and erythromycin N-demethylase (2.2 times) activities; the monooxygenases catalyzed preferentially by P450 isozymes 1A1, 2B1, 2E1, and 3A, respectively. Immunoblot analysis of cutaneous microsomes, employing antibodies directed against purified P450s 1A1/2, 2B1/2, 2E1, and 3A, showed that dexamethasone treatment results in an increased immunoreactivity (1.8 – 13.9 times). In immunohistochemical staining of skin with antibody against P4502B1/2, topical application of dexamethasone resulted in an increased reactivity towards microsomal protein in the suprabasal layer of the epidermis and with the cells of the hair follicles. Whereas constitutive expression of mRNAs for CYP1A1 and CYP2E1 was evident in murine skin, any change in the levels of these mRNAs following treatment with dexamethasone was not apparent. The results of our study indicate that the application of dexamethasone to murine skin results in the induction of several families of P450 isozymes, suggesting that murine skin contains multiple inducible P450 isozymes capable of participating in the metabolism of a wide range of xenobiotics and endogenous compounds

Обоснование выбора электродвигателя и схемы его включения для системы точного поддержания скорости

Рассматривается применение в системах точного поддержания скорости различных синхронных электродвигателей. В результате сравнения рекомендовано применение в таких системах конденсаторного синхронного реактивного двигателя с трехфазными обмотками статора. Это позволяет упростить и удешевить систему точного электропривода и повысить ее надежность

Design of a robotic hand with a biologically-inspired parallel actuation system for prosthetic applications

Trabajo presentado al 34th Annual Mechanisms and Robotics Conference celebrado en Quebec del 15 al 18 de agosto de 2010.This paper presents the design of a robotic hand for prosthetic applications. The main characteristic of this robotic hand is its biologically-inspired parallel actuation system, which is based on the behavior/strength space of the Flexor Digitorum Profundus (FDP) and the Flexor Digitorum Superficialis (FDS) muscles. The design separates the strength space of the FDS and FDP muscles into a lighter strength region where finer manipulation and general approach tasks are executed, and a higher strength region where the more robust grasps are achieved. Two parallel actuator types and kinematic structures are designed to complement the requirements of both strength space regions.This research was performed under an award/contract from Telemedicine Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC), of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC) of the U.S. Department of Defense.Peer Reviewe

Моделирование процесса синтеза в воздушной плазме оксидных композиций для дисперсионного плутоний-ториевого ядерного топлива

Целью работы являлось исследование процесса плазмохимического синтеза наноразмерных оксидных композиций для дисперсионного плутоний-ториевого ядерного топлива из водно-органических нитратных растворов (ВОНР). В результате было показано, что плазменная переработка диспергированных растворов ВОНР в воздушно-плазменном потоке позволяет осуществлять плазмохимический синтез наноразмерных порошков оксидных композиций с высокими физико-химическими и технологическими свойствами.The aim of this paper was to study the process of plasma-chemical synthesis of nanosized oxide compositions for dispersive plutonium-thorium nuclear fuel from water-organic nitrate solutions (WONS). As a result, it was shown that the plasma processing of dispersed WONS solutions in an air-plasma flow allows plasma-chemical synthesis of nanosized powders of oxide compositions with high physical, chemical and technological properties

First Observation of the Decays (B)over-bar(0) -> D+K-pi(+)pi(-) and B- -> (DK-)-K-0 pi(+)pi(-)

First observations of the Cabibbo-suppressed decays B¯0 → D+K-π+π- and B- → D0K-π+π- are reported using 35 pB-1 of data collected with the LHCb detector. Their branching fractions are measured with respect to the corresponding Cabibbo-favored decays, from which we obtain B(B¯0→ D+K-π+π-)/B(B¯0→D+π-π+π-)=(5.9±1.1±0.5)×10-2 and B(B-→D0K-π+π-)/B(B-→ D0π-π+π-)=(9.4±1.3±0.9)×10-2, where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively. The B- → D0K-π+π- decay is particularly interesting, as it can be used in a similar way to B- → D0K- to measure the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa phase γ. © 2012 CERN