Satisfiability of constraint specifications on XML documents

Jose Meseguer is one of the earliest contributors in the area of Algebraic Specification. In this paper, which we are happy to dedicate to him on the occasion of his 65th birthday, we use ideas and methods coming from that area with the aim of presenting an approach for the specification of the structure of classes of XML documents and for reasoning about them. More precisely, we specify the structure of documents using sets of constraints that are based on XPath and we present inference rules that are shown to define a sound and complete refutation procedure for checking satisfiability of a given specification using tableaux.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Borrowed contexts for attributed graphs

Borrowed context graph transformation is a simple and powerful technique developed by Ehrig and König that allow us to derive labeled transitions and bisimulation congruences for graph transformation systems or, in general, for pocess calculi that can be defined in terms of graph transformation systems. Moreover, the same authors have also shown how to use this technique for the verification of bisimilarity. In principle, the main results about borrowed context transformation do not apply only to plain graphs, but they are generic in the sense that they apply to all categories tha satisfy certain properties related to the notion of adhesivity. In particular, this is the case of attributed graphs. However, as we show in the paper, the techniques used for checking bisimilarity are not equally generic and, in particular they fail, if we want to apply them to attributed graphs. To solve this problem, in this paper, we define a special notion of symbolic graph bisimulation and show how it can be used to check bisimilarity of attributed graphs.Postprint (published version

Pre–release training of juvenile little owls Athene noctua to avoid predation

Entrenamiento antes de la liberación en mochuelos europeos Athene noctua para evitar su depredación Un entrenamiento sobre mochuelos juveniles para evitar la depredación, se ha testado en una muestra de ejemplares recuperados y criados en el Centro de Recuperación de Rapaces Nocturnas Brinzal (Madrid, España). Previamente se ha descrito una alta mortalidad en ejemplares liberados, causada por los depredadores. Se condicionaron nueve ejemplares durante su desarrollo, frente a un azor naturalizado y a una rata viva de gran tamaño, cuya presencia se había asociado a una llamada de alarma del mochuelo. Estos nueve ejemplares, junto a siete más no entrenados, se liberaron durante la última parte del verano y el otoño y fueron radiomonitorizados durante seis semanas con objeto de comprobar su supervivencia. En total sobrevivió el 71,4% de los mochuelos entrenados, mientras que sólo el 33,3% de los no entrenados sobrevivía a las seis semanas. No se registró ninguna otra causa de mortalidad que no fuera la depredación. El entrenamiento antidepredación parece ser beneficioso para la liberación de juveniles de ochuelo, de cara a maximizar su supervivencia. Palabras clave: Mochuelo europeo, Athene noctua, Reintroducción, Liberación, Supervivencia, Entrenamiento antidepredación.Anti–predator training of juvenile little owls was tested in a sample of recovered owls raised in captivity in Brinzal Owl Rescue Center (Madrid, Spain). Mortality caused by predators has been described previously in released individuals. Nine little owls were conditioned during their development to a naturalized goshawk and a large live rat, whose presence was paired to the owl’s alarm call. All nine owls and seven non–trained individuals were then released during the late summer and autumn and radio–tracked for six weeks to test their survival. In total 71.4% of the trained owls survived while only the 33.3% of the untrained group were alive at the end of week six. The only cause of death that was detected was predation. Antipredator training, therefore, seems to be beneficial in maximizing survival after the release of juvenile little owls. Key words: Little owl, Athene noctua, Reintroduction, Release, Survival, Antipredator training.Entrenamiento antes de la liberación en mochuelos europeos Athene noctua para evitar su depredación Un entrenamiento sobre mochuelos juveniles para evitar la depredación, se ha testado en una muestra de ejemplares recuperados y criados en el Centro de Recuperación de Rapaces Nocturnas Brinzal (Madrid, España). Previamente se ha descrito una alta mortalidad en ejemplares liberados, causada por los depredadores. Se condicionaron nueve ejemplares durante su desarrollo, frente a un azor naturalizado y a una rata viva de gran tamaño, cuya presencia se había asociado a una llamada de alarma del mochuelo. Estos nueve ejemplares, junto a siete más no entrenados, se liberaron durante la última parte del verano y el otoño y fueron radiomonitorizados durante seis semanas con objeto de comprobar su supervivencia. En total sobrevivió el 71,4% de los mochuelos entrenados, mientras que sólo el 33,3% de los no entrenados sobrevivía a las seis semanas. No se registró ninguna otra causa de mortalidad que no fuera la depredación. El entrenamiento antidepredación parece ser beneficioso para la liberación de juveniles de ochuelo, de cara a maximizar su supervivencia. Palabras clave: Mochuelo europeo, Athene noctua, Reintroducción, Liberación, Supervivencia, Entrenamiento antidepredación

Candida albicans pathogenicity mechanisms

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Consideraciones cronológicas sobre la Edad delBronce enLa Mancha.

Sin resume

Controlling Reuse in Pattern-Based Model-to-Model Transformations

Model-to-model transformation is a central activity in Model-Driven Engineering that consists of transforming models from a source to a target language. Pattern-based model-to-model transformation is our approach for specifying transformations in a declarative, relational and formal style. The approach relies on patterns describing allowed or forbidden relations between two models. These patterns are compiled into operational mechanisms to perform forward and backward transformations. Inspired by QVT-Relations, in this paper we incorporate into our framework the so-called check-before-enforce semantics, which checks the existence of suitable elements before creating them (i.e. it promotes reuse). Moreover, we enable the use of keys in order to describe when two elements are considered equal. The presented techniques are illustrated with a bidirectional transformation between Web Services Description Language and Enterprise Java Beans models.Work partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, with projects METEORIC (TIN2008-02081) and FORMALISM (TIN2007-66523), and the R&D program of the Community of Madrid (S2009/TIC-1650, project “e-Madrid”). Moreover, part of this work was done during a post-doctoral stay of the first author at the University of York, and sabbatical leaves of the second and third authors to the University of York and TU Berlin respectively, all with financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (grant refs. JC2009-00015, PR2009-0019 and PR2008-0185).Publicad

Abstract Constraint Data Types

Martin Wirsing is one of the earliest contributors to the area of Algebraic Specification (e.g., [2]), which he explored in a variety of domains over many years. Throughout his career, he has also inspired countless researchers in related areas. This paper is inspired by one of the domains that he explored thirty years or so after his first contributions when leading the FET Integrated Project SENSORIA [14]: the use of constraint systems to deal with non-functional requirements and preferences [13,8]. Following in his footsteps, we provide an extension of the traditional notion of algebraic data type specification to encompass soft-constraints as formalised in [1]. Finally, we relate this extension with institutions [6] and recent work on graded consequence in institutions [3].Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft

Ancient landscapes of north-western Iberia: historical aerial photographs and the interpretation of Iron Age and Roman territories

This paper presents the use of historical aerial photographs in research of past landscapes in the north-western Iberian Peninsula, through several examples taken from a larger regional study, all connected with the diachronic study of social and territorial changes during the Iron Age and Roman period (5th century BC to 3rd century AD). Technical procedures are explained, but also the different solutions adopted and the consequences of the use of the historical aerial photographs. An important point of this paper is to demonstrate the great value of such imagery in an age when the use of other sources, such as Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS or LiDAR) data or modern aerial orthoimages, might be seen as all that is needed

Patterns of eukaryotic diversity from the surface to the deep-ocean sediment

Remote deep-ocean sediment (DOS) ecosystems are among the least explored biomes on Earth. Genomic assessments of their biodiversity have failed to separate indigenous benthic organisms from sinking plankton. Here, we compare global-scale eukaryotic DNA metabarcoding datasets (18S-V9) from abyssal and lower bathyal surficial sediments and euphotic and aphotic ocean pelagic layers to distinguish plankton from benthic diversity in sediment material. Based on 1685 samples collected throughout the world ocean, we show that DOS diversity is at least threefold that in pelagic realms, with nearly two-thirds represented by abundant yet unknown eukaryotes. These benthic communities are spatially structured by ocean basins and particulate organic carbon (POC) flux from the upper ocean. Plankton DNA reaching the DOS originates from abundant species, with maximal deposition at high latitudes. Its seafloor DNA signature predicts variations in POC export from the surface and reveals previously overlooked taxa that may drive the biological carbon pump

Hsp90 orchestrates transcriptional regulation by Hsf1 and cell wall remodelling by MAPK signalling during thermal adaptation in a pathogenic yeast

Acknowledgments We thank Rebecca Shapiro for creating CaLC1819, CaLC1855 and CaLC1875, Gillian Milne for help with EM, Aaron Mitchell for generously providing the transposon insertion mutant library, Jesus Pla for generously providing the hog1 hst7 mutant, and Cathy Collins for technical assistance.Peer reviewedPublisher PD