278 research outputs found

    Prey choice, provisioning behaviour, and effects of early nutrition on nestling phenotype of titmice

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    [EN] It is generally assumed that blue and great tits (Cyanistes caeruleus, Parus major) compete for the same type of food (Lepidoptera larvae) during the breeding season and that the former have some advantage because they are usually earlier and can exploit small caterpillars that are often more abundant and are not consumed by great tits. However, it is not clear whether, when confronted with similar circumstances (e.g., nestling demand), blue and great tits show similar preferences for a particular caterpillar type. In this 2-y study, we compare the diet of both tit species in detail by controlling for hatching date and brood size. We also examine how the contribution of caterpillars and spiders to the diet is related to nestling development. A positive relationship was found between the percentage of spiders in the diet and nestling tarsus length in both species, reinforcing the idea that neonatal nutrition could have a strong influence on nestling phenotype (e.g., offspring size). Such a correlation may arise because spiders contain a high level of taurine, an essential nutrient in the early development of young, and/or this prey type contains more calcium than other food items, which may affect the rate of nestling bone mineralization. Blue tits fed their young double the number of tortricid larvae in comparison with great tits, whereas the latter showed a clear preference for noctuids and exploited, with a low frequency, a type of larvae not consumed by blue tits, hairy caterpillars (Lasiocampidae). Our results point to resource partitioning by these species in this forest ecosystem and contribute to a better understanding of feeding ecology of titmice, which is particularly timely in a global warming context [FR] Il est généralement admis que les mésanges bleues (Cyanistes caeruleus) et les mésanges charbonnières (Parus major) se font compétition pour le même type de nourriture (larves de lépidoptères) durant la période de reproduction. Il est également admis que les mésanges bleues possèdent un certain avantage, car elles se reproduisent plus tôt et mangent de petites chenilles souvent plus abondantes qui ne sont pas consommées par les mésanges charbonnières. Cependant, il n'est pas clair si dans les mêmes conditions (ex. de demande en nourriture des oisillons), les mésanges bleues et charbonnières préfèrent les mêmes types de chenilles. Dans cette étude de 2 ans, nous avons comparé en détail les régimes alimentaires des 2 espèces de mésanges en contrôlant pour la date de ponte et la taille de la couvée. Nous avons aussi examiné si les contributions des chenilles et des araignées au régime alimentaire étaient reliées au développement des oisillons. Chez les 2 espèces, une relation positive a été trouvée entre le pourcentage d'araignées dans le régime alimentaire et la longueur du tarse des oisillons renforçant ainsi l'idée que la nutrition néonatale peut avoir une grande influence sur le phénotype des oisillons (ex. la taille des jeunes). Une telle corrélation peut résulter du fait que les araignées ont un taux élevé de taurine, un nutriment essentiel au développement précoce des jeunes, et/ou que ce type de proie contient plus de calcium que d'autres aliments ce qui peut influencer le taux de minéralisation des os chez les oisillons. Les mésanges bleues ont nourri leurs jeunes avec deux fois plus de larves de tortricidés que les mésanges charbonnières qui elles ont montré une nette préférence pour les noctuidés. Ces dernières ont aussi consommé, quoique peu fréquemment, des livrées (Lasiocampidae), un type de larves boudé par les mésanges bleues. Nos résultats pointent vers une division des ressources entre ces espèces dans cet écosystème forestier et contribuent à une meilleure compréhension de l'écologie alimentaire des mésanges ce qui est particulièrement utile dans un contexte de réchauffement climatiqueV. García-Navas was supported by a FPI predoctoral fellowship (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN)-European Social Fund). This study was financed by the MICINN (grant reference: GCL2007-61395)Peer Reviewe

    Caracterización de nuevos absorbentes acústicos constituidos por vermiculita

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    [EN] This paper wants to report an investigation of a new kind of porous absorber. Vermiculite is an ultra-lightweight material that provides excellent thermal and acoustical properties. These materials are structurally robust and easy to integrate in buildings and highway structures to control the levels of environmental noise and improve the acoustic quality of spaces. Acoustic properties, sound absorption coefficient at normal incidence and acoustic impedance, from different samples have been measured using standard UNE EN ISO 10534-2:2002.[ES] La vermiculita es un material ultraligero que presenta muy buenas propiedades térmicas y acústicas que la hacen susceptible de ser utilizada en el ámbito de la acústica de la edificación. En el presente trabajo se muestran los resultados obtenidos al caracterizar acústicamente absorbentes acústicos constituidos por vermiculita granular con diferentes granulometrías y con distintos aglutinantes mediante el tubo de impedancia.Maderuelo-Sanz, R.; Nadal Gisbert, AV.; Martín Castizo, M.; Crespo Amorós, JE.; Parres, F. (2011). Caracterización de nuevos absorbentes acústicos constituidos por vermiculita. Sociedad Española de Acústica (SEA). http://hdl.handle.net/10251/58378

    Lipid profile, cardiovascular disease and mortality in a Mediterranean high-risk population: The ESCARVAL-RISK study.

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    The potential impact of targeting different components of an adverse lipid profile in populations with multiple cardiovascular risk factors is not completely clear. This study aims to assess the association between different components of the standard lipid profile with all-cause mortality and hospitalization due to cardiovascular events in a high-risk population. This prospective registry included high risk adults over 30 years old free of cardiovascular disease (2008-2012). Diagnosis of hypertension, dyslipidemia or diabetes mellitus was inclusion criterion. Lipid biomarkers were evaluated. Primary endpoints were all-cause mortality and hospital admission due to coronary heart disease or stroke. We estimated adjusted rate ratios (aRR), absolute risk differences and population attributable risk associated with adverse lipid profiles. 51,462 subjects were included with a mean age of 62.6 years (47.6% men). During an average follow-up of 3.2 years, 919 deaths, 1666 hospitalizations for coronary heart disease and 1510 hospitalizations for stroke were recorded. The parameters that showed an increased rate for total mortality, coronary heart disease and stroke hospitalization were, respectively, low HDL-Cholesterol: aRR 1.25, 1.29 and 1.23; high Total/HDL-Cholesterol: aRR 1.22, 1.38 and 1.25; and high Triglycerides/HDL-Cholesterol: aRR 1.21, 1.30, 1.09. The parameters that showed highest population attributable risk (%) were, respectively, low HDL-Cholesterol: 7.70, 11.42, 8.40; high Total/HDL-Cholesterol: 6.55, 12.47, 8.73; and high Triglycerides/HDL-Cholesterol: 8.94, 15.09, 6.92. In a population with cardiovascular risk factors, HDL-cholesterol, Total/HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides/HDL-cholesterol ratios were associated with a higher population attributable risk for cardiovascular disease compared to other common biomarkers.S

    Integrated luminometer for the determination of trace metals in seawater using fluorescence, phosphorescence and chemiluminescence detection

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    The paper describes an integrated luminometer able to perform fluorescence (FL), room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) and chemiluminescence (CL) measurements on seawater samples. The technical details of the instrumentation are presented together with flow injection (FI) manifolds for the determination of cadmium and zinc (by FL), lead (RTP) and cobalt (CL). The analytical figures of merit are given for each manifold and results are presented for the determination of the four trace metals in seawater reference materials (NASS-5, SLEW-2) and Scheldt estuarine water samples

    Study of the Secondary Electron Yield in Dielectrics Using Equivalent Circuital Models

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    © 2018 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permissíon from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertisíng or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.[EN] Secondary electron emission has an important role on the triggering of the multipactor effect; therefore, its study and characterization are essential in radio-frequency waveguide applications. In this paper, we propose a theoretical model, based on equivalent circuit models, to properly understand charging and discharging processes that occur in dielectric samples under electron irradiation for secondary electron emission characterization. Experimental results obtained for Pt, Si, GaS, and Teflon samples are presented to verify the accuracy of the proposed model. Good agreement between theory and experiments has been found.The authors would like to thank the European High Power Space Materials Laboratory for its contribution-a laboratory funded by the European Regional Development Fund-a way of making Europe. Many thanks to the University of Valencia (Spain) for supporting this research activity with the internal program "Assistance for temporary stays of invited researchers within the framework of the Subprogramme Attraction of Talent 2015".Bañón, D.; Socuellamos, JM.; Mata-Sanz, R.; Mercadé-Morales, L.; Gimeno Martínez, B.; Boria Esbert, VE.; Raboso García-Baquero, D.... (2018). Study of the Secondary Electron Yield in Dielectrics Using Equivalent Circuital Models. IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science. 46(4):859-867. https://doi.org/10.1109/TPS.2018.2809602S85986746

    Development of novel low-mass module concepts based on MALTA monolithic pixel sensors

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    The MALTA CMOS monolithic silicon pixel sensors has been developed in the Tower 180 nm CMOS imaging process. It includes an asynchronous readout scheme and complies with the ATLAS inner tracker requirements for the HL-LHC. Several 4-chip MALTA modules have been built using Al wedge wire bonding to demonstrate the direct transfer of data from chip-to-chip and to read out the data of the entire module via one chip only. Novel technologies such as Anisotropic Conductive Films (ACF) and nanowires have been investigated to build a compact module. A lightweight flex with 17 {\mu}m trace spacing has been designed, allowing compact packaging with a direct attachment of the chip connection pads to the flex using these interconnection technologies. This contribution shows the current state of our work towards a flexible, low material, dense and reliable packaging and modularization of pixel detectors.Comment: 5 pages + 1 page references,8 figure

    Lipid profile, cardiovascular disease and mortality in a Mediterranean high-risk population: the ESCARVAL-RISK study

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    The potential impact of targeting different components of an adverse lipid profile in populations with multiple cardiovascular risk factors is not completely clear. This study aims to assess the association between different components of the standard lipid profile with all cause mortality and hospitalization due to cardiovascular events in a high-risk population. Methods This prospective registry included high risk adults over 30 years old free of cardiovascular disease (2008±2012). Diagnosis of hypertension, dyslipidemia or diabetes mellitus was inclusion criterion. Lipid biomarkers were evaluated. Primary endpoints were all-cause mortality and hospital admission due to coronary heart disease or stroke. We estimated adjusted rate ratios (aRR), absolute risk differences and population attributable risk associated with adverse lipid profiles. Results 51,462 subjects were included with a mean age of 62.6 years (47.6% men). During an average follow-up of 3.2 years, 919 deaths, 1666 hospitalizations for coronary heart disease and 1510 hospitalizations for stroke were recorded. The parameters that showed an increased rate for total mortality, coronary heart disease and stroke hospitalization were, respectively, low HDL-Cholesterol: aRR 1.25, 1.29 and 1.23; high Total/HDL-Cholesterol: aRR 1.22, 1.38 and 1.25; and high Triglycerides/HDL-Cholesterol: aRR 1.21, 1.30, 1.09. The parameters that showed highest population attributable risk (%) were, respectively, low HDL-Cholesterol: 7.70, 11.42, 8.40; high Total/HDL-Cholesterol: 6.55, 12.47, 8.73; and high Triglycerides/ HDL-Cholesterol: 8.94, 15.09, 6.92. Conclusions In a population with cardiovascular risk factors, HDL-cholesterol, Total/HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides/HDL-cholesterol ratios were associated with a higher population attributable risk for cardiovascular disease compared to other common biomarkers
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