Winnerless competition in coupled Lotka-Volterra maps

Winnerless competition is analyzed in coupled maps with discrete temporal evolution of the Lotka-Volterra type of arbitrary dimension. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the appearance of structurally stable heteroclinic cycles as a function of the model parameters are deduced. It is shown that under such conditions winnerless competition dynamics is fully exhibited. Based on these conditions different cases characterizing low, intermediate, and high dimensions are therefore computationally recreated. An analytical expression for the residence times valid in the N-dimensional case is deduced and successfully compared with the simulations.J.L.C. and E.D.G. acknowledge support from IVIC-141, L.A.G.-D. acknowledges support from IVIC-1089 and P.V. acknowledges support from MINECO TIN2012-30883

Drops with non-circular footprints

In this paper we study the morphology of drops formed on partially wetting substrates, whose footprint is not circular. This type of drops is a consequence of the breakup processes occurring in thin films when anisotropic contact line motions take place. The anisotropy is basically due to hysteresis effects of the contact angle since some parts of the contact line are wetting, while others are dewetting. Here, we obtain a peculiar drop shape from the rupture of a long liquid filament sitting on a solid substrate, and analyze its shape and contact angles by means of goniometric and refractive techniques. We also find a non--trivial steady state solution for the drop shape within the long wave approximation (lubrication theory), and compare most of its features with experimental data. This solution is presented both in Cartesian and polar coordinates, whose constants must be determined by a certain group of measured parameters. Besides, we obtain the dynamics of the drop generation from numerical simulations of the full Navier--Stokes equation, where we emulate the hysteretic effects with an appropriate spatial distribution of the static contact angle over the substrate

Sensors in agriculture and forestry

Agriculture and Forestry are two broad and promising areas demanding technological solutions with the aim of increasing production or accurate inventories for sustainability while the environmental impact is minimized by reducing the application of agro-chemicals and increasing the use of environmental friendly agronomical practices. In addition, the immediate consequence of this “trend” is the reduction of production costs. Sensors-based technologies provide appropriate tools to achieve the above mentioned goals. The explosive technological advances and development in recent years enormously facilitates the attainment of these objectives removing many barriers for their implementation, including the reservations expressed by the farmers themselves. Precision Agriculture is an emerging area where sensor-based technologies play an important role.RHEA project [42], which is funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under Grant Agreement NO.245986, which has been the platform for the two international conferences on Robotics and associated High-technologies and Equipment mentioned above.Peer Reviewe

Patrimonio industrial: problemática de cubiertas de ladrillos cerámicos huecos en zona sísmica

El mantenimiento edilicio es una necesidad clave para mantener la integridad estructural en todas las construcciones a lo largo de su vida útil y las destinadas a uso industrial no escapan a esta regla. Las cubiertas de ladrillos cerámicos huecos constituyen un claro ejemplo, donde la ausencia de medidas de mantenimiento afecta el comportamiento estructural, causando pérdidas materiales y humanas. Esta problemática se presenta después de más de treinta años de uso de este tipo de cubiertas conformadas por losetas cerámicas, uno de los primeros sistemas industrializados masivos aplicados a la construcción, que se volvió popular en el oeste argentino en construcciones de viviendas, y que en el caso de construcciones industriales, los problemas se magnifican debido a sus grandes luces. Se presentan los antecedentes de la tipología de cubierta, las condiciones de uso y las patologías presentadas durante la inspección. Se evalúa en laboratorio el comportamiento de los materiales utilizados: cerámicas, aceros, aislaciones térmicas e hidráulicas con el objeto de obtener parámetros para modelar el estado de daño y para estimar la vida útil remanente con las recomendaciones de uso para continuar con la puesta en valor en una zona de importante riesgo sísmico

Patrimonio industrial: problemática de cubiertas de ladrillos cerámicos huecos en zona sísmica

El mantenimiento edilicio es una necesidad clave para mantener la integridad estructural en todas las construcciones a lo largo de su vida útil y las destinadas a uso industrial no escapan a esta regla. Las cubiertas de ladrillos cerámicos huecos constituyen un claro ejemplo, donde la ausencia de medidas de mantenimiento afecta el comportamiento estructural, causando pérdidas materiales y humanas. Esta problemática se presenta después de más de treinta años de uso de este tipo de cubiertas conformadas por losetas cerámicas, uno de los primeros sistemas industrializados masivos aplicados a la construcción, que se volvió popular en el oeste argentino en construcciones de viviendas, y que en el caso de construcciones industriales, los problemas se magnifican debido a sus grandes luces. Se presentan los antecedentes de la tipología de cubierta, las condiciones de uso y las patologías presentadas durante la inspección. Se evalúa en laboratorio el comportamiento de los materiales utilizados: cerámicas, aceros, aislaciones térmicas e hidráulicas con el objeto de obtener parámetros para modelar el estado de daño y para estimar la vida útil remanente con las recomendaciones de uso para continuar con la puesta en valor en una zona de importante riesgo sísmico

Freshwater jellyfish in northern temperate lakes: Craspedacusta sowerbii in British Columbia, Canada

Freshwater jellyfish species of the genus Craspedacusta purportedly originated from the Yangtze River catchment area, China, and have now been observed on all continents except Antarctica. Sightings of C. sowerbii in the Pacific regions of Canada were compiled to document some of the northernmost records of this species in the Americas. Species identification has been difficult in the past. Therefore, field collection of specimens was carried out on southern Vancouver Island. The morphology was described macro- and microscopically as well as molecularly using mitochondrial and nuclear markers. Collected hydromedusae from British Columbia (BC) did not deviate morphologically from C. sowerbii specimens from other continents, but molecular analyses support the idea of 2 main widely distributed lineages hidden under similar morphological features (i.e. a species complex). Through a community science approach, an understanding of the extent of C. sowerbii distribution in western and southern BC (present in 24 lakes from as early as 1990) has been established. Results showed that the number of sightings increased considerably in the period after 2010. Recent increases in sightings of C. sowerbii in BC and worldwide could be indicative of a climate warming-related range extension or growing public awareness and/or increased observational efforts. Even after more than 120 yr of Craspedacusta research, much about their biology and ecology remains unknown, which motivated us to compile a list of knowledge gaps based on an extensive literature survey