Suitability assessment of olive plantations for Iberian Lynx habitat restoration

This study adopts a twofold methodological approach to assessing the suitability of agricultural areas for wildlife habitat restoration. Embedding expert judgements through an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) about the effect of specific elements of the landscape on Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) habitat restoration potentiality as an indicator of selection of the most suitable agricultural areas to be transformed to the natural state (Mediterranean forest and scrublands). The case study is the olive (Olea europaea L.) plantations of the mountain areas of Andalusia (Spain) which, because of their low yield, are likely to be abandoned after the decoupling of the EU olive oil subsidies. The results suggest that the edge of major agricultural areas (mostly olive groves), the natural vegetation and areas adjacent to Natural Park with oaks would be most suitable for wildlife habitat restoration. These results are in agreement other studies carried out by other researchers on biodiversity, based on either individual or groups of species.analytic hierarchy process (AHP), GIS, Lynx pardinus, habitat restoration, Spain, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Magnetization dynamics: path-integral formalism for the stochastic Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation

We construct a path-integral representation of the generating functional for the dissipative dynamics of a classical magnetic moment as described by the stochastic generalization of the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation proposed by Brown, with the possible addition of spin-torque terms. In the process of constructing this functional in the Cartesian coordinate system, we critically revisit this stochastic equation. We present it in a form that accommodates for any discretization scheme thanks to the inclusion of a drift term. The generalized equation ensures the conservation of the magnetization modulus and the approach to the Gibbs-Boltzmann equilibrium in the absence of non-potential and time-dependent forces. The drift term vanishes only if the mid-point Stratonovich prescription is used. We next reset the problem in the more natural spherical coordinate system. We show that the noise transforms non-trivially to spherical coordinates acquiring a non-vanishing mean value in this coordinate system, a fact that has been often overlooked in the literature. We next construct the generating functional formalism in this system of coordinates for any discretization prescription. The functional formalism in Cartesian or spherical coordinates should serve as a starting point to study different aspects of the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of magnets. Extensions to colored noise, micro-magnetism and disordered problems are straightforward.Comment: 47 pages + appendix, published versio

Aprovechamiento de los residuos de poda de olivo para la mejora de las propiedades del suelo en el fundo San Antonio

En el presente trabajo de tesis “Aprovechamiento de los residuos de poda de olivo para la mejora de las propiedades del suelo en el fundo San Antonio”. Se presenta un estudio de dos etapas: La primera etapa consta de un análisis de las propiedades físicas y químicas del suelo; la segunda etapa posee los mismos criterios que el primero, con la diferencia de que este cuenta con la adición de los restos de poda tratados en el suelo del fundo “San Antonio” ubicado en el distrito de la Yarada-Los Palos en el departamento de Tacna con el fin de mejorar las propiedades del suelo y encontrar una alternativa a la problemática ambiental que genera la quema de estos restos. Utilizando una metodología analítica, se describió un diagnóstico después de la realización de las técnicas de estudio del suelo que fueron la realización de toma de muestras en zigzag y de forma aleatoria por el campo de cultivo y luego mandarla al laboratorio por un análisis de suelo completo. Estas variables fueron inspeccionadas y observadas en correlación con el olivo con el fin de enriquecer las propiedades físicas y químicas del suelo y a su vez el bienestar general del olivicultor. En los resultados se evidenció un cambio significativo en los valores de fósforo que pasó de 12ppm a 155ppm y de nitrógeno que valor es de 0.090ppm a 0.520ppm, mientras que en los valores de materia orgánica aumento de 2.5% a un 4%. la salinidad se redujo de 1.570 a 1.010 mS/cm y en el potasio hubo un cambio ligero de 440ppm a 467.500ppm y la textura tipo franco arcilloso arenoso paso a franco arenoso La conclusión de la presente investigación es que hubo un cambio significativo en los macronutrientes como el fosforo y potasio. Un aumento en el porcentaje de la materia orgánica y un cambio ligero pero positivo potasio, pH, intercambio iónico y conductividad eléctrica.Tesi

Bovine brucellosis seroprevalence, farmers’ awareness, practices and animal health extension services inputs in Mpwapwa district, Tanzania

Brucellosis is a zoonotic disease caused by gram negative cocobacillus bacteria of the genus Brucella. In cattle, the disease is caused by Brucella abortus. One of the main symptoms of brucellosis is the induction of abortion in the late term of gestation and first trimester in humans, drop in milk production resulting in economic and public health. Livestock is a key agricultural sub sector in Tanzania, depended by over 80% of rural household and contribute 5.9% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and cattle contribute 75% of all livestock in the country. In Mpwapwa District (Dodoma region), livestock keeping is one of the major means of economic activities, contribute 45% of district GDP and has significant contribution to the poverty reduction and food security. This district had sporadic cases of abortions in cattle and fever of unknown origin human possible related to brucellosis. Therefore, this study was aimed to determine the current seroprevalence of brucellosis in this district where there is no history of vaccination against brucellosis. A total of 545 serum samples were collected from sexually active cows and heifers in extensive farming system to detect antibodies against Brucella abortus using Rose Bengal Plate test(RBPT) followed by competitive ELISA(cELISA). A questionnaire to assess knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) related to milk borne zoonosis (brucellosis) and efficiency of animal health extension services delivery was administered to 73 livestock keepers. Bovine brucellosis seroprevalence indicated that 57/545 (10.5%) cows tested were positive  reactors by RBPT as screening test of which 5/57 (0.92%) confirmed positive by cELISA. 45% of the farmers have experienced several abortions in their cows, 78% were not aware of milk born zoonosis, 43% drink raw milk, 7% eat uncooked meat and 91% are not aware of the zoonotic potential of raw milk consumption. As for animal health services delivery, only 52% of farmers had access to animal health extension services and 97% of farmers have never seen samples being taken from their animals for further laboratory analysis. The findings from this study suggest that both bovine and humans are at potential risk of contracting brucellosis because of the presence of the disease in cattle population, the habit of drinking raw milk, unawareness of the disease and its impact to humans and inadequate extension service delivery. Keywords: Rose Bengal Plate test, Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA), Knowledge and Attitude

Dynamical symmetries of Markov processes with multiplicative white noise

We analyse various properties of stochastic Markov processes with multiplicative white noise. We take a single-variable problem as a simple example, and we later extend the analysis to the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation for the stochastic dynamics of a magnetic moment. In particular, we focus on the non-equilibrium transfer of angular momentum to the magnetization from a spin-polarised current of electrons, a technique which is widely used in the context of spintronics to manipulate magnetic moments. We unveil two hidden dynamical symmetries of the generating functionals of these Markovian multiplicative white-noise processes. One symmetry only holds in equilibrium and we use it to prove generic relations such as the fluctuation-dissipation theorems. Out of equilibrium, we take profit of the symmetry-breaking terms to prove fluctuation theorems. The other symmetry yields strong dynamical relations between correlation and response functions which can notably simplify the numerical analysis of these problems. Our construction allows us to clarify some misconceptions on multiplicative white-noise stochastic processes that can be found in the literature. In particular, we show that a first-order differential equation with multiplicative white noise can be transformed into an additive-noise equation, but that the latter keeps a non-trivial memory of the discretisation prescription used to define the former.Comment: 44 page

Tecnologías de la información y la comunicación en la estrategia de focalización del gasto social: un estudio de caso.

The development of information and communication technologies - ICT, makes it possible to strengthen the quality of information and management of public productivity. In this context, the system for identifying potential beneficiaries - SISBEN, is the main tool for individual targeting used by social programs to distribute this expenditure in Colombia, which under CONPES 3877 of 2016, implements the fourth version - SISBEN IV, using mobile capture devices - DMC, GPS and validation meshes to solve certain inabilities to recognize variations in poverty by areas in the country and manipulate information. This work shows the results of an instrumental case study, which analyzes the strategic use of ICT tools in the optimization of the quality of socioeconomic information in the Municipality of San José de Cúcuta through the system of identification of potential beneficiaries - SISBEN. It is demonstrated that the use of ICT tools in the new version of SISBEN optimizes the collection process, improves the quality of socioeconomic information and guarantees the equitable distribution of social expenditure in Colombia in the future. The main result of the research is a comparison of the behavior of the variables and factors that affect the quality of the socioeconomic information of the municipality in the versions SISBEN III and SISBEN IV.El desarrollo de las tecnologías de información y comunicación – TIC, posibilita el fortalecimiento de la calidad de la información y gestión de la productividad pública. En este contexto, el sistema de identificación de potenciales beneficiarios – SISBEN, es la principal herramienta de focalización individual utilizada por los programas sociales para distribuir el este gasto en Colombia, el cual bajo lineamientos CONPES 3877 de 2016, implementa la cuarta versión - SISBEN IV, usando dispositivos móviles de captura - DMC, GPS y mallas de validación para dar solución a ciertas incapacidades de reconocimiento de variaciones de pobreza por zonas en el país y manipulación de información. El presente trabajo muestra resultados de un estudio de caso de tipo instrumental, que analiza el uso estratégico de herramientas TIC, en la optimización de la calidad de información socioeconómica del Municipio de San José de Cúcuta a través del sistema de identificación de potenciales beneficiarios - SISBEN. Se demuestra, que el uso de herramientas TIC en la nueva versión del SISBEN optimiza el proceso de recolección, mejora la calidad de la información socioeconómica y garantiza a futuro la distribución equitativa del gasto social en Colombia, obteniendo como resultado principal de la investigación un comparativo del comportamiento de las variables y factores que inciden en la calidad de la información socioeconómica del municipio en las versiones SISBEN III y SISBEN IV

Accuracy of analytical-numerical solutions of the Michaelis-Menten equation

[EN] It is the aim of this paper to investigate a suitable approach to compute solutions of the powerful Michaelis-Menten enzyme reaction equation with less computational effort. We obtain analytical-numerical solutions using piecewise finite series by means of the differential transformation method, DTM. In addition, we compute a global analytical solution by a modal series expansion. The Michaelis-Menten equation considered here describes the rate of depletion of the substrate of interest and in general is a powerful approach to describe enzyme processes. A comparison of the numerical solutions using DTM, Adomian decomposition and Runge-Kutta methods is presented. The numerical results show that the DTM is accurate, easy to apply and the obtained solutions retain the positivity property of the continuous model. It is concluded that the analytic form of the DTM and global modal series solutions are accurate, and require less computational effort than other approaches thus making them more convenient.Authors are grateful to the reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions. Luis Acedo acknowledges financial support from the grant PAID-06-09 ref: 2588 of the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Spain.Gonzalez-Parra, G.; Acedo Rodríguez, L.; Arenas, A. (2011). Accuracy of analytical-numerical solutions of the Michaelis-Menten equation. Computational and Applied Mathematics. 30(2):445-461. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1807-03022011000200011S44546130

Large Language Models as General Pattern Machines

We observe that pre-trained large language models (LLMs) are capable of autoregressively completing complex token sequences -- from arbitrary ones procedurally generated by probabilistic context-free grammars (PCFG), to more rich spatial patterns found in the Abstraction and Reasoning Corpus (ARC), a general AI benchmark, prompted in the style of ASCII art. Surprisingly, pattern completion proficiency can be partially retained even when the sequences are expressed using tokens randomly sampled from the vocabulary. These results suggest that without any additional training, LLMs can serve as general sequence modelers, driven by in-context learning. In this work, we investigate how these zero-shot capabilities may be applied to problems in robotics -- from extrapolating sequences of numbers that represent states over time to complete simple motions, to least-to-most prompting of reward-conditioned trajectories that can discover and represent closed-loop policies (e.g., a stabilizing controller for CartPole). While difficult to deploy today for real systems due to latency, context size limitations, and compute costs, the approach of using LLMs to drive low-level control may provide an exciting glimpse into how the patterns among words could be transferred to actions.Comment: 21 pages, 25 figures. To appear at Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL) 202