615 research outputs found
Land use and environmental factors affecting red-legged partridge (Alectoris rufa) hunting yields in southern Spain
The red-legged partridge is a small game species
widely hunted in southern Spain. Its commercial use has
important socioeconomic effects in rural areas where other
agrarian uses are of marginal importance. The aims of the
present work were to identify areas in Andalusia (southern
Spain) where game yields for the red-legged partridge
reach high values and to establish the environmental and
land use factors that determine them. We analysed 32,134
annual hunting reports (HRs) produced by 6,049 game
estates during the hunting seasons 1993/1994 to 2001/2002
to estimate the average hunting yields of red-legged
partridge in each Andalusian municipality (n=771). We
modelled the favourability for obtaining good hunting
yields using stepwise logistic regression on a set of
climatic, topographical, land use and vegetation variables
that were available as digital coverages or tabular data
applied to municipalities. Good hunting yields occur
mainly in plain areas located in the Guadalquivir valley,
at the bottom of Betic Range and in the Betic depressions.
Favourable areas are related to highly mechanised, lowelevation
areas mainly dedicated to intensive dry crops.
The most favourable areas predicted by our model are
mainly located in the Guadalquivir valley
COmplexome Profiling ALignment (COPAL) reveals remodeling of mitochondrial protein complexes in Barth syndrome
Item does not contain fulltextMOTIVATION: Complexome profiling combines native gel electrophoresis with mass spectrometry to obtain the inventory, composition and abundance of multiprotein assemblies in an organelle. Applying complexome profiling to determine the effect of a mutation on protein complexes requires separating technical and biological variations from the variations caused by that mutation. RESULTS: We have developed the COmplexome Profiling ALignment (COPAL) tool that aligns multiple complexome profiles with each other. It includes the abundance profiles of all proteins on two gels, using a multi-dimensional implementation of the dynamic time warping algorithm to align the gels. Subsequent progressive alignment allows us to align multiple profiles with each other. We tested COPAL on complexome profiles from control mitochondria and from Barth syndrome (BTHS) mitochondria, which have a mutation in tafazzin gene that is involved in remodeling the inner mitochondrial membrane phospholipid cardiolipin. By comparing the variation between BTHS mitochondria and controls with the variation among either, we assessed the effects of BTHS on the abundance profiles of individual proteins. Combining those profiles with gene set enrichment analysis allows detecting significantly affected protein complexes. Most of the significantly affected protein complexes are located in the inner mitochondrial membrane (mitochondrial contact site and cristae organizing system, prohibitins), or are attached to it (the large ribosomal subunit). AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: COPAL is written in python and is available from http://github.com/cmbi/copal. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online
Issues and Observations on Applications of the Constrained-Path Monte Carlo Method to Many-Fermion Systems
We report several important observations that underscore the distinctions
between the constrained-path Monte Carlo method and the continuum and lattice
versions of the fixed-node method. The main distinctions stem from the
differences in the state space in which the random walk occurs and in the
manner in which the random walkers are constrained. One consequence is that in
the constrained-path method the so-called mixed estimator for the energy is not
an upper bound to the exact energy, as previously claimed. Several ways of
producing an energy upper bound are given, and relevant methodological aspects
are illustrated with simple examples.Comment: 28 pages, REVTEX, 5 ps figure
Modelling Tropical Deforestation: A Comparison of Approaches
International audienceTropical deforestation, as an important factor in global change, is a topic that recently has received considerable attention. GIS-based spatially explicit models that intend to predict the location of land use/cover change (LUCC) can help scientists and policy makers to understand, anticipate and possibly prevent the adverse effects of land-use change. There are many approaches and softwares to model LUCC such as CLUE-S, DINAMICA GEOMOD and IDRISI. This study intends to compare these four modelling approaches. First, a review of methods and tools employed by each software to carry out the simulation was done. Then, the four packages were applied to a "virtual" case which involves a map of deforestation, which comprises two types of deforestation (forest to shifting agriculture and forest to pasture lands), along with several explanatory variables (drivers). Deforestation was modelled using the four approaches and the output maps were compared
EP-1184: Hypofractionated simultaneous integrated boost radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery: 3 years follow-up
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Geographical and environmental correlates of big and small game in Andalusia (southern Spain)
In Andalusia, southern Spain, each game estate applies its own rules and presents its results in annual hunting
reports, which have been mandatory for Spanish game estates since 1989. We used the information about hunting yields,
included in 32134 annual hunting reports produced during the period 1993/94 to 2001/02 by 6049 game estates, to determine
the current distribution of hunting yields of big and small game species in Andalusia. Using generalised linear
models and a geographic information system, we determined the most favourable municipalities to big and small game,
respectively, and delimited potential areas to attain good hunting yields for big and small game at a 1-km2 resolution.
Municipalities and areas favourable to big game are mainly located in the Sierra Morena and the westernmost fringe of
the Betic Range, while those favourable to small game occupy the upper Guadalquivir River valley. There is a clear segregation
between big and small game species according to the physiography and land uses of the territory. Big game
species are typical of Mediterranean woodland areas, while the most emblematic small game species prefer agricultural
areas. Our results provide a territorial ordination of hunting yields in southern Spain and have several potential applications
in strategic planning for hunting activities and biodiversity conservation in Andalusia that can be extrapolated to
other regions
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