Revisiting materials for teaching languages for specific purposes

Teaching materials in languages for specific purposes have evolved in the last few years dramatically. The Internet currently plays a significant role in such development and has permitted both a wider range of resources and its free availability almost anywhere in the World. This paper presents a selection of different types of recent materials for English for Specific Purposes. The paper begins by defining ESP. Then it approaches how materials should shape the student’s own learning, how materials should be selected according to the different skills and then emphasizes the importance of the Internet as a source of materials. The paper concludes with a set of ideas for the future development of ESP materials. The final goal of this paper is to provide the readers with valuable tools that can enhance their teaching through accessible mean

Is the Western Mediterranean Transition showing up in the Strait of Gibraltar?

Physical and chemical properties (temperature, salinity, pH) of the Mediterranean outflow near the seafloor at Espartel sill, at the westernmost section of the Strait of Gibraltar, have been measured by a monitoring station aimed at following the changes that are taking place in the Mediterranean Sea. Presently, temperature and salinity series are longer than 13 years and they show a slight positive trend (warmer and saltier) that has increased after year 2013. The possibility of this increase being the result of the arrival of the so-called Western Mediterranean Transition (WMT), which started in year 2005 after the huge production of new and denser-than-usual Western Mediterranean Deep Water (WMDW), has been considered. The hypothesis that the water of the WMT is now showing up in the Strait has been put forward by some authors and gets strong support from the pH time series recorded at the station, which shows a sudden and sustained decrease (acidification) starting in early 2016. This decrease is consistent with the fact that the water now being observed flowing out is younger, i.e. has been in contact with the atmosphere more recently, than the WMDWit used to flow out previously to this year. It was only after the large new WMDW production of the harsh winters of 2012 and 2013 and the expected uplift of older layers of WMDW they caused that WMT waters were made available to flow out the Mediterranean Sea.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

The present state of the water exchange through the Strait of Gibraltar

The present two-way exchange through the Strait of Gibraltar stems from the fresh water deficit of the Mediterranean basin. The size of the exchanged flows is the outcome of the climatology over the basin and the morphology and internal hydraulics of the Strait. Its highly constraining topography imposes an upper bound to the flows that cannot be exceeded, a limit known as maximal exchange, which is associated with the minimum salinity difference (density, in fact) between the inflowing (Atlantic) and outflowing (Mediterranean) waters. A relevant question is whether or not the present exchange has achieved this limit. A simple steady-state model of the Mediterranean Sea and Strait of Gibraltar system in which the deep water formation rate is balanced by the Mediterranean outflow, strongly suggests that the exchange is quite close to (or, indeed, it is) maximal. The Strait topography requires two hydraulic control sections for this limit to be achieved, which could be thought as if one of them controls the outflow (the section of the main sill of Camarinal) and the second one the inflow (the narrowest section or Tarifa Narrows, to the east of the main sill). Oceanwards of Camarinal, the outflow accelerates and settles as one of the fastest and brisk bottom currents of the world ocean. East of Tarifa Narrows the inflow becomes a swift jet, the Atlantic Jet, which enters the Mediterranean Sea and sets up the basic features of the Alboran Sea surface circulation. The steady exchange so far depicted is not realistic. The flows undergo large fluctuations at different time scales, which modify the former description drastically. Of special importance are the tides and associated tidal flows, which can be up to 5 times greater than the long-term averaged flows. Under such huge fluctuations, the hydraulic control in Camarinal sill is periodically lost about two hours before high water, during the rising tide, when the tidal currents still head toward the Atlantic Ocean. The flooding of the control is revealed by the release of a vast internal hydraulic jump that progresses towards the Mediterranean Sea while evolving into a regularly shaped train of great amplitude internal waves that carry away part of the tidal energy accumulated nearby the sill during the rising tide. Whenever the hydraulic control at Camarinal is lost, a second sill located to the west (Espartel sill, the westernmost gateway of the Strait) takes over the control of the Mediterranean outflow. The hydraulic control at Espartel is very seldom flooded, which is a fundamental fact for understanding the internal dynamics of the exchange under large barotropic fluctuations. Without this sill, the Strait dynamics would be very different. It is behind the powerful, but periodically inverting, bottom currents nearby Camarinal sill and the also strong, but already unidirectional, bottom currents in Espartel sill and beyond, a reason for which this sill might well be considered as the proper source of the Mediterranean plume in the Atlantic Ocean.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Application of Semantics to Solve Problems in Life Sciences

Fecha de lectura de Tesis: 10 de diciembre de 2018La cantidad de información que se genera en la Web se ha incrementado en los últimos años. La mayor parte de esta información se encuentra accesible en texto, siendo el ser humano el principal usuario de la Web. Sin embargo, a pesar de todos los avances producidos en el área del procesamiento del lenguaje natural, los ordenadores tienen problemas para procesar esta información textual. En este cotexto, existen dominios de aplicación en los que se están publicando grandes cantidades de información disponible como datos estructurados como en el área de las Ciencias de la Vida. El análisis de estos datos es de vital importancia no sólo para el avance de la ciencia, sino para producir avances en el ámbito de la salud. Sin embargo, estos datos están localizados en diferentes repositorios y almacenados en diferentes formatos que hacen difícil su integración. En este contexto, el paradigma de los Datos Vinculados como una tecnología que incluye la aplicación de algunos estándares propuestos por la comunidad W3C tales como HTTP URIs, los estándares RDF y OWL. Haciendo uso de esta tecnología, se ha desarrollado esta tesis doctoral basada en cubrir los siguientes objetivos principales: 1) promover el uso de los datos vinculados por parte de la comunidad de usuarios del ámbito de las Ciencias de la Vida 2) facilitar el diseño de consultas SPARQL mediante el descubrimiento del modelo subyacente en los repositorios RDF 3) crear un entorno colaborativo que facilite el consumo de Datos Vinculados por usuarios finales, 4) desarrollar un algoritmo que, de forma automática, permita descubrir el modelo semántico en OWL de un repositorio RDF, 5) desarrollar una representación en OWL de ICD-10-CM llamada Dione que ofrezca una metodología automática para la clasificación de enfermedades de pacientes y su posterior validación haciendo uso de un razonador OWL

Fair value on commons-based intellectual property assets: Lessons of an estimation over Linux kernel.

Open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials, spreading development burden amongst individuals and companies. This model has resulted in a large and efficient ecosystem and unheralded software innovation, freely available to society. Open source methods are also increasingly being applied in other fields of endeavour, such as biotechnology or cultural production. But under financial reporting framework, general volunteer activity is not reflected on financial statements. As a result, there is not value of volunteer contributions and there is also no single source for cost estimates of how much it has taken to develop an open source technology. This volunteer activity encloses not only individuals but corporations developing and contributing open source products. Standard methodology for reporting open source asset valuation is needed and must include value creation from the perspective of the different stakeholders.FLOSS, commons, accounting standards, financial reporting

Modeling changes in the tidal propagation and its implication for vessel navigation in Guadalquivir estuary ( Spain)

The Port of Seville is an inland harbour located in the Guadalquivir Estuary some 80 km from the river mouth and is the unique Spanish inland port. Vessel traffic in the estuary is a relevant economic activity and a suitable trade-off between vessel draught and safety to prevent ship aground is required and to optimize the port operability. The Guadalquivir is a mesotidal estuary with tidal range of 2-3 m, an important fraction of the minimum depth of the navigation waterway (presently 6.5m). Upstream navigation is favoured around high water as the tide progresses at 12 knots, which is comparable to the vessel speed, thus allowing greater vessel draughts. Oceanwards navigation of heavy vessels, on the contrary, is hampered by the tide because a low water is unavoidably met when heading downstream. A 3D, high resolution hydrodynamic model has been implemented in the whole estuary to study the tidal propagation. The model is forced by the oceanic tide at the mouth and freshwater discharges controlled by an upstream dam at the head. It has been satisfactorily validated and predicts tidal oscillations with high accuracy (less than 4 cm in amplitude and 20 min in phase everywhere in the estuary). Based on the model outputs of tidal heights and currents and using present-day estuary bathymetry, a MATLAB application has been developed for shipping planning (Vessel Traffic Decision Support System, VTDSS). The application allows the final users to test different traffic scheduling scenarios in order to assess the effects on navigational patterns and explore possible management and policy scenarios under sea level rise and changes in tidal propagation. A description of the model and an overview of the VTDSS are presented here; the effectiveness as a decision support tool is demonstrated via the simulated navigation time of several vessels.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. Autoridad Portuaria de Sevill

Na+-dependent NO3- uptake in leaf cells of the seagrass Posidonia oceanica (L.) Delile

Posidonia oceanica (L.) Delile is an endemic Mediterranean seagrass of recognized ecological significance and, as other seagrasses, this species has secondarily adapted to live in the marine environment. In this alkaline medium with a high Na+ concentration (0.5 M), the high inwardly directed electrochemical potential gradient for sodium is used in the seagrass Zostera marina to energize the uptake of nitrate1 and phosphate that usually occur at concentration below 10 µM. Here we summarize several evidences for the operation of a sodium-dependent high-affinity nitrate transport system at the plasma membrane of the mesophyll leaf cells of P. oceanica. Leaf cells of P. oceanica possess a H+-ATPase as a primary pump, exhibit a plasma membrane potential (Em) of -174 ± 10 mV and show reduced Na+ permeability. The addition of micromolar nitrate concentrations induces membrane depolarizations that show saturation kinetics. Curve fitting of the values renders a semisaturation constant (Km) of 21.3 ± 6.6 μM and a maximum depolarization (Dmax) of 7 ± 1 mV. In dark conditions, Dmax decreases by fifty percent but no significant effect is observed on the Km value. On the other hand, nitrate induced depolarizations show sodium dependence. The depolarizations induced by 100 µM NO3- in media containing increasing Na+ concentrations (from 0 to 250 mM) show saturation kinetics, rendering a Km value of 16 ± 5 mM Na+. Moreover, the depolarization induced by 100 µM NO3- is accompanied by a simultaneous increase of cytosolic sodium, measured by Na+-sensitive microelectrodes, of 0.4 ± 0.2 mM above the resting cytosolic sodium concentration (17 ± 2 mM). Finally, nitrate uptake rates, measured in depletion experiments, decreases by 50% and 80% in dark conditions and in the absence of Na+, respectively, compared with control conditions (0.5 M Na+ and light). All together, these results strongly suggest that NO3- uptake in P. oceanica leaf cells is mediated by a high-affinity nitrate carrier that uses Na+ as the driving ion. 1 Rubio et al. (2005). J. Exp. Bot, 412: 613-622. Project Funding: CTM 2011-30356. (MEC)Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech