Avocado (Persea americana) and cherimoya (Annona cherimola) crop ontologies facilitate data interoperability among different descriptors in biological databases

Subtropical fruits, like avocado and cherimoya, are key crops for food security in a wide range of countries, with an increasing commercial importance worldwide. Even though their importance is starting to be recognized and high throughput sequencing approaches are currently being used to characterize genome­wide patterns from natural diversity populations and breeding stocks, currently ontological available information for these subtropical fruits crops is scarce and often not based in internationally standardized formats. Thus, the challenge to correlate the expanding molecular information data available with plant phenotype and crop traits remains an important issue in breeding programs for these crops. With the aim to facilitate future analyses we present a controlled vocabulary for harmonizing the annotation of phenotypic and genomic data for these crops. These new ontologies represent an extended ontology to fit avocado and cherimoya traits commonly used in variety descriptions, mainly established by Biodiversity International and the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), but also custom ad hoc descriptors. The developed ontology includes measurable or observable characteristics of plants as well as abiotic and biotic stress susceptibility. The resource is available in standard OBO formats ready to be used in GMOD and Tripal inspired biological databases to allow data sharing and reusability. The approach followed here can be of interest to other crops in which standardized ontologies are still missing.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. This work is supported by MINECO (AGL2013-43732- R and AGL2016-77267-R) to Iñaki Hormaza, (RYC-2011-08839) to Antonio Matas and (BES-2014-068832) to Alicia Talavera Júdez

Low density polyethylene/silica nanocomposite foams. Relationship between chemical composition, particle dispersion, cellular structure and physical properties

Postprint (author's final draft

Perspectiva policial de la delincuencia en jóvenes

Derech

Organizaciones virtuales y redes neuronales. Algunas similitudes.

Aunque existen numerosos trabajos que identifican sus principales características y modo de funcionamiento, el estudio de las organizaciones virtuales adolece de una carencia de modelos matemáticos que reflejen su comportamiento de un modo cuantitativo. En este sentido, a lo largo del presente trabajo se tratará de poner de manifiesto las similitudes existentes entre el funcionamiento de las organizaciones virtuales y el de las redes neuronales (SOM, SelfOrganizing Maps). El objetivo es sentar las bases para proponer este tipo de técnica estadística como herramienta para la formulación de modelos sobre organizaciones virtuales. Se plantearán una serie de argumentos de plausibilidad, dejando a investigaciones posteriores la verificación rigurosa de esta propuesta.ORGANIZACION VIRTUAL, REDES SOM, MAPAS DE KOHONEN

Evolution of wireless sensor network for air quality measurements

Este estudio aborda el desarrollo de una red de sensores de gas inalámbricos con nodos de bajo costo, tamaño pequeño y bajo consumo para aplicaciones ambientales y detección de la calidad del aire. A lo largo del artículo se presenta la evolución del diseño y desarrollo del sistema, describiendo cuatro prototipos diseñados. El nodo prototipo final propuesto tiene la capacidad de conectar hasta cuatro sensores de gas de óxido metálico (MOX), y tiene una gran autonomía gracias al uso de paneles solares, además de contar con un sistema de muestreo indirecto y de pequeño tamaño. El protocolo ZigBee se utiliza para transmitir datos de forma inalámbrica a una nube de datos de desarrollo propio. La capacidad de discriminación del dispositivo se comprobó con los compuestos orgánicos volátiles benceno, tolueno, etilbenceno y xileno (BTEX). Se logró una mejora del sistema para obtener tasas de éxito óptimas en la etapa de clasificación con el prototipo final. El procesamiento de los datos se llevó a cabo utilizando técnicas de reconocimiento de patrones e inteligencia artificial, como las redes de base radial y el análisis de componentes principales (PCA).This study addresses the development of a wireless gas sensor network with low cost, small size, and low consumption nodes for environmental applications and air quality detection. Throughout the article, the evolution of the design and development of the system is presented, describing four designed prototypes. The final proposed prototype node has the capacity to connect up to four metal oxide (MOX) gas sensors, and has high autonomy thanks to the use of solar panels, as well as having an indirect sampling system and a small size. ZigBee protocol is used to transmit data wirelessly to a self-developed data cloud. The discrimination capacity of the device was checked with the volatile organic compounds benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX). An improvement of the system was achieved to obtain optimal success rates in the classification stage with the final prototype. Data processing was carried out using techniques of pattern recognition and artificial intelligence, such as radial basis networks and principal component analysis (PCA).• Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad. Proyecto TEC2013-48147-C6-5-R • Junta de Extremadura. Proyecto IB16048peerReviewe

New Locality of the endangered Sierra Madre Sparrow (Xenospiza Baileyi) from the State of Durango, Mexico, and recommendations for its conservation

The Sierra Madre Sparrow (Xenospiza baileyi) is an endemic species of Mexico that is threatened with extinction. Its distribution is reported in two areas: One in the Transvolcanic Belt of central Mexico (La Cima) near Mexico City and the other in the Sierra Madre Occidental in northwestern Mexico (Ejido Ojo de Agua El Cazador) near the city of Durango, in the state of Durango. The habitat is the same in these two areas, and consists of sub-alpine grassland that is located in shallow valleys or shallows. In our case, "El Bajío la Cantera" of approximately 55 hectares, is mostly used in rainfed agriculture, protected from livestock grazing with wire fences, which in turn represents protection for remnants of grassland where they are the birds. “El Bajío la Cantera" belongs to Ejido 12 de Mayo, Municipality of San Dimas, Durango, where 28 males were detected singing along a 500 meter transect. This finding represents the population of the healthiest Sierra Madre Sparrow currently known, so it would be necessary to document their population trend over time. This information can help to evaluate and propose the creation of a special protection area for the species that involves joint government actions and ejidatarios tending to conserve the habitat during the reproductive season in order to increase and / or maintain the size of the population.El gorrión serrano (Xenospiza baileyi) es una especie endémica de México y se encuentra en peligro de extinción. Su distribución se reporta en dos áreas: Una en el Cinturón Transvolcánico del centro de México (La Cima) cerca de la Ciudad de México y la otra en la Sierra Madre Occidental en el noroeste de México (Ejido Ojo de Agua El Cazador) cerca de la ciudad de Durango, en el estado de Durango. El hábitat es el mismo en estas dos áreas, y consiste en pastizales amacollados subalpinos que se localizan en valles poco profundos o bajíos. En nuestro caso, “El Bajío la Cantera” de aproximadamente 55 Has de superficie, es usado mayormente en la agricultura de temporal, protegida del pastoreo del ganado con cerco de alambre, que a su vez representa protección para los remanentes de pastizal amacollado donde están las aves. “El Bajío la Cantera” pertenece al Ejido 12 de Mayo, Municipio de San Dimas, Durango, donde se detectaron 28 machos cantando a lo largo de un transecto de 500 metros. Este hallazgo representa la población de Gorrión serrano más saludable actualmente conocida, por lo que sería necesario documentar su tendencia poblacional a través del tiempo. Esta información puede ayudar a evaluar y proponer la creación de un área de protección especial para la especie que involucre acciones conjuntas de gobierno y ejidatarios tendientes a conservar el hábitat durante la época reproductiva para lograr aumentar y/o mantener el tamaño de la población

I do the best I can: the role of immigrant parents in their children's educational inclusion

The research highlights the importance of immigrant parents assuming a leading and mediating role in the processes of school adjustment and their children’s educational inclusion. However, the difficulties that parents have to face as a consequence of the migration process are not always taken into account. These families have to face their own acculturation processes and reorganize their roles in the host society. This study analyses the functions that immigrant parents carry out in the new school context in order to favor the educational inclusion of their children. The analysis is approached from the parents’ perspective, in order to understand the way in which families live and try to favor their children’s access, participation and success at school. Ethnographic research and the use of qualitative techniques such as in-depth interviews are used. The perceptions of three immigrant fathers and seven immigrant mothers with different backgrounds and nationalities in a public school in Huelva (Andalusia, Spain) are analyzed. The results point to the great fragility and difficulty experienced by these parents in exercising their parental functions in the new context. Women, especially those from Poland, Lithuania, and Romania, compared to their husbands or partners, seem to suffer greater stress due to their dual role as guarantors of the culture of origin and facilitators of the host culture. In order to favor the educational inclusion of their children, parents prioritize – primarily – access to resources, but also the monitoring of their children’s homework and emotional support. However, a relationship model based on cultural assimilation prevails. Among the factors that condition the behavior of parents are their economic vulnerability, lack of knowledge of the language, limited social support, cultural differences and prejudices. The importance of the school supporting parents, and especially mothers, in their acculturation processes and their relationship with the school is underlined. In this endeavor, it is essential to count on the collaboration of different agents, such as intercultural counselors or other parents in the school

Comparing risk-weighted assets: the importance of supervisory validation processes

Artículo de revistaThis article analyses the problems of using the risk-weighted assets (RWA) density ratio – defined as the ratio of RWA to total assets – to make comparisons across banks, as is frequently done by banks themselves and analysts. An international comparison is made of 16 European banks, based on public information, from which it is concluded that a significant part of the differences in RWA density are a consequence of differences in the type of business involved. In particular, the greater the weight of credit risk in a bank’s balance sheet the higher will be its RWA density. We propose alternative RWA density ratios and illustrate them with the results for Spanish banks using confidential data. We show that public information cannot be sufficiently detailed to enable differences across banks arising from their risk profiles to be distinguished from others attributable, for example, to different interpretations of solvency rules by banks or supervisors. Therefore, the supervisory review process and the progress in its inter-jurisdictional harmonisation are especially important. The paper concludes with a review of the process used by the Banco de España for the supervisory validation of Internal Ratings Based (IRB) approaches for credit risk