Columbus container services ECJ case and its consequences : a lost opportunity to shed light on the scope of the non-discrimination principle

This article examines the European Court of Justice’s (ECJ’s) judgment in the Columbus Container Services BVBA & Co. v. Finanzamt Bielefeld-Innenstadt (hereinafter ‘Columbus Container Services’) case (C-298/05). After a brief description of the facts and the decision, the authors critically analyze the ruling, in light of potential acceptance of horizontal comparability as opposed to the traditional migrant/non-migrant approach of the ECJ. A study of the ECJ’s case law on horizontal pairs of comparison, together with a possible legal background for this approach (single market principle), allows the authors to conclude that the German rules under scrutiny (switch-over clause in quasi-CFC situations) were in breach of fundamental freedoms. Finally, the authors also consider hypothetical consequences of Columbus Container Services for other problems at stake such as the future of anti-avoidance rules in the European context, rules on classii cation of foreign entities, consolidation regimes that might imply treaty overrides, or the compatibility of the credit method itself with EC law.The research for this article was conducted under project SEJ2006-00159JURI (‘La armonización de la imposición sobre Sociedades’) directed by Prof. J. Zornoza (Carlos III University of Madrid) and financed by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science.Publicad

Phosphogypsum amendments and irrigation with acidulated water affect tomato nutrition in reclaimed marsh soils from SW Spain

Phosphogypsum (PG) is a by-product of the P fertilizer industry usually valorised as amendment for acidic and sodic soils. This work was aimed to study the effects of PG on nutrient uptake by industrial tomato plants in an originally sodic soil. A completely randomized experiment was performed involving two factors: (i) acidification with nitric acid (mimics cleaning techniques in drip irrigation), and (ii) PG rate (equivalents to 0, 20, 60, and 200 Mg ha–1). The highest PG rate resulted in an increased dry matter yield, which can be ascribed at least in part to an increased water use efficiency. PG decreased K, Mg and P concentrations in shoots, and P and Cu concentrations in fruits. At the highest rate, PG increased B concentration in shoots and total B content in the aerial parts of plants when acid was applied. The highest PG rate also increased Ca concentration in fruits, which can be considered positive in view of reducing the incidence of blossom end rot. The total content of Ni and Mo in aerial parts increased with PG, probably related to a decreased adsorption of these nutrients in soils. Acid application increased the concentration of all micronutrients in shoots and the concentration of Fe, Cu and B in fruits. In conclusion, PG promoted positive effects on B, Ni, Mo, and Ca nutrition, and some negative nutritional effects through antagonisms or affecting nutrient cycling in the soils, which however did not result in decreasing yields, even at a large dose which mimics the cumulative application during 20-30 years. Acid treatments resulted in improved micronutrient nutrition of tomato plant

Transfer of Cd, Pb, Ra and U from Phosphogypsum Amended Soils to Tomato Plants

About 170 million tons of phosphogypsum (PG) are annually generated worldwide as a by-product of phosphoric acid factories. Agricultural uses of PG could become the main sink for this waste, which usually contains significant radionuclide (from the 238U-series) and toxic metals concentrations. To study PG effects on pollutant uptake by crops, a completely randomised greenhouse experiment was carried out growing Lycopersicum esculentum Mill L. on a reclaimed marsh soil amended with three PG rates (treatments), corresponding to zero (control without PG application), one, three and ten times the typical PG rates used in SW Spain (20 Mg ha−1). The concentrations of Cd, Pb, U (by inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy) and 226Ra and 210Po (by γ-spectrometry and α-counting, respectively) were determined in soil, vegetal tissue and draining water. Cadmium concentrations in fruit increased with PG rates, reaching 44 ± 7 μg kg−1 formula weight with ten PG rates (being 50 μg kg−1 the maximum allowed concentration by EC 1881/2006 regulation). Cd transfer factors in non-edible parts were as high as 4.8 ± 0.5 (dry weight (d.w.)), two orders of magnitude higher than values found for lead, lead, uranium and radium concentrations in fruit remained below the corresponding detection limits—0.5 and 0.25 mg kg−1 and 0.6 mBq kg−1, respectively (in a d.w. basis). 238U (up to 7 μg kg−1 d.w.) and 210Po (up to 0.74 Bq kg−1 d.w.) could be measured in some fruit samples by α-spectrometry. Overall, the concentrations of these metals and radionuclides in the draining water accounted for less than 1% of the amount applied with PGJunta de Andalucía IFAPA-C03

The standardization of researcher’s curricula

The more structured is a scientific system and the greater the degree of integration of its entities the more efficient is its management. Curricula vitae (CV) of researchers are documents that collect data on individuals, institutions and works, and seen as a whole, are a potential source of inside information about the scientific activity of a country. But if they are not stored properly it is not possible to use this knowledge to conduct studies on them. Moreover, the absence of a single standardized CV requires the researchers to fill in multiple versions along their professional practice. The Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (Fecyt), together with the entities belonging to the Spanish system of science, technology and enterprises (Secte), have initiated the project Standard Curriculum Vitae. This article describes its operation and underlines the benefits of its implementation

Efectividad en la reducción de pigmentaciones externas por café de la pasta dental Colgate máxima protección anticaries vs pasta dental Colgate máxima protección anticaries con aditamento de látex de carica papaya en dientes extraídos en la clínica odontológica de la UNAN-Managua, Julio-Agosto 2019

El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar la efectividad de reducción de pigmentaciones extrínsecas provocadas por café, utilizando la pasta dental Colgate máxima protección anticaries con aditamento de látex decarica papaya con respecto a pasta Colgate máxima protección anticaries en dientes extraídos en la clínica odontológica de la UNAN-Managua, julio-agosto 2019. Para ello se realizó un estudio Quasiexperimental, de carácter descriptivo, prospectivo, de corte transversal y analítico. Se llevó a cabo en el laboratorio de Bioquímica de la Unan-Managua resultando con un universo de 66 dientes de los cuales se dividieron 2 grupos para su experimentación posterior, la muestra fue de la misma cantidad del universo del estudio en cuestión, el muestreo fue probabilístico aleatorio por conveniencia. Obteniendo como resultados mediante un estudio planimetrico de foto estudio estandarizado que el primer grupo puesto experimentación con un dentífrico comercial tuvo una disminución promedio no superior al 5% por cada división morfológica dentaria, mientras que en el segundo grupo expuesto al dentífrico comercial con aditamento decarica papaya con una disminución promedio no superior al 10%. Por lo tanto, se concluye que la pasta dental Colgate máxima protección anticaries con aditamento de látex de carica papaya es presenta mayor efectividad para la eliminación de pigmentaciones por café que la pasta dental Colgate máxima protección anticaries. Palabras Claves:Efectividad, dentífrico comercial, Carica papay

Comparación de técnicas de parametrización espectral para reconocimiento de voz en idioma español

En este artículo, se presenta una comparación de las técnicas clásicas de parametrización; Codificación Predictiva Lineal (LPC) y Coeficientes Cepstrales de Frecuencias-Mel (MFCC), implementadas en la etapa de extracción de características en los Sistemas de Reconocimiento Automático de Voz (SRAV) para obtener los coeficientes que mejor caractericen la señal de voz. Las señales de voz se muestrearon a 8 y 16kHz y se varió el número de coeficientes característicos (8-12 para 8kHz y 16-24 para 16kHz) para encontrar la configuración que brinde la mayor tasa de reconocimiento y el menor consumo de recursos (tiempo y cálculo). En la etapa de modelado se usó la técnica Modelos Ocultos de Markov (HMM). La técnica de parametrización MFCC presentó una tasa de reconocimiento superior que la técnica LPC bajo las mismas condiciones, obteniendo tasas de reconocimiento de hasta 99.66%

Growth of pineapple plantlets during acclimatisation can be monitored through automated image analysis of the canopy

[EN] Pineapple is an economically important tropical fruit crop, but the lack of adequate planting material limits its productivity. A range of micropropagation protocols has been developed over the years to address this shortfall. Still, the final stage of micropropagation, i.e. acclimatisation, remains a challenge as pineapple plantlets grow very slowly. Several studies have been conducted focusing on this phase and attempting to improve plantlet growth and establishment, which requires tools for the non-destructive evaluation of growth during acclimatisation. This report describes the use of semi-automated and automated image analysis to quantify canopy growth of pineapple plantlets, during five months of acclimatisation. The canopy area progressively increased during acclimatisation, particularly after 90 days. Regression analyses were performed to determine the relationships between the automated image analysis and morphological indicators of growth. The mathematical relationships between estimations of the canopy area and the fresh and dry weights of intact plantlets, middle-aged leaves (D leaves) and roots showed determination coefficients (R2) between 0.84 and 0.92. We propose an appropriate tool for the simple, objective and non-destructive evaluation of pineapple plantlets growth, which can be generally applied for plant phenotyping, to reduce costs and develop streamlined pipelines for the assessment of plant growthThis research was not covered by any specific grant but supported by internal funds from the Bioplant Centre (Cuba), the Agricultural Research Council-Tropical and Subtropical Crops (South Africa), and the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (Spain). Authors are also grateful to Mrs Lelurlis Napoles for her experienced technical assistance.Soto, G.; Lorente, G.; Mendoza, J.; Báez, ED.; Lorenzo, CM.; Rodríguez, R.; Hajari, E.... (2020). 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