Belly-soaking: A behavioural solution to reduce excess body heat in the Kentish plover Charadrius alexandrinus

During nesting, many temperate and tropical shorebirds are exposed to direct solar radiation and face heat stress. The aim of our study was to determine whether belly-soaking (wetting of ventral plumage) contributes to reducing excess body heat in Kentish plovers Charadrius alexandrinus. We captured incubating plovers on sunny days at their exposed nests, and placed them inside cloth bags at ground level in exposed sites for 5 min. This produced an increase in the ambient temperature experienced by the plovers, as well as an increase in the body temperature of the plovers. We simulated belly-soaking by submerging the ventral parts in water for about 10 s immediately after removing the birds from the bag. The body temperature of the plovers was lowered after simulated belly-soaking. Our results indicate that belly-soaking is a behavioural strategy to quickly reduce body temperature in heat-stressed plovers. © Japan Ethological Society and Springer 2008.Peer Reviewe

On a Variational Method for Stiff Differential Equations Arising from Chemistry Kinetics

For the approximation of stiff systems of ODEs arising from chemistry kinetics, implicit integrators emerge as good candidates. This paper proposes a variational approach for this type of systems. In addition to introducing the technique, we present its most basic properties and test its numerical performance through some experiments. The main advantage with respect to other implicit methods is that our approach has a global convergence. The other approaches need to ensure convergence of the iterative scheme used to approximate the associated nonlinear equations that appear for the implicitness. Notice that these iterative methods, for these nonlinear equations, have bounded basins of attraction

Reuse of nesting scrapes by Kentish Plovers

We studied reuse of nesting scrapes within breeding seasons by Kentish Plovers (Charadrius alexandrinus) in an inland lake of southern Spain over six years. Overall, 5.6% of original nests were reused at least once. We tested whether nest reuse is adaptive, but found no differences in breeding success between those pairs that reused nests and those that did not. We also tested whether nest reuse should be more frequent when scrapes are difficult to excavate than when it is easier to excavate them, and found that nests on hard substrates were more frequently reused than nests on soft substrates, and that nest reuse was more frequent in the second half of the season, when the nesting substrate is harder, than in the first half of the season. This suggests that nest reuse may save Kentish Plovers some energy.Peer Reviewe

The Use of the Static Posturography to Assess Balance Performance in a Parkinson’s Disease Population

The literature has shown contradictory results so far about the use of posturography, especially static posturography, to evaluate balance performance in Parkinson’s disease (PD) populations. This study aimed to investigate the use of static posturography as a valid method to evaluate balance in a PD population. Fifty-two participants diagnosed with PD (Hoehn & Yahr stage: 1–3) were included in this cross-sectional study. All participants completed the following assessments: Hoehn and Yahr scale, Movement Disorder Society-Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale, Tinetti Scale, Berg Balance Scale, Activities-specific Balance Confidence scale, Timed Up and Go test, and Functional Reach Test. Sway parameters were analyzed with a baropodometric platform, under eyes open (EO) and eyes closed (EC) conditions, in a bipodal stance. Small to large correlations were observed between clinical balance tests and static posturography parameters, although the majority of these parameters correlated moderately. Considering posturographic variables, the highest correlation values were detected for total excursion (TE), mean velocity (MV), mean (X-mean), and root-mean-square (X-RMS) displacements in the medio-lateral directions. It was observed that posturographic parameters worsened as the disease progresses, although differences were only significant between the stages 1 and 3 in the H&Y scale (p < 0.05). Regarding the test condition, the visual deprivation worsened significantly all the static posturography parameters (p < 0.05), except the antero-posterior mean displacement (Y-Mean). Comparing visual conditions, the EC presented slightly higher correlation values with the clinical balance tests. Static posturography could be used as an objective complementary tool to clinical balance tests in order to assess and control balance performance, mainly to detect postural instability problems.This research was funded by a pre-doctoral grant (ACIF/2018/209) from the Generalitat Valenciana, Spain

Algunos aspectos del derecho en la comarca de Camprodon: L 'Empriu

Pues bien, dentro del régimen jurídico inmobiliario de las comarcas del Pirineo, tanto francés como español, aparece con destacado perfil, una institución depropiedad y aprovechamiento colectivo de tierras con diferentes modalidades y matices pero esencialmente única en su característica jurídico-social, conocida genéricamente por EMPRIU

Numerical integration rules with improved accuracy close to singularities

Sometimes it is necessary to obtain a numerical integration using only discretised data. In some cases, the data contains singularities which position is known but does not coincide with a discretisation point, and the jumps in the function and its derivatives are available at these positions. The motivation of this paper is to use the previous information to obtain numerical quadrature formulas that allow approximating the integral of the discrete data over certain intervals accurately. This work is devoted to the construction and analysis of a new nonlinear technique that allows to obtain accurate numerical integrations of any order using data that contains singularities, and when the integrand is only known at grid points. The novelty of the technique consists in the inclusion of correction terms with a closed expression that depends on the size of the jumps of the function and its derivatives at the singularities, that are supposed to be known. The addition of these terms allows recovering the accuracy of classical numerical integration formulas even close to the singularities, as these correction terms account for the error that the classical integration formulas commit up to their accuracy at smooth zones. Thus, the correction terms can be added during the integration or as post-processing, which is useful if the main calculation of the integral has been already done using classical formulas. The numerical experiments performed allow us to confirm the theoretical conclusions reached in this paper.Comment: 23 pages, 5 Figures, 3 Table

On new strategies to control the accuracy of WENO algorithms close to discontinuities

This paper is devoted to the construction and analysis of new nonlinear optimal weights for weighted ENO (WENO) interpolation capable of raising the order of accuracy close to discontinuities. The new nonlinear optimal weights are constructed using a strategy inspired by the original WENO algorithm, and they work very well for corner or jump singularities, leading to optimal theoretical accuracy. This is the first part of a series of two papers. In this first part we analyze the performance of the new algorithms proposed for univariate function approximation in the point values (interpolation problem). In the second part, we will extend the analysis to univariate function approximation in the cell averages (reconstruction problem). Our aim is twofold: to raise the order of accuracy of the WENO type interpolation schemes both near discontinuities and in the interval which contains the singularity. The first problem can be solved using the new nonlinear optimal weights, but the second one requires a new strategy that locates the position of the singularity inside the cell in order to attain adaption. This new strategy is inspired by the ENO-SR schemes proposed by Harten [J. Comput. Phys., 83 (1989), pp. 148--184]. Thus, we will introduce two different algorithms in the point values. The first one can deal with corner singularities and jump discontinuities for intervals not containing the singularity. The second algorithm can also deal with intervals containing corner singularities, as they can be detected from the point values, but jump discontinuities cannot, as the information of their position is lost during the discretization process. As mentioned before, the second part of this work will be devoted to the cell averages and, in this context, it will be possible to work with jump discontinuities as well.The work of the authors was supported by the Programa de Apoyo a la Investigatión de la Fundación Séneca-Agencia de Ciencia y Tecnología de la Región de Murcia 20928/PI/18, by the national research project MTM2015-64382-P (MINECO/FEDER), and by National Science Foundation grant DMS-1719410