Situational-Context: A Unified View of Everything Involved at a Particular Situation

As the interest in the Web of Things increases, specially for the general population, the barriers to entry for the use of these technologies should decrease. Current applications can be developed to adapt their behaviour to predefined conditions and users preferences, facilitating their use. In the future,Web of Things software should be able to automatically adjust its behaviour to non-predefined preferences or context of its users. In this vision paper we define the Situational-Context as the combination of the virtual profiles of the entities (things or people) that concur at a particular place and time. The computation of the Situational-Context allow us to predict the expected system behaviour and the required interaction between devices to meet the entities’ goals, achieving a better adjustment of the system to variable contexts.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

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

Hydrodynamic changes in Guadalquivir estuary (Spain) due to a hypothetical tidal marsh restoration project

Tidal marsh restoration will be an important management issue in Guadalquivir Estuary in the near future. The Guadalquivir Estuary has been anthropologically modified several times, the river is bounded by embankments to protect rice and cotton plantations from tidal inundation, the meanders have been transformed into straight sections, about 80 % of the original marsh surface has been lost and approximately one-fourth of the total surface of the estuary is now part of two protected areas, one of them is a UNESCO, MAB Biosphere Reserve. A hypothetical restoration of tidal marshes will benefits different species and functions based on location, elevation, adjacent habitats, degree of hydrodynamic connectivity and would reduce the present high levels of turbidity. The restoration projects should be accompanied by studies for a better understanding of the environmental changes expected. A Large-scale construction of tidal marsh will change tidal dynamics, modify the tidal inundation regime and the freshwater flow over the surrounding areas. A hydrodynamic model has been developed to study changes in the tidal propagation and the flow regime due to a hypothetical marsh restoration. The model has been calibrated and the output has been validated with in situ water elevation and good agreement between modelled and real measurements have been obtained. A sensitivity test changing the size, locations from the estuary mouth and depth has been carried out to highlights impacts over the tidal propagation, flow regime, salinity intrusion and the tidal inundation regime. Our preliminary results show that the tidal elevation and the current speed will be considerably affected in the estuary. The model open the possibility to study interactions among the tidal marsh restoration project, Seville port operations, fisheries and agricultural activities. The numerical model will be a powerful tool in restoration projects in a complex socio-ecological system.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. Autoridad Portuaria de Sevill

Entanglement detection in coupled particle plasmons

When in close contact, plasmonic resonances interact and become strongly correlated. In this work we develop a quantum mechanical model, using the language of continuous variables and quantum information, for an array of coupled particle plasmons. This model predicts that when the coupling strength between plasmons approaches or surpasses the local dissipation, a sizable amount of entanglement is stored in the collective modes of the array. We also prove that entanglement manifests itself in far-field images of the plasmonic modes, through the statistics of the quadratures of the field, in what constitutes a novel family of entanglement witnesses. This protocol is so robust that it is indeed independent of whether our own model is correct. Finally, we estimate the amount of entanglement, the coupling strength and the correlation properties for a system that consists of two or more coupled nanospheres of silver, showing evidence that our predictions could be tested using present-day state-of-the-art technology.Comment: 8 pages (6 main text + 2 supplemental), 3 figure

Biogeografía urbana: presentación del caso de Alcalá de Henares.

Sin resume

A Cholinergic Synaptically Triggered Event Participates in the Generation of Persistent Activity Necessary for Eye Fixation

An exciting topic regarding integrative properties of the nervous system is how transient motor commands or brief sensory stimuli are able to evoke persistent neuronal changes, mainly as a sustained, tonic action potential firing. A persisting firing seems to be necessary for postural maintenance after a previous movement. We have studied in vitro and in vivo the generation of the persistent neuronal activity responsible for eye fixation after spontaneous eye movements. Rat sagittal brainstem slices were used for the intracellular recording of prepositus hypoglossi (PH) neurons and their synaptic activation from nearby paramedian pontine reticular formation (PPRF) neurons. Single electrical pulses applied to the PPRF showed a monosynaptic glutamatergic projection on PH neurons, acting on AMPA-kainate receptors. Train stimulation of the PPRF area evoked a sustained depolarization of PH neurons exceeding (by hundreds of milliseconds) stimulus duration. Both duration and amplitude of this sustained depolarization were linearly related to train frequency. The train-evoked sustained depolarization was the result of interaction between glutamatergic excitatory burst neurons and cholinergic mesopontine reticular fibers projecting onto PH neurons, because it was prevented by slice superfusion with cholinergic antagonists and mimicked by cholinergic agonists. As expected, microinjections of cholinergic antagonists in the PH nucleus of alert behaving cats evoked a gaze-holding deficit consisting of a re-centering drift of the eye after each saccade. These findings suggest that a slow, cholinergic, synaptically triggered event participates in the generation of persistent activity characteristic of PH neurons carrying eye position signals.Unión Europea Grants BI04-CT98-0546España, Ministerio de Ciencia PB98-0011, BFI2000-00936, BFI2000-1190, y BFI2002-0137

Geografía de las Plantas en La Alcarria Occidental y Mesa de Ocaña (I). Análisis florístico en cinco localidades representativas

It carries out a systematic and exhaustive floristic inventory in order to know the composition of vascular plants of the natural region of Western La Alcarria and “Mesa” of Ocaña (Central Iberian Peninsula). The survey method was applied in the NNE-SSW transect forming for five 1 × 1-km U.T.M. grid squares (ED50) during one agricultural year (2002-2003). It allows consider almost the total richness notion of the floristic data and makes possible a geographical comparison of biodiversity in absolute terms. The Jaccard’s index is used to determine the floristic similarity between all grid cells and the taxonomic spectra is analyzed. The results show high levels of richness at all spatial levels (1634 native species at regional level; 690, in all five grid cells, and an average higher than 400 by grid cell). From highest to lowest, the regional typical spectrum presents a dominance of the daisy family, followed by grasses, legume family, crucifers and pink family; although the cells spectra have slight variations to this model.Se efectúan inventarios sistemáticos y exhaustivos de la flora en cinco cuadrículas U.T.M. (Datum ED50) de 1 × 1 km, que forman un transecto NNE-SSW en la región natural de La Alcarria Occidental y Mesa de Ocaña, con objeto de conocer la composición en plantas vasculares. El método, aplicado en el año agrológico 2002 03, hace posible considerar el contingente florístico determinado como relativamente próximo a la riqueza total y permite efectuar una comparación geográfica de la diversidad en términos absolutos. Se efectúa un análisis de la semejanza florística y se analizan comparativamente los espectros taxonómicos. Los resultados muestran elevados niveles de riqueza en todos los niveles espaciales (1634 taxones autóctonos, a escala regional; 690, en el conjunto de las cinco cuadrículas; y una media superior a 400 por cuadrícula). De mayor a menor, el espectro típico de la región presenta un dominio de compuestas, gramíneas, leguminosas, crucíferas y cariofiláceas; aunque las cuadrículas presentan ligeras variaciones a este modelo.On a fait des relevés systématiques et exhaustives de la flore á cinq carrés UTM de 1 km × 1 km (ED50), formant un transect NNE-SSW dans la région naturelle de La Alcarria de l’Ouest et “Mesa” d’Ocaña (Centre de la Péninsule Ibérique), avec le but de connaître la composition en plantes vasculaires. La méthode, appliquée dans l’année agrologique 2002-03, permet d’envisager l’ensemble vasculair déterminé comme relativement proche à la richesse totale, ce qui fair possible la comparaison géographique de la diversité floristique en termes absolus. En même temps, on a effectué une analyse de similarité de la flore entre les cinq unités régulières et une analyse comparative des spectres taxonomiques. Les résultats montrent des niveaux élevés de la richesse à tous les espaces étudiés (1634 espèces, au niveau régional, 690 dans l´ensemble des cinq carrés UTM, et une moyenne supérieure à 400 par carré). Du plus haut au plus bas, le spectre typique de la région est domainé par les composées, suivies par les graminées, légumineuses, crucifères et caryophyllacées, bien que les unités de 1 km² ont de légères variations de ce modèle

A simulation study on the health concerns derived from GSM base station placement

In the last years a great concern has raised among population due to the placement of the base stations (BS) of cellular systems in urban areas. In some cases, it has been addressed with the (re)installation of BSs in far suburban areas. However, in these cases, mobile stations (MS) must raise transmission power. Thus, users may -potentially- suffer a higher radio exposure. In this paper we quantified the variation of the transmission power in this application scenario. The study has been done by means of the OPNET/GSM framework simulation tool. Suitable propagation models and the GSM power control algorithm have been added to the model, in order to compute the MS transmission power in a real environment. Results reveal a significative increment of the MS transmission power when the BS is relocated to suburban areas. Therefore, we conclude that it is necessary to introduce modifications in the GSM network architecture to solve this issue together with the BS placement problemThis work has been funded by the Spanish Economy, Industry and Innovation Council under the SOLIDMOVIL project (2I04SU044), by Fundación Séneca (Región de Murcia, Spain) ARENA project (00546/PI/04) and by the Spanish Research Council under the ARPaq project (TEC2004-05622- C04-02/TCM). The authors are also indebted to OPNET Technologies Inc. for granting licenses under the OPNET University program

Fully Discrete Approximations to the Time-Dependent Navier–Stokes Equations with a Projection Method in Time and Grad-Div Stabilization

This paper studies fully discrete approximations to the evolutionary Navier{ Stokes equations by means of inf-sup stable H1-conforming mixed nite elements with a grad-div type stabilization and the Euler incremental projection method in time. We get error bounds where the constants do not depend on negative powers of the viscosity. We get the optimal rate of convergence in time of the projection method. For the spatial error we get a bound O(hk) for the L2 error of the velocity, k being the degree of the polynomials in the velocity approximation. We prove numerically that this bound is sharp for this method.MINECO grant MTM2016-78995-P (AEI)Junta de Castilla y León grant VA024P17Junta de Castilla y León grant VA105G18MINECO grant MTM2015-65608-