Efeitos do solo e clima numa vinha de uva de mesa com cultura de cobertura. Gestão da rega utilizando redes de sensores

[ENG] TThe use of mulches in vineyards and orchards is a traditional agricultural practice used with the aim of saving moisture, reducing weed growth and improving organic matter content in the soil. In table grape vineyards trained to overhead system in Puglia region (Southeastern Italy), plastic sheets covering the canopy are often used to either advance ripening or delay harvest. In this environment, the living mulches could contribute to the modification of the microclimate around the canopy below the plastic sheets. This condition has an influence on the climatic demand and on both the vegetative and productive activities, mainly in stages with a high evapotranspiration. However, the presence of living mulches could increase the demand of available water and nutrient resources and this could cause a lower yield. The aim of this study was to acquire a suitable knowledge to manage irrigation and verify the influences of living mulches on the vine by using wireless sensor networks to measure the vapor pressure deficit, soil water potential and content.[POR] A utilização de coberturas do solo em vinhas e pomares é uma prática agrícola tradicional, utilizada com o objetivo de preservar a humidade do solo, reduzir o crescimento de infestantes e melhorar o teor de matéria orgânica no solo. Em vinhas de uva de mesa, conduzidas em sistema de pérgula na região de Puglia (sudeste da Itália), são frequentemente usadas coberturas de plástico para promover o avanço da maturação ou o atraso da colheita. Neste ambiente a utilização de enrelvamentos pode contribuir para a modificação do microclima do copado. Esta condição pode influenciar a demanda atmosférica, bem como a atividade vegetativa e reprodutiva da videira, principalmente em períodos de elevada evapotranspiração. No entanto, a presença do enrelvamento pode originar um aumento da demanda dos recursos disponíveis, nomeadamente água e nutrientes, o que poderá provocar uma quebra de produção. O objetivo deste estudo foi adquirir conhecimento para a gestão da rega e, simultaneamente, verificar a influência dos enrelvamentos na atividade da videira, usando para o efeito redes de sensores “sem fio” para medir o déficit de pressão de vapor, o potencial e o conteúdo de água no solo.The development of this work was supported by: The Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the project RIDEFRUT (ref. AGL2013-49047-C2-1-R), the “Fundacion Seneca, Agencia de Ciencia y Tecnologia” of the Region of Murcia under the “Excelence Group Program”, and the Technical University of Cartagena under the PMPDI Program

Feasibility and reliability of a Physical Fitness test battery in individuals with Down Syndrome

Background: Down syndrome (DS) is a genetic disorder that occurs because of an abnormal division between cells that results in an extra copy of chromosome 21. Some studies show that physical exercise in people with DS increases some cognitive capacities, such as memory, and improves the quality of life. Aim: The main aim of this study was to perform an analysis of the reliability and feasibility of the SAMU-Disability Fitness (DISFIT) battery in adults with DS. Methods: A cross-sectional study with a test–retest design was performed in a maximum interval of 2 weeks in 37 subjects (11 women and 26 men) aged between 21 and 58 years old with DS. Eight field-based fitness tests were proposed to assess the physical fitness (PF) of adults with DS: Body Mass Index (BMI), Waist Circumference (WC), the Timed Up and Go test (TUG), the Deep Trunk Flexibility test (DTF), the Hand Grip test (HG), the Timed Stand Test (TST), the 30-s Sit-Up (SUP) and the 6-Min Walk Test (6MWT). Results: The intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) in all the tests was good and high (>0.80), except for the 6MWT, whose reliability was fair. Conclusion: The SAMU-DISFIT battery is a reliable and feasible physical fitness battery which has been created with the purpose of establishing tests which measure the four basic components of PF (flexibility, cardiorespiratory fitness, musculoskeletal fitness and motor fitness) in adults with D

Forest Ecosystem Services: An Analysis of Worldwide Research

The relevance of forests to sustain human well-being and the serious threats they face have led to a notable increase of research works on forest ecosystem services during the last few years. This paper analyses the worldwide research dynamics on forest ecosystem services in the period from 1998 to 2017. A bibliometric analysis of 4284 articles was conducted. The results showed that the number of published research articles has especially increased during the last five years. In total, 68.63% of the articles were published in this period. This research line experiences a growing trend superior to the general publishing trend on forest research. In spite of this increase, its relative significance within the forest research is still limited. The most productive subject areas corresponded to Environmental Science, Agricultural and Biological Sciences and Social Sciences Economic topics are understudied. The scientific production is published in a wide range of journals. The three first publishing countries are United States, China and the United Kingdom. The most productive authors are attached to diverse research centres and their contributions are relatively recent. A high level of international cooperation has been observed between countries, institutions and authors. The findings of this study are useful for researchers since they give them an overview of the worldwide research trends on forest ecosystem services

Wastewater Treatment by Advanced Oxidation Process and Their Worldwide Research Trends

Background: Water is a scarce resource and is considered a fundamental pillar of sustainable development. The modern development of society requires more and more drinking water. For this cleaner wastewater, treatments are key factors. Among those that exist, advanced oxidation processes are being researched as one of the sustainable solutions. The main objective of this manuscript is to show the scientific advances in this field. Methods: In this paper, a systematic analysis of all the existing scientific works was carried out to verify the evolution of this line of research. Results: It was observed that the three main countries researching this field are China, Spain, and the USA. Regarding the scientific collaboration between countries, three clusters were detected—one of Spain, one of China and the USA, and one of Italy and France. The publications are grouped around three types of water: industrial, urban, and drinking. Regarding the research, 15 clusters identified from the keywords analyzed the advanced oxidation process (alone or combined with biological oxidation) with the type of wastewater and the target pollutant, removal of which is intended. Finally, the most important scientific communities or clusters detected in terms of the number of published articles were those related to the elimination of pollutants of biological origin, such as bacteria, and of industrial nature, such as pesticides or pharmaceutical products

Fluvial base level control on the differential rejuvenation of the Olvera- Zaframagón gypsum karst system (NE Cádiz province)

El presente trabajo analiza la evolución del relieve en un sector localizado entre la depresión del Guadalquivir y la cuenca de Ronda, en la Cordillera Bética noroccidental, representado por extensos afloramientos de arcillas y yesos triásicos, sobre los que destacan relieves rocosos aislados formados por bloques de calizas jurásicas, como el peñón de Zaframagón, al oeste del municipio de Olvera. Estos bloques dibujan una antigua superficie de erosión con pendiente hacia el NO, muy probablemente asociada a la progresiva continentalización de la cuenca del Guadalquivir durante el Plioceno. Los afloramientos triásicos están afectados por una intensa karstificación en forma de dolinas y simas y otras depresiones de fondo plano, de tipo polje, en las zonas interfluviales. La incisión diferencial de los ríos Guadamanil y Guadalporcún, en la parte alta de la cuenca del río Guadalete, parece haber condicionado el desarrollo vertical de las formas kársticas. El río Guadalporcún corta transversalmente al peñón de Zaframagón a través de un corto pero profundo cañón, que ha actuado como obstáculo a la incisión del río, lo que ha provocado una menor tasa de encajamiento con respecto al río Guadamanil. Este encajamiento diferencial ha afectado al desarrollo de las formas kársticas de absorción que drenan a uno y otro río, generando simas más profundas en la vertiente que drena al Guadamanil. Por otro lado, en las laderas del valle de este río se ha reconocido una secuencia de surgencias escalonadas, cuyas alturas con respecto al cauce coinciden con las alturas generales asignadas a los niveles de terrazas cuaternarias definidos para la cuenca fluvial del Guadalete. Todos estos aspectos apuntan a que el desarrollo vertical del karst de Olvera-Zaframagón durante el Pleistoceno ha estado muy condicionado por el comportamiento del nivel de base, tanto a escala regional como local.The present work deals with the relief evolution in an area of the northwestern sector of the Betic Ranges. It is characterized by extensive outcrops of Triassic clays and gypsums over which several isolated reliefs of Jurassic carbonate rocks stand out, like the Zaframagón Rock, West of Olvera village. The flattened summits of all these carbonate blocks delimit an old erosion surface sloping NW, very probably related to the progressive continentalization of the nearby, formerly marine, Guadalquivir Tertiary Depression during the Pliocene. The Triassic gypsums are presently affected by intense karstification in form of dolines and shafts, as well as other flat-bottomed depressions similar to poljes in the interfluve areas. Differential incision in the Guadamanil and Guadalporcún Rivers, located in the head of the Guadalete fluvial basin, seems to have conditioned the vertical development of karst forms in the region. The Guadalporcún River crosses the Zaframagón Rock through a short but deep gorge. The Rock has acted as an obstacle to the river incision and this has hampered its vertical erosion if compared to the one of the Guadamanil River. This differential incision has affected the development of absortion karst forms which drain to both rivers: dolines and shafts are deeper when draining to the Guadamanil River valley. The slopes of the valley are plenty of active and inactive springs, drawing a sequence of stepped outflow points, whose relative heights coincide with the general heights assigned to the Quaternary fluvial terrace levels regionally defined for the Guadalete River basin. All these aspects suggest a strong relationship between the Pleistocene vertical development of the Olvera-Zaframagón karst system and the behavior of the base level, both at regional and local levels

Preparation and Characterization of New Liposomes. Bactericidal Activity of Cefepime Encapsulated into Cationic Liposomes

Cefepime is an antibiotic with a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity. However, this antibiotic has several side effects and a high degradation rate. For this reason, the preparation and characterization of new liposomes that are able to encapsulate this antibiotic seem to be an important research line in the pharmaceutical industry. Anionic and cationic liposomes were prepared and characterized. All cationic structures contained the same cationic surfactant, N,N,N-triethyl-N-(12-naphthoxydodecyl)ammonium. Results showed a better encapsulation-efficiency percentage (EE%) of cefepime in liposomes with phosphatidylcholine and cholesterol than with 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine (DOPE). The presence of cholesterol and the quantity of egg-yolk phospholipid in the liposome increased the encapsulation percentage. The bactericidal activity against Escherichia coli of cefepime loaded into liposomes with phosphatidylcholine was measured. The inhibitory zone in an agar plate for free cefepime was similar to that obtained for loaded cefepime. The growth-rate constant of E. coli culture was also measured in working conditions. The liposome without any antibiotic exerted no influence in such a rate constant. All obtained results suggest that PC:CH:12NBr liposomes are biocompatible nanocarriers of cefepime that can be used in bacterial infections against Escherichia coli with high inhibitory activity

A multi-granular linguistic model to evaluate the suitability of installing an ERP system

The use of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) has shown clearly useful and economically profitable in most very large organizations which manage a great deal of data in their information systems. Nevertheless, the decision of installing an ERP system is not easy and it depends on the size, future profits and other features of the companies. The assessments of the parameters (features, aspects) used to evaluate the suitability of the ERP may be vague and imprecise because they are usually perceptions of the experts. We propose the use of linguistic information to assess these parameters due to the fact that it is very suitable to model and manage human perceptions. In addition, it may be that each expert has a different knowledge about each parameter and prefers to express his/her preferences in his/her own linguistic term set. Therefore, to manage the evaluation problem of installing an ERP, in this contribution we present a multi-granular linguistic evaluation model that covers these necessities

La minería romana en León y Asturias, su importancia en la configuración de los paisajes

Ponencia presentada en el "Seminario sobre la evolución del paisaje vegetal y el uso del fuego en la Cordillera Cantábrica” celebrado el 15 y 16 de noviembre de 2007La minería de oro romana se produjo a ambos lados de la cordillera Cantábrica, en el cuadrante NO de la península Ibérica, durante el Alto Imperio (s. I-II d.C.) Las transformaciones de orden geomorfológico que produjo dejaron una clara huella sobre el paisaje, seguramente la de mayor impacto en la región hasta época muy reciente. La actividad minera romana se hizo de acuerdo con los intereses imperialistas de Roma, que exigían un amplio control sobre el territorio para poder imponer su modelo social y económico, de forma que, por primera vez en el NO, se produjo una ordenación de alcance regional. En ese contexto, la actividad minera se integra como un elemento catalizador en la explotación del territorio y como nuevo factor en la configuración de las formas de dependencia social. Los recursos puestos en explotación no son sólo los estrictamente auríferos, sino que incluyen desde otros de naturaleza mineral, pasando por los hidráulicos, hasta los de carácter agrario. Es decir, las zonas mineras romanas acabaron por contribuir de forma muy destacada a la configuración de un paisaje totalmente renovado, cuyas evidencias forman hoy paisajes culturales de gran interés por su potencial científico y de explotación racional comunitaria.Trabajo realizado dentro del Proyecto Intramural de Frontera del CSIC “Paisajes culturales y naturales del Bierzo: Geoarqueología, Paleoambiente y Paleobiología (BierzoRVN)” (PIF 06-055) y en el marco del convenio de colaboración entre la Junta de Castilla y León y el CSIC sobre zonas mineras antiguas de Castilla y León (CyL-IA-24.044.0006.07). Algunos de los resultados proceden de las aportaciones realizadas dentro de los proyectos “Geoarqueología y organización del territorio en zonas mineras del occidente de la Meseta Norte” (METALA)”, financiado por la Junta de Castilla y León (CSI07/03) y “Formas de ocupación rural en el cuadrante noroccidental de la península Ibérica. Transición y desarrollo entre épocas prerromana y romana (TERRITORIA)”, financiado por el MEC (HUM2004-04010-C02-01 y 02).Peer reviewe

A multi-granular linguistic model to evaluate the suitability of installing an ERP system

The use of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) has shown clearly useful and economically profitable in most very large organizations which manage a great deal of data in their information systems. Nevertheless, the decision of installing an ERP system is not easy and it depends on the size, future profits and other features of the companies. The assessments of the parameters (features, aspects) used to evaluate the suitability of the ERP may be vague and imprecise because they are usually perceptions of the experts. We propose the use of linguistic information to assess these parameters due to the fact that it is very suitable to model and manage human perceptions. In addition, it may be that each expert has a different knowledge about each parameter and prefers to express his/her preferences in his/her own linguistic term set. Therefore, to manage the evaluation problem of installing an ERP, in this contribution we present a multi-granular linguistic evaluation model that covers these necessities

Oral squamous cell carcinoma of tongue: Histological risk assessment. A pilot study

Background: More than 90% of malignant tumors diagnosed in the oral cavity are Oral Squamous Cell Carcinomas (OSCC) whose preferred location is the tongue. Classically, this disease has affected men preferentially, although recent studies suggest that trends are changing and the proportion of women with OSCC is increasing. In addition, the prevalence of oral cancer is also determined by some risk factors as alcohol consumption and tobacco. Currently, the Tumor, Node, Metastasis (TNM) classification is employed to defined tumor stage and based on this guide specific treatments are established. However, 5-year-survival does not exceed 50% of cases. The objective of this study is to determine whether a histological risk pattern indicative of higher recurrence might be present in T1-T2 tumors located in the anterior two thirds of the tongue. Material and Methods: Samples from 26 patients with OSCC were analyzed and histological risk pattern of recurrent and non-recurrent tumors were compared. We have analyzed histological variables described in Anneroth and Brandwein-Gensler classifications. Additionally, we have also examined both clinical variables such as age, sex or comorbidities, as well as habits such as tobacco or alcohol consumption. Results: We found that sex (male) and keratinization degree (high or moderate) are directly related with OSCC recurrence. In fact, free illness time is lower in men and higher in those cases with minimal or no keratinization. Conclusions: Based on the variables analyzed, it has not been possible to establish a histological risk pattern that, complementary to the TNM classification, could have a predictive role in these early-stage tongue carcinoma