Usurpación de nidos de quebrantahuesos (Gypaetus barbatus) e interacciones interespecíficas por la ocupación del nido en el Pirineo central (Aragón)

El quebrantahuesos es una especie catalogada como “en peligro de extinción” en Europa, cuya fracción reproductora en los Pirineos se ha estimado en 125 unidades reproductoras (UR). En el Pirineo central (Aragón) en los últimos 15 años se ha producido un incremento de la población reproductora acompañado de un progresivo descenso de la productividad cuyas causas son objeto de discusión y pueden deberse a diversos factores. El periodo de reproducción del quebrantahuesos es muy extenso y coincide con el de otras rapaces que compiten por los emplazamientos de los nidos. Esto implica una importante inversión de tiempo y energía, por lo que la usurpación de nidos podría tener efectos negativos sobre el éxito reproductor. En Aragón entre 2005 y 2010 fueron usurpados 107 nidos de quebrantahuesos pertenecientes a 52 de las 72 UR controladas. La mayor parte de los nidos (95,3% de los casos; n = 102) fueron usurpados por buitre leonado (Gyps fulvus), aunque también por alimoche común (Neophron percnopterus) (4,7% de los casos; n = 5). El Pirineo Axial acogió tanto el mayor porcentaje de UR con nidos usurpados como la UR con un mayor número de nidos usurpados. No se encontraron diferencias significativas en cuanto a la productividad entre UR que habían sufrido usurpación y los que no la habían padecido. El buitre leonado posee una similar distribución espacial y parecidos requerimientos ecológicos al quebrantahuesos, mayor corpulencia y agresividad así como similar fenología de puesta temprana. El aumento demográfico del buitre leonado en Aragón podría estar provocando una mayor usurpación de nidos de quebrantahuesos en los Pirineos.El presente trabajo se ha elaborado dentro del Convenio Marco de Colaboración suscrito entre el Gobierno de Aragón y la FCQ (2008-2011), por el cual se desarrollaron diferentes acciones del Plan de Recuperación del quebrantahuesos en Aragón (D. 45/2003). Pascual López-López disfruta de una beca postdoctoral del programa “Juan de la Cierva” del Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (referencia JCI-2011-09588)

The cancer stem cell in hepatocellular carcinoma

The recognition of intra-tumoral cellular heterogeneity has given way to the concept of the cancer stem cell (CSC). According to this concept, CSCs are able to self-renew and differentiate into all of the cancer cell lineages present within the tumor, placing the CSC at the top of a hierarchical tree. The observation that these cells—in contrast to bulk tumor cells—are able to exclusively initiate new tumors, initiate metastatic spread and resist chemotherapy implies that CSCs are solely responsible for tumor recurrence and should be therapeutically targeted. Toward this end, dissecting and understanding the biology of CSCs should translate into new clinical therapeutic approaches. In this article, we review the CSC concept in cancer, with a special focus on hepatocellular carcinoma.Work in the laboratory of P.C.H. is supported by a Max Eder Fellowship of the German Cancer Aid (111746), by a Collaborative Research Centre grant of the German Research Foundation (316249678–SFB 1279) and by a Hector Foundation Cancer Research grant (M65.1). Work in the laboratory of B.S.J. is supported by a Rámon y Cajal Merit Award (RYC-2012-12104) from the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Spain. L.-A.S. is supported by the clinician scientist program of Ulm Universit

Rotation Forest for multi-target regression

The prediction of multiple numeric outputs at the same time is called multi-target regression (MTR), and it has gained attention during the last decades. This task is a challenging research topic in supervised learning because it poses additional difficulties to traditional single-target regression (STR), and many real-world problems involve the prediction of multiple targets at once. One of the most successful approaches to deal with MTR, although not the only one, consists in transforming the problem in several STR problems, whose outputs will be combined building up the MTR output. In this paper, the Rotation Forest ensemble method, previously proposed for single-label classification and single-target regression, is adapted to MTR tasks and tested with several regressors and data sets. Our proposal rotates the input space in an efficient and novel fashion, avoiding extra rotations forced by MTR problem decomposition. Four approaches for MTR are used: single-target (ST), stacked-single target (SST), Ensembles of Regressor Chains (ERC), and Multi-target Regression via Quantization (MRQ). For assessing the benefits of the proposal, a thorough experimentation with 28 MTR data sets and statistical tests are used, concluding that Rotation Forest, adapted by means of these approaches, outperforms other popular ensembles, such as Bagging and Random Forest.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of the Spanish Government under project TIN2015-67534-P (MINECO-FEDER, UE), by the Junta de Castilla y León under project BU085P17 (JCyL/FEDER, UE) (both projects co-financed through European Union FEDER funds), and by the Consejería de Educación of the Junta de Castilla y León and the European Social Fund with the EDU/1100/2017 pre-doctoral grant

Ethanol production from fractionated eucalyptus wood

Eucalyptus globulus wood (EGW) is a lignocellulosic material with high cellulose and hemicellulose content, suitable for the simultaneous production of hemicellulosic and cellulosic ethanol. Processing of EGW by autohydrolysis yields a liquid phase rich in hemicellulosic-derived compounds (13.73 kg of xylooligosaccharides/ 100 kg of raw material). The liquid phase was processed by membranes, achieving a concentrated-liquor of 52.9 g of xylooligosaccharides/L. The liquor from membrane processing was hydrolyzed with sulphuric acid, detoxified and fermented. The maximal concentration of ethanol from liquid phase was 19.3 g/L (volumetric productivity Qp=0.19 g/Lh and YP/S=0.38 g/g). The solid phase from autohydrolysis was submitted to delignification organosolv, obtained a solid with 81 kg of cellulose/100 kg of delignified solid. The simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of delignified solid was carried out, achieving 62.7 g/L of ethanol with cellulose to ethanol conversion of 92% (based in a cellulose content of delignified solid)

Effects of localmelatonin application on post-extraction sockets after third molar surgery: a pilot study

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to assess the anti-inflammatory, analgesic and osteogenic early effects of melatonin on post-extraction sockets ofpatients requiring third molars extraction. Study Design: A randomized, triple-blind clinical trial was made using a split-mouth design. Both lower third molars of 10 patients were extracted and 3 mg of local melatonin or placebo were applied. Concentrations of interleukin-6 and nitrotyrosine were determined on samples of the clot from the socket by independent ELISA tests. Radiographic bone density was evaluated by measuring Hounsfield Units in panoramic and cross sections obtained by digital scanner. Statistycal analysis by Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was performed for ELISA data. Bone density was analyzed by Shapiro-Wilk test. Subsequently t test was applied. P <0.05 was considered to be significant. Results: The concentration of interleukin-6 increased with the application of melatonin without statistically significance (361.32 ± 235.22 pg/ml vs 262.58 ± 233.92 pg/ml). Nitrotyrosine concentrations showed values below to the detectability pattern (<0.001 nM) in Optic Density curve. Bone density in panoramic sections at socket after melatonin application showed no significant difference (561.98 ± 105.92 HU vs 598.82 ± 209.03 HU). In cross sections, bone density in the alveolar region showed no significant difference(377.42 ± 125.67 HU vs 347.56 ± 97.02 HU). Conclusions: Within the limitations of this pilot study, no differences with the application of melatonin were found in terms of the concentration of interleukin-6 and bone density in post-extraction socket of retained mandibular third molars

Modelling of atmospheric hazards and severe weather phenomena toWestern Mediterranean basin coastal floods since 1960

The main goal of this study is to present a methodological approach to improve synoptic classifications associatedto basin coastal floods. A further step is done towards an objective reclassification of new events to improve andfacilitate the task of flooding weather forecast.In a recent study, we identified more than 3,600 cases of flood in the municipalities of the Spanish Mediterraneancoast from 1960 to 2013, and analyzed synoptic patterns associated to them. A Principal Sequence Pattern Analysiswas applied to sea level pressure, temperature at 850 hPa, geopotential at 700 hPa and 500 hPa (data provided bythe 20th Century V2 Reanalysis Project). The methodology used is based on three steps: (1) Principal SequenceComponent Analysis in S-mode, the scree-test to determine the number of components involved and OrthogonalVarimax rotation to minimise the number of variables with high factorial loadings; (2) Cluster Analysis to de-termine the main synoptic patterns associated with flooding activity in the study area using the non-hierarchicalK-means and the hierarchical Ward clusters; and (3) Discriminant Analysis for validating the model. The resultsshowed twelve Principal Sequence Patterns related to atmospheric convection associated with a trough in the mid-dle levels of the troposphere, and to thermal forcing. Regional differences are modulated by a triggering effect dueto local convergences.Once the synoptic patterns were identified, the new flood time-series recollected for 2014 and 2015 have beenreclassified from the component score coefficients matrix and Discriminant Fisher Functions of the reference period(1960-2013). The component scores were calculated from the following equation:Aij=SBikCkjWhere Aijis the score value at time i for the PCA component (j); Bikis the variable at time (i) at the grid point(k); and Ckjis the component score coefficient at the grid point (k) and PCA component (j).2) To classify new events, we used the Fisher discriminant functions:SP= maxt{Zt+SAjtXjt}Where SP is the predicted synoptic pattern; Ztis the constant coefficient of the Fisher discriminant function forthe synoptic pattern (t); Ajtis the score value of the PCA component (j) for the synoptic pattern (t); and Xjtis theFisher function coefficient for the PCA component (j) and the synoptic pattern (t).In comparison to other techniques, the method applied in this study obtains the discriminant functions that can be applied to reclassify a classification, as we did in this study, or to classify flood events in the future. Consequently,in a Meteorological Service, this tool could be an operational system for classifying any flood synoptic pattern fora period of 6-hours and delimiting the more likely flooding areas for the studied region.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Approx-SMOTE: Fast SMOTE for Big Data on Apache Spark

One of the main goals of Big Data research, is to find new data mining methods that are able to process large amounts of data in acceptable times. In Big Data classification, as in traditional classification, class imbalance is a common problem that must be addressed, in the case of Big Data also looking for a solution that can be applied in an acceptable execution time. In this paper we present Approx-SMOTE, a parallel implementation of the SMOTE algorithm for the Apache Spark framework. The key difference with the original SMOTE, besides parallelism, is that it uses an approximated version of k-Nearest Neighbor which makes it highly scalable. Although an implementation of SMOTE for Big Data already exists (SMOTE-BD), it uses an exact Nearest Neighbor search, which does not make it entirely scalable. Approx-SMOTE on the other hand is able to achieve up to 30 times faster run times without sacrificing the improved classification performance offered by the original SMOTE.“La Caixa” Foundation, under agreement LCF/PR/PR18/51130007. This work was supported by the Junta de Castilla y León under project BU055P20 and by the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain under project PID2020-119894 GB-I00, co-financed through European Union FEDER funds. It also was supported through Consejería de Educación of the Junta de Castilla y León and the European Social Fund through a pre-doctoral grant (EDU/1100/2017). This material is based upon work supported by Google Cloud

Diagnóstico estratégico los tesoros escondidos y misteriosos de occidente, una de las Siete Maravillas de Boyacá

81 hojas : ilustradas blanco y negroEn este trabajo de investigación se realizó el diagnóstico estratégico del destino turístico Los tesoros escondidos y misteriosos de occidente, declarados en el plan de desarrollo Boyacá se Atreve 2012-2015 como una de las siete maravillas de Boyacá. La investigación se realizó a través de un estudio cualitativo-descriptivo-interpretativo logrado a partir de la recopilación de información mediante la aplicación de entrevistas semi-estructuradas a habitantes, turistas, empresarios y gobierno, de la provincia de Occidente de Boyacá. Por otro lado la revisión teórica permitió caracterizar el lugar, así como los resultados obtenidos determinaron el nivel de atracción de la industria turística para los tesoros escondidos y misteriosos de Occidente y se consiguió el planteamiento de estrategias para posicionar el destino turístico.PregradoAdministrador de Empresa

Genetic variation and heritability estimates of Ulmus minor and Ulmus pumila hybrids for budburst, growth and tolerance to Ophiostoma novo-ulmi

Seedlings obtained by crossing Ulmus minor and U. minor × U. pumila clones were assessed for flowering, bark beetle damage, vegetative budburst, height growth and resistance to Ophiostoma novo-ulmi. Ramets and open pollinated seedlings obtained from the parent trees were assessed for the same traits. Most progenies had similar traits to their parents, but some presented heterosis in annual growth or resistance to O. novo-ulmi. Leaf wilting was significantly lower in progenies with U. minor × U. pumila rather than U. minor as female parent (21.5 and 30.6%, respectively; P<0.05). Resistance to O. novoulmi increased significantly as a function of increased amounts of U. pumila germplasm from the female parent, suggesting that resistance to Dutch elm disease is primarily transmitted from the mother. Budburst occurred earlier in seedlings with low rather than high growth rates (P=0.0007) and percentage of wilting was negatively related to early budburst (P<0.0001). Other phenotypic relations included percentage of flowering trees and annual height growth (rp=0.44; P=0.0042), percentage of flowering trees and vegetative budburst (rp=-0.53; P=0.0004) and percentage of beetle-affected trees and annual height growth (rp=0.60; P<0.0001). Heritability estimates obtained from the regression and variance components methods ranged from 0.06 ± 0.04 to 0.64 ± 0.18, 0.10 ± 0.05 to 0.69 ± 0.17, and 0.13 ± 0.32 to 0.71 ± 0.22 for budburst, growth and tolerance to O. novo-ulmi, respectively. Broad- and narrowsense heritability values were higher when estimated 60 days post inoculation (dpi) than 15, 30 or 120 dpi. Heritability estimates and genetic gains reported indicate a high degree of additive genetic control and show the effectiveness of selection for Dutch elm disease resistance and rapid tree growth

Synoptic patterns associated to Western Mediterranean basin coastal floods since 1960

The analysis of long time-series related to floods supports the identification of climatic/synoptic processes naturally governing the occurrence of flooding and thus improves the projection of these hydrologic extremes. The aim of this study is to analyze synoptic patterns associated to Spanish Mediterranean coast floods since 1960. To collect the flood database we have explored the archives of all newspapers with a presence in the area. The searches have been made by typing the name of each of the 180 municipalities of the Spanish coast followed by 5 key terms. Additionally, we have consulted the specific bibliography to rule out any data gaps. This work has allowed to identify more than 3600 cases of flood in the municipalities of the Spanish Mediterranean coast. The methodology to analyze the synoptic patterns is based on the Principal Sequence Pattern Analysis applied to sea level pressure, temperature at 850 hPa, and geopotential at 700 and 500 hPa. The data is obtained from the 20th Century V2 Reanalysis Project at 2.5 ° horizontal resolution. We used a 7-days sequence defined by the flood-date (key-date), given by the flood record, plus the 6-days before this date, to evaluate the evolution of the synoptic configuration. The methodology includes three steps: (1) Principal Sequence Component Analysis in S-mode, the scree-test to determine the number of components involved and Orthogonal Varimax rotation to minimize the number of variables with high factorial loadings; (2) Cluster Analysis to determine the main synoptic patterns associated with flooding activity in the study area using the non-hierarchical K-means and the hierarchical Ward clusters; and (3) Discriminant Analysis for validating the model. The results show twelve Principal Sequence Patterns linked to coast floods in the Mediterranean basin of the Iberian Peninsula. The patterns are characterized by low-pressure systems related to cold fronts with a strong and sudden deepening of the cyclone in North Africa which moved northwards over the Mediterranean advecting warm and wet air at the low levels of the troposphere. Predominant flows are, first, from the south to southeast and, second, from the east, enhancing severe convective events. Furthermore, the stagnation of the synoptic configuration due to the presence of the high-pressure system over Europe favors long-lasting rainfall.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version