Estudio biométrico de la abeja melífera (Apis mellifera, Linneo 1758) (Hymenoptera, Apidae) de la isla de La Palma del Archipiélago Canario. II. Ángulos y longitudes de las alas.

The honey bees (A. mellifera L.) from the island of La Palma constitute a morphological group within which differences related to the geographical location of the apiaries are difficult to distinguish, probably due to the buying and selling of hives among beekeepers, and also to the migratory style of bee-keeping practised on the island. We have also studied the possible relationship of these bees with A. m. intermissa, which is distributed throughout the north of Africa, and with A. m. iberica in the Iberian Peninsula. Our results indicate that these bees are probably the result of a cross between these two races followed by selection of the best genotypes adapted to the environmental conditions.Las abejas meliferas (A. mellifera L.) oriundas de la isla de La Palma constituyen un grupo morfológico, en el que no podemos apreciar diferencias relacionadas con la localización geográfica de los colmenares; probablemente esto sea debido a las prácticas de compra-venta de colmenas entre los apicultores, y a la transhumancia practicada dentro de la isla. También hemos estudiado la posible relación de parentesco de estas abejas con la raza que se distribuye por el norte de África (A. m. intermissa), o con la que se localiza en la Península Ibérica (A. m. iberica). Los resultados obtenidos nos indican que probablemente estos animales sean el resultado de un proceso cruce entre las dos razas, y posterior selección de los genotipos mejor adaptados a unas determinadas condiciones ambientales

Rexol. (Caso de estudio)

Refrescante S.A. es una empresa multinacional con productos en más de ochenta países y aproximadamente 160 plantas de producción. En algunos países de Europa como España, Francia y Portugal y de Suramérica como Argentina y Chile, es líder del mercado de las bebidas no alcohólicas. El gran reconocimiento con que cuenta su marca mundialmente le ha permitido lanzar al mercado diferentes productos, dentro de la categoría de las gaseosas, aguas e isotónicos con notables crecimientos departicipación, retorno de la inversión y estabilidad en cada mercado donde son ofrecidos. La compañía tiene su sede principal en Barcelona-España, donde se fundó hace casi 50 años. Desde allí ejerce control sobre las demás plantasestablecidas en el resto del mundo. Sin embargo, cada país tiene autonomía para el diseño de estrategias de mercadeo, distribución y logística adaptándose a las necesidades locales,para lo cual se asignan los recursos financieros necesarios de acuerdo con el potencial de cada mercado.

Concepción y desarrollo del modelo de una plataforma web para el diseño colaborativo de nuevos productos entre PYME

11 pages, 3 figures[EN]This publication is part of an ongoing project executed jointly by the firm Global Metanoia, and the Metal Works Institute of Valencia, Spain. The aim of the project has been the conception and building of a Center to support the design activities of Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs). That is to say, an infrastructure able to integrate all functions related to the design process (conception of solution, access to Bill of Materials, marketing, structure, procurement, regulatory compliances, CAD, CAM, CAE, etc.) in such a manner that would allow the easy search and retrieval of data, information and knowledge required by designers. The name given to such infrastructure is Center for the Collaborative Design of Products, CCDP. The collaboration is conceived as the concurrent interaction and exchange of human, physical and financial resources between enterprises geographically distributed. The work done involved the conduction of a survey to identify the needs of enterprises, as well as a Delphi to gather the opinion of experts in the subject of collaborative design, the conception of a model for the Center, and the initiation of a pilot project with a sample of enterprises to test the validity of the model. The results show that there is a growing demand among the enterprises for the services to be provided by the CCDP. The most critical aspects related to the acceptance of the services were trust, confidentiality and cost. The model developed is based on a Web-centric approach. Through the Center, the enterprises will have access to a pool of applications to be employed in the different phases of the design process. All of this with the intention of decreasing the time to marketing of products or services; and facilitating, through the use of the appropriate methodologies, the interaction among firms required to build the needed trust and shared vision that are present in all successful collaborative design projects.[ES]Esta publicación es parte de un proyecto ejecutado conjuntamente por la firma Global Metanoia, y el Instituto Tecnológico Metalmecánico (AIMME) en Valencia, España. El objetivo del proyecto es la concepción y construcción de un Centro para apoyar las actividades de diseño de las pequeñas y medianas empresas (PYME). Es decir, desarrollar una infraestructura capaz de integrar todas las funciones relacionadas con el proceso de diseño (especificación del producto, diseño conceptual, diseño de detalle, fabricación, marketing, etc.) de manera que permita fácilmente la búsqueda y recuperación de datos, la información y el conocimiento requeridos por los diseñadores. El nombre dado a la infraestructura es Centro de Diseño Colaborativo de Productos, CDCP. La colaboración se concibe como la interacción concurrente y el intercambio humano, de recursos físicos y financieros entre las empresas que trabajan geográficamente distribuidas. El trabajo realizado involucra la ejecución de un estudio para identificar las necesidades de las PYME, así como un Delphi para recoger la opinión de expertos en el tema del diseño colaborativo, la concepción de un modelo para el CDCP, y la iniciación de un proyecto piloto con una muestra de empresas para probar y verificar la validez del modelo. Los resultados demuestran que existe una demanda creciente entre las empresas para los servicios a ser proporcionados por el CDCP. Los aspectos más críticos relacionados a la aceptación de los servicios son los costes y la confidencialidad. El modelo desarrollado esta basado en Web. A través del Centro de Diseño Colaborativo las empresas tendrán acceso a un cúmulo de aplicaciones que podrán ser utilizadas en las diferentes fases del proceso de diseño. Todo esto con la intención de disminuir el tiempo de desarrollo y comercialización de los productos o servicios; y facilitando, a través del uso de las metodologías apropiadas, la interacción entre las empresas para construir la confianza necesitada y la visión compartida que están presentes en todos los proyectos del diseño colaborativo exitoso.Peer reviewe

Unveiling the structure of the planetary nebula M 2-48: Kinematics and physical conditions

The kinematics and physical conditions of the bipolar planetary nebula M 2-48 are analysed from high and low dispersion long-slit spectra. Previous CCD narrow-band optical observations have suggested that this nebula is mainly formed by a pair of symmetric bow-shocks, an off-center semi-circular shell, and an internal bipolar structure. The bipolar outflow has a complex structure, characterised by a series of shocked regions located between the bright core and the polar tips. There is an apparent kinematic discontinuity between the bright bipolar core and the outer regions. The fragmented ring around the bright bipolar region presents a low expansion velocity and could be associated to ejection in the AGB-PN transition phase, although its nature remains unclear. The chemical abundances of the central region are derived, showing that M 2-48 is a Type I planetary nebula (PN)

Systematic identification of phenotypically enriched loci using a patient network of genomic disorders

Background Network medicine is a promising new discipline that combines systems biology approaches and network science to understand the complexity of pathological phenotypes. Given the growing availability of personalized genomic and phenotypic profiles, network models offer a robust integrative framework for the analysis of "omics" data, allowing the characterization of the molecular aetiology of pathological processes underpinning genetic diseases. Methods Here we make use of patient genomic data to exploit different network-based analyses to study genetic and phenotypic relationships between individuals. For this method, we analyzed a dataset of structural variants and phenotypes for 6,564 patients from the DECIPHER database, which encompasses one of the most comprehensive collections of pathogenic Copy Number Variations (CNVs) and their associated ontology-controlled phenotypes. We developed a computational strategy that identifies clusters of patients in a synthetic patient network according to their genetic overlap and phenotype enrichments. Results Many of these clusters of patients represent new genotype-phenotype associations, suggesting the identification of newly discovered phenotypically enriched loci (indicative of potential novel syndromes) that are currently absent from reference genomic disorder databases such as ClinVar, OMIM or DECIPHER itself. Conclusions We provide a high-resolution map of pathogenic phenotypes associated with their respective significant genomic regions and a new powerful tool for diagnosis of currently uncharacterized mutations leading to deleterious phenotypes and syndromes

Morpholigical study of honey bees on the Canary Islands (Gran Canaria, Tenerife, La Palma, Gomera)

A morphological study was made of worker bees from 49 hives located at four island from the Canary archipelago. The study analysed 18 morphological characters and we have found that the bees from Gran Canaria and Tenerife belong to the same groupe, the animals from Gomera constitute a group near the afore mentioned, and the bees from La Palma form an independent group. Also, we have compared the data with data to come from hives placed in the south of the Iberian peninsula and in the north of Africa. We have found that the bees from Africa form an independent group, and the bees from the Iberian peninsula are included in the La Palma group.Se ha llevado a cabo un estudio morfológico de las abejas obreras procedentes de 49 colmenas situadas en cuatro islas del Archipiélago Canario. Se han analizado 18 características morfológicas, encontrando que las abejas procedentes de Gran Canaria y Tenerife pertenecen al mismo grupo; los animales de Gomera constituyen un grupo cercano al anterior y las abejas de La Palma forman un grupo independiente. También hemos comparado los datos obtenidos, con los procedentes de colmenas situadas en el sur de la península Ibérica y en el norte de África. Encontramos que las abejas del norte de África constituyen un grupo independiente y que los animales del sur de la península se incluyen en el grupo de las abejas de La Palma

Opioid pain medication prescription for chronic pain in primary care centers: the roles of pain acceptance, pain intensity, depressive symptoms, pain catastrophizing, sex, and age

Background: Psychological factors of patients may influence physicians’ decisions on prescribing opioid analgesics. However, few studies have sought to identify these factors. The present study had a double objective: (1) To identify the individual factors that differentiate patients who had been prescribed opioids for the management of chronic back pain from those who had not been prescribed opioids and (2) to determine which factors make significant and independent contributions to the prediction of opioid prescribing. Methods: A total of 675 patients from four primary care centers were included in the sample. Variables included sex, age, pain intensity, depressive symptoms, pain catastrophizing, and pain acceptance. Results: Although no differences were found between men and women, participants with chronic noncancer pain who were prescribed opioids were older, reported higher levels of pain intensity and depressive symptoms, and reported lower levels of pain-acceptance. An independent association was found between pain intensity and depressive symptoms and opioid prescribing. Conclusions: The findings suggest that patient factors influence physicians’ decisions on prescribing opioids. It may be useful for primary care physicians to be aware of the potential of these factors to bias their treatment decisions.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Classical Schrodinger's Equation

A non perturbative numerical method for determining the discrete spectra is deduced from the classical analogue of the Schrodinger's equation. The energy eigenvalues coincide with the bifurcation parameters for the classical orbits.Comment: UUEncoded Postscript, 18 pages, 4 figures inserted in tex

Stability behaviour of composite magnetorheological fluids by an induction method

Este artículo puede consultarse en la siguiente dirección de la editorial: http://jim.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/03/26/1045389X15577656.full.pdf+htmlIn this work we study the stability behaviour of composite magnetorheological (MR) fluids consisting of magnetic (iron) and non-magnetic (poly (methylmethacrylate), PMMA) particles dispersed in mineral oil. Because of the opacity of the suspensions, optical methods traditionally employed for evaluation of the gravitational settling in colloidal suspensions are not suitable for sedimentation follow-up in this case. For this reason, we use an alternative method based on the evaluation of the resonant frequency of the inductance of a thin coil surrounding the sample The movement of the coil along the height of the container at specified steps and time intervals allows obtaining information about the local volume fraction of particles inside the tube. The obtained successive profiles for the multi-component suspensions show a decrease of the iron particle settling and of the initial rate of settling as the PMMA volume fraction is increased. Finally, the increase of the PMMA concentration gives rise to an improvement of the rheological properties upon magnetic field application for a given concentration of iron. Both a strongrheological response and a good colloidal stability are essential for practical applications.Proyectos PE2012-FQM694 (Junta de Andalucía, Spain)y FIS2013-47666-C3-1-R (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Spain). L. R.-A. agrradece a la Universidad de Granada su contrato puente (Plan Propio de Investigación, UGR)

Biomarkers improve mortality prediction by prognostic scales in community-acquired pneumonia

Background: Prognostic scales provide a useful tool to predict mortality in community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). However, the inflammatory response of the host, crucial in resolution and outcome, is not included in the prognostic scales. Methods: The aim of this study was to investigate whether information about the initial inflammatory cytokine profile and markers increases the accuracy of prognostic scales to predict 30-day mortality. To this aim, a prospective cohort study in two tertiary care hospitals was designed. Procalcitonin (PCT), C-reactive protein (CRP) and the systemic cytokines tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha) and interleukins IL6, IL8 and IL10 were measured at admission. Initial severity was assessed by PSI (Pneumonia Severity Index), CURB65 (Confusion, Urea nitrogen, Respiratory rate, Blood pressure, > or = 65 years of age) and CRB65 (Confusion, Respiratory rate, Blood pressure, > or = 65 years of age) scales. A total of 453 hospitalised CAP patients were included. Results: The 36 patients who died (7.8%) had significantly increased levels of IL6, IL8, PCT and CRP. In regression logistic analyses, high levels of CRP and IL6 showed an independent predictive value for predicting 30-day mortality, after adjustment for prognostic scales. Adding CRP to PSI significantly increased the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) from 0.80 to 0.85, that of CURB65 from 0.82 to 0.85 and that of CRB65 from 0.79 to 0.85. Adding IL6 or PCT values to CRP did not significantly increase the AUC of any scale. When using two scales (PSI and CURB65/CRB65) and CRP simultaneously the AUC was 0.88. Conclusions: Adding CRP levels to PSI, CURB65 and CRB65 scales improves the 30-day mortality prediction. The highest predictive value is reached with a combination of two scales and CRP. Further validation of that improvement is needed