Gipsy 3D: Analysis, Visualization and Vo-Tools

The scientific goals of the AMIGA project are based on the analysis of a significant amount of spectroscopic 3D data. In order to perform this work we present an initiative to develop a new VO compliant package, including present core applications and tasks offered by the Groningen Image Processing System (GIPSY), and new ones based on use cases elaborated in collaboration with ad- vanced users. One of the main goals is to provide local interoperability between GIPSY (visualization and data analysis) and other VO software. The connectivity with the Virtual Observatory environment will provide general access to 3D data VO archives and services, maximizing the potential for scientific discovery.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure, to appear in the proceedings of the "Multi-wavelength Astronomy and Virtual Observatory" Workshop held at ESAC 1-3 Dec 200

THE GAME AS A TEACHING RESOURCE FOR STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

This paper discusses the benefits of practicing Physical Education for students with special educational needs, and the use of the game as a teaching resource to help these students to improve relations with others and promote their integration into classes Physical Education. On the other hand, it will reflect on the importance of sporting activities to consolidate equality and solidarity between disabled and non-disabled. In this work sporting activities and games will be grounded in the characteristics of different special educational needs

El juego como recurso didáctico para el alumnado con necesidades educativas especiales

This paper discusses the benefits of practicing Physical Education for students with special educational needs, and the use of the game as a teaching resource to help these students to improve relations with others and promote their integration into classes Physical Education. On the other hand, it will reflect on the importance of sporting activities to consolidate equality and solidarity between disabled and non-disabled. In this work sporting activities and games will be grounded in the characteristics of different special educational needs.El presente trabajo trata sobre los beneficios de practicar Educación Física para alumnos y alumnas con necesidades educativas especiales, así como la utilización del juego como recurso didáctico para ayudar a estos alumnos y alumnas a mejorar las relaciones con los demás y favorecer su integración en las clases de Educación Física. Por otro lado, se reflexiona sobre la trascendencia de las actividades deportivas para la consolidación de la igualdad y solidaridad entre personas discapacitadas y no discapacitadas. En este trabajo, las actividades deportivas y los juegos están fundamentados en las características de las diferentes necesidades educativas especiales

The success of Quercus ilex plantations in agricultural fields in eastern Spain

Twenty-five years after planting, we measured the survival, growth and reproduction of 153 Quercus ilex plantations promoted by the afforestation programme of the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy in agricultural fields in the east of the Iberian Peninsula, as a function of climatic aridity and stand characteristics related to water supply and competition among trees for water. Using field sampling, we found that, on average, 80% of the trees in plantations survived, more than 55% had already produced acorns and the tallest tree in each field exceeded 4 m, which are all higher values than those reported for forest plantations of this species in the same area and which represent the overcoming of the limitations imposed by climatic aridity on the natural regeneration of the species. A small proportion of the variation in all success variables was explained by water-related plantation characteristics, such as planting density, drought intensity in the year after planting, and soil permeability. However, climatic aridity only influenced the proportion of reproductive trees, but not the other variables of plantation success. However, most of the variation in planting success variables was linked to who owned the field, which nursery produced the seedlings, and the year of planting. Our results support the idea that the deep soils of agricultural fields counteract the negative effect of climatic aridity on plant performance, but that it is necessary to standardise nursery and planting practices, adapt planting density to the environmental characteristics of the site and provide irrigation supply in the early years to ensure the success of future plantations

Conditioned stochastic particle systems and integrable quantum spin systems

We consider from a microscopic perspective large deviation properties of several stochastic interacting particle systems, using their mapping to integrable quantum spin systems. A brief review of recent work is given and several new results are presented: (i) For the general disordered symmectric exclusion process (SEP) on some finite lattice conditioned on no jumps into some absorbing sublattice and with initial Bernoulli product measure with density $\rho$ we prove that the probability $S_\rho(t)$ of no absorption event up to microscopic time $t$ can be expressed in terms of the generating function for the particle number of a SEP with particle injection and empty initial lattice. Specifically, for the symmetric simple exclusion process on $\mathbb Z$ conditioned on no jumps into the origin we obtain the explicit first and second order expansion in $\rho$ of $S_\rho(t)$ and also to first order in $\rho$ the optimal microscopic density profile under this conditioning. For the disordered ASEP on the finite torus conditioned on a very large current we show that the effective dynamics that optimally realizes this rare event does not depend on the disorder, except for the time scale. For annihilating and coalescing random walkers we obtain the generating function of the number of annihilated particles up to time $t$, which turns out to exhibit some universal features.Comment: 25 page

Effect of starch-based biomaterials on the in vitro proliferation and viability of osteoblast-like cells

The cytotoxicity of starch-based polymers was investigated using different methodologies. Poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) was used as a control for comparison purposes. Extracts of four different starch-based blends (corn starch and ethylene vinyl alcohol (SEVA-C), corn starch and cellulose acetate (SCA), corn starch and polycaprolactone (SPCL) and starch and poly-lactic acid (SPLA70) were prepared in culture medium and their toxicity was analysed. Osteoblast-like cells (SaOs-2) were incubated with the extracts and cell viability was assessed using the MTT test and a lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) assay. In addition DNA and total protein were quantified in order to evaluate cell proliferation. Cells were also cultured in direct contact with the polymers for 3 and 7 days and observed in light and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). LDH and DNA quantification revealed to be the most sensitive tests to assess respectively cell viability and cell proliferation after incubation with starch-based materials and PLLA. SCA was the starch blend with higher cytotoxicity index although similar to PLLA polymer. Cell adhesion tests confirmed the worst performance of the blend of starch with cellulose acetate but also showed that SPCL does not perform as well as it could be expected. All the other materials were shown to present a comparable behaviour in terms of cell adhesion showing slight differences in morphology that seem to disappear for longer culture times. The results of this study suggest that not only the extract of the materials but also their three-dimensional form has to be biologically tested in order to analyse material-associated parameters that are not possible to consider within the degradation extract. In this study, the majority of the starch-based biomaterials presented very promising results in terms of cytotoxicity, comparable to the currently used biodegradable PLLA which might lead the biocompatibility evaluation of those novel biomaterials to other studies.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Surface modification of starch based blends using potassium permanganate-nitric acid system and its effect on the adherence and proliferation of osteoblastic-like cells

The surface modification of three starch based polymeric biomaterials, using a KMnO4/NHO3 oxidizing system, and the effect of that modification on the osteoblastic cell adhesion has been investigated. The rationale of this work is as follows—starch based polymers have been proposed for use as tissue engineering scaffolds in several publications. It is known that in biodegradable systems it is quite difficult to have both cell adhesion and proliferation. Starch based polymers have shown to perform better than poly-lactic acid based materials but there is still room for improvement. This particular work is aimed at enhancing cell adhesion and proliferation on the surface of several starch based polymer blends that are being proposed as tissue engineering scaffolds. The surface of the polymeric biomaterials was chemically modified using a KMnO4/HNO3 system. This treatment resulted in more hydrophilic surfaces, which was confirmed by contact angle measurements. The effect of the treatment on the bioactivity of the surface modified biomaterials was also studied. The bioactivity tests, performed in simulated body fluid after biomimetic coating, showed that a dense film of calcium phosphate was formed after 30 days. Finally, human osteoblast-like cells were cultured on unmodified (control) and modified materials in order to observe the effect of the presence of higher numbers of polar groups on the adhesion and proliferation of those cells. Two of the modified polymers presented changes in the adhesion behavior and a significant increase in the proliferation rate kinetics when compared to the unmodified controls.FCT (Portugal) for providing the postdoctoral grant (BPD/8491/2002)

Relationship of weather types on the seasonal and spatial variability of rainfall, runoff, and sediment yield in the western Mediterranean basin

Rainfall is the key factor to understand soil erosion processes, mechanisms, and rates. Most research was conducted to determine rainfall characteristics and their relationship with soil erosion (erosivity) but there is little information about how atmospheric patterns control soil losses, and this is important to enable sustainable environmental planning and risk prevention. We investigated the temporal and spatial variability of the relationships of rainfall, runoff, and sediment yield with atmospheric patterns (weather types, WTs) in the western Mediterranean basin. For this purpose, we analyzed a large database of rainfall events collected between 1985 and 2015 in 46 experimental plots and catchments with the aim to: (i) evaluate seasonal differences in the contribution of rainfall, runoff, and sediment yield produced by the WTs; and (ii) to analyze the seasonal efficiency of the different WTs (relation frequency and magnitude) related to rainfall, runoff, and sediment yield. The results indicate two different temporal patterns: the first weather type exhibits (during the cold period: autumn and winter) westerly flows that produce the highest rainfall, runoff, and sediment yield values throughout the territory; the second weather type exhibits easterly flows that predominate during the warm period (spring and summer) and it is located on the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula. However, the cyclonic situations present high frequency throughout the whole year with a large influence extended around the western Mediterranean basin. Contrary, the anticyclonic situations, despite of its high frequency, do not contribute significantly to the total rainfall, runoff, and sediment (showing the lowest efficiency) because of atmospheric stability that currently characterize this atmospheric pattern. Our approach helps to better understand the relationship of WTs on the seasonal and spatial variability of rainfall, runoff and sediment yield with a regional scale based on the large dataset and number of soil erosion experimental stations