Effects of A Concentrate Rich in Agro-Industrial By-Products on Productivity Results, Carcass Characteristics and Meat Quality Traits of Finishing Heifers

Finishing diets in intensive beef production systems are mainly based on cereals, which does not take advantage of the capacity of the ruminant digestive system to digest fibrous feeds, cannot be considered sustainable and does not contribute to the circular bioeconomy. Our aim was to investigate the effects of an alternative concentrate rich in agro-industrial by-products for finishing crossbred Limousine heifers. Four pens with 12 heifers and four pens with 13 heifers were randomly allocated to one of two treatments: control (CON), a commercial concentrate with a 43.3% cereal composition, and alternative (ALT), a concentrate with a composition of 26% cereals and up to 73.5% agro-industrial by-products. Growth performance data were collected along the 91 days of the experimental period. Carcass characteristics were collected after slaughter and 24 h later. Vacuum-packaged samples from longissimus muscle were aged for 7, 21 or 28 days to study meat quality traits. Feed intake was higher and feed conversion rate was lower in the ALT treatment, but no differences were found in average daily gain and feeding costs. Treatment had no effects on any of the measured carcass traits (grading, hot and cold carcass weight, dressing out, chilling losses, subcutaneous fat depth, pH, temperature and lean and fat colour) nor on the meat quality traits (drip loss, cooking loss, shear force, oxidative stability, chromatic indices and pigment contents). Ageing time decreased drip loss and shear force, increased lightness and did not affect redness or surface colour stability. In conclusion, feeding crossbred Limousine heifers a finishing diet rich in agro-industrial by-products did not have any negative effects on performance, carcass and meat quality traits, which might be considered positive from the point of view of sustainability of beef production. Under the conditions assayed, ageing for 21 and 28 days improved tenderness of meat, without detrimental effects on oxidative stability or traits related to visual acceptability

Sobre el número de módulos fotovoltaicos en serie para aplicaciones de riego

En sistemas de riego fotovoltaico la tensión mínima en el bus de continua del variador de frecuencia (VF) es impuesta por la tensión necesaria a la entrada de la moto-bomba. Así, siempre que esta tensión es más grande que la tensión del punto de máxima potencia del generador fotovoltaico parte de la energía que este podría entregar no se utiliza. El objetivo de este trabajo es estudiar estas pérdidas para 20, 21 y 22 módulos en serie (para módulos de 60 células en serie). Se puede concluir que si no hay caídas de tensión entre el VF y la moto-bomba las pérdidas son depreciables. Sin embargo, el aumento de estas pérdidas lleva a un incremento del porcentaje de pérdidas en energía fotovoltaica. Además, se verifica un aumento de las pérdidas con el incremento de la temperatura de célula

A new methodology for the in vivo estimation of the elastic constants that characterize the patient-specific biomechanical behavior of the human cornea

This work presents a methodology for the in vivo characterization of the complete biomechanical behavior of the human cornea of each patient. Specifically, the elastic constants of a hyperelastic, second-order Ogden model were estimated for 24 corneas corresponding to 12 patients. The finite element method was applied to simulate the deformation of human corneas due to non-contact tonometry, and an iterative search controlled by a genetic heuristic was used to estimate the elastic parameters that most closely approximates the simulated deformation to the real one. The results from a synthetic experiment showed that these parameters can be estimated with an error of about 5%. The results of 24 in vivo corneas showed an overlap of about 90% between simulation and real deformed cornea and a modified Hausdorff distance of 25 mu m, which indicates the great accuracy of the proposed methodology. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.This project has been partially funded by MECD (reference AP2009-2414) and MINECO (INNPACTO, IPT-2012-0495-300000).Lago, MA.; Rupérez Moreno, MJ.; Martínez Martínez, F.; Monserrat Aranda, C.; Larra, E.; Gueell, JL.; Peris-Martinez, C. (2015). A new methodology for the in vivo estimation of the elastic constants that characterize the patient-specific biomechanical behavior of the human cornea. Journal of Biomechanics. 48(1):38-43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbiomech.2014.11.009S384348

Optimización de la programación quirúrgica del cardiocentro "Ernesto Che Guevara" a través de un modelo matemático

La Informática en la salud ha experimentado un vertiginoso avance en los últimos años, puede afirmarse que la mayoría de los servicios de salud precisan de software y modelos matemáticos para su adecuado funcionamiento; ejemplo de ello es la planificación de las cirugías cardiovasculares. El artículo trata acerca del mejoramiento y adaptación del método propuesto por Pradenas y Matamala a las condiciones del Cardiocentro "Ernesto Che Guevara" de Villa Clara, Cuba. Con el modelo obtenido se logra que se prioricen los pacientes con mayor gravedad de su enfermedad y que el total de cirugías tenga una distribución proporcional por provincias, ajustada al número de habitantes de cada una de ellas. Este modelo matemático permite resolver una difícil situación en la que se ha estado trabajando desde hace algunos años.Palabras Clave: modelo matemático, optimización multiobjetivo, informática en salud pública, aplicaciones de informática médica, cirugía

Tercera revascularización miocárdica quirúrgica. Único paciente presentado en Cuba

A 49 years old male, white, smoker patient is presented. A severe coronary disease was demonstrated by means of coronariography. Surgical myocardial revascularization was necessarily performed in three opportunities.Se presenta un paciente de 49 años de edad, masculino, blanco, fumador. Se demostró por coronariografía la presencia de una enfermedad coronaria severa y se determinó necesario realizar revascularización miocárdica quirúrgica en tres oportunidades

Late Holocene climate variability in the southwestern Mediterranean region: an integrated marine and terrestrial geochemical approach

10 páginas, 5 figuras, 1 tabla.A combination of marine (Alboran Sea cores, ODP 976 and TTR 300 G) and terrestrial (Zoñar Lake, Andalucia, Spain) geochemical proxies provides a high-resolution reconstruction of climate variability and human influence in the southwestern Mediterranean region for the last 4000 years at inter-centennial resolution. Proxies respond to changes in precipitation rather than temperature alone. Our combined terrestrial and marine archive documents a succession of dry and wet periods coherent with the North Atlantic climate signal. A dry period occurred prior to 2.7 cal ka BP – synchronously to the global aridity crisis of the third-millennium BC – and during the Medieval Climate Anomaly (1.4–0.7 cal ka BP). Wetter conditions prevailed from 2.7 to 1.4 cal ka BP. Hydrological signatures during the Little Ice Age are highly variable but consistent with more humidity than the Medieval Climate Anomaly. Additionally, Pb anomalies in sediments at the end of the Bronze Age suggest anthropogenic pollution earlier than the Roman Empire development in the Iberian Peninsula. The Late Holocene climate evolution of the in the study area confirms the see-saw pattern between the eastern and western Mediterranean regions and the higher influence of the North Atlantic dynamics in the western Mediterranean.Projects LIMNOCLIBER REN 2003-09130- C02-02, CALIBRE CGL 2006-13327-c04/CLI, CGL-2006-2956- BOS, CGL2009-07603 (MICINN), 200800050084447 (MARM) and RNM 05212 (Junta de Andalucía), we also thanks Projects GRACCIE (CSD2007- 00067) and CTM2009-07715 (MICINN), Research Group 0179 (Junta de Andalucía) and the Training- Through-Research Programme.Peer reviewe

Root ABA signalling in salinized tomato

[SPA] Con el fin de comprender la influencia de la fitohormona ácido abscísico (ABA) en la adaptación al riego salino, dos líneas transgénicas independientes de tomate (Solanum lycopersicum L.), sp12 y sp5, que sobreexpresan constitutivamente el gen NCED1 (codifica para la enzima que cataliza un paso limitante en la biosíntesis de ABA) y la variedad silvestre Ailsa Craig, se han estudiado en experimentos o bien i) como planta entera o ii) como portainjerto bajo condiciones control y de estrés salino. Aunque la expresión constitutiva de NCED disminuye el crecimiento bajo condiciones control, minimiza los efectos producidos por la sal (planta completa) y mejora significativamente el crecimiento cuando se usa como portainjerto. El análisis de la savia xilemática de raíz mostró que los fenotipos resultantes bajo las diferentes condiciones de cultivo eran difíciles de explicar en términos de sobreproducción de ABA. Para intentar explicar estos resultados se llevó a cabo un análisis de expresión de un conjunto de genes relacionados con hormonas y estrés mediante PCR cuantitativa, así como un estudio transcriptómico mediante microarrays en la raíz. Los resultados sugieren que la sobreexpresión de NCED parece alterar diversas rutas de señalización, derivando en una respuesta adaptativa al estrés que podría ayudar a explicar los fenotipos observados. [ENG] With the aim of better understanding the influence of the plan hormone abscisic acid (ABA) in adaptation to saline irrigation, two independent transgenic tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) lines, sp12 and sp5, overexpressing constitutively NCED1 (the enzyme that catalyzes a key rate-limiting step in ABA biosynthesis) and the wild type Ailsa Craig, have been studied in experiments either i) as whole plants or ii) as rootstocks under control and salinity conditions. While NCED overexpression penalizes growth under control conditions, it minimized the effect of salinity (whole plants) or significantly improved plant growth and yield when used as rootstocks. The analysis of the root xylem sap revealed that the phenotypes resulting under the different conditions were difficult to explain in terms of ABA overproduction. With the aim of explaining these results, the expression of a set of hormone and stress associated genes (analysed by real time PCR) as well as a transcriptomic analysis (by using one-color microarray) were performed in roots. The results suggest that NCED overexpression seems to alter several signalling pathways leading to stress adaptive responses that could help to explain the observed phenotypes.The authors thank Andrew J. Thompson from Cranfield University, the NCED seeds set. This work was supported by CICYT-FEDER (project AGL2011-27996) and European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 289365(ROOTOPOWER project).. -2010-5 European Union)

Asymptotics and zeros of Sobolev orthogonal polynomials on unbounded supports

In this paper we present a survey about analytic properties of polynomials orthogonal with respect to a weighted Sobolev inner product such that the vector of measures has an unbounded support. In particular, we are focused in the study of the asymptotic behaviour of such polynomials as well as in the distribution of their zeros. Some open problems as well as some new directions for a future research are formulated.Comment: Changed content; 34 pages, 41 reference