A 1973-2008 archive of climate surfaces for NW Maghreb

Climate archives are time series. They are used to assess temporal trends of a climate-dependent target variable, and to make climate atlases. A high-resolution gridded dataset with 1728 layers of monthly mean maximum, mean and mean minimum temperatures and precipitation for the NW Maghreb (28ºN-37.3ºN, 12ºW-12ºE, 1-km resolution) from 1973 through 2008 is presented. The surfaces were spatially interpolated by ANUSPLIN, a thin-plate smoothing spline technique approved by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), from georeferenced climate records drawn from the Global Surface Summary of the Day (GSOD) and the Global Historical Climatology Network-Monthly (GHCN-Monthly version 3) products. Absolute errors for surface temperatures are approximately 0.5ºC for mean and mean minimum temperatures, and peak up to 1.76ºC for mean maximum temperatures in summer months. For precipitation, the mean absolute error ranged from 1.2 to 2.5 mm, but very low summer precipitation caused relative errors of up to 40% in July. The archive successfully captures climate variations associated with large to medium geographic gradients. This includes the main aridity gradient which increases in the S and SE, as well as its breaking points, marked by the Atlas mountain range. It also conveys topographic effects linked to kilometric relief mesoforms.Focus on Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia North of 28ºNDeSurvey IP (European Commission FP6 contract No. 003950), MesoTopos (Junta de Andalucia PE P08-RNM-04023) and MELODIES (European Commission FP7, contract No. 603525)Ye

Anticoncepción poscoital. Características de la demanda

ObjetivoConocer el perfil de las mujeres que demandan anticoncepción poscoital (APC).DiseñoDescriptivo transversal. Emplazamiento. Centro de Orientación Familiar (COF), Área 4 del Instituto Madrileño de Salud. Madrid.ParticipantesTodas las mujeres que acudieron en el año 2000 para requerir APC (n = 404).MedicionesSe realizó una encuesta con variables sociodemográficas relacionadas con la APC y con la vida sexual.ResultadosLa edad media fue de 23,9 años (límites, 14–49); el 9,9% era menor de edad. La media de coitos al mes era de 6,7, el número de años de relaciones sexuales era de 4,9 y el primer coito se produjo, de media, a los 18 años. El 90,9% afirmaba tener pareja estable. Tenía estudios secundarios o universitarios un 75%. El 55,7% manifestaba no haber recibido información sobre anticonceptivos. El 19,5% utilizó APC en otra ocasión. El 6,5% había tenido alguna interrupción voluntaria de embarazo y de éstas, el 36% había utilizado APC anteriormente. Los motivos de consulta fueron: rotura de preservativo (69,3%), preservativo retenido (16,9%) y coito sin protección (12%). El 7% tuvo otros coitos de riesgo en el mismo ciclo. Un 33,2% las remitía su equipo de atención primaria, acudió por conocidos el 19% y desde servicios de urgencias el 16%. Conocía el COF un 26,1%. En el 12,2% no se prescribió APC por mínimo riesgo de embarazo. Realizaron la valoración una enfermera (52,6%), médicos residentes (34,4%) y una ginecóloga (13%).ConclusionesFalta información sobre métodos anticonceptivos. La mayoría de las pacientes son derivadas por otros servicios sanitarios.ObjectiveDefine the profile of the women that ask for emergency contraception (EC).DesignTransversal descriptive investigation.SettingFamiliar Planning Center of 4th Area of Instituto Madrileño de Salud. in Madrid. Participants. All the women that went in the year 2000 requiring EC (n=404).MeasurementsWas carried out a survey with sociodemographic variables, related with the EC and with the sexual life.ResultsThe average age was of 23.9 years (age range 14 to 49) were inquired, 9.9 were under 18. They had an average of 6.7 intercourses per month, the first intercourse when they were 18 years old on average, and 4.9 years of sexual relationships. 90.9% stated to have a couple. 75% were graduated from high school or university, and 55.7% said they had never received information about contraceptives. For 19.5% this was not the first time they asked for EC. 6.5% had interrupted on purpose pregnancy and 36% of them had used EC before. The reasons to demand EC were: condom break (69.3%), held condom (16.9%) and intercourse without any protection (12%). 7% acknowledged other risky intercourses during the same period. 33.2% had been sent by a General Practitioner, 26.1% knew the center, 19% were sent by acquaintances and 16% from Emergency Services. EC was not prescribed in 12.2% of the cases because of minimum risk to pregnancy. The evaluation was made by a nurse (52.6%), by a doctor (34.4%) and by a gynecologist (13%).ConclusionsThere is a lack of information about contraceptive methods. Most of the patients are sent from other sanitary services

Ac magnetic susceptibility of a molecular magnet submonolayer directly patterned onto a microSQUID sensor

We report the controlled integration, via Dip Pen Nanolithography, of monolayer dots of ferritin-based CoO nanoparticles (12 Bohr magnetons) into the most sensitive areas of a microSQUID sensor. The nearly optimum flux coupling between these nanomagnets and the microSQUID improves the achievable sensitivity by a factor 100, enabling us to measure the linear susceptibility of the molecular array down to very low temperatures (13 mK). This method opens the possibility of applying ac susceptibility experiments to characterize two-dimensional arrays of single molecule magnets within a wide range of temperatures and frequencies.Comment: 4 pages 3 figure

Visualisation of flow fields in the web platform

Visualization of vector fields plays an important role in research activities nowadays. Web applications allow a fast, multi-platform and multi-device access to data, which results in the need of optimized applications to be implemented in both high and low-performance devices. The computation of trajectories usually repeats calculations due to the fact that several points might lie over the same trajectory. This paper presents a new methodology to calculate point trajectories over a highly-dense and uniformly-distributed grid of points in which the trajectories are forced to lie over the points in the grid. Its advantages rely on a highly parallel computing implementation and in the reduction of the computational effort to calculate the stream paths since unnecessary calculations are avoided by reusing data through iterations. As case study, the visualization of oceanic streams in the web platform is presented and analyzed, using WebGL as the parallel computing architecture and the rendering engine

Construcción del conocimiento didáctico del contenido biológico en formación inicial de profesores

Presentamos la sistematización de los datos obtenidos a partir de los documentos que presentaron dos grupos de futuros profesores de Biología, a lo largo de un semestre, al diseñar Unidades Didácticas para la enseñanza de dos temáticas relacionadas con el auto-mantenimiento de los organismos. Analizamos los referentes de los docentes en formación acerca del Conocimiento Didáctico del Contenido Biológico (contemplamos 9 categorías de investigación) y los cambios de los mismos durante el proceso formativo en el que los estudiantes-profesores realizaron la propuesta

Variables motivacionales relacionadas con la práctica deportiva extraescolar en estudiantes adolescentes de educación física

El objetivo del estudio fue conocer los diferentes perfiles motivacionales que subyacen en una muestra de 819 estudiantes adolescentes de educación física y su relación con la práctica y el tiempo de práctica físico-deportiva. Se han utilizado los cuestionarios de orientación al aprendizaje y el rendimiento en las clases de educación física (LAPOPECQ), la Escala de Motivación Deportiva (SMS) y la Escala de la Importancia y Utilidad concedida por el alumno a la educación física (IEF). El análisis cluster mostró tres perfiles motivacionales: el “perfil autodeterminado”, compuesto por participantes que percibían un clima que primaba la importancia al esfuerzo, la mejora personal y el desarrollo de las habilidades (clima tarea) y con una alta motivación intrínseca, el “perfil no autodeterminado” compuesto por sujetos que presentaban una alta desmotivación y que percibían un clima que daba prioridad a la demostración de la capacidad personal y al rendimiento (clima ego) y por último, el “perfil desmotivado” formado por personas que han obtenido valores bajos en casi todas las variables (motivación intrínseca y extrínseca, clima motivacional e importancia y utilidad concedida a la educación física), excepto en la desmotivación. Los practicantes y los que más tiempo dedican a la práctica se asocian con el perfil autodeterminado. Conocer estos perfiles nos permitirá establecer modos de actuación más adecuados, tratando así de reducir al máximo el abandono de la práctica deportiva ajustándonos al grado de motivación del sujeto

Oestrid myiasis in European Mouflon from Spain

From February 1992 to March 1997, 245 European mouflon (Ovis orientalis musimon) from Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas Natural Park (southern Spain) were surveyed for oestrid larvae in order to estimate prevalence and mean intensity of parasitism by Oestrus ovis. Over 46 percent of the animals surveyed were infected, with a mean intensity of 9.6 larvae/host parasitized. No significant differences in prevalence rates between host sexes were observed, but older mouflons were infected with more larvae than younger ones.Peer Reviewe

Perinatal Tuberculosis: Is it a Forgotten Disease?

Perinatal tuberculosis is an uncommon condition but with a high mortality and a challenging diagnosis. We present four cases of perinatal tuberculosis managed between 1991-2014 in a Spanish Tertiary Hospital. The infection should be considered in patients with progressive respiratory symptoms and with a poor response to conventional antibiotic therapy, especially in those with positive epidemiologic risk. Bronchoscopy can be a useful tool for diagnosis

The nucleotidohydrolases DCTPP1 and dUTPase are involved in the cellular response to decitabine

Decitabine (5-aza-2acute;-deoxycytidine, aza-dCyd) is an anticancer drug used clinically for the treatment of myelodysplastic syndromes and acute myeloid leukemia that can act as a DNA-demethylating or genotoxic agent in a dose-dependent manner. On the other hand, DCTPP1 and dUTPase are two "house-cleaning" nucleotidohydrolases involved in the elimination of non-canonical nucleotides. Here we show that exposure of HeLa cells to decitabine up-regulates the expression of several pyrimidine metabolic enzymes including DCTPP1, dUTPase, dCMP deaminase and thymidylate synthase thus suggesting their contribution to the cellular response to this anticancer nucleoside. We present several lines of evidence supporting that, in addition to the formation of aza-dCTP, an alternative cytotoxic mechanism for decitabine may involve the formation of aza-dUMP, a potential thymidylate synthase inhibitor. Indeed, dUTPase or DCTPP1 down-regulation enhanced the cytotoxic effect of aza-dCyd producing an accumulation of nucleoside triphosphates containing uracil as well as uracil misincorporation and double-strand breaks in genomic DNA. Moreover, DCTPP1 hydrolyzes the triphosphate form of decitabine with similar kinetic efficiency than its natural substrate dCTP and prevents decitabine-induced global DNA demethylation. The data suggest that the nucleotidohydrolases DCTPP1 and dUTPase are factors involved in the mode of action of decitabine with potential value as enzymatic targets to improve decitabine-based chemotherapy