Climate change and mountain birds: how exposed is the Northern Wheatear to local extinctions?

Mountain areas host unique biodiversity, and mountain species show specific ecological adaptations enabling survival in extreme climatic conditions. Under the current context of climate change, mountain bird populations tend to shift their ranges to higher elevations, tracking their climatic optima. Nevertheless, space limitations at high altitudes constrain the possibilities of mountain species to cope with climatic changes and make them particularly vulnerable. In an extreme case, the climatic niche of some of these species can move beyond the mountain tops, driving such species ultimately to extinction. We are studying the case of the Northern Wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe) in Spain, and we have compared the breeding distribution of this alpine bird between 2003 and 2022. Spain is in the southernmost distribution limit of the species in Europe, where Wheatears mostly occupy mountainous areas. To determine the factors conditioning the occurrence of the species we have built environmental favourability models using the information from the last two Spanish bird atlases and a set of environmental variables, belonging to the following factors: topography, climate, human activity, and lithology. The influence of climate compared to all other factors was obtained using variation partitioning analysis. The species has suffered a strong reduction (67 %) in occupied areas, as well as in favourability throughout mainland Spain, especially in the southern half, where climate change may have far-reaching consequences, including local extinctions. Climate explained more than 90 % of the variation in the model obtained for 2022. Interestingly, the occupied areas are in 2022, in average, 100 m higher in altitude than in 2003. If the effects of climate change continue, the species is doomed to disappear at its southernmost distribution limit, being the population of Parque Nacional Sierra de las Nieves the most vulnerable at the continental scale.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

¿Qué factores afectan a las migradoras de larga distancia para que acorten sus desplazamientos? El caso de la invernada del Carricero Común en la Península Ibérica

El cambio reciente del clima está influyendo en la fenología de migración de las aves. Con unos inviernos cada vez más cálidos muchas especies responden acortando sus distancias de migración, lo que hace de la península ibérica una nueva área de invernada para especies típicamente transaharianas, como es el caso del carricero común (Acrocephalus scirpaceus). A pesar de estar presente en España desde finales de febrero (inicio de su migración prenupcial) hasta noviembre (final de la migración postnupcial), el número de registros estrictamente invernales (desde el 15 de noviembre al 31 de enero) es creciente. El presente estudio tiene como objetivo realizar una recopilación de registros invernales, obtenidos a través del anillamiento científico (cedidos por el CMA de SEO/ BirdLife, OAA, CEMPA y EURING) para el territorio de la península Ibérica y caracterizar las zonas que utiliza la especie durante el periodo del año en el que teóricamente deberían estar al sur del Sahara, analizando los factores que favorecen esta invernada. Además, se estudia el origen de las aves implicadas y sus zonas de invernada preferenciales. Para la caracterización biogeográfica se han usado modelos de favorabilidad ambiental con un conjunto de variables climáticas y topográficas en una red de cuadrículas UTM 10x10km de Iberia. Los resultados muestran que las áreas más favorables para la invernada de la especie son principalmente zonas costeras con temperaturas invernales suaves, donde se ha registrado la mayor concentración de anillamientos. Además se observa que el factor climático es el motor de este fenómeno. El análisis de este caso nos ayudará a entender el cambio fenológico que están sufriendo otras muchas especies y deja a la vista nuevas incógnitas sobre cómo será este proceso en el futuro si las previsiones del IPCC sobre el cambio climático se cumplen.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Unit commitment and generation dispatch of a hydropower plant in a competitive electricity market

This paper presents a model to solve the short-term scheduling problem of a hydropower plant in a deregulated system, based on dynamic programming techniques. The objective of this model is to maximize the revenue obtained by selling energy in a competitive electricity market. The time horizon of the model is divided into hourly periods and ranges from one day to one week. The proposed model determines both the unit commitment and the power to be generated in each hour of the time horizon. The power is considered as a nonlinear function of the water discharge and the reservoir volume; the dependence of the units and plant operating limits on the available gross head has been taken into account; and the water discharged through the spillway has been also allowed for in the model. This approach has been applied to a practical case study, the results of which are analyzed in detail

Un enfoque local para comprender mejor la dispersión a gran escala y el crecimiento de las poblaciones de cotorra argentina como especie invasora

Invasive species are currently a topic of  interest  to  environmental  management  agencies and the media  because  of the socio-economic  and environmental problems they cause. The Monk parakeet,     a parrot  originally from  South America,  and now established as an invasive species  in North America,   Asia,  Africa and Western Europe,  is a clear  example of this, especially in some cities where  populations    are growing rapidly and its distribution is continuously expanding. The first record  of this invasive species  in Spain  dates from  1975 and since  it has expanded its range  over large  areas  of the country,  especially    in and around large cities. Málaga has one of the largest populations in Spain  where, in the absence of  control measures, the species continues to increase in numbers and range. In this study, we document how a population reaches its carrying capacity, which favours the dispersal of the species to surrounding areas. Studying the populations of the species at a local  scale  helps us to estimate the number of parrots  that a  given area can support and also to predict more accurately the future occupation of favourable areas for the species. This would help to prevent the settlement of individuals in unoccupied areas and help to mitigate potential environmental impacts and conflicts with humansLas especies exóticas invasoras son actualmente un tema de interés para los organismos de gestión medioambiental y los medios de comunicación, debido a los problemas socioeconómicos y medioambientales que causan. La cotorra argentina, originaria de Sudamérica y establecida actualmente como invasora en América del Norte, Asia, África y Europa Occidental, es un claro ejemplo de ello, sobre todo en algunas ciudades donde las poblaciones crecen rápidamente y su distribución se amplía de manera continua. El primer registro de cotorra argentina en España tuvo lugar en 1975 y desde entonces la especie ha expandido su área de distribución por amplias zonas del país, especialmente en las grandes ciudades y sus alrededores. Málaga cuenta con una de las mayores poblaciones de España donde, a falta de la puesta en práctica de medidas de control, la especie sigue aumentando en efectivos. En este estudio documentamos como una población llega a alcanzar su capacidad de carga, lo que favorece la dispersión de la especie a las áreas circundantes. Estudiar las poblaciones de la especie a escala local nos ayuda a estimar el número de cotorras que puede soportar una zona determinada y también a predecir de un modo más preciso la futura ocupación de aquellas zonas que son favorables para la especie. Esto permitiría evitar el asentamiento de ejemplares en zonas desocupadas y ayudaría a mitigar posibles impactos ambientales y conflictos con el ser humano

From the first observations to the recent establishment: the paradox of a sub-Saharan species colonizing the western Palearctic.

Ongoing climate change is causing latitudinal shifts in many species to reach more favourable climatic conditions. These changes are of particular relevance in southern Europe, where a short-distance expansion of African species’ range toward the north represents a major step in biogeographical terms, as a new continent would be reached and colonised. In this way, species that were never in contact suddenly interacts with each other, generating changes in communities. This is currently occurring with Griffon and Rüppell's vultures in the Iberian Peninsula, where individuals of the African species are beginning to establish themselves on a stable basis in breeding colonies of Griffon Vultures. Until now, there has been no evidence that Rüppell's Vulture has been able to breed in Europe, despite some observed breeding attempts that did not result in successful reproduction. In 1999, an adult Rüppell’s Vulture was observed in Portugal in a possible nest, although successful breeding was not confirmed. The next signs of reproduction were detected in 2020 in southern Spain, when a female Rüppell’s Vulture was recorded mating with a male Griffon Vulture in Cádiz province, and a different female was observed carrying nesting material in Málaga province. Throughout 2021 and 2022, breeding attempts have consistently occurred in the breeding colony of Málaga, but close monitoring of the individuals, tagged with GPS transmitters confirmed that mating did not result in egg-laying. During the year 2023, the situation has changed and, in this communication, we will report the first confirmed case of Rüppell's Vulture breeding in Europe. Paradoxically, as the species begins to colonize a new biogeographic realm in the Palearctic, its rapid decline caused it to be reappraised to the IUCN Critically Endangered category. We will detail the case and discuss the potential implications for the conservation of the species.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

A survey on the (in)security of trusted execution environments

As the number of security and privacy attacks continue to grow around the world, there is an ever increasing need to protect our personal devices. As a matter of fact, more and more manufactures are relying on Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) to shield their devices. In particular, ARM TrustZone (TZ) is being widely used in numerous embedded devices, especially smartphones, and this technology is the basis for secure solutions both in industry and academia. However, as shown in this paper, TEE is not bullet-proof and it has been successfully attacked numerous times and in very different ways. To raise awareness among potential stakeholders interested in this technology, this paper provides an extensive analysis and categorization of existing vulnerabilities in TEEs and highlights the design flaws that led to them. The presented vulnerabilities, which are not only extracted from existing literature but also from publicly available exploits and databases, are accompanied by some effective countermeasures to reduce the likelihood of new attacks. The paper ends with some appealing challenges and open issues.Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga / CBUA This work has been partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the SecureEDGE project (PID2019-110565RB-I00), and by the by the Andalusian FEDER 2014–2020 Program through the SAVE project (PY18-3724)

Incorporating knowledge uncertainty into species distribution modelling

Monitoring progress towards global goals and biodiversity targets require reliable descriptions of species distributions over time and space. Current gaps in accessible information on species distributions urges the need for integrating all available data and knowledge sources, and intensifying cooperations to more effectively support global environmental governance. For many areas and species groups, experts can constitute a valuable source of information to fill the gaps by offering their knowledge on species-environment interactions. However, expert knowledge is always subject to uncertainty, and incorporating that into species distribution mapping poses a challenge. We propose the use of the dempster–shafer theory of evidence (DST) as a novel approach in this field to extract expert knowledge, to incorporate the associated uncertainty into the procedure, and to produce reliable species distribution maps. We applied DST to model the distribution of two species of eagle in Spain. We invited experts to fill in an online questionnaire and express their beliefs on the habitat of the species by assigning probability values for given environmental variables, along with their confidence in expressing the beliefs. We then calculated evidential functions, and combined them using Dempster’s rules of combination to map the species distribution based on the experts’ knowledge. We evaluated the performances of our proposed approach using the atlas of Spanish breeding birds as an independent test dataset, and further compared the results with the outcome of an ensemble of conventional SDMs. Purely based on expert knowledge, the DST approach yielded similar results as the data driven SDMs ensemble. Our proposed approach offers a strong and practical alternative for species distribution modelling when species occurrence data are not accessible, or reliable, or both. The particular strengths of the proposed approach are that it explicitly accounts for and aggregates knowledge uncertainty, and it capitalizes on the range of data sources usually considered by an expert

ACCIONES DE ORIENTACIÓN PARA LAS FAMILIAS DE PACIENTES CON CÁNCER

El cáncer es considerado una enfermedad que produce un impacto significativo a toda la familia. Los familiares de cada paciente con estos grupos de enfermedades terminales padecen un sufrimiento que es igualado al de él en todas las dimensiones: física, espiritual, psicológica, social e intelectual, en la cual va acumulando un exhaustivo agotamiento progresivo. Temen perder a quien quieren, experimentan angustia, depresión y soledad. En donde se presenta el objetivo de determinar la relación entre las estrategias de afrontamiento y la atención a los pacientes con cáncer. Por lo que alrededor del trabajo se identifica que resulta útil, para los miembros de la familia, la participación activa comunitaria o reuniones con profesionales como psicólogos, psiquiatras, médicos, enfermeros o con algún familiar de un paciente que pueda hablar desde su experiencia. Esto les ayuda a expresar emociones, muchas veces escondidas. También pueden buscar un acompañamiento psicológico personalizado. PALABRAS CLAVE: Impacto psicológico; impacto físico; impacto social; cronicidad; convivencia. GUIDANCE ACTIONS FOR FAMILIES OF PATIENTS WITH CANCER ABSTRACT Cancer is considered a disease that has a significant impact on the whole family. The physical, spiritual, psychological, social and intellectual relationships, in which it will be an exhausting progressive progressive exhaustion. They fear losing who they want, they experience anguish, depression and loneliness. Where is presented the objective of determining the relationship between coping strategies and care for patients with cancer. Therefore, around work you can identify what is useful for family members, participation, participation, the community, health professionals, psychologists, doctors, nurses or family members. This helps them express emotions, often hidden. We can also look for a personalized psychological accompaniment. KEYWORDS: Psychological impact; physical impact; Social impact; chronicity; coexistence

The invasive species Asparagopsis taxiformis (Bonnemaisoniales, Rhodophyta) on Andalusian coast (Southern Spain): reproductive stages, new records and invaded communities

The invasive species Asparagopsis taxiformis (Bonnemaisoniales, Rhodophyta) on Andalusian coasts (Southern Spain): reproductive stages, new records and invaded communities.The present study provides new records from Andalusian coasts of the exotic invasive seaweed Asparagopsis taxiformis (Delile) Trevisan. These records demonstrate that A. taxiformis has rapidly and widely expanded its distribution range in this region, from Almería to Cádiz (Strait of Gibraltar).The latter locality may represent the western geographical limit of the species in the Mediterranean Sea. Spermatangial heads and cystocarps were observed in the collected gametophytes. Additionally, we report the first record of the tetrasporophytic stage, Falkenbergia hillebrandii (Bornet) Falkenberg from the Andalusian coast, although tetraspores were not encountered in these samples. Consequently, information on the affected communities and arguments for considering A. taxiformis as an invasive species in the Andalusian coast are provided.La especie invasora Asparagopsis taxiformis (Bonnemaisoniales, Rhodophyta) en las costas andaluzas (Sur de España): fases reproductivas, nuevas citas y comunidades invadidas. El presente trabajo aporta nuevas citas para las costas andaluzas de la especie exótica invasora de macroalga Asparagopsis taxiformis (Delile) Trevisan. Estas citas muestran que la especie ha aumentado ampliamente su área de distribución de manera rápida en esta región, desde Almería hasta Cádiz (Estrecho de Gibraltar). Esta última localidad representaría el límite occidental de la especie en el mar Mediterráneo. En las muestras recogidas de gametofitos se pudieron observar ramas espermatangiales y cistocarpos. Se aporta la primera cita del estadio tetrasporofítico, Falkenbergia hillebrandii (Bornet) Falkenberg en las costas andaluzas, aunque no se observaron tetrásporas en estas muestras. Se informa sobre las comunidades afectadas y se dan argumentos para considerar a A.taxiformis invasora en las costas andaluzas

Lecciones aprendidas a partir de los cursos de formación de profesorado de la Universidad de Málaga para una mejor gestión de la docencia de los TFG

Introducción y Objetivos: En la mayoría de las titulaciones de la Universidad de Málaga (UMA) el presente curso (2014-2015) es el segundo en el que se oferta la asignatura Trabajo Fin de Grado (TFG). Por ello, todavía son muchos los profesores que imparten esta asignatura por primera vez y sienten cierta incertidumbre con respecto a las responsabilidades que asumen y cómo deben abordarlas. Anticipándose a esto, en el Plan de Formación de PDI de la UMA se oferta desde el curso académico 2012-2013, un curso específico para el profesorado, centrado en la evaluación, tutorización y normativa de los TFG. Doscientos once profesores han participado ya en las cuatro ediciones de este curso. El objetivo general del presente trabajo es recoger y analizar los resultados de aprendizaje y opiniones de los profesores en relación a estos aspectos de la docencia de los TFG y al curso en general, con el fin de mejorarla. Método: Los datos para este análisis se han recogido a través de tareas, cuestionarios y talleres que han desarrollado los participantes. Resultados: Los resultados muestran un elevado grado de satisfacción con este tipo de actividad de formación para el PDI, y han puesto de manifiesto diferencias entre titulaciones y centros en relación al papel del tutor en la evaluación de los estudiantes, procedimientos de evaluación y tutorización, y normativas, que pueden tener influencia en el proceso y en los resultados de dicha evaluación. Conclusiones: Este tipo de iniciativas de formación docente deben considerarse como herramientas de mejora de la calidad docente de la UMA, que pueden ser aplicables a otras instituciones universitarias.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech