How Bees Respond Differently to Field Margins of Shrubby and Herbaceous Plants in Intensive Agricultural Crops of the Mediterranean Area

(1) Intensive agriculture has a high impact on pollinating insects, and conservation strategies targeting agricultural landscapes may greatly contribute to their maintenance. The aim of this work was to quantify the effect that the vegetation of crop margins, with either herbaceous or shrubby plants, had on the abundance and diversity of bees in comparison to non-restored margins. (2) The work was carried out in an area of intensive agriculture in southern Spain. Bees were monitored visually and using pan traps, and floral resources were quantified in crop margins for two years. (3) An increase in the abundance and diversity of wild bees in restored margins was registered, compared to non-restored margins. Significant differences in the structure of bee communities were found between shrubby and herbaceous margins. Apis mellifera and mining bees were found to be more polylectic than wild Apidae and Megachilidae. The abundance of A. mellifera and mining bees was correlated to the total floral resources, in particular, to those offered by the Boraginaceae and Brassicaceae; wild Apidae and Megachilidae were associated with the Lamiaceae. (4) This work emphasises the importance of floral diversity and shrubby plants for the maintenance of rich bee communities in Mediterranean agricultural landscapes

Estudio exploratorio de los usos y gratificaciones de jóvenes, mujeres y hombres, mediados por la red social Facebook en el marco de los procesos comunicativos virtuales contemporáneos. Estudio de caso de 2 jóvenes con perfiles personales en Facebook

Seen from a social perspective and especially from the cultural aspect, the new communicative processes, the technology, the changes, the new environments and the new communicators, are undoubtedly the essential input of this study. It began with the virtual follow-up of two Facebook profiles, two studies of case that with the guide of qualitative investigation and deductive reflection approached us gradually to the cores of sense and the worlds of life of the virtual – real users, which beyond being connected by a social network, are connected by one or more technologies.Los nuevos procesos comunicativos, la tecnología, los cambios, los nuevos entornos, los nuevos enunciadores, vistos desde la lupa social, y sobre todo, desde la cultura, son sin duda, el insumo esencial de este estudio. Se parte del seguimiento virtual de dos perfiles de la red social Facebook, dos estudios de caso que con la guía de la investigación cualitativa y la reflexión deductiva, nos permitió acercarnos, paulatinamente, a los núcleos de sentido y los mundos de vida, de los usuarios virtuo - reales, que más allá de estar mediados por una red social, están mediados por una o más tecnologías

Nuevos datos para las especies de Ceratinini de España y Portugal, con una clave para su identificación (Hymenoptera, Apoidea, Xylocopinae)

A review of the Iberian species of the tribe Ceratinini has been carried out, based upon data from several entomological collections and bibliographic antecedents. A total of 13 species of the genus Ceratina inhabit the Iberian Peninsula, the Balearic and Canary Islands. From our current knowledge, C. cucurbitina and C. cyanea are the most frequent species, whereas C. albosticta, new for this fauna, is the rarest, with just a single record; C. gravidula is also new for the Iberian fauna. C. acuta and C. loewi, recorded for the first time by Dusmet (1923), and almost certainly based on misidentifications, are removed from the Iberian list. Finally, distribution maps for every species, a graph showing phenology, and an identification key are provided.Se ha realizado una revisión de las especies españolas y portuguesas de la tribu Ceratinini, basada en el estudio tanto de diversas colecciones entomológicas como de la información bibliográfica disponible. En total, 13 especies del género Ceratina Latreille, 1802 habitan en la Península Ibérica, más las Islas Baleares y Canarias. Las más frecuentes, según el conocimiento actual, son C. cucurbitina (Rossi, 1792) y C. cyanea (Kirby, 1802), mientras que la más rara es C. albosticta Cockerell, 1931 que, con un solo registro, es nueva para nuestra fauna, al igual que C. gravidula Gerstaecker, 1869. Se elimina del catálogo de especies ibéricas a C. acuta Friese, 1896 y C. loewi Gerstaecker, 1869, mencionadas por primera vez por Dusmet (1923), pero que seguramente fueron mal identificadas. Finalmente, se suministran los mapas de distribución de cada especie, una gráfica con las curvas de fenología, así como una clave para su identificación

Comprehensive framework for the development of control and navigation systems of autonomous underwater vehicles: the mission-sicuva project

This paper presents an overview of coordinated project MISSION-SICUVA, and the results achieved at its recent completion. A prototype of UUV has been built with an orientation to oceanographic research and test of new control algorithms. It consist of an underwater vehicle towing a surface buoy, with applications such as monitoring water quality, high resolution bathymetry of the seabed and its map projection. New biological inspired navigation algorithms have been implemented using a comprehensive component based development framework

Comprehensive framework for the development of control and navigation systems of autonomous underwater vehicles: the mission-sicuva project

Los resúmenes se publicarán e imprimirán en la revista Instrumentation Viewpoint: ISSN: 1886-4864 y se incluirán en los materiales de la conferencia. Los artículos completos se publicarán electrónicamente como actas de la conferencia.This paper presents an overview of coordinated project MISSION-SICUVA, and the results achieved at its recent completion. A prototype of UUV has been built with an orientation to oceanographic research and test of new control algorithms. It consist of an underwater vehicle towing a surface buoy, with applications such as monitoring water quality, high resolution bathymetry of the seabed and its map projection. New biological inspired navigation algorithms have been implemented using a comprehensive component based development framewo

Frequency measurement under non-sinusoidal conditions

Frequency measurement is an important issue in electrical engineering. Electric power systems have become increasing complex over the last decade. The use of distributed generation, the connection of non-linear loads and the presence of unexpected system faults are the main causes of frequency variations. In addition, power quality includes frequency as an important index. From a hardware instrumentation point of view, frequency measurement has different requirements: i.) Large power systems have slow frequency variation due to the high inertia of the overall network. This kind of problem requires frequency measuring methods capable of detecting small and also slow frequency variations. ii.) Small power systems can have frequency variation due to their reduced short-circuit power capacity. This type of problem requires fast methods with the capacity to detect large frequency variations. There are different groups of methods intended for frequency measurement. The methods can be compared in terms of computation and dynamic response, especially when the main voltage is disturbed. This research work focuses on frequency measurement under non-sinusoidal conditions. The paper studies the behaviour of a modified version of Sezi's method and its hardware implementation using a microcontroller. This system can be used for frequency measurement or as a synchronized sampling source in harmonic measurement (e.g. EN 61000-4-7) The fast time response of the system enables it to be used in almost all kinds of application: small and slow frequency variations; frequency triggering in power system protection and power quality index characterisation

Contribución del Proyecto Aula Hospitalaria a la permanencia en el sistema educativo de estudiantes hospitalizados

La presente investigación tiene como objetivo determinar si el Proyecto Aula Hospitalaria implementado en el Hospital Santa María del Socorro garantiza la permanencia y la reincorporación adecuada de los niños y adolescentes hospitalizados al sistema educativo, y contribuye a evitar o reducir la deserción escolar

Investigation of Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.)–Insect Pollinator Interactions Aiming to Increase Cowpea Yield and Define New Breeding Tools

Impact of pollination on the agri-food sector is of paramount importance. Pollinators contribute to the maintenance of ecosystems, the reproduction and survival of many plants, and their presence usually leads to increased yield and quality of agricultural products. Breeding and selecting for plant traits for enhancing pollinator visits could therefore lead to more resilient farming systems. In stating the advantages of enhancing pollinators in agricultural systems, this study was designed aiming to assess six cowpea accessions for their flower traits and their effect on insect-pollinators. Pollinators species abundance and foraging activity was recorded and their impact on yield was investigated. Twenty-five of the twenty-seven flower traits studied differed statistically significantly among cowpea accessions. The main pollinators recorded belonged to the genus Xylocopa (Latreille, 1802). Seed and fresh pod yield was not affected by pollinators. The floral traits related to pollinators abundance and foraging activity were flower color, inflorescence position and the hours that the flowers per plant remained open during the day. However, they were not related linearly to pollinators abundance and foraging activity; therefore, they did not constitute safe traits for selection aiming to increase pollinators visitation. The findings suggested that other traits, such as pollen and nectar reward, probably perform a more important role in attracting pollinators compared to flower traits

Honey Bee Colonies Remote Monitoring System

Bees are very important for terrestrial ecosystems and, above all, for the subsistence of many crops, due to their ability to pollinate flowers. Currently, the honey bee populations are decreasing due to colony collapse disorder (CCD). The reasons for CCD are not fully known, and as a result, it is essential to obtain all possible information on the environmental conditions surrounding the beehives. On the other hand, it is important to carry out such information gathering as non-intrusively as possible to avoid modifying the bees’ work conditions and to obtain more reliable data. We designed a wireless-sensor networks meet these requirements. We designed a remote monitoring system (called WBee) based on a hierarchical three-level model formed by the wireless node, a local data server, and a cloud data server. WBee is a low-cost, fully scalable, easily deployable system with regard to the number and types of sensors and the number of hives and their geographical distribution. WBee saves the data in each of the levels if there are failures in communication. In addition, the nodes include a backup battery, which allows for further data acquisition and storage in the event of a power outage. Unlike other systems that monitor a single point of a hive, the system we present monitors and stores the temperature and relative humidity of the beehive in three different spots. Additionally, the hive is continuously weighed on a weighing scale. Real-time weight measurement is an innovation in wireless beehive—monitoring systems. We designed an adaptation board to facilitate the connection of the sensors to the node. Through the Internet, researchers and beekeepers can access the cloud data server to find out the condition of their hives in real time

Perfil de ingresos y urgencias pediátricas en período epidémico de rotavirus en Valladolid. Utilidad de un modelo predictivo

Producción CientíficaEste estudio pretende determinar las semanas de alta circulación de rotavirus en valladolid, y comparar las características de los ingresos y urgencias en período epidémico con respecto al período no epidémico. Se utilizaron las declaraciones al sistema de información microbiológica, el conjunto mínimo básico de datos y el registro de urgencias. Se calcularon los casos esperados para 2006 a partir de un modelo elaborado previamente. Si los casos observados superaban el umbral superior del 95% de los esperados, la semana se consideró epidémica. Se compararon las características de los ingresos y urgencias en ambos períodos. En 2006 se diagnosticaron un 42% menos de los casos esperados. La media de ingresos diarios fue superior en período epidémico (diferencia=1,49; p=0,01), y también fue mayor la duración media del ingreso. La actividad del servicio de pediatría se incrementó en período epidémico, por lo que es oportuna la implantación de actividades de vigilancia, programas de prevención y control frente a rotavirus en el ámbito hospitalario