Isocausal spacetimes may have different causal boundaries

We construct an example which shows that two isocausal spacetimes, in the sense introduced by Garc\'ia-Parrado and Senovilla, may have c-boundaries which are not equal (more precisely, not equivalent, as no bijection between the completions can preserve all the binary relations induced by causality). This example also suggests that isocausality can be useful for the understanding and computation of the c-boundary.Comment: Minor modifications, including the title, which matches now with the published version. 12 pages, 3 figure

Cyclotomic exponent sequences of numerical semigroups

We study the cyclotomic exponent sequence of a numerical semigroup $S,$ and we compute its values at the gaps of $S,$ the elements of $S$ with unique representations in terms of minimal generators, and the Betti elements $b\in S$ for which the set $\{a \in \operatorname{Betti}(S) : a \le_{S}b\}$ is totally ordered with respect to $\le_S$ (we write $a \le_S b$ whenever $a - b \in S,$ with $a,b\in S$). This allows us to characterize certain semigroup families, such as Betti-sorted or Betti-divisible numerical semigroups, as well as numerical semigroups with a unique Betti element, in terms of their cyclotomic exponent sequences. Our results also apply to cyclotomic numerical semigroups, which are numerical semigroups with a finitely supported cyclotomic exponent sequence. We show that cyclotomic numerical semigroups with certain cyclotomic exponent sequences are complete intersections, thereby making progress towards proving the conjecture of Ciolan, García-Sánchez and Moree (2016) stating that $S$ is cyclotomic if and only if it is a complete intersection

A shift in the spatial pattern of Iberian droughts during the 17th century

In this paper, series of drought occurrence and drought extension in the Iberian Peninsula are constructed for the 1600–1750 period from seven rogation series. These rogation ceremony records come from Bilbao, Catalonia, Zamora, Zaragoza, Toledo, Murcia and Seville. They are distributed across the Peninsula and include the areas with the most characteristic Iberian climate types, influenced by the Atlantic and the Mediterranean conditions, described from modern data. A seasonal division of the series shows that spring is a critical season for rogation series in most of Iberia, being Bilbao the only site were the highest number of rogations is detected for a different season. The annual analysis of the series shows a dramatic difference between the first half of the 17th century when droughts are characterized by its local character; and the rest of the period, when they affect to broader regions or even to the whole Peninsula. The analysis of spring series confirms the existence of the two periods detected in the annual analysis. Finally, secondary documentary sources are used to further characterise the two most extended droughts in the period, 1664 and 1680, and to verify the extension of the areas affected by droughts recorded through rogation series

Antimicrobial resistance profiles of listeria monocytogenes and listeria innocua isolated from ready-to-eat products of animal origin in Spain

The objective of this work was to investigate the antimicrobial resistance in Listeria spp. isolated from food of animal origin. A total of 50 Listeria strains isolated from meat and dairy products, consisting of 7 Listeria monocytogenes and 43 Listeria innocua strains, were characterized for antimicrobial susceptibility against nine antimicrobials. The strains were screened by real-time PCR for the presence of antimicrobial resistance genes: Tet M, tet L, mef A, msr A, erm A, erm B, lnu A, and lnu B. Multidrug resistance was identified in 27 Listeria strains, 4 belonging to L. monocytogenes. Resistance to clindamycin was the most common resistance phenotype and was identified in 45 Listeria strains; the mechanisms of resistance are still unknown. A medium prevalence of resistance to tetracycline (15 and 9 resistant and intermediate strains) and ciprofloxacin (13 resistant strains) was also found. Tet M was detected in Listeria strains with reduced susceptibility to tetracycline, providing evidence that both L. innocua and L. monocytogenes displayed acquired resistance. The presence of antimicrobial resistance genes in L. innocua and L. monocytogenes indicates that these genes may be transferred to commensal and pathogenic bacteria via the food chain; besides this, antibiotic resistance in L. monocytogenes could compromise the effective treatment of listeriosis in humans

Contribución a la educación para la innovación y el emprendimiento en estudiantes de las ingenierías industriales

En la Universidad de Cádiz, profesores pertenecientes a las Áreas de Conocimiento de Ciencia de los Materiales e Ingeniería Metalúrgica y de Organización de Empresas han adaptado actividades académicas a las metodologías propuestas en el Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (EEES), para promover el desarrollo de competencias específicas de los Grados en Ingenierías. En particular, se ha potenciado el aprendizaje basado en problemas combinando la herramienta CES EduPack (aplicación para la selección de materiales y procesos) con información económica adicional, todo ello para promover el autoaprendizaje desde el punto de vista económico y técnico en la selección de materiales y su proceso productivo para el diseño industrial. Se ha animado a los alumnos a proponer una idea de negocio para desarrollar un nuevo producto, a seleccionar materiales alternativos para un producto ya existente, o bien a optimizar un sistema productivo. En esta comunicación se presentan las pautas seguidas y los resultados y conclusiones obtenidos tras las diferentes actividades realizadas. En general estas actividades han servido para promover la innovación y el emprendimiento entre el alumnado a distintos niveles de detalle a lo largo de sus estudios. De hecho, se han presentado varios proyectos fin de carrera que proponen y especifican con un alto nivel de detalle rediseñar productos ya existentes desde la perspectiva del eco-diseño.Peer Reviewe

Tracking the moisture transport from the Pacific towards Central and northern South America since the late 19th century

In this paper, we develop an instrumental index based on historical wind direction observations aimed to quantify the moisture transport from the tropical Pacific to Central and northern South America at a monthly scale. This transport is mainly driven by the so-called “Chocó jet”, a low-level westerly jet whose core is located at 5◦ N and 80◦ W. The Chocó jet is profoundly related to the dynamics of the Intertropical Convergence Zone in the eastern equatorial Pacific and it is responsible for up to 30 % of the total precipitation in these areas. We have been able to produce an index for this transport starting in the 19th century, adding almost a century of data to previous comparable indices. Our results indicate that the seasonal distribution of the precipitation in Central America has changed throughout the 20th century as a response to the changes in the Chocó jet, decreasing (increasing) its strength in July (September). Additionally, we have found that in general, the relationship between the Chocó jet and the El Niño–Southern Oscillation has been remarkably stable throughout the entire 20th century, a finding particularly significant because the stability of this relation is usually the basis of the hydrologic reconstructions in northern South America

CLIWOC multilingual meteorological dictionary

This dictionary is the first attempt to express the wealth of archaic logbook wind force terms in a form that is comprehensible to the modern-day reader. Oliver and Kington (1970) and Lamb (1982) have drawn attention to the importance of logbooks in climatic studies, and Lamb (1991) offered a conversion scale for early eighteenth century English wind force terms, but no studies have thus far pursued the matter to any greater depth. This text attempts to make good this deficiency, and is derived from the research undertaken by the CLIWOC project1 in which British, Dutch, French and Spanish naval and merchant logbooks from the period 1750 to 1850 were used to derive a global database of climatic information. At an early stage in the project it was apparent that many of the logbook weather terms, whilst conforming to a conventional vocabulary, possessed meanings that were unclear to twenty-first century readers or had changed over time. This was particularly the case for the important element of wind force; but no special plea is entered for the evolution in nautical vocabulary, which often reflected more wide-ranging changes in the respective native languages.The key objective was to translate the archaic vocabulary of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century mariner into expressions directly comparable with the Beaufort Scale (see Appendix I). Only then could the projects scientific programme be embarked upon. This dictionary is the result of the largest undertaking into logbook studies that has yet been carried out. Several thousand logbooks from British, Dutch, French and Spanish archives were examined, and the exercise offered a unique opportunity to explore the vocabulary of the one hundred year period beginning in 1750. The logbooks from which the raw data have been abstracted range widely across the North and South Atlantic and the Indian Oceans. Only the Pacific, largely in consequence of the paucity of regular naval activity in that area, is not well represented. The range of climates encountered in this otherwise wide geographic domain gives ample opportunity for the full range of the mariners nautical weather vocabulary to be assessed, from the calms of the Equatorial regions, through the gales of the mid-latitude systems to the fearsome storms of the tropical latitudes. The Trade Winds belts, the Doldrums, the unsettled mid-latitudes, even the icy wastes of the high latitudes, are all embraced in this study. It is not here intended to pass any judgements on the climatological record of the logbooks, and this text seeks only to provide a means of understanding archaic wind force terms and, other than to indicate those items that were not commonly used, no information is given on the frequency with which different terms appeared in the logbooks. Attention is, furthermore, confined to Dutch, English, French and Spanish because these once great imperial powers were the only nations able to support wide-ranging ocean-going fleets with their attendant collections of logbooks and documents over this long period of time. The work is offered to the wider academic community in the hope that they will prove to be of as much value as it has been to the CLIWOC team

Evaluation of the EURO-CORDEX Regional Climate Models Over the Iberian Peninsula: Observational Uncertainty Analysis

ABSTRACT: This work evaluates the daily precipitation and mean temperature of eight CORDEX-EUR11 ERA-Interim-driven simulations of EURO-CORDEX over the Iberian Peninsula (IP) for the period 1989-2008. To this aim, three observational data sets (Iberia01, E-OBS-v19e, and MESAN-0.11) were considered as reference and compared with the models by means of several indices reflecting the mean and extreme regimes over the IP. For precipitation the Lamb weather types were considered to identify synoptic conditions related with higher observational uncertainty. RCMs are able to reproduce the spatial pattern and the variability observed in the IP. However, there is a higher agreement between models and observations for mean temperature than for precipitation, decreasing when extremes are analyzed. For the observational uncertainty analysis, also extreme daily temperatures were considered to obtain a wider picture of this topic. A higher dependence on the observational data set has been found for precipitation than for temperature. This uncertainty is particularly significant when the 50-year return value is considered for which the observational uncertainty doubles the model uncertainty. Only the wet-day frequency presents values lower than 0.5 for all seasons, with most of the rest of values reflecting a similar contribution of both components to the uncertainty. In the case of temperatures, the main contribution of the observations has been found when the lower (MAE01) and upper (MAE99) extremes are considered, with values lower than 0.5. For precipitation the observational uncertainty increases when synoptic patterns affecting the Mediterranean Basin are considered, reflecting the difficulty to properly capture the Mediterranean precipitation regimes.This work was partially funded by the Spanish Government R&D Programme (Exp. CGL2010-21869 and CGL2010-22158-C02) and the European Comission (INDECIS: H2020-690462). Pedro M. M. Soares and Rita M. Cardoso wish to acknowledge the SOLAR (PTDC/GEOMET/7078/2014) Project and the funding by the Instituto Dom Luiz (Project FCT UID/GEO/50019/2019)