Predació de niu de Mallerenga Carbonera (Parus major) per Serp Verda (Malpolon monspessulanus)

Es va veure una serp verda de 130 cm com es menjava tant els sis polls de mallerengues com el niu al delta del Llobregat. El niu estava situat a l'interior de la base d'un fanal abandonat al qual la serp va accedir per un forat d'uns 3 cm que hi havia a uns 40 cm del terra. La predació de nius es coneix per a la serp blanca, però sembla menys habitual per la serp verda. A més, la predació normalment només inclou els polls i no el niu com en aquest cas. La predació per part de serps pot ser l'explicació de la desaparició d'alguns nius, almenys en la regió mediterràna

Clutch and egg size in a Spanish population of Litlle Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis)

Fins ara se sospitava que la mida de la posta del cabusset a Europa seguia una clina latitudinal. En aquest estudi es va estimar la mida de posta mitjana i de l'ou del cabusset al delta del Llobregat durant 1992, 1994 i 1995. Es van emprar únicament mesures de primeres postes completes per evitar la variació de la mida de l'ou dins d'una mateixa posta i diferències entre primeres i successives postes. La mida de posta mitjana va ser de 5,1 ous/posta (s.d.= 0,93, n=16, rang 4-7). La mida mitjana dels ous va ser de 37,4 de llarg per 26,1 d'ample, amb un volum resultant de 13,0 cm3. Mentre que l'anàlisi de la mida de posta va donar diferències significatives amb resultats austríacs i italians, aquests no van ser-ho amb poblacions centreeuropees, ni tampoc va haver-hi diferències en la mida dels ous. La mida dels ous de cabusset es troba dins els límits descrits per a l'espècie, si bé la mida de posta obtinguda és de les més altes obtingudes mai a Europa. En contrast amb el que es pensava fins ara, les diferències en la mida de posta de les diferents poblacions de cabusset a Europa no es poden explicar per l'existència d'una clina latitudinal

An additional ageing criterion for Penduline Tits (Remiz pendulinus)

Els individus adults de teixidor realitzen una muda completa després de la cria, mentre que els ocells del primer any efectuen una muda estival parcial, després de la qual retenen algunes cobertores grans. Alguns autors han suggerit que una part dels ocells joves mudarien totes les cobertores grans, i que seria possible confondre'ls amb ocells adults. D'una mostra de 156 teixidors, 48 presentaren una muda completa de totes les cobertores grans i àlula (individus adults); 100 presentaven un nombre variable de cobertores grans retingudes i la ploma central de l'àlula no mudada (individus de primer any). Es suggereix que la ploma central de l'àlula és un criteri més fiable que la muda de les cobertores grans per determinar l'edat del teixidor en les poblacions més meridionals

Omnidirectional underwater surveying and telepresence

Exploratory dives are traditionally the first step for marine scientists to acquire information on a previously unknown area of scientific interest. Manned submersibles have been the platform of choice for such exploration, as they allow a high level of environmental perception by the scientist on-board, and the ability to take informed decisions on what to explore next. However, manned submersibles have extremely high operation costs and provide very limited bottom time. Remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) can partially address these two issues, but have operational and cost constraints that restrict their usage. This paper discusses new capabilities to assist scientists operating lightweight hybrid remotely operated vehicles (HROV) in exploratory missions of mapping and surveying. The new capabilities, under development within the Spanish National project OMNIUS, provide a new layer of autonomy for HROVs by exploring three key concepts: Omni-directional optical sensing for collaborative immersive exploration, Proximity safety awareness and Online mapping during mission time.Peer Reviewe

Research on NLP for RE at UPC: a report

[Team Overview] The Software and Service Engineering Group (GESSI) of UPC has traditionally conducted research in many fields of software engineering. [Research Plan on NLP] As a result of our participation in the OpenReq project, natural language processing (NLP) has become one of our highest priority research fields. We are using NLP for interdependency detection and requirements reuse, being the center piece of both tasks the identification of similar requirements.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Determination of total plasma hydroperoxides using a diphenyl-1-pyrenylphosphine fluorescent probe

Plasma hydroperoxides (HPs) are widely accepted to be good indicators of oxidative stress. By means of the method proposed here, which uses diphenyl-1-pyrenylphosphine (DPPP) as a fluorescent probe, all types of plasma HP were determined. The limits of detection and quantification of the method were 0.08 and 0.25 nmol of cumene hydroperoxide (CHP) equivalents in 40 μl of plasma, respectively. The method is satisfactory in terms of precision (5.3% for 14.5 μM CHP eq., n=8), and the recoveries were 91% and 92% after standard additions of 26 and 52 μM CHP, respectively. The selectivity of the proposed method is higher than 96%. Moreover, optimization of the reaction conditions and the addition of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) disodium salt and 2,6-di-tert-butyl-4-methylphenol (BHT) prevented the formation of HP artifacts during the analysis. Therefore, the proposed method is useful for simple and quantitative determination of total plasma HPs

Tunable photonic Bloch oscillations in electrically modulated photonic crystals

We exploit theoretically the occurrence and tunability of photonic Bloch oscillations (PBOs) in one-dimensional photonic crystals (PCs) containing nonlinear composites. Because of the enhanced third-order nonlinearity (Kerr type nonlinearity) of composites, photons undergo oscillations inside tilted photonic bands, which are achieved by the application of graded external pump electric fields on such PCs, varying along the direction perpendicular to the surface of layers. The tunability of PBOs (including amplitude and period) is readily achieved by changing the field gradient. With an appropriate graded pump AC or DC electric field, terahertz PBOs can appear and cover a terahertz band in electromagnetic spectrum

Polymerase Chain Reaction Versus Blood Culture to Detect Candida Species in High-Risk Patients with Suspected Invasive Candidiasis: The MICAFEM Study

Abdominal fluid; Blood cultures; CandidaFluid abdominal; Hemocultiu; CandidaFluido abdominal; Hemocultivo; CandidaWe evaluated the diagnostic reliability of serum polymerase chain reaction (PCR) versus blood culture, abdominal fluid or both (composite measure) in patients receiving empirical antifungal treatment for suspected invasive candidiasis. METHODS: This observational, prospective, non-interventional, multicentre study in Spain enrolled 176 critically ill patients admitted to the intensive care unit. Separate blood samples for culture and serum PCR were taken before the start of antifungal therapy. Patient assessment was performed according to each site's usual clinical practice. The primary end point was concordance between serum PCR and blood culture. Secondary end points were concordance between serum PCR and a positive abdominal fluid sample or the composite measure. Quality indices included sensitivity, specificity, positive/negative predictive values (PPV/NPV) and kappa indices. RESULTS: Among 175 evaluable patients, rates of Candida detection were similar for serum PCR (n = 16/175, 9.1%) versus blood culture (n = 14/175, 8.0%). Quality indices for serum PCR relative to blood culture were: sensitivity 21.4%; specificity 91.9%; PPV 18.8%; NPV 93.1%; kappa index 0.125. Thirty-two abdominal fluid samples were positive. Quality indices for serum PCR versus abdominal fluid were: sensitivity 31.3%; specificity 83.0%; PPV 15.6%; NPV 92.3%; kappa index 0.100. Quality indices for serum PCR versus the composite measure were: sensitivity 15.8%; specificity 92.7%; PPV 37.5%; NPV 79.9%; kappa index 0.107. CONCLUSION: The sensitivity of serum PCR for Candida detection was low and the rate of concordance was low between serum PCR and the other diagnostic techniques used to identify Candida infections. Hospital-based diagnostic tests need optimising to improve outcomes in patients with suspected invasive candidiasis.123/Astellas Pharma Global Developmen

High-throughput analysis of lipid hydroperoxides in edible oils and fats using the fluorescent reagent diphenyl-1-pyrenylphosphine

A fluorometric method for the determination of hydroperoxides (HP) in edible oils and fats using the reagent diphenyl-1-pyrenylphosphine (DPPP) was developed and validated. Two solvent media containing 100% butanol or a mixture of chloroform/methanol (2:1, v/v) can be used to solubilize lipid samples. Regardless of the solvent used to solubilize the sample, the DPPP method was precise, accurate, sensitive and easy to perform. The HP content of 43 oil and fat samples was determined and the results were compared with those obtained by means of the AOCS Official Method for the determination of peroxide value (PV) and the ferrous oxidation-xylenol orange (FOX) method. The proposed method not only correlates well with the PV and FOX methods, but also presents some advantages such as requiring low sample and solvent amounts and being suitable for high-throughput sample analysis