X-ray monitoring of the radio and gamma-ray loud Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxy PKS 2004-447

We present preliminary results of the X-ray analysis of XMM-Newton and Swift observations as part of a multi-wavelength monitoring campaign in 2012 of the radio-loud narrow line Seyfert 1 galaxy PKS 2004-447. The source was recently detected in gamma-rays by Fermi/LAT among only four other galaxies of that type. The 0.5-10 keV X-ray spectrum is well-described by a simple absorbed powerlaw (photon index ~ 1.6). The source brightness exhibits variability on timescales of months to years with indications for spectral variability, which follows a 'bluer-when-brighter' behaviour, similar to blazars.Comment: Proceedings for the 'Jet 2013' conference. Includes 3 pages, 3 figure

Early Pleistocene hominins in europe: the sites of Barranco León and Fuente Nueva-3 (Orce, Spain)

The Early Pleistocene (Late Villafranchian) sites of Orce, placed in the northeastern sector of the Guadix-Baza Basin (Granada, southeastern Spain), are key to the study of the first human settlements in the European subcontinent. Evidence of human presence and anthropic activity has been found at two sites, Barranco Leon and Fuente Nueva-3. In this sedimentary basin, the hominins inhabited a mild environment rich in vegetation, which provided all resources necessary for their living, including the presence of a lake with a permanent water sheet fed by thermal springs and abundant ungulate carcasses. However, these animal resources were also focus of attention for scavenging carnivores. In Barranco León, with a chronology of 1.4 Ma, and slightly older than Fuente Nueva-3, 1.3 Ma, a deciduous tooth of Homo sp. has been unearthed in 2002 [1] and a huge assemblage of Oldowan (i. e. Mode 1) tools, made in flint and limestones, have been recovered in both localities. In addition, evidences of human modification are frequents on the bone surfaces, as cut-marks, resulting from disarticulation, defleshing and evisceration activities, and percussion marks that evidence bone fracturing for accessing marrow contents. Cut marks are mostly present on large ungulates limb bones, although a number of axial elements, as rib and vertebrae fragments, show cut marked surfaces. Percussion evidences are located almost exclusively in appendicular elements. Carnivores activities are present too, and are focused, as cut marks, on limb bones. These modifications were mostly originated by the giant, short-faced hyena of African origin Pachycrocuta brevirostris, althought the study of the fossil bones from the last four dig seasons evidence the presence of tooth marks from other carnivores of smaller body size. In any case, anthropic activity predominates in both, Barranco León and Fuente Nueva-3, which suggest a secondary access of carnivores to these areas. However, the upper archaeological level of Fuente Nueva-3, which has provided 150 coprolites and several tooth remains of P. brevirostris, is an exception to the pattern of competitive exclusion depicted above for hominins and scavenging carnivores. Taphonomic analysis of ungulate postcranial remains preserved in this level has shown increased carnivoran activity, thus evidencing a possible competition for ungulate carcasses between Homo and Pachycrocuta This work has been done in the framework of the contract Exp. B090678SV18BC funded and authorized by Consejería de Cultura de la Junta de Andalucía, and the project P11-HUM-7248 by Junta deAndalucía References:[1] Toro-Moyano, I, Martínez-Navarro, B., Agustí, J., Souday, C., Bermúdez De Castro, J.M., Martinón-Torres, M., Fajardo, B., Duval, M., Falguères, C., Oms, O., Parés, J.M., Anadón, P., Julià, R., García-Aguilar, J.M., Moigne, A.-M., Espigares, M.P., Ros-Montoya, S., Palmqvist, P., 2013. The oldest human fossil in Europe, from Orce (Spain). Journal of Human Evolution, 65, 1-9.[2] Espigares, M.P., Martínez-Navarro, B., Palmqvist, P., Ros-Montoya, S., Toro, I., Agustí, J. Sala, R., 2013. Homo vs. Pachycrocuta: Earliest evidence of competition for an elephant carcass between scavengers at Fuente Nueva-3 (Orce, Spain). Quaternary International. 295, 113 -125.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Fractional-order operators: Boundary problems, heat equations

The first half of this work gives a survey of the fractional Laplacian (and related operators), its restricted Dirichlet realization on a bounded domain, and its nonhomogeneous local boundary conditions, as treated by pseudodifferential methods. The second half takes up the associated heat equation with homogeneous Dirichlet condition. Here we recall recently shown sharp results on interior regularity and on $L_p$-estimates up to the boundary, as well as recent H\"older estimates. This is supplied with new higher regularity estimates in $L_2$-spaces using a technique of Lions and Magenes, and higher $L_p$-regularity estimates (with arbitrarily high H\"older estimates in the time-parameter) based on a general result of Amann. Moreover, it is shown that an improvement to spatial $C^\infty$-regularity at the boundary is not in general possible.Comment: 29 pages, updated version, to appear in a Springer Proceedings in Mathematics and Statistics: "New Perspectives in Mathematical Analysis - Plenary Lectures, ISAAC 2017, Vaxjo Sweden

West of England: Gypsy Traveller Accommodation (and other needs) Assessment 2006-2016

This Gypsy Traveller Accommodation Assessment, in addition to calculating pitch requirements for the time-period 2006-2016, explores a comprehensive range of services and provision appropriate to improving accommodation and increasing social inclusion amongst Gypsy and Traveller communities in the study area

Detailed studies of the binding mechanism of the Sinorhizobium meliloti transcriptional activator ExpG to DNA

Baumgarth B, Bartels FW, Anselmetti D, Becker A, Ros R. Detailed studies of the binding mechanism of the Sinorhizobium meliloti transcriptional activator ExpG to DNA. Microbiology. 2005;151(1):259-268.The exopolysaccharide galactoglucan promotes the establishment of symbiosis between the nitrogen-fixing Gram-negative soil bacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti 2011 and its host plant alfalfa. The transcriptional regulator ExpG activates expression of galactoglucan biosynthesis genes by direct binding to the expA1, expG/expD1 and expE1 promoter regions. ExpG is a member of the MarR family of regulatory proteins. Analysis of target sequences of an ExpG(His)6 fusion protein in the exp promoter regions resulted in the identification of a binding site composed of a conserved palindromic region and two associated sequence motifs. Association and dissociation kinetics of the specific binding of ExpG(His)6 to this binding site were characterized by standard biochemical methods and by single-molecule spectroscopy based on the atomic force microscope (AFM). Dynamic force spectroscopy indicated a distinct difference in the kinetics between the wild-type binding sequence and two mutated binding sites, leading to a closer understanding of the ExpG-DNA interaction

Specific binding of the regulatory protein ExpG to promoter regions of the galactoglucan biosynthesis gene cluster of Sinorhizobium meliloti: a combined molecular biology and force spectroscopy investigation

Bartels FW, Baumgarth B, Anselmetti D, Ros R, Becker A. Specific binding of the regulatory protein ExpG to promoter regions of the galactoglucan biosynthesis gene cluster of Sinorhizobium meliloti: a combined molecular biology and force spectroscopy investigation. Journal of structural biology. 2003;143(2):145-152.Specific protein-DNA interaction is fundamental for all aspects of gene transcription. We focus on a regulatory DNA-binding protein in the Gram-negative soil bacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti 2011, which is capable of fixing molecular nitrogen in a symbiotic interaction with alfalfa plants. The ExpG protein plays a central role in regulation of the biosynthesis of the exopolysaccharide galactoglucan, which promotes the establishment of symbiosis. ExpG is a transcriptional activator of exp gene expression. We investigated the molecular mechanism of binding of ExpG to three associated target sequences in the exp gene cluster with standard biochemical methods and single molecule force spectroscopy based on the atomic force microscope (AFM). Binding of ExpG to expA1, expG-expD1, and expE1 promoter fragments in a sequence specific manner was demonstrated, and a 28 bp conserved region was found. AFM force spectroscopy experiments confirmed the specific binding of ExpG to the promoter regions, with unbinding forces ranging from 50 to 165pN in a logarithmic dependence from the loading rates of 70-79000 pN/s. Two different regimes of loading rate-dependent behaviour were identified. Thermal off-rates in the range of k off = (1.2 ± 1.0) × 10 -3 s -1 were derived from the lower loading rate regime for all promoter regions. In the upper loading rate regime, however, these fragments exhibited distinct differences which are attributed to the molecular binding mechanism

Innovación y competitividad: análisis comparativo de Apple y Samsung

[ES] A partir de esta propuesta de trabajo, se pretende realizar un análisis comparativo acerca de dos de las empresas que lideran el sector tecnológico a nivel mundial. El objetivo principal de este trabajo es contrastar el funcionamiento estas dos empresas en términos de innovación y de competitividad y teniendo en cuenta otras variables (liderazgo, eficiencia, productividad, etc.). De este modo, y tras haber realizado el análisis, se busca extraer conclusiones que pongan de manifiesto la posición competitiva de estas dos empresas, sus puntos fuertes y débiles, sus ventajas competitivas, la influencia que ejercen sobre otras empresas y otros aspectos relevantes.[EN] Starting from this work proposal, it intends to do a comparative analysis on two companies that lead the technological sector worldwide. The main goal of this work is to contrast the operation of both companies in terms of innovation and competitiveness and taking into account other factors (leadership, efficiency, productivity, etc.). In this way, after having realized the analysis, it seeks to extract cpnclusions that reflect the competitive position of both companies, their strengths and weaknesses, the influence ~hat they exercise on the rest, and other relevant i issues[CA] A partir d'aquesta proposta de treball, es pretén realitzar un analisi comparatiu sobre dos de les empreses que lideren el sector tecnologic a nivell mundial. L'objectiu principal d'aquest treball és contrastar el funcionament d'aquestes dos empreses en terms de innovació i competitivitat, i tinguent en compte altres factors (lideratge, eficiencia, productivitat, etc). D'aquesta manera, i després d'haver realitzat l'analisi, es busca extraure conclusions que posen de manifest la posició competitiva d'estes dos empreses, els seus punts forts i debils, els seus avantatges competitius, la influencia que exercixen sobre les altres empreses i altres aspectes rellevants.Bruixola Ros, RJ. (2017). Innovación y competitividad: Análisis comparativo de Apple y Samsung. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/87244.TFG

Scheduling Sustainable Homecare with Urban Transport and Different Skilled Nurses Using an Approximate Algorithm

The essential characteristics that distinguish homecare services from other routing and scheduling problems are relatively few patients being spread out over a large urban area, long transport times and several different services being provided. The approach that the authors present herein was developed to solve planning homecare services according to the criterion of increasing social sustainability and incorporating environmentally sustainable transport systems. The objective of this paper is to present a tool to plan the daily work carried out by a homecare service with assigned patients with specific care requirements. It relies on the resources of nurses with different qualifications by assuming costs that depend on both offering the service and the different chosen transport modes. The algorithm manages several priority rules by ensuring that homecare provider goals and standards are met. The developed algorithm was tested according to the weekly homecare schedule of a group of nurses in a medium-sized European city and was successfully used during validation to improve homecare planning decisions. The results, therefore, are not generalisable but its modular structure ensures its applicability to different cases. The algorithm provides a patient-centred visiting plan and improves transport allocation by offering nurses a better route assignment by considering the required variables and each nurse's daily workload.This research was founded Young Researcher Training granted by the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (MEDIFAS) according to the contract reached between the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS) and MEDIFAS