271 research outputs found
Influencia de la transposición didáctica aplicada a la operacionalización en el sistema de los números racionales en el desempeño académico de los estudiantes del primer ciclo del área de Ciencias de la Universidad Tecnológica del Perú durante el ciclo 2018-I
Determina de qué manera influye la aplicación de la transposición didáctica a la operacionalidad en el sistema de los números racionales en el desempeño académico de los estudiantes del área de Ciencias de la Universidad Tecnológica del Perú, durante el ciclo 2018-1. La investigación tiene un diseño
hipotético - deductivo. La muestra la constituyen un grupo de estudiantes de las carreras de
ciencias de la Universidad Tecnológica del Perú (UTP). Para la recolección de los datos se
diseñaron una ficha de cotejo y una prueba de entrada y salida
Artificial intelligence-based software (AID-FOREST) for tree detection: A new framework for fast and accurate forest inventorying using LiDAR point clouds
Forest inventories are essential to accurately estimate different dendrometric and forest stand parameters. However, classical forest inventories are time consuming, slow to conduct, sometimes inaccurate and costly. To address this problem, an efficient alternative approach has been sought and designed that will make this type of field work cheaper, faster, more accurate, and easier to complete. The implementation of this concept has required the development of a specifically designed software called "Artificial Intelligence for Digital Forest (AID-FOREST)", which is able to process point clouds obtained via mobile terrestrial laser scanning (MTLS) and then, to provide an array of multiple useful and accurate dendrometric and forest stand parameters. Singular characteristics of this approach are: No data pre-processing is required either pre-treatment of forest stand; fully automatic process once launched; no limitations by the size of the point cloud file and fast computations.To validate AID-FOREST, results provided by this software were compared against the obtained from in-situ classical forest inventories. To guaranty the soundness and generality of the comparison, different tree spe-cies, plot sizes, and tree densities were measured and analysed. A total of 76 plots (10,887 trees) were selected to conduct both a classic forest inventory reference method and a MTLS (ZEB-HORIZON, Geoslam, ltd.) scanning to obtain point clouds for AID-FOREST processing, known as the MTLS-AIDFOREST method. Thus, we compared the data collected by both methods estimating the average number of trees and diameter at breast height (DBH) for each plot. Moreover, 71 additional individual trees were scanned with MTLS and processed by AID-FOREST and were then felled and divided into logs measuring 1 m in length. This allowed us to accurately measure the DBH, total height, and total volume of the stems.When we compared the results obtained with each methodology, the mean detectability was 97% and ranged from 81.3 to 100%, with a bias (underestimation by MTLS-AIDFOREST method) in the number of trees per plot of 2.8% and a relative root-mean-square error (RMSE) of 9.2%. Species, plot size, and tree density did not significantly affect detectability. However, this parameter was significantly affected by the ecosystem visual complexity index (EVCI). The average DBH per plot was underestimated (but was not significantly different from 0) by the MTLS-AIDFOREST, with the average bias for pooled data being 1.8% with a RMSE of 7.5%. Similarly, there was no statistically significant differences between the two distribution functions of the DBH at the 95.0% confidence level.Regarding the individual tree parameters, MTLS-AIDFOREST underestimated DBH by 0.16 % (RMSE = 5.2 %) and overestimated the stem volume (Vt) by 1.37 % (RMSE = 14.3 %, although the BIAS was not statistically significantly different from 0). However, the MTLS-AIDFOREST method overestimated the total height (Ht) of the trees by a mean 1.33 m (5.1 %; relative RMSE = 11.5 %), because of the different height concepts measured by both methodological approaches. Finally, AID-FOREST required 30 to 66 min per ha-1 to fully automatically process the point cloud data from the *.las file corresponding to a given hectare plot. Thus, applying our MTLS-AIDFOREST methodology to make full forest inventories, required a 57.3 % of the time required to perform classical plot forest inventories (excluding the data postprocessing time in the latter case). A free trial of AID -FOREST can be requested at [email protected]
Productivity and Seasonality Drive Total Soil Respiration in Semi-Arid Juniper Woodlands (Juniperus thurifera L., Southern Spain)
We analyzed the relationship between forest productivity (joint effect of forest maturity and soil quality) and total soil respiration (mu mol CO2 m(-2) s(-1)) in semi-arid juniper woodlands (young woodlands growing in abandoned farmlands with deeper soils, and mature woodlands in lithic soils), and investigated the seasonal variation in soil CO2 efflux as a function of soil temperature and the soil water content. We measured the soil CO2 efflux from twelve cylinders in the soil over a three-year period using LI-6400 equipment. The results show that, in the more productive site (young woodland), soil CO2 efflux was higher due to greater respiration, mainly in the driest periods. Soil respiration followed a seasonal trend, being higher in spring and decreasing in cold periods. In both juniper woodlands and especially in the older forest, the CO2 efflux rates were low ( 25%) for both woodlands, coinciding with warm temperatures in the spring. This period also corresponded to the highest CO2 efflux recorded in both woodlands. The accumulation of organic C seems to also be important to maintain elevated soil respiration in summer, especially in young woodlands. Thus, apart from microclimatic conditions, factors related to productivity regulate respiratory activity
A Simple Formulation for Visco-Hyperelastic Behavior for Soft Materials Suitable for Different Loading Types
Soft materials, and especially soft biological tissues, have a complex highly nonlinear behavior both for quasielastic (slow) and viscous loading. In partiular, the cyclic behavior is different depending on the loading speed, number of cycles, and their magnitude. Furthermore, different soft materials and soft tissues have different particularities in their behavior. Therefore, a phenomenological proposal capable of accurately capturing all these singularities with few, easy to obtain parameters based on experimental data, is valuable. In this study, a visco-hyperelastic one-dimensional formulation to characterize different biological tissues is proposed, which has proven to be capable of capturing the response of numerous soft biological tissues (brain tissue, coronary arteries, tendons, tongue tissues, abdominal muscle, cells...) under pure and combined loading modes, including tension, compression, simple shear and the combination of the latter one with tension and compression. One of the main advantages of the proposed model is its simplicity, being that the formulation is calibrated with four simple parameters (two of them for the hyperelastic component and four for dealing with the different viscous aspects) obtained from the uniaxial loading. The formulation, based on a combination of Maxwell and Kelvin-Voigt rheological models has proven to represent to very good accuracy the behavior of a wide range of materials under different types of loadings, including effects like preconditioning and cycle stabilization. In all these cases, under different monotonic and cyclic loading, all aspects of the viscous and elastic behavior are accurately captured. Thanks to its structure, this model incorporates strain-level dependent nonequilibrium viscoelasticity and it may be easily incorporated to 3D nonlinear finite strains formulations
Toxicological hazard induced by sucralose to environmentally relevant concentrations in common carp (Cyprinus carpio)
Sucralose (SUC) is an artificial sweetener that is now widely used in North American and Europe; it has been de- tected in a wide variety of aquatic environments. It is considered safe for human consumption but its effects in the ecosystem have not yet been studied in depth, since limited ecotoxicological data are available in the peer- reviewed literature. This study aimed to evaluate potential SUC-induced toxicological hazard in the blood, brain, gill, liver and muscle of Cyprinus carpio using oxidative stress biomarkers. Carps were exposed to two dif- ferent environmentally relevant concentrations (0.05 and 155 μg L− 1) for different exposure times (12, 24, 48, 72 and 96 h). The following biomarkers were evaluated: lipid peroxidation (LPX), hydroperoxide content (HPC) and protein carbonyl content (PCC), as well as the activity of antioxidant enzymes, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT). SUC was determined by high pressure liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry tech- niques (HPLC)–MS/MS. Results show a statically significant increase in LPX, HPC, PCC (P b 0.05) especially in gill, brain and muscle, as well as significant changes in the activity of antioxidant enzymes in gill and muscle. Fur- thermore, the biomarkers employed in this study are useful in the assessment of the environmental impact of this agent on aquatic species
MPK6, sphinganine and the \u3ci\u3eLCB2a\u3c/i\u3e gene from serine palmitoyltransferase are required in the signaling pathway that mediates cell death induced by long chain bases in \u3ci\u3eArabidopsis\u3c/i\u3e
• Long chain bases (LCBs) are sphingolipid intermediates acting as second messengers in programmed cell death (PCD) in plants. Most of the molecular and cellular features of this signaling function remain unknown.
• We induced PCD conditions in Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings and analyzed LCB accumulation kinetics, cell ultrastructure and phenotypes in serine palmitoyltransferase (spt), mitogen-activated protein kinase (mpk), mitogenactivated protein phosphatase (mkp1) and lcb-hydroxylase (sbh) mutants.
• The lcb2a-1 mutant was unable to mount an effective PCD in response to fumonisin B1 (FB1), revealing that the LCB2a gene is essential for the induction of PCD. The accumulation kinetics of LCBs in wild-type (WT) and lcb2a-1 plants and reconstitution experiments with sphinganine indicated that this LCB was primarily responsible for PCD elicitation. The resistance of the null mpk6 mutant to manifest PCD on FB1 and sphinganine addition and the failure to show resistance on pathogen infection and MPK6 activation by FB1 and LCBs indicated that MPK6 mediates PCD downstream of LCBs.
• This work describes MPK6 as a novel transducer in the pathway leading to LCBinduced PCD in Arabidopsis, and reveals that sphinganine and the LCB2a gene are required in a PCD process that operates as one of the more effective strategies used as defense against pathogens in plants
4-1BBL as a Mediator of Cross-Talk between Innate, Adaptive, and Regulatory Immunity against Cancer
The ability of tumor cells to evade the immune system is one of the main challenges we confront in the fight against cancer. Multiple strategies have been developed to counteract this situation, including the use of immunostimulant molecules that play a key role in the anti-tumor immune response. Such a response needs to be tumor-specific to cause as little damage as possible to healthy cells and also to track and eliminate disseminated tumor cells. Therefore, the combination of immunostimulant molecules and tumor-associated antigens has been implemented as an antitumor therapy strategy to eliminate the main obstacles confronted in conventional therapies. The immunostimulant 4-1BBL belongs to the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) family and it has been widely reported as the most effective member for activating lymphocytes. Hence, we will review the molecular, pre-clinical, and clinical applications in conjunction with tumor-associated antigens in antitumor immunotherapy, as well as the main molecular pathways involved in this association
Maturity and Evolution of E-Government Portals in Central America: A Three-year Assessment 2011-2013
ABSTRACT The construction, deployment and delivery of Internet citizen portals does not necessarily follow the same process in developed and developing countries and there is not enough research about less developed nations. These government-wide websites could potentially become the gateways for citizen participation and collaboration with government. This paper applies a multidimensional evaluation model to the national citizen portals of Central American countries in three consecutive years (2011)(2012)(2013) and compares its results with demographic and economic data in order to provide some of the necessary knowledge about this phenomenon. Using a model that was first used in 2005 for evaluating Mexican state portals, a ranking is generated for the 26 Central America countries
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