To slide or stride: when should Adélie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae) toboggan?

We noted whether Adélie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae), when travelling over snow, walked or tobogganed according to gradient, snow friction, or snow penetrability. Both walking and tobogganing penguins reduced stride length and stride frequency, and thus speed, with increasing uphill gradient although tobogganing birds travelled faster and with fewer leg movements. The incidence of tobogganing increased with decreasing friction between penguin and snow. The percentage of penguins tobogganing was also highly positively correlated with increasing snow penetrability. Penguins walking on soft snow must expend additional energy to pull their feet through the snow, whereas tobogganing birds do not sink. It is to be expected that Adélie penguins would utilize the most energetically favourable form of travel which, under almost all conditions, appeared to be tobogganing. Although tobogganing appears to be energetically more efficient than walking, rubbing the feathers over snow increases the coefficient of friction in unpreeened plumage. We propose that a high incidence of tobogganing necessitates increased feather care and that the decision whether to walk or toboggan probably represents a balance between immediate energy expenditure and subsequent energy and time expended maintaining plumage condition

How Relevant is Energy Efficiency in The Marketing of Homes? Evidence from Real Estate Agents in Spain

In order to foster informed transactions, the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive has made it mandatory to get an Energy Performance Certificate in the marketing of the Communitarian Real Estate. Due to energy savings and environmental preservation, it is expected that efficient buildings do receive an increased willingness to pay. The evidence coming from a number of statistical studies has confirmed the existence of such premium. Nevertheless, such finding is contradictory in relation to the conclusions of opinion-based studies. This paper seeks to study whether energy efficiency drives market price and the marketing of homes in Spain. In doing so, a survey applied to realtors across the country has been implemented. The results are in line with other opinion-based studies pointing out that energy performance has a negligible impact on the marketing of homes. Furthermore, real estate agents suggest that companion policies in the sphere of subsidies and fiscal exceptions are needed in order to bring energy efficiency to the first line of elicitation attributes in the residential market.This work is funded by EnerValor project grant BIA 2015-63606-R (MINECO/FEDER

RESCUhE Project: Cultural Heritage vulnerability in a changing and directional climate

[EN] RESCUhE Project (Improving structural RESilience of Cultural HEritage to directional extreme hydro-meteorological events in the context of the Climate Change) is a coordinated IGME-UAM research project funded by Spanish Government (MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033). The framework of this research is the predicted increase in climate change vulnerability of heritage sites and the current disconnection between both environmental research on material decay and the practical aspects of designing preventive conservation measurements.RESCUhE Project (Improving structural RESilience of Cultural HEritage to directional extreme hydro-meteorological events in the context of the Climate Change) is a coordinated IGME-UAM research project funded by Spanish Government (MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033).Peer reviewe

Universidad, género, docencia e igualdad

La Red de investigación en docencia universitaria “Universidad, docencia, genero e igualdad” persigue avanzar en la calidad e innovación de las enseñanzas universitarias a partir de la inclusión de la perspectiva de género. Se busca dar cumplimiento a las directrices generales de los nuevos planes de estudio respecto del principio de igualdad de oportunidades entre hombres y mujeres en la formación universitaria (Real Decreto 1393/2007. BOE nº 260, 30 de octubre de 2007). En la cuarta edición de la Red, y dada su composición multidisciplinar, se desarrollaron tres líneas de investigación: 1) mantenimiento del “Portal web con recursos docentes con perspectiva de género”, proyecto financiado por el Instituto de la Mujer (PACUI, 2012) e iniciado en el curso 2012-2013; 2) desarrollo (primera versión) de “iLengUA”, una herramienta informática para un discurso inclusivo e igualitario; y 3) diseño de la Guía para una orientación universitaria inclusiva

Red “Universidad, género, docencia e igualdad”

La Red de investigación en docencia universitaria “Universidad, docencia, genero e igualdad” persigue avanzar en la calidad e innovación de las enseñanzas universitarias a partir de la inclusión de la perspectiva de género. Se busca dar cumplimiento a las directrices generales de los nuevos planes de estudio respecto del principio de igualdad de oportunidades entre hombres y mujeres en la formación universitaria (Real Decreto 1393/2007. BOE nº 260, 30 de octubre de 2007). En la quinta edición de la Red, y dada su composición multidisciplinar, se ha trabajado en tres líneas de investigación: 1) mantenimiento del “Portal web con recursos docentes con perspectiva de género”, proyecto financiado por el Instituto de la Mujer (PACUI, 2012) e iniciado en el curso 2012-2013; 2) desarrollo de la primera versión de “iLengUA”, una herramienta informática para un discurso inclusivo e igualitario; y 3) diseño de una Guía de recomendaciones para la inclusión de la perspectiva de género en la docencia universitaria

Habitat modeling in high gradient streams: the meso-scale approach and application

The study aims to set out a new methodology for habitat modeling in high gradient streams. The methodology is based on the meso-scale approach of the MesoHABSIM simulation system and can support the definition and assessment of environmental flow and habitat restoration measures. Data coming from 40 study sites located within the mountainous areas of the Valle d'Aosta, Piemonte and Liguria regions (NW Italy) are used in the analysis. To adapt MesoHABSIM to high gradient streams, we first modified the data collection strategy to address the challenging conditions of surveys by using GIS and mobile mapping techniques. Secondly, we built the habitat suitability models at a regional scale to enable their transferability among different streams with different morphologies. Thirdly, due to the absence of stream gauges in headwaters, we proposed a possible way to simulate flow time series and, therefore, generate habitat time series. The resulting method is evaluated in terms of time expenditure for field data collection and habitat modeling potentials, and it represents a specific improvement of the MesoHABSIM system for habitat modelling in high gradient streams, where other commonly used methodologies can be unsuitable. Through its application in several study sites, the proposed methodology adapts well to high gradient streams and allows: (1) definition of fish habitat requirements for many streams simultaneously, (2) modeling of habitat variation over a range of discharges, and (3) determination of environmental standards for mountainous watercourses

A Novel Large Structured Cardiotocographic Database

In this work we present the creation of a large, structured database of CardioTocoGraphic (CTG) recordings, starting from a raw dataset containing tracings collected between 2013 and 2021 by the medical team of the University Hospital Federico II of Naples. The aim of the work is to provide a big, structured database of real clinical cardiotocographic data, useful for subsequent processing and analysis through state-of-the-art methods, in particular Deep Learning Methods. This organized dataset could lead to an increase of the diagnostic accuracy of CTG analysis in the discrimination of healthy and unhealthy fetuses