Study of the interactions between snowpack and forest cover in the Aragonese Pyrenees and their eco-hydrological implications

En las montañas de latitudes medias los bosques y la nieve constituyen recursos naturales prioritarios, tanto desde el punto de vista medioambiental como del económico. Los Pirineos no son una excepción, dado que en esta cordillera ambos elementos coexisten e interaccionan complejamente en el rango altitudinal comprendido entre los 1600 y los 2300–2500 m s.n.m., ocupado en su mayor parte por el piso bioclimático subalpino. Sin embargo, las interacciones que tienen lugar entre los bosques de montaña y el manto de nieve en esta región no habían sido estudiadas en profundidad hasta el momento. Y menos aún se sabía acerca de la respuesta de las interacciones bosque–nieve al proceso de calentamiento que está aconteciendo en esta cordillera y que seespera se vea acelerado en las próximas décadas. De manera que, el principal objetivo de la presente Tesis Doctoral es avanzar en el conocimiento existente sobre las interacciones que se producen entre los bosques de montaña y el manto de nieve en los Pirineos, desde una perspectiva eco–hidrológica. La misma, se presenta como un compendio de cuatro publicaciones científicas, en las que diferentes objetivos específicos son evaluados.La mayor parte de este estudio interdisciplinar tuvo lugar en un valle de montaña (Baños de Panticosa) localizado en el Pirineo central. El diseño experimental incluyó cuatro bosques de Pinus uncinata de diversas características ambientales, entre las cuales cabe mencionar su diferente elevación (desde 1674 a 2104 m s.n.m.), exposición, estructura forestal y microclimatología debido a la compleja topografía de este enclave montañoso. En estos bosques se monitorizó intensivamente, entre 2015 y 2020, la evolución del manto de nieve, las condiciones climáticas y del suelo, la fenología de los pinos, su xylogénesis, la variación intra–anual del radio de su tronco y la concentración de carbohidratos no estructurales presentes en su albura y acículas jóvenes. En este marco se contextualizó la primera publicación científica que compone esta Tesis, la cual informó con detalle sobre los efectos que la cubierta forestal produce en la dinámica del manto de nieve en esta región, destacando las similitudes y diferencias que existen entre áreas cercanas y entre distintas temporadas de invierno. La segunda publicación científica, identificó por primera vez una señal nival en el crecimiento radial inter–anual de P. uncinata. Esta investigación se contextualizó en un contexto espacio–temporal más amplio, analizando dendrocronológicamente 36 bosques de P. uncinata localizados en las principales cordilleras montañosas del NE Peninsular y las condiciones nivales acontecidas en los mismos en las últimas décadas. La tercera publicación científica, describió cómo la dinámica estacional del manto de nieve es capaz de modificar ciertas condiciones microclimáticas de los bosques estudiados en el valle de Baños de Panticosa, y demostró cómo esta influencia nival determina en buena parte el crecimiento radial intra–anual de P. uncinata. La cuarta publicación científica, exploró cómo los futuros cambios del clima pirenaico podrían afectar a las actuales interacciones bosque–nieve que tienen lugar en el valle de Baños de Panticosa. Para ello, se simularon los cambios que experimenta la dinámica nival en los bosques estudiados bajo varios grados de forzamiento climático.Los resultados obtenidos en esta Tesis demuestran, por tanto, que el manto de nieve y los bosques de P. uncinata interactúan en ambos sentidos en las áreas de montaña analizadas, si bien, tales interacciones están sujetas a importantes fuentes de variabilidad espacial y temporal. Por una parte, la cubierta forestal, principalmente debido a la intercepción que producen las copas de los pinos y a la alteración que produce en el balance de energía, determina la distribución del manto de nieve, su magnitud y su temporalidad. Por otra parte, el manto de nieve, principalmente mediante las modificaciones que produce en el régimen de temperaturas del suelo, influye en el crecimiento radial intra e inter–anual de P. uncinata, independientemente del ampliamente conocido efecto que tiene la temperatura del aire durante la temporada de crecimiento en la formación de sus anillos. Además, esta Tesis sugiere que la cubierta forestal puede tener un importante rol en la sensibilidad del manto de nieve ante los futuros cambios que se esperan en el clima de los Pirineos.Las cuestiones abordadas en esta Tesis, titulada "Estudio de las interacciones entre el manto de nieve y la cubierta forestal en el Pirineo Aragonés y sus implicaciones eco–hidrológicas", son de gran interés científico, pero también proporcionan una valiosa información de gran aplicabilidad en la presente y futura gestión de los recursos hídricos y forestales del Pirineo.<br /

Oxidation of aldehydes used as food additives by peroxynitrite

Benzaldehyde and its derivatives are used as food supplements. These substances can be used mainly as flavorings or as antioxidants. Besides, peroxynitrite, an oxidizing agent, could be formed in canned food. Both species could react between them. The present article has focused on the kinetic study of the oxidation of aldehydes by peroxynitrite. A reaction mechanism that justifies all the experimental results is proposed. This mechanism, in acidic media, passes through three competitive pathways: (a) a radical attack that produces benzoic acid. (b) peracid oxidation, and (c) a nucleophilic attack of peroxynitrous acid over aldehyde to form an intermediate, X, that produces benzoic acid, or, through a Cannizzaro-type reaction, benzoic acid and benzyl alcohol. All rate constants involved in the third pathway (c) have been calculated. These results have never been described in the literature in acid media. A pH effect was analyzed

Integrating Quality Criteria in a Fuzzy Linguistic Recommender System for Digital Libraries

Recommender systems can be used in an academic environment to assist users in their decision making processes to find relevant information. In the literature we can find proposals based in user’ profile or in item’ profile, however they do not take into account the quality of items. In this work we propose the combination of item’ relevance for a user with its quality in order to generate more profitable and accurate recommendations. The system measures item quality and takes it into account as new factor in the recommendation process. We have developed the system adopting a fuzzy linguistic approach.Projects TIN2010-17876, TIC5299 y TIC-599

Is the effectivity of copper ions treatment of milk enough to block Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis infection in calves?

Milk is an important transmission route of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) for dairy calves. Given its resistance to pasteurization, alternative milk treatments are needed to control MAP transmission via milk. The present study reports the evaluation of a novel milk decontamination treatment based on copper ions as a means of preventing infection in dairy calves. Ten newborn calves were assigned to one of two experimental groups (n=5) which were studied for 1 year. The first group was fed milk naturally contaminated with MAP and the second one received the same milk but after being treated with copper ions. In both groups, milk MAP load was estimated. The progression of the infection was monitored monthly and at the end of the study, calves were euthanised, and tissue samples were examined both grossly and by histopathology. The treatment of milk with copper ions significantly reduced the number of viable MAP. Faecal shedding of MAP was observed in both study groups, but the calves fed naturally contaminated milk began to shed MAP earlier. Only calves fed copper-treated milk showed histopathological evidence consistent with MAP infection. The latter offers more questions than answers, and maybe the presence of a more tolerant and virulent MAP strain could be the final answer to this situation

Effect of the genetic line and oleic acid-enriched mixed diets on the subcutaneous fatty acid composition and sensory characteristics of dry-cured shoulders from Iberian pig

[EN] The aim of this study was to research the effect of the genetic background (Retinto, Torbiscal, and their reciprocal crosses) on the subcutaneous fatty acids and the sensory characteristics of dry-cured shoulders from Iberian pig, and also to investigate whether there is some interaction between genotype and diet composition when pigs are reared indoors, to obtain information to improve the selection strategies for purebred Iberian pig. The genetic background affected both the fatty acid composition (C17:0, C17:1 n-7, C18:3 n-3 and C20:0 were significantly different) and the sensory characteristics (marbling, lean fibrousness, and flavour intensity and persistence were significantly influenced), which indicates that they should be taken into account in the selection strategies for purebred Iberian pig. In a similar way, the genotype x diet composition interaction also should be taken into account when selecting a genetic line or cross to be fed indoors on a particular diet because of its repercussion on the sensory characteristics.The authors gratefully acknowledge INGA FOOD S.A. for their cooperation with the experimental protocol and their technical support. The work was partially funded by the Center for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI) [grant ref. IDI-20140447] and the Institute Nacional de Investigacion y Tecnologia Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA) [grant ref. RTA2012-00054-C02-01], Spain.Carrapiso, AI.; Tejeda, JF.; Noguera, JL.; Ibáñez-Escriche, N.; Gonzalez, E. (2020). Effect of the genetic line and oleic acid-enriched mixed diets on the subcutaneous fatty acid composition and sensory characteristics of dry-cured shoulders from Iberian pig. Meat Science. 159:1-6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.meatsci.2019.1079331615

Postharvest quality changes of salvia (Salvia officinalis) stored under cold-storage conditions

El objetivo de este trabajo fue evaluar el efecto de temperaturas bajas sobre la calidad poscosecha de salvia (Salvia officinalis L.). Para ello, las plantas fueron empacadas en bolsas de polietileno de baja densidad y almacenadas por 21 días a 0±2 y 6±2°C y un testigo a 23±2°C. Durante este período cada tres días se evaluó: tasa de respiración (TR), producción de etileno (PE), pérdida de peso (PP), sólidos solubles totales (SST), acidez titulable (AT), clorofila total (CT), color (*L, *C, °h) y vitamina C (VitC). Adicionalmente, mediante evaluación sensorial, se determinó: apariencia visual, escala de color, amarillamiento, abscisión de hojas y pudriciones. El uso de refrigeración (0° y 6°C) mantuvo la TR y PE con valores de 15,4 a 22,9 mL CO2·kg-1·h-1 y de 0,06 a 0,46mL etileno·kg-1·h-1, respectivamente. El uso de refrigeración disminuyó la pérdida de peso en salvia hasta un 40%. La CT y el CL se conservaron por 15 días a 6°C. El contenido de vitamina C decreció progresivamente, y fue significativamente menor en el tratamiento a 23°C. La refrigeración a 0°C, permitió prolongar la calidad de la salvia por 12 días, mientras que a 6° y 23°C, solo se mantuvo por 9 y 6 días, respectivamente.The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of low temperatures on the postharvest quality of sage (Salvia officinalis L.). For this, the plants were stored at 0° to 6°C with compared to 23 ± 2°C (control) and packed in polyethylene bags, low density for 21 days. During this period were evaluated every three days: respiration rate (TR), production of ethylene (PE), weight loss (WL), total soluble solids (TSS), titratable acidity (TA), the total chlorophyll (CLT), color (*L, *C, °h) and vitamin C (VtC). Additionally, through a sensory evaluation: visual appearance, color scale, yellowing, leaf abscission and decay. The use of cooling (0° to 6°C) maintained the TR and PE values were 15.4 to 22.9 mL CO2·kg-1 · h-1 and 0.06 to 0.46mL ethylene · kg-1 · h-1, respectively. The use of cooling diminished WL up to 40% sage. The CT and CL were stored for up to 15 days to 6°C. The VtC gradually decreased, but this decrease were more evident in the treatment at 23°C. The best treatment was 0°C, since, allowed prolong the quality of sage up to 12 days, contrary to the treatments to 6° and 23°C where quality only maintained for up to 9 and 6 days, respectively.Fil: Romero Tejeda, María Luz. Universidad Autónoma Chapingo (México)Fil: Martínez Damián, María Teresa. Universidad Autónoma Chapingo (México)Fil: Rodríguez Pérez, Juan Enrique. Universidad Autónoma Chapingo (México)Fil: Colinas León, María Teresa Beryl. Universidad Autónoma Chapingo (México)Fil: Martínez Solís, Juan. Universidad Autónoma Chapingo (México

The diversity of local political agendas during COVID-19: A comparison of Mexican states

COVID-19, as an event that disrupted economic activities around the world, affected government policy agendas. In Latin America, most of the responses were centralized by national governments; however, in Mexico, the 32 states developed their own economic policies in response to the pandemic. The Mexican case allows us to analyze recent hypotheses of comparative studies on this issue, which propose that the size of the population and the scale and socioeconomic structure of the administrations may be factors that explain the scope and diversity of local agendas. A quantitative methodology based on the estimation of Shannon’s entropy index and non-parametric tests is used. Contrary to expectations, we find that the scope and diversity of the responses are not significantly related to the factors proposed in the literature. At least for the case of COVID-19 in the short run, the size and diversity of local agendas in Mexico seem to be based on institutional factors, such as information processing according to bounded rationality, incremental solutions, and the functional labeling of local governments. Thus, the variety of agendas is based on the direct interests of communities

Introducing CSP Dataset: A Dataset Optimized for the Study of the Cold Start Problem in Recommender Systems

Recommender systems are tools that help users in the decision-making process of choosing items that may be relevant for them among a vast amount of other items. One of the main problems of recommender systems is the cold start problem, which occurs when either new items or new users are added to the system and, therefore, there is no previous information about them. This article presents a multi-source dataset optimized for the study and the alleviation of the cold start problem. This dataset contains info about the users, the items (movies), and ratings with some contextual information. The article also presents an example user behavior-driven algorithm using the introduced dataset for creating recommendations under the cold start situation. In order to create these recommendations, a mixed method using collaborative filtering and user-item classification has been proposed. The results show recommendations with high accuracy and prove the dataset to be a very good asset for future research in the field of recommender systems in general and with the cold start problem in particular.Spanish Government PID2019-103880RB-I00Andalusian Agency project P20_0067

Trust Based Fuzzy Linguistic Recommender Systems as Reinforcement for Personalized Education in the Field of Oral Surgery and Implantology

The rapid advances in Web technologies are promoting the development of new pedagogic models based on virtual teaching. In this framework, personalized services are necessary. Recommender systems can be used in an academic environment to assist users in their teaching-learning processes. In this paper, we present a trust based recommender system, adopting a fuzzy linguistic modeling, that provides personalized activities to students in order to reinforce their education, and applied it in the field of oral surgery and implantology. We don’t take into account users with similar ratings history but users in which each user can trust and we provide a method to aggregate the trust information. This system can be used in order to aid professors to provide students with a personalized monitoring of their studies with less effort. The results obtained in the experiments proved to be satisfactory.TIN2016-75850-