¿El otolito de pejerrey (Odontesthes bonariensis), refleja el estrés ambiental?

It has been proven that otoliths reflect morphology, morphometry and chemical composition of the environment that fish frequent. However, it has not been established if extreme environmental changes can be reflected by such structure. In this study, we analyze the morphology and morphometry of otolith sagitta of silverside (Odontesthes bonariensis) living in a setting that shows important environmental changes as Chasicó lake in Buenos Aires province (38°37.380’S- 63°4.735’W). We compared physicochemical parameters of water (pH, conductivity, ion concentration Ca2+, Mg2+ y Cl- ) measured in the lake in 2010 with bibliographic data of 1999, 2003 and 2004 and different morphometric variables of silverside otoliths captured in 1998 and in 2010. The ion concentration of Ca2+, Mg2+ y Cl- increased between 11% and 90% in the period 1999-2010; the lake reduced its surface 20% in conjunction with a decrease in precipitations. We observed alterations in the distinctive morphological otolith pattern in about 18% of the individuals sampled, like irregular edges and perforations. We found a smaller width-length relation of the otolith for the year 2010 thus, indicating a decrease in its circularity. These morphological variations could be provoked by alterations in calcium carbonate deposition related to an increase in salinity and conductivity due to reduction in the surface of the lake. In conclusion, this study would indicate that morphology and morphometry of otoliths reflect environmental stress.Fil: Avigliano, Esteban. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias. Centro de Estudios Transdisciplinarios del Agua; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Tombari, A.. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biología Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Volpedo, Alejandra. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias. Centro de Estudios Transdisciplinarios del Agua; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biología Experimental; Argentin

Going Further with Point Pair Features

Point Pair Features is a widely used method to detect 3D objects in point clouds, however they are prone to fail in presence of sensor noise and background clutter. We introduce novel sampling and voting schemes that significantly reduces the influence of clutter and sensor noise. Our experiments show that with our improvements, PPFs become competitive against state-of-the-art methods as it outperforms them on several objects from challenging benchmarks, at a low computational cost.Comment: Corrected post-print of manuscript accepted to the European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV) 2016; https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-46487-9_5

Meditation and Mindfulness

Meditation is training in the regulation of attention. Focused attention meditation requires focusing one’s attention narrowly on a mantra or one’s breathing. Open monitoring involves being fully aware of all feelings and sensations in the present moment. Both lead to a state of mindfulness. Meditation and mindfulness have been associated with a variety of physiological and executive functions in which this talk will explore

¿El otolito de pejerrey (Odontesthes bonariensis), refleja el estrés ambiental?

It has been proven that otoliths reflect morphology, morphometry and chemical composition of the environment that fish frequent. However, it has not been established if extreme environmental changes can be reflected by such structure. In this study, we analyze the morphology and morphometry of otolith sagitta of silverside (Odontesthes bonariensis) living in a setting that shows important environmental changes as Chasicó lake in Buenos Aires province (38°37.380’S- 63°4.735’W). We compared physicochemical parameters of water (pH, conductivity, ion concentration Ca2+, Mg2+ y Cl-) measured in the lake in 2010 with bibliographic data of 1999, 2003 and 2004 and different morphometric variables of silverside otoliths captured in 1998 and in 2010. The ion concentration of Ca2+, Mg2+ y Cl- increased between 11% and 90% in the period 1999-2010; the lake reduced its surface 20% in conjunction with a decrease in precipitations. We observed alterations in the distinctive morphological otolith pattern in about 18% of the individuals sampled, like irregular edges and perforations. We found a smaller width-length relation of the otolith for the year 2010 thus, indicating a decrease in its circularity. These morphological variations could be provoked by alterations in calcium carbonate deposition related to an increase in salinity and conductivity due to reduction in the surface of the lake. In conclusion, this study would indicate that morphology and morphometry of otoliths reflect environmental stress.Instituto de Limnología "Raúl A. Ringuelet

¿El otolito de pejerrey (Odontesthes bonariensis), refleja el estrés ambiental?

It has been proven that otoliths reflect morphology, morphometry and chemical composition of the environment that fish frequent. However, it has not been established if extreme environmental changes can be reflected by such structure. In this study, we analyze the morphology and morphometry of otolith sagitta of silverside (Odontesthes bonariensis) living in a setting that shows important environmental changes as Chasicó lake in Buenos Aires province (38°37.380’S- 63°4.735’W). We compared physicochemical parameters of water (pH, conductivity, ion concentration Ca2+, Mg2+ y Cl-) measured in the lake in 2010 with bibliographic data of 1999, 2003 and 2004 and different morphometric variables of silverside otoliths captured in 1998 and in 2010. The ion concentration of Ca2+, Mg2+ y Cl- increased between 11% and 90% in the period 1999-2010; the lake reduced its surface 20% in conjunction with a decrease in precipitations. We observed alterations in the distinctive morphological otolith pattern in about 18% of the individuals sampled, like irregular edges and perforations. We found a smaller width-length relation of the otolith for the year 2010 thus, indicating a decrease in its circularity. These morphological variations could be provoked by alterations in calcium carbonate deposition related to an increase in salinity and conductivity due to reduction in the surface of the lake. In conclusion, this study would indicate that morphology and morphometry of otoliths reflect environmental stress.Instituto de Limnología "Raúl A. Ringuelet

Exploring the performances of the vibrating barriers for the seismic protection of the Zoser Pyramid

In this paper we aim to investigate the use of the Vibrating Barrier (ViBa) as a potential strategy to mitigate the effects of the seismic action on the Zoser Pyramid. The Vibrating Barrier is a structure buried in the soil that is able to absorb a significant portion of the dynamic energy arising from the ground motion. The working principle exploits the dynamic interaction among vibrating structures resting on a compliant semi-infinite space, namely the structure–soil–structure interaction. A reliable numerical simulation of the Zoser Pyramid and the surrounding soil undergoing a stochastic ground motion excitation representing the seismicity in Saqqara is presented. Due to the unique structural form, the ViBa is herein optimized through an ad-hoc procedure to minimize a response strain energy spectral density used as a synthetic performance parameter. Various layouts of the ViBa have been considered and presented in the paper. The efficiency of the ViBa is assessed by numerical simulation of the finite element model of the ViBa-Soil-Pyramid system. Results from a pertinent Monte Carlo study show an evident reduction of the stresses in the Pyramid manifesting the feasibility of this novel strategy to protect historic structures from earthquake-induced ground motion

A rigorous possibility approach for the geotechnical reliability assessment supported by external database and local experience

This is the final version. Available on open access from Elsevier via the DOI in this recordData availability: Data will be made available on request.Reliability analyses based on probability theory are widely applied in geotechnical engineering, and several analytical or numerical methods have been built upon the concept of failure occurrence. Nevertheless, common geotechnical engineering real-world problems deal with scarce or sparse information where experimental data are not always available to a sufficient extent and quality to infer a reliable probability distribution function. This paper rigorously combines Fuzzy Clustering and Possibility Theory for deriving a data-driven, quantitative, reliability approach, in addition to fully probability-oriented assessments, when useful but heterogeneous sources of information are available. The proposed non-probabilistic approach is mathematically consistent with the failure probability, when ideal random data are considered. Additionally, it provides a robust tool to account for epistemic uncertainties when data are uncertain, scarce, and sparse. The Average Cumulative Function transformation is used to obtain possibility distributions inferred from the fuzzy clustering of an indirect database. Target Reliability Index Values, consistent with the prescribed values provided by Eurocode 0, are established. Moreover, a Degree of Understanding tier system based on the practitioner’s local experience is also proposed. The proposed methodology is detailed and discussed for two numerical examples using national-scale databases, highlighting the potential benefits compared to traditional probabilistic approaches.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC

Shrec'16 Track: Retrieval of Human Subjects from Depth Sensor Data

International audienceIn this paper we report the results of the SHREC 2016 contest on "Retrieval of human subjects from depth sensor data". The proposed task was created in order to verify the possibility of retrieving models of query human subjects from single shots of depth sensors, using shape information only. Depth acquisition of different subjects were realized under different illumination conditions, using different clothes and in three different poses. The resulting point clouds of the partial body shape acquisitions were segmented and coupled with the skeleton provided by the OpenNI software and provided to the participants together with derived triangulated meshes. No color information was provided. Retrieval scores of the different methods proposed were estimated on the submitted dissimilarity matrices and the influence of the different acquisition conditions on the algorithms were also analyzed. Results obtained by the participants and by the baseline methods demonstrated that the proposed task is, as expected, quite difficult, especially due the partiality of the shape information and the poor accuracy of the estimated skeleton, but give useful insights on potential strategies that can be applied in similar retrieval procedures and derived practical applications. Categories and Subject Descriptors (according to ACM CCS): I.4.8 [IMAGE PROCESSING AND COMPUTER VISION]: Scene Analysis—Shap

Vibration control of a cluster of buildings through the Vibrating Barrier

A novel device, called vibrating barrier (ViBa), that aims to reduce the vibrations of adjacent structures subjected to ground motion waves has been recently proposed. The ViBa is a structure buried in the soil and detached from surrounding buildings that is able to absorb a significant portion of the dynamic energy arising from the ground motion. The working principle exploits the dynamic interaction among vibrating structures due to the propagation of waves through the soil, namely the structure-soil-structure interaction. In this paper the efficiency of the ViBa is investigated to control the vibrations of a cluster of buildings. To this aim a discrete model of structures-site interaction involving multiple buildings and the ViBa is developed. In particular, the effects of the soil on the structures, i.e. the soil-structure interaction (SSI) as well as the structure-soilstructure interaction (SSSI) and the ViBa-soil-structures interaction are taken into account in this paper by means of linear elastic springs as in the conventional Winkler approach for a linear elastic soil medium. Closed-form solutions are derived to design the ViBa in the case of harmonic excitation from the analysis of discrete models. Advanced Finite Element numerical simulations are performing in order to assess the efficiency of the ViBa in protecting one or more buildings. Parametric studies are also conducted to identify beneficial/adverse effects in the use of the proposed vibration control strategy to protect cluster of buildings

Diversidad de vertebrados acuáticos de tres humedales urbanos de la ciudad de Buenos Aires

The urban wetlands are sites of high biodiversity that are under a great anthropogenic pressure. In the city of Buenos Aires, one of the more important areas of recreation is constituted by Parque Tres de Febrero (well-known as like “Bosques de Palermo”), that conforms a green zone of 25 ha. In this area there are artificial wetlands of diverse physical characteristics. In the present work, the goal is to determine vertebrate’s diversity in these urban aquatic enviroments in order to evaluate the degree of impact of the recreational activity on the conservation of the vertebrates associated to the water bodies. The study was carried out in three artificial lagoons included in the park: Regatas, Rosedal and Planetario. Altogether, seventeen species of fish (Prochilodus lineatus, Oligosarcus jenynsii, Cheirodon interruptus, Bryconamericus iheringii, Hoplias malabaricus, Hypostomus commersoni, Rhamdia quelen, Pimelodus albicans, Pimelodus maculatus, Cyprinus carpio carpio, Cnesterodon decemmaculatus, Gambusia affinis, Jenynsia multidentata, Synbranchus marmoratus, Australoheros facetus, Gymnogeophagus meridionalis and Crenicichla scottii), eighteen species of birds (Podiceps rolland, Podilymbus podiceps, Podiceps major, Phalacrocorax olivaceus, Ardea alba, Egretta thula, Butorides striatus, Nycticorax nycticorax, Anas georgica, Anas platyrhynchos, Anas platyrhynchos domesticus, Anser anser, Cairina moschata, Netta peposaca, Aramus guarauna, Fulica armillata, Fulica leucoptera and Chloroceyle amazona), three species of turtles (Phrynops hilarii, Trachemys scripta elegans and Trachemys venusta) and one species of mammal were registered (Myocastor coipo). Among these species, eight are introduced: two fishes (Cyprinus carpio carpio and Gambusia affinis), two turtles (Trachemys scripta elegans and Trachemys venusta) and four birds (Anas platyrhynchos, Anas platyrhynchos domesticus, Anser anser and Cairina moschata). Regatas was the site with greater diversity of fishes (n=17) that represents a 10.43% of Río de la Plata’s ichthyofauna (n=163). This site lodges a 13% of the bird species associated to registered water bodies in the City of Buenos Aires (n=107). When comparing the specific richness among lagoons, we found high similarity between Regatas and Planetarium. Also, both sites presented the greatest specific richness of fish during the months of January and February. From this preliminary study it was possible to describe and to differentiate each lagoon by its fauna and physical characteristics, and also it constitutes the base to continue with further studies of communities which allow the development of the necessary guidelines of handling for the protection of Lagos Tres de Febrero.Instituto de Limnología "Raúl A. Ringuelet