Evaluation of the economic crisis on the conservation of the ichthyofauna in Marine Protected Areas

The use of marine protected areas can be an effective way to simultaneously achieve both conservation and fisheries management objectives. The creation of marine protected areas, in addition to many benefits, also entails several costs, including the need for financing to maintain adequate surveillance and conservation. The recent economic crisis significantly lowered budgets for the maintenance of Spanish Marine Protected Areas, that may have had serious consequences for the marine resources sustainability. In this study we evaluated the indirect impact of the 2008 economic crisis on the conservation of fish stocks in Marine Protected Areas. We compared the number of species, abundance and biomass levels of the ichthyofauna, and abundance and biomass of selected species in two marine reserves (Cabo de San Antonio and Tabarca Island) with control areas, two years before (2008 and 2010) and two years after (2014 and 2015) the budget cut. Results in San Antonio revealed a decrease in total abundance, total biomass and number of species after the crisis, which translates into a decrease in the reserve effect. While in Tabarca no reduction has been observed in these variables, so the reserve effect was maintained after the crisis. We have found that of the 18 species analyzed, in San Antonio the abundance and biomass of 8 and 6 species respectively have decreased after the crisis, while in Tabarca the abundance and biomass of 6 and 8 species respectively have decreased after the crisis. Therefore, surveillance in marine reserves is necessary for the conservation of the species.This research was funded through the 2013 call for realization of projects of emerging research of the University of Alicante (GRE13-11) and 2014 call for carrying out R&D projects for groups of emerging research of the Generalitat Valenciana (GV/2015/117). E. Arcas was supported by FPU Grant of the University of Alicante (UAFPU2019B-07)

El derecho penal y la significación moral de la pena en John Finnis

Although the theory of punishment is not a central issue in Natural Law and Natural Rights, Finnis develops there the principles of his own vision of the function of criminal law. If these assumptions are integrated with other works by Finnis in which he has explicitly defended the idea of punishment as retribution it is possible to show a table that allows to explain the fundamental aspects of criminal law. This vision of a penalty as retribution as the heart of a penal system determined by demands of justice derived from natural law constitutes a plausible solution. It is only necessary to show the requirements of the punishment consequent to a fair imputation, and determine to what extent natural law conditions the stipulations of a specific penal system.Aunque la teoría de la pena no es un aspecto central en Natural Law and Natural Rights, Finnis desarrolla allí los presupuestos de una visión propia de la función del derecho penal. Si estos presupuestos se integran con otros trabajos de Finnis, en los que explícitamente ha defendido la idea de la pena como retribución, es posible mostrar un cuadro que permite explicar los aspectos fundamentales del Derecho penal. Esta visión de una pena como retribución en el centro de un sistema penal sujeto a exigencias de justicia derivadas de la ley natural constituye una solución plausible. Es necesario, tan sólo, mostrar cuáles son las exigencias de la pena como consecuencia de una imputación justa y determinar hasta qué punto la ley natural condiciona las estipulaciones de un sistema penal concreto

Biodegradable nanofibrous scaffolds as smart delivery vehicles for amino acids

The encapsulation of amino acids (AAs) and their correct preservation before they are ingested are challenging tasks. Nonpolar (l-alanine and l-phenylalanine), polar (l-cysteine hydrochloride and l-asparagine), and charged (l-lysine hydrochloride and l-aspartic acid) AAs were loaded into biodegradable and nontoxic poly(tetramethylene succinate) (PE44) nanofibers (NFs) with electrospinning. The loading of AAs considerably affected the morphology, topography, thermal properties, and wettability of the PE44 NFs. Furthermore, although the AAs crystallized in a phase separated from the polymeric matrix, the distribution of such crystals changed into PE44 NFs and depended on their chemical nature. Release assays in enzyme-free solutions provided evidence that very significant amounts of AAs were retained in the NFs after 7 days, whereas assays in the lipase-containing solution (because lipase performs essential roles in the digestion) showed almost complete release after a few hours. Lipase preferentially attacked the PE44 regions responsible for the retention of AAs in the biphasic system and favored the almost immediate release of the biomolecules. The results displayed in this study, combined with the biocompatibility, biodegradability, and potential use of the PE44 NFs as edible nonnutritional elements, suggest that the loaded PE44–AA NFs could be used to supply essential and conditional AAs.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Is Earth-based scaling a valid procedure for calculating heat flows for Mars?

Heat flow is a very important parameter for constraining the thermal evolution of a planetary body. Several procedures for calculating heat flows for Mars from geophysical or geological proxies have been used, which are valid for the time when the structures used as indicators were formed. The more common procedures are based on estimates of lithospheric strength (the effective elastic thickness of the lithosphere or the depth to the brittle–ductile transition). On the other hand, several works by Kargel and co-workers have estimated martian heat flows from scaling the present-day terrestrial heat flow to Mars, but the so-obtained values are much higher than those deduced from lithospheric strength. In order to explain the discrepancy, a recent paper by Rodriguez et al. (Rodriguez, J.A.P., Kargel, J.S., Tanaka, K.L., Crown, D.A., Berman, D.C., Fairén, A.G., Baker, V.R., Furfaro, R., Candelaria, P., Sasaki, S. [2011]. Icarus 213, 150–194) criticized the heat flow calculations for ancient Mars presented by Ruiz et al. (Ruiz, J., Williams, J.-P., Dohm, J.M., Fernández, C., López, V. [2009]. Icarus 207, 631–637) and other studies calculating ancient martian heat flows from lithospheric strength estimates, and casted doubts on the validity of the results obtained by these works. Here however we demonstrate that the discrepancy is due to computational and conceptual errors made by Kargel and co-workers, and we conclude that the scaling from terrestrial heat flow values is not a valid procedure for estimating reliable heat flows for Mar

Integrating Provenance Capture and UML with UML2PROV: Principles and Experience

This document contains supplementary material for the paper entitled ''Integrating Provenance Capture and UML with UML2PROV: Principles and Experience'', submitted for publication in TSE

Searching for novel genes and pseudogenes in the human Y chromosome based on ancestral coding signals

Motivation: Human Y chromosome has several features that contribute to an extreme variation due to the lack of a homologous partner for crossing over, high rate of sequence amplification and low evolutionary pressure [1]. For these reasons, we think that the Y chromosome could be a perfect candidate in order to discover new coding and fossil regions such as pseudogenes.Genome finding is one of the greatest hits in modern biology. However, in silico identification of small and complex coding sequences is still challenging. Jiménez et al [2] developed AnAblast, a computer tool which has been successful in uncovering new genes, as well as fossil-coding sequences. This program generates profiles of accumulated alignments of conserved coding signals using a low-stringency BLAST strategy [2]. Methods: We have used AnAblast to localizate new coding regions in the chromosome Y. After that, AnAblast-generated profiles were introduced into a genome browser, along with other informative data such as repeats and RNA expression data. The candidate's list obtained was complemented by careful BLAST, InterPro and peaks analysis. Moreover, we performed a search on the tool Genome Data Viewer (GDV) to check each result.Results: We have been able to identify some chromosome Y regions that fulfill different requirements: (1) regions without previous annotations as pseudogenes, genes or non-coding regions (Ensembl track); (2) regions without previous annotations as interspersed repeats and low complexity (RepeatMasker track); and (3) regions with expression profiles (RNA-seq of testis).The best candidate to be a new coding region was localized at Y:9912876-9919657 (-). Blast and InterPro analysis indicated similarity with serine-proteases which are found in rodents and another organism such as Rousettus aegyptiacus (Egyptian fruit bat). After the search on GDV, we observed that only the first bat´s exon was not found in our candidate. In spite of this, we found a methionine codon in our candidate (more specifically in the first exon). Furthermore, the Y chromosome has a 5´-truncated copy of this region.Conclusions: We have found some chromosome Y regions which could be new coding genes or pseudogenes. Thus, this in silico research provides a powerful protocol to search novel genes and fossil regions in the whole human genome. Although we added several RNA-seq tracks that showed the expression of these regions, clinical trials should be performed to verify our candidates

Patrimonio aragonés en el Museo de Pontevedra

El Museo de Pontevedra, fundado el 30 de diciembre de 1927 por la Diputación Provincial para dar continuidad a la labor que desde 1894 venía llevando a cabo la Sociedad Arqueológica de Pontevedra, posee unas colecciones de gran calidad y diversidad. Predominan en ellas, como parece lógico dado su emplazamiento y origen, los fondos de filiación gallega en general. Cuenta también, y en ello reside una de sus mayores singularidades y, consecuentemente, de sus grandes atractivos, con obras y conjuntos de incuestionable calidad de otras procedencias, lo mismo nacionales que internacionales. Entre ellas, sin duda, una de las mejor representadas tanto por la categoría como por la heterogeneidad de los componentes es la comunidad aragonesa. A ponderarlos se dedica este artículo, estructurado en dos partes bien delimitadas. En la primera se ofrece una ajustada valoración estilístico-cronológica de las obras aisladas o, en su caso, de los conjuntos, centrándose la segunda, en el inventario pormenorizado de las piezas y objetos de mayor entidad y significación

Antimicrobial electrospun fibers of polyester loaded with engineered cyclic gramicidin analogues

Biodegradable polyester fibers have been loaded with two engineered analogues of gramicidin soviet. In these cyclic peptide derivatives, which were designed in a previous work to stabilize the bioactive conformation while enhancing the antimicrobial activity, the D-Phe was replaced by D-Pro, and the L-Pro was changed by 1-aminocyclopropanecarboxylic acid (Ac3c) or by an Ac3c derivative with two vicinal phenyl substituents in a trans relative disposition (S,S-c3diPhe). The diameter, topography, thermal stability and wettability of the polyester fibers, which have been obtained by electrospinning, strongly depend on the molecular constraints and stability of the loaded peptides. More specifically, unloaded and linear gramicidin-loaded fibers (used as control) are hydrophobic, rough and micrometric, while fibers loaded with the cyclic peptides are hydrophilic, ultra-smooth, nanometric and less thermally stable. The activity of the two cyclic peptides increases when loaded into polyester fibers, suggesting that the polymeric matrix stabilizes the bioactive β-sheet structure. The peptide with S,S-c3diPhe displays higher antibiotic potency and biocompatibility than that with Ac3c, which indicates not only that the bioactive conformation is better preserved by the former but also the significant role played by the phenyl rings in the recognition by living cells.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version