Muerte de un lince ibérico. Establecimiento de la causa y la autoría

Las ciencias forenses se aplican desde hace poco tiempo como herramientas en las investigaciones de delitos contra el medio ambiente. En este trabajo se expone un caso pionero en cuanto a la utilización de estas técnicas en un caso de un delit o contra la fauna silvestre. La investigación se inicia tras la apari ción de un lince ibérico muerto en el interior de una finca, donde se encontraron también varios pollos supuestamente utilizados como cebos envenenados y otro cadáver, el de un zorro. El lince ib érico es uno de los mamíferos más amenazados del planeta. Se llevaron a cabo distintos análisis a partir de la necropsia de los cadáveres en el Centro de Análisis y Diagnóstico de la Fauna Silvestre (CAD), el laboratorio de referencia para la fauna silvestre pertene ciente a la Junta de Andalucía. Los resultados fuer on concluyentes, ambas muertes se produjeron como consecuencia de la ingestión de cebos envenenados con un plaguicida extremadamente tóxico, el aldicarb. También se encontró esta sustancia en los pollos recogidos en el interior de la finca. Con el fin de e stablecer la culpabilidad de los propietarios de la finca, que negaron tener nada que ver con las muertes y la colocación de los cebos, se utilizó una herramienta novedosa en este tipo de investigaciones, la genética forens e. En base a los resultados se co nsiguió establecer una relación de parentesco entre los pollos utilizados como cebos envenenados y los pollos propiedad reconocida de los sospechosos, que permitió demostrar que todos tenían el mismo origen. Gracias al trabajo conjunto y coordinado durante toda la investigación y el informe pericial elaborado por el laboratorio del CAD, la Consejería de Medio Ambiente y Organización del Territorio de la Junta de Andalucía consiguió una sentencia ejemplar contra los envenenador es.The application of forensic science as a research tool to resolve crimes against the environment is relatively rec ent. To our knowledge this is the first instance in which the forensic genetic have been used as a definitive evidence to find out guilty in crimes against the wildlife. Our research starts when an Iberian lynx was found dead into a farm; very close to sev eral chickens used as poisoned baits and a fox carcass. Iberian lynx is one of the most endangered mammals in the planet. A comprehensive investigation from the carcasses was performed in the Analysis and Diagnostic Center for Wildlife in Andalucia (CAD), the reference laboratory for wildlife of the Andalusian Government (Spain). The results determined that the deaths occurred as a result of ingestion o f baits poisoned with an extremely toxic pesticide, aldicarb. This substance was also found in chickens ga thered inside the farm. In order to establish the guilt of the owners of the farm, who refused to be related to the deaths and the placement of the b aits, an innovative tool was used in this kind of research, the forensic genetic. Based on the results we got, we established a relationship between the chickens used as poisoned baits and the chickens from the farmer, all of them had the same origin. Thanks to the coordinated actuation during the complete investigation and the official report by the CAD labor atory used in the trial, the Ministry of Environmental and Territorial Organization got an exemplary sentence against the poisoners

Mimicry technology : a versatile tool for small RNA suppression

A decade ago the discovery of the target mimicry regulatory process on the activity of a mature microRNA (miRNA) enabled for the first time the customized attenuation of miRNA activity in plants. That powerful technology was named MIMIC and was based on engineering the IPS1 long noncoding transcript to become complementary to the miRNA under study. In order to avoid IPS1 degradation, the predicted miRNA-mediated cleavage site was interrupted by three additional nucleotides giving rise to the so-called MIMIC decoy. Since then, MIMIC technology has been used in several plant species and in basic and translational research. We here provide a detailed guide to produce custom-designed MIMIC decoys to facilitate the study of sRNA functions in plants

Análisis microbiológicos y físico - químicos como pruebas novedosas y determinantes en un caso de envenenamiento de la fauna silvestre en el sur de España

Poaching wildlife species and eradicating predators from game reserves are not considered crimes per se under Spanish legislation. Furthermore, in accordance with Spain?s Penal Code and Constitution, any doubt regarding a suspect?s guilt manda tes a judge/cr own prosecutor to rest a case without presenting charges. By contrast, the use of a substance with the intent to poison wildl ife is deemed both an offense according to the Wildlife Act (2003) and a crime under the Spanish Penal Code. Here we report on the atypical analysis of a unique piece of evidence that was retrieved during an on -site investigation into allegations of wildlife poaching and poisoning on a game reserve in southern Spain. The findings proved critical in linking other recovered evidence to the suspect and, in particular, showing intent to poison, which ultimately led to the closure of the case and the addition of another tool in the growing coffer of approaches for resolving similar cases in Andalucía. To our knowledge this is the first inst ance in which the presence of bacteria and evaluation of physico -chemical parameters have been used as integral pieces of evidence in a wildlife poisoning case

A methodology for user Interface adaptation of multi-device broadcast-broadband services

New audiovisual experiences involve consuming several contents displayed through multiple internet-connected devices. The TV is still the central hub of the living room, but it is often used simultaneously with other screens. Consequently, the user has the chance to consume all different contents at once across multiple devices. However, no existing adaptation models are available to dynamically adapt such a multitude of contents in multi-device contexts. To address this gap, this paper proposes a novel multi-device adaptation methodology to build adaptive User Interfaces for multi-screen hybrid broadcastbroadband TV experiences. The methodology is extensible to any kind of content, device and user, and is applicable to different contexts considering technological evolution and other fields of application. The proposed methodology is the outcome of extensive research that arose from a previous multi-device media service deployment with broadcasters

Análisis de dos instrumentos de evaluación para guiar la práctica educativa de los profesores vistos desde el marco de la teoría de la autodeterminación de Deci y Ryan

El mundo de la educación actual se caracteriza por la incertidumbre y diversos desafíos que hay que afrontar. Esto afecta al papel de los profesores como agentes motivadores de sus alumnos. Los educadores no solo necesitan disponer de un conjunto de recursos para implicar a los estudiantes en sus estudios. Lo primordial es contar con marcos teóricos válidos y ejemplares para orientar y mejorar sus prácticas docentes. Este trabajo analiza dos herramientas para guiar las prácticas educativas de la etapa de Educación Secundaria desde la óptica de la Teoría de la Autodeterminación - Self-Determination Theory (SDT) de Deci y Ryan: el Classroom Assessment Scoring System -Sistema para evaluar la dinámica de las aulas (CLASS) y el Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction - Cuestionario de Interacción del Profesor (QTI). Esta teoría, que cuenta con un importante soporte empírico, ilustra cómo contribuir a la mejora del proceso educativo, la motivación y la autodeterminación del alumnado, así como su desarrollo positivo.Educational world nowadays is characterized by uncertainty and enormous challenges. These affect the role of teachers as motivating agents of their students. Educators do not just need a set of resources to involve students in their studies. The main thing is to have valid and exemplary theoretical frameworks to guide and improve their teaching practices. This paper analyzes two tools to guide the educational practices of Secondary Education from the perspective of Self-Determination Theory (SDT) by Deci and Ryan: Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) and Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI). This theory, which has an important empirical support, illustrates how to contribute to the improvement of the educational process, the motivation and self-determination of students, as well as their positive development

Phytochrome interacting factors 4 and 5 control seedling growth in changing light conditions by directly controlling auxin signaling.

Plant growth is strongly influenced by the presence of neighbors that compete for light resources. In response to vegetational shading shade-intolerant plants such as Arabidopsis display a suite of developmental responses known as the shade-avoidance syndrome (SAS). The phytochrome B (phyB) photoreceptor is the major light sensor to mediate this adaptive response. Control of the SAS occurs in part with phyB, which controls protein abundance of phytochrome-interacting factors 4 and 5 (PIF4 and PIF5) directly. The shade-avoidance response also requires rapid biosynthesis of auxin and its transport to promote elongation growth. The identification of genome-wide PIF5-binding sites during shade avoidance revealed that this bHLH transcription factor regulates the expression of a subset of previously identified SAS genes. Moreover our study suggests that PIF4 and PIF5 regulate elongation growth by controlling directly the expression of genes that code for auxin biosynthesis and auxin signaling components

Método de muestreo secuencial-enumerativo y binomial para Calepitrimerus vitis (Nalepa, 1905) (Acari: Eriophyidae)

El eriófído Calepitrimerus vitis (Nal.) es la especie responsable de la afección conocida como acariosis de la vid. En Rioja, esta plaga puede provocar importantes pérdidas, sobre todo en aquellos años cuyas primaveras son frías. Se ha desarrollado un método de muestreo secuencial-enumerativo y un método de muestreo binomial para estimar la densidad poblacional de este acaro. Con el propósito de caracterizar la distribución espacial de C. vitis se han calculado los índices de agregación de Taylor e Iwao, comprobando que el ajuste es mejor para los índices de Taylor, siendo b=l,79. En el muestreo enumerativo se han obtenido las curvas que relacionan la densidad poblacional del erió- fído con el tamaño de la muestra, con una precisión E=0,25, basánsose en los índices de Taylor encontrados. El muestreo binomial para la estimación de la densidad poblacional se ha desarrollado en base a obtener la relación existente entre el número de ácaros por hoja y el porcentaje de hojas ocupadas.The eriophyid mite Calepitrimerus vitis (Nal.) is an important pest in vineyards of Rioja (Spain). The agregation indexes of this mite have been calculated, and diferent sampling plans for this species have been developed, including enumerative and binomial schemes to estimate population density. Taylor's index has given better fitting than Iwao's. The coefficent b of Taylor is 1,79. To develop an enumerative sampling plan, the sample size based on Taylor's index has been calculated with a 25% precision level. It has been developed a binomial sampling scheme based on de relationship between the number of individuals per leaf and the proportion of leafs occupied by C. vitis

New records of soil mites (Acari) from citrus orchards of Tunisia

An inventory of soil mites from citrus orchards was carried out in four localities situated in the regions of Mornag and Bizerte, northern Tunisia. The soil sampling was performed monthly under the canopy throughout the two years of the study (2016 and 2017). A total of 31 species of mites belonging to 20 families were identified. The acari fauna was predominantly composed of Oribatida followed by Mesostigmata mites. The most frequent and abundant Oribatida families were Oribatulidae and Phenopelopidae, while Parasitidae, Laelapidae and Pachylaelapidae were the predominant families of Mesostigmata