FTIR Characterization of isolated fruit cuticles from tomato species

La comunicación arriba reseñada ha sido presentado como póster.The plant cuticle is a lipid extracellular membrane which covers the outer surface of leaves, stems and fruits of higher plants acting as a real interphase between the plant and the environment. The cuticle plays a pivotal role in epidermal development, control of water loss, fruit integrity, firmness and resistance to various disorders [1]. From a morphological point of view, the cuticle (Figure 1) can be described as acutinizedepidermal cell wall [2]. Based on its structural and chemical composition, the cuticle is mainly constituted by a polyester matrix of long chainpolyhydroxy fatty acids named cutin. Additionally, a significant amount of polysaccharides (mainly cellulose, hemicellulose and pectin) is also present. Cuticular waxes, a mixture of different very long chain aliphatic compounds, can be either embedded into the cutin matrix (intracuticular waxes) or deposited on the outer surface of the cuticle (epicuticular waxes) [3]. Finally, phenolic compounds (cinnamic acid derivatives and flavonoids) are also present. In tomato, cuticular flavonoids participate in fruit coloration and their presence is influenced by environmental conditions and the stage of development.As it can be observed in Figure 1, the cuticle has an asymmetrical distribution of its components. In its outer surface waxes and aliphatic compounds are very abundant, while the inner surface is rich in polysaccharides from epidermal cell wall. Two parameters have been studied, the esterification index (the ratio between the intensities of the stretching vibration band related to ester functional groups (1730 cm-1) and the stretching vibration associated with methylene groups (2918 cm-1)), which isa relative measure of the cross-linking degree of the cutin matrix, and the amount of flavonoids, calculated as the sum of 1606 cm-1and 1624 cm-1 band areas.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Software Design Guidelines for Usability

For years, the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) community has crafted usability guidelines that clearly define what
characteristics a software system should have in order to be easy to use. However, in the Software Engineering (SE)
community keep falling short of successfully incorporating these recommendations into software projects. From a SE
perspective, the process of incorporating usability features into software is not always straightforward, as a large number
of these features have heavy implications in the underlying software architecture. For example, successfully including an
“undo” feature in an application requires the design and implementation of many complex interrelated data structures and
functionalities. Our work is focused upon providing developers with a set of software design patterns to assist them in the
process of designing more usable software. This would contribute to the proper inclusion of specific usability features
with high impact on the software design. Preliminary validation data show that usage of the guidelines also has positive
effects on development time and overall software design quality

2 + 1 Highways: Overview and Future Directions

Most of the rural transportation system is composed of two-lane highways, and many of them serve as the primary means for rural access to urban areas and freeways. In some highways, traffic volumes can be not high enough to justify a four-lane highway but higher than can be served by isolated passing lanes, or can present high number of head-on collisions. In those conditions, 2 + 1 highways are potentially applicable. This type of highway is used to provide high-performance highways as intermediate solution between the common two-lane highway and the freeway. Successful experiences reported in Germany, Sweden, Finland, Poland, or Texas (US) may suggest that they are potentially applicable in other countries. The objective of this white paper is to provide an overview of the past practice in 2 + 1 highways and discuss the research directions and challenges in this field, specially focusing on, but not limited to, operational research in association with the activities of the Subcommittee on Two-Lane Highways (AHB40 2.2) of the Transportation Research Board. The significance of this paper is twofold: (1) it provides wider coverage of past 2 + 1 highways design and evaluation, and (2) it discusses future directions of this field.The authors wish to thank the Fundación Agustín de Betancourt from the Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena for funding the research

Environmental drivers on the life cycle strategies and distribution of cephalopods in the portuguese coast

The common squid Loligo vulgaris has a long spawning season within the upwelling system off NW Portugal. The meroplanktonic paralarvae develop under very different environmental conditions, which are the key to define the recruitment success of the new cohorts. Among these environmental variables, temperature is determinant in modulating the population dynamics and distribution. The common squid is studied as a model to understand the influence of environmental variables, on the life history strategies of cephalopods based on data from wild populations. The age-at-maturity, size-at-maturity, growth rates and growth curves, paralarvae growth and planktonic stage duration are analysed through countings and measurements of daily increments in statoliths of two groups of squid, the cold and the warm cohorts, hatched under distinct environmental conditions, namely the temperature during the first 3 months of life. These seasonal strategies are discussed in relation to global warming scenarios. The identification of essential habitats for each marine species has recently been recognized as an important component of the fisheries management. In particular, the distribution and abundance of planktonic paralarvae of several cephalopod species is analysed in relation to oceanographic mesoscale features, including currents, thermal fronts and coastal upwelling along-shore and cross-shelf transport, prevailing in the western Iberia or the Gulf of Cadiz systems. Additionally, the seasonal nursery grounds of the common octopus along the Portuguese coast are identified using georeferenced fishery independent data, to analyse the relationships between juvenile abundance and several environmental variables, as indicators of possible juvenile essential habitats, and suggest areas to be protected in future marine management options.A lula Loligo vulgaris apresenta um período de desova alargado no sistema de afloramento da costa ocidental portuguesa, pelo que as suas paralarvas meroplanctónicas se desenvolvem sob condições ambientais diversas que são a chave para a definição do sucesso do recrutamento das novas coortes. Dentro destas variáveis ambientais, a temperatura revela-se como determinante na modelação da dinâmica populacional e da distribuição. A lula vulgar é usada como modelo para a compreensão da influência de variáveis ambientais nas estratégias do ciclo de vida dos cefalópodes com base em dados das populações naturais. A idade e tamanho de maturação, taxas e modelos de crescimento, e duração da fase planctónica são analisados com base em contagens e medições de incrementos diários nos estatólitos de dois grupos de lulas (coorte fria e coorte quente) eclodidas sob diferentes condições ambientais, nomeadamente a temperatura durante os primeiros três meses de vida. As estratégias de crescimento destas coortes são discutidas no contexto de cenários de aquecimento global. A importância da identificação dos habitats essenciais das espécies marinhas tem sido reconhecida recentemente como uma componente importante da gestão das pescas. Em particular, é analisada a distribuição e abundância das paralarvas planctónicas de várias espécies de cefalópodes relativamente às principais características dos sistemas de oceanográficos da Ibéria ocidental e do golfo de Cádis, incluindo correntes, frentes térmicas e transporte relacionado com o afloramento costeiro. Por outro lado, são identificadas as áreas de viveiro do polvo Octopus vulgaris ao longo da costa portuguesa através de dados georreferenciados independentes da pesca e analisadas as relações entre variáveis ambientais e a abundância de juvenis, como indicadoras de habitats essenciais dos juvenis desta espécie e de áreas sensíveis a serem protegidas no âmbito de estratégias futuras de gestão marinha

Madrid, 1912. El reto del turismo

The Palace Hotel in Madrid was inaugurated in the autumn of 1912, consolidating the luxury hotel offerings in the capital. In parallel, the city, through the Asociación de Propaganda, was organizing an important tourism conference that for a week brought together all the syndicates in the country. That same month, the general director of the Ritz Hotel had an interesting international journey through Europe and America to promote his hotel and the city. The coincidence of the different factors was not accidental, and reveals the growing importance that tourism was starting to have for the city of Madrid. This article will also try to relate these first steps of Madrid tourism with other aspects in the development of national tourism.El otoño de 1912 se inauguró el Hotel Palace en Madrid consolidando así la oferta de lujo en la capital. Al mismo tiempo, la ciudad, a través de la Asociación de Propaganda, organizaba un importante congreso de turismo que reunió durante una semana a todos los sindicatos del país. Ese mismo otoño, el director del Hotel Ritz hizo un interesante viaje internacional por Europa y América para promocionar su hotel y la ciudad. La coincidencia de factores no es casual y revela la importancia creciente que el turismo empezaba a tener para Madrid. Este artículo pretende, además, relacionar estos primeros pasos del Madrid turístico con otros aspectos del desarrollo del turismo nacional

Soluciones analíticas del problema de Cauchy. teoremas de Cauchy y Cauchy-Kowalewski

In first place, the goal of this work is to get a result which guarantees that the Cauchy problem, with certain conditions of analyticity, has a unique analytical solution, and its power series can be obtained. We will also provide a result, the Cauchy-Kowalewski theorem, to guarantee that, in a Cauchy problem defined by a partial differential equation, and with certain hypotheses of analyticity, the analytical solution exists and it is unique, too. We will prove these results by the majorant method. Finally, in last chapter, we will see how to apply the previous result on a Cauchy problem defined by a higher-order PDE. Then, we will study certain surfaces where the initial conditions can’t be given. These surfaces are called characteristic surfaces, and the problem isn’t well defined on them. In order to achieve these objetives, we will need to introduce some notions and results of infinitesimal calculus, as well as the concepts of analytical and majorant functions. We will also provide other results which we will use throughout the project.El objetivo de este trabajo es obtener, en primer lugar, un resultado que garantice la existencia y unicidad de solución analítica del problema de Cauchy en el que la función de la ecuación diferencial ordinaria que define el problema es analítica en un cierto entorno, concepto que introduciremos en el primer capítulo. Teniendo en cuenta esta hipótesis de analiticidad, se quiere llegar a la conclusión de que el problema posee una única solución analítica, y, además, puede obtenerse su desarrollo de Taylor término a término. Por otro lado, gracias al teorema de Cauchy-Kowalewski, garantizaremos la existencia y unicidad de solución analítica del problema de Cauchy con la particularidad de que, en este caso, la ecuación que define el problema vendrá dada por una ecuación diferencial en derivadas parciales de primer orden. Todo ello bajo ciertas condiciones, la más importante es que los datos iniciales o de Cauchy, y los coeficientes de la ecuación en derivadas parciales son funciones analíticas, y, por tanto, la solución del problema también lo será. Para finalizar, en el último capítulo se verá, en primer lugar, cómo aplicar el resultado anterior sobre un problema de Cauchy definido por una EDP de orden superior al primero. Por otro lado, estudiaremos ciertas superficies donde no pueden darse lo datos iniciales del problema general de Cauchy, esto es, definido por una EDP en forma implícita. Veremos que estas superficies son las denominadas superficies características, y sobre ellas el problema no está bien planteado. Para llevar a cabo estos objetivos necesitamos conocer algunas nociones del cálculo infinitesimal, como son los conceptos de serie numérica y de potencias, y algunos resultados de convergencia de éstas; así como los conceptos de función analítica y función mayorante. También los teoremas de la función inversa e implícita, a los cuales tendremos que recurrir a lo largo del trabajo.Universidad de Sevilla. Grado en Matemática