Caracterización de la industria avícola en el centro del Valle del Cauca

La caracterización de granjas avícolas de pollo de engorde y gallina ponedora de pequeños productores y grandes productores en el centro del Valle del Cauca, se realizó por medio de una encuesta de las granjas en 11 de los 13 municipios, dentro de las características principales en la zona en la cual se trabajó se debe mencionar que el centro del Valle del Cauca está ubicado a una altitud promedio de 1.075 msnm, con una temperatura promedio entre 23°C y 24°C y una precipitación media de 938mm/a, teniendo en cuenta la descripción de la zona sobre la cual se trabajó más específicamente en 11 municipios, se realizó una encuesta a 66 granjas para realizar un muestreo cualitativo y cuantitativo de las producciones avícolas, se identificaron las características de los aspectos sociales, técnicos y sanitarios, con la finalidad de conocer el estado actual de la producción avícola en el centro del Valle del Cauca

Characterization of the Small RNA Transcriptome of the Marine Coccolithophorid, Emiliania huxleyi

Small RNAs (smRNAs) control a variety of cellular processes by silencing target genes at the transcriptional or post-transcription level. While extensively studied in plants, relatively little is known about smRNAs and their targets in marine phytoplankton, such as Emiliania huxleyi (E. huxleyi). Deep sequencing was performed of smRNAs extracted at different time points as E. huxleyi cells transition from logarithmic to stationary phase growth in batch culture. Computational analyses predicted 18 E. huxleyi specific miRNAs. The 18 miRNA candidates and their precursors vary in length (18-24 nt and 71-252 nt, respectively), genome copy number (3-1,459), and the number of genes targeted (2-107). Stem-loop real time reverse transcriptase (RT) PCR was used to validate miRNA expression which varied by nearly three orders of magnitude when growth slows and cells enter stationary phase. Stem-loop RT PCR was also used to examine the expression profiles of miRNA in calcifying and non-calcifying cultures, and a small subset was found to be differentially expressed when nutrients become limiting and calcification is enhanced. In addition to miRNAs, endogenous small RNAs such as ra-siRNAs, ta-siRNAs, nat-siRNAs, and piwiRNAs were predicted along with the machinery for the biogenesis and processing of si-RNAs. This study is the first genome-wide investigation smRNAs pathways in E. huxleyi. Results provide new insights into the importance of smRNAs in regulating aspects of physiological growth and adaptation in marine phytoplankton and further challenge the notion that smRNAs evolved with multicellularity, expanding our perspective of these ancient regulatory pathways

Effective Conformal Descriptions of Black Hole Entropy

It is no longer considered surprising that black holes have temperatures and entropies. What remains surprising, though, is the universality of these thermodynamic properties: their exceptionally simple and general form, and the fact that they can be derived from many very different descriptions of the underlying microscopic degrees of freedom. I review the proposal that this universality arises from an approximate conformal symmetry, which permits an effective "conformal dual" description that is largely independent of the microscopic details.Comment: 27 pages; solicited review article, to appear in Entrop

A Bio-Inspired Tensegrity Manipulator with Multi-DOF, Structurally Compliant Joints

Most traditional robotic mechanisms feature inelastic joints that are unable to robustly handle large deformations and off-axis moments. As a result, the applied loads are transferred rigidly throughout the entire structure. The disadvantage of this approach is that the exerted leverage is magnified at each subsequent joint possibly damaging the mechanism. In this paper, we present two lightweight, elastic, bio-inspired tensegrity robotics arms which mitigate this danger while improving their mechanism's functionality. Our solutions feature modular tensegrity structures that function similarly to the human elbow and the human shoulder when connected. Like their biological counterparts, the proposed robotic joints are flexible and comply with unanticipated forces. Both proposed structures have multiple passive degrees of freedom and four active degrees of freedom (two from the shoulder and two from the elbow). The structural advantages demonstrated by the joints in these manipulators illustrate a solution to the fundamental issue of elegantly handling off-axis compliance.Comment: IROS 201

Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in the European Atmosphere: An Updated Overview

POPs are a group of chemicals which share some specific characterictics, that make them of high international concern. Due to their semivolatility, POPs present a widespread distribution being able to reach remote locations and areas after traveling long distances in the atmosphere where they have never been produced nor used. Different chemical families are considered as POPs, such as PCBs, OCPs, PCDD/Fs, PAHs, and, PCNs. In addition, some emerging contaminants are currently considered as candidate POPs, like PBDEs and PFCs. POPs exist in the atmosphere as gases and bound to particles depending on their physico-chemical properties. This affinity to gas or particulate phase is of relevant importance in the processes of POP atmospheric global transport and degradation. POPs are delivered to aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems by atmospheric deposition, air-water interchanges and direct discharges. The general hydrophobic nature of POPs results in high affinity to organic matter and biota tissues. Consequently, organisms and sediments become final sinks of POPs, due to low metabolic activity for these compounds and slow degradation processes in the environment. A number of national and international actions have been promoted to reduce or ban their production and control their emissions to the environment. The UNEP Stockholm Convention adopted in May 2001. The Artic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) is measuring atmospheric concentrations of POPs in the artic region since it was established in 1991. At a European scale a big effort is being carried out combining the update of existing monitoring programmes with the generation of new legislations. Such is the case of the largest monitoring network across Europe gathering concentrations of POPs in air and deposition (EMEP). On the political side, the brand new European legislation on chemicals, REACH, will regulate the production of chemicals at a European scale. In addition, other POPs monitoring programmes exist at regional or national scales and a large number of ;independent; sites measuring atmospheric concentrations of POPs are spread out in the European geography. Considering such a scenario it seems obvious that a strong effort in harmonization and communication of results and monitoring and research strategies needs to be achieved. A step to facilitate this needed interaction was the workshop on ;Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in the European Atmosphere ; Concentration, Deposition and Sources in Europe; organized by the European Commission Joint Research Center held in October 17-19th, 2005 in Stresa (Italy). It was one of the objectives of the workshop to gather top experts from Europe and North America to share their expertise on POP monitoring and research in the atmospheric compartment in order to evaluate their current status in Europe. Invited experts develop their professional activities either in the existing POPs monitoring networks or in research institutions closely linked to POPs research. Other objectives of the workshop were to explore future research lines on the topic and to establish links with the existing science and new policies in Europe regarding chemicals. Twenty oral communications were presented covering relevant key issues on POPs: In this report a compilation of the extended abstracts submitted by the participants is presented, whereas the working result output of the workshop will be submitted as an article to a peer-reviewed scientific journal.JRC.H.5-Rural, water and ecosystem resource

Diseño de cámara de corte simple en suelos

Trabajo de InvestigaciónEl ensayo de corte simple es una variante del corte directo de laboratorio, en donde a la muestra ensayada no se le induce un plano de corte, sino que se somete a una fuerza que produce una deformación. En este ensayo, las líneas horizontales son líneas de extensión nula, en cambio en el ensayo de corte directo, la deformación está limitada a una zona muy estrecha próxima a la separación entre las cajas, por lo que este ensayo es inadecuado para el estudio de las deformaciones. En base a los modelos del equipo de corte simple para suelos se realizará el diseño, materiales y dimensiones para así realizar el diseño final con el que se podrá ejecutar el equipo de corte simple para suelos.INTRODUCCIÓN 1. GENERALIDADES 2. METODOLOGÍA DISEÑO DE CÁMARA DE CORTE SIMPLE ACONDICIONADA A EQUIPO DE CORTE DIRECTO EN SUELOS 3. CONCLUSIONES 4. RECOMENDACIONES BIBLIOGRAFÍA ANEXOSPregradoIngeniero Civi

Monte Carlo Approaches to Parameterized Poker Squares

The paper summarized a variety of Monte Carlo approaches employed in the top three performing entries to the Parameterized Poker Squares NSG Challenge competition. In all cases AI players benefited from real-time machine learning and various Monte Carlo game-tree search techniques