Sustainable Planning of Land Use Changes in farming areas under ecological protection

Land use has been changing in the last decades because of agricultural intensification and land abandonment which implies deterioration in the optimum habitat structure and quality. Habitat degradation and loss, resulting from changes in land use remain significant drivers of biodiversity loss. These trends are widely recognised and have forced national and international agencies to identify protected sites for natural areas with high biodiversity value. Special Protection Areas (SPAs) are natural zones particularly relevant for nature conservation. Regional planning is bound to play an increasing role in nature conservation policies because much biodiversity is located in farming areas outside natural parks. Agriculture in the Mediterranean Basin has always been highly dependent on rainfed crops, cereal, vine and olive. Vine growing plays an important role not only from the economic point of view, but also environmentally as a permanent plant cover in terms of preventing erosion, managing land and water resources in a sustainable way, defending against desertification an settling population in rural areas. A Geographic Information System (GIS) was used to implement a decision tool system to analyse the feasibility of new proposals to upgrade traditional vineyards in Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. The study focuses on the sustainability of current farming practices in Special Protection Areas for Steppe Land Birds. This paper presents a model to quantify the resulting habitat fragmentation basing on infrastructure facilities, leading to mapping areas where to apply restriction measures to prevent physical destruction of the habita

Two-level interacting boson models beyond the mean field

The phase diagram of two-level boson Hamiltonians, including the Interacting Boson Model (IBM), is studied beyond the standard mean field approximation using the Holstein-Primakoff mapping. The limitations of the usual intrinsic state (mean field) formalism concerning finite-size effects are pointed out. The analytic results are compared to numerics obtained from exact diagonalizations. Excitation energies and occupation numbers are studied in different model space regions (Casten triangle for IBM) and especially at the critical points.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figure

Quantum Phase Transitions in the Interacting Boson Model: Integrability, level repulsion and level crossing

We study the quantum phase transition mechanisms that arise in the Interacting Boson Model. We show that the second-order nature of the phase transition from U(5) to O(6) may be attributed to quantum integrability, whereas all the first-order phase transitions of the model are due to level repulsion with one singular point of level crossing. We propose a model Hamiltonian with a true first-order phase transition for finite systems due to level crossings.Comment: Accepted in PR

Finite-size scaling exponents in the interacting boson model

We investigate the finite-size scaling exponents for the critical point at the shape phase transition from U(5) (spherical) to O(6) (deformed $\gamma$-unstable) dynamical symmetries of the Interacting Boson Model, making use of the Holstein-Primakoff boson expansion and the continuous unitary transformation technique. We compute exactly the leading order correction to the ground state energy, the gap, the expectation value of the $d$-boson number in the ground state and the $E2$ transition probability from the ground state to the first excited state, and determine the corresponding finite-size scaling exponents.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, published versio

Thermal diagnostic of the Optical Window on board LISA Pathfinder

Vacuum conditions inside the LTP Gravitational Reference Sensor must comply with rather demanding requirements. The Optical Window (OW) is an interface which seals the vacuum enclosure and, at the same time, lets the laser beam go through for interferometric Metrology with the test masses. The OW is a plane-parallel plate clamped in a Titanium flange, and is considerably sensitive to thermal and stress fluctuations. It is critical for the required precision measurements, hence its temperature will be carefully monitored in flight. This paper reports on the results of a series of OW characterisation laboratory runs, intended to study its response to selected thermal signals, as well as their fit to numerical models, and the meaning of the latter. We find that a single pole ARMA transfer function provides a consistent approximation to the OW response to thermal excitations, and derive a relationship with the physical processes taking place in the OW. We also show how system noise reduction can be accomplished by means of that transfer function.Comment: 20 pages, 14 figures; accepted for publication in Class. Quantum Gra

Epistemología, caos y enseñanza de las ciencias

In this article it is maintained that modern science is going through a critical period where its epistemological assumptions and the use of a parcelling and reductionist methodology are questioned. This will surely have important implications in the teaching of the sciences, perhaps because the world today demands above all an epistemological change in the people who, within a few years, will occuppy the posts in the production and reproduction of scientific and technical knowledge

Manual for inspection of sprayers in use and PRITEAF, dedicated software for inspection of sprayers: success tools developed for the inspector’s training process in Spain

Software dedicated to inspection of sprayers in use has been developed with the aim to facilitate the accomplishment of the mandatory requirements from EU Directive for a Sustainable Use of Pesticides, specifically those concerning the inspection of sprayers in use. The software- PRITEAF- has been developed according to the European standards EN 13790 concerning mandatory inspection of sprayers in use and it is ready to be used not only for inspectors among all the EU members but also for training purposes all over the world. The software is ready to be on line –after minor arrangements - with the recently approved new international inspection standards ISO 16122, and its main features are: to facilitate the sprayer’s inspection procedure, to manage, storage and transfer all the information to the official bodies in charge of the procedure, and to be used as a support tool to improve the training activities during the process, according the European Directive 2009/128/CE for a Sustainable Use of Pesticides. For this purpose, PRITEAF has been designed for three different types of users: inspection teams, inspection workshops and regional authorities. PRITEAF has been developed using the File Maker Pro package and it is composed of three databases – inspections activities, database on sprayers already inspected, and owners or official responsible for the agricultural activity. The software is completed with specific modules for data acquisition and for generating official reports, files and communications. For its implementation, PRITEAF uses specific hardware (a PC server, a tablet and local Wi-Fi) necessary to ensure proper data collection in the field. After data collection, the software generates an official inspection report and an inspection certificate, as required by law. Using PRITEAF reduces inspection time by 33% compared to traditional sprayer inspection systems. Following its validation, PRITEAF has been made available to regional authorities and inspection workshops across Spain, and is also being used to train all inspection teams in the country. More than 800 inspectors have been officially trained using the developed software, resulting in an interesting tool to improve the daily activities to be executed in all the inspection’s workshops in Europe

La política de ciencia, tecnología e innovación y el retorno del Estado: 2007-2010, años de inestabilidad The policy of science, technology and innovation and the return of the state: 2007 2010, years of instability

This article analyzes the implementation process of the Ecuadorian science, technology and innovation policy (PCTI) within the framework of the beginning of the post-neoliberal period, which implied the strengthening of the State and the insertion of the paradigm of buen vivir. For this purpose, the novel elements in the definition of this policy under the framework of buen vivir are described as an introductory note. Then, the complex construction process of the explicit PCTI during these years is reviewed. Finally, the instruments implemented and their relationship with the definition of PCTI are analyzed. To this end, the concepts of explicit scientific policy and implicit scientific policy of Herrera [1] and the notion of scientific-technological paradigm of Velho [2] are used. The chosen approach is framed in the new institutionalism that understands the definition and implementation of the PCTI as the result of the strategic game of the actors involved in these processes. This case study uses investigation of historical archives, documentary analysis and in-depth interviews with relevant actors. It is found that the PCTI during these years was unstable, as there were several short-term policy documents, and that its implementation was far from the ambitious rhetoric and the major objectives, limited to two instruments: international postgraduate scholarships and financing of research and development projects

Therapeutic use of monoclonal antibodies

La utilización de terapias basadas en anticuerpos monoclonales ha supuesto un gran avance en la práctica clínica. Tienen un ámbito de utilización muy diverso, incluyendo aplicaciones diagnósticas y terapéuticas principalmente. En cuanto a su uso como tratamiento, las áreas más beneficiadas con su descubrimiento han sido la oncología y las enfermedades del sistema inmune.Se trata de un área en continuo crecimiento, tanto por la aparición de nuevos fármacos, como por la ampliación de indicaciones de los ya existentes. Esta revisión resume las características farmacológicas más importantes de los anticuerpos monoclonales comercializados en nuestro país. Se centra principalmente en la utilidad terapeútica, dosificación, eventos adversos de gran relevancia clínica y consideraciones importantes para su correcta administración. También se realiza un breve apunte de las indicaciones de los anticuerpos monoclonales autorizados por la agencia europea del medicamento (EMEA) y que se encuentran en distintas fases del proceso de comercializaciónThe utilization of therapies based on monoclonal antibodies has supposed a great advance in the clinical practice. They have a diverse field of use, including diagnostic and therapeutic applications. As treatment, the most benefited has been the oncology and immune system diseases.This is an area in continuous growth, so much for the appearance of new medicaments, since for the extension of indications of the already existing ones. This review summarizes the most important pharmacological characteristics of the monoclonal antibodies commercialized in our country. It centres principally on the authorized indications, dosing, adverse events of great clinical relevancy and important considerations for his correct administration. Also there is realized a brief note of the indications of the monoclonal antibodies authorized by the European agency of the medicine (EMEA) and that are in different phases of the process of commercialization