PRIMER REGISTRO DE LA NUTRIA DE RÍO (Lontra longicaudis Olfers, 1818) EN EL PARQUE NACIONAL CAÑÓN DEL RÍO BLANCO, VERACRUZ, MÉXICO

Objective: Documenting the records of river otter (Lontra longicaudis Olfers, 1818) in the ‘Cañón del Río Blanco’ National Park (CRBNP), and in the Blanco River sub-basin, in Veracruz, Mexico.Design/methodology/approximation: Visits were carried out during six months looking for indirect records and sightings in the CRBNP. A bibliographic revision was made regarding records of Neotropical otter in the Blanco River sub-basin. The records were documented photographically, identified and georeferenced with a Global Position System (GPS).Results: The first record of Neotropical otter (Lontra longicaudis Olfers, 1818) was documented in the CRBNP, through direct sighting on the banks of the Blanco River, in the municipality of Ixtaczoquitlan, 23 km in a straight line from the nearest registry, in the Atoyac River, municipalities of Amatlán de los Reyes and Atoyac, Veracruz. In addition, records of this species have been found in the High Mountainous region of Veracruz, Mexico, together with the record of the species in the Alvarado Lagoon, representing the total distribution of Neotropical Otter in the Blanco River sub-basin.Limitations of the study/implications: No limitations were found in the study.Discoveries/conclusions: This record represents an interesting fact about the habitat of otters, since the Blanco River is considered the most polluted in the state of Veracruz and one of the most contaminated in Mexico; commonly this group of mammals was considered as a biological indicator of the health of ecosystems, but now they are considered as biomonitors to reveal changes in wetlands pollution.Objetivo: Documentar los registros de nutria de río (Lontra longicaudis Olfers,1818) en el Parque Nacional Cañón del Río Blanco (PNCRB) y en toda la subcuenca del Río Blanco, Veracruz, México.Diseño/metodología/aproximación: Se realizaron recorridos durante seis meses en busca de registros indirectos y avistamientos en el PNCRB. Se llevó a cabo una revisión bibliográfica sobre registros de la nutria de río en la subcuenca del río Blanco. Los registros fueron documentados fotográficamente, identificados y georreferenciados con un Sistema de Geoposicionamiento Global (GPS).Resultados: Se documenta el primer registro de nutria de río (Lontra longicaudis Olfers, 1818) en el PNCRB, mediante un avistamiento directo a orillas del río Blanco, en el municipio de Ixtaczoquitlán, a 23 km en línea recta del registro más cercano, en el río Atoyac, en los municipios de Amatlán de los Reyes y Atoyac, Veracruz, México. Se presentan los registros de esta especie en la región de las Altas Montañas de Veracruz y el registro de la especie en la laguna de Alvarado, que en su conjunto representan la distribución total conocida de la nutria en la subcuenca del río Blanco.Limitaciones del estudio/implicaciones: No se presentaron limitaciones en el estudio.Hallazgos/conclusiones: Este registro representa un dato importante sobre el hábitat de las nutrias, ya que el río Blanco se considera el más contaminado de Veracruz y uno de los más contaminados de México;estos mamíferos estaban considerados como indicadores biológicos de la salud de los ecosistemas, ahora considerados como biomonitores para revelar cambios en la contaminación de humedales

EL MONITOREO COMUNITARIO DE AVES EN LA REGIÓN DE LAS ALTAS MONTAÑAS DE VERACRUZ, MÉXICO: HACIA UN AVITURISMO COMUNITARIO

Background here is presented regarding community-based bird monitoring in Mexico and bird monitoring in in the High Mountain region of Veracruz, especially in the experience from 13 Christmas bird counts and spring birds that have been performed since 2005, as well as the creation of a Bird Watchers Club in the Córdoba-Orizaba region, performing quick bird guides, a scientific article, and a bird identification book of the High Mountains, and from these activities the record of more than 420 species of birds in the region was performed. In the same way, the training process and formation of a group of community monitors of birds in the region is described, made up of 25 people of eight different ecotourism projects. It is concluded that the community monitoring of birds arises in the High Mountains of Veracruz to respond to the need to broaden the tourism offer, seeking community development and the conservation and sustainable exploitation of birds.Se presentan antecedentes del monitoreo comunitario de aves en México y de la observación de aves en la región de las Altas Montañas de Veracruz, especialmente en la experiencia de los 13 conteos de aves navideños y de primavera que se han realizado desde 2005, así como la creación de un Club de Observadores de Aves de la región Córdoba- Orizaba, realización de guías rápidas de aves y un libro de identificación de las aves de las Altas Montañas yde cuyas actividades se ha desprendido el registro de más de 420 especies de aves en la región. Del mismo modo, se describe el proceso de capacitación y formación de un grupo de monitores comunitarios de aves de la región, integrado por 25 personas de ocho proyectos ecoturísticos diferentes. Se concluye que el monitoreo comunitario de aves surge en la región de las Altas Montañas de Veracruz para responder a la necesidad de ampliar la oferta turística, buscando el desarrollo comunitario, así como la conservación y el aprovechamiento sustentable de aves

EL ECOTURISMO Y EL TURISMO RURAL EN LA REGIÓN DE LAS ALTAS MONTAÑAS DE VERACRUZ, MÉXICO: POTENCIAL, RETOS Y REALIDADES

The called “High Mountains Region” from the Veracruz state, Mexico, has great opportunities for ecotourism and rural tourism as it is surrounded by rural and indigenous villages, prevailing the Nahuatl culture. All those villages shield ancient traditions and customs appropriates from this region; in addition, touristic activities represent a productive alternative for exploiting natural and cultural resources. This essay shows more than 40 different touristic initiatives currently in function. The type of touristic offer of these initiatives is also described, showing that most of them focused on tourism of nature, adventure and recreation, without considering the cultural richness prevailing in the region, as well as there are very few environmental education activities. Therefore, those touristic initiatives do not help to build up environmental awareness within the population. This essay also describes challenges in this region when facing touristic initiatives due some aspects as government paternalism and the lack of social cohesion. We conclude this essay by saying that despite social complications that exist, the region has a great potential for the alternative tourism, since it gathers high biocultural richness linked with imposing charismatic natural sites, but it needs effort and work to accomplish successful touristic projects to meet the objectives of an alternative tourism.La región conocida como “Grandes o Altas Montañas” del estado de Veracruz, México, representa una gran oportunidad para el ecoturismo y el turismo rural, pues en esta región existen diversos pueblos originarios, tanto rurales como indígenas (principalmente de la cultura náhuatl), que resguardan tradiciones y costumbres ancestrales de esta parte del estado, además de que esta actividad representa una alternativa productiva de aprovechamiento indirecto de los recursos naturales y la cultura de esta región. En este ensayo, se hace un recuento de las más de 40 diferentes iniciativas de turismo rural que actualmente se están desarrollando en esta región. También se describe el tipo de turismo que ofrecen, mostrando que la mayoría de ellas se enfocan al turismo de naturaleza, la aventura y la recreación, sin considerar la riqueza cultural que prevalece en la región, así como son mínimas las actividades de educación ambiental, por lo que estas actividades ecoturísticas no ayudan a la construcción de una conciencia ambiental en la población. Adicionalmente, se describen los retos que esta actividad enfrenta, principalmente el paternalismo y la falta de organización comunitaria que la mayoría de los pueblos rurales e indígenas de esta región padecen. Se concluye que la región tiene un gran potencial para el turismo alternativo, ya que resguarda una gran riqueza biocultural y sitios imponentes y con gran carisma, pero se necesitan esfuerzos para lograr proyectos exitosos y que cumplan los objetivos de este tipo de turismo

Energy decay for Timoshenko systems of memory type

AbstractLinear systems of Timoshenko type equations for beams including a memory term are studied. The exponential decay is proved for exponential kernels, while polynomial kernels are shown to lead to a polynomial decay. The optimality of the results is also investigated

Expanding the hoogsteen edge of 2'-deoxyguanosine: Consequences for G-quadruplex formation

(Chemical Equation Presented) The synthesis and self-assembling properties of 8-aryl-2'-deoxyguanosine derivatives are described. Our studies suggest that a properly placed acetyl group can increase the stability and specificity of the resulting G-quadruplex supramolecules by enhancing noncovalent interactions such as hydrogen bonds and Ï?-stacking

Defining and Analysing Resource Assignments in Business Processes with RAL

Business process (BP) modelling notations tend to stray their attention from (human) resource management, unlike other aspects such as control flow or even data flow. They not only offer little intuitive languages to assign resources to BP activities, but neither link BPs with the structure of the organization where they are used, so BP models can easily contain errors such as the assignment of resources that do not belong to the organizational model. In this paper we address this problem and define RAL (Resource Assignment Language), a domainspecific language explicitly developed to assign resources to the activities of a BP model. RAL makes BPs aware of organizational structures. Besides, RAL semantics is based on an OWL-DL ontology, which enables the automatic analysis of resource assignment expressions, thus allowing the extraction of information from the resource assignments, and the detection of inconsistencies and assignment conflicts

Lightweight Testing of Communication Networks with e-Motions

This paper illustrates the use of high-level domain specific models to specify and test some performance properties of complex systems, in particular Communication Networks, using a light-weight approach. By following a Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) approach, we show the benefits of constructing very abstract models of the systems under test, which can then be easily prototyped and analysed to explore their properties. For this purpose we use e-Motions, a language and its supporting toolkit that allows end-user modelling of real-time systems and their analysis in a graphical manner.Junta de Andalucía P07-TIC-03184Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TIN2008-0310

Exponential stability of the wave equation with memory and time delay

We study the asymptotic behaviour of the wave equation with viscoelastic damping in presence of a time-delayed damping. We prove exponential stability if the amplitude of the time delay term is small enough

Evaluating Baculovirus as a Vector for Human Prostate Cancer Gene Therapy

Gene therapy represents an attractive strategy for the non-invasive treatment of prostate cancer, where current clinical interventions show limited efficacy. Here, we evaluate the use of the insect virus, baculovirus (BV), as a novel vector for human prostate cancer gene therapy. Since prostate tumours represent a heterogeneous environment, a therapeutic approach that achieves long-term regression must be capable of targeting multiple transformed cell populations. Furthermore, discrimination in the targeting of malignant compared to non-malignant cells would have value in minimising side effects. We employed a number of prostate cancer models to analyse the potential for BV to achieve these goals. In vitro, both traditional prostate cell lines as well as primary epithelial or stromal cells derived from patient prostate biopsies, in two- or three-dimensional cultures, were used. We also evaluated BV in vivo in murine prostate cancer xenograft models. BV was capable of preferentially transducing invasive malignant prostate cancer cell lines compared to early stage cancers and non-malignant samples, a restriction that was not a function of nuclear import. Of more clinical relevance, primary patient-derived prostate cancer cells were also efficiently transduced by BV, with robust rates observed in epithelial cells of basal phenotype, which expressed BV-encoded transgenes faster than epithelial cells of a more differentiated, luminal phenotype. Maximum transduction capacity was observed in stromal cells. BV was able to penetrate through three-dimensional structures, including in vitro spheroids and in vivo orthotopic xenografts. BV vectors containing a nitroreductase transgene in a gene-directed enzyme pro-drug therapy approach were capable of efficiently killing malignant prostate targets following administration of the pro-drug, CB1954. Thus, BV is capable of transducing a large proportion of prostate cell types within a heterogeneous 3-D prostate tumour, can facilitate cell death using a pro-drug approach, and shows promise as a vector for the treatment of prostate cancer