Burning season effects on the short-term post-fire vegetation dynamics of a Mediterranean heathland

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NDT-Merge: A future tool for conciliating Software Requirements in MDE Environments

Requirements conciliation can result one of the most expensive and critical tasks in Web development. It particularly depends on analysts’ experiences since very frequently they have to use manual solution to cope with requirements conciliation. After some previous work presenting an approach oriented towards Web requirements conciliation, this paper proposes a tool for executing this task. It is based on the Model-driven paradigm and it is included in the context of NDT (Navigational Development Techniques) methodology.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TIN2010-20057-C03-02Junta de Andalucía TIC-578

Synthesis of Ce/Ru Doped ZnO photocatalysts to the degradation of emerging pollutants in wastewater

Semiconductor nanoparticles (NPs) and nanowires (NWs) of doped ZnO system with different dopant content have been synthesized by Polyol-Mediated Thermolysis (PMT) process and Vapour-Solid (VS) reaction. The average crystallite size, morphology, specific surface area, and direct band gap have been evaluated. The structural and functional characteristics have been studied by X-Ray Diffraction techniques (XRD), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM), High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM), Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) method, UV-Vis Diffuse Reflectance Spectra (DRS), UV-Vis Spectroscopy, and Photoluminescence measurements (PL). Also, the photocatalytic activities of pure and doped ZnONPs were evaluated by removal rate of Methylene Blue (MB) under UV irradiation (365 nm) at room temperature. XRD patterns revealed the common hexagonal ZnO Wurtzite-type structures with a preferred orientation of (101) plane. Secondary phases as CeO2, Ce2O3, Ce, RuO2, Ru3O4, Ruhave been identified. For both dopant, Ceand Ru, and for all the concentrations in the precursor solution, FESEM and HRTEM showed NPswith morphologies ranging from spherical/ellipsoidal to hexagonal. The size of NPs was observed to decrease (from ~30 to ~16 nm) with increasing doping concentration due to the interaction between the Ce-O-Zn or Ru-O-Zn ions. EDS results confirmed the incorporation of Ce or Ru ions into ZnO lattice.Using the Kubelka-Munk treatment on the diffuse reflectance spectra, the direct band gap energy has been estimated to be slightly lower than 3.0 eV in both, the Ce and Ru-doped samples. Compared with pure ZnO NPs, the PL spectra of the doped NPs showed red-shifted UV emission and an enhanced blue emission with the typical broad green-yellow emission. The results showed that photocatalytic efficiency of doped ZnO NPs was always enhanced

Detecting web requirements conflicts and inconsistencies under a model-based perspective

Web requirements engineering is an essential phase in the software project life cycle for the project results. This phase covers different activities and tasks that in many situations, depending on the analyst’s experience or intuition, help getting accurate specifications. One of these tasks is the conciliation of requirements in projects with different groups of users. This article presents an approach for the systematic conciliation of requirements in big projects dealing with a model-based approach. The article presents a possible implementation of the approach in the context of the NDT (Navigational Development Techniques) Methodology and shows the empirical evaluation in a real project by analysing the improvements obtained with our approach. The paper presents interesting results that demonstrate that we can get a reduction in the time required to find conflicts between requirements, which implies a reduction in the global development costs.Laboratorio de Investigación y Formación en Informática Avanzad

Identifying functional requirements inconsistencies in multiteam projects framed into a model-based methodology

REP (Requirements Engineering Process) is one of the most essential processes within the software project life cycle because it allows describing software product requirements. This specification should be as consistent as possible to enable estimating in a suitable manner the effort required to obtain the final product. REP is complex in itself, but this complexity is greatly increased in big, distributed and heterogeneous projects with multiple analyst teams and high integration among functional modules. This paper presents an approach for the systematic conciliation of functional requirements in big projects dealing with a model based approach. It also explains how this approach may be implemented in the context of NDT (Navigational Development Techniques) methodology and finally, it describes a preliminary evaluation of our proposal in CALIPSOneo project by analyzing the improvements obtained with our approach.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2016-76956-C3-2-R (POLOLAS)Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2013-46928-C3-3-RMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2015-71938-RED

Biotinylated Cell-penetrating Peptides to Study Intracellular Protein-protein Interactions

[EN] Here we present a protocol to study intracellular protein-protein interactions that is based on the widely used biotin-avidin pull-down system. The modification presented includes the combination of this technique with cell-penetrating sequences. We propose to design cell-penetrating baits that can be incubated with living cells instead of cell lysates and therefore the interactions found will reflect those that occur within the intracellular context. Connexin43 (Cx43), a protein that forms gap junction channels and hemichannels is down-regulated in high-grade gliomas. The Cx43 region comprising amino acids 266-283 is responsible for the inhibition of the oncogenic activity of c-Src in glioma cells. Here we use TAT as the cell-penetrating sequence, biotin as the pull-down tag and the region of Cx43 comprised between amino acids 266-283 as the target to find intracellular interactions in the hard-to-transfect human glioma stem cells. One of the limitations of the proposed method is that the molecule used as bait could fail to fold properly and, consequently, the interactions found could not be associated with the effect. However, this method can be especially interesting for the interactions involved in signal transduction pathways because they are usually carried out by intrinsically disordered regions and, therefore, they do not require an ordered folding. In addition, one of the advantages of the proposed method is that the relevance of each residue on the interaction can be easily studied. This is a modular system; therefore, other cell-penetrating sequences, other tags, and other intracellular targets can be employed. Finally, the scope of this protocol is far beyond protein-protein interaction because this system can be applied to other bioactive cargoes such as RNA sequences, nanoparticles, viruses or any molecule that can be transduced with cell-penetrating sequences and fused to pull-down tags to study their intracellular mechanism of action

Detecting web requirements conflicts and inconsistencies under a model-based perspective

Web requirements engineering is an essential phase in the software project life cycle for the project results. This phase covers different activities and tasks that in many situations, depending on the analyst’s experience or intuition, help getting accurate specifications. One of these tasks is the conciliation of requirements in projects with different groups of users. This article presents an approach for the systematic conciliation of requirements in big projects dealing with a model-based approach. The article presents a possible implementation of the approach in the context of the NDT (Navigational Development Techniques) Methodology and shows the empirical evaluation in a real project by analysing the improvements obtained with our approach. The paper presents interesting results that demonstrate that we can get a reduction in the time required to find conflicts between requirements, which implies a reduction in the global development costs.Laboratorio de Investigación y Formación en Informática Avanzad

Hormonal an inflammatory biomarkers in a group of overweight and obese women

Introducción y Objetivos: Recientemente se ha descubierto que la obesidad es una patología caracterizada por un estado crónico de inflamación leve. El objetivo de este estudio fue describir la situación hormonal e inflamatoria de un colectivo de mujeres con sobrepeso/obesidad. Pacientes y métodos: se incluyeron mujeres > 18 años, con IMC ≥ 25 < 40 kg/m2. Se recogieron datos socio-sanitarios, presión arterial, parámetros antropométricos, de actividad física, estudio bioquímico, hormonal e inflamatorio para determinar la situación hormonal e inflamatoria de un colectivo de mujeres antes del inicio de un tratamiento para el control de peso corporal. Resultados: participaron 104 mujeres con edad media de 48,4 ± 9 años y un IMC de 29,8 ± 3,5 kg/m2. Un 48% de las mujeres estudiadas se encontraba en etapa de menopausia. Un 8,9% presentó hiperinsulinemia. El valor medio obtenido de grhelina fue 38,8 ± 33,6 pg/ml, no se encontró correlación entre sus concentraciones y las variables antropométricas y bioquímicas estudiadas. Los valores medios de PCR, leptina, adiponectina, resistina, IL 6, IL 10 y PAI 1 fueron 3,0 ± 2,7 mg/dl, 36,3 ± 19,5 ng/ml, 8,3 ± 4,5 μg/ml, 24,3 ± 23,2 ng/ml, 51,6 ± 93,6 pg/ml, 10,0 ± 34,2 pg/ml y 22,3 ± 30,6 ng/ml, respectivamente. Estas concentraciones correlacionaron significativamente con diferentes variables antropométricas y bioquímicas, sin embargo, estas correlaciones fueron débiles. Variables como la edad y presencia o no de menopausia o la práctica de actividad física de forma regular no influyeron en los valores medios obtenidos. Las pacientes con obesidad tuvieron valores medios significativamente más elevados que aquellas con sobrepeso, aunque sólo en el caso de la resistina y PAI 1. Conclusión: El grupo de mujeres estudiadas presentó cifras de adipoquinas alteradas en relación a otros estudios realizados en población con situación nutricional normal. Esto pone en evidencia la situación inflamatoria presente en estos pacientes y los valores obtenidos pueden contribuir a establecer unos rangos normalizados de estos marcadores para el colectivo de personas con sobrepeso y obesidadBackground and objectives: The aim of this study was to describe the hormonal and inflammatory status of a group of overweight/obese women. Patients and methods: The sample studied was a crosssectional cohort of women > 18 years of age, BMI ≥ 25 < 40 kg/m2, prior to starting a weight control program. Data collected were: demographic characteristics, blood pressure, anthropometric parameters, physical activity data, and biochemical, hormonal and inflammatory biomarkers. Results: The study involved 104 women with a mean age of 48.4 ± 9 years and a BMI of 29.8 ± 3.5 kg/m2. Some 48% of the women studied were in menopause. Some 8.9% had hyperinsulinemia. The mean ghrelin value was 38.8 ± 33.6 pg/ml; there was no correlation between ghrelin levels and anthropometric and biochemical variables. CRP, leptin, adiponectin, resistin, IL6, IL10, and PAI1 were 3.0 ± 2.7 mg/dl, 36.3 ± 19.5 ng/ml, 8.3 ± 4.5 mg/ml, 24.3 ± 23.2 ng/ml, 51.6 ± 93.6 pg/ml, 10.0 ± 34.2 pg/ml and 22.3 ± 30.6 ng/ml, respectively. Obese patients had significantly higher mean values of resistin and PAI 1 than those who were overweight. These levels correlated significantly with anthropometric and biochemical variables; however, the correlations were weak. Age, menopause or the regular practice of physical activity had no effect on mean values. Conclusions: The group of women studied had altered inflammatory biomarkers in relation to people of normal weight. The study shows the inflammatory status of overweight/ obese individuals, and the values obtained may help to establish standard ranges for these markersEste trabajo ha sido posible gracias a un proyecto de investigación obtenido por concurso y subvencionado por la campaña “Pan cada día” promovida por el Comité Científico del Pan y el Incerhpan (Interprofesional Agroalimentaria de la cadena Cereales-Harina- Pan

Electron transport via local polarons at interface atoms

Electronic transport is profoundly modified in the presence of strong electron-vibration coupling. We show that in certain situations, the electron flow takes place only when vibrations are excited. By controlling the segregation of boron in semiconducting Si(111)-3√×3√R30° surfaces, we create a type of adatom with a dangling-bond state that is electronically decoupled from any other electronic state. However, probing this state with scanning tunnelling microscopy at 5 K yields high currents. These findings are rationalized by ab-initio calculations that show the formation of a local polaron in the transport process

Zinc recovery during refractory ore biooxidation by an indigenous consortium

Two enrichment cultures (one iron oxidizing and one sulfur oxidizing) obtained from an acid mine drainage were physiological and molecular characterized; the first of them showed 99% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with Leptospirillum ferrooxidans, while the sulfur oxidizing species was highly related to Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans and Acidithiobacillus ferrivorans sequences although, unlike them, the species in the enrichment culture does not seem to be able to oxidize iron. The consortium constituted by both enrichment cultures achieved a successful biooxidation of Hualilan ore allowing the increase of gold recovery up to 96.4 % in the best culture condition (low pulp density in 1K medium). At the same time, this condition showed an effective zinc bioleaching (up to 86 %) although the recovery was much higher in cultures with initially supplemented iron; kinetics studies suggested that bioleaching rate in 1K medium at low pulp densities is controlled by diffusion through a layer mainly constituted by jarosite (rather than sulfur) which was detected in X-ray diffraction diagrams. The recovery of zinc as subproduct of the pretreatment to optimize gold recovery would also allow decrease the metallic charge of the leachates from the biooxidation tanks which is an environmental advantage.Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Fermentaciones Industriale