Thinning of Organic Apple Production with Potassic Soap and Calcium Polysulfide at the North of Spain.

Asturias, in the North West coast of Spain, is a region with old tradition at cultivation of apple and its transformation to cider. The production of apple is mainly done under traditional uses and semi-extensive or semi-intensive system and with local cultivars. Thinning strategy is little practiced and the biennial bearing cycle is one of the main problems for the farmers. The production of apple under organic techniques in Asturias is still limited but increasing. Since 2005, experiments have been conducted on several cultivars (‘Raxao’, ‘Xuanina’ and ‘Gold-Rush’) to evaluate the effects of Potassic Soap (with or without olive oil) and Calcium Polysulfide as thinning products. We present here the first promising results of these experiments. With different concentrations of both products we have increased the apple production of two cultivars for the period 2006- 2007. There were positive effects on the vegetative growth of the trees and on the quality of apples. In the spring 2007 we initiated new experiments with other cultivars (‘Durona de Tresali’, ‘Solarina’, ‘Raxao’, ‘Regona’) in order to confirm our results. The new experiments also include the comparison of their effects with those of commonly used chemical products and with those of manual thinning techniques

Understanding the mechanism of binding between Gab2 and the C terminal SH3 domain from Grb2

Gab2 is a large disordered protein that regulates several cellular signalling pathways and is overexpressed in different forms of cancer. Because of its disordered nature, a detailed characterization of the mechanisms of recognition between Gab2 and its physiological partners is particularly difficult. Here we provide a detailed kinetic characterization of the binding reaction between Gab2 and the C-terminal SH3 domain of the growth factor receptor-bound protein 2 (Grb2). We demonstrate that Gab2 folds upon binding following an induced fit type mechanism, whereby recognition is characterized by the formation of an intermediate, in which Gab2 is primarily disordered. In this scenario, folding of Gab2 into the bound conformation occurs only after binding. However, an alanine scanning of the proline residues of Gab2 suggests that the intermediate contains some degree of native-like structure, which might play a role for the recognition event to take place. The results, which represent a fundamental step forward in the understanding of this functional proteinprotein interaction, are discussed on the light of previous structural works on these proteins

Passive Microstrip Transmitarray Lens for Ku Band

The aim of this paper is to introduce a novel 12 GHz radiating design based on the idea of transmitarray lens device. In this document, an overview of the functioning of this kind of devices is given and the proposed transmitarray lens is studied, with architecture discussion and selection, as well as some ideas about the design, and manufacturing. In the document, some design, manufacturing and validation of the constituting elements of the lens (radiating elements, transmission circuits and transitions) are presented, together with a complete prototype of assembled transmitarray lens. Radiation pattern measurements in anechoic chamber, as well as gain and directivity values are offered

Human and Object Recognition with a High-resolution tactile sensor

This paper 1 describes the use of two artificial intelligence methods for object recognition via pressure images from a high-resolution tactile sensor. Both meth- ods follow the same procedure of feature extraction and posterior classification based on a supervised Supported Vector Machine (SVM). The two approaches differ on how features are extracted: while the first one uses the Speeded-Up Robust Features (SURF) descriptor, the other one employs a pre-trained Deep Convolutional Neural Network (DCNN). Besides, this work shows its applica- tion to object recognition for rescue robotics, by distinguishing between differ- ent body parts and inert objects. The performance analysis of the proposed methods is carried out with an experiment with 5-class non-human and 3-class human classification, providing a comparison in terms of accuracy and compu-tational load. Finally, it is discussed how feature-extraction based on SURF can be obtained up to five times faster compared to DCNN. On the other hand, the accuracy achieved using DCNN-based feature extraction can be 11.67% superior to SURF.Proyecto DPI2015-65186-R European Commission under grant agreement BES-2016-078237. Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

DEM simulation of soil-tool interaction under extraterrestrial environmental effects

In contrast to terrestrial environment, the harsh lunar environment conditions include lower gravity acceleration, ultra-high vacuum and high (low) temperature in the daytime (night-time). This paper focuses on the effects of those mentioned features on soil cutting tests, a simplified excavation test, to reduce the risk of lunar excavation missions. Soil behavior and blade performance were analyzed under different environmental conditions. The results show that: (1) the cutting resistance and the energy consumption increase linearly with the gravity. The bending moment has a bigger increasing rate in low gravity fields due to a decreasing moment arm; (2) the cutting resistance, energy consumption and bending moment increase significantly because of the raised soil strength on the lunar environment, especially in low gravity fields. Under the lunar environment, the proportions of cutting resistance, bending moment and energy consumption due to the effect of the van der Waals forces are significant. Thus, they should be taken into consideration when planning excavations on the Moon. Therefore, considering that the maximum frictional force between the excavator and the lunar surface is proportional to the gravity acceleration, the same excavator that works efficiently on the Earth may not be able to work properly on the Moon.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Música, propaganda y reforma religiosa en los siglos XVI y XVII : cánticos para la "gente del vulgo" (1520-1620)

La utilización de la música por parte de casi todas las corrientes del cristianismo ha sido constante a lo largo de la historia. Un uso posible ha sido el realizado con fines de proselitismo o propaganda,especialmente en momentos de tensiones internas como fueron los de la Reforma y la Contrarreforma. Aquí se estudian diversos ejemplos españoles de la utilización del canto monódico en castellano por parte de diferentes movimientos reformistas fieles al catolicismo romano. Estos ejemplos muestran diferentes modos y fines que van desde los intentos catequizadores y alfabetizadores hasta el espectáculo de las procesiones masivas o el desarrollo de devociones piadosas.Christianity in almost all of its many varied manifestations throughout its long history has employed music in one form or another. One possible use for music was for the purposes of proselytizing and evangelization, most particularly during moments of internal tension such as the Reformation and the Counterreformation. Here we study a number of Spanish examples of monody in vernacular texts, as used by a variety of reformists, all of whom were faithful to Roman Catholicism. These examples reveal a range of means and ends that runs the gamut from catechesis and training in literacy to enormous processions or the fostering of piety and devotion