El terratrèmol de l'11 de març del 2011 al Japó

El març passat un intens terratrèmol va sacsejar la costa oriental del Japó, produint un tsunami que va originar un nombre molt gran de víctimes i enormes danys materials. Vegem què va succei

Building Bridges: A transdisciplinary view on gastronomy

Gastronomy is a shared space that naturally embraces different disciplines or areas of knowledge. Cooking, sociology, anthropology, history, architecture, chemistry, and biology are some areas that can be used to explain specific characteristics of food and the act of eating. Nevertheless, disciplines usually work separately, causing most of the time a loss of interesting information. The concept of transdisciplinarity is then used to consider all dimensions of gastronomy to find real solutions that go beyond the disciplines. This dialogue between a food scientist and a sociologist does not expect to be more than a conversation between two colleagues from different disciplines that usually collaborate on some food research projects. Through this collaborative experience, both experts highlight some ideas that can be helped to build bridges between disciplines. In the end, gastronomy can help us to understand the whole food system.La gastronomía es un espacio compartido que abarca con naturalidad diferentes disciplinas o áreas de conocimiento. La cocina, la sociología, la antropología, la historia, la arquitectura, la química y la biología son algunas de las áreas que se pueden utilizar para explicar las características específicas de los alimentos y el acto de comer. Sin embargo, las disciplinas normalmente trabajan por separado, provocando la mayoría de las veces una pérdida de información interesante. El concepto de transdisciplinariedad se utiliza entonces para considerar todas las dimensiones de la gastronomía para encontrar soluciones reales que van más allá de las disciplinas. Este diálogo entre un científico alimentario y un sociólogo no pretende ser más que una conversación entre dos colegas de distintas disciplinas que suelen colaborar en algunos proyectos de investigación alimentaria. A través de esta experiencia colaborativa, ambos expertos destacan algunas ideas que pueden ayudar a construir puentes entre disciplinas. Al final, la gastronomía puede ayudarnos a entender todo el sistema alimentario

GPR system onboard a UAV for non-invasive detection of buried objects

Copia del artículo enviado al congreso (ya está aceptado para su presentación en el mismo)In this contribution, a novel subsurface imaging system to detect buried targets is presented. It is mainly composed by a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) mounted onboard an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). Thus, the system can be used to inspect areas without being in contact with the soil, which makes it useful for detecting dangerous objects, such as landmines. The system architecture and some of the first prototype measurements, which are post-processed using a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) algorithm, are presented in this contribution.This work has been supported by Government of Spain (under projects TEC2014-55290-JIN, TEC2015-73908-JIN and grant FPU15/06341), Government of Asturias (IDI/2017/000095) and Galician Government (under project GRC2015/018) and under agreement for funding AtlantTIC.IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposiu

Synthetic aperture radar imaging system for landmine detection using a ground penetrating radar on board a unmanned aerial vehicle

This paper presents a novel system to obtain images from the underground based on ground penetrating radar (GPR). The proposed system is composed by a radar module mounted on board an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which allows the safe inspection of difficult-to-access areas without being in direct contact with the soil. Therefore, it can be used to detect dangerous buried objects, such as landmines. The radar measurements are coherently combined using a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) algorithm, which requires cm-level accuracy positioning system. In addition, a clutter removal technique is applied to mitigate the reflection at the air-soil interface (which is caused by impedance mismatching). Besides the aforementioned advantages, the system can detect both metallic and dielectric targets (due to the use of a radar instead of a metal detector) and it allows to obtain high-resolution underground images (due to the SAR processing). The algorithms and the UAV payload are validated with measurements in both controlled and real scenarios, showing the feasibility of the proposed system.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad | Ref. TEC2014-54005-PMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad | Ref. TEC2014-55290-JINMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad | Ref. TEC2015-73908-JINMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad | Ref. TEC2015-65353-RAgencia Estatal de Investigación | Ref. RYC-2016-20280Ministerio de Educación | Ref. FPU15/06341Gobierno del Principado de Asturias | Ref. PCTI 2013-2017Gobierno del Principado de Asturias | Ref. FC-15-GRUPIN14-114Gobierno del Principado de Asturias | Ref. IDI/2017/000095Xunta de Galicia | Ref. GRC2015/01

Complete genome sequence of the gamma-aminobutyric acid-producing strain Streptococcus thermophilus APC151

Here is presented the whole-genome sequence of Streptococcus thermophiles APC151, isolated from a marine fish. This bacterium produces gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in high yields and is biotechnologically suitable to produce naturally GABA-enriched biofunctional yogurt. Its complete genome comprises 2,097 genes and 1,839,134 nucleotides, with an average GC content of 39.1%

Intestinal Microbiota and Weight-Gain in Preterm Neonates

The involvement of the gut microbiota on weight-gain and its relationship with childhood undernutrition and growth has been reported. Thus, the gut microbiota constitutes a potential therapeutic target for preventing growth impairment. However, our knowledge in this area is limited. In this study we aimed at evaluating the relationship among early microbiota, growth, and development in preterm infants. To this end we assessed the levels of specific microorganisms by qPCR, and those of short chain fatty acids by mean of gas-chromatography, in feces from 63 preterm newborns and determined their weight-gain during the first months. The statistical analyses performed indicate an influence of the intestinal microbiota in weight-gain, with the levels of some microorganisms showing a significant association with the weight-gain of the infant. The levels of specific microbial groups during the first days of life were found to affect weight gain by the age of 1 month. Moreover, clustering of the infants on the basis of the microbiota composition at 1 month of age rendered groups which showed differences in weight z-scores. Our results suggest an association between the gut microbiota composition and weight-gain in preterm infants at early life and point out potential microbial targets for favoring growth and maturation in these infants

The inverted Triassic rift of the Marrakech High Atlas : a reappraisal of basin geometries and faulting histories

The High Atlas of Morocco is an aborted rift developed during the Triassic-Jurassic and moderately inverted during the Cenozoic. The Marrakech High Atlas, with large exposures of basement and Triassic early syn-rift deposits, is ideal to investigate the geometries of the deepest parts of a rift, constituting a good analogue for pre-salt domains. It allows unraveling geometries and kinematics of the extensional and compressional structures and the influence that they exert over one another. A detailed structural study of the main Triassic basins and basin-margin faults of the Marrakech High Atlas shows that only a few rift faults were reactivated during the Cenozoic compressional stage in contrast to previous interpretations, and emphasizes that fault reactivation cannot be taken for granted in inverted rift systems. Preserved extensional features demonstrate a dominant dip-slip opening kinematics with strike-slip playing a minor role, at variance to models proposing a major strike-slip component along the main basin-bounding faults, including faults belonging to the Tizi n'Test fault zone. A new Middle Triassic paleogeographic reconstruction shows that the Marrakech High Atlas was a narrow and segmented orthogonal rift (sub-perpendicular to the main regional extension direction which was ~ NW-SE), in contrast to the central and eastern segments of the Atlas rift which developed obliquely. This difference in orientation is attributed to the indented Ouzellarh Precambrian salient, part of the West African Craton, which deflected the general rift trend in the area evidencing the major role of inherited lithospheric anisotropies in rift direction and evolution. As for the Cenozoic inversion, total orogenic shortening is moderate (~ 16%) and appears accommodated by basement-involved large-scale folding, and by newly formed shortcut and by-pass thrusting, with rare left-lateral strike-slip indicators. Triassic faults commonly acted as buttresses