Multiscale variation in the functional composition of stream macroinvertebrate communities in low-order mountain streams

Although it has been shown that the structure and taxonomic composition of macroinvertebrate communities vary depending on multiple spatial scales, multi-scale variation of community functional composition has not been examined; despite the fundamental role of this functional composition for many ecosystem processes. In this study, functional composition of macroinvertebrate communities, in terms of the relative abundances of the different functional feeding groups, was examined in two streams in Central Spain. Differences in functional composition were found at every scale, but mostly at the segment, riffle, and sample scales, as previously observed for other community characteristics. This study highlights the necessity of multiscale designs for the study of ecological patterns and processes in streams.Aunque se ha demostrado que la estructura y la composición taxonómica de las comunidades de macroinvertebrados varían según la escala espacial, no existe ningún estudio a múltiples escalas sobre la composición funcional de las comunidades, a pesar del papel fundamental de esta composición funcional en muchos procesos del ecosistema. En este estudio se examina la composición funcional de las comunidades de macroinvertebrados, en términos de la abundancia relativa de los diferentes grupos funcionales, en dos ríos del centro de España. Se encontraron diferencias en la composición funcional a todas las escalas consideradas, pero la mayor variación ocurrió a las escalas de segmento, rápido y muestra, de forma similar a otras características de la comunidad estudiadas previamente. Este estudio enfatiza la necesidad de realizar diseños a múltiples escalas para comprender los patrones y procesos ecológicos que tienen lugar en los sistemas fluviales

Design and Deployment of an Access Control Module for Data Lakes

Nowadays big data is considered an extremely valued asset for companies, which are discovering new avenues to use it for their business profit. However, an organization’s ability to effectively extract valuable information from data is based on its knowledge management infrastructure. Thus, most organizations are transitioning from data warehouse (DW) storages to data lake (DL) infrastructures, from which further insights are derived. The present work is carried out as part of a cybersecurity project in a financial institution that manages vast volumes and variety of data that is kept in a data lake. Although DL is presented as the answer to the current big data scenario, this infrastructure presents certain flaws on authentication and access control. Preceding work on DL access control points out that the main goal is to avoid fraudulent behaviors derived from user’s access, such as secondary use1, that could result in business data being exposed to third parties. To overcome the risk, traditional mechanisms attempt to identify these behaviors based on rules, however, they cannot reveal all different kinds of fraud because they only look for known patterns of misuse. The present work proposes a novel access control system for data lakes, assisted by Oracle’s database audit trail and based on anomaly detection mechanisms, that automatically looks for events that do not conform the normal or expected behavior. Thus, the overall aim of this project is to develop and deploy an automated system for identifying abnormal accesses to the DL, which can be separated into four subgoals: explore the different technologies that could be applied in the domain of anomaly detection, design the solution, deploy it, and evaluate the results. For the purpose, feature engineering is performed, and four different unsupervised ML models are built and evaluated. According to the quality of the results, the better model is finally productionalized with Docker. To conclude, although anomaly detection has been a lasting yet active research area for several decades, there are still some unique problem complexities and challenges that leave the way open for the proposed solution to be further improved.Doble Grado en Ingeniería Informática y Administración de Empresa

Fisiología Animal Ambiental y Control de Plagas. I. Plagas, una perspectiva general

Conferencia de cursoResumen: Las plagas causan importantes pérdidas en agricultura y constituyen uno de sus problemas clave, tanto desde el punto de vista económico, como ambiental. En el mundo se aplican aproximadamente 2,3*106 toneladas de pesticidas anualmente para controlar los daños producidos por artrópodos en las cosechas, lo que representa un coste económico superior a los 30*109 euros, además de un incalculable coste ambiental y para la salud. En esta comunicación, de introducción a las aplicaciones de la fisiología animal al control de plagas, se repasan de forma breve los diferentes aspectos generales relacionados con esta cuestión. En primer lugar se exponen los procesos fundamentales de la relación insecto-planta, describiendo los principales grupos de artrópodos implicados, bien como fitófagos, bien como enemigos naturales de los mismos. A continuación se explican las relaciones ecológicas que se establecen en el agro-ecosistema y de los factores, abióticos y bióticos que afectan al equilibrio. Una vez revisadas las bases del sistema, se tratan las líneas básicas de los diferentes métodos de control de plagas y una revisión histórica de los mismos, para acabar describiendo brevemente las técnicas actuales, que van desde el control integrado a la manipulación genética.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Myocardial trabeculation in embryos of Scyliorhinus canicula (Elasmobranchii, Chondrichthyans)

Currently, three types of ventricular myoarchitecture are recognized in vertebrates, namely compact, spongy (trabeculated) and mixed myocardium. Mixed myocardium, which has been recently proposed as the primitive condition in gnathostomes, is composed of two myocardial layers: an inner trabeculated and an outer compact one. The trabeculation process has been studied in teleosts, showing exclusively spongy myocardium, and mammals and birds, characterized by a compact myocardial ventricular wall. In zebrafish, mouse and chicken embryos, the trabeculae develop as luminal myocardial ridges protruding into the lumen. In mammals and birds, further compactation of trabeculae leads to the formation of a compact layer. The potential mechanisms that may contribute to the formation of the ridges are under discussion and include myocardial proliferation, endocardial invagination, and bending of the entire myocardial layer. However, no description of the development of the mixed myocardium is available. To shed some light on this issue, we have studied the heart development of an elasmobranch species with mixed myocardium, the lesser spotted dogfish (Scyliorhinus canicula; Chondrichthyes), by means of histological and immunohistochemical techniques for light microscopy, semithin sections, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Our results suggest that in the dogfish the intertrabecular spaces develop by connections between early intramyocardial spaces and the lumen of the ventricle through invaginations of the endocardial line. Chondrichthyans are the earliest diverged lineage of gnathostomes and, consequently, they have the most primitive cardiac design. Although chicken, mouse, and recently zebrafish have been considered powerful vertebrate models to study heart development, we propose that the trabeculation process in the dogfish is representative of the early steps of the ventricular morphogenesis in vertebrates.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech.Study supported by grant CGL2017-85090-P and CGL2014-52356-P (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad), FPU15/03209 (Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte), FEDER, and Universidad de Málaga

Chamber specific expression of Myosin heavy chain 7b in the heart of vertebrates

In extant vertebrates, myosin heavy chain (MyHC) 6 and 7 are the main isoforms of atrial and ventricular myocardium respectively, whereas MyHC7b has been proposed to be an ancient cardiac isoform only expressed during embryonic development in modern species. In preliminary immunohistochemical studies of the heart of the lesser spotted dogfish (Scyliorhinus canicula; Chondrichthyes), we have observed that while MF20 labels homogeneously all the myocardium, A4.1025 labels the inflow cardiac segments (sinus venosus and atrium) but not the outflow segments (ventricle and conus arteriosus). In order to interpret these results, we have performed western and slot blots from samples of dogfish and hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) hearts, HPLC-ESI-MS/MS from dogfish samples, and immunohistochemistry in hearts of representative species of vertebrates, namely elasmobranchs, polypteriforms, acipenseriforms, teleosts and mammals, using MF20 and A4.1025 antibodies. Western and slot blot results confirmed the specificity of MF20 and A4.1025 for MyHC in dogfish, as well as their differential reactivity against different myocardial segments. HPLC-ESI-MS/MS using protein databases from Callorhinchus milii (Chondrichthyes) and Chordata revealed the presence of MyHC6 and 7 in all the dogfish myocardial segments, and of MyHC7b only in the outflow segments. Immunohistochemistry showed that while MF20 signals were homogeneous in all the myocardial segments of all the species studied, A4.1025 signals were restricted to the inflow myocardial segments in elasmobranchs, homogeneous in teleosts and acipenseriforms, and low in the ventricle of polypteriforms. It can be inferred that the A4.1025 antibody, as opposed to MF20, has a low affinity for MyHC7b, at least in the dogfish. In addition, we show that MyHC distribution in the cardiac chambers has changed during the evolution of gnathostomes.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech.Study supported by grants CGL2017-85090-P and CGL2014-52356-P (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad), FPU15/03209 (Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte), contract UMAJI75 (Junta de Andalucía, European Social Found), FEDER and Universidad de Málaga

La re-habilitación como estrategia de “decrecimiento”; la actuación sobre el “patrimonio”: re-pensamiento, re-utilización y re-generación… ¿sostenibles? La disolución de la Arquitectura

Dado el momento socio-histórico, nos planteamos si no sería conveniente hacer desaparecer la Arquitectura, tal como hasta ahora la hemos concebido; al menos, disolverla -o diluirla- junto con el resto de elementos que conforman el torbellino de cambio (=crisis) en cuyo ojo andamos sumidos. Si la única actitud defendible es aquella que propugna un decrecimiento sostenido (y por tanto sostenible), se deduce que como consecuencia de ese proceso jibarizador, debiera llegar el momento en el que el decrecimiento fuera tal que directamente desembocara en la desaparición, tanto del sujeto (arquitecto) como de la disciplina. Si hasta hace poco, “lo más sostenible” era no aumentar la entropía del mundo sino, a lo sumo, intervenir sobre lo ya edificado (el patrimonio existente), re-pensándolo, reutilizándolo, re-habilitándolo…, ahora quizá haya que complementar dicha postura, con una actitud conducente al entendimiento de la práctica arquitectónica como disciplina más social y humanística, extrayendo de ella lo esencial, lo portátil: aquello que cupiera en una simple caja de herramientas o maletín transportable (que contendría lo imprescindible para que permitiera cargar con él y sirviera tanto para para atajar situaciones límite como cotidianas). Si los arquitectos hemos de sobrevivir en este campo acotado por límites indefinidos y escasez evidente, habremos de re-inventarnos. Si, definitivamente, tras este vórtice brutal, no fuera posible la re-aparición en estas condiciones extremas, estaríamos abocados a la des-aparición. Si lo antedicho conlleva que haya de existir la Arquitectura sin arquitectos… que así sea