Schizophrenic active neutrinos and exotic sterile neutrinos

We implement a schizophrenic scenario for the active neutrinos in a model in which there are also exotic right-handed neutrinos making a model with a local U(1)_(B-L) anomaly free. Two of right-handed neutrinos carry B-L=-4 while the third one carries B-L=5.Comment: I, A. C. B. Machado, apologize for having submitted the wrong file before. This is in fact the version to be published in Physics Letters B 698 (2011) pp. 128-13

Existence of Least-perimeter Partitions

We prove the existence of a perimeter-minimizing partition of R^n into regions of unit volume. We conclude with a short tribute to the late Manuel A. Fortes.Comment: 5 pages; for submission to Fortes memorial isue of Philosphical Magazine Letter

Full Scale Dynamic Response of a RC Building under Weak Seismic Motions Using Earthquake Recordings, Ambient Vibrations and Modelling

In countries with a moderate seismic hazard, the classical methods developed for strong motion prone countries to estimate the seismic behaviour and subsequent vulnerability of existing buildings are often inadequate and not financially realistic. The main goals of this paper are to show how the modal analysis can contribute to the understanding of the seismic building response and the good relevancy of a modal model based on ambient vibrations for estimating the structural deformation under moderate earthquakes. We describe the application of an enhanced modal analysis technique (Frequency Domain Decomposition) to process ambient vibration recordings taken at the Grenoble City Hall building (France). The frequencies of ambient vibrations are compared with those of weak earthquakes recorded by the French permanent accelerometric network (RAP) that was installed to monitor the building. The frequency variations of the building under moderate earthquakes are shown to be slight (~2%) and therefore ambient vibration frequencies are relevant over the elastic domain of the building. The modal parameters extracted from ambient vibrations are then used to determine the 1D lumped-mass model in order to reproduce the inter-storey drift under weak earthquakes and to fix a 3D numerical model that could be used for strong earthquakes. The correlation coefficients between data and synthetic motion are close to 80% and 90% in horizontal directions, for the 1D and 3D modelling, respectively

‘openDS’ – A new standard for digital specimens and other natural science digital object types

With projected lifespans of many decades, infrastructure initiatives such as Europe’s Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo), USA’s Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio), National Specimen Information Infrastructure (NSII) of China and Australia’s digitisation of national research collections (NRCA Digital) aim at transforming today’s slow, inefficient and limited practices of working with natural science collections. The need to borrow specimens (plants, animals, fossils or rocks) or physically visit collections, and absence of linkages to other relevant information represent significant impediments to answering today’s scientific and societal questions. A logical extension of the Internet, Digital Object Architecture (Kahn and Wilensky 2006) offers a way of grouping, managing and processing fragments of information relating to a natural science specimen. A ‘digital specimen’ acts as a surrogate in cyberspace for a specific physical specimen, identifying its actual location and authoritatively saying something about its collection event (who, when, where) and taxonomy, as well as providing links to high-resolution images. A digital specimen exposes supplementary information about related literature, traits, tissue samples and DNA sequences, chemical analyses, environmental information, etc. stored elsewhere than in the natural science collection itself. By presenting digital specimens as a new layer between data infrastructure of natural science collections and user applications for processing and interacting with information about specimens and collections, it’s possible to seamlessly organise global access spanning multiple collection-holding institutions and sources. Virtual collections of digital specimens with unique identifiers offer possibilities for wider, more flexible, and ‘FAIR’ (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) access for varied research and policy uses: recognising curatorial work, annotating with latest taxonomic treatments, understanding variations, working with DNA sequences or chemical analyses, supporting regulatory processes for health, food, security, sustainability and environmental change, inventions/products critical to the bio-economy, and educational uses. Adopting a digital specimen approach is expected to lead to faster insights for lower cost on many fronts. We propose that realising this vision requires a new TDWG standard. OpenDS is a specification of digital specimen and other object types essential to mass digitisation of natural science collections and their digital use. For five principal digital object types corresponding to major categories of collections and specimens’ information, OpenDS defines structure and content, and behaviours that can act upon them: 1. Digital specimen: Representing a digitised physical specimen, contains information about a single specimen with links to related supplementary information; 2. Storage container: Representing groups of specimens stored within a single container, such as insect tray, drawer or sample jar; 3. Collection: Information about characteristics of a collection; 4. Organisation: Information about the legal-entity owning the specimen and collection to which it belongs; and, 5. Interpretation: Assertion(s) made on or about the specimen such as determination of species and comments. Secondary classes gather presentation/preservation characteristics (e.g., herbarium sheets, pinned insects, specimens in glass jars, etc.), the general classification of a specimen (i.e., plant, animal, fossil, rock, etc.) and history of actions on the object (provenance). Equivalencing concepts in ABCD 3.0 and EFG extension for geo-sciences, OpenDS is also an ontology extending OBO Foundry’s Biological Collection Ontology (BCO) (Walls et al. 2014) from bco:MaterialSample, which has preferred label dwc:specimen from Darwin Core, thus linking it also with that standard. OpenDS object content can be serialized to specific formats/representations (e.g. JSON) for different exchange and processing purposes

La Recerca en Conservació des de la Visió del Conservador-Restaurador

Setmana de la Ciència, Barcelona, 7 i 8 de novembre de 2013La secció de Conservació-Restauració de la Facultat de Belles Arts organitza unes jornades amb l'objectiu de difondre les investigacions al voltant de temes de gran interès per als professionals del sector. La Recerca en Conservació-Restauració ha estat vinculada normalment a les ciències afi ns i els seus plantejaments presenten una visió des d’aquestes branques de les Ciències. Però des de fa anys, els Conservadors-Restauradors desenvolupem una Recerca, també amb majúscules, des dels nostres coneixements i necessitats. Els plantejaments científi cs hi són ben presents, i afegim a més, un punt de vista pràctic que afavoreix el desenvolupament de la nostra disciplina. Des de la Secció de Conservació-Restauració de la Facultat de Belles Arts de la Universitat de Barcelona volem difondre les investigacions que duem a terme, moltes de les quals s’han materialitzat en diferents tesis doctorals. Aquests treballs són una mostra més de les preocupacions individuals i de les necessitats de la conservació del Patrimoni Històrico-Artístic

Revisión bibliográfica de implantología bucofacial del año 2007

Se expone una revisión de la literatura científica publicada en revistas indexadas durante el año 2007 sobre Implantología Bucofacial. La escasez de tiempo de que disponen los profesionales para consultar las múltiples fuentes de información, ha motivado a los autores a resumir los artículos publicados y clasificarlos en los siguientes apartados: generalidades, pacientes especiales, superficies y diseños, tejidos blandos, implantes inmediatos, carga inmediata, complicaciones, elevación sinusal, técnicas avanzadas, plasma rico en plaquetas y factores de crecimiento, cirugía guiada, cirugía mínimamente invasiva y miniimplantes, con la intención de facilitar una puesta al día

Scans for signatures of selection in Russian cattle breed genomes reveal new candidate genes for environmental adaptation and acclimation

Domestication and selective breeding has resulted in over 1000 extant cattle breeds. Many of these breeds do not excel in important traits but are adapted to local environments. These adaptations are a valuable source of genetic material for efforts to improve commercial breeds. As a step toward this goal we identified candidate regions to be under selection in genomes of nine Russian native cattle breeds adapted to survive in harsh climates. After comparing our data to other breeds of European and Asian origins we found known and novel candidate genes that could potentially be related to domestication, economically important traits and environmental adaptations in cattle. The Russian cattle breed genomes contained regions under putative selection with genes that may be related to adaptations to harsh environments (e.g., AQP5, RAD50, and RETREG1). We found genomic signatures of selective sweeps near key genes related to economically important traits, such as the milk production (e.g., DGAT1, ABCG2), growth (e.g., XKR4), and reproduction (e.g., CSF2). Our data point to candidate genes which should be included in future studies attempting to identify genes to improve the extant breeds and facilitate generation of commercial breeds that fit better into the environments of Russia and other countries with similar climates