Plant protein-coding gene families: emerging bioinformatics approaches

Protein-coding gene families are sets of similar genes with a shared evolutionary origin and, generally, with similar biological functions. In plants, the size and role of gene families has been only partially addressed. However, suitable bioinformatics tools are being developed to cluster the enormous number of sequences currently available in databases. Specifically, comparative genomic databases promise to become powerful tools for gene family annotation in plant clades. In this review, I evaluate the data retrieved from various gene family databases, the ease with which they can be extracted and how useful the extracted information is.

Laser Shock Processing: An Emerging Technique for the Enhancement of Surface Properties and Fatigue Life of High Strength Metal Alloys

Profiting by the increasing availability of laser sources delivering intensities above 10 9 W/cm 2 with pulse energies in the range of several Joules and pulse widths in the range of nanoseconds, laser shock processing (LSP) is being consolidating as an effective technology for the improvement of surface mechanical and corrosion resistance properties of metals and is being developed as a practical process amenable to production engineering. The main acknowledged advantage of the laser shock processing technique consists on its capability of inducing a relatively deep compression residual stresses field into metallic alloy pieces allowing an improved mechanical behaviour, explicitly, the life improvement of the treated specimens against wear, crack growth and stress corrosion cracking. Following a short description of the theoretical/computational and experimental methods developed by the authors for the predictive assessment and experimental implementation of LSP treatments, experimental results on the residual stress profiles and associated surface properties modification successfully reached in typical materials (specifically steels and Al and Ti alloys) under different LSP irradiation conditions are presented

Laser shock processing: an emerging technique for the improvement of fatigue life and surface properties of high reliability metallic components

•Introduction •Process Experimental Setup •Experimental Procedure •Experimental Results for Al2024 - T351, Ti6Al4V and AISI 316L - Surface Roughness and Compactation - Residual stresses - Tensile Strength - Fatigue Life •Discussion and Outlook - Prospects for technological applications of LSP

Fault detection and isolation on a noisy nonlinear circuit

In this paper fault detection and isolation (FDI) schemes are applied in the context of the surveillance of emerging faults in an electrical circuit. The FDI problem is studied on a noisy nonlinear circuit, where both abrupt and incipient faults in the voltage source are considered. A rigorous analysis of fault detectability precedes the application of the fault detection (FD) scheme; then, the fault isolation (FI) phase is accomplished with two alternative FI approaches, proposed as new extensions of that FD approach. Numerical simulations illustrate the applicability of the mentioned schemes.

Laser Shock Micro-Forming as an Emerging Technique for Microsystems Shaping and Adjustment

Continuous and long-pulse lasers have been extensively used for the forming of metal sheets for macroscopic mechanical applications. However, for the manufacturing of Micro-Mechanical Systems (MMS), the applicability of such type of lasers is limited by the long relaxation time of the thermal fields responsible for the forming phenomena. As a consequence, the final sheet deformation state is attained only after a certain time, what makes the generated internal residual stress fields more dependent on ambient conditions and might difficult the subsequent assembly process. The use of short pulse (ns) lasers provides a suitable parameter matching for the laser forming of an important range of sheet components used in MEMS. The short interaction time scale required for the predominantly mechanic (shock) induction of deformation residual stresses allows the successful processing of components in a medium range of miniaturization (particularly important according to its frequent use in such systems). In the present paper, Laser Shock Micro-Forming (LSμF) is presented as an emerging technique for Microsystems parts shaping and adjustment along with a discussion on its physical foundations and practical implementation possibilities developed by the authors.

Reality bites: Documentary photography and architectural realism = Fragmentos de realidad: Fotografía documental y realismo en arquitectura

En el día de hoy nos enfrentamos a una serie de desafíos económicos, geopolíticos y ambientales que apuntan hacia una transformación profunda del mundo tal y como lo conocemos. La arquitectura esta – siempre lo ha estado – imbricada en todos estos problemas. En nuestra actual condición de recursos limitados e injusticia global surge la necesidad de superar la dicotomía entre progreso y tradición, entre innovación y preservación – la urgencia de redefinir incluso cada uno de estos términos. Los tipos de crisis que encaramos ahora no se resolverán con mas tecnología y más crecimiento – se necesita también una profunda reevaluación de nuestros sistemas de valores e incluso de nuestra sensibilidad. En este contexto, la humilde contribución de esta tesis consiste en proponer la idea de un realismo en arquitectura, entendido como una actitud progresista y atenta a lo que ya existe, dispuesta a abrir los ojos al presente, a las condiciones y los problemas reales que nos rodean. Pensando en esta idea, resulta evidente que si bien el realismo carece de una definición clara en el campo de la arquitectura hoy, cuenta sin embargo con numerosos precedentes parciales, entre ellos algunos de los más notorios episodios de la historia de la arquitectura reciente. Al intentar confeccionar una lista provisional de arquitectos realistas en el último siglo, otro hecho se nos presenta: muchos, por no decir todos estos arquitectos, comparten una fijación por la fotografía, bien apropiándose del trabajo de fotógrafos contemporáneos, bien tomando sus propias imágenes como una forma de mirar fuera de sus estudios e incorporar la realidad del medio construido a sus proyectos. Parece entonces lógico pensar que la arquitectura, como disciplina visual, ha acudido a otra disciplina visual en búsqueda de su propia respuesta al problema del realismo – dentro de este campo la fotografía reverbera con la arquitectura especialmente, ya que ambas son consideradas simultáneamente como practicas utilitarias y como parte de las bellas artes. Parece entonces lógico el organizar la investigación como una serie de casos, con la esperanza de que la acumulación de diversas instancias en las que la arquitectura ha acudido a la fotografía en su búsqueda de un realismo arrojara luz sobre las ideas más generales a debate. Por tanto, cada uno de los episodios en este texto se examina en sus propios términos, si bien una serie de interconexiones emergen a medida que el estudio procede con un suave orden cronológico. Hacia el final del texto cuestiones más grandes recobran protagonismo, a medida que las repercusiones políticas de nuestro estudio se hacen más patentes y comenzamos a interrogar las implicaciones contemporáneas y el potencial futuro de nuestra discusión sobre el realismo. ABSTRACT Today we are faced with a series of economic, geopolitical and environmental challenges that outline a deep transformation of the world as we know it. Architecture is – it has always been – ingrained in all of these problems. In our current condition of limited resources and global inequalities there is a necessity to overcome the dichotomy between progress and tradition, between innovation and preservation – an urgency to even redefine these terms altogether. The types of crises that we are facing will not be solved with more technology and more growth – a deep reevaluation of our systems of values and our sensibilities are also needed. In this context, the humble contribution of this text is to put forward the idea of an architectural realism, understood as an attitude that is both progressive and attentive to what is already in place, willing to open its eyes to the present and accept the real conditions and problems around us. In thinking about this prospect, it immediately becomes apparent that even if realism lacks a clear definition in the field of architecture today, there are numerous partial precedents for it, among them some of the most notorious episodes in the recent history of architecture. In crafting a tentative list of realist architects in the last century, another realization takes place: many, not to say all of these architects, have had a fixation with photography, either appropriating the work of contemporary photographers or taking photographs themselves as a way to look out their windows and bring the reality of the built environment into their practices. It seems then logical to think that architecture, as a visual discipline, has looked to other visual disciplines in search for its own take on the problem of realism – within this field, photography specially resonates with architecture, since both are regarded simultaneously as utilitarian practices and belonging to the fine arts. The idea then becomes to organize the research as a series of cases, with the hope that the accumulation of diverse instances in which architecture has approached photography in its realist drive will shed some light on the larger ideas at stake. Therefore, each of the episodes in this text is examined on its own terms, with a series of interconnections slowly emerging as our survey proceeds with a soft chronologic order. Towards the end of the study, larger issues regain relevance as the political repercussions of our inquiry become more pressing and we start to question the contemporary implications and future potentials of our discussion on realism.

A proposal for a Business Framework targeted at emerging business services and applications

Un Service Business Framework consiste en una serie de componentes interrelacionados que permiten la gestión de servicios de negocio a través de su ciclo de vida, desde su creación, descubrimiento y comparación, hasta su monetización (incluyendo un posible reparto de beneficios). De esta manera, el denominado FIWARE Business Framework trata de permitir a los usuarios de la plataforma FIWARE mejorar sus productos con funcionalidades de búsqueda, describrimiento, comparación, monetización y reparto de beneficios. Para lograr este objetivo, el Business Framework de FIWARE proporciona la especificación abierta y las APIs de una serie de components (denominados \Generic Enablers" en terminología FIWARE), junto con una implementación de referencia de las mismas pueden ser facilmente integradas en los sitemas existentes para conseguir aplicaciones con valor a~nadido. Al comienzo de este trabajo de fin de master, el Business Framework de FIWARE no era lo suficientemente maduro como para cubrir los requisitos de sus usuarios, ya que ofrecía modelos demasiado generales y dejaba algunas funcionalidades clave para ser implementadas por los usuarios. Para solucionar estos problemas, el principal objectivo desarrollado en el contexto de este trabajo de fin de master ha consistido en mejorar y evolucionar el Business Framework de FIWARE para dar respuesta a las demandas de sus usuarios. Para alcanzar el pricipal objetivo propuesto, el Business Framework de FIWARE ha sido evaluado usando la información proporcionada por los usuarios de la plataforma, principalmente PyMEs y start-ups que usan este framework en sus soluciones, con el objetivo de obtener una lista de requisitos y de dise~nar a partir de éstos un roadmap de evolución a 6 meses. Después, los diferentes problemas identificados se han tratado uno por uno dando en cada caso una solución capaz de cubrir los requisitos de los usuarios. Finalmente, se han evaluado los resultados obtenidos en el proyecto integrando el Business Framework desarrollado con un sistema existente para la gestión de datos de consusmo energético, construyendo lo que se ha denominado Mercado de Datos de Consumo Energético. Esto además ha permitido demostrar la utilidad del framework propuesto para evolucionar una plataforma de datos abiertos bien conocida como es CKAN a un verdadero mercado de datos.---ABSTRACT---Service Business Frameworks consist on a number of interrelated components that support the management of business services across their whole lifecycle, from their creation, publication, discovery and comparison, to their monetization (possibly including revenue settlement and sharing). In this regard, the FIWARE Business Framework aims at allowing FIWARE users to enhance their solutions with search, discovery, comparison, monetization and revenue settlement and sharing features. To achieve this objective, the FIWARE Business Framework provides the open specification and APIs of a comprehensive set of components (called Generic Enablers in FIWARE terminology), along with a reference implementation of these APIs,, that can be easily integrated with existing systems in order to create value added applications. At the beginning of the current Master's Thesis, the FIWARE Business Framework was not mature enough to cover the requirements of the its users, since it provided too general models and leaved some key functionality to be implemented by those users. To deal with these issues, the main objective carried out in the context of this Master's Thesis have been enhancing and evolving the FIWARE Business Framework to accomplish with the demands of its users. For achieving the main objective of this Master's Thesis, the FWARE Business Framework has been evaluated using the feedback provided by FIWARE users, mainly SMEs and start-ups, actually using the framework in their solutions, in order to determine a list of requirements and to design a roadmap for the evolution and improvement of the existing framework in the next 6 months. Then, the diferent issues detected have been tackle one by one enhancing them, and trying to give a solution able to cover users requirements. Finally, the results of the project have been evaluated by integrating the evolved FIWARE Business Framework with an existing system in charge of the management of energy consumption data, building what has been called the Energy Consumption Data Market. This has also allowed demonstrating the usefulness of the proposed business framework to evolve CKAN, a renowned open data platform, into an actual, fully- edged data market.

Design of a Semi-analytical Method to Describe Plasma-Wall Interactions

Electric probes are objects immersed in the plasma with sharp boundaries which collect of emit charged particles. Consequently, the nearby plasma evolves under abrupt imposed and/or naturally emerging conditions. There could be localized currents, different time scales for plasma species evolution, charge separation and absorbing-emitting walls. The traditional numerical schemes based on differences often transform these disparate boundary conditions into computational singularities. This is the case of models using advection-diffusion differential equations with source-sink terms (also called Fokker-Planck equations). These equations are used in both, fluid and kinetic descriptions, to obtain the distribution functions or the density for each plasma species close to the boundaries. We present a resolution method grounded on an integral advancing scheme by using approximate Green's functions, also called short-time propagators. All the integrals, as a path integration process, are numerically calculated, what states a robust grid-free computational integral method, which is unconditionally stable for any time step. Hence, the sharp boundary conditions, as the current emission from a wall, can be treated during the short-time regime providing solutions that works as if they were known for each time step analytically. The form of the propagator (typically a multivariate Gaussian) is not unique and it can be adjusted during the advancing scheme to preserve the conserved quantities of the problem. The effects of the electric or magnetic fields can be incorporated into the iterative algorithm. The method allows smooth transitions of the evolving solutions even when abrupt discontinuities are present. In this work it is proposed a procedure to incorporate, for the very first time, the boundary conditions in the numerical integral scheme. This numerical scheme is applied to model the plasma bulk interaction with a charge-emitting electrode, dealing with fluid diffusion equations combined with Poisson equation self-consistently. It has been checked the stability of this computational method under any number of iterations, even for advancing in time electrons and ions having different time scales. This work establishes the basis to deal in future work with problems related to plasma thrusters or emissive probes in electromagnetic fields.

Crisis and the city: neoliberalism, austerity planning and the production of space

The current crisis, with its particularly severe configuration in Southern European countries, provides an opportunity to probe the interrelation of economic crunches and the production of space, and also to imagine potential paths of sociospatial emancipation from the dictates of global markets. This introductory chapter offers a preliminary interpretive framework exploring the fundamental role of urban and territorial restructuring in the formation, management and resolution of capitalist crises and, conversely, periods of crisis as key stages in the history of urbanization. I will begin by contextualizing the 2007-8 economic slump, the subsequent global recession and its uneven impact on states and cities in the longue durée of capitalist productions of space, studying the transformation of spatial configurations in previous episodes of economic stagnation. This broader perspective will then be used to analyze currently emerging formations of austerity urbanism, showing how the practices of crisis management incorporate a strategy for economic and institutional restructuring that eventually impacts on urban policy, and indeed in the production of urban space itself.

Simultaneous determination of multiclass emerging contaminants in aquatic plants by ultrasound assisted matrix solid phase dispersion and GC-MS

A multiresidue method was developed for the simultaneous determination of 31 emerging contaminants (pharmaceutical compounds, hormones, personal care products, biocides and flame retardants) in aquatic plants. Analytes were extracted by ultrasound assisted-matrix solid phase dispersion (UA-MSPD) and determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry after sylilation. The method was validated for different aquatic plants (Typha angustifolia, Arundo donax and Lemna minor) and a semiaquatic cultivated plant (Oryza sativa) with good recoveries at concentrations of 100 and 25 ng g-1 wet weight, ranging from 70 to 120 %, and low method detection limits (0.3 to 2.2 ng g-1 wet weight). A significant difference of the chromatographic response was observed for some compounds in neat solvent versus matrix extracts and therefore quantification was carried out using matrix-matched standards in order to overcome this matrix effect. Aquatic plants taken from rivers located at three Spanish regions were analyzed and the compounds detected were parabens, bisphenol A, benzophenone-3, cyfluthrin and cypermethrin. The levels found ranged from 6 to 25 ng g-1 wet weight except for cypermethrin that was detected at 235 ng g-1 wet weight in Oryza sativa samples.