Differences in diet between the two largest breeding colonies of Audouin's gulls: the effects of fishery activities

We analysed and compared the diet of Audouin´s gulls Larus audouinii between their two largest breeding sites in the world: the Ebro Delta and the Chafarinas Islands (western Mediterranean). These two localities showed marked differences in the features of the commercial fishing fleet: in the Ebro Delta area a large fishing fleet produced large amounts of discards, while in the Chafarinas the fleet discarded smaller amounts of fish and marine invertebrates, due to the smaller number of vessels. It is also likely that the percentage of discards from total catches is also lower around the Chafarinas than at the Ebro Delta. We distinguished two types of fishing to compare diet compositions: diurnal (only trawling activity) and diurnal and nocturnal (trawling and purse-seine activity, respectively). We also differentiated regurgitates from young nestlings (up to 20 days old) and from older nestlings or adult birds. At the two localities, fish was the main food of Audouin´s gulls, with epipelagic prey (mainly clupeoids) being more important when both diurnal and nocturnal fisheries were operating. This confirms that epipelagic prey either caught actively by the gulls or linked to fisheries was particularly important in the feeding habits of Audouin´s gulls. Nevertheless, differences between the two colonies appear mainly when only trawlers operated: while at the Ebro Delta gulls showed higher consumption of benthic-mesopelagic prey (probably linked to a higher trawler discard availability), gulls from the Chafarinas Islands consumed higher biomass of epipelagic prey probably caught actively at night. When both fleets operated around the two colonies, the average biomass of prey in a regurgitate of younger chicks was significantly higher at the Ebro Delta than at Chafarinas, and the opposite trend was recorded for older nestlings and adults. Niche width was broader in Chafarinas than in the Ebro Delta for both age classes and for any fishing fleet schedule, suggesting again that the exploitation of discards was higher at the Ebro Delta than at the Chafarinas, where gulls showed a more varied diet. Despite the fact that availability of discards was probably higher at the Ebro Delta than at Chafarinas, the per capita availability was not so different at both localities due to the increasing seabird community population at the Ebro Delta, which ca. doubled that at Chafarinas in the last decade.

A theoretical and practical study on linear reforms of dual taxes

[cat] En aquest treball extenem les reformes lineals introduïdes per Pfähler (1984) al cas d’impostos duals. Estudiem l’efecte relatiu que els retalls lineals duals d’un impost dual tenen sobre la distribució de la desigualtat -es pot fer un estudi simètric per al cas d’augments d’impostos-. Tambe introduïm mesures del grau de progressivitat d’impostos duals i mostrem que estan connectades amb el criteri de dominació de Lorenz. Addicionalment, estudiem l’elasticitat de la càrrega fiscal de cadascuna de les reformes proposades. Finalment, gràcies a un model de microsimulació i una gran base de dades que conté informació sobre l’IRPF espanyol de l’any 2004, 1) comparem l’efecte que diferents reformes tindrien sobre l’impost dual espanyol i 2) estudiem quina redistribució de la riquesa va suposar la reforma dual de l’IRPF (Llei ’35/2006’) respecte l’anterior impost.

A theoretical and practical study on linear reforms of dual taxes

[cat] En aquest treball extenem les reformes lineals introduïdes per Pfähler (1984) al cas d’impostos duals. Estudiem l’efecte relatiu que els retalls lineals duals d’un impost dual tenen sobre la distribució de la desigualtat -es pot fer un estudi simètric per al cas d’augments d’impostos-. Tambe introduïm mesures del grau de progressivitat d’impostos duals i mostrem que estan connectades amb el criteri de dominació de Lorenz. Addicionalment, estudiem l’elasticitat de la càrrega fiscal de cadascuna de les reformes proposades. Finalment, gràcies a un model de microsimulació i una gran base de dades que conté informació sobre l’IRPF espanyol de l’any 2004, 1) comparem l’efecte que diferents reformes tindrien sobre l’impost dual espanyol i 2) estudiem quina redistribució de la riquesa va suposar la reforma dual de l’IRPF (Llei ’35/2006’) respecte l’anterior impost.

Activities of amino acid metabolizing enzymes in the stomach and small intestitine of developing rats

The activities of aspartate and alanine transaminase, serine dehydratase, arginase, glutamate dehydrogenase, adenylate deaminase and glutamine synthetase were determined in the stomach and small intestine of developing rats. Despite the common embryonic origin of the intestine and stomach, their enzymes showed quite different activity levels and patterns of development, depending on their roles. Most enzyme activities were low during late intrauterine life and after birth, attaining adult levels with the change of diet at weaning. No arginase activity was found in the stomach and no changes were detected in adenylate deaminase in the stomach or intestine throughout the period studied. Alanine transaminase, serine dehydratase and, to some extent, glutamine synthetase levels, significantly higher in late intrauterine life, decreased after birth, suggesting that the foetal stomach has a transient ability to handle amino acids.

Differences in diet between the two largest breeding colonies of Audouin's gulls: the effects of fishery activities

We analysed and compared the diet of Audouin´s gulls Larus audouinii between their two largest breeding sites in the world: the Ebro Delta and the Chafarinas Islands (western Mediterranean). These two localities showed marked differences in the features of the commercial fishing fleet: in the Ebro Delta area a large fishing fleet produced large amounts of discards, while in the Chafarinas the fleet discarded smaller amounts of fish and marine invertebrates, due to the smaller number of vessels. It is also likely that the percentage of discards from total catches is also lower around the Chafarinas than at the Ebro Delta. We distinguished two types of fishing to compare diet compositions: diurnal (only trawling activity) and diurnal and nocturnal (trawling and purse-seine activity, respectively). We also differentiated regurgitates from young nestlings (up to 20 days old) and from older nestlings or adult birds. At the two localities, fish was the main food of Audouin´s gulls, with epipelagic prey (mainly clupeoids) being more important when both diurnal and nocturnal fisheries were operating. This confirms that epipelagic prey either caught actively by the gulls or linked to fisheries was particularly important in the feeding habits of Audouin´s gulls. Nevertheless, differences between the two colonies appear mainly when only trawlers operated: while at the Ebro Delta gulls showed higher consumption of benthic-mesopelagic prey (probably linked to a higher trawler discard availability), gulls from the Chafarinas Islands consumed higher biomass of epipelagic prey probably caught actively at night. When both fleets operated around the two colonies, the average biomass of prey in a regurgitate of younger chicks was significantly higher at the Ebro Delta than at Chafarinas, and the opposite trend was recorded for older nestlings and adults. Niche width was broader in Chafarinas than in the Ebro Delta for both age classes and for any fishing fleet schedule, suggesting again that the exploitation of discards was higher at the Ebro Delta than at the Chafarinas, where gulls showed a more varied diet. Despite the fact that availability of discards was probably higher at the Ebro Delta than at Chafarinas, the per capita availability was not so different at both localities due to the increasing seabird community population at the Ebro Delta, which ca. doubled that at Chafarinas in the last decade.

La actividad productiva de la fábrica de harinas “La Montserrat” (Girona) en el año agrícola de 1903-1904 = The Production Activities at the Company Harinera “La Montserrat” (Girona) over the Agricultural Year 1903-1904

Harinera La Montserrat, S.A, a company involved in the manufacturing and trading of cereals and flour, was founded in Girona in 1898 by José Ensesa y Cía., Sociedad en Comandita. With the objective to determine how the product activity of this business was structured, we have studied in detail the operations that were carried out over the agricultural year 1903-1904. We have focused on three main aspects. Firstly, the purchasing of wheat (origin, transportation, prices); secondly, the production of flour (using internal and external wheat, profits); and thirdly, its distribution (customers, destination). Finally, we have analyzed the profit and loos account for this period in order to find out if this business was profitable

Estudi de l'impacte de les activitats de moviment corporal en un infant amb TDA

Aquest treball consta d’una investigació amb una pràctica d’activitats basades en el moviment corporal amb un infant diagnosticat amb Trastorn de Dèficit D’Atenció (TDA), amb la intenció de tractar i treballar els problemes que pateix de concentració i atenció. Aquesta pràctica va tenir lloc a l’Escola Sant Jordi de Navàs. Es va analitzar a l’alumne/a en concret, però es van treballar totes les activitats amb tot el grup classe. Les activitats van ser dissenyades a partir dels aprenentatges a la universitat durant la carrera i també de diferents autors citats al marc teòric. Els instruments de recollida de dades que es van utilitzar són les tècniques d’observació i el diari de camp i la càmera de fotos i de vídeo per enregistrar moments en concret. Aquests instruments van donar lloc a l’anàlisi i a la valoració final de les sessions de la pràctica realitzada, en la que es va poder observar una millora en l’atenció, la concentració, l’ interès, la relació amb els companys, etc, aconseguint els objectius proposats al principi. Si el moviment corporal ajuda a millorar als infants que pateixen aquest trastorn i a tots els altres és aconsellable que a l’escola es busquin estratègies i formes de treballar-ho, en qualsevol àrea, per a motivar i fer créixer els aprenentatges de tots els alumnes.

Open Educational Resources: an opportunity for virtual learning institutions

The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC, Open University of Catalonia) is involved inseveral research projects and educational activities related to the use of Open Educational Resources (OER). Some of the discussed issues in the concept of OER are research issues which are being tackled in two EC projects (OLCOS and SELF). Besides the research part, the UOC aims at developing a virtual centre for analysing and promoting the concept of OERin Europe in the sector of Higher and Further Education. The objectives are to makeinformation and learning services available to provide university management staff,eLearning support centres, faculty and learners with practical information required to create, share and re-use such interoperable digital content, tools and licensing schemes. In the realisation of these objectives, the main activities are the following: to provide organisationaland individual e-learning end-users with orientation; to develop perspectives and useful recommendations in the form of a medium-term Roadmap 2010 for OER in Higher and Further Education in Europe; to offer practical information and support services about how to create, share and re-use open educational content by means of tutorials, guidelines, best practices, and specimen of exemplary open e-learning content; to establish a larger group ofcommitted experts throughout Europe and other continents who not only share theirexpertise but also steer networking, workshops, and clustering efforts; and to foster and support a community of practice in open e-learning content know-how and experiences.

Practical algorithms for a family of waterfilling solutions

Many engineering problems that can be formulatedas constrained optimization problems result in solutionsgiven by a waterfilling structure; the classical example is thecapacity-achieving solution for a frequency-selective channel.For simple waterfilling solutions with a single waterlevel and asingle constraint (typically, a power constraint), some algorithmshave been proposed in the literature to compute the solutionsnumerically. However, some other optimization problems result insignificantly more complicated waterfilling solutions that includemultiple waterlevels and multiple constraints. For such cases, itmay still be possible to obtain practical algorithms to evaluate thesolutions numerically but only after a painstaking inspection ofthe specific waterfilling structure. In addition, a unified view ofthe different types of waterfilling solutions and the correspondingpractical algorithms is missing.The purpose of this paper is twofold. On the one hand, itoverviews the waterfilling results existing in the literature from aunified viewpoint. On the other hand, it bridges the gap betweena wide family of waterfilling solutions and their efficient implementationin practice; to be more precise, it provides a practicalalgorithm to evaluate numerically a general waterfilling solution,which includes the currently existing waterfilling solutions andothers that may possibly appear in future problems.

An experience beyond continuous assessment activities: virtual tour to the medieval medicinal plant garden of the Pedralbes monastery

[eng] The group of teaching innovation in the area of Botany (GIBAF), University of Barcelona (UB), is raised each year to design new accreditation activities under continuous evaluation framework. We present the experience carried out during the academic year 2008-09 in the course of Pharmaceutical Botany. The aim has been to involve students for a semester in the authorship of a tutored project immediately useful and of easy permanence, beyond its assessment proving usefulness. The Medicinal Plants Garden of the Monastery of Pedralbes has been used as a resource and a collaboration agreement has been signed between the UB faculty and the Institute of Culture of Barcelona. The students have developed the work using the Moodle platform CampusvirtualUB into five stages which included preparation of files by students that have been modified in some steps following the various feedbacks from teachers. At the beginning of the activity, students were provided with a complete schedule of activities, the schedule for its implementation, and a total of 18 forced-use library resources. Finally, through Google sites, a website has been implemented, allowing for a virtual tour of the garden, documenting by referenced literature 50 medicinal plants for their nomenclature, botanical description, distribution, uses historical, current and future) and toxicity. The result of the activity was presented at a public ceremony in the Monastery of Pedralbes and is available at: http://sites.google.com/site/jardimedievalpedralbes/ [spa] El grupo de innovación docente integrado por profesores del área de Botánica (GIBAF) de la Universidad de Barcelona (UB) se plantea cada curso el diseño de nuevas actividades acreditativas en el marco de la evaluación continuada. Se presenta la experiencia llevada a cabo durante el curso 2008-09 en la asignatura Botánica Farmacéutica. El objetivo ha sido implicar durante un semestre a los estudiantes en la autoría de un proyecto tutorizado de inmediata utilidad y clara perdurabilidad, más allá de su utilidad acreditativa. Como recurso se ha utilizado el Jardín de Plantas Medicinales del Monasterio de Pedralbes y se ha firmado un convenio de colaboración docente entre la UB y el Instituto de Cultura de Barcelona. Los estudiantes han realizado el trabajo utilizando la plataforma Moodle del Campus virtual de la UB en cinco etapas que han incluido la confección de unas fichas que se han ido modificando en función de las diversas retroacciones de los profesores. Al inicio de la actividad, se facilitó a los estudiantes el cronograma completo de la actividad, la pauta para su realización, así como un total de 18 recursos bibliográficos de uso obligado. Finalmente, a través de GoogleSites, se ha realizado una web que permite realizar un paseo virtual por el jardín, documentando de forma referenciada para las 50 plantas medicinales su nomenclatura, descripción botánica, distribución, usos (históricos, actuales y futuros) y toxicidad. El resultado de la actividad fue presentado en un acto público en el Monasterio de Pedralbes y puede consultarse en: http://sites.google.com/site/jardimedievalpedralbes/

Diseño, aplicación y evaluación de un programa de educación emocional en un centro penitenciario

Introducción. El propósito de este estudio ha sido evaluar la incidencia que, sobre un grupo de internos de un centro penitenciario, ha tenido la aplicación de un programa de educación emocional para la mejora de la conciencia y la regulación emocional. Se pretendía ofrecer a los internos estrategias de regulación emocional que les fueran útiles en el centro penitenciario y a su vez les facilitaran su futura inclusión social. Método. Se ha utilizado un diseño cuasiexperimental de grupo único con grupo control. Para medir las variables se utilizaron distintos instrumentos, entre ellos una adaptación del CEE (GROP, 2001), un caso práctico (planteamiento de una situación generadora de emociones negativas), un análisis de las sanciones durante dos meses y un cuestionario de valoración de las actividades del programa por parte de los participantes. Resultados. Se destaca que la mayoría de ítems del cuestionario aplicado al grupo experimental mejoran después de formarse así como las respuestas dadas en la resolución del caso práctico. Sin embargo no se puede hablar de diferencias significativas en el caso de las sanciones si se compara con el grupo control. También los implicados valoraron positivamente el programa. Discusión. Los resultados manifiestan que la intervención del programa de educación emocional ha contribuido a la mejora de la conciencia y la regulación emocional del grupo experimental.

Platinum (II) and palladium (II) complexes with (N,N') and (C,N,N') ligands derived from pyrazole as anticancer and antimalarial agents: synthesis, characterization and in vitro activities

The study of the reactivity of three 1-(2-dimethylaminoethyl)-1H-pyrazole derivatives of general formula [1-(CH2)2NMe2}-3,5-R2-pzol] {where pzol represents pyrazole and Rdouble bond; length as m-dashH (1a), Me (1b) or Ph (1c)} with [MCl2(DMSO)2] (Mdouble bond; length as m-dashPt or Pd) under different experimental conditions allowed us to isolate and characterize cis-[M{κ2-N,N′-{[1-(CH2)2NMe2}-3,5-R2-pzol])}Cl2] {MMdouble bond; length as m-dashPtPt (2a-2c) or Pd (3a-3c)} and two cyclometallated complexes [M{κ3-C,N,N′-{[1-(CH2)2NMe2}-3-(C5H4)-5-Ph-pzol])}Cl] {Mdouble bond; length as m-dashPt(II) (4c) or Pd(II) (5c)}. Compounds 4c and 5c arise from the orthometallation of the 3-phenyl ring of ligand 1c. Complex 2a has been further characterized by X-ray crystallography. Ligands and complexes were evaluated for their in vitro antimalarial against Plasmodium falciparum and cytotoxic activities against lung (A549) and breast (MDA MB231 and MCF7) cancer cellular lines. Complexes 2a-2c and 5c exhibited only moderate antimalarial activities against two P. falciparum strains (3D7 and W2). Interestingly, cytotoxicity assays revealed that the platinacycle 4c exhibits a higher toxicity than cisplatin in the three human cell lines and that the complex 2a presents a remarkable cytotoxicity and selectivity in lung (IC50 = 3 μM) versus breast cancer cell lines (IC50 > 20 μM). Thus, complexes 2c and 4c appear to be promising leads, creating a novel family of anticancer agents. Electrophoretic DNA migration studies in presence of the synthesized compounds have been performed, in order to get further insights into their mechanism of action.

Building Partnerships and Fostering Activities to Promote English Outside the Classroom

Becoming proficient in at least one foreign language is a target for educational authorities throughout Europe. The question is how we can improve our students’ command of English without increasing the workload on teachers and without much funding. In El Prat de Llobregat, a city located in the vicinity of Barcelona, we have addressed that issue by creating a group of teachers, educational advisors and city council administrators, who have been acting in a coordinated way to enhance English language exposure beyond the classroom. Our interest in promoting English stems from our location: our municipality is situated next to an international airport where finding a job is bound to be dependent on English fluency. We aim to show that, through a network of members at school and administrative levels, an array of meaningful and empowering initiatives can be implemented in a city where resources are scarce and cultural backgrounds diverse.

Differences in seasonal price patterns among second home rentals and hotels: Empirical evidence and practical implications

Hotels and second home rentals are two of the most important tourist accommodation options in Spain. In terms of seasonality, almost all previous studies have analysed tourism demand from the point of view either of total arrivals or the number of tourists lodged in a single accommodation type (hotels, rural accommodation, etc). However, there are no studies focusing on price seasonality orcomparing seasonality among different accommodation types. By using seasonality indicators and a price index constructed by means of hedonic methods, this paper aims to shed some light on seasonal pricing patterns among second home rentals and hotels. The paper relies on a 2004 database of 144 hotels and 1,002 apartments on the Costa Brava (northeast Spain). The results show that prices for second home rentals display a smoother seasonal pattern than hotels due to reduced price differences between shoulder (May and October) and peak periods (August)

The awr gene family encodes a novel class of Ralstonia solanacearum type III effectors displaying virulence and avirulence activities

We present here the characterization of a new gene family, awr, found in all sequenced Ralstonia solanacearum strains and in other bacterial pathogens. We demonstrate that the five paralogues in strain GMI1000 encode type III-secreted effectors and that deletion of all awr genes severely impairs its capacity to multiply in natural host plants. Complementation studies show that the AWR (alanine-tryptophanarginine tryad) effectors display some functional redundancy, although AWR2 is the major contributor to virulence. In contrast, the strain devoid of all awr genes (¿awr1-5) exhibits enhanced pathogenicity on Arabidopsis plants. A gain-of-function approach expressing AWR in Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000 proves that this is likely due to effector recognition, because AWR5 and AWR4 restrict growth of this bacterium in Arabidopsis. Transient overexpression of AWR in nonhost tobacco species caused macroscopic cell death to varying extents, which, in the case of AWR5, shows characteristics of a typical hypersensitive response. Our work demonstrates that AWR, which show no similarity to any protein with known function, can specify either virulence or avirulence in the interaction of R. solanacearum with its plant hosts.