Cultivation of black truffle to promote reforestation and land-use stability

Cultivation of black truffle, Tuber melanosporum Vitt., has become an important agricultural alternative in rural Mediterranean regions due to its success in relatively harsh conditions, its high market value and diminishing production in natural areas. In addition, truffle cultivation requires relatively low agricultural inputs, promotes reforestation and economic restoration of rural lands and land-use stability. However, there remain major issues regarding the management practices to ensure successful black truffle production. We therefore conducted an experiment to evaluate 3 levels of irrigation based on monthly water deficit and the effects of currently applied weed control systems and fertilization. Treatment effects were evaluated by examining the mycorrhizal status of out-planted 1-yr-old Quercus ilex L. seedlings and seedling growth parameters after 18 months in 3 distinct experimental truffle plantations located in the foothills of the Spanish Pyrenees. We found that replacing one-half of the water deficit of the driest month (moderate irrigation) promoted the proliferation of T. melanosporum mycorrhizae, while high irrigation reduced fine root production and truffle mycorrhizae. Glyphosate weed control improved seedling survival by up to 16% over control seedlings without jeopardizing truffle mycorrhizae in the first year. Fertilization did not improve seedling growth or influence its mycorrhizal status. We describe the persistent relationship between this ectomycorrhizal fungus and Q. ilex by quantifying old and new mycorrhizae and we discuss the ecological implications of the symbiosis.

The SUD1 Gene Encodes a Putative E3 Ubiquitin Ligase and Is a Positive Regulator of 3-Hydroxy-3-Methylglutaryl Coenzyme A Reductase Activity in Arabidopsis

The 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase (HMGR) enzyme catalyzes the major rate-limiting step of the mevalonic acid (MVA) pathway from which sterols and other isoprenoids are synthesized. In contrast with our extensive knowledge of the regulation of HMGR in yeast and animals, little is known about this process in plants. To identify regulatory components of the MVA pathway in plants, we performed a genetic screen for second-site suppressor mutations of the Arabidopsis thaliana highly drought-sensitive drought hypersensitive2 (dry2) mutant that shows decreased squalene epoxidase activity. We show that mutations in SUPPRESSOR OF DRY2 DEFECTS1 (SUD1) gene recover most developmental defects in dry2 through changes in HMGR activity. SUD1 encodes a putative E3 ubiquitin ligase that shows sequence and structural similarity to yeast Degradation of a factor (Doa10) and human TEB4, components of the endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation C (ERAD-C) pathway. While in yeast and animals, the alternative ERAD-L/ERAD-M pathway regulates HMGR activity by controlling protein stability, SUD1 regulates HMGR activity without apparent changes in protein content. These results highlight similarities, as well as important mechanistic differences, among the components involved in HMGR regulation in plants, yeast, and animals.

Using music as a signal for biofeedback

Studies on the potential benefits of conveying biofeedback stimulus using a musical signal have appeared in recent years with the intent of harnessing the strong effects that music listening may have on subjects. While results are encouraging, the fundamental question has yet to be addressed, of how combined music and biofeedback compares to the already established use of either of these elements separately. This experiment, involving young adults (N = 24), compared the effectiveness at modulating participants' states of physiological arousal of each of the following conditions: A) listening to pre-recorded music, B) sonification biofeedback of the heart rate, and C) an algorithmically modulated musical feedback signal conveying the subject's heart rate. Our hypothesis was that each of the conditions (A), (B) and (C) would differ from the other two in the extent to which it enables participants to increase and decrease their state of physiological arousal, with (C) being more effective than (B), and both more than (A). Several physiological measures and qualitative responses were recorded and analyzed. Results show that using musical biofeedback allowed participants to modulate their state of physiological arousal at least equally well as sonification biofeedback, and much better than just listening to music, as reflected in their heart rate measurements, controlling for respiration-rate. Our findings indicate that the known effects of music in modulating arousal can therefore be beneficially harnessed when designing a biofeedback protocol.

A Feedfordward Adaptive Controller to Reduce the Imaging Time of Large-Sized Biological Samples with a SPM-Based Multiprobe Station

The time required to image large samples is an important limiting factor in SPM-based systems. In multiprobe setups, especially when working with biological samples, this drawback can make impossible to conduct certain experiments. In this work, we present a feedfordward controller based on bang-bang and adaptive controls. The controls are based in the difference between the maximum speeds that can be used for imaging depending on the flatness of the sample zone. Topographic images of Escherichia coli bacteria samples were acquired using the implemented controllers. Results show that to go faster in the flat zones, rather than using a constant scanning speed for the whole image, speeds up the imaging process of large samples by up to a 4x factor.

Pose-based SLAM with probabilistic scan matching algorithm using a mechanical scanned imaging sonar

This paper proposes a pose-based algorithm to solve the full SLAM problem for an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), navigating in an unknown and possibly unstructured environment. The technique incorporate probabilistic scan matching with range scans gathered from a mechanical scanning imaging sonar (MSIS) and the robot dead-reckoning displacements estimated from a Doppler velocity log (DVL) and a motion reference unit (MRU). The proposed method utilizes two extended Kalman filters (EKF). The first, estimates the local path travelled by the robot while grabbing the scan as well as its uncertainty and provides position estimates for correcting the distortions that the vehicle motion produces in the acoustic images. The second is an augment state EKF that estimates and keeps the registered scans poses. The raw data from the sensors are processed and fused in-line. No priory structural information or initial pose are considered. The algorithm has been tested on an AUV guided along a 600 m path within a marina environment, showing the viability of the proposed approach

DAI-DEPUR: an integrated and distributed architecture for wastewater treatment plants supervision

The activated sludge process - the main biological technology usually applied towastewater treatment plants (WWTP) - directly depends on live beings (microorganisms), and therefore on unforeseen changes produced by them. It could be possible to get a good plant operation if the supervisory control system is able to react to the changes and deviations in the system and can take thenecessary actions to restore the system’s performance. These decisions are oftenbased both on physical, chemical, microbiological principles (suitable to bemodelled by conventional control algorithms) and on some knowledge (suitable to be modelled by knowledge-based systems). But one of the key problems in knowledge-based control systems design is the development of an architecture able to manage efficiently the different elements of the process (integrated architecture), to learn from previous cases (spec@c experimental knowledge) and to acquire the domain knowledge (general expert knowledge). These problems increase when the process belongs to an ill-structured domain and is composed of several complex operational units. Therefore, an integrated and distributed AIarchitecture seems to be a good choice. This paper proposes an integrated and distributed supervisory multi-level architecture for the supervision of WWTP, that overcomes some of the main troubles of classical control techniques and those of knowledge-based systems applied to real world systems

Nucleus accumbens is involved in human action monitoring: evidence from invasive electrophysiological recordings

The Nucleus accumbens (Nacc) has been proposed to act as a limbic-motor interface. Here, using invasive intraoperative recordings in an awake patient suffering from obsessive-compulsive disease (OCD), we demonstrate that its activity is modulated by the quality of performance of the subject in a choice reaction time task designed to tap action monitoring processes. Action monitoring, that is, error detection and correction, is thought to be supported by a system involving the dopaminergic midbrain, the basal ganglia, and the medial prefrontal cortex. In surface electrophysiological recordings, action monitoring is indexed by an error-related negativity (ERN) appearing time-locked to the erroneous responses and emanating from the medial frontal cortex. In preoperative scalp recordings the patient's ERN was found to be signifi cantly increased compared to a large (n = 83) normal sample, suggesting enhanced action monitoring processes. Intraoperatively, error-related modulations were obtained from the Nacc but not from a site 5 mm above. Importantly, crosscorrelation analysis showed that error-related activity in the Nacc preceded surface activity by 40 ms. We propose that the Nacc is involved in action monitoring, possibly by using error signals from the dopaminergic midbrain to adjust the relative impact of limbic and prefrontal inputs on frontal control systems in order to optimize goal-directed behavior.

Projecte P.I.T.O.S (Projecte d'informació telefònica d'orientació al S.A.T)

JCM és una empresa dedicada al disseny de sistemes de control d’accés. Disposa d’uns equips elèctrics amb molts paràmetres configurables, així es poden utilitzar en molts tipus d’instal•lació. Aquets paràmetres són configurables pels clients. JCM, disposa d’un servei d’atenció telefònica (SAT), que intenta donar solucions a tots els problemes que puguin sorgir als clients. Sovint, no poden donar suport als dubtes dels clients per culpa de la poca informació que reben a través del client. L'objectiu del projecte és resoldre el problema de falta d'informació i mala comunicació per millorar la qualitat del servei que ofereix el SAT. La solució, no ha d’alterar el cost de producció del producte. S’ha de tenir en compte també que els equips poden estar instal•lats en qualsevol part del món i que només es poden utilitzar recursos de fàcil accés per tots els clients. Per complir amb aquests objectius, emetrem un missatge, a través del brunzidor del equip, amb la informació de configuració de l'equip. Aquest missatge viatjarà a través de la xarxa telefònica fins al SAT. Un cop allà, el descodificarem i n'enviarem les dades a un PC perquè pugui presentar les dades sobre la configuració de una forma clara pel SAT.