Gestión del bosque mediterráneo y conservación de la avifauna: el caso de los alcornocales

Se presentan los resultados de los diversos estudios de poblaciones de aves realizados en los alcornocales catalanes, especialmente en cuanto a la riqueza específica de los mismos. Dado que los estudios publicados hasta el momento en esta materia eran referidos a la estación reproductora (primavera), se señalan los datos recogidos en los alcornocales de les Gavarres (NE peninsular), durante la estación invernal. Asimismo, se analizan las diversas tipologías de alcornocales que se encuentran en Catalunya, bosques en gestión activa, y por tanto sin sotobosque, y bosques abandonados en los que la biomasa del sotobosque es máxi-ma, y se exponen los resultados de la comparativa entre ambas tipologías de explotación cuando se aplica un índice de conservación de la avifauna, basado en la riqueza de cada una de las especies registradas, la presencia de especies amenazadas según los criterios de la UICN (SPEC) y su categoría de amenaza (non-SPEC, SPEC 4, SPEC 3, SPEC 2 y SPEC 1). Los resultados obtenidos muestran como las explotaciones abandonadas tienen un índice de conservación de avifauna más elevado que los bosques en explotación activa. Se discuten es-tos resultados en el contexto de la gestión forestal y las ayudas recibidas por parte de las ad-ministraciones para llevar a cabo estas prácticas de gestión

Space Manifold dynamics

The term Space Manifold Dynamics (SMD) has been proposed for encompassing the various applications of Dynamical Systems methods to spacecraft mission analysis and design, ranging from the exploitation of libration orbits around the collinear Lagrangian points to the design of optimal station-keeping and eclipse avoidance manoeuvres or the determination of low energy lunar and interplanetary transfers

Space Manifold dynamics

The term Space Manifold Dynamics (SMD) has been proposed for encompassing the various applications of Dynamical Systems methods to spacecraft mission analysis and design, ranging from the exploitation of libration orbits around the collinear Lagrangian points to the design of optimal station-keeping and eclipse avoidance manoeuvres or the determination of low energy lunar and interplanetary transfers

Reversible and high capacity data hiding in medical images

In this paper we introduce a highly efficient reversible data hiding system. It is based on dividing the image into tiles and shifting the histograms of each image tile between its minimum and maximum frequency. Data are then inserted at the pixel level with the largest frequency to maximize data hiding capacity. It exploits the special properties of medical images, where the histogram of their nonoverlapping image tiles mostly peak around some gray values and the rest of the spectrum is mainlyempty. The zeros (or minima) and peaks (maxima) of the histograms of the image tiles are then relocated to embed the data. The grey values of some pixels are therefore modified.High capacity, high fidelity, reversibility and multiple data insertions are the key requirements of data hiding in medical images. We show how histograms of image tiles of medical images can be exploited to achieve these requirements. Compared with data hiding method applied to the whole image, our scheme can result in 30%-200% capacity improvement and still with better image quality, depending on the medical image content. Additional advantages of the proposed method include hiding data in the regions of non-interest and better exploitation of spatial masking.

Spectrum Sharing Models in Cognitive Radio

Spectrum scarcity demands thinking new ways tomanage the distribution of radio frequency bands so that its use is more effective. The emerging technology that can enable this paradigm shift is the cognitive radio. Different models fororganizing and managing cognitive radios have emerged, all with specific strategic purposes. In this article we review the allocation spectrum patterns of cognitive radio networks andanalyse which are the common basis of each model.We expose the vulnerabilities and open challenges that still threaten the adoptionand exploitation of cognitive radios for open civil networks.

Legal issues in promoting FOSS in R+D projects - Policy, Organisation and Management

Creating and using FLOSS in R+D projects raises several legal issues, which need to be managed as soon as possible - preferably during the project planning stage. Challenges in the areas of project structure and policy, licenses and licensing, exploitation strategies, community management, and FLOSS-friendliness in general all have their legal aspects, which are commented here. Some recommendations are made for assisting in the use of FLOSS in R+D projects, especially in multiple party consortiums.

Enhanced MDIR receiver for space-time dispersive channels

A particular property of the matched desiredimpulse response receiver is introduced in this paper, namely,the fact that full exploitation of the diversity is obtained withmultiple beamformers when the channel is spatially and timelydispersive. This particularity makes the receiver specially suitablefor mobile and underwater communications. The new structureprovides better performance than conventional and weightedVRAKE receivers, and a diversity gain with no needs of additionalradio frequency equipment. The baseband hardware neededfor this new receiver may be obtained through reconfigurabilityof the RAKE architectures available at the base station. Theproposed receiver is tested through simulations assuming UTRAfrequency-division-duplexing mode.

Paisatge, poblament, cultura material i història de l'Ager Tarraconensis. Resultats i comparacions

Síntesi dels primers resultats del Projecte Ager Tarraconensis i de les aportacions al simposi, de les quals s’extreuen reflexions i coneixements nous sobre el tema de l’estudi entorn del conjunt de l’espai de la ciutat romana, del paisatge, tractat com un sistema. Les aportacions se centren en la varietat de les primeres estratègies de control romà del territori, de les tipologies i evolució dels establiments, dels aspectes econòmics i de la dinàmica del poblament. Tot plegat fa referència molt especialment al territori de Tarraco, per bé que es fan nombroses comparacions amb altres territoris de l’àrea catalana i saguntina i també d’altres províncies romanes. Tarraco es va perfilant com una ciutat amb un territorium molt productiu, no sols en agricultura, sinó també en indústries, producció tèxtil, explotacions de recursos minerals com les pedreres i el ferro, i amb un comerç molt actiu que la devia convertir en un port important de la Mediterrània occidental romana. La jerarquia dels hàbitats rurals també s’està demostrant més complexa gràcies al coneixement de noves aglomeracions. L’evolució posterior al període romà també ha entrat en discussió, especialment pel que fa a l’època islàmica, sobre la qual es discuteix si el camp va quedar poblat o despoblat, tema que resol en sentit positiu el diagrama pol·línic realitzat dins del marc del projecte.

Arqueología de paisajes altimontanos pirenaicos: formas de explotación y usos del medio en época romana en valle del Madriu-Perafita-Claror (Andorra) y en la Sierra del Cadí (Alt Urgell)

long-term cultural history of the Madriu-Perafita-Claror valleys (Andorra) and the Cadí Range (Catalonia) has been investigated thanks to the combination of archaeological surveys and excavation, analysis of written sources, multiproxy alaeoenvironment analysis (pollen, NPP, micro and macro charcoal, sedimentology and geochemistry), and digital technologies such as stereophotogrammetry, multispectral imaging, DGPS and GIS. The project has been designed from a landscape archaeology approach and the study area has been selected due to the suitable setting it provides for a meaningful application of the aforementioned techniques. Consequently, archaeological, historical and palaeoenvironmental data have been all treated as cultural proxies. Their comparison has allowed obtaining not only coherent but also complementary results. The project outcomes show an uninterrupted occupation of these high mountain valleys (2000-2600 m a.s.l.) from the Mesolithic until the present. This human occupation shows strong spatial and chronological variability in human practices ranging from a stable long term group occupation in the Late Neolithic to the diversification of representative practices during the Roman period (metallurgy, pine resin exploitation, charcoal production, pastoralism, etc.). This high diversity of activities leads to complex cultural landscapes in the high Pyrenean areas. The reconstruction of the cultural history at the study areas will allow the development of more sustainable politics for these landscapes management.

Fishery of the Goliath grouper, Epinephelus itajara (Teleostei: Epinephelidae) based on local ecological knowledge and fishery records in Yucatan, Mexico

The Goliath grouper, Epinephelus itajara, a large-bodied (similar to 2.5 m TL, > 400 kg) and critically endangered fish (Epinephelidae), is highly Vulnerable to overfishing. Although protected from fishing in many countries, its exploitation in Mexico is unregulated; a situation that puts its populations at risk. Fishery records of E. itajara are scarce, which prevents determination of its fishery status. This work aimed to elucidate the E itajara fishery in the northern Yucatan Peninsula by 1) analyzing available catch records and 2) interviewing veteran fishermen (local ecological knowledge) from two traditional landing sites: Dzilam de Bravo and Puerto Progreso. Historic fishery records from two fishing cooperatives were analyzed in order to elucidate the current situation and offer viable alternatives for conservation and management. Catches have decreased severely. Local knowledge obtained from fishermen represented a very important source of information for reconstructing the fisheries history of this species. Conservation measures that incorporate regional and international regulations on critically endangered fish species are suggested

Las condiciones de reproducción de la unidad familiar campesina en la Catalunya Nova: las "Terres de Lleida"

El trabajo intenta evaluar la dimensión mínima de la tierra que debiera poseer la unidad familiar campesina para garantizar su reproducción en el marco histórico de la etapa final de la Edad Moderna. Geográficamente, el trabajo se refiere a las tierras del interior llano catalán, que experimentaron durante el siglo XVIII un notable proceso de colonización agraria para atender los déficits cerealísticos del litoral catalán. Dado que la mayor parte del campesinado no disfruta de explotaciones viables económicamente, se analizan las estrategias campesinas encaminadas a la obtención de ingresos complementarios. Estas, lejos de situarse en actividades no agrarias, tienen una estrecha relación con la agricultura y con el aprovechamiento de los recursos naturales.

A web ontologies framework for digital rights management

In order to improve the management of copyright in the Internet, known as Digital Rights Management, there is the need for a shared language for copyright representation. Current approaches are based on purely syntactic solutions, i.e. a grammar that defines a rights expression language. These languages are difficult to put into practise due to the lack of explicit semantics that facilitate its implementation. Moreover, they are simple from the legal point of view because they are intended just to model the usage licenses granted by content providers to end-users. Thus, they ignore the copyright framework that lies behind and the whole value chain from creators to end-users. Our proposal is to use a semantic approach based on semantic web ontologies. We detail the development of a copyright ontology in order to put this approach into practice. It models the copyright core concepts for creation, rights and the basic kinds of actions that operate on content. Altogether, it allows building a copyright framework for the complete value chain. The set of actions operating on content are our smaller building blocks in order to cope with the complexity of copyright value chains and statements and, at the same time, guarantee a high level of interoperability and evolvability. The resulting copyright modelling framework is flexible and complete enough to model many copyright scenarios, not just those related to the economic exploitation of content. The ontology also includes moral rights, so it is possible to model this kind of situations as it is shown in the included example model for a withdrawal scenario. Finally, the ontology design and the selection of tools result in a straightforward implementation. Description Logic reasoners are used for license checking and retrieval. Rights are modelled as classes of actions, action patterns are modelled also as classes and the same is done for concrete actions. Then, to check if some right or license grants an action is reduced to check for class subsumption, which is a direct functionality of these reasoners.

L'Origen de l'arquitectura en pedra i l'urbanisme a la Catalunya Occidental

The consolidation of an agricultural economy based in extensive cereals production influenced the development of the typical communities of the plains of western Catalonia during the second millennium BC and the first centuries of the first and differentiated them from the villages of the coast. This paper analyzes the occupation and exploitation pattems of temtories, settlements and specially the development of stone architecture in the Bronze and Iron Age periods. We characterise the process that leads from the first open-air sedentary settlements to the agricultural settlements in early and middle Bronze Age period and the appearance of wellbuilt houses and town planning during the late Bronze Age. We can asses the contribution of the early Urnfield period and link the kind of settlement, the town plan, the architecture and building techniques - which centuries later characterised the Ibero-Ilergeta society - to their origin during the later Urnfield period: systematic exploitation of lands suitable for agriculture (Urgell, Monegros), the phenomenon of concentration-depopulation and the decrease in number of settlements combined with an increase in size.

Mujeres víctimas de trata en prisión en España

La trata de seres humanos constituye uno de los fenómenos criminales emergentes en la sociedad globalizada. La comunidad internacional emprendió una estrategia global contra este fenómeno a comienzos de los 2000, adoptando una política esencialmente criminalizadora. Más contemporáneamente, las políticas emprendidas contra este fenómeno pretenden abordarlo integralmente, incidiendo también en la prevención y esencialmente en la protección de las víctimas, que pasa por su identificación como tales. El Estado español ha efectuado en los últimos dos años esfuerzos para alcanzar los estándares internacionalmente establecidos para luchar contra este fenómeno. Sin embargo, el estudio empírico que aquí se presenta muestra como en el plano aplicativo queda todavía mucho por hacer. Se trata de un estudio cualitativo efectuado con 45 mujeres recluidas en dos Centros penitenciarios españoles algunas de las cuales han sido objeto de una grave victimización institucional. En el caso de 10 de estas mujeres, identificadas como víctimas de trata en este estudio, al padecimiento del proceso victimizador propio de haber sufrido los efectos de la trata de seres humanos, se suma la victimización integrada no sólo por no haber sido detectadas como víctimas de este fenómeno por el sistema, sino además por haber sido condenadas y hallarse recluidas cumpliendo condena por la comisión de un delito producida en fase de explotación del proceso de trata.

L'aprofitament ramader a la vall del Madriu-Perafita-Claror (Principat d'Andorra)

The farming exploitation in the Madriu-Perafita-Claror Valley (Principality of Andorra). The Madriu-Perafita-Claror Valley, a natural space located in the Principality of Andorra, has kept a high ecological and landscape value through time. At present, the Valley is considered in the cultural landscape category of the UNESCO World-wide Heritage. A study of the spatial variability of pastures in the Valley conducted from 1994 to 2003 concluded that there was an optimistic future for livestock. This future was mainly explained by new policies in the country, as well as by the new hopes of the tockbreeders. The study also stated that cattle and horse movements within the Valley did not varied over the study period, although entrance and exit points changed. Sheep only fed in the Madriu-Perafita-Claror Valley, but it wouldbe convenient its introduction in other areas where horses and cattle did not pasture. The study concluded that the use of the Valley by the stockbreeders contributed to the development of the vegetation and the landscape, and that the livestock is very important to keep natural and landscape values of the Valley.