Reconocimiento geofísico del deslizamiento de Rosiana (depresión de Tirajana, Gran Canaria)

The landslide of Rosiana is considered the largest slope movement amongst those known in historical times in Gran Canana, Canary Islands. It has been activated at least 4 times in the last century, and in the movement of 1956, when about 3.106 m3 of materials were involved, 250 people had to be evacuated and many buildings were destroyed. The present geological hazard has lead to specific studies of the phenomenon which, once characterised, can be used as a guide for the scientific and technical works that are to be made in this or similar areas. This paper wants to increase the knowledge about the unstable mass of Rosiana by using geophysical techniques based on the method of seismic by refraction. The geophysical measues have been interpreted with the aid of the available geomorphologic data, thus obtaining a first approximation to the geometry of the slope movements

Superantigen-reactive CD4+ T cells are required to stimulate B cells after infection with mouse mammary tumor virus.

Superantigens are defined by their ability to stimulate a large fraction of T cells via interaction with the T cell receptor (TCR) V beta domain. Endogenous superantigens, classically termed minor lymphocyte-stimulating (Mls) antigens, were recently identified as products of open reading frames (ORF) in integrated proviral copies of mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV). We have described an infectious MMTV homologue of the classical endogenous superantigen Mls-1a (Mtv-7). The ORF molecules of both the endogenous Mtv-7 and the infectious MMTV(SW) interact with T cells expressing the TCR V beta 6, 7, 8.1, and 9 domains. Furthermore, the COOH termini of their ORF molecules, thought to confer TCR specificity, are very similar. Since successful transport of MMTV from the site of infection in the gut to the mammary gland depends on a functional immune system, we were interested in determining the early events after and requirements for MMTV infection. We show that MMTV(SW) infection induces a massive response of V beta 6+ CDC4+ T cells, which interact with the viral ORF. Concomitantly, we observed a B cell response and differentiation that depends on both the presence and stimulation of the superantigen-reactive T cells. Furthermore, we show that B cells are the main target of the initial MMTV infection as judged by the presence of the reverse-transcribed viral genome and ORF transcripts. Thus, we suggest that MMTV infection of B cells leads to ORF-mediated B-T cell interaction, which maintains and possibly amplifies viral infection.

Escriure poesia al convent entre la devoció i l'obediència. Primera aproximació a un manuscrit femení del segle XVIII

El manuscrit que ens disposem a donar a conèixer és un tresor documental interessantíssim per abordar l’estudi dels usos poètics de les dones d’època moderna als territoris de parla catalana, no només pel nombre de composicions recuperades d’una mateixa autora (un total de 53 poesies espirituals, no catalogades i desconegudes fins ara) sinó perquè es tracta d’un dels pocs autògrafs femenins accessibles per a la recerca. La inexistència de treballs dedicats exclusivament a la poesia femenina d’època moderna al panorama català, ens obliga necessàriament a iniciar el treball amb una primera part introductòria dedicada a qüestions relatives als usos poètics de les dones dels segles XVI-XVIII, tot centrant-nos en algunes autores de l’àmbit conventual, al qual pertany el manuscrit objecte d’estudi. En la segona part del treball, ens centrem particularment en l’anàlisi i estudi del manuscrit. Així doncs, en una primera aproximació, descrivim el contingut del quadern, íntegrament en castellà, que recull composicions d caire espiritual i devot, i esbossem les dades biogràfiques de l’autora, la religiosa dominica sor Eulària Teixidor. Tot partint dels interessants estudis apareguts en els darrers anys sobre la literatura conventual femenina, intentem vincular aquest manuscrit amb la variada producció monàstica escrita per nombroses religioses de l’època sota manament del confessor

Interpolation-free Coregistration and Phase-Correction of Airborne SAR Interferograms

This letter discusses the detection and correction ofresidual motion errors that appear in airborne synthetic apertureradar (SAR) interferograms due to the lack of precision in the navigationsystem. As it is shown, the effect of this lack of precision istwofold: azimuth registration errors and phase azimuth undulations.Up to now, the correction of the former was carried out byestimating the registration error and interpolating, while the latterwas based on the estimation of the phase azimuth undulations tocompensate the phase of the computed interferogram. In this letter,a new correction method is proposed, which avoids the interpolationstep and corrects at the same time the azimuth phase undulations.Additionally, the spectral diversity technique, used to estimateregistration errors, is critically analyzed. Airborne L-bandrepeat-pass interferometric data of the German Aerospace Center(DLR) experimental airborne SAR is used to validate the method

Nets: Network estimation for time series

This work proposes novel network analysis techniques for multivariate time series.We define the network of a multivariate time series as a graph where verticesdenote the components of the process and edges denote non zero long run partialcorrelations. We then introduce a two step LASSO procedure, called NETS, toestimate high dimensional sparse Long Run Partial Correlation networks. This approachis based on a VAR approximation of the process and allows to decomposethe long run linkages into the contribution of the dynamic and contemporaneousdependence relations of the system. The large sample properties of the estimatorare analysed and we establish conditions for consistent selection and estimation ofthe non zero long run partial correlations. The methodology is illustrated with anapplication to a panel of U.S. bluechips.

Effects of convection on the removal of the multiplicity of stable states in one-dimensional vertical models

Here I develop a model of a radiative-convective atmosphere with both radiative and convective schemes highly simplified. The atmospheric absorption of radiation at selective wavelengths makes use of constant mass absorption coefficients in finite width spectral bands. The convective regime is introduced by using a prescribed lapse rate in the troposphere. The main novelty of the radiative-convective model developed here is that it is solved without using any angular approximation for the radiation field. The solution obtained in the purely radiation mode (i. e. with convection ignored) leads to multiple equilibria of stable states, being very similar to some results recently found in simple models of planetary atmospheres. However, the introduction of convective processes removes the multiple equilibria of stable states. This shows the importance of taking convective processes into account even for qualitative analyses of planetary atmosphere

Visualitzador de molècules d'ADN per laboratori virtual

RESUM Com a continuació del treball de final de carrera “Desenvolupament d’un laboratori virtual per a les pràctiques de Biologia Molecular” de Jordi Romero, s’ha realitzat una eina complementaria per a la visualització de molècules integrada en el propi laboratori virtual. Es tracta d’una eina per a la visualització gràfica de gens, ORF, marques i seqüències de restricció de molècules reals o fictícies. El fet de poder treballar amb molècules fictícies és la gran avantatge respecte a les solucions com GENBANK que només permet treballar amb molècules pròpies. Treballar amb molècules fictícies fa que sigui una solució ideal per a l’ensenyament, ja que dóna la possibilitat als professors de realitzar exercicis o demostracions amb molècules reals o dissenyades expressament per a l’exercici a demostrar. A més, permet mostrar de forma visual les diferents parts simultàniament o per separat, de manera que ofereix una primera aproximació interpretació dels resultats. Per altra banda, permet marcar gens, crear marques, localitzar seqüències de restricció i generar els ORF de la molècula que nosaltres creem o modificar una ja existent. Per l’implementació, s’ha continuat amb l’idea de separar la part de codi i la part de disseny en les aplicacions Flash. Per fer-ho, s’ha utilitzat la plataforma de codi lliure Ariware ARPv2.02 que proposa un marc de desenvolupament d’aplicacions Flash orientades a objectes amb el codi (classes ActionScript 2.0) separats del movieclip. Per al processament de dades s’ha fet servir Perl per ser altament utilitzat en Bioinformàtica i per velocitat de càlcul. Les dades generades es guarden en una Base de Dades en MYSQL (de lliure distribució), de la que s’extreuen les dades per generar fitxers XML, fent servir tant PHP com la plataforma AMFPHP com a enllaç entre Flash i la resta de parts.

Numerical simulation of ambient seismic wavefield modification caused by pore-fluid effects in an oil reservoir

We have modeled numerically the seismic response of a poroelastic inclusion with properties applicable to an oil reservoir that interacts with an ambient wavefield. The model includes wave-induced fluid flow caused by pressure differences between mesoscopic-scale (i.e., in the order of centimeters to meters) heterogeneities. We used a viscoelastic approximation on the macroscopic scale to implement the attenuation and dispersion resulting from this mesoscopic-scale theory in numerical simulations of wave propagation on the kilometer scale. This upscaling method includes finite-element modeling of wave-induced fluid flow to determine effective seismic properties of the poroelastic media, such as attenuation of P- and S-waves. The fitted, equivalent, viscoelastic behavior is implemented in finite-difference wave propagation simulations. With this two-stage process, we model numerically the quasi-poroelastic wave-propagation on the kilometer scale and study the impact of fluid properties and fluid saturation on the modeled seismic amplitudes. In particular, we addressed the question of whether poroelastic effects within an oil reservoir may be a plausible explanation for low-frequency ambient wavefield modifications observed at oil fields in recent years. Our results indicate that ambient wavefield modification is expected to occur for oil reservoirs exhibiting high attenuation. Whether or not such modifications can be detected in surface recordings, however, will depend on acquisition design and noise mitigation processing as well as site-specific conditions, such as the geologic complexity of the subsurface, the nature of the ambient wavefield, and the amount of surface noise.

Biodiversity study of arthropods collected on rat carrion in Yaounde, Cameroon: first study on forensic entomology in Central Africa

The first investigation of arthropods associated with carrion in Cameroon was carried out within the campus of the University of Yaounde I (Cameroon) from 17thJanuary to 3rd April 2008. Carcasses of rats (Rattus norvegicus Berkenhout, 1769 var WISTAR) were exposed to colonization by the local fauna of arthropods. The invading organisms were collected daily during the study period. 2287 individuals of arthropod belonging to 3 classes, 16 orders, 37 families and 7 subfamilies were identified. The insects assessed were mainly Diptera, Coleoptera and Acari. This study illustrates the high diversity of the necroentomofauna in Cameroon and provides an insight approximation into the succession pattern of invading insect and a weekly estimation of the time of death.

The future of longevity: background and perspectives

In many developed countries, including Switzerland, the ongoing increase in life expectancy is driven by the mortality decline among older persons. This has important consequences for both the provision of health care and the management of pension funds. In this context, the Swiss Federal Office of Statistics mandated a small group of experts to provide a critical review on the future evolution of mortality in developed countries. The report starts with an analysis of the past trends in life expectancy. Longevity is defined here as the duration (or the length) of life as observed in population or in individuals. The oldest and still most used indicators of longevity are life expectancy at birth (LE0) at a population level, and maximum life span (MLS) at the individual level (page 9) and in healthy life expectancy (page 19). A discussion on the future evolution of mortality and health is then presented (page 27). A set of recommendations is finally proposed (page 39).

Scores composites CHC pour le WISC-IV: Normes Francophones

Bien que le manuel du WISC-IV fasse référence à la théorie de Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC), les indices calculés à partir de cette batterie (ICV, IRP, IMT et IVT) n'ont pas été définis sur la base du modèle CHC. Afin d'apporter un éclairage complémentaire sur les performances observées, nous recommandons néanmoins d'examiner les scores des subtests du WISC-IV en référence à la nomenclature des aptitudes cognitives proposées dans le modèle CHC. La première partie de cet article présente les normes francophones pour cinq facteurs CHC du WISC-IV, à savoir le raisonnement fluide (Gf), compréhension-connaissances (Gc), le traitement visuel (Gv), la mémoire à court terme (Gsm) et la vitesse de traitement (Gs), établies en utilisant une procédure d'approximation statistique. La seconde partie présente l'examen de la validité de ces normes, confrontées à des données recueillies sur un échantillon de 250 enfants. Nos résultats montrent que les corrélations entre les indices classiques du WISC-IV (ICV, IRP, IMT et IVT) et les scores composites CHC sont élevées, attestant de la validité des scores CHC. Ces normes permettent de calculer et d'utiliser les scores composites CHC en complément des indices standard, dans le cadre d'analyses normatives et ipsatives.

Limited heterogeneity of autoantigens and T cells in autoimmune diseases?

For many induced and spontaneous autoimmune diseases, a predominant role for T cells in the organ-specific destruction process has been shown. In one of the induced models of autoimmunity, experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE), a very small heterogeneity of T-cell receptor (TcR) molecules is expressed by the pathogenic T cells in both rats and mice. Contrary to induced autoimmune diseases, little is known about the autoantigens recognized by these autoimmune T cells and the heterogeneity of their TcR in spontaneous autoimmune diseases. The aim of this work was to establish a system which allows characterization of relevant autoantigens in spontaneous insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) in non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice. A completely different approach was taken to characterize the gene products of the minor lymphocyte stimulatory (Mls) loci. These gene products are responsible for the clonal elimination or the clonal stimulation of T cells expressing particular TcR V beta genes and therefore could be implicated in induction of autoimmune diseases by oligoclonal T-cell populations. The finding that Mls antigens are encoded by retroviral sequences leads to the hypothesis that viruses could be the inducing agents of autoimmune diseases.

Accurate calculations of intermolecular interaction energies using explicitly correlated coupled cluster wave functions and a dispersion-weighted MP2 method.

Explicitly correlated coupled-cluster calculations of intermolecular interaction energies for the S22 benchmark set of Jurecka, Sponer, Cerny, and Hobza (Chem. Phys. Phys. Chem. 2006, 8, 1985) are presented. Results obtained with the recently proposed CCSD(T)-F12a method and augmented double-zeta basis sets are found to be in very close agreement with basis set extrapolated conventional CCSD(T) results. Furthermore, we propose a dispersion-weighted MP2 (DW-MP2) approximation that combines the good accuracy of MP2 for complexes with predominately electrostatic bonding and SCS-MP2 for dispersion-dominated ones. The MP2-F12 and SCS-MP2-F12 correlation energies are weighted by a switching function that depends on the relative HF and correlation contributions to the interaction energy. For the S22 set, this yields a mean absolute deviation of 0.2 kcal/mol from the CCSD(T)-F12a results. The method, which allows obtaining accurate results at low cost, is also tested for a number of dimers that are not in the training set.

A territorial model of commuting in Catalonia, 1986-1996

Commuting consists in the fact that an important fraction of workers in developed countries do not reside close to their workplaces but at long distances from them, so they have to travel to their jobs and then back home daily. Although most workers hold a job in the same municipality where they live or in a neighbouring one, an important fraction of workers face long daily trips to get to their workplace and then back home.Even if we divide Catalonia (Spain) in small aggregations of municipalities, trying to make them as close to local labour markets as possible, we will find out that some of them have a positive commuting balance, attracting many workers from other areas and providing local jobs for almost all their resident workers. On the other side, other zones seem to be mostly residential, so an important fraction of their resident workers hold jobs in different local labour markets. Which variables influence an area¿s role as an attraction pole or a residential zone? In previous papers (Artís et al, 1998a, 2000; Romaní, 1999) we have brought out the main individual variables that influence commuting by analysing a sample of Catalan workers and their commuting decisions. In this paper we perform an analysis of the territorial variables that influence commuting, using data for aggregate commuting flows in Catalonia from the 1991 and 1996 Spanish Population Censuses.These variables influence commuting in two different ways: a zone with a dense, welldeveloped economical structure will have a high density of jobs. Work demand cannot be fulfilled with resident workers, so it spills over local boundaries. On the other side, this economical activity has a series of side-effects like pollution, congestion or high land prices which make these areas less desirable to live in. Workers who can afford it may prefer to live in less populated, less congested zones, where they can find cheaper land, larger homes and a better quality of life. The penalty of this decision is an increased commuting time. Our aim in this paper is to highlight the influence of local economical structure and amenities endowment in the workplace-residence location decision. A place-to-place logit commuting models is estimated for 1991 and 1996 in order to find the economical and amenities variables with higher influence in commuting decisions. From these models, we can outline a first approximation to the evolution of these variables in the 1986-1996 period. Data have been obtained from aggregate flow travel-matrix from the 1986, 1991 and 1996 Spanish Population Censuses