The First Universal Suffrage Election, at County (Gewog) Level, in Bhutan

Following a Royal Edict to adopt universal suffrage in election for local government institutions, maiden elections were held in 199 gewogs (counties) in Bhutan in 2002 to elect their chief executives. This paper gives an account of this first time event in a country where most villagers had never seen secret ballots and poll booths. It synthesizes detailed data, mostly qualitative, collected soon after the election was over, and assesses aspects of electoral participation that His Majesty the King of Bhutan has introduced steadily to deepen democracy. Beginning with a glance at the territorial organization of the Bhutanese state within which the counties are embedded, the paper compares the electoral results with the relevant election rules.

The state of semantic technology today - overview of the first SEALS evaluation campaigns

This paper describes the first five SEALS Evaluation Campaigns over the semantic technologies covered by the SEALS project (ontology engineering tools, ontology reasoning tools, ontology matching tools, semantic search tools, and semantic web service tools). It presents the evaluations and test data used in these campaigns and the tools that participated in them along with a comparative analysis of their results. It also presents some lessons learnt after the execution of the evaluation campaigns and draws some final conclusions.

Embryogenic suspensions of adult cork oak: the first step towards mass propagation.

Abstract Protocols have been established to clone adult cork oak trees by somatic embryogenesis using semisolid medium. However, for economically viable mass propagation, embryogenic cultures in liquid medium need to be developed. In this study, suspension cultures were initiated from embryo clusters obtained by secondary embryogenesis on a gelled medium lacking plant growth regulators. After 6 days of culture, these embryo clusters generated high cell density suspensions that also contained small organized structures (embryos and embryogenic clumps). As the culture duration increased, tissue necrosis and fewer embryogenic structures were observed and the establishment of suspension cultures failed. An alternative method was found adequate for initiation of embryogenic suspensions: embryo clusters from gelled medium were briefly shaken in liquid medium and detached cells and embryogenic masses of 41?800 lm were used as inoculum. Maintenance of embryogenic suspensions was achieved using a low-density inoculum (43 mg l-1) by subculturing four embryogenic clumps of 0.8?1.2 mm per 70 ml of medium. Proliferation ability was maintained for almost 1 year through ten consecutive subcultures. The initiation and maintenance protocols first developed for a single genotype were effective when tested on 11 cork oak genotypes.

Use of the First Derivative of Spectral Reflectance to Detect Mold on Tomatoes

The first derivative of spectral reflectance of tomatoes was studied to see whether it can detect molds and sunscald damage on the fruit. The results indicate that a quality index based on the derivative values of reflectance at 590- and 710-nm wavelengths can be used to separate good tomates from those with black mold, gray mold, and sunscald.

The first renewable forward market mechanisms in the Iberian Electricity Market

A description of the first renewable forward market mechanisms in the Iberian Electricity Market is provided. A contract for difference mechanism is available in Spain since March 2011between the last resort suppliers and the special regime (renewables and cogeneration) settling the price differences between the equilibrium price of the forward regulated auctions for the last resort supply and the spot price of the corresponding delivery period. Regulated auctions of baseload futures of the Portuguese zone in which the Portuguese last resort supplier sells the special regime production exist since December 2011. The experience gained from renewables auctions in Latin America could be used in the Iberian Electricity market, complementing these first market mechanisms. Introduction of renewable auctions at least for the most mature technologies (i.e. wind) in Spain and Portugal providing a fair price for the renewable generation will be of utmost importance in the short term to diminish the tariff deficit caused by the massive deployment of the feed-in-tariff scheme. Liquidity in the forward markets will also increase as a result of the entry of renewable generation companies intending to maximize their profits due to gradual suppression of feed in tariff schemes.

Secundary school profile in science and technology versus the first year at the Technical University of Madrid. Cause of failure or quitting?

Se analiza el absentismo, el fallo y el abandono de los estudiantes en los primeros semestres del grado sobre la base de su formación en la educación secundaria.

La silvicultura como primera operación de transformación de la madera Forestry as the first operation of wood transformation

Se analiza la influencia de las principales actuaciones selvicolas en la calidad de la madera. Turno, Espaciamiento, Poda, Abonado, Riego y Tratamiento contra plagas.

Lithologic Control on the Scaling Properties of the First-Order Streams of Drainage Networks: A Monofractal Analysis

The movement of water through the landscape can be investigated at different scales. This study dealt with the interrelation between bedrock lithology and the geometry of the overlying drainage systems. Parameters of fractal analysis, such as fractal dimension and lacunarity, were used to measure and quantify this relationship. The interrelation between bedrock lithology and the geometry of the drainage systems has been widely studied in the last decades. The quantification of this linkage has not yet been clearly established. Several studies have selected river basins or regularly shaped areas as study units, assuming them to be lithologically homogeneous. This study considered irregular distributions of rock types, establishing areas of the soil map (1:25,000) with the same lithologic information as study units. The tectonic stability and the low climatic variability of the study region allowed effective investigation of the lithologic controls on the drainage networks developed on the plutonic rocks, the metamorphic rocks, and the sedimentary materials existing in the study area. To exclude the effect of multiple in- and outflows in the lithologically homogeneous units, we focused this study on the first-order streams of the drainage networks. The geometry of the hydrologic features was quantified through traditional metrics of fluvial geomorphology and scaling parameters of fractal analysis, such as the fractal dimension, the reference density, and the lacunarity. The results demonstrate the scale invariance of both the drainage networks and the set of first-order streams at the study scale and a relationship between scaling in the lithology and the drainage network.

Chemistry Education around the World: The First-Year Experience

En este trabajo se analizan y discuten las similitudes en el primer año de enseñanza de la química a nivel universitario en diferentes países. Este aspecto es una base fundamental que deben considerar, tanto profesores como alumnos, en programas de intercambio.