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ARR et al. 1-3 were pioneers in the study which led to the discovery of a definite localization of the chromatin in relation to the nuclear membrane when they found that in the somatic cells of the cat the sex chromatiu is located at the nuclear membrane. BURGOS* demonstrated the accumulation of Feulgen reactive material on the inner aspect of the nuclear membrane in unfertilized eggs of Arbacia punetulata, and GA'x "5 studied the relations between chromatin and nuclear membrane outpocketings. However, the re]ation between chromatin network and the membrane in the interphase nucleus remains practically unexplored. In this paper we study a certain relation often observed between chromatin and nuclear membrane in the interphase nucleus of meristematic cells.

[EN]: A rib meristem is characterized by a complexus of longitudinal rows or ribs of cells which divide at right angles to the growth axis. This growth pattern is clearly represented in the cortex of the root. The longitudinal walls of the rib are primary longitudinal walls, the transverse walls being formed, basically, by middle lamella. At each division cycle, 2 daughter cells are formed, and the celt plate forms the new middle lamella between them. The fine structure of the cell plate formation has been studied by several authors TM. Moreover, FREY-WYSsLING et al. 2 showed that the middle Iamella formed by the coalescence of small Golgi vesicles, grew thicker through the supply of new Golgi vesicles. The aim of this paper is to study the development of the middle lamelta in relation to the cell division cycles., [ES]: La lámina media que separa transversalmente a las células del meristemo radical en columna se desarrolla, en virtud del aporte de pequeñas vesículas del aparato de Golgi, incrementando su espesor desde 0,1–0,2 hasta 0,4–0,5 µ. Las características morfológicas de estas paredes transversales permiten distinguir fácilmente las células hermanas y hasta las 4 células que se originan de 1 célula madre en 2 ciclos de división.

This paper describes the changes undergone by the layer dividing the vegetative from the generative cell. The abundant contents of the space inside the membrane, consisting of opaque bodies, vary considerably as the pollen grain matures, and decrease in volumepari passu with the formation of the dense bodies in the plasm of the vegetative cells. The dense bodies constitute a layer of droplets surrounding the enveloping membrane of the generative cell within the cytoplasm of the vegetative cell. Connexions have been observed between the dense bodies and the partition layer which seem to indicate that the latter is apparently responsible for their organization, and is the area in which the synthesis of their contents takes place as well. The deposition of the dense bodies on the plasmalemma of the pollen grain points to their participation in the formation of one or other of the layers in which the grain is enveloped.

This paper reports the results of a study of the first beginnings of sporopollenin granules in the cells of the tapetum. The endoplasmic reticulum was observed to be the system responsible for their production, first by the formation of electron-dense bodies (pro-Ubisch bodies). These constitute the nuclei of the sporopollenin granules upon which laminae with the characteristics observed in the exine of pollen-grains are deposited in formation of the young Ubisch bodies. The latter ultimately assume a spherical shape (adult Ubisch bodies), whereupon they seem to be carried by channels across the cytoplasm of the tapetum into the locule of the pollen-sac. The origin, development and possible function of sporopollenin granules are discussed in the light of the theories and observations of other authors and of the writers themselves.

This study is an analysis of six years of Spanish bibliography retrieved from INSPEC and COMPENDEX. The quantitative evolution of the scientific activity by years and Institutions, the recent tendencies to publish in foreign journals, as well as to have the papers signed by more authors are followed. The most frequently used journals are ranked according to their impact factor and subject. Some hypothesis are formulated and tested, trying to find a relationship between the growth of the Spanish scientific activity and its quality.

Earth scientists and land managers often wish to group sampling sites that are both similar with respect to their properties and near to one another on the ground. This paper outlines the geostatistical rationale for such spatial grouping and describes a multivariate procedure to implement it. Sample variograms are calculated from the original data or their leading principal components and then the parameters of the underlying functions are estimated. A dissimilarity matrix is computed for all sampling sites, preferably using Gower's general similarity coefficient. Dissimilarities are then modified using the variogram to incorporate the form and extent of spatial variation. A nonhierarchical classification of sampling sites is performed on the leading latent vectors of the modified dissimilarity matrix by dynamic clustering to an optimum. The technique is illustrated with results of its application to soil survey data from two small areas in Britain and from a transect. In the case of the latter results of spatially weighted classifications are compared with those of strict segmentation. An appendix lists a Genstat program for a spatially constrained classification using a spherical variogram as an example. RESP-10421

Paper presented at the 1 lth European Regional Astronomical Meetings of the IAU on 'New Windows to the Universe', held 3-8 July, 1989, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain., The angular structure of the extragalactic 1-3 keV X-ray background has been tested down to scales of a few arc min with the use of Einstein Observatory IPC data. This is used to gather information about X-ray source counts and clustering of the X-ray Universe on scales of a few Mpc.

The nucleotide sequence of the coat protein genes and 3′ non-coding regions of two different resistance-breaking tobamoviruses in pepper have been determined. The deduced coat protein of an Italian isolate of pepper mild mottle virus (PMMV-I) consists of 156 amino acids and its 3′ non-coding region is 198 nucleotides long. They have been found to be very similar in sequence and structure to those previously reported for a Spanish isolate (PMMV-S). In contrast, a Dutch isolate termed P 11 codes for a coat protein of 160 amino acids and its 3′ non-coding region is 291 nucleotides long, which may have arisen by duplication. The nucleotide and the predicted coat protein amino acid sequence analysis show that this isolate should be considered as a new virus within the tobamovirus group. The term paprika mild mottle virus (PaMMV) is proposed., The authors thank M. V. Lafita for typing the manuscript. M. L. F. and E. A. were supported by fellowships from Fundación Ramón Areces. The work was supported by grants from CICYT (AGR 88-0082 and AGR91-0432) and Fundación Ramón Areces.

This review paper selects key result, from electromagnetic induction studies of a variety of distinctive tectonic phenomena in the top 200 km of the Earth. Its main theme is that electromagnetic data are essential for an understanding of tectonism involving partial melting, recycling of large volumes of fluids (CO2 and H2O) and underthrusting of metasedimentary rocks. The wide variety of tectonic regimes in which these processes are known to be important is reflected in the choice of case studies. A discussion of conductivity models for young oceanic lithosphere and asthenosphere is followed by results from induction studies across the S.E. Australian passive margin. The North American active margin, the Ryukyu Island-Arc and the Oregon Cascades continental arc. The importance of partial melting and free fluid movement i apparent in these regions. Terrain accretion and/or continent-continent collisions recorded at palaeosuture zones in Ireland. Germany and Scandinavia have left distinctive conductivity structures. These are often associated with grain-boundary graphite either in weakly-metamorphosed black shales in underthrust sedimentary basins or precipitated from CO2-rich fluids. They are discussed in the context of the evolution of mature continental crust. All of the case studies are based on experiments published since 1989 in which the electromagnetic results have been central to an integrated geophysical and geological interpretation.

This paper describes the characterization and chromosomal distribution of new long repetitive sequences present in all species of the genus Zea. These sequences constitute a family of moderately repetitive elements ranging approximately from 1350 to 1700 copies per haploid genome in modern maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) and teosinte (Zea diploperennis), respectively. The elements are long, probably larger than 9 kb, and they show a highly conserved internal organization among Zea subspecies and species. The elements are present in all maize chromosomes in an interspersed pattern of distribution, are absent from centromeric and pericentric heterochromatin, and with some clustering in the distal regions of chromosome arms., This work has been supported by a grant from DGPC (BIO 91/0129) to J.A.M.I. R.A. was the recipient of a postdoctoral reincorporation fellowship (MEC). R.R. was the recipient of a PFPI fellowship (MEC). A.M. was the recipient of a postdoctoral reincorporation fellowship (CIRIT). C.M.V. is the recipient of a FPI fellowship (CIRIT).

In Colombia, more than 1 million tons of coffee pulp are produced every year. Its transformation into compost by means of turned piles has led to a final product with poor physical and chemical characteristics and vermicomposting has been suggested as an alternative method of transforming these wastes into a useful organic fertilizer. The ability of the earthworm Eisenia fetida to transform coffee pulp into a valuable compost was evaluated. The influence of bed depth and time on different C fractions, N content and availability of nutrients was studied. The results showed that the C and N contents were not affected by the depth of the bed, whereas time affected both. An increase in the fractionation ratio, determined by calculating the C in the fraction smaller than 100 μm as a percentage of C in the samples as a whole, and low values of humic-like substances were recorded during vermicomposting. After ingestion of the pulp by the earthworms, an increase in available P, Ca, and Mg but a decrease in K were detected., We thank the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (Programme of Cooperation with Iberoamerica) and the Colombian Colciencias for financial support for exchanges of researchers between the C.S.I.C. of Spain and the National University of Colombia.

[EN]A method for electrical indication of the ability of concrete to resist chloride ion penetration was first developed in the USA in the late 1970's. The test method (AASHTO T 277) related chloride ion diffusion to the measurement of electrical charge passed through a test specimen in a relatively short period of time. In this paper, chloride concentration profiles obtained from specimens used in the initial development of the method are used to compute apparent chloride diffusion coefficients, Dapp, by application of ionic migration principles. These coefficients are compared to Dapp calculated from fitting data obtained from 90-day ponding tests carried out on companion specimens not subjected to application of electrical currents. It is shown that there is a strong linear relationship for conventional concretes between coefficients calculated from chloride concentration gradients produced either by long-term ponding or by accelerated ingress of chloride into the test specimens. Also included in the comparative study are effective diffusion coefficients, Deff, based on the measurement of specimen resistance and calculated using Einstein's equation. Results indicate that values calculated by any of the techniques yield lower values for diffusion coefficients than those obtained from longer-term ponding. It is shown, however, that rankings of concretes on the basis of diffusion coefficient are similar for both calculated and measured values. Large errors occur in calculated coefficients in cases where anomalies exist in measured chloride gradients. These errors are related to the dependence of calculated diffusion coefficients on chloride concentration ratios. For specialty polymer concretes, mechanisms of penetration of chloride into concrete may be different in the presence of an applied electrical field. These differences may be the result of the short test time in the AASHTO T 277 procedure as well as of the relatively high voltage used. These effects prevent the concrete from reaching the same chloride surface concentration, Cs, as in longer-term (90-day) ponding. Anomalously high Dapp valves are computed when the concrete is too resistive or has been surface treated. In these cases, the Cs valves are far greater than those obtained during 90-day ponding., [FR] Une méthode d'essai de la résistance du béton à la pénétration des chlorures a été mise au point aux États-Unis à la fin des années 1970. La méthode (AASHTO T 277) relie la diffusion des chlorures à la quantité de charge électrique qui passe à travers l'échantillon pendant une assez courte durée. Dans ce travail, on utilise les profils de concentration de chlorures obtenus pour calculer le coefficient de diffusion, Dapp, en utilisant les principes de migration ionique. Ces Dapp sont, à leur tour, comparés avec les résultats de Dapp obtenus à partir d'un essai de diffusion naturelle pendant 90 jours. On montre qu'il existe, pour les bétons conventionnels, une très bonne corrélation de tous les coefficients de diffusion calculés à partir des profils de concentration produits ou par essais de diffusion naturelle à long terme ou par entrée accélérée des chlorures dans les éprouvettes. On inclut aussi dans la comparaison les coefficients de diffusion effective, Deff, basés sur la mesure de la résistance électrique et calculés selon l'équation d'Einstein. Les résultats montrent que les coefficients de diffusion ainsi calculés ont des valeurs inférieures à celles obtenues par diffusion naturelle. La classification relative de la résistance des bétons aux chlorures est pourtant la même. Des erreurs importantes se produisent quand les profils présentent des anomalies. Elles proviennent de l'influence des taux de concentration en chlorures sur les coefficients de diffusion. Pour les bétons aux polymères, les mécanismes de pénétration des chlorures peuvent être différents si un courant électrique est appliqué. Toutes ces différences peuvent être imputées à la courte durée des essais AASHTO T 277 et au voltage assez élevé qui est utilisé. Ces circonstances empêchent le béton d'atteindre la même concentration superficielle Cs que dans le cas de la diffusion naturelle. On trouve des valeurs anormalement hautes quand le béton est trop résistif ou qu'il a reçu un traitement de surface. Dans ces cas, la concentration superficielle Cs est beaucoup plus grande que dans les essais de diffusion à 90 jours.

6 pags., 4 figs., Observations and stellar evolution computations have been dedicated to the search for 14C in the archetype of AGB stars, IRC+10216/CW Leo. Contrary to Wright’s (1994) tentative detection, we see no trace of 14CO in this star down toa3σ limit R = 13CO/14CO≥ 1400. The new limit is consistent with our stellar evolution computations, which indicate that R should be > 4000. Comparison of the C, N, O, Mg, Si, and S isotopic ratios observed in this source with the calculated ones reinforces our earlier conclusion that CW Leo had a main sequence mass 3 M < MZAMS < 5 M (see Guelin ´ et al. 1995). While searching for the 14CO 2–1 line, we detected the (1ν3) 936 − 835 line of vibrationally excited SiC2. The latter line pertains to the first vibrational level of the ν3 bending state and its upper level has an energy of 290 K, lower than the temperature of the dust forming shell. The line has a pyramidal shape and shows acceleration steps, which we interpreted in terms of dust formation., Part of the computations presented in this paper were performed at the “Centre de Calcul Intensif de l’Observatoire de Grenoble”. Most of them have been realized at “IMAG” on a IBM SP1 computer financed by the MESR, CNRS, and Region Rhone-Alpes.

From a Bayesian point of view, in this paper we discuss the influence of a subset of observations on the posterior distributions of parameters in a growth curve model with unstructured covariance. The measure used to assess the influence is based on a Bayesian entropy, namely Kullback-Leibler divergence (KLD). Several new properties of the Bayesian entropy are studied, and analytically closed forms of the KLD measurement both for the matrix-variate normal distribution and the Wishart distribution are established. In the growth curve model, the KLD measurements for all combinations of the parameters are also studied. For illustration, a practical data set is analyzed using the proposed approach, which shows that the diagnostics measurements are useful in practice.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are key components of soil microbiota and obviously interact with other microorganisms in the rhizosphere, i.e. the zone of influence of plant roots on microbial populations and other soil constituents. Mycorrhiza formation changes several aspects of plant physiology and some nutritional and physical properties of the rhizospheric soil. These effects modify the colonization patterns of the root or mycorrhizas (mycorrhizosphere) by soil microorganisms. The rhizosphere of mycorrhizal plants, in practice a mycorrhizosphere, harbors a great array of microbial activities responsible for several key ecosystem processes. This paper summarizes the main conceptual principles and accepted statements on the microbial interactions between mycorrhizal fungi and other members of rhizosphere microbiota and discusses current developments and future trends concerning the following topics: (i) effect of soil microorganisms on mycorrhiza formation; (ii) mycorrhizosphere establishment; (iii) interactions involved in nutrient cycling and plant growth; (iv) interactions involved in the biological control of plant pathogens; and (v) interactions to improve soil quality. The main conclusion is that microbial interactions in the rhizosphere of mycorrhizal plants improve plant fitness and soil quality, critical issues for a sustainable agricultural development and ecosystem functioning., This work was supported by CICyT-FEDER (1FD970763-CO3-02 project), Spain and the ECO-SAFE (QLRT-1999-31759 project) UE.

In this paper we will give a short and elementary proof that critical relations unfold transversally in the space of rational maps., Comment: Published version (open access)

Phenolic antioxidants seem to be partly responsible for the protective effects against cardiovascular diseases attributed to moderate wine consumption. Grape skins greatly contribute to the phenolic composition of red wine. In this paper, the in vitro antioxidant activity of red grape (Vitis vinifera) skins is determined. We show that the radical scavenging activity (C 50 values) against 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH·) of grape skin extracts is relatively high (3.2–11.1 mg dried skin/mg DPPH·) in relation to other foodstuffs and, as expected, is influenced by grape variety, stage of grape ripening and vintage. The antioxidant potential of grape skins seems to be transferred into wine since grape varieties with skins exhibiting high antioxidant potential also resulted in wines with high antioxidant activity. Statistically significant correlations were found between antioxidant activity and phenolic content (total polyphenols, proanthocyanins, catechins and anthocyanins) for both grape skins and wines., The authors are grateful to Mr. Julián Suberviola (EVENA, Navarra, Spain) for providing the grape wine samples and to the Spanish Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología (CICYT) (Projects AGL2000-1427-C02-02 and AGL2003-01088) for funding.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of fuzzy variational- like inequalities and to study the existence problem and the iterative approximation problem for solutions of certain kinds of fuzzy variational- like inequalities in Hilbert spaces. By using the general auxiliary principle technique, Ky Fan's KKM theorem, Nadler's fixed point theorem, and some new analytic techniques, some existence theorems and some iterative approximation schemes for solving this kind of fuzzy variational- like inequalities are established. The results presented in this paper are new and they generalize, improve, and unify a number of recent results.

The Support Vector Machine (SVM) has emerged in recent years as a popular approach to the classification of data. One problem that faces the user of an SVM is how to choose a kernel and the specific parameters for that kernel. Applications of an SVM therefore require a search for the optimum settings for a particular problem. This paper proposes a classification technique, which we call the Genetic Kernel SVM (GK SVM), that uses Genetic Programming to evolve a kernel for a SVM classifier. Results of initial experiments with the proposed technique are presented. These results are compared with those of a standard SVM classifier using the Polynomial, RBF and Sigmoid kernel with various parameter settings.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of general fuzzy multivalued variational inclusions and to study the existence problem and the iterative approximation problem for certain fuzzy multivalued variational inclusions in Banach spaces. Using the resolvent operator technique and a new analytic technique, some existence theorems and iterative approximation techniques are presented for these fuzzy multivalued variational inclusions.

The paper is concerned with the dynamic modelling of the unconventional remotely-piloted Lighter-Than-Air vehicle patented by Nautilus S.p.A. and the Polytechnic of Turin. The airship mathematical model is based on a 6 degree-of-freedom nonlinear model referring to the basic Newtonian mechanics. Emphasis is placed on those innovative and peculiar aspects of the dynamic modelling, such as aerodynamics, buoyancy and inertial features.

Background The relationship between disease susceptibility and genetic variation is complex, and many different types of data are relevant. We describe a web resource and database that provides and integrates as much information as possible on disease/gene relationships at the molecular level. Description The resource http://www.SNPs3D.org has three primary modules. One module identifies which genes are candidates for involvement in a specified disease. A second module provides information about the relationships between sets of candidate genes. The third module analyzes the likely impact of non-synonymous SNPs on protein function. Disease/candidate gene relationships and gene-gene relationships are derived from the literature using simple but effective text profiling. SNP/protein function relationships are derived by two methods, one using principles of protein structure and stability, the other based on sequence conservation. Entries for each gene include a number of links to other data, such as expression profiles, pathway context, mouse knockout information and papers. Gene-gene interactions are presented in an interactive graphical interface, providing rapid access to the underlying information, as well as convenient navigation through the network. Use of the resource is illustrated with aspects of the inflammatory response and hypertension. Conclusion The combination of SNP impact analysis, a knowledge based network of gene relationships and candidate genes, and access to a wide range of data and literature allow a user to quickly assimilate available information, and so develop models of gene-pathway-disease interaction.

An objective of multi-agent systems is to build robust intelligent systems capable of existing in complex environments. These systems are often characterised as being uncertain and open to change which make such systems far more difficult to design and understand. Some of this uncertainty and change occurs in open agent environments where agents can freely enter and exit the system. In this paper we will examine this form of population change in a game theoretic setting. These simulations involve studying population change through a number of alternative viscosity models. The simulations will examine two possible trust models. All our simulations will use a simple choice and refusal game environment within which agents may freely choose with which of their peers to interact.

This paper reports on the results of ab initio calculations of the lifetimes τ of quasiparticle excitations in cubic d transition metals (V, Nb, Ta, Mo, W, Rh, Ir) within the GW approximation, which represents the self-energy of quasiparticles by the product of the Green’s function and the dynamically screened Coulomb potential. A comparative analysis of the dependences of the lifetime τ(ω) on the excitation energy ω is performed, and the specific features of the dependences τ(ω) in going from metal to metal within a particular group and along the d periods are revealed. It is found that the dependence τ(ω) on the excitation energy differs from the dependence τ ∼ ω−2 obtained within the free-electron model and is primarily determined by the density of d states localized in the vicinity of the Fermi level and by the electron interaction screened by the d electrons., This study was supported by the Department of Education of the Basque Government (grant no. 9/UPV 00206.215-13639/2001) and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (grant no. FIS 2004-06490-C03-01).

Theoretical and empirical evidence suggests that avian females are able to manipulate the offspring sex ratio at birth. Although mating with an attractive male may induce females to skew the sex ratio toward males, the balance between the benefits of producing attractive sons and the costs of competing with other females for mates could vary with female age, a possibility that had not been previously explored. In this paper we increment experimentally the attractiveness of males of the polygynous spotless starling (Sturnus unicolor) by adding green plants to their nests, a trait involved in courtship, and look for female age-differential effects on offspring primary sex ratio. Young and middle aged females produced more sons in experimental than in control nests, as expected, but old females showed the opposite tendency. To explain this novel result, we speculate that older females are limited to produce the most costly sex because the physiological drawbacks imposed by ageing reduce their ability to compete with younger ones for the non-shareable resources offered by males. We discuss that this evolutionary scenario may be widespread in avian polygynous systems., This work was supported by projects BOS2001-0703 of the Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología, CGL2004-00126/BOS and CGL2005-05611-C02-01/BOS of the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia.

A new method to screen and to identify genetically modified organisms (GMO) is presented in this paper. It is based on the detection of multiple genetic elements common to GMO by their amplification via PCR followed by direct hybridisation of the amplicons on microarray. The pattern of the elements is then compared to a database of the composition of EU-approved GMO and an identification of the GMO is then proposed. The limit of detection of the method was ≤0.1% GMO content (w/w) expressed as the amount of target DNA present in the template for single unprocessed material. The DNA targets were detected both in reference materials and in mixtures with the same detection limit. The specificity for the detection of the different elements was found to be very good with no cross-reaction even in samples with two GMO present at different concentrations. The paper presents examples of GMO identification and discusses the potential and limitation of such approaches and how they can facilitate the work of private and enforcement detection laboratories., This study was supported by the European Commission through the FP5 program “GMOchips” (contract G6RD-CT2000-00419 2000-2003), the Belgian SSCT program and the Integrated Project “Co-Extra”, contract no. 007158 2005-2009, under the 6th Framework Programme, priority 5, food quality and safety.

Background Although bivalves are among the most-studied marine organisms because of their ecological role and economic importance, very little information is available on the genome sequences of oyster species. This report documents three large-scale cDNA sequencing projects for the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas initiated to provide a large number of expressed sequence tags that were subsequently compiled in a publicly accessible database. This resource allowed for the identification of a large number of transcripts and provides valuable information for ongoing investigations of tissue-specific and stimulus-dependant gene expression patterns. These data are crucial for constructing comprehensive DNA microarrays, identifying single nucleotide polymorphisms and microsatellites in coding regions, and for identifying genes when the entire genome sequence of C. gigas becomes available. Description In the present paper, we report the production of 40,845 high-quality ESTs that identify 29,745 unique transcribed sequences consisting of 7,940 contigs and 21,805 singletons. All of these new sequences, together with existing public sequence data, have been compiled into a publicly-available Website http://public-contigbrowser.sigenae.org:9090/Crassostrea_gigas/index.html. Approximately 43% of the unique ESTs had significant matches against the SwissProt database and 27% were annotated using Gene Ontology terms. In addition, we identified a total of 208 in silico microsatellites from the ESTs, with 173 having sufficient flanking sequence for primer design. We also identified a total of 7,530 putative in silico, single-nucleotide polymorphisms using existing and newly-generated EST resources for the Pacific oyster. Conclusion A publicly-available database has been populated with 29,745 unique sequences for the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas. The database provides many tools to search cleaned and assembled ESTs. The user may input and submit several filters, such as protein or nucleotide hits, to select and download relevant elements. This database constitutes one of the most developed genomic resources accessible among Lophotrochozoans, an orphan clade of bilateral animals. These data will accelerate the development of both genomics and genetics in a commercially-important species with the highest annual, commercial production of any aquatic organism.

This paper attempts to identify implicit exchange rate regimes for currencies of the Central and Eastern European Countries vis-a-vis the euro. To that end, we apply a sequential procedure that considers the dynamics of exchange rates to data covering the period from 1977:01 to 2006:02. Our results would suggest that implicit bands have existed in many subperiods for almost all currencies under study. Once we detect de facto discrepancies between de facto and de iure exchange rate regimes, we propose a model in order to explain these decisions. Our results suggest a positive association between the previous inflation rate and the probability of a peg with the euro, and a negative association with past unemployment rate.

This paper reports on the results of ab initio spin-polarized GW calculations of quasiparticle properties, such as the spectral weight, the lifetime, the velocity, and the mean free path, for the FeCo ferromagnetic alloy and its components. The contribution of the localized d states to the above characteristics has been analyzed. The spin asymmetry of the properties of quasiparticle excitations, which is responsible for the spin filter effect observed in experiments, has been investigated. The contributions to the mean free path from the electron scattering processes, which are disregarded within the framework of the GW approximation, have been estimated from a comparison with experimental data., This study was supported by the Department of Education of the Basque Government (grant no. 9/UPV 00206.215-13639/2001) and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (grant no. FIS2004-06490-C03-01).

The aim of this paper is to describe Spanish universities by means of structural, input and output indicators, to explore the relationship between those indicators and to analyse university behaviour in different dimensions. Seniority of the universities and environmental conditions are taken into account, together with input and output indicators, as well as others related to the networks and links established. Our results will contribute to the knowledge of the university research system in Spain, producing data that could be useful for research management at the institutional, regional and national level.

This paper describes the next generation X-ray observatory XEUS which has been submitted to the European Space Agency in the framework of the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 competition and has been selected for an assessment study. The paper summarizes the scientific goals and instrumental concepts of the proposed X-ray telescope with 5 m2 effective area and angular resolution better than 5 arc sec.

International audience; We present in this paper a study on fault management in a grid middleware. The middleware is our home-grown software called P2P-MPI. This framework is MPJ compliant, allows users to execute message passing parallel programs, and its objective is to support environments using commodity hardware. Hence, running programs is failure prone and a particular attention must be paid to fault management. The fault management covers two issues: fault-tolerance and fault detection. Fault-tolerance deals with the program execution: P2P-MPI provides a transparent fault tolerance facility based on replication of computations. Fault detection concerns the monitoring of the program execution by the system. The monitoring is done through a distributed set of modules called failure detectors. The contribution of this paper is twofold. The first contribution is the evaluation of the failure probability of an application depending on the replication degree. The failure probability depends on the execution length, and we propose a model to evaluate the duration of a replicated parallel program. Then, we give an expression of the replication degree required to keep the failure probability of an execution under a given threshold. The second contribution is a study of the advantages and drawbacks of several fault detection systems found in the literature. The criteria of our evaluation are the reliability of the failure detection service and the failure detection speed. We retain the binary round-robin protocol for its failure detection speed, and we propose a variant of this protocol which is more reliable than the application execution in any case. Experiments involving of up to 256 processes, carried out on Grid'5000, show that the real detection times closely match the predictions.

Biologists, medical experts, biochemical engineers and researchers working on DNA microarray experiments are increasingly turning on Grid computing with the scope of leveraging the Grid’s computing power, immense storage resources, and quality of service to the expedient processing of a wide range of datasets. In this paper we present a combined experience of grid application experts and bioinformatics scientists in deploying a pilot service enabling computationally efficient processing and analysis of data stemming from microarray experiments. This pilot service is accessible over the Hellenic portion of the EGEE grid and has been demonstrated in the scope of several public events. We highlight the process of grid application enablement, grid deployment challenges, as well as lessons learnt from a bi-annual effort to port and deploy a MATLAB DNA microarray application on a production grid. In addition to describing the parallelization of the application, we also emphasize on the development of a distributed federated database for storing and post-processing the results of the microarray experiments. Overall we believe that our experience could be proven valuable not only to microarray data scientists but also to other Grid users that intend to Grid-enable and deploy their applications.

MPEG-7 can be used to create complex and comprehensive metadata descriptions of multimedia content. Since MPEG-7 is defined in terms of an XML schema, the semantics of its elements has no formal grounding. In addition, certain features can be described in multiple ways. MPEG-7 profiles are subsets of the standard that apply to specific application areas and that aim to reduce this syntactic variability, but they still lack formal semantics. We propose an approach for expressing the semantics explicitly by formalizing the constraints of various profiles using ontologies, logical rules and ad-hoc programming, thus enabling interoperability and automatic use for MPEG-7 based applications. We have implemented VAMP, a full semantic validation service that detects any inconsistencies of the semantic constraints formalized. Another contribution of this paper is an analysis of how MPEG-7 is practically used. We report on experiments about the semantic validity of MPEG-7 descriptions produced by numerous tools and projects and we categorize the most common errors found.

The goal of the study presented in this paper is the accurate performance evaluation of adaptive beam-centric admission control (AC) for wideband code-division multiple access (WCDMA) multicell networks with non-uniform traffic requirements. Each NodeB employs antenna arrays (AAs), used either to form fixed grids of beams (FGoBs), or to steer and shape multiple beams towards directions of increased traffic, in an adaptive manner. The adaptive beam-centric AC maximizes the cell throughput in a multirate/multicell environment by grouping as many users as possible under a common beam formed by the AA, taking into account their spatial distribution and overall interference. Due to the increased complexity of the Monte Carlo (MC) simulations, a novel grid-enabled problem solving environment has been developed in order to reduce execution times considerably and make feasible full scale extensive simulations of complex operational scenarios (up to 4 tiers of cells, multiple beams per cell, non-uniform traffic distributions with different spatial characteristics). Results show that the network with the adaptive beam-centric AC can achieve significantly higher throughput per beam in multirate/multicell environments with hotspots. In particular, it is shown that the throughput per beam gain depends exponentially on the number of hotspots per cell and their angular width, and gains up to 200/350/700% can be achieved with 1/2/3 hotspots, respectively. Moreover, it is shown that the adaptive beam-centric AC provides significant reduction in interbeam handovers, which leads to more available resources in downlink, reduced signaling requirements and easier network planning.

Carbon dioxide is a waste product of aerobic cellular respiration in all aerobic life forms. PaCO(2) represents the balance between the carbon dioxide produced and that eliminated. Hypocapnia remains a common and generally underappreciated - component of many disease states, including early asthma, high-altitude pulmonary edema, and acute lung injury. Induction of hypocapnia remains a common, if controversial, practice in both adults and children with acute brain injury. In contrast, hypercapnia has traditionally been avoided in order to keep parameters normal. More recently, advances in our understanding of the role of excessive tidal volume has prompted clinicians to use ventilation strategies that result in hypercapnia. Consequently, hypercapnia has become increasingly prevalent in the critically ill patient. Hypercapnia may play a beneficial role in the pathogenesis of inflammation and tissue injury, but may hinder the host response to sepsis and reduce repair. In contrast, hypocapnia may be a pathogenic entity in the setting of critical illness. The present paper reviews the current clinical status of low and high PaCO(2) in the critically ill patient, discusses the insights gained to date from studies of carbon dioxide, identifies key concerns regarding hypocapnia and hypercapnia, and considers the potential clinical implications for the management of patients with acute lung injury.

Two-phase olive mill waste (TPOMW) is a semisolid sludge generated by the olive oil industry. Its recycling as a soil amendment, either unprocessed or composted, is being promoted as a beneficial agricultural practice in the Mediterranean area. One of the major difficulties when composting TPOMW is the compaction of the material due to its dough-like texture, which leads to an inadequate aeration. For this reason, the addition of bulking agents is particularly important to attain a proper composting process. In this study we followed the evolution of two composting mixtures (A and B) prepared by mixing equal amounts of TPOMW and sheep litter (SL) (in a dry weight basis). In pile B grape stalks (GS) were added (10% dry weight) as bulking agent to study their effect on the development of the composting process and the final compost quality. The incorporation of grape stalks to the composting mixture changed the organic matter (OM) degradation dynamics and notably reduced the total amount of lixiviates. The evolution of several maturation indices (C/N, germination index, water soluble carbon, humification indices, C/N in the leachates) showed a faster and improved composting process when GS were added. Moreover, chemical (NH4 +, NO3 −, cation exchange capacity, macro and micronutrients, heavy metals) and physical properties (bulk and real densities, air content, total water holding capacity, porosity) of the final composts were analysed and confirmed the superior quality of the compost where GS were added., This work was possible thanks to Fundación Séneca (Agencia Regional de Ciencia y Tecnologia. Región de Murcia) that financed the research project ref. 03062PI/05. Mari Luz Cayuela thanks Fundación Séneca for financing her postdoctoral contract Saavedra-Fajardo in CEBAS-CSIC.

In this paper we present a CPU scavenging architecture suitable for desktop resources, and we study its appropriateness in exploiting the PC Laboratory resources of the Greek School Network and their integration to the existing HellasGrid national infrastructure. School laboratories form an extensive network equipped with computational systems and fast Internet connections. As this infrastructure is utilized at most 8 h per day and 5 days per week, it could be made available during its remaining idle time for computational purposes through the use of Grid technology. The structure and organization of the school laboratories and backbone network enables the CPU scavenging service, as an independent and additional service, which will not violate the operational rules and policies of the school network, while it will add additional resources to the current HellasGrid infrastructure with low adaptation cost.

Several large-scale Grid infrastructures are currently in operation around the world, federating an impressive collection of computational resources, a wide variety of application software, and hundreds of user communities. To better serve the current and prospective users of Grid infrastructures, it is important to develop advanced software retrieval services that could help users locate software components suitable to their needs. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of Minersoft, a distributed, multi-threaded harvester for application software located in large-scale Grid infrastructures. Minersoft crawls the sites of a Grid infrastructure, discovers installed software resources, annotates them with keyword-rich metadata, and creates inverted indexes that can be used to support full-text software retrieval. We present insights derived from the implementation and deployment of Minersoft on EGEE, one of the largest Grid production services currently in operation. Experimental results show that Minersoft achieves a high performance in crawling EGEE sites and discovering software-related files, and a high efficiency in supporting software retrieval. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 8 2 281 304 Cited By :2

In the ongoing discussion about combining rules and ontologies on the Semantic Web a recurring issue is how to combine first-order classical logic with nonmonotonic rule languages. Whereas several modular approaches to define a combined semantics for such hybrid knowledge bases focus mainly on decidability issues, we tackle the matter from a more general point of view. In this paper, we show how Quantified Equilibrium Logic (QEL) can function as a unified framework which embraces classical logic as well as disjunctive logic programs under the (open) answer set semantics. In the proposed variant of QEL, we relax the unique names assumption, which was present in earlier versions of QEL. Moreover, we show that this framework elegantly captures the existing modular approaches for hybrid knowledge bases in a unified way.

We compared five classification systems for clavicle fractures. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic value of each system. Over a two-year period we reviewed all new radiographs of the shoulder region and identified 487 clavicle fractures. Each radiograph was classified using five classification systems. We reviewed all subsequent X-rays and clinical records until the patient was discharged. We assessed each classification system’s prognostic value in predicting delayed/non-union. Our data show that 79.3% of clavicle fractures occur in the middle third, 19.3% in the lateral third and 1.4% in the medial third. The overall prevalence of delayed/non-union was 7.3%, with 3.2% requiring operative management and 4.1% developing asymptomatic non-union. The incidence of non-union in the lateral third was 9.6%, but only 0.4% required operative management. Craig’s classification had the greatest prognostic value for lateral third fractures, and Robinson’s classification had the greatest prognostic value for middle third fractures. Fractures of the clavicle are common injuries but non-union is an uncommon occurrence. Non-union is more common in the lateral third, but we found these to be mostly asymptomatic. Middle third fractures are more likely to require operative fixation. Middle third fractures should be classified according to Robinson’s classification system and lateral third fractures according to Craig’s classification. We did not assess sufficient medial third fractures for the data to be significant.

We report the development of an international registry for Neurodegeneration with Brain Iron Accumulation (NBIA), in the context of TIRCON (Treat Iron-Related Childhood-Onset Neurodegeneration), an EU-FP7 – funded project. This registry aims to combine scattered resources, integrate clinical and scientific knowledge, and generate a rich source for future research studies. This paper describes the content, architecture and future utility of the registry with the intent to capture as many NBIA patients as possible and to offer comprehensive information to the international scientific community.

The peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch] genome sequence has been recently made available to the scientific community. This represents the culmination of a long process that started less than two decades ago with the release of the first marker-based linkage maps. The process has advanced rapidly with the studies of molecular diversity, detection of genome positions of major genes and quantitative trait loci, development of large DNA sequence collections, transcriptome and proteome analyses, comparative genomic studies, construction of a physical map, and development of databases where researchers can access information. The growth of genomics knowledge has been partly due to the simplicity of the peach genome: short (230 Mbp), diploid, and distributed on eight pairs of chromosomes. Its unusually short intergeneration period (2–4 years) and selfing mating behavior, plus a dynamic peach scientific community that has often collaborated in the development of the necessary tools, have also facilitated in constructing a robust sequence of its complete genome. Peach is one of the best known species genetically among tree crops, with the promise of rapid advancement in the next few years. This paper reviews the resources available and the main results obtained, with emphasis placed on application to the development of improved varieties., The group of IRTA is a member of the CONSOLIDER Center for Basic Genomics and Agro-food Orientation (CSD2007-00036) and received additional funding for peach genomics research from a project of the Spanish Ministry of Education (AGL2009-07305).

In this study, different flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD)-dependent glucose dehydrogenases (FADGDHs) were characterized electrochemically after “wiring” them with an osmium redox polymer [Os(4,4′-dimethyl-2,2′-bipyridine)2(PVI)10Cl]+ on graphite electrodes. One tested FADGDH was that recently discovered in Glomerella cingulata (GcGDH), another was the recombinant form expressed in Pichia pastoris (rGcGDH), and the third was a commercially available glycosylated enzyme from Aspergillus sp. (AspGDH). The performance of the Os-polymer “wired” GDHs on graphite electrodes was tested with glucose as the substrate. Optimal operational conditions and analytical characteristics like sensitivity, linear ranges and current density of the different FADGDHs were determined. The performance of all three types of FADGDHs was studied at physiological conditions (pH 7.4). The current densities measured at a 20 mM glucose concentration were 494 ± 17, 370 ± 24, and 389 ± 19 μA cm−2 for GcGDH, rGcGDH, and AspGDH, respectively. The sensitivities towards glucose were 2.16, 1.90, and 1.42 μA mM−1 for GcGDH, rGcGDH, and AspGDH, respectively. Additionally, deglycosylated rGcGDH (dgrGcGDH) was investigated to see whether the reduced glycosylation would have an effect, e.g., a higher current density, which was indeed found. GcGDH/Os-polymer modified electrodes were also used and investigated for their selectivity for a number of different sugars. Figure Comparison of different parameters for GDHs/Os-polymer modified electrodes

Annotation watermarking is a technique that allows to associate content descriptions with digital images in a persistent and format independent manner. It is commonly used in medical applications and, hence, existing schemes have been designed to meet rigorous watermark transparency requirements. As a result, the effective capacity of such schemes is severely limited. In this paper, we present a new approach to annotation watermarking. We adopt the fountain coding paradigm and design a convenient watermark communication architecture which resembles a traditional packet network. Our approach allows for straightforward incorporation of content adaptivity, robustness against cropping and support for multiple data streams. In our study, we focus on high-capacity annotations and we assume different requirements with respect to the fidelity of the watermarked images. Our scheme is robust against lossy JPEG compression and cropping. This paper describes the principles of the proposed approach and presents the results of it's experimental evaluation.

Negative results are commonly assumed to attract fewer readers and citations, which would explain why journals in most disciplines tend to publish too many positive and statistically significant findings. This study verified this assumption by counting the citation frequencies of papers that, having declared to "test" a hypothesis, reported a "positive" (full or partial) or a "negative" (null or negative) support. Controlling for various confounders, positive results were cited on average 32 % more often. The citation advantage, however, was unequally distributed across disciplines (classified as in the Essential Science Indicators database). Using Space Science as the reference category, the citation differential was positive and formally statistically significant only in Neuroscience & Behaviour, Molecular Biology & Genetics, Clinical Medicine, and Plant and Animal Science. Overall, the effect was significantly higher amongst applied disciplines, and in the biological compared to the physical and the social sciences. The citation differential was not a significant predictor of the actual frequency of positive results amongst the 20 broad disciplines considered. Although future studies should attempt more fine-grained assessments, these results suggest that publication bias may have different causes and require different solutions depending on the field considered.

Background Mental health problems are disproportionately higher amongst homeless people. Many barriers exist for homeless people with mental health problems in accessing treatment yet little research has been done on service provision and quality of care for this group. The aim of this paper is to assess current service provision and identify barriers to care for homeless people with mental health problems in 14 European capital cities. Method Two methods of data collection were employed; (i) In two highly deprived areas in each of the 14 European capital cities, homeless-specific services providing mental health, social care or general health services were assessed. Data were obtained on service characteristics, staff and programmes provided. (ii) Semi-structured interviews were conducted in each area with experts in mental health care provision for homeless people in order to determine the barriers to care and ways to overcome them. Results Across the 14 capital cities, 111 homeless-specific services were assessed. Input from professionally qualified mental health staff was reported as low, as were levels of active outreach and case finding. Out-of-hours service provision appears inadequate and high levels of service exclusion criteria were evident. Prejudice in the services towards homeless people, a lack of co-ordination amongst services, and the difficulties homeless people face in obtaining health insurance were identified as major barriers to service provision. Conclusions While there is variability in service provision across European capital cities, the reported barriers to service accessibility are common. Homeless-specific services are more responsive to the initial needs of homeless people with mental health problems, while generic services tend to be more conducive to long term care. Further research is needed to determine the effectiveness of different service delivery models, including the most effective coordination of homeless specific and generic services.

In this paper, an analytical and numerical study of the three-dimensional equations describing the motion through the air of a spinning ball is presented. The initial analysis involves constant drag coefficients, but is later extended to involve drag varying with the spin ratio. Excellent agreement is demonstrated between numerical, analytical and experimental results. The analytical solution shows explicitly how the ball’s motion depends on parameters such as ball roughness, velocity and atmospheric conditions. The importance of applying three-dimensional models, rather than two-dimensional approximations, is demonstrated.

Science Gateways are web portal environments targeted for a given community and dedicated to specific scientific needs. Scientists require a different set of tools, applications, visualizations, data integration patterns, to be able to satisfy unique requirements of different research domains. To enable users to benefit from remote computational and storage resources, a web portal framework should support an easy integration and access to the e-Infrastructure. In this paper we present results of our research and development activities leading to the release of the Vine Toolkit framework integrated with Adobe Flex/BlazeDs technologies. It offers a set of unified and abstract APIs for different Grid middleware and a rich graphic presentation layer. Additionally, it automates the integration process with portal frameworks, such as Liferay or GridSphere. Vine Toolkit introduces a concept of subprojects which extend core APIs or define new low level components and web applications. This way, a Science Gateway prototyping process is definitely shortened. Consequently, it allows programmers to build software components that can be reused in a simple manner for different Science Gateways.