European Issues from a Spanish Perspective: Contribution to EU-27 Watch nr 7

This paper analyses various European issues –the Irish referendum, the French EU Presidency, the EU’s Mediterranean relations, the Pact on immigration and asylum and the future of the Euro, among others– from a Spanish perspective. The EU-27 Watch is part of EU-CONSENT, a network of Excellence for joint research and teaching comprising more than 50 research institutes (of which the Elcano Royal Institute is one) that addresses questions on the mutually reinforcing effects of deepening and widening the EU. The project sheds light on key issues and challenges of European integration. The aim is to give a full comparative picture of debates on European integration and current developments in European politics in each of these countries. This is the Spanish contribution to the project. It should be pointed out that the EU-Watch covers from January to June 2008 and that it was completed in July 2008

European Issues from a Spanish Perspective: Contribution to the EU-25/27 Watch

This paper analyses various European issues –the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, future enlargement, Kosovo’s independence, the Mediterranean Union project, relations with Russia and the Budget review– from a Spanish perspective. The EU-25/27 Watch is part of EU-CONSENT, a network of Excellence for joint research and teaching comprising more than 50 research institutes (of which the Elcano Royal Institute is one) that addresses questions of the mutually reinforcing effects of deepening and widening the EU. The project sheds light on key issues and challenges of European integration. The aim is to give a full comparative picture of debates on European integration and current developments in European politics in each of these countries. This is the Spanish contribution to the project

Abandono de terrazas de cultivo: recolonización vegetal y erosión en el sureste peninsular

[Resumen] El paisaje del sureste peninsular ha estado marcado, en los últimos decenios, por los cambios en los aprovechamientos de las laderas subáridas. Frente a concepciones lineales de los procesos erosivos que afectan a estos espacios, la metodología empleada y los resultados obtenidos evidencian la necesidad de abordar este tema con planteamientos puramente geográficos, donde se valora el papel de los factores abióticos y bióticos del medio, sin olvidar que ambos son decisivos en la comprensión y explicación del paisaje desde una visión antropocéntrica.[Abstract] In the last decades the southeast peninsular landscape has been affected by the changes in the used subarid slopes. Opposite to lineal conceptions of erosive processes in these areas, the employed methodology and the obtained resu1ts show the need to research this subject with purely geographic patterns in which the abiotic and biotic factors are valued without forgetting that both are decisives in the understanding and explication of the lanscape from an human perspectiv

Caracterización productiva de las estirpes de cerdo ibérico reconocidas dentro del libro genealógico de la raza y del catálogo oficial de razas de ganado de España

Ministerio de Agricultura y Pesca, Alimentación y Medio Ambiente (España

Actuaciones dentro del plan de recuperación de una raza autóctona en peligro de extinción: la raza ovina churra lebrijana. Caracteres cualitativos externos y faneróptica

La raza ovina Churra Lebrijana se localiza en la Sierra Norte de Sevilla y Sierra de Aracena y Picos de Aroche. En la actualidad, se encuentra en grave peligro de extinción, contando con no más de 200 efectivos repartidos en dos explotaciones. Ante la necesidad de abordar la llevanza del Libro Genealógico de la raza, previa concesión, por los organismos administrativos pertinentes, se están llevando a cabo una serie de actuaciones, encuadradas en un proyecto INIA, con la finalidad de preservarla. En este sentido, se han obtenido un total de 23 variables cualitativas correspondientes a las regiones de la cabeza, tronco, mamas y extremidades, así como caracteres de índole faneróptica. Se han controlado un total de 22 ejemplares (16 hembras y el total de sementales de la raza), localizados en dos explotaciones de Andalucía. Para sentar las bases que permitan recuperar y conservar la raza, es necesario realizar un análisis previo que determine la variabilidad de los caracteres analizados a fin de poder encuadrar /discriminar aquellos animales que se ajusten o no al patrón racial propuesto.Proyecto de Investigación RZ-03-019, INIA, Ministerio de Educación y Cienci

Carcass and Meat Quality Traits in an Embden×Toulouse Goose Cross Raised in Organic Dehesa

his study assessed the influence of genetic type (Embden-Anser anser, EE; Toulouse-Anser anser, TT and F1 cross, ET) for meat characteristics (carcass, meat quality and fatty acid (FA) profiles), of domestic geese “Anser anser domesticus” raised in dehesa as an alternative, organic feeding system. Carcass and breast muscle weight (p<0.01) were greater for the ET group at the same live weight. None of the groups showed differences in the production of fatty liver with this type of feeding. Higher values were found for maximum Warner–Bratzler shear force (between 7.62 and 8.87 kg/cm2), which implies the improvement of this parameter. High levels of oleic FAs were obtained, especially for the TT group. The polyunsaturated/saturated FA ratio was highest for the ET group (p<0.001), reflecting the optimum nutritional values as a component of a healthy consumer die

“Global” graph problems tend to be intractable

AbstractA notion of “information-flow complexity” is used to formally measure the degree to which a graph problem is a “global” problem (in the sense of “global” vs. “local” optimization). Under this measure a number of intractable problems including VERTEX COVER, GRAPH 3-COLORABILITY, HAMILTONIAN CIRCUIT, and other NP-complete problems are exponentially more “global” than a number of tractable problems including EDGE COVER, GRAPH 2-COLORABILITY, EULERIAN CIRCUIT, and other problems in P

Evaluation of nitrogen dioxide chemiluminescence monitors in a polluted urban environment

International audienceData from a recent field campaign in Mexico City are used to evaluate the performance of the EPA Federal Reference Method for monitoring the ambient concentrations of NO2. Measurements of NO2 from standard chemiluminescence monitors equipped with molybdenum oxide converters are compared with those from Tunable Infrared Laser Differential Absorption Spectroscopy (TILDAS) and Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS) instruments. A significant interference in the chemiluminescence measurement is shown to account for up to 50% of ambient NO2 concentration during afternoon hours. As expected, this interference correlates well with non-NOx reactive nitrogen species (NOz) as well as with ambient O3 concentrations, indicating a photochemical source for the interfering species. A combination of ambient gas phase nitric acid and alkyl and multifunctional alkyl nitrates is deduced to be the primary cause of the interference. Observations at four locations at varying proximities to emission sources indicate that the percentage contribution of HNO3 to the interference decreases with time as the air parcel ages. Alkyl and multifunctional alkyl nitrate concentrations are calculated to reach concentrations as high as several ppb inside the city, on par with the highest values previously observed in other urban locations. Averaged over the MCMA-2003 field campaign, the chemiluminescence monitor interference resulted in an average measured NO2 concentration up to 22% greater than that from co-located spectroscopic measurements. Thus, this interference has the potential to initiate regulatory action in areas that are close to non-attainment and may mislead atmospheric photochemical models used to assess control strategies for photochemical oxidants

Ultrahigh-energy neutrino follow-up of Gravitational Wave events GW150914 and GW151226 with the Pierre Auger Observatory

On September 14, 2015 the Advanced LIGO detectors observed their first gravitational-wave (GW) transient GW150914. This was followed by a second GW event observed on December 26, 2015. Both events were inferred to have arisen from the merger of black holes in binary systems. Such a system may emit neutrinos if there are magnetic fields and disk debris remaining from the formation of the two black holes. With the surface detector array of the Pierre Auger Observatory we can search for neutrinos with energy above 100 PeV from point-like sources across the sky with equatorial declination from about -65 deg. to +60 deg., and in particular from a fraction of the 90% confidence-level (CL) inferred positions in the sky of GW150914 and GW151226. A targeted search for highly-inclined extensive air showers, produced either by interactions of downward-going neutrinos of all flavors in the atmosphere or by the decays of tau leptons originating from tau-neutrino interactions in the Earth's crust (Earth-skimming neutrinos), yielded no candidates in the Auger data collected within $\pm 500$ s around or 1 day after the coordinated universal time (UTC) of GW150914 and GW151226, as well as in the same search periods relative to the UTC time of the GW candidate event LVT151012. From the non-observation we constrain the amount of energy radiated in ultrahigh-energy neutrinos from such remarkable events.Comment: Published version. Added journal reference and DOI. Added Report Numbe