The upper region of the Río Negro and Neuquén valley, Argentina (latitude: 38 degrees 55 minutes South) experiences high temperatures and light intensities before the apple harvest. This hinders these fruits turning red and increases the risks of them becoming sunburnt. In the December of two growing seasons (when the fruits were about 43 mm in diameter), still some 80 days before harvest, 15% and 55% density shade nets were placed over "Fuji" apple trees. At harvest time, light distribution was determined at two canopy heights (1 and 3 m) on either side of the trees. Fruiting spurs were examined, and colour, sunburn damage, weight, soluble solid content and flesh firmness of the fruits determined. Specific leaf weight (SLW) was also established. Shade nets notably decreased the amount of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) available; they also reduced fruit colour (redness), soluble solid content and flesh firmness, and the SLW. The 55% density net decreased fruit sunburn, but no differences were found between the 15% density net and control treatments. Spurs at the bottom of the canopy received less light, and the SLW, as well as the colour and soluble solid content of their fruit, was lower than observed for the higher spurs. The impossibility of exporting fruits damaged by high temperatures and intense solar radiation during ripening requires shade nets be used, their density depending on the conditions experienced.

Abstract-This paper describes the utilization of software design patterns and plan-based mission specification in the definition of AUVs missions. Within this approach, a mission is described in terms of a set of task-oriented plans in order to simplify mission definition and favor reutilization of some aspects of a mission. Each plan organizes how and when basic tasks like measurement sampling, navigation or communication are to be carried out. The usage of design patterns for AUVs has been considered in order to ease system architecture design.

Abstract-Underwater gliders have revealed as a valuable scientific platform, with a growing number of successful environmental sampling applications. They are specially suited for long range missions due to their unmatched autonomy level, although their low surge speed makes them strongly affected by ocean currents. Path planning constitutes a real concern for this type of vehicle, as it may reduce the time taken to reach a given waypoint or save power. In such a dynamic environment it is not easy to find an optimal solution or any such requires large computational resources. In this paper, we present a path planning scheme with low computational cost for this kind of underwater vehicle that allows static or dynamic obstacle avoidance, frequently demanded in coastal environments, with land areas, strong currents, shipping routes, etc. The method combines an initialization phase, inspired by a variant of the A* search process and ND algorithm, with an optimization process that embraces the physical vehicle motion pattern. Consequently, our method simulates a glider affected by the ocean currents, while it looks for the path that optimized a given objective. The method is easy to configure and adapt to various optimization problems, including missions in different operational scenarios. This planner shows promising results in realistic simulations, including ocean currents that vary considerably in time, and provides a superior performance over other approaches that are compared in this paper.

A 2-yr-old female captive-born Hoffmann's two-toed sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni) presented with respiratory disease. A severe inspiratory dyspnea with nasal congestion was observed with open-mouthed breathing and bilateral mucopurulent nasal exudate. Despite initial treatment with broad-spectrum antimicrobial therapy and anti-inflammatory and supportive care, the dyspnea persisted. The animal was anesthetized for bronchoscopy to obtain a deep tracheal sample. Based on culture of Bordetella bronchiseptica and sensitivity, a combination of systemic enrofloxacin, dexamethasone, and coupage with nebulization of saline, gentamicin, and albuterol as well as supportive care resulted in full recovery after 6 weeks of treatment.

An automatic system aimed at producing a compact tridimensional description of indoor environments using a mobile 3D laser scanner is described in this paper. The resulting description is made up of a Multi-Level Map (ML map) and a series of planar patches extracted from the map. We propose a novel plane detection algorithm, based on the efficient RANSAC algorithm, that operates directly over the data structures of an ML map and does not need to rely on the low level laser data cloud. The mobile 3D scanner is built from a Hokuyo laser range sensor attached to a 2DOF pan-tilt, which is installed on top of a 3DX Pioneer mobile robot. The 3D spatial information acquired by the laser sensor from different poses is used to build a large single map of the environment using the SLAM 6D library. Experimental results demonstrate that the system described is capable of efficiently building compact and accurate 3D representations of complex large indoor environments at multiple semantic levels.

The presence of phytoseiid mites was determined in two unsprayed apple orchards at Cinco Saltos and Cipolletti, Río Negro Province, Argentina. Twenty apple trees were chosen in each orchard and a sample of 10 leaves per tree was taken at seven different sampling dates.

Gold mining in Colombia has produced wealth that has helped the social and economic development of the country. Studying its extraction process offers artisanal mining broad alternatives that are more profitable for its small-scale production. Through this research, the possibility is offered of extracting 93.10% of gold in 180 minutes from a refractory mineral of pyritic origin with economic and environmentally friendly techniques such as the use of pretreatment with microwave waves, exposing the mineral to 637ºC for a maximum time of 4 minutes, and the use of thiourea as leaching agent at concentrations of 0.1 M. When comparing gold extraction with thiourea without pretreatment, a low extraction percentage is shown, 19.98%. This microwave pretreatment process was carried out on a nickeliferous laterite mineral, however, the results were not as effective for the extraction of nickel, only 40.8% was obtained in 420 minutes, because the pretreatment with its exposure Microwaving was not efficient.

Se evaluaron los efectos de la intensidad y momentos de raleo sobre la calidad de la fruta de cerezo dulce cv Santina para el mercado de exportación. El ensayo se realizó en la zona de Vista Alegre sur (Pcia del Neuquén) en una plantación de alta densidad con conducción en “tatura”, homogénea en características edáficas y manejo; con riego microaspersión para el control de heladas. Se seleccionaron 25 árboles similares en desarrollo y se asignaron al azar cinco tratamientos (T0- Testigo, T1- Raleo del 50% de yemas en dormancia, T2- Raleo del 50% de ramilletes florales, T3- Raleo del 50% de frutos a 15 días del cuaje y T4- Raleo de 50% frutos a 25 días del cuaje). La cosecha se realizó en una pasada, se pesó la totalidad de los frutos de las plantas seleccionadas y de una muestra de 125 frutos se determinó peso individual, calibre, categorías de color (según tabla de color INTA), firmeza, materia seca, sólidos solubles y acidez titulable. Según los datos obtenidos en esta primera temporada, el raleo del 50% de yemas sería el más conveniente para lograr las mejores características de la fruta para exportación en este cultivar de cosecha temprana