Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

Identifying the sensory properties that affect consumer preferences and choices is very important. Different methods, such as external preference mapping, are used to establish relationships between sensory characteristics and consumer preferences. In this work, consumer perceptions based on sensory attributes such as taste, colour, texture and smell of eight honeys were studied to obtain information valuable for increasing the domestic honey market in Argentina. The honeys were sensorially characterized by an eight-member panel of evaluators, while 388 consumers assessed their preference for them. After performing a principal component analysis with the results of the sensory evaluation by trained evaluators, a preference map was carried out. Colour and physical condition were found to be the most notable characteristics for establishing preference; smell and aroma complemented the decision. All honey found consumers who chose them for their consumption, so the strategy to increase honey sales in the Argentinian domestic market should focus on providing information about other uses and benefits offered by this natural product.

Since the beginning of statistics, the identification of the underlying number of existing groups in a population has been a research question aimed at answering geneticists regarding the structure that is formed by similarities between individuals of one or more populations. Numerous indices have been proposed to obtain the optimal number of groups that make up the population genetic structure (PGS).However, there is no consensus on which are the best. In order to determine the optimal number of groups constituting the PGS,a simulation study was conducted of nine PGS scenarios with three subpopulation numbers (k = 2, 5, and 10) and three levels of genetic differentiation recreating various maize genomes to evaluate four internal validation indices: CH, Connectivity, Dunn and Silhouette. This study found that the Dunn and Silhouette indices had the best performance in identifying the true number of underlying groups while Connectivityhadthe worst. This study offers a robust alternative to unveil the existing PGS, thereby facilitating population studies and breeding strategies in maize programs. Moreover, the present findings may have implications for other crop species.

Accurate evapotranspiration (ET) estimation is essential for water management in crops, but it is not an easy task. Empirical ET methodologies require precise net radiation (Rn) measurements to obtain accurate results. Nevertheless, Rn measurements are not easy to obtain from meteorological stations. Thus, this study explored the use of machine learning algorithms with two Rn substitutes, to estimate daily ET: the extraterrestrial solar radiation (Ra) and a modelled Rn (RnM). Support Vector Machine (SVM), Kernel Ridge (KR), Decision Tree (DT), Adaptive Boosting (AB), and Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) were applied to model FLUXNET Rn and ET observations. Adaptive Boosting produced the best field Rn measurements (RnO), yielding a Root Mean Square Error of about 16 % of the mean observed Rn. The resulting Rn (AB RnM) was used to model daily crops ET employing the above-mentioned machine learning methods with RnO, AB RnM, and Ra, in conjunction with meteorological variables and the NDVI index. The evaluated methods were suitable to estimate ET, yielding similar errors to those obtained with RnO, when contrasted with ET observations. These results demonstrate that AB and KR are applicable with rutinary meteorological and satellite data to estimate ET.

In the harvest, the highest percentage of grain losses occurs in the harvester head. This exceeds 70 % of the total loss in the cultivation of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.). The objectives of this work were to test the different manufacturing materials of the shield of the sunflower head at different speeds to reduce losses due to impact and to propose different recommended speeds for each material. The test was carried out on confectionery sunflower (Hybrid NTC 90). A Mainero brand head was used. It was tested at two different forward speeds (6.5 km/h and 8 km/h) with three shields made of different materials: a 2 mm thick sheet metal shield, a shield covered with elastomer, and a shield made of fiberglass. The parameter evaluated was the loss of grains in the harvester head. The results obtained show that the fiberglass shield presented the lowest percentage of grain losses and that at 8 km/h grain losses exceeded those recommended regardless of the shield used. It is concluded that the use of more elastic materials reduces grain loss due to impact.

En el contexto actual de “crisis” medioambiental el Antropoceno como modelo existencial representa el principal límite para la humanidad. De ahí que sea fundamental repensar el sentido del proyecto urbano arquitectónico desde un enfoque ecológico capaz de hacer friccionar las contradicciones entre la naturaleza y la ciudad; entre lo natural y lo artificial. Dada la extensión geográfico paisajística que representa el territorio latinoamericano y la fuerte desigualdad ecológica que lo signa desde sus orígenes el proyecto contemporáneo se asume interescalar; arquitectura posicionada en puntos críticos del territorio que redefine sus límites, bordes y separaciones para abandonar la condición de objeto y transformarse en medio. Dicho posicionamiento infiere una lectura táctica del territorio, la reinterpretación del concepto biológico y metodológico del ecotono como zona de transición entre unidades de paisaje, estructural y funcionalmente, diferenciadas. La propuesta impulsada por la Fundación “Cerros Isla” traduce este concepto en un proyecto de integración paisajística que busca recuperar 26 “Cerros Isla” ubicados en la región metropolitana de Santiago de Chile. A partir del entendimiento de los mismos como principal sistema infraestructural bilógico de enlace entre las extremas escalas del paisaje urbano. Para hacerlo factible se desarrolla una estrategia de diseño que transita desde la macro escala metropolitana hasta la micro escala arquitectónica. El punto crítico se encuentra en la definición de la estructura de borde o “buffer” concebido como un gradiente de naturalidad entre la trama y el perímetro del cerro. Esta zona de amortiguación seminatural está dotada programáticamente tanto para contribuir al esparcimiento de la comunidad como para delimitar las zonas que se desea conservar. Por otra parte, la programación ecológica del cuerpo del cerro se basa en la estrategia de conexión por “parches” definidos en función de la pendiente, el contorno bajo, las necesidades de las especies nativas y las condiciones hídricas del suelo. Tanto por su carácter operativo como por su potencialidad ecológica ambas estrategias pueden ser extrapolables a otros casos, entendiendo la ciudad como mosaico integrado de ecosistemas dentro de una red de espacios verdes menores enlazados unos con otros en un único sistema.

The consolidation of the modern State in Argentina implied the appearance of new subjects and programs, both in architectural and engineering discipline. In addition, the technological modernization operating since the arrival of the railroad, meant the incorporation of new technologies and materials, brought by immigrants (mostly Europeans), who arrived in the Country in a favorable context that supported their permanence. This revolutionized the construction of space, both material and symbolic. In Mendoza, this revolution resulted in the incorporation of the mountainous area into the productive scheme that, until that moment, had been predominantly oriented to livestock and agricultural activity for export. In this framework, the article seeks to understand, in which way the “new” look of the mountain range crystallized in the implementation of buildings and infrastructures: hydroelectric plants, hotels and water treatment plants; elements linked in the vast territory by the railway in the early days and later by the road layout. The search is orientated at the material and technological expression of these elements, both from the actions of foreign technicians and professionals who worked in the constructions, and from larger companies that operated on the territory, impacting it with technologies, knowledge and novel practices. Therefore, the study sustains on the Historical Narrative Model, photographic analysis and content analysis of historical documents.

This paper discusses the night, this other face of the city. When we interrelate night and city, the definition of night opens to a diversity of values, interpretations, and questions. The signs of the nocturnal sky translated into language forms demonstrate how the relationships between heaven and Earth were part of our cultural construction, but today these relationships are distant from contemporary urban society, as if the night was forgotten, invisible or even residual. The landscape at night is also home for a nocturnal nature, often invisible to our eyes, either because of its own characteristics, but also because of our lack of understanding and knowledge. This is reflected in the absence of this dynamic in the planning and design of the cities, demonstrating gaps that need to be discussed considering the changes in environmental values ​​and the environmental issue itself that imposes as a challenge for the metropolis. Thus, this paper aims to clarify - among the multiple facets of the nocturnal city - the environmental dimension that night contains, as a way of promoting a critical debate about these discussions in the contemporary city. By deviating from a predominantly anthropocentric look towards the night of cities, we look for ways to approach the nocturnal city that can align the dynamics of urban nocturnal biodiversity.

In 1968 Ricardo Bofill's Taller de Arquitectura published the book 'Towards a formalization of the City in Space', where for the first time the genesis of an initiative that would kick the board in the Spanish architecture of the time is presented. This experiment called the City in Space, plunges into a debate of strictly political interest and on the fringes of architecture that culminates years later with the failure of its administration. The images of the project reflect the effervescent spirit of an era, denoting a certain utopian approach and a way of operating that places the Taller among one of the most ambitious groups on the international architectural scene of the time. Consequently, the project that fatefully does not finish building, presents a notorious ambiguity in its speech, as well as its images show a certain innocence and a utopian inclination far from reality. The tension between an imaginative and an earthly side takes hold and directly affects the controversial outcome of the City in Space project. Through the images, the discourse of the Workshop and relying on content that portrays the spirit of the time, a discourse will be established that promotes analysis, discussion and the intention to create new questions about a project that little has been said about. but it sure has a lot to convey.

The drama revealed by the end of the Second War, forced the reintroduction of the debate on architectural form, beyond a limited dispassionate and rational fiction of function. When function ceased to be the unitary pattern against which to compare modern buildings, critics and historians had to have new mirrors: monumentality, the production process, the user, the city, the form, the genius loci, the History, tradition or culture. In the following article the formulation of architectural images as catalysts of the concept of purpose in public architecture will be verified, as it was presented around the contest for the ultimate headquarters of the National Library in Buenos Aires in 1962, in whose architecture a feature of a manifest, redundant and dramatic character was superimposed by form to an efficient scheme and profitable organization.

Architecture is positioned, from its communicative capacities, as a system of interpretation, representation and transformation of reality. Within the context of contemporary architectural activity, performativity in architecture can be understood as that capacity that starts from its communicational nature, to transcend any function, program or specific context, to become a catalyst for new processes and exceed the transmission of a message, in favor of the construction of an interpretation of reality, the production of meaning or the generation of new relationships with the user. The contemporary context has once again valued the semantic content of architectural work in response to the disciplinary crisis that it has been going through since the end of modernity. As Lorenzo Rocha (2018) states, “Almost all architects agree that their profession is in crisis, but most of them would not know how to explain exactly the reasons for the discomfort in architecture” (p. 12). The concept of performativity in architecture stems from the recognition of one of the many capacities that characterize the discipline, associated with processes that generate actions or pose ideological statements to transcend technical specialization and disciplinary capitalization, perhaps the main drivers of the contemporary crisis. However, it is not a new capacity, but rather one that can be recognized as implicit in the exercise of the discipline. Its study in contemporaneity allows a reinterpretation of the precepts of the exercise of architecture to restore its value as a system of thought and interpretation of reality, capable of translating and transforming the reality in which it is inserted. As it seems impossible to explain performativity without adopting a performative attitude in this regard, this article starts from a brief analysis of Plato’s ‘Allegory of the cave’, which makes it possible to transpose certain concepts to the field of architectural discipline and propose a general approach to what we understand as ‘Performativity in Architecture’, concluding in the exhibition of one of its most representative manifestations, that which we define as architectural performance.