New magnetotelluric data trough the boundary between the Ossa Morena and Centroiberian Zones

The south-western part of the Iberian Peninsula, including the southern branch of the Iberian Massif, has recently been the subject of several magnetotelluric (MT) studies. This area is made up of three different tectonic terranes: the South Portuguese Zone (SPZ), the Ossa Morena Zone (OMZ) and the Central Iberian Zone (CIZ). The boundaries between these zones are considered to be sutures, which appear as high electrical conductivity anomalies in the MT surveys. The OMZ is characterised by a conductive layer at middle-lower crustal levels. To investigate the continuity of this conductive layer into the CIZ, a new MT profile was carried out. This 75-km long ENE profile goes through the boundary between the OMZ and the CIZ. The results of a two-dimensional magnetotelluric inversion revealed a high-conductivity anomaly in the transition OMZ/CIZ (the so-called Central Unit), which is interpreted as due to interconnected graphite along shear planes. High-conductivity anomalies appeared in the middle crust of the CIZ, whose geometry and location are consistent with the conductive layer previously found in the OMZ, thus confirming the prolongation of the conductive layer into the CIZ. The top of this layer correlated spatially with a broad reflector detected by a seismic profile previously acquired in the same area. This, together with other geological and petrological evidence, points to a common origin for both features.

Deep crustal electromagnetic structure of Bhuj earthquake region (India) and its implications

The existence of fluids and partial melt in the lower crust of the seismically active Kutch rift basin (on the western continental margin of India) owing to underplating has been proposed in previous geological and geophysical studies. This hypothesis is examined using magnetotelluric (MT) data acquired at 23 stations along two profiles across Kutch Mainland Uplift and Wagad Uplift. A detailed upper crustal structure is also presented using twodimensional inversion of MT data in the Bhuj earthquake (2001) area. The prominent boundaries of reflection in the upper crust at 5, 10 and 20 km obtained in previous seismic reflection profiles correlate with conductive structures in our models. The MT study reveals 1-2 km thick Mesozoic sediments under the Deccan trap cover. The Deccan trap thickness in this region varies from a few meters to 1.5 km. The basement is shallow on the northern side compared to the south and is in good agreement with geological models as well as drilling information. The models for these profiles indicate that the thickness of sediments would further increase southwards into the Gulf of Kutch. Significant findings of the present study indicate 1) the hypocentre region of the earthquake is devoid of fluids, 2) absence of melt (that is emplaced during rifting as suggested from the passive seismological studies) in the lower crust and 3) a low resistive zone in the depth range of 5-20 km. The present MT study rules out fluidsand melt (magma) as the causative factors that triggered the Bhuj earthquake. The estimated porosity value of 0.02% will explain 100-500 ohm·m resistivity values observed in the lower crust. Based on the seismic velocities and geochemical studies, presence of garnet is inferred. The lower crust consists of basalts - probably generated by partial melting of metasomatised garnet peridotite at deeper depths in the lithosphere - and their composition might be modified by reaction with the spinel peridotites.

Combined use of the GGSFT data base and on Board Marine Collected Data to Model the Moho Beneath the Powell Basin, Antarctica

The Powell Basin is a small oceanic basin located at the NE end of the Antarctic Peninsula developed during the Early Miocene and mostly surrounded by the continental crusts of the South Orkney Microcontinent, South Scotia Ridge and Antarctic Peninsula margins. Gravity data from the SCAN 97 cruise obtained with the R/V Hespérides and data from the Global Gravity Grid and Sea Floor Topography (GGSFT) database (Sandwell and Smith, 1997) are used to determine the 3D geometry of the crustal-mantle interface (CMI) by numerical inversion methods. Water layer contribution and sedimentary effects were eliminated from the Free Air anomaly to obtain the total anomaly. Sedimentary effects were obtained from the analysis of existing and new SCAN 97 multichannel seismic profiles (MCS). The regional anomaly was obtained after spectral and filtering processes. The smooth 3D geometry of the crustal mantle interface obtained after inversion of the regional anomaly shows an increase in the thickness of the crust towards the continental margins and a NW-SE oriented axis of symmetry coinciding with the position of an older oceanic spreading axis. This interface shows a moderate uplift towards the western part and depicts two main uplifts to the northern and eastern sectors.

R functions for quantifying nonindependence in standard dyadic and SRM designs

Interdependence is the main feature of dyadic relationships and, in recent years, various statistical procedures have been proposed for quantifying and testing this social attribute in different dyadic designs. The purpose of this paper is to develop several functions for this kind of statistical tests in an R package, known as nonindependence, for use by applied social researchers. A Graphical User Interface (GUI) is also developed to facilitate the use of the functions included in this package. Examples drawn from psychological research and simulated data are used to illustrate how the software works.

Some common indexes of group diversity: upper boundaries

Workgroup diversity can be conceptualized as variety, separation, or disparity. Thus, the proper operationalization of diversity depends on how a diversity dimension has been defined. Analytically, the minimal diversity must be obtained when there are no differences on an attribute among the members of a group, however maximal diversity has a different shape for each conceptualization of diversity. Previous work on diversity indexes indicated maximum values for variety (e.g., Blau"s index and Teachman"s index), separation (e.g., standard deviation and mean Euclidean distance), and disparity (e.g., coefficient of variation and the Gini coefficient of concentration), although these maximum values are not valid for all group characteristics (i.e., group size and group size parity) and attribute scales (i.e., number of categories). We demonstrate analytically appropriate upper boundaries for conditional diversity determined by some specific group characteristics, avoiding the bias related to absolute diversity. This will allow applied researchers to make better interpretations regarding the relationship between group diversity and group outcomes.

El significado de las ocupaciones en las personas mayores-jóvenes: algunas tendencias

Con la llegada del nuevo paradigma del “envejecimiento activo” planteado por la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS, 2002), estamos asistiendo a una nueva manera de enfocar el progresivo envejecimiento de la población. Este enfoque trata de fomentar la consecución de una esperanza de vida saludable y libre de discapacidad, gracias a la promoción de políticas y programas cuyos objetivos principales se centran en la independencia y en la autonomía a lo largo del proceso de envejecimiento. Acorde con este enfoque pensamos que las ocupaciones significativas son una buena herramienta para mantener la autonomía de estas personas al fomentar la prevención y la promoción de su salud, motivo por el cual desarrollamos este estudio. Los objetivos principales del presente estudio son conocer y comprender que ocupaciones adquieren un significado y satisfacción personal en las personas mayores-jóvenes, que han concluido su etapa laboral, que cuentan con buena salud y condiciones psicofísicas favorables y que viven de manera autónoma en la comunidad, así como explorar también si se establece en estas personas alguna vinculación entre las actividades que eligen desarrollar en la actualidad con su perfil e historia ocupacional previa. Por último, este estudio pretende conocer el tipo de gestión que cada persona prefiere para llevar a cabo las actividades cotidianas que les son más significativas, a partir de los contextos en los que se inscribe. El marco teórico se desarrolla a partir de la conceptualización aportada por diversos autores sobre el envejecimiento activo y la ciencia de la ocupación. La metodología utilizada es de carácter cualitativo, enfocado desde un paradigma constructivista. Los resultados del estudio muestran que se inicia tímidamente un cambio de tendencias en la elección y el significado que las personas mayores-jóvenes atribuyen a sus ocupaciones. Muestran también que las ocupaciones elegidas como más significativas por estas personas mantienen una vinculación con las que ya realizaban con anterioridad a la jubilación, con su historia o perfil 6 ocupacional previo. Y finalmente demuestran que el tipo de gestión que eligen para efectuarlas influye en la elección del entorno donde las llevan a término.

Destination image of Girona: an online text-mining approach

The main objective of this Master Thesis is to discover more about Girona’s image as a tourism destination from different agents’ perspective and to study its differences on promotion or opinions. In order to meet this objective, three components of Girona’s destination image will be studied: attribute-based component, the holistic component, and the affective component. It is true that a lot of research has been done about tourism destination image, but it is less when we are talking about the destination of Girona. Some studies have already focused on Girona as a tourist destination, but they used a different type of sample and different methodological steps. This study is new among destination studies in the sense that it is based only on textual online data and it follows a methodology based on text-miming. Text-mining is a kind of methodology that allows people extract relevant information from texts. Also, after this information is extracted by this methodology, some statistical multivariate analyses are done with the aim of discovering more about Girona’s tourism image

The underestimation of compliance to direct help requests explained by adaptive sampling

Helping behavior is any intentional behavior that benefits another living being or group (Hogg & Vaughan, 2010). People tend to underestimate the probability that others will comply with their direct requests for help (Flynn & Lake, 2008). This implies that when they need help, they will assess the probability of getting it (De Paulo, 1982, cited in Flynn & Lake, 2008) and then they will tend to estimate one that is actually lower than the real chance, so they may not even consider worth asking for it. Existing explanations for this phenomenon attribute it to a mistaken cost computation by the help seeker, who will emphasize the instrumental cost of “saying yes”, ignoring that the potential helper also needs to take into account the social cost of saying “no”. And the truth is that, especially in face-to-face interactions, the discomfort caused by refusing to help can be very high. In short, help seekers tend to fail to realize that it might be more costly to refuse to comply with a help request rather than accepting. A similar effect has been observed when estimating trustworthiness of people. Fetchenhauer and Dunning (2010) showed that people also tend to underestimate it. This bias is reduced when, instead of asymmetric feedback (getting feedback only when deciding to trust the other person), symmetric feedback (always given) was provided. This cause could as well be applicable to help seeking as people only receive feedback when they actually make their request but not otherwise. Fazio, Shook, and Eiser (2004) studied something that could be reinforcing these outcomes: Learning asymmetries. By means of a computer game called BeanFest, they showed that people learn better about negatively valenced objects (beans in this case) than about positively valenced ones. This learning asymmetry esteemed from “information gain being contingent on approach behavior” (p. 293), which could be identified with what Fetchenhauer and Dunning mention as ‘asymmetric feedback’, and hence also with help requests. Fazio et al. also found a generalization asymmetry in favor of negative attitudes versus positive ones. They attributed it to a negativity bias that “weights resemblance to a known negative more heavily than resemblance to a positive” (p. 300). Applied to help seeking scenarios, this would mean that when facing an unknown situation, people would tend to generalize and infer that is more likely that they get a negative rather than a positive outcome from it, so, along with what it was said before, people will be more inclined to think that they will get a “no” when requesting help. Denrell and Le Mens (2011) present a different perspective when trying to explain judgment biases in general. They deviate from the classical inappropriate information processing (depicted among other by Fiske & Taylor, 2007, and Tversky & Kahneman, 1974) and explain this in terms of ‘adaptive sampling’. Adaptive sampling is a sampling mechanism in which the selection of sample items is conditioned by the values of the variable of interest previously observed (Thompson, 2011). Sampling adaptively allows individuals to safeguard themselves from experiences they went through once and turned out to lay negative outcomes. However, it also prevents them from giving a second chance to those experiences to get an updated outcome that could maybe turn into a positive one, a more positive one, or just one that regresses to the mean, whatever direction that implies. That, as Denrell and Le Mens (2011) explained, makes sense: If you go to a restaurant, and you did not like the food, you do not choose that restaurant again. This is what we think could be happening when asking for help: When we get a “no”, we stop asking. And here, we want to provide a complementary explanation for the underestimation of the probability that others comply with our direct help requests based on adaptive sampling. First, we will develop and explain a model that represents the theory. Later on, we will test it empirically by means of experiments, and will elaborate on the analysis of its results.

Estudio de alta resolución de las fallas activas y procesos sedimentarios asociados al Cañón de São Vicente, margen Sudoeste de Iberia

The Southwest Iberian Margin is caracterized by an intense and diffuse seismic activity due to the convergence between Eurasian and African plates...

Deep incision in an Aptian carbonate succession indicates major sea-level fall in the Cretaceous

Long-term relative sea-level cycles (0 5 to 6 Myr) have yet to be fully understood for the Cretaceous. During the Aptian, in the northern Maestrat Basin (Eastern Iberian Peninsula), fault-controlled subsidence created depositional space, but eustasy governed changes in depositional trends. Relative sea-level history was reconstructed by sequence stratigraphic analysis. Two forced regressive stages of relative sea-level were recognized within three depositional sequences. The first stage is late Early Aptian age (intra Dufrenoyia furcata Zone) and is characterized by foreshore to upper shoreface sedimentary wedges, which occur detached from a highstand carbonate platform, and were deposited above basin marls. The amplitude of relative sea-level drop was in the order of tens of metres, with a duration of <1 Myr. The second stage of relative sea-level fall occurred within the Late Aptian and is recorded by an incised valley that, when restored to its pre-contractional attitude, was >2 km wide and cut 115 m down into the underlying Aptian succession. With the subsequent transgression, the incision was back-filled with peritidal to shallow subtidal deposits. The changes in depositional trends, lithofacies evolution and geometric relation of the stratigraphic units characterized are similar to those observed in coeval rocks within the Maestrat Basin, as well as in other correlative basins elsewhere. The pace and magnitude of the two relative sea-level drops identified fall within the glacio-eustatic domain. In the Maestrat Basin, terrestrial palynological studies provide evidence that the late Early and Late Aptian climate was cooler than the earliest part of the Early Aptian and the Albian Stage, which were characterized by warmer environmental conditions. The outcrops documented here are significant because they preserve the results of Aptian long-term sea-level trends that are often only recognizable on larger scales (i.e. seismic) such as for the Arabian Plate.

Deep incision in an Aptian carbonate succession indicates major sea-level fall in the Cretaceous

Long-term relative sea-level cycles (0 5 to 6 Myr) have yet to be fully understood for the Cretaceous. During the Aptian, in the northern Maestrat Basin (Eastern Iberian Peninsula), fault-controlled subsidence created depositional space, but eustasy governed changes in depositional trends. Relative sea-level history was reconstructed by sequence stratigraphic analysis. Two forced regressive stages of relative sea-level were recognized within three depositional sequences. The first stage is late Early Aptian age (intra Dufrenoyia furcata Zone) and is characterized by foreshore to upper shoreface sedimentary wedges, which occur detached from a highstand carbonate platform, and were deposited above basin marls. The amplitude of relative sea-level drop was in the order of tens of metres, with a duration of <1 Myr. The second stage of relative sea-level fall occurred within the Late Aptian and is recorded by an incised valley that, when restored to its pre-contractional attitude, was >2 km wide and cut 115 m down into the underlying Aptian succession. With the subsequent transgression, the incision was back-filled with peritidal to shallow subtidal deposits. The changes in depositional trends, lithofacies evolution and geometric relation of the stratigraphic units characterized are similar to those observed in coeval rocks within the Maestrat Basin, as well as in other correlative basins elsewhere. The pace and magnitude of the two relative sea-level drops identified fall within the glacio-eustatic domain. In the Maestrat Basin, terrestrial palynological studies provide evidence that the late Early and Late Aptian climate was cooler than the earliest part of the Early Aptian and the Albian Stage, which were characterized by warmer environmental conditions. The outcrops documented here are significant because they preserve the results of Aptian long-term sea-level trends that are often only recognizable on larger scales (i.e. seismic) such as for the Arabian Plate.

The Quaternary Active Faults Database of Iberia (QAFI v.2.0)

The Quaternary Active Faults Database of Iberia (QAFI) is an initiative lead by the Institute of Geology and Mines of Spain (IGME) for building a public repository of scientific data regarding faults having documented activity during the last 2.59 Ma (Quaternary). QAFI also addresses a need to transfer geologic knowledge to practitioners of seismic hazard and risk in Iberia by identifying and characterizing seismogenic fault-sources. QAFI is populated by the information freely provided by more than 40 Earth science researchers, storing to date a total of 262 records. In this article we describe the development and evolution of the database, as well as its internal architecture. Aditionally, a first global analysis of the data is provided with a special focus on length and slip-rate fault parameters. Finally, the database completeness and the internal consistency of the data are discussed. Even though QAFI v.2.0 is the most current resource for calculating fault-related seismic hazard in Iberia, the database is still incomplete and requires further review.

Sink limitations to yield in wheat : how could it be reduced?

Further genetic gains in wheat yield are required to match expected increases in demand. This may require the identification of physiological attributes able to produce such improvement, as well as the genetic bases controlling those traits in order to facilitate their manipulation. In the present paper, a theoretical framework of source and sink limitation to wheat yield is presented and the fine-tuning of crop development as an alternative for increasing yield potential is discussed. Following a top-down approach, most crop physiologists have agreed that the main attribute explaining past genetic gains in yield was harvest index (HI). By virtue of previous success, no further gains may be expected in HI and an alternative must be found. Using a bottom-up approach, the present paper firstly provides evidence on the generalized sink-limited condition of grain growth, determining that for further increases in yield potential, sink strength during grain filling has to be increased. The focus should be on further increasing grain number per m2, through fine-tuning pre-anthesis developmental patterns. The phase of rapid spike growth period (RSGP) is critical for grain number determination and increasing spike growth during pre-anthesis would result in an increased number of grains. This might be achieved by lengthening the duration of the phase (though without altering flowering time), as there is genotypic variation in the proportion of pre-anthesis time elapsed either before or after the onset of the stem elongation phase. Photoperiod sensitivity during RSGP could be then used as a genetic tool to further increase grain number, since slower development results in smoother floret development and more floret primordia achieve the fertile floret stage, able to produce a grain. Far less progress has been achieved on the genetic control of this attribute. None of the well-known major Ppd alleles seems to be consistently responsible for RSGP sensitivity. Alternatives for identifying the genetic factors responsible for this sensitivity (e.g. quantitative trait locus (QTL) identification in mapping populations) are being considered.

Relació entre la lateralitat i els aprenentatges escolars

Hi ha molts autors que relacionen els problemes d’aprenentatge d’un nen amb la seva lateralitat, i que atribueixen a la lateralitat contrariada, creuada o no definida els problemes en l’adquisició, entre altres, d’habilitats lectoescriptores. En aquest treball hem passat un test de lateralitat a 170 nens d’entre 6 i 7 anys (primer i segon de primària) amb proves de membre superior, membre inferior i ull, igual com de discriminació de dreta-esquerra i d’orientació espacial. Alhora, els professors tutors han valorat diversos ítems de l’aprenentatge escolar dels nens, amb qüestions sobre la seva comprensió lectora, el seu raonament matemàtic i la seva atenció a classe, entre d’altres. Segons els nostres resultats, els nens amb lateralitat homogènia destra són els que obtenen millors valoracions a tots els ítems d’aprenentatge respecte als homogenis esquerrans, els creuats i els no confirmats; els pocs casos que tenim d’homogenis esquerrans (un 3 % de la mostra) són els que tenen pitjors valoracions. A més a més, els nens que discriminen entre dreta i esquerra també tenen millors aprenentatges que no pas els que no ho fan; també s’orienten bé en l’espai en relació als que s’orienten malament.

Relación entre la lateralidad y los aprendizajes escolares

Muchos son los autores que relacionan los problemas de aprendizaje de un niño con su lateralidad, achacando a la lateralidad contrariada, cruzada o no definida los problemas en la adquisición, entre otras, de habilidades lecto-escritoras. En el presente trabajo hemos pasado un test de lateralidad a 170 niños de entre 6 y 7 años (primero y segundo de primaria) con pruebas de miembro superior, miembro inferior y ojo, así como de discriminación de derecha-izquierda y de orientación espacial. A su vez, los profesores tutores han valorado varios ítems del aprendizaje escolar de los niños, con cuestiones sobre su comprensión lectora, su razonamiento matemático y su atención en clase, entre otras. Según nuestros resultados, los niños con lateralidad homogénea diestra son los que obtienen mejores valoraciones en todos los ítems de aprendizaje con respecto a los homogéneos zurdos, los cruzados y los no confirmados, siendo los pocos casos que tenemos de homogéneos zurdos (un 3% de la muestra) los que tienen peores valoraciones. Además, los niños que discriminan entre derecha e izquierda también tienen mejor sus aprendizajes con respecto a los que no lo hacen, así como los que se orientan bien en el espacio con respecto a los que se orientan mal.