Big and Little OER

Much of the attention around OERs has been on institutional projects which make explicit learning content available. These can be classified as 'big OER' but another form of OER is that of small scale, individually produced resources using web 2.0 type services, which are classified as 'little OER'. This paper examines some of the differences between the use of these two types of OER to highlight issues in open education. These include attitudes towards reputation, the intentionality of the resource, models of sustainability, the implicit affordances of resources and the context of their hosting sites.

Després del Big Bang: les forces de canvi i la formació electrònica

Pete Johnston fa un repàs del què poden representar els desenvolupaments recents en el camp de la formació electrònica per als professionals que es fan càrrec dels recursos d'informació requerits com a suport a l'ensenyament i l'aprenentatge.

Modelling of bird distribution under complex mediterranean landscape dynamics: open habitat birds and fire (MEDFIRE)

Report for the scientific sojourn at the Simon Fraser University, Canada, from July to September 2007. General context: landscape change during the last years is having significant impacts on biodiversity in many Mediterranean areas. Land abandonment, urbanisation and specially fire are profoundly transforming large areas in the Western Mediterranean basin and we know little on how these changes influence species distribution and in particular how these species will respond to further change in a context of global change including climate. General objectives: integrate landscape and population dynamics models in a platform allowing capturing species distribution responses to landscape changes and assessing impact on species distribution of different scenarios of further change. Specific objective 1: develop a landscape dynamic model capturing fire and forest succession dynamics in Catalonia and linked to a stochastic landscape occupancy (SLOM) (or spatially explicit population, SEPM) model for the Ortolan bunting, a species strongly linked to fire related habitat in the region. Predictions from the occupancy or spatially explicit population Ortolan bunting model (SEPM) should be evaluated using data from the DINDIS database. This database tracks bird colonisation of recently burnt big areas (&50 ha). Through a number of different SEPM scenarios with different values for a number of parameter, we should be able to assess different hypothesis in factors driving bird colonisation in new burnt patches. These factors to be mainly, landscape context (i.e. difficulty to reach the patch, and potential presence of coloniser sources), dispersal constraints, type of regenerating vegetation after fire, and species characteristics (niche breadth, etc).

Accounting for Big City Growth in Low Paid Occupations: Immigration and/or Service Class Consumption

Growth of 'global cities' in the 1980s was supposed to have involved an occupational polarisation, including growth of low paid service jobs. Though held to be untrue for European cities, at the time, some such growth did emerge in London a decade later than first reported for New York. The question is whether there was simply a delay before London conformed to the global city model, or whether another distinct cause was at work in both cases. This paper proposes that the critical factor in both cases was actually an upsurge of immigration from poor countries providing an elastic supply of cheap labour. This hypothesis and its counterpart based on growth in elite jobs are tested econometrically for the British case with regional data spanning 1975-2008, finding some support for both effects, but with immigration from poor countries as the crucial influence in late 1990s London. Keywords: regional labour markets; wages; employment; international migration; consumer demand JEL Codes: J21, J23, F22, R12

New insights on river water chemistry by using non-centred simplicial principal component analysis: a case study

The use of perturbation and power transformation operations permits the investigation of linear processes in the simplex as in a vectorial space. When the investigated geochemical processes can be constrained by the use of well-known starting point, the eigenvectors of the covariance matrix of a non-centred principalcomponent analysis allow to model compositional changes compared with a reference point.The results obtained for the chemistry of water collected in River Arno (central-northern Italy) have open new perspectives for considering relative changes of the analysed variables and to hypothesise the relative effect of different acting physical-chemical processes, thus posing the basis for a quantitative modelling

A Factor analysis of hidrochemical composition of Llobregat river basin

Hydrogeological research usually includes some statistical studies devised to elucidate mean background state, characterise relationships among different hydrochemical parameters, and show the influence of human activities. These goals are achieved either by means of a statistical approach or by mixing modelsbetween end-members. Compositional data analysis has proved to be effective with the first approach, but there is no commonly accepted solution to the end-member problem in a compositional framework.We present here a possible solution based on factor analysis of compositions illustrated with a case study.We find two factors on the compositional bi-plot fitting two non-centered orthogonal axes to the most representative variables. Each one of these axes defines a subcomposition, grouping those variables thatlay nearest to it. With each subcomposition a log-contrast is computed and rewritten as an equilibrium equation. These two factors can be interpreted as the isometric log-ratio coordinates (ilr) of three hiddencomponents, that can be plotted in a ternary diagram. These hidden components might be interpreted as end-members.We have analysed 14 molarities in 31 sampling stations all along the Llobregat River and its tributaries, with a monthly measure during two years. We have obtained a bi-plot with a 57% of explained totalvariance, from which we have extracted two factors: factor G, reflecting geological background enhanced by potash mining; and factor A, essentially controlled by urban and/or farming wastewater. Graphicalrepresentation of these two factors allows us to identify three extreme samples, corresponding to pristine waters, potash mining influence and urban sewage influence. To confirm this, we have available analysisof diffused and widespread point sources identified in the area: springs, potash mining lixiviates, sewage, and fertilisers. Each one of these sources shows a clear link with one of the extreme samples, exceptfertilisers due to the heterogeneity of their composition.This approach is a useful tool to distinguish end-members, and characterise them, an issue generally difficult to solve. It is worth note that the end-member composition cannot be fully estimated but only characterised through log-ratio relationships among components. Moreover, the influence of each endmember in a given sample must be evaluated in relative terms of the other samples. These limitations areintrinsic to the relative nature of compositional data

The Big Band Theory : català col·loquial i humor científic. Proposta de traducció del capítol pilot

Aquest treball elabora una proposta de traducció per al doblatge del capítol pilot de The Big Bang Theory, que combina llenguatge col•loquial i llenguatge científic.L’objectiu és doble: elaborar un llenguatge col•loquial creïble però a la vegada genuí i emprar els equivalents catalans adequats per als termes científics originals.

Asymmetric effects of monetary policy in the US: Positive vs. negative or big vs. small?

This paper reconsiders the empirical evidence on the asymmetricoutput effects of monetary policy. Asymmetric effects is a common feature ofmany theoretical models, and there are many different versions of suchasymmetries. We concentrate on the distinctions between positive andnegative money-supply changes, big and small changes in money-supply, andpossible combinations of the two asymmetries. Earlier research has foundempirical evidence in favor of the former of these in US data. Using M1 asthe monetary variable we find evidence in favor of neutrality of big shocksand non-neutrality of small shocks. The results may, however, be affected bystructual instability of M1 demand. Thus, we substitute M1 with the federalfunds rate. In these data we find that only small negative shocks affectreal aggregate activity. The results are interpreted in terms of menu-costmodels.

Comparative study of algal communities in acid and alkaline waters from Tinto, Odiel and Piedras river basins (SW Spain)

The distribution patterns of benthic algal assemblages in the Tinto, Odiel and Piedras rivers were analyzed during the winter of 2005 in 18 sampling stations. The main objective was to assess and compare the algal communities and parameters affecting them both in the zones affected by acid mine drainage (AMD) and in naturally alkaline waters. A total of 108 benthic diatom taxa and 31 non-diatom taxa were identi ed. Results showed large differences between algal communities in the two environments: Pinnularia acoricola, P. subcapitata and Eunotia exigua were the most frequent diatom taxa in regions affected by acid mine drainage, along with algae like Klebsormidium and Euglena mutabilis were the most relevant non-diatom taxa. In alkaline waters the dominant diatom taxa were Planothidium frequentissimum, Gomphonema angustum, Fragilaria capucina, and some species of Navicula (N. viridula, N. veneta or N. radiosa), accompanied by Oscillatoria and Anabaena as well as by streptophytes of the group of zygnemataceae and desmidiaceae

On the spread of the European catfish (Silurus glanis) in the Iberian Peninsula: first record in the Llobregat river basin

The first record of the European catfish (Silurus glanis L. 1758) introduced to the Llobregat river basin (NE Spain) is reported. We captured one individual of this silurid fish species (of a total of 541 fish) in La Baells reservoir on 30 August 2006. Given the low catchability of this fish species, the popularity among some anglers, and old rumours on this introduction, we hypothesize that this species has been present in the reservoir since a few years ago, despite we did not capture it in two previous surveys. The illegal introduction of this and other exotic species to other Iberian river basins should be prevented by the Spanish administration

Estudi de software lliure en diferents entorns

El software lliure està tenint últimament un pes cada cop més important en les empreses, però encara és el gran desconegut per a molta gent. Des de la seva creació als anys 80 fins ara, hi ha hagut un creixement exponencial de software lliure de gran qualitat, oferint eines per a tot tipus de necessitats, eines ofimàtiques, gestors de correu, sistemes de fitxer, sistemes operatius…. Tot aquest moviment no ha passat desapercebut per a molts usuaris i empreses, que s’han aprofitat d’ell per cobrir les seves necessitats. Pel que fa a les empreses, cada cop n’hi ha més que en petita o gran mesura, utilitzen el software lliure, ja sigui per el seu menor cost d’adquisició, o bé per la seva gran fiabilitat o per que és fàcilment adaptable o per no establir cap lligam tecnològic, en definitiva per tenir més llibertat. En el moment de la creació d’una nova empresa, on es parteix de zero en tota la tecnologia informàtica, és el moment menys costòs d’implementar l’arquitectura informàtica amb software lliure, és quan l’impacte que té sobre l’empresa, usuaris i clients és menor. En les empreses que ja tenen un sistema informàtic, caldrà establir un pla de migració, ja sigui total o parcial. La finalitat d’aquest projecte no és la de dir quin software és millor que l’altre o de dir quin s’ha d’instal•lar, sinó el de donar a conèixer el món del software lliure, mostrar part d’aquest software, fer alguna comparativa de software lliure amb software propietari, donant idees i un conjunt de solucions per a empreses, per què una empresa pugui agafar idees d’implementació d’algunes de les solucions informàtiques exposades o seguir algun dels consells proposats. Actualment ja hi ha moltes empreses que utilitzen software lliure. Algunes només n’utilitzen una petita part en les seves instal•lacions, ja que el fet de que una empresa funcioni al 100% amb software lliure, tot i que n’hi comença ha haver, de moment ho considero una mica arriscat, però que en poc temps, aquest fet serà cada cop més habitual.

DOI: The "Big Brother" in the dissemination of scientific documentation

Rapid growth in the availability and use of digital documents has prompted the development of instruments to handle them. A most important example of these instruments are digital identifiers, which provide a codification system that allows digital items, usually up to the level of a computer file, to be singled out and located. Digital identifiers make up standardized global systems applied to specific products or areas. They are part of the very many identifiers developed to handle large numbers of items and large amounts of information for transactional purposes, which often have a global span. Digital identifiers include the ubiquitous Global Trade Item Number (GTIN), a code that unequivocally identifies trade items all around the world. The GTIN can take on several configurations depending on its application. These include: EAN-13, EAN-8, EAN-14, and UCC-12. EAN-13 is the code used for retail products in order to facilitate trade at the point of sale; its widely known symbol or graphical form is the EAN/UPC-13 bar code...