Composition of hydrothermal manifestations in the World Ocean

The monograph summarizes results of studies of hydrothermal fields on the ocean floor, hydrothermal plumes and metalliferous sediments. Hydrothermal ore manifestations formed in different geodynamic settings, with different character of volcanism in different facial conditions of deposition are described. Causes of non-uniformity of hydrothermal system functioning in different parts of the ocean and therefore variability of hydrothermal deposits are under consideration. On the base of found relationships of these irregularities with geodynamics, volcanism and sedimentation a new classification of hydrothermal processes and genetic models of hydrothermal ore formation in the ocean have been created. Regularities of hydrothermal sedimentary material dispersion in bottom waters are discussed.

Paleomagnetic of ODP Hole 197-1203A

On the basis of studies of Holocene samples,submarine basaltic glass (SBG) is thought to be an ideal paleointensity recorder because it contains unaltered single domain magnetic inclusions that yield Thellier paleointensity data of exceptional quality. To be useful as a recorder of the long-term geomagnetic field, older SBG must retain these optimal properties. Here, we examine this issue through rock magnetic and transmission electron microscope (TEM) analyses of Cretaceous SBG recovered at Ocean Drilling Program Site 1203 (northwestern Pacific Ocean). These SBG samples have very low natural remanent magnetization intensities (NRM <50 nAm**2/g) and TEM analyses indicate a correspondingly low concentration of crystalline inclusions. Thellier experiments on samples with the strongest NRM intensity (>5*10**-11 Am**2) show a rapid acquisition of thermoremanent magnetization (TRM) with respect to NRM demagnetization. Taken at face value,this behavior implies magnetization in a very weak (617 WT) ambient field. But monitoring of magnetic hysteresis properties during the Thellier experiments (on subsamples of the SBG samples used for paleointensity determinations) indicates systematic variations in values over the same temperature range where the rapid TRM acquisition is observed. A similar change in properties during heating is observed on monitor SBG specimens using low-temperature data: with progressive heatings the Verwey transition becomes more distinct. We suggest that these experimental data record the partial melting and neocrystallization of magnetic grains in SBG during the thermal treatments required by the Thellier method,resulting in paleointensity values biased to low values. We further propose that this process is pronounced in Cretaceous and Jurassic SBG (relative to Holocene SBG) because devitrification on geologic time scales (i.e., tens of millions of years) lowers the transition temperature at which the neocrystallization can commence. Magnetic hysteresis monitoring may provide a straightforward means of detecting the formation of new magnetic inclusions in SBG during Thellier experiments.

9-28 d of exposure to elevated pCO2 reduces avoidance of predator odour but had no effect on behavioural lateralization or swimming activity in a temperate wrasse(Ctenolabrus rupestris)

Most studies on the impact of near-future levels of carbon dioxide on fish behaviour report behavioural alterations, wherefore abnormal behaviour has been suggested to be a potential consequence of future ocean acidification and therefore a threat to ocean ecosystems. However, an increasing number of studies show tolerance of fish to increased levels of carbon dioxide. This variation among studies in susceptibility highlights the importance of continued investigation of the possible effects of elevated pCO2. Here, we investigated the impacts of increased levels of carbon dioxide on behaviour using the goldsinny wrasse (Ctenolabrus rupestris), which is a common species in European coastal waters and widely used as cleaner fish to control sea lice infestation in commercial fish farming in Europe. The wrasses were exposed to control water conditions (370 µatm) or elevated pCO2 (995 µatm) for 1 month, during which time behavioural trials were performed. We investigated the possible effects of CO2 on behavioural lateralization, swimming activity, and prey and predator olfactory preferences, all behaviours where disturbances have previously been reported in other fish species after exposure to elevated CO2. Interestingly, we failed to detect effects of carbon dioxide for most behaviours investigated, excluding predator olfactory cue avoidance, where control fish initially avoided predator cue while the high CO2 group was indifferent. The present study therefore shows behavioural tolerance to increased levels of carbon dioxide in the goldsinny wrasse. We also highlight that individual fish can show disturbance in specific behaviours while being apparently unaffected by elevated pCO2 in other behavioural tests. However, using experiments with exposure times measured in weeks to predict possible effects of long-term drivers, such as ocean acidification, has limitations, and the behavioural effects from elevated pCO2 in this experiment cannot be viewed as proof that these fish would show the same reaction after decades of evolution.

Calcification rate of massive Porites spp. and Porites rus in the experiment of Moorea

This study tested the hypothesis that the response of corals to temperature and pCO2 is consistent between taxa. Juvenile massive Porites spp. and branches of P. rus from the back reef of Moorea were incubated for 1 month under combinations of temperature (29.3 °C and 25.6 °C) and pCO2 (41.6 Pa and 81.5 Pa) at an irradiance of 599 µmol quanta/m/s. Using microcosms and CO2 gas mixing technology, treatments were created in a partly nested design (tanks) with two between-plot factors (temperature and pCO2), and one within-plot factor (taxon); calcification was used as a dependent variable. pCO2 and temperature independently affected calcification, but the response differed between taxa. Massive Porites spp. was largely unaffected by the treatments, but P. rus grew 50% faster at 29.3 °C compared with 25.6 °C, and 28% slower at 81.5 Pa vs. 41.6 Pa CO2. A compilation of studies placed the present results in a broader context and tested the hypothesis that calcification for individual coral genera is independent of pH, [HCO3]-, and [CO3]2-. Unlike recent reviews, this analysis was restricted to studies reporting calcification in units that could be converted to nmol CaCO3/cm**2/h. The compilation revealed a high degree of variation in calcification as a function of pH, [HCO3]-, and [CO3]2-, and supported three conclusions: (1) studies of the effects of ocean acidification on corals need to pay closer attention to reducing variance in experimental outcomes to achieve stronger synthetic capacity, (2) coral genera respond in dissimilar ways to pH, [HCO3]-, and [CO3]2-, and (3) calcification of massive Porites spp. is relatively resistant to short exposures of increased pCO2, similar to that expected within 100 y.

Effects of elevated CO2 on early life history development of the yellowtail kingfish, Seriola lalandi, a large pelagic fish

An increasing number of studies have examined the effects of elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) and ocean acidification on marine fish, yet little is known about the effects on large pelagic fish. We tested the effects of elevated CO2 on the early life history development and behaviour of yellowtail kingfish, Seriola lalandi. Eggs and larvae were reared in current day control (450 µatm) and two elevated CO2 treatments for a total of 6 d, from 12 h post-fertilization until 3 d post-hatching (dph). Elevated CO2 treatments matched projections for the open ocean by the year 2100 under RCP 8.5 (880 µatm CO2) and a higher level (1700 µatm CO2) relevant to upwelling zones where pelagic fish often spawn. There was no effect of elevated CO2 on survival to hatching or 3 dph. Oil globule diameter decreased with an increasing CO2 level, indicating potential effects of elevated CO2 on energy utilization of newly hatched larvae, but other morphometric traits did not differ among treatments. Contrary to expectations, there were no effects of elevated CO2 on larval behaviour. Activity level, startle response, and phototaxis did not differ among treatments. Our results contrast with findings for reef fish, where a wide range of sensory and behavioural effects have been reported. We hypothesize that the absence of behavioural effects in 3 dph yellowtail kingfish is due to the early developmental state of newly hatched pelagic fish. Behavioural effects of high CO2 may not occur until larvae commence branchial acid-base regulation when the gills develop; however, further studies are required to test this hypothesis. Our results suggest that the early stages of kingfish development are tolerant to rising CO2 levels in the ocean.

The Risk of Using the Q Heterogeneity Estimator for Software Engineering Experiments

All meta-analyses should include a heterogeneity analysis. Even so, it is not easy to decide whether a set of studies are homogeneous or heterogeneous because of the low statistical power of the statistics used (usually the Q test). Objective: Determine a set of rules enabling SE researchers to find out, based on the characteristics of the experiments to be aggregated, whether or not it is feasible to accurately detect heterogeneity. Method: Evaluate the statistical power of heterogeneity detection methods using a Monte Carlo simulation process. Results: The Q test is not powerful when the meta-analysis contains up to a total of about 200 experimental subjects and the effect size difference is less than 1. Conclusions: The Q test cannot be used as a decision-making criterion for meta-analysis in small sample settings like SE. Random effects models should be used instead of fixed effects models. Caution should be exercised when applying Q test-mediated decomposition into subgroups.

Origin and patterns of distribution of trace elements in street dust. Unleaded petrol and urban lead

The elemental composition, patterns of distribution and possible sources of street dust are not common to all urban environments, but vary according to the peculiarities of each city. The common features and dissimilarities in the origin and nature of street dust were investigated through a series of studies in two widely different cities, Madrid (Spain) and Oslo (Norway), between 1990 and 1994. The most comprehensive sampling campaign was carried out in the Norwegian capital during the summer of 1994. An area of 14 km2, covering most of downtown Oslo and some residential districts to the north of the city, was divided into 1 km2 mapping units, and 16 sampling increments of approximately 150 g were collected from streets and roads in each of them. The fraction below 100 μm was acid-digested and analysed by ICP-MS. Statistical analyses of the results suggest that chemical elements in street dust can be classified into three groups: “urban” elements (Ba, Cd, Co, Cu, Mg, Pb, Sb, Ti, Zn), “natural” elements (Al, Ga, La, Mn, Na, Sr, Th, Y) and elements of a mixed origin or which have undergone geochemical changes from their original sources (Ca, Cs, Fe, Mo, Ni, Rb, Sr, U). Soil resuspension and/or mobilisation appears to be the most important source of “natural” elements, while “urban” elements originate primarily from traffic and from the weathering and corrosion of building materials. The data for Pb seem to prove that the gradual shift from leaded to unleaded petrol as fuel for automobiles has resulted in an almost proportional reduction in the concentration of Pb in dust particles under 100 μm. This fact and the spatial distribution of Pb in the city strongly suggest that lead sources other than traffic (i.e. lead accumulated in urban soil over the years) may contribute as much lead, if not more, to urban street dust.

An experimental study on the effect of rolling shutters on the field measurements of airborne sound insulation of façades

The façade is the visible part of a building, and generally consists of various different constructive systems. The sound reduction index of the closing elements for the openings on a room’s façade is a determining factor in the sound insulation from airborne noise inside the space. Windows are the transparent part of the façade, and to improve their thermal behaviour and control solar radiation, they are often fitted with a series of external and internal protections such as shutters, slats and blinds. This work contains a summary of studies carried out using field measurements of airborne sound insulation on façades in rooms, in application of the standard UNE-EN ISO 140-5:1999. In all the rooms the windows were fitted with shutter boxes and rolling shutters, and the acoustic tests were made with the shutter in two positions (extended and fully retracted). The results were analysed considering the window opening system (openable or sliding) and the type of glass pane (monolithic or insulating glass unit, IGU). In the case of sliding windows, the airborne sound insulation of façades is greater when the shutter is extended than when it is retracted, and this should be taken into account when applying the aforementioned standard.

The Threads of Biosystems Engineering

The core concepts, or threads, of Biosystems Engineering (BSEN) are variously understood by those within the discipline, but have never been unequivocally defined due to its early stage of development. This makes communication and teaching difficult compared to other well established engineering subjects. Biosystems Engineering is a field of Engineering which int egrates engineering science and design with applied biological, environmental and agricultural sciences. It represents an evolution of the Agricultural Engineering discipline applied to all living organisms not including biomedical applications. The basic key element for the emerging EU Biosystems Engineering program of studies is to ensure that it offers essential minimum fundamental engine ering knowledge and competences . A core curriculum developed by Erasmus Thematic Networks is used as benchmark for Agr icultural and Biosystems Engineering studies in Europe. The common basis of the core curriculum for the discipline across the Atlantic , including a minimum of competences comprising the Biosystems Engineering core competencies, has been defined by an Atlan tis project , but this needs to be taken further by defining the threads linking courses together. This paper presents a structured approach to define the Threads of BSEN . The definition of the mid-level competences and the associated learning outcomes has been one of the objectives of the Atlantis programme TABE.NET. The mid-level competences and learning outcomes for each of six specializations of BSEN are defined while the domain-specific knowledge to be acquired for each outcome is proposed. Once the proposed definitions are adopted, these threads will be available for global development of the BSEN.

Study about the Problem of Dropping of Subjects by Students During an Academinc Year at the University.

In university studies, it is not unusual for students to drop some of the subjects they have enrolled in for the academic year. They start by not attending lectures, sometimes due to neglect or carelessness, or because they find the subject too difficult, this means that they lose the continuity in the topics that the professor follows. If they try to attend again they discover that they hardly understand anything and become discouraged and so decide to give up attending lectures and study on their own. However some fail to turn up to do their final exams and the failure rate of those who actually do the exams is high. The problem is that this is not only the case with one specific subject, but it is often the same with many subjects. The result is that students arent’s productive enough, wasting time and also prolonging their years of study which entails a great cost for families. Degree courses structured to be conducted and completed in three academic courses, it may in fact take up to an average of six or more academic courses. In this paper, we have studied this problem, which apart from the waste of money and time, produces frustration in the student, who finds that he has not been able to achieve what he had proposed at the beginning of the course. It is quite common, to find students who do not even pass nor 50% of the subjects they had enrolled in for the academic year. If this happens repeatedly to a student, it can be the point when he considers dropping out altogether. This is also a concern for the universities, especially in the early courses. In our experience as professors, we have found that students, who attend lectures regularly and follow the explanations, approach the final exams with confidence and rarely fail the subject. In this proposal we present some techniques and methods carried out to solve in possible, the problem of lack of attendance to lectures. This involves "rewarding students for their assistance and participation in lectures". Rewarding assistance with a "prize" that counts for the final mark on the subject and involving more participation in the development of lectures. We believe that we have to teach students to use the lectures as part of their learning in a non-passive way. We consider the professor's work as fundamental in terms of how to convey the usefulness of these topics explained and the applications that they will have for their professional life in the future. In this way the student see for himself the use and importance of what he is learning. When his participation is required, he will feel more involved and confident participating in the educational system. Finally we present statistical results of studies carried out on different degrees and on different subjects over two consecutive years. In the first year we assessed only the final exams without considering the students attendance, or participation. In the second year, we have applied the techniques and methods proposed here. In addition we have compared the two ways of assessing subjects.

Comparison of existing formulae for estimating the overtopping rate in harbour breakwaters

The research that is summarized in this article, resultant of diverse studies realized in the CEDEX, has for object a comparative analysis of methods of overtopping rates developed by different authors. For that, the summary was realized first and the analysis of the existing formulations to estimate the rate of overtopping on rubble mound and vertical breakwaters. Later, there was carried out the contrast of the above mentioned formulations by the results obtained in a serie of hydraulic model tests of the Hydraulic Research Laboratory (the Center of Studies of Ports and Coasts of the CEDEX, Madrid, Spain).

A comparative analysis of ABE Bachelor of Science programs in European and US Universities.

European Universities are involved in series of great changes regarding teaching and education organization during the last few years. The origin of these changes is the creation of the so-called European Higher Education Area (EHEA), which main target is to harmonize the different University studies throughout Europe. As a consequence, most of the programs of studies in all degrees are suffering changes in order to converge to common structures. Taking advantage of the actual process, some European universities are moving from traditional Agricultural Engineering programs to a more wide discipline named recently as Biosystems Engineering, which is a science- based engineering discipline that integrates engineering science and design with applied biological, environmental and agricultural sciences, broadening in this way the area of application of Engineering sciences not strictly to agricultural sciences, but to the biologic al sciences in general, including the agricultural sciences. This paper presents a comparative study of different Bachelor of Science degrees offered by American and European Universities in the field of Agricultural/Biosystems Engineering. To carry out the analysis 40 programs accredited by ABET in American Universities and 50 European programs. Among other questions, the total number of credits, the number of semesters, the kind of modules and the distribution of subjects in groups (Basic Sciences, Engineering Fundamentals, Agricultural/Biological Sciences, Humanities & Economic Sciences, Applied Agricultural/Biological Engineering and electives) are discussed in the paper. The information provided can be an useful starting point in future definitions of new or renewed degrees with the aim of advancing in internationalization of the programs and helping student’s mobility.

Validation of the burn-up code EVOLCODE 2.0 with PWR experimental data and with a Sensitivity/Uncertainty analysis

A validation of the burn-up simulation system EVOLCODE 2.0 is presented here, involving the experimental measurement of U and Pu isotopes and some fission fragments production ratios after a burn-up of around 30 GWd/tU in a Pressurized Light Water Reactor (PWR). This work provides an in-depth analysis of the validation results, including the possible sources of the uncertainties. An uncertainty analysis based on the sensitivity methodology has been also performed, providing the uncertainties in the isotopic content propagated from the cross sections uncertainties. An improvement of the classical Sensitivity/ Uncertainty (S/U) model has been developed to take into account the implicit dependence of the neutron flux normalization, that is, the effect of the constant power of the reactor. The improved S/U methodology, neglected in this kind of studies, has proven to be an important contribution to the explanation of some simulation-experiment discrepancies for which, in general, the cross section uncertainties are, for the most relevant actinides, an important contributor to the simulation uncertainties, of the same order of magnitude and sometimes even larger than the experimental uncertainties and the experiment- simulation differences. Additionally, some hints for the improvement of the JEFF3.1.1 fission yield library and for the correction of some errata in the experimental data are presented.

Applied genre analysis: the case of introductions in spanish teacher trainees curricular design documents

A host of studies over the years have been published on introductions to research articles across a variety of fields. However, much less attention has been paid to professional or workplace introductions as well as student written introductions. This study aims to redress this imbalance by studying the writing samples of four primary English teacher trainees’ introductions to curricular design i.e. the document candidates must present to an examination board in Spain. This genre can be considered occluded in that exemplars are private and confidential and not readily available to the aspiring candidate. Three recurrent moves were identified, namely, explaining the importance of curricular design, providing background and defining concepts. Instances of self-glorification (Bhatia 1996) were revealed. The implications of the findings can have a positive effect on students’ future writing. RESUMEN. Se han publicado varios estudios en los últimos años sobre las introducciones de los artículos de investigación en varios campos. Sin embargo, se ha prestado mucha menor atención a las introducciones en los ámbitos profesionales o las introducciones en el lugar de trabajo, así como a las introducciones escritas por estudiantes. Este estudio tiene por objeto corregir este desequilibrio mediante el análisis de cuatro introducciones redactadas por candidatos para las oposiciones públicas de profesores de inglés de primaria. Este género se puede considerar oculto puesto que las muestras de dichas introducciones no están publicadas. El análisis de estas introducciones muestra que hay tres movimientos recurrentes: una explicación de la importancia del diseño curricular, definición del contexto educativo y, por último, definición de conceptos. Hay ejemplos en este estudio empírico de auto-promoción (Bhatia 1996). Las implicaciones de los resultados pueden tener un efecto positivo en la escritura de estos estudiantes en el futuro.

Molecular characterization of Glu-B3 locus in wheat cultivars and segregating populations

Bread wheat quality constitutes a key trait for the demands of the baking industry as well as the broad consumer preferences. The role of the low molecular weight glutenin subunits (LMW-GS) with regard to bread quality is so far not well understood owing to their genetic complexity and to the use of different nomenclatures and standards for the LMW-GS assignment by different research groups, which has made difficult the undertaking of association studies between genotypes and bread quality. The development of molecular markers to carry out genetic characterization and allele determination is demanding. Nowadays, the most promising LMW gene marker system is based on PCR and high resolution capillary electrophoresis for the simultaneous analysis of the complete multigene family. The molecular analysis of the bread wheat Glu-B3 locus in F2 and F4:6 populations expressed the expected one-locus Mendelian segregation pattern, thus validating the suitability of this marker system for the characterization of LMW-GS genes in segregating populations, allowing for the successful undertaking of studies related to bread-making quality. Moreover, the Glu-B3 allele characterization of standard cultivars with the molecular marker system has revealed its potential as a complementary tool for the allelic determination of this complex multigene family.