Intractable policy failure: the case of bovine TB and badgers

The failure to eliminate bovine TB from the English and Welsh cattle herd represents a long-term intractable policy failure. Cattle-to-cattle transmission of the disease has been underemphasised in the debate compared with transmission from badgers despite a contested evidence base. Archival evidence shows that mythical constructions of the badger have shaped the policy debate. Relevant evidence was incomplete and contested; alternative framings of the policy problem were polarised and difficult to reconcile; and this rendered normal techniques of stakeholder management through co-option and mediation of little assistance

Mechanism of 2003, 2007 and 2009 earthquakes (S. Vicente Cape) and implications for the 1755 Lisbon earthquake

The San Vicente Cape region (SW Iberia) is of great seismological interest due to its tectonic complexity and for the occurrence of the 1755 Lisbon mega-earthquake. A structure capable of generating such large earthquake has not been convincingly found but authors agree with the possible occurrence in the future of a similar earthquake offshore of San Vicente Cape.We have studied the mechanism of three earthquakes in this area: 29 July 2003 (Mw = 5.3), 12 February 2007 (Mw = 6.1) and 17 December 2009 (Mw = 5.5) which throw light on the dynamics of the region. These earthquakes are the largest occurred in the last 40 years at the western of San Vicente Cape. From inversion of body waves and kinematic slip distribution, we have obtained that the three shocks have similar characteristics (dimensions, maximum slip, stress drop, source time function, focal depth and rupture velocity), but we can observe differences on geometry of the rupture that reflect the great seismotectonics complexity of the zone. The 2003 and 2007 focal mechanisms are similar, corresponding to thrusting motion but the 2009 earthquake has dip-slip motion on a vertical plane. The ruptures planes for the three shocks, deduced from the slip distribution, show ruptures on NE-SW planes, with the released energy propagating to NE direction, compatible with the regional horizontal compression in the NW-SE direction produced by the convergence between the Eurasian and African plates. This direction of faulting may be applied to the generation of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, in terms of a complex rupture along NE-SW trending thrust faults at the Gorringe Bank, the Horseshoe Scarp and the Marques de Pombal Fault, with rupture propagating in NE direction toward the coast of Portugal and which may explain the large damage at Lisbon city

Seismic source in the Iberian-African plate boundary

The plate boundary between Iberia and Africa has been studied using data on seismicity and focal mechanisms. The region has been divided into three areas: A; the Gulf of Cadiz; B, the Betics, Alboran Sea and northern Morocco; and C, Algeria. Seismicity shows a complex behavior, large shallow earthquakes (h < 30 km) occur in areas A and C and moderate shocks in area B; intermediate-depth activity (30 < h < 150 km) is located in the depth earthquakes (h » 650 km) are located to the south of Granada. Moment rate, slip velocity and b values have been estimated for shallow shocks, and show similar characteristics for the Gulf of Cadiz and Algeria, and quite different ones for the central region. Focal mechanisms of 80 selected shallow earthquakes (8 ‡ mb ‡ 4) show thrust faulting in the Gulf of Cadiz and Algeria with horizontal NNW-SSE compression, and normal faulting in the Alboran Sea with E-W extension. Focal mechanisms of 26 intermediate-depth earthquakes in the Alboran Sea display vertical motions, with a predominant plane trending E-W. Solutions for very deep shocks correspond to vertical dip-slip along N-S trends. Frohlich diagrams and seismic moment tensors show different behavior in the Gulf of Cadiz, Betic-Alboran Sea and northern Morocco, and northern Algeria for shallow events. The stress pattern of intermediate-depth and very deep earthquakes has different directions: vertical extension in the NW-SE direction for intermediate depth earthquakes, and tension and pressure axes dipping about 45 ° for very deep earthquakes. Regional stress pattern may result from the collision between the African plate and Iberia, with extension and subduction of lithospheric material in the Alboran Sea at intermediate depth. The very deep seismicity may be correlated with older subduction processes

What are we teaching with textbooks? Electricity and electronics on technology 3º ESO

Este trabajo trata de dar respuestas al interrogante: ¿Qué estamos enseñando con los libros de texto en Educación Secundaria Obligatoria? En primer lugar, revisamos los trabajos realizados sobre estos materiales en España y, a pesar de la importancia que tienen en nuestro sistema educativo, no hemos encontrado muchos que se hayan ocupado de aquellos que se elaboraron durante la Reforma LOE. Nos centramos en algunos elementos que consideramos fundamentales en estos recursos didácticos: la estructura de las lecciones y los tipos de contenidos (conceptos, procedimientos y actitudes) a través del análisis de las actividades de aprendizaje planteadas por seis libros de texto de editoriales conocidas, relativas al bloque “Electricidad y electrónica” de Tecnología de 3º ESO, y su adecuación o no a la normativa vigente en la CARM. Los resultados muestran algunas de las carencias y deficiencias existentes, y que los libros de texto, en general, no se acomodan a lo que marca el currículum oficial

The French Model in the Construction of the Spanish State: The Moderate Moment

La versión del editor está disponible en la página web del Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales http://www.cepc.gob.es/publicaciones/revistas/revistaselectronicas?IDR=3La construcción del Estado en España tuvo en la primera mitad del siglo xix un momento especialmente intenso de definición de sus bases doctrinales y de los grandes rasgos de su estructura institucional y territorial. Tras un primer impulso bajo el gobierno reformista del último periodo de Fernando VII, fue en el reinado de Isabel II cuando se dieron los pasos decisivos, bajo la hegemonía política del partido moderado. En ambos periodos, la influencia francesa fue notoria. Autores como Sáinz de Andino, Burgos, Silvela, Ortiz de Zárate, Oliván y Colmeiro tomaron el modelo de Estado de Francia para sustentar un giro político conservador después de desalojar a los progresistas del poder y poner fin a las grandes medidas de la revolución liberal española. La apropiación del modelo francés incluía tanto fórmulas institucionales concretas como un concepto de Estado identificado con la Administración, y también un tipo de Administración específico, fuertemente centralizado, que era el resultado de las reformas de la Monarquía de Julio sobre el modelo napoleónicoIn the first half of the nineteenth century the construction of the Spanish State had an especially intense moment of definition, both of its doctrinal basis and of the broad strokes of its institutional and territorial structure. After a first effort under the reformist government during the final period of Fernando VII, it was during the reign of Isabel II that the decisive steps were taken, now under the political hegemony of the moderate party. During both periods, French influence was notorious. Authors like Sainz de Andino, Burgos, Silvela, Ortiz de Zárate, Oliván, and Colmeiro took up the French model of State to sustain a conservative political turn, following the eviction of the progressives from power, putting an end to the major initiatives of the Spanish liberal revolution. The appropriation of the French model included both specific institutional formulas such as the concept of State identified with the Administration, and a specific type of strongly centralized Administration, which was the result of the reforms of the Napoleonic model by the July Monarch