El metamorfismo hercínico de la Sierra de la Demanda (Provincias de Logroño y Burgos).

Se estudian los principales rasgos del metamorfismo hercínico de los materiales paleozoicos de la Sierra de la Demanda, en base a la caracterización de minerales arcillosos y micáceos. Asimismo, se considera su posible relación con otras áreas cercanas, con caracteres geológicos similares

El metamorfismo de bajo y muy bajo grado de los materiales carboníferos del área hercinica de Sierra Morena.

Se definen las características del metamorfismo regional hercínico que afecta a los materiales carboníferos de Sierra Morena así como sus relaciones con las series Devónicas y del Paleozoico Inferior. Se analiza la influencia del metamorfismo de contacto producido por intrusiones plutónicas

Climatic applicability of downdraught evaporative cooling in the United States of America

The potential for application of downdraught cooling in the United States of America (U.S.) depends on its climatic characteristics. However, due to the large geographic span of the country, it varies due to differences in latitude, and a range of geographic features influencing climate, including altitude, topography and terrain. This study describes the development of climatic applicability maps of downdraught cooling in the U.S., which can aid designers in the initial identification of the correct cooling strategy for the geographic area of interest. The proposed approach is based on a set of maps, which are derived from two related climatic indexes: dry bulb temperature to wet bulb temperature depression (DBT−WBT), representing the climatic opportunity, and 26ºC minus wet bulb temperature (26ºC−WBT), representing the climatic opportunity against the theoretical cooling requirement for each location. The downdraught cooling strategy and degree of applicability is classified in the map, based on the aforementioned climatic and cooling parameters. Finally, four representative buildings in four different regions with different climatic conditions were selected for climatic analysis. This resulted in the identification of some climate zones for downdraught cooling application in the U.S. and the suggestion of appropriate design strategies for each of them

El metamorfismo de bajo grado en el Paleozoico del sector central de la Cordillera Ibérica

Se describe el metamorfismo de bajo grado en sus aspectos paragenéticos, intensidad y condiciones de las rocas paleozoicas del sector central de la Cordillera Ibérica

Impact of human activity on the thermal behaviour of an unheated church

[EN] A fifteenth-century church in Spain has been studied to determine the temperature changes that occur inside due to the activity and use of the building. Daily thermal amplitude has been employed as a detection system to measure occupation and use. Eleven sensors have been sited around the building, recording temperature data every 10 min over 655 days - including the lockdown period. An exhaustive analysis of temperature data revealed that the high inertia of the church's thermal envelope allows for an almost constant temperature during daily cycles (with variations of less than 2.2 degrees C), independent of weather conditions. In addition, the stratifications occurring are not high and depend on the operation of the building. A change of staff during the period analysed has been detected using this method. The sensors closest to the openings were more affected by the temperature variation, according to the external parameters. It has been possible to see the correlation of daily mean indoor and outdoor temperatures, but we have found that daily outdoor and indoor thermal amplitude were not correlated. Analysis of the temperatures measured suggests that it is possible to detect changes in the normal use of the building.Aparicio Fernandez, CS.; Vivancos, J.; Pérez-Andreu, V.; Molines Cano, J. (2021). Impact of human activity on the thermal behaviour of an unheated church. Case Studies in Thermal Engineering. 28:1-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csite.2021.101599S1112

Abundant bacteria in the proximal and distal intestine of healthy Siberian sturgeons (Acipenser baerii)

The gut microbiota plays a key role in animal health, including immune and metabolic homeostasis. Despite the economic relevance of the sturgeon, studies addressing the gut microbiome of this species are scarce and have focused only on the hindgut. The objective of this work was to use Illumina metabarcoding technology to compare the bacterial microbiomes of two different intestinal locations, the proximal intestine (small intestine) and the distal intestine (hindgut containing the spiral valve), of healthy Siberian sturgeons (Acipenser baerii) reared on two different farms in Spain. Although a high degree of interindividual variability was observed, certain differences between the anatomical parts and between the geographical locations were clear. The results show that the sequences corresponding to the most abundant taxa were the basis for clustering according to anatomical region (proximal and distal intestine), whereas the less abundant taxa were the basis for clustering according to the geographical location of the fish farms. Finally, the results also indicate the existence of certain bacteria that are present in the intestinal tracts of all the fish analyzed in this study; this information may be useful in future studies aiming to establish differences based upon fish health or disease

Traffic signs recognition for detailed digital maps development and driver assistance systems

Digital maps are considered as an additional sensor in many of the new ADAS, but these systems usually require a higher level of accuracy and detail of the maps. Among the important information that the maps should contain are the road geometry and traffic signs. In the first case, it is interesting to use accurate and fast methods for measurement. In the paper, a method based on a datalog vehicle is used. Satellite positioning and inertial measurements systems data are combined and dynamic behavior of the vehicle body is corrected measuring the movements of the suspension system. On the other hand, the information provided by traffic signs and route-guidance signs is extremely important for safe and successful driving. An automatic system that is capable of extracting and identifying these signs automatically would help human drivers enormously; navigation would be easier, allowing them to concentrate on driving the vehicle. A Computer Vision System is used to recognize and classify the different families of traffic signs combining it with GPS information to develop detailed and accurate digital maps. This sign recognition can also be used for real time warnings to the driver. Some results of test carried out in real situations are shown

Microbially-Mediated Fluorescent Organic Matter Transformations in the Deep Ocean. Do the chemical precursors matter?

Original research paperThe refractory nature of marine dissolved organic matter (DOM) increases while it travels from surface waters to the deep ocean. This resistant fraction is in part composed of fluorescent humic-like material, which is relatively difficult to metabolize by deep water prokaryotes, and it can also be generated by microbial activity. It has been recently argued that microbial production of new fluorescent DOM (FDOM) requires the presence of humic precursors in the surrounding environment. In order to experimentally test how the chemical quality of the available organic compounds influences the production of new FDOM, three experiments were performed with bathypelagic Atlantic waters. Microbial communities were incubated in three treatments which differed in the quality of the organic compounds added: (i) glucose and acetate; (ii) glucose, acetate, essential amino acids, and humic acids; and (iii) humic acids alone. The response of the prokaryotes and the production of FDOM were simultaneously monitored. Prokaryotic abundance was highest in treatments where labile compounds were added. The rate of humic-like fluorescence production, scaled to prokaryotic abundance, varied depending on the quality of the additions. The precursor compounds affected the generation of new humic-like FDOM, and the cell-specific production of this material was higher in the incubations amended with humic precursors. Furthermore, we observed that the protein-like fluorescence decreased only when fresh amino acids were added. These findings contribute to the understanding of FDOM variability in deep waters and provide valuable information for studies where fluorescent compounds are used in order to track water masses and/or microbial processes.Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity, CSIC, ESF and Danish Research Council for Independent ResearchVersión del edito

Assessment of oceanographic services for the monitoring of highly anthropised coastal lagoons: The Mar Menor case study

Ocean monitoring systems are designed for continuous monitoring to track their evolution and anticipate environmental issues. However, they are often based on IoT systems that offer little spatial coverage and are hard to maintain. Satellite remote sensing offers good geographical coverage but they also face several challenges to become a monitoring system. This paper introduces an easy-to-use software tool to crawl water-quality data from up to 6 satellite instruments from the ESA and NASA. Particularly, Chl-a data is deeply analyzed in terms of reliability and data coverage for a highly anthropised coastal lagoon (Mar Menor, Spain), where serious socio-environmental issues are happening. Our results show a good linear correlation between in situ data and SRS data, reaching values close to 0.9, and stating the relevance of organic matter inputs from ephemeral streams in Chl-a concentrations. Moreover, temporal granularity is increased from 5 to 1.5 days by combining SRS sources.Preprin