Shifts in the Ediacaran to Lower Ordovician sedimentary zircon provenances of Northwest Gondwana: the Pyrenean files

Detrital zircon grains from Cambrian–Lower Ordovician sandstones and quartzites sampled in the Pyrenees were dated by LA-ICPMS in order to assess their provenance sources. Resulting age distributions are compared to other available datasets from neighbouring margins, such as Morocco, the Iberian Peninsula, southern France and Sardinia. Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) test and Crystallization Age-Depositional Age (CA-DA) diagrams were used to compare zircon populations estimating their possible correlation with the arc/rift/drift geodynamic evolution of the northwestern Gondwana margin. During Terreneuvian times, zircon populations allowed the distinction of i) a southwesternmost edge (Anti-Atlas-Ossa-Morena Rift) mostly influenced by Panafrican and Anti-Atlasian sources (ca. 0.63–0.54), ii) a northeasternmost edge (Sardinia) recording the influence of the Saharan Metacraton and the Arabian Nubian Shield, with an distinct Stenian–Tonian shift (ca. 1.25–0.85Ga) and iii) an intermediate palaeogeographic transect, where lies the Central-Iberian, West Asturian-Leonese and Cantabrian Zones, the Montagne Noire and the Pyrenees sharing similar populations and a chronologically progressive influence from Anti-Atlasian/Panafrican to Saharan Metacraton/Arabian Nubian Shield sources. This gradual modification in zircon percentage populations supports similar trends based on climatically sensitive indicators, biogeographic patterns of Cambrian Epoch 2 archaeocyathan and microfossil assemblages, and laterally correlatable episodes of carbonate production, all of them pointing to a Cambrian setting for the Pyrenean Basin between the Montagne Noire (Occitan Domain) and the Sardinian margins of NW Gondwana. The Terreneuvian zircon patterns recorded in the Pyrenees gradually evolved from Cambrian Epoch 2 to Early Ordovician times, reflecting the geodynamic evolution from Panafrican and Cadomian arc-related to rift-dominant conditions. During Furongian and Ordovician times, the relative percentage of zircon populations led to a more spread age curve, characteristic of extensional settings and pointing to rift (passive margin) conditions

Development of a Social Gamified Platform for e-Learning

The way in which nowadays education is evolving, makes it possible to associate it with MOOCs courses and gamification techniques to improve learning outcomes of students. To this end, this paper shows the development of an educational e-learning platform built upon the Elgg social framework, where a set of gamification elements were added: Points, achievements, leaderboards and rewards. For the future, effectiveness validations will be carried out with students as well as further developments with other types of gamification elements

The Use of Latent Semantic Indexing to Mitigate OCR Effects of Related Document Images

Due to both the widespread and multipurpose use of document images and the current availability of a high number of document images repositories, robust information retrieval mechanisms and systems have been increasingly demanded. This paper presents an approach to support the automatic generation of relationships among document images by exploiting Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) and Optical Character Recognition (OCR). We developed the LinkDI (Linking of Document Images) service, which extracts and indexes document images content, computes its latent semantics, and defines relationships among images as hyperlinks. LinkDI was experimented with document images repositories, and its performance was evaluated by comparing the quality of the relationships created among textual documents as well as among their respective document images. Considering those same document images, we ran further experiments in order to compare the performance of LinkDI when it exploits or not the LSI technique. Experimental results showed that LSI can mitigate the effects of usual OCR misrecognition, which reinforces the feasibility of LinkDI relating OCR output with high degradation.CNPq[557976/2008-1]FAPESP[05/60038-5]FAPESP[05/60729-8]FAPESP[06/58984-2]FAPESP[09/14292-8]FAPESP[2009/05504-1]Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion[TIN2008-06566-C04-04]FEDERXunta de Galicia[07SIN005206PR]Innolution Sistemas de Informatic

GEODA-SARAS: Multi-Phased array planar antenna for satellite communications

Nowadays, earth stations have as a common feature the use of large reflector antenna for downloading data from satellites. Large reflectors have impairments such as mechanical complexity, low flexibility and high cost. Thus, the feasibility of other antenna technologies must be evaluated, such as conformal adaptive antennas based on multiple planar active arrays. In the scenery under study, the capability to track several satellites simultaneously, higher flexibility, lower production and maintenance cost, modularity and a more efficient use of the spectrum; are the most important advantage to boost up active antenna arrays over large dishes

Radiating element of GEODA-SARAS

This document shows the design of the radiating element of the conformal adaptive antenna of multiple planar arrays GEODA-SARAS. Operating from 2.05 to 2.3 GHz in the S-band with dual circular polarization in Tx and Rx, it is possible to track and communicate with several satellites because of its adaptive beam. The antenna is based on a set of similar triangular arrays which are divided in sub-arrays of five elements called cells

Traumatic brain injury modifies the relationship between physical activity and global and cognitive health : Results from the barcelona brain health initiative

Physical activity has many health benefits for individuals with and without history of brain injury. Here, we evaluated in a large cohort study the impact of physical activity on global and cognitive health as measured by the PROMIS global health and NeuroQoL cognitive function questionnaires. A nested case control study assessed the influence of a history of traumatic brain injury (TBI) on the effects of physical activity since underlying pathophysiology and barriers to physical activity in individuals with TBI may mean the effects of physical activity on perceived health outcomes differ compared to the general population. Those with a history of TBI (n = 81) had significantly lower Global health (β = −1.66, p = 0.010) and NeuroQoL cognitive function (β = −2.65, p = 0.006) compared to healthy adults (n = 405). A similar proportion of individuals in both groups reported being active compared to being insufficiently active ((Formula presented.) = 0.519 p = 0.471). Furthermore, the effect of physical activity on global health (β = 0.061, p = 0.076) and particularly for NeuroQoL (β = 0.159, p = 0.002) was greater in those with a history of TBI. Individuals with a history of TBI can adhere to a physically active lifestyle, and if so, that is associated with higher global and cognitive health perceptions. Adhering to a physically active lifestyle is non-trivial, particularly for individuals with TBI, and therefore adapted strategies to increase participation in physical activity is critical for the promotion of public health

Colombian Forest Monitoring System: Assessing Deforestation in an Environmental Complex Country

Colombia is a key actor related with the adoption of the relevant UNFCC provisions referred in the context of obtaining result-based payments for REDD+ actions. Since 2012, the Colombian Forest Monitoring System (SMByC, Spanish acronym) has generated wall-to-wall historical information about the deforestation process over the last 27 years at national and regional levels. The SMByC generates a methodology that integrates tools for the preprocessing and semi-automated processing of satellite imagery to detect and quantify the loss of forest cover by deforestation. Also, the SMByC has done an extensive literature review, collecting qualitative and quantitative information to identify how the drivers of deforestation (illicit crops, illegal mining and postconflict scenario) could result in an increased forest lost during a postconflict scenario. Given that Colombia is a country conformed by regions that have differentially socioeconomic and environmental conditions, the study shows how the methods could generate official information and specifies the context of deforestation process of those regions

Label-free biosensing for dry eye by Means of BICELLS

The use of Biophotonic Sensing Cells (BICELLs) based on micro-nano pattemed photonic architectures has been recently proven as an efficient methodology for label-free biosensing by using Optical Interrogation [1]. According to this, we have studied the different optical response for a specific typology of BICELL, consisting of structures of SU -8. This material is biocompatible with different types of biomolecules and can be immobilized on its sensing surface. In particular, we have measured the optical response for a biomarker in clinic diagnostic of dry eye. Although different proteins can be enstudied such as: PRDX5, ANXA 1, ANXA 11, CST 4, PLAA Y S 1 OOA6 related with ocular surface (dry eye), for this work PLAA (phospholipase A2) is studied by means of label free biosensing based on BICELLs for analyzing the performance and specificity according with means values of concentration in ROC curves

Estado de México y democracia en los albores del siglo XXI

De acuerdo con su título, este libro, compuesto por seis capítulos y dos anexos, reúne textos relativos a la democracia y al Estado de México, una de las principales entidades federativas de la República Mexicana. La importancia del Estado de México en el contexto nacional es indiscutible: de las 32 entidades que integran el país, es la que tiene más habitantes y electores (el segundo y el tercer lugares en ambos sentidos son ocupados, respectivamente, por el Distrito Federal y Veracruz), en tanto que está en el segundo lugar por el tamaño de su economía (en el primero se ubica el Distrito Federal y en el tercero, Nuevo León)