Flujo genético y especiación en crustáceos decápodos de agua dulce (Atyaephyra desmarestii complex) y marina (Pagurus forbesii complex) de aguas europeas y africanas

La amplia distribución de Atyaephyra desmarestii s.l. y la naturaleza disjunta de sus poblaciones hace que se trate de un complejo de especies crípticas. El estudio de los genes mitocondriales 16S y COI apoyan la existencia de tres clados de haplotipos. Uno con la mayoría de las poblaciones de Europa y norte de África (A. desmarestii desmarestii); otro con las poblaciones griegas, que tentativamente deben ser asociadas con A. stankoi, y un tercero de Irak, que podría corresponderse con A. mesopotamica o A. orientalis. De los datos moleculares también se deduce que A. rosiana de Portugal es sinónimo de A. desmarestii. En un segundo estudio, centrado en Grecia se han identificado morfológica y molecularmente cuatro especies (A. stankoi, A. thyamisensis, A. strymonensis y A. desmarestii). A. acheronensis de Christodoulou et al. (2012) debe considerarse sinonimia de A. desmarestii. Se aportan datos morfológicos para todas las especies. Asimismo, se compara el patrón de distribución de los cromatóforos de las larvas Zoea II de A. thyamisensis y A. desmarestii, mostrando que es un carácter útil para diferenciar especies crípticas (adultos). La distribución de las especies griegas muestra 3 áreas, que están relacionadas con la paleogeografía de los Balcanes. La captura de ejemplares de Dugastella marocana en Marrakech amplía su área de distribución. La existencia de larvas Zoea II en su cámara incubadora demuestra un cuidado parental extendido, muy raro, que puede considerarse como característico del género. Por otro lado, el estudio morfológico de un gran número de ejemplares de Pagurus forbesii complex, del mar de Alborán, ha permitido: (1) ratificar que Pagurus sculptimanus es sinónimo de P. forbesii; (2) definir caracteres morfológico útiles en taxonomía y (3) la creación de una nueva especie "P. pseudosculptimanus". Los datos moleculares ratifican la separación de ambas especies y muestran que las agrupaciones establecidas para el género Pagurus deben ser revisadas. Finalmente se aporta una revisión de las especies del género Pagurus del Atlántico Oriental y Mediterráneo

Las comunidades de crustáceos decápodos de fondos litorales del mar de Alborán (España, Mediterráneo occidental): variabilidad espacial y temporal

The structure of decapod crustacean assemblages living in shallow waters (5 to 25 m depth) in an area of the Alborán Sea (Mediterranean Sea) neighbouring the Strait of Gibraltar was studied. The relatively high richness found in this area is probably due to the diversity of substrata and the confluence of Atlantic and Mediterranean waters. The most abundant species was the hermit crab Diogenes pugilator due to the prevalence of sandy substrate, the shallow depth-range, and the species’ life history. The coralligenous bottom showed the highest species richness and diversity values due to the complexity of microhabitats in this type of bottom and probably due to the food flux associated with currents. Conversely, shallow, well calibrated, fine to medium sandy bottoms of 5 m had the lowest values and the maximum densities due to the high abundance of a few well adapted species. The analysis of the different stations showed significant spatial differences according to depth and sedimentary characteristics. Depth is the environmental variable that correlates best with the decapod assemblages, with a particularly significant boundary between 5 m and 15 m. Nevertheless, there was a continuous transition between the assemblages. These results evidence the importance of quantitative studies in differentiating decapod assemblages. Relationships between these assemblages should also be taken into account in coastal management, since altering a substrate could have repercussions for the structure of the communities of neighbouring substrates. No seasonal significant differences were found in the overall analysis of the area, but there were differences between spring and autumn and spring and summer in relation to depth and substrate (crossed analysis). Finally, we present the species which allow us to discriminate the different assemblages according to sediment and depth, as well as the species’ contributions.Se ha analizado la estructura de las comunidades de decápodos de fondos poco profundos (5 a 25 m) de una zona del Mar de Alborán (Mediterráneo) próxima al Estrecho de Gibraltar. La relativamente alta riqueza específica hallada se debe probablemente a la variedad de sustratos y a la confluencia de aguas atlánticas y mediterráneas. La especie más abundante fue Diogenes pugilator, debido a la naturaleza del sustrato dominante, el rango batimétrico analizado y la biología de la especie. Los valores más altos de riqueza específica y diversidad se encontraron en fondos coralígenos, como consecuencia de la mayor complejidad de microhábitats y probablemente por el flujo de alimento asociado a corrientes. Contrariamente, los valores más bajos y las mayores densidades se hallaron en los fondos superficiales de arenas finas-medias bien calibradas de 5 m. Esto último es debido a las fuertes dominancias de unas pocas especies bien adaptadas. El análisis de las muestras indicó diferencias espaciales significativas según el tipo de sedimento y profundidad (ésta fue la variable mejor correlacionada con los agrupamientos faunísticos), con una frontera más marcada entre los 5 - 15 metros. En cualquier caso resulta obvia la existencia de una continuidad – relación entre las diferentes comunidades. Estos datos apoyan la importancia de los estudios cuantitativos a la hora de la caracterización de las comunidades de decápodos, pues una actuación sobre un sustrato puede repercutir sobre la estructura de las comunidades de otros fondos colindantes. Por otro lado, no se encontraron diferencias temporales significativas en el conjunto de la comunidad de decápodos de la zona, pero los análisis por profundidades y substratos mostraron diferencias entre primavera y otoño y primavera y verano. Finalmente, se indican las especies que mejor contribuyen a discriminar los distintos tipos de fondos con sus grados de contribución

Andean Mountain Groundwater, Drinking Water Sources, and Vulnerability: A Case Study in Central Chile

This chapter presents a study of the Diguillín basin in central Chile where geology is dominated by the Nevados del Chillan volcanic complex. The headwater of the basin has two watersheds: Renegado creek and Alto Diguillín. The hydrogeology was studied using field surveys, streamflow gauging, environmental tracers, and a hydrological model. Surface water balance does not fit for both watersheds because there is a deficit/excess of superficial runoff. Renegado soils are predominantly sands over a basement composed of fractured rock; infiltration of rain and snowmelt predominates over surface runoff, resulting in about 5 m3/s of depth groundwater that flows to the Diguillín River, discharging in a cluster of springs located 3 km downstream of the surface connection. Therefore, drinking water availability for the communities located at the Renegado watershed is limited to some springs that are located around the valley. There is a significant expansion of second home construction in the area of the Renegado watershed; because of its skiing and hot springs, it is a major tourism center. Due to the extensive use of septic tanks, located above the highly permeable soils that overlie the fractured rock aquifer, there is concern about how water quality may be affected

Occupations and the recent trends in wage inequality in Europe

We aim to contribute to a better understanding of the role that occupations played in recent trends in wage inequality in some European countries. Using EU-SILC data, we observe that most of the changes in wage inequality between 2005 and 2014 were the result of changes in the distribution of wages within occupations. A longer term approximation using data from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) shows similar patterns. We conclude that occupational dynamics did not drive recent trends in wage inequality in Europe

Software tools for conducting bibliometric analysis in science: An up-to-date review

Bibliometrics has become an essential tool for assessing and analyzing the output of scientists, cooperation between universities, the effect of state-owned science funding on national research and development performance and educational efficiency, among other applications. Therefore, professionals and scientists need a range of theoretical and practical tools to measure experimental data. This review aims to provide an up-to-date review of the various tools available for conducting bibliometric and scientometric analyses, including the sources of data acquisition, performance analysis and visualization tools. The included tools were divided into three categories: general bibliometric and performance analysis, science mapping analysis, and libraries; a description of all of them is provided. A comparative analysis of the database sources support, pre-processing capabilities, analysis and visualization options were also provided in order to facilitate its understanding. Although there are numerous bibliometric databases to obtain data for bibliometric and scientometric analysis, they have been developed for a different purpose. The number of exportable records is between 500 and 50,000 and the coverage of the different science fields is unequal in each database. Concerning the analyzed tools, Bibliometrix contains the more extensive set of techniques and suitable for practitioners through Biblioshiny. VOSviewer has a fantastic visualization and is capable of loading and exporting information from many sources. SciMAT is the tool with a powerful pre-processing and export capability. In views of the variability of features, the users need to decide the desired analysis output and chose the option that better fits into their aims

La evaluación psicológica forense frente a la evaluación clínica: propuestas y retos de futuro

En este estudio teórico se hace una revisión sobre los nuevos desarrollos para el uso efectivo de la evaluación psicológica en la práctica forense, adaptando la terminología psicológica al lenguaje jurídico, a la vez que se resaltan las diferencias más notables entre la evaluación clínica y la evaluación pericial. Se analizan algunos instrumentos específicos de evaluación surgidos en el contexto forense, como las escalas de predicción del riesgo de violencia y el procedimiento de validez del testimonio en los casos de abuso sexual infantil. Asimismo se aborda el problema del control de la simulación y de la detección del engaño, uno de los principales obstáculos a los que se ha de hacer frente en el ámbito forense. Se presta una atención específica a los problemas técnicos planteados por los dictámenes periciales, así como a los aspectos éticos referidos a ellos. Por último, se señalan propuestas prácticas de aplicación y se comentan las implicaciones de este estudio para investigaciones futuras

Inconsistencies between mental fatigue measures under compensatory control theories

Mental fatigue has traditionally been defined as a condition of reduced cognitive efficiency and performance, accompanied by a subjective feeling of fatigue. Even though we could expect to find associations between the three defining characteristic of mental fatigue (performance impairment, physiological deactivation and subjective fatigue), research has shown that the emergence of inconsistencies between measures is more frequent than one might expect: people proved capable of maintaining adequate performance levels even after having declared themselves fatigued. This could be explained under the compensatory control mechanism models, which state that humans are able to provide additional resources under demanding conditions, but only at the expense of psychophysiological cost and subjective fatigue. We tested this explanation by manipulating task complexity and time performing a simulated air-traffic control task. We collected psychophysiological, performance and subjective data. A decrease in pupil size was seen in the low-aircraft-density condition, while pupil size remained constant in the high-aircraft-density condition. Participants’ task performance was optimal in both conditions, though they showed an increase in subjective feelings of fatigue, especially in the high-complexity task condition. Thus, complexity seemed to trigger compensatory mechanisms, which reallocated extra resources that physiologically activated participants in order to deal with a higher complexity task, whereas subjective fatigue could be acting as a signal to the organism of impending resource depletion. Our findings support compensatory control theories and offer an explanation of inconsistencies between fatigue measures. Further research on compensatory mechanisms is needed to enable better management of fatigue effects to prevent work-related accidents.Spanish Ministry of Industry PI-1461/201

Efficient Model-Based 3D Tracking of Deformable Objects

Efficient incremental image alignment is a topic of renewed interest in the computer vision community because of its applications in model fitting and model-based object tracking. Successful compositional procedures for aligning 2D and 3D models under weak-perspective imaging conditions have already been proposed. Here we present a mixed compositional and additive algorithm which is applicable to the full projective camera case

A model of brightness variations due to illumination changes and non-rigid motion using spherical harmonics

Pixel brightness variations in an image sequence depend both on the objects ‘surface reflectance and on the motion of the camera and object. In the case of rigid shapes some proposed models have been very successful explaining the relation among these strongly coupled components. On the other hand, shapes which deform pose new challenges since the relation between pixel brightness variation with non-rigid motion is not yet clear. In this paper, we introduce a new model which describes brightness variations with two independent components represented as linear basis shapes. Lighting influence is represented in terms of Spherical Harmonics and non-rigid motion as a linear model which represents image coordinates displacement. We then propose an efficient procedure for the estimation of this image model in two distinct steps. First, shape normal’s and albedo are estimated using standard photometric stereo on a sequence with varying lighting and no deformable motion. Then, given the knowledge of the object’s shape normal’s and albedo, we efficiently compute the 2D coordinates bases by minimizing image pixel residuals over an image sequence with constant lighting and only non-rigid motion. Experiments on real tests show the effectiveness of our approach in a face modelling context