Interplay between the magnetic anisotropy contributions of Cobalt nanowires

We report on the magnetic properties and the crystallographic structure of the cobalt nanowire arrays as a function of their nanoscale dimensions. X-ray diffraction measurements show the appearance of an in-plane HCP-Co phase for nanowires with 50 nm diameter, suggesting a partial reorientation of the magnetocrystalline anisotropy axis along the membrane plane with increasing pore diameter. No significant changes in the magnetic behavior of the nanowire system are observed with decreasing temperature, indicating that the effective magnetoelastic anisotropy does not play a dominant role in the remagnetization processes of individual nanowires. An enhancement of the total magnetic anisotropy is found at room temperature with a decreasing nanowire diameter-to-length ratio (d/L), a result that is quantitatively analyzed on the basis of a simplified shape anisotropy model.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Social Science Teachers’ perspective, purposes and benefits of the Cybermuseum VIRGO 1.1 as a cognitive tool for learning history

This research is the assessment of an authoring and cybermuseum tool, VRIGO 1.1. The assessment was undertaken by Spanish and Latin-American Social Sciences Teachers who took part in a virtual group discussion. Results were analysed through the underlying principles of mindtools proposed by Jonassen and Carr. Results showed that: VIRGO 1.1 can only be used under a constructivist perspective; empowers students in their process of representing their knowledge; support students’ reflective thinking; challenges learners; is a simulation of a real museum; being an authoring tool, students develop an intellectual partnership where their cognitive process is distributed

Editorial: Teaching history in the era of globalization: epistemological and methodological challenges

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need of several changes within the field of History Education. Firstly, the need of a methodological change that integrates active learning methods, digital resources, and emerging technologies in order to attend the non-presential lessons for the students. Secondly, the need of a multicultural approach on teaching history, social, and gender equality moving away from supremacists' dogma. It is necessary for teachers to change their conception of why and for what reasons they teach history. This need has become more acute with the COVID-19 pandemic: fighting vs. hate speeches through argumentation and critical analysis of sources to avoid fake news and to develop a learning perception evidences. This Research Topic is focused both on Primary and Secondary Education, but also on Higher Education, considering History teachers training courses. Particularly, this book focuses to know the development of the skills of active and future History teachers who are trained at programs at universities to bring a profound methodological and content change in the way History is taught..

La mortalidad por cáncer en las comarcas de cataluña (1983–1989)

ResumenObjectivosComparar la mortalidad intercomarcal de Cataluña para algunos de los tumores malignos más frecuentes.MetodologíaSe han analizado los datos globales y de cinco localizaciones tumorales específicas relativos a la mortalidad por cáncer de un período de siete años (1983-1989). Se han obtenido las tasas brutas de mortalidad y las específicas para cada localización analizada. La comparación intercomarcal se ha realizado ajustando las tasas por edad mediante el método directo, tomando como referencia la población de Cataluña de 1986. Se han calculado las razones comparativas de mortalidad (RCM) de cada comarca respecto a Cataluña.ResultadosLa mortalidad global por cáncer es más alta en la comarca del Barcelonés para los hombres y en la de Osona para las mujeres. La RCM de los hombres del Barcelonés es la más alta para el cáncer de tráquea, bronquios y pulmón; la de la comarca del Solsonés es la más alta para el cáncer de estómago, y la de la Cerdanya es la más alta para el cáncer de colon y recto. Entre las mujeres, la RCM más alta para el cáncer de tráquea, bronquios y pulmón la presenta la comarca del Montsiá, para el cáncer de mama la del Baix Empordá y para el cáncer de estómago la del Alt Urgell.ConclusionesEl análisis comparativo de la mortalidad por cáncer, por comarcas y por sexos, permite observar importantes diferencias en la manifestación del fenómeno, lo cual puede orientar de manera más específica las políticas de control del cáncer y de investigación a desarrollar en cada territorio.SummaryObjectivesTo compare mortality among counties (comarques) in Catalonia, Spain for the most frequent malignant tumors.MethodsOverall mortality data and for five specific tumor sites were analyzed for a five-year period (1983-1989). Crude and site-specific mortality rates were computed. The comparison between counties was adjusted for the 1986 population of Catalonia using the direct method. Comparative mortality ratios (CMR) were obtained for each county with respect to Catalonia.ResultsOverall cancer mortality was higher in the Barcelonés for men and in Osona form women. The CMR for men in the Barcelonés was the highest for cancer of the trachea, bronchi and lungs; the CMR in Solsonés was the highest for stomach cancer, while in Cerdanya it was the highest for colorectal cancer. Among women, the highest CMR for cancer of the trachea, bronchi and lungs was in Montsiá, whereas for breast cancer it was Baix Empordá, and Alt Urgell for stomach cancer.ConclusionsComparative analyses of cancer mortality by county in Catalonia and sex underscores differences in its distribution, allowing the orientation of cancer control policies and research to be developed in each geographical area

Educommunication and archaeological heritage in Italy and Spain: an analysis of institutions’ use of Twitter, sustainability, and citizen participation

Improving heritage educommunication on the web 2.0 is key to reaching certain sustainable development goals focused on educational quality and citizen participation. Although numerous partial studies have already been conducted, to date neither assessment tools nor detailed studies are available regarding the quality of educommunicative initiatives. Spain and Italy’s archaeological heritage museums have a consolidated track record on Twitter, which has been bolstered by museum closures due to COVID-19 and has resulted in a significant change to their educommunicative policies. The present article aims to analyze educommunicative actions undertaken on Twitter at Italian archaeological museums, compare their strategies with a previous study on Spanish institutions, and analyze to what degree the sustainability of heritage, citizen participation, learning opportunities, and universal access are being promoted. This mixed method analysis was carried out through the implementation of a web 2.0 heritage educommunication analysis tool focused on three key factors: educational procedure, R-elational interactions, and the prevailing learning paradigm, as well as a content analysis of the variables that comprise them. The key findings suggest that neither country is close to achieving a quality educommunicative strategy. Italian archaeological heritage institutions use Twitter simply as an advertising platform. Despite being a social media platform, participative initiatives are scarcely promoted, although heritage sustainability is promoted through raising awareness of conservation and appreciation. Spanish institutions, however, demonstrated the opposite pattern of use

Management and Productivity of Key Integrated Crop-Livestock Systems in Uruguay: The Palo a Pique Long-Term Experiment’s Third Phase

Integrated Crop Livestock Systems (ICLSs) use productive diversification as a strategy to improve productivity and land use efficiency. Pasture Crop Rotations are a part of ICLSs and imply a pasture phase included in the sequence of crops. The main reasons to include pastures in crop systems are low productivity of natural grasslands and increased crop yield after a pasture phase. Our objective was to analyze the productivity indicators and management of four ICLSs that combine crop and livestock production, with data collected over a 3 y period (2019–2022). The experimental site was The Palo a Pique (Treinta y Tres, Uruguay) long-term experiment installed in 1995, located in the subtropical climate zone and on Oxyaquic Argiudolls soils (3% average slope). Systems evaluated were CC (continuous cropping), SR (two years idem CC, two years of pastures), LR (two years idem CC, four years of pastures) and FR (continuous pasture with Tall Fescue). Liveweight (LW) production, grain production and dry matter (DM) production were evaluated. Liveweight production was higher in CC and SR (426 and 418 kg LW/ha) than in LR (369 kg LW/ha) and FR (310 kg LW/ha). DM production was higher in FR and SR (6867 and 5763 kg DM/ha/year) than in LR (5399 kg DM/ha/year) and CC (5206 kg DM/ha/year). Grain production was 10%, 16% and 9% lower in soybean, wheat and sorghum in CC

Complex temporal patterns processing by a neural mass model of a cortical column

It is well known that neuronal networks are capable of transmitting complex spatiotemporal information in the form of precise sequences of neuronal discharges characterized by recurrent patterns. At the same time, the synchronized activity of large ensembles produces local field potentials that propagate through highly dynamic oscillatory waves, such that, at the whole brain scale, complex spatiotemporal dynamics of electroencephalographic (EEG) signals may be associated to sensorimotor decision making processes. Despite these experimental evidences, the link between highly temporally organized input patterns and EEG waves has not been studied in detail. Here, we use a neural mass model to investigate to what extent precise temporal information, carried by deterministic nonlinear attractor mappings, is filtered and transformed into fluctuations in phase, frequency and amplitude of oscillatory brain activity. The phase shift that we observe, when we drive the neural mass model with specific chaotic inputs, shows that the local field potential amplitude peak appears in less than one full cycle, thus allowing traveling waves to encode temporal information. After converting phase and amplitude changes obtained into point processes, we quantify input–output similarity following a threshold-filtering algorithm onto the amplitude wave peaks. Our analysis shows that the neural mass model has the capacity for gating the input signal and propagate selected temporal features of that signal. Finally, we discuss the effect of local excitatory/inhibitory balance on these results and how excitability in cortical columns, controlled by neuromodulatory innervation of the cerebral cortex, may contribute to set a fine tuning and gating of the information fed to the cortex.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Last-come, best served? Mosquito biting order and Plasmodium transmission

International audienceA pervasive characteristic of parasite infections is their tendency to be overdispersed. Understanding the mechanisms underlying this overdispersed distribution is of key importance as it may impact the transmission dynamics of the pathogen. Although multiple factors ranging from environmental stochasticity to inter-individual heterogeneity may explain parasite overdispersion, parasite infection is also overdispersed in an inbred host population maintained under laboratory conditions, suggesting that other mechanisms are at play. Here, we show that the aggregated distribution of malaria parasites within mosquito vectors is partially explained by a temporal heterogeneity in parasite infectivity triggered by the bites of mosquitoes. Parasite transmission tripled between the mosquito's first and last blood feed in a period of only 3 h. Surprisingly, the increase in transmission is not associated with an increase in parasite investment in production of the transmissible stage. Overall, we highlight that Plasmodium is capable of responding to the bites of mosquitoes to increase its own transmission at a much faster pace than initially thought and that this is partly responsible for overdispersed distribution of infection. We discuss the underlying mechanisms as well as the broader implications of this plastic response for the epidemiology of malaria

By-catch in the Spanish Greenland Halibut Fishery (NAFO Divisions 3LMNO): 1991–94

The species composition of by-catch was studied in the Spanish Greenland halibut (Reinhardtius hippoglossoides) fishery, developed in the NAFO Regulatory Area in Div. 3L, 3M and 3NO, for the period 1991–94. Of the 17 species occurring in the catches, two groups were identified as the more and less frequent species. The more frequent species with an annual yield of about 5 kg/hr were roughhead grenadier, roundnose grenadier, skate, American plaice, redfish, witch flounder and blue antimora. Analyzing the data on a monthly basis revealed some species such as grenadiers, skate and American plaice, particularly in Div. 3N, did not change much while other species had increased yields in recent years. The characteristic species of the demersal fisheries (skate, American plaice) showed a wide bathymetric distribution. The transfer of effort southwards to Div. 3NO in recent years, mainly in the case of small vessels, has meant variation in the composition and relative abundance of by-catch in this fleet. The proportion of each by-catch species was highly variable. Skate, American plaice, witch flounder and grenadiers were caught most frequently in both fleets. In the large vessels, however, blue antimora, redfish and roundnose grenadier were more frequent than in the small vessels. The length distribution in the discarded proportion was analyzed for the two grenadiers, skate and blue antimora. In general, the length distribution of the proportion discarded showed a wide range