EDGE: a code to calculate diffusion of cosmic-ray electrons and their gamma-ray emission

The positron excess measured by PAMELA and AMS can only be explained if there is one or several sources injecting them. Moreover, at the highest energies, it requires the presence of nearby ($\sim$hundreds of parsecs) and middle age (maximum of $\sim$hundreds of kyr) source. Pulsars, as factories of electrons and positrons, are one of the proposed candidates to explain the origin of this excess. To calculate the contribution of these sources to the electron and positron flux at the Earth, we developed EDGE (Electron Diffusion and Gamma rays to the Earth), a code to treat diffusion of electrons and compute their diffusion from a central source with a flexible injection spectrum. We can derive the source's gamma-ray spectrum, spatial extension, the all-electron density in space and the electron and positron flux reaching the Earth. We present in this contribution the fundamentals of the code and study how different parameters affect the gamma-ray spectrum of a source and the electron flux measured at the Earth.Comment: Presented at the 35th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2017), Bexco, Busan, Kore

The fossil vertebrates from Somosaguas (Pozuelo, Madrid, Spain)

[ES] Dos yacimientos de vertebrados, situados en el Campus de Somosaguas de la Universidad Complutense (Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid), han proporcionado unos 600 restos identificables en estados de conservación muy variados, pertenecientes a unas veinte especies de tamaños muy diversos, desde mastodontes a musarañas. Su estudio permite fechar su edad en unos 14 m.a. y reconstruir un periodo árido en la cuenca de Madrid, ocupada durante el Mioceno medio por bosques y sabanas subtropicales con fuertes avenidas y sin ríos permanentes. En estos yacimientos se puede realizar una enseñanza práctica de la Paleontología de Vertebrados, para formación de estudiantes universitarios en el estudio y la gestión del Patrimonio Paleontológico.[EN] Two vertebrate fossil sites, situated in the Universidad Complutense Campus of Somosaguas, (Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid, Spain) have yielded about 600 identifiable rests in different preservation states, belonging to about twenty species of highly diverse sizes, from mastodons to shrews. Their study allows dating at about 14 m.y., and reconstructing an arid climate epoch in the Madrid basin during middle Miocene times, occupied by subtropical woodlands and savannahs with strong floods and without permanent rivers. These fossil sites allow practical teaching of Vertebrate Palaeontology, and preparing university students in the Palaeontological Heritage study and management.Hemos recibido financiación y personal respaldo del Rectorado de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, de los Decanatos de la Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Sociología y de la Facultad de Ciencias Geológicas, y del Departamento de Paleontología de esta Facultad. El Departamento de Paleobiología del Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC) realiza su investigación en el marco del Convenio de Colaboración con la Comunidad de Madrid a través de la Dirección General de Patrimonio Histórico Artístico de la Consejería de Educación.Peer reviewe

Letter from the Editors: Engaging with Oceania: Some Background about the Region – and Why It Matters for IB Research

This special issue aims to introduce readers to the southern Pacific region of Oceania, which includes Australia, Melanesia, Micronesia, New Zealand, and Polynesia. This region represents remarkable diversity of institutions, cultures, and languages, and its history and economic development are deeply intertwined with the ocean. While typically viewed as a collection of geographically-remote and generally small-population island nations, relative to global centers, Oceania offers an interesting context for IB research, with respect to a variety of issues, from the impact of climate change to cross-cultural management and geopolitics

La agricultura ecológica a largo plazo en plantaciones de cítricos permite la recuperación del carbono orgánico del suelo

[ES] Se ha demostrado que el manejo del suelo bajo agricultura ecológica puede aumentar el contenido de carbono orgánico en el suelo moderando el incremento de los gases de efecto invernadero, pero hasta la fecha las evaluaciones cuantitativas basadas en mediciones a largo plazo han sido escasas, especialmente bajo condiciones mediterráneas. En esta investigación se examinaron los cambios en el contenido de carbono orgánico como respuesta a la agricultura ecológica con cobertura vegetal en una plantación de cítricos en el área mediterránea, utilizando una base de datos de 21 años. El incremento de contenido de carbono orgánico en el suelo fue más evidente tras cinco años desde el cambio del manejo del suelo, sugiriendo que, para plantaciones de cítricos en ambientes mediterráneos, los estudios deberían tener una duración superior a cinco años. La sata de secuestro de carbono orgánico no cambió significativamente durante los 21 años de observaciones, con valores que oscilaron entre -1.10 Mg C ha-1 a-1 y 1.89 Mg C ha-1 a-1. Tras 21 años, un total de 61 t CO2 ha-1 fueron secuestradas en las áreas de acumulación de carbono en el suelo. Estos resultados demuestran que la agricultura ecológica es una estrategia efectiva para restaurar o incrementar los niveles de carbono orgánico en el suelo en los sistemas de cítricos mediterráneos.[EN] It has been shown that soil management under organic farming can enhance soil organic carbon, thereby mitigating atmospheric greenhouse gas increases, but until now quantitative evaluations based on long term experiments are scarce, especially under Mediterranean conditions. Changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) content were examined in response to organic management with cover crops in a Mediterranean citrus plantation using 21 years of survey data. Soil organic carbon increase was more apparent 5 years after a land management change suggesting that, for citrus plantations on Mediterranean conditions, studies should be longer than five years in duration. Soil organic carbon sequestration rate did not significantly change during the 21 years of observation, with values ranging from -1.10 Mg C ha(-1) y(-1) to 1.89 Mg C ha(-1) y(-1). After 21 years, 61 Mg CO2 ha(-1) were sequestered in long-lived soil C pools. These findings demonstrate that organic management is an effective strategy to restore or increase SOC content in Mediterranean citrus systems.This research was funded by the European Union Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013) under grant no. 603498 (RECARE Project) and the research projects GL2008-02879/BTE and LEDDRA 243857.Novara, A.; Pulido, M.; Rodrigo-Comino, J.; Di Prima, S.; Smith, P.; Gristina, L.; Giménez Morera, A.... (2019). Long-term organic farming on a citrus plantation results in soil organic carbon recovery. Cuadernos de Investigación Geográfica. 45(1):271-286. https://doi.org/10.18172/cig.3794S27128645

Convergence and divergence in the evolution of cat skulls: temporal and spatial patterns of morphological diversity

Background: Studies of biological shape evolution are greatly enhanced when framed in a phylogenetic perspective. Inclusion of fossils amplifies the scope of macroevolutionary research, offers a deep-time perspective on tempo and mode of radiations, and elucidates life-trait changes. We explore the evolution of skull shape in felids (cats) through morphometric analyses of linear variables, phylogenetic comparative methods, and a new cladistic study of saber-toothed cats. Methodology/Principal Findings: A new phylogenetic analysis supports the monophyly of saber-toothed cats (Machairodontinae) exclusive of Felinae and some basal felids, but does not support the monophyly of various sabertoothed tribes and genera. We quantified skull shape variation in 34 extant and 18 extinct species using size-adjusted linear variables. These distinguish taxonomic group membership with high accuracy. Patterns of morphospace occupation are consistent with previous analyses, for example, in showing a size gradient along the primary axis of shape variation and a separation between large and small-medium cats. By combining the new phylogeny with a molecular tree of extant Felinae, we built a chronophylomorphospace (a phylogeny superimposed onto a two-dimensional morphospace through time). The evolutionary history of cats was characterized by two major episodes of morphological divergence, one marking the separation between saber-toothed and modern cats, the other marking the split between large and small-medium cats. Conclusions/Significance: Ancestors of large cats in the ‘Panthera’ lineage tend to occupy, at a much later stage, morphospace regions previously occupied by saber-toothed cats. The latter radiated out into new morphospace regions peripheral to those of extant large cats. The separation between large and small-medium cats was marked by considerable morphologically divergent trajectories early in feline evolution. A chronophylomorphospace has wider applications in reconstructing temporal transitions across two-dimensional trait spaces, can be used in ecophenotypical and functional diversity studies, and may reveal novel patterns of morphospace occupation

Implementation and first results of the KM3NeT real-time core-collapse supernova neutrino search

The KM3NeT research infrastructure is unconstruction in the Mediterranean Sea. KM3NeT will study atmospheric and astrophysical neutrinos with two multi-purpose neutrino detectors, ARCA and ORCA, primarily aimed at GeV–PeV neutrinos. Thanks to the multi-photomultiplier tube design of the digital optical modules, KM3NeT is capable of detecting the neutrino burst from a Galactic or near-Galactic core-collapse supernova. This potential is already exploitable with the first detection units deployed in the sea. This paper describes the real-time implementation of the supernova neutrino search, operating on the two KM3NeT detectors since the first months of 2019. A quasi-online astronomy analysis is introduced to study the time profile of the detected neutrinos for especially significant events. The mechanism of generation and distribution of alerts, as well as the integration into the SNEWS and SNEWS 2.0 global alert systems, are described. The approach for the follow-up of external alerts with a search for a neutrino excess in the archival data is defined. Finally, an overview of the current detector capabilities and a report after the first two years of operation are given.Acknowledgements The authors acknowledge the financial support of the funding agencies: Agence Nationale de la Recherche (contract ANR-15-CE31-0020), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Commission Européenne (FEDER fund and Marie Curie Program), Institut Universitaire de France (IUF), LabEx UnivEarthS (ANR-10-LABX-0023 and ANR-18-IDEX-0001), Paris Île-de-France Region, France; Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia (SRNSFG, FR-18-1268), Georgia; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Germany; The General Secretariat of Research and Technology (GSRT), Greece; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca (MIUR), PRIN 2017 program (Grant NAT-NET 2017W4HA7S) Italy; Ministry of Higher Education Scientific Research and Professional Training, ICTP through Grant AF-13, Morocco; Nederlandse organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO), the Netherlands; The National Science Centre, Poland (2015/18/E/ST2/00758); National Authority for Scientific Research (ANCS), Romania; Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación, Investigación y Universidades (MCIU): Programa Estatal de Generación de Conocimiento (refs. PGC2018-096663-B-C41, -A-C42, -B-C43, -B-C44) (MCIU/FEDER), Generalitat Valenciana: Prometeo (PROMETEO/2020/019), Grisolía (ref. GRISOLIA/2018/119) and GenT (refs. CIDEGENT/2018/034, /2019/043, /2020/049) programs, Junta de Andalucía (ref. A-FQM-053-UGR18), La Caixa Foundation (ref. LCF/BQ/IN17/11620019), EU: MSC program (ref. 101025085), Spain