What checkers actually check: an eye tracking study of inhibitory control and working memory

<p>Background - Not only is compulsive checking the most common symptom in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) with an estimated prevalence of 50–80% in patients, but approximately ~15% of the general population reveal subclinical checking tendencies that impact negatively on their performance in daily activities. Therefore, it is critical to understand how checking affects attention and memory in clinical as well as subclinical checkers. Eye fixations are commonly used as indicators for the distribution of attention but research in OCD has revealed mixed results at best.</p> <p>Methodology/Principal Finding - Here we report atypical eye movement patterns in subclinical checkers during an ecologically valid working memory (WM) manipulation. Our key manipulation was to present an intermediate probe during the delay period of the memory task, explicitly asking for the location of a letter, which, however, had not been part of the encoding set (i.e., misleading participants). Using eye movement measures we now provide evidence that high checkers’ inhibitory impairments for misleading information results in them checking the contents of WM in an atypical manner. Checkers fixate more often and for longer when misleading information is presented than non-checkers. Specifically, checkers spend more time checking stimulus locations as well as locations that had actually been empty during encoding.</p> <p>Conclusions/Significance - We conclude that these atypical eye movement patterns directly reflect internal checking of memory contents and we discuss the implications of our findings for the interpretation of behavioural and neuropsychological data. In addition our results highlight the importance of ecologically valid methodology for revealing the impact of detrimental attention and memory checking on eye movement patterns.</p&gt

Blockchain in the university: a digital technology to design, implement and manage global learning itineraries

Making universal access to education compatible with different paths of learning is one of the great challenges of the last century. Technology has provided solutions to access information, for communication and collaborative work. Blockchain emerges as a technology that can be useful for the development of an evaluation model of individualized learning itineraries in mass university subjects. In this line, the Edublocs project has been designed and executed, an initiative where these itineraries have been designed, incorporating elements of peer learning, team-teaching, PLEs, microlearning, technology-enhanced assessment... The objective of the Edublocs project is to design and implement a system of recording the results of activities through Blockchain that allow the student to follow a personal itinerary, and the teacher-tutor of the subject to carry out a formative evaluation and an accrediting appraisal of their work. The project is well underway in the evaluation of the implementation process. The experience with some elements of the design and the experimental execution in a formal university context during the present academic course, has allowed us to obtain important indications on the viability and relevance of the use of Blockchain in education. These, together with the explanation and justification of explaining the context of its applicability, will be laid out in the broad development of the article.

La crisis sistémica y la crisis planetaria a la luz de la tasa decreciente de ganancia

The relation between periodic economic crisis, the capitalist systemic crisis and the planetary-scale crisis is here studied based on the articulation of deterministic laws forming Marx’s theory of value. The analysis is pivotal upon the tendency of the rate of profit to fall, considered as the intrinsic limit to the reproduction of capital driving the potential and absolute limit of the planetary crisis, understood as an habitability crisis without analogue in the Earth’s history. The misunderstanding by bourgeois economics and a part of Marxism of Marx’s integral view relating economic and natural phenomena is highlighted on an epistemological basis. To this purpose, criticisms to Marx’s theory of crisis and the role of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall following the crisis in 2007-2008 are revisited.El presente trabajo analiza la relación entre las crisis económicas recurrentes, la crisis sistémica capitalista y la crisis planetaria desde el telón de fondo de la teoría del valor por el trabajo y de la articulación de las leyes deterministas que conforman esta teoría. El análisis se vertebra alrededor de la ley de la tendencia decreciente de la tasa de ganancia como límite intrínseco de la reproducción de capital del que se deriva el potencial límite absoluto de la crisis planetaria, entendida como crisis de habitabilidad sin precedentes en la historia de la Tierra. El trabajo incide en las razones de índole epistemológico que subyacen en la incomprensión por la economía burguesa y buena parte del marxismo de la perspectiva transversal y abarcadora de los fenómenos económicos y naturales que Marx plantea. Para ello se revisan las principales críticas a la teoría de las crisis de Marx y al rol de la ley de la tendencia decreciente de ganancia posteriores a la crisis del 2007-2008

Submarine Volcanism of the Cabo de Gata Magmatic Arc in the Betic-Rif Orogen, SE Spain: Processes and Products

Volcanic eruptions in subaqueous settings have been traditionally characterized by the study of ancient deposits and, more recently, by indirect observation of the sea floor with different geophysical means. Subaqueous volcanism is largely governed by the physical properties of water and the way water interacts with magma. Among the characteristic products of subaqueous volcanism are hyaloclastite breccias of dense clasts and of pumiceous clasts produced by the quench fragmentation of hot magma in effusive eruptions. Pumice breccias driven by fragmentation of magma in explosive eruptions are not infrequent. The Miocene volcanic zone of Cabo de Gata in southeastern Spain provides excellent exposures where to test the current understanding on subaqueous volcanism. In particular, submarine lavas with a coherent core and an outer carapace of vesicular hyaloclastite together with pumice breccias and crystal tuffs of the El Barronal Formation provide clues to understand transient conditions during explosive and effusive eruptions. Debris avalanches deposits are rather common in Cabo de Gata, such as those of the Los Frailes Formation and the Cerro Estorvillas Formation, and help to understand the instability processes of submarine volcanic edifices and the resultant mass flows. Interbedding of volcanic rocks with shallow water sedimentary rocks allows inferring water depth conditions for volcanism and the subsidence history of the volcano-sedimentary basin

Combined flooding and water quality monitoring during short extreme events using Sentinel 2: the case study of Gloria storm in Ebro delta

Short extreme events have significant impact on landscape and ecosystems in low-lying and exposed areas such as deltaic systems. In this context, this paper proposes a combined methodology for the mapping and monitoring of the flooding and water quality dynamics of coastal areas under extreme storms from Sentinel 2 imagery. The proposed methodology has been applied in a coastal bay of the Ebro Delta (Catalonia, NE Spain) to evaluate jointly the impact of Gloria storm (January 2020) in land-flooding and water quality. The experimental results show that the Gloria storm had a strong morphological impact and altered the water quality (chl-a) dynamics. The results show a recovery in terms of water quality after some weeks but in contrast the coastal morphology did not show the same degree of resilience. This paper is the first step of an overall goal that is to set the bases in a long term, for a workflow for rapid response and continuous monitoring of storm effects in coastal areas and/or highly valuable ecosystems such as the Ebro Delta.This research was partially funded by the project New-TechAqua (European Union's Programme H2020, GA 862658). J. Soriano-González held a pre-doctoral grant funded by by Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris I de Recerca (2020FI_B2 00148)Peer ReviewedObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::14 - Vida SubmarinaObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::13 - Acció per al ClimaPostprint (published version

First results of phytoplankton spatial dynamics in two NW-Mediterranean bays from Chlorophyll-a estimates using Sentinel 2: potential implications for aquaculture

Shellfish aquaculture has a major socioeconomic impact on coastal areas, thus it is necessary to develop support tools for its management. In this sense, phytoplankton monitoring is crucial, as it is the main source of food for shellfish farming. The aim of this study was to assess the applicability of Sentinel 2 multispectral imagery (MSI) to monitor the phytoplankton biomass at Ebro Delta bays and to assess its potential as a tool for shellfish management. In situ chlorophyll-a data from Ebro Delta bays (NE Spain) were coupled with several band combination and band ratio spectral indices derived from Sentinel 2A levels 1C and 2A for time-series mapping. The best results (AIC = 72.17, APD < 10%, and MAE < 0.7 mg/m3) were obtained with a simple blue-to-green ratio applied over Rayleigh corrected images. Sentinel 2–derived maps provided coverage of the farm sites at both bays allowing relating the spatiotemporal distribution of phytoplankton with the environmental forcing under different states of the bays. The applied methodology will be further improved but the results show the potential of using Sentinel 2 MSI imagery as a tool for assessing phytoplankton spatiotemporal dynamics and to encourage better future practices in the management of the aquaculture in Ebro Delta bays.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Facies architecture, emplacement mechanisms and eruption style of the submarine andesite El Barronal complex, Cabo de Gata, SE Spain

El Barronal complex consists of a succession of andesite lavas and andesite volcaniclastic facies interbedded with carbonate and siliciclastic sedimentary rocks. Carbonate and siliciclastic rocks were deposited in a shallow-marine environment during periods of volcanic quiescence. Lavas consist of an inner coherent core grading outward into hyaloclastite breccia made of dense clasts that in turn grade into hyaloclastite breccia made of vesicular clasts, in massive to layered zones. Volcaniclastic facies contain clasts produced during explosive eruptions and reworked clasts from sources above wave base. Volcaniclastic facies were deposited from cold granular flows with different grain size populations. Stratigraphy and facies architecture at El Barronal suggest that a succession of several discrete eruptive events occurred with a similar cyclic pattern made of an initial explosive phase followed by effusive emplacement of lavas, in turn followed by a period of quiescence of volcanic activity. Hyaloclastic fragmentation of magma took place in the final stages of lava emplacement, allowing only for local disorganization of the jigsaw-fit texture. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.This research has been funded by projects CGL2005-03511/BTE and HI2006-0073Peer Reviewe

Los cambios comportamentales y del uso del espacio asociados a la muerte del macho dominante de una manada de lobos ibéricos (Canis lupus signatus) en el Parque Zoológico de Barcelona

Social dynamics is one of the most widely studied fields in the Canidae family in captivity. This study aims to determine how the death of the dominant male in a pack of wolves at Barcelona Zoo affects the pattern of daily activity and the use of space of the rest of the members. The individuals under study are two males and two females of the species Canis lupus signatus in naturalized surroundings. The observations were made using an instantaneous multifocal recording every 15 minutes. Each individual was observed for a total of 55.5 hours both prior to and after the death of the alpha male. The results for daily activity patterns show an increase in the behaviours of Vigilance, Maintenance and Lack of Visibility and a reduction in Inactivity. As regards the use of space, the use of the left central area increased, the use of the front central area decreased, while there were no differences in the use of the rear left area. The location of the animals was less homogeneous after the death of the alpha male