Geomorphic evolution of the Peninsular Hesperian massif: study of a sector situated between Lugo and Ourense provinces (Galicia, NW Spain)

[Abstract] This paper deals with the relief generation in Ourense, an interior territory of the Galicia Country, at NW Spain, after the breakdown of Pangea 200 million years ago. The rupture of supercontinent causes the main effects in the outer part of Galicia, the present coast line and the shelf, but also the inner parts of Galicia where the landscape changes dramatically mainly ruled by fluvial incision connected with uprising, (orogenic, epirogenic, or isostatic origin), or even with eustatic oscillations, that shaped the previous old mesozoic landscape. Various things complicate the correct understanding of Galician geomorphology:1) the prevalent hercynian structure, (presumably reactivated during the Alpine Orogeny), causes that the epigenic processes, (fluvial, glaciar, marine and etching), acting on Galicia from Mesozoic to present times, produce end forms identified erroneously at the previous literature as tectonic and not as etch forms profiting from lithological or structural contrasts. 2) the common morphotectonic model accepted by all previous researchers establishes for the whole of Galicia a blocky pattern, (horst and graben like), due to extensional tectonic regime. This model is proved as no longer valid because the Galician tertiary basins, even were described at the past as graben depressions never have this origin. 3) big differences exist between the north and western sides of Galicia that show contrasted tectonic regime: compressional (with forms as the so called raised platforms), at the northern coast border, and extensional (with forms so typical as the Rias), at the western side. The study area is located at the confluence of two tectonic domains where the above mentioned effects are coincidents and specially well showed through different effects: prominent assimetry of fluvial captures (west facing), pronounced river incision and different kinds of tertiary basins: either strike slipe faults (Maceda, Xinzo de Limia, etc), or overslipped by inverse faults, Quiroga, A Rúa, etc.), or even corresponding with depressions never, (or anywise passively), affected by tectonic movements, (Monforte). The paper include a detailed inventory of surfaces and terrace levels and their incision sequence which allow stablish a relative chronology of geomorphic evolution at this area of NW Spain during meso-cainozoic times

Desenvolupament d'una eina multimèdia interactiva per a l'ensenyament de la química en els estudis d'enginyeria

En aquest treball es descriu l'experiència en la utilització de la tecnologia multimèdia per al desenvolupament d'una unitat docent de la matèria de química que té relació amb les assignatures presencials: Fonaments Químics de l'Enginyeria del primer curs de la carrera d'Enginyeria Industrial i Química del primer curs de la carrera d’Enginyeria Aeronàutica impartides ambdues a l'Escola Tècnica Superior d'Enginyeria Indústria de Terrassa. Es plantegen les motivacions prèvies que han portat a la realització d'aquest treball i s'emmarca l'àmbit del projecte: una vegada especificades les característiques de les assignatures i del seu entorn i analitzades les característiques dels alumnes als quals va dirigit el treball, s'analitzen els objectius que es pretenen aconseguir, i es tria l’entorn tecnològic més adequat per a la consecució del mateix. Es descriu la utilització del material a l'aula i es realitza una valoració dels resultats obtinguts, de la seva utilització per part dels estudiants, tenint en compte tant els aspectes docents: referència al tipus de continguts i facilitat de comprensió dels mateixos, així com els aspectes tecnològics de funcionament i utilització del material multimèdia, com són la facilitat d'accés i la interactivitat

Entrepreneurship, communication and ICT in secondary education

Education is essential to developing young people’s skills and culture. It is vital that entrepreneurship education is addressed from the secondary education. Entrepreneurship education is essential not only to shape the mindsets of young people but also to provide the skills that are important to developing an entrepreneurial culture. The entrepreneurship key competence refers to an individual’s ability to turn ideas into action. It includes creativity, innovation, and the ability to plan projects in order to achieve objectives. Besides, communication and ICT are relevant in innovation processes in organizations, especially in schools where people interact daily and it is intended to ensure a good future for the organization. In schools, the existence of good communication and the use of ICT is a relevant factor for the integration of teaching innovative projects related to entrepreneurship. A good communication ensures the dissemination of educational innovation processes adopted by the teachers. It´s relevant to improve teaching practice. Communication and the ICT play a key role in the processes of educational innovation. The incorporation of innovative materials, ICT, courses and communication activities, and the use of the media to extract information, are very important. Communication is essential in the secondary education. If the communication flows were eliminated in the school, we would not have school. Communication is introduced into all activities of the school, representing an important tool with which individuals understand their role in the school and integrates organizational departments. The secondary schools are organized through a model based on the participation and collaboration of its component, coordinating the actions of different people in order to achieve the proposed educational objectives. Therefore, the optimal operation of a secondary school is closely related to communication processes taking place in this organization. This paper studies the entrepreneurship, communication processes and the ICT in secondary education. Media and communication channels used in secondary schools to spread the teaching innovation projects related to the entrepreneurship are studied. Supports or conventional tools and new technologies for communication in educational organizations are also analysed when it is studied and worked the entrepreneurship in the classroom.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The entangling side of the Unruh-Hawking effect

We show that the Unruh effect can create net quantum entanglement between inertial and accelerated observers depending on the choice of the inertial state. This striking result banishes the extended belief that the Unruh effect can only destroy entanglement and furthermore provides a new and unexpected source for finding experimental evidence of the Unruh and Hawking effects.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Added Journal referenc

Methodological evaluation of architectural alternatives for an aeronautical delay tolerant network

In this paper, we use graph analysis to evaluate the network architecture of a large scale delay tolerant network (DTN) of transoceanic aircraft. At LCN (Local Computer Networks) 2014 we analyzed information propagation inside a pure opportunistic version of this network, a scenario constructed from more than 2,500 traces of transatlantic flights in which communications relied only on the sporadic contacts between airplanes. As only a small percentage of the nodes were capable of performing efficient air-to-ground communications we concluded the need to devise a more suitable network architecture by combining opportunistic and satellite communication systems. We propose a generic methodology based on graph analysis (both static and dynamic temporal) to evaluate the different ways to create this new architecture. We show the architectural combination that most improves the network delivery performance while minimizing its deployment costs

Soft nanostructures out of star-shaped triazines with flexible amide spacers: liquid crystals with a cubic to columnar transition with memory effect, gels and supramolecular chirality

This work reports the synthesis and characterization of a new family of star-shaped tricarboxamides with C3-symmetry that have flexible amide spacers linking a tris(triazolyl)triazine core with three trialkoxyphenyl groups. The presence of amide groups allows the formation of intermolecular hydrogen bonds that reinforce π-stacking and van der Waals interactions, promoting liquid crystalline behavior, and self-assembly in solvents leading to organogels. As determined by polarized optical microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry and X-ray diffraction on powder samples, all the three reported molecules present a hexagonal columnar (Colh) phase stable at room temperature. Interestingly, they show a transition to a cubic micellar mesophase (BCC) at high temperatures. A mechanism for this transition, which is consistent with the fragmentation of columns to form supramolecular spheres, was elucidated from X-ray studies on aligned samples. Moreover, on cooling from the BCC to the columnar phase a preferential orientation of columns occurs, according to which each cubic domain gives rise to four hexagonal domains. The ability of the synthesized structures to aggregate in solvent media was studied in a variety of organic solvents, and all of them were able to gel 1-octanol at low concentrations. X-ray studies of gels and xerogels were carried out and showed a molecular organization consistent with Colh order. FTIR studies were carried out to analyze the formation of hydrogen bonds and the influence of the length of the flexible spacer in the liquid crystalline state and in the organogels. Furthermore, the presence of a stereogenic center in the flexible amide spacer leads to macroscopic chirality in the liquid crystal state and the organogels in 1-octanol as demonstrated by circular dichroism spectroscopy

Neotectonics and shoreline history of the Rock of Gibraltar, southern Iberia

Several sets of staircased Quaternary marine deposits can be observed along the Gibraltar coast ranging from 1 to 210 m above the present mean sea level. Geomorphological mapping establishes, from the relationship between shore, scree and dune sedimentary formations, five main morphotectonic steps on the Rock: marine terraces between 1 and 25 m, 30–60 m, 80–130 m, 180– 210 m, and above. Each terrace level and its slope-aeolian linked sediments is backed by a steep relict sea cliff margin, so forming a composite cliff. The most recent coastal landforms and sediments are associated with the last 250 ka linked to Oxygen Isotope Stages (OIS) 1, 3, 5 and 7. These landforms determine a morphosedimentary highstand-lowstand sequence, with several staircased and offlapped episodes, comprising a major morphotectonic step. A well-developed palaeocliff usually separates the highstand marine terraces of OIS 9 from those of OIS 7. The Gibraltar mean tectonic uplift value of 0.0570.01 mm/yr is maintained from 200 ka to the present. Before this, at least to 250 ka, the mean uplift rate was higher (0.3370.05 mm/yr), possibly compatible with major tectonic events in response to a NNW–SSE compressive stress field between Africa and Iberia.European Union (UE) EU MEDOC Programme: 2002-02-4.1-U-04

Master in water engineering a “semi-attendance” university-specific degree with international participation

The Water Engineering Master Course is a university-specific degree at the University of Seville which nowadays can be coursed in two different modalities: “on line” and “semi-attendance”. Its first edition took place at 2000 and since then, the average of graduated students has been of 40 students per course. The semi-attendance mode offers the possibility of being followed in an on-line way from November to June. A Moodle platform provides all the documentation that is required to attend every module, at the end of each one some online questionnaires are also uploaded in order to evaluate the students. Only one of the 10 mandatory modules which make up the course have to be attended in a classroom mode. It takes place during 15 days in July and allows the students to come into contact with the lecturers, professionals of the sector and their own mates as well. During this period both, teachers and students, are lodged in the same residence and all of them have the chance of interchanging experiences in a full teaching-learning process, solving doubts and improving their skills thanks to specific courses, specially designed in function of the lack of knowledge which has been detected during de previous modules, o even, the suggestions received directly from students. Most of the students come from Hispanic countries and in less amount from African and European countries. Actually every July about 80 students and teachers from 25 different countries around the world, meet in Seville to attend this Master. The classes are given in Spanish with translator support if it’s necessary. Different environments, problematic and conditioning factors are studied and a large kind of solutions in water cycle are designed during these days. The requirements to elaborate the final master project are mainly that this one can be used to resolve a real local problem in the student’s origin place and moreover the student can obtain better marks if he/she finds financing to carry it out. In the last 8 years a useful module named “Tools for design” has been included in the program of the Master in order to enable the student in IT, specifically spreadsheets, cad, software for budgeting and measurement, topography and decision support systems. Students who graduate are able to evaluate the most proper technology from a social, technic and economic point of view, as well as, select the most efficient alternatives in order to achieve a sustainable development

Protection Strategies for the Connection of Diode Rectifier-Based Wind Power Plants to HVdc Interconnectors

The connection of diode rectifier (DR)-based wind power plants (WPPs) to existing or planned high-voltage dc (HVdc) interconnectors can lead to important savings on cost and system robustness. Since the DR station usually operates in a bipolar configuration, its connection to symmetric monopoles is particularly challenging. However, there are no published detailed studies on the protection of DR connection WPPs to symmetric monopole interconnectors or even to bipolar interconnectors. This article includes the comparative study of five different protection strategies for such systems, including both solid and resistive DR station grounding and strategies with and without the use of dc-circuit breakers (dcCBs). An analytical study allows for the calculation of fault current during fault onset for both half-bridge and hybrid modular multilevel converter (MMC) stations. Using detailed electromagnetic transient (EMT) simulation studies, the different protection strategies are evaluated in terms of current, voltage, and isolation requirements of each element, as well as the need for dcCBs, fast communication, or larger surge arresters. Moreover, a distance fault detection algorithm is included for the wind turbine converters to distinguish between local ac-grid and dc-cable faults. From the simulation results, it is possible to conclude that DR high-impedance grounding, together with wind turbine distance protection, can be used for the protection of DR-based offshore WPPs connected to symmetric monopole interconnectors without requiring dcCBs