Satisfacción de los profesores de Ciencias Sociales y Jurídicas con la introducción del Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior

University teachers are one of the main figures in the European convergence process, but their attitude towards the reform of Spanish university studies is unknown. Therefore, the objective of this study is to evaluate the satisfaction of Social and Legal Sciences teachers towards the introduction of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The sample was made up of 3,068 teachers from Spanish public universities, who teach in the said field. An online questionnaire was created for this purpose, with questions relating to the EHEA, teacher tasks and training, as well as aspects related to methodology and the teaching and learning process, amongst others. Cronbach´s alpha coefficient was .81. It is a population-based, descriptive study using a cross-sectional survey with a probability sample. In the results it can be observed that only 9.3% of teachers are satisfied with the adaptation of higher education to the EHEA. Finally, the limitations faced by teaching staff in consolidating this process will be discussed.El profesorado universitario conforma una de las figuras principales en el proceso de convergencia europea, pero se desconoce cuál es su actitud hacia la reforma de los estudios universitarios en España. Por ello, el objetivo del presente estudio es evaluar la satisfacción del profesorado de la rama de Ciencias Sociales y Jurídicas ante la implantación del Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (EEES). La muestra estuvo compuesta por 3.068 profesores pertenecientes a universidades públicas españolas, que imparten docencia en titulaciones de dicha rama. Se aplicó un cuestionario online, elaborado ad hoc que consta de preguntas relacionadas con el EEES, tareas y formación del profesorado, así como aspectos relacionados con la metodología y el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje, entre otros. El coeficiente alfa de Cronbach fue de, 81. Es un estudio descriptivo de poblaciones mediante encuesta con muestra probabilística, de tipo transversal. En los resultados se observa que sólo el 9,3% de los profesores está satisfecho con la forma en la que se está desarrollando la adaptación de la educación superior al EEES. Finalmente, se realiza una reflexión sobre las limitaciones que encuentra el profesorado para lograr la consolidación de este proceso.Open Access funded by Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de MadridThis project has been financed by the Directorate General of University Policy (EA2011-0048)

Evaluación de la satisfacción del profesorado de ciencias con la adaptación al espacio europeo de educación superior

La implantación del Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (EEES) ha supuesto una transformación de la educación superior en España. Sin embargo, se desconoce cuál es la actitud del profesorado universitario hacia el proceso y cómo ha afectado esta reforma a sus funciones docentes y como investigador. Por ello, se evalúa el grado de satisfacción hacia distintos aspectos relacionados con el EEES. Los participantes fueron 1.958 profesores que imparten docencia en titulaciones de la rama de Ciencias, pertenecientes a universidades públicas españolas. Se trata de un estudio descriptivo de poblaciones mediante encuesta con muestra probabilística, de tipo transversal. En primer lugar, se realizó la selección de la muestra con un nivel de confianza del 97%. Posteriormente, se elaboró un cuestionario ad hoc, aplicado vía online y compuesto por preguntas relacionadas con: información personal y profesional; aspectos generales e institucionales del EEES; docencia, investigación y gestión; metodología y proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje; evaluación al alumnado; formación del profesorado; coordinación, organización y recursos del centro; comentarios adicionales y propuestas de mejora. El coeficiente alfa de Cronbach fue de ,80. Los resultados ponen de manifiesto la insatisfacción de la mayor parte del profesorado con la forma en la que se ha realizado la adaptación de las titulaciones de Ciencias al EEES (46,4%), seguido del 44% que piensa que podría mejorar. También se proponen posibles soluciones que pueden tenerse en cuenta a la hora de establecer políticas educativas eficaces para mejorar la educación superior en España. Finalmente, se reflexiona sobre la influencia del proceso de convergencia europea en el desarrollo profesional del profesorado de esta rama y las consecuencias producidas en el ámbito educativo y científico

Effects of mental fatigue on reaction time in sportsmen

Mental fatigue (MF) has been defined as a psychobiological state commonly caused by prolonged periods of demanding cognitive activity. However, the differences between women and men in their reaction times (RTs) to visual stimuli due to mental fatigue remain largely unknown. We compare the differences in RT and heart rate after an acute intervention of mental fatigue between male and female athletes

Patchy lakes and topographic origin for fast flow in the Recovery Glacier system, East Antarctica

The Recovery subglacial basin, with its largest glacier Recovery Glacier, has been identified as potentially the biggest contributor to future sea level rise from East Antarctica. Subglacial lakes along the main trunk have been detected from satellite data, with four giant lakes (Recovery Lakes A, B, C and D) located at the onset of the fast ice flow (≥15 m/yr) and multiple smaller lakes along the glacier. The presence of subglacial water potentially plays a key role in the control of fast ice flow of Recovery Glacier. We present new insights on the Recovery Lakes from airborne radar data collected in 2013 and 2015. Using an adjusted classification scheme we show that a single large area consisting of smaller lakes connected by likely saturated sediment, referred to as Lake AB, exists in the originally proposed area of the Recovery Lakes A and B. We estimate that the current size of Lake AB is ∼4320 km2. Water likely leaks from the western shore of Lake AB lubricating the bed initiating fast ice flow at this location. The difference in the outlines of Lake AB and the Lakes A and B previously derived from surface features suggested that a larger paleo lake existed here in the past. From our data, we find Recovery Lake C to be dry; we attribute fast ice flow originating from this area to be due to a topographic step, and thus an increase in ice thickness rather than enhanced lubrication at the bed

Surface Melting Drives Fluctuations in Airborne Radar Penetration in West Central Greenland

Greenland Ice Sheet surface melting has increased since the 1990s, affecting the rheology and scattering properties of the near‐surface firn. We combine firn cores and modeled firn densities with 7 years of CryoVEx airborne Ku‐band (13.5 GHz) radar profiles to quantify the impact of melting on microwave radar penetration in West Central Greenland. Although annual layers are present in the Ku‐band radar profiles to depths up to 15 m below the ice sheet surface, fluctuations in summer melting strongly affect the degree of radar penetration. The extreme melting in 2012, for example, caused an abrupt 6.2 ± 2.4 m decrease in Ku‐band radar penetration. Nevertheless, retracking the radar echoes mitigates this effect, producing surface heights that agree to within 13.9 cm of coincident airborne laser measurements. We also examine 2 years of Ka‐band (34.5 GHz) airborne radar data and show that the degree of penetration is half that of coincident Ku‐band

Topographic steering of enhanced ice flow at the bottleneck between East and West Antarctica

Hypothesized drawdown of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) through the ‘bottleneck’ zone between East and West Antarctica would have significant impacts for a large proportion of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Earth observation satellite orbits and a sparseness of radio-echo sounding (RES) data have restricted investigations of basal boundary controls on ice flow in this region until now. New airborne RES surveys reveal complex topography of high relief beneath the southernmost Weddell/Ross ice divide, with three subglacial troughs connecting interior Antarctica to the Foundation and Patuxent Ice Streams and Siple Coast ice streams. These troughs route enhanced ice flow through the interior of Antarctica but limit potential drawdown of the EAIS through the bottleneck zone. In a thinning or retreating scenario, these topographically-controlled corridors of enhanced flow could however drive ice divide migration, and increase mass discharge from interior West Antarctica to the Southern Ocean

SKIM, a candidate satellite mission exploring global ocean currents and waves

The Sea surface KInematics Multiscale monitoring (SKIM) satellite mission is designed to explore ocean surface current and waves. This includes tropical currents, notably the poorly known patterns of divergence and their impact on the ocean heat budget, and monitoring of the emerging Arctic up to 82.5°N. SKIM will also make unprecedented direct measurements of strong currents, from boundary currents to the Antarctic circumpolar current, and their interaction with ocean waves with expected impacts on air-sea fluxes and extreme waves. For the first time, SKIM will directly measure the ocean surface current vector from space. The main instrument on SKIM is a Ka-band conically scanning, multi-beam Doppler radar altimeter/wave scatterometer that includes a state-of-the-art nadir beam comparable to the Poseidon-4 instrument on Sentinel 6. The well proven Doppler pulse-pair technique will give a surface drift velocity representative of the top meter of the ocean, after subtracting a large wave-induced contribution. Horizontal velocity components will be obtained with an accuracy better than 7 cm/s for horizontal wavelengths larger than 80 km and time resolutions larger than 15 days, with a mean revisit time of 4 days for of 99% of the global oceans. This will provide unique and innovative measurements that will further our understanding of the transports in the upper ocean layer, permanently distributing heat, carbon, plankton, and plastics. SKIM will also benefit from co-located measurements of water vapor, rain rate, sea ice concentration, and wind vectors provided by the European operational satellite MetOp-SG(B), allowing many joint analyses. SKIM is one of the two candidate satellite missions under development for ESA Earth Explorer 9. The other candidate is the Far infrared Radiation Understanding and Monitoring (FORUM). The final selection will be announced by September 2019, for a launch in the coming decade

The Structure of the Agulhas Current System during the Agulhas Undercurrent Experiment

The Agulhas Undercurrent Experiment took place in February-March 2003 off the east coast of South Africa and included 112 CTD and LADCP casts along four cross-slope sections and three offshore sections. Direct absolute velocities in the Agulhas Current show a narrow and swift current, 180 km wide and up to 2 m s-1 in speed, that deepens as it flows south, eventually detaching from the continental slope at 36ºS. Results also show the northward Agulhas Undercurrent against the continental slope, beneath the Agulhas Current with peak velocities of 10 cm s-1. Several mesoscale cyclonic eddies extending down to the intermediate layer were sampled during the survey, in particular a shear-edge eddy inshore of the Agulhas Current at 36ºS. A deep water anticyclonic eddy was found for the first time in this region centered at 2800 m in the northward flowing North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) layer. Anomalous water properties reveal that it was formed in the Agulhas Retroflection region and may have been generated by the coupling of a deep Agulhas Ring with the NADW slope current in the SE Atlantic and later entrained into the deep flow of the Agulhas Return Current, until ejected in the Agulhas Current region by localized recirculations in the deep layers of the Agulhas Current system. An inverse model was applied to the hydrographic and LADCP data; results show that the Agulhas Current had a considerably higher transport of 103 Sv at the historical 32ºS section than earlier estimates, consistent with altimetry time series for the region. The growth of the Agulhas Current transport is given primarily by the Sverdrup transport from the supergyre connecting the southern Pacific and Indian Oceans, and the Indonesian Throughflow and Indian Ocean overturning need to be included to account for the total transport. The bulk of the Agulhas Current transport is concentrated in the thermocline layer in the cross-sections and in the intermediate layer in the offshore sections. Inshore of the Agulhas Current core, mixing is inhibited from the surface to the thermocline layers, with no transport growth downstream. Cross-stream mixing does appear to occur in the intermediate layer. The Mozambique Channel and East Madagascar Current appear to have similar contributions as sources to the Agulhas Current at the northern most section of 16 Sv each, with the Indian Ocean wind-driven sub-gyre contribution increasing as the current flows southward. In the intermediate layer, Red Sea Water is actively mixing with Antarctic Intermediate Water when eddies are present. Red Sea Water appears to advect in the form of parcels and not as a continuous flow. Results also suggest the occurrence of small localized recirculations in the deep layers. In the deepest layer of lower NADW the flow is upwelling into the overlaying layer due to the shallowing topography at the northern most section.</p