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We assessed the scientific productivity of XMM- Newton by examining XMM- Newton publications and data usage statistics. We analyse 3272 refereed papers, published until the end of 2012, that directly use XMM- Newton data. The SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) was used to provide additional information on each paper including the number of citations. For each paper, the XMM- Newton observation identifiers and instruments used to provide the scientific results were determined. The identifiers were used to access the XMM-Newton Science Archive (XSA) to provide detailed information on the observations themselves and on the original proposals. The information obtained from these sources was then combined to allow the scientific productivity of the mission to be assessed. Since around three years after the launch of XMM- Newton there have been around 300 refereed papers per year that directly use XMM- Newton data. After more than 13 years in operation, this rate shows no evidence that it is decreasing. Since 2002, around 100 scientists per year become lead authors for the first time on a refereed paper which directly uses XMM- Newton data. Each refereed XMM- Newton paper receives around four citations per year in the first few years with a long-term citation rate of three citations per year, more than five years after publication. About half of the articles citing XMM- Newton articles are not primarily X-ray observational papers. The distribution of elapsed time between observations taken under the Guest Observer programme and first article peaks at 2 years with a possible second peak at 3.25 years. Observations taken under the Target of Opportunity programme are published significantly faster, after one year on average. The fraction of science time taken until the end of 2009 that has been used in at least one article is ∼90%. Most observations were used more than once, yielding on average a factor of two in usage on available observing time per year. About 20 % of all slew observations have been used in publications. The scientific productivity of XMM- Newton measured by the publication rate, number of new authors and citation rate, remains extremely high with no evidence that it is decreasing after more than 13 years of operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Science Policy & Practice is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Papers in Regional Science is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

There has been an explosion of interest in health sciences applications of case-based reasoning (CBR), not only in the traditional CBR in medicine domain, but also in bioinformatics, enabling home health-care technologies, CBR integration, and synergies between CBR and knowledge discovery. This special issue features the best papers from the third workshop on CBR in the health sciences, held at ICCBR-05 in Madrid. It is the third in a series of exciting workshops, the first two of which were held at ICCBR-03, in Trondheim, Norway, and at ECCBR-04, in Madrid, Spain. The nine high-quality papers introduced here represent the research and experience of twenty-two authors working in eight different countries on a wide range of problems and projects. These papers illustrate some of the major trends of current research in CBR in the health sciences, and represent overall an excellent sample of the most recent advances of CBR in the health sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper first presents a fuzzy expert system to identify and classify conventional two‐lane roads based on geometric characteristics. Both fuzzy and neuro‐fuzzy techniques have been used. Fuzzy logic has proved suitable to address this problem, since in this case, there is a variability of input information, and classical rules are not suitable to be used due to the uncertainty introduced by some combinations of the variables. Each road's geometric features were measured by sensors in an equipped vehicle, and are subsequently used to classify the roads according to their real condition. The conventional two‐lane roads used for this research are located in the Madrid Region, in Spain. This intelligent system may be used to update the road database regarding the assigned type to each conventional road, according to their present features and state. Also, a risk identification system has been developed to assess whether a vehicle is driving on a two‐lane road with an inappropriate speed, combining variables such as the former identification model, vehicle type, road longitudinal gradient, the angle covered by each horizontal curve, and the existence or not of an additional traffic lane. A fuzzy risk index is proposed for this approach. This fuzzy model may be useful to detect road sections where safety must be enhanced by revising the speed limit, since less safe situations may arise from travelling at unappropriated speeds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Invited for this month's cover picture is the group of Dr. Cristina Trujillo at the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute in Dublin (Ireland) and Prof. Ibon Alkorta at the CSIC in Madrid (Spain). The cover picture shows the possibility of reversibly storing hydrogen using metallic compounds as reactants to produce H2 gas and metallic dimers. Computational studies have been carried out to investigate these processes, as shown in the concept art by the Schrödinger equation. It was found that the formation and release of H2 is energetically favorable. These results are a promising starting point for further research of using coinage metals for storing hydrogen in light compounds. Read the full text of their Full Paper at10.1002/open.202100108. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Please cite this paper as: del Rosal et al. (2011) Pandemic H1N1 influenza-associated hospitalizations in children in Madrid, Spain. Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses 5(6), e544-e551. Objective To describe the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of children hospitalized with 2009 pandemic influenza (pH1N1) in Madrid, Spain. Patients/Methods We included patients less than 14 years of age admitted to one of 18 hospitals in Madrid, Spain, between May 1 and November 30, 2009 and diagnosed with pH1N1 by polymerase chain reaction. A retrospective chart review was conducted and data were compared by age, presence of high-risk medical conditions, and pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) admission. Results A total of 517 pH1N1 cases were included for final analysis. One hundred and forty-two patients (27·5%) had predisposing underlying illnesses, with immunosuppression (36 children, 7%) and moderate persistent asthma (34, 6·6%) being the most common ones. Patients with underlying medical conditions had longer hospital stays [median 5, interquartile range (IQR) 3-8 days, versus median 4, IQR 3-6, P < 0·001] and required intensive care (20·4% versus 5·9%, P < 0·001) and mechanical ventilation more frequently than previously healthy children. Globally, intensive care was required for 51 patients (10%) and invasive mechanical ventilation for 12 (2%). Pediatric intensive care unit admission was significantly associated with abnormal initial chest X-ray [Odds Ratio (OR) 3·5, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1·5-8·5], underlying neurological condition (OR 3·1, CI 1·2-7·5) and immunosuppression (OR 2·9, 1·2-6·8). Five patients (0·9%) died; two with severe neurological disease, two with leukemia, and one with a malignant solid tumor. Conclusions Children with underlying medical conditions experienced more severe pH1N1 disease. Risk factors for admission to the PICU included underlying neurological conditions, immunosuppression and abnormal initial chest X-ray. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about several papers discussed at the event Population Genetics and Genomics of Forest Trees: From Gene Function to Evolutionary Dynamics and Conservation, held in Madrid, Spain in October 2006 is presented. The ecological and evolutionary genetics of forest trees and associated organisms comprise a microcosm within this field. A major trend emerging in forest genetics research is the establishment of research programmes directed at the level of biological communities rather than single tree species.

Information about several papers discussed during the Memory and Related Disorders workshop sponsored by the Juan March Foundation held on the Campus of Cantoblanco, Universidad Autónoma of Madrid, Spain on December 12 and 14, 2005. The workshop has tackled some important topics including the neural systems, cellular and molecular correlates of memory and their modulation by drugs of abuse and others. The event featured several speakers including M. Goedert, O. Lazarov and G. Gasic.

Copyright of Regional Science Policy & Practice is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Traffic flow/volume data are commonly used to calibrate and validate traffic simulation models. However, these data are generally obtained from stationary sensors (e.g. loop detectors), which are expensive to install and maintain and cover a small number of locations in the transport network. On the other hand, Floating Car Data (FCD) are readily available at the network level, usually from a sample of vehicles. We present an indirect traffic flow estimation approach using transfer learning to address the traffic flow data scarcity and model generalization across cities. Using two cities (Paris and Madrid) as study areas, we demonstrate the indirect estimation using only exogenous features for flow prediction, mirroring limited predictive features without past link flows. Subsequently, we use the model pre‐trained on data from Paris city and test on data from Madrid city, and investigate the scenarios for successful transfer learning. Overall, the training set must adequately capture the flow‐speed relationship for successful indirect flow estimation. Transfer learning is beneficial when the data for the target task is minimal, in which case transferred models outperform newly trained models from scratch. Using real‐world and publicly available data, our approach and models can help scale a smaller traffic flow dataset to a larger sample across cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sixteenth Eilat Conference on New Antiepileptic Drugs and Devices (EILAT XVI) was held in Madrid, Spain on May 22–25, 2022 and was attended by 157 delegates from 26 countries representing basic and clinical science, regulatory agencies, and pharmaceutical industries. One day of the conference was dedicated to sessions presenting and discussing investigational compounds under development for the treatment of seizures and epilepsy. The current progress report summarizes recent findings and current knowledge for seven of these compounds in more advanced clinical development for which either novel preclinical or patient data are available. These compounds include bumetanide and its derivatives, darigabat, ganaxolone, lorcaserin, soticlestat, STK‐001, and XEN1101. Of these, ganaxolone was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in March 2022 for the treatment of seizures associated with cyclin‐dependent kinase‐like 5 deficiency disorder in patients 2 years of age and older. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Eilat Conferences have provided a forum for discussion of novel treatments of epilepsy among basic and clinical scientists, clinicians, and representatives from regulatory agencies as well as from the pharmaceutical industry for 3 decades. Initially with a focus on pharmacological treatments, the Eilat Conferences now also include sessions dedicated to devices for treatment and monitoring. The Sixteenth Eilat Conference on New Antiepileptic Drugs and Devices (EILAT XVI) was held in Madrid, Spain, on May 22–25, 2022 and was attended by 157 delegates from 26 countries. As in previous Eilat Conferences, the core of EILAT XVI consisted of a sequence of sessions where compounds under development were presented and discussed. This progress report summarizes preclinical and, when available, phase 1 clinical data on five different investigational compounds in preclinical or early clinical development, namely GAO‐3‐02, GRT‐X, NBI‐921352 (formerly XEN901), OV329, and XEN496 (a pediatric granular formulation of retigabine/ezogabine). Overall, the data presented in this report illustrate novel strategies for developing antiseizure medications, including an interest in novel molecular targets, and a trend to pursue potential new treatments for rare and previously neglected severe epilepsy syndromes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluates variations in petrophysical properties within a mixed alluvial to lacustrine carbonate system (Miocene, Madrid Basin, Central Spain). The transition from alluvial environments to lake margins settings displays a shift from alluvial, siliciclastic red sandstones and mudstones to palustrine–lacustrine mudstones to packstones. Fluctuations in lake‐water level enabled land plants to occupy the lake margins during periods of low lake levels. The palustrine carbonates include features like pseudo‐microkarst, nodular and mottled limestones; the lacustrine deposits include enlarged root cavities, desiccation cracks and channel bodies. Scarce fresh water biota comprises charophytes, gastropods and ostracods. The sediments possess high natural, irregular varying, gamma‐ray values at the alluvial–lacustrine transition, and low, but constant values at full lacustrine sites. Acoustic properties agree with lithological variations within individual facies. Porosity is the most important parameter influencing P‐wave and S‐wave velocities. The scatter in the velocity–porosity relationship links to the porosity type; macro‐porosity or microporosity. The wide range of pore types and pore sizes results in a weak porosity to permeability relationship for the carbonate‐dominated rocks with low permeability for microporous and high permeability for macro‐porous carbonates. The sandstones (probably only inhibiting interparticle porosity), and to a lesser extent the sandy wackestones to packstones, show quite a strong relationship between porosity and permeability. Elastic properties of mixed alluvial–lacustrine deposits (this study) and marine deposits (literature data) overlap as variations in pore structures and porosity values are similar. Only 16% of the marine and lacustrine carbonate sediments display Equivalent Pore Aspect Ratio values above 0.2. In travertine deposits, 83% of the samples exceed Equivalent Pore Aspect Ratio values above 0.2, which highlights that travertine deposits are dominated by larger Equivalent Pore Aspect Ratios compared to lacustrine and marine carbonate deposits. Travertines display other rock frameworks with different pore types, pore distribution and amount of porosity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the Vth International Congress of Allergology which will be held from October 11-16, 1964 at the Medical School in Madrid, Spain. Persons wishing to contribute papers to the congress should write to the Local Organizing Secretary F. Lahoz in Madrid.

In addition to classification and regression, outlier detection has emerged as a relevant activity in deep learning. In comparison with previous approaches where the original features of the examples were used for separating the examples with high dissimilarity from the rest of the examples, deep learning can automatically extract useful features from raw data, thus removing the need for most of the feature engineering efforts usually required with classical machine learning approaches. This requires training the deep learning algorithm with labels identifying the examples or with numerical values. Although outlier detection in deep learning has been usually undertaken by training the algorithm with categorical labels—classifier—, it can also be performed by using the algorithm as regressor. Nowadays numerous urban areas have deployed a network of sensors for monitoring multiple variables about air quality. The measurements of these sensors can be treated individually—as time series—or collectively. Collectively, a variable monitored by a network of sensors can be transformed into a map. Maps can be used as images in machine learning algorithms—including computer vision algorithms—for outlier detection. The identification of anomalous episodes in air quality monitoring networks allows later processing this time period with finer‐grained scientific packages involving fluid dynamic and chemical evolution software, or the identification of malfunction stations. In this work, a Convolutional Neural Network is trained—as a regressor—using as input Ozone‐urban images generated from the Air Quality Monitoring Network of Madrid (Spain). The learned features are processed by Density‐based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (DBSCAN) algorithm for identifying anomalous maps. Comparisons with other deep learning architectures are undertaken, for instance, autoencoders—undercomplete and denoizing—for learning salient features of the maps and later to use as input of DBSCAN. The proposed approach is able efficiently find maps with local anomalies compared to other approaches based on raw images or latent features extracted with autoencoders architectures with DBSCAN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Background: Data on patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) who have had 2019 novel coronavirus (SARS‐CoV‐2) disease (COVID‐19) are needed. Aims: To report the clinical characteristics, including gastrointestinal symptoms, of COVID‐19 in IBD patients, and to assess the risk of COVID‐19 in IBD. Methods: This case series included consecutive IBD patients with laboratory‐confirmed COVID‐19. Age‐adjusted cumulative incidences were compared with the general population in the Madrid region. Results: Through April 8, 12 of 1918 IBD patients were diagnosed with COVID‐19. The average age was 52 years, 75% of the patients were female and 58.3% had Crohn's disease. Seven patients (58%) were on maintenance treatment with immunomodulators/biologics, of these four with combined therapy (33%). Eight patients (66%) required hospitalisation (one intensive care unit admission, and two deaths), and four patients were isolated at home. Nine patients had diarrhoea ranging between 4 and 10 loose stools per day (mean 5.4, SD 1.6). In five patients (42%) diarrhoea was a presenting symptom. In two patients, diarrhoea was the only symptom at debut. Cumulative incidence of COVID‐19 was 6.2 per 1000 IBD patients. IBD patients had a lower adjusted incidence ratio of COVID‐19 (OR 0.74, 95% CI 0.70‐0.77; P < 0.001), and a similar associated mortality ratio (OR 0.95, 95% CI: 0.84‐1.06; P = 0.36), compared with the general population. Conclusions: IBD patients do not have an increased risk of COVID‐19 and associated mortality compared with the general population. In many IBD patients, diarrhoea was a presenting symptom, and sometimes, was the only symptom at onset of COVID‐19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Von Economo neurons (VENs) are modified pyramidal neurons characterized by an extremely elongated rod‐shaped soma. They are abundant in layer V of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and fronto‐insular cortex (FI) of the human brain, and have long been described as a human‐specific neuron type. Recently, VENs have been reported in the ACC of apes and the FI of macaque monkeys. The first description of the somato‐dendritic morphology of VENs in the FI by Cajal in 1899 (Textura del Sistema Nervioso del Hombre y de los Vertebrados, Tomo II. Madrid: Nicolas Moya) strongly suggested that they were a unique neuron subtype with specific morphological features. It is surprising that a clarification of this extremely important observation has not yet been attempted, especially as possible misidentification of other oval or fusiform cells as VENs has become relevant in many recently published studies. Here, we analyzed sections of Brodmann area 24 (ACC) stained with rapid Golgi and Golgi‐Cox in five adult human specimens, and confirmed Cajal's observations. In addition, we established a comprehensive morphological description of VENs. VENs have a distinct somato‐dendritic morphology that allows their clear distinction from other modified pyramidal neurons. We established that VENs have a perpendicularly oriented, stick‐shaped core part consisting of the cell body and two thick extensions – an apical and basal stem. The perpendicular length of the core part was 150–250 μm and the thickness was 10–21 μm. The core part was characterized by a lack of clear demarcation between the cell body and the two extensions. Numerous thin, spiny and horizontally oriented side dendrites arose from the cell body. The basal extension of the core part typically ended by giving numerous smaller dendrites with a brush‐like branching pattern. The apical extension had a topology typical for apical dendrites of pyramidal neurons. The dendrites arising from the core part had a high dendritic spine density. The most distinct feature of VENs was the distant origin site of the axon, which arose from the ending of the basal extension, often having a common origin with a dendrite. Quantitative analysis found that VENs could be divided into two groups based on total dendritic length – small VENs with a peak total dendritic length of 1500–2500 μm and large VENs with a peak total dendritic length of 5000–6000 μm. Comparative morphological analysis of VENs and other oval and fusiform modified pyramidal neurons showed that on Nissl sections small VENs might be difficult to identify, and that oval and fusiform neurons could be misidentified as VENs. Our analysis of Golgi slides of Brodmann area 9 from a total of 32 adult human subjects revealed only one cell resembling VEN morphology. Thus, our data show that the numerous recent reports on the presence of VENs in non‐primates in other layers and regions of the cortex need further confirmation by showing the dendritic and axonal morphology of these cells. In conclusion, our study provides a foundation for further comprehensive morphological and functional studies on VENs between different species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the local determinants of destination choices of foreign immigrants to the Madrid metro area using data for 2005 and 2009 from the Spanish annual municipal-level registers of inhabitants. Taking advantage of the equivalence relation between conditional logit and Poisson, we estimate a location-choice model using the Poisson fixed-effects estimator. Origin-destination fixed effects are incorporated to account for the persistent spatial structure of the immigrants' settlement patterns and to control for potential violations of the independence of irrelevant alternatives ( IIA) assumption. The Poisson regression model is estimated for seven different groups of immigrants according to world regions or countries of origin. Our modelling strategy has important empirical implications, with magnitudes and/or signs of the estimated coefficients changing in the expected directions. It is found that newly arriving immigrants tend to settle in low-to-middle-income locations in the suburban reaches of the Madrid metro area. Moreover, the effects of the size of local communities of established immigrants are found to be insignificant and even negative in several instances, reflecting hetero-local settlement preferences and/or the saturation of local networks causing in-group job rivalry, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the 27th Symposium of the European Society of Veterinary Neurology (ESVN) and the European College of Veterinary Neurology (ECVN) held in Madrid, Spain from September 18-20, 2014. It mentions several sessions held in the same including "Global Assessment of the Patient with Traumatic Brain Injury" by researcher Amanda Boag, "Clinical and Diagnostic Approach to Lameness in Cats" by Sorrel Langley-Hobbs and "Feline Cognitive Dysfunction" by Danielle A. Gunn-Moore.

Copyright of Reading Research Quarterly is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study examines the association between corporate governance and accruals earnings management using a corporate governance index consisting of 55 individual corporate governance measures. Prior literature has focused primarily on certain individual corporate governance measures, overlooking the multidimensional character of corporate governance. Based on a sample of firms listed on the Athens, Milan and Madrid Stock Exchanges, we find an inverse relationship between corporate governance and earnings management. Corporate governance provisions seem to constrain the tendency of management to manage earnings leading to higher credibility for financial statements. Additional tests suggest that the negative relationship holds for large and middle capitalization firms but not for the small capitalization sample. In addition, corporate governance provisions limit upwards but not downwards earnings management. This study emphasizes the multilevel character of corporate governance and suggests the usage of comprehensive measures of corporate governance in the academic research. This study also stresses the importance of introducing corporate governance mechanisms in order to ensure the integrity of the financial reporting process. Practitioners are expected to evaluate the corporate governance provisions that each firm has put in place, whereas policy makers are expected to mandate the application of a wide range of corporate governance mechanisms. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnographic representations of Gypsies/Roma have traditionally emphasized the role of the person as exemplar and performer of Gypsy/Roma distinctiveness. They have also depicted Gypsy/Roma life as driven towards cultural closure and towards the eschewing of moral ambiguity. Here I explore these ideas via the story of a Agata, a Gitano woman from Madrid. My analysis focuses on the intersection between Gitano ideals of female behaviour as enshrined in the 'Gitano law' (a highly reified set of understandings regarding morality and custom), on the one hand, and the choices and personalities of Agata and some of her relatives, on the other. I show how strongly present the 'Gitano law' is in the lives of these men and women, but also how they engage it in ways that are neither monolithic nor predictable. The ensuing tension has effects that, albeit not uniform, reach deeply into the tissue of people's lives. Résumé Les représentations ethnographiques des Gitans (Roms) ont souvent souligné le rôle de la personne comme manifestation et incarnation de la spécificité gitane. Elles décrivent aussi la vie des Gitans comme culturellement fermée et moralement ambiguë. L'auteure explore ces idées par l'intermédiaire de l'histoire d'Agata, une Gitane de Madrid. Son analyse se concentre sur l'intersection entre les idéaux gitans du comportement féminin, consacrés dans la « loi gitane » (un ensemble très réifié de notions concernant la moralité et la coutume) et les choix et personnalités d'Agata et de certains membres de sa famille. L'article montre à quel point la « loi gitane » est présente dans la vie de ces hommes et de ces femmes, mais aussi que les manières dont ils s'y rapportent sont peu monolithiques et imprévisibles. La tension qui en résulte a des effets certes hétérogènes mais profondément intriqués dans l'étoffe de la vie des individus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vertebrate community of the late Miocene locality of Batallones-1, Madrid Province, Spain, is mainly composed of mammals of the order Carnivora, which represents 98 per cent of the total number of macro-mammal fossils. Here, we describe craniodental remains of approximately 12 individuals of a new, highly specialized member of the Amphicyonidae, previously assigned to Amphicyon sp. cf. A. castellanus. A phylogenetic analysis of Amphicyoninae shows that this new form, named Magericyon anceps gen. et sp. nov., is markedly distinct from all other known Amphicyoninae, specifically in its hypercarnivorous features (strongly compressed upper canines, absence of dP1/dp1 and P2/p2, single-rooted p3, absence of a metaconid on the lower molars, and reduction of M2 relative to M1). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Questions: 1. Do disturbances by harvester ants (Messor barbarus L.) affect soil properties? 2. Do they alter seed distribution? 3. Do they show a different species composition? 4 Are these changes related to seed size (length and weight)? Location: Mediterranean grasslands in central Spain, near Madrid. Methods: We recorded autumn seed banks and spring vegetation in middens, trunk trails and controls. Soil properties were also measured in middens and controls. The effect of seed weight and length was analysed after transforming data into phylogenetically independent contrasts. Results: Soil under middens is more silty and higher in potassium, organic matter and pH. Seed density and seed bank species richness increased greatly in middens, while vegetation species richness was significantly lower in comparison to control samples. Abundance changes in this disturbance type were positively correlated with seed weight, both in seed bank and vegetation. In contrast, we only detected a slight increase in bare ground on foraging trunk trails, with no clear effects on seed bank and vegetation composition. Conclusions: Midden development is a mechanism that generates heterogeneity which favours the survival of certain large-seeded species mainly predated by ants in Mediterranean grasslands. This effect may partially neutralize the dominance of small seeded species expected from the seed predation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Gypsies have often been described as people ‘oriented towards the present’, the question of how their approach to the past might illuminate their particular mode of being in the world has been left largely untheorized. In fact, understanding how Gypsies manage the past is essential to understanding the processes through which they survive as a group in the midst of non-Gypsy society. In this article I analyse how the Gitanos of Jarana (Madrid) work upon the past so as to remove certain past events and periods from the communal gaze and to ensure that others receive only limited elaboration. I also explore the links between these Gitanos’ downplaying of the past in their accounts of themselves and their particular ways of organizing social relations. Therefore, my focus lies on the relationships between the past and the imagined community, and between the latter and its structural supports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acquiring the skills needed to solve certain types of problems is one of the main challenges of distance university education, demanding extra motivation from students to tackle it. New technology should be one of our great allies in addressing these problems. This article proposes an expert system with a web‐based problem‐solving simulator for a multidevice environment in order to allow students to access an unlimited number of problems with their corresponding solutions, immediately, anytime and anywhere. The types of problems that can be used are those based on quantitative methods with a fixed methodology to be followed. A successful case study was carried out for the subject Operations Management at the Distance University of Madrid (UDIMA), with three different problem simulators having been developed. The results were very satisfactory compared with previous academic years in terms of motivation. A decrease in students that did not sit the final examination was observed, as was an increase in the number of visits to the Moodle classroom. Students also responded positively in their assessments of the initiative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]