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The main purposes of this study were to describe teacher education students' values and degree of satisfaction with life, to analyze whether any differences by educational program, gender or living standard and to analyze the association between values and satisfaction with life. A total of 565 students of teacher degree programs (girls 415 (73.5%)) answered a self-administered questionnaire composed by two validates scales about their values (Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ) and satisfaction with life (Satisfaction with Life Scale)). The results showed that the most important values were self-direction, benevolence and hedonism, while the least important values were power, tradition and achievements. Females reported higher importance for benevolence, universalism, self-direction, stimulation, hedonism and security. Males reported higher importance for power. Students who live with family reported also more high values for power. Concerning satisfaction with life, it was associated to higher values of power. Current intervention programs have focused different approaches by gender and living standard. Programs focus on increasing satisfaction with life should consider the values structure of students.

In this study, 310 destructively sampled plots were used to develop two equation systems for the three main pine species in NW Spain (P. pinaster; P. radiata and P. sylvestris): one for estimating loads of understorey fuel components by size and condition (live and dead) and another one for forest floor fuels. Additive systems of equations were simultaneously fitted for estimating fuel loads using overstorey, understorey and forest floor variables as regressors. The systems of equations included both the effect of pine species and the effect of understorey compositions dominated by ferns-brambles or by woody species, due to their obvious structural and physiological differences. In general, the goodness-of-fit statistics indicated that the estimates were reasonably robust and accurate for all of the fuel fractions. The best results were obtained for total understorey vegetation, total forest floor and raw humus fuel loads, with more than 76% of the observed variability explained, whereas the poorest results were obtained for coarse fuel loads of understory vegetation with a 53% of observed variability explained. To reduce the overall costs associated with the field inventories necessary for operational use of the models, the additive systems were fitted again using only overstorey variables as potential regressors. Only relationships for fine (<6 ​mm) and total understorey vegetation and total forest floor fuel loads were obtained, indicating the complexity of the forest overstorey-understorey and overstorey-forest floor relationships. Nevertheless, these models explained around 52% of the observed variability. Finally, equations estimating the total understorey vegetation and the total forest floor fuel loads based only on canopy cover were fitted. These models explained only 26%–32% of the observed variability; however, their main advantage is that although understorey vegetation in forested landscapes is largely invisible to remote sensing, canopy cover can be estimated with moderate accuracy, allowing for landscape-scale estimates of total fuel loads. The equations represent an appreciable advance in understorey and forest floor fuel load assessment in the region and areas with similar characteristics and may be instrumental in generating fuel maps, fire management improvement and better C storage assessment by vegetation type, among many other uses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universal Access to urban services is an indicator of equity and life quality in our cities. Culture and education services have become crucial because of their contribution to a sustainable economic and social development. This is the case, especially, for medium-sized heritage cities that struggle to survive to the conflicts derived from globalised tourism. The aim of this research is to calculate the pedestrian accessibility to the cultural and educative network of Córdoba (Spain), consisting in all the facilities of the city, in order to check the access possibilities of the whole population to them. Cartographic data collected from diverse sources have been analysed in order to define space–time areas and percentage of population living in each one of them. The results have been gathered in a set of maps (1:38,000) representing the whole urban area of the city, built and planned, as an educative and cultural entity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mid-term effects on carbon sequestration of two consecutive pre-commercial thinnings with different intensities were analysed in a heavily stocked Pinus pinaster Ait. stand in northwestern Spain. Thinning was carried out 5 and 8 years after seedling establishment. Intense thinning reduced the initial sapling density by 92 per cent after the first treatment and by 87 per cent after the second; moderate thinning reduced the density by 82 per cent after the first treatment and by 84 per cent after the second. The effect on foliar efficiency of the first thinning was transient, but was prolonged by the second thinning. Live carbon biomass stock (in saplings and understorey) decreased after thinning, especially after the most intense thinning. However, when residues were taken into account, the carbon biomass decreased by only 18 per cent in the intensely thinned plots, and by 2 per cent in the moderately thinned plots, relative to the untreated plots, by the end of the study period. Very early thinning of these heavily stocked young stands was found to have a reduced mid-term effect on carbon sequestration per land area, when carbon stock from understorey and residues were considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought is a climatic event that can cause significant damage both in natural environment and in human lives. Drought forecasting is an important issue in water resource planning. Due to the stochastic behaviour of droughts, a multiplicative seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average model was applied to forecast monthly streamflow in a small watershed in Galicia (NW Spain). A better streamflow forecast obtained when the Martone index was included in the model as explanatory variable. After forecasting 12 leading month streamflow, three drought thresholds: streamflow mean, monthly streamflow mean and standardized streamflow index were chosen. Both observed and forecasted streamflow showed no drought evidence in this basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study on the effects of public health interventions on ambient air and industrial discharges in Cartagena, Spain. The study used an ecological time series design to assess the short-term intervention effect on air quality. It has proven that the observational system of intermittent control in Cartagena City can effectively reduce the impact of industrial emissions on ambient air quality. Moreover, it recommends public officials to take action to polluting industries.

• Novel stand-level biomass models developed for 9 shrubland types, by groups and all together. • Nonlinear iterative seemingly unrelated regression used to fit systems of integrated additive equations. • Models were also developed for standing fuel loads by size and condition, and litter. • Predictor variables were stand height alone or with stand cover and litter depth. • Generally, models performed reasonably well even those based on height alone. Shrub-dominated ecosystems cover large areas globally and play essential roles in ecological processes. Aboveground biomass expressed on an area basis (AGB) is central to many of the ecological processes and services provided by shrublands and is important as the main fuel source for wildfires. Hence, its accurate estimation in shrublands is crucial for ecologists and land managers. This is especially relevant in fire-prone regions such as NW Spain, where shrublands are an important part of the landscape, providing multiple services, but are severely impacted by wildfires. Although biomass models are available for numerous shrub species at the individual plant level, operational models based directly on easily measured shrub stand attributes are scarce. In this study, equations for estimating AGB and loads of different fuel components by size and condition (live and dead) from stand biometric variables were developed for the nine most prevalent shrub communities in NW Spain. Non-linear iterative seemingly unrelated regression was used to fit compatible systems of equations for estimating fuel loads, with shrub stand height and cover and litter depth as predictors for individual shrub communities and all data combined. In general, the goodness-of-fit statistics indicated that the estimates were reasonably accurate for all communities (grouped and ungrouped). The best results were obtained for AGB and total fuel load, including litter, whereas the poorest results were obtained for standing live and dead fine fuel load. Model performance was reduced when height was the only independent variable, although the reduction was small for most fuel categories, except litter load for which the variability was adequately explained by the litter depth. These results illustrate the feasibility of the stand level approach for constructing operational models of shrub fuel load that are accurate for most of fuel components, while also highlighting the ongoing challenges in live and dead fine fuel modelling. The equations developed represent an appreciable advance in shrubland biomass assessment in the region and areas with similar characteristics and may be instrumental in generating fuel maps, fire management improvement and better C storage assessment by vegetation, among other many uses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geospatial fire behaviour and fire hazard simulators, fire effects models and smoke emission software commonly use standard fuel models in order to simplify data collection and the inclusion of complex fuel scenarios. These fuel models are often mapped using remotely sensed data. However, given the great complexity of fuelbeds, with properties that vary widely in both time and space, the use of these standard fuel models can greatly limit accurate fuel mapping. This affects fuel hazard assessment, fuel reduction treatment plans, fire management decision-making and evaluation of the environmental impact of wildfire. In this study, we developed unique customized fire behaviour fuel models for shrub and bracken communities, by using k-medoids clustering analysis based on both fuel structural characteristics and potential fire behaviour. We used an original database of 722 destructive sample plots in nine different shrub and bracken communities covering the entire distribution area in Galicia (NW Spain), one of the regions in Europe most affected by forest fires. Measurements of cover, height and fuel fractions loads differentiated by size and vegetative state (live or dead) were used to estimate the potential rate of fire spread with five different models including fireline intensity, heat per unit area and the flame length for each sampling site and considering extreme environmental conditions. The optimal number of clusters was established by combining practical knowledge about the shrubland communities under study and their associated fire behaviour, with maximization of the mean value of the silhouette variable and minimization of the within-cluster sum of squares. The structural characteristics of the medoids derived from the analysis were associated with each of the proposed customized fuel models. Finally, a simple dichotomous classification based only on shrub height was developed to enable construction of spatially explicit fuel model maps based on remotely sensed data. Thus, the methodology applied allows generation of a more realistic representation of fuel distribution in the landscape, based on fuel structure measurements of natural regional ecosystems rather than on the use of standard models. We believe that the proposed methodology is generally applicable to communities composed of other shrub and fern species in different biogeographical regions. • Classification methods were applied to a sample of 722 shrublands plots. • Fuel structure and potential fire behaviour parameters were combined in cluster analysis. • Cluster results for five different models used to estimate fire rate of spread were compared. • Four shrub models and two bracken models based on medoids are proposed for NW Spain. • A height-based classifier correctly assigned 67% and 84% of shrub and bracken models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prosthesis-patient mismatch (PPM) occurs when the effective orifice area of the prosthesis is too small in relation to the patient's body surface area. There are few data available on the frequency and prognostic impact of PPM after transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). Our aim was to determine the prevalence of PPM and to investigate its association with medium-term clinical course of patients undergoing TAVI. We included 185 patients undergoing TAVI (79 ± 5 years, 49% male, 98% CoreValve) between April-2008 and December-2014. The effective orifice area (EOA) was determined by transthoracic echocardiography prior and after the procedure. We defined PPM as indexed EOA ≤ 0.85 cm 2 /m 2 (severe PPM if ≤ 0.65 cm 2 /m 2 ). All cause death, stroke and hospitalization for heart failure were considered as major clinical events. 45 patients (24%) showed PPM (severe 11 patients, 6%). PPM was associated with a higher EuroSCORE (OR 1.06, IC 95% 1.01-1.12, p = 0.03), body surface area ≥ 1.72 m 2 (OR 3.58, IC 95% 1.30-9.87, p = 0.01) and small aortic annulus (OR 0.73, IC 95% 0.55-0.92, p = 0.03); and severe PPM with small prostheses size (OR 17.79, IC 95% 1.87-169.78, p = 0.012). The mean event-free survival was 34 ± 26 months. Patients with severe PPM showed lower rates of event free survival than the rest of the series (52% vs. 84%, p = 0.04) at 34 months follow up. In our series, PPM was present in a quarter of the patients after TAVI. Higher EuroSCORE, smaller prosthesis size, larger body surface area and smaller aortic annulus diameter were associated with PPM. Severe PPM was an independent factor associated with major events at medium-term follow up.

Various different factors have led to the accumulation of biomass in forest soils in the Mediterranean-climate region in the last few decades, thus exacerbating the effects of wildfires. Although prescribed burning is used to decrease the fuel load and reduce the currency of mega-wildfires, the impacts on soil organic matter (SOM) and nutrient cycling, and therefore on forest ecosystem sustainability, are uncertain. The present study was designed to cover a range of conditions and therefore to assess the variability in the responses in similar geographical areas. Three prescribed burning treatments producing different levels of soil burn severity were conducted in two different types of forests (Pinus nigra and Pinus pinaster) and one (previously treated by prescribed burning) shrubland ecosystem (Cytisus oromediterraneus), all characterized by different fuel loads and depths of soil organic layer, in Central Spain. After the treatments, the SOM content, its thermal properties, and the distribution of Phosphorus (P) forms ( 31 P NMR spectroscopy) were measured in the soil organic layer and mineral soils (0-2 cm depth), and the results were related to the temperatures reached. The prescribed burning les to low-moderate perturbations in SOM quality and Carbon (C) and P dynamics. The organic P, which in the unburnt plots represented 70% of the extractable P, was greatly depleted (by 56 and 95% with respect the initials values). This effect was concurrent with decreases in the most thermolabile SOM fractions, suggesting that organic P is readily mineralized, even at relatively low temperatures. Release of large amounts of soluble orthophosphate may occur when the prescribed burning leads to a high level of soil burn severity. The findings show that prescribed burning treatments should be planned carefully in order to prevent long-term perturbation of C and P cycling., (Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)