Burgos Province Research Articles

Heuristic Solutions for Locating Health Resources

Of the three metaheuristic strategies tested that can help determine healthcare facility locations, scatter search performed the best and fastest. Hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, can cause many health problems, including blurred vision, mental confusion, and speech impairment. If someone becomes severely hypoglycemic and doesn't recover quickly, he or she might lose consciousness and go into a diabetic coma. If that happens, the person must get treated within 15 to 20 minutes; otherwise, he or she almost certainly will suffer devastating physical damage - possibly neuropathy, or blindness - or might even die. Because the risk of permanent neurological deficit increases as the coma is prolonged, it's important for people with diabetes to live no further than 20 minutes (known as the critical time) from their closest health center. Facility location problems such as this involve determining where to install resources and how to assign potential customers to those resources. Most studies on location problems are framed under deterministic conditions. Our proposed solution is more realistic. We adapted, implemented, and compared three metaheuristic strategies - scatter search, tabu search. and variable neighborhood search - to find the best locations in Spain's Burgos province to place health resources for treating people in diabetic comas. To check the efficiency of SS, TS, and VNS, we used instances of the well-known OR-Library as well as real data from the Burgos area in northern Spain. Using metaheuristics is a good option when the problem's complexity prevents us from using a commercially available solver to solve it exactly. This is especially true here, because we're considering hundreds of locations.

Xanthoparmelia pseudohungarica in Spain

The genus Xanthoparmelia (Vain.) Hale (including Neofuscelia Essl.) currently includes more than 800 species (Blanco et al. 2004, 2005), 21 of which have been recorded in the Iberian Peninsula (Llimona & Hladun 2001). During recent studies of the lichen flora of Castilla y León by the first author, a rare, loosely adnate or vagrant, terricolous Xanthoparmelia has been found at two localities in Burgos province. Although a collection (VAL-Lich 20080) from one of the localities (Fresnillo de las Dueñas) was previously reported as the American species X. vagans (Nyl.) Hale (Pérez-Ortega et al. 2002), this collection has now been redetermined as X. pseudohungarica (Gyeln.) Hale.

Oribatid mite (Acari) community structure in steppic habitats of Burgos Province, central northern Spain

This work is a study of the communities of oribatid mites in steppic areas of Burgos Province, central northern Spain, in relation to different habitat types belonging to natural or disturbed ecosystems. The primary objective was to find the relationship between anthropogenic use of land and several diversity indices. Parameters such as abundance, species richness, real diversity (H′) and equitability (J′) of the mite communities were calculated in 20 soil plots, sampled in spring and autumn 2000, belonging to the predominant habitat types of this area: (1) cultivated lands, (2) abandoned crop lands, (3) grasslands/pastures, and (4) natural oak forests or a pine plantation. The most widespread species in the area as well as the most abundant taxa overall are documented, together with the faunistic checklist of oribatid mites identified in the study. The results show a general decline in the composition of the oribatid community, in terms of species diversity and abundance, from non‐disturbed soils to cultivated lands. The number of species (richness) was usually higher in forest soils than in disturbed ecosystems, in which the most degraded soils showed the lowest number of species. The community analysis shows the differences due to habitat type and ubiquitous bioindicator species.

Adiciones al catálogo de la flora vascular de la provincia de Burgos (España).

Additions to the vascular plant checklist of Burgos province (Spain).Palabras clave. Novedades, catálogo de la flora vascular, Burgos, España.Key Words. New records, Vascular plant checklist, Burgos, Spain.

Espinas dérmicas del dinosaurio anquilosaurio <i>Polacanthus</i> en las facies Weald de Salas de los Infantes (Burgos, España)

Ankylosaurian dermal armour elements from the Fuente Espudia locality, near Salas de los Infantes (Burgos Province), are described. These remains have been recovered from red clays of the Urbion Group, which belong to the Weald facies of the western Cameros Basin, of possible Barremian-Aptian age (Lower Cretaceous). Based on their general form, two caudal spines are here assigned to the nodosaurid Polacanthus . This represents the first mention of this genus in the Iberian Peninsula. Previous finds in the same area could also be assigned to this armoured dinosaur.

Sphagnum viride in the Iberian Peninsula

Two localities of Sphagnum viride Flatb. are reported as new to the Iberian Peninsula moss flora. The sites and habitats of the peatmoss are described and the morphological characteristics outlined. In the Iberian Peninsula, the genus Sphagnum sect. Cuspidata (Lindb.) Schlieph. is represented by Sphagnum cuspidatum Hoffm., S. flexuosum Dozy & Molk., S. fallax (Klinggr.) Klinggr., S. angustifolium (Russ.) C. Jens., S. tenellum (Brid.) Brid. (Casas 1991), and S. majus (Russ.) C. Jens. subsp. norvegicum Flatb. (Mufioz & Aldasoro 1995). During the summer of 1997, collections of Sphagnum were made in Lugo Province around Sierra del Xistral in Northwest Spain. Among these collections some specimens (sterile plants) could be identified as S. viride Flatb. (Flatberg 1988). A revision of S. cuspidatum specimens in the VIT herbarium also revealed S. viride from one locality in the Burgos Province. These two localities are the first records of S. viride in the Iberian

Dolomitization and synsedimentary salt tectonics: the Upper Cretaceous Cueva Formation at El Ribero, northern Spain

Dolomites formed in upper Turonian–lower Coniacian Cueva Formation carbonates in the El Ribero area (Burgos province, northern Spain) have been investigated. Carbonate banks up to 30 m thick are massive or poorly structured along several kilometres, but at this location they contain clinoforms that dip away from the central area of the Rosío diapir, producing a dome-like structure. Three main diagenetic processes affected the El Ribero carbonates: silicification, dolomitization and subsequent dedolomitization. Silicification was mainly early, producing chert nodules from Thalassinoides burrows and replacing anhydrite cauliflower-type geodes, converting them into quartz geodes and silicified fossils (corals, echinoderms and oysters). Dolomite occurs immediately below the first order Coniacian Sequence Boundary (CSB) and is restricted to the diapiric area of influence. The dolomite has a flat top, whereas its base is irregular, suggesting downward movement of dolomitic fluids. Isotopic data from the dolomite (δ18O=-3.4‰PDB and δ13C= 1.1 ‰PDB) are similar to values reported from both evaporative and mixing zone dolomite. Finally, an intense and locally destructive dedolomitization produced significant dissolution. This affected the unsilicified organisms, and was followed by the development of meteoric-water poikilotopic calcite cements and radiaxial calcite geodes infilling dissolution cavities (isotopic values for later calcite are α18O=-7.4‰PDB and δ13C=-9.0‰PDB). In addition, palaeokarstic horizons formed as a result of diapiric uplifts that caused collapse structures and vugs of several centimetres in size infilled by laminated sediments. All these features suggest that the diapiric movements could have been synsedimentary and particularly active during the Cueva Formation deposition.

Preliminary report on Middle Coniacian-Lower Santonian Ammonite distribution from the Basque-Cantabrian Basin (Northern Spain)

The distribution of the ammonite faunas from Nidáguila, Turzo, Villamrtín, West Villamartín, Torme and Losa Valley sections (Burgos Province) have been studied. Six ammonite assemblages have been identified from the Middle Coniacian to the Lower Santonian. They have been compared with the northern Spain ammonite zones of Wiedmann (1960, 1964, 1979a, 1979b) and Wiedmann & Kauffman (1978), and with the standard zones established by Kennedy (1984, 1987) for the Coniacian and the Santonian respectively, in the type area (Aquitaine Basin).

Reptiles and mammals from the Late Cretaceous new locality Quintanilla del Coco (Burgos Province, Spain)

Reptiles and mammals from the Late Cretaceous new locality Quintanilla del Coco (Burgos Province, Spain)

El túmulo Protohistorico del «Paso de la Loba». (Huidobro, Burgos)

In the La Lora district of northwest Burgos province, coinciding with the greatest concentration of dolmens in the eastern part of the Upper Meseta, there is a series of burial mounds which belong to the beginning of the Bronze Age. These served first as alternatives to, and then as replacements for, the megalithic burial places. The barrow of Paso de la Loba has, in turn, more modern e1ements which indicate that this special burial rite became rooted among the local population and lasted until the later Iron Age.

Carnivores and Cave Sites in Cantabrian Spain

This paper tests the common assumption that faunal remains found in Paleolithic cave sites in northern Spain were the result of hominid hunting. Using the carnivore/ungulate ratio devised by R. G. Klein, a large number of Middle and Upper Paleolithic faunal assemblages are compared. Carnivore remains and species are extremely abundant in certain caves and in levels particularly pertaining to the Mousterian and early Upper Paleolithic, suggesting heavy canid, felid, and/or hyenid involvement in the accumulation of carcasses. In most late Upper Paleolithic levels, however, where cultural debris is much denser, carnivore remains are generally very scarce or absent, indicating the preponderant role of humans in carcass accumulation in caves. A number of caves in northern Burgos Province illustrate the opposite extreme. Besides serving as a cautionary tale, this article has implications for the evolutionary history of hominid hunting behavior in south-western Europe.