The extractive sector is increasingly important in the GDP and export basket of the four Andean countries under study (ACs) (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia). The analysis of an updated inventory ...of 296 environmental conflicts in the EJAtlas for these four countries reaches the following conclusions: extractivism causes environmental conflicts related to mining, fossil fuels, hydropower and biomass; indigenous, Afro-descendant and peasant communities are the most affected; behind the conflicts, there are not only environmental impacts but also social impacts that concern livelihoods, land deprivation and work insecurity, and also loss of cultural practices and cultural identity; most of the forms of collective action used in protests are peaceful, most notably petitions, street marches, media activism, lawsuits, while States and companies criminalize activists and are often violent (with about 75 cases in which there are deaths or disappearance of environmental defenders); socio-environmental movements (that sometimes include environmental NGOs) have achieved relative success, stopping 59 of the 296 conflict-generating projects and giving birth to new forms of resistance. While successfully stopping single projects cannot be construed as a general critique of economic growth, such attempts are congruent with post-development, community-centric, ecologically-balanced and culturally-sensitive Andean visions such as buen vivir or sumak kawsay. They are also congruent with policy proposals put forward from a post-economic growth perspective such as “leaving unburnable fuels in the ground” and “resource extraction caps”.
•Changes and growth in the social metabolism of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia cause environmental conflicts.•We analyze 296 conflicts against "extractivism" in these countries, combining ecological economics and political ecology.•Outcomes vary from success in stopping projects to compromise solutions to naked violence against environmental defenders.•Local and national social movements are born from such conflicts, and also new Andean concepts such as buen vivir
The aim of this study was to explore the validity of self-rated health across different populations of older adults, when compared to the Short Physical Performance Battery.
Cross-sectional analysis ...of the International Mobility in Aging Study.
Five locations: Saint-Hyacinthe and Kingston (Canada), Tirana (Albania), Manizales (Colombia), and Natal (Brazil).
Older adults between 65 and 74 years old (n = 1,995).
The Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) was used to measure physical performance. Self-rated health was assessed with one single five-point question. Linear trends between SPPB scores and self-rated health were tested separately for men and women at each of the five international study sites. Poor physical performance (independent variable) (SPPB less than 8) was used in logistic regression models of self-rated health (dependent variable), adjusting for potential covariates. All analyses were stratified by gender and site of origin.
A significant linear association was found between the mean scores of the Short Physical Performance Battery and ordinal categories of self-rated health across research sites and gender groups. After extensive control for objective physical and mental health indicators and socio-demographic variables, these graded associations became non-significant in some research sites.
These findings further confirm the validity of SRH as a measure of overall health status in older adults.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Motivated by the mechanism of inhibitory synapses, a new kind of spiking neural P (SNP) system rules, called inhibitory rules, is introduced in this paper. Based on this, a new variant of SNP systems ...is proposed, called spiking neural P systems with inhibitory rules (SNP-IR systems). Different from the usual firing rules in SNP systems, the firing condition of an inhibitory rule not only depends on the state of the neuron associated with the rule but also is related to the states of other neurons. Moreover, from the perspective of topological structure, the new variant is shown as a directed graph with inhibitory arcs, and therefore seems to have more powerful control. The computational completeness of SNP-IR systems is discussed. In particular, it is proved that SNP-IR systems are Turing universal number accepting/generating devices. Moreover, we obtain a small universal function-computing device for SNP-IR systems consisting of 100 neurons.
•We propose a new kind rule, inhibitory rules, inspired from mechanism of inhibitory synapse.•We propose a new variant, spiking neural P systems with inhibitory rules (SNP-IR systems, in short).•We prove that SNP-IR systems as both number generating and number accepting devices are Turing universal.•We construct a small universal function computing device consisting of 100 neurons for SNP-IR systems.
The model of membrane computing, also known under the name of P systems, is a bio-inspired large-scale parallel computing paradigm having a good potential for the design of massively parallel ...algorithms. For its implementation it is very natural to choose hardware platforms that have important inherent parallelism, such as field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) or compute unified device architecture (CUDA)-enabled graphic processing units (GPUs). This article performs an overview of all existing approaches of hardware implementation in the area of P systems. The quantitative and qualitative attributes of FPGA-based implementations and CUDA-enabled GPU-based simulations are compared to evaluate the two methodologies.
Ecogenomics of the SAR11 clade Haro‐Moreno, Jose M.; Rodriguez‐Valera, Francisco; Rosselli, Riccardo ...
Environmental microbiology,
20/May , Letnik:
22, Številka:
5
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Summary
Members of the SAR11 clade, despite their high abundance, are often poorly represented by metagenome‐assembled genomes. This fact has hampered our knowledge about their ecology and genetic ...diversity. Here we examined 175 SAR11 genomes, including 47 new single‐amplified genomes. The presence of the first genomes associated with subclade IV suggests that, in the same way as subclade V, they might be outside the proposed Pelagibacterales order. An expanded phylogenomic classification together with patterns of metagenomic recruitment at a global scale have allowed us to define new ecogenomic units of classification (genomospecies), appearing at different, and sometimes restricted, metagenomic data sets. We detected greater microdiversity across the water column at a single location than in samples collected from similar depth across the global ocean, suggesting little influence of biogeography. In addition, pangenome analysis revealed that the flexible genome was essential to shape genomospecies distribution. In one genomospecies preferentially found within the Mediterranean, a set of genes involved in phosphonate utilization was detected. While another, with a more cosmopolitan distribution, was unique in having an aerobic purine degradation pathway. Together, these results provide a glimpse of the enormous genomic diversity within this clade at a finer resolution than the currently defined clades.
In this paper we study Algorithmic High-Frequency Financial Markets as dynamical networks. After an individual analysis of 24 stocks of the US market during a trading year of fully automated ...transactions by means of ordinal pattern series, we define an information-theoretic measure of pairwise synchronization for time series which allows us to study this subset of the US market as a dynamical network. We apply to the resulting network a couple of clustering algorithms in order to detect collective market states, characterized by their degree of centralized or decentralized synchronicity. This collective analysis has shown to reproduce, classify and explain the anomalous behavior previously observed at the individual level. We also find two whole coherent seasons of highly centralized and decentralized synchronicity, respectively. Finally, we model these states dynamics through a simple Markov model.
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•We study non-linear coupling and emergent collective behavior in automated markets.•An information-theoretic measure of pairwise ordinal synchronization is proposed.•A couple of clustering algorithms to detect a set of daily market states is applied.•We detect two seasons of the trading year, given by their degree of centralization.•A simple Markov model is proposed to model these states dynamics.
Purpose
The aim of this study was to establish an objective criterion in terms of marginal bone level (MBL) to know the prognosis of an implant.
Materials and Methods
A group of 176 patients in whom ...590 implants were placed were included in this retrospective study. Patients older than 18 years, presenting either Kennedy class I or II edentulous section, or totally edentulous at least in one of the dental arches were included in this study. Those with any type of disturbance able to alter bone metabolism or with nontreated periodontal disease were excluded. Data on radiographic MBL at loading, 6 and 18 months later, age, gender, smoking habits, history of periodontitis, bone substratum, implant, and prosthetic features were recorded. Nonparametric receiver operating curves (ROC) were constructed for the MBL at 18 months in order to establish a distinction among high bone loser (HBL) and low bone loser (LBL) implants. Differences as a function of main variables were also determined, particularly abutment height and periodontal disease.
Results
HBL implants lost at least 0.48 mm of MBL 6 months after loading; they reached at least 2 mm of MBL 18 months after loading. MBL rate followed a nonlinear trend, except in implants restored over long prosthetic abutments and in patients with history of severe periodontitis; in whom the rate of MBL over the time was nearly zero.
Conclusion
Implants that lose more than 0.5 mm of marginal bone 6 months after loading are at great risk of not being radiographically successful anymore. Therefore, 0.5 mm of MBL is proposed as a distinctive and objective criterion of success in Implant Dentistry within a 6‐month follow‐up period. A prosthetic abutment height ≥2 mm resulted the most protective factor in the peri‐implant bone maintenance.
Background
Physical activity (PA) interventions may reduce the burden of frailty and can prevent mobility disability for older adults. We explored whether a 2‐year PA intervention would improve ...frailty trajectory, lead to clinically meaningful frailty changes (CMC), or impact major mobility disability (MMD) across baseline frailty levels.
Methods
We analyzed data for 1635 community‐dwelling participants who were 70–89 years old (mean baseline age SD: 78.9 5.2 years, 67.2% female) from the Lifestyle Interventions and Independence Study. Participants were randomized to either PA or health education (HE) intervention. A 44‐item frailty index (FI) was constructed at baseline and 0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2 years after baseline. CMC was defined as change in FI of ≥0.03. MMD was the inability to complete a 400 m‐walk within 15 min without assistance. Mixed‐effects models were used to estimate frailty trajectory and CMC. Cox regression models were used to determine whether the effect of PA on the composite of MMD or death differed by baseline FI.
Results
Mean FI (SD) at baseline for both the PA and HE groups was 0.18 (0.10). Two years after baseline, mean FIs were 0.23 (0.12) for PA and 0.24 (0.12) for HE. The MMD rates were 30.1% (246/818) and 35.5% (290/817) for PA and HE, respectively. There was no time‐by‐intervention interaction for frailty trajectory or for CMC. Regarding the composite MMD and death, there was no FI‐by‐intervention interaction. Simple association analyses revealed that when baseline FI was centered at 0.15 or higher, the PA intervention was associated with lower risk of MMD or death compared to HE (HR CI range for FI ≥ 0.15: 0.65–0.81 0.43–0.67, 0.90–0.98).
Conclusion
Participants in both groups showed similar frailty trajectories and CMC. Those who were frailer benefitted more from the PA intervention regarding MMD and death and may be a focus of recruitments for future PA program.
Protein interactions between a pathogen and its host are fundamental in the establishment of the pathogen and underline the infection mechanism. In the present work, we developed a single predictive ...model for building a host-viral interactome based on the identification of structural descriptors from motif-domain interactions of protein complexes deposited in the Protein Data Bank (PDB). The structural descriptors were used for searching, in a database of protein sequences of human and five clinically important viruses; therefore, viral and human proteins sharing a descriptor were predicted as interacting proteins. The analysis of the host-viral interactome allowed to identify a set of new interactions that further explain molecular mechanism associated with viral infections and showed that it was able to capture human proteins already associated to viral infections (human infectome) and non-infectious diseases (human diseasome). The analysis of human proteins targeted by viral proteins in the context of a human interactome showed that their neighbors are enriched in proteins reported with differential expression under infection and disease conditions. It is expected that the findings of this work will contribute to the development of systems biology for infectious diseases, and help guide the rational identification and prioritization of novel drug targets.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Researchers working in the field of ecosystem services (ES) have long acknowledged the importance of recognising multiple values in ecosystems and biodiversity. Yet the operationalisation of value ...pluralism in ES assessments remains largely elusive. The aim of this research is to present
a taxonomy of values and valuation methods to widen the evaluative space for ES. First, we present our preanalytic positions in regards to the values and valuation of ES. Second, we review different value definitions that we deem relevant for the discussion of ES valuation. Third, we propose
a taxonomy of ES values based on different conceptions of human-nature relationships. Finally, we present a taxonomy of different methods that can be used to recognise plural values in ES. This taxonomy for a plural valuation can help ES scientists and practitioners with their aim of representing
people's multiple and context-specific ways of valuing nature. The taxonomy can also serve to pay broader attention to ES values that are overlooked or misrepresented in assessments that restrict their focus to monetary valuations.
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