In this paper, we measure the effect of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic wave at the national and subnational levels in selected Latin American countries that were most affected: Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, ...Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru. We used publicly available monthly mortality data to measure the impacts of the pandemic using excess mortality for each country and its regions. We compare the mortality, at national and regional levels, in 2020 to the mortality levels of recent trends and provide estimates of the impact of mortality on life expectancy at birth. Our findings indicate that from April 2020 on, mortality exceeded its usual monthly levels in multiple areas of each country. In Mexico and Peru, excess mortality was spreading through many areas by the end of the second half of 2020. To a lesser extent, we observed a similar pattern in Brazil, Chile, and Ecuador. We also found that as the pandemic progressed, excess mortality became more visible in areas with poorer socioeconomic and sanitary conditions. This excess mortality has reduced life expectancy across these countries by 2–10 years. Despite the lack of reliable information on COVID-19 mortality, excess mortality is a useful indicator for measuring the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, especially in the context of Latin American countries, where there is still a lack of good information on causes of death in their vital registration systems.
In this letter we reflect on the propagation of gravitational waves in alternative theories of gravity, which are typically formulated using extra gravitational degrees of freedom in comparison to ...General Relativity. We propose to understand that additional structure as forming a diagravitational medium for gravitational waves characterized by a refractive index. Furthermore, we shall argue that the most general diagravitational medium has associated an anisotropic dispersion relation. In some situations a refractive index tensor, which takes into account both the deflection of gravitational waves due to the curvature of a non-flat spacetime and the modifications of the general relativistic predictions, can be defined. The most general media, however, entail the consideration of at least two independent tensors.
Lay Summary Animals respond to approaching predators by taking flight at a distance that is determined by the costs and benefits of such flight. Here, we tested the prediction that urban habitats and ...presence of feeders independently accounted for reductions in flight initiation distance. We found independent effects of urban habitat and presence of feeders on flight initiation distance. These findings suggest that different factors have contributed to the "tameness" of urban birds.Animals respond to approaching predators by taking flight at a distance that optimizes the costs and benefits of such flight. Previous studies have shown that urban populations of birds have shorter flight initiation distances than rural populations of the same species, that this difference is partly explained by differences in the community of predators, and that a longer history of urbanization implies a greater reduction in flight initiation distance in urban populations. The use of birdfeeders may be an additional factor reducing flight initiation distance not only in cities but also elsewhere by among other effects increasing body condition, increasing availability and reliability of food, and hence reducing the relative cost of flight. Here, we tested the prediction that urban habitats and presence of feeders independently accounted for reductions in flight initiation distance using extensive samples from different cities in Poland. We found independent significant effects of urban habitat and presence of feeders on flight initiation distance. These findings suggest that different factors have contributed to the "tameness" of urban birds.
Desde el último tercio del siglo XX, la profesión contable global es regulada por distintas organizaciones que han trabajado en la definición y elaboración de normas que faciliten el suministro de ...información financiera de alta calidad y que sean comparables, esencialmente, en aspectos de reconocimiento, medición y exposición. Este proceso también se ha dado en Uruguay, tanto a través de la emisión de normas profesionales dictadas por el Colegio de Contadores, Economistas y Administradores del Uruguay (CCEAU), como por la emisión de normas legales. Así, han ido apareciendo diversas leyes, decretos y pronunciamientos, entre otros, que han impulsado la aplicación de normas contables aprobadas por los organismos internacionales. En la presente investigación, tras realizar una descripción de las normas emitidas por los distintos organismos emisores, se hace un análisis de la evolución de las normas contables en Uruguay en seis períodos históricos con características propias. Además, se concluye con dos trabajos de campo que abarcan aspectos como (i) el impacto de la aplicación por primera vez de las normas internacionales, (ii) el nivel de conocimiento de las normas por parte de los profesionales y (iii) el nivel de conformidad con la formación universitaria recibida. Los principales resultados obtenidos fueron los siguientes: no se puede afirmar haya ausencia de normas; se constata cierto grado de desconocimiento de la normativa contable, especialmente de las Normas Internacionales de Contabilidad para el Sector Público (NICSP); se observa disconformidad con la formación recibida durante la carrera de grado, lo que lleva a la necesidad de actividades de actualización; se ha mejorado la calidad de la información contable; y un 72% de los profesionales entiende que la relación costo-beneficio es positiva.
National accounting either ignores or fails to give due values to the ecosystem services, products, incomes and environmental assets of a country. To overcome these shortcomings, we apply ...spatially-explicit extended accounts that incorporate a novel environmental income indicator, which we test in the forests of Andalusia (Spain). Extended accounts incorporate nine farmer activities (timber, cork, firewood, nuts, livestock grazing, conservation forestry, hunting, residential services and private amenity) and seven government activities (fire services, free access recreation, free access mushroom, carbon, landscape conservation, threatened biodiversity and water yield). To make sure the valuation remains consistent with standard accounts, we simulate exchange values for non-market final forest product consumption in order to measure individual ecosystem services and environmental income indicators. Manufactured capital and environmental assets are also integrated. When comparing extended to standard accounts, our results are 3.6 times higher for gross value added. These differences are explained primarily by the omission in the standard accounts of carbon activities and undervaluation of private amenity, free access recreation, landscape and threatened biodiversity ecosystem services. Extended accounts measure a value of Andalusian forest ecosystem services 5.4 times higher than that measured using the valuation criteria of standard accounts.
•A spatially-explicit ecosystem accounting framework consistent with national accounts•Application to Andalusian forests considering ten activities and 43,864 km2•Ecosystems services represent 84% of final product consumption.•Environmental part of total income is 84% and of total capital 94%.•Gross value added is 11 times higher than measured by standard forestry accounts.
The use of enzymes to recover soluble peptides with functional properties from insoluble proteins could prove to be very expensive, implying high reaction times and low yields. In this study, the ...insoluble granular protein, previously delipidated, was hydrolyzed using enzymes (trypsin) as a comparison to the proposed alternative method: subcritical water hydrolysis (SWH) using both nitrogen and oxygen streams. The result of the hydrolysis was characterized in terms of the yield and peptide size distribution as well as different functional properties. The SWH of the delipidated granules resulted in a higher recovery yield than that obtained by enzymatic hydrolysis in half of the time. The foaming capacity of the peptides obtained by SWH was higher than that obtained by trypsin hydrolysis, although the foam stability was lower. Slight differences were detected between these peptides in terms of their emulsifying properties.
Lung type 2 pneumocytes (T2Ps) and alveolar macrophages (AMs) play crucial roles in the synthesis, recycling and catabolism of surfactant material, a lipid/protein fluid essential for respiratory ...function. The liver X receptors (LXR), LXRα and LXRβ, are transcription factors important for lipid metabolism and inflammation. While LXR activation exerts anti-inflammatory actions in lung injury caused by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and other inflammatory stimuli, the full extent of the endogenous LXR transcriptional activity in pulmonary homeostasis is incompletely understood. Here, using mice lacking LXRα and LXRβ as experimental models, we describe how the loss of LXRs causes pulmonary lipidosis, pulmonary congestion, fibrosis and chronic inflammation due to defective
de novo
synthesis and recycling of surfactant material by T2Ps and defective phagocytosis and degradation of excess surfactant by AMs. LXR-deficient T2Ps display aberrant lamellar bodies and decreased expression of genes encoding for surfactant proteins and enzymes involved in cholesterol, fatty acids, and phospholipid metabolism. Moreover, LXR-deficient lungs accumulate foamy AMs with aberrant expression of cholesterol and phospholipid metabolism genes. Using a house dust mite aeroallergen-induced mouse model of asthma, we show that LXR-deficient mice exhibit a more pronounced airway reactivity to a methacholine challenge and greater pulmonary infiltration, indicating an altered physiology of LXR-deficient lungs. Moreover, pretreatment with LXR agonists ameliorated the airway reactivity in WT mice sensitized to house dust mite extracts, confirming that LXR plays an important role in lung physiology and suggesting that agonist pharmacology could be used to treat inflammatory lung diseases.
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•Bird species composition in urban communities across 15 European cities were recorded.•Some areas were classified as high environmental quality – HEQ urban areas.•HEQ areas have high ...green cover/diversity, low light pollution and high avian resilience.•Multiple bird species were found as indicators of HEQ urban areas, depending on the city.•The top ranked birds HEQ-indicator were Eurasian blackcap, Blackbird and Great tit.
Urban and suburban areas are among the fastest-growing land-use types globally, reducing and fragmenting natural habitats for many animal species and making human-wildlife interactions more common. However, cities also create habitat for several species considered urban tolerant or urban exploiter species. Additionally, the environmental characteristics of urban areas can strongly affect the life quality of citizens. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of common bird species as indicators of urban areas with high environmental quality within cities. Our study recorded 128 bird species in 1441 point counts distributed in fifteen different European cities. We classified urban areas as “high environmental quality” – HEQ when they were simultaneously characterized by a high vegetation cover and heterogeneity, low level of light pollution, and avian communities with high potential resilience to face ecological stress. Species indicators of HEQ urban areas were identified using the species-level indicator value (IndVal) analysis. Such species can be used as ecological indicators of HEQ in different European cities. The list of top ten birds indicators of HEQ in European cities is led by the Eurasian blackcap, selected as an indicator in more than half of the survey cities. Other birds indicators of HEQ in multiple cities are Blackbird (47%), Great tit (40%), Blue tit, Tree sparrow and Magpie (all 33%). The mean specificity of the top-ranked bird indicator of HEQ urban areas (Eurasian blackcap) was 0.778. Most of the HEQ-indicators are resident or resident/short migratory species characterized by territorial behaviour. Our findings support using multiple species as bioindicators of urban changes by using specific groups with few common species as surrogates of HEQ urban areas. The approach proposed in this study can be applied in different European cities to monitor biodiversity status periodically, even involving citizen science initiatives.
This article presents a methodology for the analysis of data on the Internet, combining techniques of Big Data analytics, NLP and semantic web in order to find knowledge about large amounts of ...information on the web. To test the effectiveness of the proposed method, webpages about cyberterrorism were analyzed as a case study. The procedure implemented a genetic strategy in parallel, which integrates (Crawler to locate and download information from the web; to retrieve the vocabulary, using techniques of NLP (tokenization, stop word, TF, TFIDF), methods of stemming and synonyms). For the pursuit of knowledge was built a dataset through the description of a linguistic corpus with semantic ontologies, considering the characteristics of cyber-terrorism, which was analyzed with the algorithms, Random Forests (parallel), Boosting, SVM, neural network, K-nn and Bayes. The results reveal a percentage of the 95.62% accuracy in the detection of the vocabulary of cyber-terrorism, which were approved through cross validation, reaching 576% time savings with parallel processing.
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