Roadkill patterns in Latin American birds and mammals Medrano‐Vizcaíno, Pablo; Grilo, Clara; Silva Pinto, Fernando Antônio ...
Global ecology and biogeography,
September 2022, 2022-09-00, 20220901, Volume:
31, Issue:
9
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Aim
Roads are a major threat for wildlife, degrading habitat and causing mortality via wildlife–vehicle collisions. In Latin America, the conjunction of high biodiversity and a rapidly expanding road ...network is reason for concern. We introduce an approach that combines species traits and habitat preferences to describe vulnerability and map areas of high roadkill risk. Thus, we present the first assessment of roadkill impacts for Latin American birds and mammals.
Location
Latin America.
Time period
1994–2020.
Major taxa studied
Birds and mammals.
Methods
We compiled data from 85 roadkill surveys from Latin America that provided 1,691 roadkill rate estimates for 346 bird and 159 mammalian species, from which 520 rates from 249 birds and 457 rates from 103 mammals were used for analyses. We applied random forest models to predict observed roadkill rates considering species traits, habitat preferences and the geographical coordinates of each study to control for local and regional variation. Fitted models were used to predict spatial risks on Latin American roads for roadkilled birds and mammals across their areas of habitat.
Results
We found higher roadkill rates for larger birds and medium‐sized mammals with faster reproduction (more clutches/litters per year and early maturity ages), higher population densities and wider use of habitats that included anthropized areas. In mammals, scavengers and those with diets based on invertebrates showed higher rates. Spatial predictions revealed higher rates on roads across Central America, northern Andean regions, eastern Brazil, Uruguay, central and eastern Argentina and southern Chile.
Main conclusions
This first comprehensive assessment for Latin America explores various drivers of roadkill risk for birds and mammals and identifies species and areas where existing roads can impact wildlife. Trait‐based models fine‐tuned with realistic spatial information that accounts for habitat suitability provide a valuable tool for the assessment of human impacts, including roads and traffic.
Photosensitivity is a neurological disorder in which a person's brain produces epileptic discharges, known as Photoparoxysmal Responses (PPRs), when it receives certain visual stimuli. The current ...standardized diagnosis process used in hospitals consists of submitting the subject to the Intermittent Photic Stimulation process and attempting to trigger these phenomena. The brain activity is measured by an Electroencephalogram (EEG), and the clinical specialists manually look for the PPRs that were provoked during the session. Due to the nature of this disorder, long EEG recordings may contain very few PPR segments, meaning that a highly imbalanced dataset is available. To tackle this problem, this research focused on applying Data Augmentation (DA) to create synthetic PPR segments from the real ones, improving the balance of the dataset and, thus, the global performance of the Machine Learning techniques applied for automatic PPR detection. K-Nearest Neighbors and a One-Hidden-Dense-Layer Neural Network were employed to evaluate the performance of this DA stage. The results showed that DA is able to improve the models, making them more robust and more able to generalize. A comparison with the results obtained from a previous experiment also showed a performance improvement of around 20% for the Accuracy and Specificity measurements without Sensitivity suffering any losses. This project is currently being carried out with subjects at Burgos University Hospital, Spain.
While prior literature has focused on whether family firms are more or less inclined to diversification than non-family firms, the examination of differences in diversification among family firms has ...received much less attention. We analyze how family involvement (in ownership, control, and management) and the generational stage in the company (first versus later generations) influence diversification among family firms. The empirical evidence is provided by a sample of publicly listed family firms from the EU. Our results show that larger levels of family involvement in the firm are associated with lower diversification. Furthermore, first-generation family firms are found to be less diversified than their later-generation counterparts."
This research work analyses the influence of the use of by-products from a fluorite mine to replace the fine fraction of natural aggregates, on the properties of Ultra-High-Performance ...Fibre-Reinforced Concrete (UHPFRC). Replacing natural aggregates for different kinds of wastes is becoming common in concrete manufacturing and there are a number of studies into the use of waste from the construction sector in UHPFRC. However, there is very little work concerning the use of waste from the mining industry. Furthermore, most of the existing studies focus on granite wastes. So, using mining sand waste is an innovative alternative to replace natural aggregates in the manufacture of UHPFRC. The substitutions in this study are of 50%, 70% and 100% by volume of 0–0.5 mm natural silica sand. The results obtained show that the variations in the properties of consistency, compressive strength, modulus of elasticity and tensile strength, among others, are acceptable for substitutions of up to 70%. Therefore, fluorite mining sand waste is proved to be a viable alternative in the manufacturing of UHPFRC.
An unbalanced dietary pattern, characterized by high animal protein content: may worsen metabolic control, accelerate renal deterioration and consequently aggravate the stage of the chronic kidney ...disease (CKD) in pediatric patients with this condition.
to assess the effect of a registered dietitian (RD) intervention on the CKD children's eating habits.
Anthropometric and dietetic parameters, obtained at baseline and 12 months after implementing healthy eating and nutrition education sessions, were compared in 16 patients (50% girls) of 8.1 (1-15) years. On each occasion, anthropometry, 3-day food records and a food consumption frequency questionnaire were carried out. The corresponding relative intake of macro- and micronutrients was contrasted with the current advice by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and with consumption data obtained using the Spanish dietary guidelines. Student's paired t-test, Wilcoxon test and Mc Nemar test were used.
At Baseline 6% were overweight, 69% were of normal weight and 25% were underweight. Their diets were imbalanced in macronutrient composition. Following nutritional education and dietary intervention 63%, 75% and 56% met the Dietary Reference Values requirements for fats, carbohydrates and fiber, respectively, but not significantly. CKD children decreased protein intake (
< 0.001), increased dietary fiber intake at the expense of plant-based foods consumption (
< 0.001) and a corresponding reduction in meat, dairy and processed food intake was noticed. There were no changes in the medical treatment followed or in the progression of the stages.
RD-led nutrition intervention focused on good dieting is a compelling helpful therapeutic tool to improve diet quality in pediatric CKD patients.
This study analyzes the effect of using waste by-products generated in the process of granite cutting as part of the granular structure of Ultra High Performance Concrete (UHPC). The manufactured ...concrete has a compressive strength greater than 115 MPa. This study substitutes 35%, 70% and 100% of the volume of micronized quartz powder (<40 μm) with granite cutting waste. This is an innovative study where the feasibility of using waste from granite quarries as a replacement for micronized quartz in UHPC has been analyzed. The results show an improvement in the workability and compressive strength of UHPC, for all substitution ratios. The flexural strength and tensile strength increase when the substitution ratio is 35%, and even the values obtained for 100% substitution are acceptable. In view of the results obtained in this study, granite cutting waste, instead of the micronized quartz powder usually used, is a viable alternative for the manufacture of expectedly more sustainable UHPC.
Purpose:
To assess by means of computer simulations whether the heat sink effect inside a large vessel (portal vein) could protect the vessel wall from thermal damage close to an internally cooled ...electrode during radiofrequency (RF)‐assisted resection.
Methods:
First,in vivo experiments were conducted to validate the computational model by comparing the experimental and computational thermal lesion shapes created around the vessels. Computer simulations were then carried out to study the effect of different factors such as device‐tissue contact, vessel position, and vessel‐device distance on temperature distributions and thermal lesion shapes near a large vessel, specifically the portal vein.
Results:
The geometries of thermal lesions around the vessels in thein vivo experiments were in agreement with the computer results. The thermal lesion shape created around the portal vein was significantly modified by the heat sink effect in all the cases considered. Thermal damage to the portal vein wall was inversely related to the vessel‐device distance. It was also more pronounced when the device‐tissue contact surface was reduced or when the vessel was parallel to the device or perpendicular to its distal end (blade zone), the vessel wall being damaged at distances less than 4.25 mm.
Conclusions:
The computational findings suggest that the heat sink effect could protect the portal vein wall for distances equal to or greater than 5 mm, regardless of its position and distance with respect to the RF‐based device.
To analyze the effects of low-load, high-velocity resistance training (RT) combined with plyometrics on physical performance in pre-peak-height-velocity (PHV) soccer players.
Thirty young soccer ...players from the same academy were randomly assigned to either a strength training (STG, n = 15) or a control group (CG, n = 15). Strength training consisted of full squat exercise with low load (45-58% 1RM) and low volume (4-8 repetitions/set) combined with jumps and sprints twice a week over 6 wk of preseason. The effect of the training protocol was assessed using sprint performance over 10 and 20 m, countermovement jump, estimated 1-repetition maximum, and average velocity attained against all loads common to pre- and posttests in full squat.
STG showed significant improvements (P = .004-.001) and moderate to very large standardized effects (ES = 0.71-2.10) in all variables measured, whereas no significant gains were found in CG (ES = -0.29 to 0.06). Moreover, significant test × group interactions (P < .003-.001) and greater between-groups ESs (0.90-1.97) were found for all variables in favor of STG compared with CG.
Only 6 wk of preseason low-volume and low-load RT combined with plyometrics can lead to relevant improvements in strength, jump, and sprint performance. Thus, the combination of field soccer training and lightweight strength training could be used for a greater development of the tasks critical to soccer performance in pre-PHV soccer players.
The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of anti-TNF-α therapy in refractory uveitis due to Behçet's disease (BD).
We performed a multicentre study of 124 patients with BD uveitis refractory ...to conventional treatment including high-dose corticosteroids and at least one standard immunosuppressive agent. Patients were treated for at least 12 months with infliximab (IFX) (3-5 mg/kg at 0, 2 and 6 weeks and then every 4-8 weeks) or adalimumab (ADA) (usually 40 mg every 2 weeks). The main outcome measures were degree of anterior and posterior chamber inflammation, visual acuity, macular thickness and immunosuppression load.
Sixty-eight men and 56 women (221 affected eyes) were studied. The mean age was 38.6 years (s.d. 10.4). HLA-B51 was positive in 66.1% of patients and uveitis was bilateral in 78.2%. IFX was the first biologic agent in 77 cases (62%) and ADA was first in 47 (38%). In most cases anti-TNF-α drugs were used in combination with conventional immunosuppressive drugs. At the onset of anti-TNF-α therapy, anterior chamber and vitreous inflammation was observed in 57% and 64.4% of patients, respectively. In both conditions the damage decreased significantly after 1 year. At baseline, 50 patients (80 eyes) had macular thickening optical coherence tomography (OCT) >250 μm and 35 (49 eyes) had cystoid macular oedema (OCT>300 μm) that improved from 420 μm (s.d. 119.5) at baseline to 271 μm (s.d. 45.6) at month 12 (P < 0.01). The best-corrected visual acuity and the suppression load also showed significant improvement. After 1 year of follow-up, 67.7% of patients were inactive. Biologic therapy was well tolerated in most cases.
Anti-TNF-α therapy is effective and relatively safe in refractory BD uveitis.
The purpose of this study is to analyze the feasibility of using the ultra-fine waste coming from the granite cutting waste gang saws (GCW-GS) to manufacture ultra-high performance, steel-fiber ...reinforced concrete (UHPFRC). These machines cut granite blocks by abrasion using a steel blade and slurry containing fine steel grit. The waste generated by gang saws (GCW-GS) contains up to 15% Fe2O3 and up to 5% CaO. This is the main difference from the waste produced by diamond saws (GCW-D). Although this waste is available in large quantities, there are very few studies focused on recycling it to manufacture any kind of concrete. In this study, the replaced material was the micronized quartz powder of natural origin used in the manufacture of UHPRFC. The properties tested include workability, density, compressive strength, elasticity modulus, flexural strength, and tensile strength. The final conclusion is that this waste can be used to manufacture UHPFRC with a better performance than that from diamond saws given that there is an improvement of their mechanical properties up to a replacement of 35%. Even for higher percentages, the mechanical properties are within values close to those of control concrete with small decreases.
PDF
