Trait-based approaches to analyze links between the drivers of change and ecosystem services: Synthesizing existing evidence and future challenges

Understanding the responses of biodiversity to drivers of change and the effects of biodiversity on ecosystem properties and ecosystem services is a key challenge in the context of global environmental change. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of the scientific literature linking direct drivers of change and ecosystem services via functional traits of three taxonomic groups (vegetation, invertebrates, and vertebrates) to: (1) uncover trends and research biases in this field; and (2) synthesize existing empirical evidence. Our results show the existence of important biases in published studies related to ecosystem types, taxonomic groups, direct drivers of change, ecosystem services, geographical range, and the spatial scale of analysis. We found multiple evidence of links between drivers and services mediated by functional traits, particularly between land-use changes and regulating services in vegetation and invertebrates. Seventy-five functional traits were recorded in our sample. However, few of these functional traits were repeatedly found to be associated with both the species responses to direct drivers of change (response traits) and the species effects on the provision of ecosystem services (effect traits). Our results highlight the existence of potential “key functional traits,” understood as those that have the capacity to influence the provision of multiple ecosystem services, while responding to specific drivers of change, across a variety of systems and organisms. Identifying “key functional traits” would help to develop robust indicator systems to monitor changes in biodiversity and their effects on ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services supplyFinancial support was received from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Project CGL2014-53782-P). MGL was funded by a postdoctoral grant from the Spanish National Institute for Agriculture and Food Research and Technology (INIA), which is cofounded by the European Social Fun

Development and validation of a clinical score to estimate progression to severe or critical state in Covid-19 pneumonia hospitalized patients

The prognosis of a patient with Covid-19 pneumonia is uncertain. Our objective was to establish a predictive model of disease progression to facilitate early decision-making. A retrospective study was performed of patients admitted with Covid-19 pneumonia, classified as severe (admission to the intensive care unit, mechanic invasive ventilation, or death) or non-severe. A predictive model based on clinical, analytical, and radiological parameters was built. The probability of progression to severe disease was estimated by logistic regression analysis. Calibration and discrimination (receiver operating characteristics curves and AUC) were assessed to determine model performance. During the study period 1,152 patients presented with Covid-19 infection, of whom 229 (19.9%) were admitted for pneumonia. During hospitalization, 51 (22.3%) progressed to severe disease, of whom 26 required ICU care (11.4); 17 (7.4%) underwent invasive mechanical ventilation, and 32 (14%) died of any cause. Five predictors determined within 24 hours of admission were identified: Diabetes, Age, Lymphocyte count, SaO2, and pH (DALSH score). The prediction model showed a good clinical performance, including discrimination (AUC 0.87 CI 0.81, 0.92) and calibration (Brier score = 0.11). In total, 0%, 12%, and 50% of patients with severity risk scores ≤5%, 6-25%, and >25% exhibited disease progression, respectively. A simple risk score based on five factors predicts disease progression and facilitates early decision-making according to prognosis.Carlos III Health Institute, Spain, Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (SPAIN) and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER)Instituto de Salud Carlos II

Observar per comprendre. Recull d’anàlisis d’usos i artefactes

Facultat de Belles Arts, Universitat de Barcelona. Assignatura: Artefactes i usos: disseny inclusiu, Curs: 2016-2017, Coordinador: Miquel Mallol Esquef

HE-LHC: The High-Energy Large Hadron Collider – Future Circular Collider Conceptual Design Report Volume 4

In response to the 2013 Update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics (EPPSU), the Future Circular Collider (FCC) study was launched as a world-wide international collaboration hosted by CERN. The FCC study covered an energy-frontier hadron collider (FCC-hh), a highest-luminosity high-energy lepton collider (FCC-ee), the corresponding 100 km tunnel infrastructure, as well as the physics opportunities of these two colliders, and a high-energy LHC, based on FCC-hh technology. This document constitutes the third volume of the FCC Conceptual Design Report, devoted to the hadron collider FCC-hh. It summarizes the FCC-hh physics discovery opportunities, presents the FCC-hh accelerator design, performance reach, and staged operation plan, discusses the underlying technologies, the civil engineering and technical infrastructure, and also sketches a possible implementation. Combining ingredients from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the high-luminosity LHC upgrade and adding novel technologies and approaches, the FCC-hh design aims at significantly extending the energy frontier to 100 TeV. Its unprecedented centre-of-mass collision energy will make the FCC-hh a unique instrument to explore physics beyond the Standard Model, offering great direct sensitivity to new physics and discoveries

Organizaciones sociales y pandemia: impactos y acciones socioeducativas y comunitarias en territorios populares de Buenos Aires

La pandemia de COVID-19 ha mostrado la profunda e intrínseca imbricación de los aspectos biológicos de la vida humana con sus determinantes político-económicos. La crisis ha agudizado las desigualdades sociales, afectando múltiples dimensiones. ¿Cómo ha impactado la pandemia en las instituciones y organizaciones sociales de los territorios populares? ¿Y en las acciones educativas que éstas han llevado adelante? La sistematización del trabajo realizado nos ha develado no sólo los importantes impactos que esta crisis ha tenido en las distintas facetas del trabajo organizativo y comunitario cotidiano y en el derecho a la educación, sino también las múltiples acciones y los esfuerzos realizados desde los territorios para enfrentar las problemáticas emergentes. Es nuestra intención contribuir a visibilizar estos aspectos como parte de un diagnóstico necesario frente a los inciertos y desafiantes escenarios que atravesamos para continuar proyectando reflexiones e intervenciones desde una perspectiva de educación popular y animación sociocomunitaria crítica.The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed that the biological aspects of human life and the political and economic determinants are profoundly and tightly interwoven. The crisis has deepened the social inequalities, affecting multiple dimensions. In what ways has this pandemic affected the institutions and social organizations within the popular neighborhoods? And what was its impact on the educational actions that these organizations have developed? The systematization of the work produced has shown not only that this crisis has had substantial impacts on the diverse spheres of the daily organizational and community work and on the right to education, but it has also revealed the multiple actions and efforts made by people from the territories in order to face the emergent issues. It is our intent to contribute to making those aspects visible as part of our necessary diagnoses towards the uncertain and challenging scenarios that are unfolding in order to continue projecting thoughts and interventions from the perspective of the popular education and the critical sociocultural community development.La pandémie de la COVID-19 a montré l’imbrication profonde et intrinsèque des aspects biologiques de la vie humaine avec ses déterminants politico-économiques. La crise a exacerbé les inégalités sociales, affectant de multiples dimensions. Comment la pandémie a-t-elle impacté les institutions et les organisations sociales des territoires populaires ? Et les actions pédagogiques qu’ils ont menées ? La systématisation du travail effectué nous a révélé non seulement les répercussions importantes que cette crise a eu sur les différentes facettes du travail organisationnel et communautaire au quotidien et sur le droit à l’éducation, mais aussi les multiples actions et efforts menés depuis les territoires pour faire face aux problèmes émergents. Notre intention est de contribuer à rendre visibles ces aspects dans le cadre d’un diagnostic nécessaire face aux scénarios incertains et difficiles que nous traversons pour continuer à projeter des réflexions et des interventions dans une perspective d’éducation populaire et d’animation sociocommunautaire critique

Scaling up functional traits for ecosystem services with remote sensing: concepts and methods

Ecosystem service‐based management requires an accurate understanding of how human modification influences ecosystem processes and these relationships are most accurate when based on functional traits. Although trait variation is typically sampled at local scales, remote sensing methods can facilitate scaling up trait variation to regional scales needed for ecosystem service management. We review concepts and methods for scaling up plant and animal functional traits from local to regional spatial scales with the goal of assessing impacts of human modification on ecosystem processes and services. We focus our objectives on considerations and approaches for (1) conducting local plot‐level sampling of trait variation and (2) scaling up trait variation to regional spatial scales using remotely sensed data. We show that sampling methods for scaling up traits need to account for the modification of trait variation due to land cover change and species introductions. Sampling intraspecific variation, stratification by land cover type or landscape context, or inference of traits from published sources may be necessary depending on the traits of interest. Passive and active remote sensing are useful for mapping plant phenological, chemical, and structural traits. Combining these methods can significantly improve their capacity for mapping plant trait variation. These methods can also be used to map landscape and vegetation structure in order to infer animal trait variation. Due to high context dependency, relationships between trait variation and remotely sensed data are not directly transferable across regions. We end our review with a brief synthesis of issues to consider and outlook for the development of these approaches. Research that relates typical functional trait metrics, such as the community‐weighted mean, with remote sensing data and that relates variation in traits that cannot be remotely sensed to other proxies is needed. Our review narrows the gap between functional trait and remote sensing methods for ecosystem service management