Larval development of the pea crab Afropinnotheres monodi Manning, 1993 (Decapoda, Pinnotheridae) using plankton-collected and laboratory-reared specimens: effects of temperature

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of temperature on the survival and duration of larval development in the African pea crab Afropinnotheres monodi, as well as to describe its larval stages. We studied larvae reared in the laboratory and also specimens collected from plankton from the Gulf of Cádiz at two different temperatures. According to the results of this study, larval development of A. monodi involves four zoea stages and one megalopa and lasts around 25 days at 25°C, and longer than 40 days at 19°C. Such a temperature-related duration of this dispersive phase may be causing a higher recruitment to parental populations during the summer, but a higher dispersal to new locations during the rest of the year, a seasonal pattern of dispersion which could favour the successful expansion of this non-native species into European waters. The identification of both larval phases from plankton samples and adult specimens was carried out using morphological characters and molecular techniques. Both the 16S mtDNA sequences of this species, now available in GenBank, and the larval descriptions provided by this study could help to establish an early alert for the detection of this African species in its northward expansion

Forest hydrology in Chile: Past, present, and future

This paper reviews the current knowledge of hydrological processes in Chilean temperate forests which extend along western South America from latitude 29° S to 56 ° S. This geographic region includes a diverse range of natural and planted forests and a broad sweep of vegetation, edaphic, topographic, geologic, and climatic settings which create a unique natural laboratory. Many local communities, endangered freshwater ecosystems, and downstream economic activities in Chile rely on water flows from forested catchments. This review aims to (i) provide a comprehensive overview of Chilean forest hydrology, to (ii) review prior research in forest hydrology in Chile, and to (iii) identify knowledge gaps and provide a vision for future research on forest hydrology in Chile. We reviewed the relation between native forests, commercial plantations, and other land uses on water yield and water quality from the plot to the catchment scale. Much of the global understanding of forests and their relationship with the water cycle is in line with the findings of the studies reviewed here. Streamflow from forested catchments increases after timber harvesting, native forests appear to use less water than plantations, and streams draining native forest yield less sediment than streams draining plantations or grassland/shrublands. We identified 20 key knowledge gaps such as forest groundwater systems, soil–plant-atmosphere interactions, native forest hydrology, and the effect of forest management and restoration on hydrology. Also, we found a paucity of research in the northern geographic areas and forest types (35-36 ° S); most forest hydrology studies in Chile (56 %) have been conducted in the southern area (Los Rios Region around 39-40 ° S). There is limited knowledge of the geology and soils in many forested areas and how surface and groundwater are affected by changes in land cover. There is an opportunity to advance our understanding using process-based investigations linking field studies and modeling. Through the establishment of a forest hydrology science “society” to coordinate efforts, regional and national-scale land use planning might be supported. Our review ends with a vision to advance a cross-scale collaborative effort to use new nation-wide catchment-scale networks Long-term Ecosystem Research (LTER) sites, to promote common and complementary techniques in these studies, and to conduct transdisciplinary research to advance sound and integrated planning of forest lands in Chile

A multi-country test of brief reappraisal interventions on emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased negative emotions and decreased positive emotions globally. Left unchecked, these emotional changes might have a wide array of adverse impacts. To reduce negative emotions and increase positive emotions, we tested the effectiveness of reappraisal, an emotion-regulation strategy that modifies how one thinks about a situation. Participants from 87 countries and regions (n = 21,644) were randomly assigned to one of two brief reappraisal interventions (reconstrual or repurposing) or one of two control conditions (active or passive). Results revealed that both reappraisal interventions (vesus both control conditions) consistently reduced negative emotions and increased positive emotions across different measures. Reconstrual and repurposing interventions had similar effects. Importantly, planned exploratory analyses indicated that reappraisal interventions did not reduce intentions to practice preventive health behaviours. The findings demonstrate the viability of creating scalable, low-cost interventions for use around the world

Plan de negocios para el ingreso al mercado chileno de empresa nutricional española

Tesis para optar al grado de Magíster en Gestión para la GlobalizaciónEl objetivo de este trabajo es presentar un análisis de mercado y plan de negocios de la empresa nutricional española Nutrición 3G, el cual es un emprendimiento de investigadores españoles con amplia experiencia en el ámbito universitario. Su servicio es vendido a los profesionales nutricionistas, quienes se los ofrecen a sus pacientes. Se toma una muestra de saliva de los pacientes y por medio de un análisis realizado en la casa matriz en España, entregan las probabilidades de desarrollar diversas enfermedades no transmisibles, tales como diabetes, dislipidemias, osteoporosis, ictus, etc. En España, Nutrición 3G ha tenido relativo éxito y está en condiciones financieras y de recursos de buscar nuevos clientes en otros mercados, siendo Latinoamérica, la alternativa más factible. Se realizó un análisis de cuatro mercados potenciales; Chile, Perú, Colombia y México, resultando Chile el país con mayor potencial de entrada y penetración del servicio por medio de un representante en el país. El mercado presenta una gran cantidad de competidores directos e indirectos y un público objetivo muy específico (profesionales nutricionistas) sin embargo, el análisis del negocio, utilizando una tasa de descuento de 10,24,%; arrojó una recuperación de la inversión inicial al cabo de dos años, una tasa interna de retorno de 48% y VAN a los 5 años de 5.479 Euros. Situación similar se dan en el análisis de escenario. Se evaluó la variación en la venta de kits con variaciones del 10% (+10% en el caso optimista y -10% en el caso pesimista) presentando ambos casos recuperación de la inversión de aproximadamente 2 años; TIR´s de 50% y 33%; ambas superiores a la tasa de descuento y con VAN´s positivas. Como conclusión, pese a lo competitivo del mercado, se recomienda el lanzamiento de Nutrición 3G en el mercado chileno

The Higher Education in Chile: La Educacion Superior en Chile: Paradigmatic changes in evaluative processes. From the traditional process of training to competency-based models'

Chile is facing strong changes, especially in the Higher Education institutions, and it is necessary to reconceive education and universities paying attention to personal skills and to the interaction with practice. This transformation has materialized the training by competences promoted by the Declaration of Bologna with the Tuning Educational Structures and the Alfa Tuning for Latin America and the Caribbean projects. This implies changes of focus in educational activities and in the organization of learning, now based on learning outcomes; therefore, curriculum and evaluation of learning are fundamental elements of planning, due to the important repercussions it has both on the process and on the results of the learning processes

Increase of parasitism in the genus Lophius from the NW Mediterranean Sea and the effects in its morphology: searching for answers

V Jornadas Ibéricas de Ictiología SIBIC, Conhecer para preservar, 24-27 June 2014, Lisboa .-- 2 pagesClimate change could have a great impact on the spread of parasites in marine ecosystems because the increase of the temperature may cause thermal stress in aquatic animals, leading to reduced immunocompetence and increasing the susceptibility of the host to the parasite. In this study we describe two specimens of black anglerfish Lophius budegassa caught in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea with atypical morphological characteristics: pigment anomalies and blindness; which held a great quantity of the parasite Spraguea lophii. This parasite is a microsporidian (intracellular parasite related to fungi) that infects the nervous system of genus Lophius. It is manifested as cyst structures (xenomas) usually located along the length of the vertebral column, and on the medulla oblongata of the hind brain. Some authors consider that severe contagions might cause the anomalies mentioned above, even death. In order to evaluate the number of specimens infected in the last years, a total of 292 L. budegassa were examined from commercial catches along the northwestern Mediterranean Sea during 2013, and the results were compared with previous studies. The prevalence (a quantitative descriptor of parasite population) of S. lophii was calculated for black anglerfish with a result of 69.18%. An increase of the 58.12% in the prevalence of S. lophii in L. budegassa was observed since 1996. The consequences of this invasive process in the populations and in the fishing activity are up to date unknownPeer Reviewe

Meteorological Characterization of Large Daily Flows in a High-Relief Ungauged Basin Using Principal Component Analysis

Decision making and hydrologic design for coping with floods are complex tasks in poorly gauged high-relief basins. The response of such basins is driven by precipitation and temperature, which controls the freezing level elevation and size of the runoff-contributing area. Moreover, early warning of floods based solely on real-time in situ monitoring is impractical. This study presents a meteorological characterization of daily flows based on off-site daily precipitation and temperature data in a high-relief catchment in central Chile. The results show that the variables that best explain daily discharges are the cumulative precipitation over the previous 3 days measured at a high elevation and the minimum temperature on the day of the maximum discharge measured at a lower elevation in the valley. These variables were used to build three multivariate regression models, based on principal component analysis, which are able to predict the occurrence of daily flows, particularly for low exceedance probabilities. Although developed for a particular catchment, and despite the specific meteorological threshold magnitudes identified for the catchment, the analysis is easily extendable to other similar high-relief locations

Assessing Reservoir Performance under Climate Change. When Is It Going to Be Too Late If Current Water Management Is Not Changed?

Climate change is modifying the way we design and operate water infrastructure, including reservoirs. A particular issue is that current infrastructure and reservoir management rules will likely operate under changing conditions different to those used in their design. Thus, there is a big need to identify the obsolescence of current operation rules under climate change, without compromising the proper treatment of uncertainty. Acknowledging that decision making benefits from the scientific knowledge, mainly when presented in a simple and easy-to-understand manner, such identification—and the corresponding uncertainty—must be clearly described and communicated. This paper presents a methodology to identify, in a simple and useful way, the time when current reservoir operation rules fail under changing climate by properly treating and presenting its aleatory and epistemic uncertainties and showing its deep uncertainty. For this purpose, we use a reliability–resilience–vulnerability framework with a General Circulation Models (GCM) ensemble under the four Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) scenarios to compare the historical and future long-term reservoir system performances under its current operation rule in the Limarí basin, Chile, as a case study. The results include percentiles that define the uncertainty range, showing that during the 21st century there are significant changes at the time-based reliability by the 2030s, resilience between the 2030s and 2040s, volume-based reliability by the 2080s, and the maximum failure by the 2070s. Overall, this approach allows the identification of the timing of systematic failures in the performance of water systems given a certain performance threshold, which contributes to the planning, prioritization and implementation timing of adaptation alternatives

Is Single-Strand Conformation Polymorphism Analysis of the Full 5′ Untranslated Region an Adequate Approach To Study Hepatitis C Virus Quasispecies Distribution? ▿

Single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis is used by many laboratories to study the quasispecies distribution of the hepatitis C virus (HCV). Here we question the validity of this experimental approach, as conclusions are drawn from the analysis of the migration patterns of two ssDNA molecules and not from RNA. Using previously characterized mutants of the HCV 5′ untranslated regions, we show that contrary to what has been predicted, SSCP migration patterns of DNA amplicons with differences in their nucleotide sequences generated from the full 5′ UTR of HCV are not necessarily unique

Water crisis in Petorca basin, Chile: The combined effects of a mega-drought and water management

Since 2010, Chile has experienced one of the most severe droughts over the last century, the so-called mega-drought (MD). The MD conditions, combined with intensive agricultural activities and the current water management system, have led to water scarcity problems in Mediterranean and Semi-arid regions of Chile. An emblematic case is the Petorca basin, where a water crisis is undergone. To characterize this crisis, we analyzed water provision by using tree-ring records, remote sensing, instrumental data, and allocated water rights within the basin. Results indicate that the MD is the most severe dry period over the last 700-years of streamflow reconstruction. During the MD, streamflow and water bodies of the upper parts of the basin have been less affected than mid and low areas of this valley, where consumptive withdrawals reach up to 18% of the mean annual precipitation. This extracted volume is similar to the MD mean annual precipitation deficits. The impacts of the current drought, along with the drier climate projections for Central Chile, emphasize the urgency for faster policy changes related to water provision. Climate change adaptation plans and policies should enhance the current monitoring network and the public control of water use to secure the water access for inhabitants and productive activities.Comision Nacional de Investigacion Cientifica y Tecnologica (CONICYT) CONICYT FONDECYT 11161061 1181956 3170428 Center for Climate and Resilience Research (CR)2 FONDAP 1511000