Evaluación Multicriterio Social : ¿una metodología participativa de ayuda a la toma de decisiones o un aprendizaje social sujeto a una reinterpretación institucional-evolucionista?

En los últimos años la evaluación multicriterio social ha venido emergiendo como una metodología alternativa a las convencionales imperantes en la valoración económica del ambiente, para enfrentar, de forma participativa, la inconmensurabilidad social y técnica en la gestión conflictiva de recursos. Este artículo pretende, por un lado, revelar algunos límites de índole conceptual inmanentes de la evaluación multicriterio desde la perspectiva institucionalista de evolución y conducta social; y por otro, con base en la visión de vida digna, equidad y libertad centrada en el sujeto-actor. Se delinea una agenda de investigación que fundamenta el subyacente proceso de aprendizaje y sus condiciones de igualdad sobre un tratamiento institucional del comportamiento socio-individual condicionado por hábitos, rutinas y normas, que a su vez guardan relación dialéctica con pautas complejas de agencia y estructura (en particular: poder) en la sociedad capitalista excluyente en la era de globalización.In recent years, the multicriteria evaluation has emerged as an alternative methodology to the conventional approaches of economic valuation of environment, in order to address, in a participative way, the technical and social immensurability in conflictive resource management. This article pretends to make explicit some limitations of conceptual character that are immanent of multicriteria evaluation, recurring to two approaches. One is the institutionalist perspective of social evolution and conduct, the other is the related view of worthy life, equity and liberty focused on the subject-actor. A research agenda is delineated which stresses the underlying learning process and its conditions of equality. For this, it is necessary an institutional treatment of the socio-individual conduct and its embedment into habits, routines and norms which are dialectically related with complex features of agency and structure (in particular: power) of the exclusionary capitalist society in the age of globalization

Evaluación Multicriterio Social: ¿Una metodología participativa de ayuda a la toma de decisiones o un aprendizaje social sujeto a una reinterpretación institucional-evolucionista?

En los últimos años la evaluación multicriterio social ha venido emergiendo como una metodología alternativa a las convencionales imperantes en la valoración económica del ambiente, para enfrentar, de forma participativa, la inconmensurabilidad social y técnica en la gestión conflictiva de recursos. Este artículo pretende, por un lado, revelar algunos límites de índole conceptual inmanentes de la evaluación multicriterio desde la perspectiva institucionalista de evolución y conducta social; y por otro, con base en la visión de vida digna, equidad y libertad centrada en el sujeto-actor. Se delinea una agenda de investigación que fundamenta el subyacente proceso de aprendizaje y sus condiciones de igualdad sobre un tratamiento institucional del comportamiento socio-individual condicionado por hábitos, rutinas y normas, que a su vez guardan relación dialéctica con pautas complejas de agencia y estructura (en particular: poder) en la sociedad capitalista excluyente en la era de globalización.Evaluación multicriterio social; economía ecológica; institucionalismo basado en evolución socioeconómica; aprendizaje social; reproducción de la vida humana y natural

Diatom DNA metabarcoding for ecological assessment: Comparison among bioinformatics pipelines used in six European countries reveals the need for standardization

Ecological assessment of lakes and rivers using benthic diatom assemblages currently requires considerable taxonomic expertise to identify species using light microscopy. This traditional approach is also time-consuming. Diatom metabarcoding is a promising alternative and there is increasing interest in using this approach for routine assessment. However, until now, analysis protocols for diatom metabarcoding have been developed and optimised by research groups working in isolation. The diversity of existing bioinformatics methods highlights the need for an assessment of the performance and comparability of results of different methods. The aim of this study was to test the correspondence of outputs from six bioinformatics pipelines currently in use for diatom metabarcoding in different European countries. Raw sequence data from 29 biofilm samples were treated by each of the bioinformatics pipelines, five of them using the same curated reference database. The outputs of the pipelines were compared in terms of sequence unit assemblages, taxonomic assignment, biotic index score and ecological assessment outcomes. The three last components were also compared to outputs from traditional light microscopy, which is currently accepted for ecological assessment of phytobenthos, as required by the Water Framework Directive. We also tested the performance of the pipelines on the two DNA markers (rbcL and 185-V4) that are currently used by the working groups participating in this study. The sequence unit assemblages produced by different pipelines showed significant differences in terms of assigned and unassigned read numbers and sequence unit numbers. When comparing the taxonomic assignments at genus and species level, correspondence of the taxonomic assemblages between pipelines was weak. Most discrepancies were linked to differential detection or quantification of taxa, despite the use of the same reference database. Subsequent calculation of biotic index scores also showed significant differences between approaches, which were reflected in the final ecological assessment. Use of the rbcL marker always resulted in better correlation among molecular datasets and also in results closer to these generated using traditional microscopy. This study shows that decisions made in pipeline design have implications for the dataset's structure and the taxonomic assemblage, which in turn may affect biotic index calculation and ecological assessment. There is a need to define best-practice bioinformatics parameters in order to ensure the best representation of diatom assemblages. Only the use of similar parameters will ensure the compatibility of data from different working groups. The future of diatom metabarcoding for ecological assessment may also lie in the development of new metrics using, for example, presence/absence instead of relative abundance data. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V

Interaction Between Marginal Zinc and High Fat Supply on Lipid Metabolism and Growth of Weanling Rats

The impact of a moderate Zn deficiency on growth and plasma and liver lipids was investigated in two 4-week experiments with male weanling rats fed fat-enriched diets. Semisynthetic, approximately isocaloric diets containing 3% soybean oil were supplemented with either 7 or 100 mg Zn/kg diet and with 22% beef tallow (BT) or sunflower oil (SF). In Experiment 1, which compared the dietary fat level and the fat source in a factorial design of treatments, all diets were fed ad libitum to 6 × 8 animals, whereas intake of the high-Zn BT and SF diets was restricted in Experiment 2 (5 × 6 rats) to the level of intake of the respective low-Zn diets. The low-Zn SF diet consistently depressed food intake and final live weights of the animals to a greater extent than the other low-Zn diets, while intake and growth were comparable among the animals fed the high-Zn diets. The marginal Zn deficit per se did not alter plasma triglyceride and cholesterol concentrations nor hepatic concentrations of triglyceride, cholesterol and phospholipids. The fatty acid pattern of liver phospholipids did not indicate that chain elongation and desaturation of fatty acids was impaired by a lack of zinc. It was concluded that dietary energy and fat intake, and fat source have a greater effect on plasma and liver lipids than a moderate Zn deficiency. Marginally Zn-deficient diets enriched with sunflower oil as a major energy source cause a greater growth retardation than diets rich in carbohydrates or beef tallow

Correction to: Two years later: Is the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic still having an impact on emergency surgery? An international cross-sectional survey among WSES members

Background: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is still ongoing and a major challenge for health care services worldwide. In the first WSES COVID-19 emergency surgery survey, a strong negative impact on emergency surgery (ES) had been described already early in the pandemic situation. However, the knowledge is limited about current effects of the pandemic on patient flow through emergency rooms, daily routine and decision making in ES as well as their changes over time during the last two pandemic years. This second WSES COVID-19 emergency surgery survey investigates the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on ES during the course of the pandemic. Methods: A web survey had been distributed to medical specialists in ES during a four-week period from January 2022, investigating the impact of the pandemic on patients and septic diseases both requiring ES, structural problems due to the pandemic and time-to-intervention in ES routine. Results: 367 collaborators from 59 countries responded to the survey. The majority indicated that the pandemic still significantly impacts on treatment and outcome of surgical emergency patients (83.1% and 78.5%, respectively). As reasons, the collaborators reported decreased case load in ES (44.7%), but patients presenting with more prolonged and severe diseases, especially concerning perforated appendicitis (62.1%) and diverticulitis (57.5%). Otherwise, approximately 50% of the participants still observe a delay in time-to-intervention in ES compared with the situation before the pandemic. Relevant causes leading to enlarged time-to-intervention in ES during the pandemic are persistent problems with in-hospital logistics, lacks in medical staff as well as operating room and intensive care capacities during the pandemic. This leads not only to the need for triage or transferring of ES patients to other hospitals, reported by 64.0% and 48.8% of the collaborators, respectively, but also to paradigm shifts in treatment modalities to non-operative approaches reported by 67.3% of the participants, especially in uncomplicated appendicitis, cholecystitis and multiple-recurrent diverticulitis. Conclusions: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic still significantly impacts on care and outcome of patients in ES. Well-known problems with in-hospital logistics are not sufficiently resolved by now; however, medical staff shortages and reduced capacities have been dramatically aggravated over last two pandemic years

Peri-operative red blood cell transfusion in neonates and infants: NEonate and Children audiT of Anaesthesia pRactice IN Europe: A prospective European multicentre observational study

BACKGROUND: Little is known about current clinical practice concerning peri-operative red blood cell transfusion in neonates and small infants. Guidelines suggest transfusions based on haemoglobin thresholds ranging from 8.5 to 12 g dl-1, distinguishing between children from birth to day 7 (week 1), from day 8 to day 14 (week 2) or from day 15 (≥week 3) onwards. OBJECTIVE: To observe peri-operative red blood cell transfusion practice according to guidelines in relation to patient outcome. DESIGN: A multicentre observational study. SETTING: The NEonate-Children sTudy of Anaesthesia pRactice IN Europe (NECTARINE) trial recruited patients up to 60 weeks' postmenstrual age undergoing anaesthesia for surgical or diagnostic procedures from 165 centres in 31 European countries between March 2016 and January 2017. PATIENTS: The data included 5609 patients undergoing 6542 procedures. Inclusion criteria was a peri-operative red blood cell transfusion. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary endpoint was the haemoglobin level triggering a transfusion for neonates in week 1, week 2 and week 3. Secondary endpoints were transfusion volumes, 'delta haemoglobin' (preprocedure - transfusion-triggering) and 30-day and 90-day morbidity and mortality. RESULTS: Peri-operative red blood cell transfusions were recorded during 447 procedures (6.9%). The median haemoglobin levels triggering a transfusion were 9.6 [IQR 8.7 to 10.9] g dl-1 for neonates in week 1, 9.6 [7.7 to 10.4] g dl-1 in week 2 and 8.0 [7.3 to 9.0] g dl-1 in week 3. The median transfusion volume was 17.1 [11.1 to 26.4] ml kg-1 with a median delta haemoglobin of 1.8 [0.0 to 3.6] g dl-1. Thirty-day morbidity was 47.8% with an overall mortality of 11.3%. CONCLUSIONS: Results indicate lower transfusion-triggering haemoglobin thresholds in clinical practice than suggested by current guidelines. The high morbidity and mortality of this NECTARINE sub-cohort calls for investigative action and evidence-based guidelines addressing peri-operative red blood cell transfusions strategies. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier: NCT02350348

Crisis múltiples del capitalismo global: mirando más allá de la esfera financiera

En el debate actual sobre la crisis, la atención predominante se dirige hacia la esfera financiera desde la perspectiva de un análisis cíclico (recesión-recuperación). En contraste, este ensayo argumenta que una gran crisis del régimen capitalista imperante  con  múltiples rasgos sistémico-institucionales está virulenta a escala global. En tal interpretación se destacan: (1) la (sobre) acumulación de desposesión, (2) la “financiarización” y (3) la frágil hegemonía estadounidense en el sistema monetario mundial.  Después de  un breve recuento de la crisis, se profundiza en los elementos interpretativos (1)-(3), para presentar finalmente, las políticas propuestas como “soluciones” de la crisis. El artículo concluye con un esbozo de los desafíos pendientes y escenarios de cambio.In the current debate on the crisis, main attention is directed to the financial sphere from the perspective of business cycle analysis (recession-recuperation). By contrast, this essay draws on the argument that there is virulent a grand crisis of the capitalist regime with multiple systemic-institutional features. In such interpretation are most important: (1) the (over)accumulation by dispossession, (2) the “financialization”, (3) the fragile hegemony of United States in the monetary world system.  After a brief crisis overview, the interpretative elements (1) – (3) are deepened in order to present finally some policies proposed as “solutions”.  The articles conclude with an outline of the open challenges and scenarios of change