Projected land-cover changes and their consequences on the supply of Ecosystem Services in Uruguay

Grasslands are one of the most human-modified biomes in the world due to the expansion of croplands and afforestation. In the scenario of productive intensification, it is necessary to generate alternatives to model land-cover changes and their environmental consequences. The objective of this study was to generate land-cover projections and quantify the future impact of these dynamics on the supply of ecosystem services in Uruguay. For that, land-cover maps, Markov-chains models, and an index of the supply of ecosystem services (ESSI) were utilized. Based on the land-cover maps, transitions probabilities between classes for two time periods (2000–2010 and 2010-2019) were calculated, and two Markovian-chain models were performed. With the projected land-cover maps, spatial models were used to relate the proportion of croplands and grasslands with the ESSI. The results indicate a continuous increase of croplands and afforestation for the next decade. Grasslands will remain the most abundant land-cover, reaching 46% in 2037. The highest probability of persistence was, in both periods, for grasslands, while the probability of persistence increased by 60 and 13% for croplands and afforestation, respectively. The ESSI shows a 5% of decrease between 2000-2037. These findings provide important empirical evidence for territorial planning and sustainable management.Agencia Nacional de Investigación e Innovació

Río de la Plata Grasslands: how did land-cover and ecosystem functioning change in the 21st century?

The Río de la Plata Grasslands region is one of the largest plains in the world, covering a significant portion of the southern Brazilian grasslands. This temperate sub-humid region is also one of the most diverse grassland areas globally. However, in the last decades, important land-use and land-cover changes occurred threatening the natural ecosystem and the provision of essential ecosystem services. In this chapter, we provide an overview of the primary land-use and land-cover changes that have occurred in this region over the last two decades. We also discuss some of the consequences derived from these changes on the ecosystem functioning, the supply of ecosystem services, and the human appropriation of primary production. Finally, we evaluate the observed transition trends among land-use and land-covers and speculate on the most likely changes that may occur in the next few years.Agencia Nacional de Investigación e Innovació

Performance of real evapotranspiration products and water yield estimations in Uruguay

Real evapotranspiration (ETR) is a key variable in socio-ecological systems since it is related to the food supply, climate regulation, among others. Also, ETR strongly determines the water yield (WY) at the catchment level (water available for consumption or irrigation). In that sense, quantifying ETR and WY fluctuations linked to various human pressures is essential for comprehensive water planning. In the last decades, remote sensing ETR estimations have become increasingly performed worldwide for hydrological monitoring. In Uruguay, there are several attempts to quantify the ETR through different approaches. However, assessments related to the performance of the estimates of different sources/products, particularly from remote sensing, are still lacking. The main objectives of this article were: a) to evaluate the performance of different spatial explicit approaches to estimate real ETR and b) to estimate and analyse the variability in water yield derived from the different ETR sources/products for three climatically contrasting years. To achieve this, we used four remote sensing ETR products (PMLv2, MOD16A2, Jackson et al. 1977 and Di Bella et al. 2000), with different spatial and temporal resolutions (from 500 to 1000-m and 8 to 16-d), and two water balance models at two scales, national (INIA-GRAS) and micro-watershed level (Silveira et al. 2016). Our results suggest that MODIS and PMLv2 remote sensing products demonstrated better performances. Both products have high spatial (500-m) and temporal (8-d) resolution, captured seasonal differences between land-covers and showed positive and high correlations with the annual precipitation and productivity. The differences found between products have direct implications on the WY estimates, not only in the quantity but also in its spatial pattern. Future studies should explore MODIS and PML ETR estimations for understanding hydrological and ecological processes, global climate change research, agricultural drought detection and mitigation, and water resource management.Agencia Nacional de Investigación e Innovació

Putting the Ecosystem Services idea at work: applications on impact assessment and territorial planning

South America is experiencing profound land use and land cover changes. Their consequences on the Ecosystem Services (ES) supply and human well-being need to be diagnosed and monitored in order to support informed decisions both in management and territorial planning. The ES concept provides a key framework to evaluate human impacts on nature. The use of spatially explicit indicators able to characterize ES supply can turn operative the ES framework, enabling for sustainability assessment. The Ecosystem Services Supply Index (ESSI) is a synoptic indicator that estimates and maps supporting and regulating ES related to water and carbon dynamics from data provided by remote sensors of free access and wide spatial coverage. The ESSI merges two attributes of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) annual dynamics: the annual average (NDVIMEAN, a proxy of total C gains) and the intra-annual coefficient of variation (NDVICV, an indicator of seasonality). In this article we proposed two objectives: 1) to describe the conceptual foundation of the ESSI and to gather the empirical support that shows its ability to explain the spatial-temporal variation in different ES, and to present a new case of empirical ESSI assessment, and 2) to synthesize the contribution of the ESSI in socio ecosystem diagnosis, monitoring and territorial planning stages in 8 existing cases of application. We also explored the links to the decision-making process by diverse stakeholders including local research and development institutions, NGOs and government agents. Cases corresponded to a wide range of situations from humid and dry forests to grasslands, and from local to subcontinental scales in southern South America. We found that ESSI was successfully applied for diagnosis, planning and monitoring processes which helped to better define interventions in management decisions and also to empower the most vulnerable stakeholders under territorial and environmental conflicts

La evaluación escolar: una oportunidad para pensar el rol del maestro desde sus polisémicos lenguajes

This paper reports findings coming from the research: Bullying and other manifestations of inequity within the school: an opportunity to educate pre-service teachers at Fundación Universitaria Luis Amigó. Assessment and its polysemous languages emerged as a key category turning into an improvement opportunity and a proper scenario to favour fair pedagogical practices within the school. Three paramount assessment features risen; it’s a) systemic character, b) institutional nature, and c) learner conception. An inadequate assessment practice might easily and inevitable become the source of inequity in the school.El presente artículo evidencia los hallazgos realizados durante el proyecto de investigación: Del Bullying y otras manifestaciones de inequidad en la escuela: una oportunidad para la formación de licenciados en la Facultad de Educación y Humanidades de la Fundación Universitaria Luis Amigó; en el que advertimos la categoría emergente de la evaluación escolar y sus polisémicos lenguajes, a la vez que se propone como una oportunidad de mejora y como un escenario propio para el ejercicio de la justicia en el ámbito escolar. Se encontró que son tres elementos clave de la evaluación escolar: 1) El carácter sistémico de la misma; 2) su ser institucional y 3) la concepción de estudiante que le ha de ser propia. Se concluye que, un inadecuado ejercicio de valoración en la escuela se transforma, triste e inevitablemente, en un territorio propicio para la génesis de la inequidad

Optimizing asphalt mixtures to be heated by microwave

[EN] Over the last ten years the concept of self healing in asphalt mixtures for roads pavements has been reaching great importance due to the fact that this capability allows a material to recuperate original properties after failure. This new generation of asphalt paving materials would allow road agencies to save no renewable resources as aggregates and bitumen, making the road investments more efficient. By the moment, there are two mechanisms to promote self healing in asphalt pavement: the incorporation in the asphalt mixtures of capsules containing a rejuvenating agent, or the heating of the pavement, especially the surface layer, to melt the asphalt binder, that gets liquid and refills the cracks in the material, recuperating a part of its initial structural parameters. Probably the most promising method for the in situ heating of the pavements is the radiation by microwaves. Unfortunately, asphalt mixture components (aggregates and binder) are low sensitive to microwave energy. This is why it may be advantageous to incorporate in the mixture additives to improve the sensibility to the radiation with microwaves. In this investigation two additives were studied: graphene and EAF slag coming from the steel industry. These additives were incorporated at several contents and the efficiency of the heating process was evaluated by the ratio kwh/kg/ºC in order to optimize the content of the additive in the asphalt mixture. Additionally, an evaluation of the electrical conductivity of the asphalt mixture at different contents of additives was carried out to study the possible relation between the conductivity of the mixture and its sensibility to microwave radiation. As a result of the investigation, it seems that microwave radiation can be a real option to promote in situ self healing of asphalt pavements. References J. Gallego, M.A. del Val, V. Contreras, A. Páez. Use of additives to improve the capacity of bituminous mixtures to be heated by means of microwaves, Materiales de Construcción. Vol. 67, Issue 325, January–March 2017, e110. http://dx.doi.org/10.3989/mc.2017.00416 …The collaboration for this investigation between the University of Lisbon and the Technical University of Madrid was possible thanks to Grant n. PDI-18-0HXIUI-55-QZMWQL for Investigation Stays of Senior Researchers in Foreign Universities and an additional Grant for PhD students by the Agustín of Betancourt Foundation.Gallego, J.; Gulisano, F.; Picado, L.; Crucho, J. (2019). Optimizing asphalt mixtures to be heated by microwave. En AMPERE 2019. 17th International Conference on Microwave and High Frequency Heating. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 348-355. https://doi.org/10.4995/AMPERE2019.2019.9945OCS34835

Variación intencional en tareas de Teoría de la Mente Moralmente relevante (MoToM)

The relationship between the Theory of Mind (ToM) and moral judgment allowed the design of Morally Relevant Theory of Mind (MoToM) tasks, which integrate intentional reading to the elaboration of such judgments. This paper describes the production of a MoToM variation in the moral judgment with intentional reading by children of 5 and 8 years old. They applied a MoToM task and its variation, giving two estimates of moral judgment both before and after the variation. Significant differences were found between ages before the elaboration of the variation. The relationship between ToM and moral judgment was confirmed, recognizing other aspects of development which are significant for the integration of intentionality in making judgments.La relación entre Teoría de la Mente (ToM) y juicio moral permitió el diseño de tareas de Teoría de la Mente Moralmente Relevantes (MoToM), las cuales integran la lectura intencional a la elaboración de dichos juicios. Este trabajo describe la producción de una variación de la MoToM en el juicio moral con lectura intencional en niños de 5 y 8 años, quienes aplicaron una tarea de MoToM y variación de esta, otorgando dos estimaciones del juicio moral, antes y después de la variación. Se encontraron diferencias significativas entre edades ante la elaboración del juicio. Se confirmó la relación entre ToM y juicio moral, reconociendo otros aspectos del desarrollo, los cuales son fundamentales para la integración de la intencionalidad en la elaboración de juicios

Social-Ecological Functional Types: Connecting People and Ecosystems in the Argentine Chaco

Sustainability science recognizes the importance of the integrated assessment of the ecological and social systems in land-use planning. However, most studies so far have been conceptual rather than empirical. We developed a framework to characterize the social-ecological systems heterogeneity according to its functioning through the identification of social–ecological functional types (SEFT). The SEFT framework builds on the plant, ecosystem and agent functional type approaches, taking a step forward to integrate the dimensions of social–ecological systems into an operational product to characterize administrative units in a hierarchical way. To illustrate this novel framework, we described the heterogeneity of SEFT in the Argentine Chaco by clustering administrative entities. This area is a global deforestation hotspot and has diverse social actors that harness ecosystem services in multiple, and sometimes contrasting and conflictive, ways which determines an urgent need for land-use planning. We combined data from national census and remote sensing to identify SEFT by clustering census tracts based on 17 input variables that integrate key human, ecological and interaction processes across landscapes. We identified three classes and eight subclasses of SEFT. Ecological variables defined the first level of heterogeneity (classes), while human variables and the variables of interactions between the human and ecological components defined a second level of heterogeneity (subclasses). The degree of anthropization and mean annual productivity were important variables to explain the first two axes in the ordination (32% of the total variance). This framework offers a conceptually novel and comprehensive approach to understand the spatial heterogeneity of social–ecological systems functioning, which could play a pivotal role to support conservation or land-use planning in rural areas.Fil: Vallejos, María. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía; ArgentinaFil: Aguiar, Sebastián. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía; ArgentinaFil: Baldi, Germán. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Luis. Instituto de Matemática Aplicada de San Luis "Prof. Ezio Marchi". Universidad Nacional de San Luis. Facultad de Ciencias Físico, Matemáticas y Naturales. Instituto de Matemática Aplicada de San Luis "Prof. Ezio Marchi"; ArgentinaFil: Mastrangelo, Matias Enrique. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Gallego, Federico. Universidad de la República; UruguayFil: Pacheco Romero, Manuel. Universidad de Almería; EspañaFil: Alcaraz Segura, Domingo. Universidad de Almería; España. Universidad de Granada; EspañaFil: Paruelo, José. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía; Argentina. Universidad de la República; Urugua

Evaluation of the Classification Accuracy of the Kidney Biopsy Direct Immunofluorescence through Convolutional Neural Networks

Background and objectives: Immunohistopathology is an essential technique in the diagnostic workflow of a kidney biopsy. Deep learning is an effective tool in the elaboration of medical imaging. We wanted to evaluate the role of a convolutional neural network as a support tool for kidney immunofluorescence reporting. Design, setting, participants, & measurements: High-magnification ( 7400) immunofluorescence images of kidney biopsies performed from the year 2001 to 2018 were collected. The report, adopted at the Division of Nephrology of the AOU Policlinico di Modena, describes the specimen in terms of \u201cappearance,\u201d \u201cdistribution,\u201d \u201clocation,\u201d and \u201cintensity\u201d of the glomerular deposits identified with fluorescent antibodies against IgG, IgA, IgM, C1q and C3 complement fractions, fibrinogen, and \u3ba- and \u3bb-light chains. The report was used as ground truth for the training of the convolutional neural networks. Results: In total, 12,259 immunofluorescence images of 2542 subjects undergoing kidney biopsy were collected. The test set analysis showed accuracy values between 0.79 (\u201cirregular capillary wall\u201d feature) and 0.94 (\u201cfine granular\u201d feature). The agreement test of the results obtained by the convolutional neural networks with respect to the ground truth showed similar values to three pathologists of our center. Convolutional neural networks were 117 times faster than human evaluators in analyzing 180 test images. A web platform, where it is possible to upload digitized images of immunofluorescence specimens, is available to evaluate the potential of our approach. Conclusions: The data showed that the accuracy of convolutional neural networks is comparable with that of pathologists experienced in the field

Pyrosequencing Analysis Reveals Changes in Intestinal Microbiota of Healthy Adults Who Received a Daily Dose of Immunomodulatory Probiotic Strains

The colon microbiota plays a crucial role in human gastrointestinal health. Current attempts to manipulate the colon microbiota composition are aimed at finding remedies for various diseases. We have recently described the immunomodulatory effects of three probiotic strains (Lactobacillus rhamnosus CNCM I-4036, Lactobacillus paracasei CNCM I-4034, and Bifidobacterium breve CNCM I-4035). The goal of the present study was to analyze the compositions of the fecal microbiota of healthy adults who received one of these strains using high-throughput 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing. Bacteroides was the most abundant genus in the groups that received L. rhamnosus CNCM I-4036 or L. paracasei CNCM I-4034. The Shannon indices were significantly increased in these two groups. Our results also revealed a significant increase in the Lactobacillus genus after the intervention with L. rhamnosus CNCM I-4036. The initially different colon microbiota became homogeneous in the subjects who received L. rhamnosus CNCM I-4036. While some orders that were initially present disappeared after the administration of L. rhamnosus CNCM I-4036, other orders, such as Sphingobacteriales, Nitrospirales, Desulfobacterales, Thiotrichales, and Synergistetes, were detected after the intervention. In summary, our results show that the intake of these three bacterial strains induced changes in the colon microbiota.This study utilized fecal samples from the clinical trial NCT01479543 that was supported by Hero Spain S. A. through contract #3582 with the Fundacion General Empresa Universidad de Granada. Carolina Gomez-Llorente is the recipient of a postdoctoral fellowship of the University of Granada