State Density and Capabilities Approach: Conceptual, Methodological and Empirical Issues

The core of the paper analyses the State functionings in the process of providing basic social services (education, health, identity documents, etc.) in the provinces of Peru. The concept “Density of the State” is designed to elaborate an index (SDI) to quantify State´s territorial presence. Since such activity is not a one-sided affair, the paper analyses the elements involved in the complex interaction between State and society. A summary of the main statistical results at the provincial level is provided and also a contrast between the SDI and the HDI. The paper is a summary and conceptual extension of the UNDP-Peru Human Development Report 2010 where the authors participated as part of the consulting team that elaborated it.Human Development / State / Peru / State Density Index / Human Development Report / Capabilities / Functionings.

On the first South American species of the genus Anasaitis Bryant, 1950 (Aranei: Salticidae: Salticinae: Euophryini) from Cartagena, Colombia

A new species - Anasaitis champetera sp.n. (Salticidae: Salticinae: Euophryini), the first species of the genus Anasaitis Bryant, 1950 from South America - is described of the basis of both sexes collected from Cano del Oro, Tierra Bomba island, Cartagena (Bolivar), Colombia.Peer reviewe

Observational Studies in Male Elite Football: A Systematic Mixed Study Review

Objective: This systematic mixed study review, focuses on the use of observation methodology in elite men's football matches, which constitutes an innovative approach, that opens up a new panorama of useful and productive research. Method: The methods used in this study follow the recommendations for systematic reviews and meta-analysis guidelines (PRISMA). The search was carried out in five databases. Ninety-four articles out of 3,195 were selected and analyzed. In order to achieve a quality assessment, the guide was used to inform evaluations based on observation methodology (GREOM) (Portell et al., 2015), recognized by the EQUATOR network. Results: From the methodological review analysis, information obtained indicates that 97% of the researches used direct observation and 3% indirect observation. On the other hand, 56.5% of the articles explain the instrument used and 77% justify the applied observational design. A quantitative comparison of the proportions was made in several methodological aspects, which resulted in only 15.21% reviewing the quality of the data, and that 67.3% of the articles contributed to the mixed methods approach. The methodological review allowed us to establish procedural profiles. The results indicate that 67% of the articles have been published in English, and of these, 77% were published in journals that have an impact factor. The majority of the researchers, 53.26%, belong to Spanish entities. The most studied substantive aspects were goal (34%), possession of the ball (28%), and corner (27%). The most observed events were Leagues, World Cups, individual players and other events. Conclusions: The results obtained refer to both substantive and methodological aspects and allow us to configure a systematic review of mixed studies, in which we emphasize the aspects of a "systematic review" and a "mixed study," within an integrated perspective

Controlling local thermal gradients at molecular scales with Janus nanoheaters.

The generation and control of heat transport with nanoparticles is an essential objective of thermoplasmonics. Janus nanoparticles consisting of dissimilar materials with contrasting interfacial Kapitza conductance provide a route to control heat transport at the nanoscale. Here we use the recently introduced Atomistic Nodal Approach to map the surface temperature and Kapitza conductance of Janus nanoparticles to individual atoms. We show that the transition in the thermal transport properties between the hydrophobic and hydrophilic interfaces is exceptionally abrupt, occurring over length scales below 1 nm. We demonstrate the generality of this result using coarse-grained and all-atom models of gold nanoparticles. Further, we show how this behaviour provides a route to sustain significant temperature differences, on the order of tens of degrees for μW heat rates, between adjacent molecular layers attached to heated gold nanoparticles. Our work provides fundamental insight into nanoscale heat transport and a principle to design heterogeneous Janus nanoparticles for thermal transport applications

Detecting and discriminating novel objects : The impact of perirhinal cortex disconnection on hippocampal activity patterns

Funded by Wellcome Trust. Grant Numbers: , WT09520Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Estimating hypothetical estimands with causal inference and missing data estimators in a diabetes trial

The recently published ICH E9 addendum on estimands in clinical trials provides a framework for precisely defining the treatment effect that is to be estimated, but says little about estimation methods. Here we report analyses of a clinical trial in type 2 diabetes, targeting the effects of randomised treatment, handling rescue treatment and discontinuation of randomised treatment using the so-called hypothetical strategy. We show how this can be estimated using mixed models for repeated measures, multiple imputation, inverse probability of treatment weighting, G-formula and G-estimation. We describe their assumptions and practical details of their implementation using packages in R. We report the results of these analyses, broadly finding similar estimates and standard errors across the estimators. We discuss various considerations relevant when choosing an estimation approach, including computational time, how to handle missing data, whether to include post intercurrent event data in the analysis, whether and how to adjust for additional time-varying confounders, and whether and how to model different types of ICE separately

Perirhinal cortex lesions impair tests of object recognition memory but spare novelty detection

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. Acknowledgements This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust (WT103722/Z/14/Z). The authors wish to thank L. Kinnavane and J. M. Pearce for their contributions to the manuscript. The authors confirm that they have no known conflicts of interest.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Activation of Ventral Tegmental Area 5-HT2C Receptors Reduces Incentive Motivation

FUNDING AND DISCLOSURE The research was funded by Wellcome Trust (WT098012) to LKH; and National Institute of Health (DK056731) and the Marilyn H. Vincent Foundation to MGM. The University of Michigan Transgenic Core facility is partially supported by the NIH-funded University of Michigan Center for Gastrointestinal Research (DK034933). The remaining authors declare no conflict of interest. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We thank Dr Celine Cansell, Ms Raffaella Chianese and the staff of the Medical Research Facility for technical assistance. We thank Dr Vladimir Orduña for the scientific advice and technical assistance.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Developing a future protocol for measuring spider biodiversity in pastures in New Zealand

Arthropods are often ignored or under-sampled in biodiversity and conservation assessments because of their large diversity, small size and lack of taxonomic guides. Rapid biodiversity assessment programmes have been established to assess these groups accurately. A COBRA (Conservation Oriented Biodiversity Rapid Assessment) protocol consists of an intense sampling of a habitat using the optimal combination of sampling methods. We set a basis for future protocols of measuring spider biodiversity in exotic pastures in New Zealand. Overall, 28 spider species were collected. There was variation in species discovery for each collection method, i.e. pitfall traps (86.6% of total species found), ground hand collection (95.4%), suction sampling (85.7%), and sweeping (25%). The various collection methods were complementary in species that were found. Of the four sampling methods used pitfall traps and ground hand collection were far more efficient at collecting spider species in pastures per sample. These findings are relevant for the future development of these protocols and ultimately, these tools will be used for assessing and monitoring biodiversity on farms and the impacts of farming methods.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Perirhinal cortex lesions in rats: Novelty detection and sensitivity to interference

Rats with perirhinal cortex lesions received multiple object recognition trials within a continuous session to examine whether they show false memories. Experiment 1 focused on exploration patterns during the first object recognition test postsurgery, in which each trial contained 1 novel and 1 familiar object. The perirhinal cortex lesions reduced time spent exploring novel objects, but did not affect overall time spent exploring the test objects (novel plus familiar). Replications with subsequent cohorts of rats (Experiments 2, 3, 4.1) repeated this pattern of results. When all recognition memory data were combined (Experiments 1–4), giving totals of 44 perirhinal lesion rats and 40 surgical sham controls, the perirhinal cortex lesions caused a marginal reduction in total exploration time. That decrease in time with novel objects was often compensated by increased exploration of familiar objects. Experiment 4 also assessed the impact of proactive interference on recognition memory. Evidence emerged that prior object experience could additionally impair recognition performance in rats with perirhinal cortex lesions. Experiment 5 examined exploration levels when rats were just given pairs of novel objects to explore. Despite their perirhinal cortex lesions, exploration levels were comparable with those of control rats. While the results of Experiment 4 support the notion that perirhinal lesions can increase sensitivity to proactive interference, the overall findings question whether rats lacking a perirhinal cortex typically behave as if novel objects are familiar, that is, show false recognition. Rather, the rats retain a signal of novelty but struggle to discriminate the identity of that signal