Voluntary Agreements and the Environmental Efficiency of Participating Farms

Voluntary environmental agreements have been popular with government agencies in several countries. However, many questions remain about their efficiency as a regulatory tool. Recent analyses suggest that they are more effective than conventional regulatory or economic approaches when dealing with diffuse pollution and when innovation processes at the source are necessary to define effective regulation. This paper applies an activity-based framework to assess the contribution of such a voluntary agreement to the environmental performance of farms participating in a whole farm plan in the Southern part of Belgium. Using a cross-section of 52 farms, our results show that farms entering into environmental agreements are environmentally more efficient than non-participating farms in terms of the preservation and provision of landscape features. However, their environmental efficiency with regard to the reduction of non-desirable outputs, such as organic nitrogen, is mostly determined by technical efficiency and not by participation in the whole farm plan.Agri-environmental indicators, Data envelopment analysis, Environmental efficiency, Voluntary agreements, Whole farm plan, Environmental Economics and Policy, C14, Q12, Q2,

“Que las promesas se vuelvan ciertas”: Truth, Justice, Reparations, Memory and Guarantees of Non-Repetition in Chile:25 Years of Criminal Cases

The year 2023 marks various anniversaries relevant to transitional justice concerns in Chile: in particular, 50 years have elapsed since the 1973 military coup, and 25 years since criminal complaints brought by victims’ relatives reactivated justice efforts in domestic courts for grave human rights violations committed during the 1973-1990 dictatorship. 1998 was also the year of the ‘Pinochet case’, which saw Chile’s former dictator arrested in London under an international arrest warrant requested by Spain. This year’s annual report chapter accordingly adds consideration of Chile’s overall transitional justice trajectory since 1998, to its usual focus on the detail of recent events. It also contains detailed statistical comparisons for two twelve month periods: July 2022 to June 2023, inclusive; and July 2021 to June 2022. One notable trend in Chile’s recent, and now mid-to-long-term, transitional justice trajectory has been a diversification in the types of transitional justice dilemma that arise, combined with a notable tendency to their judicialisation. The courts have become a first resort not only for criminal and civil cases, but also for actions primarily associated with the search for truth, symbolic reparations, public memorialisation, and prevention-oriented reforms. In the area of criminal justice we observe a consolidation in the courts’ acknowledgement of the State’s international obligations in issues ranging from reparations, to sexual violence. There has been less progress in ex officio prosecution of torture, the holding to account of civilian perpetrators, and preventing defendants going on the run once convictions are confirmed. Overall, however, the principal outer limit to a more complete criminal justice response is, increasingly, biological impunity, with perpetrators dying before their convictions are confirmed or sentences served. The courts are meanwhile increasingly called on to counter denialism, dissolve spurious dictatorship-era convictions of political prisoners, and ‘purge’ public spaces and military training facilities of symbols associated with the dictatorship and its protagonists. In civil claim-making, there has been an important recent breakthrough in interpretation of cosa juzgada, the prohibition on double jeopardy.In the area of public policy, there are some signs of progress towards the fulfilment of longstanding promises. A National Search Plan was launched on 30 August 2023 to resolve remaining questions surrounding hundreds of cases of enforced disappearance, thereby contributing to truth and justice, and ideally leading to the recovery and restitution of at least some of those still missing. A legislative agenda announced in September 2023, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the coup, promises measures in other long-running issue areas including the secrecy provisions that still surround the Valech truth commission archive; the introduction of enforced disappearance as a specific class of criminal offence, and attention to hitherto overlooked harms including the practice known as “irregular adoptions”. There is nonetheless a question mark over the likely viability of some of these measures, given a prevailing political climate that has seen a surge in far-right political currents unremittingly hostile to outstanding truth and justice matters despite their clear moral urgency. These promises however cannot wait any longer: in words often attributed to Seneca, “nothing is as akin to injustice, as justice long denied”.<br/

Truth, Justice, Reparations, Memory and GNR in Chile :25 Years of 'post-Pinochet case' Criminal Prosecutions

Esta versión del capítulo preparado por el Observatorio de Justicia Transicional para el Informe Anual sobre Derechos Humanos en Chile coincide con diversos aniversarios de especial relevancia en la materia: eneste año 2023 se cumplen 50 años del golpe de Estado, y 25 años desdeque querellas penales interpuestas por familiares reactivaron la justiciaen los tribunales domésticos, por las graves violaciones a los derechoshumanos cometidas por la dictadura cívico-militar. Asimismo, se cumple un cuarto de siglo desde que el “caso Pinochet” en España, produjola detención del exdictador en Londres. Por tanto, el presente capítulocombina una mirada general a la trayectoria de la justicia transicional enChile desde 1998, con su habitual examinación más detallada del período reciente

Accreted oceanic terranes in Ecuador: Southern edge of the Caribbean plate ?

in pressThe western part of Ecuador is made of several oceanic terranes, which comprise two oceanic plateaus, of Early (≈ 120 Ma), and Late Cretaceous age (≈ 90 Ma), respectively. The older oceanic plateau was accreted to the andean margin in the Late Campanian (≈ 75 Ma). Fragments of the Turonian-Coniacian plateau were accreted to the ecuadorian margin in the Late Maastrichtian (≈ 68 Ma, Guaranda terrane) and Late Paleocene (≈ 58 Ma, Piñón-Naranjal terrane). The Guaranda terrane received either fine-grained oceanic sediments of Coniacian-Maastrichtian age, or island arc / back-arc volcanic suites of Middle Campanian-Middle Maastrichtian age. The Piñón-Naranjal terrane recorded a comparable history, completed in the Maastrichtian-Paleocene, either by pelagic cherts, or by island arc products (Macuchi arc). The Late Cretaceous plateau of Ecuador is interpreted as part of the Caribbean oceanic plateau (COP), because their evolutions are comparable. If so, the COP was not formed by the Galápagos hotspot, but on the Farallón oceanic plate, south of Ecuador and close to the South American margin. The COP belonged to the Farallón plate, until a subduction zone separated both plates in the Middle Campanian, giving way to a well developed Mid Campanian-Mid Maastrichtian island arc. Accretion in the Late Maastrichtian triggered a change in the subduction system, and the development of a new arc system of Late Maastrichtian-Late Paleocene age, which crosscut the South America-COP plate boundary. The last accretion occurred in the Late Paleocene

Body mass index and survival in people with heart failure

Aims: In people with heart failure (HF), a high body mass index (BMI) has been linked with better outcomes (‘obesity paradox’), but there is limited evidence in community populations across long-term follow-up. We aimed to examine the association between BMI and long-term survival in patients with HF in a large primary care cohort. Methods: We included patients with incident HF aged ≥45 years from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (2000-2017). We used Kaplan-Meier curves, Cox regression, and penalised splines methods to assess the association of pre-diagnostic BMI, based on WHO classification, with all-cause mortality. Results: There were 47,531 participants with HF (median age 78.0 years (IQR 70-84), 45.8% female, 79.0% white ethnicity, median BMI 27.1 (IQR 23.9-31.0)) and 25,013 (52.6%) died during follow-up. Compared to healthy weight, people with overweight (HR 0.78, 95%CI 0.75-0.81, risk difference (RD) -4.1%), obesity class I (HR 0.76, 95%CI 0.73-0.80, RD -4.5%) and class II (HR 0.76, 95%CI 0.71-0.81, RD -4.5%) were at decreased risk of death, whereas people with underweight were at increased risk (HR 1.59, 95%CI 1.45-1.75, RD 11.2%). In those underweight, this risk was greater among men than women (p-value for interaction = 0.02). Class III obesity was associated with increased risk of all-cause mortality compared to overweight (HR 1.23, 95%CI 1.17-1.29). Conclusion: The U-shaped relationship between BMI and long-term all-cause mortality suggests a personalised approach to identifying optimal weight may be needed for patients with HF in primary care. Underweight people have the poorest prognosis and should be recognised as high-risk

Transcriptional dynamics of transposable elements in the type I IFN response in Myotis lucifugus cells

Bats are a major reservoir of zoonotic viruses, and there has been growing interest in characterizing bat-specific features of innate immunity and inflammation. Recent studies have revealed bat-specific adaptations affecting interferon (IFN) signaling and IFN-stimulated genes (ISGs), but we still have a limited understanding of the genetic mechanisms that have shaped the evolution of bat immunity. Here we investigated the transcriptional and epigenetic dynamics of transposable elements (TEs) during the type I IFN response in little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus) primary embryonic fibroblast cells, using RNA-seq and CUT&amp;RUN. &nbsp;</p

Sellar Ependymoma: Case Report and Literature Review

El ependimoma es una neoplasia neuroectodérmica cuya localización principal es infratentorial en niños y espinal en adultos. Solo se han informado unos pocos casos de localización sellar atípica y no existe un protocolo de diagnóstico o manejo estandarizado para estos casos. Se informa un caso poco frecuente de ependimoma sellar en un adulto con deterioro cognitivo y visual. La sospecha clínica de esta entidad, así como la máxima resección quirúrgica segura, pueden permitir un diagnóstico certero y mejorar el abordaje terapéutico. Se necesitan más estudios sobre este tema para evaluar el tratamiento y la supervivencia a largo plazo.Ependymoma is a neuroectodermal neoplasm whose main location is infratentorial in children and spinal in adults. Only a few cases of atypical sellar location have been reported and there is no standardized diagnosis or management protocol.&nbsp;A rare case of sellar ependymoma is reported in an adult with cognitive and visual impairment.&nbsp;The clinical suspicion of this entity, as well as the maximum safe surgical resection, may allow an accurate diagnosis and could improve the therapeutic approach.&nbsp;More studies on this topic are needed to assess long-term treatment and over-all survival

WSES/GAIS/WSIS/SIS-E/AAST global clinical pathways for patients with skin and soft tissue infections

Skin and soft-tissue infections (SSTIs) encompass a variety of pathological conditions that involve the skin and underlying subcutaneous tissue, fascia, or muscle, ranging from simple superficial infections to severe necrotizing infections. Together, the World Society of Emergency Surgery, the Global Alliance for Infections in Surgery, the Surgical Infection Society-Europe, The World Surgical Infection Society, and the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma have jointly completed an international multi-society document to promote global standards of care in SSTIs guiding clinicians by describing reasonable approaches to the management of SSTIs. An extensive non-systematic review was conducted using the PubMed and MEDLINE databases, limited to the English language. The resulting evidence was shared by an international task force with different clinical backgrounds.Peer reviewe

TRY plant trait database – enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits - the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants - determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait‐based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits - almost complete coverage for ‘plant growth form’. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait–environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives