28 research outputs found

    Quasinormal modes of massive scalar fields in four-dimensional wormholes: Anomalous decay rate

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    In this work we consider a generalized Bronnikov-Ellis wormhole and the tideless Morris-Thorne wormhole and we study the propagation of massive scalar fields. We calculate the quasinormal frequencies using the Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin method and the pseudospectral Chebyshev method and we show the presence of an anomalous decay rate for the quasinormal modes in the generalized Bronnikov-Ellis wormhole. However, such anomalous behavior is avoided for the fundamental mode in the Morris-Thorne wormhole background.This work is partially supported by ANID Chile through FONDECYT Grant No. 1220871 (P. A. G., and Y. V.). Á. R. is funded by the María Zambrano Contract No. ZAMBRANO21-25 (Spain)

    Alternativas de establecimiento de praderas.

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    Se describen tecnologías de establecimiento de praderas en empresas ganaderas de la altillanura de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, para intensificar la producción de carne y leche de los sistemas productivos. Se indican las fincas seleccionadas, sus características agroecológicas, las labores de establecimiento, preparación y siembra de praderas y los resultados obtenidos en términos de producción de forraje y composición botánica. Se evaluó la producción animal y se observó que la introducción y manejo adecuado de leguminosas de las praderas, aumenta los nutrientes de la dieta y mejora la ganancia de peso en los animalesPastos y forraje

    Cost-effectiveness analysis of stand-alone or combined non-invasive imaging tests for the diagnosis of stable coronary artery disease: results from the EVINCI study

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    Aim: This study aimed at evaluating the cost-effectiveness of different non-invasive imaging-guided strategies for the diagnosis of obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) in a European population of patients from the Evaluation of Integrated Cardiac Imaging in Ischemic Heart Disease (EVINCI) study.Methods and results: Cost-effectiveness analysis was performed in 350 patients (209 males, mean age 59 ± 9 years) with symptoms of suspected stable CAD undergoing computed tomography coronary angiography (CTCA) and at least one cardiac imaging stress-test prior to invasive coronary angiography (ICA) and in whom imaging exams were analysed at dedicated core laboratories. Stand-alone stress-tests or combined non-invasive strategies, when the first exam was uncertain, were compared. The diagnostic end-point was obstructive CAD defined as > 50% stenosis at quantitative ICA in the left main or at least one major coronary vessel. Effectiveness was defined as the percentage of correct diagnosis (cd) and costs were calculated using country-specific reimbursements. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) were obtained using per-patient data and considering “no-imaging” as reference. The overall prevalence of obstructive CAD was 28%. Strategies combining CTCA followed by stress ECHO, SPECT, PET, or stress CMR followed by CTCA, were all cost-effective. ICERs values indicated cost saving from − 969€/cd for CMR-CTCA to − 1490€/cd for CTCA-PET, − 3,09 €/cd for CTCA-SPECT and − 3776€/cd for CTCA-ECHO. Similarly when considering early revascularization as effectiveness measure.Conclusion: In patients with suspected stable CAD and low prevalence of disease, combined non-invasive strategies with CTCA and stress-imaging are cost-effective as gatekeepers to ICA and to select candidates for early revascularization.</p

    A decentralized approach to model national and global food and land use systems

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    The achievement of several sustainable development goals and the Paris Climate Agreement depends on rapid progress towards sustainable food and land systems in all countries. We have built a flexible, collaborative modeling framework to foster the development of national pathways by local research teams and their integration up to global scale. Local researchers independently customize national models to explore mid-century pathways of the food and land use system transformation in collaboration with stakeholders. An online platform connects the national models, iteratively balances global exports and imports, and aggregates results to the global level. Our results show that actions toward greater sustainability in countries could sum up to 1 Mha net forest gain per year, 950 Mha net gain in the land where natural processes predominate, and an increased CO2 sink of 3.7 GtCO2e yr−1 over the period 2020–2050 compared to current trends, while average food consumption per capita remains above the adequate food requirements in all countries. We show examples of how the global linkage impacts national results and how different assumptions in national pathways impact global results. This modeling setup acknowledges the broad heterogeneity of socio-ecological contexts and the fact that people who live in these different contexts should be empowered to design the future they want. But it also demonstrates to local decision-makers the interconnectedness of our food and land use system and the urgent need for more collaboration to converge local and global priorities

    Consistent patterns of common species across tropical tree communities

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    Trees structure the Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystem, tropical forests. The vast number of tree species presents a formidable challenge to understanding these forests, including their response to environmental change, as very little is known about most tropical tree species. A focus on the common species may circumvent this challenge. Here we investigate abundance patterns of common tree species using inventory data on 1,003,805 trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm across 1,568 locations1,2,3,4,5,6 in closed-canopy, structurally intact old-growth tropical forests in Africa, Amazonia and Southeast Asia. We estimate that 2.2%, 2.2% and 2.3% of species comprise 50% of the tropical trees in these regions, respectively. Extrapolating across all closed-canopy tropical forests, we estimate that just 1,053 species comprise half of Earth’s 800 billion tropical trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm. Despite differing biogeographic, climatic and anthropogenic histories7, we find notably consistent patterns of common species and species abundance distributions across the continents. This suggests that fundamental mechanisms of tree community assembly may apply to all tropical forests. Resampling analyses show that the most common species are likely to belong to a manageable list of known species, enabling targeted efforts to understand their ecology. Although they do not detract from the importance of rare species, our results open new opportunities to understand the world’s most diverse forests, including modelling their response to environmental change, by focusing on the common species that constitute the majority of their trees

    Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

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    Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

    Interaction between the introduced eastern mosquitofish and two autochthonous Spanish toothcarps

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    Funding Funds for this study were provided by project no. 1973/91/11-61001 of the LIFE Program of the European Union between the European Commission and the Generalitat Valenciana. Within the latter institution, we are indebted to M. Planelles and J.A.Gómez for their constant support. The Generalitat Valenciana is also thanked for granting us access to the facilities at the Centro de Experimentación Piscícola de El Palmar where J. Hernández and J. Velázquez helped to run the experiments in manyways. A. Fernández and C. Parrondo also helped at different stages of the project. A.Kodric-Brown and two anonymous reviewers provided useful suggestions on an earlierdraft. C. Fernández-Delgado and B. Elvira also read the manuscript. During part of this research, P.A.R. was funded by a post-doctoral fellowship of the Consejería deEducación de la Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid co-financed by the European Social Fund of the European Union and F.M. by a pre-doctoral CM/MNCN fellowshipIn aquaria, adults and young-of-the-year (YOY) of both Spanish toothcarp Aphanius iberus and Valencia toothcarp Valencia hispanica received more aggression in the presence of eastern mosquitofish Gambusia holbrooki. YOY of both species also showed decreased feeding rates, as did V. hispanica adults. Adult V. hispanica also were more aggressive themselves and had their reproductive behaviour disrupted. Cases of eastern mosquitofish predation on small A. iberus were also observed. The occurrence and intensity of these potentially harmful effects, however, seemed to be modulated by water temperature, reproductive condition, relative size of the interacting fishes and species-specific habitat preferences. Thus, aggression almost disappeared at low water temperatures. Valencia hispanica and eastern mosquitofish used similar vertical positions in the water column and this apparently increased the frequency of their interactions. In contrast, A. iberus preferred positions closer to the bottom than the other two species and this vertical segregation appeared to lead to less direct interaction with eastern mosquitofish. In an outdoor mesocosm experiment, under semi-natural conditions, the presence of eastern mosquitofish resulted in an almost 70% reduction in the number of o.spring produced by A. iberus. The addition of extra, non-breeding males of A. iberus had no significant effect. YOY A. iberus from cages with eastern mosquitofish or extra males were significantly smaller (c. 1 mm, or 8% shorter) than those from cages without additional fish. Results for V. hispanica were not conclusive, as very few YOY were recovered. In contrast, eastern mosquitofish did not affect the survivorship of breeding adults of both native species.Unión EuropeaComunidad de MadridGeneralitat ValencianaDepto. de Biodiversidad, Ecología y EvoluciónFac. de Ciencias BiológicasTRUEpu
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