Modulation masking release using the Brazilian-Portuguese HINT: Psychometric functions and the effect of speech time compression

The Brazilian-Portuguese Hearing In Noise Test (HINT) was used to investigate the benefit to speech recognition of listening in a fluctuating background. The goal was to determine whether modulation masking release varied as a function of the speech-to-masker ratio at threshold. Speech-to-masker ratio at threshold was manipulated using the novel approach of adjusting the time-compression of the speech

Power line electrocution as an overlooked threat to Lear's Macaw (Anodorhynchus leari)

Electrocution can pose a serious threat to large birds, particularly threatened species with low population sizes. However, few studies have focused on the impacts of electrocution on large parrots such as the Endangered Lear's Macaw Anodorhynchus leari, endemic to the Brazilian Caatinga. Here, we compile and describe 31 electrocution events, as reported by villagers, indicating that electrocution may be an important threat to Lear's Macaw. We suggest a research and monitoring agenda to better understand the spatial and temporal patterns of this impact and recommend some immediate mitigation measures for decreasing electrocutions.info:eu-repo/semantics/submittedVersio

Epizoochory in Parrots as an Overlooked Yet Widespread Plant–Animal Mutualism

Plant–animal interactions are key to sustaining whole communities and ecosystem function. However, their complexity may limit our understanding of the underlying mechanisms and the species involved. The ecological effects of epizoochory remain little known compared to other seed dispersal mechanisms given the few vectors identified. In addition, epizoochory is mostly considered non-mutualistic since dispersers do not obtain nutritional rewards. Here, we show a widespread but unknown mutualistic interaction between parrots and plants through epizoochory. Combining our observations with photos from web-sources, we recorded nearly 2000 epizoochory events in 48 countries across five continents, involving 116 parrot species and nearly 100 plant species from 35 families, including both native and non-native species. The viscid pulp of fleshy fruits and anemochorous structures facilitate the adherence of tiny seeds (mean 3.7 × 2.56 mm) on the surface of parrots while feeding, allowing the dispersion of these seeds over long distances (mean = 118.5 m). This parrot–plant mutualism could be important in ecosystem functioning across a wide diversity of environments, also facilitating the spread of exotic plants. Future studies should include parrots for a better understanding of plant dispersal processes and for developing effective conservation actions against habitat loss and biological invasions.This research was funded by Severo Ochoa Program (SVP-2014-068732), Action COST “ParrotNet” (ES1304), and Loro Parque Fundación (PP-146-2018-1). E.S.-G. is funded by a Ramón y Cajal contract (RYC-2019-027216I) from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation

Watching the city: the politics of space in Pizza, birra, faso

In this article I discuss the representation of Buenos Aires in Pizza, birra, faso. Paying attention to some of the film’s salient aspects vis-a-vis its portrayal of urban space, my analysis has as ultimate goal to reveal the ways in which the film engages in a political critique that might seem absent if studied solely from a narrative point of view. In this sense Pizza, birra, faso is a paradigmatic example of the ways in which many of the films of New Argentine Cinema engaged with their political context differently to films of the post-dictatorship generation. To unearth this political content, I will argue, it is necessary to study these films as films, and not merely texts

Conserving the diversity of ecological interactions: The role of two threatened macaw species as legitimate dispersers of "megafaunal" fruits

The extinction of ecological functions is increasingly considered a major component of biodiversity loss, given its pervasive effects on ecosystems, and it may precede the disappearance of the species engaged. Dispersal of many large-fruited (>4 cm diameter) plants is thought to have been handicapped after the extinction of megafauna in the Late Pleistocene and the recent defaunation of large mammals. We recorded the seed dispersal behavior of two macaws (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus and Anodorhynchus leari) in three Neotropical biomes, totaling >1700 dispersal events from 18 plant species, 98% corresponding to six large-fruited palm species. Dispersal rates varied among palm species (5%-100%). Fruits were moved to perches at varying distances (means: 17-450 m, maximum 1620 m). Macaws also moved nuts after regurgitation by livestock, in an unusual case of tertiary dispersal, to distant perches. A high proportion (11%-75%) of dispersed nuts was found undamaged under perches, and palm recruitment was confirmed under 6%-73% of the perches. Our results showed that these macaws were legitimate, long-distance dispersers, and challenge the prevailing view that dispersal of large-fruited plants was compromised after megafauna extinction. The large range contraction of these threatened macaws, however, meant that these mutualistic interactions are functionally extinct over large areas at a continental scale

Modulation masking release using the Brazilian-Portuguese HINT: Psychometric functions and the effect of speech time compression

OBJECTIVE: The Brazilian-Portuguese Hearing In Noise Test (HINT) was used to investigate the benefit to speech recognition of listening in a fluctuating background. The goal was to determine whether modulation masking release varied as a function of the speech-to-masker ratio at threshold. Speech-to-masker ratio at threshold was manipulated using the novel approach of adjusting the time-compression of the speech. DESIGN: Experiment 1 measured performance-intensity functions in both a steady speech-shaped noise masker and a 10-Hz square-wave modulated masker. Experiment 2 measured speech-to-masker ratios at threshold as a function of time-compression of the speech (0, 33, and 50%) in both maskers. STUDY SAMPLE: Participants were normal-hearing adults who were native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese (Experiment 1: N = 10; Experiment 2: N = 30). RESULTS: The slope of the performance-intensity function was shallower in the modulated masker than in the steady masker for both words and sentences. Thresholds increased with increasing time-compression in both maskers, but more markedly in the modulated masker, resulting in reduced modulation masking release with increasing time-compression. CONCLUSIONS: Speech-to-masker ratio at threshold varies with time-compression of speech. The results are relevant to the issue of whether degree of masker modulation benefit depends on speech-to-masker ratio at threshold

Debates en torno a las condiciones actuales de reproducción de la fuerza de trabajo argentina en perspectiva histórica

Fil: Aguila, Nicolás.Fil: Arakaki, Gervasio Agustín.Fil: Cazón, Fernando.Fil: Boffi, Fernando.Fil: Graña, Juan Martín.Fil: Jaccoud, Florencia.Fil: Kozlowski, Diego.Fil: Lastra, Facundo.Fil: Monteforte, Ezequiel.Fil: Pacífico, Laura.Fil: Sánchez, Matías A.

Acumulación de capital y mercado de trabajo en Argentina: aportes para el estudio del período 2002-2015 en perspectiva histórica

Fil: Kennedy, Damián. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas. Centro de Estudios sobre Población, Empleo y DesarrolloFil: Arakaki, Gervasio Agustín.Fil: Cazón, Fernando.Fil: Dileo, Estefanía.Fil: Graña, Juan Martín.Fil: Kozlowski, Diego.Fil: Lastra, Facundo.Fil: Monteforte, Ezequiel.Fil: Pacífico, Laura.Fil: Sánchez, Matías A.

Acumulación de capital y mercado de trabajo en Argentina : aportes para el estudio del período 2002-2015 en perspectiva histórica

El presente Libro tiene por objeto principal sintetizar los principales resultados del trabajo desarrollado en el marco del Proyecto UBACyT Acumulación de capital y condiciones de reproducción de la fuerza de trabajo: especificidades de la economía argentina desde mediados de los años setenta (Categoría Modalidad II Programación Científica 2016), bajo la dirección de Damián Kennedy