Geometrical characterization of Yucatan Churches

This paper presents the methodology used in the geometrical characterization of Yucatan churches. The main aim was to determine the geometrical features of the typical profile that represent with the best accuracy the churches with canon vaults built in the south of Mexico. The methodology was structure in two phases: (1) preliminary studies and definition of the database of the Yucatan churches and (2) statistical studies on the database. After the definition of the key parameters describing the typical profile of one nave Yucatan churches, a statistical analysis was carried out through regression analysis among the different parameters and definition of histograms for the variables. An attempt to describe the key parameters as a fubntion of the span of the churches was also performed. Based on the results obtained, it seems that the Yucatan’s churches were built totally in an intuitive way as they do not present clear numerical relationships between geometrical key parameters.(undefined

Physical and chemical characterization of historical masonry materials from Yucatan churches, Mexico

Yucatan churches are an important built heritage in Mexico from sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. They are massive structures, where loadbearing stone masonry walls and vaults represent the main structural elements. This paper presents the results of the experimental campaign carried out on stone units and mortars selected from six partially collapsed churches. The stone samples were collected from walls and vaults. Additionally, mortars samples were collected from joints and finishing mortars. The physical characterization was performed according to European standards and key physical properties were obtained, name-ly density (ρb), porosity (Po) and water absorption by immersion (Ab). Reasonable correla-tion between variables was achieved. The chemical characterization was carried out through X-ray diffraction test (XRD). A chemical composition of calcium carbonates showed almost all stones samples, only two stone samples show secondary compound as Magnesian and Ankerite. The mortars show a chemical composition mainly of calcium carbonates and few cases show additional traces of clays.XRD measurements were performed at LANNBIO Cinvestav Mérida, under support from projects FOMIX-Yucatán 2008-108160 CONACYT LAB-2009-01-123913, 188345, 204822, 292692, 294643. Technical help is acknowledged to MSc. D. Aguilar and Ing. Daniel Poot”. The physical measurements were carried out at Laboratories of Construction and the Laboratory of Mechanics of Materials of the Faculty of Engineering of the Autonomous University of Yucatan. Technical help is acknowledged to Ing. F. Duarte, Ing. A. Martinez, Ing. R. Valencia, Ing. J. Cab and M.I. M. Chi. The authors wish to express their gratitude to the National Institute of Anthropology and History of Mexico (INAH) and the Commission of Ecclesiastical Properties and Sacred Art of the Archdiocese of Yucatan for all collaboration and suppor

La educación musical y el rendimiento escolar : resultados estudiantiles en lectura y matemática de los beneficiarios de Sinfonía por el Perú

La educación musical alrededor del mundo ha demostrado su impacto en el rendimiento escolar de niños y adolescentes. En Perú, existen iniciativas de la sociedad civil, como Sinfonía por el Perú (SPP), que se plantean como reto desarrollar capacidades en los niños y de esa manera, tengan mejores oportunidades en el futuro. El presente estudio busca determinar la relación que existe entre la educación musical con el rendimiento escolar en un caso peruano. Es así que, a través de cruce de bases de datos de la Evaluación Censal de Estudiantes (ECE) del Ministerio de Educación y la base de datos de beneficiarios del programa Sinfonía por el Perú, se quiere indagar si existe una relación positiva entre la pertenencia al programa y el buen rendimiento escolar de sus participantes. A través de los resultados descriptivos y la metodología Propensity Score Matching (PSM) se determina que sí existe una relación positiva, pero esta herramienta cuantitativa deja de lado otros factores que pueden estar influyendo en este resultado. En vista de ello, se ha complementado el análisis mediante la aplicación de entrevistas a beneficiarios, padres de familia y personal del programa, para determinar y conocer su percepción respecto al impacto del programa en el rendimiento escolar. A partir de lo señalado por los entrevistados, se identificó una relación fuerte entre la educación musical y el desarrollo de capacidades emocionales y son estas capacidades emocionales las que permiten al beneficiario poder desenvolverse mejor en el plano escolar, impactando en su desenvolvimiento académico; además, los beneficiarios cuentan con una red de soporte en casa que les permite participar del programa como cumplir con sus actividades escolares, lo cual también estaría influenciando en su desempeño escolar. Esta investigación es una aproximación inicial a la comprensión de la relación entre el rendimiento escolar y la educación musical en nuestro país, no solo teniendo información estadística de primera mano, sino testimonios de los beneficiarios, quienes sostienen que el programa ha tenido un impacto positivo en su desarrollo. Así, esperamos que la presente investigación pueda ayudar a resaltar la importancia de la educación musical para el desarrollo de los niños, ya que aportan herramientas para su desenvolvimiento, no solo en el campo musical y escolar, sino para su desarrollo como persona

California Census 2020 Statewide Funders Initiative Final Evaluation Report

The 2020 census was among the most fraught in recent history, with threats to a fair and complete count posed by the global pandemic and the federal administration's attempt to limit the inclusion of immigrants. Fortunately, funders and other stakeholders built on the lessons of census 2010, and the California Census 2020 Statewide Funders Initiative coordinated investments with the state to maximize the number of Californians counted. This report documents learnings from the California Census 2020 Statewide Funders Initiative

Tele-entomology and tele-parasitology: A citizen science-based approach for surveillance and control of Chagas disease in Venezuela.

Chagas Disease (CD), a chronic infection caused by the Trypanosoma cruzi parasite, is a Neglected Tropical Disease endemic to Latin America. With a re-emergence in Venezuela during the past two decades, the spread of CD has proved susceptible to, and inhibitable by a digital, real-time surveillance system effectuated by Citizen Scientists in communities throughout the country. The #TraeTuChipo (#BringYourKissingBug) campaign implemented in January 2020, has served as such a strategy counting on community engagement to define the current ecological distribution of CD vectors despite the absence of a functional national surveillance program. This pilot campaign collected data through online surveys, social media platforms, and/or telephone text messages. A total of 79 triatomine bugs were reported from eighteen Venezuelan states; 67 bugs were identified as Panstrongylus geniculatus, 1 as Rhodnius pictipes, 1 as Triatoma dimidiata, and 10 as Triatoma maculata. We analyzed 8 triatomine feces samples spotted from 4 Panstrongylus geniculatus which were confirmed positive by qPCR for T. cruzi. Further molecular characterization of discrete typing units (DTUs), revealed that all samples contained TcI, the most highly diverse and broadly distributed strain of T. cruzi. Moreover, analysis of the mitochondrial 12S gene revealed Myotis keaysi, Homo sapiens, and Gallus gallus as the main triatomine feeding sources. This study highlights a novel Citizen Science approach which may help improve the surveillance systems for CD in endemic countries

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis

Global, regional, and national under-5 mortality, adult mortality, age-specific mortality, and life expectancy, 1970–2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016

BACKGROUND: Detailed assessments of mortality patterns, particularly age-specific mortality, represent a crucial input that enables health systems to target interventions to specific populations. Understanding how all-cause mortality has changed with respect to development status can identify exemplars for best practice. To accomplish this, the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2016 (GBD 2016) estimated age-specific and sex-specific all-cause mortality between 1970 and 2016 for 195 countries and territories and at the subnational level for the five countries with a population greater than 200 million in 2016. METHODS: We have evaluated how well civil registration systems captured deaths using a set of demographic methods called death distribution methods for adults and from consideration of survey and census data for children younger than 5 years. We generated an overall assessment of completeness of registration of deaths by dividing registered deaths in each location-year by our estimate of all-age deaths generated from our overall estimation process. For 163 locations, including subnational units in countries with a population greater than 200 million with complete vital registration (VR) systems, our estimates were largely driven by the observed data, with corrections for small fluctuations in numbers and estimation for recent years where there were lags in data reporting (lags were variable by location, generally between 1 year and 6 years). For other locations, we took advantage of different data sources available to measure under-5 mortality rates (U5MR) using complete birth histories, summary birth histories, and incomplete VR with adjustments; we measured adult mortality rate (the probability of death in individuals aged 15-60 years) using adjusted incomplete VR, sibling histories, and household death recall. We used the U5MR and adult mortality rate, together with crude death rate due to HIV in the GBD model life table system, to estimate age-specific and sex-specific death rates for each location-year. Using various international databases, we identified fatal discontinuities, which we defined as increases in the death rate of more than one death per million, resulting from conflict and terrorism, natural disasters, major transport or technological accidents, and a subset of epidemic infectious diseases; these were added to estimates in the relevant years. In 47 countries with an identified peak adult prevalence for HIV/AIDS of more than 0·5% and where VR systems were less than 65% complete, we informed our estimates of age-sex-specific mortality using the Estimation and Projection Package (EPP)-Spectrum model fitted to national HIV/AIDS prevalence surveys and antenatal clinic serosurveillance systems. We estimated stillbirths, early neonatal, late neonatal, and childhood mortality using both survey and VR data in spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression models. We estimated abridged life tables for all location-years using age-specific death rates. We grouped locations into development quintiles based on the Socio-demographic Index (SDI) and analysed mortality trends by quintile. Using spline regression, we estimated the expected mortality rate for each age-sex group as a function of SDI. We identified countries with higher life expectancy than expected by comparing observed life expectancy to anticipated life expectancy on the basis of development status alone. FINDINGS: Completeness in the registration of deaths increased from 28% in 1970 to a peak of 45% in 2013; completeness was lower after 2013 because of lags in reporting. Total deaths in children younger than 5 years decreased from 1970 to 2016, and slower decreases occurred at ages 5-24 years. By contrast, numbers of adult deaths increased in each 5-year age bracket above the age of 25 years. The distribution of annualised rates of change in age-specific mortality rate differed over the period 2000 to 2016 compared with earlier decades: increasing annualised rates of change were less frequent, although rising annualised rates of change still occurred in some locations, particularly for adolescent and younger adult age groups. Rates of stillbirths and under-5 mortality both decreased globally from 1970. Evidence for global convergence of death rates was mixed; although the absolute difference between age-standardised death rates narrowed between countries at the lowest and highest levels of SDI, the ratio of these death rates-a measure of relative inequality-increased slightly. There was a strong shift between 1970 and 2016 toward higher life expectancy, most noticeably at higher levels of SDI. Among countries with populations greater than 1 million in 2016, life expectancy at birth was highest for women in Japan, at 86·9 years (95% UI 86·7-87·2), and for men in Singapore, at 81·3 years (78·8-83·7) in 2016. Male life expectancy was generally lower than female life expectancy between 1970 and 2016, an

Search for heavy resonances decaying to two Higgs bosons in final states containing four b quarks

A search is presented for narrow heavy resonances X decaying into pairs of Higgs bosons (H) in proton-proton collisions collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC at root s = 8 TeV. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb(-1). The search considers HH resonances with masses between 1 and 3 TeV, having final states of two b quark pairs. Each Higgs boson is produced with large momentum, and the hadronization products of the pair of b quarks can usually be reconstructed as single large jets. The background from multijet and t (t) over bar events is significantly reduced by applying requirements related to the flavor of the jet, its mass, and its substructure. The signal would be identified as a peak on top of the dijet invariant mass spectrum of the remaining background events. No evidence is observed for such a signal. Upper limits obtained at 95 confidence level for the product of the production cross section and branching fraction sigma(gg -> X) B(X -> HH -> b (b) over barb (b) over bar) range from 10 to 1.5 fb for the mass of X from 1.15 to 2.0 TeV, significantly extending previous searches. For a warped extra dimension theory with amass scale Lambda(R) = 1 TeV, the data exclude radion scalar masses between 1.15 and 1.55 TeV

Measurement of t(t)over-bar normalised multi-differential cross sections in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV, and simultaneous determination of the strong coupling strength, top quark pole mass, and parton distribution functions

Peer reviewe

An embedding technique to determine ττ backgrounds in proton-proton collision data

An embedding technique is presented to estimate standard model tau tau backgrounds from data with minimal simulation input. In the data, the muons are removed from reconstructed mu mu events and replaced with simulated tau leptons with the same kinematic properties. In this way, a set of hybrid events is obtained that does not rely on simulation except for the decay of the tau leptons. The challenges in describing the underlying event or the production of associated jets in the simulation are avoided. The technique described in this paper was developed for CMS. Its validation and the inherent uncertainties are also discussed. The demonstration of the performance of the technique is based on a sample of proton-proton collisions collected by CMS in 2017 at root s = 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 41.5 fb(-1).Peer reviewe