A Comparison of Small Area Estimation Methods for Poverty Mapping

Poverty maps are an important source of information on the regional distribution of poverty and are currently used to support regional policy making and to allocate funds to local jurisdictions. But obtaining accurate poverty maps at low levels of disaggregation is not straightforward because of insufficient sample size of official surveys in some of the target regions. Direct estimates, obtained with the region-specific sample data, are unstable in the sense of having very large sampling errors for regions with small sample size. Very unstable poverty estimates might make the seemingly poorer regions in one period appear as the richer in the next period, which can be inconsistent. On the other hand, very stable but biased estimates (e.g., too homogeneous across regions) might make identification of the poorer regions difficult. Here we review the main small area estimation methods for poverty mapping. In particular, we consider direct estimation, the Fay-Herriot area level model, the method of Elbers, Lanjouw and Lanjouw (2003) used by the World Bank, the empirical Best/Bayes (EB) method of Molina and Rao (2010) and its extension, the Census EB, and finally the hierarchical Bayes proposal of Molina, Nandram and Rao (2014). We put ourselves in the point of view of a practitioner and discuss, as objectively as possible, the benefits and drawbacks of each method, illustrating some of them through simulation studies

Recorrido geominero por la comarca de Andorra – Sierra de Arcos 2 : Recorrido desde Andorra a Crivillén, la Venta de la Pintada i a Ejulve, a través del patrimonio geológico y minero de las comarca de Andorra – Sierra de Arcos

Recorrido geominero por la comarca de Andorra – Sierra de Arcos 2 : Recorrido desde Andorra a Crivillén, la Venta de la Pintada i a Ejulve, a través del patrimonio geológico y minero de las comarca de Andorra – Sierra de Arco

Recorrido geominero por la comarca de Andorra – sSerra de Arcos 1 : Recorrido desde Andorra a Valdeariño, Ariño y Albalate del Arzobispo, a través del patrimonio geológico y minero de las comarca de Andorra – Sierra de Arcos, terminando en la comarca del

Recorrido geominero por la comarca de Andorra – sSerra de Arcos 1 : Recorrido desde Andorra a Valdeariño, Ariño y Albalate del Arzobispo, a través del patrimonio geológico y minero de las comarca de Andorra – Sierra de Arcos, terminando en la comarca del Bajo Martí

Recorrido geominero por la comarca de Andorra – Sierra de Arcos 3: Recorrido desde La Venta de La Pintada a Gargallo, Estercuel, Crivillén, Alloza, Oliete y a Alacón, a través del patrimonio geológico y minero de las comarca de Andorra – Sierra de Arcos

Recorrido geominero por la comarca de Andorra – Sierra de Arcos 3: Recorrido desde La Venta de La Pintada a Gargallo, Estercuel, Crivillén, Alloza, Oliete y a Alacón, a través del patrimonio geológico y minero de las comarca de Andorra – Sierra de Arco

Datos generales sobre la minería, el patrimonio minero generado y el patrimonio geológico de la comarca zaragozana del Campo de Borja

Datos generales sobre la minería, el patrimonio minero generado y el patrimonio geológico de la comarca zaragozana del Campo de Borj

Importance of Steric Influences in the Construction of Multicomponent Hybrid Polymetallic Clusters

The straightforward room temperature synthesis of hybrid polymetallic manganese clusters is investigated, exploiting complementary ligand combinations of <i>p</i>-<i>tert</i>-butylcalix­[4]­arene and salicylaldoximes. Eight new [Mn^III₇Mn^II] clusters have been prepared wherein the simple substitution of alkyl or aryl groups at well-defined positions of the salicylaldoxime scaffold leads to two distinct structure types that, while exhibiting the same general topology, contain the unique Mn^II ion in different positions. Incorporation of a methyl, ethyl, or isopropyl group at the 3-position of the aromatic skeleton or a phenyl group at the oximic carbon gives structure type A that displays competing weak ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interactions. Substitution of a methyl or ethyl group at the oximic carbon atom invokes structure type B, incorporating an additional bulky chloride or nitrate into the metallic core due to the smaller steric imposition and position of the methyl or ethyl group. The distortion of the cluster core is consequently enhanced, switching the magnetic properties and resulting in single-molecule magnet behavior. The presence of <i>tert</i>-butyl groups at the 3- and 5-positions of the salicylaldoxime skeleton leads to a new [Mn^IV₂Mn^III₂] cluster that is found to be a single-molecule magnet. The bulky <i>tert</i>-butyl group in the 3-position is too large to facilitate Mn₈ cluster formation, and thus assembly occurs by an alternative pathway. Characteristic bonding modes of the constituent ligands are retained in every case, and the results presented here give insight into the potential of ligand combinations in future studies, highlighting the importance of steric factors in evaluating their relevant compatibilities

Iron deprivation enhances transcriptional responses to in vitro growth arrest of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

The establishment of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) long-term infection in vivo depends on several factors, one of which is the availability of key nutrients such as iron (Fe). The relation between Fe deprivation inside and outside the granuloma, and the capacity of Mtb to accumulate lipids and persist in the absence of growth is not well understood. In this context, current knowledge of how Mtb modifies its lipid composition in response to growth arrest, depending on iron availability, is scarce. To shed light on these matters, in this work we compare genome-wide transcriptomic and lipidomic profiles of Mtb at exponential and stationary growth phases using cultures with glycerol as a carbon source, in the presence or absence of iron. As a result, we found that transcriptomic responses to growth arrest, considered as the transition from exponential to stationary phase, are iron dependent for as many as 714 genes (iron-growth interaction contrast, FDR &amp;lt;0.05), and that, in a majority of these genes, iron deprivation enhances the magnitude of the transcriptional responses to growth arrest in either direction. On the one hand, genes whose upregulation upon growth arrest is enhanced by iron deprivation were enriched in functional terms related to homeostasis of ion metals, and responses to several stressful cues considered cardinal features of the intracellular environment. On the other hand, genes showing negative responses to growth arrest that are stronger in iron-poor medium were enriched in energy production processes (TCA cycle, NADH dehydrogenation and cellular respiration), and key controllers of ribosomal activity shut-down, such as the T/A system mazE6/F6. Despite of these findings, a main component of the cell envelope, lipid phthiocerol dimycocerosate (PDIM), was not detected in the stationary phase regardless of iron availability, suggesting that lipid changes during Mtb adaptation to non-dividing phenotypes appear to be iron-independent. Taken together, our results indicate that environmental iron levels act as a key modulator of the intensity of the transcriptional adaptations that take place in the bacterium upon its transition between dividing and dormant-like phenotypes in vitro

Study of antitumor activity in breast cell lines using silver nanoparticles produced by yeast

In the present article, we describe a study of antitumor activity in breast cell lines using silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) synthesized by a microbiological method. These Ag NPs were tested for their antitumor activity against MCF7 and T47D cancer cells and MCF10-A normal breast cell line. We analyzed cell viability, apoptosis induction and endocytosis activity of those cell lines and we observed that the effects of the biosynthesized Ag NPs were directly related with the endocytosis activity. Moreover, Ag NPs had higher inhibition efficacy in tumor lines than in normal lines of breast, which is due to the higher endocytic activity of tumor cells comparing to normal cells. In this way, we are demonstrating that biosynthesized Ag NPs can be an alternative for the treatment of tumors.Fil: Ortega, Francisco Gabriel. Universidad de Granada. Centro de Genómica e Investigación Oncológica; EspañaFil: Fernández Baldo, Martín Alejandro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico San Luis. Instituto de Química de San Luis; ArgentinaFil: Fernández, Jorge Gastón. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico San Luis. Instituto de Química de San Luis; ArgentinaFil: Serrano, Maria J.. Universidad de Granada. Centro de Genómica e Investigación Oncológica; EspañaFil: Sanz Ferramola, Maria Isabel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico San Luis. Instituto de Química de San Luis; ArgentinaFil: Diaz Mochón, Juan J.. Universidad de Granada. Centro de Genómica e Investigación Oncológica; EspañaFil: Lorente, José Antonio. Universidad de Granada. Centro de Genómica e Investigación Oncológica; EspañaFil: Raba, Julio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico San Luis. Instituto de Química de San Luis; Argentin

The global environmental agenda urgently needs a semantic web of knowledge

Progress in key social-ecological challenges of the global environmental agenda (e.g., climate change, biodiversity conservation, Sustainable Development Goals) is hampered by a lack of integration and synthesis of existing scientific evidence. Facing a fast-increasing volume of data, information remains compartmentalized to pre-defined scales and fields, rarely building its way up to collective knowledge. Today's distributed corpus of human intelligence, including the scientific publication system, cannot be exploited with the efficiency needed to meet current evidence synthesis challenges; computer-based intelligence could assist this task. Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based approaches underlain by semantics and machine reasoning offer a constructive way forward, but depend on greater understanding of these technologies by the science and policy communities and coordination of their use. By labelling web-based scientific information to become readable by both humans and computers, machines can search, organize, reuse, combine and synthesize information quickly and in novel ways. Modern open science infrastructure-i.e., public data and model repositories-is a useful starting point, but without shared semantics and common standards for machine actionable data and models, our collective ability to build, grow, and share a collective knowledge base will remain limited. The application of semantic and machine reasoning technologies by a broad community of scientists and decision makers will favour open synthesis to contribute and reuse knowledge and apply it toward decision making

Towards discard quantification of Data Limited Stocks based in on-board observers data: the case of Spanish fresh trawlers targeting black hake in NW Africa

Quantification of discard per unit effort rates (DPUE) has been proposed by the European Commission as a measure to manage the discarding of commercially fished organisms. In the Spanish fresh trawling fleet operating in North West Africa, both target species of black hakes, Merluccius polli and Merluccius senegalensis are data limited stocks (DLS). Hence, discards of these fleets are even more unknown but not unimportant part of the total catch (retained and discarded). Onboard observer data from commercial surveys from 2016 to 2018 provide a detailed source of scientific information about catches, discards, effort and technical factors in this fleet. This is the first quantitative analysis to model DPUE through generalised linear mixed models (GLMM), based on the explicit distinction between abundance and technical factors coming from information of observer surveys. We describe the relationship between discards and environment, catches of target and other species, effort of the fleet, spatial and temporal variation in discard accessibility, vessel characteristics, strategy of the skippers and market decisions. Unlike hake catches, discards were higher and more dispersed in shallower than in deeper waters. We identified two separate métiers for the Spanish fresh trawling fleet determined by depth and treated total discards as a stock unit susceptible of being monitored, managed and assessed. The strategy of the skipper appears to have a more important effect on discards than vessel characteristics. This study shows the importance of observer data for this fishery and identifies recommendations for the improvement in the scientific usefulness of logbook information.En prens