Post-fire salvage logging reduces carbon sequestration in Mediterranean coniferous forest

Post-fire salvage logging is a common silvicultural practice around the world, with the potential to alter the regenerative capacity of an ecosystem and thus its role as a source or a sink of carbon. However, there is no information on the effect of burnt wood management on the net ecosystem carbon balance. Here, we examine for the first time the effect of post-fire burnt wood management on the net ecosystem carbon balance by comparing the carbon exchange of two treatments in a burnt Mediterranean coniferous forest treated by salvage logging (SL, felling and removing the logs and masticating the woody debris) and Non-Intervention (NI, all trees left standing) using eddy covariance measurements. Using different partitioning approaches, we analyze the evolution of photosynthesis and respiration processes together with measurements of vegetation cover and soil respiration and humidity to interpret the differences in the measured fluxes and underlying processes. Results show that SL enhanced CO2 emissions of this burnt pine forest by more than 120 g C m−2 compared to the NI treatment for the period June–December 2009. Although soil respiration was around 30% higher in NI during growing season, this was more than offset by photosynthesis, as corroborated by increases in vegetation cover and evapotranspiration. Since SL is counterproductive to climate-change and Kyoto protocol objectives of optimal C sequestration by terrestrial ecosystems, less aggressive burnt wood management policies should be considered.This work was financed by INIA Project SUM2006-00010-00-00, by the Autonomous Organism of National Parks (MMA) Project 10/2005 and in part by the Spanish national CO2 flux tower network (Carbored-II; CGL2010-22193-C04-02), CGL 2008-01671, Consolider-Ingenio MONTESCSD2008-00040 and the European Community 7th 9 Framework Programme Project GHG-Europe (FP7/2007-2013; Grant Agreement 244122)

Consenso colombiano de atención, diagnóstico y manejo de la infección por SARS-COV-2/COVID-19 en establecimientos de atención de la salud Recomendaciones basadas en consenso de expertos e informadas en la evidencia

The “Asociación Colombiana de Infectología” (ACIN) and the “Instituto de Evaluación de Nuevas Tecnologías de la Salud” (IETS) created a task force to develop recommendations for Covid 19 health care diagnosis, management and treatment informed, and based, on evidence. Theses reccomendations are addressed to the health personnel on the Colombian context of health services. © 2020 Asociacion Colombiana de Infectologia. All rights reserved

The comparative responsiveness of Hospital Universitario Princesa Index and other composite indices for assessing rheumatoid arthritis activity

Objective To evaluate the responsiveness in terms of correlation of the Hospital Universitario La Princesa Index (HUPI) comparatively to the traditional composite indices used to assess disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and to compare the performance of HUPI-based response criteria with that of the EULAR response criteria. Methods Secondary data analysis from the following studies: ACT-RAY (clinical trial), PROAR (early RA cohort) and EMECAR (pre-biologic era long term RA cohort). Responsiveness was evaluated by: 1) comparing change from baseline (Delta) of HUPI with Delta in other scores by calculating correlation coefficients; 2) calculating standardised effect sizes. The accuracy of response by HUPI and by EULAR criteria was analyzed using linear regressions in which the dependent variable was change in global assessment by physician (Delta GDA-Phy). Results Delta HUPI correlation with change in all other indices ranged from 0.387 to 0.791); HUPI's standardized effect size was larger than those from the other indices in each database used. In ACT-RAY, depending on visit, between 65 and 80% of patients were equally classified by HUPI and EULAR response criteria. However, HUPI criteria were slightly more stringent, with higher percentage of patients classified as non-responder, especially at early visits. HUPI response criteria showed a slightly higher accuracy than EULAR response criteria when using Delta GDA-Phy as gold standard. Conclusion HUPI shows good responsiveness in terms of correlation in each studied scenario (clinical trial, early RA cohort, and established RA cohort). Response criteria by HUPI seem more stringent than EULAR''s

Risk profiles and one-year outcomes of patients with newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation in India: Insights from the GARFIELD-AF Registry.

BACKGROUND: The Global Anticoagulant Registry in the FIELD-Atrial Fibrillation (GARFIELD-AF) is an ongoing prospective noninterventional registry, which is providing important information on the baseline characteristics, treatment patterns, and 1-year outcomes in patients with newly diagnosed non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF). This report describes data from Indian patients recruited in this registry. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 52,014 patients with newly diagnosed AF were enrolled globally; of these, 1388 patients were recruited from 26 sites within India (2012-2016). In India, the mean age was 65.8 years at diagnosis of NVAF. Hypertension was the most prevalent risk factor for AF, present in 68.5% of patients from India and in 76.3% of patients globally (P < 0.001). Diabetes and coronary artery disease (CAD) were prevalent in 36.2% and 28.1% of patients as compared with global prevalence of 22.2% and 21.6%, respectively (P < 0.001 for both). Antiplatelet therapy was the most common antithrombotic treatment in India. With increasing stroke risk, however, patients were more likely to receive oral anticoagulant therapy [mainly vitamin K antagonist (VKA)], but average international normalized ratio (INR) was lower among Indian patients [median INR value 1.6 (interquartile range {IQR}: 1.3-2.3) versus 2.3 (IQR 1.8-2.8) (P < 0.001)]. Compared with other countries, patients from India had markedly higher rates of all-cause mortality [7.68 per 100 person-years (95% confidence interval 6.32-9.35) vs 4.34 (4.16-4.53), P < 0.0001], while rates of stroke/systemic embolism and major bleeding were lower after 1 year of follow-up. CONCLUSION: Compared to previously published registries from India, the GARFIELD-AF registry describes clinical profiles and outcomes in Indian patients with AF of a different etiology. The registry data show that compared to the rest of the world, Indian AF patients are younger in age and have more diabetes and CAD. Patients with a higher stroke risk are more likely to receive anticoagulation therapy with VKA but are underdosed compared with the global average in the GARFIELD-AF. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION-URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01090362

Some remarks about compactly supported spline wavelets

In this paper we propose an extended family of almost orthogonal spline wavelets with compact support. These functions provide snug bases for L2 (ℛ), preserving semiorthogonal properties. As it is well known, orthogonality is a desirable quality while finite support has attractive features for numerical applications. This work represents an effort to combine these conditions in the spline case and to enhance previous results of Chui and Unser et al. We start by reviewing the concept of semiorthogonal wavelets and we discuss their performance. Next, we give a brief description of the general technique for computing compactly supported spline wavelets. Finally we expose these functions. We also develop several formulas in accord with our purposes. © 1996 Academic Press, Inc.Fil:Serrano, E.P. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina