Introducing synchrony in fuzzy automata

This paper introduces a sort of automata and associated languages, often arising in modelling natural phenomena, in which both vagueness and simultaneity are taken as first class citizens. This requires a fuzzy semantics assigned to transitions and a precise notion of a synchronous product to enforce the simultaneous occurrence of actions. The expected relationships between automata and languages are revisited in this setting; in particular it is shown that any subset of a fuzzy synchronous language with the suitable signature forms a synchronous Kleene algebra.NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000037. POCI-01-0145-FEDER-030947. ERDF – European Regional Development Fund through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation - COMPETE 2020 Programme and by National Funds through the Portuguese funding agency, FCT - Funda¸c˜ao para a Ciˆencia e a Tecnologia, within projects POCI-01-0145-FEDER-030947 and UID/MAT/04106/2019. The second author is supported in the scope of the framework contract foreseen in the numbers 4, 5 and 6 of the article 23, of the Decree-Law 57/2016, of August 29, changed by Portuguese Law 57/2017, of July 19. This paper is also a result of the project SmartEGOV: Harnessing EGOV for Smart Governance (Foundations, Methods, Tools) NORTE-01-0145- FEDER-000037, supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (EFDR). It received further support from the PT-FLAD Chair in Smart Cities & Smart Governanc

A semantics and a logic for Fuzzy Arden Syntax

Fuzzy programming languages, such as the Fuzzy Arden Syntax (FAS), are used to describe behaviours which evolve in a fuzzy way and thus cannot be characterized neither by a Boolean outcome nor by a probability distribution. This paper introduces a semantics for FAS, focusing on the weighted parallel interpretation of its conditional statement. The proposed construction is based on the notion of a fuzzy multirelation which associates with each state in a program a fuzzy set of weighted possible evolutions. The latter is parametric on a residuated lattice which models the underlying semantic ‘truth space’. Finally, a family of dynamic logics, equally parametric on the residuated lattice, is introduced to reason about FAS programsThis work was founded by the ERDF — European Regional Development Fund through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation — COMPETE 2020 Pro gramme and by National Funds through the Portuguese funding agency, FCT — Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, within projects POCI-01-0145-FEDER-030947and POCI-01-0145-FEDER-02994

ROTEIRO PARA INVENTÁRIOS E MONITORAMENTOS DE QUELÔNIOS CONTINENTAIS

Em razão da falta de material específico de consulta que consolide as principais referências científicas e o acúmulo do conhecimento técnico sobre as metodologias de amostragem, coleta e análise de dados relativos aos quelônios continentais brasileiros, materializou-se este trabalho, há muito almejado pela sociedade interessada no assunto. Houve um grande esforço para compatibilizar metodologicamente as particularidades das espécies e ambientes em áreas com lacunas de amostragem, cujos parâmetros se adequam prioritariamente aos inventários e, em áreas com ocorrência conhecida de espécie(s) alvo de estudos de maior duração, aos monitoramentos populacionais. Sendo assim, essencialmente, este guia metodológico ou manual técnico inédito se constitui em roteiros de procedimentos fundamentados pela consolidação do estado da arte do conhecimento técnico-científico e pelas perspectivas, harmonizadas, dos principais grupos de pesquisa e entidades conservacionistas que atuam com esses animais. Essa iniciativa é oportuna, pois favorecerá a tão esperada padronização instrumental e analítica, segundo orientações validadas pelas experiências práticas dos autores, a serem adotados de forma consonante por diversas instituições ou grupos de pesquisa. Em consequência, poder-se-á integrar diferentes bancos de dados, compilar informações de séries históricas de dados de projetos correlatos, e assim, desenvolver análises comparativas das variáveis decorrentes dos componentes de pesquisa e conservação realizados de forma sistematizada por espécie, família, região, bioma etc., por meio de diferentes fontes de informação. E ainda, esta publicação tem o propósito de estimular a realização de estudos de caracterização do estado de conservação do grupo animal foco, especialmente em áreas protegidas, por meio da promoção de pesquisas básicas relativas à dinâmica de suas populações

A list of land plants of Parque Nacional do Caparaó, Brazil, highlights the presence of sampling gaps within this protected area

Brazilian protected areas are essential for plant conservation in the Atlantic Forest domain, one of the 36 global biodiversity hotspots. A major challenge for improving conservation actions is to know the plant richness, protected by these areas. Online databases offer an accessible way to build plant species lists and to provide relevant information about biodiversity. A list of land plants of “Parque Nacional do Caparaó” (PNC) was previously built using online databases and published on the website "Catálogo de Plantas das Unidades de Conservação do Brasil." Here, we provide and discuss additional information about plant species richness, endemism and conservation in the PNC that could not be included in the List. We documented 1,791 species of land plants as occurring in PNC, of which 63 are cited as threatened (CR, EN or VU) by the Brazilian National Red List, seven as data deficient (DD) and five as priorities for conservation. Fifity-one species were possible new ocurrences for ES and MG states

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Mortality and pulmonary complications in patients undergoing surgery with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection: an international cohort study

Background: The impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on postoperative recovery needs to be understood to inform clinical decision making during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. This study reports 30-day mortality and pulmonary complication rates in patients with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods: This international, multicentre, cohort study at 235 hospitals in 24 countries included all patients undergoing surgery who had SARS-CoV-2 infection confirmed within 7 days before or 30 days after surgery. The primary outcome measure was 30-day postoperative mortality and was assessed in all enrolled patients. The main secondary outcome measure was pulmonary complications, defined as pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, or unexpected postoperative ventilation. Findings: This analysis includes 1128 patients who had surgery between Jan 1 and March 31, 2020, of whom 835 (74·0%) had emergency surgery and 280 (24·8%) had elective surgery. SARS-CoV-2 infection was confirmed preoperatively in 294 (26·1%) patients. 30-day mortality was 23·8% (268 of 1128). Pulmonary complications occurred in 577 (51·2%) of 1128 patients; 30-day mortality in these patients was 38·0% (219 of 577), accounting for 81·7% (219 of 268) of all deaths. In adjusted analyses, 30-day mortality was associated with male sex (odds ratio 1·75 [95% CI 1·28–2·40], p\textless0·0001), age 70 years or older versus younger than 70 years (2·30 [1·65–3·22], p\textless0·0001), American Society of Anesthesiologists grades 3–5 versus grades 1–2 (2·35 [1·57–3·53], p\textless0·0001), malignant versus benign or obstetric diagnosis (1·55 [1·01–2·39], p=0·046), emergency versus elective surgery (1·67 [1·06–2·63], p=0·026), and major versus minor surgery (1·52 [1·01–2·31], p=0·047). Interpretation: Postoperative pulmonary complications occur in half of patients with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection and are associated with high mortality. Thresholds for surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic should be higher than during normal practice, particularly in men aged 70 years and older. Consideration should be given for postponing non-urgent procedures and promoting non-operative treatment to delay or avoid the need for surgery. Funding: National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland, Bowel and Cancer Research, Bowel Disease Research Foundation, Association of Upper Gastrointestinal Surgeons, British Association of Surgical Oncology, British Gynaecological Cancer Society, European Society of Coloproctology, NIHR Academy, Sarcoma UK, Vascular Society for Great Britain and Ireland, and Yorkshire Cancer Research

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost