Un enfoque de sustentabilidad utilizando lógica difusa y minería de datos

[ES] Sustainable development goals are now the agreed criteria to monitor states, and this work will demonstrate that numerical and graphical methods are valuable tools in assessing progress. Fuzzy Logic is a reliable procedure for transforming human qualitative knowledge into quantitative variables that can be used in the reasoning of the type “if, then” to obtain answers pertaining to sustainability assessment. Applications of machine learning techniques and artificial intelligence procedures span almost all fields of science. Here, for the first-time, unsupervised machine learning is applied to sustainability assessment, combining numerical approaches with graphical procedures to analyze global sustainability. CD HJ-Biplots to portray graphically the sustainability position of a large number of countries are a useful complement to mathematical models of sustainability. Graphical information could be useful to planners it shows directly how countries are grouped according to the most related sustainability indicators. Thus, planners can prioritize social, environmental, and economic policies and make the most effective decisions. One could graphically observe the dynamic evolution of sustainability worldwide over time with a graphical approach used to draw relevant conclusions. In an era of climate change, species extinction, poverty, and environmental migration, such observations could aid political decision-making regarding the future of our planet. A large number of countries remain in the areas of moderate or low sustainability. Fuzzy logic has proven to be an uncontested numerical method as it occurs with SAFE. An unsupervised learning method called Variational Autoencoder interplay Graphical Analysis (VEA&GA) has been proposed, to support sustainability performance with appropriate training data. The promising results show that this can be a sound alternative to assess sustainability, extrapolating its applications to other kinds of problems at different levels of analysis (continents, regions, cities, etc.) further corroborating the effectiveness of the unsupervised training methods

Diverse Large HIV-1 Non-subtype B Clusters Are Spreading Among Men Who Have Sex With Men in Spain

In Western Europe, the HIV-1 epidemic among men who have sex with men (MSM) is dominated by subtype B. However, recently, other genetic forms have been reported to circulate in this population, as evidenced by their grouping in clusters predominantly comprising European individuals. Here we describe four large HIV-1 non-subtype B clusters spreading among MSM in Spain. Samples were collected in 9 regions. A pol fragment was amplified from plasma RNA or blood-extracted DNA. Phylogenetic analyses were performed via maximum likelihood, including database sequences of the same genetic forms as the identified clusters. Times and locations of the most recent common ancestors (MRCA) of clusters were estimated with a Bayesian method. Five large non-subtype B clusters associated with MSM were identified. The largest one, of F1 subtype, was reported previously. The other four were of CRF02_AG (CRF02_1; n = 115) and subtypes A1 (A1_1; n = 66), F1 (F1_3; n = 36), and C (C_7; n = 17). Most individuals belonging to them had been diagnosed of HIV-1 infection in the last 10 years. Each cluster comprised viruses from 3 to 8 Spanish regions and also comprised or was related to viruses from other countries: CRF02_1 comprised a Japanese subcluster and viruses from 8 other countries from Western Europe, Asia, and South America; A1_1 comprised viruses from Portugal, United Kingom, and United States, and was related to the A1 strain circulating in Greece, Albania and Cyprus; F1_3 was related to viruses from Romania; and C_7 comprised viruses from Portugal and was related to a virus from Mozambique. A subcluster within CRF02_1 was associated with heterosexual transmission. Near full-length genomes of each cluster were of uniform genetic form. Times of MRCAs of CRF02_1, A1_1, F1_3, and C_7 were estimated around 1986, 1989, 2013, and 1983, respectively. MRCA locations for CRF02_1 and A1_1 were uncertain (however initial expansions in Spain in Madrid and Vigo, respectively, were estimated) and were most probable in Bilbao, Spain, for F1_3 and Portugal for C_7. These results show that the HIV-1 epidemic among MSM in Spain is becoming increasingly diverse through the expansion of diverse non-subtype B clusters, comprising or related to viruses circulating in other countries

El valor económico ambiental de los usuarios del servicio hidrológico de la Microcuenca del Río Cebadas, Provincia de Chimborazo

La valoración económica ambiental es una herramienta de gestión útil para los gobiernos locales, debido a la creciente degradación de sus recursos; la presente investigación determinó el valor económico ambiental que el servicio hidrológico de la microcuenca del río Cebadas, tiene para sus usuarios, a través de la estimación de la disponibilidad a pagar (DAP)declarada por ellos, con la utilización del método de  valoración contingente, una herramienta de valoración económica que construye un mercado para los Recursos Naturales. La investigación estuvo basada en procesos de involucramiento social, en su primera etapa fue necesario emplear herramientas cartográficas como Arc Gis 10.2.1, así como la aplicación de la metodología para levantar información de la composición florística, diversidad  vegetal, análisis hidrométricos de los  últimos 7años y análisis de calidad hídrica. Los principales resultados muestran que la microcuenca está representada por páramo en el 83 % con gran potencial erosivo, abarca a 27 comunidades indígenas, la oferta hídrica es de 16,65 m³, la demanda hídrica de 7 m³, sin embargo se evidencia un índice de escasez de 53,30 %. En lo que se refiere a DAP, la aplicación del método de Valoración Contingente declara un valor de 12,00 dólares/ha/año, con un 96 % de aceptación  entre los entrevistados, y ratificado con la probabilidad del 98.8 % de pago real mediante el análisis de Regresión Logística Binaria. Finalmente bajo el criterio de sostenibilidad se generó una propuesta de políticas públicas que contribuyan a la protección y conservación del recurso hídrico de la microcuenca del rio Cebadas

A grafted methane partial oxidation catalyst from MoO2(acac)2 and HZSM-5 zeolite

A new methane partial oxidation (MPO) catalyst has been prepared by grafting MoO2(acac)2 (acac: acetylacetonate ligand) onto the surface of dried HZSM-5 zeolite. This reaction was performed in an organic solvent under an inert atmosphere with the exclusion of water from the reaction. It was shown by FT-IR spectroscopy that the reaction takes place between the acidic hydroxyl groups of the zeolite and the acetylacetonate ligands of the complex. After the grafting reaction, the solid was washed, dried and calcined in air, to afford the final [S]O2MoO2, Mo(VI), highly dispersed, surface species. The catalytic activity of this new material in the MPO reaction is enhanced in comparison with the classical Mo,W/HZSM-5 impregnation catalysts.A.A., F.C., J.F.B., F.J.F. and A.O. acknowledge financial support from DGES (Dirección General de Enseñanza Superior e Investigación Cientı́fica, Grant No. PB 95-0023-CO1-CO2) of Spain. P.C., A.L., L.R. and J.L.V. acknowledge financial support from DGES (Dirección General de Enseñanza Superior e Investigación Cientı́fica, Grant No. PB92-521) of Spain.Peer reviewe

Graphical sustainability analysis using disjoint biplots

Summarization: The assessment of sustainability is of the utmost importance nowadays. Several approaches exist that measure sustainability at a national level and rank countries accordingly. Comparison of countries could be done numerically or pictorially. This paper introduces a novel clustering disjoint HJ-biplot approach, which is then applied to data from two well-known models: Sustainability Assessment by Fuzzy Evaluation (SAFE) and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Index (UN-SDGs). This approach performs a graphical ranking that makes the sustainability standing of countries very transparent. As expected, the pictorial model yielded similar rankings to those of SAFE and UN-SDGs, but it additionally grouped countries according to their most important indicators, thereby yielding a more global picture of sustainability. Our approach thus comprises a useful complement to existing mathematical sustainability ranking models.Presented on: Operational Research - An International Journa

Deep-sequencing reveals broad subtype-specific HCV resistance mutations associated with treatment failure.

A percentage of hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected patients fail direct acting antiviral (DAA)-based treatment regimens, often because of drug resistance-associated substitutions (RAS). The aim of this study was to characterize the resistance profile of a large cohort of patients failing DAA-based treatments, and investigate the relationship between HCV subtype and failure, as an aid to optimizing management of these patients. A new, standardized HCV-RAS testing protocol based on deep sequencing was designed and applied to 220 previously subtyped samples from patients failing DAA treatment, collected in 39 Spanish hospitals. The majority had received DAA-based interferon (IFN) α-free regimens; 79% had failed sofosbuvir-containing therapy. Genomic regions encoding the nonstructural protein (NS) 3, NS5A, and NS5B (DAA target regions) were analyzed using subtype-specific primers. Viral subtype distribution was as follows: genotype (G) 1, 62.7%; G3a, 21.4%; G4d, 12.3%; G2, 1.8%; and mixed infections 1.8%. Overall, 88.6% of patients carried at least 1 RAS, and 19% carried RAS at frequencies below 20% in the mutant spectrum. There were no differences in RAS selection between treatments with and without ribavirin. Regardless of the treatment received, each HCV subtype showed specific types of RAS. Of note, no RAS were detected in the target proteins of 18.6% of patients failing treatment, and 30.4% of patients had RAS in proteins that were not targets of the inhibitors they received. HCV patients failing DAA therapy showed a high diversity of RAS. Ribavirin use did not influence the type or number of RAS at failure. The subtype-specific pattern of RAS emergence underscores the importance of accurate HCV subtyping. The frequency of "extra-target" RAS suggests the need for RAS screening in all three DAA target regions