Transformar la educación superior en los países en vías de desarrollo: el papel del Banco Mundial

El Banco Mundial ha apoyado activamente las iniciativas de reforma de la educación terciaria en una serie de países. Sin embargo, existe la percepción de que el Banco Mundial no ha satisfecho plenamente la creciente demanda de intervenciones en la educación terciaria por parte de sus clientes y que, especialmente en los países más pobres, los préstamos al subsector no han correspondido a la importancia de los sistemas de educación terciaria para el desarrollo económico y social. Habitualmente, se considera que el Banco Mundial sólo apoya la educación básica, defiende sistemáticamente la reasignación del gasto público de la educación terciaria a la educación básica, promueve la recuperación de costes y la expansión del sector privado, y disuade a los países de rentas bajas de que inviertan en capital humano avanzado. Dadas estas percepciones, y dados los rápidos cambios que tienen lugar en el entorno global y la persistencia de los problemas tradicionales de la educación terciaria en los países transicionales y en vías de desarrollo, la revisión de las políticas y las experiencias del Banco Mundial han pasado a ser una cuestión urgente.Peer Reviewe

Acoustic sequences in non-human animals: a tutorial review and prospectus.

Animal acoustic communication often takes the form of complex sequences, made up of multiple distinct acoustic units. Apart from the well-known example of birdsong, other animals such as insects, amphibians, and mammals (including bats, rodents, primates, and cetaceans) also generate complex acoustic sequences. Occasionally, such as with birdsong, the adaptive role of these sequences seems clear (e.g. mate attraction and territorial defence). More often however, researchers have only begun to characterise - let alone understand - the significance and meaning of acoustic sequences. Hypotheses abound, but there is little agreement as to how sequences should be defined and analysed. Our review aims to outline suitable methods for testing these hypotheses, and to describe the major limitations to our current and near-future knowledge on questions of acoustic sequences. This review and prospectus is the result of a collaborative effort between 43 scientists from the fields of animal behaviour, ecology and evolution, signal processing, machine learning, quantitative linguistics, and information theory, who gathered for a 2013 workshop entitled, 'Analysing vocal sequences in animals'. Our goal is to present not just a review of the state of the art, but to propose a methodological framework that summarises what we suggest are the best practices for research in this field, across taxa and across disciplines. We also provide a tutorial-style introduction to some of the most promising algorithmic approaches for analysing sequences. We divide our review into three sections: identifying the distinct units of an acoustic sequence, describing the different ways that information can be contained within a sequence, and analysing the structure of that sequence. Each of these sections is further subdivided to address the key questions and approaches in that area. We propose a uniform, systematic, and comprehensive approach to studying sequences, with the goal of clarifying research terms used in different fields, and facilitating collaboration and comparative studies. Allowing greater interdisciplinary collaboration will facilitate the investigation of many important questions in the evolution of communication and sociality.This review was developed at an investigative workshop, “Analyzing Animal Vocal Communication Sequences” that took place on October 21–23 2013 in Knoxville, Tennessee, sponsored by the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS). NIMBioS is an Institute sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture through NSF Awards #EF-0832858 and #DBI-1300426, with additional support from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. In addition to the authors, Vincent Janik participated in the workshop. D.T.B.’s research is currently supported by NSF DEB-1119660. M.A.B.’s research is currently supported by NSF IOS-0842759 and NIH R01DC009582. M.A.R.’s research is supported by ONR N0001411IP20086 and NOPP (ONR/BOEM) N00014-11-1-0697. S.L.DeR.’s research is supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research. R.F.-i-C.’s research was supported by the grant BASMATI (TIN2011-27479-C04-03) from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. E.C.G.’s research is currently supported by a National Research Council postdoctoral fellowship. E.E.V.’s research is supported by CONACYT, Mexico, award number I010/214/2012.This is the accepted manuscript. The final version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/brv.1216

Inclusive b decays to wrong sign charmed mesons

The production of wrong sign charmed mesons b → D (s)X, D (s) = (D 0, D +, D s), is studied using the data collected by the DELPHI experiment in the years 1994 and 1995. Charmed mesons in Z → bb events are exclusively reconstructed by searching for the decays D 0 → K -π +, D + → K -π +π + and D s + φπ + → K +K -π +. The wrong sign contribution is extracted by using two discriminant variables: the charge of the b-quark at decay time, estimated from the charges of identified particles, and the momentum of the charmed meson in the rest frame of the b-hadron. The inclusive branching fractions of b-hadrons into wrong sign charm mesons are measured to be: B(b → D 0X) + B(b → D -X) = (9.3 ± 1.7(stat) ± 1.3(syst) ± 0.4(B))%, B(b → D s -X) = (10.1 ± 0.4(B))%, B(b → D s -X) = (10.1 ± 1.0(stat) ± 0.6(syst) ± 2.8(B))% where the first error is statistical, the second and third errors are systematic. © 2003 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.0SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Genetic mechanisms of critical illness in COVID-19.

Host-mediated lung inflammation is present1, and drives mortality2, in the critical illness caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Host genetic variants associated with critical illness may identify mechanistic targets for therapeutic development3. Here we report the results of the GenOMICC (Genetics Of Mortality In Critical Care) genome-wide association study in 2,244 critically ill patients with COVID-19 from 208 UK intensive care units. We have identified and replicated the following new genome-wide significant associations: on chromosome 12q24.13 (rs10735079, P = 1.65 × 10-8) in a gene cluster that encodes antiviral restriction enzyme activators (OAS1, OAS2 and OAS3); on chromosome 19p13.2 (rs74956615, P = 2.3 × 10-8) near the gene that encodes tyrosine kinase 2 (TYK2); on chromosome 19p13.3 (rs2109069, P = 3.98 ×  10-12) within the gene that encodes dipeptidyl peptidase 9 (DPP9); and on chromosome 21q22.1 (rs2236757, P = 4.99 × 10-8) in the interferon receptor gene IFNAR2. We identified potential targets for repurposing of licensed medications: using Mendelian randomization, we found evidence that low expression of IFNAR2, or high expression of TYK2, are associated with life-threatening disease; and transcriptome-wide association in lung tissue revealed that high expression of the monocyte-macrophage chemotactic receptor CCR2 is associated with severe COVID-19. Our results identify robust genetic signals relating to key host antiviral defence mechanisms and mediators of inflammatory organ damage in COVID-19. Both mechanisms may be amenable to targeted treatment with existing drugs. However, large-scale randomized clinical trials will be essential before any change to clinical practice

Gorillas may use their laryngeal air sacs for whinny-type vocalizations and male display

Great apes and siamangs—but not humans—possess laryngeal air sacs, suggesting that they were lost over hominin evolution. The absence of air sacs in humans may hold clues to speech evolution, but little is known about their functions in extant apes. We investigated whether gorillas use their air sacs to produce the staccato ‘growling’ of the silverback chest beat display. This hypothesis was formulated after viewing a nature documentary showing a display by a silverback western gorilla (Kingo). As Kingo growls, the video shows distinctive vibrations in his chest and throat under which the air sacs extend. We also investigated whether other similarly staccato vocalizations—the whinny, sex whinny, and copulation grunt—might also involve the air sacs. To examine these hypotheses, we collected an opportunistic sample of video and audio evidence from research records and another documentary of Kingo’s group, and from videos of other gorillas found on YouTube. Analysis shows that the four vocalizations are each emitted in rapid pulses of a similar frequency (8–16 pulses per second), and limited visual evidence indicates that they may all occur with upper torso vibrations. Future research should determine how consistently the vibrations co-occur with the vocalizations, whether they are synchronized, and their precise location and timing. Our findings fit with the hypothesis that apes—especially, but not exclusively males—use their air sacs for vocalizations and displays related to size exaggeration for sex and territory. Thus changes in social structure, mating, and sexual dimorphism might have led to the obsolescence of the air sacs and their loss in hominin evolution

Transformar la educación superior en los países en vías de desarrollo: el papel del Banco Mundial

El Banco Mundial ha apoyado activamente las iniciativas de reforma de la educación terciaria en una serie de países. Sin embargo, existe la percepción de que el Banco Mundial no ha satisfecho plenamente la creciente demanda de intervenciones en la educación terciaria por parte de sus clientes y que, especialmente en los países más pobres, los préstamos al subsector no han correspondido a la importancia de los sistemas de educación terciaria para el desarrollo económico y social. Habitualmente, se considera que el Banco Mundial sólo apoya la educación básica, defiende sistemáticamente la reasignación del gasto público de la educación terciaria a la educación básica, promueve la recuperación de costes y la expansión del sector privado, y disuade a los países de rentas bajas de que inviertan en capital humano avanzado. Dadas estas percepciones, y dados los rápidos cambios que tienen lugar en el entorno global y la persistencia de los problemas tradicionales de la educación terciaria en los países transicionales y en vías de desarrollo, la revisión de las políticas y las experiencias del Banco Mundial han pasado a ser una cuestión urgente.Peer Reviewe

Transforming higher education in developing countries: the role of the World Bank

The World Bank has actively supported tertiary education reform efforts in a number of countries. Nevertheless, there is a perception that the Bank has not been fully responsive to the growing demand by clients for tertiary education interventions and that, especially in the poorest countries, lending for the subsector has not matched the importance of tertiary education systems for economic and social development. Given these perceptions, the rapid changes taking place in the global environment, and the persistence of the traditions problems of tertiary education in developing and transition countries, reexamining the World Bank's policies and experiences in tertiary education has become a matter of urgency

Individual Distinctiveness in Call Types of Wild Western Female Gorillas

<div><p>Individually distinct vocalizations play an important role in animal communication, allowing call recipients to respond differentially based on caller identity. However, which of the many calls in a species' repertoire should have more acoustic variability and be more recognizable is less apparent. One proposed hypothesis is that calls used over long distances should be more distinct because visual cues are not available to identify the caller. An alternative hypothesis proposes that close calls should be more recognizable because of their importance in social interactions. To examine which hypothesis garners more support, the acoustic variation and individual distinctiveness of eight call types of six wild western gorilla (<i>Gorilla gorilla</i>) females were investigated. Acoustic recordings of gorilla calls were collected at the Mondika Research Center (Republic of Congo). Acoustic variability was high in all gorilla calls. Similar high inter-individual variation and potential for identity coding (PIC) was found for all call types. Discriminant function analyses confirmed that all call types were individually distinct (although for call types with lowest sample size - hum, grumble and scream - this result cannot be generalized), suggesting that neither the distance at which communication occurs nor the call social function alone can explain the evolution of identity signaling in western gorilla communication.</p></div

Spectrograms of three call types given by different female gorillas (F1, F2, F4, F6) showing the acoustic variation.

<p>Spectrograms of three call types given by different female gorillas (F1, F2, F4, F6) showing the acoustic variation.</p

Overall Potential for Identity Coding (PIC) for each of eight call types.

<p>The overall PIC (PIC) for each call type is calculated as mean coefficient of inter-individual variation divided by the mean coefficient of intra-individual variation, where each coefficient of variation is averaged over all parameters. Call types include: hoot series (HT), hum (HM), grumble (GR), double grunt (DG), single grunt (SG), copulation grunt (CG), threat grunt (TG), and scream (SC).</p