As mental health issues continue to rise in Latin America, the need for research in this field becomes increasingly pressing. This study aimed to explore the perceived barriers and resources for research and publications among psychiatrists and psychiatry trainees from nine Spanish-speaking countries in South America. Data was collected through an anonymous online survey and analyzed using descriptive methods and the SPSS Statistical package. In total, 214 responses were analyzed. Among the participating psychiatrists, 61.8% reported having led a research project and 74.7% of them reported having led an academic publication. As for the psychiatry trainees, 26% reported having conducted research and 41.5% reported having published or attempted to publish an academic paper. When available, having access to research training, protected research time and mentorship opportunities were significant resources for research. Further support is needed in terms of funding, training, protected research time and mentorship opportunities. However, despite their efforts to participate in the global mental health discussion, Latin American psychiatrists and psychiatry trainees remain largely underrepresented in the literature.

Haemosporidia (Apicomplexa, Haemosporida) are protozoa that infect vertebrate blood cells and are transmitted by vectors. Among vertebrates, birds possess the greatest diversity of haemosporidia, historically placed in 3 genera: Haemoproteus, Leucocytozoon and Plasmodium, the causative agent of avian malaria. In South America, existing data on haemosporidia are spatially and temporally dispersed, so increased surveillance is needed to improve the determination and diagnosis of these parasites. During the non-breeding season in 2020 and 2021, 60 common terns (Sterna hirundo) were captured and bled as part of ongoing research on the population health of migratory birds on the Argentinian Atlantic coast. Blood samples and blood smears were obtained. Fifty-eight samples were screened for Plasmodium, Haemoproteus and Leucocytozoon, as well as for Babesia parasites by nested polymerase chain reaction and by microscopic examination of smears. Two positive samples for Plasmodium were found. The cytochrome b lineages detected in the present study are found for the first time, and are close to Plasmodium lineages found in other bird orders. The low prevalence (3.6%) of haemoparasites found in this research was similar to those reported for previous studies on seabirds, including Charadriiformes. Our findings provide new information about the distribution and prevalence of haemosporidian parasites from charadriiforms in the southernmost part of South America, which remains understudied.

Posthumanism is a growing field of interdisciplinary study that has emerged, principally in the last 20 years, as a broad church which seeks to reconceptualize human beings’ relationships with the world. At its heart, Posthumanism seeks to destabilize and question the category of ‘human’, which it sees as having previously been treated as transcendent and ahistorical. In its place, the figure of the posthuman aims to capture the complex and situated nature of our species’ existence, outside traditional dichotomies like culture and nature, mind and body, person and environment, and so on. From animal studies (e.g. Despret 2016; Wolfe 2009), via a rekindled attention to the material world (Coole & Frost 2010) to the cutting edge of quantum physics (Barad 2007), Posthumanism draws on a diverse range of inspiration (Ferrando 2019). This diversity also covers a significant internal dissonance and difference, with some posthumanists taking relational approaches, others arguing for the essential qualities of things, some focusing primarily on material things without humans and others calling for explicitly feminist investigations.

In this paper, we analyse some of the issues associated with the posthumanist rejection of Humanism. First, we discuss some of the possibilities and challenges that New Materialism and the Ontological Turn have brought into archaeology in terms of understanding past ontologies and decolonizing archaeological thought. Then, focusing on the concept of agency, we reflect on how its use by some posthumanist authors risks turning it into an empty signifier, which can have ethical implications and limit archaeology's potential for social critique. The concept of things’ effectancy is presented as a valuable alternative to previous conceptualizations of ‘object agency’. While we acknowledge the heuristic potential of many posthumanist proposals, we believe that humanist perspectives should not be rejected altogether. Instead of creating rigid divides, we argue that elements of New Humanism, as recently defined by philosophical anthropology, can hold value when facing current societal challenges.

Stromatolites are biogenic sedimentary structures formed by the interplay of biological (microbial composition) and environmental factors (local hydrodynamic conditions, clastic input and/or water chemistry). Well-preserved, three-dimensional (3D) fossil stromatolites are key to assessing the environmental factors controlling their growth and resulting morphology in space and time. Here, we report the detailed analysis of well-exposed, highly informative stromatolite build-ups from a single stratigraphic horizon within the Maastrichtian–Danian Yacoraite Formation (Argentina). This study focuses on the analysis of depositional processes driving intertidal to shallow subtidal stromatolites. Overall depositional architecture, external morphology and internal arrangement (mega, macro, meso and microstructures) of stromatolite build-ups were analysed and combined with 3D photogrammetric models, allowing us to decipher the links between stromatolite structure and tidal dynamics. Results suggest that external morphology and architecture of elongated and parallel clusters grew under the influence of run-off channels. The internal morphology exhibits columnar structures where the space between columns is interpreted as recharge or discharge channels. This work supports the theory that stromatolites can be used as a high-resolution tool in the assessment of water dynamics, and provides a new methodological approach and data for the dynamic reconstruction of intertidal stromatolite systems through the geological record.

Interactions between smooth muscle cells (SMCs) and biomaterials must not result in phenotype changes as this may generate uncontrolled multiplication processes and occlusions in vascular grafts. The aim of this study was to relate the hydrolytic stability and biocompatibility of polyurethanes (PUs) on SMCs. A higher polycaprolactone (PCL) concentration was found to improve the hydrolytic stability of the material and the adhesion of SMCs. A material with 5% polyethylene glycol, 90% PCL, and 5% pentaerythritol presented high cell viability and adhesion, suggesting a contractile phenotype in SMCs depending on the morphology. Nevertheless, all PUs retained their elastic modulus over 120 days, similar to the collagen of native arteries (~10 MPa). Furthermore, aortic SMCs did not present toxicity (viability over 80%) and demonstrated adherence without any abnormal cell multiplication processes, which is ideal for the function to be fulfiled in situ in the vascular grafts.

Polyurethane/cellulose composites were synthesized from castor-oil-derived polyols and isophorone diisocyanate using dibutyltin dilaurate (DBTDL) as the catalyst. Materials were obtained by adding 2% cellulose in the form of either microcrystals (20 μm) or nanocrystals obtained by acid hydrolysis. The aim was to assess the effects of filler particle size and the use of a catalyst on the physicochemical properties and biological response of these composites. The addition of the catalyst was found to be essential to prevent filler aggregations and to enhance the tensile strength and elongation at break. The cellulose particle size influenced the composite properties, as its nanocrystals heighten hydrogen bond interactions between the filler surface and polyurethane domains, improving resistance to hydrolytic degradation. All hybrids retained cell viability, and the addition of DBTDL did not impair their biocompatibility. The samples were prone to calcification, which suggests that they could find application in the development of bioactive materials.

The aim of the present research was to evaluate pectin-gelatine and pectin-collagen polymeric compounds as encapsulating and releasing matrices for whey active peptides with antioxidant properties. Active peptides were obtained by hydrolysis of whey proteins with thermolysin and proteinase enzymes from B. subtilis. The hydrolysates were fractioned and encapsulated in the pectin composite matrices to obtain particles loaded with active whey peptides. The composite particles were analysed by SEM and IR techniques. In addition, they were also tested under simulated gastric conditions to evaluate the encapsulation efficiency and delivering power of the composite materials. The results showed that both encapsulation particles were excellent supports, because they retained to-the peptides and maintained their antioxidant activity during the simulated gastric process (120 min). However, the pectin gelatine particles were digested faster than those of pectin-collagen. The peptides from-encapsulated in pectin-gelatine were released within this time, showing an increment in the-antioxidant activity. Peptides from gelatine protein were also released by the gastric enzymes, and thus also they contributed to the antioxidant activity; in addition to the whey peptides.

A new upper Bajocian ammonite assemblage containing the morphoceratids Dimorphinites dimorphus (d'Orbigny) and Vigoriceras defrancei (d'Orbigny) is reported from the circum-Pacific area. These ammonites were found at the top of the Torcazas Formation, in the Quebrada San Pedro area, Precordillera of northern Chile. Taphonomic, systematic, and paleobiogeographic data confirm these dimorphs were part of indigenous populations within the Tarapaca Basin, belonging to the same demic biospecies: Dimorphinites defrancei (d'Orbigny). The West Tethyan and East-Pacific distribution of D. defrancei corroborates the availability of the migratory seaway, the so-called Hispanic Corridor, between the western Tethys and the eastern Pacific Ocean during the upper Bajocian Parkinsoni Zone. The discovery of this upper Bajocian Dimorphinites assemblage provides a new biochronostratigraphic horizon in the Tarapaca Basin and an interoceanic correlation point for the latest Bajocian.

Ecological risk assessment is a useful methodology for assisting the management of fisheries from an ecosystem perspective. Atlantic tuna fisheries, managed by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), are economically important and interact with several bycatch species. In spite of these interactions, no comprehensive ecological risk assessment has been conducted for bycatch species caught in ICCAT fisheries. In this paper, we followed a two stage approach with the objective of assessing the relative risk of species being negatively impacted by Atlantic tuna fisheries. An analysis of the ICCAT bycatch species list (which includes all species reported to have interacted with different tuna fishing gears operating in the Atlantic) revealed that most of these species are caught in longline fisheries, followed by gillnets and purse seines. According to the IUCN red list, 7 species of the ICCAT bycatch list (3 coastal sharks, 3 sea turtles and one seabird) are categorized as critically endangered. In our study, and based on their life history characteristics, marine mammals and coastal sharks caught in ICCAT fisheries showed the highest intrinsic vulnerability values. A productivity susceptibility analysis for the European Union (EU) tropical tuna purse seine fleet and the United States (US) pelagic longline fleet revealed two groups with high relative risk scores. The first one included pelagic and coastal sharks, characterized by relatively low productivities, and the second one included teleosts, characterized by higher productivities but high susceptibility to purse seine and longline gears. Some alternative approaches to conduct productivity susceptibility analyses in the context of ecological risk assessments are discussed.

The curve used until recently by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) to represent the growth of western Atlantic bluefin tuna, Thunnus thynnus, was estimated using tagging information and modal sizes that corresponded primarily to very young fish (ages 1–3, primarily). The estimated maximum average size from this curve is very large (382 cm), which could be a result of the scarcity of large bluefin in the data used. Recently, scientists have developed techniques for reading ages from bluefin ear bones (otoliths); the accuracy of the age readings has been validated with bomb radiocarbon dating. These age readings are primarily for large bluefin (ages 5 and older), and indicate slower growth and older ages than was previously assumed. However, an analysis of these data resulted in growth curves that predicted very small mean sizes for the youngest age group, which could be a result of the lack of small fish in the data used. In this study, we combine the otolith-based age readings with the size frequency distributions of small (ages 1–3) bluefin caught by purse seiners in the 1970s where the age groups are distinctly statistically as well as visible to the eye. We analyzed the two datasets jointly using a maximum likelihood approach and assumed that variability in length-at-age increases with age. The resulting growth curve predicts sizes at young and old ages that are very consistent with observed data such as the maximum sizes observed in the catch and the modal sizes for very young bluefin. The resulting curve is also very similar to the curve used by ICCAT for eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin.

We present a detailed study of the physical properties of the nebular material in multiple knots of the blue compact dwarf galaxy Haro 15. Using long slit and echelle spectroscopy, obtained at Las Campanas Observatory, we study the physical conditions (electron density and temperature), ionic and total chemical abundances of several atoms, reddening and ionization structure. The latter was derived by comparing the oxygen and sulphur ionic ratios to their corresponding observed emission line ratios (the η and η' plots) in different regions of the galaxy. Applying direct and empirical methods for abundance determination, we perform a comparative analysis between these regions.

Human milk is recommended as the only alimentary source for the first six months of life. Additionally there is a medical and social need for safe and effective alternative forms of nutrition for infants who cannot be fed with breast milk. Recently the safety and efficacy of some ingredients in infant formulae, such as nucleotides have been discussed. This systematic review analyzed the available evidence to establish the efficacy, safety and dose-response effect of ribonucleotide-supplemented infant formulae (RSIFs). Randomised controlled clinical trials (RCTs) comparing RSIFs to formulae without nucleotides or breast milk were considered in this review. Outcome measures were: antibody titres to common paediatric vaccinations, total lymphocytes, lymphocyte subclasses and NK-cells, episodes of diarrhoea and acute respiratory infection. Publication quality was determined using Jadad and CONSORT guidelines. Results were combined using a random effects model and reported through standardised mean differences (WMD) or risk ratio (RR). Systematic review and meta-analysis showed that RSIFs were associated with a better antibody response to immunisation with Haemopillus influenzae vaccine [SMD 1·74 (99 %CI 1·43–2·05), P = 0·001], diphtheria toxoid [SMD 0·94 (0·75–1·12), P = 0·001], oral polio vaccine [SMD 0·73 (0·51–0·95), P = 0·001], and fewer episodes of diarrhoea [RR 0·67 (0·58–0·76), P = 0·02]. We did not find a major risk of upper respiratory infections [RR 1·11 (0·90–1·36), P = 0·50]. Available evidence suggests a positive benefit of RSFIs on infant health without any risk. These benefits begin with nucleotide addition of 1·9 mg/418·4 kJ and are maintained or increased with 10·78 mg/418·4 kJ.

We tested whether seed mass and shape are good predictors of seed persistence in the soil of subhumid temperate montane grasslands of central Argentina. We plotted seed mass against variance of seed dimensions of 71 herbaceous species and obtained information on their persistence in the soil from a previous experiment on germinable seed banks. We identified a certain seed mass/shape combination beyond which no seed was persistent in the soil, with the exception of the annual Tagetes minuta. Our results confirmed the patterns previously reported for British species: small and compact seeds tend to persist in the soil for a longer time than big and elongated or flattened seeds. We suggest that the value of seed mass and shape as predictors of persistence in the soil can be extended beyond the British flora to herbaceous floras from other humid temperate regions.

We present spectroscopic observations of the peculiar system AM1003-435, which is composed of two strong interacting galaxies, and numerical simulations of the encounter between the galaxies, following the dynamical evolution of the stellar and gaseous components.To search for other articles by the author(s) go to: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html

A fragmentary specimen of pterosaur originally assigned to the genus Pterodaustro Bonaparte, 1970 is reassessed. The presence of a sagittal dorsal cranial crest on a fragment of nasopreorbital arcade with linear vertical trabeculae and the occurrence of alveolar protuberances on the os dentale indicate the new specimen has similarities with crested pterodactyloid pterosaurs of the family Ctenochasmatidae, and with members of the Dsungaripteridae. The presence of alveolar protuberances allows us to assign the specimen to the Dsungaripteridae. It forms the basis of a new genus and species, Domeykodactylus ceciliae.