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Indigenous Territories (ITs) with less centralized forest governance than Protected Areas (PAs) may represent cost-effective natural climate solutions to meet the Paris agreement. However, the literature has been limited to examining the effect of ITs on deforestation, despite the influence of anthropogenic degradation. Thus, little is known about the temporal and spatial effect of allocating ITs on carbon stocks dynamics that account for losses from deforestation and degradation. Using Amazon Basin countries and Panama, this study aims to estimate the temporal and spatial effects of ITs and PAs on carbon stocks. To estimate the temporal effects, we use annual carbon density maps, matching analysis, and linear mixed models. Furthermore, we explore the spatial heterogeneity of these estimates through geographic discontinuity designs, allowing us to assess the spatial effect of ITs and PAs boundaries on carbon stocks. The temporal effects highlight that allocating ITs preserves carbon stocks and buffer losses as well as allocating PAs in Panama and Amazon Basin countries. The geographic discontinuity designs reveal that ITs' boundaries secure more extensive carbon stocks than their surroundings, and this difference tends to increase towards the least accessible areas, suggesting that indigenous land use in neotropical forests may have a temporarily and spatially stable impact on carbon stocks. Our findings imply that ITs in neotropical forests support Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement. Thus, Indigenous peoples must become recipients of countries' results-based payments.

Abstract  We construct various classes of low-density parity-check codes using point-line incidence structures in the classical projective plane PG(2,q). Each incidence structure is based on the various classes of points and lines created by the geometry of a conic in the plane. For each class, we prove various properties about dimension and minimum distance. Some arguments involve the geometry of two conics in the plane. As a result, we prove, under mild conditions, the existence of two conics, one entirely internal or external to the other. We conclude with some simulation data to exhibit the effectiveness of our codes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Epidemiological studies have assessed T-wave alternans (TWA) as a possible mechanism of cardiac arrhythmias related to air pollution in high-risk subjects and have reported associations with increased TWA magnitude. Objective: In this controlled human exposure study, we assessed the impact of exposure to concentrated ambient particulate matter (CAP) and ozone (O:3) on T-wave alternans in resting volunteers without preexisting cardiovascular disease. Methods: Seventeen participants without preexisting cardiovascular disease were randomized to filtered air (FA), CAP (150 μg/m3), O3 (120 ppb), or combined CAP + O3 exposures for 2 hr. Continuous electrocardiograms (ECGs) were recorded at rest and T-wave alternans (TWA) was computed by modified moving average analysis with QRS alignment for the artifact-free intervals of 20 beats along the V2 and V5 leads. Exposure-induced changes in the highest TWA magnitude (TWAMax) were estimated for the first and last 5 min of each exposure (TWAMax_Early and TWAMax_Late respectively). ΔTWAMax (Late–Early) were compared among exposure groups using analysis of variance. Results: Mean ± SD values for ΔTWA:Max were –2.1 ± 0.4, –2.7 ± 1.1, –1.9 ± 1.5, and –1.2 ± 1.5 in FA, CAP, O3, and CAP + O3 exposure groups, respectively. No significant differences were observed between pollutant exposures and FA. Conclusion: In our study of 17 volunteers who had no preexisting cardiovascular disease, we did not observe significant changes in T-wave alternans after 2-hr exposures to CAP, O:3, or combined CAP + O3. This finding, however, does not preclude the possibility of pollution-related effects on TWA at elevated heart rates, such as during exercise, or the possibility of delayed responses.