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Purpose: Children with hearing loss (CHL) who use hearing devices (cochlear implants or hearing aids) and communicate orally have trouble comprehending sentences with noncanonical order. This study explores sentence comprehension strategies in Spanish-speaking CHL, focusing on their ability to integrate morphosyntactic cues (word order, morphological case marking) with verbs differing in their syntax-to-semantics configuration., Method: Fifty-eight Spanish-speaking CHL and 58 children with typical hearing (CTH) with a hearing age of 3;5-7;8 (years;months; i.e., time of adequate access to sound, in the case of CHL since effective fitting or implantation) were recruited in Argentina. A sentence comprehension task using the truth-value judgment paradigm was designed, including sentences with activity verbs and object-experiencer psych verbs in subject-verb-object (SVO) and object-verb-subject (OVS) orders, thus varying in canonicity., Results: Both groups showed good comprehension of SVO sentences with activity verbs but had difficulties with structures that deviated from canonicity. Comprehension was at chance level in both groups and at all hearing ages for sentences with activity verbs in OVS order and sentences with object-experiencer psych verbs in SVO order (both are noncanonical for the verb type). Sentences with object-experiencer psych verbs in OVS order were also comprehended at chance level by CHL and by the youngest CTH., Conclusions: These results suggest that Spanish-speaking CTH aged 7 years prioritize semantic information over case marking in sentences with a noncanonical syntactic structure. In CHL, difficulties with noncanonical structures seem to extend to semantic deviations, at least until hearing age 7 years. CHL might also struggle with the semantic structures of object-experiencer psych verbs beyond the age when CTH do. These findings are relevant for the linguistic assessment and education of CHL.

In an era marked by an abundance of news sources, access to information significantly influences public opinion. Notably, the bias of news sources often serves as an indicator of individuals' political leanings. This study explores this hypothesis by examining the news sharing behavior of politically active social media users, whose political ideologies were identified in a previous study. Using correspondence analysis, we estimate the Media Sharing Index (MSI), a measure that captures bias in media outlets and user preferences within a hidden space. During Argentina's 2019 election on Twitter, we observed a predictable pattern: center-right individuals predominantly shared media from center-right biased outlets. However, it is noteworthy that those with center-left inclinations displayed a more diverse media consumption, which is a significant finding. Despite a noticeable polarization based on political affiliation observed in a retweet network analysis, center-left users showed more diverse media sharing preferences, particularly concerning the MSI. Although these findings are specific to Argentina, the developed methodology can be applied in other countries to assess the correlation between users' political leanings and the media they share., Competing Interests: Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

This study assesses MP in water, sediment, gills, and digestive tract of the oyster Magallana gigas in three Bahía Blanca estuary sites, Argentina, using, Pollution Load Index (PLI) and SEM/EDX (Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy) and FTIR (Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy) techniques. A total of 51 MPs were detected in water (mean: 16 items L -1 ) and 126 in sediments (mean: 1399 items Kg -1 ) with no significant differences between sites. In oysters, 186 MPs were found, with no significant differences in the MPs load between gills (mean: 2.41 items g -1 w.w), digestive tract (2.06 ± 2 items g -1 w.w), and the total tissues. Transparent fiber MPs were predominant, with cellulose, polyamides, polyethylene terephthalate and polyethylene being common polymers. SEM/EDX showed Si, Fe, Cl, Na, Ti, Al, K, Ca and suspended particulate matter on MP surfaces. The PLI indicated a low-risk level for estuary bivalves and water, suggesting minimal MPs impact., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: To evaluate myopia risk factors, mainly outdoor exposure and reading habits, in a country with low prevalence of myopia (Buenos Aires Province, Argentina)., Methods: Consecutive children interviewed in a clinical private practice setting were autorefracted under cycloplegia with cyclopentolate 1%. Their parents consented to fill a questionnaire about schooling, tutorial classes, outdoor exposure, reading habits, and cellphone use, both on weekdays and weekends. The Spanish questionnaire was based on past English questionnaires of myopia clinical trials. The spherical equivalent of the right eye was used for the refractive distribution. The average daily hours spent for each activity were calculated., Results: This study involved 115 children aged 10.48 ± 3.65 years (range 5-18 years), with 56.5% being girls. Children had 8 h of schooling per day in 62.6% of cases, and only 14.8 % had tutorial classes after school. There were 38.3% myopes (<-0.50 D), 24.3% hyperopes (>+2.00 D) and the rest were emmetropes. The mean time that these children spent outdoors per day was 3.94 ± 1.45 h (27.60 ± 10.16 h per week). The total mean time spent reading and writing per day was 1.50 ± 0.98 h, and that spent using cellphones and tablets was 2.43 ± 1.66 h., Conclusion: In an environment with low myopia prevalence, children spend almoast 4 h per day outdoors, much more than the usual recommendation of 2 h a day for myopia prevention., (Copyright © 2021 Sociedad Española de Oftalmología. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic had an uneven development in different countries. In Argentina, the pandemic began in March 2020 and, during the first 3 months, the vast majority of cases were concentrated in a densely populated region that includes the city of Buenos Aires (country capital) and the Greater Buenos Aires (GBA) area that surrounds it. This work focuses on the spread of COVID-19 between June and November 2020 in GBA. Within this period of time there was no vaccine, basically only the early wild strain of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was present, and the official restriction and distancing measures in this region remained more or less constant. Under these particular conditions, the incidences show a sharp rise from June 2020 and begin to decrease towards the end of August until the end of November 2020. In this work we study, through mathematical modelling and available epidemiological information, the spread of COVID-19 in this region and period of time. We show that a coherent explanation of the evolution of incidences can be obtained assuming that only a minority fraction of the population got involved in the spread process, so that the incidences decreased as this group of people was becoming immune. The observed evolution of the incidences could then be a consequence at the population level of lasting immunity conferred by SARS-CoV-2.

In a world being hit by waves of COVID-19, vaccination is a light on the horizon. However, the roll-out of vaccination strategies and their influence on the pandemic are still open questions. In order to compare the effect of various strategies proposed by the World Health Organization and other authorities, a previously developed SEIRS stochastic model of geographical spreading of the virus is extended by adding a compartment for vaccinated people. The parameters of the model were fitted to describe the pandemic evolution in Argentina, Mexico and Spain to analyze the effect of the proposed vaccination strategies. The mobility parameters allow to simulate different social behaviors (e.g. lock-down interventions). Schemes in which vaccines are applied homogeneously in all the country, or limited to the most densely-populated areas, are simulated and compared. The second strategy is found to be more effective. Moreover, under the current global shortage of vaccines, it should be remarked that immunization is enhanced when mobility is reduced. Additionally, repetition of vaccination campaigns should be timed considering the immunity lapse of the vaccinated (and recovered) people. Finally, the model is extended to include the effect of isolation of detected positive cases, shown to be important to reduce infections., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

This work presents a simulation for the trajectory of a locust swarm of the species Schistocerca cancellata (Audinet-Serville), between May 22nd and July 29th, 2020, in Argentina. To obtain the directions, temperature, and intensities of the wind, used to determine the daily traveled distance of the insects, the data of weather forecast from Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model are used. A statistical analysis shows the effectiveness of the forecast model used in comparison with the real data given by SENASA, which provides latitude and longitude coordinates for the cited period. The results found for the movement of the cloud were satisfactory, they matched with the real data, identifying that temperature and wind speed have a great influence on the movement of locust swarms. The methodology used allows monitoring in real-time their movement, predicting the trajectory and making it possible to plan actions by government control agencies with pesticides in convenient areas., (© 2021. Sociedade Entomológica do Brasil.)

We have studied the dynamic evolution of the Covid-19 pandemic in Argentina. The marked heterogeneity in population density and the very extensive geography of the country becomes a challenge itself. Standard compartment models fail when they are implemented in the Argentina case. We extended a previous successful model to describe the geographical spread of the AH1N1 influenza epidemic of 2009 in two essential ways: we added a stochastic local mobility mechanism, and we introduced a new compartment in order to take into account the isolation of infected asymptomatic detected people. Two fundamental parameters drive the dynamics: the time elapsed between contagious and isolation of infected individuals ([Formula: see text]) and the ratio of people isolated over the total infected ones (p). The evolution is more sensitive to the [Formula: see text]parameter. The model not only reproduces the real data but also predicts the second wave before the former vanishes. This effect is intrinsic of extensive countries with heterogeneous population density and interconnection.The model presented has proven to be a reliable predictor of the effects of public policies as, for instance, the unavoidable vaccination campaigns starting at present in the world an particularly in Argentina.

Objectives: Measurement of height is essential in the anthropometric assessment of growth and nutritional status. In some conditions, height measurement may be difficult or impossible. Proxy measurement such as knee height (KH) have been proposed to predict stature in such cases, but reference percentile ranges and charts for healthy, well-nourished children are currently unavailable. This study was designed to develop sex-specific KH reference percentile ranges and charts in Argentine children ranging from 2 to 18 years of age., Methods: We collected and analyzed cross-sectional data for KH from 861 Argentine children and adolescents aged 2 to 18 years. Generalized additive models for location, scale, and shape were used to calculate semiparametric smoothed percentile reference ranges, and charts by age and sex. Linear regression and correlation analyses were performed to know the association between KH and height., Results: The new reference ranges show that KH growth rose sharply until puberty. Peak KH velocity occurs 1 year earlier than peak height velocity. At puberty KH growth decelerated rapidly in females and increased slightly until 15 years and plateaued at this age, while it had a more gradual deceleration in males up to 11 years old, later increased slightly until 17 years and plateaued at this age. The correlation coefficient between height and KH was r = 0.98 for both sexes (p < .001)., Conclusions: The new reference percentile ranges for KH measures for healthy children and adolescents provide a useful growth and nutritional assessment tool in a wide variety of settings. KH has a strong agreement with stature., (© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Four monitoring campaigns between the years 2009 and 2018 were conducted in Córdoba City, Argentina, to detect toxic metals in PM2.5 samples. The concentrations of As, Cd, Pb, Cu, Cr, Mn, Hg, Ni, and Zn, together with several other elements, were measured. The average metal concentrations followed the order: Zn > Cr > Cu > Mn > Pb > V > Ni > As ~ Sb > Cd > Tl > Pd > Hg > Pt. From the analysis of the temporal variation in the elemental concentration of PM2.5, results show seasonal variations that reach, in general, a maximum in the coldest seasons and a minimum in the warmer seasons. These differences could be explained by the different weather conditions during each season, the influence of the El Niño/La Niña regimen, and the presence of fires on certain sampling dates. The source apportionment analysis performed for the period 2017-2018 showed the contribution to PM2.5 of combustion of heavy fuel oil and diesel-powered vehicles, pet coke, metallurgical and nonferrous industries, paint plant factory, traffic, and natural sources like the soil and road dust. This last analysis completed the assignment of sources for the 10-year period of study. Thus, the results of this work contribute to the implementation of emission reduction strategies in order to decrease the impact of PM2.5 on the environment and the human health.

Accurate estimates of total global solar irradiance reaching the Earth's surface are relevant since routine measurements are not always available. This work aimed to determine which of the models used to estimate daily total global solar irradiance (TGSI) is the best model when irradiance measurements are scarce in a given site. A model based on an artificial neural network (ANN) and empirical models based on temperature and sunshine measurements were analyzed and evaluated in Córdoba, Argentina. The performance of the models was benchmarked using different statistical estimators such as the mean bias error (MBE), the mean absolute bias error (MABE), the correlation coefficient (r), the Nash-Sutcliffe equation (NSE), and the statistics t test (t value). The results showed that when enough measurements were available, both the ANN and the empirical models accurately predicted TGSI (with MBE and MABE ≤ |0.11| and ≤ |1.98| kWh m -2 day -1 , respectively; NSE ≥ 0.83; r ≥ 0.95; and |t values| < t critical value). However, when few TGSI measurements were available (2, 3, 5, 7, or 10 days per month) only the ANN-based method was accurate (|t value| < t critical value), yielding precise results although only 2 measurements per month were available for 1 year. This model has an important advantage over the empirical models and is very relevant to Argentina due to the scarcity of TGSI measurements.

In this work we analyze potential environmental drivers of malaria cases in Northwestern Argentina. We inspect causal links between malaria and climatic variables by means of the convergent cross mapping technique, which provides a causality criterion from the theory of dynamic systems. Analysis is based on 12 years of weekly malaria P. vivax cases in Tartagal, Salta, Argentina-at the southern fringe of malaria incidence in the Americas-together with humidity and temperature time-series spanning the same period. Our results show that there are causal links between malaria cases and both maximum temperature, with a delay of five weeks, and minimum temperature, with delays of zero and twenty two weeks. Humidity is also a driver of malaria cases, with thirteen weeks delay between cause and effect. Furthermore we also determined the sign and strength of the effects. Temperature has always a positive non-linear effect on cases, with maximum temperature effects more pronounced above 25°C and minimum above 17°C, while effects of humidity are more intricate: maximum humidity above 85% has a negative effect, whereas minimum humidity has a positive effect on cases. These results might be signaling processes operating at short (below 5 weeks) and long (over 12 weeks) time delays, corresponding to effects related to parasite cycle and mosquito population dynamics respectively. The non-linearities found for the strength of the effect of temperature on malaria cases make warmer areas more prone to higher increases in the disease incidence. Moreover, our results indicate that an increase of extreme weather events could enhance the risks of malaria spreading and re-emergence beyond the current distribution. Both situations, warmer climate and increase of extreme events, will be remarkably increased by the end of the century in this hot spot of climate change., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Hablar de Chagas es hablar de una problemática compleja, definida por elementos de carácter biomédico, epidemiológico, sociocultural y político, que se conjugan dinámicamente. En este trabajo buscamos identificar y analizar las representaciones sobre Chagas de los integrantes del equipo de salud de un centro de atención periurbano de la ciudad de La Plata, Argentina. Mediante un abordaje cualitativo, se realizaron entrevistas semiestructuradas y se analizaron las respuestas con la técnica del análisis de contenido. Los resultados mostraron que la mayor parte de las personas entrevistadas no contempla al Chagas como una problemática en su contexto laboral cotidiano y manifiestan un fuerte sesgo biologicista en su formación profesional. Con este trabajo señalamos la urgente necesidad de reflexionar críticamente en torno a la formación de los profesionales de la salud en relación a problemáticas socioambientales complejas de importancia regional, como lo es el Chagas.

Identification of hot spots of land degradation is strongly related with the selection of soil tracers for sediment pathways. This research proposes the complementary and integrated application of two analytical techniques to select the most suitable fingerprint tracers for identifying the main sources of sediments in an agricultural catchment located in Central Argentina with erosive loess soils. Diffuse reflectance Fourier transformed in the mid-infrared range (DRIFT-MIR) spectroscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) were used for a suitable fingerprint selection. For using DRIFT-MIR spectroscopy as fingerprinting technique, calibration through quantitative parameters is needed to link and correlate DRIFT-MIR spectra with soil tracers. EDXRF was used in this context for determining the concentrations of geochemical elements in soil samples. The selected tracers were confirmed using two artificial mixtures composed of known proportions of soil collected in different sites with distinctive soil uses. These fingerprint elements were used as parameters to build a predictive model with the whole set of DRIFT-MIR spectra. Fingerprint elements such as phosphorus, iron, calcium, barium, and titanium were identified for obtaining a suitable reconstruction of the source proportions in the artificial mixtures. Mid-infrared spectra produced successful prediction models (R 2  = 0.91) for Fe content and moderate useful prediction (R 2  = 0.72) for Ti content. For Ca, P, and Ba, the R 2 were 0.44, 0.58, and 0.59 respectively.

Background: Photoallergic contact dermatitis (PACD) to oxybenzone was reported for the first time in 1980. Oxybenzone is the most common photoallergen in the United States and Canada and the fourth most common .in Europe. There are no studies or data on the prevalence of oxybenzone PACD in Argentina., Objective: To determine the proportion of photosensitive patients with PACD to oxybenzone., Methods: We conducted a descriptive cross-sectional study of 35 patients with photosensitivity reactions confirmed by photopatch testing at the Research Center of Hospital Público San Martín in La Plata, Argentina, in 2015 and 2016., Results: PACD was identified in 6 patients (17.14%). Five of these (14.28%) had at least one positive reaction to oxybenzone in the photopatch test; 4 had a reaction at irradiated sites only (5 J/cm 2 UVA) and one had a reaction at both irradiated and nonirradiated sites., Conclusions: PACD to sunscreens containing oxybenzone is common and is probably underdiagnosed due to a lack of confirmation by photopatch tests or other diagnostic tools. Sensitization rates vary according to region and are influenced by sunscreen ingredients and variations in the use of sunscreen products, cosmetics, and topical drugs., (Copyright © 2018 AEDV. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

We calculated the integrated UVB and plant damage irradiances for Argentina, a country in the Southern Hemisphere spread over a large latitudinal range. The irradiances were calculated for clear sky days using the Madronich code for the average conditions of the months corresponding to the summer and winter solstices and the fall and spring equinoxes. Ozone, aerosol and ground albedo typical for each region and for each period of the year have been considered. A comparison was made of the behavior of these irradiances at the different locations. A more pronounced time dependence of the plant damage irradiance was obtained because of the fact that the corresponding spectrum is largely concentrated at a small wavelength of the UVB interval. We established a correlation between both irradiances, which can be approximated by a quadratic function. Because the plant damage irradiance is a quantity that is not directly measured by instruments, we showed the utility of the correlation by determining this biological effectiveness from the integrated UVB irradiance measured at the Astronomical Observatory of Rosario, Argentina, on clear sky days of the year 2001, as a characteristic example of the midlatitude near-sea level location of a highly productive agricultural region, which can be extended to other regions of the world. The plant damage results are relative ones (as is the case for the erythemal irradiance). So, they can be used to determine the maximum/minimum and asymmetry ratios, to study the influence of atmospheric variables and to make comparisons with other geographical locations.