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Invasive plants are a serious problem in island ecosystems and are the main cause of the extinction of endemic species. Cuba is located within one of the hotspots of global biodiversity, which, coupled with high endemism and the impacts caused by various disturbances, makes it a region particularly sensitive to potential damage by invasive plants like Dichrostachys cinerea (L.) Wight & Arn. (marabú). However, there is a lack of timely information for monitoring this species, as well as about the land use and land cover (LULC) classes most significantly impacted by this invasion in the last few decades and their spatial distribution. The main objective of this study, carried out in Central Cuba, was to detect and monitor the spread of marabú over a 28-year period. The land covers for the years 1994 and 2022 were classified using Landsat 5 TM and 8 OLI images with three different classification algorithms: maximum likelihood (ML), support vector machine (SVM), and random forest (RF). The results obtained showed that RF outperformed the other classifiers, achieving AUC values of 0.92 for 1994 and 0.97 for 2022. It was confirmed that the area covered by marabú increased by 29,555 ha, from 61,977.59 ha in 1994 to 91,533.47 ha in 2022 (by around 48%), affecting key land covers like woodlands, mangroves, and rainfed croplands. These changes in the area covered by marabú were associated, principally, with changes in land uses and tenure and not with other factors, such as rainfall or relief in the province. The use of other free multispectral imagery, such as Sentinel 2 data, with higher temporal and spatial resolution, could further refine the model's accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Irma was a major hurricane that developed during the 2017 season. It was a category 5 on the Saffir–Simpson Hurricane wind scale. This hurricane caused severe damage in the Caribbean area and the Florida Keys. The social, economic, and environmental impacts, mainly related to coastal flooding, were also significant in Cuba. The maximum limits of coastal flooding caused by this hurricane were determined in this research. Field trips and the use of the GPS supported our work, which focused on both the northern and southern coasts of the Ciego de Ávila province. This work has been critical for improving coastal flooding scenarios related to a strong hurricane, as it has been the first experience according to hurricane data since 1851. Results showed that the Punta Alegre and Júcaro towns were the most affected coastal towns. The locals had never seen similar flooding in these places before. The differences between flood areas associated with Hurricane Irma and previous modeled hazard scenarios were evident (the flooded areas associated with Hurricane Irma were smaller than those modeled for categories 1, 3, and 5 hurricanes). The effects of this hurricane on the most vulnerable coastal settlements, including the impacts on the archeological site "Los Buchillones", were also assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As migrant families relocated to Cuba during the second half of the eighteenth century, new generations of creoles were born during the economic and demographic expansion of the island. Some of these Cubans, inspired on early liberal ideas, found the ways to amass a fortune, and started climbing the social ladder by procuring positions in the local bureaucracy. A legal degree, however, was essential to obtain a high ranked public office, and many new students of law enrolled at the University of Havana. As a result, the number of lawyers on the island multiplied and started occupying posts in the local judiciary and the administration, as well as the academia, to legitimize themselves in the Cuban society. This study thus uses the Chaple family to examine a case of social mobility in early nineteenth century Cuba tied to the increase of the number of legal professionals, and their multiple mechanisms to gain participation and control of the public sphere. As the family Chaple illustrates, legal professionals, with their growing connections, created a complex social, political, and familiar network that included many individuals who held key judicial and administrative positions on the island. These lawyers, who came from humble origins, transformed the colonial society by breaking traditional barriers to the legal education and practice. Consequently, creoles with law degrees, who increasingly participated in local public affairs, emerged as a first generation of Cuban liberal elites during the nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION To discern environmental factors that, along with genes influencing susceptibility, drive the occurrence of non-syndromic congenital disorders, it is important to identify clusters of these abnormalities. OBJECTIVE Determine the adjusted prevalence of orofacial clefts in Villa Clara Province, Cuba, and identify and describe their spatiotemporal variability during January 2013-December 2018. METHODS Cases were selected from a total of 46,007 births that took place in the province's four maternity hospitals during the study period. Of these, 36 cases of newborns with either prenatal or postnatal non-syndromic orofacial cleft diagnoses were obtained from hospital and community registries. We applied spatial statistical analysis techniques with the aim of identifying areas within the province with the highest prevalence. RESULTS Adjusted prevalence was 0.78 per 1000 births. The most common non-syndromic orofacial congenital abnormality was cleft lip with or without cleft palate. Frequency of congenital abnormalities increased during the first two years of the study and decreased during the last two years. A primary spatiotemporal cluster was identified in two contiguous municipalities in 2017 and a secondary one in two other neighboring municipalities between 2014 and 2016. CONCLUSIONS Spatiotemporal analysis of non-syndromic orofacial clefts in Villa Clara Province, Cuba, identified two spatiotemporal clusters, constituting an opportunity to better understand the etiology of orofacial clefts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sole Cuban representative of the bat genus Natalus, described as a fossil in 1919, was rediscovered in 1992 as an extant colony in a cave in the western tip of the island. Other extant Greater Antillean populations of this genus were known before from Jamaica and Hispaniola and, together with the fossil Natalus from Cuba, were considered synonyms of the continental species Natalus stramineus. Morphometric comparison of the living Cuban Natalus with other West Indian and mainland populations of the genus supports the taxonomic separation of the Greater Antillean populations of Natalus from Natalus stramineus. We hypothesize that Natalus major has a relatively high extinction potential due to its probable limited capacity for dispersal, and to its specialization in scarce hot-caves. We suggest that dependence on roosts of unreliable permanence probably introduces a high degree of stochasticity in the process of extinction of obligate cave-dwelling bats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article features the Cuban geological and paleontological collections at the National Museum of Natural History in the U.S. It is revealed that several researchers and scientists conducted numerous explorations and collecting expeditions in the Cuban territory and its adjacent seas resulting into the development of various institutions to manage these collections. The museum houses artifacts related to the natural history including geology, paleontology, botany and zoology.

Agronomía's Faculty, with a vast experience in professionals's formation of the agricultural sector, develop software of mastery that they play an essential role in the search of answer to the complex problems that he demands the socioeconomic development out of every territory to, that he guarantees the nonstop formation of the professionals of this sector. For the sake of examining his professors's vision and students in relation to the development out of every program of mastery in Agronomía's Faculty, the articulation accomplished this investigation where the model of education that one works at each one join program her enter them course and quality of this with was studied; Whereon the students's expectations and which ones take into account measure themselves they are the themes that are discussed at the cloisters. Enter principal aftermath the different vision is they have professors and the students in relation to the model of education that the program develops with whereon participate ; The reach limited as to the investigating component and the practical application of the courses; The articulation among the courses and the quality of this process of articulation evidences a dialed discrepancy among professors's vision and students; The levels caught up with by the masteries that develop in Agronomia's Faculty of the Habana's University Agrarian, do not cover up all of the expectations that the presentday society demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cholera is a major problem in developing countries. Vaccines are not yet available against cholera, but vaccines under development will be administered orally in order to induce a protective IgA response. In Cuba, the 638 attenuated cholera strain has been developed. This has induced a good response in animal models and in the preliminary human study has proven to be safe and immunogenic. However, the specific IgA at mucosal sites and comparison of 638 strain with the known reactogenic JBK70 strain are not reported. Therefore, we evaluated the production of anti-LPS (El Tor Ogawa) antibody secreting cell (ASC) by ELISPOT in the blood and the anti-LPS antibodies in the parotid saliva by ELISA as mucosal responses of volunteers inoculated with both strains. Three groups of 638 (109, 108, and 107 Vibrio), one group of JBK70 (109) and one Placebo group were enrolled. The IgA+ASC response predominated and IgG+ASC was only found with high dose. The presence of specific IgA against LPS in saliva was demonstrated after immunization with the vaccine candidate. The salival IgA was consistently detected with maximum values at day 9 and it had secretor component. The results showed the prevalence of IgA1 subclass and significant levels of IgA2. In conclusion, our results show that 638 induces a good mucosal response similar to those induced by JBK70 strain. In addition, the declination of salival specific IgA after 9 days and the permanence of elevated serum titles may imply that this is locally produced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]