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A specimen of the Least Grebe (Tachybaptus dominicus bangsi) from San Francisco de la Sierra, Baja Calfornia Sur, Mexico, collected 6 April 2022, was 36 km north of the oasis of San Ignacio, where the species breeds and site of the previous northernmost records on the peninsula. The bird’s occurrence on a small isolated pond yet coming into breeding condition highlight the species’ opportunism, possibly critical to its survival on the arid Baja California peninsula where freshwater oases suitable for the Least Grebe are few.

Road traffic noise is the most common source of environmental pollution in urban areas, and therefore, the study of noise mitigation actions is fundamental for urban planning. The use of low noise ...

The current distribution status, abundance and nesting of the Golden Eagle in Northwestern Baja California, Mexico, based on samplings during 2 years (January 2013–December 2014) throughout a series of scanned transects of 100 km that resulted in a total of 1634 km in length is documented. The average number of individuals detected/100 km was statistically similar between 2013 and 2014, with an average value of 1.5 ± 0.6 during both years. Number of eaglets per nest showed to be statistically independent (p > 0.05) from the abundance of potential prey, altitude, types of vegetation and lineal distance to urban zones. One hundred and one individuals of the Golden Eagle that have been historical (1843–1995) or recently recorded (2000–2014) for 11 localities of Baja California (3 historical and 9 recent) were reported. Five priority areas were identified for habitat conservation of this species in Baja California (Tecate, Valle de Guadalupe, Sierra de Juarez, Valle de Santo Domingo, and Sierra de San Pedro Martir). Chronologically, the population of the Golden Eagle in Baja California has maintained active its distribution and nesting areas at least during the last 2 decades.

Road traffic in urban contexts produces noise mainly by the interaction of tyres with pavement surface and, therefore, the use of low-noise surfaces represents the best solution since they aim to mitigate the source. Moreover, in urban contexts it is often the only viable solution, together with a careful traffic planning. The main challenge in their adoption as noise mitigation actions is to be able to forecast the acoustical performances that the new road surface will be able to offer. In the UE, the new Green Public Procurement requires experimental verification of noise performance compliance: the designer must declare the acoustical performance of the proposed low-noise pavement and, a few months after the laying, the actual performance of the road surface must be tested using the Close Proximity Method (CPX). Due to the importance of being able to forecast CPX levels, the present work reports a novel way to model CPX broadband levels of newly laid low-noise road surfaces using only data available to the designer before the laying or easily obtained through coring tests, such as grading curve, fractal dimension, asphalt binder content, air voids, voids in mineral aggregates. Two models were elaborated, using two different frequency separations for tyre/road noise. The first model separates low and high frequency contributions, while the second one also considers noise around 1 kHz separately, using a three-band model. Both models are capable of forecasting the acoustic performance of newly laid low-noise road surfaces, using different road mixture parameters at different frequency ranges. The three band model shows a lower RMSE.

El colimbo Pacífico, Gavia pacifica, una especie de distribución holártica con afinidad a los ambientes costeros y tierras bajas durante su migración invernal, fue registrado de manera inusual en el Parque Nacional Sierra de San Pedro Mártir, Baja California, México (altitud de 2 428 m), durante un evento de tormenta de nieve en noviembre de 2015. Cinco individuos fueron detectados, de los cuales tres fueron rescatados vivos pero murieron días después. Estos ejemplares fueron disecados (taxidermia) y depositados en la Colección Ornitológica de la Universidad Autónoma de Baja California (UABC). Aunque existen registros previos de esta especie en localidades costeras y tierras bajas (

Medeiros, Eduardo A/0000-0002-6205-259X; Yalcin, Ata Nevzat/0000-0002-7243-7354; alvarez Moreno, carlos Arturo/0000-0001-5419-4494; Dikmen, Yalim/0000-0002-3122-5099; Leblebicioglu, Hakan/0000-0002-6033-8543; Garcell, Humberto Guanche/0000-0001-7279-0062; , Salisu/0000-0003-4510-1430; Unal, Necmettin/0000-0002-9440-7893; Chatterjee, Sharmila/0000-0001-5905-1089; Graves, Nicholas/0000-0002-5559-3267; Chatterjee, Sharmila/0000-0002-3890-8386; Mitrev, Zan/0000-0001-7859-8821; Kanj, Souha/0000-0001-6413-3396 WOS: 000260963300002 PubMed: 18992646 We report the results of an International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) surveillance study from 2002 through 2007 in 98 intensive care units (ICUs) in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe. During the 6-year study, using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance System (NNIS) definitions for device-associated health care-associated infection, we collected prospective data from 43,114 patients hospitalized in the Consortium's hospital ICUs for an aggregate of 272,279 days. Although device utilization in the INICC ICUs was remarkably similar to that reported from US ICUs in the CDC's National Healthcare Safety Network, rates of device-associated nosocomial infection were markedly higher in the ICUs of the INICC hospitals: the pooled rate of central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABs) in the INICC ICUs, 9.2 per 1000 CL-days, is nearly 3-fold higher than the 2.4-5.3 per 1000 CL-days reported from comparable US ICUs, and the overall rate of ventilator-associated pneumonia was also far higher, 19.5 vs 1.1-3.6 per 1000 ventilator-days, as was the rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infection, 6.5 versus 3.4-5.2 per 1000 catheter-days. Most strikingly, the frequencies of resistance of Staphylococcus aureus isolates to methicillin (MRSA) (80.8% vs 48.1 %), Enterobacter species to ceftriaxone (50.8% vs 17.8%), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa to fluoroquinolones (52.4% vs 29.1 %) were also Far higher in the Consortium's ICUs, and the crude unadjusted excess mortalities of device-related infections ranged from 14.3 % (CLABs) to 27.5% (ventilator-associated pneumonia). (Am J Infect Control 2008:36:627-37.)