Metropolitan Area Of Buenos Aires Research Articles

Oviposition site selection and subsequent offspring performance of Aedes aegypti in short- and long-term detritus accumulation conditions

The “oviposition preference-offspring performance” hypothesis proposes that females lay their eggs in habitats that maximize the fitness of their offspring. The aim of this study was to assess the oviposition site selection by Aedes aegypti females and the success of their larvae in habitats with different detritus accumulation times, under conditions representative of the natural spatial variability of detritus quality and quantity in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Two experiments were performed, one assessing oviposition site selection and the other analyzing developmental success. In both experiments, two levels of detritus accumulation time were compared, one with short-time detritus accumulation (2 weeks), and the other with long-time detritus accumulation (8 weeks). Naturally fallen detritus was used in both experiments, collected in ten sites across the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires. In the oviposition experiment, two contiguous ovitraps corresponding to each accumulation time were placed at each of the ten sites and the number of eggs received for each accumulation time was compared. In the development experiment, always 19 larvae were raised in containers of both accumulation times and overall performance was compared using an integrated index that considers survival, development time and female size. A large variability in the amount of detritus collected at the different sites was observed. The number of eggs was significantly higher in the long-time than in the short-time detritus accumulation containers, and approximately proportional to the amount of detritus in each ovitrap. The performance was not affected by the detritus accumulation time, but a better performance was detected in containers that received a higher amount of organic detritus, regardless of the accumulation time. Leaves were on average the most abundant type of detritus, with an average of 53% of the total detritus collected. The amount of leaves added 2 weeks before hatching showed a positive effect on larval performance. Our results do not support the “oviposition preference-offspring performance” hypothesis, since Ae. aegypti females laid eggs in containers where larvae did not show a better performance. Moreover, at larval densities related to the number of eggs actually laid in each of the accumulation times, it is expected that the performance would be even worse in the most selected containers, due to the density-dependent effects of crowding. Since the results obtained reflect the natural heterogeneity of the environmental conditions in the region studied, they might be a fairly good indicator of what occurs in natural larval habitats.

Species Richness and Composition of Forest Birds in Urban Parks and Reserves of Buenos Aires City, Argentina.

Urbanization is among the main factors of ecosystem transformation and threats to global biodiversity. Urban green spaces provide multiple services, being important for biodiversity and human well-being. However, the relationship between green spaces and forest birds has been scarcely studied in the Global South. In this work, we used citizen science data (eBird) to assess the variation in the species richness and composition of forest birds in two types of public urban green spaces characterized by different vegetation composition and management: parks and reserves. In general, reserves had more native and unmanaged vegetation than parks. We selected parks and reserves located in the coastal area of the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Sampling effort was considered as the number of checklists for each site. The database allowed information to be extracted from 12 sites and 33 species. The most common species were the Green-barred Woodpecker (Colaptes melanochloros), the Narrow-billed Woodcreeper (Lepidocolaptes angustirostris), and the White-crested Tyrannulet (Serpophaga subcristata). Bird species richness was higher in reserves than in parks and was positively related to sampling effort. The forest bird species composition varied according to the type of green area and sampling effort. Species composition showed a significant nestedness, with the least rich sites being a subset of species from the richest sites. Reserves and sites with the highest sampling effort concentrated all species. The results obtained show the importance of urban reserves in the conservation of forest birds.

Performance evaluation of the WRF model under different physical schemes for air quality purposes in Buenos Aires, Argentina

This work presents the performance evaluation of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to estimate surface wind speed and direction, air temperature, and water vapor mixing ratio considering 22 configurations at high spatial resolution (1 km) during one week in winter and one week in spring, in order to determine the best-performing schemes for air quality purposes in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Results show that the use of urban schemes mostly affects wind speed and temperature. The single-layer urban canopy model (UCM) coupled with the Boulac planetary boundary layer (PBL) scheme exhibits the best results for wind speed. Wind direction and water vapor mixing ratio are more sensitive to the land surface model scheme, with results slightly improving with the Noah-MP land surface model. Wind speed and direction errors are larger when the former is lower. When removing from the analysis wind speed values below 2.6 m s–1 for the winter week and 3.1 m s–1 for the spring week, the root mean square errors for wind direction decreased between 50 and 72% of the original value, depending on the configuration and week. Overall, under the studied conditions, configurations including Noah-Mp land surface model or the combination of a simple UCM with BouLac PBL are suitable for air quality applications, as they reproduce both temperature and water vapor mixing ratio relatively well, with errors below 10% and Correlation values above 0.7, and are the best performing configurations for wind direction and speed, respectively.

The Lambda Variant in Argentina: Analyzing the Evolution and Spread of SARS-CoV-2 Lineage C.37.

The second wave of COVID-19 occurred in South America in early 2021 and was mainly driven by Gamma and Lambda variants. In this study, we aimed to describe the emergence and local genomic diversity of the SARS-CoV-2 Lambda variant in Argentina, from its initial entry into the country until its detection ceased. Molecular surveillance was conducted on 9356 samples from Argentina between October 2020 and April 2022, and sequencing, phylogenetic, and phylogeographic analyses were performed. Our findings revealed that the Lambda variant was first detected in Argentina in January 2021 and steadily increased in frequency until it peaked in April 2021, with continued detection throughout the year. Phylodynamic analyses showed that at least 18 introductions of the Lambda variant into the country occurred, with nine of them having evidence of onward local transmission. The spatial--temporal reconstruction showed that Argentine clades were associated with Lambda sequences from Latin America and suggested an initial diversification in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires before spreading to other regions in Argentina. Genetic analyses of genome sequences allowed us to describe the mutational patterns of the Argentine Lambda sequences and detect the emergence of rare mutations in an immunocompromised patient. Our study highlights the importance of genomic surveillance in identifying the introduction and geographical distribution of the SARS-CoV-2 Lambda variant, as well as in monitoring the emergence of mutations that could be involved in the evolutionary leaps that characterize variants of concern.

Analysis of the incidence of central precocious puberty treated with gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogs. Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

Introduction. Since the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, consultations of girls with idiopathic central precocious puberty (ICPP) increased in several countries, but there were no data from Argentina. This increase may be related to changes in lifestyle and stress levels resulting from the lockdown, which particularly affected the child population. Objectives. 1) To describe the progression of the incidence of ICPP requiring inhibition of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis in girls between 2010 and 2021 in a cohort from the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires. 2) To compare the characteristics of girls diagnosed with ICPP during the pandemic with those of a control group. Methods. Interrupted time-series and case-control study. Results. The annual incidence remained stable between 2010 and 2017. Since 2017, it increased to an average of 59.9% (95% CI: 18.6-115.5) and appears to have accelerated during the pandemic. We found an association between ICPP and requiring inhibitory treatment between June 1st, 2020 and May 31st, 2021 and 2 variables: maternal age at menarche (OR: 0.46, 95% CI: 0.28-0.77) and family history of ICPP (OR: 4.42, 95% CI: 1.16-16.86). Conclusion. We evidenced a significant increase in the incidence of ICPP with requirement of HPG axis inhibition since 2017. Increased exposure to various environmental triggers during the COVID-19 pandemic may have had a greater influence in girls with some genetic predisposition.

“There Was No Other Option”: Femicide Perpetrators' Sensemaking on Gender and Violence in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Femicide has received growing attention as an important social issue in Argentina and other Latin American countries. Currently, most of the sociological, psychological, criminological, and public health research available on the topic focuses on victims rather than perpetrators and has tended to be quantitative or from an etic perspective. Understanding how perpetrators make sense of violence and the femicide to contextualize, justify, or legitimize their crimes is crucial in preventing future crimes. A secondary analysis of thirty-three narrative interviews of convicted femicide perpetrators in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires was conducted. Interviews were coded in MAXQDA20 and analyzed thematically using deductive and inductive codes surrounding gender and violence. Three themes were salient in the analysis: violence as a resource triggered by abandonment; violence as denied harm-doing, justified contextually; and violence as the emotional transfer of pain. Threat of abandonment and necessity to physically communicate emotional turmoil emerged as themes where adherence to traditional gender norms was mechanized into violence. Few participants characterized themselves as violent men although they were all serving sentences for violent crimes. Violence was normalized and frequently justified by perpetrators. Participants viewed themselves exceptionally and contested the meaning of femicide and gender-based violence (GBV). This analysis offers recommendations for primary violence prevention and GBV interventions to center young men and potential perpetrators of intimate partner violence and femicide. In doing this, the burden of femicide prevention shifts from victims to perpetrators and the society at large.

Perceptions and Attitudes of Argentine Zoomers towards Sustainable Food Production.

Young people are concerned about climate change. Their activism has attracted the attention of the media and politicians. Some of them are entering the market as consumers for the first time and can express their preferences without parental guidance: they are the Zoomers. Do these new consumers have enough knowledge about sustainability to be able to make choices in line with their concerns? Are they able to push the market towards change? A sample of 537 young Zoomer consumers were interviewed face-to-face in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires. They were asked to indicate their level of concern for the planet and the first word they associated with sustainability, to rank in order of importance sustainability-related concepts and to indicate their willingness to buy sustainable products. The results of this study underline a high concern for the health of the planet (87.9%) and for unsustainable production methods (88.8%). However, the respondents perceived sustainability as consisting of a single main pillar, the environmental dimension (with 47% of the terms referring to sustainability), and two accessory pillars, the social (10.7%) and economic (5.2%) dimensions of sustainability. Respondents also showed a high interest in products obtained through sustainable agriculture, with a high percentage of them willing to pay for these products (74.1%). However, a substantial correlation was found between the ability to comprehend the notion of sustainability and the determination to purchase sustainable items, and vice versa, between those who reported difficulty comprehending the concept and their determination not to purchase these products. Zoomers believe that the market must support sustainable agriculture through consumer choices without paying a premium price. Clarifying the concept of sustainability, enhancing knowledge and assisting consumers in identifying sustainable products, as well as marketing them at reasonable prices, are essential actions for fostering a more ethical agricultural system.

The unintended consequences of COVID-19 pandemic in Argentina: the case of sleep disorders during lockdown

Abstract Objectives This study aims to explore the unintended consequences of the COVID-19 lockdown in Argentina by assessing sleep disorders developed during quarantine and analyzing the interplay between gender and social gradients of health with sleep disorders. Methods The study adopted a cross-sectional design by drawing data from the Argentinian Social Debt The study adopted a cross-sectional design by drawing data from the Argentinian Social Debt COVID-19 Survey (n=500) carried out in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires in May 2020. COVID-19 survey (n=500) carried out in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires in May 2020. Descriptive and correlational analyses were carried out using SPSS (version 25) to describe the occurrence of sleep disorders produced during quarantine. Results The results show that during lockdown the local population presented a lower quality of sleep. Among the analysed groups, women and the youngest group were the most affected (p<0.005). Furthermore, although the four socioeconomic groups examined in this study have all suffered sleep disorders during lockdown, the respondents with lower socioeconomic status are found to have been more affected than the others. Conclusions The correlational analysis indicates that a lower socio-occupational stratum corresponds to a higher degree of changes in the circadian rhythm during the lockdown period. The main contribution of this study lies in illustrating, from a local perspective, one aspect of the unintended consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns on sleep health. Additionally, it serves to inform local health policies about the importance of considering human health as an integral process, without prioritizing the biological sphere over other aspects.

Class inequalities in access to social capital in the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires

this paper analyzes social class inequalities in access to social capital. Quantitative methodology was used with data from the PI-Clases “Reproduction and social mobility in family trajectories and life courses” survey, conducted in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires in 2015 (n = 1065). Social capital measures where derived from the Position Generator (Lin, 2001) to identify the volume, status and range of the respondent’s networks. Results show that there are class inequalities in access to social capital in terms of the number of contacts, mean status of contacts, range of contact’s status and highest status of contacts. Also, the working class is more heterogeneous in its access to social capital, suggesting it has a sector that has network ties with people from the middle class and a sector with lower social capital. The observed trend is of gradational differences between class strata, with more marked inequalities between the service, intermediate and working class, but with fluid class boundaries without social segregation. Also, social capital is conditioned by intergenerational mobility trajectory, showing a trend of elasticity in the class composition of social relationships. The upwardly mobile can increase their access to social capital but don’t reach the same level as the intergenerationally stable, while the downwardly mobile retain some social capital from their class origins.

When women enter male-dominated territories in the platform economy: gender inequalities among drivers and riders in Argentina

ABSTRACT Platform labour, especially when it comes to its flexible schedules, may represent a job insertion possibility and a source of income for many women. However, such opportunities are not exempted from gender bias. This article inspects how the expansion of the platform economy affects gender inequalities by focusing on two platform occupations: ride-hailing and delivery services. First, it investigates gender gaps in terms of working hours and earnings via linear regression as well as their determinants. Second, qualitative data further deepen the analysis of female riders’ and drivers’ experience in male-dominated territories, exploring how it is perceived and endured by workers. This paper is based on qualitative and quantitative data collected in the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires between 2019 and 2021. The analysis suggests that the gender-differentiated economic performance of riders and drivers is associated with demographic and on-the-job characteristics, implying restrictions for women workers in terms of how long, where, and when they can work. Algorithmic management further reinforces these initial female disadvantages, through tools such as scoring systems, dynamic pricing, and selective work allocation. The article concludes by providing some insights into a gender-transformative approach to the future regulation of these activities.

¿Ellos o nosotros? Escritura polifónica y los límites del campo en un estudio etnográfico sobre nuevas espiritualidades

This article reflects on the notion of collaborative ethnography, based on a fieldwork on Soka Buddhism in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires. Data production took place in the 2018-2020 period and the techniques used were participant observation and in-depth interviews. In a reflective exercise structured from three field episodes, we will show that: the boundaries of the “field” can be diffuse; the ethnographic model that starts from the “them” / “us” distinction does not always fit the realities we experience; We can enrich our descriptions by considering the possibility of cohabitation of multiple impartial principles. Taking up elements of research based on the arts, the article proposes the use of literary tools to reflect the plurality of points of view, in order to produce a perspective view of collaboration that does not ignore differences, dilemmas and contradictions.

Control of Vascular Risk Factors and Response to Stroke Symptoms in Argentina During the COVID-19 Quarantine. The SIFHON-COVID Population Survey.

Background and ObjectivesIn preparation for the suspected influx of COVID-19 patients, many healthcare systems reduced or discontinued provision of “non-urgent” care. This decision had potential impact on stroke prevention and management. We conducted a large population survey to assess the effect of mandatory social isolation on routine health controls, emergency consultations and other stroke care-related behaviors of the population during the pandemic.MethodsWe distributed multiple-choice anonymous questionnaires through the institutional email database and through the email database of clients of a beverage delivery company. Most respondents resided in the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires. This is the area where the infection rates were highest and restriction measures were hardest. The survey assessed demographic characteristics and actual and potential behaviors of people regarding medical checkups, risk factors control, medication provision and response to onset of symptoms consistent with stroke or TIA. Surveys were sent during May 2020, the strictest period of the quarantine in Argentina.ResultsA total of 10,303 questionnaires were completed. Thirty-seven percent of the respondents were older than 60 years, 74% were women and 16% lived alone. Vascular risk factors were present in 39% of the individuals. Seventy-six percent did not continue with their regular medical checkups during the mandatory social and preventive isolation, 21% had difficulty obtaining medical prescriptions and only 38% considered that health institutions had implemented reliable safety measures to avoid exposure to COVID-19. When asked about response in case of onset of stroke symptoms, 9% would not consult given the context of the pandemic. Six percent reported having had symptoms consistent with stroke or TIA but only 35% went to a hospital. The vast majority of the respondents said they were awaiting for the end of the quarantine to resume their usual medical care.ConclusionsThe implementation of a quarantine may have some serious adverse effects on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of stroke. These undesirable aspects should be taken into consideration in the planning, communication and implementation of health policies.

A multicenter study of confirmed COVID-19 cases: preliminary data on 2690 pediatric patients in Argentina during the first year of the pandemic.

The current evidence indicates that the severity of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is lower in the pediatric population but local data are still limited. Objective: To characterize the clinical and epidemiological aspects of COVID-19 infection in patients younger than 18 years in Argentina. Cross-sectional, observational, and analytical study of confirmed COVID-19 patients aged 0-18 years seen between March 2020 and March 2021 at 19 referral children's hospitals of Argentina. A multivariate analysis was done to identify predictors of severe cases. A total of 2690 COVID-19 cases were included: 77.7% lived in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires; 50.1% were males; patients' median age was 5.6 years. Of them, 90% were seen during epidemiological weeks 20-47 of 2020; 60.4% had a history of contact with COVID-19 patients; and 96.6% in their family setting. Also, 51.4% had respiratory symptoms; 61.6%, general symptoms; 18.8%, gastrointestinal symptoms; 17.1%, neurological symptoms; 7.2%, other symptoms; and 21.5% were asymptomatic. In addition, 59.4% of patients were hospitalized and 7.4% had a severe or critical course. A total of 57 patients developed multisystem inflammatory syndrome. A history of asthma, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, congenital heart disease, moderate to severe malnutrition, obesity, chronic neurological disease and/or age younger than 6 months were independent predictors of severity. Living in a vulnerable neighborhood was a protective factor. More than half of cases referred a history of contact with COVID-19 patients in the family setting. Hospitalization was not based on clinical criteria of severity. Severity was associated with the presence of certain comorbidities.

Understanding The Comorbidities That Increase the Cardiovascular Risk in The Gynecologic Population of Our Hospital

Introduction: Obesity, diabetes mellitus (DM2), high blood pressure (HBP) and dyslipidemia are widely recognized factors of increased cardiovascular risk. Objective: The primary objective of our study was to determine the prevalence of obesity, DM2, HBP and dyslipidemia in our hospital population The secondary objective was to compare the above-mentioned risk factors between premenopausal (preM) and postmenopausal (postM) populations. Materials And Methods: A descriptive, retrospective and cross-sectional study was conducted in 1,143 women aged 25 to 65 years domiciled in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires (AMBA, for its acronym in Spanish), who participated in the "Campaign for the prevention of cervical cancer and early detection of breast cancer” carried out in 2020 by the Gynecology Service of Hospital de Clínicas "José de San Martín", University of Buenos Aires (UBA). A survey was conducted to collect epidemiological data from patients. Blood pressure, weight and height measurements were performed in addition to the gynecological examination. The prevalence of different risk factors was estimated and compared according to the reproductive status using Fisher´s test. Results: The body mass index (BMI) of 1138 patients out of a total population of 1143 patients was obtained. The average BMI was 28.66 Kg/m2; 37.17% of the patients had obesity (35.13% in premenopausal women [preM] versus 40.73% in postmenopausal women [postM]). Among a total of 1128 patients, the prevalence of DM2 was 4.08% (2.23% in preM versus 7.26% in postM). Among 1130 patients, 12.48% had HBP (5.87% in preM versus 23.85% in postM) and among 1131 women,2.47% reported dyslipidemia (1.26% in preM versus 4.57% in postM). When comparing the populations according to the menopausal status, a significant increase was found in the prevalence of obesity (p 0.03), DM2 (p <0.001), HBP (p <0.001) and dyslipidemia (p <0.001) in postmenopausal women. Conclusions: We observed lower prevalence rates ofDM2 and HBP than in the general population. This may be attributed to the fact that the information was self-reported by patients and not confirmed by clinical examinations. However, we are surprised at the high prevalence of obesity in our population. All cardiovascular risk factors were statistically more prevalent in postmenopausal than in premenopausal women.

Dietary Patterns in the Argentinian Population and Their Association With Sociodemographic Characteristics: Results From the ELANS Study (2014-2015).

AimTo describe dietary patterns in the Argentinian population and their association with sociodemographic characteristics.MethodsCross-sectional analysis of Argentina's food consumption and sociodemographic data of 1,266 men and women between 15 and 65 years from the Latin American Study of Nutrition and Health carried out between March 2014 and December 2015. Dietary patterns were identified by using factor analysis and median factor scores were calculated for gender, age, region, body mass index (BMI), socioeconomic, education, and physical activity categories.ResultsFive dietary patterns were identified. Western, Local Western, and Rural were generally characterized by high consumptions of animal fats, sugar-sweetened beverages, meats or processed meats, pizza and empanadas, sweets, pastries, and low consumption of fruits and vegetables. Traditional pattern was mainly characterized by consumption of oils, starchy vegetables, and red meat and Sweet Prudent by milk and yogurt, vegetables, fruit, artificially sweetened beverages, sweets, and cookies. Higher adherence to the Sweet Prudent pattern was observed in women, in people who meet physical activity guidelines and higher socioeconomic and educational levels. Higher adherence to traditional pattern was only observed for men. Higher adherence to the rest of the patterns was observed mostly by men, young, leaner, lower socioeconomic, and educational levels, not meeting physical activity guidelines, from the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires or northern regions.ConclusionFood consumption in Argentina is expressed in a diversity of dietary patterns. Men, younger, and sedentary individuals, with lower socioeconomic and educational level, from the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires and northern regions, seem to have higher adherence to least healthy dietary patterns.

Environmental conflicts and cultural misunderstandings in a Buenos Aires wetland settlement

This article aims to contribute to the ongoing debate on the politics of reclaiming the commons and resisting extractivism, drawing on a case of environmental conflict and ontological equivocations in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires. On the south of the City of Buenos Aires, the Techint Group plans to build a real estate project by promising progress and development for an area affected by numerous environmental problems. This project spurred social mobilizations led by neighbors and local organizations, who denounced the environmental and housing impacts. Drawing on an anthropological approach, I investigate what happens when a consensus cannot be reached regarding the solution to — or even the very nature of — an environmental “problem.” Finally, I reflect on the need for a new cosmopolitics that can transcend the cultural misunderstandings that arise from the fact that “the various collectives that populate the world do not really understand the fundamental questions that engage other collectives” (Descola 2012).

PAPILA dataset: a regional emission inventory of reactive gases for South America based on the combination of local and global information

Abstract. The multidisciplinary project Prediction of Air Pollution in Latin America and the Caribbean (PAPILA) is dedicated to the development and implementation of an air quality analysis and forecasting system to assess pollution impacts on human health and economy. In this context, a comprehensive emission inventory for South America was developed on the basis of the existing data on the global dataset CAMS-GLOB-ANT v4.1 (developed by joining CEDS trends and EDGAR v4.3.2 historical data), enriching it with data derived from locally available emission inventories for Argentina, Chile, and Colombia. This work presents the results of the first joint effort of South American researchers and European colleagues to generate regional maps of emissions, together with a methodological approach to continue incorporating information into future versions of the dataset. This version of the PAPILA dataset includes CO, NOx, NMVOCs, NH3, and SO2 annual emissions from anthropogenic sources for the period 2014–2016, with a spatial resolution of 0.1∘ × 0.1∘ over a domain that covers 32–120∘ W and 34∘ N–58∘ S. The PAPILA dataset is presented as netCDF4 files and is available in an open-access data repository under a CC-BY 4 license: https://doi.org/10.17632/btf2mz4fhf.3 (Castesana et al., 2021). A comparative assessment of PAPILA–CAMS datasets was carried out for (i) the South American region, (ii) the countries with local data (Argentina, Colombia, and Chile), and (iii) downscaled emission maps for urban domains with different environmental and anthropogenic factors. Relevant differences were found at both country and urban levels for all the compounds analyzed. Among them, we found that when comparing PAPILA total emissions versus CAMS datasets at the national level, higher levels of NOx and considerably lower levels of the other species were obtained for Argentina, higher levels of SO2 and lower levels of CO and NOx for Colombia, and considerably higher levels of CO, NMVOCs, and SO2 for Chile. These discrepancies are mainly related to the representativeness of local practices in the local emission estimates, to the improvements made in the spatial distribution of the locally estimated emissions, or to both. Both datasets were evaluated against surface concentrations of CO and NOx by using them as input data to the WRF-Chem model for one of the analyzed domains, the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires, for summer and winter of 2015. PAPILA-based modeling results had a smaller bias for CO and NOx concentrations in winter while CAMS-based results for the same period tended to deliver an underestimation of these concentrations. Both inventories exhibited similar performances for CO in summer, while the PAPILA simulation outperformed CAMS for NOx concentrations. These results highlight the importance of refining global inventories with local data to obtain accurate results with high-resolution air quality models.

Activity patterns and behavior of Myocastor coypus in a gated community in the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires (Argentina)

Abstract Anthropization processes confront local wildlife with a new set of conditions that may lead to local extinctions or allow the expansion of some species. This is what happens with the coypu (Myocastor coypus) in gated communities in the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires (Argentina), where its rapid population growth results in continuous conflicts with the local inhabitants. The aim of this study was to document the daily and seasonal activity patterns and behavior of the coypu in an urban landscape within their natural distribution range. To achieve this, we conducted a camera-trap survey within areas occupied by the species from February to November 2018. The coypu activity was mainly crepuscular and nocturnal with variations between seasons. We found that the seasons with the greatest activity patterns overlap were winter and autumn (84%), while the least overlap was observed between summer and winter (53%). During the active periods, time spent on foraging behavior was dominant. Time dedicated to vigilance was greater in summer than in winter. This result, alongside an increase in nocturnal activity during summer, shows that coypu in this urban landscape shift its behavior when exposed to an increasing human activity. This study brings up more ecological data of this species, which is key to find alternative control methods within gated communities to lead to a harmonic relationship between inhabitants and the species in its native distribution.

Prácticas de salud/salud mental y producción de cuidado durante la pandemia de Covid-19

ABSTRACT This paper is related to two institutional scientific research projects, which research on mental health care practices during the Covid-19 pandemic. The aim of this paper is to describe and analyze health and mental health practices focused on maintaining the assistance bonds and strengthening of care-producing networks in the context of pandemic, developed in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires, Argentina. This exploratory and descriptive study uses qualitative techniques for data collection and analysis. Several core issues of characterization and analysis of experience are addressed based on the reconstruction of four brief experiences from our own professional practice. It is concluded that these practices recover the perspective of health and mental health care through the humanization of the bond and the inclusion of the affective dimension in mental health care practices. From very diverse institutional territories and through flexible and creative interventions, these practices have managed to maintain participatory processes, consolidate interdisciplinary approaches and strengthen community care networks in an exceptional and complex context.

Trayectorias ocupacionales de varones adultos jóvenes residentes en el Área Metropolitana de Buenos Aires

The article analyzes the occupational trajectories of 10 young male adults that reside in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires and the historical-economic context in which their working lives took place. The data comes from open interviews with people who had previously answered a random survey of 1,065 household members. The first part describes the cases, the theoretical perspective and the Argentine historical-economic context of the period studied. Subsequently, we analyze the beginning of their working life and the types of trajectories as inferred from the interviews, as well as the insertion into their respective economic activities and labor markets. The last part discusses the contribution of a case study to historical understanding and theory construction.