Pontifical Catholic University of Peru

This study evaluates the sociocultural valuation of ecosystem services (ES) within the Chimulala micro-watershed, Peru, to inform Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM). Using surveys and focus groups, we gathered data from 35 stakeholders (11 institutional and 24 local actors) to assess perceptions, orientations, and anticipated changes regarding 15 identified ES. A land cover map was developed to support an expert-led ES assessment, categorizing capacity levels across different land types. Results showed unanimous agreement on the vital importance of the water supply service, with local actors identifying and valuing a broader array of ES than institutional counterparts. Multiple correspondence analysis highlighted differences in ES recognition between stakeholder groups, revealing that local actors ascribed greater importance to cultural and regulatory ES, while institutional actors prioritized provisioning services. Conflicts were identified regarding responsibilities for changes in ES provision, with local communities attributing threats primarily to mining, while institutional actors cited land use changes. This research underscores the value of sociocultural ES assessments in bridging divergent perspectives and enhancing the participatory foundation of IWRM, ultimately aiding in the design of inclusive, resilient water management policies.

Geometric phases and weak values (WVs) are two fundamental concepts that were originally introduced in the realm of quantum mechanics. In the course of time, it became clear that the two concepts apply in both the quantum domain and the classical domain. Moreover, the two concepts proved to be intimately connected with one another, as disclosed by Sjöqvist some years ago (Sjöqvist 2006 Phys. Lett. A 359 187). WVs were so named in reference to very weak couplings between a system’s observable, e.g. light polarization, and its measuring device, the ‘pointer’. However, the actual definition of WVs does not involve the system-pointer coupling strength. We have addressed the strong coupling regime both theoretically and experimentally, thereby obtaining geometric phases out of WVs. We report experimental results as a proof-of-concept, using classical light beams and single-shot images. Our approach applies without essential modifications also to single photons.

Context The tropical Andes have a long history of human land use, which has affected vegetation patterns especially at high elevations. However, reference patterns to quantify these effects are missing due to lacking data from mountain ranges unaffected by humans. Objectives We compared landscape-scale patterns of forest distribution in the largest tropical Andean mountain range without high-elevation human occupancy, the Cordillera de Vilcabamba, and a nearby range with a long land-use history, the Cordillera de San Miguel, in Peru. Methods We quantified topographical positions (exposition, slope, wetness index) of 12.5 × 12.5-m² pixels with and without forest cover in 100-m elevational bands and compared the study regions. Results In the undisturbed range (Vilcabamba), forest consistently occurred on steeper slopes than non-forest, differing little in other topographic metrics except a slight preference for the less sunny South- and West-facing slopes. In the disturbed range (San Miguel), forest showed little preference for any landscape position at elevations below 3500 m, but at higher elevations patterns were very clear: forest was more restricted to valley bottoms, as indicated consistently by higher topographic wetness and lower slope and topographic position indices, and to the less sunny South-facing slopes. Conclusions Land-use has a strong influence on landscape-level forest distribution in this part of the tropical Andes. Similar effects are likely in other tropical mountains, although no reference areas are available in most of them. The patterns described here can support the use of remote sensing to detect minimally disturbed tropical alpine-treeline ecotones, which should be focal points for conservation and research.

RESUMEN Los estándares éticos internacionales para la investigación con personas que tienen disminuida su capacidad para tomar decisiones permiten delegar la decisión sobre la participación en una investigación en un representante que puede actuar como un sustituto. Esto, sin embargo, ha sido cuestionado por la Convención sobre los derechos de las personas con discapacidad (CDPD), que establece que toda persona con discapacidad, cualquiera sea su condición mental y neurológica, siempre tiene capacidad jurídica universal para tomar sus decisiones. La incompatibilidad entre los estándares éticos y la CDPD es evidente e impacta en la realización de investigaciones con personas con discapacidad mental, tan necesaria para la mejora de su salud y bienestar. El presente artículo plantea una propuesta que buscar conciliar la CDPD con los estándares éticos para la investigación en lo que respecta a los procesos de consentimiento informado y provee recomendaciones prácticas, sobre todo para los países de América Latina que aún tienen el desafío de implementar la CDPD en el ámbito de la investigación.

Mathematical Methods of Operations Research is a scholarly journal that publishes high-quality contributions related to mathematics, statistics, and computer science, focusing specifically on operations research. It was established in 1956 and reached Volume 100 in 2024. To mark this significant milestone, this study aims to identify and elucidate the main patterns in the journal's publication and citation structure, highly cited documents, prolific authors, universities and countries, and popular keywords and topics. To achieve this, the paper collects all publications from 1956 to 2023 from the Scopus database, and Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection from 1997 to 2023. Their bibliographic information is analysed using various bibliometric indicators. Additionally, the study creates a visual representation of the bibliographic data using the Visualization of Similarities (VOS) viewer software. This approach encompasses different bibliometric techniques, such as bibliographic coupling, co-citation, and co-occurrence of keywords. The findings reveal a significant growth in the journal over the past few years and its international impact with contributions from various parts of the world. The most productive researchers are based in Germany and Netherlands.

Changes in patterns of accumulated rainfall, as well as the rainy season onset, cessation and duration, can impact the availability of water resources and sectors such as agriculture, affecting the livelihoods of the population. The knowledge of these changes is crucial for regions driven by strong precipitation variability such as the Andean countries. Therefore, the aim of this work is to determine the present and future spatio‐temporal patterns of the onset, cessation and duration of the rainy season in Peru. For this purpose, we analysed in a first step the present variability and trends in 11 homogeneous regions using data from 377 ground stations for the period 1981–2019. The results showed significant trends (1981–2019) of earlier onset and increased duration only in the Southern Peruvian Amazon (Madre de Dios River basin). Furthermore, the accumulated rainfall has significant trends of increases in North East Andes, Northern and Southern Amazon. In a second step, we assessed future changes of the rainy season from an ensemble of statistically downscaled CMIP6 climate scenarios. A two‐tailed Student t‐test was used to evaluate the significance of changes. Two future time slices (2031–2060 and 2071–2100) relative to the reference period (1981–2010) were analysed. Future changes of the rainy season showed significant delays in the onset for the Central East Andes, South West Andes and Amazon regions in the period 2071–2100. Likewise, the rainy season duration presents future significant reductions in regions of the central and southern Andes under the SSP2‐4.5 scenario. Moreover, the accumulated precipitation is projected to increase significantly in the Pacific slope and Andes regions, mainly under the SSP5‐8.5 scenario. These findings are particularly important for sectors like agriculture, energy and water resources management.

Using Klein’s observation of almost 35 years ago of the disturbed balance between production and reception of academic knowledge as a starting point, we reflect on some of the tensions related to current reading practices in academic publishing. Specifically, we discuss two tensions that we encounter and try to resolve in our role as editors: 1) the tension between standardization and creativity, and 2) the tension between monologue and dialogue. Throughout, we also discuss a third more general tension, namely the gap between academic values of knowledge production embedded in the collegial work for scientific publications, and the profit driven publishing industry.

The diffusion of information and communication technologies has enabled many payment methods at the point of sale. Emerging countries are usually laggards of technology, and hence, there is a need to fill the gap when new methods of payment tend to diffuse at a slower pace than in other countries. This study aims to fill this gap by extending and testing the UTAUT2 technology acceptance model to analyze the variables that influence consumers’ intentions to use methods of payment at different stages of the product life cycle: mobile payments in the mature stage, digital wallets in the growing track, and radio frequency identification payments for a novel Internet of Things payment method at the introduction stage. Drawing from the information systems theory, this study extends UTAUT2 to include trust, risk, and network externalities to explain intentions to use such payment methods. Using a sample of 264 users and a survey design, the results show that complexity negatively influences consumers’ intention to use mobile money, whereas effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, habit, and price value positively influence consumers’ intention to use mobile money.

Mass spectrometry (MS)-based metabolomics analysis is a powerful tool, but it comes with its own set of challenges. The MS workflow involves multiple steps before its interpretation in what is denominate data mining. Data mining consists of a two-step process. First, the MS data is ordered, arranged, and presented for filtering before being analyzed. Second, the filtered and reduced data are analyzed using statistics to remove further variability. This holds true particularly for MS-based untargeted metabolomics studies, which focused on understanding fold changes in metabolic networks. Since the task of filtering and identifying changes from a large dataset is challenging, automated techniques for mining untargeted MS-based metabolomic data are needed. The traditional statistics-based approach tends to overfilter raw data, which may result in the removal of relevant data and lead to the identification of fewer metabolomic changes. This limitation of the traditional approach underscores the need for a new method. In this work, we present a novel deep learning approach using node embeddings (powered by GNNs), edge embeddings, and anomaly detection algorithm to analyze the data generated by mass spectrometry (MS)-based metabolomics called GEMNA (Graph Embedding-based Metabolomics Network Analysis), for example for an untargeted volatile study on Mentos candy, the data clusters produced by GEMNA were better than the ones used traditional tools, i.e., GEMNA has [Formula: see text], vs. the traditional approach has [Formula: see text].

In this paper, we study the analytic classification of a class of nilpotent singularities of holomorphic foliations in $({\mathbb {C}}^2,0)$ ( C 2 , 0 ) , those exhibiting a Poincaré-Dulac type singularity in their reduction process. This analytic classification is based in the holonomy of a certain component of the exceptional divisor. Finally, as a consequence, we show that these singularities exhibit a formal analytic rigidity.

One of the challenges of excitonic materials is the accurate determination of the exciton binding energy and bandgap from optical measurements. The difficulty arises from the overlap of the discrete and continuous excitonic absorption at the band edge. Many researches have modeled the shape of the absorption edge of such materials on the seminal formulation proposed by Elliott in 1957 (Phys. Rev. 108 1384–9) and its several modifications such as non-parabolic bands, magnetic potentials and electron–hole-polaron interactions. However, exciton binding energies obtained from optical absorption often vary strongly depending on the chosen ‘Elliott formula’. Here, we propose an alternative and rather simple approach, which has previously been successful in the determination of the optical bandgap of amorphous, direct and indirect semiconductors, based on the band-fluctuations (BFs) model. In this model, the fluctuations due to disorder, temperature or lattice vibrations give rise to the well known exponential shape of band tail states. The formulation results in an analytic equation for the fundamental absorption with 6 parameters only. To test it, the binding energy and optical bandgap of GaAs and the family of tri-halide perovskites ( MAPbX3), X=Br,I,Cl, over a wide range of temperatures, are obtained by fitting the modified Elliott model. The results for the bandgap, linewidth and exciton binding energy are in good agreement with reports based on non-optical measurements. Moreover, due to the polar nature of perovskites, the retrieved binding energies can be compared with those computed with a model proposed by Kane (1978 Phys. Rev. B 18 6849). In the latter model, the exciton is surrounded by a cloud of virtual phonons interacting via the Frölich interaction. As a consequence, the upper bound for the binding energy of the exciton-polaron system can be estimated. These results are in good agreement with the optical parameters obtained with the proposed Elliott equation including BFs.

The study of Fermi–Pasta–Ulam–Tsingou (FPUT) recurrence is examined within the framework of the Gardner equation. The evolution of harmonic waves is investigated for both positive and negative cubic nonlinearities. It is observed that harmonic waves undergo fission into solitons, which then interact with each other. For positive cubic nonlinearity, recurrence occurs periodically over time for weak and intermediate nonlinearities. However, as the dispersion becomes weaker, this phenomenon ceases to occur. Conversely, for negative cubic nonlinearity, recurrence is also observed for weak and intermediate nonlinearities, but it lacks a well-defined temporal period.

A bstract The production cross sections of D ⁰ , D ⁺ , and ${\Lambda}_{\textrm{c}}^{+}$ Λ c + hadrons originating from beauty-hadron decays (i.e. non-prompt) were measured for the first time at midrapidity in proton–lead (p–Pb) collisions at the center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of $\sqrt{s_{\textrm{NN}}}$ s NN = 5 . 02 TeV. Nuclear modification factors ( R pPb ) of non-prompt D ⁰ , D ⁺ , and ${\Lambda}_{\textrm{c}}^{+}$ Λ c + are calculated as a function of the transverse momentum ( p T ) to investigate the modification of the momentum spectra measured in p–Pb collisions with respect to those measured in proton–proton (pp) collisions at the same energy. The R pPb measurements are compatible with unity and with the measurements in the prompt charm sector, and do not show a significant p T dependence. The p T -integrated cross sections and p T -integrated R pPb of non-prompt D ⁰ and D ⁺ mesons are also computed by extrapolating the visible cross sections down to p T = 0. The non-prompt D-meson R pPb integrated over p T is compatible with unity and with model calculations implementing modification of the parton distribution functions of nucleons bound in nuclei with respect to free nucleons. The non-prompt ${\Lambda}_{\textrm{c}}^{+}$ Λ c + / D ⁰ and D ⁺ / D ⁰ production ratios are computed to investigate hadronisation mechanisms of beauty quarks into mesons and baryons. The measured ratios as a function of p T display a similar trend to that measured for charm hadrons in the same collision system.

This study investigates the efficiency and environmental impact of photovoltaic panel recycling processes through qualitative and quantitative analyses, focusing on three case studies in Peru. The research addresses the pressing problem of solar panel waste management at the end of their useful life; this aspect is of particular importance due to the current boom in renewable energies. The first case study concerns a group of 5 rural houses in Puno consuming 10 kWh/day. The second case examines the rooftop PV system of the Institute of Mining Engineering of Peru, with a capacity of 20 kW. The third case explores the Rubi solar power plant in Moquegua, with a capacity of 179.5 MW. The qualitative analysis details the sub-processes involved in solar panel recycling, while the quantitative analysis evaluates the energy payback time (EPBT) for each case. In addition, the study evaluates the environmental impact by measuring the total carbon footprint of the recycling processes. The results reveal the ratio in terms of carbon footprint of the panel recycling process to the total lifetime of the panel. This research provides a novel perspective on the use of photovoltaic panels as renewable energy and suggests future avenues for improving recycling technologies and policies.

Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is a major nutritional concern in lower-income countries. It is responsible for thousands of deaths in those countries every year. Thus, finding the optimal route for vitamin A synthesis is essential, especially for the countries that are influenced by VAD. Three mechanisms of synthesizing Vitamin A have been evaluated by Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations. This experiment investigated the BASF C15 + C5 Wittig approach, the Rhône-Poulenc C15 + C5 Julia approach, and the Kuraray C10 + C10 approach. The electronic energy, highest occupied molecular orbital energy, and dipole moments were calculated using the B3LYP functional and the 3-21g basis set. The energy profiles of these synthesis routes were compared to determine the most energetically favorable method. The Julia approach has the lowest energy change, indicating its higher efficiency in terms of energy compared to the Wittig and Kuraray methods. It is shown that other factors such as scalability and raw material availability should also be considered in industrial applications.

Purpose To determine the role of Health Behaviors and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies in the relationship between Health and Academic Stress. Design A cross-sectional study with in-person administration of questionnaires. Setting Data collection took place at nine public and private universities in Peru, involving a diverse group of students from different faculties. Sample 1640 students, a majority of them female (61.8%), ranging in age between 18 and 30 years old ( M = 20.72; SD = 2.22). Measures A sociodemographic form was used to collect participants’ sociodemographic, academic, and health data. Academic stress was measured by the Inventory of Academic Stress (SISCO). Health habits were assessed using the University Students Lifestyle Questionnaire (CEVJU-Perú). The Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CER-Q) and the SF-36 Questionnaire were also used to evaluate cognitive emotion regulation strategies and health-related quality of life, respectively. Results The SEM model results ( x ² /df = 2.30, CFI = .95, RMSEA = .03, SRMR = .04) reveal that Academic Stress has direct and indirect effects on Health. Negative Emotional Regulation have a negative impact on Health, this effect is direct; while Positive Emotional Regulation has an effect on Health, this effect is direct and indirect, the latter is through Sleep Management, Physical Activity and Leisure Management. In addition, Academic Stress maintains a direct effect on only one health behavior, Sleep Management. Conclusions This study’s findings contribute to a better understanding of the role played by emotion regulation, and by positive strategies in particular, in student health.