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Women in Mexico are subject to unusually high and traumatic levels of violence. This paper reviews a workshop process done in Mexico City that addressed the problem of violence against women using the Anticipatory Experimentation methodology. Based on a workshop at Centro University in Mexico City on the eve of historic protests against violence against women, the paper provides an overview of contemporary challenges, historical changes, as well as deep mythological images and assumptions within Mexican society that are pathways to reconceptualization. Leveraging emerging issues and recovered narratives to address and reframe the problem, the paper concludes with the metaphor of the Chamana as the narrative seed from which new ideas and experiments might be developed to address violence against women in Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I examine the emergence of discourses on the indigenous during the postrevolutionary period in México (1920–1940), focusing on the Lake Pátzcuaro region, an iconic national landscape, and an indigenous region in central west México. Understood in terms of practice, this paper uses landscape as a lens to examine questions of identity, discourse, and power, emphasising its relational, constructed nature. It focuses on the set of discursive practices known as indigenismo. The central idea posed in this paper is that although postrevolutionary indigenismo served as a tool for governance, it also provided a language for the indigenous people to articulate their demands, enabling the articulation of indigenous identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the dynamic response of two 21-story buildings was studied to assess the influence of higher modes in their structural performance. While the first building was structured with ductile moment-resisting steel frames and exhibits a global shear-dominated lateral deformation, the second one uses ductile concentrically braced steel frames and has a global bending-type response. Buildings were virtually located in a soft-soil condition of the lake-bed zone in Mexico City. Nonlinear pushover and dynamic analyses were performed through OpenSees on a detailed 3D-model with plasticity spread along the elements. For this purpose, a set of accelerograms recorded during the Mexico Earthquake of September 19, 2017, were selected, and adjusted to represent the actual seismic hazard at the site. A frequency-domain system identification technique was applied to identify the dynamic characteristics of buildings through a moving-window Fourier analysis, that allows for the estimation of the contribution of higher-modes to their overall nonlinear dynamic response. A ratio of the elastic spectral pseudo-accelerations corresponding to the first two vibration modes is proposed to quantitatively anticipate cases and conditions for which the second mode adversely affects the structural performance of upper stories. The discussion includes a comparative study from the lateral global response of the analyzed models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anticipating and planning for the urgent response to large-scale disasters is critical to increase the probability of survival at these events. These incidents present various challenges that complicate the response, such as unfavorable weather conditions, difficulties in accessing affected areas, and the geographical spread of the victims. Furthermore, local socioeconomic factors, such as inadequate prevention education, limited disaster resources, and insufficient coordination between public and private emergency services, can complicate these situations. In large-scale emergencies, multiple demand points (DPs) are generally observed, which requires efforts to coordinate the strategic allocation of human and material resources in different geographical areas. Therefore, the precise management of these resources based on the specific needs of each area becomes fundamental. To address these complexities, this paper proposes a methodology that models these scenarios as a multi-objective optimization problem, focusing on the location-allocation problem of resources in Mass Casualty Incidents (MCIs). The proposed case study is Mexico City in a earthquake post-disaster scenario, using voluntary geographic information, open government data, and historical data from the 19 September 2017 earthquake. It is assumed that the resources that require optimal location and allocation are ambulances, which focus on medical issues that affect the survival of victims. The designed solution involves the use of a metaheuristic optimization technique, along with a parameter tuning technique, to find configurations that perform at different instances of the problem, i.e., different hypothetical scenarios that can be used as a reference for future possible situations. Finally, the objective is to present the different solutions graphically, accompanied by relevant information to facilitate the decision-making process of the authorities responsible for the practical implementation of these solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines the 10 major topics related to geodiversity that have emerged since the concept was first introduced in 1993, 30 years ago. After a short introduction, each of the 10 topics is then illustrated by a relevant case study. The 10 topics (italics) and their case studies (bold) are as follows: 1. Celebrating, International Geodiversity Day; 2. Measurement/Assessment, Potential role of remote sensing; 3. Natural Capital and Geosystem Services, Coastal geosystem services; 4. Biodiversity, Mangue de Pedra, Brazil; 5. Geomaterials, The circular economy; 6. Geotourism, World's top geotourism sites?; 7. Geoheritage, Landscape restoration; 8. National Geoconservation, Trump golf course and an SSSI, Scotland; 9. World Heritage Sites and Global Geoparks, Azores Global Geopark, Portugal; 10. Sustainability, Xitle Volcano, Mexico City. It is concluded that, given the way in which geodiversity has developed as a concept, leading to new insights and avenues of research and advancing our understanding of the world since its first use, it clearly now constitutes a significant, geoscientific paradigm. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'Geodiversity for science and society'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tackles the challenge of time series forecasting in the presence of missing data. Traditional methods often struggle with such data, which leads to inaccurate predictions. We propose a novel framework that combines the strengths of Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) and Bayesian inference. The framework utilizes a Conditional GAN (C-GAN) to realistically impute missing values in the time series data. Subsequently, Bayesian inference is employed to quantify the uncertainty associated with the forecasts due to the missing data. This combined approach improves the robustness and reliability of forecasting compared to traditional methods. The effectiveness of our proposed method is evaluated on a real-world dataset of air pollution data from Mexico City. The results demonstrate the framework's capability to handle missing data and achieve improved forecasting accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the configuration of families between humans and companion animals, focusing on the shifting domestic dynamics and the rise of pet families in urban milieus. These configurations represent characteristic ways of living in the context of youth middleclass sectors in the 21st century. At a methodology level, we conducted a survey, 27 in-depth interviews, and a review of 3,000 profiles on social networks and dating apps of youth users from Buenos Aires and Mexico City. Over the past decades, family subjectivation devices have undergone a global transformation. While these changes coexist with classical arrangements, especially in large cities, there is an increasing prevalence of affective bonds, forms of cohabitation, economic agreements, vital commitments, and even decisions regarding having or not having children that overflow the historical meanings of the family. Therefore, the construction of analyses such as "ways of living together" seeks to decenter the family configuration as the sole matrix of analysis by linking these practices with broader transformations that can be contemplated within the realm of "the common." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first European settlements in the new world faced technical issues with the help of the XVI century scientific advances. Besides briefly exposing the scientific and technological situation, this paper explores, with the help of reverse engineering, two singular mechanical wits representative of the technological advances introduced in America to overcome different problems. Firstly, a pump, based on an alternative movement system through crankshafts and pistons used against the continuous flooding suffered in the Ciudad de México valley. Although flooding remained a problem (it was solved in the XX century), hydraulic pumps were essential for continuous soil drainage. Secondly, a port crane for handling cannons, military devices, and construction materials during the Lima fortification in the XVII century. For both cases, reverse engineering, through engineering methods, Computer-Aided Design CAD programs, and additive manufacturing, provides virtual and/or tangible mockups that help to analyze and improve our knowledge about the dimensions, materials, and functions of used (and currently lost) mechanical systems during the American colonization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid changes in geotechnical and geological ground conditions lead to significant ground motion variability. This condition mainly occurs at the so-called basin edges, where there is an abrupt transition between soft highly compressible soils and stiffer materials. This problem becomes more relevant in areas where ground subsidence drastically changes the dynamic response of high plasticity clay deposits, such as those found in Mexico City, due to fundamental site period evolution with time. This paper presents site response analyses at an abrupt transition area in the southeast Mexico City region, along the edges of the Xochimilco-Chalco lakes. Considerable damage associated with three-dimensional wave propagation effects was observed in this zone during the September 2017 Puebla-Mexico earthquake. A series of three-dimensional finite difference numerical models of the basin edge were developed to evaluate ground motion variability, considering topographic effects and soil non-linearities. Good agreement between the computed response and the observed damage during the 2017 Puebla-Mexico earthquake reconnaissance was found. In addition, several normal and subduction events with a return period of 250 years were considered to evaluate the effect that frequency content, and strong ground motion duration have on the soil response variability. From the results gathered here, it was established the relevance of accounting for three-dimensional wave propagation fields to assess site effects at basin-edge zones properly and to be able to implement proper risk mitigation measurements at these zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses policy effects of international mobility in developing countries. It proposes a multilevel approach to study research training policies, specifically focusing on international mobility schemes as capacity-building instruments, where effects need to be identified at both individual and organizational levels. The paper asserts that current categorizations of country efforts to build a solid scientific base should consider transference of effects in domestic research contexts. Using a survey and interview-based study of a mobility policy in Mexico, and nanotechnology-related disciplines and sectors, this paper's findings suggest that mobility policies are crucial in creating high-quality individual research skills, but that their impact on building domestic research capacity may be modest. This paper contributes to the evaluation literature on national research training programs and their influence on research capacity in two ways. First, it mobilizes a multilevel analytical approach to examine the effects of policies on individuals and organizations, offering a broader conceptualization of impact. Second, by introducing these individual and organizational effects, the paper provides insights into how effects are enacted and transferred. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we tackle the problem of forecasting future pandemics by training models with a COVID-19 time series. We tested this approach by producing one model and using it to forecast a non-trained time series; however, we limited this paper to the eight states with the highest population density in Mexico. We propose a generalized pandemic forecasting framework that transforms the time series into a dataset via three different transformations using random forest and backward transformations. Additionally, we tested the impact of the horizon and dataset window sizes for the training phase. A Wilcoxon test showed that the best transformation technique statistically outperformed the other two transformations with 100% certainty. The best transformation included the accumulated efforts of the other two plus a normalization that helped rescale the non-trained time series, improving the sMAPE from the value of 25.48 attained for the second-best transformation to 13.53. The figures in the experimentation section show promising results regarding the possibility of forecasting the early stages of future pandemics with trained data from the COVID-19 time series. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 26 April 2017, Mexico formally adopted the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda to link the national government to local governments, the private sector, civil society and academia. The restoration of heritage residential buildings (recovery programme) and the construction of new residential buildings aim to create a diversified environment for populations at different economic levels. However, the restoration programme faces conservation challenges. Given this context, this paper presents the results of in-depth, semi-structured interviews conducted with stakeholders in Mexico's heritage and energy sectors. The duration of each interview was approximately two hours, with 52,372 total interview words. The paper identifies prevailing opinions regarding prioritising historical values, energy efficiency, historic buildings and users concerning Mexico City's Historical Centre, a World Heritage Site needing a more appropriate sustainable development plan. Using grounded theory and thematic analysis, the interview data were analysed based on the interrelationship between thermal comfort, energy efficiency and heritage conservation changes over time. The results of this research will strengthen our understanding of the interventions and processes involved in managing and living in this World Heritage Site and its future impacts on buildings. The approach also underscores the importance of how stakeholders prioritise different values in making energy efficiency-promoting decisions and enhances awareness of the decision-making process and actions adopted by heritage building users. Thus, understanding the dynamic interrelationship between values, users and energy could improve the sustainable management of heritage sites and future development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports an ongoing exercise concerning the design of a logistics App to support operations within Farmers' Markets in Mexico. This exercise is part of a wider research agenda focused on 'Supporting Alternative Food Networks' (SAFeNET). This is a research agenda to conceive, build, implement, and develop better-informing decision-making processes that support effective and efficient AFNs (also known as Short Food Supply Chains) logistics operations in a digital environment, through smooth flows of goods and information among producers, AFNs coordinators, and consumers. This view calls for taking a systemic approach to help collectives of people to improve their autonomy and viability. Initial plans were to conduct this collaborative design exercise, using the Viable System Model (VSM) as a conversational tool. Accordingly, a series of face-to-face interviews and a focus group were planned. However, the lockdown due to COVID-19 forced researchers to abandon the face-to-face option and conduct the primary data collection online. The VSM intervention had to be adapted for its use on an online platform, in such a way that the platform would support knowledge building interactively, with a series of participants. This paper describes the format and visual appearance of the online VSM framework, its application, and the lessons learned through this exercise. Two points deserve to be highlighted: First, although the exercise outcome was very valuable for the next stage of the design, the participants' capacity for collective and individual reflection during the workshop was limited. Second, participants continued adding comments via the adopted online visual collaboration platform after the workshop ended, showing an understanding of the process and commitment beyond the researchers' expectations. The outcomes from this experiment are promissory, suggesting that online Systems Thinking interventions deserve further development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One important point of interest in urban areas is the food outlet, especially retailers that provide fresh and healthy food. Street markets, or tianguis are an affordable option throughout Mexico. Unfortunately, this type of outlet is sometimes inaccessible or significantly far to reach. This paper provides a vulnerability minimization framework to determine the optimal re-allocation of street markets by considering equity and reachability and the exact walking distance and demand by blocks in a city. The framework introduces new concepts of vulnerability along with a novel implementation of the Facility Location Problem. A case study has been used to exemplify the framework based on actual data from a region in Mexico City's urban zone showing how significant improvements in equity and reachability can be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the effect of land titling on investment in human capital. We first develop a theoretical model of the investment in the presence of property rights to agricultural land and then test the predictions of the model regarding the schooling decisions of households using data from Mexico's PROCEDE land titling program. Using the staggered introduction of land titling, we find that ownership tilted the balance in favor of investment in human capital in the form of schooling. Titling decreased the hazard rate of dropping out of school by 14% for children between the ages of 6 and 18. Additionally, including the effects of the contemporaneous conditional cash transfer program further reduced the hazard rate of dropping out by 34%. We find that these results hold even when the head of the household changes or migrates. Titling has a significant effect on female children but not on extremely poor families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the income distribution in Mexico before and after taxes and transfers, with adjustment to national accounts, and compares it with the situation of other countries in the region and the OECD, to show how in Mexico, inequality is not remedied after taxes, but increased. Tax privileges, such as personal deductions or exemptions, are one of the causes of this inequality exacerbated by redistribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an analysis of the morphology and columnar microphysical properties of atmospheric aerosols in Mexico City (MC) for the period 2022–2023. The morphological study focused on the structure description of soot particles and tar balls (TB). By transmission electron microscope (TEM) and scanning electrode microscope (SEM), voluminous soot aggregates mixed with TBs were observed. The chemistry shows that both soot and TBs are mostly carbonaceous species with well-defined morphologies. On the other hand, the columnar aerosol microphysical properties recovered from AERONET show that the particles have a bimodal aerosol size distribution (ASD) with two modes: fine and coarse. The ASD remains constant without showing significant seasonal changes, only with some variability for coarse particles. The aerosol optical depth (AOD) value is significantly high, typical of urban areas. The real (n) and imaginary (k) parts of the complex refractive index (CRI) were obtained from the photometric measurements. The CRI values show seasonal variations, with spring being the season with the highest values for n, while the highest values for k were measured in winter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Future climate change is expected to increase the risk and severity of wildland fires in tropical regions. Synoptic-scale fire weather conditions in Mexico were carefully analyzed using 20 years of satellite hotspot and rainfall data, hourly weather data, and various climate data. Fire analysis results showed that eighty-four percent of all fires in Mexico occurred south of 22° N. Southwest Mexico (SWM, N < 22°, 94–106° W) and Southeast Mexico (SEM, N < 22°, 86–94° W), account for 50% and 34% of all fires in Mexico. Synoptic-scale analysis results using hourly data showed that westerly wind sea breezes from the Pacific Ocean blow toward the coastal land areas of the SWM while easterly wind sea breezes from the Caribbean blow into the SEM. The most sensitive weather parameters were "relative humidity" for the SWM and "temperature" for the SEM. The fire-related indices selected were "precipitable water vapor anomaly" for the SWM and "temperature anomaly" for the SEM. The SWM fire index suggests that future fires will depend on dryness, while the SEM fire index suggests that future fires will depend on temperature trends. I do hope that this paper will improve local fire forecasts and help analyze future fire trends under global warming in Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the kitchen and the phenomenological values that emerge from it. In this text the kitchen is seen as a space of possibility within the context of the Capitalocene, from which new values and imaginations for a more sustainable future may emerge. Drawing upon ecofeminist critiques and feminist food studies, and building upon the phenomenologies of space of Gaston Bachelard and Yi‐Fu Tuan, this exploration surveys how intimacy, memory, care, and relation emerge from kitchen endeavours and what these notions mean for a Capitalocenic world. These theoretics are intertwined with ethnographic materials on foodscapes and foodways gathered in Xochimilco, Mexico City. From this, radical conceptualisations of the kitchen emerge and everyday phenomenologies spread into new spaces, while bringing together these subjects with environmental issues. I propose the notion of the antiromantic as an approach emerging from the kitchen's history as a gendered and contested space, and as a way to approach the kitchen and its labours in the midst of our current ecological crises; in this way the kitchen can be understood and inhabited as a political space of possibility for sustainable transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some drivers push for a transition towards sustainable and integrated urban water management while involving the community in decision-making. The Transition Management framework has been used to study how to empower experiments and promote sustainable transitions. However, there is no proper recognition of how to involve the community as part of the transition processes, especially in developing countries. This paper analyses the 2007–2012 Magdalena River restoration project in Mexico City to understand community participation in water management transitions, while recognising how different social groups are involved and react to transition experiments. This research points out the difficulties that influence community participation and the necessity of addressing these difficulties while considering the heterogeneous community character. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Museums are platforms that empower us to bring civilization to a higher level; they exist to expand our understanding of human history and preserve the heritage. At the turn of the century, two young Mexican women, Sharon Zaga and Mily Cohen, had the unbelievable dream of building a museum of memory and tolerance in Mexico City. This discussion paper explores how the exhibitions of human intolerance at Museo Memoria y Tolerancia in Mexico City can change societal attitudes toward tolerance and historical memory. As a result, this place became not just a museum, but a place going beyond the idea of a museum and art, telling its visitors about the importance of historical memory, showcasing genocides, and ultimately touching on the importance of tolerance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, most of methodologies available to evaluate the seismic performance of buildings use as index maximum interstory drifts. However, recent earthquakes have evidenced the need to develop performance levels that incorporate seismic resilience concepts to evaluate the level of post-seismic functionality of buildings and their capacity to recover functionality. Furthermore, such performance levels should explicitly consider the performance of structural, non-structural elements and contents. For this purpose, this paper proposes a set of six performance limit states for office-type buildings, in which the seismic performance of structural, non-structural elements and contents is explicitly considered. Each of these limit states is associated with a set of probable events that generically determine its recovery of functionality (e.g., post-seismic inspection and management of financial resources). To exemplify the proposed scheme a seven-story reinforced concrete building with unreinforced infill masonry walls and located in Mexico City is evaluated. The results obtained suggest that the building has a significant probability of experiencing loss of functionality due to the damage suffered mainly by the non-structural elements and contents. This indicates that modern seismic design codes, as that used for this study, accomplish their main objective, which is to reduce the probability of collapse and to prevent the loss of human lives. However, these results also demonstrate that the main objective of decision makers when designing such buildings, which is to be functional for one or several needs, is not achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Propolis tinctures are popular alternative medicines, but mandatory labeling requirements relating to the inorganic content or percentage of ethanol are absent. Knowing the elemental content is useful for quality assurance/quality control of the tinctures between batches, as well as the safety of the products for consumers. Microwave plasma – atomic emission spectrometry (MP-AES) is a relatively low-cost, robust, multielemental technique that can analyze ethanolic extracts of propolis following minimum sample preparation. However, there are no published papers using MP-AES for this application. The technique was evaluated for the determination of sixteen elements in lab-made preparations and in 23 products from markets in Mexico. The matrix effects of the ethanol content of the samples were also evaluated and were found to affect the detection limit of some elements. There was high variability in the elemental composition of the major (K, Fe, Mg, and Na) and minor (Al, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, and Zn) elements among the samples. The median concentrations of cadmium, and lead in the propolis tinctures were below 0.28 µg·L−1 and 2.8 µg·L−1, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies Latin American sport from an International Relations perspective. Considering that systemic imperatives are overlooked in most sports studies and that power is not conceived as a comprehensive element that drives state action, the focus here is to study the relationship between the international power structure and sports performance, analysing the correlation between the World Power Index (WPI) and the medal table of the Pan-American Games from the edition of Mexico City 1975 to Lima 2019. The results show that there is a positive and strong correlation in the different periods of time evaluated, but even with that, we do not defend that there is an automatic conversion of national power into the medal tables at the Pan-American Games. In conclusion, this article argues that from International Relations, the International Structure configures the medal plans of countries, namely, where they want to be positioned in the final rankings, which in the end, shapes the medal table of sports competitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-story buildings are an alternative for any developing city facing population growth and land scarcity. Recently, verticalization of the built environment has considered the possible use of confined masonry (CM) buildings because they combine adequate strength, lower construction and maintenance costs, and durability. This has brought attention to the possibility of extending the current knowledge for the design of low-rise CM buildings to mid-rise buildings. This paper discusses the conceptual design challenges from the fact that CM walls are designed to develop shear damage, which leads to the formation of an undesirable damage mechanism that reduces the global deformation capacity of the buildings as their height increases. To provide quantitative context, four models of 8 and 10-story buildings designed according to the Mexico City Building Code, and having walls built with high-strength masonry and horizontal joint reinforcement, were analyzed. The wide-column model and an idealized backbone curve, calibrated with experimental data, were used, respectively, to model the buildings and the nonlinear behavior of the walls. From the global properties and performance of the buildings, it is concluded that the current design approach for CM walls leads to the formation of a soft story, and an excessive damage concentration that compromises the global stability of mid-rise CM buildings for displacement demands smaller than those assumed during the design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facing a dramatic depletion of forests in the Viceroyalty of New Spain, throughout the last decades of colonial rule (between the mid-eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries) the Bourbon administration wrote and published a considerable number of laws, reports, surveys, and ordinances on forest management and conservation. In this paper we examine discourses of forest conservation and the measures applied to preserve this critical resource by colonial official and experts. Drawing on forest laws, ordinances, and reports from national archives in Mexico City, we argue that conservation became part of the concepts which defined how forests were conceptualized and managed, but also that conservation was intrinsic to colonial processes of state-making and territorialization. This paper aims to approach Bourbon officials' understanding of conservation as a complex interrelation between renewed discourses of nature and the practices of colonial forest administration through the idea of indeterminacy. Likewise, it sheds light on patterns that have defined the ways in which forest conservation has been constituted in modern Mexico, addressing a little-studied period in forest management in this country. • Forest conservation was contentious questioning the universality of colonial laws. • Conservation became a site of experimentation to know, govern, and produce forests. • Conservation provides insights into the colonial state's territorial actualization. • Colonial forest laws played an important role in defining the context of depletion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper updates and extends the Political Market Framework (PMF) by integrating elements of interest groups and political market theory with policy entrepreneurs' (PEs) roles in explaining the patterns of urban infrastructure construction. The prominent role of PEs is observed through a grounded analysis of two large infrastructure projects in Mexico City. A comparative study of the cases suggests that: (1) The agency of PEs in political markets is central to explaining the construction of urban infrastructure; (2) PEs contribute to the definition of pro-growth or anti-growth coalitions and the definition of public problems; (3) the legitimacy of PEs is grounded in their political or technical reputation, or both; (4) the appropriate use of political institutions requires that PEs know how to use electoral timing strategically; and (5) the role of PEs seems to be better understood within a bounded analysis framework, such as the political markets approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides empirical evidence that supports the configurational assumptions of social disorganization theory and routine activities theory. Through a comparative qualitative analysis (csQCA), the paper concludes that the differentiated distribution of robberies in the Mexico City mayoralties (N16) is a product of the combination of conditions associated with the deterioration of social control and the availability of criminal opportunities. However, in terms of necessity and sufficiency, not all explanatory conditions were relevant to reduce uncertainty and did not always act according to the hypotheses formulated. The study suggests that crime rates do not simply result from the direct influence of factors and that the interaction between factors may be mediated by contextual conditions. This paper adds to the literature that seeks to discuss the assumptions of social theories of crime in Latin American cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The representation of earthquakes (and its aftershocks) is a recurring theme in Juan Villoro's writings. This theme is present in his chronicles, novels and essays in which the imminence of the end and the fortuitous gift of momentary survival trigger meditations that intertwine literature, personal memory, collective and community experience, ethics and politics. This paper discusses two of Villoro's books in which earthquakes take centre stage. The first one is 8.8 El miedo en el Espejo (2010), "a fragmented chronicle" written after the author experienced the Chilean earthquake of 2010, which also echoes the Mexican earthquake of 1985. The second book, Horizontal Vertigo: A City Called Mexico (2018), is dedicated to Mexico City and ends with a fragment about the last quake to jolt the capital in 2017 and with a litany, originally published two days after this last (at the time) catastrophe. Metaphoric connections between the seismic events and the literary, the political and the possibilities of life in common are explored throughout the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How were solidarity campaigns transnationally organized and locally performed? To answer this question, this paper examines anti-imperialist solidarity campaigns and their role in the politics of Mexico City in the 1920s. The paper analyzes two political movements: the campaign against the conviction of the Italian-American anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti in the United States and the campaign in solidarity with rebel general Augusto César Sandino who fought against US troops in his native Nicaragua. Transnational solidarity campaigns, it is argued, were an important link between local radical activism and global movements as solidarity had to be performed locally and envisioned globally. Demonstrations, economic boycotts, and public fundraising campaigns were means to perform solidarity in the city, linking local activism to the global anti-imperialist movement. With the example of activism in Mexico City in the post-revolutionary 1920s, this paper analyzes performative and ideological change over time and how the asymmetric potential of localization and globalization affect transnational solidarity campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In most big cities, public transports are enclosed and crowded spaces. Therefore, they are considered as one of the most important triggers of COVID-19 spread. Most of the existing research related to the mobility of people and COVID-19 spread is focused on investigating highly frequented paths by analyzing data collected from mobile devices, which mainly refer to geo-positioning records. In contrast, this paper tackles the problem by studying mass mobility. The relations between daily mobility on public transport (subway or metro) in three big cities and mortality due to COVID-19 are investigated. Data collected for these purposes come from official sources, such as the web pages of the cities' local governments. To provide a systematic framework, we applied the IBM Foundational Methodology for Data Science to the epidemiological domain of this paper. Our analysis consists of moving averages with a moving window equal to seven days so as to avoid bias due to weekly tendencies. Among the main findings of this work are: a) New York City and Madrid show similar distribution on studied variables, which resemble a Gauss bell, in contrast to Mexico City, and b) Non-pharmaceutical interventions don't bring immediate results, and reductions to the number of deaths due to COVID are observed after a certain number of days. This paper yields partial evidence for assessing the effectiveness of public policies in mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The challenges faced by teachers during the confinement caused by Covid-19 were more severe for those who look after students with special needs or learning barriers, particularly in a context marked by the scarcity of specialized technological tools and an incipient development of digital skills among both teachers and students. The paper analyzes the conditions in which teachers who work in basic and upper secondary education in Mexico carried out their jobs from April 2020 - December 2021. The analysis is based upon a structural attributive research of explanatory scope that retrieved information through a survey. 140 teachers participated in the process; their responses were statistically analyzed and mapped out using the Geographic Information System and the ArcGIS program, in order to highlight regional differences and shortcomings. The results presented focus on two axes of the Common Framework for Digital Teaching Competence (Content Creation and Security) and show the persistence of socio-educational gaps. Those who express that to have developed these competences are teachers from urban areas, particularly those who have less years of service, higher academic degrees, and are in the seek of job stability. This leads to the conclusion that there is a need to strengthen differentiated training processes that respond to the specific needs of educational contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earthquake early warning (EEW) is becoming a popular tool for mitigating earthquake‐induced losses. However, the current literature separates EEW technical components and their operational and behavioural implications. This paper investigates how EEW can be integrated into business continuity practices, organisational resilience, and disaster risk reduction (DRR). A mixed methods approach is applied to analyse EEW perceptions in the case‐study context of Mexico City, Mexico, which is characterised by a high level of seismic hazard and social and physical exposure/vulnerability. The dataset includes evidence from 15 semi‐structured interviews with representatives of the public and private sectors, such as governments and enterprises, and 78 valid questionnaires compiled by local organisations, including civil protection and education institutions. The results reveal inconsistencies between technical EEW methodologies and their integration into three core domains of organisational practice: accountability, governance, and jurisdiction; standardisation of plans and procedures; training and education. Finally, open challenges for future research are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By analyzing Mexico's productive structure in the 1980s and 2013, this paper explores whether promoting the domestic market may complement the dynamism of the external sector and achieve a process of sustained growth and development for an economy highly integrated into the international market. The methodology applied is an extension of the input-output model and network analysis; in particular, the concept of vertically integrated sectors is a major feature to reach conclusions. The results show that stimulating the domestic market can be a complementary strategy for promoting the export sector to boost growth and economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the percentage of the population aged 18 years and over with perception of insecurity during March and April 2021 is estimated for each municipality in Mexico using small area estimation techniques. Two methods are considered: the Empirical Best Linear Unbiased Predictor (EBLUP) and the Spatial Empirical Best Linear Unbiased Predictor (SEBLUP), both based on the Fay-Herriot area-level model. The National Survey of Victimization and Perception of Public Safety 2021 (ENVIPE 2021, for its acronym in Spanish) is the base survey from which the variable object of estimation is obtained; the auxiliary variables that allow to establish the considered models are obtained from other information sources, such as the population and housing census and administrative records. The results are adjusted to satisfy the benchmarking property and are contrasted with direct estimates given by the same survey, ENVIPE 2021, to compare their reliability level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the circulation of the terms lesbiana and queer (cuir) in Mexico City. More particularly, I discuss how de ambiente and la diversidad sexual, which capture the spirit of queer politics, predominated in the 1990s and early 2000s, to be surpassed by lesbiana in the 2010s, in lesbian communities. While the circulation of lesbiana parallels, permeates, and impregnates cuir genealogies too, I suggest here that its continuity, and stronger resurgence in the 2010s, relates to acute attention to structural violence in the region, particularly in the face of feminicides. At such moment young activists "twist" lesbiana genealogies to give place to new terms such as lesboterrorism. I pay particular attention to lesboterrorismo, a new theoretical formulation young activists developed in the midst of militarization, gore capitalism, and graphic violence against women's bodies. This paper is informed by ethnographic fieldwork I have conducted since 2000, including participant observation, 40 qualitative interviews with women participating in lesbian spaces in Mexico City, and the review of newspapers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The now-abandoned project for a new international airport for Mexico City was located at a site on the former Texcoco Lake, where extremely difficult subsoil conditions prevail. The behaviour of one of the trial embankments built to test foundation solutions for the runways is analysed in this paper. Observational data were gathered over 50 months at the so-called reference embankment, where no special foundation or soil improvement techniques were adopted. The performance of this embankment was investigated through finite-element simulations in which an elasto-viscoplastic constitutive model was implemented in commercial software. The model incorporates key features such as time dependence, long-term deformation and an anisotropic flow surface. The results provide an assessment of the constitutive description adopted as well as the role of anisotropy in the simulation of the case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Alcohol screening, brief advice and referral to treatment (SBIRT) in primary health care is an effective strategy to decrease alcohol consumption at population level. However, there is relatively scarce evidence regarding its economic returns in non‐high‐income countries. The current paper aims to estimate the return‐on‐investment of implementing a SBIRT program in Mexican primary health‐care settings. Methods: Empirical data was collected in a quasi‐experimental study, from 17 primary health‐care centres in Mexico City regarding alcohol screening delivered by 145 health‐care providers. This data was combined with data from a simulation study for a period of 10 years (2008 to 2017). Economic investments were calculated from a public sector health‐care perspective as clinical consultation costs (salary and material costs) and program costs (set‐up, adaptation, implementation strategies). Economic return was calculated as monetary gains in the public sector health‐care, estimated via simulated reductions in alcohol consumption, dependent on population coverage of alcohol interventions delivered to primary health‐care patients. Results: Results showed that scaling up a SBIRT program in Mexico over a 10‐year period would lead to positive return‐on‐investment values ranging between 21% in scenario 4 (confidence interval −8.6%, 79.5%) and 110% in scenario 5 (confidence interval 51.5%, 239.8%). Moreover, over the 10‐year period, up to 16,000 alcohol‐related deaths could be avoided as a result of implementing the program. Discussion and Conclusions: SBIRT implemented at national level in Mexico may lead to substantial financial gains from a public sector health‐care perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the opportunities and challenges of public space management (PSM) in the Mexican context by analysing the perspectives of different governance actors. Issues in the PSM literature include ineffective political decisions, prevalence of the private sector, lack of coordination between government institutions, and a need for more effective social participation. While most PSM studies focus on European cities, empirical PSM knowledge in the Latin American context is scarce. To address this gap, this research elucidates the Mexican context by investigating and adapting a PSM framework in Mexico City and Puebla. The case study research is based on qualitative document research and interview analysis from four groups of governance actors: government officials, academics, NGOs, and architecture/urban planning firms. We found multiple PSM challenges: uncoordinated efforts in the maintenance of public space, lack of and polarisation of investment, and privatisation of public space. At the intra-governmental level, the research identified a lack of coordination between government institutions, increasing reliance on the private sector, and limited opportunities for residents to participate in PSM processes. The paper highlights missing links between existing governance actors involved in PSM and wider residents, in the pursuit of the ambitious role of achieving public space quality. • Public Space Management theory contrasts with the reality in the Mexican context. • Governments rely on the private sector for the development of public spaces. • Limited opportunities for local residents to participate in Public Space Management processes • Awareness is needed among governance actors on the management of public spaces. • Lack of transparency in publicly available data affects how public spaces are managed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many of the gases released by industrial processes pollute the environment and are largely responsible for climate change. Also, large amounts of low-temperature waste heat are generated by the industrial sector in different production processes. The waste heat can be recovered and reincorporated into the industrial process by means of an Absorption Heat Transformer (AHT), to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reduce the consumption of fossil fuels, and increase energy savings. Therefore, three important aspects of the AHT are emphasized in this paper: first, the thermodynamics parameters of the AHT that influencing in its performance, second, heat recovery study and third CO2 emissions avoided analysis. For this purpose, a thermodynamic model was implemented for AHT using two working mixtures, namely, LiBr- H2O and Carrol-H2O. Besides, a heat recovery study was carried out considering the Mexican textile industry as a case study, to determine the stages of the textile process in which it is possible to return the recovered heat, as well as the best location to install an AHT. The results show that the Coefficient of Performance values increase when the absorber thermal levels range from 100 to 150°C, source temperatures from 80 to 90°C and condensation temperature from 25 to 30°C. The study of heat recovery in the textile industry describes that it is possible to install an AHT at five states in Mexico, with the potential to recover and return heat in 6 of the 7 stages of the textile process, it was also determined that with the Carrol-water mixture it is possible to obtain higher thermal levels in the absorber and recover more heat than with the water/lithium bromide mixture. The emissions analysis showed that the technology is environmentally sustainable by avoiding up to 119 tonnes of CO2eq per year into the atmosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Scientific evidence from the United States and European countries shows that women who have had an induced abortion are not more likely to become depressed and several factors may confound this outcome. In contrast, in the case of Latin America, there are practically no studies in this regard due to restrictive legislation prevailing in the region. This paper aims to determine the prevalence of a probable major depressive episode (PMDE) in women who have legally terminated a pregnancy by way of public service in Mexico City and whether there are any psychosocial factors reported by the international literature associated with this outcome. Method: In a cross-sectional study, 274 women aged 15 years or older were interviewed two weeks after undergoing a medical abortion between November 2018 and November 2019. The Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale 35-item version (CESD-R35) was used to measure the PMDE in a structured interview. Results: The prevalence of a PMDE was 15.8%. Multivariate logistic regression was used for adjusted analysis. Perceived abortion stigma (OR = 6.74, 95% CI = 3.29-13.82), child sexual abuse (OR = 2.23, 95% CI = 1.01-4.93), and previous childless pregnancies (OR = 6.07, 95% CI = 1.52-24.21) were associated with PMDE. Conclusions: The prevalence of PMDE is similar to or lower than that reported in studies with women who continued a pregnancy; post-abortion counseling and clinical considerations should include the impact that stigma and gender-based violence have on women's mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper was to evaluate the psychometric properties and explore the factorial structure of a questionnaire on the family impact of drug use. An ex post facto investigation was carried out in which 76 relatives of addictive substances users in Mexico City participated. The results of the study showed adequate internal consistency indices for the questionnaire (α = .83), finding a structure of two factors called impact on functionality (α = .79) and concern for the user (α = .81). It was also possible to observe differences in the consumption impact scores according to the user's impact drug. It is concluded that the instrument is adequate to measure the impact of substance use in the family. The results are discussed in light of the literature on the subject and the limitations of the research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to describe the prosodic features --nuclear pitch configurations and pitch range-- of neutral and oriented interrogative utterances in the Spanish of Mexico City. We carried out a study of polar and wh- questions recorded in the free conversation module of the Corpus Norma Lingüística Culta (Lope Blanch 1971) and Habla Popular de la Ciudad de México (Lope Blanch 1976). The findings of the qualitative analysis show: i) the nuclear pitch configuration L* (L)H% --with the variants L* (L)H%, L* ¡H%, !H* ¡H%-- in information-seeking yes-no questions and confirmation questions, ii) the nuclear configuration L* L% documented in neutral wh- questions, and the boundary tone H% produced in the non-neutral condition --hypothetical or confirmative-- of the utterance; iii) the use of the pitch range as a potential prosodic resource for the expression of lesser or greater knowledge about the expected answer. The spontaneous speech data partially confirm the descriptions based on discourse completion tasks for this variety of Spanish (de-la-Mota et al. 2010). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent technological advances have significantly impacted news media in the way they provide news to the public, evolving into a digital environment. Therefore, digital media today focuses on generating readers' loyalty to their news websites. In this sense, a multiple linear regression analysis was carried out on a sample of 344 surveys of adult residents in the cities of Mexico and Monterrey. The results show that factors such as familiarity, satisfaction and reputation are positively related to the loyalty of news website users. However, they also show that the importance of the impact of these factors is different when the analysis is carried out in a stratified manner, such as residence, gender or education, which allows us to conclude that digital media can guide their loyalty efforts depending on the profile of their readers and the market they seek to target. To illustrate focusing on stratification by place of residence, the most significant factors for the Mexico City group corresponded to familiarity and satisfaction, wile for the Monterrey group the most significant factors were reputation and familiarity in that order. Results with this type of differences between groups were also obtained when comparing by gender and schooling. It is recommended for future research on the subject, to include other cities within the country, with the purpose of contrasting these paper's findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of decreasing food security, and as part of the '100 Resilient Cities' group, Mexico City (CDMX) has committed itself to achieving resilience through local food systems, green infrastructure and ecosystem services development. This paper reports on two surveys mapping the distribution of species of edible plants growing in publicly accessible interstitial spaces (e.g. central reservations and pavements) in subtropical, central CDMX. It also reports on an initial assessment of the feasibility of using such spaces for foraging. Rather than improving everyday food supplies, the maintenance of these spaces as areas for emergency foraging would ideally increase urban resilience in the face of extreme food supply shocks. The surveys used a direct species identification approach whilst walking ∼20 km of streets and identified thirty-six species of edible plants including not only fruits and herbs, but also vegetables. The results permitted the satisfactory assessment of three out of five feasibility conditions: (i) suitable growing conditions, (ii) provisioning capability and (iii) the existence of multiple plant dispersal pathways (including both natural processes and deliberate planting, as well as, more speculatively, unintentional human-mediated dispersal). Two other important feasibility conditions for foraging – (iv) usage and (v) a favourable planning environment – were not able to be judged based on the field data. CDMX promotes the planting of fruit trees in avenues, but this paper shows that local socio-ecological systems sustain a greater variety of edibles growing in a wider range of interstitial spaces. Ignoring this would represent a missed opportunity for urban resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to show, based on the results of a questionnaire applied in May 2020, the conditions in which the female students of a unit of the National Pedagogical University (UPN) in Mexico City have continued their studies during the Covid-19 pandemic. The concept of intersectionality allows us to show that the social and economic disadvantages (job insecurity, unpaid work, economic dependence) in which the students lived before the pandemic intensified, particularly for those who work in the education sector, since they had to add to the tasks they were already performing working from home and caring for people within the home (triple burden). Given this situation, it is suggested to develop strategies focused on women in the education sector (particularly those who are still in training), so that the pandemic and the eventual return to the classroom do not result in work overload and worsening of their working conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this research, the response of high voltage transmission towers under wind load patterns is discussed from the point of view of structural reliability. The paper focuses the attention on the response of two existing tension towers that are part of the 400 kV circuit at the perimeter of Mexico City. Two hundred nonlinear pushover analyses were carried out in detailed models in order to study peak demands in the critical structural elements in tension, compression and in the critical support to establish the vulnerability as a function of the: i) variability of the lateral load pattern and ii) the material overstrength from commercial profiles available in the local market. Based on the results, the global buckling of the elements in the mid-height led to a fragile collapse mechanism, regardless of the applied loading profile. This observation represents a research opportunity in the design practice for the existing towers. The study identifies a dependency between the collapse mechanism and the structure height, which is not currently considered by the specialized codes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jorge Cervantes Castro, MD, FACS (Hon.2006) passed away on May 28, 2021, at the age of 83 years. He graduated from medical school at the National Autonomous Mexican University (UNAM) and did his residency in general and vascular surgery at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. After completing his surgical training, he returned to Mexico City and established his practice at the American British Cowdray Medical Center (ABC Hospital). He was a professor of surgery for hundreds of surgical residents for over 50 years, author of over 240 surgical papers and 52 book chapters, and member of the editorial board of seven medical journals. He is the author of four surgical training books, one on "Iatrogenia in surgery" and the others on vanguard techniques for laparoscopic surgery. For his Juris Doctor degree obtained from UNAM in 2016, his thesis was on the "Legal implications of the professional title of medical surgeon" in which he emphasizes the legal need to change the professional degree conferred to Mexican medical graduates. A global ambassador of surgery, he was an active member of over 30 surgical societies, including the American College of Surgeons (ACS), the International Federation of Societies of Endoscopic Surgeons (IFSES), the International Society of Surgery (ISS; Hon.2009), and president of the Mexican chapter of the Latin American Federation of Surgery (FELAC), of which he also became honorary fellow. Among other accomplishments, he was one of the founding members of the Mexican Society of General Surgery, president of the Mexican Board of Surgery, distinguished member of the Mexican Academy of Surgery, and member of the editorial board of the World Journal of Surgery (1995-2004). He is survived by his one true and lifelong love Lucero, his wife of 57+ years, and by his children Jorge, Lucero, Arturo, Ignacio, and Pablo, 13 grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil response analyses require that the soil strata involved be characterized in terms of their dynamic material properties. Two important material properties are the shear modulus and a measure of energy dissipation characteristics, usually expressed as the damping ratio. Both can be obtained from standard laboratory tests, most commonly resonant columns or cyclic triaxial devices which provide strain-dependent values. Alternative experimental procedures are now available to estimate shear moduli at very small strains from piezoelectric transducer tests (bender elements); procedures have also been put forth to obtain the energy dissipation properties from this test. In this paper, we present a modified version of the spectral-ratio method using the wavelet transform to measure the damping ratio at small strains from waveforms acquired from bender element tests. Synthetic bender element signals were first used to test the procedure and validate the approach. Then, we analyzed signals obtained from a large-size oedometer equipped with bender elements on very soft Texcoco Clays (near Mexico City), and the waveforms were propagated along different paths. Our results show that the range of values of D min obtained from bender element tests agrees well with those obtained from resonant column tests performed on very soft clayey soil specimens retrieved from the same area at different depths. • This research is aimed to study the damping ratio on very soft soil Texcoco Clays (near Mexico City) using a large-size oedometer equipped with piezoelectric transducers. • We propose a modified version of the spectral ratio method for assessing the damping ratio at very small strains (elastic behavior). • It is calculated synthetic waveforms which input data are similar to the soil deposits present in the area where the specimens were retrieved. • We compare the data obtained with the modified version of the spectral ratio concerning to resonant column tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In their paper: U–Pb geochronology of intrusive rocks of northwestern Mesa Central province and Sector Transversal of Sierra Madre Oriental, Mexico: Time and space distribution of inland Cretaceous-Paleogene magmatism during the Mexican orogeny, Díaz-Bravo et al. (2022) present a database of geochronological ages reported in literature and seven generated by themselves, with which they adapt a model of flat-slab subduction to explain the geographical distribution of the Cretaceous-Paleogene magmatism in north-central Mexico. In our opinion, the paper contains limited bibliographic documentation, since it omits previously published zircon U–Pb ages, whose relationship with the Mexican orogeny has been discussed in several previously published papers. Furthermore, an important approach on the distribution of plutons is that the effects of contractional deformation during pluton emplacement and younger extensional tectonics in the studied area were not evaluated. We propose that the syntectonic relationships with the Mexican Orogeny for some of the plutons imply that the magmas were emplaced in rocks undergoing shortening and eastward-NE translation during the development of the Mexican fold and thrust belt. Therefore, they are not in their original position and must be carefully studied to establish the magmatic model presented in this work. • The Cretaceous plutons in the Mesa Central and Sector Transversal of the Sierra Madre Oriental are syntectonic to the development of the Mexican Fold and Thrust Belt. • The Cretaceous syntectonic plutons are allochthonous, so they do not represent a fixed position to model the subduction angle of the Farallon plate. • Pico de Teyra and El Peñuelo plutons show evidence of mylonitic recrystallization, S-C structures, and cleavage, congruent with northeastward tectonic transport of the Mexican Fold and Thrust Belt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]