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Unique worldwide, nitrate/iodine deposits (NIDs) are located along a 700 km geological belt in the Atacama Desert, Chile. They serve as the primary source of mineral ores for the extraction of iodine, sodium, and potassium nitrates. NIDs have been relatively underexplored from a biological perspective. To address this, we collected sixteen soil samples from abandoned mines in Oficinas Pissis and Savona for chemical, mineralogical, and metagenomic analyses. The soils primarily consisted of halite and darapskite, with only one sample being predominantly composed of thenardite. Deliquescence and water activity measurements yielded values ranging from 0.02% to 0.40% and 0.47 to 0.62, respectively. To investigate the presence, identification, relative abundance, and diversity of microbial life in NID soils, we employed MiSeq high-throughput sequencing and bioinformatic tools. The dominant phyla observed were Firmicutes and Proteobacteria, with Actinobacteria and Cyanobacteria being predominant in two soil samples. Furthermore, we detected nitrate/perchlorate-reducing bacterial activity in enriched cultures from the soil samples. This study sheds light on the resilience of microbial life in the Atacama Desert NIDs, providing compelling evidence for its existence and offering insight into factors that could facilitate it within this unique environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on a multiple case study of schools which have been identified as improving their performance for about a decade. We proposed different criteria by which to characterize and study these improvement processes and, by applying them to our sample, we elaborated a typology of school improvement trajectories: we identified 4 different trajectories of school improvement. We called the first type "restricted improvement" because at its center is the management of processes that mainly target academic achievement tests; the second is "incipient improvement," which is based on changes that restructure the school processes; the third identified trajectory are cases where school improvement is "moving toward institutionalization," while the last are those cases where improvement has been already "institutionalized" and the schools have achieved high levels of educational effectiveness. We identified challenges that schools face at different stages of school improvement and discussed some related policy issues.

• There is a need for a reliable and valid instrument with a proper language adaptation to assess the anxiety of Chilean older population. • Anxiety score was positively associated with rumination, experiential avoidance and depression, and negatively associated with well-being. • The Chilean version of the GAI has very good psychometric properties and can be used for screening anxiety on this population. Currently in Chile there is a lack of validated tools for measuring anxiety in the elderly population. Considering this, the purpose of this study was to validate the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory (GAI) in the country. An analysis of the psychometric properties of the GAI was carried out, using a non-clinical sample of 301 older adults in the Metropolitan and Valparaíso regions of Chile. Older people were asked about anxiety, rumination, depression, well-being and sociodemographic data. An excellent internal reliability was obtained with a Cronbach score of 0.931. An adequate convergent validity was observed with the Depression scales (CES-D) (Rho = 0.549, p <.01), Rumination (RSS) (Rho = 0.618; p < 0.01) and Experiential avoiding (Rho = 0.485; p < 0.01). On the other hand, the discriminant validity of the psychological well-being scale presented a negative correlation of Rho = -0.699 (p < 0.01). Finally, and Exploratory Factor Analysis was made, revealing a one-dimensional model of the instrument. The Geriatric Anxiety Inventory has very good psychometric properties measuring anxiety in elderly people, being an adequate instrument for the screening of anxiety on this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]