The SuperB-Factory accelerator project

An international collaboration on the design of a Super B-Factory aiming at a 1036 cm-2 s-1 luminosity is in progress. The design relies on a new collision scheme with large Piwinski’s angle and very small IP beam sizes, where possible harmful resonances will be cancelled by the newly proposed “crab waist” method. A Conceptual Design Report has been published in April this year. A review of the design principles and of the project status will be given

Local risk-minimization under the benchmark approach

© 2014, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. We study the pricing and hedging of derivatives in incomplete financial markets by considering the local risk-minimization method in the context of the benchmark approach, which will be called benchmarked local risk-minimization. We show that the proposed benchmarked local risk-minimization allows to handle under extremely weak assumptions a much richer modeling world than the classical methodology

Lacosamide: a new approach to target voltage-gated sodium currents in epileptic disorders

The mechanism of action of several antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) rests on their ability tomodulate the activity of voltage-gated sodium currents that are responsible for fast action potentialgeneration. Recent data indicate that lacosamide - a compound with analgesic and anticonvulsanteffects in animal models - shares a similar mechanism. When compared with other AEDs, lacosamidehas the unique ability to interact with sodium channel slow inactivation without affecting fastinactivation. This article reviews these findings and discusses their relevance within the context ofneuronal activity seen during epileptiform discharges generated by limbic neuronal networks in thepresence of chemical convulsants. These seizure-like events are characterized by sustained dischargesof sodium-dependent action potentials supported by robust depolarizations thus providingsynchronization within neuronal networks. Generally, AEDs such as phenytoin, carbamazepine andlamotrigine block sodium channels when activated. By contrasts, lacosamide facilitates slowinactivation of sodium channels both in term of kinetics and voltage-dependency. This effect may berelatively selective for repeatedly depolarized neurons such as those participating in seizure activity inwhich the persistence of sodium currents is more pronounced and promotes neuronal excitation. Theclinical effectiveness of lacosamide has been demonstrated in randomized placebo-controlled doubleblindparallel-group, adjunctive-therapy trials in patients with refractory partial seizures. Furtherstudies should determine whether lacosamide effects in animal models and in clinical settings are fullyexplained by its selective action on sodium current slow inactivation or whether other effects (e.g.,interactions with the collapsin-response mediator protein 2) play a contributory role

Predictive Echocardiography

In this thesis multiple echocardiographic approaches and techniques to predict clinical and functional outcome were evaluated. The value of high-dose dobutamine stress echocardiography for the prediction of longterm cardiac events was evaluated in various clinical settings in patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease. Low-dose dobutamine stress echocardiography and tissue Doppler imaging were used to evaluate myocardial viability and left ventricular remodelling in patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy who underwent myocardial revascularization or percutaneous transplantation of skeletal myoblasts. The value of myocardial contrast echocardiography was studied to predict functional recovery in patients with acute myocardial infarction who underwent primary coronary intervention. Next, resting 2-D echocardiography was used to predict the onset of dilated-hypokinetic evolution and cardiovascular events in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Finally, the role of intracardiac echocardiography was investigated for prediction of the infarct area in patients with obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy who underwent percutaneous septal myocardial ablation

FILIPPI, ALBERTO (dir.), Argentina y Europa. Visiones españolas. Ensayos y documentos (1910-2010), Buenos Aires, Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, 2011

La calificación más alta que puede merecer este nuevo emprendimiento intelectual colectivo –brindado por Alberto Filippi y sus estrechos colaboradores– proviene sobre todo del caudal de documentos epocales aquí reunidos, sin desmerecer la notoria excelencia académica que contienen los ensayos y estudios incluidos en la primera parte de la obra –algunos de los cuales ya fueron dados a conocer precedentemente. Me propongo abordar dichas fuentes primarias desde una fehaciente divisoria de aguas: la concepción tradicional hegemónica y las vertientes crítico-alternativas.La calificación más alta que puede merecer este nuevo emprendimiento intelectual colectivo –brindado por Alberto Filippi y sus estrechos colaboradores– proviene sobre todo del caudal de documentos epocales aquí reunidos, sin desmerecer la notoria excelencia académica que contienen los ensayos y estudios incluidos en la primera parte de la obra –algunos de los cuales ya fueron dados a conocer precedentemente. Me propongo abordar dichas fuentes primarias desde una fehaciente divisoria de aguas: la concepción tradicional hegemónica y las vertientes crítico-alternativas.

O democracia ,o neuroliberalismo.

During the rise of neoliberalism the last decades of the twenty century it was the believe that this conception and this possessive praxis of the world maintained a biunivocal correspondence with democracy. After the disastrous consequences experienced by the implementation of the so-called conservative revolution, currently has extended the idea that far from identifying with the general will, we are in the presence of one of their most sustained antagonists. Ergo, democracy, rather than partnering with unrestricted market and ultraminim State, is in connection with alternative thought, the ethic of solidarity and human rights. Among the authors who have worked for that way of knowing and behavior, this paper analyze different examples of more authentic democracies: the works of González Casanova, Sousa Santos and Pablo González Guadarrama, the civil movements of “indignados” and the popular Latin American governments of our days.Si bien durante el auge del neoliberalismo se ha llegado a creer –banal y vanamente– que esa concepción y esa praxis posesiva del mundo mantenían una correspondencia biunívoca con la democracia, tras las funestas consecuencias experimentadas por la implantación de la denominada revolución conservadora en la actualidad se ha ido extendiendo la idea de que, lejos, de identificarse con un sistema de vida representativo de la voluntad general, se está en presencia por lo contrario de uno de sus antagonistas más sostenidos. Ergo, la democracia, en lugar de asociarse con el mercado irrestricto y el Estado ultramínimo, se ha aproximado con una suerte de pensamiento alternativo que vela por una ética de la solidaridad y los derechos humanos. Entre los autores que han bregado por ese modus cognoscendi y operandi se rescatan en este trabajo a González Casanova, Sousa Santos y el propio colega homenajeado: Pablo Guadarrama González. Tampoco deja de rescatarse la presencia en el escenario internacional de los movimientos civiles que, frente al modelo de la globalización conservadora, reclaman por una auténtica democracia, una forma de gobierno que también puede verificarse hoy en distintos gobiernos nuestro-americanos que atraviesan por una etapa posneoliberal