Pascal ante el misterio de la gracia

Fiel a los principios de Pascal respecto a lo que debería ser la teología, Los Escritos sobre la grada quieren ser sólo una exposición de la doctrina tal y como se contiene en la Sagrada Escritura y en los Padres. Escritos en un contexto polémico -en el núcleo mismo de la controversia entre molinistas y jansenistas- contienen algunas exageraciones de corte jansenista. En el conjunto de la obra prevalecen, sin embargo, los grandes temas agustinianos que serán la clave para interpretar toda la obra de Pascal, más concretamente, su idea de hombre, contenida sobre todo en Les Pensées

Bolsa de Valores de Lima y la volatilidad de los Mercados Financieros 2000 - 2018.

Las fluctuaciones no predecibles de las economías en el mundo y la implementación de inversiones fomentan la búsqueda de métodos de modelamiento y proyección para establecer el comportamiento de un cierto índice de la bolsa de valores en particular. Es así que estudios realizados por diversos investigadores indican que la volatilidad de los mercados bursátiles puede ser capturada por modelos de varianza condicional ARCH que son capaces de predecir la varianza futura de un activo y de ese modo realizar un control y su modelamiento para un índice de bolsa de estudio en particula. El objetivo principal de esta investigación es encontrar un modelo ARCH para modelar el Índice General de la Bolsa de Valores de Lima (IGBVL) en relación de las bolsas más importantes que se encuentran relacionadas a la economía peruana para los períodos 2000 a 2018 con información diaria. Los resultados muestran que utilizando los criterios de Akaike (AIC) y Bayesiano de Schwarz (SC) se seleccionó al modelo ARCH (3) como el modelo ganador para el modelamiento y proyección del Índice General de la Bolsa de Valores de Lima (IGBVL) en relación a las bolsas de Estados Unidos (SP500), de España (IBX35), de Brasil (BOVESPA) y China (SHANGHAI) dado que presentan el menor valor de AIC y SC

Individualization and Electrical Characterization of SiGe Nanowires

SiGe nanowires of different Ge atomic fractions up to 15% were grown and ex-situ n-type doped by diffusion from a solid source in contact with the sample. The phenomenon of dielectrophoresis was used to locate single nanowires between pairs of electrodes in order to carry out electrical measurements. The measured resistance of the as-grown nanowires is very high, but it decreases more than three orders of magnitude upon doping, indicating that the doping procedure used has been effectiv

SiGe nanowires grown by LPCVD using Ga-Au catalysts

The use of Ga-Au alloys as metal catalysts for the growth of SiGe nanowires has been investigated. The grown nanowires are cylindrical and straight, with a defect-free crystalline structure, sharp nanowire-droplet interfaces and an almost constant Ge atomic fraction throughout all their length. These features represent significant improvements over the results obtained using pure A

Análisis de mermas del proceso productivo de una empresa textil

Se entiende por merma a la disminución o rebaja de un bien, en su comercialización o en su proceso productivo, debido a la pérdida física que afecta a su constitución y naturaleza corpórea, así como a su pérdida cuantitativa por estar relacionada a cantidades. En el presente estudio se considera como merma aquella generada en el Proceso de Lavado y aquella generada en los Subproductos (Morel, Bajo Carda, Polvo/Borra y Noils) en el Proceso de Peinado. Actualmente la merma generada en el proceso productivo de la alpaca en la empresa de estudio asciende a un 23% desde el proceso de lavado hasta la obtención final de top (cinta peinada en alpaca en sus diferentes calidades, presentada en bobina o bumps). Para efectos del estudio soló se analizará a profundidad las calidades representativas de cada raza, siendo las mismas Huacayo Super Fine y Suri Super Fine, ya que estas representan el aproximadamente el 40% de la producción total de Tops en sus respectivas razas. Se realizará un análisis del proceso productivo Lavado - Peinado a través de herramientas que nos permitan identificar las mermas generadas, sus causas y efectos, a fin de dar solución a los principales problemas encontrados, proponiendo propuestas de mejora que maximicen los beneficios de la empresa. Además de ello se trabajará un análisis de costos comparativo para la empresa, desde el análisis de mermas inicial, a uno predictivo con las propuestas de mejoras aplicadas.Tesi

Telemedicine Strategy to Rescue CPAP Therapy in Sleep Apnea Patients with Low Treatment Adherence: A Pilot Study

Patients with sleep apnea are usually treated with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). This therapy is very effective if the patient's adherence is satisfactory. However, although CPAP adherence is usually acceptable during the first months of therapy, it progressively decreases, with a considerable number of patients accepting average treatment duration below the effectiveness threshold (4 h/night). Herein, our aim was to describe and evaluate a novel telemedicine strategy for rescuing CPAP treatment in patients with low adherence after several months/years of treatment. This two-week intervention includes (1) patient support using a smartphone application, phone and voice recorder messages to be answered by a nurse, and (2) daily transmission and analysis of signals from the CPAP device and potential variation of nasal pressure if required. On average, at the end of the intervention, median CPAP adherence considerably increased by 2.17 h/night (from 3.07 to 5.24 h/night). Interestingly, the procedure was able to markedly rescue CPAP adherence: the number of patients with poor adherence (<4 h/night) was considerably reduced from 38 to 7. After one month, adherence improvement was maintained (median 5.09 h/night), and only 13 patients had poor adherence (<4 h/night). This telemedicine intervention (103€ per included patient) is a cost-effective tool for substantially increasing the number of patients with CPAP adherence above the minimum threshold for achieving positive therapeutic effects

Potential EEG biomarkers of sedation doses in intensive care patients unveiled by using a machine learning approach

Objective. Sedation of neurocritically ill patients is one of the most challenging situation in ICUs. Quantitative knowledge on the sedation effect on brain activity in that complex scenario could help to uncover new markers for sedation assessment. Hence, we aim to evaluate the existence of changes of diverse EEG-derived measures in deeply-sedated (RASS-Richmond agitation-sedation scale -4 and -5) neurocritically ill patients, and also whether sedation doses are related with those eventual changes. Approach. We performed an observational prospective cohort study in the intensive care unit of the Hospital de la Princesa. Twenty-six adult patients suffered from traumatic brain injury and subarachnoid hemorrhage were included in the present study. Long-term continuous electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings (2141 h) and hourly annotated information were used to determine the relationship between intravenous sedation infusion doses and network and spectral EEG measures. To do that, two different strategies were followed: assessment of the statistical dependence between both variables using the Spearman correlation rank and by performing an automatic classification method based on a machine learning algorithm. Main results. More than 60% of patients presented a correlation greater than 0.5 in at least one of the calculated EEG measures with the sedation dose. The automatic classification method presented an accuracy of 84.3% in discriminating between different sedation doses. In both cases the nodes' degree was the most relevant measurement. Significance. The results presented here provide evidences of brain activity changes during deep sedation linked to sedation doses. Particularly, the capability of network EEG-derived measures in discriminating between different sedation doses could be the framework for the development of accurate methods for sedation levels assessment.Fil: Sanz García, Ancor. Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. Hospital Universitario de la Princesa; EspañaFil: Pérez Romero, Miriam. Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. Hospital Universitario de la Princesa; EspañaFil: Pastor, Jesús. Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. Hospital Universitario de la Princesa; EspañaFil: Sola, Rafael G.. Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. Hospital Universitario de la Princesa. Servicio de Neurocirugia. Grupo de Epilepsia; EspañaFil: Vega Zelaya, Lorena. Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. Hospital Universitario de la Princesa; EspañaFil: Vega, Gema. Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. Hospital Universitario de la Princesa; EspañaFil: Monasterio, Fernando. Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. Hospital Universitario de la Princesa; EspañaFil: Torrecilla, Carmen. Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. Hospital Universitario de la Princesa; EspañaFil: Pulido, Paloma. Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. Hospital Universitario de la Princesa. Servicio de Neurocirugia. Grupo de Epilepsia; EspañaFil: Ortega, Guillermo José. Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. Hospital Universitario de la Princesa; España. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Different expression of MMPs/TIMP-1 in human atherosclerotic lesions. Relation to plaque features and vascular bed

BACKGROUND: Proteolytic imbalance might determine arterial remodeling and plaque destabilization in atherosclerotic vessels. The aim of this study was to examine differences in the patterns of metalloproteinases (MMPs) and MMP inhibitor (TIMP-1) expression in advanced human atheromas, both in relation to the plaque features and the vascular bed involved. METHODS AND RESULTS: Immunohistochemistry for MMP-1, -3, -9 and TIMP-1 as well as the collagen content were measured in vascular sections from patients undergoing peripheral revascularization (carotid n=11, femoral n=23) and aorto-coronary bypass surgery (mammary arteries n=20, as controls). Increased expression of all MMPs was detected in atherosclerotic as compared with control sections (P<0.01). Aneurysmal plaques showed a significant increase of MMP-1 and-3 and a reduction in total collagen (P<0.05) in relation to occlusive lesions. Calcification areas in atherosclerotic plaques were consistently associated with increased TIMP-1 expression (P<0.01). Finally, MMP-9 expression was higher in occlusive lesions from carotid than femoral arteries (P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Aneurysm lesions expressed higher MMP-1 and-3 expression than occlusive plaques, and MMP-9 was mainly detected in carotid as compared with femoral arteries. TIMP-1 was associated with arterial calcification. These differences in the MMPs/TIMP-1 expression might determine the evolution of advanced atherosclerotic plaques and contribute to its vulnerability

Telemedicine Strategy for CPAP Titration and Early Follow-up for Sleep Apnea During COVID-19 and Post-Pandemic Future.

WiththeacutefirstwaveoftheCOVID-19pandemicover,1thelongwaitinglistforsleeptestsforOSAmanagementhasbeenfurtherincreased.2,3ThenewpreventivehealthmeasuresagainstCovid-19implythatpatientsgotothehealthcentersaslittleaspossible,whichiswhyitisnecessarytoimplementandstartupatelematicworkflowwithhomestudiestoguaranteesleeptests,4especiallyCPAPtitration.5-8WeaimedtotestanewtelematicworkflowtodeliverCPAPtherapytoOSApatientsandtoevaluateitintermsofCPAPcompliance,costs,residualevents,symptomsandsatisfactionofpatients.Theusualtitrationstrategyhasthefollo-wingsteps.Thepatientisscheduledtothedaytime-hospitalforinformation,andeducationalandpracticaltrainingsessionwiththedevice(45min).Then,ourCPAPequipmentisdeliveredtohim/herforhometitration(tobereturnedthenextday),thedataisdownloaded,andafixedpressureisprescribed.Iftheregistra-tionisincorrect,thetitrationisrepeatedanotherday.Finally,thepatientisscheduledbytheservicecompanyprovidingCPAPequip-mentthatinformsagainhowtheequipmentworks,selectsafinalmaskfortreatment,andgiveashortpracticalsessionoftheCPAPuse