Pobreza y salud

Las enfermedades no se distribuyen aleatoriamente entre la población, los condicionantes socioeconómicos influyen poderosamente en generar enfermedad. Existen importantes evidencias, recogidas de la epidemiología, la economía de la salud y las ciencias sociales, que demuestran cómo la pobreza o las crisis económicas generan desigualdades en salud, tanto a nivel individual como poblacional. Para eliminar las desigualdades en salud es imprescindible la iniciativa de las instituciones públicas y de las organizaciones de la sociedad civil, además de establecer un marco de cooperación entre todas ellas. Esta necesidad se hace más aún urgente en el contexto de crisis que vivimos, en el que la brecha económica entre clases se está acentuando mientras que las políticas del estado del bienestar se debilitan

Analysis of Lateral Displacements in Large Railway Viaducts Under Traffic Loads. Impact on Ride Safety and Passenger Comfort.

The increasing design speed of the new high speed lines and the stringent requirements on track alignment parameters are leading to a sustained increase of the number of railway viaducts. The relevant standards impose limiting values on lateral vibrations. Both the Spanish and European standards establish a minimum value for the first natural frequency of lateral vibration of a span, that should not be lower than fh0 = 1,2 Hz. This limit was originally proposed by ERRI committee D181, which assessed the lateral forces in railway bridges. This limit was proposed in order to avoid lateral resonance in railway vehicles going across the structure, taking into account that the frequencies of lateral vibration of railway vehicles are, in general, not greater than 1,0 Hz. In the case of large continuous viaducts with high piers, the lateral deformations occurring during a train pass-by can be significant and the natural frequencies of the first mode of vibration of the deck can be very low. In these cases it is not clear whether the required verifications must be applied to spans considered independently, to several successive spans or to the whole viaduct. There is currently no analysis methodology allowing to assess this situation and check the viaduct design against the requirements of ride safety and passenger comfort. This paper analyzes the lateral deformations of a large continuous viaduct and the infrastructure vehicle interaction effects due to the circulation of freight trains and several types of high speed train sat different speeds. The application of this methodology will allow an optimized design of viaducts with significant lateral deformations that cannot be justified only by using the simplified criteria of the current applicable standards. In such cases, the compliance with standards may lead to over dimensioning or in other cases to neglect the limits without the adequate verification of the proper infrastructure behavior once it has been commissioned. As it is the case for vertical deformations, for which the European standards require the assessment of dynamic effects, we stress the need for a dynamic analysis of the effects of lateral deformations in large railway viaducts

Biomechanical models for human gait analyses using inverse dynamics formulation

The main goal of this work is to present planar biomechanical multibody models, suitable to be used in inverse dynamic analyses. The proposed approach is straightforward and computationally efficient for the study of different human gait scenarios for normal and pathological. For this, a biomechanical model of the lower limb of the human body was developed. The biomechanical model consists of three bodies (thigh, calf and foot), corresponding to relevant anatomical segments of lower limb. These three rigid bodies are connected by revolute joints and described by eight natural coordinates, which are the Cartesian coordinates of the basic points located at the joints (hip, knee, ankle, metatarsal- phalangeal). The anthropometric dimensions of the model correspond to those of a normal male of 1.77 m and 80.0 kg. The total biomechanical system encompasses 5 degrees of freedom: 2 degrees if freedom for hip trajectory, 1 degree of freedom for hip flexion-extension motion, 1 degree of freedom for knee flexion-extension and 1 degree of freedom for ankle plantarflexion- dorsiflexion. The developed model was applied to solve an inverse dynamics problem of human motion. Therefore, the main objective of this simulation is to determine the joint moments-of- force and the joint reaction forces during an entire gait cycle, in order to compare with literature data.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Un acercamiento a las tecnologías a través de la 'paradoja de la diferencia’

Los autores se proponen un análisis exhaustivo de lo que el fenómeno de la digitalización supone, no ya para las industrias culturales y de la información, sino para la creación de cualquier modelo de negocio mínimamente coherente en una sociedad cada vez más globalizada y, al mismo tiempo, tan localizada y diferente

Linking Character Strengths and Key Competencies in Education and the Arts: A Systematic Review

Positive education, as a method for the positive development of students’ personality, embodies the 24 character strengths that Peterson and Seligman developed in their studies and that are necessary for new professional profiles. This new social and work landscape inspired supranational institutions, such as the European Union, to develop theories for new educational systems. These Key Competencies seek the comprehensive training of students, on not only the cognitive but the socioemotional plane, as occurs with arts education. With this literature review, we intend to demonstrate the relationship between the Key Competencies as catalysts for the development of character strengths in students through art education programmes. The results conclude that it is possible to define a relationship between the Key Competencies and character strengths and to outline the nature of these relationships, noting that certain patterns of combinations of strengths are repeated in the Key Competencies. Additionally, our work leads us to propose the need to increase the volume of research in this field and to design future studies that allow an empirical evaluation of the nature of these connections and whether they are efficient and enduring

El mejor reconocimiento al trabajo de los diseñadores de periódicos

Fermín Vílchez de Arribas nos presenta una insólita historia de la Prensa (con mayúsculas) diaria, aquella que hace referencia al aspecto estético de los periódicos y a los protagonistas que hicieron de su profesión -una labor no siempre reconocida- una apasionada defensa de la tecnología para resaltar los mensajes informativos.Este primer volumen (el autor se encuentra preparando una segunda parte) abarca desde el nacimiento del primer diario español en 1758 hasta la aparición del diario El País, en 1976. Los nueve interesantísimos capítulos que contiene se convierten en una ingente acopio de datos altamente contrastados que convierten a la obra en referencia indispensable para cualquier tipo de estudio o investigación en el tema

El papel de la información y la información en papel

La reseña aborda un volumen singular sobre periodismo y peródicos que se construye a partir de las entradas que el autor publica asiduamente en su blog: Erreadas. Javier Errea presenta una defensa del producto impreso desde la amplia experiencia que maneja en su quehacer diario e insiste en la idea de contar historias como la alternativa más válida para salvar la crisis de lectores en la que estamos inmersos. Defensor del periodismo de siempre, de la tinta y de los periodistas que tranochan, el autor cuestiona y combate a los gurus "sacacuartos" que promueven redacciones ciberneticas donde la integración –mantiene– es imposible. La recopilación se convierte así en un diario de los cambios que acontecen en el mundo de la Comunicación e identifica protagonistas emblemáticos de la reciente historia del periodismo mundial

Nintedanib decreases muscle fibrosis and improves muscle function in a murine model of dystrophinopathy

Duchenne muscle dystrophy (DMD) is a genetic disorder characterized by progressive skeletal muscle weakness. Dystrophin deficiency induces instability of the sarcolemma during muscle contraction that leads to muscle necrosis and replacement of muscle by fibro-adipose tissue. Several therapies have been developed to counteract the fibrotic process. We report the effects of nintedanib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, in the mdx murine model of DMD. Nintedanib reduced proliferation and migration of human fibroblasts in vitro and decreased the expression of fibrotic genes such as COL1A1, COL3A1, FN1, TGFB1, and PDGFA. We treated seven mdx mice with 60 mg/kg/day nintedanib for 1 month. Electrophysiological studies showed an increase in the amplitude of the motor action potentials and an improvement of the morphology of motor unit potentials in the animals treated. Histological studies demonstrated a significant reduction of the fibrotic areas present in the skeletal muscles. Analysis of mRNA expression from muscles of treated mice showed a reduction in Col1a1, Col3a1, Tgfb1, and Pdgfa. Western blot showed a reduction in the expression of collagen I in skeletal muscles. In conclusion, nintedanib reduced the fibrotic process in a murine model of dystrophinopathy after 1 month of treatment, suggesting its potential use as a therapeutic drug in DMD patients.España, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad BFU2016-74975-PEspaña, Instituto Ramón y Cajal PI13/0134

El efecto estabilizador de la financiación autonómica

El presente trabajo tiene por objetivo estimar el efecto estabilizador de la financiación autonómica en España sobre los ciclos económicos autonómicos, tanto en su conjunto como considerando individualmente cada Comunidad Autónoma y distinguiendo el efecto producido por los impuestos y por las transferencias. Además distinguimos entre un escenario considerando la financiación real proveniente de los recursos de los modelos de financiación y otro alternativo considerando la financiación estandarizada. Para la estimación agregada realizamos una estimación por Mínimos Cuadrados Generalizados a un panel de datos para el periodo total 1987-2010. Para la estimación individualizada del efecto estabilizador en cada Comunidad Autónoma, empleamos la técnica de Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) en el caso del periodo total. Los resultados obtenidos muestran que el efecto estabilizador del total de recursos para el periodo total es del 6,9% y 5,1% según usemos uno u otro escenario y que el efecto es asimétrico y de mayor amplitud que a nivel agregado cuando se calcula para cada Comunidad.The aim of this paper is to estimate the stabilizing effect of the regional financing in Spain on the regional business cycles, both as a whole and considering individually each Autonomous Community and distinguishing the effect of taxes and transfers. Furthermore, we distinguish between a scenario considering the actual financing resources from financing models and an alternative considering the standardized financing resources. For the aggregate estimation we implement a Generalized Least Squares estimation to a panel of data for the period 1987-2010. To estimate the individual stabilizing effect in each region, we employ the technique of Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) for the total period. The results show that the stabilizing effect of the total resources for the whole period is 6.9% and 5.1% as we use one or the other scenario and that the effect is asymmetric and wider than at the aggregate level when calculated for each Autonomous Community