Impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular testing in the United States versus the rest of the world

Objectives: This study sought to quantify and compare the decline in volumes of cardiovascular procedures between the United States and non-US institutions during the early phase of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the care of many non-COVID-19 illnesses. Reductions in diagnostic cardiovascular testing around the world have led to concerns over the implications of reduced testing for cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Methods: Data were submitted to the INCAPS-COVID (International Atomic Energy Agency Non-Invasive Cardiology Protocols Study of COVID-19), a multinational registry comprising 909 institutions in 108 countries (including 155 facilities in 40 U.S. states), assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volumes of diagnostic cardiovascular procedures. Data were obtained for April 2020 and compared with volumes of baseline procedures from March 2019. We compared laboratory characteristics, practices, and procedure volumes between U.S. and non-U.S. facilities and between U.S. geographic regions and identified factors associated with volume reduction in the United States. Results: Reductions in the volumes of procedures in the United States were similar to those in non-U.S. facilities (68% vs. 63%, respectively; p = 0.237), although U.S. facilities reported greater reductions in invasive coronary angiography (69% vs. 53%, respectively; p < 0.001). Significantly more U.S. facilities reported increased use of telehealth and patient screening measures than non-U.S. facilities, such as temperature checks, symptom screenings, and COVID-19 testing. Reductions in volumes of procedures differed between U.S. regions, with larger declines observed in the Northeast (76%) and Midwest (74%) than in the South (62%) and West (44%). Prevalence of COVID-19, staff redeployments, outpatient centers, and urban centers were associated with greater reductions in volume in U.S. facilities in a multivariable analysis. Conclusions: We observed marked reductions in U.S. cardiovascular testing in the early phase of the pandemic and significant variability between U.S. regions. The association between reductions of volumes and COVID-19 prevalence in the United States highlighted the need for proactive efforts to maintain access to cardiovascular testing in areas most affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 infection

XVI International Congress of Control Electronics and Telecommunications: "Techno-scientific considerations for a post-pandemic world intensive in knowledge, innovation and sustainable local development"

Este título, sugestivo por los impactos durante la situación de la Covid 19 en el mundo, y que en Colombia lastimosamente han sido muy críticos, permiten asumir la obligada superación de tensiones sociales, políticas, y económicas; pero sobre todo científicas y tecnológicas. Inicialmente, esto supone la existencia de una capacidad de la sociedad colombiana por recuperar su estado inicial después de que haya cesado la perturbación a la que fue sometida por la catastrófica pandemia, y superar ese anterior estado de cosas ya que se encontraban -y aún se encuentran- muchos problemas locales mal resueltos, medianamente resueltos, y muchos sin resolver: es decir, habrá que rediseñar y fortalecer una probada resiliencia social existente - producto del prolongado conflicto social colombiano superado parcialmente por un proceso de paz exitoso - desde la tecnociencia local; como lo indicaba Markus Brunnermeier - economista alemán y catedrático de economía de la Universidad de Princeton- en su libro The Resilient Society…La cuestión no es preveerlo todo sino poder reaccionar…aprender a recuperarse rápido.This title, suggestive of the impacts during the Covid 19 situation in the world, and which have unfortunately been very critical in Colombia, allows us to assume the obligatory overcoming of social, political, and economic tensions; but above all scientific and technological. Initially, this supposes the existence of a capacity of Colombian society to recover its initial state after the disturbance to which it was subjected by the catastrophic pandemic has ceased, and to overcome that previous state of affairs since it was found -and still is find - many local problems poorly resolved, moderately resolved, and many unresolved: that is, an existing social resilience test will have to be redesigned and strengthened - product of the prolonged Colombian social conflict partially overcome by a successful peace process - from local technoscience; As Markus Brunnermeier - German economist and professor of economics at Princeton University - indicates in his book The Resilient Society...The question is not to foresee everything but to be able to react...learn to recover quickly.Bogot

Neural reflex regulation of systemic inflammation: potential new targets for sepsis therapy.

Sepsis progresses to multiple organ dysfunction due to the uncontrolled release of inflammatory mediators, and a growing body of evidence shows that neural signals play a significant role in modulating the immune response. Thus, similar toall other physiological systems, the immune system is both connected to and regulated by the central nervous system. The efferent arc consists of the activation of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis, sympathetic activation, the cholinergic anti-inflammatory reflex, and the local release of physiological neuromodulators. Immunosensory activity is centered on the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, signals that are conveyed to the brain through different pathways. The activation of peripheral sensory nerves, i.e., vagal paraganglia by the vagus nerve, and carotid body (CB) chemoreceptors by the carotid/sinus nerve are broadly discussed here. Despite cytokine receptor expression in vagal afferent fibers, pro-inflammatory cytokines have no significant effect on vagus nerve activity. Thus, the CB may be the source of immunosensory inputs and incoming neural signals and, in fact, sense inflammatory mediators, playing a protective role during sepsis. Considering that CB stimulation increases sympathetic activity and adrenal glucocorticoids release, the electrical stimulation of arterial chemoreceptors may be suitable therapeutic approach for regulating systemic inflammation

FULL Investiga N°2

Contiene: Educación en competencias socio emocionales: una transformación escolar necesaria para las infancias / Lupe García Cano, Soledad Niño Murcia -- Economía Informal: la otra cara de la pandemia COVID-19 / Sandra Patricia Bohórquez Pacheco, Melva Inés Gómez Caicedo -- Valoración crítica de manuales de investigación contable: entre la orientación y la prescripción / Mateo Bedoya García, Andrés Cabrera Narváez, Fabián Leonardo Quinche Martín -- Formación docente en Colombia: una cuestión de calidad educativa / Juan Carlos Mariño Mendoza -- Didácticas y estrategias para el aprendizaje virtual del diseño / Nidia Raquel Gualdrón Cantor -- Panorama del sector turístico: tema de reflexión académica en el año 2020 / Ana Milena Luengas Alarcón -- Realidad Virtual bajo una visión modular de Industria 4.0 / Juan P. Navarro Londoño, Luis E. Vallejo Sánchez -- El poder de la voz para el control de las enfermedades crónicas / María Carolina Niño Rivera -- La ilustración gráfica aplicada al campo médico / Elena Patricia Ramírez Agudelo, Armando Armando -- Iglesia, prensa y anticlericalismo: escenarios del proyecto modernizador en la Colombia de mediados del siglo XIX / Roberto Herrera Cañón -- Reflexiones sobre la Ilustración gráfica en Colombia: la ilustración en la literatura infantil como otra manera de escribir / Juliet Daniela Galindo Zuleta, Edison Javier Mora González -- El ecosistema de emprendimiento en Bogotá, incipiente, pero en crecimiento / Yurian Adriana Bustamante Reyes, Danna Mitchelle Mejía Villarruel, Maicol Esneider Novoa González -- Intervención estatal: ¿contribuye o retarda el desarrollo económico? / María Fernanda León Castillo.Fundación Universitaria Los Libertadore

Considerations and consequences of allowing DNA sequence data as types of fungal taxa

Nomenclatural type definitions are one of the most important concepts in biological nomenclature. Being physical objects that can be re-studied by other researchers, types permanently link taxonomy (an artificial agreement to classify biological diversity) with nomenclature (an artificial agreement to name biological diversity). Two proposals to amend the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN), allowing DNA sequences alone (of any region and extent) to serve as types of taxon names for voucherless fungi (mainly putative taxa from environmental DNA sequences), have been submitted to be voted on at the 11th International Mycological Congress (Puerto Rico, July 2018). We consider various genetic processes affecting the distribution of alleles among taxa and find that alleles may not consistently and uniquely represent the species within which they are contained. Should the proposals be accepted, the meaning of nomenclatural types would change in a fundamental way from physical objects as sources of data to the data themselves. Such changes are conducive to irreproducible science, the potential typification on artefactual data, and massive creation of names with low information content, ultimately causing nomenclatural instability and unnecessary work for future researchers that would stall future explorations of fungal diversity. We conclude that the acceptance of DNA sequences alone as types of names of taxa, under the terms used in the current proposals, is unnecessary and would not solve the problem of naming putative taxa known only from DNA sequences in a scientifically defensible way. As an alternative, we highlight the use of formulas for naming putative taxa (candidate taxa) that do not require any modification of the ICN.Peer reviewe

The study of public administration in India, the Philippines, Canada and Australia: the universal struggle against epistemic colonization, and toward critical assimilation

The study of public administration has been characterized as a strong international focus, as both governments and scholars have sought to learn from the experience of other societies. While in a perfect world, one would expect a sort of pragmatic universalism, instead, many scholars tend to bring lessons from one country, or from a single cultural reality. This modest contribution lies in showing a series of national experiences rarely brought to the discourse about public administration in Brazil: Canada, Australia, India and the Philippines. Special emphasis will be given to the following: the origins and the development of public administration; the influence of ideology; and the complex tension between global theory and local practices

Ingeniería del software e ingeniería del conocimiento. Dos disciplinas interrelacionadas

El libro que ahora nos ocupa, titulado “Ingeniería de Software e Ingeniería del Conocimiento: dos disciplinas interrelacionadas” surge con los aportes de una gran cantidad de grupos iberoamericanos que presentan conclusiones importantes sobre estas dos disciplinas. Se presentan proyectos en diferentes temas, como entornos virtuales de aprendizaje, transferencia del conocimiento, modelos y metodologías del software como PSP y Scrum, elementos de ingeniería de requisitos, arquitecturas y lenguajes, además de varias técnicas y estrategias de enseñanza y tendencias modernas como Semat. Todos estos temas se conjugan y, en ocasiones, sus límites se hacen borrosos entre las dos disciplinas que dan nombre a este libro, entregando en 22 Capítulos aportes de gran relevancia para el entorno científico Iberoamericano. Confiamos en que las contribuciones que se incluyen en este libro susciten nuevas maneras de aproximar aún más la Ingeniería de Software y la Ingeniería del Conocimiento, como áreas que tienen mucho que aportarse la una a la otra