La inserción laboral de los y las profesionales con doctorado en Ciencias Sociales en Argentina

This paper presents a preliminary analysis of a research project`s results on the labor insertion of professionals with a doctorate in Social Sciences in Argentina. The interest in the labor insertion of doctors has been gaining relevance in studies on public policies in science and technology. It is intended to relieve here, in the first place, the public policy developed to employ doctors, as well as the main features of the system. Then, the data arising from the survey will be analyzed, which will allow to survey the most salient edges of the so-called labor market of professionals with doctorates in the area of ​​Social Sciences. Finally, it will conclude with suggestions so that public policy can resolve the difficulties that the labor market presents for doctorates in Social Sciences.Este trabajo presenta un análisis preliminar de los resultados de un proyecto de investigación sobre la inserción laboral de los y las profesionales con doctorado en Ciencias Sociales en Argentina. El interés por la inserción laboral de los doctores viene ganando relevancia dentro de los estudios sobre las políticas públicas en ciencia y tecnología. Se pretende relevar aquí, en primer lugar, la política pública desarrollada para insertar laboralmente a los doctores de reciente graduación, así como los principales rasgos del sistema. Luego se analizarán los datos surgidos de la encuesta base de este estudio que posibilitará relevar las aristas mas salientes del denominado mercado laboral de los profesionales con doctorado en el área de las Ciencias Sociales. Finalmente, se concluirá con sugerencias para que, desde la política pública, puedan atenderse las dificultades que presenta el mercado laboral de los doctores en Ciencias Sociales.  &nbsp

Políticas en ciencia y tecnología y Universidad en Argentina : Análisis sobre la formación e inserción de los recursos humanos calificados

En este trabajo nos proponemos centrar la mirada, por una parte, en la definición de pautas de política para la formación de recursos humanos a través del análisis del Plan Estratégico Bicentenario –así como de las Bases para su implementación- como del nuevo Plan de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación 2012-2015 denominado para una Argentina Innovadora. Por otra parte, en considerar el impacto que tales propuestas de política han tenido para el sector en los últimos siete años (desde el 2003 al 2010). Nos concentraremos especialmente en el análisis de las políticas públicas en la particular relación entre CONICET, en menor medida FONCYT y las universidades.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

Challenges for linking the public university with the demands of social and governmental actors

El presente trabajo se enmarca en una investigación acerca de los procesos de transferencia de conocimientos generados por las ciencias sociales. Puntualmente nos interesa abarcar los procesos de vinculación generados desde el ámbito universitario con sectores gubernamentales y organizaciones de la sociedad civil. Los casos analizados pertenecen a grupos de investigación acreditados en el marco del programa de subsidios UBACyT de la Universidad de Buenos Aires entre los años 2002 y 2007 y se han seleccionado en base a tres áreas-problema: salud, vivienda y educación. Aquí presentamos los resultados de las entrevistas realizadas en torno a tres ejes: a) las características de las experiencias de vinculación efectivamente realizadas y las dificultades encontradas, b) las características de la conformación de los grupos y su trayectoria previa y c) el papel jugado por la universidad como institución. En último término nos proponemos mostrar las tensiones en torno a la definición de los objetivos de la producción y transferencia de conocimientos que se evidencian en el discurso de los grupos analizados y las repercusiones que esto tiene en las estrategias de investigación y vinculación de los investigadores.This paper is framed within a research project about the processes of transferring knowledge generated by the social sciences. More precisely, it is focused on the linking processes generated between the academic sector and government and civil society organizations. The sample consists of cases from research groups funded by the UBACYT program at the University of Buenos Aires between 2002 and 2007. Selection of these groups was made according to three problem areas: health, housing and education. This work presents the results of interviews that considered three main points: a) characteristics of the effectively established relations and the difficulties found; b) the characteristics of forming groups and their previous experience; c) the role played by the university as an academic institution in the transfer process. Finally, the study evidences the presence of tensions regarding the definition of objectives for knowledge production and transfer in the discourse of the research groups analyzed, and the repercussions that this has on the research and linkage strategies chosen by the researchers.Fil: Emiliozzi, Sergio Fabian. Universidad de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Vasen, Federico. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes; ArgentinaFil: Palumbo, María Mercedes. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. Instituto de Ciencias de la Educación; Argentin

Motivations for collaborating with industry: has public policy influenced new academics in Argentina?

Between 2005 and 2015 a series of science, technology and innovation policies were deployed in Argentina among which academic research collaborations with industry was particularly fostered. This paper studies the effect of those policies on newer researchers, defined as those with PhD or postdoctoral scholarships, looking at their motivations to collaborate and, to some extent, at their actual collaborations with Industry. Our hypothesis is that those policies had a positive effect on young academics’ perception of collaborations with industry, now conceived as a dimension of their job, and also on actual collaborations. To conduct our study, we used an original database constructed from an online survey answered by more than 600 newer researchers. Empirical results partly confirm our hypothesis: a direct policy encouraging collaborations by providing collaborative grants was not associated with actual collaborations, while orienting research towards strategic areas–defined by the Science and Technology Ministry- is

An explainable model of host genetic interactions linked to COVID-19 severity

We employed a multifaceted computational strategy to identify the genetic factors contributing to increased risk of severe COVID-19 infection from a Whole Exome Sequencing (WES) dataset of a cohort of 2000 Italian patients. We coupled a stratified k-fold screening, to rank variants more associated with severity, with the training of multiple supervised classifiers, to predict severity based on screened features. Feature importance analysis from tree-based models allowed us to identify 16 variants with the highest support which, together with age and gender covariates, were found to be most predictive of COVID-19 severity. When tested on a follow-up cohort, our ensemble of models predicted severity with high accuracy (ACC = 81.88%; AUCROC = 96%; MCC = 61.55%). Our model recapitulated a vast literature of emerging molecular mechanisms and genetic factors linked to COVID-19 response and extends previous landmark Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS). It revealed a network of interplaying genetic signatures converging on established immune system and inflammatory processes linked to viral infection response. It also identified additional processes cross-talking with immune pathways, such as GPCR signaling, which might offer additional opportunities for therapeutic intervention and patient stratification. Publicly available PheWAS datasets revealed that several variants were significantly associated with phenotypic traits such as "Respiratory or thoracic disease", supporting their link with COVID-19 severity outcome.A multifaceted computational strategy identifies 16 genetic variants contributing to increased risk of severe COVID-19 infection from a Whole Exome Sequencing dataset of a cohort of Italian patients

Carriers of ADAMTS13 Rare Variants Are at High Risk of Life-Threatening COVID-19

Thrombosis of small and large vessels is reported as a key player in COVID-19 severity. However, host genetic determinants of this susceptibility are still unclear. Congenital Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura is a severe autosomal recessive disorder characterized by uncleaved ultra-large vWF and thrombotic microangiopathy, frequently triggered by infections. Carriers are reported to be asymptomatic. Exome analysis of about 3000 SARS-CoV-2 infected subjects of different severities, belonging to the GEN-COVID cohort, revealed the specific role of vWF cleaving enzyme ADAMTS13 (A disintegrin-like and metalloprotease with thrombospondin type 1 motif, 13). We report here that ultra-rare variants in a heterozygous state lead to a rare form of COVID-19 characterized by hyper-inflammation signs, which segregates in families as an autosomal dominant disorder conditioned by SARS-CoV-2 infection, sex, and age. This has clinical relevance due to the availability of drugs such as Caplacizumab, which inhibits vWF-platelet interaction, and Crizanlizumab, which, by inhibiting P-selectin binding to its ligands, prevents leukocyte recruitment and platelet aggregation at the site of vascular damage

Gain- and Loss-of-Function CFTR Alleles Are Associated with COVID-19 Clinical Outcomes

Carriers of single pathogenic variants of the CFTR (cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator) gene have a higher risk of severe COVID-19 and 14-day death. The machine learning post-Mendelian model pinpointed CFTR as a bidirectional modulator of COVID-19 outcomes. Here, we demonstrate that the rare complex allele [G576V;R668C] is associated with a milder disease via a gain-of-function mechanism. Conversely, CFTR ultra-rare alleles with reduced function are associated with disease severity either alone (dominant disorder) or with another hypomorphic allele in the second chromosome (recessive disorder) with a global residual CFTR activity between 50 to 91%. Furthermore, we characterized novel CFTR complex alleles, including [A238V;F508del], [R74W;D1270N;V201M], [I1027T;F508del], [I506V;D1168G], and simple alleles, including R347C, F1052V, Y625N, I328V, K68E, A309D, A252T, G542*, V562I, R1066H, I506V, I807M, which lead to a reduced CFTR function and thus, to more severe COVID-19. In conclusion, CFTR genetic analysis is an important tool in identifying patients at risk of severe COVID-19

SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and COVID-19 disease severity are associated with genetic variants affecting gene expression in a variety of tissues

Variability in SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and COVID-19 disease severity between individuals is partly due to genetic factors. Here, we identify 4 genomic loci with suggestive associations for SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and 19 for COVID-19 disease severity. Four of these 23 loci likely have an ethnicity-specific component. Genome-wide association study (GWAS) signals in 11 loci colocalize with expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) associated with the expression of 20 genes in 62 tissues/cell types (range: 1:43 tissues/gene), including lung, brain, heart, muscle, and skin as well as the digestive system and immune system. We perform genetic fine mapping to compute 99% credible SNP sets, which identify 10 GWAS loci that have eight or fewer SNPs in the credible set, including three loci with one single likely causal SNP. Our study suggests that the diverse symptoms and disease severity of COVID-19 observed between individuals is associated with variants across the genome, affecting gene expression levels in a wide variety of tissue types

Genetic mechanisms of critical illness in COVID-19.

Host-mediated lung inflammation is present1, and drives mortality2, in the critical illness caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Host genetic variants associated with critical illness may identify mechanistic targets for therapeutic development3. Here we report the results of the GenOMICC (Genetics Of Mortality In Critical Care) genome-wide association study in 2,244 critically ill patients with COVID-19 from 208 UK intensive care units. We have identified and replicated the following new genome-wide significant associations: on chromosome 12q24.13 (rs10735079, P = 1.65 × 10-8) in a gene cluster that encodes antiviral restriction enzyme activators (OAS1, OAS2 and OAS3); on chromosome 19p13.2 (rs74956615, P = 2.3 × 10-8) near the gene that encodes tyrosine kinase 2 (TYK2); on chromosome 19p13.3 (rs2109069, P = 3.98 ×  10-12) within the gene that encodes dipeptidyl peptidase 9 (DPP9); and on chromosome 21q22.1 (rs2236757, P = 4.99 × 10-8) in the interferon receptor gene IFNAR2. We identified potential targets for repurposing of licensed medications: using Mendelian randomization, we found evidence that low expression of IFNAR2, or high expression of TYK2, are associated with life-threatening disease; and transcriptome-wide association in lung tissue revealed that high expression of the monocyte-macrophage chemotactic receptor CCR2 is associated with severe COVID-19. Our results identify robust genetic signals relating to key host antiviral defence mechanisms and mediators of inflammatory organ damage in COVID-19. Both mechanisms may be amenable to targeted treatment with existing drugs. However, large-scale randomized clinical trials will be essential before any change to clinical practice