PANAMÁ : EVALUACIÓN DE LA ACTUAL NEGOCIACIÓN MINERA Y EL DESARROLLO ECONÓMICO NACIONA

In Panama, there is currently a growing debate about the concession and exploitation of the highly valuable Panama Copper Mine, located in the district of Donoso, province of Colon. In a formal and perceptible way, the relevant problem concerns are the formalization of a new Contract-Law on the referred mine, between the Panamanian Government National and the business venture Minera Panamá, S.A., which is led by the Canadian multinational company First Quantum Minerals Limited.   However, upon an in-depth analysis of the Panamanian economy and society, it is evident that the existing critical mining problems have their roots in the abrupt change of the national mining developmental perspective and strategy, which was established in the ’70 years of last 20 century, in the government of General Omar Torrijos. This historical setback resulted in the abandonment of the mixed company model for managing Panamanian mining, and its unfortunate replacement by a pattern of mining concessions that were completely private and minimized the role of the State.   In Panamanian society, through a pragmatic identification, can be easily distinguished three notorious currents regarding mining and its roles for national development: A) Panama is worth more with mining; B) Panama is worth more without mining; and (C) Panama and forced mining. In each, their emblematic titles imply the contents they represent. The very certain thing is that the third current has become master of the national mining reality, and is establishing its concrete guidelines, above what the actors of currents A and B plant or think. Since 1997, the concession on the Panama Copper Mine is a symbol of an easy and overwhelming triumph over the Panamanian state and nation.  This article, structured methodologically sequential and with a colloquial communication style, seeks to contribute to the national debate by providing analysis and proposals of the conceptual and real events of the domestic and global mining activity, which enable readers to organize their opinions with more information, analysis and arguments. . Hopefully by the time the debates get red hot, and they will undoubtedly get, important segments of the Panamanian population have strengthened their principles and conclusions to take convenient positions, regarding the conflicting issues of the prevailing crisis.En Panamá transcurre un debate creciente sobre la concesión y explotación de la valiosísima Mina Cobre Panamá, ubicada en el distrito de Donoso, provincia de Colón. De manera formal y perceptible, el problema relevante concierne a la formalización de un nuevo Contrato-Ley sobre la mina aludida, entre el Estado Nacional y el consorcio empresarial Minera Panamá, S.A., que es liderado por la transnacional canadiense First Quantum Minerals Limited.   No obstante, analizando a fondo la economía y sociedad panameña, es evidente que los problemas mineros críticos existentes tienen sus raíces en el cambio abrupto de la perspectiva y estrategia minera desarrollista nacional, que fue establecida en los años 70’ del siglo pasado, en el gobierno del general Omar Torrijos. Dicho retroceso histórico trajo como resultados: el abandono del modelo de empresa mixta para gestionar la minería panameña, y su remplazo desafortunado por el patrón de concesiones mineras absolutamente privadas y minimizadoras del rol del Estado.   En la sociedad panameña, mediante una identificación pragmática pueden distinguirse fácilmente tres corrientes notorias respecto a la minería y sus roles para el desarrollo nacional: A) Panamá vale más con minería; B) Panamá vale más sin minería; y C) Panamá y la minería a la fuerza. En cada una, sus títulos emblemáticos implican los contenidos que representan. Lo muy cierto es que la tercera corriente se ha hecho dueña de la realidad minera nacional, y está estableciendo sus pautas concretas, por encima de lo que planten o piensen los actores de las corrientes A y B. Desde 1997, la concesión sobre la Mina Cobre Panamá es símbolo de un triunfo fácil y avasallador sobre el estado y nación panameña.  Este artículo estructurado metodológicamente secuencial y con un estilo de comunicación coloquial, busca contribuir al debate nacional aportando análisis y planteamientos de los eventos conceptuales y reales del quehacer minero doméstico y global, que posibiliten a los ciudadanos lectores organizar sus opiniones con mayor información, análisis y argumentaciones. Ojalá que ya para cuando los debates se pongan al rojo vivo, y sin duda se pondrán, segmentos importantes de la población panameña hayan fortalecido sus criterios y conclusiones para tomar posicionamientos convenientes, respecto a los temas conflictivos de la crisis imperante

PANAMÁ, MERCADO DE MEDICAMENTOS: INTERVENCIÓN ESTATAL Y POLÍTICA DE PRECIOS

This article intends to examine four analytical contexts, organized into the same number of general objectives. The first context: Explain the foundations of the regulatory systems of state intervention in the drug market. The second: Analyze some economic-social contexts of the drug market in Panama and its comparisons with Latin American countries. The third: Assess the measures related to the issue of medicines, officially adopted by the national government   in July 2022, as part of the results of the Single Dialogue Table for Panama; and the Fourth: Highlight the balance of the conditions required to favor changes in the development of public policies in access, prices and quality of the supply of medicines in Panama. We highlight the methodological aspects with a broad comprehensive vision of the objective need for regulatory policies in the drug market, especially those existing controversies between the market fetishist neoliberalism approach and the perspective of the common welfare economy. It also analyzes the factors of state intervention in the drug market, particularly in the conditions of prices and incidence in wages, comparing the situation of Panama with important Latin American countries. Finally, it is emphasized that in the regulations approved in July 2022 there are favorable purposes and evidence. In spite of this, the conditions of the validity times stand out, very short and not at all prudential, in order to structure corrective operations with lasting contexts, and thus establish scientific and integral planning mechanisms on a permanent basis.Este artículo tiene planteado examinar cuatro contextos analíticos, organizados en igual número de objetivos generales. El primer contexto: Explicar los fundamentos de los sistemas normativos de intervención estatal en el mercado de medicamentos. El segundo: Analizar algunos contextos económico-sociales del mercado de medicamentos en Panamá y sus comparaciones con países de Latinoamérica. El tercero: Valorar las medidas referentes a la temática de medicamentos, adoptadas oficialmente por el gobierno nacional en el mes julio de 2022, como parte de los resultados de la Mesa Única del Diálogo por Panamá; y el Cuarto: Destacar el balance de las condiciones requeridas para favorecer cambios en el desarrollo de políticas públicas en el acceso, precios y calidad del abastecimiento de medicamentos en Panamá. Destacamos los aspectos metodológicos con una amplia visión integral sobre la necesidad objetiva de políticas de regulación en el mercado de medicamentos, sobre todo aquellas controversias existentes entre el enfoque del neoliberalismo fetichista del mercado y la perspectiva de la economía del bienestar común. También analiza los factores de intervención estatal en el mercado de medicamentos particularmente en las condiciones de precios e incidencia en los salarios, comparando la situación de Panamá con importantes países latinoamericanos. Finalmente, se enfatiza que en las normativas aprobadas en julio de 2022 hay propósitos y evidencias favorables. A pesar de ello, sobresalen las condicionantes de los tiempos de vigencia, cortísimos y nada prudenciales, para lograr estructurar operativos correctivos con contextos duraderos, y así establecer mecanismos de planificación científica e integral en forma permanente

Application of artificial intelligence to refrigeration systems

Refrigeration systems currently use 20% of the total electrical energy, and this consumption is expected to increase by more than 30% between now and 2050. The optimization of these systems makes it possible to minimize CO2 emissions, increase energy efficiency and reduce costs. However, refrigeration system optimization problems are complex and time consuming. This is where sensorization and artificial intelligence come into play. Not many years ago, refrigeration systems were controlled with analog thermostats, and centralized supervision by SCADA systems using the data from sensors. Currently, we are in a completely digitized world thanks to massive sensorization, which is possible due to the development of the IoT (Internet of Things). The fundamental premise of the IoT is to connect the unconnectable by enabling new services and experiences. Complex machines and systems such as refrigeration systems can be measured comprehensively, down to the component level, and their data streams studied in real-time analysis systems. In this case, artificial intelligence can take the data to drive decision-making

Effect of an electric field within microscopy focused ion beam (FIB) between manipulator sharp and the ion trap of the electron detector

"The manipulation of samples with micro manipulators sharps in the normal axis to the observation plane is practically blind in microscopy focused ion beam (FIB) mono beam. The application of a negative potential to the manipulator sharp has been considered, which causes differences of electrical potential between the detector and the sample holder, generating an electric field between the sharp and the sample. This makes the electrons, aside the sample, undergo a greater deflection, reflecting in poorer contrast image. This deflection depends on a great extension of the sample holder height between the micromanipulator sharp, voltage deflector, q/m electron factor and electron acceleration.

Childhood T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia in a single Latin American center: impact of improved treatment scheme and support therapy on survival

Background and objective: T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) in children representsa high-risk disease. There is a lack of studies assessing the outcome of T-ALL in Hispanicpopulations, in which it is a rare malignancy. We report the characteristics and results oftreatment for childhood T-cell ALL in children over 14 years at a Latin American referencecenter.Material and methods: From January 2005 to December 2018, there occurred the analysisof twenty patients ≤ 16 years of age from a low-income open population diagnosed ata university hospital in Northeast Mexico. Clinical and laboratory characteristics, treat-ment regimens and outcomes were assessed by scrutinizing clinical records and electronicdatabases. Diagnosis was confirmed by flow cytometry, including positivity for CD-2, 5, 7and surface/cytoplasmic CD3. Survival rates were assessed by the Kaplan-Meier method.Results: There was a male preponderance (70 %), with a 2.3 male-to-female ratio (p = .074), themedian age being 9.5 years. Leucocytes at diagnosis were ≥ 50 × 109/L in 13 (65 %) children,with CNS infiltration in 6 (30 %) and organomegaly in 10 (50 %). The five-year overall survival(OS) was 44.3 % (95 % CI 41.96–46.62), significantly lower in girls, at 20.8 % (95 % CI 17.32–24.51)vs. 53.1 % (95 % CI 50.30–55.82), (p = .035) in boys; there was no sex difference in the event-freesurvival (EFS) (p = .215). The survival was significantly higher after 2010 (p = .034).Conclusion: The T-cell ALL was more frequent in boys, had a higher mortality in girls and thesurvival has increased over the last decade with improved chemotherapy and supportivecare

Modeling and Analysis of the Performance of Exascale Photonic Networks

"This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Duro, José, Jose A. Pascual, Salvador Petit, Julio Sahuquillo, and María E. Gómez. 2018. Modeling and Analysis of the Performance of Exascale Photonic Networks. Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience 31 (21). Wiley. doi:10.1002/cpe.4773, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/cpe.4773. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving."[EN] Photonics technology has become a promising and viable alternative for both on-chip and off-chip interconnection networks of future Exascale systems. Nevertheless, this technology is not mature enough yet in this context, so research efforts focusing on photonic networks are still required to achieve realistic suitable network implementations. In this regard, system-level photonic network simulators can help guide designers to assess the multiple design choices. Most current research is done on electrical network simulators, whose components work widely different from photonics components. In this work, we summarize and compare the working behavior of both technologies which includes the use of optical routers, wavelength-division multiplexing and circuit switching among others. After implementing them into a well-known simulation framework, an extensive simulation study has been carried out using realistic photonic network configurations with synthetic and realistic traffic. Experimental results show that, compared to electrical networks, optical networks can reduce the execution time of the studied real workloads in almost one order of magnitude. Our study also reveals that the photonic configuration highly impacts on the network performance, being the bandwidth per channel and the message length the most important parameters.This work was supported by the ExaNeSt project, funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under grant 671553, and by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) and Plan E funds under grant TIN2015-66972-C5-1-R. Pascual was supported by a HiPEAC Collaboration Grant.Duro-Gómez, J.; Pascual Pérez, JA.; Petit Martí, SV.; Sahuquillo Borrás, J.; Gómez Requena, ME. (2019). Modeling and Analysis of the Performance of Exascale Photonic Networks. Concurrency and Computation Practice and Experience. 31(21):1-12. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpe.4773S1123121Top500 website. Accessed January2018.Kodi, A. K., Neel, B., & Brantley, W. C. (2014). Photonic Interconnects for Exascale and Datacenter Architectures. 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Paper presented at: 31st International Conference on Architecture of Computing Systems (ARCS);2018.DuanG‐H FedeliJ‐M KeyvaniniaS ThomsonD et al.10 Gb/s integrated tunable hybrid III‐V/si laser and silicon Mach‐Zehnder modulator. Paper presented at: European Conference and Exhibition on Optical Communications;2012;Amsterdam The Netherlands.DuanGH JanyC Le LiepvreAL et al.Integrated hybrid III‐V/si laser and transmitter. Paper presented at: 2012 International Conference on Indium Phosphide and Related Materials;2012;Santa Barbara CA.Soref, R., & Bennett, B. (1987). Electrooptical effects in silicon. IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics, 23(1), 123-129. doi:10.1109/jqe.1987.1073206Liu, A., Liao, L., Rubin, D., Nguyen, H., Ciftcioglu, B., Chetrit, Y., … Paniccia, M. (2007). High-speed optical modulation based on carrier depletion in a silicon waveguide. Optics Express, 15(2), 660. doi:10.1364/oe.15.000660Thomson, D. J., Gardes, F. Y., Hu, Y., Mashanovich, G., Fournier, M., Grosse, P., … Reed, G. T. (2011). High contrast 40Gbit/s optical modulation in silicon. Optics Express, 19(12), 11507. doi:10.1364/oe.19.011507Bergman, K., Carloni, L. P., Biberman, A., Chan, J., & Hendry, G. (2014). Photonic Network-on-Chip Design. Integrated Circuits and Systems. doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-9335-9Dong, P., Chen, L., Xie, C., Buhl, L. L., & Chen, Y.-K. (2012). 50-Gb/s silicon quadrature phase-shift keying modulator. Optics Express, 20(19), 21181. doi:10.1364/oe.20.021181DongP LiuX SethumadhavanC et al.224‐Gb/s PDM‐16‐QAM modulator and receiver based on silicon photonic integrated circuits. Paper presented at: Optical Fiber Communication Conference/National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference;2013;Anaheim CA.Navaridas, J., Miguel-Alonso, J., Pascual, J. A., & Ridruejo, F. J. (2011). Simulating and evaluating interconnection networks with INSEE. 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Defects in the NC2 repressor affect both canonical and non-coding RNA polymerase II transcription initiation in yeast.

BACKGROUND: The formation of the pre-initiation complex in eukaryotic genes is a key step in transcription initiation. The TATA-binding protein (TBP) is a universal component of all pre-initiation complexes for all kinds of RNA polymerase II (RNA pol II) genes, including those with a TATA or a TATA-like element, both those that encode proteins and those that transcribe non-coding RNAs. Mot1 and the negative cofactor 2 (NC2) complex are regulators of TBP, and it has been shown that depletion of these factors in yeast leads to defects in the control of transcription initiation that alter cryptic transcription levels in selected yeast loci. RESULTS: In order to cast light on the molecular functions of NC2, we performed genome-wide studies in conditional mutants in yeast NC2 essential subunits Ydr1 and Bur6. Our analyses show a generally increased level of cryptic transcription in all kinds of genes upon depletion of NC2 subunits, and that each kind of gene (canonical or ncRNAs, TATA or TATA-like) shows some differences in the cryptic transcription pattern for each NC2 mutant. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that NC2 plays a general role in transcription initiation in RNA polymerase II genes that is related with its known TBP interchange function from free to promoter bound states. Therefore, loss of the NC2 function provokes increases in cryptic transcription throughout the yeast genome. Our results also suggest functional differences between NC2 subunits Ydr1 and Bur6

LGTBI culture in Spanish public libraries. Dialogue on new equality laws

The current relevance of LGTBI collections in public libraries is studied; these collections are included and prescribed in the recent laws for equality in Spanish regions such as Galicia, Catalonia, Extremadura, Madrid, Murcia, and Balearic Islands. After reflecting on the visibility of LGTBI authors and editorials, it is concluded that these collections are still scarce and that public libraries must learn about and incorporate information and documents that expand the social knowledge of sexual diversity