The NOW dilemma

Energy efficiency has found its place at the very core of the discussion in Architecture and Urban Planning. Research & Development, Political Agendas and Education Curriculums are increasingly driven by the need to reach a fair balance between the way we inhabit the world and the energy we require for it. After many decades neglecting this discussion a growing awareness about the carrying capacity of our environment is being brought to actual policies on the built environment. The dominant tendency today privileges economic growth, thus being the maximization of performed labor per energy unit its ultimate goal. Renewal energy sources and energy efficiency are means for, on the one hand, an alternative to finite fossil fuel sources and, on the other hand, the optimization in the use of energy. Very little attention has been paid, however, to a more profound paradigm shift in economy. Some authors, however, have also claimed replacing the myth of economic growth by a more steady-state development as a solution for the current sustainability conundrum. The question is whether withholding the use of energy might be an alternative to its hi-tech optimization. Some of the contemporary authors who have discussed the issue in recent energy crisis are recounted here for a wider and holistic understanding of the problem.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Stone on paper : architects manifesting on their cities

The role of architect in city-making has been the theme of unsolved debates in urbanism. Committed as performers and recipients of a holistic knowledge, architects-urbanists keep acting, still today, in--between idealism and pragmatism. The city, being frequently defined as a text, becomes the molten object where projects brought to materiality are able to build an intangible narrative. The paper presents the ongoing research 6by6, a compared analysis of cities where the apparent contradiction between idealism and practice is solved. Acknowledged American and European cities are analysed as a mean to illustrate the connections between the most extreme city-narrative – architectural manifestos ¿ with the most tangible material commitment – actual and implemented urban projects. This article announces them and reports on the manifestoes they are the cores of.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Two-person neuroscience and naturalistic social communication: The role of language and linguistic variables in brain-coupling research

Social cognitive neuroscience (SCN) seeks to understand the brain mechanisms through which we comprehend others? emotions and intentions in order to react accordingly. For decades, SCN has explored relevant domains by exposing individual participants to predesigned stimuli and asking them to judge their social (e.g., emotional) content. Subjects are thus reduced to detached observers of situations that they play no active role in. However, the core of our social experience is construed through real-time interactions requiring the active negotiation of information with other people. To gain more relevant insights into the workings of the social brain, the incipient field of two-person neuroscience (2PN) advocates the study of brain-to-brain coupling through multi-participant experiments. In this paper, we argue that the study of online language-based communication constitutes a cornerstone of 2PN. First, we review preliminary evidence illustrating how verbal interaction may shed light on the social brain. Second, we advance methodological recommendations to design experiments within language-based 2PN. Finally, we formulate outstanding questions for future research.Fil: García, Adolfo Martín. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Lenguas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; Argentina. Universidad Diego Portales; ChileFil: Ibanez Barassi, Agustin Mariano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; Argentina. Universidad Diego Portales; Chile. Universidad Autónoma del Caribe; Colombia. Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders; Australi

Commentary: Cerebellar atrophy and its contribution to cognition in frontotemporal dementias

Chen et al. (2018) provide unprecedented evidence of syndrome-specific changes in cerebellar gray matter integrity (mainly in lobules VI, Crus I and Crus II) across three frontotemporal dementia (FTD) subtypes, alongside specific associations with attentional, visuospatial, mnesic, and language-motor deficits. Moreover, results survived covariation with each group's distinctive atrophy pattern. These outcomes illuminate the critical role of the cerebellum in non-motor processes, while highlighting the relevance of distributed network approaches to cognitive (dys)function.Although the cerebellum has been implicated in higher-order domains (Roca et al., 2013; García et al., 2017; Sokolov et al., 2017), including executive functions, language, interoception, and social cognition, these results may prove surprising to many clinical neuroscientists. Indeed, the cerebellum remains notably underexplored within neurocognitive assessments of dementia, where it is still largely conceived as a specifically motoric region and is thus often excluded from imaging analyses seeking to map brain-behavior associations. Similarly, except for research on ataxia, systematic assessments of regional, and network-level alterations involving the cerebellum are wanting in the field. This counterproductive neglect, we believe, stems from a dissociation between dementia studies and current neurocognitive theories (Ibáñez and García, 2018).Fertile ground could be gained by anchoring neurodegeneration research on the embodied cognition approach, which has revealed multidimensional links between action-related circuits and higher-order functions. The cerebellum, as a core hub in these cortical-subcortical networks, would play an important, enactive role in several cognitive processes. While lesion and agenesia studies suggest that this role may not be causal, cerebellar circuits have been directly implicated in embodied domains (Koziol et al., 2012; Birba et al., 2017; García et al., 2017; Cervetto et al., 2018). Beyond the field's traditional focus on canonical atrophy patterns and selected cognitive skills, emerging evidence suggests that diffuse neurocognitive dysfunctions are partially overlapped across dementias. The profuse interconnectedness, functional richness, and transdiagnostic vulnerability of the cerebellum render it a key target to examine embodied cognitive deficits in FTD and other conditions.Accordingly, embodied theories of the cerebellum could become critical tools to foster relevant translational developments. First, they underscore the need to systematically report cerebellar involvement in diverse neurocognitive deficits. Also, they provide a profitable platform to track intercognitive phenomena?enactive synergies among varied psychobiological (dys)functions?from a network-based perspective (Koziol et al., 2012; Ibanez et al., 2014, 2018; García and Ibáñez, 2016; Birba et al., 2017; García et al., 2017; Cervetto et al., 2018; Ibáñez and García, 2018). Moreover, they promote a reinterpretation of symptoms from an action-grounded neurocognitive rationale (Krakauer et al., 2017). These milestones could have direct clinical implications, as the lack of proper theoretical frameworks can lead to neglecting, downplaying, or delaying the report of cerebellar disturbances across pathologies. We call for novel studies integrating embodied, intercognitive, network-based conceptualizations of the cerebellum to foster translational breakthroughs in dementia research.Fil: Ibáñez Barassi, Agustín Mariano. Universidad Adolfo Ibañez; Chile. Universidad Autónoma del Caribe; Colombia. Australian Research Council; Australia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt | Instituto de Neurología Cognitiva. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt | Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt; ArgentinaFil: García, Adolfo Martín. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt | Instituto de Neurología Cognitiva. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt | Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt; Argentin

Miopía Alta: definición, comorbilidad y corrección refractiva. Revisión bibliográfica

La definición Miopía Alta es un tema controvertido pues no hay consenso en la definición del umbral de equivalente esférico y/o longitud axial. La miopía, y especialmente la miopía alta, induce cambios en el ojo asociando comorbilidad que puede comprometer gravemente la visión. La corrección del defecto refractivo en miopías de alto rango es posible mediante distintas técnicas de cirugía refractiva que han evolucionado en los últimos años. La miopía se ha convertido en un grave problema de salud pública global por su alta y creciente prevalencia. El incremento en el número y rango de miopías altas es un verdadero desafío para la cirugía refractiva. El propósito de este trabajo es la realización de una revisión bibliográfica con el objetivo de actualizar la definición de la miopía alta, establecer las asociaciones que ésta tiene con otras patologías oculares y, por último, identificar y clasificar las distintas técnicas quirúrgicas disponibles para su corrección refractiva. Se realizó una búsqueda y revisión sistemática de publicaciones sobre miopía y miopía alta empleando el buscador PubMed (National Library of Medicine), y usando los términos: High Myopia AND Definition, High Myopia AND Ocular Complications, High Myopia AND Refractive Surgery. Se incluyeron todas las series de casos, estudios comparativos, ensayos clínicos, y revisiones publicados en la última década. Hay una discrepancia entre la definición de miopía alta que utiliza la Organización Mundial para la Salud (OMS) (equivalente esférico igual o inferior a -5,00 D) y el umbral empleado en muchos de los trabajos publicados en la última década (equivalente esférico inferior a -6,00 D). La prevalencia de catarata, glaucoma y desprendimiento de retina es mayor en los miopes altos. La maculopatía miópica, el estafiloma posterior, la neovascularización miópica, la foveosquisis miópica o maculopatía miópica traccional, el agujero macular miópico y la mácula en domo son complicaciones agrupadas en el concepto de miopía patológica que es más frecuente en miopía alta, aunque no se deben utilizar indistintamente sendos conceptos. La cirugía refractiva mediante remodelación láser de la córnea es una opción en la miopía alta pero dentro de un rango limitado y en córneas seleccionadas. En cambio, la cirugía intraocular permite la corrección de rangos mayores de miopía. Las lentes fáquicas son una buena alternativa, pero pueden estar contraindicadas en ciertos casos. La cirugía facorrefractiva es una opción, sobre todo si hay catarata, pero se debe evitar en menores de 40 años por el riesgo de desprendimiento de retina. Es necesaria la estandarización de la definición de miopía alta para obtener un conocimiento real de su epidemiología y así implementar medidas profilácticas y diseñar un abordaje diagnóstico y terapéutico más eficaces. La elección de la técnica refractiva en la miopía alta dependerá de la anatomía del ojo, del rango de corrección, de la edad y de las expectativas del paciente.Departamento de Cirugía, Oftalmología, Otorrinolaringología y FisioterapiaMáster en Investigación en Ciencias de la Visió

Piedra sobre papel : realidad y utopias urbanas a través de manifiestos de arquitectura

Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Lessons from Lipids in the Fight against Influenza

Influenza is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, with vaccines and antiviral drugs having limited efficacy thus far. Two recent studies in Cell apply lipidomics approaches to identify bioactive lipid mediators influencing host inflammation, viral replication, and disease progression

From master-plan to punctual interventions : alternative urban approaches for the renewal of former slums in Barcelona

The sloppy process of urbanization that took place in the outskirts of Barcelona from mid XIXth to mid XXth century resulted on large informal slums with evident urban deficiencies. The Metropolitan Masterplan of 1976 and its subsequent amendments could only partially improve the conditions of these areas of the city. Since 2005 some initiatives, in which local community or academic research played an important role, were undertaken following a tactical approach. The paper summarizes six proposed strategies that are a reaction to the traditional planning and zoning approach for the area. Some of them are currently been discussed or have already been included in the planning framework of the city.Postprint (published version