Activation of effector immune cells promotes tumor stochastic extinction: A homotopy analysis approach

In this article we provide homotopy solutions of a cancer nonlinear model describing the dynamics of tumor cells in interaction with healthy and effector immune cells. We apply a semi-analytic technique for solving strongly nonlinear systems - the Step Homotopy Analysis Method (SHAM). This algorithm, based on a modification of the standard homotopy analysis method (HAM), allows to obtain a one-parameter family of explicit series solutions. By using the homotopy solutions, we first investigate the dynamical effect of the activation of the effector immune cells in the deterministic dynamics, showing that an increased activation makes the system to enter into chaotic dynamics via a period-doubling bifurcation scenario. Then, by adding demographic stochasticity into the homotopy solutions, we show, as a difference from the deterministic dynamics, that an increased activation of the immune cells facilitates cancer clearance involving tumor cells extinction and healthy cells persistence. Our results highlight the importance of therapies activating the effector immune cells at early stages of cancer progression

Age effects in second language learning: stepping stones toward better understanding

"As should be apparent by now, the position taken in this book is that second language teaching should focus on encouraging acquisition, on providing input that stimulates the subconscious language acquisition potential all normal human beings have. This does not mean to say, however, that there is no room at all for conscious learning. Conscious learning does have a role, but it is no longer the lead actor in the play." (Krashen and Terrell, 1981). In his article, the author DeKeyser (2013), points out the relevance attained to the Second Language Learning, with controversial issues such as conceptual misunderstanding and methodological difficulties. On the other hand, the author seeks that the debate between each other is be able to agree on them, through the suggestions for improvement in subject selection, data collection, and instrumentation to understand how crucial is the age effects for educational policy and curriculum design; and how different are the foreign language learning from second language learning environments

La efectividad de la acción de repetición en el ordenamiento jurídico colombiano, problemáticas y desafíos

Dentro del trabajo se estudia la génesis de la acción de repetición, para lo cual se hará mención a las “teorías sobre la responsabilidad de la administración y de sus funcionarios”, continuando con la “responsabilidad del Estado y de sus agentes en Colombia”, información que le colegirá con jurisprudencia preconstitucional, dado que a través de pronunciamientos de la Corte Suprema de Justicia se inició con la tesis de falla en el servicio, indemnización y posterior repetición del Estado contra el servidor que cometió la conducta dolosa o gravemente culposa, por la que este fue condenado; analizando claro esta si este actuó bajo algún eximente de responsabilidad. En lo que respecta a la Constituyente de 1991, instancia en el que se estipulo este mecanismo, se analizaran documentos de la “Asamblea Nacional Constituyente” donde se refieren al artículo 90 superior, para lo cual se hará mención a ponencias, remitiéndose para tales efectos a gacetas constitucionales. En lo que atañe a la doctrina de esta acción contenciosa se encuentra material teórico en su mayoría anteriores a la expedición de la actual legislación administrativa (Ley 1437 de 2011) e igualmente de la creación de la “Agencia Nacional de Defensa Jurídica del Estado” (ANDJE), por ende dicho material no ha sido confrontado con la vanguardia social y jurídica, es decir esta como letra inerte carente de cualquier aplicabilidad sistemática, punto neurálgico que se analizara en el trabajo a realizarse, reforzando ello con estadísticas de acciones de repetición en el Consejo de Estado, Tribunal Administrativo de Cundinamarca y Juzgados Administrativos de la ciudad capital, igualmente se analizara una muestra (sentencias) de esta acción, puntualizando en aspecto como por qué no se repite, la cuantía que se pagó, entre otros; posteriormente y mediante entrevistas realizadas a personal idóneo en la materia se puntualizara de manera metódica en las falencias y alternativas de solución. Los antedichos mecanismos, medios y/o métodos arrojaron una dramática realidad de inefectividad de la acción de repetición por una serie de factores sustanciales, procesales, idoneidad de los funcionarios que la aplican, falta de objetividad de los comités de conciliación, en fin son muchos los componentes tanto endógenos como exógeno; por lo que se hace necesario un afianzamiento de las políticas de gobierno en la materia y un subsecuente apoyo por parte del legislativo, debido a que se requiere un robustecimiento normativo que responda de manera directa a la realidad de esta acción. No ajenos a este dantesco panorama de protección del erario se plantearon unas potenciales soluciones teniendo en cuenta apreciaciones de tratadistas y las personales de quien les escribe, como lo son el conocimiento del precedente, análisis preventivo de viabilidad, aplicación efectiva del llamamiento en garantía, afianzamiento del programa de descongestión judicial, entre otros. Aunado a lo anterior es palmario que la acción en repetición es inefectiva, no ha cumplido con los fines para los cuales fue creada y dada las necesidades de la nación, es prioridad tomar cartas en el asunto, replantear aspectos sustanciales, procesales y procedimentales.In this work is studied the genesis of the action under a right of recourse. For which it will make mention to the "theories on the responsibility for the administration and its officials, continuing with the "responsibility of the State officials and its agents in Colombia", information related with preconstitutional jurisprudence, since through pronouncements of the Supreme Court it began with the thesis of fails in service, compensation and subsequent repetition of the State against the server who committed willful or gravely culpable, by which was convicted; analyzing, of course, if the action was made under some defense of responsibility. With regard to the Constituent 1991 instance in which this mechanism was stipulated, documents "National Constituent Assembly" which refer to Article 90 above, of which mention will be made the Papers, referring to that effect to constitutional Gazette . With regard to the doctrine of this contentious action is mostly theoretical material before the issuance of the current administrative law (Law 1437, 2011) and also the creation of the "National Defense Agency State Law" (ANDJE), hence the material has not been confronted with the social and legal edge, is this as inert letter lacking any systematic applicability hub that will be analyzed in the work to be performed, reinforcing it with statistics on actions for recovery the State Council Administrative Court of Cundinamarca Administrative courts and the capital city, also a sample (sentences) in this action pointing look like why is not repeated, the amount to be paid, etc. is analyzed; and subsequently by interviewing appropriate personnel in the matter should clarify methodically on the shortcomings and possible solutions. The above mechanisms, means and / or methods gave a dramatic reality ineffectiveness of recourse by a number of substantive, procedural factors, eligibility of officials who apply, lack of objectivity of the conciliation committees in order are many endogenous and exogenous components, so a consolidation of government policy on the matter and subsequent support from the legislature, because a legislative strengthening to respond directly to reality required is necessary this action. No strangers to this Dantesque protection of public funds were raised about potential solutions taking into account assessments and personal writers who write them, such as previous knowledge, preventive feasibility analysis, effective application of appeal warranty strengthening judicial congestion program, among others. Apart from the foregoing is plain that the action replay is ineffective, has not fulfilled the purpose for which it was created and given the needs of the nation, is taking priority in the matter, reframe procedural and substantive procedural aspects

Comparative study between nail retraining with gauze bandaging and the nail remodeling with acrylics as a conservative treatment for stage I and IIa onychocryptosis

Objective: Onychocryptosis is one of the most prevalent onychopathies, being a frequent reason for consultation in podiatric clinical practice. Conservative treatments are the first therapeutic choice, with nail remodeling using clotrimazole gel emerging as an alternative, although its medium-term effectiveness is unknown. The objective of this study was therefore to compare the efficacy of the technique of nail retraining using gauze bandaging with that of nail remodeling for the conservative treatment of stage I and IIA onychocryptosis. Methods: An analytical, randomized clinical trial study was performed following a longitudinal and prospective design. A sample was selected of 20 subjects presenting stage I and IIA onychocryptosis. Of these, 10 cases formed the group of nail retraining using gauze bandaging, and the other 10 the nail remodeling group. The presence of recurrence in a 3-month period was evaluated. Results: Before the intervention, the patients in the retraining group presented pain of 6.7 ± 1.9 vs. 6.8 ± 1.6 in the remodeling group, with no significant difference between the two (p = 0.900). After the 3-month follow-up period, seven of the retraining group patients presented recurrence of onychocryptosis vs. only one in the remodeling group. Conclusion: The technique of nail remodeling has a lower recurrence rate than that of nail retraining with gauze bandaging, with the pain, inflammation, and infection reported being less, and with greater patient satisfactio

Detecting Serial Arcs in Aeronautical Applications Using Inductive Sensors

There is a clear trend in the aircraft industry to use more electrical systems in propulsion and electromechanical and electrohydraulic actuators to comply with environmental sustainability and to improve reliability and maintenance processes. The increase of electrical consumption requires an increase of the rated voltages to supply power to these so called more electrical aircraft (MEA). Unfortunately, this voltage rise, currently up to 540 V$_{dc}$, can lead to ionization processes within the electric wiring due to the lower air density at high altitudes. As a consequence, a degraded insulation can create extremely hazardous events in flight such as arcs between wires (serial) or between wires and fuselage (parallel). Serial arcs in dc bus circuits are specially dangerous for the aircraft operation, so its detection within fractions of seconds is required to ensure a reliable operation. However, during a sustained serial arc the rated current can be passing through air deceiving the protections and avoiding their tripping. In this article, it has been found that arcing introduces high frequency current pulses superimposed to the dc component that can be identified to detect the occurrence of an arc. The frequency components of these pulses depend on the line characteristics and can be detected with inductive sensors. This manuscript also designs and tests a light and inexpensive sensor for arc detection in aircraft applications.This work was supported by Airbus DS internal funding and by the Centro de Desarrollo Tecnologico e Industrial (CDTI) of the Spanish Goverment under Contract CDTI-HV-NET/IDI-20190530. Tests have been done in the high-voltage research and test laboratory (LINEALT) at the University Carlos III of Madri

Engineering bound states in the continuum at telecom wavelengths with non-Bravais lattices

Various optical phenomena can be induced in periodic arrays of nanoparticles by the radiative coupling of the local dipoles in each particle. Probably the most impressive example is bound states in the continuum (BICs), which are electromagnetic modes with a dispersion inside the light cone but infinite lifetime, i.e., modes that cannot leak to the continuum. Symmetry-protected BICs appear at highly symmetric points in the dispersion of periodic systems. Although the addition of nonequivalent lattice points in a unit cell is an easy and straightforward way of tuning the symmetry, BICs in such particle lattice, i.e., non-Bravais lattice, are less explored among periodic systems. Starting from a periodic square lattice of Si nanodisks, we have prepared three non-Bravais lattices by detuning size and position of the second disk in the unit cell. Diffraction-induced coupling excites magnetic/electric dipoles in each nanodisk, producing two surface lattice resonances at the $\Gamma$ point with a band gap in between. %of $\sim$ 41 meV. The high/low energy branch becomes a BIC for the size/position-detuned array, respectively, while both branches are bright (or leaky) when both size and position are detuned simultaneously. The role of magnetic and electric resonances in dielectric nanoparticles and the change of BIC to bright character of the modes is explained by the two different origins of BICs in the detuned arrays, which is further discussed with the aid of a coupled electric and magnetic dipole model. This study gives a simple way of tuning BICs at telecom wavelengths in non-Bravais lattices, including both plasmonic and dielectric systems, thus scalable to a wide range of frequencies.Comment: 26 pages, 5 figure

Defects in efferent duct multiciliogenesis underlie male infertility in GEMC1-, MCIDAS- or CCNO-deficient mice

GEMC1 and MCIDAS are geminin family proteins that transcriptionally activate E2F4/5-target genes during multiciliogenesis, including Foxj1 and Ccno. Male mice that lacked Gemc1, Mcidas or Ccno were found to be infertile, but the origin of this defect has remained unclear. Here, we show that all three genes are necessary for the generation of functional multiciliated cells in the efferent ducts that are required for spermatozoa to enter the epididymis. In mice that are mutant for Gemc1, Mcidas or Ccno, we observed a similar spectrum of phenotypes, including thinning of the seminiferous tubule epithelia, dilation of the rete testes, sperm agglutinations in the efferent ducts and lack of spermatozoa in the epididymis (azoospermia). These data suggest that defective efferent duct development is the dominant cause of male infertility in these mouse models, and this likely extends to individuals with the ciliopathy reduced generation of multiple motile cilia with mutations in MCIDAS and CCNO

Room Temperature Exciton-Polariton Condensation in Silicon Metasurfaces Emerging from Bound States in the Continuum

We show the first experimental demonstration of room-temperature exciton-polariton (EP) condensation from a bound state in the continuum (BIC). This demonstration is achieved by strongly coupling stable excitons in an organic perylene dye with the extremely long-lived BIC in a dielectric metasurface of silicon nanoparticles. The long lifetime of the BIC, mainly due to the suppression of radiation leakage, allows for EP thermalization to the ground state before decaying. This property results in a condensation threshold of less than 5 \mu J cm^{-2}, one order of magnitude lower that the lasing threshold reported in similar systems in the weak coupling limit

Health-Related quality of life and prevalence of depression and anxiety symptoms in patients in hemodyalisis from six hemodyalisis units in Bogotá, Colombia

Introducción: La insuficiencia renal crónica (IRC) es un problema de salud pública. La patología psiquiátrica en esta población puede repercutir en la calidad de vida relacionada con la salud (CVRS). La mayoría de estudios sobre CVRS y los síntomas depresivos y/o ansiosos no son latinoamericanos. Objetivo: determinar la CVRS y la prevalencia de depresión y ansiedad en pacientes de seis unidades renales de Bogotá, Colombia. Método: Estudio multicéntrico, descriptivo, de corte trasversal, en adultos de ambos sexos con IRC y que reciben tres sesiones semanales de hemodiálisis. Se les administraron las fichas de datos sociodemográficos SF-36 y HADS. Resultados: 174 sujetos participaron en el estudio, de los cuales 163 fueron considerados para el análisis final (entre 19 y 86 años de edad; 57,06% hombres). La CVRS física general fue de 38,70 (DE 8,62) y la CVRS mental general, de 44,73 (DE 10,39). Se sospecha de depresión en 15,95%, de problema clínico en 5,52%, de ansiedad en 16,46%. Se presenta un problema clínico en 13,29%. Conclusiones: Este estudio usa la muestra latinoamericana más grande de la que se tenga conocimiento. La CVRS es comparable con la hallada en otras poblaciones, excepto por el rango anormalmente bajo de desempeño físico. Al situar el punto de corte de la HADS para depresión en 9, se podría aumentar su sensibilidad aumentando la prevalencia de depresión. Conforme desciende la CVRS mental general, es mayor la presencia de depresión; a medida que desciende la CVRS total, es más probable la existencia de un cuadro ansioso.Q4622-636Introduction: End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) is a major health problem. Psychiatric comorbidity could affect Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQL). Most studies analyzing HRQL as well as depressive and/or anxiety symptoms have been undertaken in non-Latin-American populations. Objective: To determine HRQL and the prevalence of depression and anxiety in patients assisting to six hemodialysis (HD) units in Bogotá, Colombia. Method: Multicentric, descriptive, transversal study in patients over 18 of both genders with ESRD, who were receiving HD three times per week. A sociodemographic questionnaire, the SF-36, and the HADS were administered. Results: 174 subjects participated in the study, but only 163 were considered for the final analysis (ages ranged from 19 to 86 years old; 57.06 were males). The physical HRQL was 38.70 (SD 8.62) and the mental HRQL was 44.73 (SD 10.39). Depression was suspected in 15.95% and a clinical problem was present in 5.52% of the cases. Anxiety was suspected in 16.46% of the subjects and a clinical problem existed in 13.29% of them. Conclusions: This is the largest Latin-American sample known of to date. HRQL was comparable to other populations except for the Role-Physical, which is the lowest described in the literature. With the intention of increasing sensibility, the cut point of 9 might be the more appropriate when screening for depression with the HADS. As mental HRQL decreases, the presence of depression increases; as total HRQL decreases, the possibility of finding anxiety increases

Los músculos artificiales son motores eléctricos que sienten las condiciones de trabajo

Los actuadores de bicapa polipirrol-DBS-CI04-//polímero no conductor se comportan como dispositivos electro-quimio-mecánicos. Esto supone que al estar controlado su movimiento de flexión por una reacción electroquímica, cualquier magnitud fisica o química que afecte al equilibrio químico, modificará su comportamiento a través de la energía eléctrica consumida durante la actuación, como por ej emplo la corriente aplicada o la temperatura. Esta característica convierte a estos dispositivos en sensores de las condiciones ambientales y actuadores simultáneamente.Centro Universitario de la Defensa. Escuela de Turismo de Cartagena. Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Industrial UPCT. Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería de Telecomunicación (ETSIT). Escuela de Ingeniería de Caminos y Minas (EICM). Escuela de Arquitectura e Ingeniería de Edificación (ARQ&IDE). Parque Tecnológico de Fuente Álamo. Navantia. Campus Mare Nostru