Landslide Risk: Economic Valuation in the North-Eastern Zone of Medellin City

Natural disasters of a geodynamic nature can cause enormous economic and human losses. The economic costs of a landslide disaster include relocation of communities and physical repair of urban infrastructure. However, when performing a quantitative risk analysis, generally, the indirect economic consequences of such an event are not taken into account. A probabilistic approach methodology that considers several scenarios of hazard and vulnerability to measure the magnitude of the landslide and to quantify the economic costs is proposed. With this approach, it is possible to carry out a quantitative evaluation of the risk by landslides, allowing the calculation of the economic losses before a potential disaster in an objective, standardized and reproducible way, taking into account the uncertainty of the building costs in the study zone. The possibility of comparing different scenarios facilitates the urban planning process, the optimization of interventions to reduce risk to acceptable levels and an assessment of economic losses according to the magnitude of the damage. For the development and explanation of the proposed methodology, a simple case study is presented, located in north-eastern zone of the city of Medellín. This area has particular geomorphological characteristics, and it is also characterized by the presence of several buildings in bad structural conditions. The proposed methodology permits to obtain an estimative of the probable economic losses by earthquake-induced landslides, taking into account the uncertainty of the building costs in the study zone. The obtained estimative shows that the structural intervention of the buildings produces a reduction the order of 21 % in the total landslide risk. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd

Hidalgo Irrigation Pumphouse : Preserving Hidalgo Heritage

Physical item available at the UTRGV Special Collections & Archives Edinburg Campus. Link to record

2018-2019 Scholarship Fund Concert at the Country Club of Florida

https://spiral.lynn.edu/foc-events/1029/thumbnail.jp

2018-2019 Scholarship Fund Concert at Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club

https://spiral.lynn.edu/foc-events/1031/thumbnail.jp

Real scale evaluation of vibration mitigation of sub-ballast layers with added tyre-derived aggregate

[EN] This paper represents a final stage in the assessment of granular sub-ballast materials mixed with tyre-derived aggregate (TDA) without binder material. The objective is to evaluate such mixtures through a full-scale test under real traffic conditions. An experimental track with three 30-metre long sections was constructed: one section was built with conventional sub-ballast; and the other two sections were built with mixtures containing increasing rubber content. This track was then monitored using accelerometers. The results show a clear reduction in the acceleration peaks as rubber content increases. Moreover, the excited frequency bandwidth tends to become narrower and shifts to lower frequencies.The works presented in this paper are part of a research project (Project COMPOVIA) funded by the Spanish CDTI (Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnologico Industrial) and the CTA (Corporacion TecnolOgica de Andalucia). The authors also wish to thank ADIF for their collaboration during the measurements carried out in its facilities.Martínez Fernández, P.; Hidalgo Signes, C.; Villalba Sanchis, I.; Pérez Mira, D.; Insa Franco, R. (2018). Real scale evaluation of vibration mitigation of sub-ballast layers with added tyre-derived aggregate. Construction and Building Materials. 169:335-346. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.03.027S33534616

Imprisonment and internment: Comparing penal facilities North and South

Recent references to the ‘warehouse prison’ in the United States and the prisión-depósito in Latin America seem to indicate that penal confinement in the western hemisphere has converged on a similar model. However, this article suggests otherwise. It contrasts penal facilities in North America and Latin America in terms of six interrelated aspects: regimentation; surveillance; isolation; supervision; accountability; and formalization. Quantitatively, control in North American penal facilities is assiduous (unceasing, persistent and intrusive), while in Latin America it is perfunctory (sporadic, indifferent and cursory). Qualitatively, North American penal facilities produce imprisonment (which enacts penal intervention through confinement), while in Latin America they produce internment (which enacts penal intervention through release). Closely entwined with this qualitative difference are distinct practices of judicial involvement in sentencing and penal supervision. Those practices, and the cultural and political factors that underpin them, represent an interesting starting point for the explanation of the contrasting nature of imprisonment and internment

An Evaluation of the Resilient Modulus and Permanent Deformation of Unbound Mixtures of Granular Materials and Rubber Particles from Scrap Tyres to Be Used in Subballast Layers

[EN] Over the last years rubber from scrap tyres has been reused in different civil works such as road embankments and railway platforms due to its resilient properties, low degradation and vibration attenuation. Unfortunately, this issue is still scarce. For instance, in Spain about 175.000 tonnes of scrap tyres were collected in 2014, of which only 0.6% were reused in civil works. Aiming to contribute to the reutilisation of large quantities of this waste material, this paper focuses on the analysis of unbound mixtures of granular materials with different percentages of rubber particles to be used as subballast layers. Mixtures are tested under cyclic triaxial tests so as to obtain their resilient modulus and evaluate their permanent deformations. It is found that as the rubber content increases, the resilient modulus decreases and the permanent deformation increases. Taking into account the usual loads transmitted to the subballast layer, the optimum rubber content that does not compromise the behaviour of the mixture is set in a range between 2.5% and 5% in terms of weight. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.Hidalgo Signes, C.; Martínez Fernández, P.; Garzón-Roca, J.; Garrido De La Torre, ME.; Insa Franco, R. (2016). An Evaluation of the Resilient Modulus and Permanent Deformation of Unbound Mixtures of Granular Materials and Rubber Particles from Scrap Tyres to Be Used in Subballast Layers. Transportation Research Procedia. 18:384-391. doi:10.1016/j.trpro.2016.12.050S3843911

Increasing incidence and mortality of infective endocarditis: a population-based study through a record-linkage system

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Few population-based studies provide epidemiological data on infective endocarditis (IE). Aim of the study is to analyze incidence and outcomes of IE in the Veneto Region (North-Eastern Italy).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Residents with a first hospitalization for IE in 2000-2008 were extracted from discharge data and linked to mortality records to estimate 365-days survival. Etiology was retrieved in subsets of this cohort by discharge codes and by linkage to a microbiological database. Risk factors for mortality were assessed through logistic regression.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>1,863 subjects were hospitalized for IE, with a corresponding crude rate of 4.4 per 100,000 person-years, increasing from 4.1 in 2000-2002 to 4.9 in 2006-2008 (p = 0.003). Median age was 68 years; 39% of subjects were hospitalized in the three preceding months. 23% of patients underwent a cardiac valve procedure in the index admission or in the following year. Inhospital mortality was 14% (19% including hospital transfers); 90-days and 365-days mortality rose through the study years. Mortality increased with age and the Charlson comorbidity index, in subjects with previous hospitalizations for heart failure, and (in the subcohort with microbiological data) in IE due to Staphylococci (40% of IE).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The study demonstrates an increasing incidence and mortality for IE over the last decade. Analyses of electronic archives provide a region-wide picture of IE, overcoming referral biases affecting single clinic or multicentric studies, and therefore represent a first fundamental step to detect critical issues related to IE.</p

Association between COVID-19 prognosis and disease presentation, comorbidities and chronic treatment of hospitalized patients

mportance The rapid pandemic expansion of the disease caused by the new SARS-CoV-2 virus has compromised health systems worldwide. Knowledge of prognostic factors in affected patients can help optimize care. Objective The objective of this study was to analyze the relationship between the prognosis of COVID-19 and the form of presentation of the disease, the previous pathologies of patients and their chronic treatments. Design, participants and locations This was an observational study on a cohort of 418 patients admitted to three regional hospitals in Catalonia (Spain). As primary outcomes, severe disease (need for oxygen therapy via nonrebreather mask or mechanical ventilation) and death were studied. Multivariate binary logistic regression models were performed to study the association between the different factors and the results. Results Advanced age, male sex and obesity were independent markers of poor prognosis. The most frequent presenting symptom was fever, while dyspnea was associated with severe disease and the presence of cough with greater survival. Low oxygen saturation in the emergency room, elevated CRP in the emergency room and initial radiological involvement were all related to worse prognosis. The presence of eosinophilia (% of eosinophils) was an independent marker of less severe disease. Conclusions This study identified the most robust markers of poor prognosis for COVID-19. These results can help to correctly stratify patients at the beginning of hospitalization based on the risk of developing severe disease

A disease-specific decline of the relative abundance of Bifidobacterium in patients with autoimmune hepatitis

BACKGROUND:The pathogenesis of autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is poorly understood and little is known about enteric microbiota in AIH. AIM:To investigate disease-specific microbiome alterations in AIH. METHODS:The V1-V2 variable regions of the 16S rRNA gene were sequenced in faecal samples from 347 patients with AIH and controls (AIH n = 72, healthy controls (HC) n = 95, primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) n = 99 and ulcerative colitis (UC) n = 81). RESULTS:Biodiversity (Shannon entropy) was decreased in AIH patients compared to HC (P = 0.016), which was partially reversed by azathioprine (P = 0.011). Regarding between-sample diversity, AIH patients separated from HC, PBC and UC individuals (all P = 0.001). Compared to HC, decreased relative abundance of anaerobic genera such as Faecalibacterium and an increase of Veillonella and the facultative anaerobic genera Streptococcus and Lactobacillus were detected. Importantly, a disease-specific decline of relative abundance of Bifidobacterium was observed in AIH patients. Lack of Bifidobacterium was associated with failure to achieve remission of AIH (P < 0.001). Of potential therapeutic implication, Bifidobacterium abundance correlated with average protein intake (P < 0.001). Random forests classification between AIH and PBC on the microbiome signature yielded an area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.787 in the training cohort, and an AUC of 0.849 in an external validation cohort. CONCLUSION:Disease-specific faecal microbial alterations were identified in patients with AIH. Intestinal dysbiosis in AIH was characterised by a decline of Bifidobacterium, which was associated with increased disease activity. These results point to the contribution of intestinal microbiota to AIH pathogenesis and to novel therapeutic targets