P-Lingua 2.0: New Features and First Applications

P-Lingua is a programming language for membrane computing. It was rst presented in Edinburgh, during the Ninth Workshop on Membrane Computing (WMC9). In this paper, the models, simulators and formats included in P-Lingua in version 2.0 are explained. We focus on the stochastic model, associated simulators and updated features. Finally, we present two new applications based on P-Lingua 2.0: a tool for describing and simulating ecosystems and a framework (currently under development) for P systems design.Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia TIN2006–13425Junta de Andalucía P08-TIC-0420

Solving the N-Queens Puzzle with P Systems

The N-queens puzzle consists on placing N queens on an N x Ngrid in such way that no two queens are on the same row, column or diagonal line. In this paper we present a family of P systems with active membranes (one P system for each value of N) that provides all the possible solutions to the puzzle.Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia TIN2006-13425Junta de Andalucía P08-TIC-0420

An Overview of P-Lingua 2.0

P–Lingua is a programming language for membrane computing which aims to be a standard to define P systems. In order to implement this idea, a Java library called pLinguaCore has been developed as a software framework for cell–like P systems. It is able to handle input files (either in XML or in P–Lingua format) defining P systems from a number of different cell–like P system models. Moreover, the library includes several built–in simulators for each supported model. For the sake of software portability, pLinguaCore can export a P system definition to any convenient output format (currently XML and binary formats are available). This software is not a closed product, but it can be extended to accept new input or output formats and also new models or simulators. The term P–Lingua 2.0 refers to the software package consisting of the above mentioned library together with a user interface called pLinguaPlugin (more details can be found at http://www.p-lingua.org). Finally, in order to illustrate the software, this paper includes an application using pLinguaCore for describing and simulating ecosystems by means of P systems.Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia TIN2006-13425Junta de Andalucía TIC04200

To survive on the street there must be fear

ABSTRACT: To understand the meaning of fear and how to face it, from the participant point of view. Methodology: Ethnographic qualitative research was made with children living on the street in Medellin city from 2005 to 2007. It was an apply observation, interviews and field book Technics. Results and Discussion: The fear on the street is based on the fear to the other one, to lose the beloved one, to aggression, to be killed, to the pain caused by injuries, to be a drug addict, to lose freedom and to AIDS. The fear has several meanings “Adrenalin” and “enemy”; the former allows the street people to run away and face some situations, and the latter paralyses and freezes them, so they can be caught, hurt or even killed. Conclusions: Fear is a survive strategy, which tries to change the enemy as fear into Adrenalin, to protect themselves, using strategies like psychological training.RESUMEN: Comprender, a partir de la mirada de los participantes, el significado del miedo y el proceso de afrontarlo. Metodología: Estudio cualitativo etnográfico, realizado con niños en situación de calle de la ciudad de Medellín, Colombia, durante el período de febrero de 2005 a abril de 2007. Se aplican las técnicas de observación, entrevista y diario de campo. Resultados y Discusión: El miedo en la calle es fundamentalmente el miedo al otro, a perder los seres queridos, a las agresiones, a ser asesinados, al dolor producido por las heridas, a quedarse en la droga, a perder la libertad y al SIDA. Al miedo le dan las denominaciones de "adrenalina" o "enemigo"; el primero permite enfrentar y salir de las situaciones y el segundo paraliza y congela, lo que puede llevarlos a ser capturados, heridos o asesinados. Conclusiones: Para los participantes en el estudio, el miedo tiene dos significados: el miedo-enemigo, que es el que paraliza y no les permite llevar a cabo lo que se han propuesto, y el miedo-adrenalina, que les facilita actuar y salir adelante en lo que planean, por lo tanto, sobrevivir. Lo que los niños buscan es convertir el miedo-enemigo en adrenalina, utilizando estrategias como observar, prepararse psicológicamente y adoptar comportamientos que les den valor

Clonal chromosomal mosaicism and loss of chromosome Y in elderly men increase vulnerability for SARS-CoV-2

The pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19) had an estimated overall case fatality ratio of 1.38% (pre-vaccination), being 53% higher in males and increasing exponentially with age. Among 9578 individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 in the SCOURGE study, we found 133 cases (1.42%) with detectable clonal mosaicism for chromosome alterations (mCA) and 226 males (5.08%) with acquired loss of chromosome Y (LOY). Individuals with clonal mosaic events (mCA and/or LOY) showed a 54% increase in the risk of COVID-19 lethality. LOY is associated with transcriptomic biomarkers of immune dysfunction, pro-coagulation activity and cardiovascular risk. Interferon-induced genes involved in the initial immune response to SARS-CoV-2 are also down-regulated in LOY. Thus, mCA and LOY underlie at least part of the sex-biased severity and mortality of COVID-19 in aging patients. Given its potential therapeutic and prognostic relevance, evaluation of clonal mosaicism should be implemented as biomarker of COVID-19 severity in elderly people. Among 9578 individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 in the SCOURGE study, individuals with clonal mosaic events (clonal mosaicism for chromosome alterations and/or loss of chromosome Y) showed an increased risk of COVID-19 lethality

Erratum: Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks for 195 countries and territories, 1990–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

Interpretation: By quantifying levels and trends in exposures to risk factors and the resulting disease burden, this assessment offers insight into where past policy and programme efforts might have been successful and highlights current priorities for public health action. Decreases in behavioural, environmental, and occupational risks have largely offset the effects of population growth and ageing, in relation to trends in absolute burden. Conversely, the combination of increasing metabolic risks and population ageing will probably continue to drive the increasing trends in non-communicable diseases at the global level, which presents both a public health challenge and opportunity. We see considerable spatiotemporal heterogeneity in levels of risk exposure and risk-attributable burden. Although levels of development underlie some of this heterogeneity, O/E ratios show risks for which countries are overperforming or underperforming relative to their level of development. As such, these ratios provide a benchmarking tool to help to focus local decision making. Our findings reinforce the importance of both risk exposure monitoring and epidemiological research to assess causal connections between risks and health outcomes, and they highlight the usefulness of the GBD study in synthesising data to draw comprehensive and robust conclusions that help to inform good policy and strategic health planning

Global, regional, and national disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) for 359 diseases and injuries and healthy life expectancy (HALE) for 195 countries and territories, 1990-2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017.

How long one lives, how many years of life are spent in good and poor health, and how the population's state of health and leading causes of disability change over time all have implications for policy, planning, and provision of services. We comparatively assessed the patterns and trends of healthy life expectancy (HALE), which quantifies the number of years of life expected to be lived in good health, and the complementary measure of disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), a composite measure of disease burden capturing both premature mortality and prevalence and severity of ill health, for 359 diseases and injuries for 195 countries and territories over the past 28 years. Methods We used data for age-specific mortality rates, years of life lost (YLLs) due to premature mortality, and years lived with disability (YLDs) from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2017 to calculate HALE and DALYs from 1990 to 2017. We calculated HALE using age-specific mortality rates and YLDs per capita for each location, age, sex, and year. We calculated DALYs for 359 causes as the sum of YLLs and YLDs. We assessed how observed HALE and DALYs differed by country and sex from expected trends based on Socio-demographic Index (SDI). We also analysed HALE by decomposing years of life gained into years spent in good health and in poor health, between 1990 and 2017, and extra years lived by females compared with males. Findings Globally, from 1990 to 2017, life expectancy at birth increased by 7·4 years (95% uncertainty interval 7·1-7·8), from 65·6 years (65·3-65·8) in 1990 to 73·0 years (72·7-73·3) in 2017. The increase in years of life varied from 5·1 years (5·0-5·3) in high SDI countries to 12·0 years (11·3-12·8) in low SDI countries. Of the additional years of life expected at birth, 26·3% (20·1-33·1) were expected to be spent in poor health in high SDI countries compared with 11·7% (8·8-15·1) in low-middle SDI countries. HALE at birth increased by 6·3 years (5·9-6·7), from 57·0 years (54·6-59·1) in 1990 to 63·3 years (60·5-65·7) in 2017. The increase varied from 3·8 years (3·4-4·1) in high SDI countries to 10·5 years (9·8-11·2) in low SDI countries. Even larger variations in HALE than these were observed between countries, ranging from 1·0 year (0·4-1·7) in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (62·4 years [59·9-64·7] in 1990 to 63·5 years [60·9-65·8] in 2017) to 23·7 years (21·9-25·6) in Eritrea (30·7 years [28·9-32·2] in 1990 to 54·4 years [51·5-57·1] in 2017). In most countries, the increase in HALE was smaller than the increase in overall life expectancy, indicating more years lived in poor health. In 180 of 195 countries and territories, females were expected to live longer than males in 2017, with extra years lived varying from 1·4 years (0·6-2·3) in Algeria to 11·9 years (10·9-12·9) in Ukraine. Of the extra years gained, the proportion spent in poor health varied largely across countries, with less than 20% of additional years spent in poor health in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burundi, and Slovakia, whereas in Bahrain all the extra years were spent in poor health. In 2017, the highest estimate of HALE at birth was in Singapore for both females (75·8 years [72·4-78·7]) and males (72·6 years [69·8-75·0]) and the lowest estimates were in Central African Republic (47·0 years [43·7-50·2] for females and 42·8 years [40·1-45·6] for males). Globally, in 2017, the five leading causes of DALYs were neonatal disorders, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, lower respiratory infections, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Between 1990 and 2017, age-standardised DALY rates decreased by 41·3% (38·8-43·5) for communicable diseases and by 49·8% (47·9-51·6) for neonatal disorders. For non-communicable diseases, global DALYs increased by 40·1% (36·8-43·0), although age-standardised DALY rates decreased by 18·1% (16·0-20·2)

Combined searches for the production of supersymmetric top quark partners in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

A combination of searches for top squark pair production using proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV at the CERN LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb(-1) collected by the CMS experiment, is presented. Signatures with at least 2 jets and large missing transverse momentum are categorized into events with 0, 1, or 2 leptons. New results for regions of parameter space where the kinematical properties of top squark pair production and top quark pair production are very similar are presented. Depending on themodel, the combined result excludes a top squarkmass up to 1325 GeV for amassless neutralino, and a neutralinomass up to 700 GeV for a top squarkmass of 1150 GeV. Top squarks with masses from 145 to 295 GeV, for neutralino masses from 0 to 100 GeV, with a mass difference between the top squark and the neutralino in a window of 30 GeV around the mass of the top quark, are excluded for the first time with CMS data. The results of theses searches are also interpreted in an alternative signal model of dark matter production via a spin-0 mediator in association with a top quark pair. Upper limits are set on the cross section for mediator particle masses of up to 420 GeV

Mapping local patterns of childhood overweight and wasting in low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2017

A double burden of malnutrition occurs when individuals, household members or communities experience both undernutrition and overweight. Here, we show geospatial estimates of overweight and wasting prevalence among children under 5 years of age in 105 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) from 2000 to 2017 and aggregate these to policy-relevant administrative units. Wasting decreased overall across LMICs between 2000 and 2017, from 8.4% (62.3 (55.1–70.8) million) to 6.4% (58.3 (47.6–70.7) million), but is predicted to remain above the World Health Organization’s Global Nutrition Target of <5% in over half of LMICs by 2025. Prevalence of overweight increased from 5.2% (30 (22.8–38.5) million) in 2000 to 6.0% (55.5 (44.8–67.9) million) children aged under 5 years in 2017. Areas most affected by double burden of malnutrition were located in Indonesia, Thailand, southeastern China, Botswana, Cameroon and central Nigeria. Our estimates provide a new perspective to researchers, policy makers and public health agencies in their efforts to address this global childhood syndemic