The historic center of Cartagena (Spain): actions in the 2005-2021 period

[SPA] La conservación, restauración y protección de los conjuntos históricos del patrimonio cultural se realiza, de acuerdo con la Ley 16/1985 del Patrimonio Histórico Español mediante Planes Especial de Protección. Estos instrumentos de planeamiento urbanístico deben ordenar y gestionar diversos tipos de procesos de transformación y conservación urbana. El Plan Especial de Ordenación y Protección del Conjunto Histórico de Cartagena (PEOPCH) de 2005 establecía unas normas que, metódicamente, trataban de regular los diversos tipos de actuaciones. En este trabajo se revisan las transformaciones acontecidas en el conjunto histórico-artístico de esta ciudad del sureste español en el periodo 2005-2021 reflejando la complejidad de la regulación de estos conjuntos, a la vez que las posibilidades del planeamiento para intervenir sobre ellos. Para ello, se resumen las actuaciones sobre las áreas de intervención, las actuaciones unitarias de edificación y las actuaciones sobre el espacio público. Los resultados muestran la relación de los problemas actuales con las distintas situaciones socioeconómicas acontecidas y con las propuestas de ordenación propuestas en el planeamiento.[ENG] The conservation, restoration, and protection of cultural heritage historical sites is carried out in accordance with Law 16/1985 on Spanish Historical Heritage through Special Protection Plans. These urban planning instruments must order and manage various types of urban transformation and conservation processes. The 2005 Special Urban Planning for the Protection of the Historical Site of Cartagena (PEOPCH) established urban norms that, methodically, tried to regulate the different types of actions. In this paper, the transformations that occurred in the historic centre of this city, in the southeas of Spain, between 2005-2021 are reviewed, reflecting the complexity of these complex’s regulations, as well as planning possibilities to intervene on them. For this, the actions on the areas of intervention, the unitary building actions and the actions on the public space are reviewed. The results show the relationship between current problems and different socioeconomic situations, with the proposals of urban special planning

Impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular testing in the United States versus the rest of the world

Objectives: This study sought to quantify and compare the decline in volumes of cardiovascular procedures between the United States and non-US institutions during the early phase of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the care of many non-COVID-19 illnesses. Reductions in diagnostic cardiovascular testing around the world have led to concerns over the implications of reduced testing for cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Methods: Data were submitted to the INCAPS-COVID (International Atomic Energy Agency Non-Invasive Cardiology Protocols Study of COVID-19), a multinational registry comprising 909 institutions in 108 countries (including 155 facilities in 40 U.S. states), assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volumes of diagnostic cardiovascular procedures. Data were obtained for April 2020 and compared with volumes of baseline procedures from March 2019. We compared laboratory characteristics, practices, and procedure volumes between U.S. and non-U.S. facilities and between U.S. geographic regions and identified factors associated with volume reduction in the United States. Results: Reductions in the volumes of procedures in the United States were similar to those in non-U.S. facilities (68% vs. 63%, respectively; p = 0.237), although U.S. facilities reported greater reductions in invasive coronary angiography (69% vs. 53%, respectively; p < 0.001). Significantly more U.S. facilities reported increased use of telehealth and patient screening measures than non-U.S. facilities, such as temperature checks, symptom screenings, and COVID-19 testing. Reductions in volumes of procedures differed between U.S. regions, with larger declines observed in the Northeast (76%) and Midwest (74%) than in the South (62%) and West (44%). Prevalence of COVID-19, staff redeployments, outpatient centers, and urban centers were associated with greater reductions in volume in U.S. facilities in a multivariable analysis. Conclusions: We observed marked reductions in U.S. cardiovascular testing in the early phase of the pandemic and significant variability between U.S. regions. The association between reductions of volumes and COVID-19 prevalence in the United States highlighted the need for proactive efforts to maintain access to cardiovascular testing in areas most affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 infection

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance

INTRODUCTION Investment in Africa over the past year with regard to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing has led to a massive increase in the number of sequences, which, to date, exceeds 100,000 sequences generated to track the pandemic on the continent. These sequences have profoundly affected how public health officials in Africa have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. RATIONALE We demonstrate how the first 100,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from Africa have helped monitor the epidemic on the continent, how genomic surveillance expanded over the course of the pandemic, and how we adapted our sequencing methods to deal with an evolving virus. Finally, we also examine how viral lineages have spread across the continent in a phylogeographic framework to gain insights into the underlying temporal and spatial transmission dynamics for several variants of concern (VOCs). RESULTS Our results indicate that the number of countries in Africa that can sequence the virus within their own borders is growing and that this is coupled with a shorter turnaround time from the time of sampling to sequence submission. Ongoing evolution necessitated the continual updating of primer sets, and, as a result, eight primer sets were designed in tandem with viral evolution and used to ensure effective sequencing of the virus. The pandemic unfolded through multiple waves of infection that were each driven by distinct genetic lineages, with B.1-like ancestral strains associated with the first pandemic wave of infections in 2020. Successive waves on the continent were fueled by different VOCs, with Alpha and Beta cocirculating in distinct spatial patterns during the second wave and Delta and Omicron affecting the whole continent during the third and fourth waves, respectively. Phylogeographic reconstruction points toward distinct differences in viral importation and exportation patterns associated with the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants and subvariants, when considering both Africa versus the rest of the world and viral dissemination within the continent. Our epidemiological and phylogenetic inferences therefore underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic on the continent and highlight key insights and challenges, for instance, recognizing the limitations of low testing proportions. We also highlight the early warning capacity that genomic surveillance in Africa has had for the rest of the world with the detection of new lineages and variants, the most recent being the characterization of various Omicron subvariants. CONCLUSION Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve. This is important not only to help combat SARS-CoV-2 on the continent but also because it can be used as a platform to help address the many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats in Africa. In particular, capacity building for local sequencing within countries or within the continent should be prioritized because this is generally associated with shorter turnaround times, providing the most benefit to local public health authorities tasked with pandemic response and mitigation and allowing for the fastest reaction to localized outbreaks. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century

Hydraulic measurement by kinect

Research studies in hydraulic engineering greatly depend on various measurements. Currently available equipment’s for various hydraulic measurements can provide data with high accuracy. However, these are usually very expensive and in most of the cases are intrusive. In addition, different equipment’s are employed to measure different hydraulic parameters. The measuring instruments also need highly controlled environment for conducting experiments. These limitations call for a need of a single instrument which can be used to measure different hydraulic parameters. Additionally, the equipment ideally should be inexpensive, non-intrusive and which can be easily used in simple laboratory settings. Kinect is an input device for the Microsoft Xbox 360 gaming console which consists of an infrared (IR) emitter, an IR sensor and a colour camera. Kinect generates three outputs namely IR image, visible colour image, and depth images. Despite the incorporation of several sensors and features in this device, its price is around Rs15000 which is very inexpensive considering various instruments used currently for hydraulic studies. Kinect has found tremendous applications in robotics, medical sciences, earth sciences, physical fitness industries, business and marketing. For its rapid data collection and ability to generate the moving three dimensional data quickly. In the present study, Kinect is evaluated for various non- intrusive hydraulic measurements. Measurement of water level, water depth, bed elevation; and water velocity by Kinect is explored in detail. It is found that Kinect can measure water level, water depth, water surface velocity and bed level. A procedure to use Kinect to obtain the height of an object under water is presented. Static 3-D objects under water are mapped for the purpose. The procedure is extended to study the breaching of a sand dam due to over-topping. The evolution of the dam profile is obtained by Kinect. The effects of dam height and downstream slope of the dam on evolution of dam profiles are analysed. It is found that for higher dams the erosion is smaller than the dams with lesser height at a particular time from overtopping. Erosion in dam with height 12cm and in dam with 9 cm is 5.6 percent and 8.75 percent higher respectively from dam with height 15cm. It is also found that dams with flatter slopes have lesser degradation rate than the ones with steeper slopes. The peak rate of degradation for slope 1:2.5 reduced by 52.3 percent and by 61.6 percent for slope 1:3 from that of slope 1:2. In addition, Kinect is also successfully used to detect and quantify 3D changes occurring in a partial dam breach.by Bidhan Kumar SahuM.Tech

Orientación a estudiantes para la mejora de la empleabilidad

El objetivo principal del presente trabajo es presentar y analizar aquellas acciones educativas que se llevan a cabo desde el Vicerrectorado de Estudiantes y Empleo, a través de sus diferentes servicios y unidades, relacionadas con el desarrollo y la adquisición de competencias específicas y transversales que permitan mejorar la empleabilidad de los estudiantes. En ese sentido, el grupo de trabajo está conformado por una parte, por miembros de la comunidad universitaria adscritos a distintas unidades y servicios que tienen como cometido la orientación a estudiantes desde la etapa preuniversitaria hasta la etapa final de sus estudios, y por otro lado, por estudiantes para aportar la perspectiva del alumnado. El trabajo incide también sobre los alumni recién egresados, colectivo en el que una inserción adecuada en el mercado laboral es el aspecto más urgente y relevante. Ya en el curso pasado se valoraron acciones como las prácticas externas, formación del profesorado en herramientas emprendedoras, programa Explorer, e-cuadrado, mentoring, 100 estudiantes 20 empresas, el programa de voluntariado del Centro de Apoyo al Estudiante y el Club de Debate de la UA y la importancia que puede tener el pertenecer a una asociación estudiantil para desarrollar estas competencias. Se recogen también aquellas acciones que realizan nuestros estudiantes relativas a la orientación a alumnado preuniversitario sobre las posibilidades de formación y las salidas profesionales existentes ligadas a cada una de las titulaciones que se ofertan en la universidad, analizando cuáles han sido las mejoras percibidas en ello respecto a las competencias transversales analizadas. También se incidirá de nuevo en el desarrollo, difusión y mejora de los programas ofrecidos a nuestros estudiantes y egresados y egresadas aglutinados, desde octubre de 2018, a través del Centro de Empleo. Finalmente, se tratará de analizar si los estudiantes con diversidad funcional participan en la misma medida que el resto de estudiantes en dichos programas del Centro de Empleo; y en caso de no hacerlo, analizar las posibles causas

Clinical implementation of pre-biopsy magnetic resonance imaging pathways for the diagnosis of prostate cancer

Objective: To assess the outcomes of pre-biopsy magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) pathways, as a tool in biopsy-naïve men with suspicion of prostate cancer, in routine clinical practice. Secondary outcomes included a comparison of transrectal MRI-directed biopsy (TR-MRDB) and transperineal (TP)-MRDB in men with suspicious MRI. Patients and Methods: We retrospectively assessed a two-centre cohort of consecutive biopsy-naïve men with suspicion of prostate cancer who underwent a Prostate Imaging-Reporting and Data System version 2 (PI-RADS v2) compliant pre-biopsy MRI in a single, high-volume centre between 2015 and 2019 (Centre 1). Men with suspicious MRI scans underwent TR-MRDB in Centre 1 and TP-MRDB with additional random biopsies (RB) in Centre 2. The MRI and histopathology were assessed in the same institution (Centre 1). Outcomes included: (i) overall detection rates of Grade Group (GG) 1, GG ≥2, and GG ≥3 cancer in men with suspicious MRI; (ii) Biopsy-avoidance due to non-suspicious MRI; and (iii) Cancer detection rates and biopsy-related complications between TR- and TP-MRDB. To reduce confounding bias for MRDB comparisons, inverse probability weighting (IPW) was performed for age, digital rectal examination, prostate-specific antigen (PSA), prostate volume, PSA density, and PI-RADS category. Results: Of the 2597 men included, the overall GG 1, GG ≥2, and GG ≥3 prevalence was 8% (210/2597), 27% (697/2597), and 15% (396/2597), respectively. Biopsy was avoided in 57% (1488/2597) of men. After IPW, the GG 1, GG ≥2 and GG ≥3 detection rates after TR- and TP-MRDB were comparable at 24%, 57%, and 32%; and 18%, 64%, and 38%, respectively; with mean differences of −5.7% (95% confidence interval [CI] −13% to 1.4%), 6.1% (95% CI −2.1% to 14%), and 5.7% (95% CI −1.7% to 13%). Complications were similar in TR-MRDB (0.50%) and TP-MRDB with RB (0.62%; mean difference 0.11%, 95% CI −0.87% to 1.1%). Conclusion: This high-volume, two-centre study shows pre-biopsy MRI as a decision tool is implementable in daily clinical practice. Compared to recent trials, a substantially higher biopsy avoidance rate was achieved without compromising GG ≥2/GG ≥3 detection and coinciding with lower over detection rates of GG 1 cancer. Prostate cancer detection and complication rates were comparable for TR- and TP-MRDB

External validation of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre and Briganti nomograms for the prediction of lymph node involvement of prostate cancer using clinical stage assessed by magnetic resonance imaging

Objectives: To evaluate the impact of using clinical stage assessed by multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) on the performance of two established nomograms for the prediction of pelvic lymph node involvement (LNI) in patients with prostate cancer. Patients and Methods: Patients undergoing robot-assisted extended pelvic lymph node dissection (ePLND) from 2015 to 2019 at three teaching hospitals were retrospectively evaluated. Risk of LNI was calculated four times for each patient, using clinical tumour stage (T-stage) assessed by digital rectal examination (DRE) and by mpMRI, in the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre (MSKCC; 2018) and Briganti (2012) nomograms. Discrimination (area under the curve [AUC]), calibration, and the net benefit of these four strategies were assessed and compared. Results: A total of 1062 patients were included, of whom 301 (28%) had histologically proven LNI. Using DRE T-stage resulted in AUCs of 0.71 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.70–0.72) for the MSKCC and 0.73 (95% CI 0.72–0.74) for the Briganti nomogram. Using mpMRI T-stage, the AUCs were 0.72 (95% CI 0.71–0.73) for the MSKCC and 0.75 (95% CI 0.74–0.76) for the Briganti nomogram. mpMRI T-stage resulted in equivalent calibration compared with DRE T-stage. Combined use of mpMRI T-stage and the Briganti 2012 nomogram was shown to be superior in terms of AUC, calibration, and net benefit. Use of mpMRI T-stage led to increased sensitivity for the detection of LNI for all risk thresholds in both models, countered by a decreased specificity, compared with DRE T-stage. Conclusion: T-stage as assessed by mpMRI is an appropriate alternative for T-stage assessed by DRE to determine nomogram-based risk of LNI in patients with prostate cancer, and was associated with improved model performance of both the MSKCC 2018 and Briganti 2012 nomograms

External validation of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre and Briganti nomograms for the prediction of lymph node involvement of prostate cancer using clinical stage assessed by magnetic resonance imaging

Objectives: To evaluate the impact of using clinical stage assessed by multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) on the performance of two established nomograms for the prediction of pelvic lymph node involvement (LNI) in patients with prostate cancer. Patients and Methods: Patients undergoing robot-assisted extended pelvic lymph node dissection (ePLND) from 2015 to 2019 at three teaching hospitals were retrospectively evaluated. Risk of LNI was calculated four times for each patient, using clinical tumour stage (T-stage) assessed by digital rectal examination (DRE) and by mpMRI, in the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre (MSKCC; 2018) and Briganti (2012) nomograms. Discrimination (area under the curve [AUC]), calibration, and the net benefit of these four strategies were assessed and compared. Results: A total of 1062 patients were included, of whom 301 (28%) had histologically proven LNI. Using DRE T-stage resulted in AUCs of 0.71 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.70–0.72) for the MSKCC and 0.73 (95% CI 0.72–0.74) for the Briganti nomogram. Using mpMRI T-stage, the AUCs were 0.72 (95% CI 0.71–0.73) for the MSKCC and 0.75 (95% CI 0.74–0.76) for the Briganti nomogram. mpMRI T-stage resulted in equivalent calibration compared with DRE T-stage. Combined use of mpMRI T-stage and the Briganti 2012 nomogram was shown to be superior in terms of AUC, calibration, and net benefit. Use of mpMRI T-stage led to increased sensitivity for the detection of LNI for all risk thresholds in both models, countered by a decreased specificity, compared with DRE T-stage. Conclusion: T-stage as assessed by mpMRI is an appropriate alternative for T-stage assessed by DRE to determine nomogram-based risk of LNI in patients with prostate cancer, and was associated with improved model performance of both the MSKCC 2018 and Briganti 2012 nomograms