La "medida" de lo posible. Cuantificación y esfera pública en Chile

The modern world is mostly made up of societies that know and model themselves through numbers. This study focuses on the processes that are behind this general tendency in the Chilean reality. Although the increasing use of quantification is directly related to general patterns modernity and globalization, the particular nature of the process of democratic transition in Chile in the 1980s and 1990s have tended to strengthen even further the use of measurement mechanisms in society. The key words of the transition process were responsibility and governability, to avoid a confrontation climate that, as it is usually explained, was one of the causes of the 1973 coup which destroyed the old Chilean democracy. That is why during the transition, the political elite tried to develop a public sphere where the demands could be minimized and people's participation could be directed through specific institutionalized channels. In that sense, quantification was coherent with those objectives and the intensity of its use can be seen as a tool -among others- for the upbringing of a limited and graduated public sphere.LEI Universiteit LeidenPolitical Culture and National Identit

Resultados de observaciones meridianas del Cometa P/Halley

Reportamos los resultados de las observaciones astrométricas del cometa P/Halley, realizadas durante el período comprendido entre el 12.11.1985 y el 03.05.1986, con el círculo meridiano Repsold instalado en San Juan. Publicamos las coordenadas aparentes topo y geocéntricas de los quince pasajes meridianos observados: cuatro pre-perihelio y once post-perihelio.Asociación Argentina de Astronomí

Spread of a SARS-CoV-2 variant through Europe in the summer of 2020.

Following its emergence in late 2019, the spread of SARS-CoV-21,2 has been tracked by phylogenetic analysis of viral genome sequences in unprecedented detail3–5. Although the virus spread globally in early 2020 before borders closed, intercontinental travel has since been greatly reduced. However, travel within Europe resumed in the summer of 2020. Here we report on a SARS-CoV-2 variant, 20E (EU1), that was identified in Spain in early summer 2020 and subsequently spread across Europe. We find no evidence that this variant has increased transmissibility, but instead demonstrate how rising incidence in Spain, resumption of travel, and lack of effective screening and containment may explain the variant’s success. Despite travel restrictions, we estimate that 20E (EU1) was introduced hundreds of times to European countries by summertime travellers, which is likely to have undermined local efforts to minimize infection with SARS-CoV-2. Our results illustrate how a variant can rapidly become dominant even in the absence of a substantial transmission advantage in favourable epidemiological settings. Genomic surveillance is critical for understanding how travel can affect transmission of SARS-CoV-2, and thus for informing future containment strategies as travel resumes. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited

Risk profiles and one-year outcomes of patients with newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation in India: Insights from the GARFIELD-AF Registry.

BACKGROUND: The Global Anticoagulant Registry in the FIELD-Atrial Fibrillation (GARFIELD-AF) is an ongoing prospective noninterventional registry, which is providing important information on the baseline characteristics, treatment patterns, and 1-year outcomes in patients with newly diagnosed non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF). This report describes data from Indian patients recruited in this registry. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 52,014 patients with newly diagnosed AF were enrolled globally; of these, 1388 patients were recruited from 26 sites within India (2012-2016). In India, the mean age was 65.8 years at diagnosis of NVAF. Hypertension was the most prevalent risk factor for AF, present in 68.5% of patients from India and in 76.3% of patients globally (P < 0.001). Diabetes and coronary artery disease (CAD) were prevalent in 36.2% and 28.1% of patients as compared with global prevalence of 22.2% and 21.6%, respectively (P < 0.001 for both). Antiplatelet therapy was the most common antithrombotic treatment in India. With increasing stroke risk, however, patients were more likely to receive oral anticoagulant therapy [mainly vitamin K antagonist (VKA)], but average international normalized ratio (INR) was lower among Indian patients [median INR value 1.6 (interquartile range {IQR}: 1.3-2.3) versus 2.3 (IQR 1.8-2.8) (P < 0.001)]. Compared with other countries, patients from India had markedly higher rates of all-cause mortality [7.68 per 100 person-years (95% confidence interval 6.32-9.35) vs 4.34 (4.16-4.53), P < 0.0001], while rates of stroke/systemic embolism and major bleeding were lower after 1 year of follow-up. CONCLUSION: Compared to previously published registries from India, the GARFIELD-AF registry describes clinical profiles and outcomes in Indian patients with AF of a different etiology. The registry data show that compared to the rest of the world, Indian AF patients are younger in age and have more diabetes and CAD. Patients with a higher stroke risk are more likely to receive anticoagulation therapy with VKA but are underdosed compared with the global average in the GARFIELD-AF. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION-URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01090362

Whole-genome sequencing reveals host factors underlying critical COVID-19

Critical COVID-19 is caused by immune-mediated inflammatory lung injury. Host genetic variation influences the development of illness requiring critical care1 or hospitalization2,3,4 after infection with SARS-CoV-2. The GenOMICC (Genetics of Mortality in Critical Care) study enables the comparison of genomes from individuals who are critically ill with those of population controls to find underlying disease mechanisms. Here we use whole-genome sequencing in 7,491 critically ill individuals compared with 48,400 controls to discover and replicate 23 independent variants that significantly predispose to critical COVID-19. We identify 16 new independent associations, including variants within genes that are involved in interferon signalling (IL10RB and PLSCR1), leucocyte differentiation (BCL11A) and blood-type antigen secretor status (FUT2). Using transcriptome-wide association and colocalization to infer the effect of gene expression on disease severity, we find evidence that implicates multiple genes—including reduced expression of a membrane flippase (ATP11A), and increased expression of a mucin (MUC1)—in critical disease. Mendelian randomization provides evidence in support of causal roles for myeloid cell adhesion molecules (SELE, ICAM5 and CD209) and the coagulation factor F8, all of which are potentially druggable targets. Our results are broadly consistent with a multi-component model of COVID-19 pathophysiology, in which at least two distinct mechanisms can predispose to life-threatening disease: failure to control viral replication; or an enhanced tendency towards pulmonary inflammation and intravascular coagulation. We show that comparison between cases of critical illness and population controls is highly efficient for the detection of therapeutically relevant mechanisms of disease

La "medida" de lo posible. Cuantificación y esfera pública en Chile

The modern world is mostly made up of societies that know and model themselves through numbers. This study focuses on the processes that are behind this general tendency in the Chilean reality. Although the increasing use of quantification is directly related to general patterns modernity and globalization, the particular nature of the process of democratic transition in Chile in the 1980s and 1990s have tended to strengthen even further the use of measurement mechanisms in society. The key words of the transition process were responsibility and governability, to avoid a confrontation climate that, as it is usually explained, was one of the causes of the 1973 coup which destroyed the old Chilean democracy. That is why during the transition, the political elite tried to develop a public sphere where the demands could be minimized and people's participation could be directed through specific institutionalized channels. In that sense, quantification was coherent with those objectives and the intensity of its use can be seen as a tool -among others- for the upbringing of a limited and graduated public sphere.</p

Un caso de quiste hidatídico por Echinococcus granulosus en Puebla, México, tratado con éxito por cirugía

Presentamos el caso de una paciente de 16 años, originaria del sur del estado de Puebla, México. En sus antecedentes destaca la convivencia con mascotas caninas y la cría de ovejas por la familia de la paciente. La escasa sintomatología de la paciente hizo sospechar una lesión benigna. Los estudios practicados que incluyeron una exploración laparoscópica nos orientaron a considerar el manejo. quirúrgico para un quiste no parasitario. Ante la persistencia del dolor sordo en el hipocondrio derecho se decidió una nueva exploración esta vez a cielo abierto la cual descubrió un quiste hidatídico joven y activo, no complicado, de 6 cm de diámetro, que fue manejado quirúrgicamente con éxito, el diagnóstico definitivo fue aportado por el patólogo, el cual demostró la presencia de las 3 cubiertas características del quiste parasitario, histológicamente compatible con Echinococcus granulosus. La evolución postoperatoria fue sin incidentes, el ultrasonido de control mostró la restitución completa del parénquima hepático

A combined photometric and kinematic recipe for evaluating the nature of bulges using the CALIFA sample

Understanding the nature of bulges in disc galaxies can provide important insights into the formation and evolution of galaxies. For instance, the presence of a classical bulge suggests a relatively violent history. In contrast, the presence of an inner disc instead (also referred to as a >pseudobulge>) indicates the occurrence of secular evolution processes in the main disc. However, we still lack criteria to effectively categorise bulges, limiting our ability to study their impact on the evolution of the host galaxies. Here we present a recipe to separate inner discs from classical bulges by combining four different parameters from photometric and kinematic analyses: the bulge Sérsic index n, the concentration index C, the Kormendy (1977, ApJ, 217, 406) relation and the inner slope of the radial velocity dispersion profile σ. With that recipe we provide a detailed bulge classification for a sample of 45 galaxies from the integral-field spectroscopic survey CALIFA. To aid in categorising bulges within these galaxies, we perform 2D image decomposition to determine bulge Sérsic index, bulge-to-total light ratio, surface brightness and effective radius of the bulge and use growth curve analysis to derive a new concentration index, C. We further extract the stellar kinematics from CALIFA data cubes and analyse the radial velocity dispersion profile. The results of the different approaches are in good agreement and allow a safe classification for approximately 95% of the galaxies. In particular, we show that our new >inner> concentration index performs considerably better than the traditionally used C when yielding the nature of bulges. We also found that a combined use of this index and the Kormendy relation gives a very robust indication of the physical nature of the bulge.© ESO, 2017.R.G.B. and R.G.D. acknowledge support from grants AYA2014-57490-P and JA-FQM-2828. R.A.M. acknowledges support by the Swiss National Science Foundation. I.M. acknowledges financial support from grants AYA2013-42227-P and AYA2016-76682-C3-1-P. SFS thanks the CONACYT-125180, DGAPA-IA100815 and DGAPA-IA101217 projects for providing him support in this study.Peer Reviewe