Early Pension Withdrawals in Chile During the Pandemic

Chile, with one of the largest and best funded defined contribution programs in Latin America, held over USD $200 bn in assets at the onset of the Covid-19 crisis, or more than 80$50 bn from the system. This paper explores several hypotheses regarding why people withdrew their pension money early, and it also presents evidence regarding the likely impact of this short-term policy on long-term retirement wellbeing. We conclude with lessons for global policymakers seeking to protect pension assets critical for retirement security

La Tumba de Meryra II en Tell el-Amarna (AT 2): Una Nueva Aproximación Arqueológico-Filológica = The Tomb of Meryra II at Tell el-Amarna (AT 2): A New Archaeological-Filological Approach

El presente artículo pretende ser un nuevo estudio interdisciplinar de la Tumba de Meryra II (AT 2) en la necrópolis septentrional de Tell el-Amarna. Se presenta en primer lugar el contexto arqueológico de la sepultura, describiendo a continuación sus características arquitectónicas y los criterios de datación. Seguidamente se interpretan cada una de las escenas representadas en las paredes, analizando los distintos problemas, y presentando la información sobre la política y sociedad amarniense que estos resultados pueden aportar. Finalmente se expone una traducción de los textos de la tumba, transcritos digitalmente por primera vez usando el programa Jsesh, con su respectivo análisis gramatical. This article sets out to propose a new interdisciplinary study of the Tomb of Meryra II (AT 2) in the northern necropolis of Tell el-Amarna. First, the archaeological context of the grave will be presented, then its archaeological features and dating criteria will be described.  Subsequently, the tomb scenes will be interpreted, analyzing the different issues concerning them, and presenting the information regarding the social and political situation in Amarna extrapolated through the results. Finally a translation and grammatical analysis of the texts of the tomb is exposed. The hieroglyphic texts of the tomb are digitally transcribed for the first time using the program Jsesh. Tumba; Meryra; Amarna; Akhenaton; Smenkhkara; Nefertiti; Aton; Durbar; jeroglífico = Tomb; Meryre; Hieroglyph<br /

Anti-Angiogenic Treatment (Sunitinib) for Disseminated Malignant Haemangiopericytoma: A Case Study and Review of the Literature

Introduction: A meningeal haemangiopericytoma (HP) is a mesenchymal tumour that makes up less than 1% of all CNS tumours. HPs arise from pericytes and present high rates of recurrence and distant metastasis. The primary treatment option is surgery. When the disease is disseminated, chemotherapy produces a weak and short-lived response; therefore, new drugs are needed. Case Presentation: We describe the case of a 65-year-old woman with a 13-year history of recurrent HP. After local treatment with radiotherapy, she developed metastases that required systemic treatment, and treatment with sunitinib, an oral inhibitor of the vascular endothelial growth factor receptor and the platelet-derived growth factor receptor, was initiated. As a result, radiological stabilisation of the systemic disease was maintained for over 12 months. Conclusions: Anti-angiogenic agents can be useful for treating disseminated HP, but further studies are needed to confirm their possible role in controlling metastatic disease

Mediation of the Translocation of nNOSμ During Unloading-Induced Atrophy of Skeletal Muscle via NOX2 Inhibition

Mechanical unloading results in detachment of the mu-splice variant of neuronal nitric oxidase synthase (nNOSμ) from the dystrophin-glycoprotein complex and sarcolemma and translocation to the cytosol. We recently found that reactive oxygen species (ROS) play a role in nNOSμ translocation during unloading and muscle atrophy. NOX2, an isoform of NADPH oxidase and source of ROS, may play a causal role in nNOSμ translocation. The purpose of the study was to determine the effectiveness of NOX2 peptidyl inhibition in reducing the translocation of nNOSμ from the sarcolemma and subsequently soleus CSA. Adult male Fisher 344 rats were randomly assigned to one of three groups: CON (control), HU-S (hind limb unloaded with gp91ds-tat scramble) and HU-G (hind limb unloaded with gp91ds-tat). The hind limb unloading period was 7 days. Mean body weights for CON (353.26 g ± 15.47), HU-S (305.14 g ± 18.18) and HU-G (306.34 g ± 16.84) at the beginning of the experiment were not significantly different. Muscle mass/body mass ratio for the gastrocnemius complex (gastrocnemius, plantaris and soleus) was significantly reduced in HU-S rats (10.08 mg/g ± 0.24) but was maintained in HU-G rats (10.88 mg/g ± 0.47). SMASH analysis revealed that average soleus CSA in HU-G rats (3293.08 μm2 ± 46.82) decreased significantly less than HU-S rats (2606.66 μm2 ± 33.46) compared with ambulatory controls (p \u3e 0.0001). Immunofluorescence and staining of nNOS activity with NADPH Diaphorase of soleus tissue showed considerable loss of sarcolemmal nNOSμ in the HU-S group while the HU-G group revealed substantial maintenance of nNOSμ at the sarcolemma. The results of this study suggest that NOX2 inhibition via gp91ds-tat is effective in reducing the translocation of nNOSμ from the sarcolemma to the cytosol and maintaining CSA of the soleus with mechanical unloading via the inhibition of NOX2

A transfer matrix method for the analysis of fractal quantum potentials

The scattering properties of quantum particles on fractal potentials at different stages of fractal growth are obtained by means of the transfer matrix method. This approach can be easily adopted for project assignments in introductory quantum mechanics for undergraduates. The reflection coefficients for both the fractal potential and the finite periodic potential are calculated and compared. It is shown that the reflection coefficient for the fractal has a self-similar structure associated with the fractal distribution of the potential

Treatment of Asthma Exacerbations with the Human-Powered Nebuliser: A Randomised Parallel-Group Clinical Trial

Aims: The aim of this study was to compare a low-cost, human-powered nebuliser compressor with an electric nebuliser compressor for the treatment of mild to moderate asthma exacerbations in adults and children. Methods: This was a non-blinded, parallel-group, equivalence study, with 110 subjects between 6 and 65 years of age, conducted in the emergency department of a district hospital in Ilopango, El Salvador. Participants were assigned by random allocation to receive a 2.5-mg dose of salbutamol from the experimental human-powered nebuliser or the electric nebuliser control. All assigned participants completed treatment and were included in analysis. The study was not blinded as this was clinically unfeasible; however, data analysis was blinded. Results: The mean improvement in peak flow of the experimental and control groups was 37.5 (95% confidence interval (CI) 26.7–48.2) l/min and 38.7 (95% CI, 26.1–51.3) l/min, respectively, with a mean difference of 1.3 (95% CI, −15.1 to 17.7) l/min. The mean improvement in percent-expected peak flow for the experimental and control groups was 12.3% (95% CI, 9.1–15.5%) and 13.8% (95% CI, 9.8–17.9%), respectively, with a mean difference of 1.5% (95% CI, −3.6 to 6.6%). Conclusions: The human-powered nebuliser compressor is equivalent to a standard nebuliser compressor for the treatment of mild-to-moderate asthma. (Funded by the Opus Dean’s Fund, Marquette University College of Engineering; ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01795742.

A beam-beam monitoring detector for the MPD experiment at NICA

The Multi-Purpose Detector (MPD) is to be installed at the Nuclotron Ion Collider fAcility (NICA) of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR). Its main goal is to study the phase diagram of the strongly interacting matter produced in heavy-ion collisions. These studies, while providing insight into the physics of heavy-ion collisions, are relevant for improving our understanding of the evolution of the early Universe and the formation of neutron stars. In order to extend the MPD trigger capabilities, we propose to include a high granularity beam-beam monitoring detector (BE-BE) to provide a level-0 trigger signal with an expected time resolution of 30 ps. This new detector will improve the determination of the reaction plane by the MPD experiment, a key measurement for flow studies that provides physics insight into the early stages of the reaction. In this work, we use simulated Au+Au collisions at NICA energies to show the potential of such a detector to determine the event plane resolution, providing further redundancy to the detectors originally considered for this purpose namely, the Fast Forward Detector (FFD) and the Hadron Calorimeter (HCAL). We also show our results for the time resolution studies of two prototype cells carried out at the T10 beam line at the CERN PS complex.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures. Updated to published version with added comments and correction

Tritordeum breads are well tolerated with preference over gluten-free breads in non-celiac wheat-sensitive patients and its consumption induce changes in gut bacteria

BACKGROUND The ingestion of wheat and other cereals are related to several gut disorders. The specific components responsible for non-celiac wheat-sensitivity (NCWS) may include gluten and other compounds. Tritordeum is a new cereal derived from crossing durum wheat with a wild barley species, which differs from bread wheat in its gluten composition. In the present work, we examined the response of NCWS patients to tritordeum bread Gastrointestinal symptoms as well as tritordeum acceptability, gluten immunogenic peptides excretion, and the composition and structure of the intestinal microbiota were evaluated. RESULTS Gastrointestinal symptoms of the subjects showed no significant change between the gluten-free bread and the tritordeum bread. Participating subjects rated tritordeum bread higher than the gluten-free bread. Analysis of the bacterial gut microbiota indicated that tritordeum consumption does not alter the global structure and composition of the intestinal microbiota, and only a few changes in some butyrate-producing bacteria were observed. CONCLUSIONS All the results derived from acceptability, biochemical and microbiological tests suggest that tritordeum may be tolerated by a sub-set of NCWS sufferers who do not require strict exclusion of gluten from their diet. (c) 2020 Society of Chemical Industry