The rise of noncommunicable diseases in Latin America and the Caribbean: challenges for public health policies

The health landscape in Latin America and the Caribbean is changing quickly. The region is undergoing a demographic and epidemiological transition in which health problems are highly concentrated on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). In light of this, the region faces two main challenges: (1) develop cost-effective policies to prevent NCD risk factors, and (2) increase access to quality healthcare in a scenario in which a large share of the labor force is employed in the informal sector. This paper describes both alternative interventions to expand health insurance coverage and their trade-off with labor informality and moral hazard problems. The paper also focuses on obesity as a case example of an NCD, and emphasizes how lack of knowledge along with self-control problems would lead people to make suboptimal decisions related to food consumption, which may later manifest in obesity problems.Fil: Anauati, Maria Victoria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de San Andrés; ArgentinaFil: Galiani, Sebastian. University of Maryland; Estados UnidosFil: Weinschelbaum, Federico. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de San Andrés; Argentin

HIV-1 matrix protein p17 misfolding forms toxic amyloidogenic assemblies that induce neurocognitive disorders

© 2017 The Author(s). Human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1)-Associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND) remains an important neurological manifestation that adversely affects a patient's quality of life. HIV-1 matrix protein p17 (p17) has been detected in autoptic brain tissue of HAND individuals who presented early with severe AIDS encephalopathy. We hypothesised that the ability of p17 to misfold may result in the generation of toxic assemblies in the brain and may be relevant for HAND pathogenesis. A multidisciplinary integrated approach has been applied to determine the ability of p17 to form soluble amyloidogenic assemblies in vitro. To provide new information into the potential pathogenic role of soluble p17 species in HAND, their toxicological capability was evaluated in vivo. In C. elegans, capable of recognising toxic assemblies of amyloidogenic proteins, p17 induces a specific toxic effect which can be counteracted by tetracyclines, drugs able to hinder the formation of large oligomers and consequently amyloid fibrils. The intrahippocampal injection of p17 in mice reduces their cognitive function and induces behavioral deficiencies. These findings offer a new way of thinking about the possible cause of neurodegeneration in HIV-1-seropositive patients, which engages the ability of p17 to form soluble toxic assemblies

SHARK-NIR, first results of the commissioning at LBT

SHARK-NIR is an instrument which provides direct imaging, both coronagraphic and non-coronagraphic and with the possibility to perform dual-band imaging and low-resolution spectroscopy in Y, J and H bands, with the main scientific goal of detecting exoplanets, and characterizing already known planets, young stellar systems, jets and disks. SHARK-NIR takes advantage of the excellent performance of the Large Binocular Telescope AO systems, the wavefront sensors of which have been recently upgraded to SOUL. The latter is delivering a very good performance also at faint magnitude, opening to science otherwise difficult to be achieved, as for example AGN and QSO morphological studies. To fully exploit the just mentioned science cases, binocular observations will be performed using SHARK-NIR in combination with SHARK-VIS (operating in B, V, R and I bands) and LMIRCam of LBTI (operating from K to M bands), in a way to exploit coronagraphic observations in three different wavelengths. The instrument has passed the preliminary acceptance Europe in March 2022, being shipped immediately after at LBT, and re-integrated, installed and characterized daytime in three pre-commissioning run at the telescoped. SHARK-NIR had a very successful first light in January this year, and we will report of the results obtained in the three commissioning runs performed in the first half of 2023

SHARK-NIR, first results of the commissioning at LBT

International audienceSHARK-NIR, first results of the commissioning at LB

SHARK-NIR, first results of the commissioning at LBT

International audienceSHARK-NIR, first results of the commissioning at LB