Clinical and demographic characteristics of sickle cell disease in colombian children

Objective: To describe the clinical and demographic characteristics of pediatric patients with sickle cell disease. Methods: We performed a descriptive observational study. We included patients under 18 years with a diagnosis of sickle cell disease, who joined the “Ruta de la Vida” Program at the Hospital Universitario del Valle (HUV) from February 2015 to October 2018. We analyzed with descriptive statistics in SPSS. Results: We reviewed 153 medical records corresponding to pediatric patients. 54.2% were male and 45.8% female. All the patients were from the Pacific Colombian Region. The median age of the patients at the time of diagnosis was 2.1 years, the median age of admission to the program was 9 years. Diagnosis by electrophoresis of hemoglobin was performed in 92.2% of the patients, the distribution of polymorphisms was: hemoglobin SS (72.3%), hemoglobin SC (19.9%), hemoglobin S + (5 , 0%) and hemoglobin So (2.8%). 76.9% of patients had crisis in the last year, the main crisis were pain and hemolysis. 6.1% of the patients had cerebrovascular disease diagnosed by cerebral MRI. Conclusion: The population studied has a sickle cell disease with characteristics of a severe phenotype, with a high frequency of crisis and chronic complications such as cerebrovascular disease. This is the first study conducted in Colombia that describes the characteristics of the pediatric population with sickle cell disease

El Impacto del Plan Nacional de Vacunación en la letalidad por COVID 19 Aseguradora en Colombia 2020-2022

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic quickly became a global public health priority between 2020 and 2022, a time when biologicals were developed and approved in record time. The purpose of this research is to measure the impact of vaccination. in fatality due to COVID 19 in an insurer in the Colombian southwest. Methodology: A cross-sectional observational study was carried out with analytical intention, in active affiliates of the insurer, detected and confirmed with PCR or antigen tests, to calculate the lethality, the quotient of deaths and number of confirmed cases in the study period, the sources for morbidity and mortality they were SIVIGILA, SISMUESTRAS, SEGCOVID, RIPS and RUAF; while the source of the vaccinated population was PAIWEB and a web 2.0 application, Results: From the first case registered on March 17, 2020 to August 30, 2022, the insurer registered 97,274 cases of COVID 19, and 3,619 deaths, resulting in a fatality of 3.7%, the majority was confirmed by antigen tests and among the cases in the post-vaccination period the effective coverage of dose 1 was around 30%, in all doses the most frequent biologics were Sinovac and Pfizer. Conclusions: lethality was significantly associated with exposure to vaccination, being lower in the population immunized with at least one dose, in all age groups (p value 0.0001 < 0.05).Introducción: La pandemia por COVID-19, rápidamente se convirtió en una prioridad en salud pública a nivel mundial entre 2020 y 2022, tiempo donde se desarrollaron y aprobaron en tiempo récord biológicos, el objeto de la presente investigación es medir el impacto de la vacunación en la letalidad por COVID 19 en una aseguradora del suroccidente colombiano. Metodología: Se realizó un estudio observacional transversal con intención analítica, en afiliados activos a la aseguradora, detectados y confirmados con pruebas PCR o antígeno, para calcular la letalidad se realizó el cociente defunciones y número de casos confirmados en el periodo de estudio, las fuentes para la morbimortalidad fueron SIVIGILA, SISMUESTRAS, SEGCOVID, RIPS y RUAF; mientras la fuente de la población vacunada fue PAIWEB y un aplicativo web 2.0, Resultados: Desde el primer caso registrado el 17 de marzo de 2020 al 30 de agosto de 2022 la aseguradora registró 97.274 casos de COVID 19, y 3.619 fallecidos resultando una letalidad de 3,7%, la mayoría se confirmó por pruebas de antígeno y entre los casos en el periodo posvacunación la cobertura efectiva de dosis 1 fue alrededor del 30%, en todas las dosis los biológicos más frecuentes fueron Sinovac y Pfizer. Conclusiones: la letalidad se asoció significativamente con la exposición a la vacunación siendo inferior en población inmunizada con al menos una dosis, en todos los grupos de edad (p valor 0,0001 < 0,05

Early impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on paediatric cancer care in Latin America

Although previous studies have suggested that the complications and mortality rate related to COVID-19 are substantially lower in the paediatric population,1 it is reasonable to consider that children with underlying conditions such as cancer will be at increased risk of severe disease...Fil: Vasquez, Liliana. Universidad de San Martín de Porres; Perú. Organización Panamericana de la Salud; PerúFil: Sampor, Claudia. Fundacion Hospital de Pediatria Professor Dr. Juan P. Garrahan; ArgentinaFil: Villanueva, Gabriela. Fundacion Hospital de Pediatria Professor Dr. Juan P. Garrahan; ArgentinaFil: Maradiegue, Essy. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Neoplasicas; PerúFil: Garcia Lombardi, Mercedes. Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Hospital General de Niños "Ricardo Gutiérrez"; ArgentinaFil: Gomez García, Wendy. Hospital Infantil Dr. Robert Reid Cabral; República DominicanaFil: Moreno, Florencia. Ministerio de Salud. Instituto Nacional del Cáncer; ArgentinaFil: Diaz, Rosdali. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Neoplasicas; PerúFil: Cappellano, Andrea M.. Universidade Federal de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Portilla, Carlos Andres. Universidad del Valle; ColombiaFil: Salas, Beatriz. Hospital del Niño Manuel Ascencio Villarroel; BoliviaFil: Nava, Evelinda. Hospital de Niños Jesus Garcia Coello; VenezuelaFil: Brizuela, Silvia. Instituto de Previsión Social ; ParaguayFil: Jimenez, Soledad. Hospital Solca Núcleo de Loja; EcuadorFil: Espinoza, Ximena. Hospital de Niños Dr. Roberto del Río; ChileFil: Gassant, Pascale Yola. Hôpital Saint-Damien; HaitíFil: Quintero, Karina. Children's Hospital Dr Jose Renan Esquivel; PanamáFil: Fuentes Alabi, Soad. Hospital Nacional de Niños Benjamin Bloom; El SalvadorFil: Velasquez, Thelma. No especifíca;Fil: Fu, Ligia. Hospital Escuela de Tegucigalpa; HondurasFil: Gamboa, Yessika. National Children's Hospital; Costa RicaFil: Quintana, Juan. Clinica Las Condes; ChileFil: Castiglioni, Mariela. Hospital Pereira Rossell; UruguayFil: Nuñez, Cesar. Children's Cancer Hospital; Estados UnidosFil: Moreno, Arturo. Hospital Universitario de Puebla; MéxicoFil: Luna Fineman, Sandra. State University of Colorado at Boulder; Estados UnidosFil: Luciani, Silvana. Pan American Health Organization; Estados UnidosFil: Chantada, Guillermo Luis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Hospital de Pediatría "Juan P. Garrahan"; Argentina. Hospital Sant Joan de Deu Barcelona; Españ

Search for gravitational-lensing signatures in the full third observing run of the LIGO-Virgo network

Gravitational lensing by massive objects along the line of sight to the source causes distortions of gravitational wave-signals; such distortions may reveal information about fundamental physics, cosmology and astrophysics. In this work, we have extended the search for lensing signatures to all binary black hole events from the third observing run of the LIGO--Virgo network. We search for repeated signals from strong lensing by 1) performing targeted searches for subthreshold signals, 2) calculating the degree of overlap amongst the intrinsic parameters and sky location of pairs of signals, 3) comparing the similarities of the spectrograms amongst pairs of signals, and 4) performing dual-signal Bayesian analysis that takes into account selection effects and astrophysical knowledge. We also search for distortions to the gravitational waveform caused by 1) frequency-independent phase shifts in strongly lensed images, and 2) frequency-dependent modulation of the amplitude and phase due to point masses. None of these searches yields significant evidence for lensing. Finally, we use the non-detection of gravitational-wave lensing to constrain the lensing rate based on the latest merger-rate estimates and the fraction of dark matter composed of compact objects

Search for eccentric black hole coalescences during the third observing run of LIGO and Virgo

Despite the growing number of confident binary black hole coalescences observed through gravitational waves so far, the astrophysical origin of these binaries remains uncertain. Orbital eccentricity is one of the clearest tracers of binary formation channels. Identifying binary eccentricity, however, remains challenging due to the limited availability of gravitational waveforms that include effects of eccentricity. Here, we present observational results for a waveform-independent search sensitive to eccentric black hole coalescences, covering the third observing run (O3) of the LIGO and Virgo detectors. We identified no new high-significance candidates beyond those that were already identified with searches focusing on quasi-circular binaries. We determine the sensitivity of our search to high-mass (total mass M>70 M⊙) binaries covering eccentricities up to 0.3 at 15 Hz orbital frequency, and use this to compare model predictions to search results. Assuming all detections are indeed quasi-circular, for our fiducial population model, we place an upper limit for the merger rate density of high-mass binaries with eccentricities 0<e≤0.3 at 0.33 Gpc−3 yr−1 at 90\% confidence level

Ultralight vector dark matter search using data from the KAGRA O3GK run

Among the various candidates for dark matter (DM), ultralight vector DM can be probed by laser interferometric gravitational wave detectors through the measurement of oscillating length changes in the arm cavities. In this context, KAGRA has a unique feature due to differing compositions of its mirrors, enhancing the signal of vector DM in the length change in the auxiliary channels. Here we present the result of a search for U(1)B−L gauge boson DM using the KAGRA data from auxiliary length channels during the first joint observation run together with GEO600. By applying our search pipeline, which takes into account the stochastic nature of ultralight DM, upper bounds on the coupling strength between the U(1)B−L gauge boson and ordinary matter are obtained for a range of DM masses. While our constraints are less stringent than those derived from previous experiments, this study demonstrates the applicability of our method to the lower-mass vector DM search, which is made difficult in this measurement by the short observation time compared to the auto-correlation time scale of DM

Water efficiency analysis in the classroom building and hydraulics laboratory of the Faculty of Engineering, Physical Sciences And Mathematic – Central University of Ecuador

Ecuador, located in the middle of the world, is one of the smallest countries in South America with the largest number of surface and underground freshwater resources. The global impact that affects the world reserves of this natural resource, also affects the countries of the region due to an accelerated population growth, climate change, the obsoleting of technology and the shortage of habits about the need to reduce excessive consumption and waste of drinking water. The highest rate of drinking water consumption among the countries of South America is from Ecuador, with more than 237 liters/(inhabitant.day). This alarming figure is one of the reasons why it is important to reduce drinking water consumption in non-residential buildings without affecting the comfort of users. The main objective of this work is to analyze the water efficiency of university buildings in Quito through the application of the calculation model suggested by the Portuguese Association for Quality in Building Services Installations (ANQIP). Different strategies and techniques are applied to fulfill this objective, among them, the architectural and hydro-sanitary characterization of the buildings, the evaluation of each sanitary device and its water efficiency, as well as the determination of volumetric flows in the facilities of the buildings that form part of the case study. The gradual shortage of drinking water generates the need to find alternative sources for the supply of this resource. The design of a rainwater harvesting system becomes the integral solution proposed to supply water for non-potable uses, to reduce consumptions of potable water, to reduce billing costs and to transform buildings into hydraulically sustainable projects. It is concluded that rainwater harvesting systems provide important volumes of water for non-drinking purposes in buildings such as university establishments