Cuando Newton se encontró con Riemann y Abel

Este es un trabajo sobre historia de la ciencia, con algunas reflexiones meta-históricas conectadas parcialmente con la filosofía de la ciencia. La trama del trabajo está elaborada desde la perspectiva del contexto de descubrimiento en filosofía de la ciencia y el foco conceptual es la división un tanto vaga entre historia interna e historia externa, tomadas como estrategias metodológicas en historia de la ciencia Se intenta dar un marco, a través de un caso histórico bastante conspicuo, para una reelaboración del concepto de "historia interna'' y se extraen algunas implicancias metodológicas de la misma

Entre el "bourrage de crâne" y la sombra germánica : propaganda y comunicación social en Francia a través del discurso periodístico

Análisis, a través de fuentes hemerográficas principalmente, de algunos de los debates que se desarrollan en la Francia de entreguerras en torno a la necesidad de poner en marcha mecanismos de propaganda de Estado eficaces, con el telón de fondo de una Alemania derrotada poco tiempo antes pero que es percibida como particularmente activa y amenazante en este terreno. La manipulación sufrida por la población francesa durante la Primera Guerra Mundial por una parte; la abominable venalidad de una prensa que se ve salpicada por diferentes escándalos por otra, contribuyen a acrecentar la desconfianza tanto hacia la prensa como hacia cualquier política de propaganda, que no pocos consideran como una forma de manipulación innecesaria cuando se actúa de buena fe o se trata de defender una cultura universalmente reconocida y respetada, como la francesa.Anàlisi, a través de fonts hemerogràfiques principalment, d'alguns dels debats que es desenvolupen en la França d'entreguerres entorn de la necessitat d'engegar mecanismes de propaganda d'Estat eficaços, amb el teló de fons d'una Alemanya derrotada poc temps abans, però que és percebuda com particularment activa i amenaçadora en aquest terreny. La manipulació soferta per la població francesa durant la Primera Guerra Mundial d'una banda; l'abominable venalitat d'una premsa que es veu esquitxada per diferents escàndols per una altra, contribueixen a acréixer la desconfiança tant cap a la premsa com cap a qualsevol política de propaganda, que no pocs consideren com una forma de manipulació innecessària quan s'actua de bona fe o es tracta de defensar una cultura universalment reconeguda i respectada, com la francesa.Analysis, primarily through newspaper sources, of some of the positions that were manifested in France during the interwar period around the need to launch effective state propaganda mechanisms, with the backdrop of a Germany defeated a short time before, but which was perceived as particularly active and threatening in this field. The manipulation suffered by the French population during the First World War on the one hand; the abominable venality of a press that was punctuated by various scandals on the other, contributed to increasing mistrust both toward the press and toward any propaganda policy, which more than a few people viewed as a form of unnecessary manipulation when acting in good faith or in the case of defending a universally recognised and respected culture, such as the French culture

The role of Pharmacometrics in the development of Cuban Biotechnology products

Pharmacometrics is a vibrant scientific discipline that involves a cycle of excellence: integration, innovation and impact. This work was aimed to assess different pharmacometric approaches in three Cuban biotechnological products. A population pharmacokinetic analysis of nimotuzumab was performed in patients with stage III breast cancer with different doses of it, in combination with doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide. The pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) characterization of Pegylated Recombinant Human Erythropoietin (rHuEPO) branched 32 kDa-PEG-rHuEPO and 40 kDa- PEG-rHuEPO was conducted and compared with reference products (ior®EPOCIM and MIRCERA®) in New Zealand rabbits. Data were analyzed using the nonlinear mixed-effect approach (NONMEM®). The best model for nimotuzumab was the Quasi Steady State approximation of the full Target Mediated Drug Disposition model that best described the linear and nonlinear PK. The recommended optimal biological dose ranged between 200-400mg/ week. On the other hand, a cell transit semi-mechanistic PK/PD model for characterizing rHuEPO profiles was obtained. The development of new branched PEG-chain formulations of rHuEPO improves its PK and PD properties, compared to those of commercially available formulations (i.e., ior®EPOCIM and MIRCERA®). Due to its integrative nature and predictive value, population modeling was very useful in the optimal characterization of the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of these three Cuban biotech drug products. It had a significant impact on decisionmaking by both the national regulatory agency and the local biopharmaceutical industry as to their research and development plans, as well as the subsequent marketing strategies for these new products, with substantial economic and time saving benefits. This work received the Annual Award of the Cuban Academy of Sciences for the year 2019

Small scale fracture behaviour of multilayer TiN/CrN systems: Assessment of bilayer thickness effects by means of ex-situ tests on FIB-milled micro-cantilevers

TiN/CrN multilayered PVD coatings are known to exhibit outstanding micromechanical properties and wear resistance. On the other hand, information on their small scale fracture behaviour is rather scarce. The present work aims to address it by testing to failure FIB-milled microbeams of multilayer TiN/CrN systems with different bilayer periods (8, 19 and 25 nm). In doing so, these micrometric specimens are first FIB notched, and thus deflected by means of a nanoindentation system. It is found that multilayer architecture translates into a beneficial synergic effect regarding critical load for reaching unstable failure; and thus, on energy absorption at fracture. Such behaviour is associated with small scale crack deflection as main toughening mechanism.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Conodontos telychienses (Silúrico inferior) del sinclinal del Guadarranque (Zona Centroibérica, Macizo Hespérico)

Se refiere el hallazgo de los primeros conodontos silúricos id entificables taxonómicamente de la Zona Cenlroibérica del Macizo Hespérico. El material estudiado procede de las ampelitas de la Formación Guadarranquejo, en el Sinclinal del Guadarranque y es referido al Telychiense en base a los grapto litos asociados

Uncooperative society, uncooperative politics or both? Trust, polarization, populism and COVID-19 deaths across European regions

Why have some territories performed better than others in the fight against COVID-19? This paper uses a novel dataset on excess mortality, trust and political polarization for 165 European regions to explore the role of social and political divisions in the remarkable regional differences in excess mortality during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. First, we investigate whether regions characterized by a low social and political trust witnessed a higher excess mortality. Second, we argue that it is not only levels, but also polarization in trust among citizens – in particular, between government supporters and non-supporters – that matters for understanding why people in some regions have adopted more pro-healthy behaviour. Third, we explore the partisan make-up of regional parliaments and the relationship between political division – or what we refer to as ‘uncooperative politics’. We hypothesize that the ideological positioning – in particular those that lean more populist – and ideological polarization among political parties is also linked to higher mortality. Accounting for a host of potential confounders, we find robust support that regions with lower levels of both social and political trust are associated with higher excess mortality, along with citizen polarization in institutional trust in some models. On the ideological make-up of regional parliaments, we find that, ceteris paribus, those that lean more ‘tan’ on the ‘GAL-TAN’ spectrum yielded higher excess mortality. Moreover, although we find limited evidence of elite polarization driving excess deaths on the left-right or GAL-TAN spectrums, partisan differences on the attitudes towards the European Union demonstrated significantly higher deaths, which we argue proxies for (anti)populism. Overall, we find that both lower citizen-level trust and populist elite-level ideological characteristics of regional parliaments are associated with higher excess mortality in European regions during the first wave of the pandemic

Decentralized Personal Data Marketplaces: How Participation in a DAO Can Support the Production of Citizen-Generated Data

Big Tech companies operating in a data-driven economy offer services that rely on their users’ personal data and usually store this personal information in “data silos” that prevent transparency about their use and opportunities for data sharing for public interest. In this paper, we present a solution that promotes the development of decentralized personal data marketplaces, exploiting the use of Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs), Decentralized File Storages (DFS) and smart contracts for storing personal data and managing access control in a decentralized way. Moreover, we focus on the issue of a lack of efficient decentralized mechanisms in DLTs and DFSs for querying a certain type of data. For this reason, we propose the use of a hypercube-structured Distributed Hash Table (DHT) on top of DLTs, organized for efficient processing of multiple keyword-based queries on the ledger data. We test our approach with the implementation of a use case regarding the creation of citizen-generated data based on direct participation and the involvement of a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). The performance evaluation demonstrates the viability of our approach for decentralized data searches, distributed authorization mechanisms and smart contract exploitation