Maimónides y la teoría política del sur de Europa

Maimónides aporta una explicación de lo público, procedente del siglo doce, con novedades que hoy son relevantes. La ciencia política comienza con el estudio del gobierno de cada uno. Esta idea, de origen aristotélico, se funde con la tradición judía del halakha para aportar una filosofía nueva. La ciudad es para Rambam un conjunto de patios y callejuelas y, en su entendimiento de la política, no se puede identificar conocimiento con poder. Su obra propugna un método pedagógico que establece la enseñanza de uno en uno para la trasmisión de conocimientos trascendentales, tal y como era acostumbrado en la tradición sefardí. Su reflexión sobre el poder y la ciudad le llevan a resaltar el buen juicio cotidiano. Proteger el buen juicio es la manera de que la filosofía pública atienda tanto la inherencia como la contingenci

Cost-Effectiveness of Tdap Vaccination of Adults Aged ≥65 Years in the Prevention of Pertussis in the US: A Dynamic Model of Disease Transmission

Objectives: In February 2012, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) advised that all adults aged ≥65 years receive a single dose of reduced-antigen-content tetanus, diphtheria, and acellular pertussis (Tdap), expanding on a 2010 recommendation for adults >65 that was limited to those with close contact with infants. We evaluated clinical and economic outcomes of adding Tdap booster of adults aged ≥65 to “baseline” practice [full-strength DTaP administered from 2 months to 4–6 years, and one dose of Tdap at 11–64 years replacing decennial Td booster], using a dynamic model. Methods: We constructed a population-level disease transmission model to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of supplementing baseline practice by vaccinating 10% of eligible adults aged ≥65 with Tdap replacing the decennial Td booster. US population effects, including indirect benefits accrued by unvaccinated persons, were estimated during a 1-year period after disease incidence reached a new steady state, with consequences of deaths and long-term pertussis sequelae projected over remaining lifetimes. Model outputs include: cases by severity, encephalopathy, deaths, costs (of vaccination and pertussis care) and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) associated with each strategy. Results in terms of incremental cost/QALY gained are presented from payer and societal perspectives. Sensitivity analyses vary key parameters within plausible ranges. Results: For the US population, the intervention is expected to prevent >97,000 cases (>4,000 severe and >5,000 among infants) of pertussis annually at steady state. Additional vaccination costs are $4.7 million. Net cost savings, including vaccination costs, are$47.7 million (societal perspective) and $44.8 million (payer perspective). From both perspectives, the intervention strategy is dominant (less costly, and more effective by >3,000 QALYs) versus baseline. Results are robust to sensitivity analyses and alternative scenarios. Conclusions: Immunization of eligible adults aged ≥65, consistent with the current ACIP recommendation, is cost saving from both payer and societal perspectives

Global and regional cortical thinning in first-episode psychosis patients: relationships with clinical and cognitive features

BackgroundThe thickness of the cortical mantle is a sensitive measure for identifying alterations in cortical structure. We aimed to explore whether first episode schizophrenia patients already show a significant cortical thinning and whether cortical thickness anomalies may significantly influence clinical and cognitive features.MethodWe investigated regional changes in cortical thickness in a large and heterogeneous sample of schizophrenia spectrum patients (n=142) at their first break of the illness and healthy controls (n=83). Magnetic resonance imaging brain scans (1.5 T) were obtained and images were analyzed by using BRAINS2. The contribution of sociodemographic, cognitive and clinical characterictics was investigated.ResultsPatients showed a significant total cortical thinning (F=17.55, d=−0.62, p0.53). No significant group × gender interactions were observed (all p’s>0.15). There were no significant associations between the clinical and pre-morbid variables and cortical thickness measurements (all r’s<0.12). A weak significant negative correlation between attention and total (r=−0.24, p=0.021) and parietal cortical thickness (r=−0.27, p=0.009) was found in patients (thicker cortex was associated with lower attention). Our data revealed a similar pattern of cortical thickness changes related to age in patients and controls.ConclusionsCortical thinning is independent of gender, age, age of onset and duration of the illness and does not seem to significantly influence clinical and functional symptomatology. These findings support a primary neuro-development disorder affecting the normal cerebral cortex development in schizophrenia

Status of ART-XC/SRG Instrument

Spectrum Roentgen Gamma (SRG) is an X-ray astrophysical observatory, developed by Russia in collaboration with Germany. The mission will be launched in March 2016 from Baikonur, by a Zenit rocket with a Fregat booster and placed in a 6-month-period halo orbit around L2. The scientific payload consists of two independent telescopes - a soft-x-ray survey instrument, eROSITA, being provided by Germany and a medium-x-ray-energy survey instrument ART-XC being developed by Russia. ART-XC will consist of seven independent, but co-aligned, telescope modules. The NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) is fabricating the flight mirror modules for the ART-XC/SRG. Each mirror module will be aligned with a focal plane CdTe double-sided strip detectors which will operate over the energy range of 6-30 keV, with an angular resolution of less than 1, a field of view of approximately 34 and an expected energy resolution of about 10 percent at 14 keV

Reply to: New Meta- and Mega-analyses of Magnetic Resonance Imaging Findings in Schizophrenia: Do They Really Increase Our Knowledge About the Nature of the Disease Process?

This work was supported by National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering Grant No. U54EB020403 (to the ENIGMA consortium)

The ART-XC telescope on board the SRG observatory

ART-XC (Astronomical Roentgen Telescope - X-ray Concentrator) is the hard X-ray instrument with grazing incidence imaging optics on board the Spektr-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG) observatory. The SRG observatory is the flagship astrophysical mission of the Russian Federal Space Program, which was successively launched into orbit around the second Lagrangian point (L2) of the Earth-Sun system with a Proton rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome on 13 July 2019. The ART-XC telescope will provide the first ever true imaging all-sky survey performed with grazing incidence optics in the 4-30 keV energy band and will obtain the deepest and sharpest map of the sky in the energy range of 4-12 keV. Observations performed during the early calibration and performance verification phase as well as during the on-going all-sky survey that started on 12 Dec. 2019 have demonstrated that the in-flight characteristics of the ART-XC telescope are very close to expectations based on the results of ground calibrations. Upon completion of its 4-year all-sky survey, ART-XC is expected to detect ~5000 sources (~3000 active galactic nuclei, including heavily obscured ones, several hundred clusters of galaxies, ~1000 cataclysmic variables and other Galactic sources), and to provide a high-quality map of the Galactic background emission in the 4-12 keV energy band. ART-XC is also well suited for discovering transient X-ray sources. In this paper, we describe the telescope, results of its ground calibrations, major aspects of the mission, the in-flight performance of ART-XC and first scientific results.Comment: 19 pages, 30 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

ART-XC Instrument on Board of the SRG Mission

No abstract availabl

Time to positivity in blood cultures of adults with Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteremia

BACKGROUND: previous studies have established that bacterial blood concentration is related with clinical outcome. Time to positivity of blood cultures (TTP) has relationship with bacterial blood concentration and could be related with prognosis. As there is scarce information about the usefulness of TTP, we study the relationship of TTP with clinical parameters in patients with Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteremia. METHODS: TTP of all cases of Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteremia, detected between January 1995 and December 2004 using the BacT/Alert automated blood culture system in a teaching community hospital was analyzed. When multiple cultures were positive only the shortest TTP was selected for the analysis. RESULTS: in the study period 105 patients with Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteremia were detected. Median TTP was 14.1 hours (range 1.2 h to 127 h). Immunosuppressed patients (n = 5), patients with confusion (n = 19), severe sepsis or shock at the time of blood culture extraction (n = 12), those with a diagnosis of meningitis (n = 7) and those admitted to the ICU (n = 14) had lower TTP. Patients with TTP in the first quartile were more frequently hospitalized, admitted to the ICU, had meningitis, a non-pneumonic origin of the bacteremia, and a higher number of positive blood cultures than patients with TTP in the fourth quartile. None of the patients with TTP in the 90(th )decile had any of these factors associated with shorter TTP, and eight out of ten patients with TTP in the 10(th )decile had at least one of these factors. The number of positive blood cultures had an inverse correlation with TTP, suggesting a relationship of TTP with bacterial blood concentration. CONCLUSION: Our data support the relationship of TTP with several clinical parameters in patients with Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteremia, and its potential usefulness as a surrogate marker of outcome