Dynamics of interacting diseases

Current modeling of infectious diseases allows for the study of complex and realistic scenarios that go from the population to the individual level of description. However, most epidemic models assume that the spreading process takes place on a single level (be it a single population, a meta-population system or a network of contacts). In particular, interdependent contagion phenomena can only be addressed if we go beyond the scheme one pathogen-one network. In this paper, we propose a framework that allows describing the spreading dynamics of two concurrent diseases. Specifically, we characterize analytically the epidemic thresholds of the two diseases for different scenarios and also compute the temporal evolution characterizing the unfolding dynamics. Results show that there are regions of the parameter space in which the onset of a disease's outbreak is conditioned to the prevalence levels of the other disease. Moreover, we show, for the SIS scheme, that under certain circumstances, finite and not vanishing epidemic thresholds are found even at the thermodynamic limit for scale-free networks. For the SIR scenario, the phenomenology is richer and additional interdependencies show up. We also find that the secondary thresholds for the SIS and SIR models are different, which results directly from the interaction between both diseases. Our work thus solve an important problem and pave the way towards a more comprehensive description of the dynamics of interacting diseases.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figures, 4 tables, 3 appendices. Final version accepted for publication in Physical Review

Colorful Imprints of Heavy States in the Electroweak Effective Theory

We analyze heavy states from generic ultraviolet completions of the Standard Model in a model-independent way and investigate their implications on the low-energy couplings of the electroweak effective theory. We build a general effective Lagrangian, implementing the electroweak symmetry breaking $SU(2)_L\otimes SU(2)_R\to SU(2)_{L+R}$ with a non-linear Nambu-Goldstone realization, which couples the known particles to the heavy states. We generalize the formalism developed in previous works~[1,2] to include colored resonances, both of bosonic and fermionic type. We study bosonic heavy states with $J^P=0^\pm$ and $J^P=1^\pm$, in singlet or triplet $SU(2)_{L+R}$ representations and in singlet or octet representations of $SU(3)_C$, and fermionic resonances with $J=\frac{1}{2}$ that are electroweak doublets and QCD triplets or singlets. Integrating out the heavy scales, we determine the complete pattern of low-energy couplings at the lowest non-trivial order. Some specific types of (strongly- and weakly-coupled) ultraviolet completions are discussed to illustrate the generality of our approach and to make contact with current experimental searches.Comment: 51 pages, 2 figures, 12 tables; v2: matches Journal versio

Tackling complexity in biological systems: Multi-scale approaches to tuberculosis infection

Tuberculosis is an ancient disease responsible for more than a million deaths per year worldwide, whose complex infection cycle involves dynamical processes that take place at different spatial and temporal scales, from single pathogenic cells to entire hosts' populations. In this thesis we study TB disease at different levels of description from the perspective of complex systems sciences. On the one hand, we use complex networks theory for the analysis of cell interactomes of the causative agent of the disease: the bacillus Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Here, we analyze the gene regulatory network of the bacterium, as well as its network of protein interactions and the way in which it is transformed as a consequence of gene expression adaptation to disparate environments. On the other hand, at the level of human societies, we develop new models for the description of TB spreading on complex populations. First, we develop mathematical models aimed at addressing, from a conceptual perspective, the interplay between complexity of hosts' populations and certain dynamical traits characteristic of TB spreading, like long latency periods and syndemic associations with other diseases. On the other hand, we develop a novel data-driven model for TB spreading with the objective of providing faithful impact evaluations for novel TB vaccines of different types

Aplicación de la Aleatorización Mendeliana en inferencia de redes de regulación genética

La regulación de la expresión genética en los sistemas vivos es un proceso que depende del concurso de miles de genes, proteínas y metabolitos que interaccionan entre sí generando patrones en red que constituyen el ejemplo paradigmático de sistema complejo. Estas redes de regulación genética, que en su formalización más fundamental están compuestas por genes cuyos niveles de expresión están regulados unos por otros, constituyen un objeto de estudio convergente de la Física de sistemas complejos, la genómica y la Biología de sistemas.Sin embargo, inferir la direccionalidad de las relaciones causales que forman estas redes no es tarea sencilla. Ello hace que, a partir únicamente de experimentos de expresión (e.g. RNA-seq), sea mucho más sencillo obtener redes de co-expresión (donde los enlaces denotan correlación) que obtener redes de regulación (donde los enlaces son direccionales e indican causalidad).Apoyándonos en trabajo previo del equipo investigador, en este TFG nos proponemos profundizar en el potencial de la aleatorización Mendeliana (AM) para inferir la direccionalidad subyacente a los patrones de correlación que constituyen la base de una red de co-expresión. La AM es un método estadístico comúnmente utilizado en epidemiología que permite inferir la direccionalidad causal entre dos fenotipos usando variables instrumentales (típicamente variantes genéticas) y su relación con los fenotipos analizados. En este TFG, el método se aplicará a un panel de individuos ampliamente genotipados, de cuya sangre se han derivado macrófagos para medir su expresión genética durante un experimento de infección in-vitro con una cepa virulenta del patógeno causante de la tuberculosis.<br /

Pararotor dynamics: center of mass displacement from the blade plane—analytical approach

The pararotor is a biology-inspired decelerator device based on the autorotation of a rotary wing whose main purpose is to guide a load descent into a certain atmosphere. This paper focuses on a practical approach to the general dynamic stability of a pararotor whose center of mass is displaced from the blade plane. The analytical study departs from the motion equations of pararotor flight, considering the center of mass displacement from the blade plane, studied over a number of simplifying hypotheses that allows determining the most important influences to flight behavior near equilibrium. Two practical indexes are developed to characterize the stability of a pararotor in terms of geometry, inertia, and the aerodynamic characteristics of the device. Based on these two parameters, a stability diagram can be defined upon which stability regions can be identified. It was concluded that the ability to reach stability conditions depends mainly on a limited number of parameters associated with the pararotor configuration: the relationship between moments of inertia, the position of the blades, the planform shape (associated with the blade aerodynamic coefficients and blade area), and the vertical distance between the center of mass and the blade plane. These parameters can be evaluated by computing practical indexes to determine stability behavior

Educació emocional i aprenentatge lingüístic: iniciació a una proposta global d’aprenentatge

Treball Final de Màster Universitari en Comunicació Intercultural i Ensenyament de Llengües. Codi: SBC042. Curs: 2018/2019La societat actual crea unes necessitats que, des dels centres educatius, han de ser ateses per tal de proporcionar als joves les ferramentes necessàries per a fer front als reptes del seu dia a dia. En eixe sentit, l’educació emocional s’ha convertit en un àmbit elemental per al desenvolupament de les xiquetes i els xiquets en el món que els envolta; no obstant, eixa necessitat no va acompanyada d’una inclusió curricular, sinó que es converteix en un repte per a l’ensenyança, més, si cap, en aquells contextos socioeducatius desfavorables. Per la qual cosa, en aquest treball es presenta el disseny d’una proposta d’iniciació a l’educació emocional -en grups en què no ha sigut treballada anteriorment- i els resultats que s’han obtingut a partir d’ella. A més a més, aquesta proposta es basa en l’aprenentatge globalitzat, integrant el desenvolupament de les competències lingüístiques com un element implícit al treball emocional, atorgant així major transcendència i significativitat a l’aprenentatge. Com així han evidenciat els resultats, d’una banda la proposta globalitzada d’educació emocional i aprenentatge lingüístic ha contribuït al desenvolupament de la consciència i la regulació emocional de l’alumnat i ha proporcionat una millora en els recursos lingüístics de l’alumnat; d’altra banda, la valoració de la seua viabilitat -per part de l’ensenyança- ha resultat molt positiva, així com l’alt grau d’acceptació per part de l’alumnat