A mathematical construction of the 260 day mesoamerican calendar

Ancient mesoamerican cultures built a short ritual 260 day calendar and used it for daily routinary life. Using simple arithmetic calculations, it is shown in this work that by forcing the introduction of the fundamental number 13 to calculate days in a calendar, a 364 day count can be built and from this, the short mesoamerican calendar of 260 days is constructed. This short calendar inherits some properties of the full 365 day calendar and others from the 360 cycle used by mesoamerican cultures. These cultures also used particular fractions or monads of the numbers of days of the approximate solar 364 day and the full solar 365 day counts in order to align with particular sunsets and sunrises some of their architectural monuments. It is also shown that the basic mesoamerican relation between the full solar 365 day calendar and the short one of 260 days given by: 365 x 52 = 260 x 73 is Kepler's third law of orbital motion between Earth's period of time about the Sun and an imaginary synodic orbit with a 260 day period.Comment: 6 page

Lattice Wigner equation

We present a numerical scheme to solve the Wigner equation, based on a lattice discretization of momentum space. The moments of the Wigner function are recovered exactly, up to the desired order given by the number of discrete momenta retained in the discretisation, which also determines the accuracy of the method. The Wigner equation is equipped with an additional collision operator, designed in such a way as to ensure numerical stability without affecting the evolution of the relevant moments of the Wigner function. The lattice Wigner scheme is validated for the case of quantum harmonic and anharmonic potentials, showing good agreement with theoretical results. It is further applied to the study of the transport properties of one and two dimensional open quantum systems with potential barriers. Finally, the computational viability of the scheme for the case of three- dimensional open systems is also illustrated

Strategies for anti-fibrotic therapies.

The fibrotic diseases encompass a wide spectrum of entities including such multisystemic diseases as systemic sclerosis, nephrogenic systemic fibrosis and sclerodermatous graft versus host disease, as well as organ-specific disorders such as pulmonary, liver, and kidney fibrosis. Collectively, given the wide variety of affected organs, the chronic nature of the fibrotic processes, and the large number of individuals suffering their devastating effects, these diseases pose one of the most serious health problems in current medicine and a serious economic burden to society. Despite these considerations there is currently no accepted effective treatment. However, remarkable progress has been achieved in the elucidation of their pathogenesis including the identification of the critical role of myofibroblasts and the determination of molecular mechanisms that result in the transcriptional activation of the genes responsible for the fibrotic process. Here we review the origin of the myofibroblast and discuss the crucial regulatory pathways involving multiple growth factors and cytokines that participate in the pathogenesis of the fibrotic process. Potentially effective therapeutic strategies based upon this new information are considered in detail and the major challenges that remain and their possible solutions are presented. It is expected that translational efforts devoted to convert this new knowledge into novel and effective anti-fibrotic drugs will be forthcoming in the near future. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Fibrosis: Translation of basic research to human disease

Disseny i organització del contingut docent al projecte SardEscola

Aquest Treball Final de Màster detalla la informació necessària per comprendre el treball que he desenvolupat. En aquest primer apartat es proporciona tota la informació necessària per comprendre el punt de partida d'aquest treball, definit amb més detall a l'apartat de Proposta i Objectius del treball. La part d'estat de l'art conté la informació útil de la recerca i que serà necessària per afrontar els objectius del projecte, entendre el desenvolupament i comprendre els resultats obtinguts. L'apartat de metodologia explica el procediment seguit per a analitzar el projecte que es vol publicar en el portal web SardEscola i fa una anàlisi en profunditat de tota la informació relacionada amb el projecte, l'estructura de la informació, els aspectes a considerar i com a resultat de l'anàlisi, l'apartat tanca amb una proposta de millores del contingut del projecte SardEscola. A l'apartat Disseny del portal web es fa una definició dels requeriments i funcionalitats que vol oferir el portal i s'exposen les mesures escollides per complir amb aquests objectius. Finalment el projecte tanca amb les conclusions i el treball futur per a garantir l'evolució del projecte SardEscola

"The crisis of civil-military relations in Mexico during the war against drugs: comparative reflections on accountability and legal reform in the modern democratic era"

This research is focused on the current crisis that is taking place between Mexico’s civil society and the armed forces in the context of the “war against drugs”. In 2006 the federal government initiated a security strategy focused on the militarization of the enforcement against organised criminal groups that specialise in drug-trafficking. At the same time the number of civilian complaints for human rights abuses attributed to military personnel increased exponentially. Ten years later, the same policies are in force and the soldiers keep being accused of severe human rights violations. The aim of this project is to develop a theoretical framework that will provide the elements needed to reform the current Mexican legal frameworks and military institutions, in order to improve the relationship between the armed forces and civil society. To develop new theory, this research addresses the social background of the conflict and analyses contemporary concepts and frameworks that shape the topic of civil-military relations both at a domestic and international level. Subsequently, the cases of the German post-WWII military institutional reforms and the emergency legal regime in Northern Ireland during the 1960s and 70s are studied and analysed. This provides the elements to do a legal comparison with the current Mexican legal codes and institutions. The result produces the theory needed to develop reforms that have the potential to shape a new civil-military relations paradigm in Mexico

Stimulation of Transforming Growth Factor-β1-Induced Endothelial-To-Mesenchymal Transition and Tissue Fibrosis by Endothelin-1 (ET-1): A Novel Profibrotic Effect of ET-1.

TGF-β-induced endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndoMT) is a newly recognized source of profibrotic activated myofibroblasts and has been suggested to play a role in the pathogenesis of various fibrotic processes. Endothelin-1 (ET-1) has been implicated in the development of tissue fibrosis but its participation in TGF-β-induced EndoMT has not been studied. Here we evaluated the role of ET-1 on TGF-β1-induced EndoMT in immunopurified CD31+/CD102+ murine lung microvascular endothelial cells. The expression levels of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), of relevant profibrotic genes, and of various transcription factors involved in the EndoMT process were assessed employing quantitative RT-PCR, immunofluorescence histology and Western blot analysis. TGF-β1 caused potent induction of EndoMT whereas ET-1 alone had a minimal effect. However, ET-1 potentiated TGF-β1-induced EndoMT and TGF-β1-stimulated expression of mesenchymal cell specific and profibrotic genes and proteins. ET-1 also induced expression of the TGF-β receptor 1 and 2 genes, suggesting a plausible autocrine mechanism to potentiate TGF-β-mediated EndoMT and fibrosis. Stimulation of TGF-β1-induced skin and lung fibrosis by ET-1 was confirmed in vivo in an animal model of TGF-β1-induced tissue fibrosis. These results suggest a novel role for ET-1 in the establishment and progression of tissue fibrosis

A 76 minute gamma-ray periodicity in Sagittarius A*

Using publicly available gamma-ray observations of Saggitarius A* (Sgr A*), we constructed its ~6 months (from 2022 June 22 to 2022 December 19) light curve and subsequently we built its associated periodogram to search for a clear periodical signal. The lightcurve was constructed using the Fermitools package from observations of the Fermi satellite. The associated periodogram was built using the R-package RobPer algorithm, through a two-step model-fitting procedure employing the unweighted tau-regression method. To reduce the likelihood of false positive detections, we incorporated a Window Function method into our analysis. We identify a clear significant peak on the periodogram at 76.32 minutes. The found periodicity is consistent with two other works in the literature at different wavelengths, supporting the idea of a unique oscillatory physical mechanism.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure