Relationship between mortality and extreme temperatures in Buenos Aires and Rosario

En este trabajo se examinan las relaciones entre las temperaturas extremas y la mortalidad en verano en las ciudades de Buenos Aires y Rosario para el establecimiento de un alerta de olas de calor con aplicación a la salud. Se encuentra que en ambas ciudades existe una relación tipo U entre la mortalidad y las temperaturas máximas, mínimas y aparentes diarias entre los años 2001/2012. De esta manera se muestra que la población porteña y rosarina es susceptible a la ocurrencia de periodos de altas temperaturas. Mediante el análisis de las olas de calor con afectación en la mortalidad vemos que los hombres y mujeres son afectados por exceso de calor en igual proporción relativa a su población parcial y los adultos mayores a 65 años acaparan entre el 70-80 % de los fallecidos. Para ayudar desde la meteorología a la salud, se desarrollaron Sistemas de Alerta de Olas de Calor y Salud en ambas ciudades, y operados por el Servicio Meteorológico Nacional. Los mismos tienen el objetivo de anticipar a la población situaciones meteorológicas extremas y sus posibles efectos en salud, para que la misma aumente los recaudos frente a las olas de calor.In this paper the associations between summer heat waves and mortality in Buenos Aires and Rosario is studied. Both cities have an ‘U’ relationship between daily mortality and maximum, minimum and apparent temperatures over the 2001-2012 period. The population over both cities is susceptible to extreme high temperatures. Men and women are equally affected, but people over 65 represent 70-80% by analyzing heat waves. Alert systems were implemented in both cities trough the National Weather Service with the aim of anticipate extreme meteorological situations to the population.Fil: Almeira, Gustavo. Ministerio del Interior, Obras Públicas y Vivienda. Secretaría de Obras Públicas. Subsecretaría de Recursos Hídricos. Instituto Nacional del Agua y del Ambiente (Ezeiza); Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas; ArgentinaFil: Rusticucci, Matilde Monica. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Ciencias de la Atmósfera y los Océanos; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Suaya, Martina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Ciencias de la Atmósfera y los Océanos; Argentina. Ministerio de Defensa. Secretaria de Planeamiento. Servicio Meteorológico Nacional; Argentin

Live and let die: signaling AKTivation and UPRegulation dynamics in SARS-CoVs infection and cancer

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the pathogen responsible for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Of particular interest for this topic are the signaling cascades that regulate cell survival and death, two opposite cell programs whose control is hijacked by viral infections. The AKT and the Unfolded Protein Response (UPR) pathways, which maintain cell homeostasis by regulating these two programs, have been shown to be deregulated during SARS-CoVs infection as well as in the development of cancer, one of the most important comorbidities in relation to COVID-19. Recent evidence revealed two way crosstalk mechanisms between the AKT and the UPR pathways, suggesting that they might constitute a unified homeostatic control system. Here, we review the role of the AKT and UPR pathways and their interaction in relation to SARS-CoV-2 infection as well as in tumor onset and progression. Feedback regulation between AKT and UPR pathways emerges as a master control mechanism of cell decision making in terms of survival or death and therefore represents a key potential target for developing treatments for both viral infection and cancer. In particular, drug repositioning, the investigation of existing drugs for new therapeutic purposes, could significantly reduce time and costs compared to de novo drug discovery.Fil: Suaya, Mariana. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Biociencias, Biotecnología y Biología Traslacional; ArgentinaFil: Sánchez, Gonzalo Manuel. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Biociencias, Biotecnología y Biología Traslacional; ArgentinaFil: Vila, Antonella Sofía. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Biociencias, Biotecnología y Biología Traslacional; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Amante, Analia. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Biociencias, Biotecnología y Biología Traslacional; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Celular; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Cotarelo, María. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Biociencias, Biotecnología y Biología Traslacional; ArgentinaFil: García Carrillo, Mercedes. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Biociencias, Biotecnología y Biología Traslacional; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Blaustein, Matíaa. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Biociencias, Biotecnología y Biología Traslacional; Argentin

2-D Compaction -- A Monte Carlo Method

In this paper we study the two-dimensional compaction of integrated circuit layouts. A curvilinear representation for circuit elements, specifically chosen to make the compaction efficient, is developed. A Monte Carlo algorithm with heuristic termination criteria was applied to a variety of designs. These experiments give running times for compaction that are consistent with a conjectured average complexity of O(N^(3/2) log^2(N)) where N is the number of non-wire primitives in the cell. These experiments also produced favorable comparisons with hand-designs and with designs using iterated applications of one dimensional compactors. Several cells also were fabricated and tested to demonstrate the practicality of the representation and the compaction technique

Relationship between mortality and extreme temperatures in Buenos Aires and Rosario

En este trabajo se examinan las relaciones entre las temperaturas extremas y la mortalidad en verano en las ciudades de Buenos Aires y Rosario para el establecimiento de un alerta de olas de calor con aplicación a la salud. Se encuentra que en ambas ciudades existe una relación tipo U entre la mortalidad y las temperaturas máximas, mínimas y aparentes diarias entre los años 2001/2012. De esta manera se muestra que la población porteña y rosarina es susceptible a la ocurrencia de periodos de altas temperaturas. Mediante el análisis de las olas de calor con afectación en la mortalidad vemos que los hombres y mujeres son afectados por exceso de calor en igual proporción relativa a su población parcial y los adultos mayores a 65 años acaparan entre el 70-80 % de los fallecidos. Para ayudar desde la meteorología a la salud, se desarrollaron Sistemas de Alerta de Olas de Calor y Salud en ambas ciudades, y operados por el Servicio Meteorológico Nacional. Los mismos tienen el objetivo de anticipar a la población situaciones meteorológicas extremas y sus posibles efectos en salud, para que la misma aumente los recaudos frente a las olas de calor.In this paper the associations between summer heat waves and mortality in Buenos Aires and Rosario is studied. Both cities have an ‘U’ relationship between daily mortality and maximum, minimum and apparent temperatures over the 2001-2012 period. The population over both cities is susceptible to extreme high temperatures. Men and women are equally affected, but people over 65 represent 70-80% by analyzing heat waves. Alert systems were implemented in both cities trough the National Weather Service with the aim of anticipate extreme meteorological situations to the population.Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísica

Hacia un análisis de evaluabilidad de planes y programas sociales: un estudio sobre 33 iniciativas implementadas en Argentina.

La evaluación es una función estratégica del estado que permite generar información útil y valiosa para abordar aspectos claves de las políticas públicas tales como impacto, efectos, eficiencia o eficacia, entre otros.Además, puede convertirse en una herramienta de cambio que mejore el desempeño de la política y presente una utilidad social relacionada con los intereses de los titulares de derechos y de la sociedad toda. Pero, ¿están los planes y programas gubernamentales nacionales en condiciones de ser evaluados y producir información relevante para la toma de decisiones? Este trabajo analiza las condiciones de evaluabilidad de un conjunto de iniciativas mediante la aplicación de una herramienta analítica que recopila los aspectos más críticos vinculados a la evaluabilidad sistematizados en cinco dimensiones. Los resultados indican que hay un desarrollo desigual en materia de evaluabilidad en Argentina, destacándose la concentración de planes y programas en dos polos. Un conjunto de intervenciones con altos niveles de evaluabilidad, el cual contrasta con el otro grupo que casi no tiene desarrollada ninguna de las cinco dimensiones. Los hallazgos muestran la necesidad de desplegar estrategias diversificadas de desarrollo de capacidades al interior de los ministerios.

Will Increasing Referral to Cardiac Rehabilitation Improve Participation?

Manuscript received July 9, 2010; accepted August 6, 2010Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/79180/1/j.1751-7141.2010.00086.x.pd

Economic Value of Dengue Vaccine in Thailand

With several candidate dengue vaccines under development, this is an important time to help stakeholders (e.g., policy makers, scientists, clinicians, and manufacturers) better understand the potential economic value (cost-effectiveness) of a dengue vaccine, especially while vaccine characteristics and strategies might be readily altered. We developed a decision analytic Markov simulation model to evaluate the potential health and economic value of administering a dengue vaccine to an individual (≤ 1 year of age) in Thailand from the societal perspective. Sensitivity analyses evaluated the effects of ranging various vaccine (e.g., cost, efficacy, side effect), epidemiological (dengue risk), and disease (treatment-seeking behavior) characteristics. A ≥ 50% efficacious vaccine was highly cost-effective [< 1× per capita gross domestic product (GDP) ($4,289)] up to a total vaccination cost of$60 and cost-effective [< 3× per capita GDP ($12,868)] up to a total vaccination cost of$200. When the total vaccine series was $1.50, many scenarios were cost saving

Cost and disease burden of Dengue in Cambodia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Dengue is endemic in Cambodia (pop. estimates 14.4 million), a country with poor health and economic indicators. Disease burden estimates help decision makers in setting priorities. Using recent estimates of dengue incidence in Cambodia, we estimated the cost of dengue and its burden using disability adjusted life years (DALYs).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Recent population-based cohort data were used to calculate direct and productive costs, and DALYs. Health seeking behaviors were taken into account in cost estimates. Specific age group incidence estimates were used in DALYs calculation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The mean cost per dengue case varied from US$36 -$75 over 2006-2008 respectively, resulting in an overall annual cost from US$3,327,284 in 2008 to US$14,429,513 during a large epidemic in 2007. Patients sustain the highest share of costs by paying an average of 78% of total costs and 63% of direct medical costs. DALY rates per 100,000 individuals ranged from 24.3 to 100.6 in 2007-2008 with 80% on average due to premature mortality.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our analysis confirmed the high societal and individual family burden of dengue. Total costs represented between 0.03 and 0.17% of Gross Domestic Product. Health seeking behavior has a major impact on costs. The more accurate estimate used in this study will better allow decision makers to account for dengue costs particularly among the poor when balancing the benefits of introducing a potentially effective dengue vaccine.</p

High Dengue Case Capture Rate in Four Years of a Cohort Study in Nicaragua Compared to National Surveillance Data

Dengue is a major public health problem in tropical and subtropical regions; however, under-reporting of cases to national surveillance systems hinders accurate knowledge of disease burden and costs. Laboratory-confirmed dengue cases identified through the Nicaraguan Pediatric Dengue Cohort Study (PDCS) were compared to those reported from other health facilities in Managua to the National Epidemiologic Surveillance (NES) program of the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health. Compared to reporting among similar pediatric populations in Managua, the PDCS identified 14 to 28 (average 21.3) times more dengue cases each year per 100,000 persons than were reported to the NES. Applying these annual expansion factors to national-level data, we estimate that the incidence of confirmed pediatric dengue throughout Nicaragua ranged from 300 to 1000 cases per 100,000 persons. We have estimated a much higher incidence of dengue than reported by the Ministry of Health. A country-specific expansion factor for dengue that allows for a more accurate estimate of incidence may aid governments and other institutions calculating disease burden, costs, resource needs for prevention and treatment, and the economic benefits of drug and vaccine development

Relativistic two-photon and two-gluon decay rates of heavy quarkonia

The decay rates of $c\bar{c}$ and $b\bar{b}$ through two-photon or two-gluon annihilations are obtained by using totally relativistic decay amplitudes and a sophisticated quantum-chromodynamic potential model for heavy quarkonia. Our results for the photonic and gluonic widths of the 1S0, 3P0, and the 3P2 states are in excellent agreement with the available experimental data. The procedures and mathematical techniques used by us for the treatment of the fermion-antifermion bound states are also applicable to other decay processes.Comment: 15 pages, RevTeX, PostScript available at http://gluon.physics.wayne.edu/wsuhep/jim/predecay.p