SARS-CoV-2 and its Metaphors

The current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has brought, as in past pandemics, a series of metaphors and, still, a recent literature about it. In addition to philosophical and economic questions, that have caused an unprecedented crisis and that it is early to evaluate with a proper perspective.La pandemia actual de SARS-CoV-2 ha traído, como en pandemias pasadas, una serie de metáforas y literatura todavía aún reciente en torno a la misma. Además de cuestiones filosóficas y económicas, que han provocado una crisis sin precedente y que es pronto para evaluar con una perspectiva adecuada

Living a Pandemic

SARS-CoV-2 first appeared in Wuhan (China) in December 2019 and from that moment it spread throughout the rest of the world causing a pandemic such as had not been seen recently. A rapid virus diagnosis and appropriate infection prevention measures have been seen to be the fundamental tools to contain the virus. This article describes how this pandemic was experienced from a laboratory of Virology.El SARS-CoV-2 apareció por primera vez en diciembre de 2019 en Wuhan (China) y desde ese momento se expandió por el resto del mundo causando una pandemia como no se había visto recientemente. El rápido diagnóstico del virus y las medidas de prevención de la infección se ha visto que son las herramientas fundamentales para contener el virus. En este artículo se relata cómo se vivió esta pandemia desde un laboratorio de virología

Odometry and Laser Scanner Fusion Based on a Discrete Extended Kalman Filter for Robotic Platooning Guidance

This paper describes a relative localization system used to achieve the navigation of a convoy of robotic units in indoor environments. This positioning system is carried out fusing two sensorial sources: (a) an odometric system and (b) a laser scanner together with artificial landmarks located on top of the units. The laser source allows one to compensate the cumulative error inherent to dead-reckoning; whereas the odometry source provides less pose uncertainty in short trajectories. A discrete Extended Kalman Filter, customized for this application, is used in order to accomplish this aim under real time constraints. Different experimental results with a convoy of Pioneer P3-DX units tracking non-linear trajectories are shown. The paper shows that a simple setup based on low cost laser range systems and robot built-in odometry sensors is able to give a high degree of robustness and accuracy to the relative localization problem of convoy units for indoor applications

Pronóstico de caudales con Filtro de Kalman Discreto en el río Turbio

Se propuso la implementación del algoritmo del Filtro de Kalman Discreto (DKF) junto con un modelo autorregresivo con entrada exógena (ARX) para realizar el pronóstico de caudales a corto plazo con 24, 48, 72 y 96 horas de anticipación en la cuenca del río Turbio, localizada en el estado de Guanajuato y parte del estado de Jalisco, México, vulnerable a inundaciones durante los periodos de lluvias que se presentan normalmente en la zona. La información de precipitación y caudal disponible con las que se realizaron los pronósticos corresponde a las series de los años 2003 y 2004. Los resultados obtenidos indican que los pronósticos realizados un paso hacia adelante, es decir, con un tiempo de 24 horas de anticipación, presentaron los mejores ajustes en términos de Nash-Sutcliffe, MSE y RMSE, que los pronósticos realizados a 48, 72 y 96 horas de anticipación

Pedagogía Ignaciana 4. Reflexiones a diez años de las Características de la educación de la Compañía de Jesús

Obra que reúne las ponencias presentadas en el Seminario Internacional realizado en el Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente, del 5 al 8 de diciembre de 1996, con motivo de la celebración del décimo aniversario de haberse publicado las Características de la educación de la Compañía de Jesús. Allí los ponentes reflexionaron sobre el contexto de la educación jesuítica, su propuesta educativa y puesta en práctica, y sus retos y desafíos.ITESO, A.C

COVID-19 Associated Pulmonary Aspergillosis (CAPA): Hospital or Home Environment as a Source of Life-Threatening Aspergillus fumigatus Infection?

Most cases of invasive aspergillosis are caused by Aspergillus fumigatus, whose conidia are ubiquitous in the environment. Additionally, in indoor environments, such as houses or hospitals, conidia are frequently detected too. Hospital-acquired aspergillosis is usually associated with airborne fungal contamination of the hospital air, especially after building construction events. A. fumigatus strain typing can fulfill many needs both in clinical settings and otherwise. The high incidence of aspergillosis in COVID patients from our hospital, made us wonder if they were hospital-acquired aspergillosis. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the hospital environment was the source of aspergillosis infection in CAPA patients, admitted to the Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias, during the first and second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, or whether it was community-acquired aspergillosis before admission. During 2020, sixty-nine A. fumigatus strains were collected for this study: 59 were clinical isolates from 28 COVID-19 patients, and 10 strains were environmentally isolated from seven hospital rooms and intensive care units. A diagnosis of pulmonary aspergillosis was based on the ECCM/ISHAM criteria. Strains were genotyped by PCR amplification and sequencing of a panel of four hypervariable tandem repeats within exons of surface protein coding genes (TRESPERG). A total of seven genotypes among the 10 environmental strains and 28 genotypes among the 59 clinical strains were identified. Genotyping revealed that only one environmental A. fumigatus from UCI 5 (box 54) isolated in October (30 October 2020) and one A. fumigatus isolated from a COVID-19 patient admitted in Pneumology (Room 532-B) in November (24 November 2020) had the same genotype, but there was a significant difference in time and location. There was also no relationship in time and location between similar A. fumigatus genotypes of patients. The global A. fumigatus, environmental and clinical isolates, showed a wide diversity of genotypes. To our knowledge, this is the first study monitoring and genotyping A. fumigatus isolates obtained from hospital air and COVID-19 patients, admitted with aspergillosis, during one year. Our work shows that patients do not acquire A. fumigatus in the hospital. This proves that COVID-associated aspergillosis in our hospital is not a nosocomial infection, but supports the hypothesis of "community aspergillosis" acquisition outside the hospital, having the home environment (pandemic period at home) as the main suspected focus of infection.S