Desigualdad, exclusión y justicia global

The process of globalization has affected the national State to the point of crisis and has increased inequality and exclusion in the world. Therefore, justice cannot keep being thought exclusively, as done in the past century, within certain limits all concerned to the State. Facing citizenship and State process of hierarchy in the new world order, a global justice theory must consider long-term the consolidation of a global constitutionalism that guarantees fundamental rights for everyone and promotes a fair distribution of the benefits generated by globalization.El proceso de globalización ha puesto en crisis al Estado-nación y ha incrementado la desigualdad y la exclusión en el mundo. Por ello, la justicia no puede seguir siendo pensada exclusivamente, como se hizo en tiempos pasados, a partir del estrecho margen estatal. Frente a la jerarquización de la ciudadanía y de los Estados en el nuevo orden mundial, una teoría de la justicia global debe plantearse a largo plazo la consolidación de un constitucionalismo global que garantice los derechos fundamentales para todas las personas y promueva una distribución justa de los beneficios que genera la globalización

Migración internacional y derechos fundamentales

To raise the matter of international migration it is necessary to start from the process of globalization and the current world order. After outlining some of the principal aspects of this process and order in which the increase of the migratory phenomenon is manifested –and on which the organization into a hierarchy of the national States and their corresponding citizenships stands out–, the necessity of the defense of the fundamental rights of the migrants is considered. This defense must be from a global perspective –beyond the States and the citizenships put into a hierarchy–, aiming to reach the establishment of the necessary international instruments that guarantee the application of these rights institutionally. In this sense, this article concludes with the raising of the appropriateness and urgency of global migratory politics that allow the governability of international migration.Para el abordaje del tema de la migración internacional se requiere partir del proceso de globalización y del orden mundial vigente. Después de delinear algunos de los principales aspectos de este proceso y orden en el que se manifiesta el incremento del fenómeno migratorio, y en el que se destaca especialmente la jerarquización de los Estados-nación y sus correspondientes ciudadanías, se plantea la necesidad de la defensa de los derechos fundamentales de los migrantes. Esta defensa debe ser a su vez desde una perspectiva global, más allá de los Estados y las ciudadanías jerarquizadas, con el fin de que se puedan llegar a establecer los instrumentos internacionales necesarios que garanticen institucionalmente el accionar de esos derechos. En este sentido, el artículo concluye con el planteamiento de la pertinencia y urgencia de una política migratoria global que permita la gobernanza de la migración internacional

Reason and history, beyond postmodernity

This paper recover some critical elements draw up from the postmodernity to the modern thinking in order to sketch, –beyond the modernity-postmodernity confrontation–, a concept of reason and history appropriate to our complex contemporary societies.En este artículo se recuperan algunos elementos de la crítica que formuló la posmodernidad al pensamiento moderno con el fin de esbozar, más allá del enfrentamiento modernidad-posmodernidad, un concepto de razón y de historia adecuados para nuestras complejas sociedades contemporáneas

A feasible and automatic free tool for T1 and ECV mapping

Purpose: Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) is a useful non-invasive tool for characterizing tissues and detecting myocardial fibrosis and edema. Estimation of extracellular volume fraction (ECV) using T1 sequences is emerging as an accurate biomarker in cardiac diseases associated with diffuse fibrosis. In this study, automatic software for T1 and ECV map generation consisting of an executable file was developed and validated using phantom and human data. Methods: T1 mapping was performed in phantoms and 30 subjects (22 patients and 8 healthy subjects) on a 1.5T MR scanner using the modified Look-Locker inversion-recovery (MOLLI) sequence prototype before and 15 min after contrast agent administration. T1 maps were generated using a Fast Nonlinear Least Squares algorithm. Myocardial ECV maps were generated using both pre- and post-contrast T1 image registration and automatic extraction of blood relaxation rates. Results: Using our software, pre- and post-contrast T1 maps were obtained in phantoms and healthy subjects resulting in a robust and reliable quantification as compared to reference software. Coregistration of pre- and post-contrast images improved the quality of ECV maps. Mean ECV value in healthy subjects was 24.5% ± 2.5%. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that it is possible to obtain accurate T1 maps and informative ECV maps using our software. Pixel-wise ECV maps obtained with this automatic software made it possible to visualize and evaluate the extent and severity of ECV alterations

A computational tool for evaluating HIFU safety

Background. High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) is a noninvasive treatment for therapeutic applications, in particular the treatment of either benign or malignant tumor lesions. HIFU treatment is based on the power of a focused ultrasound beam to locally heat biological tissues over a necrotic level with minimal impact on the surrounding tissues. Therapies based on HIFU are becoming widely spread in the panorama of options offered by the Health Care System. Consequently, there is an ever increasing need to standardise quality assurance protocols and to develop computational tools to evaluate the output of clinical HIFU devices and ensuring safe delivery of HIFU treatment.Aims. Goal of this study is the development of a computational tool for HIFU ablation therapy to assure safety of the patient and effectiveness of the treatment. Results. The simulated results provide information about the behaviour of the focalized ultrasound in their interaction with different biological tissues.Conclusions. Numerical simulation represents a useful approach to predict the heath deposition and, consequently, to assess the safety and effectiveness of HIFU devices

The Role of Nasal Nitric Oxide and Anterior Active Rhinomanometry in the Diagnosis of Allergic Rhinitis and Asthma: A Message for Pediatric Clinical Practice

Background: Allergic rhinitis (AR) and asthma are two common atopic diseases, often associated with a common ethiopathogenesis characterized by a Th2 inflammatory response with the release of many biomarkers, such as nitric oxide (NO). Purpose: To evaluate and compare inflammatory (nFeNO and eFeNO) and functional (mNF and FEV1) parameters in AR children with or without asthma in comparison to controls. Secondly, we aimed to identify nFeNO cut-off values and verify their reliability to predict the presence of rhinitis or asthma alone or in combination. Patients and Methods: We enrolled 160 children (6– 12 years of age) with AR and/or asthma divided into four groups: controls, AR, asthma, and AR + asthma. All children underwent the following inflammatory and functional measurements: nFeNO, eFeNO, mNF and FEV1. Results: We observed that levels of nFeNO were extremely higher in children with AR and even more in those with AR + asthma in respect to controls. Notably, all the pathological conditions, especially AR + asthma, showed significantly lower values of mNF compared to healthy children. A negative correlation linked mNF and nFeNO. Then, we found eFeNO values significantly higher in all the pathological groups compared to controls, with major values of this marker in patients affected by asthma and AR + asthma, as well as FEV1 values significantly lower in all the disease groups, especially in children with asthma and AR+ asthma. ROC curve analysis showed that nFeNO was a great predictor for rhinitis alone or with asthma, revealing an accurate cut-off of 662 ppb. Conclusion: nFeNO measurement is non-invasive, easy to perform, economic and a valuable test in case of AR alone or in association with asthma. Thus, it should be used in patients with rhinitis, together with anterior active rhinomanometry (AAR) to diagnose and estimate the degree of nasal obstruction but also in children with asthma to assess their nasal involvement and improve the therapeutic management

A Novel Method for Y Photons Depth of Interaction Discrimination on Monolithic LYSO Crystals for Brain PET/MRI

The MindView European Project pursues the development of a high efficiency and high resolution brain dedicated PET detector, simultaneously working with a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) system. Since the PET scanner is based on a small diameter ring and on thick monolithic scintillation crystals to assess high efficiency, the parallax error related to off-center positron annihilation is a critical issue. The Depth of Interaction (DoI) discrimination can reduce the blurring due to this phenomenon. In this work, we propose a novel DoI estimator, based on the ratio of the integral of scintillation light distribution to its maximum (named N/I). In a preliminary way, by means of Monte Carlo simulation, we have validated the correlation between this parameter and the DoI. Furthermore, we have experimentally tested the capability of such DoI estimator on a monolithic 20mm-thick LYSO crystal optically coupled to a 12x12 silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) array. Thanks to the proposed method, it is possible to select interaction events coming from different depths of the crystal. The DoI discrimination capability has been confirmed by using a collimated slanted pencil-beam: the proposed estimator allows to produce different images coming from events belonging to different depths of the crystal. From the experimental results a DoI discrimination resolution ranging from 4mm to 6mm has been obtained. The proposed method is expected to reduce the parallax error and, consequently, the width of lines of response coming from off- center positron annihilation of about 70% respect to the method without DoI discrimination

All-sky Medium Energy Gamma-ray Observatory: Exploring the Extreme Multimessenger Universe

The All-sky Medium Energy Gamma-ray Observatory (AMEGO) is a probe class mission concept that will provide essential contributions to multimessenger astrophysics in the late 2020s and beyond. AMEGO combines high sensitivity in the 200 keV to 10 GeV energy range with a wide field of view, good spectral resolution, and polarization sensitivity. Therefore, AMEGO is key in the study of multimessenger astrophysical objects that have unique signatures in the gamma-ray regime, such as neutron star mergers, supernovae, and flaring active galactic nuclei. The order-of-magnitude improvement compared to previous MeV missions also enables discoveries of a wide range of phenomena whose energy output peaks in the relatively unexplored medium-energy gamma-ray band