Modeling the sequential pattern variability of the electromotor command system of pulse electric fish

This study was supported by AEI/FEDER grants TIN2017-84452-R, PID2020-114867RB-I00, and PGC2018-095895-B-I0

Sobre el modo de entrampamiento de los grandes mamíferos conservados en rancho la brea: un análisis basado en el estado de meteorización de los restos óseos

Comunicación oral en el congresoLa interpretación tradicional sobre el modo en que se acumularon los restos fósiles conservados en La Brea plantea que los animales herbívoros que deambulaban por la llanura aluvial de esta región californiana durante el Pleistoceno Superior se quedarían ocasionalmente entrampados en pozas superficiales de alquitrán, cuya viscosidad sería mayor en verano. A su vez, cada uno de estos cadáveres atraería a numerosos carnívoros carroñeros, tanto terrestres como aéreos, los cuales correrían también el riesgo de verse atrapados en el alquitrán, lo que explica la abundancia de estos organismos en la tafocenosis. Con el tiempo, los niveles de alquitrán crecerían formando cuerpos cónicos gracias al depósito de sedimentos aluviales, enterrándose en ellos los restos esqueléticos. Si este escenario es correcto, los animales quedarían entrampados por la porción más distal de sus extremidades, lo que implica que los elementos esqueléticos autopodiales se enterrarían en el alquitrán inmediatamente, protegiéndolos de la meteorización subaérea. Por ello, las falanges, los metapodios y los huesos carpales/tarsales deberían ser los que mostrasen un menor grado de meteorización, mientras que, conforme a esta secuencia distoproximal de entrampamiento, los huesos zeugopodiales (radio, ulna, tibia y fíbula) deberían mostrar un grado intermedio de meteorización y los estilopodiales (húmero y fémur), que serían los más expuestos, estarían más meteorizados. Para someter a prueba esta hipótesis se analizó la meteorización de los elementos del esqueleto apendicular en las dos especies de carnívoros mejor representadas en la acumulación de La Brea conocida como Pit-91, el gran félido Smilodon fatalis y el cánido de tamaño medio Canis dirus, cuyos restos dan cuenta del 78% de la tafocenosis.Sociedad Española de Paleontología Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Inter-Rater Variability in the Evaluation of Lung Ultrasound in Videos Acquired from COVID-19 Patients

12 páginas, 7 figuras, 1 tablaLung ultrasound (LUS) allows for the detection of a series of manifestations of COVID-19, such as B-lines and consolidations. The objective of this work was to study the inter-rater reliability (IRR) when detecting signs associated with COVID-19 in the LUS, as well as the performance of the test in a longitudinal or transverse orientation. Thirty-three physicians with advanced experience in LUS independently evaluated ultrasound videos previously acquired using the ULTRACOV system on 20 patients with confirmed COVID-19. For each patient, 24 videos of 3 s were acquired (using 12 positions with the probe in longitudinal and transverse orientations). The physicians had no information about the patients or other previous evaluations. The score assigned to each acquisition followed the convention applied in previous studies. A substantial IRR was found in the cases of normal LUS (κ = 0.74), with only a fair IRR for the presence of individual B-lines (κ = 0.36) and for confluent B-lines occupying 50% (κ = 0.50). No statistically significant differences between the longitudinal and transverse scans were found. The IRR for LUS of COVID-19 patients may benefit from more standardized clinical protocols.This research was partially funded by CDTI (Spanish acronym: Centre for Industrial Tech- nological Development), funding number COI-20201153. Partially supported by the Google Cloud Research Credits program with the funding number GCP19980904, by the project RTI2018-099118- A-I00 founded by MCIU/AEI/FEDER UE and by the European Commission–NextGenerationEU, through CSIC’s Global Health Platform (PTI Salud Global)

Resignificando la educación: 12 reflexiones pedagógicas sobre la escuela

208 páginasEste libro reúne 12 artículos de maestros y maestras de la ciudad que reflexionan sobre el rol de la Escuela en la actualidad. Sin duda, la pandemia es un hecho que atraviesa varias de estas páginas, pues esta coyuntura ha hecho que estudiantes, docentes y familias resignifiquen su papel en la educación. Pero este libro no se agota allí, en tanto aparecen iniciativas como las redes de maestros y maestras en torno a la paz, la interculturalidad, así como nuevas miradas sobre la inclusión educativa y la evaluación que aportan al diálogo pedagógico. De esta manera, el Instituto para la Investigación Educativa y el Desarrollo Pedagógico (IDEP) busca que docentes y directivos de las instituciones educativas aporten a la transformación educativa desde sus saberes y experiencias.I. La Escuela en Casa. Página 17: Transitando por la Escuela: realidades y posibilidades. Página 29: Relación Familia- Escuela, Educación Asistida y Ambientes de Aprendizaje en Casa. Página 43: Percepciones de familias sobre su participación en la Escuela. Articulando voces de madres, padres y acudientes de estudiantes en Jardín y Transición. II. Nuevas miradas de la evaluación Página 71: Del pensamiento a la acción: la evaluación en el preescolar. Página 87: La evaluación durante el confinamiento educativo: evidencias investigativas de una crisis en sus prácticas y usos. III. Redes de paz, reconciliación y ciudadanía. Página 103: La Red Elegguá: Abriendo caminos para la tolerancia y la interculturalidad. Página 113: Pedagogías colectivas para la Paz- Tejido de esperanzas de maestras y maestros de la Red Chisua. IV. Inclusión educativa. Página 131: Experiencias de apropiación: Narrativas de maestras desde la inclusión. Página 149: El rol del docente de apoyo frente al reto de una educación inclusiva de calidad para la atención a la población estudiantil con discapacidad. Página 161: La oferta bilingüe-bicultural a nivel distrital, una apuesta en la educación de la persona sorda. V. Estudiantes y maestros en cambio. Página 177: El maestro investigador en el aula y su caracterización pedagógica. Página 195: Los Procesos de Lectura y Escritura Creativa en niños, niñas y adolescentes. Análisis de una experiencia

Treatment with tocilizumab or corticosteroids for COVID-19 patients with hyperinflammatory state: a multicentre cohort study (SAM-COVID-19)

Objectives: The objective of this study was to estimate the association between tocilizumab or corticosteroids and the risk of intubation or death in patients with coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) with a hyperinflammatory state according to clinical and laboratory parameters. Methods: A cohort study was performed in 60 Spanish hospitals including 778 patients with COVID-19 and clinical and laboratory data indicative of a hyperinflammatory state. Treatment was mainly with tocilizumab, an intermediate-high dose of corticosteroids (IHDC), a pulse dose of corticosteroids (PDC), combination therapy, or no treatment. Primary outcome was intubation or death; follow-up was 21 days. Propensity score-adjusted estimations using Cox regression (logistic regression if needed) were calculated. Propensity scores were used as confounders, matching variables and for the inverse probability of treatment weights (IPTWs). Results: In all, 88, 117, 78 and 151 patients treated with tocilizumab, IHDC, PDC, and combination therapy, respectively, were compared with 344 untreated patients. The primary endpoint occurred in 10 (11.4%), 27 (23.1%), 12 (15.4%), 40 (25.6%) and 69 (21.1%), respectively. The IPTW-based hazard ratios (odds ratio for combination therapy) for the primary endpoint were 0.32 (95%CI 0.22-0.47; p < 0.001) for tocilizumab, 0.82 (0.71-1.30; p 0.82) for IHDC, 0.61 (0.43-0.86; p 0.006) for PDC, and 1.17 (0.86-1.58; p 0.30) for combination therapy. Other applications of the propensity score provided similar results, but were not significant for PDC. Tocilizumab was also associated with lower hazard of death alone in IPTW analysis (0.07; 0.02-0.17; p < 0.001). Conclusions: Tocilizumab might be useful in COVID-19 patients with a hyperinflammatory state and should be prioritized for randomized trials in this situatio

Automatic Adaptation of Model Neurons and Connections to Build Hybrid Circuits with Living Networks

Hybrid circuits built by creating mono- or bi-directional interactions among living cells and model neurons and synapses are an effective way to study neuron, synaptic and neural network dynamics. However, hybrid circuit technology has been largely underused in the context of neuroscience studies mainly because of the inherent difficulty in implementing and tuning this type of interactions. In this paper, we present a set of algorithms for the automatic adaptation of model neurons and connections in the creation of hybrid circuits with living neural networks. The algorithms perform model time and amplitude scaling, real-time drift adaptation, goal-driven synaptic and model tuning/calibration and also automatic parameter mapping. These algorithms have been implemented in RTHybrid, an open-source library that works with hard real-time constraints. We provide validation examples by building hybrid circuits in a central pattern generator. The results of the validation experiments show that the proposed dynamic adaptation facilitates closed-loop communication among living and artificial model neurons and connections, and contributes to characterize system dynamics, achieve control, automate experimental protocols and extend the lifespan of the preparationsThis work was supported by MINECO/ FEDER PGC2018-095895-B-I00, DPI2015-65833-P, TIN2017-84452-R and ONRG grant N62909-14-1-N27

Cerebellar and cortical TLR4 activation and behavioral impairments in Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome: Pharmacological effects of oleoylethanolamide

Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome (WKS) is a neuropsychiatric disorder whose etiology is a thiamine deficiency (TD), with alcoholism being the main underlying cause. Previous evidence suggests the presence of initial neuroinflammation and oxidative/nitrosative stress in the physiopathology, although the specific molecular mechanisms underlying TD-induced brain damage and behavioral disabilities are unknown. We explored the specific role of the innate immune receptor TLR4 in three murine models of WKS, based on the combination of a thiamine-deficient diet and pyrithiamine injections (0.25 mg/kg, i.p.) over time. The Symptomatic Model (SM) allowed us to describe the complete neurological/neurobehavioral symptomatology over 16 days of TD. Animals showed an upregulation of the TLR4 signaling pathway both in the frontal cortex (FC) and cerebellum and clear motor impairments related with cerebellar dysfunction. However, in the Pre-Symptomatic Model (PSM), 12 days of TD induced the TLR4 pathway upregulation in the FC, which correlated with disinhibited-like behavior, but not in the cerebellum, and no motor impairments. In addition, we tested the effects of the biolipid oleoylethanolamide (OEA, 10 mg/kg, i.p., once daily, starting before any symptom of the pathology is manifested) through the Glucose-Precipitated Model (GPM), which was generated by glucose loading (5 g/kg, i.v., last day) in thiamine-deficient animals to accelerate damage. Pretreatment with OEA prevented the TLR4-induced signature in the FC, as well as an underlying incipient memory disability and disinhibited-like behavior. This study suggests a key role for TLR4 in TD-induced neuroinflammation in the FC and cerebellum, and it reveals different vulnerability of these brain regions in WKS over time. Pre-treatment with OEA counteracts TD-induced TLR4-associated neuroinflammation and may serve as co-adjuvant therapy to prevent WKS-induced neurobehavioral alterations

Cerebrovascular disease in pediatric patients

Doença cerebrovascular isquêmica (DCVI) é rara na infância, mas quando ocorre, o impacto pode ser muito sério. Pode ser a primeira manifestação de uma doença sistêmica. Relatamos a ocorrência de 12 casos de DCVI. Foram diagnosticados e tratados no Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre (HCPA) na Unidade de Neuropediatria de março de 1997 a março de 2000. Todos os casos com suspeita clínica de DCVI foram confirmados por avaliação radiológica de recém-nascidos de termo (RNT) a crianças até 12 anos de idade, que internaram na Unidade de Pediatria do HCPA. Eles foram acompanhados de um a seis anos (média 3,4 anos). Os sintomas iniciais foram: hemiparesia em 9 pacientes, convulsões em 7, desvio da comissura labial em 3 e perda da consciência em um. O aumento do reconhecimento de DCVI em crianças, auxiliado pela confirmação do diagnóstico através de exames não invasivos, tem auxiliado na identificação da etiologia. As etiologias mais frequentes foram doenças hematológicas, cardíacas e genéticas. Contudo, nosso estudo mostrou 6 recém-nascidos com DCVI em que não foi identificada etiologia. Sete crianças com convulsões usaram fenobarbital. Em seis RNT com DCVI as convulsões estiveram restritas às primeiras 72 horas de vida.Although rare in childhood, stroke may have a serious impact when it happens in this stage of life. Also, it may be the first sign of a systemic disease. We report 12 cases of patients with stroke treated in the Neuropediatrics Unit of Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre (HCPA) from March 1997 to March 2000. All patients, from term infants to 12-year-old children hospitalized in the Pediatrics Unit of HCPA, had clinical suspicion of stroke, which was later confirmed by radiological studies. Patient follow up ranged from 1 to 6 years (mean = 3.4 years). Presenting symptoms were hemiparesis in 9 patients, seizures in 7, deviation of labial commissure in 3, and loss of consciousness in 1. The increase in the number of cases of childhood stroke identified and later confirmed by noninvasive methods had helped in the determination of different ethiologies of stroke: the most frequent being hematologic, cardiac and genetic diseases. However, our study included 6 newborns with stroke whose ethiology was not identified. Seven children with seizures received phenobarbital. Six term infants had neonatal seizures secondary to stroke and restricted to the first 72 hours of life