Behavior of early warnings near the critical temperature in the two-dimensional Ising model

Among the properties that are common to complex systems, the presence of critical thresholds in the dynamics of the system is one of the most important. Recently, there has been interest in the universalities that occur in the behavior of systems near critical points. These universal properties make it possible to estimate how far a system is from a critical threshold. Several early-warning signals have been reported in time series representing systems near catastrophic shifts. The proper understanding of these early-warnings may allow the prediction and perhaps control of these dramatic shifts in a wide variety of systems. In this paper we analyze this universal behavior for a system that is a paradigm of phase transitions, the Ising model. We study the behavior of the early-warning signals and the way the temporal correlations of the system increase when the system is near the critical point.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures, Submitted to PLOS ONE on Oct. 20th 2014. PONE-D-14-4718

Percepción cultural del “embarazo y parto”, en las comunidades campesinas del distrito Ayaviri-Puno

Native and Amazonian communities have this tendency to consider pregnancy and childbirth as a cultural and historical process of self-determination. This section deals with traditional knowledge in relation to pregnancy and childbirth, which is still revalued and put into practice in rural areas, however, this knowledge is being displaced by modernity. The objective of the research is aimed at reassessing the cultural perception of "pregnancy and childbirth", linked to customs, beliefs, cultural tradition, the role of midwives and symbolic representations, as a millenary cultural manifestation; This study is qualitative, using the ethnographic design and inductive method. The results describe the customs and beliefs in relation to pregnancy and childbirth associated with food beliefs and importance of supernatural beings and deities; as well as, the popular tradition expressed in celebrations at the family and collective level; The role of midwives is also developed in the therapeutic treatment with plants, minerals and animals, and ultimately the ritual acts related to pregnancy and childbirth are analyzed, as a product of an ancestral cultural heritage still valued in the district's communities. from Ayaviri-Puno.Las comunidades nativas y amazónicas tienen esa tendencia en considerar el embrazo y parto, como un proceso cultural e histórico de libre determinación. El presente apartado trata sobre los conocimientos tradicionales en relación al embarazo y parto, los cuales aún son revalorados y puestos en práctica en las zonas rurales, sin embargo, estos conocimientos están siendo desplazados por la modernidad. El objetivo de la investigación esta orientado en revalorar la percepción cultural del “embarazo y parto”, vinculados a las costumbres, creencias, tradición cultural, la función de las parteras y representaciones simbólicas, como una manifestación cultural milenaria; es estudio es de corte cualitativo, se utiliza el diseño etnográfico y método inductivo. En los resultados se describe las costumbres y creencias en relación al embarazo y parto asociadas a las creencias alimentarias e importancia seres sobrenaturales y deidades; así como, la tradición popular expresado en celebraciones a nivel familiar y colectivo; se desarrolla tambien la función de las parteras en el tratamiento terapéutico con plantas, minerales y animales, y en última instancia se analiza los actos rituales relacionados al embarazo y parto, como producto de una herencia cultural ancestral aún puesta en valor en las comunidades del distrito de Ayaviri-Puno

Factores contributivos del programa Pensión 65 y su relación con el bienestar del adulto mayor

Aging leads to the physical and mental deterioration of the person, it is a stage of maximum fragility, so the presence of social assistance programs that promote a decent stay at this stage is dispensable. For this reason, the Pension 65 program emerges, whose purpose is to ensure the well-being of the elderly living in poverty. Therefore, the objective of the research was to determine the contributory factors of the Pension 65 program and its relationship with the well-being of the elderly in the district of Pilcuyo, province of El Collao. The study was framed within the quantitative approach of the correlational type, non-experimental design. The sample consisted of 196 elderly beneficiaries. The results showed that there is a relationship between: household targeting (r=0.903**) and affiliation criteria, non-contributory pension (r=0.875**) and access to basic services, and between social assistance (r=0.890* *) and social satisfaction. In conclusion, the contributory factors of Pension 65 are significantly related (+0.891**, p<0.05) with the well-being of the elderly.El envejecimiento conlleva al deterioro físico y mental de la persona, es una etapa de máxima fragilidad, por lo que se hace prescindible la presencia de programas de asistencia social que fomente una estadía digna en esta etapa. En razón a ello, emerge el programa Pensión 65 cuyo propósito es asegurar el bienestar de las personas de la tercera edad en situación de pobreza. Por ende, el objetivo de la investigación fue determinar los factores contributivos del programa Pensión 65 y su relación con el bienestar del adulto mayor en el distrito de Pilcuyo, provincia de El Collao. El estudio se enmarcó dentro del enfoque cuantitativo del tipo correlacional, diseño no-experimental. La muestra estuvo conformada por 196 adultos mayores beneficiarios. Los resultados evidenciaron que existe relación entre: focalización de hogares (r=0,903**) y criterios de afiliación, pensión no contributiva (r=0,875**) y acceso a los servicios básicos, y entre la asistencia social (r=0,890**) y satisfacción social. En conclusión, los factores contributivos de Pensión 65 se relacionan de forma significativa (+0,891**, p<0,05) con el bienestar del adulto mayor

Estadística

La siguiente guía Estadística toca temas como el método científico y organización de datos, medidas estadísticas descriptivas, así como también las probabilidades y distribuciones muéstrales y por ultimo las pruebas de hipótesis

Etiology of chronic urticaria: the Ecuadorian experience

Background: The purpose of this study was to identify chronic urticaria (CU) etiologies and treatment modalities in Ecuador. We propose that the sample distribution fits the expected one, and that there is an association between the etiology and its treatment. Methods: We performed a retrospective study involving 112 patients diagnosed with CU using a Checklist for a complete chronic urticaria medical history. Demographic and clinical variables were collected. The etiology of CU was classified using the EAACI/GA2LEN/EDF/WAO guideline. Descriptive analyses were performed for demographical and clinical variables. Chi square tests were applied to analyze the fit of distribution and the independence of variables. P values less than 0.05 were considered significant. Results: Among all the patients, 76.8% were diagnosed with chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU), of which 22.3% had a known etiology or possible exacerbating condition. Food allergy was identified as the most common accompanying condition in patients with CSU (10.7%) (p < 0.01).. On the other hand, 23.2% inducible urticarias (CIndU) were indentified; dermographism was the most common (10.7%) (p < 0.01). Regarding treatment regimens, sg-H1-antihistamines alone represented the highest proportion (44.6%). The combination of any H1-antihistamine plus other drug was a close second (42.0%) (p < 0.01). Almost 48% of CSUs of unknown etiology were treated with any antihistamine plus another drug. In patients with known etiology, sg-antihistamines alone (44.0%) was the most common management. In addition, 53.8% of CIndUs were treated with sg-antihistamines alone. Though, these associations were not statistically significant. Conclusion: CSU is the most frequent subtype of CU. Modern non-sedating antihistamines in licensed doses are the drug of choice. Nevertheless, a great proportion of patients require the addition of another type of medication

High-K dielectric sulfur-selenium alloys.

Upcoming advancements in flexible technology require mechanically compliant dielectric materials. Current dielectrics have either high dielectric constant, K (e.g., metal oxides) or good flexibility (e.g., polymers). Here, we achieve a golden mean of these properties and obtain a lightweight, viscoelastic, high-K dielectric material by combining two nonpolar, brittle constituents, namely, sulfur (S) and selenium (Se). This S-Se alloy retains polymer-like mechanical flexibility along with a dielectric strength (40 kV/mm) and a high dielectric constant (K = 74 at 1 MHz) similar to those of established metal oxides. Our theoretical model suggests that the principal reason is the strong dipole moment generated due to the unique structural orientation between S and Se atoms. The S-Se alloys can bridge the chasm between mechanically soft and high-K dielectric materials toward several flexible device applications

Vitamin D status and risk of incident tuberculosis disease: A nested case-control study, systematic review, and individual-participant data meta-analysis

Background: Few studies have evaluated the association between preexisting vitamin D deficiency and incident tuberculosis (TB). We assessed the impact of baseline vitamins D levels on TB disease risk.Methods and Findings: We assessed the association between baseline vitamin D and incident TB in a prospective cohort of 6,751 HIV-negative household contacts of TB patients enrolled between September 1, 2009, and August 29, 2012, in Lima, Peru. We screened for TB disease at 2, 6, and 12 months after enrollment. We defined cases as household contacts who developed TB disease at least 15 days after enrollment of the index patient. For each case, we randomly selected four controls from among contacts who did not develop TB disease, matching on gender and year of age. We also conducted a one-stage individual-participant data (IPD) meta-analysis searching PubMed and Embase to identify prospective studies of vitamin D and TB disease until June 8, 2019. We included studies that assessed vitamin D before TB diagnosis. In the primary analysis, we defined vitamin D deficiency as 25-(OH)D \u3c 50 nmol/L, insufficiency as 50-75 nmol/L, and sufficiency as \u3e75nmol/L. We estimated the association between baseline vitamin D status and incident TB using conditional logistic regression in the Lima cohort and generalized linear mixed models in the meta-analysis. We further defined severe vitamin D deficiency as 25-(OH)D \u3c 25 nmol/L and performed stratified analyses by HIV status in the IPD meta-analysis. In the Lima cohort, we analyzed 180 cases and 709 matched controls. The adjusted odds ratio (aOR) for TB risk among participants with baseline vitamin D deficiency compared to sufficient vitamin D was 1.63 (95% CI 0.75-3.52; p = 0.22). We included seven published studies in the meta-analysis and analyzed 3,544 participants. In the pooled analysis, the aOR was 1.48 (95% CI 1.04-2.10; p = 0.03). The aOR for severe vitamin D deficiency was 2.05 (95% CI 0.87-4.87; p trend for decreasing 25-(OH)D levels from sufficient vitamin D to severe deficiency = 0.02). Among 1,576 HIV-positive patients, vitamin D deficiency conferred a 2-fold (aOR 2.18, 95% CI 1.22-3.90; p = 0.01) increased risk of TB, and the aOR for severe vitamin D deficiency compared to sufficient vitamin D was 4.28 (95% CI 0.85-21.45; p = 0.08). Our Lima cohort study is limited by the short duration of follow-up, and the IPD meta-analysis is limited by the number of possible confounding covariates available across all studies.Conclusion: Our findings suggest vitamin D predicts TB disease risk in a dose-dependent manner and that the risk of TB disease is highest among HIV-positive individuals with severe vitamin D deficiency. Randomized control trials are needed to evaluate the possible role of vitamin D supplementation on reducing TB disease risk

Vulnerabilidad, Resiliencia y Ordenamiento Territorial

Este libro: “Vulnerabilidad, resiliencia y ordenamiento territorial”, constituye uno de los productos de la Red Internacional de Territorios, Sustentabilidad y Gobernanza en México y Polonia (RETESyG) en la que participan profesores investigadores de nueve Cuerpos Académicos de la Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México; grupos de investigación de la Universidad de Varsovia; de la Universidad Pedagógica “Comisión de Educación Nacional” de Cracovia; de la Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, unidad Lerma; y de la Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero. Esta obra incluye capítulos que presentan con claridad la magnitud de diferentes problemáticas específicas sobre vulnerabilidad, resiliencia y ordenamiento territorial que persisten en el tiempo a diferentes escalas y territorios. El libro se organiza en cinco apartados o ejes temáticos: (1) Saberes comunitarios, (2) Vulnerabilidad y territorio, (3) Ambiente y territorio, (4) Salud y territorio y (5) Gobernanza y gestión

Gravitational waves: search results, data analysis and parameter estimation

The Amaldi 10 Parallel Session C2 on gravitational wave (GW) search results, data analysis and parameter estimation included three lively sessions of lectures by 13 presenters, and 34 posters. The talks and posters covered a huge range of material, including results and analysis techniques for ground-based GW detectors, targeting anticipated signals from different astrophysical sources: compact binary inspiral, merger and ringdown; GW bursts from intermediate mass binary black hole mergers, cosmic string cusps, core-collapse supernovae, and other unmodeled sources; continuous waves from spinning neutron stars; and a stochastic GW background. There was considerable emphasis on Bayesian techniques for estimating the parameters of coalescing compact binary systems from the gravitational waveforms extracted from the data from the advanced detector network. This included methods to distinguish deviations of the signals from what is expected in the context of General Relativity

CoVITEST: A Fast and Reliable Method to Monitor Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Specific T Cells From Whole Blood

Cellular and humoral immune responses are essential for COVID-19 recovery and protection against SARS-CoV-2 reinfection. To date, the evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 immune protection has mainly focused on antibody detection, generally disregarding the cellular response, or placing it in a secondary position. This phenomenon may be explained by the complex nature of the assays needed to analyze cellular immunity compared with the technically simple and automated detection of antibodies. Nevertheless, a large body of evidence supports the relevance of the T cell's role in protection against SARS-CoV-2, especially in vulnerable individuals with a weakened immune system (such as the population over 65 and patients with immunodeficiencies). Here we propose to use CoVITEST (Covid19 anti-Viral Immunity based on T cells for Evaluation in a Simple Test), a fast, affordable and accessible in-house assay that, together with a diagnostic matrix, allows us to determine those patients who might be protected with SARS-CoV-2-reactive T cells. The method was established using healthy SARS-CoV-2-naïve donors pre- and post-vaccination (n=30), and further validated with convalescent COVID-19 donors (n=51) in a side-by-side comparison with the gold standard IFN-? ELISpot. We demonstrated that our CoVITEST presented reliable and comparable results to those obtained with the ELISpot technique in a considerably shorter time (less than 8 hours). In conclusion, we present a simple but reliable assay to determine cellular immunity against SARS-CoV-2 that can be used routinely during this pandemic to monitor the immune status in vulnerable patients and thereby adjust their therapeutic approaches. This method might indeed help to optimize and improve decision-making protocols for re-vaccination against SARS-CoV-2, at least for some population subsets.Copyright © 2022 Egri, Olivé, Hernández-Rodríguez, Castro, De Guzman, Heredia, Segura, Fernandez, de Moner, Torradeflot, Ballús, Martinez, Vazquez, Costa, Dobaño, Mazza, Mazzotti, Pascal, Juan, González-Navarro and Calderón