Culture as a means of urban transformation. The Picasso Museum in Barcelona

El presente artículo tiene como objetivo analizar la forma en que la cultura es utilizada en los procesos de trasformación urbana. Se estudia el caso del barrio del Casc Antic en Barcelona, en el cual la instalación del Museo Picasso se dispuso como elemento de cambio social con la finalidad de revertir el proceso de deterioro social y estructural en el que se encontraba. Desde narrativas propias del revanchismo urbano se justificó la utilización de la cultura y el patrimonio en la puesta en valor de esta parte de la ciudad, que resultó fundamental en la proyección internacional de Barcelona. La instalación del museo ha implicado la reconversión de su área de influencia a través de la instalación de otros recintos culturales, galerías y bares, además que ha atraído una importante cantidad de artistas conformándolo como un barrio artístico

Autoantibodies against type I IFNs in patients with critical influenza pneumonia

In an international cohort of 279 patients with hypoxemic influenza pneumonia, we identified 13 patients (4.6%) with autoantibodies neutralizing IFN-alpha and/or -omega, which were previously reported to underlie 15% cases of life-threatening COVID-19 pneumonia and one third of severe adverse reactions to live-attenuated yellow fever vaccine. Autoantibodies neutralizing type I interferons (IFNs) can underlie critical COVID-19 pneumonia and yellow fever vaccine disease. We report here on 13 patients harboring autoantibodies neutralizing IFN-alpha 2 alone (five patients) or with IFN-omega (eight patients) from a cohort of 279 patients (4.7%) aged 6-73 yr with critical influenza pneumonia. Nine and four patients had antibodies neutralizing high and low concentrations, respectively, of IFN-alpha 2, and six and two patients had antibodies neutralizing high and low concentrations, respectively, of IFN-omega. The patients' autoantibodies increased influenza A virus replication in both A549 cells and reconstituted human airway epithelia. The prevalence of these antibodies was significantly higher than that in the general population for patients 70 yr of age (3.1 vs. 4.4%, P = 0.68). The risk of critical influenza was highest in patients with antibodies neutralizing high concentrations of both IFN-alpha 2 and IFN-omega (OR = 11.7, P = 1.3 x 10(-5)), especially those <70 yr old (OR = 139.9, P = 3.1 x 10(-10)). We also identified 10 patients in additional influenza patient cohorts. Autoantibodies neutralizing type I IFNs account for similar to 5% of cases of life-threatening influenza pneumonia in patients <70 yr old

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals &lt;1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular testing in the United States versus the rest of the world

Objectives: This study sought to quantify and compare the decline in volumes of cardiovascular procedures between the United States and non-US institutions during the early phase of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the care of many non-COVID-19 illnesses. Reductions in diagnostic cardiovascular testing around the world have led to concerns over the implications of reduced testing for cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Methods: Data were submitted to the INCAPS-COVID (International Atomic Energy Agency Non-Invasive Cardiology Protocols Study of COVID-19), a multinational registry comprising 909 institutions in 108 countries (including 155 facilities in 40 U.S. states), assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volumes of diagnostic cardiovascular procedures. Data were obtained for April 2020 and compared with volumes of baseline procedures from March 2019. We compared laboratory characteristics, practices, and procedure volumes between U.S. and non-U.S. facilities and between U.S. geographic regions and identified factors associated with volume reduction in the United States. Results: Reductions in the volumes of procedures in the United States were similar to those in non-U.S. facilities (68% vs. 63%, respectively; p = 0.237), although U.S. facilities reported greater reductions in invasive coronary angiography (69% vs. 53%, respectively; p < 0.001). Significantly more U.S. facilities reported increased use of telehealth and patient screening measures than non-U.S. facilities, such as temperature checks, symptom screenings, and COVID-19 testing. Reductions in volumes of procedures differed between U.S. regions, with larger declines observed in the Northeast (76%) and Midwest (74%) than in the South (62%) and West (44%). Prevalence of COVID-19, staff redeployments, outpatient centers, and urban centers were associated with greater reductions in volume in U.S. facilities in a multivariable analysis. Conclusions: We observed marked reductions in U.S. cardiovascular testing in the early phase of the pandemic and significant variability between U.S. regions. The association between reductions of volumes and COVID-19 prevalence in the United States highlighted the need for proactive efforts to maintain access to cardiovascular testing in areas most affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 infection

Search for gravitational-lensing signatures in the full third observing run of the LIGO-Virgo network

Gravitational lensing by massive objects along the line of sight to the source causes distortions of gravitational wave-signals; such distortions may reveal information about fundamental physics, cosmology and astrophysics. In this work, we have extended the search for lensing signatures to all binary black hole events from the third observing run of the LIGO--Virgo network. We search for repeated signals from strong lensing by 1) performing targeted searches for subthreshold signals, 2) calculating the degree of overlap amongst the intrinsic parameters and sky location of pairs of signals, 3) comparing the similarities of the spectrograms amongst pairs of signals, and 4) performing dual-signal Bayesian analysis that takes into account selection effects and astrophysical knowledge. We also search for distortions to the gravitational waveform caused by 1) frequency-independent phase shifts in strongly lensed images, and 2) frequency-dependent modulation of the amplitude and phase due to point masses. None of these searches yields significant evidence for lensing. Finally, we use the non-detection of gravitational-wave lensing to constrain the lensing rate based on the latest merger-rate estimates and the fraction of dark matter composed of compact objects

Search for eccentric black hole coalescences during the third observing run of LIGO and Virgo

Despite the growing number of confident binary black hole coalescences observed through gravitational waves so far, the astrophysical origin of these binaries remains uncertain. Orbital eccentricity is one of the clearest tracers of binary formation channels. Identifying binary eccentricity, however, remains challenging due to the limited availability of gravitational waveforms that include effects of eccentricity. Here, we present observational results for a waveform-independent search sensitive to eccentric black hole coalescences, covering the third observing run (O3) of the LIGO and Virgo detectors. We identified no new high-significance candidates beyond those that were already identified with searches focusing on quasi-circular binaries. We determine the sensitivity of our search to high-mass (total mass M&gt;70 M⊙) binaries covering eccentricities up to 0.3 at 15 Hz orbital frequency, and use this to compare model predictions to search results. Assuming all detections are indeed quasi-circular, for our fiducial population model, we place an upper limit for the merger rate density of high-mass binaries with eccentricities 0&lt;e≤0.3 at 0.33 Gpc−3 yr−1 at 90\% confidence level

Ultralight vector dark matter search using data from the KAGRA O3GK run

Among the various candidates for dark matter (DM), ultralight vector DM can be probed by laser interferometric gravitational wave detectors through the measurement of oscillating length changes in the arm cavities. In this context, KAGRA has a unique feature due to differing compositions of its mirrors, enhancing the signal of vector DM in the length change in the auxiliary channels. Here we present the result of a search for U(1)B−L gauge boson DM using the KAGRA data from auxiliary length channels during the first joint observation run together with GEO600. By applying our search pipeline, which takes into account the stochastic nature of ultralight DM, upper bounds on the coupling strength between the U(1)B−L gauge boson and ordinary matter are obtained for a range of DM masses. While our constraints are less stringent than those derived from previous experiments, this study demonstrates the applicability of our method to the lower-mass vector DM search, which is made difficult in this measurement by the short observation time compared to the auto-correlation time scale of DM

Quivera 2016-1

El trabajo intitulado “La noción de Cuba entre los emigrados cubanos y sus diferencias geográficas” de Katarzyna Dembicz y Ewelina Biczyńska, se enfoca en las diferencias espaciales tomando en consideración el marco del cambio del orden político y económico de Cuba, que ha registrado un continuo éxodo de la población, evidenciado en una presencia migratoria de cubanos dispersos por el mundo, en las negativas tasas migratorias nacionales y en un estancamiento del crecimiento demográfico. Resultados que parten de una encuesta realizada en línea entre los cubanos residentes en el extranjero a fin de recopilar datos y crear un mapa de nociones de Cuba desde una perspectiva migratoria. Por su parte, Ismael Rodríguez Villalobos, Angélica Montaño Armendáriz y Juan Carlos Pérez Concha, en su trabajo “La competitividad como base para la formación de Sistemas Productivos Locales sustentados en las actividades terciarias en Baja California Sur”, identifican las actividades productivas terciarias con potencial para conformar Sistemas Productivos Locales y fortalecer el tejido empresarial de Baja California Sur, así como evaluar la percepción de los empresarios respecto a las principales variables del desarrollo local y su impacto en el desempeño de sus empresas. El estudio corrobora la importancia que registran las actividades de base terciaria en la estructura económica de la entidad relacionadas con la actividad turística. A su vez , Adrián Hernández Cordero, en su trabajo “La cultura como medio de transformación urbana. El Museo Picasso de Barcelona”, analiza la forma en que la cultura es utilizada en los procesos de trasformación urbana, en el que se estudia el caso del barrio del Casc Antic en Barcelona, en el cual la instalación del Museo Picasso se dispuso como elemento de cambio social con la finalidad de revertir el proceso de deterioro social y estructural en el que se encontraba, cuya instalación del museo ha implicado la reconversión de su área de influencia a través de otros recintos culturales, galerías y bares; además, ha atraído una importante cantidad de artistas conformándolo como un barrio artístico. Desde el punto de vista del trabajo “Diagnóstico de la gestión de Residuos Sólidos Urbanos (RSU) en la ciudad de Bacalar, Quintana Roo mediante el enfoque del Nuevo Institucionalismo”, Luis Alberto Rojas Castillo, Juan Roberto Calderón Maya y Norma Angélica Oropeza García pretenden demostrar cómo el enfoque del nuevo institucionalismo es posible implementarlo para diagnosticar y generar estrategias hacia una gestión integral de Residuos Sólidos Urbanos (RSU) en la ciudad de Bacalar, Quintana Roo, que se justifica al tratar un problema multidimensional, como es el inadecuado manejo de los RSU con una repercusión directa en la dimensión social (salud pública), ambiental, económica y urbana. Finalmente, el trabajo “Lineamientos Base para Elaborar un Plan de Gestión Integral de Residuos Sólidos Urbanos en Ixtlahuaca, Estado de México”, de José Manuel Romero Cuero, Juan Roberto Calderón Maya y Ana María Marmolejo Uribe, da a conocer la situación actual del municipio de Ixtlahuaca, Estado de México, en cuanto a la gestión integral de los residuos sólidos urbanos. El problema es que este municipio carece de infraestructura y de herramientas necesarias para desempeñar sus actividades de recolección, transferencia, transporte y disposición final. La solución del problema implica la participación tanto del gobierno como de la sociedad en general, quienes deben contar con información confiable y actualizada que permita conocer las alternativas y las opciones disponibles para reducir el impacto de los residuos al medio ambiente

Autoantibodies against type I IFNs in patients with critical influenza pneumonia

International audienceAutoantibodies neutralizing type I interferons (IFNs) can underlie critical COVID-19 pneumonia and yellow fever vaccine disease. We report here on 13 patients harboring autoantibodies neutralizing IFN-α2 alone (five patients) or with IFN-ω (eight patients) from a cohort of 279 patients (4.7%) aged 6–73 yr with critical influenza pneumonia. Nine and four patients had antibodies neutralizing high and low concentrations, respectively, of IFN-α2, and six and two patients had antibodies neutralizing high and low concentrations, respectively, of IFN-ω. The patients’ autoantibodies increased influenza A virus replication in both A549 cells and reconstituted human airway epithelia. The prevalence of these antibodies was significantly higher than that in the general population for patients &lt;70 yr of age (5.7 vs. 1.1%, P = 2.2 × 10−5), but not &gt;70 yr of age (3.1 vs. 4.4%, P = 0.68). The risk of critical influenza was highest in patients with antibodies neutralizing high concentrations of both IFN-α2 and IFN-ω (OR = 11.7, P = 1.3 × 10−5), especially those &lt;70 yr old (OR = 139.9, P = 3.1 × 10−10). We also identified 10 patients in additional influenza patient cohorts. Autoantibodies neutralizing type I IFNs account for ∼5% of cases of life-threatening influenza pneumonia in patients &lt;70 yr old