Enfermedades e infancias en la Buenos Aires de las primeras décadas del siglo XIX : Apuntes para su estudio

En sociedades como la porteña de la primera mitad del siglo XIX, la enfermedad y la muerte atacaban preferentemente a los más débiles y entre estos los niños y niñas eran las principales víctimas. En este trabajo analizaremos someramente algunas patologías que afectaban a los niños y niñas, pero concentraremos nuestro análisis en una de las más temidas: la viruela. Una enfermedad que asoló el mundo hasta hace unas décadas y en sociedades como la porteña , constituyo un flagelo de tal naturaleza que mereció una particular atención por parte de los gobiernos, de los círculos científicos y en general de una sociedad que temía sus consecuencias y buscaba atenuar sus efectos. Analizando estas prácticas se puede advertir la innegable predisposición por parte de los porteños para preservar a su niñez del sufrimiento y de la muerte, actitudes estas, basales para aprehender como esta sociedad porteña pensaba a sus niños y niñas, es decir como concibieron a sus infancias

Producción en masa, economía monetaria y vitalidad comercial del Mediterráneo

Se argumenta que la arqueología y la historia monetaria reúnen entre sí el potencial para proyectar una imagen de la economía romana muy diferente a la que sugieren los estereotipos minimalistas. Se discuten las implicancias de esta argumentación para el período tardoantiguo en particular, rechazando el catastrofismo con el que Rostovtzeff concluía su célebre historia del temprano imperio. En el imperio tardío la fortaleza de los intereses privados se mantuvo tan firme como siempre, en una economía caracterizada por la integración de los negocios públicos y privados antes que por un supuesto conflicto o antagonismo entre ambos. El imperio de Oriente conservó estas tendencias en forma pura, con niveles sostenidos de comercio y circulación monetaria hasta las décadas centrales del siglo VII. En este trabajo se argumenta que pensar en términos de ciclos económicos sería para los historiadores más razonable que la patología convencional de la "declinación", "decadencia", etc. Este patrón es notablemente evidente en la historia económica bizantina, marcada por abruptas fluctuaciones entre los siglos V y XII.

Enfermedades e infancias en la Buenos Aires de las primeras décadas del siglo XIX : Apuntes para su estudio

En sociedades como la porteña de la primera mitad del siglo XIX, la enfermedad y la muerte atacaban preferentemente a los más débiles y entre estos los niños y niñas eran las principales víctimas. En este trabajo analizaremos someramente algunas patologías que afectaban a los niños y niñas, pero concentraremos nuestro análisis en una de las más temidas: la viruela. Una enfermedad que asoló el mundo hasta hace unas décadas y en sociedades como la porteña , constituyo un flagelo de tal naturaleza que mereció una particular atención por parte de los gobiernos, de los círculos científicos y en general de una sociedad que temía sus consecuencias y buscaba atenuar sus efectos. Analizando estas prácticas se puede advertir la innegable predisposición por parte de los porteños para preservar a su niñez del sufrimiento y de la muerte, actitudes estas, basales para aprehender como esta sociedad porteña pensaba a sus niños y niñas, es decir como concibieron a sus infancias

Producción en masa, economía monetaria y vitalidad comercial del Mediterráneo

Se argumenta que la arqueología y la historia monetaria reúnen entre sí el potencial para proyectar una imagen de la economía romana muy diferente a la que sugieren los estereotipos minimalistas. Se discuten las implicancias de esta argumentación para el período tardoantiguo en particular, rechazando el catastrofismo con el que Rostovtzeff concluía su célebre historia del temprano imperio. En el imperio tardío la fortaleza de los intereses privados se mantuvo tan firme como siempre, en una economía caracterizada por la integración de los negocios públicos y privados antes que por un supuesto conflicto o antagonismo entre ambos. El imperio de Oriente conservó estas tendencias en forma pura, con niveles sostenidos de comercio y circulación monetaria hasta las décadas centrales del siglo VII. En este trabajo se argumenta que pensar en términos de ciclos económicos sería para los historiadores más razonable que la patología convencional de la "declinación", "decadencia", etc. Este patrón es notablemente evidente en la historia económica bizantina, marcada por abruptas fluctuaciones entre los siglos V y XII.

Digital image processing techniques as a tool for evaluating and mapping patinas on granite monuments

Monument conservation is related to the interaction between the original petrological parameters of the rock and external factors in the area where the building is sited, such as weather conditions, pollution, and so on. Depending on the environmental conditions and the characteristics of the materials used, different types of weathering predominate. In all, the appearance of surface crusts constitutes a first stage, whose origin can often be traced to the properties of the material itself. In the present study, different colours of “patinas” were distinguished by defining the threshold levels of greys associated with “pathology” in the histogram. These data were compared to background information and other parameters, such as mineralogical composition, porosity, and so on, as well as other visual signs of deterioration. The result is a map of the pathologies associated with “cover films” on monuments, which generate images by relating colour characteristics to desired properties or zones of interest.

Monitoring Neurological disease in Phonation

It is well known that many neurological diseases leave a fingerprint in voice and speech production. The dramatic impact of these pathologies in life quality is a growing concert. Many techniques have been designed for the detection, diagnose and monitoring the neurological disease. Most of them are costly or difficult to extend to primary services. The present paper shows that some neurological diseases can be traced a the level of voice production. The detection procedure would be based on a simple voice test. The availability of advanced tools and methodologies to monitor the organic pathology of voice would facilitate the implantation of these tests. The paper hypothesizes some of the underlying mechanisms affecting the production of voice and presents a general description of the methodological foundations for the voice analysis system which can estimate correlates to the neurological disease. A case of study is presented from spasmodic dysphonia to illustrate the possibilities of the methodology to monitor other neurological problems as well.

Patient-based Literature Retrieval and Integration: A Use Case for Diabetes and arterial Hypertension

Specialized search engines such as PubMed, MedScape or Cochrane have increased dramatically the visibility of biomedical scientific results. These web-based tools allow physicians to access scientific papers instantly. However, this decisive improvement had not a proportional impact in clinical practice due to the lack of advanced search methods. Even queries highly specified for a concrete pathology frequently retrieve too many information, with publications related to patients treated by the physician beyond the scope of the results examined. In this work we present a new method to improve scientific article search using patient information. Two pathologies have been used within the project to retrieve relevant literature to patient data and to be integrated with other sources. Promising results suggest the suitability of the approach, highlighting publications dealing with patient features and facilitating literature search to physicians.

Nutritional impact on health and performance in intensively reared rabbits

The present work summarizes research related to the definition of nutrient recommendations for feeds used in the intensive production of rabbit's meat. Fibre is the main chemical constituent of rabbit diets that typically contain 320 to 360 and 50 to 90 g/kg of insoluble and soluble fibre, respectively. Instead, the dietary contents of cereal grains (∼120 to 160 g/kg), fat (15 to 25 g/kg) and protein concentrates (150 to 180 g/kg) are usually low with respect to other intensively reared monogastric animals. Cell wall constituents are not well digested in rabbits, but this effect is compensated by its stimulus of gut motility, which leads to an increasing rate of passage of digesta, and allows achieving an elevated dry matter intake. A high feed consumption and an adequate balance in essential nutrients are required to sustain the elevated needs of high-productive rabbits measured either as reproductive yield, milk production or growth rate in the fattening period. Around weaning, pathologies occur in a context of incomplete development of the digestive physiology of young rabbits. The supply of balanced diets has also been related to the prevention of disorders by means of three mechanisms: (i) promoting a lower retention time of the digesta in the digestive tract through feeding fibre sources with optimal chemical and physical characteristics, (ii) restricting feed intake after weaning or (iii) causing a lower flow of easily available substrates into the fermentative area by modifying feed composition (e.g. by lowering protein and starch contents, increasing its digestibility or partially substituting insoluble with soluble fibre), or by delaying age at weaning. The alteration in the gut microbiota composition has been postulated as the possible primary cause of these pathologies.

Mechanical behaviour and rupture of normal and pathological human ascending aortic wall

The mechanical properties of aortic wall, both healthy and pathological, are needed in order to develop and improve diagnostic and interventional criteria, and for the development of mechanical models to assess arterial integrity. This study focuses on the mechanical behaviour and rupture conditions of the human ascending aorta and its relationship with age and pathologies. Fresh ascending aortic specimens harvested from 23 healthy donors, 12 patients with bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) and 14 with aneurysm were tensile-tested in vitro under physiological conditions. Tensile strength, stretch at failure and elbow stress were measured. The obtained results showed that age causes a major reduction in the mechanical parameters of healthy ascending aortic tissue, and that no significant differences are found between the mechanical strength of aneurysmal or BAV aortic specimens and the corresponding age-matched control group. The physiological level of the stress in the circumferential direction was also computed to assess the physiological operation range of healthy and diseased ascending aortas. The mean physiological wall stress acting on pathologic aortas was found to be far from rupture, with factors of safety (defined as the ratio of tensile strength to the mean wall stress) larger than six. In contrast, the physiological operation of pathologic vessels lays in the stiff part of the response curve, losing part of its function of damping the pressure waves from the heart.

Numerical analysis of mixe-mode fracture of brickwork masonry with embedded discontinuity elements

One of the common pathologies of brickwork masonry structural elements and walls is the cracking associated with the differential settlements and/or excessive deflections of the slabs along the life of the structure. The scarce capacity of the masonry in order to accompany the structural elements that surround it, such as floors, beams or foundations, in their movements makes the brickwork masonry to be an element that frequently presents this kind of problem. This problem is a fracture problem, where the wall is cracked under mixed mode fracture: tensile and shear stresses combination, under static loading. Consequently, it is necessary to advance in the simulation and prediction of brickwork masonry mechanical behaviour under tensile and shear loading. The quasi-brittle behaviour of the brickwork masonry can be studied using the cohesive crack model whose application to other quasibrittle materials like concrete has traditionally provided very satisfactory results.

E.1027. Maison en bord de mer: Theoretical Restoration

E.1027, Maison en bord de mer is a small villa in Roquebrune Cap-Martin, built by architects Eileen Gray and Jean Badovici between 1926 and 1929. It was hailed as a landmark of modern architecture, and then forgotten. Over the years many transformations have been carried out, and these changes have altered the spatial qualities of the original project. Time and neglect have taken their toll, and until 2008 the villa was abandoned, a shadow of its former self. In order to state an appropriate restoration, a description of the house and its historic evolution has been made, comparing plans of its different transformations. After compiling the most common pathologies and restoration procedures in buildings of the Modern Movement in general, the particular pathologies of E.1027 are presented, concluding with a restoration proposal for E.1027 that considers aesthetical as well as technical aspects. This study involves an attempt to establish guidelines for the theoretical and technical aspects for restoration of architecture of the Modern Movement, using the Maison en bord de mer as an example.

Neurological Disease Detection and Monitoring from Voice Production

The dramatic impact of neurological degenerative pathologies in life quality is a growing concern. It is well known that many neurological diseases leave a fingerprint in voice and speech production. Many techniques have been designed for the detection, diagnose and monitoring the neurological disease. Most of them are costly or difficult to extend to primary attention medical services. Through the present paper it will be shown how some neurological diseases can be traced at the level of phonation. The detection procedure would be based on a simple voice test. The availability of advanced tools and methodologies to monitor the organic pathology of voice would facilitate the implantation of these tests. The paper hypothesizes that some of the underlying mechanisms affecting the production of voice produce measurable correlates in vocal fold biomechanics. A general description of the methodological foundations for the voice analysis system which can estimate correlates to the neurological disease is shown. Some study cases will be presented to illustrate the possibilities of the methodology to monitor neurological diseases by voice

Ensemble transcript interaction networks: A case study on Alzheimer's disease

Systems biology techniques are a topic of recent interest within the neurological field. Computational intelligence (CI) addresses this holistic perspective by means of consensus or ensemble techniques ultimately capable of uncovering new and relevant findings. In this paper, we propose the application of a CI approach based on ensemble Bayesian network classifiers and multivariate feature subset selection to induce probabilistic dependences that could match or unveil biological relationships. The research focuses on the analysis of high-throughput Alzheimer's disease (AD) transcript profiling. The analysis is conducted from two perspectives. First, we compare the expression profiles of hippocampus subregion entorhinal cortex (EC) samples of AD patients and controls. Second, we use the ensemble approach to study four types of samples: EC and dentate gyrus (DG) samples from both patients and controls. Results disclose transcript interaction networks with remarkable structures and genes not directly related to AD by previous studies. The ensemble is able to identify a variety of transcripts that play key roles in other neurological pathologies. Classical statistical assessment by means of non-parametric tests confirms the relevance of the majority of the transcripts. The ensemble approach pinpoints key metabolic mechanisms that could lead to new findings in the pathogenesis and development of AD

Sistemas de distribución en entornos de televisión

Actualmente los entornos de televisión manejan gran cantidad de señales procedentes de diferentes fuentes y suministradas en diferentes estándares: SD-SDI,HD-SDI, 3G, DVB-ASI, señales moduladas en banda L. En la gran mayoría de los centros de radiodifusión es necesario al menos en alguno de los pasos del transporte de señales o de su explotación, la replicación de las diferentes señales de entrada a sus diferentes destinos. En el siguiente PFC se tratará de dar a conocer, los principales sistemas que se emplean en los entornos de televisión para la distribución de las señales que se utilizan en los mismos. Los sistemas distributivos se encargan de distribuir y replicar la señal de entrada a ellos hacia diferentes destinos. La principal idea con la que se diseñan estos sistemas es que la señal de entrada no sufra ningún tipo de degradación como fruto de la replicación o división, siendo incluso aconsejable que determinados sistemas regeneren la señal de entrada a sus salidas. El proyecto se divide en tres capítulos: - Capítulo de conceptos teóricos: En el que se presentarán, los fundamentos teóricos que justifican la tecnología utilizada por los diferentes sistemas. - Capítulo de distribución de señales SDI y ASI: En el cual se presentarán los principales sistemas utilizados, para la distribución de señales SD-SDI, HDSDI, 3G y DVB-ASI. - Capítulo de distribución de señales en banda-L: Donde se mostrarán, los principales sistemas de distribución de señales moduladas en banda-L. Al finalizar la lectura del mismo, el lector debería conocer los principales sistemas que se utilizan en la distribución de señales SDI y ASI y en la distribución de señales en banda L. Comprender mediante la teoría expuesta, y los sistemas presentados, las diferentes problemáticas que afrontan los diferentes equipos y la tecnología que subyace en un segundo plano para solventar las problemáticas. Nowadays, broadcast environments, manage an extensive amount of signals from several sources, using differents standards: SD-SDI, HD-SDI, 3G, DVBASI, modulated L band signals. In most of the broadcast infraestructures, it´s usually needed, at any of the transmissions steps, to replicate the source signal to many destinations. This PFC is intended to shown the main systems used to distribute and replicate signals in broadcast environments. Distributive Systems are used to distribute and replicate the source signals to as many destinations as are needed. The main idea behind the design of those systems is to preserve the integrity of the original signal, due to replications or division classical pathologies. Even it is recomendad that those systems are able to regenerate the original signal, trying to avoid or compesate those pathologies. The PFC is divided in three chapters: - Chapter 1: Theorical concepts: In this chapter is presented the minimal theory needed to understand the complex of the tecnology, for those distributive systems. - Chapter 2: Distribution of SDI and ASI signals: It is shown the main systems used to replicate and distribution of the SDI and ASI signals. It will also treatment the state of the art of the actually new systems. - Chapter 3: Distribution of L band signals. It will be shown the main systems used for L band signals At the end of reading this PFC, the reader must known the main systems used for distribution SDI and ASI signals, also L band signals. It is important to understand the contents of the PFC, the systems, the several problems and the background tecnology that is needed to afront the replication known patologies.

Co-evolutionary and Reinforcement Learning Techniques Applied to Computer Go players

The objective of this thesis is model some processes from the nature as evolution and co-evolution, and proposing some techniques that can ensure that these learning process really happens and useful to solve some complex problems as Go game. The Go game is ancient and very complex game with simple rules which still is a challenge for the Artificial Intelligence. This dissertation cover some approaches that were applied to solve this problem, proposing solve this problem using competitive and cooperative co-evolutionary learning methods and other techniques proposed by the author. To study, implement and prove these methods were used some neural networks structures, a framework free available and coded many programs. The techniques proposed were coded by the author, performed many experiments to find the best configuration to ensure that co-evolution is progressing and discussed the results. Using co-evolutionary learning processes can be observed some pathologies which could impact co-evolution progress. In this dissertation is introduced some techniques to solve pathologies as loss of gradients, cycling dynamics and forgetting. According to some authors, one solution to solve these co-evolution pathologies is introduce more diversity in populations that are evolving. In this thesis is proposed some techniques to introduce more diversity and some diversity measurements for neural networks structures to monitor diversity during co-evolution. The genotype diversity evolved were analyzed in terms of its impact to global fitness of the strategies evolved and their generalization. Additionally, it was introduced a memory mechanism in the network neural structures to reinforce some strategies in the genes of the neurons evolved with the intention that some good strategies learned are not forgotten. In this dissertation is presented some works from other authors in which cooperative and competitive co-evolution has been applied. The Go board size used in this thesis was 9x9, but can be easily escalated to more bigger boards.The author believe that programs coded and techniques introduced in this dissertation can be used for other domains.