Avances de la bioinformática en Costa Rica: vista retrospectiva y perspectivas / Bioinformatics advances in Costa Rica: retrospective view and perspectives

Resumen Introducción: La disciplina científica de la bioinformática tiene el potencial de generar aplicaciones innovadoras para las sociedades humanas. Costa Rica, pequeña en tamaño y población en comparación con otros países de América Latina, ha ido adoptando la disciplina de manera progresiva. El reconocer los avances permite determinar hacia dónde puede dirigirse el país en este campo, así como su contribución a la región latinoamericana. Objetivo: En este manuscrito se reporta evidencia de la evolución de la bioinformática en Costa Rica, para identificar debilidades y fortalezas que permitan definir acciones a futuro. Métodos: Se realizaron búsquedas en bases de datos de publicaciones científicas y repositorios de secuencias, así como información de actividades de capacitación, redes, infraestructura, páginas web y fuentes de financiamiento. Resultados: Se observan avances importantes desde el 2010, incluyendo un aumento en oportunidades de entrenamiento y número de publicaciones, aportes significativos a las bases de datos de secuencias y conexiones por medio de redes. Sin embargo, ciertas áreas, como la masa crítica y la financiación requieren más desarrollo. La comunidad científica y sus patrocinadores deben promover la investigación basada en bioinformática, invertir en la formación de estudiantes de posgrado, aumentar la formación de profesionales, crear oportunidades laborales para carreras en bioinformática y promover colaboraciones internacionales a través de redes. Conclusiones: Se sugiere que para experimentar los beneficios de las aplicaciones de la bioinformática se deben fortalecer tres aspectos clave: la comunidad científica, la infraestructura de investigación y las oportunidades de financiamiento. El impacto de tal inversión sería el desarrollo de proyectos ambiciosos pero factibles y colaboraciones extendidas dentro de la región latinoamericana. Esto permitiría realizar contribuciones significativas para abordar los desafíos globales y la aplicación de nuevos enfoques de investigación, innovación y transferencia de conocimiento para el desarrollo de la economía, dentro de un marco de ética de la investigación.

Abstract Introduction: The scientific discipline of bioinformatics has the potential to generate innovative applications for human societies. Costa Rica, small in size and population compared to other Latin American countries, has been progressively adopting the discipline. Recognizing progress makes it possible to determine where the country can go in this field, as well as its contribution to the Latin American region. Objective: This manuscript reports evidence of the evolution of bioinformatics in Costa Rica, to identify weaknesses and strengths allowing future actions plans. Methods: We searched databases of scientific publications and sequence repositories, as well as information on training activities, networks, infrastructure, web pages and funding sources. Results: Important advances have been observed since 2010, such as increases in training opportunities and the number of publications, significant contributions to the sequence databases and connections through networks. However, areas such as critical mass and financing require further development. The scientific community and its sponsors should promote bioinformatics-based research, invest in graduate student training, increase professional training, create career opportunities in bioinformatics, and promote international collaborations through networks. Conclusions: It is suggested that in order to experience the benefits of bioinformatics applications, three key aspects must be strengthened: the scientific community, the research infrastructure, and funding opportunities. The impact of such investment would be the development of ambitious but feasible projects and extended collaborations within the Latin American region and abroad. This would allow significant contributions to address global challenges and the implementation of new approaches to research, innovation and knowledge transfer for the development of the economy, within an ethics of research framework.

Pandemia y ansiedad social / Pandemic and social anxiety

La pandemia del COVID-19 ha generado una crisis en el ser humano y en su contexto de cómo vivir ante lo desconocido, estableciendo parámetros de un desequilibrio de la salud mental y una reinvención de sostenimiento imaginario de lo incomprensible, desarticulando los esquemas socialmente aceptados y articulando modelos nuevos que le permitan al hombre continuar con la vida, encontrando formas de fortalecer al Eros y disminuir la proliferación de Thanatos. (AU)

The COVID-19 pandemic has generated a crisis in the human being and in its context of how to live in the face of the unknown, establishing parameters of an imbalance of mental health and a reinvention of imaginary maintenance of the incomprehensible, disarticulating socially accepted schemes and articulating new models that allow man to continue with life, finding ways to strengthen Eros and decrease the proliferation of Thanatos (AU)

¿El siglo de las luces? / The lights century?

El siglo de las luces es una reflexión sobre el excesivo racionalismo de la medicina actual frente a los problemas del inconsciente dejando de lado el análisis del inconsciente del sujeto y la posibilidad del sujeto de mirarse así mismo.

This paper is a reflection about the excessive rationalism of current medici-ne against the unconscious problems leaving aside the analysis of the un-conscious of the person and the possibility of the person to look at himself.

Implicancias en la actividad física y la salud del Programa CicloRecreoVía en Chile / Physical activity and health implications of the CicloRecreoVia program in Chile

Background: With approximately 66% of the population overweight and nearly 90% with sedentary lifestyles, obesity has become a major public health problem in Chile. Thus, in the last fifteen years health policies have promoted active lifestyles. An interesting initiative in this context is the CicloRecreoVia program, which closes a set of public streets on Sunday mornings, allowing people to carry out PA in streets free of vehicles. Aim: To characterize PA and mobility patterns of participants of the CicloRecreoVía program in Santiago. Material and Methods: 401 participants of five circuits of the CicloRecreoVia surveyed on the type, frequency and durantion of the PA carried out, their daily mobility habits, motivations for attending the CicloRecreoVia, self-perceived health condition, among other aspects. Results: Participants spent 113 minutes in the CicloRecreoVia, 77% declared walking or bicycling at least 10 minutes per day and 56.7% traveled actively (bicycling or walking) at least four times per week. Finally, 69.1% perceived their health condition "better" or "much better" than one year ago. In addition, it was noted that CicloRecreoVías attracted different type of participants depending on their location in the city. Conclusions: In line with previous studies, most users achieve about 75% of the weekly PA recommended by attending the CicloRecreoVía, and the main motivations to attend the program were to make PA, to be outdoor and to socialize. As a result, the CicloRecreoVía has the potential to become an effective public nationwide health policy to combat obesity.

Outdoor gyms in Santiago: urban distribution and effects on physical activity

Abstract: Aims To put together a registry of the location of all existing outdoor gyms (OGs) in Santiago, Chile, and establish a profile of the users of these gyms. Methods: All OGs in Santiago located in public spaces were identified and geo-referenced, and an accessibility analysis of them was carried out. A total of 1,023 users of OGs were surveyed (71% men, average age 31.5 years old, SD =16.6), about the frequency of use of OGs, amount of time spent using them, transportation habits, motivation for usage, and their perceptions regarding their own health, among other questions. In addition, each person's neck circumference was measured. Results There are 1,981 OGs in the city squares, sidewalks and parks, mostly located in poorest areas of the city. Most OG users live less than one kilometer away from an OG. Discussion: In line with international studies, this research demonstrates that OGs have positive collateral effects, as they not only contribute to users to increase their physical activity, but also because they attract people with sedentary lifestyles to make physical activity. This, in turn, might contribute to make urban areas more livable and safer, for they bring new "eyes to the street" and permit to use cities' under-occupied public spaces. Conclusion: The proliferation of outdoor gyms should be regarded as an opportunity for public health policies aimed at tackling the obesity problem and increasing the physical activity of people.(AU)

Percepción de la señalización y orientación espacial de los usuarios de tres complejos hospitalarios de Santiago, Chile / A survey about client orientation and wayfinding in Chilean hospitals

Background: Sense of orientation in hospitals can be tricky considering the large extension of buildings and the inadequate signage. Aim: To report some of the findings of a larger research project on wayfinding and patient navigation in Chilean hospitals. Material and Methods: Five hundred nine hospital users waiting for attention in three hospitals were contacted and asked to answer a survey that lasted 10 minutes, about wayfinding and sense of orientation within the hospital. Results: Users declared to have a good opinion of existing signage in the three hospitals analyzed as well as their architectural organization in terms of their capacity to orient people. However, the vast majority of users asked for directions to navigate within the hospital to staff and medical personnel. Conclusions: Patient navigation problems are imposing a great “hidden” cost to hospitals management due to missed appointments.

Where is my car? examining wayfinding behavior in a parking lot

This article examines wayfinding behavior in an extended parking lot belonging to one of the largest shopping malls in Santiago, Chile. About 500 people were followed while going to the mall and returning from it, and their trajectories were mapped and analyzed. The results indicate that inbound paths were, in average, 10% shorter that outbound paths, and that people stopped three times more frequently when leaving the mall than when accessing it. It is argued that these results are in line with previous research on the subject, which stress the importance of environmental information in shaping people`s behavior.

En los ojos de Guliver: información contextual y sentido de orientación / In Gulliver's eyes: contextual information and sense of orientation

Este manuscrito estudia el sentido de orientación de las personas en situaciones en que existe información de tipo contextual, que permite a las personas a ver locaciones muy distantes. Para ello se preguntó a 133 individuos indicar la ubicación de cinco hitos próximos y lejanos de la ciudad de Valparaíso, en 2 situaciones distintas: miradores urbanos y lugares en el medio de la trama urbana en el que la visión de información contextual no es posible. Los resultados mostraron que no existía una asociación entre la Precisión Promedio por Persona y el sexo, edad, o el grado familiaridad, pero que sí con el lugar donde se habían hecho estas estimaciones.

This manuscript examines how people gain a sense of orientation in scenarios where large-scale, contextual information is available. Two locations of the city of Valparaiso where one can see the entire city from the heights were selected for an experiment, as well as two areas in the middle of the urban grid where no large-scale information was available. A total of 133 people were asked to point to five non-visible landmarks in these scenarios and their estimations were compared with the real position of each target. Results showed no association between this value and people's gender, age or familiarity with the neighborhood. However, a positive relationship was found between this value and the places in which estimates were made.

Straight to the point: how people encode linear discontinuations

Spatial discontinuations, as those found in cities and buildings, are everyday events. But, how do we encode and classify such misalignments? This is the topic of this paper. Twenty participants were asked to classify a total of 51 icons showing an upward-moving line being misaligned to the right, left and straight down. The results show that subjects were very sensitive to slight discontinuations occurring to vertical lines and that there was not exact symmetry between the left and right axis, meaning that the pieces slightly misaligned to the left were encoded differently than those misaligned to the right.

Acerca de la racionalidad y la irracionalidad de nuestras decisiones / About rationality and irrationality of our decisions

Tal como sugiere su nombre, este texto postula que el comportamiento humano es fundamentalmente irracional, esto es, está gobernado por aspectos emocionales difíciles de explicar de acuerdo a explicaciones lógicas. Esta "irracionalidad" esta, no obstante lejos de ser aleatoria y estrictamente personal, sino que corresponde a un patrón regular con ciertas leyes y principios. Más aún, tal irracionalidad comprende distintos ámbitos del comportamiento, desde los procesos detrás de la compra de bienes muebles o inmuebles a los que definen las acciones éticas de las personas.

As its title suggests, this book postulates that human behavior is fundamentally irrational, that is, driven by emotional factors that are difficult to understand for logical mind. This irrationality is, nonetheless, neither random or subjective, but to some extent predictable and rather universal. Furthermore, such irrational reasoning can be found at different levels , from the way in which people acquire small or large-scale goods (a TV set or a house respectively), to the way in which individuals make ethical decisions.

Moviéndose con la mente y el cuerpo: entendiendo la diferencia entre planear y realizar rutas en el espacio construido / Moving with the mind and the body: understanding the gap between planning and executing routes in the built environment

Este escrito estudió hasta qué punto las personas, al momento de ir de un punto A a uno B, realizan las rutas planeadas previamente, y si éstas son idénticas para ir que para volver. Se pidió a 42 participantes estudiar un plano del campus principal de la UTFSM, y trazar las rutas que eligirían para ir entre dos pares de puntos. Una vez terminada esta tarea, los participantes debieron recorrer en la realidad las rutas trazadas. Los resultados mostraron que las rutas trazadas en papel no necesariamente coincidieron con las rutas realizadas en terreno, y que, en la mayoría de los casos, las rutas A-B/B-A y X-Y/Y-X no fueron simétricas. Se concluye sugiriendo que los criterios de elección de ruta cambian porque el razonamiento espacial de las personas es inherentemente situado, esto es, moldeado por el entorno en que se lleva a cabo.

This paper is concerned with route behavior in people. Specifically, it aims to better understand whether people follow routes planned in advance, and whether these routes are identical irrespective of the direction of travel. A total of 42 participants (27 belonging to UTFSM and 15 from outside) were asked to trace routed between a pair of points in a map of the campus. After that, they were brought to these places and asked to physically navigate these routes. The main results showed that planned routes were not necessarily employed in real-world scenarios, and that people often changed routes depending on the direction of travel. These results suggest that route choice criteria are somehow dependant on contextual information.