Marble melancholy: using crossmodal correspondences of shapes, materials, and music to predict music-induced emotions.

Introduction: Music is known to elicit strong emotions in listeners, and, if primed appropriately, can give rise to specific and observable crossmodal correspondences. This study aimed to assess two primary objectives: (1) identifying crossmodal correspondences emerging from music-induced emotions, and (2) examining the predictability of music-induced emotions based on the association of music with visual shapes and materials. Methods: To achieve this, 176 participants were asked to associate visual shapes and materials with the emotion classes of the Geneva Music-Induced Affect Checklist scale (GEMIAC) elicited by a set of musical excerpts in an online experiment. Results: Our findings reveal that music-induced emotions and their underlying core affect (i.e., valence and arousal) can be accurately predicted by the joint information of musical excerpt and features of visual shapes and materials associated with these music-induced emotions. Interestingly, valence and arousal induced by music have higher predictability than discrete GEMIAC emotions. Discussion: These results demonstrate the relevance of crossmodal correspondences in studying music-induced emotions. The potential applications of these findings in the fields of sensory interactions design, multisensory experiences and art, as well as digital and sensory marketing are briefly discussed.

Teaching hospitals and their influence on survival after valve replacement procedures: A retrospective cohort study using inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW).

BACKGROUND: The effect of teaching hospital status on cardiovascular surgery has been of common interest in recent decades, yet its magnitude on heart valve replacement is still a matter of debate. Given the ethical and practical unfeasibility of randomly assigning a patient to such an exposure, we use the inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) to assess this marginal effect on the survival of Colombian patients who underwent a first heart valve replacement between 2016 and 2019. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was conducted based on administrative records. The time-to-death event and cumulative incidences of death, readmission, and reoperation are presented as outcomes. An artificial sample is configured through IPTW, adjusting for sociodemographic variables, comorbidities, technique, and intervention weight. RESULTS: Of a sample of 3,517 patients, 1,051 (29.9%) were operated on in a teaching hospital. The median age was 65.0 (18.1-91.5), 38.5% of patients were ≤60, and 6.9% were ≥80. The cumulative incidences of death at 30, 90 days, and one year were 5.9%, 8%, and 10.9%, respectively. Furthermore, 23.5% of the patients were readmitted within 90 days and 3.6% underwent reintervention within one year. The odds of 30-day mortality are lower for patients operated in a teaching hospital (OR 0.51; 95% CI 0.29-0.92); however, no effect on survival was identified in terms of time-to-event of death (HR 1.07; 95%CI 0.78-1.46). CONCLUSIONS: After IPTW, the odds of 30-day mortality are lower for patients operated in a teaching hospital. There was no effect on survival, 90-day or one-year mortality, 90-day readmission, or one-year reintervention. Together, we offer an opening for investigating an exposure that has yet to be explored in Latin America with potential value to understand teaching hospitals as the essential nature of reality of an academic-clinical synergy.

In Silico and In Vitro Analysis of MAP3773c Protein from Mycobacterium avium subsp. Paratuberculosis.

Paratuberculosis is a disease caused by Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP). It is of great interest to better understand the proteins involved in the pathogenicity of this organism in order to be able to identify potential therapeutic targets and design new vaccines. The protein of interest-MAP3773c-was investigated, and molecular modeling in silico, docking, cloning, expression, purification, and partial characterization of the recombinant protein were achieved. In the in silico study, it was shown that MAP3773c of MAP has 34% sequence similarity with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) FurB, which is a zinc uptake regulator (Zur) protein. The docking data showed that MAP3773c exhibits two metal-binding sites. The presence of structural Zn2+ in the purified protein was confirmed by SDS-PAGE PAR staining. The purification showed one band that corresponded to a monomer, which was confirmed by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). The presence of a monomer was verified by analyzing the native protein structure through BN-SDS-PAGE (Native Blue (BN) Two-Dimensional Electrophoresis) and BN-Western blotting. The MAP3773c protein contains structural zinc. In conclusion, our results show that MAP3773c displays the features of a Fur-type protein with two metal-binding sites, one of them coordinating structural Zn2+.

Electrical Power Diversification: An Approach Based on the Method of Maximum Entropy in the Mean.

Electrical energy is generated in different ways, each located at some specific geographical area, and with different impact on the environment. Different sectors require heterogeneous rates of energy delivery, due to economic requirements. An important problem to solve is to determine how much energy must be sent from each supplier to satisfy each demand. Besides, the energy distribution process may have to satisfy ecological, technological, or economic cost constraints.

Giant Intrapericardial bronchogenic cyst associated with congestive heart failure and atrial fibrillation: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Large intracardiac bronchogenic cysts are rare mediastinal masses. However, they must always be considered in the differential diagnosis of heart failure with abnormal chest X-ray. CASE PRESENTATION: We present a 60-year-old female patient with de novo atrial fibrillation, heart failure and a very large intrapericardial mass. The patient underwent successful surgical resection, with pathological findings confirming a bronchogenic cyst. CONCLUSIONS: Large bronchogenic cysts located intrapericardially are very rare. However, they should be included in the differential diagnosis of patients presenting with atrial fibrillation and heart failure with abnormal radiologic studies.

A network analysis of research productivity by country, discipline, and wealth.

INTRODUCTION: Research productivity has been linked to a country's intellectual and economic wealth. Further analysis is needed to assess the association between the distribution of research across disciplines and the economic status of countries. METHODS: By using 55 years of data, spanning 1962 to 2017, of Elsevier publications across a large set of research disciplines and countries globally, this manuscript explores the relationship and evolution of relative research productivity across different disciplines through a network analysis. It also explores the associations of those with economic productivity categories, as measured by the World Bank economic classification. Additional analysis of discipline similarities is possible by exploring the cross-country evolution of those disciplines. RESULTS: Results show similarities in the relative importance of research disciplines among most high-income countries, with larger idiosyncrasies appearing among the remaining countries. This group of high-income countries shows similarities in the dynamics of the relative distribution of research productivity over time, forming a stable research productivity cluster. Lower income countries form smaller, more independent and evolving clusters, and differ significantly from each other and from higher income countries in the relative importance of their research emphases. Country-based similarities in research productivity profiles also appear to be influenced by geographical proximity. CONCLUSIONS: This new form of analyses of research productivity, and its relation to economic status, reveals novel insights to the dynamics of the economic and research structure of countries. This allows for a deeper understanding of the role a country's research structure may play in shaping its economy, and also identification of benchmark resource allocations across disciplines for developing countries.

Experiencia y curva de aprendizaje de apendicectomía y colecistectomía laparoscópica de los residentes de cirugía general en un hospital latinoamericano / General Surgery Residents Experience and Learning Curve for Laparoscopic Appendectomy and Cholecystectomy in a Latin American Hospital

Introducción: La cirugía laparoscópica ha revolucionado el manejo quirúrgico de los pacientes y ha generado una necesidad de capacitación en el área. El rendimiento en la vida real es lo que permite una determinación global de las competencias en un procedimiento y establece un método de formación. El objetivo de este estudio es describir la evolución en la experiencia quirúrgica de un grupo de residentes de cirugía general. Metodología: Estudio observacional analítico de cohorte retrospectiva en el Hospital Universitario San Ignacio. Incluyó 4191 procedimientos realizados, divididos en 1045 apendicectomías laparoscópicas (AL) y 3146 colecistectomías laparoscópicas (CL), realizadas por un total de 52 residentes entre enero de 2008 y diciembre de 2014. Resultados: Tanto en AL como en CL se observó un aumento en el número de procedimientos anuales. Al comparar los tiempos promedios de AL por año de residencia, se observó una tendencia a la disminución en la mediana a medida que el residente era mayor. Las complicaciones intraoperatorias fueron del 0,77% para AL y del 1,9% para CL. La complicación postoperatoria más frecuente fue infección del sitio operatorio con una mortalidad menor al 0,5%. Conclusión: Los resultados evocan la necesidad de continuar con programas de residencia que proporcionen preparación adecuada en el abordaje laparoscópico, posiblemente con exposición cada vez más temprana a procedimientos mínimamente invasivos.

Introduction: Laparoscopic surgery has revolutionized the surgical management of patients, generating a need for training in the area. The performance in real life is what allows a global determination of the competences in a procedure and establishes a method of training. The objective of this study is to describe the evolution in the surgical experience of a group of residents of general surgery.Methodology: Observational analytical study of a retrospective cohort at the University Hospital San Ignacio. It included 4191 surgical procedures divided in 1045 laparoscopic appendectomies (LA) and 3146 laparoscopic cholecystectomies (LC) performed by a total of 52 residents between January 2008 and December 2014. Results: Both LA and LC showed an increase in the number of annual procedures. When comparing the average times of AL per year of residence, a tendency to decrease in the median was observed, as the resident was older. The intraoperative complications were 0.77% for LA and 1.9% for LC; being the most frequent postoperative complication ISO with mortality <0.5%. Conclusion: The results evoke the need to continue with residency programs that provide adequate preparation in the laparoscopic approach, possibly with increasingly early exposure to minimally invasive procedures.

Cost-effectiveness of laparoscopic versus open appendectomy in developing nations: a Colombian analysis.

BACKGROUND: Colombia is a developing nation in need for efficient resource administration in fields such as health care, where innovation is constant. Since the introduction of laparoscopic appendectomy (LA), direct costs have been increasing without definitive results in terms of clinical outcomes. The objective of this study is to determine the cost-effectiveness of open appendectomy (OA) versus LA and thereby help surgeons in clinical decision-making in a limited resource setting. METHODS: A retrospective cost-effectiveness analysis comparing OA versus multiport LA during 2013 in a third-level university hospital (Hospital Universitario San Ignacio) in Bogota, Colombia was performed. Effectiveness was determined as the number of days in additional length of stay (LOS) due to the complications saved. A total of 377 clinical histories were collected by the authors and analyzed for the following variables: surgery type, conversion to open laparotomy, complications (surgical site infection, reintervention, and readmission), hospital LOS, and total cost of hospitalization for initial surgery and subsequent complications-related hospitalizations. The total accumulative costs and LOS for OA and LA plus complications were estimated. The cost-effectiveness threshold was set at US $46 (139,000 Colombian Peso [COP]), the cost of an additional day in LOS. An incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was calculated for OA as the comparator and LA as the intervention. RESULTS: The number of LA was 130 and of OA was 247. The two groups were balanced in terms of population characteristics. Complication rate was 13.7 % for OA and 10.4% for LA (P < 0.05), and LOS was 2 days for LA and OA (P = 0.9). No conversions from LA to OA were recorded. The total costs for complications for OA were US $8523 (25,569,220 COP) and US 3385 (10,157,758 COP) for LA. Cumulative costs including cost of surgery and complications and LOS for OA were US $65,753 (197,259,310 COP) and 297, respectively. Similarly, for LA were US $66,425 (199,276,948 COP) and 271, respectively. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was US $25.86 (77,601 COP) making LA a cost-effective alternative with a difference of US $20.76 (62,299 COP) under the cost-effectiveness threshold. CONCLUSIONS: LA is a cost-effective alternative over OA with an increasing cost of $25.85 per day of additional hospitalization due to complications saved. This is accounting the low cost of surgical interventions and complications in developing nations such as Colombia.

HyRA: A Hybrid Recommendation Algorithm Focused on Smart POI. Ceutí as a Study Scenario.

Nowadays, Physical Web together with the increase in the use of mobile devices, Global Positioning System (GPS), and Social Networking Sites (SNS) have caused users to share enriched information on the Web such as their tourist experiences. Therefore, an area that has been significantly improved by using the contextual information provided by these technologies is tourism. In this way, the main goals of this work are to propose and develop an algorithm focused on the recommendation of Smart Point of Interaction (Smart POI) for a specific user according to his/her preferences and the Smart POIs' context. Hence, a novel Hybrid Recommendation Algorithm (HyRA) is presented by incorporating an aggregation operator into the user-based Collaborative Filtering (CF) algorithm as well as including the Smart POIs' categories and geographical information. For the experimental phase, two real-world datasets have been collected and preprocessed. In addition, one Smart POIs' categories dataset was built. As a result, a dataset composed of 16 Smart POIs, another constituted by the explicit preferences of 200 respondents, and the last dataset integrated by 13 Smart POIs' categories are provided. The experimental results show that the recommendations suggested by HyRA are promising.

Risk Neutral Measure Determination from Price Ranges: Single Period Market Models.

Risk neutral measures are defined such that the basic random assets in a portfolio are martingales. Hence, when the market model is complete, valuation of other financial instruments is a relatively straightforward task when those basic random assets constitute their underlying asset. To determine the risk neutral measure, it is assumed that the current prices of the basic assets are known exactly. However, oftentimes all we know about the current price, or that of a derivative having it as underlying, is a bid-ask range. The question then arises as to how to determine the risk neutral measure from that information. We may want to determine risk neutral measures from that information to use it, for example, to price other derivatives on the same asset. In this paper we propose an extended version of the maximum entropy method to carry out that task. This approach provides a novel solution to this problem, which is computationally simple and fast.

Interdisciplinariedad en la formación académica, laboral e investigativa de los estudiantes de Medicina de Camagüey / Interdisciplinar in academic, work-related and research training of medical students in Camagüey

Se realizó un estudio con el objetivo de ejemplificar los modos de actuación en el trabajo metodológico interdisciplinario que respondan a la formación académica, laboral e investigativa de los estudiantes de la carrera de Medicina de la Facultad de Ciencias Médicas de Camagüey, desde una concepción intra e interdisciplinaria, rectorada por la disciplina Informática Médica. Se elaboraron propuestas de tareas docentes problematizadoras desde una estrategia metodológica a partir de la planificación que cada asignatura del año debe diseñar, las que permitieron la realización de trabajos investigativos por los estudiantes en cada semestre del curso escolar, en las que se combinaron de manera creciente los contenidos y los diversos métodos teóricos y prácticos de las unidades curriculares del plan de estudio de las asignaturas Informática Médica, Metodología de la Investigación, Educación Física, Psicología General y Medicina General Integral como disciplina rectora en la carrera, influyendo en la formación de un profesional más competente.

Determining a mode of on-the-job acting interdisciplinary methodologic that the intra answer to Camagüey's academic, labor and investigating formation of the students of the carrier of Medicine of Ciencias Médicas's Faculty, from a conception and interdisciplinary, manager for Information-Technology Medical discipline, he identified the objective of this work. The problem from a strategy elaborated bidding of teaching tasks themselves methodologic as from the planning that he must design each subject of study of the year, the ones that permitted the realization of investigating works for students in each semester of the school year, in the ones that combined of increasing manner the contentses and various theoretic methods themselves and pilots of units curriculares of the curriculum of Information-Technology Medical subjects of study, Methodology of Investigation, Physical Education, Psicología General and Medicine General Integral like ruling discipline in the carrier influencing a more competent professional's formation.

Estrategia didáctica para el desarrollo del trabajo independiente de la asignatura Metodología de la Investigación Cualitativa en Salud / Teaching strategy for the self-employment development in the subject Methodology of Qualitative Research in Health

Introducción: La asignatura Metodología de la Investigación Cualitativa en Salud se imparte a los estudiantes de tercer año de la Licenciatura en Enfermería en la modalidad de clase teórico-práctica como forma organizativa de la docencia. Ello recalca la importancia del trabajo independiente. Las insuficiencias con relación a éste inciden directamente en la asimilación y apropiación de los conocimientos de la asignatura. Objetivo: Elaborar una estrategia didáctica que contribuya al desarrollo del trabajo independiente correspondiente a la asignatura Metodología de la Investigación Cualitativa en Salud.Material y métodos: Se realizó una investigación de desarrollo, encaminada a perfeccionar el proceso docente educativo en la Facultad de Enfermería, de la Universidad de Ciencias Médicas de Camagüey, durante el curso escolar 2011-2012. Para el diagnóstico inicial se procedió al análisis de documentos: los planes de estudio y el programa de la asignatura. También se aplicaron encuestas a un grupo de estudiantes y al colectivo de profesores que imparten la asignatura. Una vez elaborada la estrategia se evaluó por criterio de expertos. Resultados y discusión: La estrategia pone a disposición de la comunidad académica un software educativo que relaciona los contenidos de la asignatura, lo que permitirá al estudiantado realizar las tareas docentes que se orientan en clases así como asimilar, consolidar y sistematizar los conocimientos con mayor facilidad.

Introduction: The subject Methodology of Qualitative Research in Health is taught to the students of the third year of the Bachelor in nursing in the form of theoretical and practical lesson as organizational way of teaching. This underscores the importance of self-employment. The shortcomings in relation to this affect directly the assimilation and appropriation of knowledge in the subject. Objective: To develop a teaching strategy that contributes to the development of self-employ ment for the subject Methodology of Qualitative Research in Health. Material aids and methods: A development research was made which aims at improving the educational teaching process in the Faculty of nursing from the University of Medical Sciences in Camagüey, during the 2011-2012 course. For an initial diagnosis the analyses of documents was made: the curriculum and the program of the course. Surveys were also applied to a group of students and the staff of teachers of the subject. Once the strategy was made it was evaluated through criteria of experts. Results and discussion: Strategy makes available to the academic community educational software that relates to the contents of the course, allowing students to perform teaching tasks which are assigned in lessons as well as assimilate, consolidate and systematize the knowledge easiest.

Análisis de las implicaciones del cambio en la metodología de cómputo de la inflación en Bolivia

El Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE) ha anunciado el cambio de la metodología de cálculo del Índice de Precios al Consumidor (IPC), a partir del mes de abril de 2008. las implicaciones que este cambio puede tener para la vida económica del país, las circunstancias en las que se prentende realizarlo, y la informacion técnica difundida hasta la fecha; aspecto al que este documento está dedicado hacen imprescindible que esta decisión se postergue para que pueda llevarse a cabo una auditoría técnica del cálculo del IPC hasta antes del cambio metodológico, y para que la nueva metodología utilizada pueda ser discutida a fondo en un ambiente académico y técnico de probada solvencia e imparcialidad, para hacer de este paso un adelanto que asegure no solamente la solidez del análisis económico sino, sobre todo, la idoneidad de las decisiones públicas y privadas en materia económica.

Educación de Adultos y Democracia / Democracy and education adult

El libro presenta el resultado de la VI Jornadas Iberoamericanas de Educación de Adultos y reúne un conjunto de ponencias de los participantes, en las que reflexionan sobre las tendencias de la corriente histórica de la educación de adultos y popular, dentro del contexto actual de la vida democrática. Estas ponencias orientan a analizar las relaciones entre educación de adultos y democracia, teniendo como referentes las dimensiones actuales y futuras de ambos aspectos en relación con las tendencias políticas, sociales y económicas del desarrollo; las orientaciones surgidas de la teoría del desarrollo local; la concepción misma de la democracia en los países iberoamericanos; el rol del Estado y de la sociedad civil en los procesos actuales de democratización; los derechos humanos; el papel de las ONGs en la construcción democrática; la función cumplida por la educación de adultos en democracias más consolidadas. Asimismo, se incluyen algunas experiencias, las que muestras caminos alternativos y estrategias de acción para que la educación de adultos y popular se constituyan en instrumentos eficaces de la democracia política y la convivencia social