Miguel de Cervantes tuvo un conocimiento avezado de la medicina de su época. Acá se demuestra la evidencia de sus lecturas de libros de medicina que poseyó en su biblioteca personal y de sus ...relaciones con familiares y amigos médicos. Se analiza como ejemplo de su saber las referencias a la perlesía y otras patologías neurológicas como la epilepsia, los temblores y los traumas craneanos, que son mencionadas o descritas en su gran obra maestra titulada El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote. (Acta Med Colomb 2022; 48. DOI: Palabras clave: literatura, historia de la medicina, El Quijote de la Mancha, patologías neurológicas, Miguel de Cervantes. Miguel de Cervantes had seasoned knowledge of medical care in his time. Here we provide evidence of his having read medical texts from his personal library and of his relationships with relatives and friends who were physicians. As an example of his knowledge, we analyze the references to palsy and other neurological diseases like epilepsy, tremors and head trauma, which are mentioned or described in his great literary masterpiece titled The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote. (Acta Med Colomb 2022; 48. DOI: Keywords: literature, history of medicine, Don Quixote of La Mancha, neurological diseases, Miguel de Cervantes.
We study a Lagrangian decomposition algorithm recently proposed by Dan Bienstock and Mark Zuckerberg for solving the LP relaxation of a class of open pit mine project scheduling problems. In this ...study we show that the Bienstock–Zuckerberg (BZ) algorithm can be used to solve LP relaxations corresponding to a much broader class of scheduling problems, including the well-known Resource Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (RCPSP), and multi-modal variants of the RCPSP that consider batch processing of jobs. We present a new, intuitive proof of correctness for the BZ algorithm that works by casting the BZ algorithm as a column generation algorithm. This analysis allows us to draw parallels with the well-known Dantzig–Wolfe decomposition (DW) algorithm. We discuss practical computational techniques for speeding up the performance of the BZ and DW algorithms on project scheduling problems. Finally, we present computational experiments independently testing the effectiveness of the BZ and DW algorithms on different sets of publicly available test instances. Our computational experiments confirm that the BZ algorithm significantly outperforms the DW algorithm for the problems considered. Our computational experiments also show that the proposed speed-up techniques can have a significant impact on the solve time. We provide some insights on what might be explaining this significant difference in performance.
In Blacks, late presentation, lack of knowledge, health infrastructural deficiencies and socio-demographic characteristics, which result in poor outcomes, are the bane of cancers. This study ...evaluated health access and lifestyle association with prostate cancer (PCa) knowledge and screening among black men.
This study used data from the Prostate Cancer Transatlantic Consortium familial cohort study. Data were gathered from a cross-sectional survey of 500 community-dwelling black men in Nigeria, Cameroon, and the USA. Information on socio-demographics, health care access, PCa knowledge score and screening behaviour was obtained, and the association between these variables was evaluated.
The majority (81.6%) were Nigerian. The age ranges were 35-49 (55.2%) and ≥65 (8.4%). The income distribution of the respondents showed that 23.3% earned <$1,000 and 30.7% (>$2,000) monthly. Only 43% had health insurance coverage, and 12% had accessed a doctor in 12 months. Respondents relied on orthodox medicine (50.8%), neighbourhood pharmacy (10.6%), self-medication (5%) and neighbourhood nurse (24.6%). The participants had either poor (45.2%) or very poor (23.2%) dietary patterns. Most (66.67%) do not engage in physical activity and about 33.33% engage in some exercises. Moreover, 87.8% and 78.3% have never had a digital rectal examination (DRE) and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening in their lifetime, respectively, while 6.8% and 1.6% had DRE last 1 year and 2 years, respectively. Furthermore, 65.2%, 19.8% and 15% of the respondents had poor, fair and good knowledge of PCa, respectively. Health care coverage (
< 0.001), medical care habit (p = 0.001), routine checkup (
= 0.013) were significantly associated with respondents' PCa knowledge. Routine checkup (
< 0.001) and country (
< 0.001) were significantly related to PSA screening.
The study showed that PCa screening uptake was poor among the respondents and country of residence was associated with PCa screening behaviours. Healthcare coverage was significantly associated with PCa knowledge.
Production scheduling is a large-scale optimization problem that must be solved on a yearly basis by every open pit mining project throughout the world. Surprisingly, however, this problem has only ...recently started to receive much attention from the operations research community. In this article, O. Rivera, D. Espinoza, M. Goycoolea, E. Moreno, and G. Muñoz propose an integer programming methodology for tackling this problem that combines new classes of preprocessing schemes, cutting planes, heuristics, and branching mechanisms. This methodology is shown to compute near-optimal solutions on a number of real-world planning problems whose complexity is beyond the capabilities of preexisting approaches.
Given a discretized representation of an ore body known as a block model, the open pit mining production scheduling problem that we consider consists of defining which blocks to extract, when to extract them, and how or whether to process them, in such a way as to comply with operational constraints and maximize net present value. Although it has been established that this problem can be modeled with mixed-integer programming, the number of blocks used to represent real-world mines (millions) has made solving large instances nearly impossible in practice. In this article, we introduce a new methodology for tackling this problem and conduct computational tests using real problem sets ranging in size from 20,000 to 5,000,000 blocks and spanning 20 to 50 time periods. We consider both direct block scheduling and bench-phase scheduling problems, with capacity, blending, and minimum production constraints. Using new preprocessing and cutting planes techniques, we are able to reduce the linear programming relaxation value by up to 33%, depending on the instance. Then, using new heuristics, we are able to compute feasible solutions with an average gap of 1.52% relative to the previously computed bound. Moreover, after four hours of running a customized branch-and-bound algorithm on the problems with larger gaps, we are able to further reduce the average from 1.52% to 0.71%.
Bernardo Houssay and endocrine research Mejia Rivera, Orlando
Revista Colombiana de endocrinología, diabetes & metabolismo,
03/2023, Letnik:
10, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Background: Bernardo Houssay (1877-1971) was the first Latin American scientist to receive the Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology in 1947. His academic training took place entirely in Argentina, ...where he founded and directed the Institute of Physiology of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires. He later created the Institute of Biology and Experimental Medicine. He taught hundreds of young people and carried out with his disciples multiple experimental investigations in the areas of endocrine physiology, neuroendocrinology, comparative endocrinology, biochemistry and pharmacology. The result was the publication of about two thousand scientific articles and several academic awards.
Methodology: The main endocrinological research undertaken by Dr. Houssay has been described in detail, interpreting the historical and epistemological framework that allowed him to develop a conceptual horizon and laboratory techniques that were able to compete with the most sophisticated research centers in Europe and the United States.
Results and conclusions: It has been hypothesized that the work of Claude Bernard, read in depth by Dr. Houssay, led him to conceive and structure his scientific method of experimentation, being a self-taught man, and without having been trained in any foreign laboratory of physiological research. However, the breadth and depth of his scientific work put him on a par with such distinguished figures as Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Walter Bradford Cannon, Lawrence J. Henderson and Charles Scott Sherrington, among others. In addition, it highlights and analyzes his pioneering vision in the integral conception of the pituitary gland and its regulatory relationships with the rest of the endocrine glands, with the body metabolism and the preservation of homeostasis.
The Andean ecosystems constitute one of the most important centers of biodiversity in the world; however, their forest covers tend to disappear rapidly as they are subjected to strong anthropic ...pressure. In this study, the angiosperms present in the forest patches, its edge, and in areas of open vegetation or pasture of an Andean area of the Central Cordillera of Colombia are characterized. General collections of fertile material were made through tours between March 2017 and February 2018. Complementary information was obtained from historic collections deposited in herbaria and the botanical material was deposited in the Herbario Nacional Colombiano (COL). A total of 431 species are recorded, grouped into 92 families and 239 genera, five families of magnolids were found with seven genera and 29 species, 18 monocotyledons (66/131) and 69 eudicotyledons (166/271). The highest species richness is presented by Orchidaceae (54), Rubiaceae (24), Asteraceae (22), Araceae (22), and Piperaceae (20). Terrestrial herbs is the most numerous life form (31.8 %), followed by shrubs (26.5 %) and trees (17.6 %). Despite being areas surrounded by productive activities, mainly agricultural, 30 species are endemic to Colombia, 170 taxa are new records for the eastern slope of the Central mountain range of the department of Antioquia, two are new records for the department, and four new species are reported.
Los ecosistemas andinos constituyen uno de los más importantes centros de biodiversidad del mundo, sin embargo, sus coberturas boscosas tienden a desaparecer rápidamente debido a que están sometidas a una fuerte presión antrópica. En este estudio, se caracterizan las angiospermas presentes en los parches de bosque, sus bordes y en zonas de vegetación abierta o potrero de un área andina de la Cordillera Central de Colombia. Entre marzo de 2017 y febrero de 2018 se realizaron recolecciones de material fértil mediante recorridos del área. Se obtuvo información complementaria de colecciones históricas depositadas en herbarios. El material herborizado se depositó en el Herbario Nacional Colombiano (COL). Se registran 431 especies, agrupadas en 92 familias y 239 géneros, se encontraron cinco familias de magnólidas con siete géneros y 29 especies, 18 de monocotiledóneas (66/131) y 69 eudicotiledóneas (166/271). La mayor riqueza a nivel de especies la presentan Orchidaceae (54), Rubiaceae (24), Asteraceae (22), Araceae (22) y Piperaceae (20). Las hierbas terrestres son la forma de vida más numerosa (31,8 %), seguidas por arbustos (26,5 %) y árboles (17,6 %). A pesar de tratarse de áreas rodeadas por actividades productivas, principalmente agropecuarias, se encontraron 30 especies endémicas de Colombia, 170 taxones representan nuevos registros para la vertiente oriental de la Cordillera Central del departamento de Antioquia, dos nuevos registros para el departamento y cuatro nuevas especies.
Background: Early readmissions following hospital discharge for heart failure (HF) remain a major concern. Among the various strategies designed to reduce readmissions, home evaluations have been ...observed to have a favorable impact. We assessed the feasibility of integrating community paramedics into the outpatient management of HF patients. Methods: Selected paramedics completed an educational HF curriculum. These Mobile Integrated Health Paramedics (MIHP) performed scheduled home visits 2- and 15-days post-discharge for patients with Stage C HF (Phase I) and patients with Stage D HF (Phase II). Facilitated by a Call Center, a process was created for performing urgent MIHP house calls within 60 minutes of a medical provider's request. A HF specialist, with an on-call emergency department command physician, could order an intravenous diuretic during home visits. During each phase of the study the incidence of 30-day HF readmissions, 30-day all-cause readmissions, emergency room evaluations, unplanned office encounters, as well as any adverse events were prospectively documented. Results: Collaborative relationships between our hospital network and local EMS organizations were created. There were 82 MIHP home visits. Eight patients received urgent home evaluations within 60-minutes post-request, one requiring transport to an ED. The incidence of all-cause 30-day readmissions in 20 Stage C and 20 Stage D patients was 15% and 40%, respectively. There were no adverse events attributable to the MIHP house calls. Conclusions: It is feasible to integrate MIHPs into the outpatient management of HF. Signals of effectiveness for reducing early readmissions were observed. Obstacles to creating an effective paramedic "House Calls" program were identified. A randomized trial is required to assess the value of this care process and its impact on early readmissions in patients with Stage C and Stage D HF.
Propósito: el propósito de la presente investigación es entender el valor epistemológico de la obra de Claude Bernard sobre un contexto actual, donde la serendipia científica permite desprenderse de ...ideas y teorías que se creían válidas para lograr encontrar respuesta a problemas que no han podido ser resueltos hasta el momento.Contenidos: el contenido explica la vida del autor y describe los hechos que lo llevan al quehacer médico, luego se reflexiona sobre los experimentos más notorios y que permitieron avances en el mundo, tales como, por ejemplo, el descubrimiento dela glucogénesis animal.Contribuciones: este texto es un aporte a los científicos y médicos actuales que buscan nuevas maneras de descifrar ciertosproblemas que todavía no han podido ser resueltos. Los conceptos de serendipia científica, descubrimientos científicos yhallazgos por medio de la experimentación a través de la historia, permiten ser una fuente de inspiración para las nuevasgeneraciones de investigadores.
Context: Scientific serendipity is a paradigm for many researchers, but the case of Banting and the discovery of insulin for the treatment of diabetes mellitus results in a fundamental case of ...analysis and is a clear example to understand what bibliographic serendipity consists of and how this leads to a discovery that cures a disease known for years without being able to find a previous cure.
Contents: It is necessary to understand the history of the disease, how the information is constructed and collected, which ends up, at one point, being established as a theory that leads to the efforts of many researchers to not find a cure for diabetes mellitus. Then there are the sections of this article that explain the life and discovery processes of Frederich Banting, from investigative serendipity to achieving a clear and successful procedure for the cure of said disease.
Contributions: This historical review seeks to make visible the importance of serendipities within the investigative-scientific process and highlights the case of Banting to appeal to new ways of seeing processes with complex diseases and thus inspire new doctors to explore this way of approach for the resolution or the search of cure to certain pathologies.
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