Various medical complications can occur after spinal surgery in the pediatric population. Current surgical techniques have allowed a greater degree of scoliosis correction, but at the same time, ...unusual complications have been described that seem to be associated and have a multifactorial etiology. We present a case series of three pediatric patients who underwent scoliosis correction surgery with continuous use of full-dose opioids, and during hospitalization and post-operative surveillance developed acute pancreatitis. The association between prolonged exposure to high-dose opioids and the onset of pancreatitis in the context of major surgery suggests a potential relationship that warrants further study.
The Fermi Collaboration has recently updated their analysis of gamma rays from the center of the Galaxy. They reconfirm the presence of an unexplained emission feature which is most prominent in the ...region of \(1-10\) GeV, known as the Galactic Center GeV excess (GCE). Although the GCE is now firmly detected, an interpretation of this emission as a signal of self-annihilating dark matter (DM) particles is not unambiguously possible due to systematic effects in the gamma-ray modeling estimated in the Galactic Plane. In this paper we build a covariance matrix, collecting different systematic uncertainties investigated in the Fermi Collaboration's paper that affect the GCE spectrum. We show that models where part of the GCE is due to annihilating DM can still be consistent with the new data. We also re-evaluate the parameter space regions of the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) that can contribute dominantly to the GCE via neutralino DM annihilation. All recent constraints from DM direct detection experiments such as PICO, LUX, PandaX and Xenon1T, limits on the annihilation cross section from dwarf spheroidal galaxies and Large Hadron Collider limits are considered in this analysis. Due to a slight shift in the energy spectrum of the GC excess with respect to the previous Fermi analysis, and the recent limits from direct detection experiments, we find a slightly shifted parameter region of the MSSM compared to our previous analysis that is consistent with the GCE. Neutralinos with a mass between \(85-220\) GeV can describe the excess via annihilation into a pair of \(W\)-bosons or top quarks. Remarkably, there are low fine-tuning models among the regions that we have found. The complete set of solutions will be probed by upcoming direct detection experiments and with dedicated searches in the upcoming data of the Large Hadron Collider.
Simulation of a wheel-leg hybrid robot in Webots Vargas, German A.; Gomez, David J.; Mur, Over ...
2016 IEEE Colombian Conference on Robotics and Automation (CCRA),
2016-Sept.
Conference Proceeding
This paper details simulation of a wheel-leg hybrid robot prototype using the Webots development environment. Following assembly of a fully-detailed CAD model, simplification of sub-assemblies before ...importing the model into the virtual workspace is carried out to reduce complexity of simulation computations and associated runtime delays. Afterwards, reconstruction of the robot's kinematics is performed by associating nested class instances for bounding objects and joints. Analysis of simulation for a set of basic robot motions in structured terrain revealed considerable amounts of friction taking place when performing in-place rotations, which were resolved by modifying the position and orientation of the robot's wheels using the legs' actuators.
To compare the effect of fixed-dose trandolapril-verapamil (FDTV) with that of trandolapril on proteinuria in normotensive, type 2 diabetic patients.
A total of 60 normotensive, type 2 diabetic ...patients with 24-h proteinuria >300 mg were randomly assigned to two groups for open-label treatment. One group received 2 mg trandolapril/180 mg verapamil FDTV once daily; the other group received 2 mg trandolapril once daily. Study drugs were administered for 6 months in both groups. Creatinine clearance and 24-h urinary protein excretion were measured at the beginning and the end of the study. Patients were evaluated monthly for blood pressure, fasting blood glucose level, heart rate, and adverse events. Statistical analysis was performed using ANOVA.
Both groups experienced a statistically significant (P < 0.005) mean decrease in mean proteinuria from baseline: FDTV (mean +/- SD 1200 +/- 200 to 540 +/- 79 mg; P < 0.001) and trandolapril (1,105 +/- 212 to 750.9 +/- 134 mg; P < 0.005). A significantly greater reduction from baseline in proteinuria was observed in the FDTV group compared with the trandolapril group. Patients who received trandolapril experienced a statistically significant (P < 0.05) decrease in mean creatinine clearance (91.1 +/- 3.4 to 75.3 +/- 3 ml/min; P < 0.05) compared with patients who received FDTV (88.3 +/- 3.6 to 82.9 +/- 3.5 ml/min; P > 0.05). Final fasting blood glucose was significantly lower in the FDTV group (139 +/- 19) compared with the trandolapril group (154 +/- 22; P < 0.001). No significant differences were observed between the two groups in mean baseline or final measurements of blood pressure, mean heart rate, or frequency of adverse events.
Our results suggest that FDTV is more effective than trandolapril in reducing proteinuria in normotensive, type 2 diabetic patients. This effect on proteinuria is not related with blood pressure reduction.
La pandemia por el virus SARS-CoV-2 y la enfermedad generada (COVID-19, del inglés Coronavirus 2019 Disease), llevó a nivel mundial a cambios significativos en la forma de prestar los servicios de ...salud, incluida la actividad quirúrgica. Como parte de esta realidad, se recomendó en Colombia la adopción de disposiciones enfocadas a preparar nuestro sistema de salud para enfrentar una avalancha de pacientes COVID-19, que se esperaba fuera similar a la presentada en otros países. Las medidas se tomaron en el momento oportuno, ganando tiempo de preparación, sin que hasta la fecha (8 semanas después del primer caso diagnosticado en Colombia) se haya desbordado la demanda de atención, modificando la forma esperada de la curva epidemiológica, con un número menor de pacientes.
The pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19) had an estimated overall case fatality ratio of 1.38% (pre-vaccination), being 53% higher in males and ...increasing exponentially with age. Among 9578 individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 in the SCOURGE study, we found 133 cases (1.42%) with detectable clonal mosaicism for chromosome alterations (mCA) and 226 males (5.08%) with acquired loss of chromosome Y (LOY). Individuals with clonal mosaic events (mCA and/or LOY) showed a 54% increase in the risk of COVID-19 lethality. LOY is associated with transcriptomic biomarkers of immune dysfunction, pro-coagulation activity and cardiovascular risk. Interferon-induced genes involved in the initial immune response to SARS-CoV-2 are also down-regulated in LOY. Thus, mCA and LOY underlie at least part of the sex-biased severity and mortality of COVID-19 in aging patients. Given its potential therapeutic and prognostic relevance, evaluation of clonal mosaicism should be implemented as biomarker of COVID-19 severity in elderly people.
In \(R\)-parity violating supersymmetry, the gravitino as the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) is a good candidate for dark matter, with the interesting characteristic to be detectable through ...\(\gamma\)-ray telescopes. We extend this analysis considering an axino next-to-LSP (NLSP) as a coexisting dark matter particle contributing with a detectable signal in the \(\gamma\)-ray spectrum. The analysis is carried out in the framework of the \(\mu\nu\)SSM, which solves the \(\mu\) problem reproducing simultaneously neutrino data only with the addition of right-handed neutrinos. We find that important regions of the parameter space can be tested by future MeV-GeV \(\gamma\)-ray telescopes through the line signal coming from the decay of the axino NLSP into photon-neutrino. In a special region, a double-line signal from axino NLSP and gravitino LSP is possible with both contributions detectable.
Sterile neutrinos could provide a link between the Standard Model particles and a dark sector, besides generating active neutrino masses via the seesaw mechanism type I. We show that, if dark matter ...annihilation into sterile neutrinos determines its observed relic abundance, it is possible to explain the Galactic Center \(\gamma\)-ray excess reported by the Fermi-LAT Collaboration as due to an astrophysical component plus dark matter annihilations. We observe that sterile neutrino portal to dark matter provides an impressively good fit, with a p-value of 0.78 in the best fit point, to the Galactic Center \(\gamma\)-ray flux, for DM masses in the range (40-80) GeV and sterile neutrino masses 20 GeV \(\lesssim M_N < M_{DM}\). Such values are compatible with the limits from Fermi-LAT observations of the dwarfs spheroidal galaxies in the Milky Way halo, which rule out dark matter masses below \(\sim\) 50 GeV (90 GeV), for sterile neutrino masses \(M_N \lesssim M_{DM}\) (\(M_N \ll M_{DM}\)). We also estimate the impact of AMS-02 anti-proton data on this scenario.
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