Fonaments Teòrics : educación permanente y relaciones internacionales

La reflexión teórica preliminar sobre el concepto de educación permanente nos lleva a declarar que tal terminología se traduce en que es la fuente desde donde los necesarios nuevos fundamentos de la educación, globalmente entendida, pueden generarse para recuperar un estado de la educación mundial al ritmo del avance cultural de la civilización contemporánea. La experiencia internacional así nos lo demuestra. Por ello, educación permanente es un desafío científico para los estudios e investigaciones de los actuales especialistas en materia de educación. La epistemología debe aplicarse, desde ahora, en función de no confundir a la educación permanente como .una moda más. de la tradicional concepción de la educación mundial.A previous theoretical analysis of the concept of continuing education leads us to state that such terminology is the source from where the necessary new educational basis may evolve, in a general sense, so as to recover a world education which can pace up with the cultural advancement of contemporary civilization. International experience has proven so. Thus, continuing education is a scientific challenge for the study and research of current specialists in education. Episthemology should from now on be applied to avoid continuing education being taken for "another fashion" within the traditional idea of world education

Sliding to predict: vision-based beating heart motion estimation by modeling temporal interactions

Purpose: Technical advancements have been part of modern medical solutions as they promote better surgical alternatives that serve to the benefit of patients. Particularly with cardiovascular surgeries, robotic surgical systems enable surgeons to perform delicate procedures on a beating heart, avoiding the complications of cardiac arrest. This advantage comes with the price of having to deal with a dynamic target which presents technical challenges for the surgical system. In this work, we propose a solution for cardiac motion estimation. Methods: Our estimation approach uses a variational framework that guarantees preservation of the complex anatomy of the heart. An advantage of our approach is that it takes into account different disturbances, such as specular reflections and occlusion events. This is achieved by performing a preprocessing step that eliminates the specular highlights and a predicting step, based on a conditional restricted Boltzmann machine, that recovers missing information caused by partial occlusions. Results: We carried out exhaustive experimentations on two datasets, one from a phantom and the other from an in vivo procedure. The results show that our visual approach reaches an average minima in the order of magnitude of 10-7 while preserving the heart’s anatomical structure and providing stable values for the Jacobian determinant ranging from 0.917 to 1.015. We also show that our specular elimination approach reaches an accuracy of 99% compared to a ground truth. In terms of prediction, our approach compared favorably against two well-known predictors, NARX and EKF, giving the lowest average RMSE of 0.071. Conclusion: Our approach avoids the risks of using mechanical stabilizers and can also be effective for acquiring the motion of organs other than the heart, such as the lung or other deformable objects.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Suitable task allocation in intelligent systems for assistive environments

The growing need of technological assistance to provide support to people with special needs demands for systems more and more efficient and with better performances. With this aim, this work tries to advance in a multirobot platform that allows the coordinated control of different agents and other elements in the environment to achieve an autonomous behavior based on the user’s needs or will. Therefore, this environment is structured according to the potentiality of each agent and elements of this environment and of the dynamic context, to generate the adequate actuation plans and the coordination of their execution.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Migration to the US among rural Puerto Ricans who inject drugs: influential factors, sources of support, and challenges for harm reduction interventions

Background: While PWID of Puerto Rican origin have been migrating to the US for decades, the range of factors influencing their migration to the US and the resources they draw on to do so are not well understood. This is particularly true for rural Puerto Rican PWID, and the present study is the first empirical research to document migration patterns among this population. The specificities of their migration raise important challenges that need to be documented in order to implement more effective harm reduction policies at home (Puerto Rico) and abroad (US). Methods: This paper draws from data obtained employing a modified NHBS survey which was administered to (N =296) PWID in four rural municipalities of Puerto Rico with participants 18 years or older. The primary dependent variables for this paper are the number of times a person has lived in the continental US, and if they are planning on moving to the continental US in the future. Results: Findings suggest that 65% of the sample reported ever lived in the US and that 49% are planning on moving in the future. The number of times living in the US is associated with higher education and older age, but not with self-reported positive HIV or HCV statuses. Planning to move to the US is associated with knowing PWID who have moved or plan to move, negatively associated with age, and is not associated with HIV or HCV status. Around one-third of those that lived in the US reported having some sort of support, with the majority receiving support from family sources. No participant received help to enter HIV/HCV treatment. Conclusions: A multi-region approach to prevention is required to make a dent in curbing HIV/HCV transmission in this population. Understanding PWID migration patterns, risk behaviors, and health care needs in the US is now more important than ever as natural disasters prompted by human-made climate change will only increase in the future, raising demands not only for service providers but also harm reduction policies to cope with an increasing influx of “climate refugees” as PWID move across national borders

Comportamiento mecánico ante la sobrexpansión de stents de cromo-cobalto comparados con stents de acero inoxidable, implantados en la aorta abdominal de conejos hipercolesterolémicos

Introducción: La fisiopatología de la disfunción diastólica del ventrículo izquierdo incluye alteraciones de la relajación ventricular, rigidez elástica pasiva o una combinación de ambos mecanismos. Mediante el eco-Doppler es posible evaluar parámetros relacionados con la relajación ventricular, pero no de la rigidez elástica pasiva. El estrés parietal diastólico evalúa la rigidez elástica pasiva a través de la disminución de la compresión del miocardio al final de la diástole. Objetivo: Evaluar la rigidez elástica pasiva mediante el estrés parietal diastólico en pacientes con estenosis aórtica grave con fracción de eyección preservada y su relación con la presencia de insuficiencia cardíaca grado III-IV. Material y métodos: Se estudiaron 76 pacientes (edad promedio 67 ± 11 años) portadores de estenosis aórtica grave (índice de área valvular aórtica <0,6 cm2/m2) y fracción de eyección mayor o igual al 50%. El estrés parietal diastólico fue calculado como: (espesor sistólico de pared posterior – espesor diastólico) / espesor sistólico en modo M. Se calculó por métodos no invasivos la relación E/e´, presión de fin de diástole y presión de fin de diástole / volumen de fin de diástole. Los pacientes fueron ordenados en 2 grupos: Grupo 1: insuficiencia cardíaca grado III - IV (n = 5 pacientes) y Grupo 2: sin insuficiencia cardíaca (n = 71 pacientes). Resultados: Los pacientes del grupo 1 presentaron mayor alteración de la rigidez elástica pasiva evidenciada por disminución del estrés parietal diastólico (0,23 ± 0,05 vs. 0,30 ± 0,06 p < 0,01), mayor incremento de E/e´ (20 ± 7 vs. 14 ± 8 p < 0,05), presión de fin de diástole y presión de fin de diástole / volumen de fin de diástole. Conclusión: El estrés parietal diastólico permitiría objetivar alteraciones de la rigidez elástica pasiva en pacientes con estenosis aórtica grave, fracción de eyección preservada e insuficiencia cardíaca que no pueden ser evaluadas mediante los parámetros de función diastólica habituales.Objectives: The aim of this study was to analyze the behavior to overexpansion of cobalt chromium stents compared with stainlesssteel stents.Methods: Twenty New Zealand rabbits were used, fed with a diet supplemented with 1% cholesterol. Animals were divided into twogroups. Group 1 (n=10) received 3.0 mm cobalt chromium stents overexpanded at 20 atmospheres and group 2 (n=10) 3.5 mm stentsdeployed at 10 atmospheres. These stents were compared with a previous series of 20 animals with stainless steel stents, dividedinto the same two groups. A third group with conventional diet was used as control. Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) was performedto assess the degree of elastic recoil and also the degree of symmetry using ?intertrust angles?.Results: In group 1 of cobalt chromium stents, mean elastic recoil was 0.11±0.13 mm, (3.21% recoil) and in group 2 this was0.3±0.12 mm, (8.26% recoil) (p=0.002). In group 1 of stainless steel stents mean elastic recoil was 0.28±0.18 mm (8.21% recoil) andin group 2 this was 0.10±0.11 mm (2.79% recoil) (p <0.001).Conclusions: In cobalt chromium stents, elastic recoil was lower in overexpanded stents, whereas in stainless steel stents, elasticrecoil was higher in overexpanded stents. No differences in symmetry were observed between the different groups.Fil: Fernandez, Alejandro. Hospital Italiano; ArgentinaFil: Mele, Esteban. Hospital Italiano; ArgentinaFil: Renou, Sandra Judith. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Odontología. Cátedra de Anatomía Patológica; ArgentinaFil: Olmedo, Daniel Gustavo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Odontología. Cátedra de Anatomía Patológica; ArgentinaFil: Berrocal, Daniel. Hospital Italiano; ArgentinaFil: Gelpi, Ricardo Jorge. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Odontología. Cátedra de Anatomía Patológica; Argentin

Habitação e morfologia urbana: criando novas paisagens

As políticas de habitação do Programa Minha Casa Minha Vida têm produzido habitações sociais no Brasil, gerando núcleos e conjuntos habitacionais em diversas cidades. A maioria dos conjuntos e núcleos está sendo construída em áreas de expansão urbana, gerando apêndices urbanos deslocados do tecido urbano consolidado. O trabalho aborda estudo de caso em Passo Fundo (RS), em conjunto habitacional que combina a construção privada com investimentos públicos, tendo como característica a diversidade de tipologias, tecnologia construtiva racionalizada e a gradual oferta de equipamentos comunitários. A análise é realizada com base métodos e conceitos de valoração integral das áreas habitacionais propostos por Montaner, Muxi e Falagan (2011). Como resultados, verifica-se que mesmo em empreendimentos privados, as ferramentas de “habitar o presente”, que consideram habitação como parte de projeto urbano, podem contribuir para que a morfologia urbana resultante de novas paisagens obtenha melhor qualidade e sustentabilidade, desde que sejam efetivadas as políticas públicas habitacionais correspondentesThe housing policies of the Minha Casa Minha VidaProgramme have produced social housing in Brazil, generating urban developments and housing projects in several cities. Most of them are situated in areas of urban sprawl, generating displaced urban appendices of the consolidated urban fabric. This paper presents a case study in Passo Fundo (RS) that combines private construction with public investments, with the characteristic diversity of typologies, building technology and streamlined the gradual provision of community facilities. The analysis is based in methods and concepts of full valuation of residential areas proposed by Montaner, Muxi and Falagan (2011). As a result, it appears that even in private enterprises, the tools "to inhabit the present," that consider housing as part of urban design can contribute to the resulting urban morphology of new landscapes get better quality and sustainability, provided that effect the corresponding public housing policies

V-ANFIS for Dealing with Visual Uncertainty for Force Estimation in Robotic Surgery

Accurate and robust estimation of applied forces in Robotic-Assisted Minimally Invasive Surgery is a very challenging task. Many vision-based solutions attempt to estimate the force by measuring the surface deformation after contacting the surgical tool. However, visual uncertainty, due to tool occlusion, is a major concern and can highly affect the results' precision. In this paper, a novel design of an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference strategy with a voting step (V-ANFIS) is used to accommodate with this loss of information. Experimental results show a significant accuracy improvement from 50% to 77% with respect to other proposals.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version