Robert Fernández

Individuals infected with the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) belong to the group of people most vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 infections and the associated disease COVID-19. Here we describe SARS-CoV-2-specific antibody and cellular immune responses in a small cohort of immunological non-responder HIV-1 patients (HIV-INRs) after receiving the COVID-19 mRNA-based BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine. Compared to the control group of vaccinated healthy individuals that all developed a virus-specific immune response, 5 of 10 vaccinated HIV-1 patients showed insufficient immune responses. The lack of response was not directly correlated with patients CD4 cell counts. Three of the five non-responders that agreed to receive a booster vaccination subsequently generated a virus-specific response. Thus, even HIV-INRs can be efficiently vaccinated against COVID-19 but may require a follow-up by virus-specific immune monitoring to guarantee clinical vaccine benefits.

Beyond the health consequences, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has shown the inadequacies and limitations of healthcare systems all over the world. Predictions of good and bad outcomes could improve lockdown and curfew policies and reduce the COVID-19 health impact. We describe a multimodal machine learning (ML) approach for predicting early hospital discharge and other key clinical outcomes, such as respiratory worsening, intensive care unit admission or the need for rescue therapy. Using this model, our hospital occupancy could have decreased by about 50% during the first wave of the pandemic. Our model used both raw laboratory results (LR) and electronic health records (EHR), which allow better anticipation of worsening through selective reporting of LRs. Our approach could be a useful, customizable, and adaptable hospital resource management tool, especially to assist in interventions targeted at reducing COVID-19 infection rates.

El presente trabajo desarrolla una serie de reflexiones respecto a la intervención psicosocial con personas en situación de calle, realizada en la ciudad de Montevideo, Uruguay. Comienza ubicando el escenario social histórico de aplicación del modelo neoliberal y algunos de sus resultados en el plano económico, social y de la producción de subjetividad. Se discute posteriormente el concepto de pobreza, diferenciando los macroindicadores de lo que implica vivir la misma, introduciéndose el concepto de desigualdad social. Al respecto, se estudia el fenómeno de situación de calle como reproductor y amplificador de los aspectos más negativos del modelo neoliberal: individualismo, vínculos de competencia y desconfianza, etc.. Luego se analiza el concepto de vulnerabilidad social, definiendo ésta como condiciones de precariedad laboral, económica, vincular, afectiva y sanitaria, que se amalgaman y potencian entre sí, en un complejo proceso que da como resultado una situación de insegurida...

A retrospective study of 910 patients surviving at least five years after cervical irradiation for Hodgkin's disease, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, or primary head an neck neoplasms showed the incidence of stroke following cervical irradiation was 63 of 910 patients (6.3%) during a mean period of observation of nine years. This represents a trend toward an increased risk for this population observed over the same period of time (p = 0.39). A prospective study of 118 similar patients currently living five years after cervical radiotherapy was performed to determine the incidence of carotid artery disease occurring as a consequence of neck irradiation. Abnormal carotid phonangiograms (CPA) were found in 25% of the patients and abnormal oculoplethysmographs (OPG) were found in 17%. These studies represent significant carotid lesions that are not expected in such a population. It is concluded that the carotid stenoses demonstrated are most likely a consequence of prior irradiation. Patients that are five-year survivors of cervical irradiation should have noninvasive vascular laboratory studies performed as part of their routine follow-up examinations in order to detect these carotid lesions while they are occult.

Thirty-eight patients with pseudomyxoma peritonei were treated at the M. D. Anderson Hospital, Houston, from 1954 to 1978. The various treatment regimens used have provided actuarial survival rates of 54% at five years and 18% at ten years. Local or regional disease was the cause of death in 68% of patients, and no patient died of metastatic disease. Initial definitive surgery should consist of effective tumor reduction, omentectomy, appendectomy, and, in the female subject, bilateral oophorectomy. Most patients have been treated adjunctively with either fluorouracil or melphalan (L-phenylalanine mustard) depending on the presumed site of origin, but results in a small number of patients treated with either whole abdominal or strip abdominal radiotherapy suggest that this modality may offer improved survival. Treatment with adjunctive radiotherapy alone has provided a five-year survival rate of 75%, compared with 44% for chemotherapy.

Quan els historiadors s'ocupen de problemes i espais temporals amplis so-len considerar superficiaIment una serie de qüestions més especifiques. En la major part deIs casos aquestes úItimes són utilitzades per a exemplifiear i il-lustrar les gran s línies interpretatives que mouen llurs hipotesis i ...

Quan els historiadors s'ocupen de problemes i espais temporals amplis so-len considerar superficiaIment una serie de qüestions més especifiques. En la major part deIs casos aquestes úItimes són utilitzades per a exemplifiear i il-lustrar les gran s línies interpretatives que mouen llurs hipotesis i ...

A cylindrical probe with almost perfectly flat plateaulike surface was focused ion beam (FIB) milled from an atomic force microscopy probe in order to create the required surface conditions for thin film deposition with finely controlled deposition/growth parameters. A composition of Pd(5 nm)/MgO(8 nm)/FePt(10 nm)/MgO(8 nm) was sputter deposited on the plateau probe, followed by deposition of a Pd (5 nm) protective layer. The plateau probe was then FIB-milled to produce a tip with a curvature radius of ˜25 nm. After annealing the probe at 650 °C for ˜15 min to generate an ultrahigh anisotropy L10 phase, magnetic force microscopy (MFM) imaging was performed with the probe on magnetic tracks with linear densities ranging from 200 to 1200 KFCI. The results show sub-20-nm lateral resolution in ambient conditions and magnetic tracks, which are otherwise invisible to standard MFM probes, are clearly evident with the FIB-fabricated FePt probe. With relatively high spatial resolution and coercivity values higher than 1 T, among other applications, this type of probe may be ideal for high-quality MFM study of next-generation recording media.

A magnetic force microscopy based study on the formation of stripe domains in Permalloy (Ni80Fe20) thin films is presented. Our results show that the critical thickness for stripe domain initiation depended on the sputtering rate, the substrate temperature, and the film thickness. Beyond the stripe domain formation, an increase of the period of a highly ordered array of stripe domains was evident with increasing film thickness. Thin films sputtered at room temperature with thickness variation between ˜80 and ˜350nm exhibited square-root growth dependency on stripe domains periodicity from ˜150to˜380nm, respectively. Above a certain thickness, the domain period decreased and the periodicity deteriorated with the array becoming more random, which is a strong indicator of relatively high structural perpendicular anisotropy. To illustrate, Permalloy sputtered at 100°C initially showed linear dependence in stripe domain periodicity growth up until ˜650nm thick films. The magnetic stripe domain structure began breaking down for thicker Permalloy films. Our data also suggested that the perpendicular anisotropy responsible for the formation of stripe domains might have resulted from strain-caused magnetostriction and the thin-film microstructure shape effect.

The magnetic properties, structural properties, and thermal conductivity of FePt films deposited on Ag and Cu heat sink layers designed for use in heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) were investigated. It has been found that FePt films grown on Cu have a well-defined L10-FePt (001) texture while the FePt films grown on Ag appear to be more isotropic. As the thickness of the heat sink layer increases from 15 to 120 nm the coercivity of the FePt films decreases from 1.7 to 1.5 T for Cu and from 1.3 to 1.0 T for Ag. The thermal conductivity measurements, carried out with the "laser-flash" technique, revealed that the overall thermal resistance of the examined structures is dominated by the thermal boundary resistance and the interface effects. The increase in the thickness of Ag and Cu heat sink layers does not lead to the higher effective thermal conductivity of the layered structure in the cross-plane direction. The obtained results are important for optimization of the FePt-based structures for HAMR.