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The career of Giuseppe Garibaldi during his exile in the Río de la Plata has been approached extensively by historiography, both from traditional perspectives, which emphasized the military aspects of his journey, and from transnational outlooks, focused on the role of the Garibaldians in the international republican-democratic movement. However, as we point out in this article, both approaches have left in a "grey zone" the intense and conflictive participation that Garibaldi and his legionaries developed within the political space of Montevideo. The study of this dimension allows us to understand in greater complexity the ambiguous status of exiles, as well as to address the problem of the political representation of foreign residents overseas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aimed to comment on the methodological differences and applications of these three types of reviews with special attention to Latin America. Among these new types of reviews we have the scoping review, umbrella review and focused mapping review synthesis. Scoping reviews identify the nature and extent of the evidence, umbrella reviews focus on the synthesis of all systematic reviews that address the same health problem, while focused mapping review syntheses are valid options when a classical mapping of the evidence is not feasible, due to addressing too many articles. As researchers in Latin America become familiar with the methodology and usefulness of these new types of review, an increase in scientific production will be observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Companies struggle every day to estimate the adequate level of investment in new technologies, and governments lack the tools to determine the impact of their regulations on industry including telecommunications networks. Despite these facts, few studies discuss ways to assess appropriate levels of investment for technological initiatives and government regulations. To fill this gap, this study provides an optimization model for the investment of technology and government regulation, based on efficiencies. Results obtained from surveying northern European companies support the importance of estimating investment in technology and government regulation levels. The survey identified the four most relevant factors for practitioners: quality, cost, technology adoption, and government regulations. Based on the survey's results, the model evaluates the level of investment for technology adoption and government regulations using cost and quality as target variables. Additional data from a German carrier served to test the model. Results show that technology investment delivers more benefits in cost and quality by increasing technology adoption. However, the model also suggests that diminishing returns make efficiencies stall at a certain level of technology adoption, and shows an investment threshold dependent on the type of benefit, cost, or quality the company seeks to maximize. Regarding government regulation, the model shows a counterintuitive behavior at higher levels of investment for the cost coefficients and at all levels of investment for the quality coefficient. This suggests that government regulation effects could be shifting from fixed-order cost to other types of costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stroke is a leading cause of mortality and disability worldwide. Research activity in Latin American countries might be the key to solving, or at least improving, the understanding of stroke-related issues in the region. Our aim was to describe and analyze the research output on stroke in Latin America. We performed a bibliometric analysis of studies on stroke in Latin America reported from 2003 to 2017 in Scopus-indexed journals. We extracted the annual research, countries, journals, authors, institutions, citation frequency, and journal metrics. The data were quantitatively analyzed. Publication activity was adjusted to the countries by population size. Also, the results from an author and country co-occurrence analysis are presented as network visualization maps using VOSviewer. A total of 2298 Latin American stroke-related reports were identified, most were original research reports (72%). The number of reported studies had increased from 2003 to 2017 (P < 0.001). Brazil was the country with the greatest production with 1273 reports (55.4%), followed by Argentina and Mexico. No association was found between stroke prevalence and mortality and the scientific production of the country. Six universities and three hospitals were the most prolific institutions. A collaborative relationship was found between the United States and Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico. The intraregional collaboration of research on stroke was low among Latin American countries. Despite the continuous increase in research output from Latin American countries, more effort is needed to strengthen the research capacity by developing networks and collaborative research projects, ideally among the Latin American countries themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the incorporation process of the so-called "argentine emigration", in war forces and political circles of Montevideo and its rural hinterland between 1838 and 1846. This phenomenon, full of tensions, had a strong impact on the reconfiguration of local identities and "parties". Starting from a quantitative analysis about the volume of the military "emigration" this paper postulates that the construction of two officers' groups in the Río de la Plata region - "Argentine" and "Oriental"- was in fact a slow and conflictive process and was still far from complete in the middle of the nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Formulations that enable the assessment of the effects of parameters both geometrical and associated to the dielectric on the determination of the bandwidth in Frequency Selective Surfaces (FSS) are scarce. This forces the assessment of the aforementioned effects through parametric analysis. The aim of this type of analysis is to determine the influence on the bandwidth of a particular parameter, either in association to the dielectric support or to geometrical parameters of the selective surface. This analysis is made in order to guide the design process of the surface. The article presents the results of an analysis based on a novel formulation to determinate the bandwidth in square loop FSS considering the effects of the geometrical variables and those associated to dielectric material, using as a method of analysis, the Equivalent Circuit Model (ECM). Therefore, this approach makes unnecessary the use of parametric analysis, based on electromagnetic software, for the assessment of the aforementioned effects on the bandwidth. For the proposed formulation, the dielectric is considered as a lumped parameter, making it suitable only for thin dielectrics. It is important to highlight the acceptable accuracy obtained with the proposed approach in comparison with the simulations implemented in software based on the Finite Element Method (FEM). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of a study, implemented for the equivalent circuit model (ECM), concerning the bandwidth in square-loop frequency-selective surfaces (FSSs). For the square-loop ECM, there is no formulation to quantify the effects of dielectric supporting layers, geometric features, and incident wave properties on the FSS bandwidth. Hence, it is not possible to control or evaluate the bandwidth of the FSS in the design from the knowledge of these parameters. In this paper, we addressed this issue using the ECM as an analysis method. In the first part of this study, we considered the square-loop FSS with thin dielectric supporting layers, where the bandwidth was expressed as a function of geometric parameters, incidence angle, and polarization of the incident wave as well as a factor that takes into account the effective permittivity of the dielectric support. Particle swarm optimization method was used to synthesize square-loop FSSs via the ECM with a specific resonant frequency and bandwidth requirements. In the second part, the behavior of bandwidth as a function of dielectric thickness was obtained by using a matrix cascading technique (MCT), implemented with ECM and a model for the dielectric effective permittivity. This approach takes into account the modifications on bandwidth due to multiple reflections on dielectric boundaries and allows calculating its value for any dielectric thickness and configuration. It is remarkable the low computational cost and acceptable accuracy obtained with the proposed approaches. All simulation results using ECM and MCT were compared with Ansys-HFSS commercial software simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following paper analyzes the recruitment of militias and volunteer legions, composed of foreign residents, in order to defend Montevideo between 1838 and 1851 during the Guerra Grande. This process created a very complex transnational space with considerable political and cultural consequences. On the one hand, to justify the armament of the foreign population, the local authorities plotted a cosmopolitan rhetoric which presented the legions as symbols of the fight between humanity and civilization against despotism and universal tyranny. On the other, the daily dynamics of these militias generated intense social disputes between the combatants of the different "fatherlands", threatening to provoke a "civil war" inside the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a model, obtained through numerical simulation and curve fitting, for the dielectric effective permittivity of frequency selective surfaces (FSSs). The numerical model is based on the permittivity and thickness of the dielectric layer supporting the FSS metallic elements, as well as on the period and on a factor dependent on the FSS geometry. The model is developed for square-loop FSS, using a given geometry reported in literature as a reference case. The results from electromagnetic simulations with the finite-element method are used for developing the numerical model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This seminal article analyses the current structural crisis and instability in an ever more polarised world in relation to earlier systemic crises that were resolved through fascism or through Fordist-Keynesian ‘class compromise’ (the 1930s) and the emergence of capitalist globalisation (the 1970s). The authors identify three basic responses to the crisis: popular insurgency from below; reformist stabilisation from above; and, a twenty-first century neo-fascism. Looking specifically at the US, they analyse political and economic developments that demonstrate fascistic characteristics. While no simple replication of the past, the emergence of a Christian Right since the mid-1980s, the growth of certain currents within the Tea Party movement, the sharp increase in violent hate groups, the spread of a vicious anti-immigrant movement, the psychopathology of white decline, sharp militarisation and pervasive policing give some indications of the rise of fascist tendencies. But what is crucial today is the sophistication of such a project, made possible by the ideological domination of media together with new surveillance and social control technologies that allow it to rely more on selective than generalised repression. In calling for a co-ordinated fightback, both in the US and beyond, the authors see the only viable solution to the crisis of global capitalism as a massive redistribution of wealth and power downward towards the poor majority of humanity, along the lines of a twenty-first century democratic socialism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

American Latinos are increasingly identified in the social science literature as a "raciaiized minority." A number of problems attend this characterization, including the historically ambiguous status of Latinos in American society. A more basic problem lies in the concept ofracial- ization itself and in its root term race. The argument here is that social discourses should be labeled as racial only if they refer to groups that are hierarchically ranked on the basis of mental and moral qualities seen as innate or inherent. Innateness, not phenotype, is the core attribute of racial discourses. Racialization then should refer only to those situations where such discourses are applied to an ethnic group, and a great deal of research shows that is not the case for Latinos, or for other contemporary American minorities. Given the developments in ethnicity theory since Fredrik Barth's groundbreaking 1969 work, it makes sense to consider racial discourses a historically specific subset of ethnic discourses and practices. Latinos are thus best seen as a panethnic group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nuclear fuel based on uranium-molybdenum alloys (U–Mo) showed a promising performance under irradiation tests, except for an undesirable interaction between the U–Mo fuel particles and the aluminum matrix. This development requires new methods and evaluation criteria for inspection of this fuel. Non-destructive analysis techniques, such as Ultrasonic Test (UT), can play a key role in the characterization and in-pile monitoring of test fuel plates, in particular, for the anisotropic fuel core. This paper proposes the establishment of a relationship between attenuation and transmission effects for U–Mo fuel plates with different uranium loads, based on mathematical processing of UT signals. For this purpose, the Chilean Nuclear Energy Commission (CCHEN) manufactured a set of 8 dispersion type test plates, with uranium loads from 1 to 8 gU/cm3. The U–Mo fuel plates were evaluated in transmission mode with a Panametrics PR 5800 pulser-receiver ultrasonic system, using frequencies of 20 and 25 MHz. The data set collected for each plate was processed using the Fourier Function transform of the data function in MATLAB®. The obtained results showed that the attenuation coefficient of the ultrasonic waves increased linearly as a function of the uranium load. From 12.3 dB/mm for 1 gU/cm3 to 74.2 dB/mm, for 8 gU/cm3. The transmission percentage of the signal reduces linearly as a function of uranium load and the grain boundaries present in the Al cladding, decreasing from 66.7% for 1 gU/cm3 to 9.1% for 8 gU/cm3. In conclusion, the uranium load and the metal forming processes strongly affects the response of the fuel plates subjected to UT scanning. These results established an acceptance criterion for fuel plates based on this response, and the transformations experienced by the fissile U–Mo material. Image 1 • This work proposes the establishment of a new criterion for U–Mo fuel plates acceptance. • It was based on a relationship between attenuation and transmission coefficient. • The UT data was processed using the Fourier Function transform. • The criterion was successful for U loads between 1 and 6 gU/cm3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim and Method To determine the effect on decisional-related and clinical outcomes of decision aids for depression treatment in adults in randomised clinical trials. In January 2019, a systematic search was conducted in five databases. Study selection and data extraction were performed in duplicate. Meta-analyses were performed, and standardised and weighted mean differences were calculated, with corresponding 95% confidence intervals. The certainty of the evidence was evaluated with GRADE methodology. Results Six randomised clinical trials were included. The pooled estimates showed that decision aids for depression treatment had a beneficial effect on patients' decisional conflict, patient knowledge and information exchange between patient and health professional. However, no statistically significant effect was found for doctor facilitation, treatment adherence or depressive symptoms. The certainty of the evidence was very low for all outcomes. Clinical implications Using decision aids to choose treatment in patients with depression may have a a beneficial effect on decisional-related outcomes, but it may not translate into an improvement in clinical outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adsorption of proteins onto surfaces significantly impacts biomaterials, medical devices, and biological processes. This study aims to provide insights into the irreversible adsorption process of multiprotein complexes, particularly focusing on the interaction between anti-His6 IgG antibodies and the His6-tagged P2X2 receptor. Traditional approaches to understanding protein adsorption have centered around kinetic and thermodynamic models, often examining individual proteins and surface coverage, typically through Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations. In this research, we introduce a computational approach employing Autodesk Maya 3D software for the investigation of multiprotein complexes' adsorption behavior. Utilizing Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) imaging and Maya 3D-based mechanical simulations, our study yields real-time structural and kinetic observations. Our combined experimental and computational findings reveal that the P2X2 receptor–IgG antibody complex likely undergoes absorption in an 'extended' configuration. Whereas the P2X2 receptor is less adsorbed once is complexed to the IgG antibody compared to its individual state, the opposite is observed for the antibody. This insight enhances our understanding of the role of protein–protein interactions in the process of protein adsorption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study describes the prevalence and abundance of, as well as factors associated with, Ixodes affinis infestation of dogs from two environments in two rural localities (Tixméhuac with a medium sub-deciduous forest and Opichén with patches of low deciduous forest, cultivated lands, and grasslands) of Yucatán, Mexico. The associated factors were obtained by an X2 analysis and variables where P < 0.2 were subjected to a logistic regression. A total of 33 adult ticks from the genus Ixodes were collected from 144 dogs. The infestation prevalence was found to be 11.11% (16/144) for I. affinis. When considering the prevalence of I. affinis infestation per environment, Tixméhuac had a prevalence of 19.6% (11/56) and Opichén had a prevalence of 5.6% (5/88). The abundance of I. affinis in both environments averaged 2.1 (1-4) ticks/dog. The factors associated with infestations of I. affinis in dogs were the locality of Tixméhuac (OR = 3.70, 95% C.I. = 1.24-11.08, P = 0.001), which is surrounded by a medium sub-deciduous forest, and the use of dogs for hunting in these forested areas (OR = 7.56, 95% C.I. = 1.63-35.04, P = 0.001). This study is the first report of the prevalence and abundance of infestation with I. affinis in dogs in Mexico, which is associated with the access of dogs to adjacent forested areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) is a widely used instrument to assess depression in older adults. The short GDS versions that have four (GDS-4) and five items (GDS-5) represent alternatives for depression screening in limited-resource settings. However, their accuracy remains uncertain. Objective: To assess the accuracy of the GDS-4 and GDS-5 versions for depression screening in older adults. Methods: Until May 2020, we systematically searched PubMed, PsycINFO, Scopus, and Google Scholar; for studies that have assessed the sensitivity and specificity of GDS-4 and GDS-5 for depression screening in older adults. We conducted meta-analyses of the sensitivity and specificity of those studies that used the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) or the International Classification of Diseases-10 (ICD-10) as reference standard. Study quality was assessed with the QUADAS-2 tool. We performed bivariate random-effects meta-analyses to calculate the pooled sensitivity and specificity with their 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) at each reported common cut-off. For the overall meta-analyses, we evaluated each GDS-4 version or GDS-5 version separately by each cut-off, and for investigations of heterogeneity, we assessed altogether across similar GDS versions by each cut-off. Also, we assessed the certainty of evidence using the GRADE methodology. Results: Twenty-three studies were included and meta-analyzed, assessing eleven different GDS versions. The number of participants included was 5048. When including all versions together, at a cut-off 2, GDS-4 had a pooled sensitivity of 0.77 (95% CI: 0.70–0.82) and a pooled specificity of 0.75 (0.68–0.81); while GDS-5 had a pooled sensitivity of 0.85 (0.80–0.90) and a pooled specificity of 0.75 (0.69–0.81). We found results for more than one GDS-4 version at cut-off points 1, 2, and 3; and for more than one GDS-5 version at cut-off points 1, 2, 3, and 4. Mostly, significant subgroup differences at different test thresholds across versions were found. The accuracy of the different GDS-4 and GDS-5 versions showed a high heterogeneity. There was high risk of bias in the index test domain. Also, the certainty of the evidence was low or very low for most of the GDS versions. Conclusions: We found several GDS-4 and GDS-5 versions that showed great heterogeneity in estimates of sensitivity and specificity, mostly with a low or very low certainty of the evidence. Altogether, our results indicate the need for more well-designed studies that compare different GDS versions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Eight Leishmania promastigotes were isolated from different geographical areas: three (LP1, LP2, and LP3) from the provincial department La Libertad and the fourth (LP4) from the department of Cajamarca (northern Peru); another three (LM1, LM2, and LM3) in the province of Campeche (Mexico); and the last (LS1) from a clinical case of a dog in Madrid (Spain). The isolates were characterized by carbohydrate cell-surface residues using agglutinations with four purified lectins, by isoenzyme analysis using different isoenzymes, by analysis of kinetoplast DNA (kDNA) restriction fragment length polymorphism using four different restriction endonucleases and by the final metabolite patterns after in vitro culture. These isolates were compared with four reference strains and typified as: Leishmania (Leishmania) donovani, two strains of L. (L.) infantum, and one species of L. (Viania) peruviana. According to our results and the statistical study, the Peruvian isolates represent three different strains: one would be L. (V.) peruviana, another the strain isolated in Cajamarca (LP4) and the third would include the three strains from the department of La Libertad (LP1, LP2, and LP3), these latter three isolates being phylogenetically closer to the reference strain L. (L.) donovani. Meanwhile, the three isolates from Mexico form a group with close phylogenetic relationships to each other. The isolate from Spain belongs to the species L. (L.) infantum. Thus, a close correlation was drawn between the identity of each strain and its geographical origin. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We studied the biological activity of three newly synthesized metal complexes of triazole-pyrimidine derivatives that were previously observed to inhibit in vitro growth of epimastigotes of Trypanosoma cruzi and procyclic forms of Trypanosoma brucei brucei . We analyzed the possible inhibitory effect of these compounds on the synthesis of DNA, RNA and protein, ultrastructure and excretion of metabolites by these parasites. RNA synthesis was inhibited by all three complexes assayed. These complexes also led to anomalies of the main organelles (e.g. nucleus, kinetoplast and mitochondria). In addition, these complexes may be capable of altering the excretion of metabolites by the parasites. Copyright © 2004 S. Karger AG, Basel [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Absorption systems are a sustainable solution as solar driven air conditioning devices in places with warm climatic conditions, however, the reliability of these systems must be improved. The absorbing component has a significant effect on the cycle performance, as this process is complex and needs efficient heat exchangers. This paper presents an experimental study of a bubble mode absorption in a plate heat exchanger (PHE)-type absorber with NH3-LiNO3 using a vapor distributor in order to increase the mass transfer at solar cooling operating conditions. The vapor distributor had a diameter of 0.005 m with five perforations distributed uniformly along the tube. Experiments were carried out using a corrugated plate heat exchanger model NB51, with three channels, where the ammonia vapor was injected in a bubble mode into the solution in the central channel. The range of solution concentrations and mass flow rates of the dilute solution were from 35 to 50% weight and 11.69 to 35.46 × 10−3 kg·s−1, respectively. The mass flow rate of ammonia vapor was from 0.79 to 4.92 × 10−3 kg·s−1 and the mass flow rate of cooling water was fixed at 0.31 kg·s−1. The results achieved for the absorbed flux was 0.015 to 0.024 kg m−2·s−1 and the values obtained for the mass transfer coefficient were in the order of 0.036 to 0.059 m·s−1. The solution heat transfer coefficient values were obtained from 0.9 to 1.8 kW·m−2·K−1 under transition conditions and from 0.96 to 3.16 kW·m−2·K−1 at turbulent conditions. Nusselt number correlations were obtained based on experimental data during the absorption process with the NH3-LiNO3 working pair. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]