De Chile Research Articles

Clinical and Genomic Characterization of ERBB2-Altered Gallbladder Cancer: Exploring Differences Between an American and a Chilean Cohort.

Gallbladder cancer (GBC) is a biliary tract malignancy characterized by its high lethality. Although the incidence of GBC is low in most countries, specific areas such as Chile display a high incidence. Our collaborative study sought to compare clinical and molecular features of GBC cohorts from Chile and the United States with a focus on ERBB2 alterations. Patients were accrued at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) or the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC). Clinical information was retrieved from medical records. Genomic analysis was performed by the next-generation sequencing platform MSK-Integrated Mutation Profiling of Actionable Cancer Targets. A total of 260 patients with GBC were included, 237 from MSK and 23 from PUC. There were no significant differences in the clinical characteristics between the patients identified at MSK and at PUC except in terms of lithiasis prevalence which was significantly higher in the PUC cohort (85% v 44%; P = .0003). The prevalence of ERBB2 alterations was comparable between the two cohorts (15% v 9%; P = .42). Overall, ERBB2 alterations were present in 14% of patients (8% with ERBB2 amplification, 4% ERBB2 mutation, 1.5% concurrent amplification and mutation, and 0.4% ERBB2 fusion). Notably, patients with GBC that harbored ERBB2 alterations had better overall survival (OS) versus their ERBB2-wild type counterparts (22.3 months v 11.8 months; P = .024). The prevalence of lithiasis seems to be higher in Chilean versus US patients with GBC. A similar prevalence of ERBB2 alterations of overall 14% and better OS suggests that a proportion of them could benefit from human epidermal growth factor receptor type 2-targeted therapies. The smaller cohort of Chile, where the disease prevalence is higher, is a reminder and invitation for the need of more robust next-generation sequencing analyses globally.

A multi-criteria districting approach with a lexicographic compactness metric: An application to the Chilean postal service

Recent trends in customer habits have greatly affected last-mile logistics, increasing the pressure to effectively serve an increasing demand. For traditional postal mail companies, this change is an opportunity to alleviate the decreasing role of conventional mail within society and to focus on new products and services. Unfortunately, these changes also affect the efficiency of their supply chains, which were focused on delivering letters. In this work we consider the last-mile reorganization problem as faced by Correos de Chile, the Chilean public postal service. While this work is mostly focused on the particular needs of the company, the approach applies to other scenarios where the work allocation can be modeled as a districting problem with multiple simultaneous objectives and special shape conditions on the districts. To solve the proposed model, a multi-criteria heuristic procedure based on a combination of different neighborhood structures, each geared towards specific characteristics of the problem, is put forward. The applicability of the approach on large-size real-life conditions is tested on instances derived from real life operations showing the applicability of the proposed method.

Analyzing the Selective Stock Price Index Using Fractionally Integrated and Heteroskedastic Models

Stock market indices are important tools to measure and compare stock market performance. The Selective Stock Price (SSP) index reflects fluctuations in a set value of financial instruments of Santiago de Chile’s stock exchange. Stock indices also reflect volatility linked to high uncertainty or potential investment risk. However, economic shocks are altering volatility. Evidence of long memory in SSP time series also exists, which implies long-term persistence. In this paper, we studied the volatility of SSP time series from January 2010 to September 2023 using fractionally heteroskedastic models. We considered the Autoregressive Fractionally Integrated Moving Average (ARFIMA) process with Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (GARCH) innovations—the ARFIMA-GARCH model—for SSP log returns, and the fractionally integrated GARCH, or FIGARCH model, was compared with a classical GARCH one. The results show that the ARFIMA-GARCH model performs best in terms of volatility fit and predictive quality. This model allows us to obtain a better understanding of the observed volatility and its behavior, which contributes to more effective investment risk management in the stock market. Moreover, the proposed model detects the influence volatility increments of the SSP index linked to external factors that impact the economic outlook, such as China’s economic slowdown in 2012 and the subprime crisis in 2008.

Underground Roots for Ancestral Futures: Exploring Lithium Through an Experimental Alliance between Chemistry and Anthropology

Amid the push for decarbonization and the rise of lithium-ion batteries, global demand for lithium urges an examination of its materiality. Drawing on Barry's chemical geography, which gathers various concerns related to the study of chemicals in the field, and Bachelard's meta-chemical proposal, which challenges a substantialist understanding of chemicals, we propose an experimental alliance between a chemist and an anthropologist concerned with different ways of problematizing lithium's materiality. Guided by a commitment to Latin American territories and embracing a slow science ethos, we seek to foster a sense of responsibility rooted in the material genealogy of chemical substances. Through ethnographic analysis of lithium extraction practices in the Salar de Atacama, Chile, and examination of lithium behaviors in materials chemistry laboratories in Argentina and Europe, we establish a partial connection between lithium chemical labs and underground ancestral lithium brines. Ultimately, we envision futures that acknowledge the ancestral origins of Latin American undergrounds, resisting the univocity of a future-oriented, battery-ion age. In so doing, we endeavor to cultivate a mode of attention concerned with place and deep-time materiality, challenging lineal illusions of progress while embracing the complexities of our planetary present and past.

Mapping Nutritional Inequality: A Primary Socio-Spatial Analysis of Food Deserts in Santiago de Chile

This study investigates the socio-spatial distribution of food deserts in Santiago de Chile, aiming to understand how urban planning and socioeconomic factors influence access to nutritious food. Employing geospatial analysis techniques with data from OpenStreetMap and the 2017 Census, the research identifies areas within Santiago where access to healthy food is limited. The novelty of this study lies in its application of spatial autocorrelation methods, specifically Local Indicators of Spatial Association (LISA), to reveal clusters of nutritional inequality. The findings indicate significant concentrations of food deserts in both lower socioeconomic peripheral areas and, surprisingly, in some high-income central areas. These results suggest that both poverty and urban infrastructure, including car dependency, play critical roles in shaping access to healthy food. By highlighting over two million residents affected by food deserts, the study underscores the urgent need for integrated urban planning and public health strategies. This research contributes to the understanding of urban nutritional inequality and provides a replicable methodological framework for other cities. The implications extend beyond Santiago, offering insights into how urban design can be leveraged to improve public health outcomes through better access to nutritious food.

Understanding the caring professional dispositions of the early childhood education teacher assistants in Chile

Despite their crucial global importance in the daily work within classrooms, teacher assistants are barely addressed in early childhood education (ECE) teaching policy and research. In this context, little is known about features of their role – more commonly studied in the case of lead teachers – such as their professional dispositions. This paper analyses the discourses of a group of Chilean ECE teacher assistants about their dispositions, exploring possible intersections and dissonances of an ethics of care and mainstream technical practice approaches in ECE. Sixteen assistants from two ECE centres located in an urban suburb of Santiago de Chile took part in focus groups and interviews, and their discourses were analysed through a Reflexive Thematic Analysis. Findings show that teacher assistants address their role by producing a discourse informed by an ethics of care, but also drawing marginally on a mainstream technical perspective. The findings may help inform future ECE teaching policy in Chile, embracing new approaches to ECE professionalism that foreground caring practices and acknowledge the diversity of the workforce.

An analysis of Chilean universities based on their research outputs and funded projects (2008-2022)

Objective. We analyzed the research output of Chilean universities with the primary objective of guiding leadership teams in formulating and prioritizing their strategic goals. Design/Methodology/Approach. The research was descriptive and documentary in nature, involving a systematic, comprehensive, transparent, and detailed review of articles published in various indexed scientific journals. Between 2008 and 2022, we searched the Scopus database at each institution to obtain information on its scientific production. Results/Discussion. We have demonstrated the presence of a select group of universities with exceptionally high levels of scientific productivity, as indicated by significant performance metrics. The analysis of university productivity shows that, in absolute terms, the most outstanding institutions are the Universidad de La Frontera, the Universidad de Tarapacá, and the Universidad de Chile. This study highlights the efficiency and performance of these academic institutions in terms of their scientific output. Only 12 institutions manage to exceed the national average in terms of productivity, while 19 universities perform at an alarmingly low level. Conclusion. This research provides valuable insights into institutions that achieve commendable results but remain underrepresented in rankings due to their smaller size. It underscores the importance of valuing outcomes over raw numbers, providing a more nuanced understanding of scientific productivity.

Development of coparenting during the transition to parenthood: Integrating parents' representations with observed interactions.

The transition to parenthood is a significant period of transformation and adjustment for all members of a new family, reshaping relational dynamics that often endure throughout the initial years of a child's life. This qualitative and longitudinal study aimed to explore coparenting representations held by both partners in a parental couple, along with observations of their family interactions, at three distinct points in time, with the aim to better understand the interaction between these representational and behavioral observations. In-depth interviews were conducted with 17 heterosexual, first-time parents in Santiago de Chile, during pregnancy and at two different times during the first year of their child's life. Family interactions were assessed using the Lausanne Trilogue Play task (LTP) on all occasions. Three main coparenting representation categories emerged: traditional, ambiguous, and co-responsible. On observation, approximately half of the couples showed cooperative coparenting interactions, while the other half had conflictual interactions. Couples generally followed stable trajectories over time. Cooperative couples demonstrated co-responsibility and open dialogue, while conflictual couples tended to follow traditional gender roles with tacit communication styles. This study highlights the importance of promoting co-responsibility and dialogue for fostering cooperative relational dynamics during the critical transition to parenthood.

The social implications of the vital city model: measuring the impact of urban vitality on neighbourhood sustainability

ABSTRACT Previous studies have identified vital urban spaces through the concentration of people, the diversity of land uses and buildings, accessibility, and the existence of a compact urban fabric. However, the relationship between urban vitality and social sustainability has not been studied in these terms. This paper seeks to analyse the social implications of the vital city model for residents in the context of a Latin American city: Santiago de Chile. To do so, we use the JANE index to measure the formal conditions of the built environment for urban vitality, and the Longitudinal Social Study of Chile to measure urban social sustainability. We first use a PCA technique to reveal six core components of urban social sustainability: Sense of belonging, Safety, Sociability, Well-being, Satisfaction with housing, and Conservation of the neighbourhood. We then test the associations between the strength of these six core components and the conditions for urban vitality by means of a multiple linear regression model. Significant associations between urban vitality conditions and urban social sustainability suggest that socially sustainable neighbourhoods are found in sectors with the presence of old buildings, accessibility to public transportation, and far from mega infrastructures.

Children and young people’s unaccompanied mobility: the role of the built and social environments in an unequal Latin American Metropolis

ABSTRACT Unaccompanied trips are highly beneficial for children, yet their practice is difficult in unequal Latin American metropoles. This article investigates how the built and social environments influence children and young people’s trips in Santiago de Chile. It does so by reporting the findings of a stated preference questionnaire in which children and young people were invited to choose the preferred environment to walk unaccompanied in between pairs of images illustrating different social and physical attributes. The findings suggest that Santiago’s inequalities are mirrored in the environments through which children and young people prefer to walk unaccompanied. Attributes that enhance the streetscape (e.g., well-kept footpaths, grass), provide recreation and natural surveillance positively affect children’s willingness to make unaccompanied trips in wealthy areas. By contrast, those attributes are less significant for children and young people from other parts of the city, where other features have a greater impact (e.g., strangers drinking alcohol, off-licences, vehicles parked on the footpath). Furthermore, young girls are greatly discouraged from travelling unaccompanied in most circumstances, in both wealthy and not-wealthy areas. Public policies should prioritise non-wealthy neighbourhoods, improve the built environment, and strengthen local communities and local familiarity to create safer spaces that encourage unaccompanied trips.

The forms of neighborhood cohesion: From social contact to symbolic belonging in neoliberal Santiago de Chile

ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to study the neighborhood social cohesion of the inhabitants of the Metropolitan Area of Santiago, Chile (MAS), considering its recent urban transformations driven by neoliberal urban policies. Using multilevel logistic regressions based on a survey of 401 inhabitants, we identify a symbolic cohesion among residents with higher incomes, which combines a high sense of belonging with low neighborhood sociability, and a relational cohesion among the vulnerable population, based on a stronger neighborhood sociability and a low sense of belonging. These results show an influence of the geographical divide between high and low income inhabitants, accentuated by the socio-spatial segregation of the metropolis in the past decades, in addition to identifying a certain relationship between neighborhood cohesion and two of its major neoliberal trends of urban growth: the densification of its center and the development of peripheral social housing. We argue that a deeper understanding of the distinction between relational and symbolic forms of neighborhood social cohesion is relevant because, as well as allowing us to analyze the MAS case by addressing its current complexity, it provides an opportunity to discuss the way in which the concept is defined and conceived in recent literature.

Implementation of IFRS 15 in companies listed on the Colombian and Santiago de Chile Stock Exchanges

El objetivo de esta investigación es identificar los efectos patrimoniales asociados a la implementación de NIIF 15 y las variaciones producidas en los indicadores de rendimiento de compañías listadas en la Bolsa de valores de Colombia y Santiago de Chile. La metodología empleada es el índice de conservadurismo de Gray, el cual se aplica a las variaciones presenta - das en los estados financieros de las entidades adoptantes. Los resultados evidencian un contraste de efectos patrimoniales, puesto que las compañías colombianas presentaron impactos positivos en su patrimonio en un 70 %, mientras que tan solo un 21 % de compañías chilenas mostró variación positiva. De igual forma, del total de entidades analizadas, se evidencio que el 9 % de entidades colombianas y el 4 % de las entidades chilenas, no incluyeron ninguna información asociada a la aplicación de NIIF 15.

The toponymic battle: Renaming streets in Santiago de Chile 50 years after the military coup

ABSTRACT In July and August of 2023, on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the military coup in Chile (September 11, 1973), the Santiago City Council chose to honor the civil-military dictatorship victims by renaming 12 streets in the district. Unexpectedly, the Namur neighborhood, which had a one-block street set to be renamed “Ida Amelia Vera Almarza”—a dictatorship victim—mobilized and vehemently protested the decision. Utilizing a critical approach based on grounded theory and thematic analysis—in which the analysis arises “bottom-up” from an inductive triangulation of various sources—this article examines the reasons for opposing this renaming. The results reveal two primary reasons for opposition: the community’s need to preserve their historical identity embodied in the street’s name (Namur) and their feeling of exclusion and mistreatment. Contrary to some perceptions, this opposition was not driven by denialist or far-right ideologies. Thus, this article offers a novel viewpoint that extends beyond the traditional scholarly understanding of memory politics and suggests that memory battles are not solely about clashes between those for and against victim memorialization. Hence, it urges scholars and practitioners to delve deeper into the motivations behind the opposition to memory and human rights policies.

Identification of the High Rent District of Santiago de Chile through spatial autocorrelation of prices

En esta investigación se analiza la autocorrelación espacial del precio del suelo en Santiago de Chile para comprobar la existencia de un distrito de alta renta, propio de los modelos de ciudades latinoamericanas. Para ello se aplica el Índice de Moran a un conjunto de 206 zonas de mercado dispuestas en una serie de 131 trimestres entre 1983-2016. Los resultados revelan una alta y estable autocorrelación espacial del precio del suelo, lo que confirma un distrito de alta renta, identificado como Cono de Alta Renta (CAR), localizado en las comunas de mayor ingreso de Santiago.

Socioeconomic Disparities in Urban Forest Diversity and Structure in Green Areas of Santiago de Chile.

Urban trees enhance biodiversity, provide ecosystem services, and improve quality of life in cities. Despite their benefits, trees are not distributed equitably, and many cities exhibit a "luxury effect". Given the importance of public green space for providing access to urban tree benefits, we investigated the relationship between socioeconomic level and tree diversity and structure in 60 green areas in Santiago de Chile. Species richness and total tree abundance did not significantly vary among socioeconomic levels; however, a differential effect was found according to species origin. Introduced tree species exhibited similar abundance and species richness across socioeconomic levels, but native tree species were more abundant and richer in higher socioeconomic level areas compared to lower ones. Tree cover was higher in the high and medium socioeconomic level areas than in the low socioeconomic level area. A higher average DBH was found in the medium socioeconomic level area, which may be explained by older neighborhoods and a legacy of the luxury effect. Our findings reveal that socioeconomic groups are associated with differences in tree cover, width, and the number of native species in public green areas. Consequently, urban residents have different provisions of ecosystem services and opportunities to interact with natural heritage. Increasing the amount of tree cover and native species available to vulnerable groups will reduce disparities.

Neck Circumference Cut-Off Points for Identifying Adiposity: Association with Chronic Metabolic Diseases in Older People.

The leading cause of death in older people is cardiovascular diseases. Several studies have found that neck circumference (NC) is a simple anthropometric marker associated with adiposity. The aim of this study is to estimate and validate NC cut-off points as adiposity markers and analyze their association with cardiovascular and chronic metabolic diseases in older people. A cross-sectional study in 358 non-disabled, community-dwelling older people (71.7 ± 3.9 years) living in Santiago de Chile and participating in the HTSMayor study was conducted. Measurements of body composition and cardiovascular risks were evaluated. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and multiple logistic regression models were used to evaluate the association of NC with cardiovascular and chronic metabolic diseases. NC cut-off points were obtained to predict obesity, abdominal obesity, and adiposity. The best performance values of neck circumference relative to obesity and adiposity were obtained with respect to abdominal obesity (40.6 cm in men and 34.2 cm in women). Higher NC values were associated with a higher area under the curve (AUC) for men and women (men: AUC = 0.84; women: AUC = 0.86). NC was significantly associated with a higher risk for diabetes mellitus (OR = 1.95), hypertension (OR = 2.42), acute myocardial infarction (OR = 4.36), and comorbidities (OR = 2.01), and a lower risk for sarcopenia (OR = 0.35). This study shows that NC is a useful tool for detecting abdominal obesity, obesity, and adiposity in older people and that a higher NC increases the risk of chronic diseases.

Still on the Santiago Round Table: considerations on the concept of territory and its reverberations

The article is part of a movement to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Roundtable of Santiago de Chile, to make considerations around the uses and meanings, presence and absence of the debate on territory and museums established since then. The reflections are oriented towards understanding and problematizing how terms related to community, place, area, territory and their semantic and notional relatives were, and are, mobilized. The exercise is conducted by looking at the Declaration of Santiago de Chile, from 1972, in dialogue with the literature that followed and continues to inspire practices and ideas in the museum field. It argues that the territorial approach was incipient in that historical context and that, in recent decades, the notional set that orbits the territory category has emerged as an important analytical category for museum actions. Due to this, it defends the necessary effort of dialogue with territorial literature – essentially multidisciplinary – with the aim of instrumentalizing practices in the museum field and continuing to feed new theoretical systematizations.

Still on the Santiago Round Table: considerations on the concept of territory and its reverberations

The article is part of a movement to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Roundtable of Santiago de Chile, to make considerations around the uses and meanings, presence and absence of the debate on territory and museums established since then. The reflections are oriented towards understanding and problematizing how terms related to community, place, area, territory and their semantic and notional relatives were, and are, mobilized. The exercise is conducted by looking at the Declaration of Santiago de Chile, from 1972, in dialogue with the literature that followed and continues to inspire practices and ideas in the museum field. It argues that the territorial approach was incipient in that historical context and that, in recent decades, the notional set that orbits the territory category has emerged as an important analytical category for museum actions. Due to this, it defends the necessary effort of dialogue with territorial literature – essentially multidisciplinary – with the aim of instrumentalizing practices in the museum field and continuing to feed new theoretical systematizations.

Morphological Characteristics of the Double Mental Foramen and Its Relevance in Clinical Practice: An Observational Study.

The mental foramen (MF) is an opening found bilaterally on the anterolateral aspect of the mandible; it can be round or oval and have different diameters. One of the anatomical variants of the jaw is the presence of an accessory mental foramen (AMF). These are usually smaller than the MF and can be located above, below, or to the sides of the main MF. The objective of this study was to recognize the presence of AMF in dry jaws of the Chilean population and collect information about its clinical relevance reported in the literature. In this descriptive observational study, we have collected dried jaws obtained from three higher education institutions in Santiago de Chile, from the Department of Morphology of the Andrés Bello University, the Normal Human Anatomy Unit of the University of Santiago, and the Human Anatomy pavilion from the Faculty of Medicine of the Finis Terrae University. The samples for this research were obtained by convenience, and the observation of the jaws was carried out in the human anatomy laboratories of each institution by three evaluators independently, and a fourth evaluator was included to validate that each evaluation was correct. The sample for this research came from 260 dry jaws, showing the following findings from the total jaws studied, and to classify as an accessory MF, it will be examined and measured so that it complies with what is declared in the literature as the presence of AMF, which is between 0.74 mm. and 0.89 mm. There were 17 studies included with a sample that fluctuated between 1 and 4000, with a cumulative total of 7946 and an average number of jaws analyzed from the studies of 467.4, showing statistically significant differences between the means with the sample analyzed in this study; p = 0.095. For the cumulative prevalence of the presence of AMF, this was 3.07 in this study, and in the compared studies, the average of AMF was 8.01%, which did not present a statistically significant difference; p = 0.158. Regarding the presence of variants of unilateral AMF, this occurred in five jaws, which is equivalent to 1.84% in the sample of this study, while in previous studies, it was 7.5%, being higher on the left side than on the right. The presence of AMF is a variant with high prevalence if we compare it with other variants of the jaw. Knowledge of the anatomy and position of the AMF is crucial to analyze different scenarios in the face of surgical procedures or conservative treatments of the lower anterior dental region.

Microeconomic analysis of ridesourcing market regulation policies

We develop a microeconomic model of competition between ridesourcing, public transport, and cruising taxis to analyse how alternative ridesourcing regulation policies affect not only the ridesourcing service but also other modes of transport. To maximise social welfare in a framework with congestion externalities, we analyse three alternative regulation policies (i) a charge as a percentage of the ridesourcing trip fare (ii) a fixed charge per ridesourcing trip, and (iii) a fixed charge per ridesourcing vehicle. A randomised search algorithm is programmed and simulations are performed considering the base case of the Metropolitan Region of Santiago de Chile. We find that for the case of speeds below 9 km/h, the market power of the platform is dominated by the congestion externality effect, which leads to an optimum where the regulator charges a tax to the platform. In turn, waiting time for ridesourcing increases, but congestion decreases. Lower congestion scenarios lead to a ridesourcing subsidy, in which the regulation policy increases the number of ridesourcing drivers and reduces waiting time, at the cost of increasing congestion. For a given scenario (either low-congestion or high-congestion), we find that the profits of the agents involved (ridesourcing platform and drivers, taxi drivers, and bus operator) are sensitive to the type of regulation applied, however the total social benefit and consumer surplus are largely insensitive to the regulation adopted, therefore policymakers could take into account, for instance, the effects on the financial situation of the public transport sector when deciding which type of regulation instrument to apply to the ridesourcing sector.