The worldwide incidence of skin cancer has risen rapidly in the last decades, becoming one in three cancers nowadays. Currently, a person has a 4% chance of developing melanoma, the most aggressive form of skin cancer, which causes the greatest number of deaths. In the context of increasing incidence and mortality, skin cancer bears a heavy health and economic burden. Nevertheless, the 5-year survival rate for people with skin cancer significantly improves if the disease is detected and treated early. Accordingly, large research efforts have been devoted to achieve early detection and better understanding of the disease, with the aim of reversing the progressive trend of rising incidence and mortality, especially regarding melanoma. This paper reviews a variety of the optical modalities that have been used in the last years in order to improve non-invasive diagnosis of skin cancer, including confocal microscopy, multispectral imaging, three-dimensional topography, optical coherence tomography, polarimetry, self-mixing interferometry, and machine learning algorithms. The basics of each of these technologies together with the most relevant achievements obtained are described, as well as some of the obstacles still to be resolved and milestones to be met.

This review summarizes the current knowledge on biofluids and the main flow sensing techniques applied in healthcare today. Since the very beginning of the history of medicine, one of the most important assets for evaluating various human diseases has been the analysis of the conditions of the biofluids within the human body. Hence, extensive research on sensors intended to evaluate the flow of many of these fluids in different tissues and organs has been published and, indeed, continues to be published very frequently. The purpose of this review is to provide researchers interested in venturing into biofluid flow sensing with a concise description of the physiological characteristics of the most important body fluids that are likely to be altered by diverse medical conditions. Similarly, a reported compilation of well-established sensors and techniques currently applied in healthcare regarding flow sensing is aimed at serving as a starting point for understanding the theoretical principles involved in the existing methodologies, allowing researchers to determine the most suitable approach to adopt according to their own objectives in this broad field.

We propose a new confocal device for flow profiling in microcapillaries. A viewfinder system is developed using a visible light microscope, allowing focusing with high precision an 830 nm Fabry-Perot laser diode on a microchannel. By means of a novel confocal approach, the Doppler shift produced by the particles of a turbid liquid moving in the focal plane can be measured in real time using the well-known self-mixing effect. The resolution of this device is characterized in function of the full width at half maximum of the Gaussian frequency peak related to the self-mixing signal in the frequency domain. Velocity measurements for flow rates from 0.2 to 1.6 mL/min are presented, and the results demonstrate that the method reduces the phase noise and the effects of the out-of-focus particles, allowing straightforward flow profiling in microchannel structures.

We present experimental results of a low-emission self-mixing interferometer that uses a coupled interferometric effect to improve the signal produced by a vibrating target. This method is intended to be useful in applications where the target is prone to be damaged by high-intensity laser sources. The beam of a Fabry-Perot laser diode is split and ∼21% of the original emission is used to measure the harmonic micro-displacements of the target using the self-mixing effect. A portion of the residual beam, which also carries the interferometric information related to the target displacement, is reinjected back into the laser cavity by means of a fixed reflector, causing a second interferometric phenomenon that improves the signal-to-noise ratio of the measurement by up to ∼13 dB. A theoretical description of the phenomena is also proposed. Further, we apply this technique to the two most common self-mixing sensing schemes: internal photodiode and junction voltage. The reported results show good agreement with theory and prove the capability of the method to enhance the SNR in SMI schemes.

Pensar la gestión cultural es, en buena medida, pensar la posibilidad de una práctica que se interroga a sí misma. ¿Qué cultivamos cuando gestionamos cultura? ¿Qué saber nace del hacer? Este libro propone un viaje por las tramas conceptuales, históricas y políticas que han dado forma a la gestión cultural como campo de conocimiento y como práctica social. Desde la historia de las ideas sobre la cultura hasta los procesos de institucionalización, profesionalización y construcción epistemológica, José Luis Mariscal Orozco y Carlos Yáñez Canal delinean una arqueología del oficio, una búsqueda de su sentido, de su método, de su “por qué” y su “para qué”. La gestión cultural aparece aquí no como un procedimiento técnico, sino como una forma de comprender el mundo y transformarlo: una praxis situada, crítica y en movimiento. En diálogo con las ciencias sociales, las humanidades y las ingenierías, este texto invita a reconocer la gestión cultural como un saber híbrido, una episteme que nace del territorio y de la experiencia, que piensa mientras actúa. Entre la reflexión teórica y el pulso vital de la práctica, La construcción de la gestión cultural es también un gesto de emancipación: la afirmación de una mirada latinoamericana que busca habitar el pensamiento desde la acción, y la acción desde el pensamiento.

Este artículo es resultado de varios procesos investigativos que tienen como centro el trabajo desde el cuerpo como territorio con mujeres en condición de desplazamiento. Se inicia con una breve genealogía que establece los referentes de las investigaciones; la segunda parte, focaliza la metodología aplicada, así como las reflexiones en torno a la experiencia de campo. En la tercera parte, se desarrolla la articulación teórica entorno al cuerpo como territorio y la lectura particular con el desplazamiento forzado de mujeres que residen en Manizales, Caldas. Por último, y a manera de conclusión, se pone en tensión el proceso investigativo con las discusiones metodológicas resultantes. El propósito del texto es centrar la atención en la relación de varios procesos investigativos, que han articulado una mirada metodológica particular alrededor del cuerpo en relación con el desplazamiento forzado de mujeres que residen en Manizales, Caldas.