Hábitos higiénico-dietéticos respecto al consumo de alimentos ricos en yodo durante el primer trimestre de la gestación

Objetivo: Conocer los hábitos higiénico-dietéticos de las mujeres embarazadas respecto al consumo de alimentos ricos en yodo durante el primer trimestre de la gestación. Material y método: Estudio observacional, descriptivo, transversal y multicéntrico. Se estudiaron las mujeres embarazadas en el primer trimestre de la gestación que acudieron a la consulta de control del embarazo del programa de atención a la salud sexual y reproductiva (ASSIR) de la Región Sanitaria del Ámbito Centro del Instituto Catalán de la Salud durante el año 2006. Para la recogida de datos se utilizó un cuestionario que cumplimentó la matrona en una entrevista individual en la primera visita de control de embarazo. Resultados: Se recogieron 823 cuestionarios cumplimentados. El 6% (50) de las gestantes no consumía pescado y el 83% (683) lo hacía menos de cuatro veces por semana. El 17% (138) no consumía leche y el 39% (324) bebía un vaso al día. El 42% (342) de las gestantes utilizaba sal yodada para la preparación y condimentación de los alimentos, frente al 50% (412) que no la empleaba. El 22% (184) de las gestantes tomaba algún tipo de suplemento de yodo, y el 18% (148) de la muestra manifestó ser fumadora. Conclusiones: Las mujeres embarazadas de nuestro ámbito de estudio tienen un consumo reducido de alimentos ricos en yodo. Además, tanto el consumo de sal yodada como la utilización de suplementos que contengan yodo durante el embarazo resultan también insuficientes.

Efficacy and safety of aripiprazole in the treatment of bipolar disorder: a systematic review.

Abstract BACKGROUND: The current article is a systematic review concerning the efficacy and safety of aripiprazole in the treatment of bipolar disorder. METHODS: A systematic Medline and repositories search concerning the usefulness of aripiprazole in bipolar disorder was performed, with the combination of the words 'aripiprazole' and 'bipolar'. RESULTS: The search returned 184 articles and was last updated on 15 April 2009. An additional search included repositories of clinical trials and previous systematic reviews specifically in order to trace unpublished trials. There were seven placebo-controlled randomised controlled trials (RCTs), six with comparator studies and one with add-on studies. They assessed the usefulness of aripiprazole in acute mania, acute bipolar depression and during the maintenance phase in comparison to placebo, lithium or haloperidol. CONCLUSION: Aripiprazole appears effective for the treatment and prophylaxis against mania. The data on bipolar depression are so far negative, however there is a need for further study at lower dosages. The most frequent adverse effects are extrapyramidal signs and symptoms, especially akathisia, without any significant weight gain, hyperprolactinaemia or laboratory test changes.

Usefulness of betalactam therapy for community-acquired pneumonia in the era of drug-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae: a randomized study of amoxicillin-clavulanate and ceftriaxone

Empirical antibiotic therapy of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) has been complicated by the worldwide emergence of penicillin resistance among Streptococcus pneumoniae. The impact of this resistance on the outcome of patients hospitalized for CAP, empirically treated with betalactams, has not been evaluated in a randomized study. We conducted a prospective, randomized trial to assess the efficacy of amoxicillin-clavulanate (2 g/200 mg/8 hr) and ceftriaxone (1 g/24 hr) in a cohort of patients hospitalized for moderate-to-severe CAP. Three-hundred seventy-eight patients were randomized to receive amoxicillin-clavulanate (184 patients) or ceftriaxone (194 patients). Efficacy was assessed on Day 2, after completion of therapy and at long term follow-up. There were no significant differences in outcomes between treatment groups, both in intention-to-treat and per-protocol analysis. Overall mortality was 10.3% for amoxicillin-clavulanate and 8.8% for ceftriaxone (NS). There were 116 evaluable patients with proven pneumococcal pneumonia. Rates of high-level penicillin resistance (MIC of penicillin ≥2 µg/mL) were similar in the two groups (8.2 and 10.2%). Clinical efficacy at the end of therapy was 90.6% for amoxicillin-clavulanate and 88.9% for ceftriaxone (95% C.I. of the difference: -9.3 to +12.7%). No differences in outcomes were attributable to differences in penicillin susceptibility of pneumococcal strains. Sequential i.v./oral amoxicillin-clavulanate and parenteral ceftriaxone were equally safe and effective for the empirical treatment of acute bacterial pneumonia, including penicillin and cephalosporin-resistant pneumococcal pneumonia. The use of appropriate betalactams in patients with penumococcal pneumonia and in the overall CAP population, is reliable at the current level of resistance

Use of physiological constraints to identify quantitative design principles for gene expression in yeast adaptation to heat shock

Background: Understanding the relationship between gene expression changes, enzyme activity shifts, and the corresponding physiological adaptive response of organisms to environmental cues is crucial in explaining how cells cope with stress. For example, adaptation of yeast to heat shock involves a characteristic profile of changes to the expression levels of genes coding for enzymes of the glycolytic pathway and some of its branches. The experimental determination of changes in gene expression profiles provides a descriptive picture of the adaptive response to stress. However, it does not explain why a particular profile is selected for any given response. Results: We used mathematical models and analysis of in silico gene expression profiles (GEPs) to understand how changes in gene expression correlate to an efficient response of yeast cells to heat shock. An exhaustive set of GEPs, matched with the corresponding set of enzyme activities, was simulated and analyzed. The effectiveness of each profile in the response to heat shock was evaluated according to relevant physiological and functional criteria. The small subset of GEPs that lead to effective physiological responses after heat shock was identified as the result of the tuning of several evolutionary criteria. The experimentally observed transcriptional changes in response to heat shock belong to this set and can be explained by quantitative design principles at the physiological level that ultimately constrain changes in gene expression. Conclusion: Our theoretical approach suggests a method for understanding the combined effect of changes in the expression of multiple genes on the activity of metabolic pathways, and consequently on the adaptation of cellular metabolism to heat shock. This method identifies quantitative design principles that facilitate understating the response of the cell to stress.

De la Iltiŕta prerromana a la Ilerda tardorromana. Nuevos datos tras dos décadas de investigación continuada en Lérida

La antigua Ilerda (Hispania Citerior), bien conocida por las fuentes escritas y numismáticas republicanas e iniperiales, no contaba con un conocimiento arqueológico paralelo. Las excavaciones continuas de los últimos años han variado sustancialmente este panorama (sobre todo las más recientes) y hoy podemos aventurar su evolución histórica con unos datos más fiables, así como ,su extensión y principales características por etapas.

El peritaje psicológico en los tribunales: imputabilidad y diagnóstico

Este trabajo és una recopilación de tres dimensiones del peritaje psicológico. La primera clarifica el concepto de peritaje y las funciones del perito ante los tribunales de justicia. La segunda, es sobre la valoración psicométrica de la personalidad, y la tercera trata de la victimologia y dentro de la misma, consideraciones en torno al estrés postraumático. Estas tres partes están interrelacionadas y su estudio es imprescindible para completar un buen peritaje.

De la guerra de l'Empordà (1128) a la mortaldat de 1131: gènesi, extensió i extinció d'una fam. Per a una història de les crisis alimentàries a la Catalunya medieval

In the history of food shortages and subsistence crises which affected the Catalan counties during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the famine of 1129-1131 deserves special mention. Originating in the war of 1128 involving the Empordà and neighboring counties, this famine affected the city of Barcelona and other points of Catalonia (Winter, 1131) and created conditions for the spread of a deadly epidemic (July 1130 -January 1132).

Efectos del fuego controlado en la velocidad de infiltración del agua en los suelos forestales: un caso de estudio en la costa norte de California

Utilizando infiltrómetros cilíndricos de gran tamaño -1 m de diámerto- se midieron velocidades de infiltración e suelos, tanto quemados como sin quemar, y en ambos casos bajo pinares de Pinus muricata D. Don en la costa Norte de California (Noroeste de la Ciudad de Santa Rosa). Las condiciones de suelo quemado se obtuvieron mediante fuego prescrito. Las velocidades (o tasas) de infiltración (de 1,17 a 1,34 x 10-4 m/s) no difirieron significativamente entre el control y miniparcelas bajo quemas controladas de pequeña intensidad lineal del fuego (menor que 60 kW/m) y pequeño/moderado consumo de combustible (50-120 mm). Resulta alentador poder reducir la cantidad de combustible acumulado (biomasa) mediante el uso de quemas prescritas sin comprometer los ritmos de los procesos hidrológicos del lugar. Además los fuegos no muy severos pueden diversificar los mosaicos de agrupaciones vegetales del paisaje: pirodiversidad genera biodiversidad.

Transiciones y orientación

Los diversos procesos de transición que se suceden a lo largo de la vida suponen períodos de adaptación constantes. Cada proceso de transición requiere tomar decisiones que afectan, en mayor o menor medida, todos los aspectos de la persona. La trayectoria vital abarca diversos ámbitos de transición. En este artículo hacemos especial incidencia en el itinerario académico y en el itinerario laboral. Las transiciones académicas han de facilitar la continuidad curricular entre ciclos o etapas y la adaptación a nuevos niveles. En el ámbito profesional destacan dos transiciones esenciales al inicio y final de la vida laboral: la inserción sociolaboral y la jubilación. A ellas, cabe añadir las transiciones ocupacionales -voluntarias o involuntarias -, que cada vez son más frecuentes en la actual organización del mercado de trabajo. En cada uno de estos procesos se requiere intervención orientadora que proporcione estrategias para el desarrollo personal y la integración social.

How hard is a commercial puzzle: the eternity II challenge

Recently, edge matching puzzles, an NP-complete problem, have received, thanks to money-prized contests, considerable attention from wide audiences. We consider these competitions not only a challenge for SAT/CSP solving techniques but also as an opportunity to showcase the advances in the SAT/CSP community to a general audience. This paper studies the NP-complete problem of edge matching puzzles focusing on providing generation models of problem instances of variable hardness and on its resolution through the application of SAT and CSP techniques. From the generation side, we also identify the phase transition phenomena for each model. As solving methods, we employ both; SAT solvers through the translation to a SAT formula, and two ad-hoc CSP solvers we have developed, with different levels of consistency, employing several generic and specialized heuristics. Finally, we conducted an extensive experimental investigation to identify the hardest generation models and the best performing solving techniques.

Genetic Variation in the TP53 Pathway and Bladder Cancer Risk. A Comprehensive Analysis

Introduction: Germline variants in TP63 have been consistently associated with several tumors, including bladder cancer, indicating the importance of TP53 pathway in cancer genetic susceptibility. However, variants in other related genes, including TP53 rs1042522 (Arg72Pro), still present controversial results. We carried out an in depth assessment of associations between common germline variants in the TP53 pathway and bladder cancer risk. Material and Methods: We investigated 184 tagSNPs from 18 genes in 1,058 cases and 1,138 controls from the Spanish Bladder Cancer/EPICURO Study. Cases were newly-diagnosed bladder cancer patients during 1998–2001. Hospital controls were age-gender, and area matched to cases. SNPs were genotyped in blood DNA using Illumina Golden Gate and TaqMan assays. Cases were subphenotyped according to stage/grade and tumor p53 expression. We applied classical tests to assess individual SNP associations and the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO)-penalized logistic regression analysis to assess multiple SNPs simultaneously. Results: Based on classical analyses, SNPs in BAK1 (1), IGF1R (5), P53AIP1 (1), PMAIP1 (2), SERINPB5 (3), TP63 (3), and TP73 (1) showed significant associations at p-value#0.05. However, no evidence of association, either with overall risk or with specific disease subtypes, was observed after correction for multiple testing (p-value$0.8). LASSO selected the SNP rs6567355 in SERPINB5 with 83% of reproducibility. This SNP provided an OR = 1.21, 95%CI 1.05–1.38, p-value = 0.006, and a corrected p-value = 0.5 when controlling for over-estimation. Discussion: We found no strong evidence that common variants in the TP53 pathway are associated with bladder cancer susceptibility. Our study suggests that it is unlikely that TP53 Arg72Pro is implicated in the UCB in white Europeans. SERPINB5 and TP63 variation deserve further exploration in extended studies.