Comparative gene finding in chicken indicates that we are closing in on the set of multi-exonic widely-expressed human genes

The recent availability of the chicken genome sequence poses the question of whether there are human protein-coding genes conserved in chicken that are currently not included in the human gene catalog. Here, we show, using comparative gene finding followed by experimental verification of exon pairs by RT–PCR, that the addition to the multi-exonic subset of this catalog could be as little as 0.2%, suggesting that we may be closing in on the human gene set. Our protocol, however, has two shortcomings: (i) the bioinformatic screening of the predicted genes, applied to filter out false positives, cannot handle intronless genes; and (ii) the experimental verification could fail to identify expression at a specific developmental time. This highlights the importance of developing methods that could provide a reliable estimate of the number of these two types of genes.

Nematode selenoproteome: the use of the selenocysteine insertion system to decode one codon in an animal genome?

Selenocysteine (Sec) is co-translationally inserted into selenoproteins in response to codon UGA with the help of the selenocysteine insertion sequence (SECIS) element. The number of selenoproteins in animals varies, with humans having 25 and mice having 24 selenoproteins. To date, however, only one selenoprotein, thioredoxin reductase, has been detected in Caenorhabditis elegans, and this enzyme contains only one Sec. Here, we characterize the selenoproteomes of C.elegans and Caenorhabditis briggsae with three independent algorithms, one searching for pairs of homologous nematode SECIS elements, another searching for Cys- or Sec-containing homologs of potential nematode selenoprotein genes and the third identifying Sec-containing homologs of annotated nematode proteins. These methods suggest that thioredoxin reductase is the only Sec-containing protein in the C.elegans and C.briggsae genomes. In contrast, we identified additional selenoproteins in other nematodes. Assuming that Sec insertion mechanisms are conserved between nematodes and other eukaryotes, the data suggest that nematode selenoproteomes were reduced during evolution, and that in an extreme reduction case Sec insertion systems probably decode only a single UGA codon in C.elegans and C.briggsae genomes. In addition, all detected genes had a rare form of SECIS element containing a guanosine in place of a conserved adenosine present in most other SECIS structures, suggesting that in organisms with small selenoproteomes SECIS elements may change rapidly.

Self-Development of Competences for Social Inclusion Using the TENCompetence Infrastructure

This paper describes a pilot study centred on the technology-enhanced self-development of competences in lifelong learning education carried out in the challenging context of the Association of Participants Àgora. The pilot study shows that the use of the TENCompetence infrastructure, i.e. in this case the Personal Development Planner tool, provides various kinds of benefits for adult participants with low educational profiles and who are traditionally excluded from the use of innovative learning technologies and the knowledge society. The selforganized training supported by the PDP tool aims at allowing the learners to create and control their own learning plans based on their interests and educational background including informal and non-formal experiences. In this sense, the pilot participants had the opportunity to develop and improve their competences in English language (basic and advanced levels) and ICT competence profiles which are mostly related to functional and communicative skills. Besides, the use of the PDP functionalities, such as the self-assessment, the planning and the self-regulating elements allowed the participants to develop reflective skills. Pilot results also provide indications for future developments in the field of technology support for self-organized learners. The paper introduces the context and the pilot scenario, indicates the evaluation methodology applied and discusses the most significant findings derived from the pilot study.

Collage, a Collaborative Learning Design Editor Based on Patterns

This paper introduces Collage, a high-level IMS-LD compliant authoring tool that is specialized for CSCL (Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning). Nowadays CSCL is a key trend in elearning since it highlights the importance of social interactions as an essential element of learning. CSCL is an interdisciplinary domain, which demands participatory design techniques that allow teachers to get directly involved in design activities. Developing CSCL designs using LD is a difficult task for teachers since LD is a complex technical specification and modelling collaborative characteristics can be tricky. Collage helps teachers in the process of creating their own potentially effective collaborative Learning Designs by reusing and customizing patterns, according to the requirements of a particular learning situation. These patterns, called Collaborative Learning Flow Patterns (CLFPs), represent best practices that are repetitively used by practitioners when structuring the flow of (collaborative) learning activities. An example of an LD that can be created using Collage is illustrated in the paper. Preliminary evaluation results show that teachers, with experience in CL but without LD knowledge, can successfully design real collaborative learning experiences using Collage.

Computational Representation of Collaborative Learning Flow Patterns Using IMS Learning Design

The identification and integration of reusable and customizable CSCL (Computer Supported Collaborative Learning) may benefit from the capture of best practices in collaborative learning structuring. The authors have proposed CLFPs (Collaborative Learning Flow Patterns) as a way of collecting these best practices. To facilitate the process of CLFPs by software systems, the paper proposes to specify these patterns using IMS Learning Design (IMS-LD). Thus, teachers without technical knowledge can particularize and integrate CSCL tools. Nevertheless, the support of IMS-LD for describing collaborative learning activities has some deficiencies: the collaborative tools that can be defined in these activities are limited. Thus, this paper proposes and discusses an extension to IMS-LD that enables to specify several characteristics of the use of tools that mediate collaboration. In order to obtain a Unit of Learning based on a CLFP, a three stage process is also proposed. A CLFP-based Unit of Learning example is used to illustrate the process and the need of the proposed extension.

Integración de plantillas para la creación de soluciones de aprendizaje siguiendo los estándares IMS LD e IMS CP en LdShake

Des de fa alguns anys les tecnologies educatives han anat evolucionant y revolucionant el món pedagògic. En aquest sentit, son molts els grups de treball que participen en la investigació i producció de nous estàndards educatius. Alguns d’aquests estàndards son IMS Learning Designi IMS Content Packaging. L’adopció d’aquests estàndards per part de la comunitat educativa depèn en gran mesura de l’accessibilitat a les eines de producció per part dels membres d’aquesta comunitat. En aquest projecte es fa patent la necessitat d’una aplicació que permeti la generació d’unitats d’aprenentatge de forma assistida mitjançant plantilles.D’altre banda, ELGG és un sistema gestor de continguts open-source que permet crear xarxes socials de forma senzilla i amb la possibilitat d’afegir nous mòduls per augmentar així la seva funcionalitat. Per aquest motiu, aquest projecte es basa en la plataforma col·laborativa de recolzament als professors LdShake, utilitzada per la Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), quetreballa sobre el Framework de ELGG.Sobre aquests dos conceptes descansa la idea general del projecte – a saber, el disseny iposterior desenvolupament d’un sistema de generació d’unitats d’aprenentatge basat enplantilles seguint els estàndards IMS LD i IMS CP sobre LdShake.Per tant, en aquest projecte ens hem centrat en el desenvolupament i avaluació preliminar d’un mòdul integrat en LdShake, centrat en el subconjunt necessari de característiques bàsiques dels estàndards de la IMS Global Consortium, que ens permet la generació d’unitats d’aprenentatge, així com la seva distribució i reproducció en sistemes de gestió d’aprenentatge o LMS, gràcies al’ús de plantilles que son en si mateixes una solució coneguda, provada i exitosa.

Pharmaceutical Generics, Vertical Product Differentiation, and Public Policy

This paper studies oligopolistic competition in off-patent pharmaceutical markets using a vertical product differentiation model. This model can explain the observation that countries with stronger regulations have smaller generic market shares. It can also explain the differences in observed regulatory regimes. Stronger regulation may be due to a higher proportion of production that is done by foreign firms. Finally, a closely related model can account for the observed increase in prices by patent owners after entry of generic producers.

The impact of the reference price system on the pharmaceutical market: A theoretical approach

This article analyses the impact of the reference pricesystem on the price-setting strategies of thepharmaceutical firms and on the level of generic usage.This model is the first to take explicitly into accountthe impact of the reference price mechanism on the levelof competition between brand-name and generic drugs andnational pharmaceutical spending. We consider aduopolistic model with one firm producing the brand-namedrug, whose patent has already expired, and the otherproducing the corresponding generic version. We work ina partial equilibrium framework where firms set pricessequentially and consumers face heterogeneous switchingcosts.We show that brand producers compensate thedecline of profits by selling greater quantities insteadof charging higher prices, thus fostering pricecompetition in the pharmaceutical market. This result isa consequence of both the assumption of a verticallydifferentiated model and the introduction of thereference price system.

Generic entry into a regulated pharmaceutical market

The aim of this paper is to analyse empirically entry decisions by generic firms intomarkets with tough regulation. Generic drugs might be a key driver of competitionand cost containment in pharmaceutical markets. The dynamics of reforms ofpatents and pricing across drug markets in Spain are useful to identify the impact ofregulations on generic entry. Estimates from a count data model using a panel of 86active ingredients during the 1999 2005 period show that the drivers of genericentry in markets with price regulations are similar to less regulated markets: genericfirms entries are positively affected by the market size and time trend, and negativelyaffected by the number of incumbent laboratories and the number of substitutesactive ingredients. We also find that contrary to what policy makers expected, thesystem of reference pricing restrains considerably the generic entry. Short run brandname drug price reductions are obtained by governments at the cost of long runbenefits from fostering generic entry and post-patent competition into the markets.

A portrait of the Spanish accounting community

This study presents a portrait of the Spanish academic accountingcommunity in 1995, based upon a questionnaire circulated to Spanishaccounting academics in 1995 and upon an analysis of authorship andcitations in the main Spanish accounting journals. The approach tothese analyses is grounded in similar studies which have been carriedout in the United States, Spain and elsewhere. but the combination oftechniques used in this study is particularly broad in range.The results of the study are used to describe a range ofcharacteristics of Spanish accounting academics, for example,publications records and length of academic experience. The analysisof publications produces a ranking by institutional affiliation ofthe most significant contributors to current debates on accounting.Citation analysis is used to identify the range and extent ofinternational influences upon the Spanish academic accountingcommunity, and to provide an additional ranking by institutionalaffiliation of the most frequently cited sources A significantfinding was that the nature and extent of international influence hadchanged very little over the ten year period since Spain entered theEuropean Union and started to implement European Directives.Perceptions of journal quality were elicited by questionnaire. Fortyfive journals, Spanish and international are included in a listranked for perceived importance as outlets for publication. and assources of support for teaching and research. The results of thisexercise show that Spanish journals were ranked low relative tojournals published in the United Kingdom and United States.Finally the study examines the extent of purpose upon Spanishaccounting academies to publish, by presenting results of a questionabout criteria for promotion, and also by examining and increasingtendency to publish co-authored work.

Pharmaceutical generics, vertical product differentiation and public policy

This paper studies oligopolistic competition in off-patent pharmaceuticalmarkets using a vertical product differentiation model. This model canexplain the observation that countries with stronger regulations havesmaller generic market shares. It can also explain the differences inobserved regulatory regimes. Stronger regulation may be due to a higherproportion of production that is done by foreign firms. Finally, a closelyrelated model can account for the observed increase in prices by patentowners after entry of generic producers.

The impact of generic reference pricing interventions in the statin market

The objective of this study was to evaluate the intended and unintended impact on pharmaceutical use and sales of three public financing reforms applied to the prescription of statins: a Spanish generic reference pricing (RP) system for lovastatin and simvastatin, and two competing policies introduced by the Andalusian Public Health Service (APHS) for all statins, first a maximum consumer price (MCP) and then a so called quality prescribing incentive for general practitioners (MCP plus PI).This study is designed as an observational, retrospective, interrupted time series analysis with comparison series (APHS and the rest of Spain) of 46 monthly drug use and sales ratios from January 2001 to October 2004 for each active ingredient in the group of statins.RP has been effective at reducing the volume of sales growth of the off-patent statins, yet its overall impact on sales of all statins has been relatively modest. The quantity and volume of sales impact heavily depends on regulatory RP details such as when the system is introduced, how often it is updated, and how the reference price is calculated.

Patentes, regulación de precios e innovación en la industria farmacéutica

The trade-off between property rights/price regulation and innovation depends on countrycharacteristics and drug industry specificities. Access to drugs and innovation can bereconciled by seven ways that, among others, include: public health strengthening in thecountries with the largest access problems (those among the poor with the weakestinstitutions); public and private aid to make attractive R&D on neglected diseases; pricediscrimination with market segmentation; to require patent owners to choose eitherprotection in the rich countries or protection in the poor countries (but not both).Regarding price regulation, after a review of theoretical arguments and empirical evidence,seven strategies to reconcile health and industrial considerations are outlined, including:mitigation of the medical profession dependence on the pharmaceutical industry; considerationof a drug as an input of a production process; split drug authorization from public fundingdecisions; establish an efficiency minimum for all health production inputs; and stop theEuropean R&D hemorrhagia.

Accions transversals del CME contra l'odi i la discriminació (2008-2013)

1.El Pla de govern 2004-2007, va incloure per primera vegada polítiques específiques per a les persones LGTB. Es va crear el Pla interdepartamental per a la no discriminació de las persones LGTB 2006-2014, que crea el Consell Nacional para persones LGTB del Departament d’Acció Social i Ciutadania i detalla “accions de govern” que afecten al Departament d’Interior. A nivell municipal: creació de diferents consells LGTB.Creació el 2007 de la figura del Fiscal interlocutor en delictes amb component de discriminació per orientació sexual. Coincidència durant 2008 de diferents esdevenimentsLGTB: Conferencia internacional de policies gais-les en Barcelona, Eurogames, Creuers internacionals, mostra internacional de cinema, Gaycircus, Loveball, Circuit-festival, etc.

Journal and country rankings in instrumentation and ocean engineering

The purpose of this paper is to highlight scientific information resources that list journal and country rankings. These databases usually focus on the use of citation counts and number of publications to evaluate the interest, visibility and impact of research performance. The exposed resources are platforms that provide added value to authors improving their knowledge about research trends and also where to submit their papers.