Milk, from medicine to food Mediterranean Europe: Catalonia, 19th-20th centuries

The spread of milk consumption was a significant change in the diet of Europeans, however it is one that has not been greatly studied with regard to the populations of Mediterranean Europe. In this article we shall analyse the ain circumstances that conditioned that process in Catalonia between the middle of the 19th century and 1936. In our study we shall argue that the consumption of milk in this area was only relevant in the 19th century in situations of illness or old age, and that it subsequently increased and acquired a new significance as a result of various factors. In particular, we shall emphasise: (a) the scientific advances in microbiology and nutrition, (b) the activities carried out by doctors and various public institutions to promote the consumption of fresh milk, and (c) the technological innovations in the milk producing sector. In Appendix 1 we show two maps representing the main territorial references that we shall mention.

Preventive medicine for epidemic outbreaks and risky behavior through mobile devices and ubiquitous computing

In this work, we have developed the first free software for mobile devices with the Android operating system that can preventively mitigate the number of contagions of sexually transmitted infections (STI), associated with risk behavior. This software runs in two modes. The normal mode allows the user to see the alerts and nearby health centers. The second mode enables the service to work in the background. This software reports the health risks, as well as the location of different test centers.

Medicine and Science in a New Medical-surgical Context: The Royal College of Surgery of Barcelona (1760–1843)

Taking the Royal College of Barcelona (1760 -1843) as a case study this paper shows the development of modern surgery in Spain initiated by Bourbon Monarchy founding new kinds of institutions through their academic activities of spreading scientific knowledge. Antoni Gimbernat was the most famousinternationally recognised Spanish surgeon. He was trained as a surgeon at the Royal College of Surgery in Cadiz and was later appointed as professor of theAnatomy in the College of Barcelona. He then became Royal Surgeon of King Carlos IV and with that esteemed position in Madrid he worked resiliently to improve the quality of the Royal colleges in Spain. Learning human bodystructure by performing hands-on dissections in the anatomical theatre has become a fundamental element of modern medical education. Gimbernat favoured the study of natural sciences, the new chemistry of Lavoisier and experimental physics in the academic programs of surgery. According to the study of a very relevant set of documents preserved in the library, the so-called “juntas literarias”, among the main subjects debated in the clinical sessions was the concept of human beings and diseases in relation to the development of the new experimental sciences. These documents showed that chemistry andexperimental physics were considered crucial tools to understand the unexplained processes that occurred in the diseased and healthy human bodyand in a medico-surgical context. It is important to stress that through these manuscripts we can examine the role and the reception of the new sciences applied to healing arts.

Knowledge management for systems biology a general and visually driven framework applied to translational medicine

Background: To enhance our understanding of complex biological systems like diseases we need to put all of the available data into context and use this to detect relations, pattern and rules which allow predictive hypotheses to be defined. Life science has become a data rich science with information about the behaviour of millions of entities like genes, chemical compounds, diseases, cell types and organs, which are organised in many different databases and/or spread throughout the literature. Existing knowledge such as genotype - phenotype relations or signal transduction pathways must be semantically integrated and dynamically organised into structured networks that are connected with clinical and experimental data. Different approaches to this challenge exist but so far none has proven entirely satisfactory. Results: To address this challenge we previously developed a generic knowledge management framework, BioXM™, which allows the dynamic, graphic generation of domain specific knowledge representation models based on specific objects and their relations supporting annotations and ontologies. Here we demonstrate the utility of BioXM for knowledge management in systems biology as part of the EU FP6 BioBridge project on translational approaches to chronic diseases. From clinical and experimental data, text-mining results and public databases we generate a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) knowledge base and demonstrate its use by mining specific molecular networks together with integrated clinical and experimental data. Conclusions: We generate the first semantically integrated COPD specific public knowledge base and find that for the integration of clinical and experimental data with pre-existing knowledge the configuration based set-up enabled by BioXM reduced implementation time and effort for the knowledge base compared to similar systems implemented as classical software development projects. The knowledgebase enables the retrieval of sub-networks including protein-protein interaction, pathway, gene - disease and gene - compound data which are used for subsequent data analysis, modelling and simulation. Pre-structured queries and reports enhance usability; establishing their use in everyday clinical settings requires further simplification with a browser based interface which is currently under development.

Derivation of human embryonic stem cells at the center for regenerative medicine in Barcelona

We report here the legislative issues related toembryo research and human embryonic stem cell (hESC)research in Spain and the derivation of nine hESC lines atthe Center of Regenerative Medicine in Barcelona. You canfind the information for obtaining our lines for researchpurposes at blc@cmrb.eu.

Uso y abuso de los libros en un mundo libresco: algunos ejemplos griegos de la época imperial

La élite de pepaideumenoi del Imperio romano, tanto de lengua griega como latina, viven sumergidos en un mundo libresco: el libro, como objeto material y como concepto intelectual, ha pasado a formar parte de su vida más cotidiana. Este trabajo pretende mostrar cómo esta realidad universal adquiere, sin embargo, rasgos bien particulares según los individuos, con lo cual se conforma un panorama sociológico y cultural que, a través del libro, define bien a las mencionadas élites.

Recerques sobre el comerç baix-imperial del nordest de la Península Ibèrica

Aquestes recerques recolzen basicament en les poques dades escrites - indosa l'epigrafia - que encaixen dins la sincronia de la darrera antiguitat i que fan referencia al nord-est de la Península o bé permeten endinsar-nos una mica més en el :coneixement de l'activitat comercial d'aquest momento . A la informació que hem collit deIs textos hi afegim, bé que d'una manera molt succinta, les dades tangibles fornides per la numismatica i l'arqueologia intentant així, quan és possible, traspuar un xic més els barratges que s'aixequen davant l'arada que mena i empeny l'investigador. La punyent escassetat quantitativa i qualitativa de les fonts d'aquesta epoca encara s'aguditza més a l'hora de rastrejar la informació que ens puguin proporcionar devers l'activitat comercial i, d'altra banda, no cal dir que aquesta parquedat lcondiciona, i adhuc ens atreviríem a dir que determina, els resultats que es poden obtenir d'aquest període, ja que sovint hom no pot recórrer altres viaranys. Així, per exemple, els textos literaris, de conservació rara i atzarosa, solament ens donen petites dades sobre el comer9 llunya que solcava la Mediterrania i es marceixen a l'hora de valorar els intercanvis locals i més o menys restringits, els quals a moltes zones i moltes vegades tenen, versemblantment, una importancia molt més rellevant que el mercadeig de llarg recorregut cenyit a un nombre relativament limitat de productes.

Cambios en el predominio de los distintos valores monetarios en la circulación monetaria en la Hispania alto-imperial

En los últimos años hemos venido definiendo las grandes líneas de la circulación monetaria en Hispania durante el largo período imperial,! Trazos que por el momentó debemos dar como buenos a la espera de la aparición de estudios sobre nuevos materiales que cambien el panorama o confirmen lo expuesto hasta el momento. En espera de estos nuevos trabajos debemos comenzar a pensar en un estudio más profundo de la circulación, para poder completar estas líneas generales que parecen bastante claras, pero que nos dejan vislumbrar toda una serie de problemas cuya solución tan sólo podemos obtenerla mediante una especialización superior en los distintos trabajos a realizar.

La construcción del recinto imperial de Tarraco (provincia Hispania Citerior)

Gracias a los estudios del Dr. Hauschild en la Parte Alta de Tarragona se ha identificado una estructura urbana en tres niveles que se conoce como Concilium Provinciae Hispaniae Citerioris. La investigación posterior ha permitido confirmar las hipótesis del Dr. Hauschild, y ampliar el conocimiento del conjunto. En este artículo se presentan los últimos estudios referentes al Recinto de Culto, gracias a los trabajos del Plan Director de la Catedral de Tarragona y al proyecto Planimetría Arqueológica de Tárraco.