Use of DNA profiles for investigation using a simulated national DNA database: Part II. Statistical and ethical considerations on familial searching.

Familial searching consists of searching for a full profile left at a crime scene in a National DNA Database (NDNAD). In this paper we are interested in the circumstance where no full match is returned, but a partial match is found between a database member's profile and the crime stain. Because close relatives share more of their DNA than unrelated persons, this partial match may indicate that the crime stain was left by a close relative of the person with whom the partial match was found. This approach has successfully solved important crimes in the UK and the USA. In a previous paper, a model, which takes into account substructure and siblings, was used to simulate a NDNAD. In this paper, we have used this model to test the usefulness of familial searching and offer guidelines for pre-assessment of the cases based on the likelihood ratio. Siblings of "persons" present in the simulated Swiss NDNAD were created. These profiles (N=10,000) were used as traces and were then compared to the whole database (N=100,000). The statistical results obtained show that the technique has great potential confirming the findings of previous studies. However, effectiveness of the technique is only one part of the story. Familial searching has juridical and ethical aspects that should not be ignored. In Switzerland for example, there are no specific guidelines to the legality or otherwise of familial searching. This article both presents statistical results, and addresses criminological and civil liberties aspects to take into account risks and benefits of familial searching.

A note on discrete claims problems

In this note, we consider claims problems with indivisible goods. Specifically, by applying recursively the P-rights lower bound (Jiménez-Gómez and Marco-Gil (2008)), we ensure the fulfillment of Weak Order Preservation, considered by many authors as a minimal requirement of fairness. Moreover, we retrieve the Discrete Constrained Equal Losses and the Discrete Constrained Equal Awards rules (Herrero and Martíınez (2008)). Finally, by the recursive double imposition of a lower and an upper bound, we obtain the average between them. Keywords: Claims problems, Indivisibilities, Order Preservation, Constrained Egalitarian rules, Midpoint. JEL classification: C71, D63, D71.

The Limits of Discrete Time Repeated Games:Some Notes and Comments

This paper studies the limits of discrete time repeated games with public monitoring. We solve and characterize the Abreu, Milgrom and Pearce (1991) problem. We found that for the "bad" ("good") news model the lower (higher) magnitude events suggest cooperation, i.e., zero punishment probability, while the highrt (lower) magnitude events suggest defection, i.e., punishment with probability one. Public correlation is used to connect these two sets of signals and to make the enforceability to bind. The dynamic and limit behavior of the punishment probabilities for variations in ... (the discount rate) and ... (the time interval) are characterized, as well as the limit payo¤s for all these scenarios (We also introduce uncertainty in the time domain). The obtained ... limits are to the best of my knowledge, new. The obtained ... limits coincide with Fudenberg and Levine (2007) and Fudenberg and Olszewski (2011), with the exception that we clearly state the precise informational conditions that cause the limit to converge from above, to converge from below or to degenerate. JEL: C73, D82, D86. KEYWORDS: Repeated Games, Frequent Monitoring, Random Pub- lic Monitoring, Moral Hazard, Stochastic Processes.

New clinical practice guideline on enteral feeding in very low birth wieght infants; second part

INTRODUCTION: The nutrition of very low birth weight (VLBW) infants is aimed at promoting a similar growth to that occurring in the uterus. However, in practice this is difficult to achieve and extrauterine growth restriction is frequent. The current tendency is to avoid this restriction by means of early parenteral and enteral nutrition. Nonetheless, uncertainty about many of the practices related with nutrition has resulted in a great variation in the way it is undertaken. In 2009 and 2011 in our hospital there was an unexpected increase in necrotizing enterocolitis. To check to see wether our nutrition policy was involved, we underlook a systematic review and drewup clinical practice guidelines (CPG) about enteral feeding in VLBW infants. New considerations about the duration of the fortification and the use of probiotics have led to an update of these CPG. METHODS: A total of 21 clinical questions were designed dealing with the type of milk, starting age, mode of administration, rate and volume of the increments, fortification, use of probiotics and protocol. Afete conducting a systematic search of the available evidence, the information was contrasted and summarized in order to draw up the recommendations. The quality of the evidence and the strength of the recommendations were determined from the SIGN scale. COMMENT: These CPG aim to help physicians in their decision making. The protocolized application of wellproven measurements reduces the variation in clinical practice and improves results.

Use of Two-Part Regression Calibration Model to Correct for Measurement Error in Episodically Consumed Foods in a Single-Replicate Study Design: EPIC Case Study.

In epidemiologic studies, measurement error in dietary variables often attenuates association between dietary intake and disease occurrence. To adjust for the attenuation caused by error in dietary intake, regression calibration is commonly used. To apply regression calibration, unbiased reference measurements are required. Short-term reference measurements for foods that are not consumed daily contain excess zeroes that pose challenges in the calibration model. We adapted two-part regression calibration model, initially developed for multiple replicates of reference measurements per individual to a single-replicate setting. We showed how to handle excess zero reference measurements by two-step modeling approach, how to explore heteroscedasticity in the consumed amount with variance-mean graph, how to explore nonlinearity with the generalized additive modeling (GAM) and the empirical logit approaches, and how to select covariates in the calibration model. The performance of two-part calibration model was compared with the one-part counterpart. We used vegetable intake and mortality data from European Prospective Investigation on Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study. In the EPIC, reference measurements were taken with 24-hour recalls. For each of the three vegetable subgroups assessed separately, correcting for error with an appropriately specified two-part calibration model resulted in about three fold increase in the strength of association with all-cause mortality, as measured by the log hazard ratio. Further found is that the standard way of including covariates in the calibration model can lead to over fitting the two-part calibration model. Moreover, the extent of adjusting for error is influenced by the number and forms of covariates in the calibration model. For episodically consumed foods, we advise researchers to pay special attention to response distribution, nonlinearity, and covariate inclusion in specifying the calibration model.

Health literacy [Document électronique] : an economic perspective and data for Switzerland. Part 2, A review of health literacy measures and a cost assessment of limited health literacy

Summary : 1. Measuring health literacy in Switzerland: a review of six surveys: 1.1 Comparison of questionnaires - 1.2 Measures of health literacy in Switzerland - 1.3 Discussion of Swiss data on HL - 1.4 Description of the six surveys: 1.4.1 Current health trends and health literacy in the Swiss population (gfs-UNIVOX), 1.4.2 Nutrition, physical exercise and body weight : opinions and perceptions of the Swiss population (USI), 1.4.3 Health Literacy in Switzerland (ISPMZ), 1.4.4 Swiss Health Survey (SHS), 1.4.5 Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), 1.4.6 Adult literacy and life skills survey (ALL). - 2 . Economic costs of low health literacy in Switzerland: a rough calculation. Appendix: Screenshots cost model

Aspidosperma (Apocynaceae) plant cytotoxicity and activity towards malaria parasites. Part II: experimental studies withAspidosperma ramiflorum in vivo and in vitro

Several species of Aspidosperma plants are used to treat diseases in the tropics, including Aspidosperma ramiflorum, which acts against leishmaniasis, an activity that is experimentally confirmed. The species, known as guatambu-yellow, yellowperoba, coffee-peroba andmatiambu, grows in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil in the South to the Southeast regions. Through a guided biofractionation of A. ramiflorum extracts, the plant activity against Plasmodium falciparum was evaluated in vitro for toxicity towards human hepatoma G2 cells, normal monkey kidney cells and nonimmortalised human monocytes isolated from peripheral blood. Six of the seven extracts tested were active at low doses (half-maximal drug inhibitory concentration < 3.8 µg/mL); the aqueous extract was inactive. Overall, the plant extracts and the purified compounds displayed low toxicity in vitro. A nonsoluble extract fraction and one purified alkaloid isositsirikine (compound 5) displayed high selectivity indexes (SI) (= 56 and 113, respectively), whereas compounds 2 and 3 were toxic (SI < 10). The structure, activity and low toxicity of isositsirikine in vitro are described here for the first time in A. ramiflorum, but only the neutral and precipitate plant fractions were tested for activity, which caused up to 53% parasitaemia inhibition of Plasmodium bergheiin mice with blood-induced malaria. This plant species is likely to be useful in the further development of an antimalarial drug, but its pharmacological evaluation is still required.

New clinical practice guideline on enteral feeding in very low birth weight infants; first part.

The nutrition of very low birth weight (VLBW) infants is aimed at promoting a similar growth to that occurring in the uterus. However, in practice this is difficult to achieve and extrauterine growth restriction is frequent. The current tendency is to avoid this restriction by means of early parenteral and enteral nutrition. Nonetheless, uncertainty about many of the practices related with nutrition has resulted in a great variation in the way it is undertaken. In 2009 and 2011 in our hospital there was an unexpected increase in necrotizing enterocolitis. To check to see whether our nutrition policy was involved, we undertook a systematic review and drew up clinical practice guidelines (CPG) about enteral feeding in VLBW infants. New considerations about the duration of the fortification and the use of probiotics have led to an update of these CPG. METHODS: A total of 21 clinical questions were designed dealing with the type of milk, starting age, mode of administration, rate and volume of the increments, fortification, use of probiotics and protocol. After conducting a systematic search of the available evidence, the information was contrasted and summarized in order to draw up the recommendations. The quality of the evidence and the strength of the recommendations were determined from the SIGN scale. COMMENT: These CPG aim to help physicians in their decision making. The protocolized application of well-proven measurements reduces the variation in clinical practice and improves results.

New perspectives in the use of ink evidence in forensic science: Part II. Development and testing of mathematical algorithms for the automatic comparison of ink samples analysed by HPTLC

In the first part of this research, three stages were stated for a program to increase the information extracted from ink evidence and maximise its usefulness to the criminal and civil justice system. These stages are (a) develop a standard methodology for analysing ink samples by high-performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) in reproducible way, when ink samples are analysed at different time, locations and by different examiners; (b) compare automatically and objectively ink samples; and (c) define and evaluate theoretical framework for the use of ink evidence in forensic context. This report focuses on the second of the three stages. Using the calibration and acquisition process described in the previous report, mathematical algorithms are proposed to automatically and objectively compare ink samples. The performances of these algorithms are systematically studied for various chemical and forensic conditions using standard performance tests commonly used in biometrics studies. The results show that different algorithms are best suited for different tasks. Finally, this report demonstrates how modern analytical and computer technology can be used in the field of ink examination and how tools developed and successfully applied in other fields of forensic science can help maximising its impact within the field of questioned documents.

International trends in health science librarianship: part 4--four Southern European countries.

This is the fourth in a series of articles exploring international trends in health science librarianship in four Southern European countries in the first decade of the 21st century. The invited authors are from Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal. Future issues will track trends in Latin America and Central Europe.

The Early Toarcian anoxia, a synchronous event in the Western Tethys? An approach by quantitative biochronology (Unitary Associations), applied on calcareous nannofossils

During the Early Toarcian, major paleoenvironnemental and paleoceanographical changes occurred, leading to an oceanic anoxic event (OAE) and to a perturbation of the carbon isotope cycle. Although the standard biochronology of the Lower Jurassic is essentially based upon ammonites, in recent years biostratigraphy based on calcareous nannofossils and dinoflagellate cysts is increasingly used to date Jurassic rocks. However, the precise dating and correlation of the Early Toarcian OAE, and of the associated delta C-13 anomaly in different settings of the western Tethys, are still partly problematic, and it is still unclear whether these events are synchronous or not. In order to allow more accurate correlations of the organic rich levels recorded in the Lower Toarcian OAE, this account proposes a new biozonation based on a quantitative biochronology approach, the Unitary Associations (UA), applied to calcareous nannofossils. This study represents the first attempt to apply the UA method to Jurassic nannofossils. The study incorporates eighteen sections distributed across western Tethys and ranging from the Pliensbachian to Aalenian, comprising 1220 samples and 72 calcareous nannofossil taxa. The BioGraph [Savary, J., Guex, J., 1999. Discrete biochronological scales and unitary associations: description of the Biograph Computer program. Memoires de Geologie de Lausanne 34, 282 pp] and UA-Graph (Copyright Hammer O., Guex and Savary, 2002) softwares provide a discrete biochronological framework based upon multi-taxa concurrent range zones in the different sections. The optimized dataset generates nine UAs using the co-occurrences of 56 taxa. These UAs are grouped into six Unitary Association Zones (UA-Z), which constitute a robust biostratigraphic synthesis of all the observed or deduced biostratigraphic relationships between the analysed taxa. The UA zonation proposed here is compared to ``classic'' calcareous nannofossil biozonations, which are commonly used for the southern and the northern sides of Tethys. The biostratigraphic resolution of the UA-Zones varies from one nannofossil subzone or part of it to several subzones, and can be related to the pattern of calcareous nannoplankton originations and extinctions during the studied time interval. The Late Pliensbachian - Early Toarcian interval (corresponding to the UA-Z II) represents a major step in the Jurassic nannoplankton radiation. The recognized UA-Zones are also compared to the carbon isotopic negative excursion and TOC maximum in five sections of central Italy, Germany and England, with the aim of providing a more reliable correlation tool for the Early Toarcian OAE, and of the associated isotopic anomaly, between the southern and northern part of western Tethys. The results of this work show that the TOC maximum and delta C-13 negative excursion correspond to the upper part of the UA-Z II (i.e., UA 3) in the sections analysed. This suggests that the Early Toarcian OAE was a synchronous event within the western Tethys. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Nucleotide sequence of the 5' noncoding region and part of the gag gene of mouse mammary tumor virus; identification of the 5' splicing site for subgenomic mRNAs.

We have determined the sequence of the first 1371 nucleotides at the 5' end of the genome of mouse mammary tumor virus using molecularly cloned proviral DNA of the GR virus strain. The most likely initiation codon used for the gag gene of mouse mammary tumor virus is the first one, located 312 nucleotides from the 5' end of the viral RNA. The 5' splicing site for the subgenomic mRNA's is located approximately 288 nucleotides downstream from the 5' end of the viral RNA. From the DNA sequence the amino acid sequence of the N-terminal half of the gag precursor protein, including p10 and p21, was deduced (353 amino acids).

Patients' and physicians' preferences for type 2 diabetes mellitus treatments in Spain and Portugal: a discrete choice experiment.

OBJECTIVE To assess Spanish and Portuguese patients' and physicians' preferences regarding type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) treatments and the monthly willingness to pay (WTP) to gain benefits or avoid side effects. METHODS An observational, multicenter, exploratory study focused on routine clinical practice in Spain and Portugal. Physicians were recruited from multiple hospitals and outpatient clinics, while patients were recruited from eleven centers operating in the public health care system in different autonomous communities in Spain and Portugal. Preferences were measured via a discrete choice experiment by rating multiple T2DM medication attributes. Data were analyzed using the conditional logit model. RESULTS Three-hundred and thirty (n=330) patients (49.7% female; mean age 62.4 [SD: 10.3] years, mean T2DM duration 13.9 [8.2] years, mean body mass index 32.5 [6.8] kg/m(2), 41.8% received oral + injected medication, 40.3% received oral, and 17.6% injected treatments) and 221 physicians from Spain and Portugal (62% female; mean age 41.9 [SD: 10.5] years, 33.5% endocrinologists, 66.5% primary-care doctors) participated. Patients valued avoiding a gain in bodyweight of 3 kg/6 months (WTP: €68.14 [95% confidence interval: 54.55-85.08]) the most, followed by avoiding one hypoglycemic event/month (WTP: €54.80 [23.29-82.26]). Physicians valued avoiding one hypoglycemia/week (WTP: €287.18 [95% confidence interval: 160.31-1,387.21]) the most, followed by avoiding a 3 kg/6 months gain in bodyweight and decreasing cardiovascular risk (WTP: €166.87 [88.63-843.09] and €154.30 [98.13-434.19], respectively). Physicians and patients were willing to pay €125.92 (73.30-622.75) and €24.28 (18.41-30.31), respectively, to avoid a 1% increase in glycated hemoglobin, and €143.30 (73.39-543.62) and €42.74 (23.89-61.77) to avoid nausea. CONCLUSION Both patients and physicians in Spain and Portugal are willing to pay for the health benefits associated with improved diabetes treatment, the most important being to avoid hypoglycemia and gaining weight. Decreased cardiovascular risk and weight reduction became the third most valued attributes for physicians and patients, respectively.

The biochemistry of drug metabolism-an introduction: part 7. Intra-individual factors affecting drug metabolism.

This review on intra-individual factors affecting drug metabolism completes our series on the biochemistry of drug metabolism. The article presents the molecular mechanisms causing intra-individual differences in enzyme expression and activity. They include enzyme induction by transcriptional activation and enzyme inhibition on the protein level. The influencing factors are of physiological, pathological, or external origin. Tissue characteristics and developmental age strongly influence enzyme-expression patterns. Further influencing factors are pregnancy, disease, or biological rhythms. Xenobiotics, drugs, constituents of herbal remedies, food constituents, ethanol, and tobacco can all influence enzyme expression or activity and, hence, affect drug metabolism.