Generació de documents en application/pdf a partir d'una estructura XML

Aquesta memòria vol mostrar que la tecnologia XML és la millor alternativa per a afrontar el repte tecnològic existent en els sistemes d'extracció d'informació de les aplicacions de nova generació. Aquests sistemes, d'una banda, han de garantir la seva independència respecte dels esquemes de les bases de dades dels quals s'alimenten i, de l'altra, han de ser capaços de mostrar la informació en múltiples formats.

On ubiquitin ligases and cancer.

Protein kinase genes account for almost 10% of all currently known cancer genes, highlighting the role of signal transduction in oncogenesis. A reexamination of the literature and available databases shows that E3 ubiquitin ligases are also key mediators of tumorigenesis. Altogether kinase and E3 genes represent more than 15% of the known cancer genes, underlining the importance of phosphorylation and ubiquitylation signaling pathways in cancer formation. Considering the recent literature reporting correlations between alterations in ubiquitylation processes and oncogenesis, this percentage is likely to increase even further in the future. Finally, E3 genes could serve as baits for the identification of additional cancer genes (e.g. their interacting partners). In contrast, deubiquitinases, like phosphatases, are not overrepresented among cancer genes. The same holds for E1 and E2 genes. Thus, kinase and E3 genes represent primary targets as cancer susceptibility genes for mutation screening and for the design of novel therapies.

Detection rate of FNA cytology in medullary thyroid carcinoma: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: The early detection of medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) can improve patient prognosis, because histological stage and patient age at diagnosis are highly relevant prognostic factors. As a consequence, delay in the diagnosis and/or incomplete surgical treatment should correlate with a poorer prognosis for patients. Few papers have evaluated the specific capability of fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) to detect MTC, and small series have been reported. This study conducts a meta-analysis of published data on the diagnostic performance of FNAC in MTC to provide more robust estimates. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: A comprehensive computer literature search of the PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase and Scopus databases was conducted by searching for the terms 'medullary thyroid' AND 'cytology', 'FNA', 'FNAB', 'FNAC', 'fine needle' or 'fine-needle'. The search was updated until 21 March 2014, and no language restrictions were used. RESULTS: Fifteen relevant studies and 641 MTC lesions that had undergone FNAC were included. The detection rate (DR) of FNAC in patients with MTC (diagnosed as 'MTC' or 'suspicious for MTC') on a per lesion-based analysis ranged from 12·5% to 88·2%, with a pooled estimate of 56·4% (95% CI: 52·6-60·1%). The included studies were statistically heterogeneous in their estimates of DR (I-square >50%). Egger's regression intercept for DR pooling was 0·03 (95% CI: -3·1 to 3·2, P = 0·9). The study that reported the largest MTC series had a DR of 45%. Data on immunohistochemistry for calcitonin in diagnosing MTC were inconsistent for the meta-analysis. CONCLUSIONS: The presented meta-analysis demonstrates that FNAC is able to detect approximately one-half of MTC lesions. These findings suggest that other techniques may be needed in combination with FNAC to diagnose MTC and avoid false negative results.

Current genetic data do not improve the prediction of type 2 diabetes mellitus: the CoLaus study.

CONTEXT: Several genetic risk scores to identify asymptomatic subjects at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) have been proposed, but it is unclear whether they add extra information to risk scores based on clinical and biological data. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to assess the extra clinical value of genetic risk scores in predicting the occurrence of T2DM. DESIGN: This was a prospective study, with a mean follow-up time of 5 yr. SETTING AND SUBJECTS: The study included 2824 nondiabetic participants (1548 women, 52 ± 10 yr). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Six genetic risk scores for T2DM were tested. Four were derived from the literature and two were created combining all (n = 24) or shared (n = 9) single-nucleotide polymorphisms of the previous scores. A previously validated clinic + biological risk score for T2DM was used as reference. RESULTS: Two hundred seven participants (7.3%) developed T2DM during follow-up. On bivariate analysis, no differences were found for all but one genetic score between nondiabetic and diabetic participants. After adjusting for the validated clinic + biological risk score, none of the genetic scores improved discrimination, as assessed by changes in the area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (range -0.4 to -0.1%), sensitivity (-2.9 to -1.0%), specificity (0.0-0.1%), and positive (-6.6 to +0.7%) and negative (-0.2 to 0.0%) predictive values. Similarly, no improvement in T2DM risk prediction was found: net reclassification index ranging from -5.3 to -1.6% and nonsignificant (P ≥ 0.49) integrated discrimination improvement. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, adding genetic information to a previously validated clinic + biological score does not seem to improve the prediction of T2DM.

Construcción y explotación de un almacén de datos para el análisis de información inmobiliaria

L'objectiu fonamental d'aquest TFC és la creació i posada en funcionament d'un magatzem de dades, partint de la informació procedent de bases de dades transaccionals.

The effectiveness of brief alcohol interventions in primary care settings: A systematic review

Numerous studies have reported that brief interventions delivered in primary care are effective in reducing excessive drinking. However, much of this work has been criticised for being clinically unrepresentative. This review aimed to assess the effectiveness of brief interventions in primary care and determine if outcomes differ between efficacy and effectiveness trials. Approach. A pre-specified search strategy was used to search all relevant electronic databases up to 2006. The authors also hand-searched the reference lists of key articles and reviews. They included randomised controlled trials (RCT) involving patients in primary care who were not seeking alcohol treatment and who received brief intervention. Two authors independently abstracted data and assessed trial quality. Random effects meta-analyses, subgroup and sensitivity analyses and meta-regression were conducted.This resource was contributed by The National Documentation Centre on Drug Use.

Social support group interventions in people with dementia and mild cognitive impairment: a systematic review of the literature

Abstract Despite the large number of studies evaluating social support groups for people with dementia, there are no systematic reviews of current evidence.The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of social support group interventions for people with dementia and mild cognitive impairment.A systematic review was performed. We searched electronic databases for randomised controlled trials. Two reviewers worked independently to select trials, extract data and assess risk of bias. A total of 546 studies were identified of which two met the inclusion criteria. We were not able to pool data for further analyses, as the interventions tested in the studies meeting the inclusion criteria were too dissimilar in content.The first trial (n = 136) showed a benefit of early-stage memory loss social support groups for depression and quality of life in people with dementia.The second trial (n = 33) showed that post-treatment self-reported self-esteem was higher in the group receiving a multicomponent intervention of social support compared with that in the no intervention control group.Limited data from two studies suggest that support groups may be of psychological benefit to people with dementia by reducing depression and improving quality of life and self-esteem.These findings need to be viewed in light of the small number, small sample size and heterogeneous characteristics of current trials, indicating that it is difficult to draw any conclusions. More multicentre randomised controlled trials in social support group interventions for people with dementia are needed.������������

The Eukaryotic Promoter Database EPD: the impact of in silico primer extension.

The Eukaryotic Promoter Database (EPD) is an annotated non-redundant collection of eukaryotic POL II promoters, experimentally defined by a transcription start site (TSS). There may be multiple promoter entries for a single gene. The underlying experimental evidence comes from journal articles and, starting from release 73, from 5' ESTs of full-length cDNA clones used for so-called in silico primer extension. Access to promoter sequences is provided by pointers to TSS positions in nucleotide sequence entries. The annotation part of an EPD entry includes a description of the type and source of the initiation site mapping data, links to other biological databases and bibliographic references. EPD is structured in a way that facilitates dynamic extraction of biologically meaningful promoter subsets for comparative sequence analysis. Web-based interfaces have been developed that enable the user to view EPD entries in different formats, to select and extract promoter sequences according to a variety of criteria and to navigate to related databases exploiting different cross-references. Tools for analysing sequence motifs around TSSs defined in EPD are provided by the signal search analysis server. EPD can be accessed at http://www.epd. isb-sib.ch.

The feature of papers and citation analysis of eleven journals in tropical medicine indexed by Science Citation Index Expanded

To determine the features of papers, authors, and citation of eleven journals in tropical medicine indexed by Science Citation Index Expanded, the database of the Institute for Scientific Information, we analyzed original articles, editorials, reviews, corrections, letters, biographies, and news published in these journals. The results show that these journals covered 107 countries or regions on six continents. The average number of reference was 23.05, with 87.89% of the references from periodicals. The Price Index was 31.43% and the self-citing rate was 7.02%. The references in the first 20 journals ranked by the amount of citation accounted for 36.71% of the total citations. Brazil, United States, India, and England are more advanced in tropical medicine research. The conclusion is that these journals covered most research done in these countries or regions. Most researches were done by cooperation of the researchers, but many of the publications used outdated articles and should include newer information.

Generació automàtica de l'esquema de bases de dades relacional d'una aplicació a partir del seu diagrama de classes representat en XML i creació automàtica d'interfícies de control d'intercanvi d'informació

En aquest projecte, amb la finalitat d'analitzar per mitjà d'un exemple (la base de dades d'una botiga que opera en línia) algunes de les possibilitats que dóna XML, s'ha construït un sistema que permet generar bases de dades relacionals (amb SQL) a partir de diagrames de classes definits en XML. D?aquesta manera es mostra la flexibilitat que aporta XML a la definició, el processament i la transformació dels documents.

Electronic monitoring of compliance to lipid-lowering therapy in clinical practice

Nonadherence to treatment is a common problem in the clinical management of hypercholesterolemic patients. This study was carried out with the aim of monitoring the daily compliance to a 6-month course of lipid-lowering therapy, using a microelectronic device, the Medication Event Monitoring System (MEMS), versus pill count. Forty men with primary hypercholesterolemia were prescribed fluvastatin 1 x 40 mg daily, provided in a MEMS package to record the date and time of each opening of the pillbox. Thirty-nine of 40 patients (98%) completed the study. Total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol levels decreased significantly (18% and 25%, p < 0.001) during the 6-month therapy period. A high mean rate of compliance was achieved by MEMS using the following three indexes--compliance to total prescribed dose (88.8% +/- 13.5%), compliance to prescribed days (82.4% +/- 19.5%), and compliance to prescribed time of day (81.86% +/- 19.5%)--and by pill count (93.4% +/- 9.5%). In addition, the MEMS provided some patterns of nonadherence to medication, undetectable by pill count alone, such as a drug holiday in 38% of cases, a drug omission for more than 7 consecutive days in 9% of cases, and, conversely, use of more than the one prescribed daily dose in 47% of cases. A significant correlation between the rate of compliance and the decrease in LDL cholesterol was observed only when the compliance was assessed by MEMS. The results indicate that MEMS is a useful tool for monitoring compliance in clinical practice and may possibly increase adherence to long-term lipid-lowering therapy.

The ENCODE (ENCyclopedia Of DNA Elements) Project.

The ENCyclopedia Of DNA Elements (ENCODE) Project aims to identify all functional elements in the human genome sequence. The pilot phase of the Project is focused on a specified 30 megabases (approximately 1%) of the human genome sequence and is organized as an international consortium of computational and laboratory-based scientists working to develop and apply high-throughput approaches for detecting all sequence elements that confer biological function. The results of this pilot phase will guide future efforts to analyze the entire human genome.

Gestió de factures electròniques TFC Microsoft .NET

El projecte genera un entorn personalitzat de gestió de factures electròniques utilitzant Visual Studio Tools, l¿entorn permet gestionar les bases de dades dels clients i dels productes oferts, generar factures i enviar-les via correu electrònic als clients en diferents formats (PDF o Word).

Improving binding affinity and stability of peptide ligands by substituting glycines with D-amino acids.

Improving the binding affinity and/or stability of peptide ligands often requires testing of large numbers of variants to identify beneficial mutations. Herein we propose a type of mutation that promises a high success rate. In a bicyclic peptide inhibitor of the cancer-related protease urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA), we observed a glycine residue that has a positive ϕ dihedral angle when bound to the target. We hypothesized that replacing it with a D-amino acid, which favors positive ϕ angles, could enhance the binding affinity and/or proteolytic resistance. Mutation of this specific glycine to D-serine in the bicyclic peptide indeed improved inhibitory activity (1.75-fold) and stability (fourfold). X-ray-structure analysis of the inhibitors in complex with uPA showed that the peptide backbone conformation was conserved. Analysis of known cyclic peptide ligands showed that glycine is one of the most frequent amino acids, and that glycines with positive ϕ angles are found in many protein-bound peptides. These results suggest that the glycine-to-D-amino acid mutagenesis strategy could be broadly applied.

Instruments measuring spirituality in clinical research: a systematic review.

INTRODUCTION: Numerous instruments have been developed to assess spirituality and measure its association with health outcomes. This study's aims were to identify instruments used in clinical research that measure spirituality; to propose a classification of these instruments; and to identify those instruments that could provide information on the need for spiritual intervention. METHODS: A systematic literature search in MEDLINE, CINHAL, PsycINFO, ATLA, and EMBASE databases, using the terms "spirituality" and "adult$," and limited to journal articles was performed to identify clinical studies that used a spiritual assessment instrument. For each instrument identified, measured constructs, intended goals, and data on psychometric properties were retrieved. A conceptual and a functional classification of instruments were developed. RESULTS: Thirty-five instruments were retrieved and classified into measures of general spirituality (N = 22), spiritual well-being (N = 5), spiritual coping (N = 4), and spiritual needs (N = 4) according to the conceptual classification. Instruments most frequently used in clinical research were the FACIT-Sp and the Spiritual Well-Being Scale. Data on psychometric properties were mostly limited to content validity and inter-item reliability. According to the functional classification, 16 instruments were identified that included at least one item measuring a current spiritual state, but only three of those appeared suitable to address the need for spiritual intervention. CONCLUSIONS: Instruments identified in this systematic review assess multiple dimensions of spirituality, and the proposed classifications should help clinical researchers interested in investigating the complex relationship between spirituality and health. Findings underscore the scarcity of instruments specifically designed to measure a patient's current spiritual state. Moreover, the relatively limited data available on psychometric properties of these instruments highlight the need for additional research to determine whether they are suitable in identifying the need for spiritual interventions.