Nutrición y anemias en pacientes graves

INTRODUCTION: We made a clinical study, about nutrition in seriously ill patients, which includes a typical heterogeneous group of critical ill patients, with/without anaemia's, that have been admitted to Intensive Care Unit, ICU. It is difficult to individualize and to generalize the relative importance of all the factors that can contribute to these anaemia's in the admission to the Unit, including nutritional deficiencies, inflammatory alterations, the immune response to aggressions, inmunitary modifications and the complex relations existing between these clinic processes. OBJECTIVE: Indirect valuation of the nutritional situation and anaemia's, in a typical heterogeneous group of critical ill patients. METHOD/RESULTS: We studied 202 patients admitted to ICU, of varied and heterogeneous origin, classifying them in 3 groups: control, post surgery and septic group's, becoming the indirect valuation of the nutritional situation on the basis of: Global Subjective Valuation, (VGS) and the nutritional analytical determinations of total lymphocytes, albumin, and transferrin. Also we made hemogram and determinations of sideremia and ferritinemia to all of them. In 57% of the patients, we observed levels haemoglobin < 12.5 g/dl, basically in the post surgery groups, 68 patients and septic group's, 10 patients. And with levels haemoglobin < 10 g/dl, in 25 patient's (12.3%). There were 87 patients, 23 of them in the control group's, 58 in the post surgery and 5 septic group's, with levels haemoglobin > 12.5 g/dl. Regarding the nutritional prognoses indicators, (VGS + nutritional profile), in the control group's, they did not present anaemia nor analytical clinical under nourishment, in the post surgery group's, anaemia and slight under nourishment and in the septic group's, anaemia and moderate under nourishment. There were significant differences between the surgery and septic group and control group's, in values of haemoglobin, iron, total lymphocytes, transferrin and albumin. A statistical correlation between sideremia and albumin was significative. (Spearman's Rho 0,277). CONCLUSIONS: The evaluation of the anaemia and nutritional valuation. and the ferroterapic treatment, as immune-nutrient, can be beneficial for the integrity of the immune system and its defense's abilities against the aggressions in critically ills.

Statistical modeling on coordinates

This paper is a first draft of the principle of statistical modelling on coordinates. Several causes —which would be long to detail—have led to this situation close to the deadline for submitting papers to CODAWORK’03. The main of them is the fast development of the approach along thelast months, which let appear previous drafts as obsolete. The present paper contains the essential parts of the state of the art of this approach from my point of view. I would like to acknowledge many clarifying discussions with the group of people working in this field in Girona, Barcelona, Carrick Castle, Firenze, Berlin, G¨ottingen, and Freiberg. They have given a lot of suggestions and ideas. Nevertheless, there might be still errors or unclear aspects which are exclusively my fault. I hope this contribution serves as a basis for further discussions and new developments

Kinetoplastid membrane protein-11 is present in promastigotes and amastigotes of Leishmania amazonensis and its surface expression increases during metacyclogenesis

Kinetoplastid membrane protein-11 (KMP-11), a protein present in all kinetoplastid protozoa, is considered a potential candidate for a leishmaniasis vaccine. A suitable leishmaniasis vaccine candidate molecule must be expressed in amastigotes, the infective stage for mammals. However, the expression of KMP-11 in Leishmania amastigotes has been a subject of controversy. We evaluated the expression of this molecule in logarithmic and stationary growth phase promastigotes, as well as in amastigotes, of Leishmania amazonensis by immunoblotting, flow cytometry and immunocytochemistry, using a monoclonal antibody against KMP-11. We found that KMP-11 is present in promastigotes and amastigotes. In both stages, the protein was found in association with membrane structures (at the cell surface, flagellar pocket and intracellular vesicles). More importantly, its surface expression is higher in amastigotes than in promastigotes and increases during metacyclogenesis. The increased expression of KMP-11 in metacyclic promastigotes, and especially in amastigotes, indicates a role for this molecule in the parasite relationship with the mammalian host. The presence of this molecule in amastigotes is consistent with the previously demonstrated immunoprotective capacity of vaccine prototypes based on the KMP-11-coding gene and the presence of humoral and cellular immune responses to KMP-11 in Leishmania-infected humans and animals.

PRIM an Open Mobile Robot Platform. Motivation, Present and Future Trends

This paper is focused on the robot mobile platform PRIM (platform robot information multimedia). This robot has been made in order to cover two main needs of our group, on one hand the need for a full open mobile robotic platform that is very useful in fulfilling the teaching and research activity of our school community, and on the other hand with the idea of introducing an ethical product which would be useful as mobile multimedia information point as a service tool. This paper introduces exactly how the system is made up and explains just what the philosophy is behind this work. The navigation strategies and sensor fusion, where machine vision system is the most important one, are oriented towards goal achievement and are the key to the behaviour of the robot

Comparative genomics of ParaHox clusters of teleost fishes: gene cluster breakup and the retention of gene sets following whole genome duplications.

BACKGROUND: The evolutionary lineage leading to the teleost fish underwent a whole genome duplication termed FSGD or 3R in addition to two prior genome duplications that took place earlier during vertebrate evolution (termed 1R and 2R). Resulting from the FSGD, additional copies of genes are present in fish, compared to tetrapods whose lineage did not experience the 3R genome duplication. Interestingly, we find that ParaHox genes do not differ in number in extant teleost fishes despite their additional genome duplication from the genomic situation in mammals, but they are distributed over twice as many paralogous regions in fish genomes. RESULTS: We determined the DNA sequence of the entire ParaHox C1 paralogon in the East African cichlid fish Astatotilapia burtoni, and compared it to orthologous regions in other vertebrate genomes as well as to the paralogous vertebrate ParaHox D paralogons. Evolutionary relationships among genes from these four chromosomal regions were studied with several phylogenetic algorithms. We provide evidence that the genes of the ParaHox C paralogous cluster are duplicated in teleosts, just as it had been shown previously for the D paralogon genes. Overall, however, synteny and cluster integrity seems to be less conserved in ParaHox gene clusters than in Hox gene clusters. Comparative analyses of non-coding sequences uncovered conserved, possibly co-regulatory elements, which are likely to contain promoter motives of the genes belonging to the ParaHox paralogons. CONCLUSION: There seems to be strong stabilizing selection for gene order as well as gene orientation in the ParaHox C paralogon, since with a few exceptions, only the lengths of the introns and intergenic regions differ between the distantly related species examined. The high degree of evolutionary conservation of this gene cluster's architecture in particular - but possibly clusters of genes more generally - might be linked to the presence of promoter, enhancer or inhibitor motifs that serve to regulate more than just one gene. Therefore, deletions, inversions or relocations of individual genes could destroy the regulation of the clustered genes in this region. The existence of such a regulation network might explain the evolutionary conservation of gene order and orientation over the course of hundreds of millions of years of vertebrate evolution. Another possible explanation for the highly conserved gene order might be the existence of a regulator not located immediately next to its corresponding gene but further away since a relocation or inversion would possibly interrupt this interaction. Different ParaHox clusters were found to have experienced differential gene loss in teleosts. Yet the complete set of these homeobox genes was maintained, albeit distributed over almost twice the number of chromosomes. Selection due to dosage effects and/or stoichiometric disturbance might act more strongly to maintain a modal number of homeobox genes (and possibly transcription factors more generally) per genome, yet permit the accumulation of other (non regulatory) genes associated with these homeobox gene clusters.

Some biological data on cetaceans populations present in the western coasts of Ireland

Ireland’s waters constitute one of the richest habitats for cetaceans in Europe. Marine mammals, particularly cetaceans, are known to be definitive hosts of digestive parasites from the Fm.Anisakidae. The main aim of this study is to collect and compile all the information available out there regarding parasites of the Fm. Anisakidae and their definitive hosts. Secondary objectives are to relate the presence of cetacean species with the presence of parasites of the Fm. Anisakidae and to determine whether this greater number of cetaceans relates to a greater level of parasitism. Prevalence and burdens of anisakids in definitive hosts vary widely with host species, geographic location, and season. Results from several post-mortem exams are given. However, they cannot be compared due to differences in collecting techniques. Anisakis simplex is the most commonly and widespread parasite found in the majority of the samples and in a majornumber of hosts, which include harbour porpoise, short-beaked common dolphin and bottlenose dolphin. Studies on harbour porpoise obtained prevalences of Anisakis spp. of 46% (n=26) and of 100% (n= 12). Another study in common dolphin reported a prevalence of 68% (n=25). Several reasons could influence the variations in the presence of Anisakis. Studies on commerciallyexploited fish have reported prevalences of Anisakis simplex ranging from 65-100% in wildAtlantic salmon and from 42-53.4% in Atlantic cod

¿Quién acompaña a los pacientes a la consulta pediátrica? El acompañante de los pacientes pediátricos en Atención Primaria

Introduction: today, cultural changes may have changed the usual pattern of the mother as the accompanying person in the pediatric office. Objetives: descriptive analysis of the current situation in the pediatrics office. Material and methods: Las Delicias Health Center (health district of Malaga). Selected sample of 250 patients between the periods 1-15 July and 15-30 September, 2011. Results: in most cases (54.8%), the mother stands as the main accompanying person, appearing both parents in the consultation in 16.4% of cases. The figure of the grandparents is of special significance when the mother is an active worker. Most consultations were on-demand by appointment (82.4%), for acute symptoms, with symptoms lasting less than 3 days in most cases (59.2%). Discussion: the mother is presented as the main accompanying person in most cases. The father or grandparents will be present in front of social-cultural factors, mainly active employment status of the mother.

El futuro de la sanidad ambiental en Andalucía: oportunidades de mejora.

In the present article is presented a portrait of the situation of the environmental health in the administration of Andalusian Goverment; are analyzed implanted management formulations and we believe a reflection space on the professional exercise and the course begun with the organizational process in the Andalusian public health. The public health system has not undergone reconstruction from the process of transferences from the State towards the autonomous Communities. We identified the extrapolation of the model clinicalassistance management to the public health structures without delving what is sufficient in their organization and objectives. Setting of business process management (BMP) has got worse the administrative bureaucracy and the teamwork has not been preceded of alliances and agreements that generate feeling of ownership the same organization to avoid professional conflicts. We bet on strengthening the paper of the environmental health technicians as referring in the identification of this performances within public health system. For this propose we need the implication of all the professionals in the reform of the organization and management of the health public, to evolve in the professional exercise creating a regulated academic specialty and to define the competences maps in their different capabilites areas.