A new approach for potential drug target discovery through in silico metabolic pathway analysis using Trypanosoma cruzi genome information

The current drug options for the treatment of chronic Chagas disease have not been sufficient and high hopes have been placed on the use of genomic data from the human parasite Trypanosoma cruzi to identify new drug targets and develop appropriate treatments for both acute and chronic Chagas disease. However, the lack of a complete assembly of the genomic sequence and the presence of many predicted proteins with unknown or unsure functions has hampered our complete view of the parasite's metabolic pathways. Moreover, pinpointing new drug targets has proven to be more complex than anticipated and has revealed large holes in our understanding of metabolic pathways and their integrated regulation, not only for this parasite, but for many other similar pathogens. Using an in silicocomparative study on pathway annotation and searching for analogous and specific enzymes, we have been able to predict a considerable number of additional enzymatic functions in T. cruzi. Here we focus on the energetic pathways, such as glycolysis, the pentose phosphate shunt, the Krebs cycle and lipid metabolism. We point out many enzymes that are analogous to those of the human host, which could be potential new therapeutic targets.

Current status of pediatric home enteral nutrition in Spain: the importance of the NEPAD register.

Home enteral nutrition (HEN) is a type of enteral nutrition (EN) which is becoming progressively more widespread in pediatrics due to the benefits it affords to patients, their families and to reducing hospital costs. However, the true extent of its use is unknown in Spain as the data-base set up for this purpose is still underused (Registro de Nutrición Enteral Pediátrica Ambulatoria y Domiciliaria -NEPAD-). More thorough registration of patients in the NEPAD online register will provide information about the characteristics of HEN in Spain: prevalence, diagnosis, the population sector being administered HEN, complications and developments. Likewise, forecast and planning of the necessary resources could be made while those in use could be analysed.

Promoción de la salud bucodental en el ámbito escolar : "programa aprende a sonreír" : propuesta didáctica

En port.: Secretaría General de Salud Pública y Participación. Consejería de Salud. Dirección General de Innovación Educativa. Consejería de Educación. Publicado en la página web de la Consejería de Salud: www.juntadeandalucia.es/salud (Consejería de Salud / Ciudadanía / Nuestra Salud / Vida sana / Salud bucodental / Materiales para la Salud Bucodental Infantil)

Tabla de equivalencias entre la Organización Diagnóstica de Atención Temprana (ODAT) y la Clasificación Internacional de Enfermedades (CIE) [Recurso electrónico]

Publicado en la página web de la Consejería de Salud y Bienestar Social: www.juntadeandalucia.es/salud (Consejería de Salud y Bienestar Social/ Profesionales / Salud Pública /Prevención / Atención Temprana /)

Improving Clustering Algorithms for Image Segmentation using Contour and Region Information

In image segmentation, clustering algorithms are very popular because they are intuitive and, some of them, easy to implement. For instance, the k-means is one of the most used in the literature, and many authors successfully compare their new proposal with the results achieved by the k-means. However, it is well known that clustering image segmentation has many problems. For instance, the number of regions of the image has to be known a priori, as well as different initial seed placement (initial clusters) could produce different segmentation results. Most of these algorithms could be slightly improved by considering the coordinates of the image as features in the clustering process (to take spatial region information into account). In this paper we propose a significant improvement of clustering algorithms for image segmentation. The method is qualitatively and quantitative evaluated over a set of synthetic and real images, and compared with classical clustering approaches. Results demonstrate the validity of this new approach

A new approach to real time traffic sign recognition based on colour information

The automatic interpretation of conventional traffic signs is very complex and time consuming. The paper concerns an automatic warning system for driving assistance. It does not interpret the standard traffic signs on the roadside; the proposal is to incorporate into the existing signs another type of traffic sign whose information will be more easily interpreted by a processor. The type of information to be added is profuse and therefore the most important object is the robustness of the system. The basic proposal of this new philosophy is that the co-pilot system for automatic warning and driving assistance can interpret with greater ease the information contained in the new sign, whilst the human driver only has to interpret the "classic" sign. One of the codings that has been tested with good results and which seems to us easy to implement is that which has a rectangular shape and 4 vertical bars of different colours. The size of these signs is equivalent to the size of the conventional signs (approximately 0.4 m2). The colour information from the sign can be easily interpreted by the proposed processor and the interpretation is much easier and quicker than the information shown by the pictographs of the classic signs

Human Exposure to Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals and Prenatal Risk Factors for Cryptorchidism and Hypospadias: A Nested Case-Control Study

BACKGROUND. Exposure to xenoestrogens during pregnancy may disturb the development and function of male sexual organs. OBJECTIVE. In this study we aimed to determine whether the combined effect of environmental estrogens measured as total effective xenoestrogen burden (TEXB) is a risk factor for male urogenital malformations. METHODS. In a case-control study, nested in a mother-child cohort (n = 702) established at Granada University Hospital, we compared 50 newborns with diagnosis of cryptorchidism and/or hypospadias with 114 boys without malformations matched by gestational age, date of birth, and parity. Controls did not differ from the total cohort in confounding variables. TEXB and levels of 16 organochlorine pesticides were measured in placenta tissues. Characteristics of parents, pregnancy, and birth were gathered by questionnaire. We used conditional and unconditional regression models to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS. TEXB from organohalogenated compounds was detectable in 72% and 54% of case and control placentas, respectively. Compared with controls, cases had an OR for detectable versus non-detectable TEXB of 2.82 (95% CI, 1.10-7.24). More pesticides were detected in cases than in controls (9.34 +/- 3.19 vs. 6.97 +/- 3.93). ORs for cases with detectable levels of pesticides, after adjusting for potential confounders in the conditional regression analysis, were o,p'-DDT (OR = 2.25; 95% CI, 1.03-4.89), p,p'-DDT (OR = 2.63; 95% CI, 1.21-5.72), lindane (OR = 3.38; 95% CI, 1.36-8.38), mirex (OR = 2.85; 95% CI, 1.22-6.66), and endosulfan alpha (OR = 2.19; 95% CI, 0.99-4.82). Engagement of mothers in agriculture (OR = 3.47; 95% CI, 1.33-9.03), fathers' occupational exposure to xenoestrogens (OR = 2.98; 95% CI, 1.11-8.01), and history of previous stillbirths (OR = 4.20; 95% CI, 1.11-16.66) were also associated with risk of malformations. CONCLUSIONS We found an increased risk for male urogenital malformations related to the combined effect of environmental estrogens in placenta.

Abstracting qualitative information for process supervision

Supervisory systems evolution makes the obtaining of significant information from processes more important in the way that the supervision systems' particular tasks are simplified. So, having signal treatment tools capable of obtaining elaborate information from the process data is important. In this paper, a tool that obtains qualitative data about the trends and oscillation of signals is presented. An application of this tool is presented as well. In this case, the tool, implemented in a computer-aided control systems design (CACSD) environment, is used in order to give to an expert system for fault detection in a laboratory plant

Shape complexity based on mutual information

Shape complexity has recently received attention from different fields, such as computer vision and psychology. In this paper, integral geometry and information theory tools are applied to quantify the shape complexity from two different perspectives: from the inside of the object, we evaluate its degree of structure or correlation between its surfaces (inner complexity), and from the outside, we compute its degree of interaction with the circumscribing sphere (outer complexity). Our shape complexity measures are based on the following two facts: uniformly distributed global lines crossing an object define a continuous information channel and the continuous mutual information of this channel is independent of the object discretisation and invariant to translations, rotations, and changes of scale. The measures introduced in this paper can be potentially used as shape descriptors for object recognition, image retrieval, object localisation, tumour analysis, and protein docking, among others

An information theoretic framework for image segmentation

In this paper, an information theoretic framework for image segmentation is presented. This approach is based on the information channel that goes from the image intensity histogram to the regions of the partitioned image. It allows us to define a new family of segmentation methods which maximize the mutual information of the channel. Firstly, a greedy top-down algorithm which partitions an image into homogeneous regions is introduced. Secondly, a histogram quantization algorithm which clusters color bins in a greedy bottom-up way is defined. Finally, the resulting regions in the partitioning algorithm can optionally be merged using the quantized histogram

Andalusian Health Repository: Promoting the scientific health output among professionals and providing citizens with quality health information

The Andalusian Public Health System (Sistema Sanitario Público de Andalucía -SSPA) Repository is the open environment where all the scientific output generated by the SSPA professionals, resulting from their medical care, research and administrative activities, is comprehensively collected and managed. This repository possesses special features which determined its development: the SSPA organization and its purpose as a health institution, the specific sets of documents that it generates and the stakeholders involved in it. The repository uses DSpace 1.6.2, to which several changes were implemented in order to achieve the SSPA initial goals and requirements. The main changes were: the addition of specific qualifiers to the Metadata Dublin Core scheme, the modification of the submission form, the integration of the MeSH Thesaurus as controlled vocabulary and the optimization of the advanced search tool. Another key point during the setting up of the repository was the initial batch ingest of the documents.

NUTRISOL: un programa informático para la evaluación nutricional comunitaria y hospitalaria de acceso libre.

We have developed the computer programme NUTRISOL, a nutritional programme destined to analysis of dietary intake by means of the food transformation to nutrient. It has been performed under Windows operative system, using Visual Basic 6.0. It is presented in a CD-Rom. We have used the Spanish CSIC Food Composition Table and domestic food measures commonly used in Spain which could be modified and updated. Diverse kind of diets and reference anthropometric data are also presented. The results may be treated using various statistical programmes. The programme contains three modules: 1) Nutritional epidemiology, which allows to create or open a data base, sample management, analyse food intake, consultation of nutrient content and exportation of data to statistical programmes. 2) Analyses of diets and recipes, creation or modification of new ones. 3) To ask different diets for prevalent pathologies. Independent tools for modifying the original tables, calculate energetic needs, recommend nutrient intake and anthropometric indexes are also offered. In conclusion, NUTRISOL Programme is an application which runs in PC computers with minimal equipment in a friendly interface, of easy use, freeware, which may be adapted to each country, and has demonstrated its usefulness and reliability in different epidemiologic studies. Furthermore, it may become an efficient instrument for clinical nutrition and health promotion.

Rabid puppy-dog imported into the Netherlands from Morocco via Spain, February 2012.

To the editor: We read with interest the article by van Rijckevorsel et al. on a rabid puppy-dog imported into the Netherlands from Morocco via Spain, recently published in Eurosurveillance [1]. We would like to complete the information on this event with actions taken by the Spanish health authorities and lessons learnt.

Estudio bibliométrico de la revista Nutrición Hospitalaria en el periodo 2001 a 2005: parte 2, análisis de consumo; las referencias bibliográficas.

OBJECTIVE To describe and assess the consumption of the information consulted and cited in the articles published in the journal Nutrición Hospitalaria for the period 2001--2005 by means of bibliometric analysis. METHOD Cross-sectional descriptive analysis of the results obtained from the analysis of the lists of bibliographic references of the articles published at Nutrición Hospitalaria. We studied the most cited journals, the signatures index, the type of document referred, the publication language, the distribution of geographical origin, and obsolescence and readiness index. We took into account all types of documents with the exception of Communications to Congresses. RESULTS 345 articles were published at Nutr Hosp, containing 8,113 bibliographic references, with a median of 18, a maximum of 136 and minimum of 0 BR per article. The mean (rate of publications per published article during the specified period) is 23.52 (95% IC 20.93-26.10) and the mean at 5% is 20.66 per article. The 25th and 75th percentiles are 6 and 32, respectively, the interquartile interval being 26 BR per document. The semi-period of Burton and Kebler is 7 years and the Price Index is 38.18%. CONCLUSION The bibliographic references, the consumption of information, of the articles published at Nutrición Hospitalaria present parameters similar to other journals on health science. However, good data on obsolescence are observed, which reveal the good validity of most of the references studied.