A key transcription cofactor on the nascent sex chromosomes of European tree frogs (Hyla arborea)

We show that MED15, a key component of the transcription complex Mediator, lies within the nonrecombining segment of nascent sex chromosomes in the male-heterogametic Hyla arborea. Both X and Y alleles are expressed during embryonic development and differ by three frame-preserving indels (eight amino acids in total) within their glutamine-rich central part. These changes have the potential to affect the conformation of the Mediator complex and to activate genes in a sex-specific way and might thus represent the first steps toward the acquisition of a male-specific function. Alternatively, they might result from an ancestral neutral polymorphism, with different alleles picked by chance on the X and Y chromosomes when MED15 was trapped in the nonrecombining segment.

Implementación de un esquema criptográfico para gestionar deforma segura las historias médicas de los pacientes a través de una red de comunicaciones

En aquest projecte de final de carrera s'ha dissenyat, implementat i provat un sistema que utilitzant criptografia de clau pública, garanteix la correcta utilització de les dades en un procés de consulta i complimentació d'una història clínica informatitzada consultada a distància.

Prevention of Venous Thromboembolism: A Key Patient Safety Priority

Prevention of venous thromboembolism (VTE) is an important part of our strategy to improve patient safety.The Northern Ireland HSC Safety Forum established and facilitated a regional collaborative which developed a single VTE Risk Assessment Tool for N.Ireland.

Review of AHP Support for Children with Statements of Special Educational Needs in Special Schools and Mainstream Education: Phase 2 Engagement Plan

This engagement plan outlines the collaborative and partnership approach with key stakeholders in the second phase of the Review of AHP Support for Children with Statements of Special Educational Needs in Special Schools and Mainstream Education. It provides detail on how communication objectives will be met. It gives information on: Stakeholder Analysis for Phase Two of the Review Membership of the Project Board Membership of the Professional Stakeholder Reference Group

Project Initiation Document Phase Two: Scoping Exercise within mainstream schools

This Project Initiation Document outlines the purpose and plan of Phase Two of the Review of AHP Support for Children with Statements of Special Educational Needs in Special Schools and Mainstream Education.

The Complete Chromosomal Organization of the Reference Strain of the Leishmania Genome Project, L. major ;Friedlin'.

In recent years, analysis of the genomes of many organisms has received increasing international attention. The bulk of the effort to date has centred on the Human Genome Project and analysis of model organisms such as yeast, Drosophila and Caenorhabditis elegans. More recently, the revolution in genome sequencing and gene identification has begun to impact on infectious disease organisms. Initially, much of the effort was concentrated on prokaryotes, but small eukaryotic genomes, including the protozoan parasites Plasmodium, Toxoplasma and trypanosomatids (Leishmania, Trypanosoma brucei and T. cruzi), as well as some multicellular organisms, such as Brugia and Schistosoma, are benefiting from the technological advances of the genome era. These advances promise a radical new approach to the development of novel diagnostic tools, chemotherapeutic targets and vaccines for infectious disease organisms, as well as to the more detailed analysis of cell biology and function.Several networks or consortia linking laboratories around the world have been established to support these parasite genome projects[1] (for more information, see http://www.ebi.ac.uk/ parasites/paratable.html). Five of these networks were supported by an initiative launched in 1994 by the Specific Programme for Research and Tropical Diseases (TDR) of the WHO[2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. The Leishmania Genome Network (LGN) is one of these[3]. Its activities are reported at http://www.ebi.ac.uk/parasites/leish.html, and its current aim is to map and sequence the genome of Leishmania by the year 2002. All the mapping, hybridization and sequence data are also publicly available from LeishDB, an AceDB-based genome database (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/parasites/LGN/leissssoft.html).

Characterization of the rice PHO1 gene family reveals a key role for OsPHO1;2 in phosphate homeostasis and the evolution of a distinct clade in dicotyledons.

Phosphate homeostasis was studied in a monocotyledonous model plant through the characterization of the PHO1 gene family in rice (Oryza sativa). Bioinformatics and phylogenetic analysis showed that the rice genome has three PHO1 homologs, which cluster with the Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) AtPHO1 and AtPHO1;H1, the only two genes known to be involved in root-to-shoot transfer of phosphate. In contrast to the Arabidopsis PHO1 gene family, all three rice PHO1 genes have a cis-natural antisense transcript located at the 5 ' end of the genes. Strand-specific quantitative reverse transcription-PCR analyses revealed distinct patterns of expression for sense and antisense transcripts for all three genes, both at the level of tissue expression and in response to nutrient stress. The most abundantly expressed gene was OsPHO1;2 in the roots, for both sense and antisense transcripts. However, while the OsPHO1;2 sense transcript was relatively stable under various nutrient deficiencies, the antisense transcript was highly induced by inorganic phosphate (Pi) deficiency. Characterization of Ospho1;1 and Ospho1;2 insertion mutants revealed that only Ospho1;2 mutants had defects in Pi homeostasis, namely strong reduction in Pi transfer from root to shoot, which was accompanied by low-shoot and high-root Pi. Our data identify OsPHO1;2 as playing a key role in the transfer of Pi from roots to shoots in rice, and indicate that this gene could be regulated by its cis-natural antisense transcripts. Furthermore, phylogenetic analysis of PHO1 homologs in monocotyledons and dicotyledons revealed the emergence of a distinct clade of PHO1 genes in dicotyledons, which include members having roles other than long-distance Pi transport.

The European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Drugs : Swiss Findings

L'enquête 'European School Survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs' (ESPAD) est menée tous les quatre ans dans de nombreux pays européens auprès d'écolières et d'écoliers âgés de 15 ans, un âge important en matière de prévention. La dernière vague de l'enquête a été réalisée en 2003; il s'agissait de la première participation de la Suisse à l'enquête. Un peu moins de 7000 élèves des 8e, 9e et 10e années scolaires ont participé au volet suisse de l'enquête. Les résultats montrent notamment que 21.1% des adolescente- s de 15 ans fument quotidiennement, la part des fumeurs quotidiens passant de 8.5% chez les 13 ans à 23.2% chez les 16 ans. Plus de 50% des adolescent-e-s de 13 ans ont consommé de l'alcool durant les 30 jours précédant l'enquête. Chez les 15 ans, pour lesquels l'achat d'alcool est d'ailleurs aussi interdit par la loi, cette proportion passe à 75%. L'enquête 2003 montre en outre qu'environ 20% des adolescent-e-s de 13 ans ont consommé au moins une fois du cannabis dans leur vie et que près de la moitié des 16 ans sont dans le même cas. La prévalence au cours des 12 derniers mois est à peine inférieure. En matière de prévention de la consommation de substances psychotropes chez les jeunes, les mesures structurelles devraient être renforcées, tout comme la limitation de l'accessibilité des produits, en contrôlant par exemple la vente d'alcool aux plus jeunes. Des programmes éducatifs et des campagnes médiatiques peuvent également exercer une certaine influence, pour autant qu'ils s'intègrent à une politique cohérente en matière de drogues.

Integration in strategic alliances : a conceptual framework of IT use in marketing as NPD key factor

En una economia basada en el coneixement, la innovació del producte es considera un factor clau a l'hora de determinar la competitivitat, la productivitat i el creixement d'una companyia. No obstant això, l'experiència de les companyies demostra la necessitat d'un nou model de gestió de la innovació del producte: una gestió basada en el màrqueting, en què la cooperació i l'ús intensiu de les tecnologies de la informació i de la comunicació (TIC) són especialment importants. En els darrers anys, la bibliografia sobre màrqueting ha analitzat el paper de la cooperació en l'èxit del procés d'innovació. No obstant això, fins ara pocs treballs han estudiat el paper que té l'ús de les TIC en el màrqueting en l'èxit del desenvolupament de nous productes (NPD, New Product Development en anglès). És una omissió curiosa, tenint en compte que el nou entorn competitiu és definit per una economia i una societat basades principalment en l'ús intensiu de les TIC i del coneixement. L'objectiu d'aquest treball és investigar el paper que l'ús de les TIC en el màrqueting té en el procés de desenvolupament de nous productes, com a element que reforça la integració d'agents al projecte, afavorint l'establiment de relacions dirigides a la cooperació i l'adquisició d'intel·ligència de mercat útil en el procés de desenvolupament de nous productes. L'estudi d'una mostra de 2.038 companyies de tots els sectors de l'activitat econòmica a Catalunya ens permet contrastar hipòtesis inicials i establir un perfil de companyia innovadora basat en les importants relacions que hi ha entre la innovació, l'ús de TIC en el màrqueting i la integració. Sobresurten dues idees en la nostra anàlisi. En primer lloc, l'ús intensiu de les TIC en el màrqueting fa que la companyia sigui més innovadora, ja que percep que el seu ús ajuda a superar barreres a la innovació i accelera els processos, que es tornen més eficients. En segon lloc, incrementant l'ús de les TIC en el màrqueting es fa augmentar la predisposició de la companyia a integrar agents particulars en l'entorn de negoci en el desenvolupament del procés d'innovació i a col·laborar-hi, de manera que es millora el grau d'adaptació del nou producte a les demandes del mercat.

Building Capacity in Developing Countries : OER for Food Safety

The Food Safety Knowledge Network (FSKN) was developed through the collaboration of Michigan State University and a professional network of international food industry retailers and manufacturers. The key objective of the FSKN project is to provide technical resources, in a cost effective way, in order to promote food safety in developing countries and for small and less developed companies. FSKN uses a competency based model including a framework, OERs, and assessments. These tools are being used to support face-to-face training, fully online training, and to gauge the learning outcomes of a series of pilot groups which were held in India, Egypt, and China.

Conversation is the Key : A Short History of Smarthistory.org

Smarthistory.org is a proven, sustainable model for open educational resources in the Humanities. We discuss lessons learned during its agile development. Smarthistory.org is a free, creative-commons licensed, multi-media web-book designed as a dynamic enhancement or substitute for the traditional art history textbook. It uses conversation instead of the impersonal voice of the typical textbook in-order to reveal disagreement, emotion, and the experience of looking. The listener remains engaged with both the content and the interaction of the speakers. These conversations model close looking and a willingness to encounter and engage the unfamiliar. Smarthistory takes the inherent dialogic and multimedia nature of the web and uses it as a pedagogical method. This extendable Humanities framework uses an open-source content management system making Smarthistory inexpensive to create, and easy to manage and update. Its chronological timeline/chapter-based format integrates new contributions into a single historical framework, a structure applicable across the Humanities.

Ecological control of Triatoma dimidiata (Latreille, 1811): five years after a Costa Rican pilot project

An ecological pilot project for the control of Triatoma dimidiata allowed a new evaluation four and five years after environmental modifications in the peridomestic areas of 20 households. It was verified that the two groups of houses, 10 case-houses and 10 control-houses, were free of insects after those periods of time. In the first group, the owners started a chicken coop in the backyard and a colony of bugs was found there without infesting the house. In the second group, the inhabitants of one house once again facilitated the conditions for the bugs to thrive in the same store room, reaffirming that man-made ecotopes facilitates colonization. This ecological control method was revealed to be reliable and sustainable and it is recommended to be applied to those situations where the vectors of Chagas disease can colonize houses and are frequent in wild ecotopes.

E-MOVE project : a case of successfulcooperation of European academic librariesof distance teaching universities

El Library and Learning Support Working Group (LLSWG) és una xarxa europea de professionals de biblioteca i de la informació i educadors dins de l'Associació Europea d'Universitats d'Ensenyament (EADTU). EADTU és l'organització que representa tant les universitats obertes i d'ensenyament a distància com els consorcis nacionals d'institucions d'ensenyament superior actius en els camps d'educació de distància i e-learning. El 2005 l'Associació Europea d'Universitats d'Ensenyament de Distància (EADTU) presentava a la Comissió Europea una proposta de projecte sobre Mobilitat Virtual anomenada E-MOVE. El projecte incloïa, entre d'altres, un paquet de treball referent a biblioteca i suport a l'aprenentatge al context de mobilitat virtual. Aquest fou desenvolupat pel LLSWG de l'EADTU.

COINE Project : Cultural Objects in Networked Environments

La idea subjacent al Projecte de Recerca i Desenvolupament COINE és permetre a la gent contar les seves pròpies històries. COINE pretén proporcionar les eines necessàries per crear estructuradament, un entorn basat en el World Wide Web, que permeti compartir continguts. Els resultats del Projecte ajudaran al desenvolupament d'estàndards per a la implantació i la recuperació estructurades de recursos digitals en entorns en xarxa distribuïda. El Projecte de COINE s'inicià el març de 2002 i finalitzà l'agost de 2004. Avui en dia estem al WorkPackage 5 on estem construint el Sistema, el programari i les interfícies. COINE pretén cobrir la gamma més àmplia possible d'usuaris potencials, des d'organitzacions de patrimoni cultural i institucions de qualsevol mida (principalment biblioteques, arxius i museus) fins a individus de qualsevol edat sense habilitats en l'ús de les TIC, o a grups petits de ciutadans. Els usuaris no utilitzaran només COINE com a eina de cerca, sinó que contribuiran amb el seu propi contingut.