Embryonic and fetal development: fundamental research.

Much progress has been made over the past decades in the development of in vitro techniques for the assessment of chemically induced effects in embryonic and fetal development. In vitro assays have originally been developed to provide information on the mechanism of action of normal development, and have hence more adequately been used in fundamental research. These assays had to undergo extensive modification to be used in developmental toxicity testing. The present paper focuses on the rat whole embryo culture system, but also reviews modifications that were undertaken for the in vitro chick embryo system and the aggregate cultures of fetal rat brain cells. Today these tests cannot replace the existing in vivo developmental toxicity tests. They can, however, be used to screen chemicals for further development or further testing. In addition, these in vitro tests provide valuable information on the mechanisms of developmental toxicity and help to understand the relevancy of findings for humans. In vitro systems, combined with selected in vivo testing and pharmacokinetic investigations in animals and humans, can thus provide essential information for human risk assessment.

Vector biology prospects in dengue research

We argue that using more natural blood feeding methods to study mosquito vector competence for dengue viruses and exploring the effect of viral infection on other mosquito life-history traits that influence vectorial capacity will significantly advance our understanding of dengue epidemiology.

Fortalezas y amenazas en torno a la seguridad del paciente según la opinión de los profesionales de enfermería

The aim of this research is to know the barriers and opportunities that nursing professionals detect in their clinical practice in order to develop the culture of patient safety and to identify future research lines. This qualitative study is based on the DELPHI method, with a group of 19 nursing professionals from education and care practice, involving both primary and specialized care. Weaknesses and threats revolve around five categories: profession, organization and infrastructure; indicators; communication and safety culture; and safety training. Opportunities to improve safety cover six categories: organizational change; promotion of the safety culture, professional training and development; relationship with the patients; research; and strategic planning. Work is needed to improve safety and nursing should be ready to assume this leadership.

Recerca de l'eficiència en aplicacions SIG per Android

A causa de l'increment del nombre de consumidors de dades geogràfiques, sobretot de dispositius mòbils, els sistemes d'informació geogràfica es troben davant el repte de reduir el coll d'ampolla que suposa l'arquitectura client-servidor clàssica. Una de les solucions a aquest problema és la translació de part de la intel·ligència al node client, així com la creació de xarxes descentralitzades (peer to peer),L'objectiu d'aquesta recerca és demostrar la viabilitat d'una infraestructura client mòbil-servidor, on el client no és únicament un consumidor més, si no que es torna un node intel·ligent.Per fer aquest estudi s'ha desenvolupat una aplicació pel sistema operatiu Android que consumeix dades d'OpenStreetMap. Aquesta aplicació utilitza tècniques de tessel·lat, catching i descàrrega de dades en background segons la posició de l'usuari, per facilitar el consum i reduir el flux de dades intercanviades entre el client i el servidor. També s'ha creat un servei web intern al dispositiu mòbil per a la creació de xarxes peer to peer, les quals permetin un intercanvi de dades entre els terminals mòbils. En aquest treball s'ha demostrat la viabilitat de la infraestructura a través del impacte de l'ús de les tècniques comentades anteriorment sobre el dispositiu client. Per mesurar l'impacte s'ha tingut en compte la càrrega de la CPU (la qual repercuteix al consum de la bateria) i el temps de resposta del sistema. Els resultats de les proves realitzades indiquen que aquestes tècniques redueixen el temps de cerca de punts d'interès d'una manera dràstica, però que també tenen un alt impacte a la CPU i en el temps de càrrega, sobretot en dispositius amb menys capacitats.

A Thematic Comparison of Eight Frameworks of Quality Criteria in Qualitative Health Research

Background: Despite the increasing incidences of the publication of assessment frameworks intending to establish the "standards" of the quality of qualitative research, the research conducted using such empirical methods are still facing difficulties in being published or recognised by funding agencies. Methods: We conducted a thematic content analysis of eight frameworks from psychology/psychiatry and general medicine. The frameworks and their criteria are then compared against each other. Findings: The results illustrated the difficulties in reaching consensus on the definition of quality criteria. This showed the differences between the frameworks from the point of views of the underlying epistemology and the criteria suggested. Discussion: The aforementioned differences reflect the diversity of paradigms implicitly referred to by the authors of the frameworks, although rarely explicitly mentioned in text. We conclude that the increase in qualitative research and publications has failed to overcome the difficulties in establishing shared criteria and the great heterogeneity of concepts raises methodological and epistemological problems.

Research letter: is neuroticism a risk factor for postpartum depression?

Although the relationship between personality and depressive illness is complex (Shea, 2005), there is empirical evidence that some personality features such as neuroticism, harm avoidance, introversion, dependency, self-criticism or perfectionism are related to depressive illness risk (Gunderson et al. 1999).

Enterprise Architecture Principles in Research and Practice: Insights from an Exploratory Analysis

Even though architecture principles were first discussed in the 1990s, they are still perceived as an underexplored topic in enterprise architecture management research. By now, there is an increasing consensus about EA principles' nature, as well as guidelines for their formulation. However, the extant literature remains vague about what can be considered suitable EA design and evolution guidance principles. In addition, empirical insights regarding their role and usefulness in practice are still lacking. Accordingly, this research seeks to address three questions: (1) What are suitable principles to guide EA design and evolution? (2) What usage do EA principles have for practitioners? (3) Which propositions can be derived regarding EA principles' role and application? Opting for exploratory research, we apply a research process covering critical analysis of current publications as well as capturing experts' perceptions. Our research ontologically distinguishes between principles from nonprinciples, proposes a validated set of meta-principles, and clarifies principles' application, role, and usefulness in practice. The explored insights can be used as guidelines in defining suitable principles and turning them into an effective bridge between strategy and design and a guide in design decisions.

Designing business models of cloud platforms

Cloud computing and its three facets (Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)) are terms that denote new developments in the software industry. In particular, PaaS solutions, also referred to as cloud platforms, are changing the way software is being produced, distributed, consumed, and priced. Software vendors have started considering cloud platforms as a strategic option but are battling to redefine their offerings to embrace PaaS. In contrast to SaaS and IaaS, PaaS allows for value co-creation with partners to develop complementary components and applications. It thus requires multisided business models that bring together two or more distinct customer segments. Understanding how to design PaaS business models to establish a flourishing ecosystem is crucial for software vendors. This doctoral thesis aims to address this issue in three interrelated research parts. First, based on case study research, the thesis provides a deeper understanding of current PaaS business models and their evolution. Second, it analyses and simulates consumers' preferences regarding PaaS business models, using a conjoint approach to find out what determines the choice of cloud platforms. Finally, building on the previous research outcomes, the third part introduces a design theory for the emerging class of PaaS business models, which is grounded on an extensive action design research study with a large European software vendor. Understanding PaaS business models from a market as well as a consumer perspective will, together with the design theory, inform and guide decision makers in their business model innovation plans. It also closes gaps in the research related to PaaS business model design and more generally related to platform business models.

Prophylactic isolated limb perfusion for localized, high-risk limb melanoma: results of a multicenter randomized phase III trial. European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Malignant Melanoma Cooperative Group Protocol 18832, the World Health Organization Melanoma Program Trial 15, and the North American Perfusion Group Southwest Oncology Group-8593.

PURPOSE: Patients with primary cutaneous melanoma > or = 1.5 mm in thickness are at high risk of having regional micrometastases at the time of initial surgical treatment. A phase III international study was designed to evaluate whether prophylactic isolated limb perfusion (ILP) could prevent regional recurrence and influence survival. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 832 assessable patients from 16 centers entered the study; 412 were randomized to wide excision (WE) only and 420 to WE plus ILP with melphalan and mild hyperthermia. Median age was 50 years, 68% of patients were female, 79% of melanomas were located on a lower limb, and 47% had a thickness > or = 3 mm. RESULTS: Median follow-up duration is 6.4 years. There was a trend for a longer disease-free interval (DFI) after ILP. The difference was significant for patients who did not undergo elective lymph node dissection (ELND). The impact of ILP was clearly on the occurrence-as first site of progression - of in-transit metastases (ITM), which were reduced from 6.6% to 3.3%, and of regional lymph node (RLN) metastases, with a reduction from 16.7% to 12.6%. There was no benefit from ILP in terms of time to distant metastasis or survival. Side effects were higher after ILP, but transient in most patients. There were two amputations for limb toxicity after ILP. CONCLUSION: Prophylactic ILP with melphalan cannot be recommended as an adjunct to standard surgery in high-risk primary limb melanoma.

All-cause mortality in the cohorts of the Spanish AIDS Research Network (RIS) compared with the general population: 1997-2010.

BACKGROUND Combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) has produced significant changes in mortality of HIV-infected persons. Our objective was to estimate mortality rates, standardized mortality ratios and excess mortality rates of cohorts of the AIDS Research Network (RIS) (CoRIS-MD and CoRIS) compared to the general population. METHODS We analysed data of CoRIS-MD and CoRIS cohorts from 1997 to 2010. We calculated: (i) all-cause mortality rates, (ii) standardized mortality ratio (SMR) and (iii) excess mortality rates for both cohort for 100 person-years (py) of follow-up, comparing all-cause mortality with that of the general population of similar age and gender. RESULTS Between 1997 and 2010, 8,214 HIV positive subjects were included, 2,453 (29.9%) in CoRIS-MD and 5,761 (70.1%) in CoRIS and 294 deaths were registered. All-cause mortality rate was 1.02 (95% CI 0.91-1.15) per 100 py, SMR was 6.8 (95% CI 5.9-7.9) and excess mortality rate was 0.8 (95% CI 0.7-0.9) per 100 py. Mortality was higher in patients with AIDS, hepatitis C virus (HCV) co-infection, and those from CoRIS-MD cohort (1997-2003). CONCLUSION Mortality among HIV-positive persons remains higher than that of the general population of similar age and sex, with significant differences depending on the history of AIDS or HCV coinfection.

Relevant gender differences in epidemiological profile, exposure to first antiretroviral regimen and survival in the Spanish AIDS Research Network Cohort.

BACKGROUND The possible differences in the disease spectrum and prognosis of HIV infection in women and men is a major point of concern. Women are under-represented in randomized clinical trials and in some cohorts. Discordant results have often been obtained depending on the setting. METHODS We assessed gender differences in clinical and epidemiological features, antiretroviral treatment (ART) exposure and survival in two multicentre cohorts of HIV-positive subjects in Spain: CoRIS-MD and CoRIS. Competing risk regression models were used to assess gender effect on time to start ART and time to first ART change, and a Cox regression model to estimate gender effect on time to death. RESULTS Between January 1996 and December 2008, 1,953 women and 6,072 men naive to ART at study entry were included. The trend analysis over time showed the percentage of women in the younger (<20 years) and older (>50 years) strata increased significantly (P<0.001) from 0.5% and 1.8% in 1996 to 4.9% and 4.2% in 2008, respectively. By competing risk analysis women started ART earlier than men (adjusted subhazard ratio [ASHR] 1.21, 95% CI 1.11, 1.31) in CoRIS cohort, while in CoRIS-MD none of these differences were observed. In both cohorts women showed a shorter time to the first ART change (ASHR 1.10, 95% CI 1.01, 1.19). Pregnancy and patient's/physician's decisions as reasons for changing were more frequent in women than in men in CoRIS. In the Cox regression model, gender was not associated with differences in survival. CONCLUSIONS In two large cohorts in Spain, we observed relevant gender differences in epidemiological characteristics and antiretroviral exposure outcomes, while survival differences were not attributable to gender.

University and Network Society : research report (synthesis document)

Document de síntesi d'aquest estudi que analitza -seguint una metodologia quantitativa basada en una mostra representativa de 2.093 professors i 23.864 estudiants i reforçada amb elements qualitatius- la transició que es produeix en el sistema universitari públic català cap a un model més adaptat a les noves necessitats de la societat xarxa. Per a això, es posa especial èmfasi en l'anàlisi dels usos que es fa d'Internet (l'eina clau de la societat xarxa) en el món universitari i en les transformacions que es donen o es donaran com a conseqüència d'aquests usos.