Design Guidelines for Specialist Palliative Care Settings

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Argon@uta : Les TIC a les webs dels museus d'història i arqueologia

En un principi, aquest projecte es va concebre com un treball de recerca aplicada sobre les possibilitats que obrien les TIC en la gestió del patrimoni. Per tant, es volien contemplar tots els àmbits que conformen la gestió patrimonial: la difusió, la conservació, la gestió d'equipaments, la restauració, la investigació... El resultat d'aquest treball es volia plasmar en la creació d'una pàgina de recursos virtuals per a la gestió del patrimoni que contemplaria dues vessants. D'una banda, aplegaria un recull d'experiències en l'àmbit virtual d'arreu del món -CD's, planes web, interactius...- que poguessin servir de referent als professionals de la gestió patrimonial i als estudiants d'aquest àmbit. D'altre banda, aquesta plana volia oferir una anàlisi crítica i comentari dels recursos seleccionats.

A long, naturally presented immunodominant epitope from NY-ESO-1 tumor antigen: implications for cancer vaccine design.

The tumor antigen NY-ESO-1 is a promising cancer vaccine target. We describe here a novel HLA-B7-restricted NY-ESO-1 epitope, encompassing amino acids 60-72 (APRGPHGGAASGL), which is naturally presented by melanoma cells. The tumor epitope bound to HLA-B7 by bulging outward from the peptide-binding cleft. This bulged epitope was not an impediment to T-cell recognition, however, because four of six HLA-B7(+) melanoma patients vaccinated with NY-ESO-1 ISCOMATRIX vaccine generated a potent T-cell response to this determinant. Moreover, the response to this epitope was immunodominant in three of these patients and, unlike the T-cell responses to bulged HLA class I viral epitopes, the responding T cells possessed a remarkably broad TCR repertoire. Interestingly, HLA-B7(+) melanoma patients who did not receive the NY-ESO-1 ISCOMATRIX vaccine rarely generated a spontaneous T-cell response to this cryptic epitope, suggesting a lack of priming of such T cells in the natural anti-NY-ESO-1 response, which may be corrected by vaccination. Together, our results reveal several surprising aspects of antitumor immunity and have implications for cancer vaccine design.

National Paediatric Hospital Development Board - Design Team Procurement

The National Paediatric Hospital Development Board invited interested parties to a presentation introducing the Design Team Tendering Process on Monday 25 November. The presentation sets out the indicative details relating to the new children's hospital which is planned for the St James campus. Click here to download PDF 5.52MB  

Història i llegenda de Bernat I Unifred de Ribagorça

La pràctica consisteix a crear una pàgina web monogràfica sobre Bernat I -Unifred, que va exercir les funcions comtals a la Ribagorça (920 -950) i va generar al voltant de la seva figura la llegenda de Bernat de Ribagorça, entre d'altres. Dins aquest context, es vol relacionar la història amb la llegenda de Bernat de Ribagorça.

Les TIC a les webs dels museus d'història i arqueologia

El repte que es planteja als museus en el nou mil·leni és molt important. Han de ser capaços no només de mantenir un públic fidel sinó també de captar noves generacions amb comportament diferents, habituades a altres formes d'accés a la informació. I el camí per aconseguir-ho passa per l'explotació de les possibilitats conceptuals i comunicatives que les TIC proposen.

Com coneixen Descartes i Hume? : Una petita història del coneixement i les seves conseqüències contemporànies

És una anàlisi sobre el problema del coneixement als segles XVII (racionalisme) i XVIII (empirisme) i la seva influència en l'epistemologia contemporània. En concret, es comparen les teories del coneixement de René Descartes i de David Hume, es demostra la seva vigència al segle XXI i es proposa una aplicació extrafilosòfica al seu pensament.

Immune monitoring design within the developmental pipeline for an immunotherapeutic or preventive vaccine

Immunotherapy is defined as the treatment of disease by inducing, enhancing, or suppressing an immune response, whereas preventive vaccination is intended to prevent the development of diseases in healthy subjects. Most successful prophylactic vaccines rely on the induction of high titers of neutralizing antibodies. It is generally thought that therapeutic vaccination requires induction of robust T-cell mediated immunity. The diverse array of potential or already in use immunotherapeutic and preventive agents all share the commonality of stimulating the immune system. Hence, measuring those vaccination-induced immune responses gives the earliest indication of vaccine take and its immune modulating effects.

The Impact of CAROtid plaque Screening on Smoking (CAROSS) cessation and control of other cardiovascular risk factors: rationale and design of a randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Screening tests for subclinical cardiovascular disease, such as markers of atherosclerosis, are increasingly used in clinical prevention to identify individuals at high cardiovascular risk. Being aware of these test results might also enhance patient motivation to change unhealthy behaviors but the effectiveness of such a screening strategy has been poorly studied. METHODS: The CAROtid plaque Screening trial on Smoking cessation (CAROSS) is a randomized controlled trial in 530 regular smokers aged 40-70 years to test the hypothesis that carotid plaque screening will influence smokers' behavior with an increased rate of smoking cessation (primary outcome) and an improved control of other cardiovascular risk factors (secondary outcomes) after 1-year follow-up. All smokers will receive a brief advice for smoking cessation,and will subsequently be randomly assigned to either the intervention group (with plaques screening) or the control group (without plaque screening). Carotid ultrasound will be conducted with a standard protocol. Smokers with at least one carotid plaque will receive pictures of their own plaques with a structured explanation on the general significance of plaques. To ensure equal contact conditions, smokers not undergoing ultrasound and those without plaque will receive a relevant explanation on the risks associated with tobacco smoking. Study outcomes will be compared between smokers randomized to plaque screening and smokers not submitted to plaque screening. SUMMARY: This will be the first trial to assess the impact of carotid plaque screening on 1-year smoking cessation rates and levels of control of other cardiovascular risk factors.

Història Mèdica electrònica remota i segura

Aquest treball vol aprofundir en els aspectos relacionats amb la seguretat per poder obtenir un producte segur. La utilització de la criptografia ens ajudarà en aquestes tasques

Mapping the molecular characteristics of Brazilian human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 Env (gp46) and Pol amino acid sequences for vaccine design

This study was carried out to evaluate the molecular pattern of all available Brazilian human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 Env (n = 15) and Pol (n = 43) nucleotide sequences via epitope prediction, physico-chemical analysis, and protein potential sites identification, giving support to the Brazilian AIDS vaccine program. In 12 previously described peptides of the Env sequences we found 12 epitopes, while in 4 peptides of the Pol sequences we found 4 epitopes. The total variation on the amino acid composition was 9 and 17% for human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I and class II Env epitopes, respectively. After analyzing the Pol sequences, results revealed a total amino acid variation of 0.75% for HLA-I and HLA-II epitopes. In 5 of the 12 Env epitopes the physico-chemical analysis demonstrated that the mutations magnified the antigenicity profile. The potential protein domain analysis of Env sequences showed the loss of a CK-2 phosphorylation site caused by D197N mutation in one epitope, and a N-glycosylation site caused by S246Y and V247I mutations in another epitope. Besides, the analysis of selection pressure have found 8 positive selected sites (w = 9.59) using the codon-based substitution models and maximum-likelihood methods. These studies underscore the importance of this Env region for the virus fitness, for the host immune response and, therefore, for the development of vaccine candidates.

La carta de poblament de Xodos : documentació, història i usos socials del català al País Valencià des de l'edat mitjana fins al segle XX

Edició filològica de la carta de poblament de Xodos (l'Alcalatén, País Valencià) a partir d'un manuscrit inèdit de 1625, conservat a la mateixa població. Inclou un estudi introductori que fa especial referència a aspectes relacionats amb la Història de la llengua catalana. Pretén aportar dades que reforcen la tesi que la catalanitat lingüística i l'adscripció dialectal de l'Alcalatén depenen, sobretot, de les repoblacions posteriors i no pas del repartiment territorial medieval; mostrar l'evolució del binomi llengua i poder en les relacions entre administradors i administrats al País Valencià; i estudiar els avanços i els retrocessos de l'ús públic del català.Altres objectius són: datar correctament la carta de poblament; relacionar l'ús de les llengües (aragonès, castellà, català i llatí) amb el context històric i sociocultural de cada època; il·lustrar la llarga presència del llatí en el llenguatge administratiu; i posar a l'abast del públic la documentació estudiada.

Open to the users' needs : combining user-centered design, standards and open source software

This case study introduces our continuous work to enhance the virtual classroom in order to provide faculty and students with an environment open to their needs, compliant with learning standards and, therefore compatible with other e-learning environments, and based on open source software. The result is a modulable, sustainable and interoperable learning environment that can be adapted to different teaching and learning situations by incorporating the LMS integrated tools as well as wikis, blogs, forums and Moodle activities among others.

Educational innovation in large groups. Design of an experimental study implemented at the Polytechnic University of Madrid

The present paper shows de design of an experimental study conducted with large groups using educational innovation methodologies at the Polytechnic University of Madrid. Concretely, we have chosen the course titled "History and Politics of Sports" that belongs to the Physical Activity and Sport Science Degree. The selection of this course is because the syllabus is basically theoretical and there are four large groups of freshmen students who do not have previous experiences in a teaching-learning process based on educational innovation. It is hope that the results of this research can be extrapolated to other courses with similar characteristics.