Desarrollo de un modelo de programación para simplificar el uso de aceleradores hardware

Hoy en día el uso de aceleradores hardware, como las GPUs o las XeonPhi entre otros, está cada vez más extendido dentro del contexto de la computación de alto rendimiento. Desarrollar aplicaciones que usen estos aceleradores puede ser una tarea compleja, sobretodo si dicha aplicación conlleva una gestión no trivial de transferencias de memoria o una compleja configuración del dispositivo. En este proyecto se pretende desarrollar una biblioteca para el desarrollo de aplicaciones que usen aceleradores hardware. Esta biblioteca pretende liberar al programador de tediosas tareas como la gestión de transferencias, configuración del acelerador y la sincronización, entre otros, a la vez que se evitan posibles fallos de una incorrecta gestión manual.Grado en Ingeniería Informátic

GLUT1 protects prostate cancer cells from glucose deprivation-induced oxidative stress

Glucose, chief metabolic support for cancer cell survival and growth, is mainly imported into cells by facilitated glucose transporters (GLUTs). The increase in glucose uptake along with tumor progression is due to an increment of facilitative glucose transporters as GLUT1. GLUT1 prevents cell death of cancer cells caused by growth factors deprivation, but there is scarce information about its role on the damage caused by glucose deprivation, which usually occurs within the core of a growing tumor. In prostate cancer (PCa), GLUT1 is found in the most aggressive tumors, and it is regulated by androgens. To study the response of androgen-sensitive and insensitive PCa cells to glucose deprivation and the role of GLUT1 on survival mechanisms, androgen-sensitive LNCaP and castration-resistant LNCaP-R cells were employed. Results demonstrated that glucose deprivation induced a necrotic type of cell death which is prevented by antioxidants. Androgen-sensitive cells show a higher resistance to cell death triggered by glucose deprivation than castration-resistant cells. Glucose removal causes an increment of H2O2, an activation of androgen receptor (AR) and a stimulation of AMP-activated protein kinase activity. In addition, glucose removal increases GLUT1 production in androgen sensitive PCa cells. GLUT1 ectopic overexpression makes PCa cells more resistant to glucose deprivation and oxidative stress-induced cell death. Under glucose deprivation, GLUT1 overexpressing PCa cells sustains mitochondrial SOD2 activity, compromised after glucose removal, and significantly increases reduced glutathione (GSH). In conclusion, androgen-sensitive PCa cells are more resistant to glucose deprivation-induced cell death by a GLUT1 upregulation through an enhancement of reduced glutathione levels. Keywords: Glut1, Prostate cancer, Glucose deprivation, Androgen receptor, Glutathione, Oxidative stres

Role of age and comorbidities in mortality of patients with infective endocarditis

[Purpose]: The aim of this study was to analyse the characteristics of patients with IE in three groups of age and to assess the ability of age and the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) to predict mortality. [Methods]: Prospective cohort study of all patients with IE included in the GAMES Spanish database between 2008 and 2015.Patients were stratified into three age groups:<65 years,65 to 80 years,and ≥ 80 years.The area under the receiver-operating characteristic (AUROC) curve was calculated to quantify the diagnostic accuracy of the CCI to predict mortality risk. [Results]: A total of 3120 patients with IE (1327 < 65 years;1291 65-80 years;502 ≥ 80 years) were enrolled.Fever and heart failure were the most common presentations of IE, with no differences among age groups.Patients ≥80 years who underwent surgery were significantly lower compared with other age groups (14.3%,65 years; 20.5%,65-79 years; 31.3%,≥80 years). In-hospital mortality was lower in the <65-year group (20.3%,<65 years;30.1%,65-79 years;34.7%,≥80 years;p < 0.001) as well as 1-year mortality (3.2%, <65 years; 5.5%, 65-80 years;7.6%,≥80 years; p = 0.003).Independent predictors of mortality were age ≥ 80 years (hazard ratio [HR]:2.78;95% confidence interval [CI]:2.32–3.34), CCI ≥ 3 (HR:1.62; 95% CI:1.39–1.88),and non-performed surgery (HR:1.64;95% CI:11.16–1.58).When the three age groups were compared,the AUROC curve for CCI was significantly larger for patients aged <65 years(p < 0.001) for both in-hospital and 1-year mortality. [Conclusion]: There were no differences in the clinical presentation of IE between the groups. Age ≥ 80 years, high comorbidity (measured by CCI),and non-performance of surgery were independent predictors of mortality in patients with IE.CCI could help to identify those patients with IE and surgical indication who present a lower risk of in-hospital and 1-year mortality after surgery, especially in the <65-year group

Treatment with tocilizumab or corticosteroids for COVID-19 patients with hyperinflammatory state: a multicentre cohort study (SAM-COVID-19)

Objectives: The objective of this study was to estimate the association between tocilizumab or corticosteroids and the risk of intubation or death in patients with coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) with a hyperinflammatory state according to clinical and laboratory parameters. Methods: A cohort study was performed in 60 Spanish hospitals including 778 patients with COVID-19 and clinical and laboratory data indicative of a hyperinflammatory state. Treatment was mainly with tocilizumab, an intermediate-high dose of corticosteroids (IHDC), a pulse dose of corticosteroids (PDC), combination therapy, or no treatment. Primary outcome was intubation or death; follow-up was 21 days. Propensity score-adjusted estimations using Cox regression (logistic regression if needed) were calculated. Propensity scores were used as confounders, matching variables and for the inverse probability of treatment weights (IPTWs). Results: In all, 88, 117, 78 and 151 patients treated with tocilizumab, IHDC, PDC, and combination therapy, respectively, were compared with 344 untreated patients. The primary endpoint occurred in 10 (11.4%), 27 (23.1%), 12 (15.4%), 40 (25.6%) and 69 (21.1%), respectively. The IPTW-based hazard ratios (odds ratio for combination therapy) for the primary endpoint were 0.32 (95%CI 0.22-0.47; p < 0.001) for tocilizumab, 0.82 (0.71-1.30; p 0.82) for IHDC, 0.61 (0.43-0.86; p 0.006) for PDC, and 1.17 (0.86-1.58; p 0.30) for combination therapy. Other applications of the propensity score provided similar results, but were not significant for PDC. Tocilizumab was also associated with lower hazard of death alone in IPTW analysis (0.07; 0.02-0.17; p < 0.001). Conclusions: Tocilizumab might be useful in COVID-19 patients with a hyperinflammatory state and should be prioritized for randomized trials in this situatio

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

HiPEAC 2016 Workshop on High-Level Parallel Programming for GPUs (HLPGPU)

Producción CientíficaNowadays the use of hardware accelerators, such as the Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) or XeonPhi coprocessors, is key to solve computationally costly problems that require High Performance Computing (HPC). However, programming solutions for an efficient deployment in this kind of devices is a very complex task that relies on the manual management of memory transfers and configuration parameters. The programmer has to carry out a deep study of the particular data needed to be computed in each moment at the different computing platforms considering architectural details. We introduce the communicator concept as an abstract entity that allows the programmer to easily manage the communications and kernel launching details on hardware accelerators or multi-core devices in a transparent way. Furthermore, this model also gives the possibility to the programmer of launching CPU kernels in the multi-core processors with the same abstraction and methodology used for the accelerators. In this way, the burden of coding two different codes for managing the different computational devices is alleviated. Additionally, this entity allows the programmer to simplify the proper selection of values for kernel-launching configuration parameters. This is done through a simple characterization process of the kernel code to be executed. A programming model involving the communicator entity is described in this article. Finally, we also present a prototype library that implements the communicator model, together with its application in several study cases. Its use has led to reductions in the development costs with significantly low overheads in the execution times when compared to manually programmed and optimized solutions using CUDA and OpenMP directly.MICINN (Spain) and ERDF program of the European Union: HomProg-HetSys project (TIN2014-58876-P), CAPAP-H5 network (TIN2014-53522-REDT), and COST Program Action IC1305: Network for Sustainable Ultrascale Computing (NESUS)

Producción de Acido Linoleico Conjugado por bacterias ácido-lácticas y bifidobacterias de origen lácteo e intestinal

Los ácidos linoleicos conjugados (CLA, conjugated linoleic acid) comprenden una familia de más de veinte isómeros del ácido linoleico (LA, linoleic acid). Los más abundantes en los alimentos son 9Z,11E-18:2 y 10E,12Z-18:2. Entre los alimentos que contienen CLA podemos citar la carne de cordero, ternera, pavo y los productos lácteos grasos (donde >80% corresponde a los isómeros mencionados). Los CLA tiene interés por su actividad antimutagénica y anticancerígena. Además, poseen actividad antioxidante y participan en la modulación de la respuesta inmune y en el metabolismo lipídico (efectos antiaterogénico e hipocolesterolémico). El objetivo de este trabajo fue analizar la producción de CLA por cepas de bacterias ácido-lácticas y bifidobacterias de origen lácteo e intestinal mediante un método rápido y sensible. La producción de CLA se evaluó en medio de cultivo suplementado con 0,5 mg/mL de LA. Se analizaron 265 cepas de los géneros Lactococcus (Lc.), Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, Enterococcus, Leuconostoc y Streptococcus (S.), incluyendo una elevada representación de las especies de mayor interés industrial para la formulación de fermentos: Lc. lactis (54%) y S. thermophilus (15%). Los medios de cultivo empleados fueron: MRS (Oxoid) para los bacilos; M17 (Oxoid) para los cocos, con adición de glucosa o lactosa (1%) según requerimientos especie-específicos; y Elliker (Biokar) para Leuconostoc spp. Los microorganismos se cultivaron en condiciones óptimas de temperatura (32, 37, o 40ºC) y en aerobiosis o anaerobiosis según correspondiera. La producción de CLA se detectó y cuantificó según el procedimiento de Barrett y colaboradores (Barret et al., 2007) midiendo la absorbancia en la fase hexánica a 233 nm tras una extracción lipídica con isopropanol-hexano. Las curvas de calibrado se obtuvieron utilizando los isómeros comerciales de CLA 10E,12Z y 9Z,11E (Sigma-Aldrich). A partir de la representación de absorbancia vs. concentración se obtuvieron las ecuaciones y=45,58x-0,0442; R2= 0,9958 y y=7,2315x-0,0214; R2= 0,9926, respectivamente. De entre las cepas evaluadas se identificaron 17 aislados capaces de producir más de 25 ppm de CLA. Estos pertenecían a las especies Lc. lactis (14 cepas) y S. thermophilus (3 cepas). Tras su caracterización tecnológica, los microorganismos productores de CLA podrían servir para la elaboración de productos lácteos funcionales enriquecidos en esta sustancia bioactiva.Fil: Valenzuela López, José Alejandro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Modelado e Innovación Tecnológica. Universidad Nacional del Nordeste. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Naturales y Agrimensura. Instituto de Modelado e Innovación Tecnológica; ArgentinaFil: Florez, Ana Belén. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Instituto Superior de Productos Lácteos de Asturias; EspañaFil: Alonso, Leocadio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Modelado e Innovación Tecnológica. Universidad Nacional del Nordeste. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Naturales y Agrimensura. Instituto de Modelado e Innovación Tecnológica; Argentina. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Instituto Superior de Productos Lácteos de Asturias; EspañaFil: Vasek, Olga M.. Universidad Nacional del Nordeste. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales y Agrimensura; ArgentinaFil: Mayo Pérez, Baltasar. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Instituto Superior de Productos Lácteos de Asturias; EspañaVII Congreso Internacional de Ciencia y Tecnología de los Alimentos 2018CórdobaArgentinaGobierno de la Provincia de Córdoba. Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnologí

Diez meses en las cañadas verdes

Se desarrolla un proyecto de innovación educativa que pretende integrar la Educación Ambiental en el currículo del centro para Educación Infantil, Educación Primaria y Educación Secundaria. Se pretende concienciar a la comunidad escolar sobre la necesidad de mantener una relación sostenible con el medio cercano. Se trata de conocer la acciones positivas del centro y los aspectos de mejora en temas medioambientales, para poner en práctica las propuestas de mejora diseñadas y armonizar la relación con el entorno y hacerlo más agradable y humano. Se potencia la sensibilización de la comunidad escolar sobre el respeto, cuidado y recuperación del medio ambiente aportando valores positivos útiles para el futuro. A través del proyecto de innovación educativa se crea una red de centros comprometidos con el medio ambiente para mejorar la calidad educativa en los diferentes niveles educativos a través de los materiales generados. En cuanto a la metodología empleada, el proyecto parte de del nivel de desarrollo de cada niño, adaptándose a sus características madurativas y desde de todas las áreas educativas. El proyecto incita a la reflexión personal y a la comunicación entre los diferentes agentes implicados. La participación del alumnado y del profesorado es activa en todo momento, procurando situaciones de aprendizaje a partir del medio más inmediato y concreto, facilitando su extrapolación al conocimiento de otras realidades ambientales más complejas.Castilla y LeónConsejería de Educación. Dirección General de Universidades e Investigación; Monasterio de Nuestra Señora de Prado, Autovía Puente Colgante s. n.; 47071 Valladolid; +34983411881; +34983411939ES

Role of age and comorbidities in mortality of patients with infective endocarditis.

The aim of this study was to analyse the characteristics of patients with IE in three groups of age and to assess the ability of age and the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) to predict mortality. Prospective cohort study of all patients with IE included in the GAMES Spanish database between 2008 and 2015.Patients were stratified into three age groups: A total of 3120 patients with IE (1327  There were no differences in the clinical presentation of IE between the groups. Age ≥ 80 years, high comorbidity (measured by CCI),and non-performance of surgery were independent predictors of mortality in patients with IE.CCI could help to identify those patients with IE and surgical indication who present a lower risk of in-hospital and 1-year mortality after surgery, especially in th