Tuberculosis in patients with haematological malignancies

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease that causes more than 1 million deaths worldwide every year. In addition, it is estimated that one third of the world population is infected with M. tuberculosis in a latent state, which involves an eventual risk of progressing to active TB disease. Patients with immunodeficiencies, such as those suffering from haematological malignancies, have a greater risk of progressing to TB disease once infected. It is estimated that the Relative Risk of TB disease in patients with hematologic malignancies is 2-40 times that of the general population. The diagnosis of TB in these patients is often challenging as they often present clinical characteristics that are distinct to those of patients without any other underlying disease. Mortality due to TB is higher. Therefore, it is recommended to diagnose latent TB infection and consider preventive therapy that could avoid the progression from a latent state to active TB disease. There are currently two methods for diagnosing latent TB infection: the Tuberculin Skin Test (TST) and the Interferon-Gamma Release Assays (IGRA). Due to the lack of sensitivity in patients with immunodeficient conditions, a combined TST-IGRA testing is probably the best way for latent TB diagnosis in order to gain sensitivity. Treatment of latent TB infection and TB disease should follow the general principles to that in the general population

Mili Micro Nano: intervenciones urbanas a lo largo del Besós y el Maresme

Han pasado más de 60 años desde que Patronato Municipal transformó los campos de acequias de la Madriguera y de la Verneda, al norte de Barcelona, en un polígono urbano consolidado. La necesidad de vivienda rápida y masiva para dar respuesta al éxodo rural, dió origen al actual barrio del Besós y el Maresme. El urbanismo y la arquitectura reflejan el método formal y cualitativo de este barrio: anchas calles principales en forma de cuadricula, con grandes manzanas carentes de dotaciones, servicios o equipamientos públicos. Las transformaciones posteriores que se han ejecutado en el barrio, destinadas a su revitalización y regeneración, tan solo han supuesto un pequeño porcentaje de mejora y aumento de la calidad del área. Actualmente el Besós y el Maresme se considera uno de los barrios más inseguros y vulnerables de Barcelona. Se ha partido del análisis realizado de múltiples variables cualitativas y cuantitativas: históricas, climáticas, urbanas, sociales, políticas, económicas, arquitectónicas, psicosensoriales… que han permitido conocer en profundidad la zona. A raíz de éstos análisis se han detectado una serie de espacios de oportunidad de alcance medio, identificados como espacios públicos verdes por el Plan General, pero carentes de esta calificación. De entre los espacios detectados se han seleccionado siete como los más vulnerables para su regeneración y utilización como catalizadores de la transformación urbana. De modo paralelo a estos análisis, se ha realizado un estudio de campo, anotando los usos actuales presentes en el barrio. La reducida presencia de usos culturales y comunitarios ha focalizado estos espacios para su transformación en nodos culturales. Para un mayor alcance de cambio, el activo social principal se ha planteado como un recorrido a lo largo del barrio, que une estos siete espacios latentes, ahora sí, conectados como redes neuronales a través de éste Esta metodología arquitectónica hará posible la regeneración del barrio produciendo una nueva construcción de flujos y dinámicas sociales como estrategia clara para su reintegración con la ciudad, que posteriormente fomentará la transformación positiva del entorno. Estos siete espacios esconden una realidad y unos gestos artísticos que amplifican la complejidad espacial y programática del área. Esta mezcla de variables y calificaciones llena de ventajas cada zona, generando una correlación espacial de elementos positivos que demandan un nuevo tipo de relación arquitectura-ciudad. Son actuaciones que permitirán repensar y reinventar la metrópolis como un elemento potencialmente seductor, con un amplio espectro de posibilidades centralizadoras.More than 60 years have passed since the Municipal Board transformed the ditch fields of La Madriguera and La Verneda, in the north of Barcelona, into a consolidated urban estate. The need for prompt and massive housing in response to the rural exodus gave rise to the current neighborhood of El Besós y el Maresme. The urban planning and architecture reflect the formal and qualitative method of this neighborhood: wide main streets in the form of a grid, with large blocks lacking endowments, services or public facilities. The subsequent transformations that have been carried out in the neighborhood, aimed at its revitalization and regeneration, have only meant a small percentage of improvement and increase in the quality of the area. El Besós y el Maresme is currently considered one of the most insecure and vulnerable neighborhoods in Barcelona. We have started from the analysis of multiple qualitative and quantitative variables: historical, climatic, urban, social, political, economic, architectural, psychosensory... that have allowed us to know the area in depth. As a result of these analyses, a series of medium-range opportunity spaces have been detected, identified as green public spaces by the General Plan, but lacking this qualification. Among the detected spaces, the seven most vulnerable ones have been selected for regeneration and used as catalysts for urban transformation. Parallel to these analyses, a field study has been carried out, noting the current uses present in the neighborhood. The reduced presence of cultural and community uses has targeted these spaces for transformation into cultural nodes. For a greater scope of change, the main social asset has been proposed as a tour along the neighborhood, linking these seven latent spaces, now connected as neural networks through it. This architectural methodology will make possible the regeneration of the neighborhood producing a new construction of flows and social dynamics as a clear strategy for its reintegration with the city, which will subsequently promote the positive transformation of the environment. These seven spaces hide a reality and artistic gestures that amplify the spatial and programmatic complexity of the area. This mixture of variables and uses fills each zone with advantages, generating a spatial correlation of positive elements that demand a new type of architecture-city relationship. These are actions that will allow us to rethink and reinvent the metropolis as a potentially seductive element, with a wide range of centralizing possibilities.Award-winnin

StereoSpike: Depth Learning with a Spiking Neural Network

Depth estimation is an important computer vision task, useful in particular for navigation in autonomous vehicles, or for object manipulation in robotics. Here we solved it using an end-to-end neuromorphic approach, combining two event-based cameras and a Spiking Neural Network (SNN) with a slightly modified U-Net-like encoder-decoder architecture, that we named StereoSpike. More specifically, we used the Multi Vehicle Stereo Event Camera Dataset (MVSEC). It provides a depth ground-truth, which was used to train StereoSpike in a supervised manner, using surrogate gradient descent. We propose a novel readout paradigm to obtain a dense analog prediction -- the depth of each pixel -- from the spikes of the decoder. We demonstrate that this architecture generalizes very well, even better than its non-spiking counterparts, leading to state-of-the-art test accuracy. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time that such a large-scale regression problem is solved by a fully spiking network. Finally, we show that low firing rates (<10%) can be obtained via regularization, with a minimal cost in accuracy. This means that StereoSpike could be efficiently implemented on neuromorphic chips, opening the door for low power and real time embedded systems

Aplicación y utilidad del diagnóstico basado en componentes moleculares en pacientes alérgicos al polen de cupresaceas

El aumento de la polisensibilización entre los pacientes alérgicos nos ha llevado a buscar medios adecuados de diagnóstico para identificar la verdadera sensibilización y distinguirla de la reactividad cruzada. Los determinantes de carbohidratos de reacción cruzada (CCD) presentes en glicoproteínas de extractos de polen de ciprés se han relacionado con dicha reactividad cruzada, particularmente en ensayos in vitro. La aplicación del diagnóstico por componentes moleculares (CRD) utilizando alérgenos recombinantes permite identificar los alérgenos verdaderos. El problema surge cuando el alérgeno disponible para los métodos de diagnóstico habituales, que se utiliza como referencia para el diagnóstico de alergia al polen de ciprés nCup a 1, es un alérgeno nativo. El objetivo del estudio fue validar el alérgeno nativo nCup a 1 como un marcador de verdadera sensibilización al polen de ciprés. Se analizaron los sueros de 96 sujetos con alergia comprobada al polen de ciprés (clínica de polinosis en los meses de polinizacion de las cupresaceas con análisis de los recuentos de pólenes y pruebas cutáneas positivas para Cupressus arizonica y/o serpenvirens). Luego, cuantificamos la IgE específica para el extracto entero de Cupressus arizonica y para nCup a 1. También analizamos otros pólenes en pruebas cutáneas, alérgenos recombinantes mayoritarios de gramíneas (Phl p1 y Phl p5) y alérgenos recombinantes de reactividad cruzada: profilina (Phl p 12), polcalcina (Phl p7), LTP (Pru p3) y los CCD (MUXF3) estos últimos en sujetos sensibilizados a varios pólenes de árboles. Los resultados revelaron que existe una correlación estadísticamente significativa entre las técnicas de diagnóstico convencionales utilizadas para determinar la alergia al polen de ciprés (Pruebas cutáneas e IgE a extracto de Cupressus arizonica) y la sensibilización a nCup a 1. La cuantificación de CCD en sujetos sensibilizados a varios pólenes de árboles nos revela que no interfiriere con nuestros resultados. La conclusión a nuestro trabajo es que validamos el alérgeno nativo Cupressus arizonica, nCup a 1, como un marcador de alergia al polen de ciprés en nuestra poblaciónDepartamento de Medicina, Dermatología y ToxicologíaDoctorado en Investigación en Ciencias de la Salu

Serum proteomics of active tuberculosis patients and contacts reveals unique processes activated during Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection.

Tuberculosis (TB) is the most lethal infection among infectious diseases. The specific aim of this study was to establish panels of serum protein biomarkers representative of active TB patients and their household contacts who were either infected (LTBI) or uninfected (EMI-TB Discovery Cohort, Pontevedra Region, Spain). A TMT (Tamdem mass tags) 10plex-based quantitative proteomics study was performed in quintuplicate containing a total of 15 individual serum samples per group. Peptides were analyzed in an LC-Orbitrap Elite platform, and raw data were processed using Proteome Discoverer 2.1. A total of 418 proteins were quantified. The specific protein signature of active TB patients was characterized by an accumulation of proteins related to complement activation, inflammation and modulation of immune response and also by a decrease of a small subset of proteins, including apolipoprotein A and serotransferrin, indicating the importance of lipid transport and iron assimilation in the progression of the disease. This signature was verified by the targeted measurement of selected candidates in a second cohort (EMI-TB Verification Cohort, Maputo Region, Mozambique) by ELISA and nephelometry techniques. These findings will aid our understanding of the complex metabolic processes associated with TB progression from LTBI to active disease

Cogestión y gobierno corporativo en Europa: un viaje de ida y vuelta

El régimen alemán de cogestión ha sido un importante condicionante para el Derecho comunitario de sociedades, sin embargo en los últimos años la evolución propia del europeo se ha traducido en una presión sobre el ordenamiento alemán de la cogestión, que ha sido objeto de un gran debate y, muy recientemente, de una cuestión prejudicial, que puede condicionar su futuro e, incluso, el del Derecho de sociedades europeo, en un momento en que la adopción de nuevos principios de política económica y empresarial reabren la cuestión de la cogestión en el marco del debate del gobierno corporativo.German co-determination system has been an important constraint on EU company law, but in recent years the development of the European law has led to pressure on the German co-determination regime, which has been the subject of much debate and very recently a request for a preliminary ruling, which may affect the future of co-determination in Germany and even of European company law, at a time when the adoption of new principles of economic and business policy has reopened the question of co-determination in the context of the corporate governance debate.Universidad de Alcal

The effect of biostimulants on fruit quality of processing tomato grown under deficit irrigation

Water shortage can be a restrictive factor for the growth and quality of vegetable crops. Considering the alleviating effects of biostimulant application against water stress, this study aimed to investigate the effect of four biostimulant products (protein and amino acids with carboxylic acids (Tr1); protein and amino acids with seaweed extracts (Tr2); humic and fulvic acids with seaweed extracts (Tr3); SiO2 (Tr4); and control (no biostimulants added)) and two irrigation systems (regulated deficit irrigation (RDI)—65% of field capacity and regular irrigation (RI)—100% of field capacity) on quality parameters of processing tomato fruit. Regulated deficit irrigation and biostimulant application increased the energetic value, carbohydrates, and free sugars content, while organic acids showed a variable response to biostimulant use. In terms of tocopherols (α-, β-, γ-, δ-) and carotenoids (lycopene and β-carotene), regular irrigation and biostimulant application negatively affected their content, while Tr3 treatment had a beneficial impact on these lipophilic compounds under RDI conditions. The main fatty acids were palmitic (C16:0) and linoleic (C18:2n6) acids, which increased when plants were treated with Tr3 and Tr1 biostimulants under a deficit regime. Antioxidant activity (assessed by TBARS and OxHLIA assays) and total phenolic and flavonoids content also showed a variable response to the studied factors. In particular, the application of Tr3 and the control treatment under RDI increased the total phenolic content, while the control and Tr3 treatments under the same irrigation regime recorded the highest antioxidant activity. In conclusion, our results indicate that the adoption of eco-friendly strategies such as regulated deficit irrigation and biostimulant application can beneficially affect the quality traits of processing tomatoes.This research has been co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union and Greek national funds through the Operational Program Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, under the call RESEARCH—CREATE—INNOVATE (project code: T2EDK-05281).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio