És vostè un 'bon' pacient?

El propòsit d'aquest article és incitar a una reflexió: què volem dir quan diem 'aquest pacient és un bon pacient'? I sobre tot: els pacients han de ser 'bons o dolents' segons el que nosaltres entenem per aquests qualificatius?..

Ocean Circulation over North Atlantic underwater features in the path of the Mediterranean Outflow Water: Ormonde and Formigas seamounts, and the Gazul mud volcano

Seamounts constitute an obstacle to the ocean circulation, modifying it. As a result, a variety of hydrodynamical processes and phenomena may take place over seamounts, among others, flow intensification, current deflection, upwelling, Taylor caps, and internal waves. These oceanographic effects may turn seamounts into very productive ecosystems with high species diversity, and in some cases, are densely populated by benthic organisms, such corals, gorgonians, and sponges. In this study, we describe the oceanographic conditions over seamounts and other underwater features in the path of the Mediterranean Outflow Water (MOW), where populations of benthic suspensions feeders have been observed. Using CTD, LADPC and biochemical measurements carried out in the Ormonde and Formigas seamounts and the Gazul mud volcano (Northeast Atlantic), we show that Taylor caps were not observed in any of the sampled features. However, we point out that the relatively high values of the Brunt–Väisälä frequency in the MOW halocline, in conjunction with the slope of the seamount flanks, set up conditions for the breakout of internal waves and amplification of the currents. This may enhance the vertical mixing, resuspending the organic material deposited on the seafloor and, therefore, increasing the food availability for the communities dominated by benthic suspension feeders. Thus, we hypothesize that internal waves could be improving the conditions for benthic suspension feeders to grow on the slope of seamounts.En prens

Spatiotemporal Characteristics of the Largest HIV-1 CRF02_AG Outbreak in Spain: Evidence for Onward Transmissions

Background and Aim: The circulating recombinant form 02_AG (CRF02_AG) is the predominant clade among the human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) non-Bs with a prevalence of 5.97% (95% Confidence Interval-CI: 5.41–6.57%) across Spain. Our aim was to estimate the levels of regional clustering for CRF02_AG and the spatiotemporal characteristics of the largest CRF02_AG subepidemic in Spain.Methods: We studied 396 CRF02_AG sequences obtained from HIV-1 diagnosed patients during 2000–2014 from 10 autonomous communities of Spain. Phylogenetic analysis was performed on the 391 CRF02_AG sequences along with all globally sampled CRF02_AG sequences (N = 3,302) as references. Phylodynamic and phylogeographic analysis was performed to the largest CRF02_AG monophyletic cluster by a Bayesian method in BEAST v1.8.0 and by reconstructing ancestral states using the criterion of parsimony in Mesquite v3.4, respectively.Results: The HIV-1 CRF02_AG prevalence differed across Spanish autonomous communities we sampled from (p < 0.001). Phylogenetic analysis revealed that 52.7% of the CRF02_AG sequences formed 56 monophyletic clusters, with a range of 2–79 sequences. The CRF02_AG regional dispersal differed across Spain (p = 0.003), as suggested by monophyletic clustering. For the largest monophyletic cluster (subepidemic) (N = 79), 49.4% of the clustered sequences originated from Madrid, while most sequences (51.9%) had been obtained from men having sex with men (MSM). Molecular clock analysis suggested that the origin (tMRCA) of the CRF02_AG subepidemic was in 2002 (median estimate; 95% Highest Posterior Density-HPD interval: 1999–2004). Additionally, we found significant clustering within the CRF02_AG subepidemic according to the ethnic origin.Conclusion: CRF02_AG has been introduced as a result of multiple introductions in Spain, following regional dispersal in several cases. We showed that CRF02_AG transmissions were mostly due to regional dispersal in Spain. The hot-spot for the largest CRF02_AG regional subepidemic in Spain was in Madrid associated with MSM transmission risk group. The existence of subepidemics suggest that several spillovers occurred from Madrid to other areas. CRF02_AG sequences from Hispanics were clustered in a separate subclade suggesting no linkage between the local and Hispanic subepidemics

All-cause mortality in the cohorts of the Spanish AIDS Research Network (RIS) compared with the general population: 1997Ł2010

Abstract Background: Combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) has produced significant changes in mortality of HIVinfected 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 personyears (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. 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

És vostè un 'bon' pacient?

El propòsit d'aquest article és incitar a una reflexió: què volem dir quan diem 'aquest pacient és un bon pacient'? I sobre tot: els pacients han de ser 'bons o dolents' segons el que nosaltres entenem per aquests qualificatius?..

Response of four species of Mediterranean cold-water corals exposed to a future low-pH scenario

5th International Symposium on Deep-Sea Corals (ISDSC), 1-6 April 2012, Amsterdam, The NetherlandsPeer reviewe

Detrimental effects of Ocean Acidification on the economically important Mediterranean red coral (Corallium rubrum)

Bramanti, Lorenzo ... et al.-- 12 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables, supporting information additional may be found in the online version of this article: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.12171/suppinfoThe mean predicted decrease of 0.3 to 0.4 pH units in the global surface ocean by the end of the century has prompted urgent research to assess the potential effects of ocean acidification on the marine environment, with strong emphasis on calcifying organisms. Among them, the Mediterranean red coral (Corallium rubrum) is expected to be particularly susceptible to acidification effects, due to the elevated solubility of its Mg-calcite skeleton. This, together with the large overexploitation of this species, depicts a bleak future for this organism over the next decades. In this study, we evaluated the effects of low pH on this species from aquaria experiments. Several colonies of C. rubrum were long-term maintained for 314 days in aquaria at two different pH levels (8.10 and 7.81, pHT). Calcification rate, spicule morphology, major biochemical constituents (protein, carbohydrates and lipids) and fatty acids composition were measured periodically. Exposure to lower pH conditions caused a significant decrease in the skeletal growth rate in comparison to the control treatment. Similarly, the spicule morphology clearly differed between both treatments at the end of the experiment, with aberrant shapes being observed only under the acidified conditions. On the other hand, while total organic matter was significantly higher under low pH conditions, no significant differences were detected between treatments regarding total carbohydrate, lipid, protein and fatty acid composition. However, the lower variability found among samples maintained in acidified conditions relative to controls, suggests a possible effect of pH decrease on the metabolism of the colonies. Our results show, for the first time, evidence of detrimental ocean acidification effects on this valuable and endangered coral specieThe research has been funded by the EC 7th FP (grant agreement 265103, Project MedSeA) and by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO; CTM2009-08849, Project ACDC). The authors are grateful for the invaluable support of the Cap de Creus Marine Protected Area staff. [...] L.B. was supported by a Marie Curie IEF fellowship (EC7th FP, Project nº 221072), J.M. by a FPI studentship (BES-2007-16537), M.G. by of Erasmus Mundus scolarship (contract no. JEMES European UAB 2009/No.3) and S.R. by a Ramón y Cajal Contract (RyC-2007-01327) from MINECO. US National Science Foundation grant OCE 08-44785 provided support to L.B. during part of the writing of manuscript. This is a contribution from the Marine Biogeochemistry and Global Change research group, funded by Generalitat de Catalunya through grant 2009SGR142Peer Reviewe

Effects of ocean acidification on the precious Mediterranean red coral (Corallium rubrum)

Bramanti, L. ... et. al.-- 40th CIESM Congress: The largest Forum on Mediterranean and Black Sea Research, 28 October - 1 November 2013, Marseille, France.-- 1 pageCorallium rubrum is an octocoral endemic to the Mediterranean Sea. Slow growing and long living, it has been harvested since ancient times determining overexploitation due to the high economic value of axial skeleton. Moreover the Mg rich calcite skeleton make it vulnerable to ocean acidification. To understand the effects of elevated pCO2, colonies of C. rubrum were maintained for 314 days in aquarium tanks at 2 pH levels (8,16 and 7,84). Buoyant weight, biochemical balance (protein, carbohydrates and lipids) and spicules morphology were measured. Buoyant weight increment was significantly different between controls and acidified treatment. Aberrant spicule shapes were observed only in acidified treatments. Total organic matter was higher in acidified treatments while no difference was found in carbohydrates, lipids and proteins contentsPeer Reviewe