Movies, ethics and accounting: a teaching experience

This research presents an innovative learning experience undertaken in three groups of a financial accounting course at the University of Valencia (Spain). After watching three accountingrelated movies, students answered a test based on each movie with questions about the ethical and accounting issues described in them and their satisfaction with the learning technique. Nonparametric tests and a multivariate analysis showed that the students who participated in this experience obtained a higher exam mark than those who did not. Our results evidence a significant effect on the final exam mark for more questions only in one of the movies. Our results are valuable because they show that students engage in this methodological approach, which can be helpful for them to improve their exam performance

Efficiency diagnostic and advantages of procalcitonin and C-reactive protein in the early diagnosis of sepsis

The goal of our study is to assess the diagnostic profi tability of procalcitonin (PCT) in septic shock and another biomarker as C-reactive protein (CRP). Results: Fifty-four septic patients were assessed, 66% were males; mean age, 63 years. Eighty-eight percent was diagnosed as septic shock and 11% severe sepsis. Seventy-six percent were medical patients. Positive blood cultures in 42.5%. Sepsis origin: respiratory 46%, neurological 5%, digestive 37% and urinary 3%. Average SOFA score was 10.4. Conclusions: PCT and CRP have the same efficiency in early sepsis diagnosis. The PCT and CRP effi ciency diagnostic together is signifi cant but small. We suggest using both with the doubt of sepsis.Ye

Bragg Peak Localization with Piezoelectric Sensors for Proton Therapy Treatment

[EN] A full chain simulation of the acoustic hadrontherapy monitoring for brain tumours is presented in this work. For the study, a proton beam of 100 MeV is considered. In the first stage, Geant4 is used to simulate the energy deposition and to study the behaviour of the Bragg peak. The energy deposition in the medium produces local heating that can be considered instantaneous with respect to the hydrodynamic time scale producing a sound pressure wave. The resulting thermoacoustic signal has been subsequently obtained by solving the thermoacoustic equation. The acoustic propagation has been simulated by FEM methods in the brain and the skull, where a set of piezoelectric sensors are placed. Last, the final received signals in the sensors have been processed in order to reconstruct the position of the thermal source and, thus, to determine the feasibility and accuracy of acoustic beam monitoring in hadrontherapy.This research received was funded by the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigacion, grant numbers FPA2015-65150-C3-2-P (MINECO/FEDER) and PGC2018-096663-B-C43 (MCIU/FEDER).Otero-Vega, JE.; Felis-Enguix, I.; Herrero Debón, A.; Merchán, JA.; Ardid Ramírez, M. (2020). Bragg Peak Localization with Piezoelectric Sensors for Proton Therapy Treatment. Sensors. 20(10):1-12. https://doi.org/10.3390/s20102987S1122010A population-based assessment of proton beam therapy utilization in California. (2020). The American Journal of Managed Care, 26(2), e28-e35. doi:10.37765/ajmc.2020.42398Dutz, A., Agolli, L., Bütof, R., Valentini, C., Baumann, M., Lühr, A., … Krause, M. (2020). Neurocognitive function and quality of life after proton beam therapy for brain tumour patients. Radiotherapy and Oncology, 143, 108-116. doi:10.1016/j.radonc.2019.12.024Lesueur, P., Calugaru, V., Nauraye, C., Stefan, D., Cao, K., Emery, E., … Thariat, J. (2019). Proton therapy for treatment of intracranial benign tumors in adults: A systematic review. Cancer Treatment Reviews, 72, 56-64. doi:10.1016/j.ctrv.2018.11.004Amaldi, U., Bonomi, R., Braccini, S., Crescenti, M., Degiovanni, A., Garlasché, M., … Zennaro, R. (2010). Accelerators for hadrontherapy: From Lawrence cyclotrons to linacs. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 620(2-3), 563-577. doi:10.1016/j.nima.2010.03.130Weber, D. C., Abrunhosa-Branquinho, A., Bolsi, A., Kacperek, A., Dendale, R., Geismar, D., … Grau, C. (2017). Profile of European proton and carbon ion therapy centers assessed by the EORTC facility questionnaire. Radiotherapy and Oncology, 124(2), 185-189. doi:10.1016/j.radonc.2017.07.012MIZUMOTO, M., OSHIRO, Y., YAMAMOTO, T., KOHZUKI, H., & SAKURAI, H. (2017). Proton Beam Therapy for Pediatric Brain Tumor. Neurologia medico-chirurgica, 57(7), 343-355. doi:10.2176/nmc.ra.2017-0003Sulak, L., Armstrong, T., Baranger, H., Bregman, M., Levi, M., Mael, D., … Learned, J. (1979). Experimental studies of the acoustic signature of proton beams traversing fluid media. Nuclear Instruments and Methods, 161(2), 203-217. doi:10.1016/0029-554x(79)90386-0Aso, T., Kimura, A., Tanaka, S., Yoshida, H., Kanematsu, N., Sasaki, T., & Akagi, T. (2005). Verification of the dose distributions with GEANT4 simulation for proton therapy. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 52(4), 896-901. doi:10.1109/tns.2005.852697Jones, K. C., Witztum, A., Sehgal, C. M., & Avery, S. (2014). Proton beam characterization by proton-induced acoustic emission: simulation studies. Physics in Medicine and Biology, 59(21), 6549-6563. doi:10.1088/0031-9155/59/21/6549Jones, K. C., Seghal, C. M., & Avery, S. (2016). How proton pulse characteristics influence protoacoustic determination of proton-beam range: simulation studies. Physics in Medicine and Biology, 61(6), 2213-2242. doi:10.1088/0031-9155/61/6/2213Donnelly, B. R., & Medige, J. (1997). Shear Properties of Human Brain Tissue. Journal of Biomechanical Engineering, 119(4), 423-432. doi:10.1115/1.2798289Gu, L., Chafi, M. S., Ganpule, S., & Chandra, N. (2012). The influence of heterogeneous meninges on the brain mechanics under primary blast loading. Composites Part B: Engineering, 43(8), 3160-3166. doi:10.1016/j.compositesb.2012.04.014Peterson, J., & Dechow, P. C. (2003). Material properties of the human cranial vault and zygoma. The Anatomical Record, 274A(1), 785-797. doi:10.1002/ar.a.10096Fellah, Z. E. A., Chapelon, J. Y., Berger, S., Lauriks, W., & Depollier, C. (2004). Ultrasonic wave propagation in human cancellous bone: Application of Biot theory. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 116(1), 61-73. doi:10.1121/1.1755239Raffaele, L. (2016). Advances in hadrontherapy dosimetry. Physica Medica, 32, 187. doi:10.1016/j.ejmp.2016.07.323Dosanjh, M., Amaldi, U., Mayer, R., & Poetter, R. (2018). ENLIGHT: European network for Light ion hadron therapy. Radiotherapy and Oncology, 128(1), 76-82. doi:10.1016/j.radonc.2018.03.014Ahmad, M., Xiang, L., Yousefi, S., & Xing, L. (2015). Theoretical detection threshold of the proton-acoustic range verification technique. Medical Physics, 42(10), 5735-5744. doi:10.1118/1.4929939Smith, A., Gillin, M., Bues, M., Zhu, X. R., Suzuki, K., Mohan, R., … Matsuda, K. (2009). The M. D. Anderson proton therapy system. Medical Physics, 36(9Part1), 4068-4083. doi:10.1118/1.3187229Yock, T. I., & Tarbell, N. J. (2004). Technology Insight: proton beam radiotherapy for treatment in pediatric brain tumors. Nature Clinical Practice Oncology, 1(2), 97-103. doi:10.1038/ncponc0090Riva, M., Vallicelli, E. A., Baschirotto, A., & De Matteis, M. (2018). Acoustic Analog Front End for Proton Range Detection in Hadron Therapy. IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems, 12(4), 954-962. doi:10.1109/tbcas.2018.2828703Acoustics Module User’s Guidehttps://doc.comsol.com/5.4/doc/com.comsol.help.aco/AcousticsModuleUsersGuide.pdfArdid, M., Felis, I., Martínez-Mora, J. A., & Otero, J. (2017). Optimization of Dimensions of Cylindrical Piezoceramics as Radio-Clean Low Frequency Acoustic Sensors. Journal of Sensors, 2017, 1-8. doi:10.1155/2017/8179672Otero, Felis, Ardid, & Herrero. (2019). Acoustic Localization of Bragg Peak Proton Beams for Hadrontherapy Monitoring. Sensors, 19(9), 1971. doi:10.3390/s19091971Levenberg, K. (1944). A method for the solution of certain non-linear problems in least squares. Quarterly of Applied Mathematics, 2(2), 164-168. doi:10.1090/qam/10666Geant4 A Simulation Toolkithttp://geant4-userdoc.web.cern.ch/geant4-userdoc/UsersGuides/ForApplicationDeveloper/BackupVersions/V10.5-2.0/fo/BookForApplicationDevelopers.pdfBarber, T. W., Brockway, J. A., & Higgins, L. S. (1970). THE DENSITY OF TISSUES IN AND ABOUT THE HEAD. Acta Neurologica Scandinavica, 46(1), 85-92. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0404.1970.tb05606.xAdrián-Martínez, S., Bou-Cabo, M., Felis, I., Llorens, C. D., Martínez-Mora, J. A., Saldaña, M., & Ardid, M. (2015). Acoustic Signal Detection Through the Cross-Correlation Method in Experiments with Different Signal to Noise Ratio and Reverberation Conditions. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 66-79. doi:10.1007/978-3-662-46338-3_

Incidents control in radiotherapy oncology

Primer pla de l'escut del monarca del s. XVI, conservat i ubicat a la porta de la UB. Mesura 1,60 x 2,20 metre si és de pedra sorrenca

Activated protein C, severe sepsis and 28-day mortality

Protein C (PC) de ciency is prevalent in severe sepsis, studies showing that more than 80% of patients with severe sepsis have a baseline PC level below the lower limit of normal [1,2]. The aim of the study was to relate the anticoagulation activity evaluated by PC, with clinical parameters and 28-day mortality.Ye

Effects of the thermodynamic conditions on the acoustic signature of bubble nucleation in superheated liquids used in dark matter search experiments

[EN] In the framework of the search for dark matter in the form of WIMPs using superheated liquids, a study is conducted to establish a computational procedure aimed at determining how the thermodynamic conditions kept inside a particle detector affect the acoustic signal produced by bubble nucleation. It is found that the acoustic energy injected into the liquid by the growing vapour bubble increases as the liquid pressure is decreased and the superheat degree is increased, the former effect being crucial for the generation of a well-intelligible signal. A good agreement is met between the results of the present study and some experimental data available in the literature for the amplitude of the acoustic signal. Additionally, the higher loudness of the alpha-decay events compared with those arising from neutron-induced nuclear recoils is described in terms of multiple nucleations.The authors are grateful to Walter Fulgione for the valuable discussions and suggestions and for his help in reviewing the manuscript.Ardid Ramírez, M.; Baschirotto, A.; Burgio, N.; Corcione, M.; Cretara, L.; De Matteis, L.; Felis-Enguix, I.... (2019). Effects of the thermodynamic conditions on the acoustic signature of bubble nucleation in superheated liquids used in dark matter search experiments. The European Physical Journal C. 79(11):1-9. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-019-7485-xS197911W.J. Bolte et al., Nucl. Instr. Meth. Phys. Res. A 577, 569–573 (2007)E. Behnke et al., Astropart. Phys. 90, 85–92 (2017)M. Felizardo et al., E3S Web Conf. 12, 03002 (2016)E. Behnke et al., Phys. Rev. D 88, 021101 (2013)C. Amole et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 251301 (2017)A. Antonicci et al., Eur. Phys. J. C 77, 752 (2017)D.A. Glaser, Phys. Rev. 87, 655 (1952)F. Seitz, Phys. Fluids 1, 2–13 (1958)E. Behnke et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 021303 (2011)D.A. Glaser, D.C. Rahm, Phys. Rev. 97, 474–479 (1955)Yu.N. Martynyuk, N.S. Smirnova, Sov. Phys. Acoust. 37, 376–378 (1991)F. Aubin et al., New J. Phys. 10, 103017 (2008)M. Felizardo et al., Nucl. Instr. Meth. Phys. Res. A 589, 72–84 (2008)P.K. Mondal, B.K. Chatterjee, Phys. Lett. A 375, 237–244 (2011)S. Archambault et al., New J. Phys. 13, 043006 (2011)C. Amole et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 231302 (2015)R. Sarkar et al., Phys. Lett. A 381, 2531–2537 (2017)I.A. Pless, R.J. Plano, Rev. Sci. Instr. 27, 935–937 (1956)D.V. Bugg, Progr. Nucl. Phys. 7, 2–52 (1959)A. Norman, P. Spiegler, Nucl. Sci. Eng. 16, 213–217 (1963)A.G. Tenner, Nucl. Instr. Meth. 22, 1–42 (1963)Ch. Peyrou, In Bubble and Spark Chambers (Academic Press, New York, 1967)C.R. Bell et al., Nucl. Sci. Eng. 53, 458–465 (1974)G. Bruno et al., Eur. Phys. J. C 79, 183 (2019)B.M. Dorofeev, V.I. Volkova, High Temp. 43, 620–627 (2005)L.D. Landau, E.M. Lifshitz, Fluid Mechanics. Course of Theoretical Physics, vol 6, 2nd edn. (Butterworth-Heinemann, Kidlington, Oxford, 1987)Y.Y. Sun, B.T. Chu, R.E. Apfel, J. Comp. Phys. 103, 126–140 (1992)M.S. Plesset, S.A. Zwick, J. Appl. Phys. 25, 493–500 (1954)L.E. Scriven, Chem. Eng. Sci. 10, 1–13 (1959)H.S. Lee, H. Merte, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 39, 2427–2447 (1996)A.J. Robinson, R.L. Judd, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 47, 5101–5113 (2004)F. d’Errico, Rad. Prot. Dos. 84, 55–62 (1999)B.B. Mikic, W.M. Rohsenow, P. Griffith, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 13, 657–666 (1970)P.J. Linstrom, W.G. Mallard (eds.) NIST Chemistry WebBook, NIST-SRD 69 (National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD). https://doi.org/10.18434/T4D303M. Barnabé-Heider et al., Nucl. Instr. Meth. Phys. Res. A 555, 184–204 (2005)D.V. Jordan et al., Appl. Rad. Isot. 63, 645–653 (2005

Exome sequencing reveals a high genetic heterogeneity on familial Hirschsprung disease

published_or_final_versio

Erratum to: 36th International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine: Brussels, Belgium. 15-18 March 2016.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s13054-016-1208-6.]

Proteína C-reativa não é um marcador útil de infecção em unidade de terapia intensiva cirúrgica

CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: C-reactive protein (CRP) is commonly used as a marker for inflammatory states and for early identification of infection. This study aimed to investigate CRP as a marker for infection in patients with postoperative septic shock. DESIGN AND SETTING: Prospective, single-center study, developed in a surgical intensive care unit at Hospital das Clínicas, Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo. METHODS: This study evaluated 54 patients in the postoperative period, of whom 29 had septic shock (SS group) and 25 had systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS group). All of the patients were monitored over a seven-day period using the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score and daily CRP and lactate measurements. RESULTS: The daily CRP measurements did not differ between the groups. There was no correlation between CRP and lactate levels and the SOFA score in the groups. We observed that the plasma CRP concentrations were high in almost all of the patients. The patients presented an inflammatory state postoperatively in response to surgical aggression. This could explain the elevated CRP measurements, regardless of whether the patient was infected or not. CONCLUSIONS: This study did not show any correlation between CRP and infection among patients with SIRS and septic shock during the early postoperative period.CONTEXTO E OBJETIVO: A proteína C reativa (PCR) é muito usada como marcador de estados inflamatórios e na identificação precoce de infecção. Este estudo teve como proposta investigar a PCR como marcadora de infecção em pacientes em choque séptico no período pós-operatório. TIPO DE ESTUDO E LOCAL: Estudo prospectivo, monocêntrico, desenvolvido numa unidade de terapia intensiva pós-operatória do Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo. MÉTODOS: Foram avaliados 54 pacientes no pós-operatório, sendo 29 deles com choque séptico (grupo SS) e 25 com síndrome da resposta inflamatória sistêmica (grupo SI). Todos os pacientes foram acompanhados durante sete dias pelo escore SOFA (Sequential Organ Failure Assessment) e com dosagens diárias de PCR e lactato. RESULTADOS: As dosagens de PCR não diferiram entre os grupos. Não foi observada correlação entre dosagem de PCR e lactato ou escore SOFA nos grupos estudados. Observamos que as concentrações plasmáticas de PCR estavam elevadas em quase todos os pacientes avaliados. Os pacientes no pós-operatório apresentam estado inflamatório em resposta à agressão cirúrgica, sendo este fato capaz de explicar as dosagens de PCR elevadas, independentemente de o paciente estar ou não infectado. CONCLUSÕES: Este estudo não evidenciou correlação entre PCR e infecção nos pacientes com síndrome da resposta inflamatória sistêmica e choque séptico no período pós-operatório precoce

HMGA1 overexpression in adipose tissue impairs adipogenesis and prevents diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance

High-Mobility-Group-A1 (HMGA1) proteins are non-histone proteins that regulate chromatin structure and gene expression during embryogenesis, tumourigenesis and immune responses. In vitro studies suggest that HMGA1 proteins may be required to regulate adipogenesis. To examine the role of HMGA1 in vivo, we generated transgenic mice overexpressing HMGA1 in adipose tissues. HMGA1 transgenic mice showed a marked reduction in white and brown adipose tissue mass that was associated with downregulation of genes involved in adipogenesis and concomitant upregulation of preadipocyte markers. Reduced adipogenesis and decreased fat mass were not associated with altered glucose homeostasis since HMGA1 transgenic mice fed a regular-chow diet exhibited normal glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity. However, when fed a high-fat diet, overexpression of HMGA1 resulted in decreased body-weight gain, reduced fat mass, but improved insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance. Although HMGA1 transgenic mice exhibited impaired glucose uptake in adipose tissue due to impaired adipogenesis, the increased glucose uptake observed in skeletal muscle may account for the improved glucose homeostasis. Our results indicate that HMGA1 plays an important function in the regulation of white and brown adipogenesis in vivo and suggests that impaired adipocyte differentiation and decreased fat mass is not always associated with impaired whole-body glucose homeostasis