Exploring the Experiences of Supervisors and Supervisees who engaged in Bilingual Supervision

This qualitative phenomenological study explored the experiences of clinical supervisors and supervisees who engaged in bilingual supervision. Five supervisors and five supervisees were recruited utilizing purposive and snowball sampling strategies and were interviewed using a semi-structured interview protocol. Findings of this study focused primarily on the challenges and benefits associated with engaging in bilingual supervision. Main findings included the lack of formal training in bilingual counseling and supervision. Implications for training programs highlighted the need for continuous support of bilingual training programs, in particular, the development of both multicultural and linguistic competencies

Exploring the Experiences of Supervisors and Supervisees who engaged in Bilingual Supervision

This qualitative phenomenological study explored the experiences of clinical supervisors and supervisees who engaged in bilingual supervision. Five supervisors and five supervisees were recruited utilizing purposive and snowball sampling strategies and were interviewed using a semi-structured interview protocol. Findings of this study focused primarily on the challenges and benefits associated with engaging in bilingual supervision. Main findings included the lack of formal training in bilingual counseling and supervision. Implications for training programs highlighted the need for continuous support of bilingual training programs, in particular, the development of both multicultural and linguistic competencies

Team collaboration capabilities as a factor in startup success

[EN] This paper discusses the role of team collaboration as a building block for cultivating capabilities in technology-based startups. This conceptual framework draws on a literature review of innovation and entrepreneurship research to understand the intra-organization collaboration mechanisms among team members in technology-based startups. Introducing the concept of team collaboration capabilities represents a new approach to understanding the interaction conditions that give rise to new capabilities from a venture team as its organizational base. Rapid new capability building represents a competitive advantage in environments characterized by innovative technological change, known as dynamic capabilities.We are grateful to the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología de México (CONACyT) for funding Anna Karina Lopez-Hernandez s Ph.D. research grant. We also thank the Conselleria d Educació, Investigació,Cultura i Esport (GV/2018/003) for financial support for this research. We are indebted to Pablo D Este for his detailed and insightful feedbackLopez-Hernandez, AK.; Fernandez-Mesa, A.; Edwards-Schachter, M. (2018). Team collaboration capabilities as a factor in startup success. Journal of Technology Management & Innovation. 13(4):13-22. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/154377S132213

Preparation and antimicrobial evaluation of polyion complex (PIC) nanoparticles loaded with polymyxin B

AbstractHere, we describe novel polyion complex (PIC) particles for the delivery of Polymyxin B (Pol-B), an antimicrobial peptide currently used in the clinic as a last resort antibiotic against multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacteria. A range of conditions for the controlled assembly of Pol-B with poly(styrene sulphonate) (PSS) has been identified which let us prepare stable colloidal PIC particles. This way, PIC particles containing different Pol-B:PSS ratios have been prepared and their stability under simulated physiological conditions (i.e. pH, osmotic pressure and temperature) characterised. Furthermore, preliminary evaluation of the antimicrobial activity of these Pol-B containing PIC particles has been performed, by monitoring their effect on the growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an opportunistic gram-negative bacterium

ALBAYZIN Query-by-example Spoken Term Detection 2016 evaluation

[EN] Query-by-example Spoken Term Detection (QbE STD) aims to retrieve data from a speech repository given an acoustic (spoken) query containing the term of interest as the input. This paper presents the systems submitted to the ALBAYZIN QbE STD 2016 Evaluation held as a part of the ALBAYZIN 2016 Evaluation Campaign at the IberSPEECH 2016 conference. Special attention was given to the evaluation design so that a thorough post-analysis of the main results could be carried out. Two different Spanish speech databases, which cover different acoustic and language domains, were used in the evaluation: the MAVIR database, which consists of a set of talks from workshops, and the EPIC database, which consists of a set of European Parliament sessions in Spanish. We present the evaluation design, both databases, the evaluation metric, the systems submitted to the evaluation, the results, and a thorough analysis and discussion. Four different research groups participated in the evaluation, and a total of eight template matching-based systems were submitted. We compare the systems submitted to the evaluation and make an in-depth analysis based on some properties of the spoken queries, such as query length, single-word/multi-word queries, and in-language/out-of-language queries.This work was partially supported by Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT) under the projects UID/EEA/50008/2013 (pluriannual funding in the scope of the LETSREAD project) and UID/CEC/50021/2013, and Grant SFRH/BD/97187/2013. Jorge Proenca is supported by the SFRH/BD/97204/2013 FCT Grant. This work was also supported by the Galician Government ('Centro singular de investigacion de Galicia' accreditation 2016-2019 ED431G/01 and the research contract GRC2014/024 (Modalidade: Grupos de Referencia Competitiva 2014)), the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the projects "DSSL: Redes Profundas y Modelos de Subespacios para Deteccion y Seguimiento de Locutor, Idioma y Enfermedades Degenerativas a partir de la Voz" (TEC2015-68172-C2-1-P) and the TIN2015-64282-R funded by Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad in Spain, the Spanish Government through the project "TraceThem" (TEC2015-65345-P), and AtlantTIC ED431G/04.Tejedor, J.; Toledano, DT.; Lopez-Otero, P.; Docio-Fernandez, L.; Proença, J.; Perdigão, F.; García-Granada, F.... (2018). ALBAYZIN Query-by-example Spoken Term Detection 2016 evaluation. EURASIP Journal on Audio, Speech and Music Processing. 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13636-018-0125-9S125Jarina, R, Kuba, M, Gubka, R, Chmulik, M, Paralic, M (2013). 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Polymyxin B containing polyion complex (PIC) nanoparticles::Improving the antimicrobial activity by tailoring the degree of polymerisation of the inert component

Abstract Here, we describe the preparation and characterisation of polyion complex (PIC) nanoparticles containing last resort antimicrobial polymyxin B (Pol-B). PIC nanoparticles were prepared with poly(styrene sulphonate) (PSS) as an inert component, across a range of degrees of polymerisation to evaluate the effect that multivalency of this electrolyte has on the stability and antimicrobial activity of these nanoparticles. Our results demonstrate that while nanoparticles prepared with longer polyelectrolytes are more stable under simulated physiological conditions, those prepared with shorter polyelectrolytes have a higher antimicrobial activity. Tailoring the degree of polymerisation and the ratio of the components we have been able to identify a formulation that shows a sustained inhibitory effect on the growth of P. aeruginosa and can reduce the number of viable colonies of this pathogen over 10,000 times more effectively than our previously reported formulation

Use and Awareness of Heated Tobacco Products in Europe

Background: Heated tobacco products (HTP) are new forms of tobacco consumption with limited information available on their use among the general population. Our objective was to analyze the prevalence and associations of use of HTP across 11 countries in Europe. Methods: Within the TackSHS Project, in 2017-2018 we conducted a cross-sectional study with information on HTP use in the following countries: Bulgaria, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Spain. In each country, face-to-face interviews were performed on a representative sample of around 1,000 subjects aged >= 15 years, for a total of 10,839 subjects. Results: Overall, 27.8% of study participants were aware of HTPs, 1.8% were ever HTP users (ranging from 0.6% in Spain to 8.3% in Greece), and 0.1% were current users. Men were more frequently HTP ever users than women (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.47; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.11-1.95). Ever HTP use was inversely related to age (P for trend <0.001) and more frequent in ex-smokers (compared with never smokers, aOR 4.32; 95% CI, 2.69-6.95) and current smokers (aOR 8.35; 95% CI, 5.67-12.28), and in electronic cigarette past users (compared with never users, aOR 5.48; 95% CI, 3.46-8.68) and current users Conclusions: In 2017-2018, HTP use was still limited in Europe among the general population; however, the dual use of these products, their high use among younger generations, and the interest of non-smokers in these products are worrying and indicate the need for close monitoring in terms of prevalence and the characteristics of users

Use and Awareness of Heated Tobacco Products in Europe

Background: Heated tobacco products (HTP) are new forms of tobacco consumption with limited information available on their use among the general population. Our objective was to analyze the prevalence and associations of use of HTP across 11 countries in Europe. Methods: Within the TackSHS Project, in 2017-2018 we conducted a cross-sectional study with information on HTP use in the following countries: Bulgaria, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Spain. In each country, face-to-face interviews were performed on a representative sample of around 1,000 subjects aged ≥15 years, for a total of 10,839 subjects. Results: Overall, 27.8% of study participants were aware of HTPs, 1.8% were ever HTP users (ranging from 0.6% in Spain to 8.3% in Greece), and 0.1% were current users. Men were more frequently HTP ever users than women (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.47; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.11-1.95). Ever HTP use was inversely related to age (P for trend \u3c0.001) and more frequent in ex-smokers (compared with never smokers, aOR 4.32; 95% CI, 2.69-6.95) and current smokers (aOR 8.35; 95% CI, 5.67-12.28), and in electronic cigarette past users (compared with never users, aOR 5.48; 95% CI, 3.46-8.68) and current users (aOR 5.92; 95% CI, 3.73-9.40). Conclusions: In 2017-2018, HTP use was still limited in Europe among the general population; however, the dual use of these products, their high use among younger generations, and the interest of non-smokers in these products are worrying and indicate the need for close monitoring in terms of prevalence and the characteristics of users

Dominance is common in mammals and is associated with trans-acting gene expression and alternative splicing

Background: Dominance and other non-additive genetic effects arise from the interaction between alleles, and historically these phenomena play a major role in quantitative genetics. However, most genome-wide association studies (GWAS) assume alleles act additively. // Results: We systematically investigate both dominance—here representing any non-additive within-locus interaction—and additivity across 574 physiological and gene expression traits in three mammalian stocks: F2 intercross pigs, rat heterogeneous stock, and mice heterogeneous stock. Dominance accounts for about one quarter of heritable variance across all physiological traits in all species. Hematological and immunological traits exhibit the highest dominance variance, possibly reflecting balancing selection in response to pathogens. Although most quantitative trait loci (QTLs) are detectable as additive QTLs, we identify 154, 64, and 62 novel dominance QTLs in pigs, rats, and mice respectively that are undetectable as additive QTLs. Similarly, even though most cis-acting expression QTLs are additive, gene expression exhibits a large fraction of dominance variance, and trans-acting eQTLs are enriched for dominance. Genes causal for dominance physiological QTLs are less likely to be physically linked to their QTLs but instead act via trans-acting dominance eQTLs. In addition, thousands of eQTLs are associated with alternatively spliced isoforms with complex additive and dominant architectures in heterogeneous stock rats, suggesting a possible mechanism for dominance. // Conclusions: Although heritability is predominantly additive, many mammalian genetic effects are dominant and likely arise through distinct mechanisms. It is therefore advantageous to consider both additive and dominance effects in GWAS to improve power and uncover causality

Epigenetic Modulation of Gremlin-1/NOTCH Pathway in Experimental Crescentic Immune-Mediated Glomerulonephritis

Crescentic glomerulonephritis is a devastating autoimmune disease that without early and properly treatment may rapidly progress to end-stage renal disease and death. Current immunosuppressive treatment provides limited efficacy and an important burden of adverse events. Epigenetic drugs are a source of novel therapeutic tools. Among them, bromodomain and extraterminal domain (BET) inhibitors (iBETs) block the interaction between bromodomains and acetylated proteins, including histones and transcription factors. iBETs have demonstrated protective effects on malignancy, inflammatory disorders and experimental kidney disease. Recently, Gremlin-1 was proposed as a urinary biomarker of disease progression in human anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated crescentic glomerulonephritis. We have now evaluated whether iBETs could regulate Gremlin-1 in experimental anti-glomerular basement membrane nephritis induced by nephrotoxic serum (NTS) in mice, a model resembling human crescentic glomerulonephritis. In NTS-injected mice, the iBET JQ1 inhibited renal Gremlin-1 overexpression and diminished glomerular damage, restoring podocyte numbers. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assay demonstrated BRD4 enrichment of the Grem-1 gene promoter in injured kidneys, consistent with Gremlin-1 epigenetic regulation. Moreover, JQ1 blocked BRD4 binding and inhibited Grem-1 gene transcription. The beneficial effect of iBETs was also mediated by modulation of NOTCH pathway. JQ1 inhibited the gene expression of the NOTCH effectors Hes-1 and Hey-1 in NTS-injured kidneys. Our results further support the role for epigenetic drugs, such as iBETs, in the treatment of rapidly progressive crescentic glomerulonephritis