Metodología para el análisis de accesibilidad a los recursos sanitarios : el caso de Catalunya

En la planificación de servicios públicos, como los servicios sanitarios, resulta útil poder disponer de técnicas objetivas para el análisis y la cuantificación de su adecuación a la distribución de la población en el territorio. Con este objetivo, y con la colaboración entre el Departamento de Salud de la Generalitat de Cataluña, y el Departamento de Geografía y el Centro de Investigación Ecológica y Aplicaciones Forestales (CREAF) de la UAB, se llevó a cabo, entre los años 2007 y 2008, un estudio de la accesibilidad a los centros sanitarios públicos de Cataluña, mediante la utilización de herramientas de cálculo de rutas óptimas, integradas en un SIG. Los resultados ponen de manifiesto el interesante potencial de la metodología utilizada en la planificación territorial de los servicios sanitarios y los principales puntos a mejorar en términos de accesibilidad de la población a los recursos sanitarios.In the planning of public services such as health services, it is useful to have techniques for objective analysis and quantification of its suitability to the population distribution in the territory. With this purpose, and the collaboration between the Department of Health of the Generalitat of Catalonia, and the Department of Geography and the Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF) at UAB, a study of accessibility to public health centers of Catalonia, through the use of tools for optimal routing, integrated into a GIS, was carried out during the years 2007 and 2008. The results show the interesting potential of the methodology used in the planning of health services and key points to improve in terms of accessibility of people to health resources

Effect of chemical treatments and additives on properties of chicken feathers thermoplastic biocomposites

The valorization of chicken feathers (CFs) waste was researched in this work through the preparation of composites using ground chicken feathers as a filler (20 % v/v) and polypropylene (PP) or low-density polyethylene (LDPE) matrices. In order to improve the compatibility between CFs and the matrixes two different strategies were followed. First, by the chemical modification of the CFs by either acetylation or silanization and, second, by the addition of adhesion promoters like maleated polypropylene (MAPP) and maleatead polyethylene (MAPE). The effect of those treatments on the physical, mechanical and structural properties of the thermoplastic-CFs biocomposites, which are mainly related to the fibre–matrix compatibility, was analyzed. Results show that the addition of 20 % (vol/vol) of unmodified CFs to the thermoplastic matrices results in a significant decrease of the tensile strength associated to a weak interfacial adhesion was assessed by SEM. However, when the adhesion promoters were added to the mixture, a significant increase in the tensile strength was noticed, particularly when the composites were obtained by a process at 180 °C. On the contrary, acetylation and silane treatments of the CFs did not result in any practical improvement of the macroscopic properties of the biocompositesPostprint (author's final draft

2018 consensus statement by the Spanish Society of Pathology and the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology on the diagnosis and treatment of cancer of unknown primary

Cancer of unknown primary (CUP) is defned as a heterogeneous group of tumours that present with metastasis, and in which attempts to identify the original site have failed. They difer from other primary tumours in their biological features and how they spread, which means that they can be considered a separate entity. There are several hypotheses regarding their origin, but the most plausible explanation for their aggressiveness and chemoresistance seems to involve chromosomal instability. Depending on the type of study done, CUP can account for 2–9% of all cancer patients, mostly 60–75 years old. This article reviews the main clinical, pathological, and molecular studies conducted to analyse and determine the origin of CUP.The main strategies for patient management and treatment, by both clinicians and pathologists, are also addressed.The authors are grateful for the editorial assistance of Dr. Fernando Sánchez-Barbero of HealthCo (Madrid, Spain) in the production of this manuscript. SEOM and SEAP are grateful for the fnancial support for this project in the form of unrestricted grants from Ferrer Diagnostic, OncoDNA and Foundation Medicine/Roche

2018 consensus statement by the Spanish Society of Pathology and the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology on the diagnosis and treatment of cancer of unknown primary

Cancer of unknown primary (CUP) is defined as a heterogeneous group of tumours that present with metastasis, and in which attempts to identify the original site have failed. They differ from other primary tumours in their biological features and how they spread, which means that they can be considered a separate entity. There are several hypotheses regarding their origin, but the most plausible explanation for their aggressiveness and chemoresistance seems to involve chromosomal instability. Depending on the type of study done, CUP can account for 2-9% of all cancer patients, mostly 60-75years old. This article reviews the main clinical, pathological, and molecular studies conducted to analyse and determine the origin of CUP. The main strategies for patient management and treatment, by both clinicians and pathologists, are also addressed

Cytoplasmic cyclin D1 regulates cell invasion and metastasis through the phosphorylation of paxillin

Cyclin D1 (Ccnd1) together with its binding partner Cdk4 act as a transcriptional regulator to control cell proliferation and migration, and abnormal Ccnd1 . Cdk4 expression promotes tumour growth and metastasis. While different nuclear Ccnd1 . Cdk4 targets participating in cell proliferation and tissue development have been identified, little is known about how Ccnd1 . Cdk4 controls cell adherence and invasion. Here, we show that the focal adhesion component paxillin is a cytoplasmic substrate of Ccnd1 . Cdk4. This complex phosphorylates a fraction of paxillin specifically associated to the cell membrane, and promotes Rac1 activation, thereby triggering membrane ruffling and cell invasion in both normal fibroblasts and tumour cells. Our results demonstrate that localization of Ccnd1 . Cdk4 to the cytoplasm does not simply act to restrain cell proliferation, but constitutes a functionally relevant mechanism operating under normal and pathological conditions to control cell adhesion, migration and metastasis through activation of a Ccnd1 . Cdk4-paxillin-Rac1 axis

Environmental impact assessment of sound absorbing nonwovens based on chicken feathers waste

Chicken feathers (CFs) are currently a biogenic solid waste generated on a large scale and around the world. Its valorization could provide a great opportunity to manufacture environmentally friendly materials and increase the profit of poultry processors. The aim of this study was to fabricate sound absorbing nonwoven materials using CFs wastes to evaluate both the environmental impact of their fabrication processes using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology and the acoustic performance and to compare the results with a conventional insulating material such as stone wool (SW). The study showed that it was possible to fabricate CFs-wool nonwovens incorporating up to 50% w/w of CFs. The new material showed similar acoustic properties to those of SW, even behaving better for frequencies below 2200¿Hz. LCA study showed that the environmental impacts decrease when the amount of CFs increases in those nonwoven materials containing CFs-wool, except for abiotic depletion and eutrophication impact categories. However, despite the synthetic nature of the SW, SW only presented worse environmental performance than the CFs based nonwoven materials for few impact categories (depletion of abiotic resources, human toxicity and photo-oxidant formation) due to the negative contribution caused by the incorporation of wool (W) into the nonwoven materialsPostprint (author's final draft