Bionemo: molecular information on biodegradation metabolism

Bionemo (http://bionemo.bioinfo.cnio.es) stores manually curated information about proteins and genes directly implicated in the Biodegradation metabolism. When possible, the database includes information on sequence, domains and structures for proteins; and sequence, regulatory elements and transcription units for genes. Thus, Bionemo is a unique resource that complements other biodegradation databases such as the University of Minessota Biocatalysis/Biodegradation Database, or Metarouter, which focus more on the biochemical aspects of biodegradation than in the nature of the biomolecules carrying out the reactions. Bionemo has been built by manually associating sequences database entries to biodegradation reactions, using the information extracted from published articles. Information on transcription units and their regulation was also extracted from the literature for biodegradation genes, and linked to the underlying biochemical network. In its current version, Bionemo contains sequence information for 324 reactions and transcription regulation information for more than 100 promoters and 100 transcription factors. The information in the Bionemo database is available via a web server and the full database is also downloadable as a PostgresSQL dump. To facilitate the programmatic use of the information contained in the database, an object-oriented Perl API is also provided

Pilot trial of Melissa officinalis L. leaf extract in the treatment of volunteers suffering from mild-to-moderate anxiety disorders and sleep disturbances

Botanicals are an alternative option to prescription drugs for the alleviation of symptoms due to anxiety disorders and insomnia. Melissa officinalis L. has been shown as an anti-stress and anxiolytic agent. We previously reported moderate stress improvement in mice in which Cyracos®, a standardized Melissa officinalis L. extract, was administrated. Cyracos® contains phytochemicals that inhibit gamma-aminobutyric acid catabolism. This was a prospective, open-label, 15-day study to evaluate the efficacy of Cyracos® on stressed volunteers, who have mild-to-moderate anxiety disorders and sleep disturbances. Using clinician rating criteria, primary outcomes showed improvement of symptoms. Cyracos® reduced anxiety manifestations by 18% (p < 0.01), ameliorated anxiety-associated symptoms by 15% (p < 0.01) and lowered insomnia by 42% (p < 0.01). As much as 95% of subjects (19/20) responded to treatment, of which 70% (14/20) achieved full remission for anxiety, 85% (17/20) for insomnia, and 70% (14/20) for both. Our study demonstrates, for the first time that chronic administration of Melissa officinalis L. relieves stress-related effects. It is critical that further studies incorporate a placebo and investigate physiological stress markers

Using Rules to Adapt Applications for Business Models with High Evolutionary Rates

Nowadays, business models are in permanent evolution since the requirements belongs to a rapidly evolving world. In a context where communications all around the world travel so fast the business models need to be adapted permanently to the information the managers receive. In such world, traditional software development, needed for adapting software to changes, do not work properly since business changes need to be in exploitation in shorter times. In that situation, it is needed to go quicker from the business idea to the exploitation environment. This issue can be solved accelerating the development speed: from the expert to the customer, with no –or few, technical intervention. This paper proposes an approach to empower domain experts in developing adaptability solutions by using automated sets of production rules in a friendly way. Furthermore, a use case that implements this kind of development was used in a real problem prototype

Scaling laws in bacterial genomes: A side-effect of selection of mutational robustness?

In the past few years, numerous research projects have focused on identifying and understanding scaling properties in the gene content of prokaryote genomes and the intricacy of their regulation networks. Yet, and despite the increasing amount of data available, the origins of these scalings remain an open question. The RAevol model, a digital genetics model, provides us with an insight into the mechanisms involved in an evolutionary process. The results we present here show that (i) our model reproduces qualitatively these scaling laws and that (ii) these laws are not due to differences in lifestyles but to differences in the spontaneous rates of mutations and rearrangements. We argue that this is due to an indirect selective pressure for robustness that constrains the genome size

Endothelial damage, inflammation and immunity in chronic kidney disease

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients have an accelerated atherosclerosis, increased risk of thrombotic-ischemic complications, and excessive mortality rates when compared with the general population. There is also evidence of an endothelial damage in which the proinflammatory state, the enhanced oxidative stress, or the accumulation of toxins due to their reduced renal clearance in uremia play a role. Further, there is evidence that uremic endothelial cells are both involved in and victims of the activation of the innate immunity. Uremic endothelial cells produce danger associated molecular patterns (DAMPS), which by binding to specific pattern recognition receptors expressed in multiple cells, including endothelial cells, induce the expression of adhesion molecules, the production of proinflammatory cytokines and an enhanced production of reactive oxygen species in endothelial cells, which constitute a link between immunity and inflammation. The connection between endothelial damage, inflammation and defective immunity in uremia will be reviewed here

Trends in HbA1c thresholds for initiation of hypoglycemic agents:Impact of changed recommendations for older and frail patients

Aims: Less strict glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) thresholds have been recommended in older and/or frail type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients than in younger and less frail patients for initiating hypoglycemic agents since 2011. We aimed to assess trends in HbA1c thresholds at initiation of a first hypoglycemic agent(s) in T2D patients and the influence of age and frailty on these trends. Materials and methods: The groningen initiative to analyze type 2 diabetes treatment (GIANTT) database was used, which includes primary care T2D patients from the north of the Netherlands. Patients initiating a first non-insulin hypoglycemic agent(s) between 2008 and 2014 with an HbA1c measurement within 120 days before initiation were included. The influence of calendar year, age, or frailty and the interaction between calendar year and age or frailty were assessed using multilevel regression analyses adjusted for confounders. Results: We included 4588 patients. The mean HbA1c threshold at treatment initiation was 7.4% up to 2010, decreasing to 7.1% in 2011 and increasing to 7.4% in 2014. This quadratic change over the years was significant (P 0.05). Conclusions: HbA1c thresholds at initiation of a first hypoglycemic agent(s) changed significantly over time, showing a decrease after 2010 and an increase after 2012. The HbA1c threshold at initiation was not influenced by age or frailty, which is in contrast with recommendations for more personalized treatment

Changes in clinical indicators related to the transition from dialysis to kidney transplantation-data from the ERA-EDTA Registry

Background. Kidney transplantation should improve abnormalities that are common during dialysis treatment, like anaemia and mineral and bone disorder. However, its impact is incompletely understood. We therefore aimed to assess changes in clinical indicators after the transition from chronic dialysis to kidney transplantation. Methods. We used European Renal Association-European Dialysis and Transplant Association Registry data and included adult dialysis patients for whom data on clinical indicators before and after transplantation (2005-15) were available. Linear mixed models were used to quantify the effect of transplantation and of time after transplantation for each indicator. Results. In total, 16 312 patients were included. The mean age at transplantation was 50.1 (standard deviation 14.2) years, 62.9% were male and 70.2% were on haemodialysis before transplantation. Total, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and triglycerides increased right after transplantation but decreased thereafter. All other indicators normalized or approached the target range soon after transplantation and these improvements were sustained for the first 4 years of follow-up. In patients with higher estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) levels (30-60 and >60 mL/min/1.73 m(2)), the improvement of haemoglobin, ferritin, ionized calcium, phosphate, parathyroid hormone, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, albumin and C-reactive protein levels was more pronounced than in patients with a lower eGFR ( Conclusions. Except for total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, all clinical indicators improved after transplantation. These improvements were related to eGFR. Nevertheless, values remained out of range in a considerable proportion of patients and anaemia and hyperparathyroidism were still common problems. Further research is needed to understand the complex relationship between eGFR and the different clinical indicators.Peer reviewe

Validity of student satisfaction surveys to assess teaching quality: the UPCT case study (Cartagena, Spain)

[ES] El programa DOCENTIA de ANECA se de­sarrolló como base para los modelos me­diante los cuales las universidades espa­ñolas evalúan la docencia del profesorado, una necesidad ligada a los requerimientos de transparencia y de mejora continua que están en la esencia del EEES. Entre los in­dicadores habituales en estos modelos destacan las encuestas de satisfacción de los estudiantes, cuya validez es objeto de debate desde el origen de su utilización. Una de las opiniones críticas más extendi­das sostiene que las encuestas no son una buena referencia, porque contienen ses­gos inasumibles. Con el objetivo de com­probar si existen realmente esos sesgos, se ha realizado un estudio estadístico a partir de los datos de indicadores de calidad en la Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena. Se ha empleado la regresión lineal múlti­ple, mediante el procedimiento conocido como regresión hacia atrás, para identifi­car las variables que pudieran influir en las valoraciones que hacen los estudiantes y cuantificar su efecto. El principal resultado del estudio es que las variables analizadas, que suelen citarse como causas de sesgo, muestran una influencia poco o nada signi­ficativa sobre los resultados de las encues­tas. Por otra parte, es importante subrayar que hay aspectos de la actividad docente que solamente pueden evaluarse a partir de la observación sistemática que hacen los estudiantes. Por todo ello considera­mos que las encuestas de satisfacción son un indicador indispensable, y es funda­mental que el peso que se les asigna en el modelo de evaluación docente refleje su importancia.[EN]  ANECA´s DOCENTIA program was developed to support the evaluation of teaching by the Spanish universities. Nowadays, teaching quality evaluation is a need linked to the transparency and continuous improvement requirements inherent to the European Higher Education Area. The indicators on the quality models frequently include student evaluation of teaching (SET), whose validity is the subject of a broad debate from the beginning of its use. One of the most widespread critical opinions argues that student surveys are not a good reference, as they contain non-assumable biases. With the aim of verify whether these biases actually exist, a statistical study has been carried out based on quality indicators data from the Technical University of Cartagena. Multiple linear regression has been used, through backward stepwise regression, to identify variables that may influence students’ opinions and to quantify their effects. The main result is that the variables analyzed, many of which are often cited as causes of bias, show little or no significant influence on student satisfaction with teaching. It is also important to remark that there are aspects of the teaching activity that can only be evaluated from the systematic observation made by students. Therefore, we believe that student surveys are an essential indicator, and their weight within teaching evaluation models should reflect their relevance.García Martín, A.; Montero Cases, T.; García León, J.; Vázquez Arenas, G. (2020). Validez de las encuestas de satisfacción de los estudiantes para evaluar la calidad docente: el caso de la UPCT (Cartagena). REDU. Revista de Docencia Universitaria. 18(1):275-290. https://doi.org/10.4995/redu.2020.12996OJS275290181Abadía, A.R., Bueno, C., Ubieto-Artur, M.I., Márquez, M.D., Sabaté, S., Jorba, H., Pagès, T. (2015). Competencias del buen docente universitario. Opinión de los estudiantes. REDU, Revista de Docencia Universitaria, 13(2), 363-390. https://doi.org/10.4995/redu.2015.5453Benton, S.L., Cashin, W.E. (2013). Student ratings of instruction in college and university courses. En M.B. Paulsen (ed.), Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research (pp. 279-326). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8005-6_7Berk, R.A. (2014). Should student outcomes be used to evaluate teaching? Journal of Faculty Development, 28(2), 87-96. Recuperado de https://pdfs.semanticscholar. org/72dc/eb08a40f9019c72d5f20971bd3413fe06efd.pdfBoring, A. (2017). Gender biases in student evaluations of teaching. Journal of Public Economics, 145, 27-41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2016.11.006Casero, A. (2010). Factores moduladores de la percepción de la calidad docente. RELIEVE, Revista Electrónica de Investigación y Evaluación Educativa, 16(2), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.7203/relieve.16.2.4135Centra, J.A. (2003). Will teachers receive higher student evaluations by giving higher grades and less course work? Research in Higher Education, 44(5), 495-518. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025492407752Cohen, P.A. (1983). Comment on a selective review of the validity of student ratings of teaching. The Journal of Higher Education, 54(4), 448-458. https://doi.org/10.2307/1981907Elizondo, A., Novo, A., Silvestre, M. (2010). Igualdad de mujeres y hombres en las universidades españolas. Instituto de la Mujer, Madrid. Recuperado de http://www.inmujer.gob.es/areasTematicas/estudios/serieEstudios/docs/ igualdadUniversidades.pdfEmery, C.R., Kramer, T.R., Tian, R.G. (2003). Return to academic standards: a critique of student evaluations of teaching effectiveness. Quality Assurance in Education, 11(1), 37-46. https://doi.org/10.1108/09684880310462074Fernández Rico, J.E., Fernández, S., Álvarez, A., Martínez Camblor, P. (2007). Éxito académico y satisfacción de estudiantes con la enseñanza universitaria. RELIEVE, Revista Electrónica de Investigación y Evaluación Educativa, 13(2). https://doi.org/10.7203/relieve.13.2.4207Franklin, M. (2016). Student evaluations of teaching in business and accounting courses: a perspective and a suggested improvement. Cogent Business & Management, 3(1), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2016.1226458García Martín, A., García-León, J. (2017). Una experiencia de medición de la carga de trabajo percibida por los estudiantes para facilitar la coordinación horizontal. REDU, Revista de Docencia Universitaria, 15(1), 81-104. https://doi.org/10.4995/redu.2017.5987Greenwald, A.G., Gillmore, G.M. (1997). No pain, no gain? The importance of measuring course workload in student ratings of instruction. Journal of Educational Psychology, 89(4), 743-751. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.89.4.743Hammonds, F., Mariano, G.J., Ammons, G., Chambers, S. (2016). Student evaluations of teaching: improving teaching quality in higher education. Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education, 21(1), 26-33. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603108.2016.1227388Isla-Díaz, R., Marrero-Hernández, H., Hess-Medler, S., Soriano, M., Acosta-Rodríguez, S., Pérez-Monteverde, M.V., Blanco-Freijo, M. (2018). Una mirada longitudinal: ¿Es el "Docentia" útil para la evaluación del profesorado universitario? RELIEVE, Revista Electrónica de Investigación y Evaluación Educativa, 24(2). https://doi.org/10.7203/relieve.24.2.12142Jones, J. (1989). Students' ratings of teacher personality and teaching competence. Higher Education, 18(5), 551-558. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00138747López-Aguado, M. (2018). La evaluación de la calidad de títulos universitarios. Dificultades percibidas por los responsables de los sistemas de garantía de calidad. Educación XX1, 21(1), 263-284. https://doi.org/10.5944/educxx1.20195Marsh, H., Roche, L. (1997). Making students' evaluations of teaching effectiveness effective. American Psychologist, 52(11), 1187-1197. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.52.11.1187Marsh, H. (2007). Students' evaluations of university teaching: dimensionality, reliability, validity, potential biases and usefulness. En R.P. Perry and J.C. Smart (eds.), The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: An Evidence-Based Perspective, 319-383. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-5742-3_9Mas Torelló, O. (2012). Las competencias del docente universitario: la percepción del alumno, de los expertos y del propio protagonista. REDU - Revista de Docencia Universitaria, 10(2), 299-318. https://doi.org/10.4995/redu.2012.6109Murray, H.G. (2005). Student evaluation of teaching: has it made a difference? Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. Recuperado de https://www.stlhe.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Student-Evaluation-of- Teaching1.pdfRamírez, M.I., Montoya, J. (2014). La evaluación de la calidad de la docencia en la universidad: Una revisión de la literatura. REDU, Revista de Docencia Universitaria, 12 (2), 77-95. https://doi.org/10.4995/redu.2014.5641Sánchez, F., Rubio, R., Alonso, E., Retamal, K. (2009). La valoración de la actividad docente. Algo más que la opinión de los estudiantes. Boletín de Psicología, 97, 71-92. Recuperado de https://www.uv.es/seoane/boletin/previos/N97-5.pdfSpooren, P., Mortelmans, D., Thijssen, P. (2012). 'Content' versus 'style': acquiescence in student evaluation of teaching? British Educational Research Journal, 38(1), 3-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/01411926.2010.523453Uttl, B., White, C.A., Gonzalez, D. (2017). Meta-analysis of faculty's teaching effectiveness: Student evaluation of teaching ratings and student learning are not related. Studies in Educational Evaluation 54, 22-42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stueduc.2016.08.007Wolbring, T., y Treischl, E. (2016). Selection bias in students' evaluation of teaching. Causes of student absenteeism and its consequences for course ratings and rankings. Research in Higher Education, 57, 51-71. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-015-9378-

CARGO: a web portal to integrate customized biological information

There is a huge quantity of information generated in Life Sciences, and it is dispersed in many databases and repositories. Despite the broad availability of the information, there is a great demand for methods that are able to look for, gather and display distributed data in a standardized and friendly way. CARGO (Cancer And Related Genes Online) is a configurable biological web portal designed as a tool to facilitate, integrate and visualize results from Internet resources, independently of their native format or access method. Through the use of small agents, called widgets, supported by a Rich Internet Application (RIA) paradigm based on AJAX, CARGO provides pieces of minimal, relevant and descriptive biological information. The tool is designed to be used by experimental biologists with no training in bioinformatics. In the current state, the system presents a list of human cancer genes. Available at http://cargo.bioinfo.cnio.e