Brainiac Caspases: Beyond the Wall of Apoptosis

For the last two decades, caspases, a family of cysteine-aspartic proteases, have evolved from being considered solely as regulators of apoptosis or inflammation to having a wider range of functions. In this mini review, we focus on the most recent "non-apoptotic" roles of caspases in the CNS, particularly in neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. Non-apoptotic caspase functions in microglia have already been reviewed extensively elsewhere. Here we discuss the involvement of caspases in the activation of the inflammasome, autophagy, and non-apoptotic forms of cell death such as necroptosis and pyroptosis. Also, we review the involvement of caspases in synapses and the processing of aggregates key to neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and Huntington's diseases. Likewise, we mention the recently described involvement of caspases in mitochondrial biogenesis, which is a function independent of the enzymatic activity. We conclude discussing the relevance that "new" functions of caspases have in the CNS and the future of this field of researchEspaña Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad SAF2015-64171- R (MINECO/FEDER, EU)España Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Programa Ramón y Cajal: RYC-2017-21804

The voice of birth families to improve visits in foster care

In foster care, contact visits with birth families play an important role in relation to the child’s wellbeing, and they may impact on placement outcomes. However, the views of birth parents with respect to such visits have largely been unexplored. This research is part of a project financed by the regional government of Andalusia (SEJ-7106) regarding contact visits in foster care. This study aims to give voice to parents and gather their views about contact visits, including how they might be improved. Participants were 23 birth families who had contact visits with 35 children in non-kinship foster care. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted in order to explore two key aspects: the parents’ opinions regarding the contact visits and the main areas they felt needed improving. The interviews were transcribed and the transcripts were examined using an inductive method of open coding to identify themes among participants’ responses. The main themes to emerge concerned their general view of contact visits and the organization of visits. The paper discusses the study’s implications of the findings for practice.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

III Jornadas Bienales de Jóvenes Investigadores en Proteómica, Santiago de Compostela 2012: una visión de futuro y optimismo ante un horizonte incierto

Comunicaciones a congreso

Comparación de las lesiones por accidente de trabajo en trabajadores extranjeros y españoles por actividad económica y comunidad autónoma (España, 2005)

Ana M. García ([email protected])Fundamento: Aunque el colectivo de personas inmigrantes en nuestro país se ha incrementado notablemente en los últimos años, poco se sabe de sus condiciones de trabajo y de los efectos de éstas en términos de lesiones por accidentes de trabajo. El objetivo de este trabajo fue comparar, para el año 2005, la incidencia de lesiones mortales y no mortales de las personas extranjeras con las de las españolas por actividad económica y comunidad autónoma. Métodos: Los datos de lesiones por accidentes de trabajo (LAT) procedieron del Registro de Accidentes de Trabajo del Ministerio de Trabajo y Asuntos Sociales y los denominadores se obtuvieron de las estadísticas disponibles sobre afiliación a la Seguridad Social para el año 2005, seleccionándose en ambos casos los datos correspondientes a los afiliados al Régimen General de la seguridad social y al régimen de la Minería del Carbón. Se calculó la incidencia de lesiones mortales y no mortales por accidente de trabajo, así como el riesgo relativo (RR) y su intervalo de confianza al 95% (IC95%) para trabajadores extranjeros en comparación con los españoles por comunidad autónoma y actividad económica, tomando como referencia a los españoles. Resultados: El riesgo relativo de LAT en trabajadores extranjeros fue 1,34 (IC95% 1,11-1,62) para LAT mortales y 1,13 (IC95% 1,13-1,14) para LAT no mortales, registrándose importantes diferencias entre comunidades autónomas y sectores de actividad. Conclusiones: se confirma un mayor riesgo global de LAT entre los trabajadores extranjeros que puede ser mayor que el observado. Las diferencias de riesgo entre actividades económicas y comunidades autónomas requieren análisis más detallados. En comparación con los trabajadores españoles, el riesgo de LAT es más elevado para los extranjeros en las actividades industriales, mientras que resulta inferior en la construcción, el comercio y la hostelería. Por comunidades autónomas, Aragón y Cataluña muestran los riesgos más elevados para los trabajadores extranjeros.Background:While the immigrant collective in Spain has grown considerably in recent years, little is known about working conditions and their corresponding effects on occupational injury in this group. The objective of this study was to compare the incidences for both fatal and non-fatal injuries in foreign workers to that of Spanish workers in 2005, by autonomous community and economic activity. Methods: Injury data came from the accident registry of the ministry of labor and social issues, and denominators were taken from available social security affiliation statistics from general and coal mining social security system. Incidence indices for fatal and non-fatal occupational injuries for foreign and spanish workers were calculated. In addition, relative risks and their 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) were calculated by autonomous community and economic activity, using spanish workers as the reference group Results: Overall, relative risk for occupational injury in foreign workers in 2005 was superior to base risk for both fatal (1.34; 95%CI: 1.11-1.62) and non-fatal injury (1.13; 95%CI: 1.13- 1.14), though there were important differences by autonomous community and activity sectors. Compared with Spanish workers, risk for occupational injury was higher for foreign workers in industrial activities, while it was lower in construction, commerce and restaurants and hotels. By autonomous community, Aragón and Catalonia showed the highest risks for foreign workers. Conclusions: A higher risk for occupational injury among foreign workers is confirmed, and may be higher than that observed. The differences in risk among economic activities and autonomous communities require more detailed analysis

Analysis of professionals and family foster care on advantages and difficulties of visits between foster children and their biological families

Contact between a foster child and birth parents play an important role in relation to the foster child’s wellbeing. The main aim of this study is to give voice to social workers and foster families about contact visits. This research is part of a project financed by the regional government of Andalusia (Spain) (SEJ-7106) regarding contact visits in foster care. Two focus groups were organized, one with 8 social workers from four foster care agencies and another with 8 foster carers (4 were recruited through the Association of Foster Families in Andalusia and 4 through fostering agencies). Access to foster care agencies and foster families was obtained through the official Andalusian Child Protective Services (SPM). The focal groups were audio-recorded. Transcripts (of the two focus groups gave rise to primary documents for the hermeneutic unit under study. All this information was exported from an Excel database to the ATLAS.ti v7.0 software. The transcripts were examined using an inductive method of open coding in order to identify themes among participants’ responses. Results show that both groups agreed on the utility of visits to maintain the children’s attachment to their birth family, to bring a greater sense of continuity to the children’s life story, to enhance the psychological wellbeing of the foster children and to know the real situation of their birth family. In relation to the difficulties remarked in the course of the visits, one of the issues mentioned by both groups refers to a lack in the coordination among the social workers, the SPM and the foster families involved. The other issue brings together several complaints to the SPM, such as the fact of not providing information about taking decisions regarding the future of the child; the lack of support and preparation of the foster carers, the children and the birth families about visits; as well as the shortage of social workers and economic aids provided by the SPM. The conclusions of this study highlight the need to improve contact visits by developing intervention strategies targeted at all those involved (foster children, family foster care, birth family and social workers). These findings have important implications for practice.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Dynamic Daylight Metrics for Electricity Savings in Offices: Window Size and Climate Smart Lighting Management

Daylight performance metrics provide a promising approach for the design and optimization of lighting strategies in buildings and their management. Smart controls for electric lighting can reduce power consumption and promote visual comfort using different control strategies, based on affordable technologies and low building impact. The aim of this research is to assess the energy efficiency of these smart controls by means of dynamic daylight performance metrics, to determine suitable solutions based on the geometry of the architecture and the weather conditions. The analysis considers different room dimensions, with variable window size and two mean surface reflectance values. DaySim 3.1 lighting software provides the simulations for the study, determining the necessary quantification of dynamic metrics to evaluate the usefulness of the proposed smart controls and their impact on energy efficiency. The validation of dynamic metrics is carried out by monitoring a mesh of illuminance-meters in test cells throughout one year. The results showed that, for most rooms more than 3.00 m deep, smart controls achieve worthwhile energy savings and a low payback period, regardless of weather conditions and for worst-case situations. It is also concluded that dimming systems provide a higher net present value and allow the use of smaller window size than other control solutions

Arthrospira (Spirulina) platensis feeding reduces the early stage of chemically induced rat colon carcinogenesis

Sarmiento-Machado L.M and Ariane Rocha Bartolomeu A.R received fellowships from the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)- Finance code 001 and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)-# 2017/26217-7, respectively.Colorectal cancer is the third most diagnosed cancer worldwide and linked to dietary/lifestyle factors. Arthrospira (Spirulina) platensis (AP) contains bioactive compounds with beneficial effects in vivo/in vitro. We evaluated the effects of AP feeding against 1,2-dimethylhydrazine (DMH)-induced colon carcinogenesis. Male Sprague Dawley rats were given subcutaneous injections of DMH (4 × 40 mg/kg body weight) (G1–G3) or vehicle (G4–G5) twice a week (weeks 3–4). During weeks 1–4, animals were fed a diet containing 1 % (G2) or 2 % (G3–G4) AP powder (w/w). After this period, all groups received a balanced diet until week 12. Some animals were euthanised after the last DMH injection (week 4) for histological, immunohistochemical (Ki-67, γ-H2AX and caspase-3) and molecular analyses (real time-PCR for 91 genes), while other animals were euthanised at week 12 for preneoplastic aberrant crypt foci (ACF) analysis. Both AP treatments (G2–G3) significantly decreased the DMH-induced increase in γ-H2AX (DNA damage) and caspase 3 (DNA damage-induced cell death) in colonic crypts at week 4. In addition, Cyp2e1 (Drug metabolism), Notch1, Notch2 and Jag1 genes (Notch pathway) and Atm, Wee1, Chek2, Mgmt, Ogg1 and Xrcc6 genes (DNA repair) were also down-regulated by 2 % AP feeding (G3) at week 4. A significant reduction in ACF development was observed in both AP-treated groups (G2–G3) at week 12. In conclusion, findings indicate that AP feeding reduced acute colonic damage after DMH, resulting in fewer preneoplastic lesions. Our study provided mechanistic insights on dietary AP-preventive effects against early colon carcinogenesis.Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior (CAPES) 001Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo (FAPESP) 2017/26217-

Coherently manipulating flying qubits in a quantum wire with a magnetic impurity

e study the effect of a magnetic impurity with spin-half on a single propagating electron in a one-dimensional model system via the tight-binding approach. Due to the spin-dependent interaction, the scattering channel for the flying qubit is split, and its transmission spectrum is obtained. It is found that, the spin orientation of the impurity plays the role as a spin state filter for a flying qubit.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

An E-pHEMT self-biased and self-synchronous class E rectifier

In this paper, the design of a self-biased and self-synchronous class E rectifier, based on an Enhancement-mode Pseudomorphic High Electron Mobility Transistor (E-pHEMT), is proposed. Characterized by a small value of the switch-mode time-constant (the on-state resistance times the output capacitance), high power efficiency figures may be obtained when forcing zero-voltage and zero-voltage-derivative switching conditions (ZVS and ZVDS). The self-synchronous operation, made possible by the device gate-to-drain coupling capacitance, leads to a compact design, while the gate-to-source Schottky junction allows self-biasing the gate terminal in order to improve the efficiency versus input power profile. Simulations, based on an extracted simplified non-linear model, are combined with measured results for implementations at 900 MHz and 2.45 GHz. Efficiency values as high as 76% and 64% have been estimated at power levels of -4 dBm and -1 dBm, respectively, with peak figures of 88% and 77%.This work was supported by MINECO through projects TEC2011-29126-C03-01, co-funded with FEDER, and Consolider CSD2008-0006

Features of non-kinship foster care children with birth family contact in Andalusia

The aim of the presentation is to describe the personal features of non-kinship foster care children who have visits with their birth family in Málaga, Granada and Jaén (provinces of Andalusia, Spain). This study was funded by the research project Application of a psychoeducational intervention program to improve visits between foster children and their biological families (Reference EDU2016 77094-P). SPSS v.21.0 was used to carry out the descriptive and frequency analysis of socio-demographic information collected by the Child File Summary Form designed for this study. There are 212 non-kinship foster care children who have visits with their birth family. Their mean age is 8.09 years old (SD= 4.73). The more frequent types of foster care are both long-term and short-term placement (30.7%, respectively), followed by specialized long-term foster care (20.3%), urgency placement (10.8%) and specialized short-term foster care (7.5%). The period of time they have been into the Child Protection System is on average 4.08 years (SD= 3.88) and into the current placement is on average 2.53 (SD= 2.95). Thus, 44.8% of foster children were in residential care and 30.2% were in previous foster care. The latter could have been with the current foster care family. Also, 41.0% of foster children were placed at least with one sibling. It is important to know the features of foster children in order to apply the main principle of “the best interests of the child” to the whole decision-making process about the child’s protection and welfare. In our project, these decisions concern foster care placement and birth family contact to maintain and strengthen family affective bonds and child’s identity formation. Our findings contribute to develop: (a) initiatives to improve children’s well-being; (b) support and social resources required by families; and (c) socio-educative tools for the social workers.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech