A hybrid approach with agent-based simulation and clustering for sociograms

In the last years, some features of sociograms have proven to be strongly related to the performance of groups. However, the prediction of sociograms according to the features of individuals is still an open issue. In particular, the current approach presents a hybrid approach between agent-based simulation and clustering for simulating sociograms according to the psychological features of their members. This approach performs the clustering extracting certain types of individuals regarding their psychological characteristics, from training data. New people can then be associated with one of the types in order to run a sociogram simulation. This approach has been implemented with the tool called CLUS-SOCI (an agent-based and CLUStering tool for simulating SOCIograms). The current approach has been experienced with real data from four different secondary schools, with 38 real sociograms involving 714 students. Two thirds of these data were used for training the tool, while the remaining third was used for validating it. In the validation data, the resulting simulated sociograms were similar to the real ones in terms of cohesion, coherence of reciprocal relations and intensity, according to the binomial test with the correction of Bonferroni

Infraestructura tecnológica de servicios semánticos para la Web Semántica

This project aims at creating a network of distributed interoperable semantic services for building more complex ones. These services will be available in semantic Web service libraries, so that they can be invoked by other systems (e.g., semantic portals, software agents, etc.). Thus, to accomplish this objective, the project proposes: a) To create specific technology for developing and composing Semantic Web Services. b) To migrate the WebODE ontology development workbench to this new distributed interoperable semantic service architecture. c) To develop new semantic services (ontology learning, ontology mappings, incremental ontology evaluation, and ontology evolution). d) To develop technological support that eases semantic portal interoperability, using Web services and Semantic Web Services. The project results will be open source, so as to improve their technological transfer. The quality of these results is ensured by a benchmarking process. Keywords: Ontologies and Semantic We

Cohort study protocol: Bioresource in Adult Infectious Diseases (BioAID)

Introduction: Infectious diseases have a major impact on morbidity and mortality in hospital. Microbial diagnosis remains elusive for most cases of suspected infection which impacts on the use of antibiotics. Rapid advances in genomic technologies combined with high-quality phenotypic data have great potential to improve the diagnosis, management and clinical outcomes of infectious diseases.  The aim of the Bioresource in Adult Infectious Diseases (BioAID) is to provide a platform for biomarker discovery, trials and clinical service developments in the field of infectious diseases, by establishing a registry linking clinical phenotype to microbial and biological samples in adult patients who attend hospital with suspected infection. Methods and analysis: BioAID is a cohort study which employs deferred consent to obtain an additional 2.5mL RNA blood sample from patients who attend the Emergency Department (ED) with suspected infection when they undergo peripheral blood culture sampling.  Clinical data and additional biological samples including DNA, serum and microbial isolates are obtained from BioAID participants during hospital admission.  Participants are also asked to consent to be recalled for future studies. BioAID aims to recruit 10,000 patients from 5-8 sites across England.  Since February 2014 >4000 individuals have been recruited to the study.  The final cohort will be characterised using descriptive statistics including information on the number of cases that can be linked to biological and microbial samples to support future research studies. Ethical approval and section 251 exemption have been obtained for BioAID researchers to seek deferred consent from patients from whom a RNA specimen has been collected. Samples and meta-data obtained through BioAID will be made available to researchers worldwide following submission of an application form and research protocol.   Conclusions: BioAID will support a range of study designs spanning discovery science, biomarker validation, disease pathogenesis and epidemiological analyses of clinical infection syndromes

Salmonella Kottbus outbreak in infants in Gran Canaria (Spain), caused by bottled water, August-November 2006

Since October 2006, the Spanish National Reference Laboratory has reported a series of isolations of Salmonella Kottbus on the island of Gran Canaria [1]. The fact that most of the cases were in infants under one year of age and needed hospitalisation, caused significant concern among the general public. Information published in the media contributed to this alarm.Outbreaks due to this Salmonella serotype are rare in the literature with only five outbreaks published since 1959 [2-6]. No cases of Salmonella Kottbus had been isolated and reported in Spain since 1996 [7,8]. We decided to conduct epidemiological and environmental studies to describe the characteristics of the cases and to determine the possible source of infection

Trasplante pulmonar en ratas. Un modelo viable de estudio experimental

Objetivos: Desarrollar el modelo experimental de trasplante pulmonar (TP) con cuffs (técnica de manguito), inicialmente descrito por Mizuta, como medio de estudio del TP en nuestro medio incorporando un nuevo protocolo anestésico rápido, seguro y reversible. Material y método: Se han utilizado ratas Sprague-Dawley (n = 88) para el desarrollo del modelo experimental y se han logrado realizar 30 TP izquierdos (n = 60). En el animal donante se han efectuado una esternotomía media y extracción del bloque cardiopulmonar con disección del pulmón izquierdo y colocación de los cuffs (catéteres de venopunción cortados en cilindros de 3 mm). En el receptor, a través de una toracotomía lateral, se ha llevado a cabo el implante del pulmón izquierdo mediante las anastomosis con cuffs. Se han valorado el tiempo quirúrgico y las complicaciones postoperatorias, así como la presencia de signos de lesión de isquemia-reperfusión y rechazo agudo en el pulmón trasplantado. Resultados: Durante el desarrollo del modelo experimental rechazamos a 8 animales en la extracción. Tras completarla satisfactoriamente, no se pudo realizar el implante en 10 ratas por problemas técnicos. De los animales trasplantados, 4 fallecieron en las primeras 24 h y 26 ratas sobrevivieron hasta las 48 h, momento en que fueron sacrificadas. Hallamos un buen estado de las anastomosis y signos de lesión de isquemia-reperfusión y rechazo agudo en el parénquima pulmonar del pulmón trasplantado. Conclusiones: El TP con cuffs en ratas es un modelo válido, fiable, reproducible y económico para el estudio del TP y de los fenómenos de isquemia-reperfusión y rechazo. La técnica quirúrgica es compleja, tiene una larga curva de aprendizaje y requiere personal con experiencia quirúrgica. Además, es subsidiaria de modificaciones que hagan que se asemeje más a la técnica quirúrgica utilizada en clínica humana para interpretar mejor y poder extrapolar los resultados al humano con más fiabilida

Synthesis and plasmonic properties of monodisperse Au-Ag alloy nanoparticles of different compositions from a single-source organometallic precursor

Monodisperse Au-Ag alloy nanoparticles of different compositions are prepared through the mild decomposition of the bimetallic precursor [Au 2Ag2(C6F5)4(OEt 2)2]n in an organic solvent using hexadecylamine (HDA) as a stabilizing ligand. The effects of different reaction parameters on the size and composition of the nanoparticles, such as the metal:HDA ratio, the use of H2 reducing gas or the solvent (toluene, THF or mesitylene), have been studied through TEM, HRTEM, EDS, UV/Vis and 19F NMR spectroscopy. The localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) displayed by the spherical Au-Ag nanoparticles can be tuned as a function of the metal composition. © 2014 the Partner Organisations