AVICENA, an ontology for the design of executable clinical practice guidelines

This is an electronic version of the paper presented at the Ninth International Protégé Conference, held in Stanford on 2006Clinical practice guidelines (CPG) are increasingly more demanded as a necessary tool in the supply of health care. In spite of their continuous evolution and spreading, their usage in the context of the new information technologies is still not enough developed. There is much work to be done in the area of execution of CPG, and, consequently, it is difficult to find repositories of formal and executable CPG. The project AVICENA is a new proposal of an ontology for the modelling of executable guidelines, that (1) creates new ways for the representation of clinical knowledge and (2) allows the management of the dynamics of health-related processes

A bright bolide produced by a meteoroid follwing a Jupiter family comet orbit

One of the techniques employed by the SPanish Meteor Network (SPMN) to monitor the night sky is based on high-sensitivity CCD video de- vices. These have a limiting magnitude of +3/+4 with- out using any image intensifier. Our meteor network has increased the number of such video stations from 2 in 2006 to 25 in 2011. Nowadays we perform a con- tinuous monitoring of meteor and fireball activity over Spain and neighbouring regions, which is equivalent to an area of about 500.000 km 2 . This expansion is being accompanied by a considerable effort to develop sev- eral software packages to accomplish different tasks, such as the automated operation of some of our sta- tions and the data reduction of the huge amount of information these provide. Besides, favourable weather conditions in Spain combined with the high sensitivity of our systems give us an advantage to per- form this continuous monitoring, which has provided important information about meteor and fireball activ- ity. The analysis of bolides is, in fact, one of our pri- orities, as brighter ones can be potential meteorite pro- ducing events and fireballs also may provide useful information about disruption episodes in their parent objects. In this context, we have imaged on April 27, 2011 a double-station sporadic fireball with an abso- lute magnitude of about -7 ± 1. The analysis of this bo- lide is made here

Polarized laser light scattering applied to surface morphology characterization of epitaxial III–V semiconductor layers

11 pages.-- PACS: 68.35.Bs; 81.05.Ea; 81.15.Hi; 78.35.+c; 78.66.FdIn this paper, we analyze typical morphologies of epitaxial III–V semiconductor layers by using a polarized laser light scattering technique. Crosshatched topographies, which are developed during heteroepitaxial growth, are studied. A sample with an intentionally high density of oval defects is also explored to establish how the laser light scattering pattern is affected by the presence of these defects, which are unavoidable in the epitaxial layers grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The former topographies produce a scattered light pattern that is highly anisotropic, with the intensity concentrated along two preferential directions; the latter defects give rise to a fairly isotropic pattern. Employing a perturbation-theoretical model, whose applicability and consistency are explicitly demonstrated by our results, the surface power spectral density is retrieved from the angle-resolved light scattering experimental data. For the samples exhibiting crosshatched topography, the scattering measurements provide information that allows us to model the roughness of the surface in terms of two quasi-one-dimensional, anisotropic components, and one two-dimensional, isotropic, long-range background. The root mean square heights and the typical lateral distances between ridges are obtained in quantitative agreement with the values extracted from the atomic force microscopy measurements. For the sample presenting oval defects, we consider their contribution to the surface power spectral density by means of a simple model of randomly distributed particles on a surface, and we compare the resulting power spectral density with typical behavior found in the literature for good-morphology GaAs layers. With the help of the ex situ information thus obtained, we also discuss the implementation of the light scattering technique for in situ monitoring during epitaxial growth.The authors wish to acknowledge the Spanish CICYT for financial support under Project No. TIC96-1020-C02. M.U.G. thanks the Consejería de Educación y Cultura de la Comunidad de Madrid for financial support. J.A.S.-G. acknowledges financial support from the Spanish DGESIC Grant No. PB97-1221.Spanish CICYTConsejería de Educación y Cultura de la Comunidad de MadridPeer reviewe

Effects of protonation, hydroxylamination, and hydrazination of g-C3N4 on the performance of Matrimid®/g-C3N4 membranes

Producción CientíficaOne of the challenges to continue improving polymeric membranes properties involves the development of novel chemically modified fillers, such as nitrogen-rich 2-D nanomaterials. Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) has attracted significant interest as a new class of these fillers. Protonation is known to afford it desirable functionalities to form unique architectures for various applications. In the work presented herein, doping of Matrimid® with protonated g-C3N4 to yield Matrimid®/g-C3N4 mixed matrix membranes was found to improve gas separation by enhancing the selectivity for CO2/CH4 by up to 36.9% at 0.5 wt % filler doping. With a view to further enhancing the contribution of g-C3N4 to the performance of the composite membrane, oxygen plasma and hydrazine monohydrate treatments were also assayed as alternatives to protonation. Hydroxylamination by oxygen plasma treatment increased the selectivity for CO2/CH4 by up to 52.2% (at 2 wt % doping) and that for O2/N2 by up to 26.3% (at 0.5 wt % doping). Hydrazination led to lower enhancements in CO2/CH4 separation, by up to 11.4%. This study suggests that chemically-modified g-C3N4 may hold promise as an additive for modifying the surface of Matrimid® and other membranes.European Union (project LIFE15-ENV/ES/000284)Ministerio de Asuntos Económicos y Transformación Digital (projects MAT2016-76413-C2-R1 and MAT2016-76413-C2-R2

Trastorno por déficit de atención con hiperactividad, Evolución en dimensiones clínicas, cognitivas, académicas y relacionales.

El estudio analiza el desarrollo a través de la edad de dimensiones clínicas, cognitivas, académicas y relacionales en casos clínicos de Trastorno por Déficit de Atención con Hiperactividad (TDAH). Metodología de investigación: Se analiza una muestra de 90 casos con TDAH (6- 16 años), con un diseño seccional, comparaciones transversales y criterios de investigación diferencial en función de la edad. El caso de TDAH se valoró según criterios DSM-IV y se consideraron las variables perfil intelectual, resultados académicos, dimensión relacional y comorbilidad. Se utilizaron estadísticos descriptivos y exploratorios, implementando un procedimiento de regresión lineal. Resultados: Los casos de TDAH analizados presentan importante alteración en dimensiones clínicas, académicas y relacionales. Solo los resultados académicos se deterioran progresivamente con la edad (p menor de 0.05)

Trastorno por déficit de atención con hiperactividad, Evolución en dimensiones clínicas, cognitivas, académicas y relacionales.

El estudio analiza el desarrollo a través de la edad de dimensiones clínicas, cognitivas, académicas y relacionales en casos clínicos de Trastorno por Déficit de Atención con Hiperactividad (TDAH). Metodología de investigación: Se analiza una muestra de 90 casos con TDAH (6- 16 años), con un diseño seccional, comparaciones transversales y criterios de investigación diferencial en función de la edad. El caso de TDAH se valoró según criterios DSM-IV y se consideraron las variables perfil intelectual, resultados académicos, dimensión relacional y comorbilidad. Se utilizaron estadísticos descriptivos y exploratorios, implementando un procedimiento de regresión lineal. Resultados: Los casos de TDAH analizados presentan importante alteración en dimensiones clínicas, académicas y relacionales. Solo los resultados académicos se deterioran progresivamente con la edad (p menor de 0.05)

Emergency department direct discharge compared to short-stay unit admission for selected patients with acute heart failure: analysis of short-term outcomes

Short stay unit (SSU) is an alternative to conventional hospitalization in patients with acute heart failure (AHF), but the prognosis is not known compared to direct discharge from the emergency department (ED). To determine whether direct discharge from the ED of patients diagnosed with AHF is associated with early adverse outcomes versus hospitalization in SSU. Endpoints, defined as 30-day all-cause mortality or post-discharge adverse events, were evaluated in patients diagnosed with AHF in 17 Spanish EDs with an SSU, and compared by ED discharge vs. SSU hospitalization. Endpoint risk was adjusted for baseline and AHF episode characteristics and in patients matched by propensity score (PS) for SSU hospitalization. Overall, 2358 patients were discharged home and 2003 were hospitalized in SSUs. Discharged patients were younger, more frequently men, with fewer comorbidities, had better baseline status, less infection, rapid atrial fibrillation and hypertensive emergency as the AHF trigger, and had a lower severity of AHF episode. While their 30-day mortality rate was lower than in patients hospitalized in SSU (4.4% vs. 8.1%, p < 0.001), 30-day post-discharge adverse events were similar (27.2% vs. 28.4%, p = 0.599). After adjustment, there were no differences in the 30-day risk of mortality of discharged patients (adjusted HR 0.846, 95% CI 0.637-1.107) or adverse events (1.035, 0.914-1.173). In 337 pairs of PS-matched patients, there were no differences in mortality or risk of adverse event between patients directly discharged or admitted to an SSU (0.753, 0.409-1.397; and 0.858, 0.645-1.142; respectively). Direct ED discharge of patients diagnosed with AHF provides similar outcomes compared to patients with similar characteristics and hospitalized in a SSU

FDG-PET-based neural correlates of Addenbrooke’s cognitive examination III scores in Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal degeneration

IntroductionThe Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination III (ACE-III) is a brief test useful for neuropsychological assessment. Several studies have validated the test for the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). In this study, we aimed to examine the metabolic correlates associated with the performance of ACE-III in AD and behavioral variant FTD.MethodsWe enrolled 300 participants in a cross-sectional study, including 180 patients with AD, 60 with behavioral FTD (bvFTD), and 60 controls. An 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography study was performed in all cases. Correlation between the ACE-III and its domains (attention, memory, fluency, language, and visuospatial) with the brain metabolism was estimated.ResultsThe ACE-III showed distinct neural correlates in bvFTD and AD, effectively capturing the most relevant regions involved in these disorders. Neural correlates differed for each domain, especially in the case of bvFTD. Lower ACE-III scores were associated with more advanced stages in both disorders. The ACE-III exhibited high discrimination between bvFTD vs. HC, and between AD vs. HC. Additionally, it was sensitive to detect hypometabolism in brain regions associated with bvFTD and AD.ConclusionOur study contributes to the knowledge of the brain regions associated with ACE-III, thereby facilitating its interpretation, and highlighting its suitability for screening and monitoring. This study provides further validation of ACE-III in the context of AD and FTD