Checklist and state of knowledge of helminths in wild birds from Chile: an update

Helminths are an important component of biodiversity with over 24,000 species parasitising wild birds globally, with this figure on the rise given the growing interest in wildlife parasitology. The present study aimed to establish an updated baseline of the helminthological surveys on wild birds from Chile. Available publications were reviewed to build a parasite-host association checklist and also to discuss the state of knowledge regarding these parasites. A total of 92 publications were found between the years 1892 and 2019. Regarding helminth parasites, 174 taxa belonging to 3 phyla and 37 families were recorded, 114 taxa were identified at species level, with the rest remaining incompletely described. Also, 4 taxa corresponded to new genera and 16 to new at species for science. The most reported parasites were platyhelminthes (53.9%) followed by nematodes (36.2%) and acanthocephalans (9.2%). Sixty-five avian species from 19 orders have been recorded as hosts, with most of them having been studied only once (64.6%). Out of these, the order Charadriiformes had the highest number of publications (n=23). In the case of the avian species present in the country, 14.2% of native, 40% of endemic and 22.2% of exotic species have been recorded hosting helminths. Regarding heteroxenous parasites, only 2 species have had their life cycles elucidated. Among the methodologies used for parasitic identification, 48.9% of the studies used morphological tools, 5.4% used molecular tools and 4.3% used both tools. For that reason, there are evident gaps in the data concerning the hosts sampled, methodologies and issues related to the biology of parasites such as life cycles, among others. In this sense, the need for specialists and cooperative research becomes indispensable to improve our understanding of helminths

Prognostic and Clinicopathological Significance of CCND1/Cyclin D1 Upregulation in Melanomas: A Systematic Review and Comprehensive Meta-Analysis

We would like to thank the research group CTS-392 (Plan Andaluz de Investigación, Junta de Andalucía, Spain).Simple Summary The incidence of cutaneous melanoma is increasing worldwide, currently responsible for 287,723 new cases and 60,712 deaths per year (GLOBOCAN, IARC, WHO). It should be also highlighted that some less frequent subtypes of melanomas-i.e., acral, uveal, and mucous melanoma-are responsible for significant morbidity associated with metastasis, responding typically worse to newer therapies. Therefore, new biomarkers are needed to improve the prognosis in individual patients. In this sense, the present study showed that CCND1/cyclin D1 upregulation is a common molecular oncogenic alteration in melanomas that probably favors the growth and expansion on cutaneous primary melanomas. Furthermore, immunohistochemical cyclin D1 overexpression strongly predicted a higher Breslow thickness, currently considered the most relevant prognostic factor in individual patients with melanomas. Finally, special attention should be paid to the CCND1/cyclin D1 complex in mucosal melanomas, whose upregulation was strikingly altered. Our objective was to evaluate the prognostic and clinicopathological significance of cyclin D1 (CD1) overexpression/CCND1 amplification in melanomas. We searched studies published before September 2019 (PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Scopus). We evaluated the quality of the studies included (QUIPS tool). The impact of CD1 overexpression/CCND1 amplification on overall survival and relevant clinicopathological characteristic were meta-analyzed. We performed heterogeneity, sensitivity, small-study effects, and subgroup analyses. Forty-one studies and 3451 patients met inclusion criteria. Qualitative evaluation demonstrated that not all studies were performed with the same rigor, finding the greatest risk of bias in the study confounding domain. Quantitative evaluation showed that immunohistochemical CD1 overexpression had a statistical association with Breslow thickness (p = 0.007; OR = 2.09,95% CI = 1.23-3.57), significantly higher frequency of CCND1/cyclin D1 abnormalities has been observed in the primary tumor compared to distant metastases (p = 0.004), revealed also by immunohistochemical overexpression of the protein (p < 0.001; OR = 0.53,95% CI = 0.40-0.71), while the CCND1 gene amplification does not show association (p = 0.43); while gene amplification, on the contrary, appeared more frequently in distant metastases (p = 0.04; OR = 1.70,95% CI = 1.01-2.85) and not in the primary tumor. In conclusion, CCND1/cyclin D1 upregulation is a common molecular oncogenic alteration in melanomas that probably favors the growth and expansion of the primary tumor. This upregulation is mainly consequence to the overexpression of the cyclin D1 protein, and not to gene amplification

Caracterización estadística del cáncer de mama en la provincia de Pinar del Río / Statistical characterization of breast cancer in Pinar del Rio province

Dentro de las enfermedades no transmisibles que causan cada año una alta mortalidad en la provincia de Pinar del Río, están las provocadas por el cáncer de mama. Esto genera años de vida perdidos por la mortalidad, de ahí que el objetivo sea: reflejar esta situación por municipios entre los años de 2003 al 2009, con el interés de brindar una información adicional y complementaria al Departamento Provincial de Estadística de Salud Pública. Los indicadores promedio de años de vida perdidos y promedio de años de vida vividos reflejan con más claridad esta situación. Los primeros se calcularon a partir de los estimados de esperanza de vida y los segundos, a partir de la suma de las edades de todas las fallecidas en los 7 años entre el total de estas. El cálculo se realizó sobre la base de tablas estadísticas aportadas por el Departamento de Provincial Estadística de Salud Pública, empleando para esto el sistema Microsoft Excel. Se utilizó un estudio longitudinal retrospectivo y descriptivo en los 14 municipios de la provincia. La novedad del estudio amen de lo antes mencionado está en que contempla por cada municipio como se comporta esta situación, sensibilizando al personal de la atención primaria de salud en la detección temprana del cáncer de mama. El cáncer de mama en el período que se analiza tuvo una evolución desfavorable en lo que se refiere a los años de vida saludables perdidos, destacándose el municipio de Pinar del Río.Palabras clave: NEOPLASIAS DE LA MAMA, AÑOS DE VIDA AJUSTADOS POR CALIDAD DE VIDA, AÑOS POTENCIALES DE VIDA PERDIDOS.ABSTRACTAmong non-contagious diseases provoking an annual high mortality rate in Pinar del Rio province are those provoke by breast cancer. The objective of this study was to quantify, for first time- where it had been possible to investigate- the burden associated with breast cancer in Pinar del Rio province, aimed at offering and additional and complementary information to the Provincial Department of Statistics in Public Health. The average years of potential life lost and quality-adjusted life year's indicators reflected this situation clearly. The first ones were calculated from the estimate of life expectancy and the second ones, from the sum of the ages of the deceased women in an average of 7 years considering the total. The calculation was based on the statistical tables given by the Provincial Department of Statistics of Public Health. A longitudinal, retrospective and descriptive study was conducted in the 14 municipalities of the province. The newest characteristic of this study -as well as in the aspects mentioned before- was that it examined the behaviour of the situation in each municipality, raising the awareness of the Primary Health Care personnel in the early detection of breast cancer. Breast cancer showed an unfavorable natural history regarding years of healthy potential life lost, being Pinar del Rio municipality the most notable.Key words: BREAST NEOPLASMS, QUALITY-ADJUSTED LIFE YEARS, POTENTIAL YEARS OF LIFE LOST

Layer Selection in Progressive Transmission of Motion-Compensated JPEG2000 Video

MCJ2K (Motion-Compensated JPEG2000) is a video codec based on MCTF (Motion- Compensated Temporal Filtering) and J2K (JPEG2000). MCTF analyzes a sequence of images, generating a collection of temporal sub-bands, which are compressed with J2K. The R/D (Rate-Distortion) performance in MCJ2K is better than the MJ2K (Motion JPEG2000) extension, especially if there is a high level of temporal redundancy. MCJ2K codestreams can be served by standard JPIP (J2K Interactive Protocol) servers, thanks to the use of only J2K standard file formats. In bandwidth-constrained scenarios, an important issue in MCJ2K is determining the amount of data of each temporal sub-band that must be transmitted to maximize the quality of the reconstructions at the client side. To solve this problem, we have proposed two rate-allocation algorithms which provide reconstructions that are progressive in quality. The first, OSLA (Optimized Sub-band Layers Allocation), determines the best progression of quality layers, but is computationally expensive. The second, ESLA (Estimated-Slope sub-band Layers Allocation), is sub-optimal in most cases, but much faster and more convenient for real-time streaming scenarios. An experimental comparison shows that even when a straightforward motion compensation scheme is used, the R/D performance of MCJ2K competitive is compared not only to MJ2K, but also with respect to other standard scalable video codecs

Actividad física, deporte y hábitos saludables en sujetos obesos y con sobrepeso

El presente trabajo trata de una propuesta de mejora a un protocolo de entrenamiento que se aplica en un centro de entrenamiento a sujetos con sobrepeso y obesidad, para ello se realiza una breve contextualización del centro, una revisión bibliográfica del tema para saber qué metodologías de entrenamiento o hábitos saludables aplicados a esta población han tenido resultados más eficaces y eficientes, para posteriormente plantear esta propuesta de mejora

Early Diagnosis of Oral Cancer: A Complex Polyhedral Problem with a Difficult Solution

Oral and oropharyngeal cancers are a growing problem, accounting for 377,713 and 98,412 new cases per year all over the world and 177,757 and 48,143 deaths annually, respectively. Despite the substantial improvement in diagnostic procedures and treatment techniques in recent years, the mortality rate has not decreased substantially in the last 40 years, which is still close to 50% of cases. The major cause responsible for this high mortality is associated with the high percentage of oral cancers diagnosed in advanced stages (stages III and IV) where the treatment harbors poor efficacy, resulting in challenges, mutilations, or disability. The main reason for cancer to be diagnosed at an advanced stage is a diagnostic delay, so it is critical to reduce this delay in order to improve the prognosis of patients suffering from oral cancer. The causes of oral cancer diagnostic delay are complex and concern patients, healthcare professionals, and healthcare services. In this manuscript, oral cancer diagnostic delay is critically reviewed based on current evidence, as well as their major causes, main problems, and potential improvement strategiesResearch group CTS-392 (Plan Andaluz de Investigación, Junta de Andalucía, Spain

Let the trajectories tell a quantum story: Post-entangling the SHARC scheme

A new method is proposed to perform Quantum Wave Packet Nuclear Dynamics on large systems, by making use of information obtained by Semi-Classical Quantum Dynamics. The key of the method resides in expressing the nuclear wave function of the system in a basis set determined by the positions of multiple trajectories at each tim

Covalent Grafting of Coordination Polymers on Surfaces: The Case of Hybrid Valence Tautomeric Interphases

© 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim. We have developed a novel approach for grafting coordination polymers, structured as nanoparticles bearing surface reactive carboxylic groups, to amino-functionalized surfaces through a simple carbodiimide-mediated coupling reaction. As a proof-of-concept to validate our approach, and on the quest for novel hybrid interphases with potential technological applications, we have used valence tautomeric nanoparticles exhibiting spin transition at or around room temperature. SEM and AFM characterization reveal that the nanoparticles were organized chiefly into a single monolayer while X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements confirm that the nanoparticles retain a temperature-induced electronic redistribution upon surface anchorage. Our results represent an effective approach towards the challenging manufacture of coordination polymers. CPPs immobilization: A generic approach for immobilizing coordination polymer nanoparticles (CPPs) on gold surfaces is reported. The protocol involves covalent bonding between amino-terminated alkyl chains on the gold surface and carboxylic groups on the CPPs surface. The thickness of the nanoparticle monolayer is comparable to the nanoparticle size. The nanoparticles used exhibit valence tautomerism in bulk and keep this property after surface attachment, as corroborated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements. The results represent an effective approach towards the manufacture of coordination polymers.F. N. thanks the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN) for a postdoctoral JdC fellowship. This work was supported by project MAT2012-38318-C03-02 from the Spanish Government and by FEDER funds. ICN2 acknowledges support from the Severo Ochoa Program (MINECO, Grant SEV-2013-0295). The authors also thank MP1202 Cost ActionPeer Reviewe

Dysplasia in oral lichen planus: relevance, controversies and challenges. A position paper

Background: Patients with oral lichen planus (OLP) have an increased risk of oral cancer. For this reason, OLP is classified as an oral potentially malignant disorder. However, the precise personal (or individual) risk is unknown. Recent meta-analytical studies have reported that dysplastic OLP may transform to cancer in around 6% of cases, while the rate of transformation is lower (<1.5%) in non-dysplastic cases. The presence of epithelial dysplasia has emerged as the most powerful indicator for assessing cancer risk in oral potentially malignant disorders in routine practice. However, the general acceptance of epithelial dysplasia as an accompanying histologic feature in OLP is subject to great controversy. Many pathologists consider the presence of dysplasia as a criterion to exclude OLP when routinely reporting on this disease. This practice, widespread among oral pathology professionals, has resulted in the underestimation of the potential for malignancy of OLP. Material and Methods: A review of the literature was carried out in order to critically analyze the relevance, controversies and challenges encountered across the diagnosis of epithelial dysplasia in OLP. Results: 12 studies have been published examining dysplastic changes in OLP, reporting figures ranging from 0.54% to 25% of cases with dysplasia in the first diagnostic biopsy. The diagnosis of dysplasia in the OLP poses an additional difficulty due to the fact that the affected oral epithelium per se develops changes related to autoimmune aggression. Among the most frequent histological features of OLP that develops dysplasia are basal cell hyperplasia with basaloid appearance, loss of basal cells polarity, cellular and nuclear pleomorphism and irregular stratification. Conclusions: Epithelial dysplasia should not be considered an exclusion criterion for OLP; its evaluation requires experienced pathologists in this field