Feminist hashtag activism in Spain: measuring the degree of politicisation of online discourse on #YoSíTeCreo, #HermanaYoSíTeCreo, #Cuéntalo y #NoEstásSola

The use of Twitter as a tool for mobilisation has made digital social and political activism a growing area of interest in communication research. Scholars have underscored the effectiveness of Twitter in galvanising the opinion of broad sectors of the public and expressing the indignation of average citizens on issues of social concern (Bruns et al., 2015; Martínez, 2017). The rise of feminist social media activism has prompted a number of studies on the feminist movement’s use of hashtags to foster online conversations on specific issues (Jinsook, 2017; Turley & Fisher, 2018; etc.). This article examines the correlation between the degree of ideological commitment amongst social media users and the nature of their Twitter conversations on a given issue. The analysis focuses on Twitter conversations generated by feminists, influencers, journalists and politicians in reaction to the controversial sentencing of the Wolf Pack (La Manada) –a gang of men involved in a sexual assault perpetrated during the San Fermín festival in Pamplona. Big data techniques were used to explore the nature of messages containing four highly charged hashtags central to feminist discourse on this issue: #YoSiTeCreo (Yes, I believe you), #HermanaYoSíTeCreo (Yes, sister, I believe you), #Cuéntalo (Talk about it) and #NoEstásSola (You are not alone). Our findings indicate that the levels of ideological commitment of Twitter users participating in what was essentially a feminist conversation varied to an extent that impeded serious interaction amongst them, either online or offline. From the perspective of communication strategy, feminist hashtag activism would appear to be an intermediate step in a longer process of creating a higher consciousness regarding gender equality issues in Spain

Genetic transformatin of potato with a triple R gene construct to confer resistance to late blight.

The cultivated potato, Solanum tuberosum is affected by a variety of diseases with late blight (LB) caused by Phytophthora infestans being the most severe. The disease is mostly controlled by the application of large quantities of fungicides, which represent a financial burden on farmers indeveloping countries and pose risks to both human health and the environment. A more effective and environmentally friendly strategy to prevent damages caused by P. infestans is to use resistant potato cultivars. In the early days of breeding for LB resistance, a small number of resistance (R) genes from the wild Mexican species, Solanum demissum, were introgressed into modern potato varieties. These genes conferred race-specific resistance, which was rapidly overcome by new isolates of the pathogen. Recently, a number of new R genes have been identified and cloned from several wild potato species .Taking advantage of genetic engineering, our strategy is to use three of these new R genes (RB, Rpiblb2 and Rpi-vnt1.1) in a triple gene construct, p CIP 99, based on the hypothesis that simultaneous mutation for pathogenicity against all three genes is unlikely, and therefore the resistance conferred by the construct should be durable. We plan to deploy the three stacked R genes into the potato variety “Victoria” (known in Kenya and Uganda as “Asante”). To date, we have produced more than 100 transgenic events which are currently being characterized. The pathogen population will be characterized concurrently to assess the expected durability of this resistance

Graph Based Learning for Building Prediction in Smart Cities

Anticipating pedestrians’ activity is a necessary task for providing a safe and energy efficient environment in an urban area. By locating strategically sensors throughout the city useful information could be obtained. By knowing the average activity of those throughout different days of the week we could identify the typology of the buildings neighboring those sensors. For these type of purposes, clustering methods show great capability forming groups of items that have great similarity intra clusters and dissimilarity inter cluster. Different approaches are made to classify sensors depending on the typology of buildings surrounding them and the mean pedestrians’ counts for different time intervals. By this way, sensors could be classified in different groups according to their activation patterns and the environment in which they are located through clustering processes and using graph convolutional networks. This study reveals that there is a close relationship between the activity pattern of the pedestrians’ and the type of environment sensors that collect pedestrians’ data are located. By this way, institutions could alleviate a great amount of effort needed to ensure safe and energy efficient urban areas, only knowing the typology of buildings of an urban zone

Clinical implications of changing thyroglobulin and antithyroglobulin antibodies analytical methods in the follow-up of patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma

Background and aims: Patients’ response to treatment in differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) is classified according to serum thyroglobulin concentrations (Tg), usually using the American Thyroid Association guidelines and considering potential interfering anti-thyroglobulin antibodies (Ab-Tg). We aim to evaluate the clinical implications of changing Tg and Ab-Tg quantification method. Material and methods: Tg and Ab-Tg were quantified in 82 serum samples (60 from DTC patients) by Elecsys and Access immunoassays. Results: Elecsys immunoassay rendered higher values of Tg than Access: mean bias 5.03 ng/mL (95%CI:- 14.14–24.21). In DTC patients, there was an almost perfect agreement for response classification (kappa index = 0.833). Discrepancies appeared in patients with undetermined response, with a more tendency to subclassification with Access. Ab-Tg showed a poor correlation (r = 0.5394). When Elecsys cut-off was reduced to 43 IU/ mL, agreement for positive/negative classification improved from a kappa index of 0.607 to 0.650. Prospective study with personalized follow-up showed that only 6.3% of Tg results required an analytical confirmation, being confirmed 93% of them. Conclusions: Despite the biases observed, clinical impact of an analytical change is minimal in patients’ management. However, cautious and personalized follow-up period after the change is still mandatory, especially in patients with Tg levels between 0.2 and 1 ng/mL

Multi-omic detection of Mycobacterium leprae in archaeological human dental calculus

Mineralized dental plaque (calculus) has proven to be an excellent source of ancient biomolecules. Here we present a Mycobacterium leprae genome (6.6-fold), the causative agent of leprosy, recovered via shotgun sequencing of sixteenth-century human dental calculus from an individual from Trondheim, Norway. When phylogenetically placed, this genome falls in branch 3I among the diversity of other contemporary ancient strains from Northern Europe. Moreover, ancient mycobacterial peptides were retrieved via mass spectrometry-based proteomics, further validating the presence of the pathogen. Mycobacterium leprae can readily be detected in the oral cavity and associated mucosal membranes, which likely contributed to it being incorporated into this individual's dental calculus. This individual showed some possible, but not definitive, evidence of skeletal lesions associated with early-stage leprosy. This study is the first known example of successful multi-omics retrieval of M. leprae from archaeological dental calculus. Furthermore, we offer new insights into dental calculus as an alternative sample source to bones or teeth for detecting and molecularly characterizing M. leprae in individuals from the archaeological record.publishedVersio

Multi-omic detection of <i>Mycobacterium leprae</i> in archaeological human dental calculus

Mineralized dental plaque (calculus) has proven to be an excellent source of ancient biomolecules. Here we present a Mycobacterium leprae genome (6.6-fold), the causative agent of leprosy, recovered via shotgun sequencing of sixteenth-century human dental calculus from an individual from Trondheim, Norway. When phylogenetically placed, this genome falls in branch 3I among the diversity of other contemporary ancient strains from Northern Europe. Moreover, ancient mycobacterial peptides were retrieved via mass spectrometry-based proteomics, further validating the presence of the pathogen. Mycobacterium leprae can readily be detected in the oral cavity and associated mucosal membranes, which likely contributed to it being incorporated into this individual's dental calculus. This individual showed some possible, but not definitive, evidence of skeletal lesions associated with early-stage leprosy. This study is the first known example of successful multi-omics retrieval of M. leprae from archaeological dental calculus. Furthermore, we offer new insights into dental calculus as an alternative sample source to bones or teeth for detecting and molecularly characterizing M. leprae in individuals from the archaeological record.publishedVersio

The aftermath of adverse events in spanish primary care and hospital health professionals

Background Adverse events (AEs) cause harm in patients and disturbance for the professionals involved in the event (second victims). This study assessed the impact of AEs in primary care (PC) and hospitals in Spain on second victims. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted. We carried out a survey based on a random sample of doctors and nurses from PC and hospital settings in Spain. A total of 1087 health professionals responded, 610 from PC and 477 from hospitals. Results A total of 430 health professionals (39.6%) had informed a patient of an error. Reporting to patients was carried out by those with the strongest safety culture (Odds Ratio –OR- 1.1, 95% Confidence Interval –CI- 1.0-1.2), nurses (OR 1.9, 95% CI 1.5-2.3), those under 50 years of age (OR 0.7, 95% CI 0.6-0.9) and primary care staff (OR 0.6, 95% CI 0.5-0.9). A total of 381 (62.5%, 95% CI 59-66%) and 346 (72.5%, IC95% 69-77%) primary care and hospital health professionals, respectively, reported having gone through the second-victim experience, either directly or through a colleague, in the previous 5 years. The emotional responses were: feelings of guilt (521, 58.8%), anxiety (426, 49.6%), re-living the event (360, 42.2%), tiredness (341, 39.4%), insomnia (317, 38.0%) and persistent feelings of insecurity (284, 32.8%). In doctors, the most common responses were: feelings of guilt (OR 0.7 IC95% 0.6-0.8), re-living the event (OR 0.7, IC95% o.6-0.8), and anxiety (OR 0.8, IC95% 0.6-0.9), while nurses showed greater solidarity in terms of supporting the second victim, in both PC (p?=?0.019) and hospital (p?=?0.019) settings. Conclusions Adverse events cause guilt, anxiety, and loss of confidence in health professionals. Most are involved in such events as second victims at least once in their careers. They rarely receive any training or education on coping strategies for this phenomenon

Antimicrobial resistance among migrants in Europe: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Rates of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are rising globally and there is concern that increased migration is contributing to the burden of antibiotic resistance in Europe. However, the effect of migration on the burden of AMR in Europe has not yet been comprehensively examined. Therefore, we did a systematic review and meta-analysis to identify and synthesise data for AMR carriage or infection in migrants to Europe to examine differences in patterns of AMR across migrant groups and in different settings. METHODS: For this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched MEDLINE, Embase, PubMed, and Scopus with no language restrictions from Jan 1, 2000, to Jan 18, 2017, for primary data from observational studies reporting antibacterial resistance in common bacterial pathogens among migrants to 21 European Union-15 and European Economic Area countries. To be eligible for inclusion, studies had to report data on carriage or infection with laboratory-confirmed antibiotic-resistant organisms in migrant populations. We extracted data from eligible studies and assessed quality using piloted, standardised forms. We did not examine drug resistance in tuberculosis and excluded articles solely reporting on this parameter. We also excluded articles in which migrant status was determined by ethnicity, country of birth of participants' parents, or was not defined, and articles in which data were not disaggregated by migrant status. Outcomes were carriage of or infection with antibiotic-resistant organisms. We used random-effects models to calculate the pooled prevalence of each outcome. The study protocol is registered with PROSPERO, number CRD42016043681. FINDINGS: We identified 2274 articles, of which 23 observational studies reporting on antibiotic resistance in 2319 migrants were included. The pooled prevalence of any AMR carriage or AMR infection in migrants was 25·4% (95% CI 19·1-31·8; I2 =98%), including meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (7·8%, 4·8-10·7; I2 =92%) and antibiotic-resistant Gram-negative bacteria (27·2%, 17·6-36·8; I2 =94%). The pooled prevalence of any AMR carriage or infection was higher in refugees and asylum seekers (33·0%, 18·3-47·6; I2 =98%) than in other migrant groups (6·6%, 1·8-11·3; I2 =92%). The pooled prevalence of antibiotic-resistant organisms was slightly higher in high-migrant community settings (33·1%, 11·1-55·1; I2 =96%) than in migrants in hospitals (24·3%, 16·1-32·6; I2 =98%). We did not find evidence of high rates of transmission of AMR from migrant to host populations. INTERPRETATION: Migrants are exposed to conditions favouring the emergence of drug resistance during transit and in host countries in Europe. Increased antibiotic resistance among refugees and asylum seekers and in high-migrant community settings (such as refugee camps and detention facilities) highlights the need for improved living conditions, access to health care, and initiatives to facilitate detection of and appropriate high-quality treatment for antibiotic-resistant infections during transit and in host countries. Protocols for the prevention and control of infection and for antibiotic surveillance need to be integrated in all aspects of health care, which should be accessible for all migrant groups, and should target determinants of AMR before, during, and after migration. FUNDING: UK National Institute for Health Research Imperial Biomedical Research Centre, Imperial College Healthcare Charity, the Wellcome Trust, and UK National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare-associated Infections and Antimictobial Resistance at Imperial College London