Data protection in elderly health care platforms

Ambient Assisted Living provides solutions to the increasing cognitive problems that affect the elderly population. To provide all features possible, Ambient Assisted Living projects require access to personal and private information of their users. Currently, the legal issues arisen in Ambient Assisted Living are a hot topic in the European Union, especially aspects regarding unsupervised data processing and cross-sharing of personal information. In this paper it is presented the iGenda project, which is a Cognitive Assistant inserted in the Ambient Assisted Living area which aims to build safe environments that adapt themselves to one’s individual needs. However, one of the issues is the protection of the data flowing within the system and the protection of user’s fundamental rights. It is also presented the principles and legal guarantees of data protection and transmission, and legal aspects are explained, embracing appropriate solutions to technological features that may be a threat.FEDER - Federación Española de Enfermedades Raras(TIN2015-65515-C4-1-R). COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT-Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope UID/ CEC/00319/2013. A. Costa thanks the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) the Post-Doc scholarship with the Ref. SFRH/BPD/102696/2014. This work is also partially supported by the MINECO/FEDER TIN2015-65515-C4-1-R

Bacteremic complications of intravascular catheter tip colonization with Gram-negative micro-organisms in patients without preceding bacteremia

Although Gram-negative micro-organisms are frequently associated with catheter-related bloodstream infections, the prognostic value and clinical implication of a positive catheter tip culture with Gram-negative micro-organisms without preceding bacteremia remains unclear. We determined the outcomes of patients with intravascular catheters colonized with these micro-organisms, without preceding positive blood cultures, and identified risk factors for the development of subsequent Gram-negative bacteremia. All patients with positive intravascular catheter tip cultures with Gram-negative micro-organisms at the University Medical Center, Utrecht, The Netherlands, between 2005 and 2009, were retrospectively studied. Patients with Gram-negative bacteremia within 48 h before catheter removal were excluded. The main outcome measure was bacteremia with Gram-negative micro-organisms. Other endpoints were length of the hospital stay, in-hospital mortality, secondary complications of Gram-negative bacteremia, and duration of intensive care admission. A total of 280 catheters from 248 patients were colonized with Gram-negative micro-organisms. Sixty-seven cases were excluded because of preceding positive blood cultures, leaving 213 catheter tips from 181 patients for analysis. In 40 (19%) cases, subsequent Gram-negative bacteremia developed. In multivariate analysis, arterial catheters were independently associated with subsequent Gram-negative bacteremia (odds ratio [OR] = 5.00, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.20–20.92), as was selective decontamination of the digestive tract (SDD) (OR = 2.47, 95% CI: 1.07–5.69). Gram-negative bacteremia in patients who received SDD was predominantly caused by cefotaxime (part of the SDD)-resistant organisms. Mortality was significantly higher in the group with subsequent Gram-negative bacteremia (35% versus 20%, OR = 2.12, 95% CI: 1.00–4.49). Patients with a catheter tip colonized with Gram-negative micro-organisms had a high chance of subsequent Gram-negative bacteremia from any cause. This may be clinically relevant, as starting antibiotic treatment pre-emptively in high-risk patients with Gram-negative micro-organisms cultured from arterial intravenous catheters may be beneficial

The fitness consequences of inbreeding in natural populations and their implications for species conservation – a systematic map

Background: Threatened species often have small and isolated populations where mating among relatives can result in inbreeding depression increasing extinction risk. Effective management is hampered by a lack of syntheses summarising the magnitude of, and variation in inbreeding depression. Here we describe the nature and scope of the literature examining phenotypic/fitness consequences of inbreeding, to provide a foundation for future syntheses and management. Methods: We searched the literature for articles documenting the impact of inbreeding in natural populations. Article titles, abstracts and full-texts were assessed against a priori defined criteria, and information relating to study design, quality and other factors that may influence inbreeding responses (e.g. population size) was extracted from relevant articles. Results: The searches identified 11457 articles, of which 614 were assessed as relevant and included in the systematic map (corresponding to 703 distinct studies). Most studies (663) assessed within-population inbreeding resulting from self-fertilisation or consanguineous pairings, while 118 studies assessed among-population inbreeding due to drift load. Plants were the most studied taxon (469 studies) followed by insects (52 studies) and birds (43 studies). Most studies investigated the effects of inbreeding on components of fitness (e.g. survival or fecundity; 648 studies) but measurements were typically under laboratory/greenhouse conditions (486 studies). Observations were also often restricted to the first inbred generation (607 studies) and studies frequently lacked contextual information (e.g. population size). Conclusions: Our systematic map describes the scope and quality of the evidence describing the phenotypic consequences of inbreeding. The map reveals substantial evidence relating to inbreeding responses exists, but highlights information is still limited for some aspects, including the effects of multiple generations of inbreeding. The systematic map allowed us to define several conservation-relevant questions, where sufficient data exists to support systematic reviews, e.g. How do inbreeding responses vary with population size? However, we found that such syntheses are likely to be constrained by incomplete reporting of critical contextual information. Our systematic map employed the same rigorous literature assessment methods as systematic review, including a novel survey of study quality and thus provides a robust foundation to guide future research and syntheses seeking to inform conservation decision-making

Conservation genetics of the annual hemiparasitic plant Melampyrum sylvaticum (Orobanchaceae) in the UK and Scandinavia

Melampyrum sylvaticum is an endangered annual hemiparasitic plant that is found in only 19 small and isolated populations in the United Kingdom (UK). To evaluate the genetic consequences of this patchy distribution we compared levels of diversity, inbreeding and differentiation from ten populations from the UK with eight relatively large populations from Sweden and Norway where the species is more continuously distributed. We demonstrate that in both the UK and Scandinavia, the species is highly inbreeding (global F IS = 0.899). Levels of population differentiation were high (F’ST = 0.892) and significantly higher amongst UK populations (F’ST = 0.949) than Scandinavian populations (F’ST = 0.762; P < 0.01). The isolated populations in the UK have, on average, lower genetic diversity (allelic richness, proportion of loci that are polymorphic, gene diversity) than Scandinavian populations, and this diversity difference is associated with the smaller census size and population area of UK populations. From a conservation perspective, the naturally inbreeding nature of the species may buffer the species against immediate effects of inbreeding depression, but the markedly lower levels of genetic diversity in UK populations may represent a genetic constraint to evolutionary change. In addition, the high levels of population differentiation suggest that gene flow among populations will not be effective at replenishing lost variation. We thus recommend supporting in situ conservation management with ex situ populations and human-mediated seed dispersal among selected populations in the UK

The inverse-trans-influence in tetravalent lanthanide and actinide bis(carbene) complexes

Across the periodic table the trans-influence operates, whereby tightly bonded ligands selectively lengthen mutually trans metal–ligand bonds. Conversely, in high oxidation state actinide complexes the inverse-trans-influence operates, where normally cis strongly donating ligands instead reside trans and actually reinforce each other. However, because the inversetrans-influence is restricted to high-valent actinyls and a few uranium(V/VI) complexes, it has had limited scope in an area with few unifying rules. Here we report tetravalent cerium, uranium and thorium bis(carbene) complexes with trans C¼M¼C cores where experimental and theoretical data suggest the presence of an inverse-trans-influence. Studies of hypothetical praseodymium(IV) and terbium(IV) analogues suggest the inverse-trans-influence may extend to these ions but it also diminishes significantly as the 4f orbitals are populated. This work suggests that the inverse-trans-influence may occur beyond high oxidation state 5f metals and hence could encompass mid-range oxidation state actinides and lanthanides. Thus, the inverse-trans-influence might be a more general f-block principle

Institutional distance and foreign subsidiary performance in emerging markets: moderating effects of ownership strategy and host-country experience

Institutional distance has been known to be an important driver of Multinational Enterprises’ strategies and performance in host countries. Based on a large panel dataset of 10562 firms operating in 17 emerging markets and spanning 80 home countries, we re-examine the relationship described by Gaur and Lu (2007) between regulatory institutional distance and subsidiary performance. We extend this research by (1) examining this relationship in the context of emerging markets, (2) examining the moderating effects of ownership strategy and host-country experience within the context of emerging markets and (3) accounting for a greater variety of institutions by including a large number of home and host countries. We find that institutional distance negatively affects subsidiary performance in emerging markets. Our findings also show that the negative effects of institutional distance on subsidiary performance are lesser for subsidiaries with partial ownership (than for subsidiaries with full ownership) and for subsidiaries with greater host-country experience. We discuss our findings with respect to Gaur and Lu’s model, which explores the relationships between these variables in a general context

Risk propensity in the foreign direct investment location decision of emerging multinationals

A distinguishing feature of emerging economy multinationals is their apparent tolerance for host country institutional risk. Employing behavioral decision theory and quasi-experimental data, we find that managers’ domestic experience satisfaction increases their relative risk propensity regarding controllable risk (legally protectable loss), but decreases their tendency to accept non-controllable risk (e.g., political instability). In contrast, firms’ potential slack reduces relative risk propensity regarding controllable risk, yet amplifies the tendency to take non-controllable risk. We suggest that these counterbalancing effects might help explain observation that risk-taking in FDI location decisions is influenced by firm experience and context. The study provides a new understanding of why firms exhibit heterogeneous responses to host country risks, and the varying effects of institutions