Survey on External Work Placements and the Bachelor’s Final Project in Social Work-2012

En el marco del Congreso de Escuelas de Trabajo Social celebrado en febrero de 2012 en Jaén, la Conferencia de Decanos/as y Directores/as de Facultades y Escuelas de Trabajo Social (CDTS) plantea la necesidad de conocer la situación de las Universidades respecto a las Prácticas externas del Grado y al Trabajo Fin de Grado, por lo que se propone la realización de un estudio, a través de encuesta, dirigido a las universidades que imparten el título. El informe de resultados se presenta en la reunión celebrada por la Conferencia en Santiago de Compostela el 1 de junio de 2012, donde se decide elaborar los estándares de Calidad relativos a las Prácticas Externas y a la Supervisión de dichas prácticas.At the last Congress of the Spanish Schools of Social Work organized in February 2012 in Jaen, the Board of Deans and Directors of Social Work (CDTS) suggested the need to know more about the current situation regarding the organization of Work Placements and the Final Degree Project at each University. The proposal was to send a questionnaire to each University in order to obtain the main data. The results of this study were presented at the Board’s meeting which took place in Santiago de Compostela on the 1st of June 2012. At this meeting it was decided to create a list of Quality Standards for work placements and for the supervision of these placements

Listado de síntomas breve (short checklist of symptoms) in Argentinean adults: psychometric study of its main clinical scales

The main objective of this research was studying the psychometric properties of the Listado de síntomas breve (short checklist of symptoms; LSB-50) in a sample of 994 Argentinean adults (49.9% females; 50.1% males). Mean age was 40.66 years (standard deviation= 17.01; Min=18; Max=89). This screening test has seven main clinical scales: hypersensitivity, obsessive-compulsive, anxiety, hostility, somatization, depression, and sleep disturbance. Pearson correlations indicated that all scales had positive and mostly moderate associations. The second order confirmatory factor analysis showed a good fit for a hierarchical model where all scales loaded in one major factor. Internal consistency by Cronbach’s alpha was adequate. Females scored significantly higher than males in all scales except for the hostility scale, in which no differences were found. Although statistically significant associations with age were found in some scales, correlations were very weak. Obsessive-compulsive, sleep disturbance and depression scales had the highest scores, while anxiety presented the lowest score. Based on the psychometric evidence found, the scale seems to be suitable for the local population. Consequently, the availability of such measure may contribute to conduct epidemiological studies of psychopathology in Argentina. Moreover, the scale could be used for the assessment of psychotherapy progress and outcomes of clients, as well as for psychotherapy research. Notwithstanding, more evidence of validity and reliability should be sought

Characterization of inflammatory response in acute-on-chronic liver failure and relationship with prognosis

ACLF is characterized by a systemic inflammatory response, but the cytokines involved in this process have not been well studied. The aim of this study was to characterize the systemic inflammatory response in patients with cirrhosis and ACLF and its relationship with prognosis. Fifty-five patients with cirrhosis, 26 with ACLF, were studied prospectively. Systemic inflammatory response was analyzed by measuring a large array of plasma cytokines by using a multiplex kit. A principal component analysis show noticeable differences between ACLF and decompensated cirrhosis without ACLF. Patients with ACLF had significant abnormal levels of 12 cytokines compared to those without ACLF, including: VCAM-1, VEGF-A, Fractalkine, MIP-1α, Eotaxin, IP-10, RANTES, GM-CSF, IL-1β, IL-2, ICAM-1, and MCP-1. Cytokines showing the most marked relationship with ACLF were VCAM-1 and VEGF-A (AUCROC 0.77; p = 0.001). There was a significant relationship between some of inflammatory mediators and 3-month mortality, particularly VCAM-1, ICAM-1, and GM-CSF (AUCROC>0.7; p < 0.05). Functional Enrichment Analysis showed that inflammatory markers differentially expressed in ACLF patients were enriched in leukocyte migration, particularly monocytes and macrophages, and chemotaxis pathways. In conclusion, ACLF is characterized by a marked inflammatory reaction with activation of mediators of adhesion and migration of leukocytes. The intensity of the inflammatory reaction correlates with prognosis

The Use of Flagella and Motility for Plant Colonization and Fitness by Different Strains of the Foodborne Pathogen Listeria monocytogenes

The role of flagella and motility in the attachment of the foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes to various surfaces is mixed with some systems requiring flagella for an interaction and others needing only motility for cells to get to the surface. In nature this bacterium is a saprophyte and contaminated produce is an avenue for infection. Previous studies have documented the ability of this organism to attach to and colonize plant tissue. Motility mutants were generated in three wild type strains of L. monocytogenes by deleting either flaA, the gene encoding flagellin, or motAB, genes encoding part of the flagellar motor, and tested for both the ability to colonize sprouts and for the fitness of that colonization. The motAB mutants were not affected in the colonization of alfalfa, radish, and broccoli sprouts; however, some of the flaA mutants showed reduced colonization ability. The best colonizing wild type strain was reduced in colonization on all three sprout types as a result of a flaA deletion. A mutant in another background was only affected on alfalfa. The third, a poor alfalfa colonizer was not affected in colonization ability by any of the deletions. Fitness of colonization was measured in experiments of competition between mixtures of mutant and parent strains on sprouts. Here the flaA and motAB mutants of the three strain backgrounds were impaired in fitness of colonization of alfalfa and radish sprouts, and one strain background showed reduced fitness of both mutant types on broccoli sprouts. Together these data indicate a role for flagella for some strains to physically colonize some plants, while the fitness of that colonization is positively affected by motility in almost all cases

The association between diabetes and gastric cancer

Background: Prior epidemiologic studies on the association between diabetes and gastric cancer risk provided inconclusive findings, while traditional, aggregate data meta-analyses were characterized by high between-study heterogeneity. Objective: To investigate the association between type 2 diabetes and gastric cancer using data from the 'Stomach Cancer Pooling (StoP) Project', an international consortium of more than 30 case-control and nested case-control studies, which is large and provides harmonized definition of participants' characteristics across individual studies. The data have the potential to minimize between-study heterogeneity and provide greater statistical power for subgroup analysis. Methods: We included 5592 gastric cancer cases and 12 477 controls from 14 studies from Europe, Asia, North America, and South America in a two-stage individual-participant data meta-analysis. Random-effect models were used to estimate summary odds ratios (ORs) and their corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) by pooling study-specific ORs. Results: We did not find an overall association between diabetes and gastric cancer (pooled OR = 1.01, 95% CI, 0.94-1.07). However, the risk of cardia gastric cancer was significantly higher among individuals with type 2 diabetes (OR = 1.16, 95% CI, 1.02-1.33). There was no association between diabetes and gastric cancer risk in strata of Helicobacter pylori infection serostatus, age, sex, BMI, smoking status, alcohol consumption, fruit/vegetable intake, gastric cancer histologic type, and source of controls. Conclusion: This study provides additional evidence that diabetes is unrelated to gastric cancer overall but may be associated with excess cardia gastric cancer risk

CIBERER : Spanish national network for research on rare diseases: A highly productive collaborative initiative

Altres ajuts: Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII); Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación.CIBER (Center for Biomedical Network Research; Centro de Investigación Biomédica En Red) is a public national consortium created in 2006 under the umbrella of the Spanish National Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII). This innovative research structure comprises 11 different specific areas dedicated to the main public health priorities in the National Health System. CIBERER, the thematic area of CIBER focused on rare diseases (RDs) currently consists of 75 research groups belonging to universities, research centers, and hospitals of the entire country. CIBERER's mission is to be a center prioritizing and favoring collaboration and cooperation between biomedical and clinical research groups, with special emphasis on the aspects of genetic, molecular, biochemical, and cellular research of RDs. This research is the basis for providing new tools for the diagnosis and therapy of low-prevalence diseases, in line with the International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC) objectives, thus favoring translational research between the scientific environment of the laboratory and the clinical setting of health centers. In this article, we intend to review CIBERER's 15-year journey and summarize the main results obtained in terms of internationalization, scientific production, contributions toward the discovery of new therapies and novel genes associated to diseases, cooperation with patients' associations and many other topics related to RD research

Ahora / Ara

La cinquena edició del microrelatari per l’eradicació de la violència contra les dones de l’Institut Universitari d’Estudis Feministes i de Gènere «Purificación Escribano» de la Universitat Jaume I vol ser una declaració d’esperança. Aquest és el moment en el qual les dones (i els homes) hem de fer un pas endavant i eliminar la violència sistèmica contra les dones. Ara és el moment de denunciar el masclisme i els micromasclismes començant a construir una societat més igualitària. Cadascun dels relats del llibre és una denúncia i una declaració que ens encamina cap a un món millor

Adelante / Endavant

Séptimo desafío por la erradicación de la violencia contra las mujeres del Institut Universitari d’Estudis Feministes i de Gènere "Purificación Escribano" de la Universitat Jaume