Marcadores moleculares del carneofaringioma y correlación clínica

El craneofaringioma es un tumor poco prevalente, aún poco conocido, y sobre el que hay todavía numerosos interrogantes abiertos. No se conoce con exactitud la prevalencia de los distintos síntomas y signos al diagnóstico, que es muy variable dependiendo de las series de casos publicados (y que son escasas); tampoco se conoce con certeza el tratamiento más efectivo, ni los factores de riesgo asociados con recidiva o persistencia de enfermedad, entre otras. Es por ello que se requieren estudios que describan no sólo la forma de presentación del craneofaringioma, sino que también permitan dilucidar este tipo de factores y su relación con el pronóstico. Por regla general, el craneofaringioma es considerado un tumor carente de receptores hormonales, y poco influenciable por variaciones en los niveles plasmáticos hormonales salvo excepciones. Sin embargo, existen en la literatura casos descritos de craneofaringiomas de desarrollo abrupto con la gestación, incluso con pruebas de imagen previas sin alteraciones (86–88). En relación a este hecho, en algunos estudios aislados se ha evidenciado la presencia en estos tumores de receptores funcionantes de estrógenos, progesterona e IGF-1, los cuales de forma fisiológica en otros tejidos y en otros tumores de órgano sólido tienen un efecto trófico conocido, induciendo crecimiento y proliferación celular a través de la activación de receptores nucleares y de vías de señalización intracelulares (88–93). Entre las interrelaciones con distintas vías de señalización, destaca la asociación entre Wnt/ β-catenina, implicada en la génesis y diferenciación de la adenohipófisis a partir de la bolsa de Rathke y en la génesis de numerosos tumores derivados de la misma como el prolactinoma, y el receptor α estrogénico, que es capaz de activar la vía de Wnt incluso en ausencia de ligando (aunque la presencia del mismo mejora aún más la interacción) (12,13,66,67). En condiciones fisiológicas, la vía canónica de Wnt se inicia con la unión a un receptor de membrana que inicia una cascada de señalización intracelular, resultando en la inactivación del complejo de la 32 Glucógeno-Sintasa-Kinasa 3β (GSK3beta) citoplasmática, y por tanto inhibición de la fosforilación de β- catenina y su destrucción dependiente de ubiquitina en el proteasoma. La β-catenina se trasloca al interior del núcleo, donde interacciona con TCF (T-Cell Factor) y LEF (Lymphoid Enhanced Factor), induciendo la expresión de diversos genes, entre los que destacan c-myc, CCND1, c-jun, PPARD o FOSL1, relacionados con el ciclo celular, la proliferación y la diferenciación celular (12,66,74). Como demostraron en 2004 Kouzmenko y colaboradores con un elegante experimento in vivo en un modelo de Drosophila, existe un crosstalk entre ambas vías a través de una interacción funcional entre el receptor estrogénico α (ERα) y β-catenina, presente incluso sin la presencia de ligando, pero potenciado de forma importante por el mismo; por otro lado, Li y colaboradores han reportado inhibición de crecimiento de células procedentes de craneofaringioma humano tras su cultivo con tamoxifeno, un potente inhibidor estrogénico (66,93). Cabe recordar la presencia en más del 70% de craneofaringiomas de la variante mayoritaria (adamantinomatosa) de mutaciones en el exón 3 del gen de la β-catenina que evitan su lisis proteasómica, por lo que en base a lo expuesto, la presencia de estos receptores podría jugar un papel mucho más importante del que inicialmente podría pensarse en la génesis del craneofaringioma y sus manifestaciones clínicas. De confirmarse, podría abrir la puerta a nuevas opciones de tratamiento adyuvante basados en la modulación de estos receptores, de tal forma que podrían mejorar los resultados clínicos y reducir las complicaciones secundarias a tratamientos agresivos y recidiva

Mortalidad a un año en pacientes médico-quirúrgicos valorados desde unidad de psicosomática y psiquiatría de enlace: un estudio descriptivo

El objetivo principal del estudio es determinar los factores asociados a la mortalidad en un año en una muestra consecutiva de pacientes valorados en la Unidad de Psicosomática y Psiquiatría de Enlace durante un periodo de 3 meses. La introducción destaca la relevancia del estudio en cuanto a la mayor frecuencia de mortalidad en este perfíl de pacientes atendidos en un hospital general. La discusión resalta los resultados más relevantes, concluyendo, de acuerdo con la bibliografía que, si bien la potencia estadística es limitada, persiste una tendencia a que el síndrome confusional agudo se asocie a un exceso de mortalidad al año

A Semiquantitative Approach to Study Semiqualitative Systems

In this paper is proposed a semiquantitative methodology to study models of dynamic systems with qualitative and quantitative knowledge. This qualitative information may be composed by: operators, envelope functions, qualitative labels and qualitative continuous functions. A formalism is also described to incorporate this qualitative knowledge into these models. The methodology allows us to study all the states (transient and stationary) of a semiquantitative dynamic system. It also helps to obtain its behaviours patterns. The methodology is applied to a logistic growth model with a delay.Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología DPI2001-4404-

Optimized Update/Prediction Assignment for Lifting Transforms on Graphs

Transformations on graphs can provide compact representations of signals with many applications in denoising, feature extraction or compression. In particular, lifting transforms have the advantage of being critically sampled and invertible by construction, but the efficiency of the transform depends on the choice of a good bipartition of the graph into update (U) and prediction (P) nodes. This is the update/prediction (U=P) assignment problem, which is the focus of this paper. We analyze this problem theoretically and derive an optimal U=P assignment under assumptions about signal model and filters. Furthermore, we prove that the best U=P partition is related to the correlation between nodes on the graph and is not the one that minimizes the number of conflicts (connections between nodes of same label) or maximizes the weight of the cut. We also provide experimental results in randomly generated graph signals and real data from image and video signals that validate our theoretical conclusions, demonstrating improved performance over state of the art solutions for this problem.This work was supported in part by NSF under Grant CCF-1018977 and in part by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under Grants TEC2014-53390-P, TEC2014-52289-R, TEC2016-81900-REDT/AEI and TEC2017-83838-RPublicad

Directional Transforms for Video Coding Based on Lifting on Graphs

In this work we describe and optimize a general scheme based on lifting transforms on graphs for video coding. A graph is constructed to represent the video signal. Each pixel becomes a node in the graph and links between nodes represent similarity between them. Therefore, spatial neighbors and temporal motion-related pixels can be linked, while nonsimilar pixels (e.g., pixels across an edge) may not be. Then, a lifting-based transform, in which filterin operations are performed using linked nodes, is applied to this graph, leading to a 3-dimensional (spatio-temporal) directional transform which can be viewed as an extension of wavelet transforms for video. The design of the proposed scheme requires four main steps: (i) graph construction, (ii) graph splitting, (iii) filte design, and (iv) extension of the transform to different levels of decomposition. We focus on the optimization of these steps in order to obtain an effective transform for video coding. Furthermore, based on this scheme, we propose a coefficien reordering method and an entropy coder leading to a complete video encoder that achieves better coding performance than a motion compensated temporal filterin wavelet-based encoder and a simple encoder derived from H.264/AVC that makes use of similar tools as our proposed encoder (reference software JM15.1 configu ed to use 1 reference frame, no subpixel motion estimation, 16 × 16 inter and 4 × 4 intra modes).This work was supported in part by NSF under grant CCF-1018977 and by Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under grants TEC2014-53390-P and TEC2014-52289-R.Publicad

Qualitative Comparison of Temporal Series. QSI

In this paper, the study of systems that evolve in time by means of the comparison of time series is proposed. An improvement in the form to compare temporal series with the incorporation of qualitative knowledge by means of qualitative labels is carried out. Each label represents a rank of values that, from a qualitative perspective, may be considered similar. The selection of labels of a single character allows the application of algorithms of string comparison. Finally, an index of similarity of time series based on the similarity of the obtained strings is defined.Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología DPI2001-4404-EComisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología DPI2000-0666-C02-0

Structural insights into choline-O-sulfatase reveal the molecular determinants for ligand binding

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation/FEDER grants PID2020-116261GB-I00 (JAG) and RTI2018-097991-B-I00 (JLN), Secretaria General de Universidades, Investigacion y Tecnologia, Junta de Andalucia (PY20-00149 and UAL18-BIO-B005-B; ACA) and the University of Granada (grant PPJI2017-1; SMR). Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Granada/CBUA.Choline-O-sulfatase (COSe; EC 3.1.6.6) is a member of the alkaline phosphatase (AP) superfamily, and its natural function is to hydrolyze choline-O-sulfate into choline and sulfate. Despite its natural function, the major interest in this enzyme resides in the landmark catalytic/substrate promiscuity of sulfatases, which has led to attention in the biotechnological field due to their potential in protein engineering. In this work, an in-depth structural analysis of wild-type Sinorhizobium (Ensifer) meliloti COSe (SmeCOSe) and its C54S active-site mutant is reported. The binding mode of this AP superfamily member to both products of the reaction (sulfate and choline) and to a substrate-like compound are shown for the first time. The structures further confirm the importance of the C-terminal extension of the enzyme in becoming part of the active site and participating in enzyme activity through dynamic intra-subunit and inter-subunit hydrogen bonds (Asn146A–Asp500B–Asn498B). These residues act as the ‘gatekeeper’ responsible for the open/closed conformations of the enzyme, in addition to assisting in ligand binding through the rearrangement of Leu499 (with a movement of approximately 5 A ° ). Trp129 and His145 clamp the quaternary ammonium moiety of choline and also connect the catalytic cleft to the C-terminus of an adjacent protomer. The structural information reported here contrasts with the proposed role of conformational dynamics in promoting the enzymatic catalytic proficiency of an enzyme.Spanish Government European Commission PID2020-116261GB-I00 RTI2018-097991-B-I00Secretaria General de UniversidadesJunta de Andalucia PY20-00149 UAL18-BIO-B005-BUniversity of Granada PPJI2017-

Seasonal and interannual changes in Ca and Mg of dripping waters in Kaite Cave (Spain)

Depto. de Geodinámica, Estratigrafía y PaleontologíaFac. de Ciencias GeológicasTRUEpu

Influence of agronomic factors on mycotoxin contamination in maize and changes during a 10-day harvest-till-drying simulattion period: a different perspective

Aquest article pertany al número especial: "Evaluation and Prevention of Mycotoxin Contamination and Toxicological Effects"Agronomic factors can affect mycotoxin contamination of maize, one of the most produced cereals. Maize is usually harvested at 18% moisture, but it is not microbiologically stable until it reaches 14% moisture at the drying plants. We studied how three agronomic factors (crop diversification, tillage system and nitrogen fertilization rate) can affect fungal and mycotoxin contamination (deoxynivalenol and fumonisins B1 and B2) in maize at harvest. In addition, changes in maize during a simulated harvest-till-drying period were studied. DON content at harvest was higher for maize under intensive tillage than using direct drilling (2695 and 474 μg kg−1, respectively). We found two reasons for this: (i) soil crusting in intensive tillage plots caused the formation of pools of water that created high air humidity conditions, favouring the development of DON-producing moulds; (ii) the population of Lumbricus terrestris, an earthworm that would indirectly minimize fungal infection and mycotoxin production on maize kernels, is reduced in intensive tillage plots. Therefore, direct drilling is a better approach than intensive tillage for both preventing DON contamination and preserving soil quality. Concerning the simulated harvest-tilldrying period, DON significantly increased between storage days 0 and 5. Water activity dropped on the 4th day, below the threshold for DON production (around 0.91). From our perspective, this study constitutes a step forward towards understanding the relationships between agronomic factors and mycotoxin contamination in maize, and towards improving food safety.This work is part of the R+D+I project PID2020-114836RB-I00, financed by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/ 501100011033. B.B.-V. and J.F.-O. have been funded by the FD pre-doctoral fellowship (PRE2018- 085278 and PRE2018-084610 respectively) of the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities