Response to: Prognostic factors in hospitalized HIV-positive patients with COVID-19: correspondence

[Abstract not available

Nizza-Millefonti: El habitar de un barrio definido por la Fiat.

A lo largo de la historia urbana de la ciudad, siempre ha manifestado una geometría reticular durante las distintas épocas de transición política, desde la Augusta Taurinorium del siglo I a.C. fundada por Caesar Augusto en el Imperio Romano, hasta la unificación nacional de Italia en 1861, y su consiguiente traslado a Roma. El crecimiento urbano de Turín ha respondido siempre a factores físicos provocados por la naturaleza, es decir, por el río Po en el este y los Alpes por la zona oeste, pero pese a estos condicionantes siempre ha obedecido la trama urbana del ‘quadrilatero romano’. Después de unas sucesivas transformaciones del núcleo central de la ciudad, con el fin de adecentar la perspectiva visual dado el carácter de capital que la Casa de los Duques de Saboya habían otorgado a la ciudad, se reformaron los edificios y las avenidas principales, dotándoles de una naturaleza barroca, aunque la ciudad no tuvo grandes cambios urbanos hasta mediados del siglo XVIII. Sin embargo, con el traslado de la capital, Turín se vio obligada a buscar una actividad alternativa que sustituyese el carácter real que había tenido durante años y que ahora se había perdido. Por lo tanto, comenzó una nueva época en la que el comercio y las grandes industrias fueron las principales vías de sustento económico. La disposición de barrios periféricos donde se localizaban las grandes industrias y los precios de vida eran mucho menores que en el centro, dio pie a una migración masiva desde las distintas ciudades italianas - principalmente del sur - y de las clases menos pudientes que habitaban el centro de la ciudad. Estos barrios estaban definidos principalmente por la gran industria que en ellos se asentaba, como es el caso en Nizza-Millefonti del edificio Lingotto y la Fiat, que ha servido de ejemplo para analizar cómo era la vida en estos barrios, tanto a nivel urbano como a nivel social.<br /

Inverse sampling and triangular sequential designs to compare a small proportion with a reference value

Inverse sampling and formal sequential designs may prove useful in reducing the sample size in studies where a small population proportion p is compared with a hypothesized reference proportion p0. These methods are applied to the design of a cytogenetic study about chromosomal abnormalities in men with a daughter affected by Turner's syndrome. First it is shown how the calculated sample size for a classical design depends on the parameterization used. Later this sample size is compared with the required sample size in an inverse sampling design and a triangular sequential design using four different parameterizations (absolute differences, log-odds ratio, angular transform and Sprott's transform). The expected savings in sample size, when the alternative hypothesis is true, are 20% of the fixed sample size for the inverse sampling design and 40% for the triangular sequential design

Despliegue, operación y mantenimiento de aplicaciones a escala global

Cada vez más, las empresas necesitan dar servicio a sus clientes a escala global (a usuarios en cualquier parte del mundo). Es crucial afrontar correctamente los retos que esto supone para no perder clientes debido a la degradación del servicio (tiempos de acceso largos, denegación de servicio), evitar desperdiciar recursos por sobredimensionar el sistema y mantener bajo control los fallos hardware y software que puedan ocurrir de manera fortuita o derivados de la intervención humana durante la actualización o el mantenimiento. Estos retos no son solo tecnológicos, sino también metodológicos, pues hay que gestionar el desarrollo, despliegue y mantenimiento de estas aplicaciones a escala global. En este TFG, se propone aprovechar las posibilidades que brinda el entorno de computación en la nube para solucionar estos problemas. Así pues, se plantean una arquitectura multi-cluster basada en infraestructura en la nube, con IP única globa, para reducir la latencia con los usuarios por debajo de 200 ms y aumentar la tolerancia a fallos. Asimismo, se propone el uso de una arquitectura de aplicación basada en microservicios desplegados sobre kubernetes para adaptarse al tráfico de cada momento (elasticidad), facilitar la gestión de las actualizaciones, aumentar la resiliencia y permitir una monitorización más exhaustiva. Pero estos cambios por si solos no garantizan el éxito, sino que hace falta una evolución en el método de trabajo que permita gestionarlos. Por eso se propone el uso de la metodología DevOps frente al uso de metodologías tradicionales. El enfoque de la metodología DevOps se basa en el uso de herramientas de automatización destinadas a agilizar el proceso de despliegue, mantenimiento y corrección de errores, posibilitando una entrega más frecuente, más segura y con menos esfuerzo a producción. Así pues, para poner a prueba estas propuestas, se lleva a cabo el despliegue de una arquitectura multi-cluster con kubernetes sobre la nube de Google, haciendo uso de la metodología DevOps para facilitar el despliegue de una aplicación de ejemplo y su posterior actualización mediante herramientas de automatización. Posteriormente, se realizan varias pruebas sobre esta infraestructura para verificar que efectivamente es capaz de resolver los problemas que se planteaban inicialmente y para ello se construye una infraestructura de test utilizando diferentes herramientas de la nube. Los resultados de estas pruebas confirman que efectivamente, el uso de una arquitectura multi-cluster basada en kubernetes y desplegada en la nube mediante la ayuda de herramientas DevOps, permite conseguir los objetivos de elasticidad, escalabilidad, reducción de la latencia y aumento de la tolerancia a fallos, así como facilitar la operación del sistema.<br /

treNch: Ultra-Low Power Wireless Communication Protocol for IoT and Energy Harvesting

Although the number of Internet of Things devices increases every year, efforts to decrease hardware energy demands and to improve efficiencies of the energy-harvesting stages have reached an ultra-low power level. However, no current standard of wireless communication protocol (WCP) can fully address those scenarios. Our focus in this paper is to introduce treNch, a novel WCP implementing the cross-layer principle to use the power input for adapting its operation in a dynamic manner that goes from pure best-effort to nearly real time. Together with the energy-management algorithm, it operates with asynchronous transmissions, synchronous and optional receptions, short frame sizes and a light architecture that gives control to the nodes. These features make treNch an optimal option for wireless sensor networks with ultra-low power demands and severe energy fluctuations. We demonstrate through a comparison with different modes of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) a decrease of the power consumption in 1 to 2 orders of magnitude for different scenarios at equal quality of service. Moreover, we propose some security optimizations, such as shorter over-the-air counters, to reduce the packet overhead without decreasing the security level. Finally, we discuss other features aside of the energy needs, such as latency, reliability or topology, brought again against BLE.ECSEL Joint Undertaking through CONNECT project 737434Federal Ministry of Education & Research (BMBF)European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programSpanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport (MECD)/FEDER-EU FPU18/01376BBVA FoundationUniversity of Granad

Bulevirtide in the Treatment of Hepatitis Delta: Drug Discovery, Clinical Development and Place in Therapy

It has been ten years since the identification of NTCP as the cell surface receptor for HBV and HDV entry into hepatocytes. The search for molecules interfering with the binding of NTCP and HBV/HDV led to design bulevirtide (BLV). This large polypeptide mimics a region of the pre-S1 HBsAg and blocks viral entry by inhibitory competition. BLV was initially tested in cell cultures, animal models and more recently in Phase I–III human trials (called ‘MYRS’). As monotherapy or in combination with peginterferon, BLV is well tolerated and exhibits potent antiviral activity. Plasma viremia significantly declines and/or becomes undetectable in more than 75% of patients treated for >24 weeks. However, serum HBsAg concentrations remain unchanged. No selection of BLV resistance in HBV/HDV has been reported in vivo to date. BLV is administered subcutaneously once daily at doses between 2 and 10 mg. BLV received conditional approval in Europe in 2020 to treat chronic hepatitis delta. The advent of peginterferon lambda or new specific anti-HDV antivirals (lonafarnib, etc.) will open the door for combination therapies with BLV. Since there is no stable reservoir for HDV-RNA within infected hepatocytes, viral clearance might be achieved using antivirals for a minimum timeframe. This is what happens in hepatitis C combining several antivirals, curing nearly all patients treated for 3 months. Clearance of HDV-RNA genomes may occur despite HBV persistence as cccDNA or chromosome integrated HBV-DNA within hepatocytes. This is supported by cases of HDV elimination using BLV despite persistence of serum HBsAg. Another path for HDV cure will derive from achieving HBsAg clearance, the goal of new promising anti-HBV gene therapies (bepirovirsen, etc.). In summary, the advent of BLV has triggered a renovated interest for antiviral therapy in hepatitis delta. We envision combination therapies that will lead to HDV cure in the near future

Inverse sampling and triangular sequential designs to compare a small proportion with a reference value

Inverse sampling and formal sequential designs may prove useful in reducing the sample size in studies where a small population proportion p is compared with a hypothesized reference proportion p0. These methods are applied to the design of a cytogenetic study about chromosomal abnormalities in men with a daughter affected by Turner's syndrome. First it is shown how the calculated sample size for a classical design depends on the parameterization used. Later this sample size is compared with the required sample size in an inverse sampling design and a triangular sequential design using four different parameterizations (absolute differences, log-odds ratio, angular transform and Sprott's transform). The expected savings in sample size, when the alternative hypothesis is true, are 20% of the fixed sample size for the inverse sampling design and 40% for the triangular sequential design

Inverse sampling and triangular sequential designs to compare a small proportion with a reference value

Inverse sampling and formal sequential designs may prove useful in reducing the sample size in studies where a small population proportion p is compared with a hypothesized reference proportion p0. These methods are applied to the design of a cytogenetic study about chromosomal abnormalities in men with a daughter affected by Turner's syndrome. First it is shown how the calculated sample size for a classical design depends on the parameterization used. Later this sample size is compared with the required sample size in an inverse sampling design and a triangular sequential design using four different parameterizations (absolute differences, log-odds ratio, angular transform and Sprott's transform). The expected savings in sample size, when the alternative hypothesis is true, are 20% of the fixed sample size for the inverse sampling design and 40% for the triangular sequential design

Silver Nanoparticle Coatings on Optical Glass

Es presenta un mètode de producció i deposició de nanopartícules per una via química de baixa energía. Es mostra que les capes dipositades presenten resonància plasmònic

Identifying environmental risk factors for inflammatory bowel diseases: a Mendelian randomization study

Several studies have examined environmental factors and inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) using traditional approaches; however, provided results are still conflicting. Our aim was to determine whether lifestyle and nutrient exposures, related to IBD in observational meta-analyses, influence IBD risk using a Mendelian randomization (MR) approach. A two-sample MR approach was applied on summary-level genome-wide association results. Genetic variants strongly associated with measures of tobacco smoking, obesity and fat distribution, physical activity, and blood levels of vitamins and fatty acids were evaluated on genetic data from international IBD consortia including a total of 25,042 IBD cases (12,194 cases of Crohn's disease (CD) and 12,366 cases of ulcerative colitis (UC)) and 34,915 controls. Our results indicated that, among lifestyle exposures, being a smoker was positively associated with CD (OR 1.13, P=0.02), but it was not associated with UC risk (OR 0.99, P=0.88). Body-mass index (BMI) and body fat percentage were positively associated with CD (OR 1.11, P=0.02, per standard deviation (SD) of 4.6 kg/m(2); and OR 1.50, P=3x10(-10), per SD of 6.6%; respectively); while for UC, BMI was inversely associated (OR 0.85, P=5x10(-5); per SD) and body fat percentage showed a OR of 1.11 (P=0.11; per SD). Additionally, among nutrient exposures, omega-3 fatty acids levels were inversely associated with CD (OR 0.67, P=2x10(-6)). Our MR results did not support a protective effect for being a smoker on UC risk; however, they are compatible with a risk effect for higher body fat proportion and a protective role for higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids on CD etiology