Incidence, risk factors, and evolution of venous thromboembolic events in patients diagnosed with pancreatic carcinoma and treated with chemotherapy on an outpatient basis.

Background Pancreatic carcinoma is one of the tumors associated with a higher risk for thromboembolic events, with incidence rates ranging from 5% to 41% in previous retrospective series. Patients and methods We conducted a retrospective study in eleven Spanish hospitals that included 666 patients diagnosed with pancreatic carcinoma (any stage) between 2008 and 2011 and treated with chemotherapy. The main objective was to evaluate the incidence of venous thromboembolic events (VTE) in this population, as well as potential risk factors for thrombosis. The impact of VTE on mortality was also assessed. Results With a median follow-up of 9.3 months, the incidence of VTE was 22.1%; 52% were diagnosed incidentally. Our study was unable to confirm the ability of the Khorana score to discriminate between patients in the intermediate or high risk category for thrombosis. The presence of VTE proved to be an independent prognostic factor associated with increased risk of death (HR 2.39, 95% CI 1.96–2.92). Symptomatic events correlated with higher mortality than asymptomatic events (HR 1.72; 95% CI, 1.21–2.45; p = 0.002), but incidental VTE, including visceral vein thrombosis (VVT), negatively affected survival compared to patients without VTE. Subjects who developed VTE within the first 3 months of diagnosis of pancreatic carcinoma had lower survival rates than those with VTE after 3 months (HR 1.92, 95% CI 1.30–2.84; p<0.001). Conclusions Pancreatic carcinoma is associated with a high incidence of VTE, which, when present, correlates with worse survival, even when thrombosis is incidental. Early onset VTE has a particularly negative impact.post-print1290 K

Experimental and Computational Study of the Dispersion and Combustion of Wheat Starch and Carbon-Black Particles During the Standard 20L Sphere Test

PresentationThe 20L sphere is one of the standard devices accepted as an international normativity used for dust explosivity characterization. One concern about the effectiveness and reliability of this test is related to the particle size variation due to particles agglomeration and de-agglomeration. These phenomena are determined by the turbulent regime of the dust cloud during the dispersion. This variable must be considered since it determines the uncertainty level of the ignitability and severity parameters of dust combustion. In this context, this study describes the influence of the cloud turbulence on the dust segregation and fragmentation through an experimental and computational study. The behavior of the gas-solid mixture evidenced with the standard rebound nozzle was compared with that observed with six new nozzle geometries. Thereafter, the variations of the Particle Size Distribution (PSD) that occur during the dispersion within the 20L sphere were analyzed for two different powders: carbon-black and micrometric wheat starch. This description is performed with the implementation of two complementary approaches. On the one hand, an experimental approach characterizes the turbulence levels with Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) tests that are complemented by the description of the PSD variations with granulometric analyses. On the other hand, a computational approach described the dispersion process with CFD-DEM simulations developed in STAR-CCM+ v11.04.010. The simulation results established that the homogeneity assumption is not satisfied with the nozzles compared in this study. Nonetheless, the particles segregation levels can be reduced using nozzles that generate a better dust distribution in the gas-solid injections. Subsequently, an additional first-approach CFD model was established to study the behavior of the combustion step when a starch/air mixture. This model considers the gas- phase reactions of the combustible gases that are produced from the devolatilization of Wheat starch (CO, CH4, C2H4, C2H6, C2H2 and H2) and allowed to establish the approximate fraction of the particle mass that devolatilizes, as well as to confirm that the modelling of the pyrolysis stage is essential for the correct prediction of the maximum rate of pressure rise

Antigenotoxicity and Tumor Growing Inhibition by Leafy Brassica carinata and Sinigrin

Cruciferous vegetables are well known and worldwide consumed due to their health benefits and cancer prevention properties. As a desirable cruciferous plant, Ethiopian mustard (Brassica carinata A. Braun) and its glucosinolate sinigrin were tested in the in vivo Drosophila melanogaster (SMART) and the in vitro HL60 (human promyelocytic leukaemia cell line) systems. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis of plant samples confirmed the presence of sinigrin as principal B. carinata glucosinolate. SMART was performed by feeding D. melanogaster larvae either with different concentrations of plant/compound samples or combining them with hydrogen peroxide (a potent oxidative mutagen) being both antimutagenics. HL60 assays showed the tumoricidal activity of plant samples (IC50 = 0.28 mg·mL−1) and the breakdown products of sinigrin hydrolysis (IC50 = 2.71 μM). Our results enhance the potential of B. carinata as health promoter and chemopreventive in both systems and the leading role of sinigrin in these effects

Born too early and too small: higher order cognitive function and brain at risk at ages 8–16

Prematurity presents a risk for higher order cognitive functions. Some of these deficits manifest later in development, when these functions are expected to mature. However, the causes and consequences of prematurity are still unclear. We conducted a longitudinal study to first identify clinical predictors of ultrasound brain abnormalities in 196 children born very preterm (VP; gestational age 32 weeks) and with very low birth weight (VLBW; birth weight 1500 g). At ages 8–16, the subset of VP-VLBW children without neurological findings (124) were invited for a neuropsychological assessment and an MRI scan (41 accepted). Of these, 29 met a rigorous criterion for MRI quality and an age, and gender-matched control group (n = 14) was included in this study. The key findings in the VP-VLBW neonates were: (a) 37% of the VP-VLBW neonates had ultrasound brain abnormalities; (b) gestational age and birth weight collectively with hospital course (i.e., days in hospital, neonatal intensive care, mechanical ventilation and with oxygen therapy, surgeries, and retinopathy of prematurity) predicted ultrasound brain abnormalities. At ages 8–16, VP-VLBW children showed: a) lower intelligent quotient (IQ) and executive function; b) decreased gray and white matter (WM) integrity; (c) IQ correlated negatively with cortical thickness in higher order processing cortical areas. In conclusion, our data indicate that facets of executive function and IQ are the most affected in VP-VLBW children likely due to altered higher order cortical areas and underlying WMThis study was supported by the Spanish Government Institute Carlos III (FIS Pl11/02860), Spanish Ministry of Health to MM-L, and the University of Castilla-La Mancha mobility Grant VA1381500149

CDIO Experiences in Biomedical Engineering: Preparing Spanish Students for the Future of Medicine and Medical Device Technology

Biomedical engineering is one of the more recent fields of engineering, aimed at the application of engineering principles, methods and design concepts to medicine and biology for healthcare purposes, mainly as a support for preventive, diagnostic or therapeutic tasks. Biomedical engineering professionals are expected to achieve, during their studies and professional practice, considerable knowledge of both health sciences and engineering. Studying biomedical engineering programmes, or combining pre-graduate studies in life sciences with graduate studies in engineering, or vice versa, are typical options for becoming qualified biomedical engineering professionals, although there are additional interesting alternatives, to be discussed. According to our experience, the graduates and post-graduates from multidisciplinary engineering programmes, not just from biomedical engineering, but also from more traditional fields including industrial, mechanical and telecommunications engineering, can play varied and very relevant roles in the biomedical industry and in extremely complex biomedical device development projects. In spite of the different ways of becoming a professional of the biomedical engineering field, it is true that their impact as successful professionals can be importantly increased, by means of an adequate integration into their curricula of fundamental biomedical engineering design concepts, methodologies and good practices, applied to the development of biomedical devices. In this study we present the complete development and comparative study of three courses, belonging to different plans of study taught at the Technical University of Madrid and benefiting from using a CDIO approach focused on the development of biomedical devices. The three courses are “Development of Medical Devices”, “Bioengineering Design” and “Biomedical Engineering”, respectively belonging to the “Bachelor’s Degree in Biomedical Engineering”, to the “Master’s Degree in Industrial Engineering” and to the “Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering”. During the courses, groups of students live through the development process of different biomedical devices aimed at providing answers to relevant social needs. Depending on their background and European credits assigned to the different courses, students carry out more conceptual projects or are able to live through more complete CDIO experiences. Main benefits, lessons learned and future challenges, linked to these courses, are analyzed, taking account of the results from 2014-2015 academic year

Context-dependent roles of cellular senescence in normal, aged, and disease states.

Cellular senescence is a state of irreversible cell cycle arrest that often emerges after tissue damage and in age-related diseases. Through the production of a multicomponent secretory phenotype (SASP), senescent cells can impact the regeneration and function of tissues. However, the effects of senescent cells and their SASP are very heterogeneous and depend on the tissue environment and type as well as the duration of injury, the degree of persistence of senescent cells and the organism's age. While the transient presence of senescent cells is widely believed to be beneficial, recent data suggest that it is detrimental for tissue regeneration after acute damage. Furthermore, although senescent cell persistence is typically associated with the progression of age-related chronic degenerative diseases, it now appears to be also necessary for correct tissue function in the elderly. Here, we discuss what is currently known about the roles of senescent cells and their SASP in tissue regeneration in ageing and age-related diseases, highlighting their (negative and/or positive) contributions. We provide insight for future research, including the possibility of senolytic-based therapies and cellular reprogramming, with aims ranging from enhancing tissue repair to extending a healthy lifespan.Work in the authors’ laboratory is supported by MINECO-Spain (RTI2018-096068), H2020 European Research Council-2016-AdG-741966, LaCaixaHEALTH-HR17-00040, MWRF, French Muscular Dystrophy Association, Muscular Dystrophy Association, Fundacio LaMarató TV3 (80/19-202021 and 137/ 38-202033) and UPGRADE-H2020-825825; and María-de-Maeztu-Program for Units of Excellence to UPF (MDM-2014-0370), Severo Ochoa-Program for Centers of Excellence to CNIC (SEV-2015-0505).S

"Geolocalización" de documentos en las bibliotecas UPC

Las bibliotecas UPC, están incorporando de forma progresiva, el acceso a la ubicación del documento dentro de los espacios de las bibliotecas. Desde la interfície del OPAC, los usuarios a partir del topográfico del documento visualizan en que zona de la biblioteca se halla el documento y en algunos casos visualizar la imagen de la ubicación. Esta funcionalidad surge a partir de un concurso de ideas de mejora de la Biblioteca Rector Gabriel Ferraté, cuyo premio era una subvención para desarrollar el proyecto. Se trata de una aplicación desarrollada en PHP, MySQL y basada en expresiones regulares de PHP dada la complejidad de los topográficos de las diferentes bibliotecas. En la pasarela web del OPAC, se ha agregado una función de javascript que valida si la biblioteca ya tiene disponibles sus mapas y en caso afirmativo valida el topográfico del documento contra la base de datos que contiene las equivalencias de estos con su ubicación física. En caso de que los datos sean coincidentes, la función añade un enlace en donde se visualiza en mapa de la biblioteca, la ubicación del documento y según el caso la imagen. Antes de poner en funcionamiento la aplicación para cada biblioteca, estas deben realizar todo un conjunto de tareas previas.Para el filtrado y detección de errores, se ha desarrollado también en PHP una aplicación en donde se carga un archivo de texto o Excel y al que se le indica por donde debe "cortar" los topográficos y agruparlos, principalmente a partir del espacio entre CDU y las tres letras, pero también por otros símbolos como paréntesis, dos puntos, etc ... Respecto al orden de prioridades, se usan expresiones regulares de PHP para priorizar e indicar al código de javascript en donde se debe de "detener" y consultar la base de datos. Una vez finalizados estos pasos se activa la biblioteca en la función de javascript de la pasarela para su puesta en funcionamiento. Actualmente esta funcionalidad, está disponible para 4 de las 13 bibliotecas UPC que representan aproximadamente un 15% del fondo bibliográfico UPC. La previsión es que antes del 2011 esté implementado en todas las bibliotecas. Una vez cerrado esta etapa, aprovechando la infraestructura de la aplicación, se pondrá en funcionamiento una variante de la aplicación en donde se muestren la diferentes áreas de conocimiento y su ubicación en el mapa de la biblioteca Finalmente, de modo casual este desarrollo ha permitido resolver errores en los topográficos que de otro modo era complejo de detectar.Serrano-Muñoz, J.; Rico Millán, O.; Prieto Jiménez, AJ.; Pérez Gálvez, A.; Clavero Campos, J.; Payan Muñoz, I. (2010). "Geolocalización" de documentos en las bibliotecas UPC. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/867

Seguridad y salud laboral en autopsias

Se presenta el resultado del análisis de las condiciones de trabajo de patólogos y técnicos de anatomía patológica, durante la realización de autopsias. El estudio se ha llevado a cabo analizando cada una de las etapas del proceso de la autopsia en el Hospital Infanta Margarita de Cabra, e identificando y valorando los peligros y riesgos ligados a cada fase. Entre los resultados obtenidos se han identificado riesgos higiénicos, ergonómicos y de seguridad, destacando entre ellos el riesgo biológico por la gravedad de sus consecuencias, los diversos peligros que lo originan y su continua presencia durante la autopsia. Para cada peligro se indican las medidas preventivas a adoptar, y se detallan las características que deben cumplir los equipos de protección individual necesarios

Conocimientos y habilidades mínimas, que un estudiante egresado de la carrera de Eduación Física, debiera poseer

Tesis (Profesor de Educación Física para la Enseñanza Básica, Licenciado en Educación)La siguiente investigación es llevada a cabo durante el segundo semestre del año 2017, para el seminario de grado de la carrera de Educación Física de la Universidad Andrés Bello. Se realiza un estudio respecto a los conocimientos o saber y a las habilidades o saber hacer mínimos que debe tener un egresado de la Carrera de Educación Física, esto considerando la opinión de una muestra de estudiantes de último año de dicha carrera. Para que la información sea lo más representativa posible se consultó a estudiantes de la Universidad Católica Silva Henríquez, Universidad Metropolitana de la Ciencias de la Educación (UMCE), Universidad SEK y la Universidad Andrés Bello (UNAB). Se asume que la aludida representatividad es parcial, sin embargo y tal como se explica en la viabilidad del estudio, los permisos y accesos a Instituciones de educación Superior es compleja. El instrumento utilizado fue una encuesta tipo cuestionario que permitió recabar los datos necesarios en breve tiempo. La confección de dicho instrumento estuvo a cargo de los propios tesistas y fue validado a través de tres expertos. El estudio se enmarca dentro las exigencias que se están instalando en la Formación Inicial Docente (FID), así como también, en los procesos de evaluación de los docentes y su formación continua. Todo ello en un marco regulatorio que propicia la Ley de Carrera Docente, (2016)

Can transcranial direct current stimulation enhance functionality in older adults? A systematic review

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive, easy to administer, well-tolerated, and safe technique capable of affecting brain excitability, both at the cortical and cerebellum levels. However, its effectiveness has not been sufficiently assessed in all population segments or clinical applications. This systematic review aimed at compiling and summarizing the currently available scientific evidence about the effect of tDCS on functionality in older adults over 60 years of age. A search of databases was conducted to find randomized clinical trials that applied tDCS versus sham stimulation in the above-mentioned population. No limits were established in terms of date of publication. A total of 237 trials were found, of which 24 met the inclusion criteria. Finally, nine studies were analyzed, including 260 healthy subjects with average age between 61.0 and 85.8 years. Seven of the nine included studies reported superior improvements in functionality variables following the application of tDCS compared to sham stimulation. Anodal tDCS applied over the motor cortex may be an effective technique for improving balance and posture control in healthy older adults. However, further high-quality randomized controlled trials are required to determine the most effective protocols and to clarify potential benefits for older adults