Exposure to selected pathogens in Geoffroy's cats and domestic carnivores from central Argentina

Wild carnivores share a high percentage of parasites and viruses with closely related domestic carnivores. Because of increased overlap and potential contact with domestic species, we conducted a retrospective serosurvey for 11 common carnivore pathogens in 40 Geoffroy's cats (Leopardus geoffroyi) sampled between 2000 and 2008 within or near two protected areas in central Argentina (Lihué Calel National Park, La Pampa, and Campos del Tuyú National Park, Buenos Aires), as well as five domestic cats and 11 domestic dogs from cattle ranches adjacent to Lihué Calel Park. Geoffroy's cats had detectable antibody to canine distemper virus (CDV), feline calicivirus (FCV), feline coronavirus, feline panleukopenia virus (FPV), Toxoplasma gondii, Leptospira interrogans (serovars Ictero/Icter and Ballum), and Dirofilaria immitis. None of the wild cats had antibodies to feline herpesvirus, feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), feline leukemia virus, or rabies virus. Domestic dogs had antibodies to CDV, canine adenovirus, canine herpesvirus, and canine parvovirus. Antibodies to FPV, FCV, FIV, and T. gondii were found in domestic cats.We provide the first data on exposure of free-ranging Geoffroy's cats to pathogens at two sites within the core area of the species distribution range, including the first report of antibodies to CDV in this species. We encourage continued monitoring for diseases in wild and domestic carnivores as well as preventive health care for domestic animals, particularly in park buffer zones where overlap is greatest.Fil: Uhart, Marcela María. ildlife Conservation Society; ArgentinaFil: Rago, María Virginia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Ecología, Genética y Evolución de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Ecología, Genética y Evolución de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Marull, Carolina A.. ildlife Conservation Society; ArgentinaFil: Ferreyra, Hebe del Valle. ildlife Conservation Society; ArgentinaFil: Pereira, Javier Adolfo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia”; Argentin

The iOSC3 system: using ontologies and SWRL rules for intelligent supervision and care of patients with acute cardiac disorders

[Abstract] Physicians in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) are specially trained to deal constantly with very large and complex quantities of clinical data and make quick decisions as they face complications. However, the amount of information generated and the way the data are presented may overload the cognitive skills of even experienced professionals and lead to inaccurate or erroneous actions that put patients’ lives at risk. In this paper, we present the design, development, and validation of iOSC3, an ontology-based system for intelligent supervision and treatment of critical patients with acute cardiac disorders. The system analyzes the patient’s condition and provides a recommendation about the treatment that should be administered to achieve the fastest possible recovery. If the recommendation is accepted by the doctor, the system automatically modifies the quantity of drugs that are being delivered to the patient. The knowledge base is constituted by an OWL ontology and a set of SWRL rules that represent the expert’s knowledge. iOSC3 has been developed in collaboration with experts from the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU) of the Meixoeiro Hospital, one of the most significant hospitals in the northwest region of Spain.Instituto de Salud Carlos III; FIS-PI10/02180Programa Iberoamericano de Ciencia y Tecnología para el Desarrollo; 209RT0366Galicia. Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria; CN2012/217Xunta. Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria; CN2011/034Galicia. Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria; CN2012/21

Applicability of Clinical Decision Support in Management among Patients Undergoing Cardiac Surgery in Intensive Care Unit: A Systematic Review

[Abstract] The advances achieved in recent decades regarding cardiac surgery have led to a new risk that goes beyond surgeons’ dexterity; postoperative hours are crucial for cardiac surgery patients and are usually spent in intensive care units (ICUs), where the patients need to be continuously monitored to adjust their treatment. Clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) have been developed to take this real-time information and provide clinical suggestions to physicians in order to reduce medical errors and to improve patient recovery. In this review, an initial total of 499 papers were considered after identification using PubMed, Web of Science, and CINAHL. Twenty-two studies were included after filtering, which included the deletion of duplications and the exclusion of titles or abstracts that were not of real interest. A review of these papers concluded the applicability and advances that CDSSs offer for both doctors and patients. Better prognosis and recovery rates are achieved by using this technology, which has also received high acceptance among most physicians. However, despite the evidence that well-designed CDSSs are effective, they still need to be refined to offer the best assistance possible, which may still take time, despite the promising models that have already been applied in real ICUs.Xunta de Galicia; ED431C 2018/4

Developing a system for advanced monitoring and intelligent drug administration in critical care units using ontologies

Selected paper of the 16th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems, 2012 September 10-12, San Sebastian, Spain[Abstract] When a patient enters an intensive care unit (ICU), either after surgery or due to a serious clinical condition, his vital signs are continually changing, forcing the medical experts to make rapid and complex decisions, which frequently imply modifications on the dosage of drugs being administered. Life of patients at critical units depends largely on the wisdom of such decisions. However, the human factor is sometimes a source of mistakes that lead to incorrect or inaccurate actions. This work presents an expert system based on a domain ontology that acquires the vital parameters from the patient monitor, analyzes them and provides the expert with a recommendation regarding the treatment that should be administered. If the expert agrees, the system modifies the drug infusion rates being supplied at the infusion pumps in order to improve the patient's physiological status. The system is being developed at the IMEDIR Center (A Coruña, Spain) and it is being tested at the cardiac intensive care unit (CICU) of the Meixoeiro Hospital (Vigo, Spain), which is a specific type of ICU exclusively aimed to treat patients who have underwent heart surgery or that are affected by a serious coronary disorder.Instituto de Salud Carlos III; FIS-PI10/02180Programa Iberoamericano de Ciencia y Tecnología para el Desarrollo; ref. 209RT0366Galicia. Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria; CN2012/217Galicia. Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria; CN2011/034Galcia. Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria; CN2012/21

BiOSS: A system for biomedical ontology selection

In biomedical informatics, ontologies are considered a key technology for annotating, retrieving and sharing the huge volume of publicly available data. Due to the increasing amount, complexity and variety of existing biomedical ontologies, choosing the ones to be used in a semantic annotation problem or to design a specific application is a difficult task. As a consequence, the design of approaches and tools addressed to facilitate the selection of biomedical ontologies is becoming a priority. In this paper we present BiOSS, a novel system for the selection of biomedical ontologies. BiOSS evaluates the adequacy of an ontology to a given domain according to three different criteria: (1) the extent to which the ontology covers the domain; (2) the semantic richness of the ontology in the domain; (3) the popularity of the ontology in the biomedical community. BiOSS has been applied to 5 representative problems of ontology selection. It also has been compared to existing methods and tools. Results are promising and show the usefulness of BiOSS to solve real-world ontology selection problems. BiOSS is openly available both as a web tool and a web service.Instituto de Salud Carlos III; FIS-PI10/02180Galicia. Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria; CN2012/217Galicia. Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria; CN2011/034Galicia. Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria; CN2012/211Programa Iberoamericano de Ciencia y Tecnología para el Desarrollo; ref. 209RT036

The use of computers and augmentative and alternative communication devices by children and young with cerebral palsy

[Abstract] The purpose of the study was to determine the use of computers and assistive devices amongst children with cerebral palsy (CP) and establish the satisfaction level of both users and educational staff. The study was carried out with 30 children with cerebral palsy. A questionnaire was designed to characterize the use of new technologies and assistive devices. Some of the questions were reserved for the teachers. Even though 29 users show some type of communication difficulty, only 4 users dispose of a computer-aided communication device, with the static symbolic board being the most widely used device (4). More than half of the participants (17) regularly use a computer, 16 of them requiring some type of assistive device. The perception of the teachers with regard to the use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) in the classrooms is positive in 5 out of 6 cases. ICTs only provide assistance if their application is accompanied by the involvement of professionals and the child's social environment. The low use of Augmentative and Alternative Communication techniques along with the absence of communication codes reveal the need to establish training protocols. The inclusion of social, physical, and personal factors is considered essential in order to evaluate the needs for assistive technology

Development of a fast screening method for the direct determination of chlorinated persistent organic pollutants in fish oil by high-resolution continuum source graphite furnace molecular absorption spectrometry

The authors are grateful to the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico and Tecnológico (CNPq); the present research was mostly financed through Project no. CNPq 406877/2013-0. The authors are also grateful to the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) for financial support and scholarships, and to Analytik Jena for financial support and donation of the contrAA 600 high-resolution continuum source atomic absorption spectrometer.Peer reviewedPostprin

Empowering personal autonomy through AT with Low Cost

Presentatio

Assessing mouse alternatives to access to computer: a case study of a user with cerebral palsy

[Abstract] The purpose of this study is to describe the process of assessment of three assistive devices to meet the needs of a woman with cerebral palsy (CP) in order to provide her with computer access and use. The user has quadriplegic CP, with anarthria, using a syllabic keyboard. Devices were evaluated through a three-step approach: (a) use of a questionnaire to preselect potential assistive technologies, (b) use of an eTAO tool to determine the effectiveness of each devised, and (c) a conducting semi-structured interview to obtain qualitative data. Touch screen, joystick, and trackball were the preselected devices. The best device that met the user's needs and priorities was joystick. The finding was corroborated by both the eTAO tool and the semi-structured interview. Computers are a basic form of social participation. It is important to consider the special needs and priorities of users and to try different devices when undertaking a device-selection process. Environmental and personal factors have to be considered, as well. This leads to a need to evaluate new tools in order to provide the appropriate support. The eTAO could be a suitable instrument for this purpose. Additional research is also needed to understand how to better match devices with different user populations and how to comprehensively evaluate emerging technologies relative to users with disabilities

Valorando la efectividad e impacto de los productos de apoyo

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