Workshop on cardiovascular extracellular matrix in health and disease in Baeza, Spain

The Workshop on Cardiovascular Extracellular Matrix in Health and Disease, International University of Andalusia, Baeza, Spain, 6-8 October 2014 served to discuss the current knowledge on the mechanisms integral to extracellular matrix homeostasis that are fundamental to understanding the pathological basis of several cardiovascular diseases, including the development of cardiac fibrosis in response to cardiac hypertrophy and myocardial infarction, and the extracellular matrix alterations contributing to aortic stenosis or aneurysms.We highly appreciate the contribution of the International University of Andalusia (UNIA), the European Research Council (ERC) and the consortium FIBROTEAM (Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid, 2010-BMD2321)

Analysis of filaggrin mutations and expression in corneal specimens from patients with or without atopic dermatitis

BACKGROUND: Filaggrin is expressed in the epidermis and is essential for the maintenance of the epidermal barrier. Null mutations within the filaggrin gene (FLG) lead to a disturbed epidermal barrier and are associated with a significantly increased risk of atopic dermatitis (AD). The association of AD with ocular surface disorders prompted us to speculate that common FLG mutations may be particularly prevalent in AD patients with ocular comorbidities. METHODS: Corneal buttons and biopsies from AD patients with ocular involvement (n = 11) and from non-atopic patients (n = 9) with a histological diagnosis of keratitis were included in the study. DNA samples obtained from paraffin-embedded corneal specimens were genotyped for the two most common FLG mutations (R501X and 2282del4). Filaggrin protein expression was analysed by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: Normal skin and corneal specimens (n = 6) were positive for filaggrin, which could be detected in the stratum corneum of the skin and in the basal epithelial layer of the cornea. Interestingly, all AD corneal specimens as well as the specimens from keratitis patients without AD were negative for filaggrin expression. Genotyping of the FLG mutations R501X and 2282del4 revealed wild-type alleles in all analysed samples. CONCLUSIONS: The lack of filaggrin expression observed in the analysed corneal specimens from AD patients is not due to the two most common FLG mutations (R501X, 2282del4) but is most likely secondary to inflammation, as all keratitis specimens of non-AD patients showed lack of filaggrin expression as well

Norm-attaining weighted composition operators on weighted Banach spaces of analytic functions

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00013-012-0458-zWe investigate weighted composition operators that attain their norm on weighted Banach spaces of holomorphic functions on the unit disc of type H∞. Applications for composition operators on weighted Bloch spaces are given. © 2012 Springer Basel.1. The authors are thankful to the referee for pointing to us the references [15] and [16] and their relevance in the present research. 2. The research of Bonet was partially supported by MICINN and FEDER Project MTM2010-15200 and by GV project Prometeo/2008/101 and project ACOMP/2012/090.Bonet Solves, JA.; Lindström, M.; Wolf, E. (2012). Norm-attaining weighted composition operators on weighted Banach spaces of analytic functions. Archiv der Mathematik. 99(6):537-546. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00013-012-0458-zS537546996Bierstedt K.D., Bonet J., Galbis A.: Weighted spaces of holomorphic functions on bounded domains. Michigan Math. J. 40, 271–297 (1993)Bierstedt K.D., Bonet J., Taskinen J.: Associated weights and spaces of holomorphic functions. Studia Math. 127, 137–168 (1998)J. Bonet, P. Domański, and M. Lindström, Essential norm and weak compactness of composition operators on weighted Banach spaces of analytic functions. Canad, Math. Bull. 42, no. 2, (1999), 139–148Bonet J. et al.: Composition operators between weighted Banach spaces of analytic functions. J. Austral. Math. Soc. Ser. A 64, 101–118 (1998)Bonet J., Lindström M, Wolf E.: Isometric weighted composition operators on weighted Banach spaces of type H ∞. Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 136, 4267–4273 (2008)Bonet J, Wolf E.: A note on weighted spaces of holomorphic functions. Archiv Math. 81, 650–654 (2003)Contreras M.D, Hernández-Díaz A.G.: Weighted composition operators in weighted banach spaces of analytic functions. J. Austral. Math. Soc. Ser. A 69, 41–60 (2000)Cowen C., MacCluer B.: Composition Operators on Spaces of Analytic Functions. CRC Press, Boca Raton (1995)J. Diestel, Geometry of Banach Spaces. Selected Topics, Lecture Notes in Math. vol. 485, Springer, Berlin, 1975.Hammond C.: On the norm of a composition operator with linear fractional symbol. Acta Sci. Math. (Szeged) 69, 813–829 (2003)Hosokawa T., Izuchi K., Zheng D.: Isolated points and essential components of composition operators on H ∞. Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 130, 1765–1773 (2001)Hosokava T., Ohno S.: Topological strusctures of the sets of composition operatorson the Bloch spaces. J. Math. anal. Appl. 303, 499–508 (2005)Lusky W.: On the isomorphy classes of weighted spaces of harmonic and holomorphic functions. Studia Math. 175, 19–45 (2006)Martín M.: Norm-attaining composition operators on the Bloch spaces. J. Math. Anal. Appl. 369, 15–21 (2010)A. Montes-Rodríguez, The Pick-Schwarz lemma and composition operators on Bloch spaces, International Workshop on Operator Theory (Cefalu, 1997), Rend. Circ. Mat. Palermo (2) Suppl. 56 (1998), 167–170.Montes-Rodríguez A.: The essential norm of a composition operator on Bloch spaces. Pacific J. Math. 188, 339–351 (1999)Montes-Rodríguez A.: Weighted composition operators on weighted Banach spaces of analytic functions. J. London Math. Soc. 61, 872–884 (2000)J.H. Shapiro, Composition Operators and Classical Function Theory, Springer, 1993.K. Zhu, Operator Theory in Function Spaces, Second Edition. Amer. Math. Soc., 2007

Diseño de un instrumento de evaluación de aplicaciones digitales (Apps) que permiten desarrollar la competencia artística

Las Apps de Arte son aquellas que se han pensado y diseñado para llevar a cabo experiencias artísticas o que permiten trabajar contenidos de arte. Metodología. En este estudio presentamos un instrumento de evaluación que sirve para identificar y seleccionar diversos ítems que desarrollan la competencia artística según acciones expresivas o perceptivas. Esta batería de evaluación se configuró teniendo en cuenta los contenidos artísticos para las etapas formativas preuniversitarias, en especial primaria y secundaria. Está compuesta por 98 ítems distribuidos en tres dimensiones y cuatro escalas: Dimensión Artística (dominio expresivo y perceptivo), Dimensión Técnica y Dimensión Pedagógica. La metodología que hemos seguido ha sido un proceso interjueces con expertos en educación artística y en el uso de tecnologías emergentes aplicando un Análisis de Concordancia de Atributos a través de escalas Likert ordinales. Resultados. Se incluyen los estadísticos descriptivos obtenidos así como el listado de ítems resultantes en cada dimensión. Discusión. Una vez finalizado el proceso y teniendo en cuenta el número de ítems resultante y su redacción consideramos que es viable utilizar el instrumento para evaluar de forma comprensiva Apps de Arte teniendo en cuenta las dimensiones artística, técnica y pedagógica y considerando además el nivel educativo de las experiencias artísticas.Apps of Art are those that have been thought and designed to carry out artistic experiences or that allow working with art contents. Methodology. In this study we present an evaluation instrument that serves to identify and select various items that develop artistic competence according to expressive or perceptive actions. This assessment battery was configured taking into account the artistic contents for the pre-university training stages, especially primary and secondary. It is composed of 98 items distributed in three dimensions and four scales: Artistic Dimension (expressive and perceptive domain), Technical Dimension and Pedagogical Dimension. The methodology we have followed has been a process validated by the judgment of experts in artistic education and the use of emerging technology, applying an Attribute Agreement Analysis through ordinal Likert scales. Results. The descriptive statistics obtained as well as the list of resulting items in each dimension are included. Discussion. Once the process is finished and taking into account the resulting number of items and their wording, we consider that it is feasible to use the instrument to comprehensively evaluate Apps of Art pedagogical dimensions and including the educational . taking into consideration the artistic, technical and level of the artistic experiences

The Transiting Multi-planet System HD15337: Two Nearly Equal-mass Planets Straddling the Radius Gap

We report the discovery of a super-Earth and a sub-Neptune transiting the star HD 15337 (TOI-402, TIC 120896927), a bright (V = 9) K1 dwarf observed by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) in Sectors 3 and 4. We combine the TESS photometry with archival High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher spectra to confirm the planetary nature of the transit signals and derive the masses of the two transiting planets. With an orbital period of 4.8 days, a mass of ${7.51}_{-1.01}^{+1.09}\,{M}_{\oplus }$ and a radius of 1.64 ± 0.06 R ⊕, HD 15337 b joins the growing group of short-period super-Earths known to have a rocky terrestrial composition. The sub-Neptune HD 15337 c has an orbital period of 17.2 days, a mass of ${8.11}_{-1.69}^{+1.82}\,{{\rm{M}}}_{\oplus }$, and a radius of 2.39 ± 0.12 R ⊕, suggesting that the planet might be surrounded by a thick atmospheric envelope. The two planets have similar masses and lie on opposite sides of the radius gap, and are thus an excellent testbed for planet formation and evolution theories. Assuming that HD 15337 c hosts a hydrogen-dominated envelope, we employ a recently developed planet atmospheric evolution algorithm in a Bayesian framework to estimate the history of the high-energy (extreme ultraviolet and X-ray) emission of the host star. We find that at an age of 150 Myr, the star possessed on average between 3.7 and 127 times the high-energy luminosity of the current Sun

Multi-ancestry genome-wide association study of 21,000 cases and 95,000 controls identifies new risk loci for atopic dermatitis

Genetic association studies have identified 21 loci associated with atopic dermatitis risk predominantly in populations of European ancestry. To identify further susceptibility loci for this common, complex skin disease, we performed a meta-analysis of >15 million genetic variants in 21,399 cases and 95,464 controls from populations of European, African, Japanese and Latino ancestry, followed by replication in 32,059 cases and 228,628 controls from 18 studies. We identified ten new risk loci, bringing the total number of known atopic dermatitis risk loci to 31 (with new secondary signals at four of these loci). Notably, the new loci include candidate genes with roles in the regulation of innate host defenses and T cell function, underscoring the important contribution of (auto)immune mechanisms to atopic dermatitis pathogenesis

Erratum to: 36th International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s13054-016-1208-6.]

Global, regional, and national age-sex-specific mortality for 282 causes of death in 195 countries and territories, 1980-2017 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

Background Global development goals increasingly rely on country-specific estimates for benchmarking a nation's progress. To meet this need, the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2016 estimated global, regional, national, and, for selected locations, subnational cause-specific mortality beginning in the year 1980. Here we report an update to that study, making use of newly available data and improved methods. GBD 2017 provides a comprehensive assessment of cause-specific mortality for 282 causes in 195 countries and territories from 1980 to 2017. Methods The causes of death database is composed of vital registration (VR), verbal autopsy (VA), registry, survey, police, and surveillance data. GBD 2017 added ten VA studies, 127 country-years of VR data, 502 cancer-registry country-years, and an additional surveillance country-year. Expansions of the GBD cause of death hierarchy resulted in 18 additional causes estimated for GBD 2017. Newly available data led to subnational estimates for five additional countries Ethiopia, Iran, New Zealand, Norway, and Russia. Deaths assigned International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes for non-specific, implausible, or intermediate causes of death were reassigned to underlying causes by redistribution algorithms that were incorporated into uncertainty estimation. We used statistical modelling tools developed for GBD, including the Cause of Death Ensemble model (CODErn), to generate cause fractions and cause specific death rates for each location, year, age, and sex. Instead of using UN estimates as in previous versions, GBD 2017 independently estimated population size and fertility rate for all locations. Years of life lost (YLLs) were then calculated as the sum of each death multiplied by the standard life expectancy at each age. All rates reported here are age-standardised. Findings At the broadest grouping of causes of death (Level 1), non-communicable diseases (NC Ds) comprised the greatest fraction of deaths, contributing to 73.4% (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 72.5-74.1) of total deaths in 2017, while communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional (CMNN) causes accounted for 186% (17.9-19.6), and injuries 8.0% (7.7-8.2). Total numbers of deaths from NCD causes increased from 2007 to 2017 by 22.7% (21.5-23.9), representing an additional 7.61 million (7. 20-8.01) deaths estimated in 2017 versus 2007. The death rate from NCDs decreased globally by 7.9% (7.08.8). The number of deaths for CMNN causes decreased by 222% (20.0-24.0) and the death rate by 31.8% (30.1-33.3). Total deaths from injuries increased by 2.3% (0-5-4-0) between 2007 and 2017, and the death rate from injuries decreased by 13.7% (12.2-15.1) to 57.9 deaths (55.9-59.2) per 100 000 in 2017. Deaths from substance use disorders also increased, rising from 284 000 deaths (268 000-289 000) globally in 2007 to 352 000 (334 000-363 000) in 2017. Between 2007 and 2017, total deaths from conflict and terrorism increased by 118.0% (88.8-148.6). A greater reduction in total deaths and death rates was observed for some CMNN causes among children younger than 5 years than for older adults, such as a 36.4% (32.2-40.6) reduction in deaths from lower respiratory infections for children younger than 5 years compared with a 33.6% (31.2-36.1) increase in adults older than 70 years. Globally, the number of deaths was greater for men than for women at most ages in 2017, except at ages older than 85 years. Trends in global YLLs reflect an epidemiological transition, with decreases in total YLLs from enteric infections, respirator}, infections and tuberculosis, and maternal and neonatal disorders between 1990 and 2017; these were generally greater in magnitude at the lowest levels of the Socio-demographic Index (SDI). At the same time, there were large increases in YLLs from neoplasms and cardiovascular diseases. YLL rates decreased across the five leading Level 2 causes in all SDI quintiles. The leading causes of YLLs in 1990 neonatal disorders, lower respiratory infections, and diarrhoeal diseases were ranked second, fourth, and fifth, in 2017. Meanwhile, estimated YLLs increased for ischaemic heart disease (ranked first in 2017) and stroke (ranked third), even though YLL rates decreased. Population growth contributed to increased total deaths across the 20 leading Level 2 causes of mortality between 2007 and 2017. Decreases in the cause-specific mortality rate reduced the effect of population growth for all but three causes: substance use disorders, neurological disorders, and skin and subcutaneous diseases. Interpretation Improvements in global health have been unevenly distributed among populations. Deaths due to injuries, substance use disorders, armed conflict and terrorism, neoplasms, and cardiovascular disease are expanding threats to global health. For causes of death such as lower respiratory and enteric infections, more rapid progress occurred for children than for the oldest adults, and there is continuing disparity in mortality rates by sex across age groups. Reductions in the death rate of some common diseases are themselves slowing or have ceased, primarily for NCDs, and the death rate for selected causes has increased in the past decade. Copyright (C) 2018 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.Peer reviewe

Erratum: Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks for 195 countries and territories, 1990–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

Interpretation: By quantifying levels and trends in exposures to risk factors and the resulting disease burden, this assessment offers insight into where past policy and programme efforts might have been successful and highlights current priorities for public health action. Decreases in behavioural, environmental, and occupational risks have largely offset the effects of population growth and ageing, in relation to trends in absolute burden. Conversely, the combination of increasing metabolic risks and population ageing will probably continue to drive the increasing trends in non-communicable diseases at the global level, which presents both a public health challenge and opportunity. We see considerable spatiotemporal heterogeneity in levels of risk exposure and risk-attributable burden. Although levels of development underlie some of this heterogeneity, O/E ratios show risks for which countries are overperforming or underperforming relative to their level of development. As such, these ratios provide a benchmarking tool to help to focus local decision making. Our findings reinforce the importance of both risk exposure monitoring and epidemiological research to assess causal connections between risks and health outcomes, and they highlight the usefulness of the GBD study in synthesising data to draw comprehensive and robust conclusions that help to inform good policy and strategic health planning