Mujeres que son pareja de un varón infectado por el VIH: descripción de sus características y valoración del riesgo

ObjetivoDescribir las situaciones de riesgo y la prevalencia del virus de la inmunodeficiencia humana (VIH) en mujeres con pareja heterosexual infectada por el VIH.DiseñoEstudio descriptivo y transversal.EmplazamientoCentro ambulatorio de diagnóstico del VIH de Madrid.PacientesSe incluyó en el estudio a 229 mujeres atendidas por primera vez entre 1993 y 2002 por tener una pareja heterosexual estable diagnosticada de infección por el VIH, sin otra exposición de riesgo.Mediciones principalesInformación sociodemográfica, historial reproductivo, conducta sexual, datos clínicos y analíticos de ambos miembros de la pareja.ResultadosEl 66% de las parejas mantenían relaciones sexuales desde hacía más de un año. Las mujeres tenían menor edad media (29,6 años) que los varones. El 29% de las mujeres tenían hijos y el 5,2% estaban embarazadas. Entre los varones, el 82% se había inyectado drogas, pero sólo el 13% mantenía esta práctica. El 73% estaba diagnosticado de infección por el VIH desde hacía más de 6 meses, el 16% presentaba criterios de sida y el 35% recibía tratamiento antirretroviral. El 60% de los varones que conocían previamente su infección habían evitado sistemáticamente los coitos sin preservativo, frente al 33% de los que no se sabían infectados (p < 0,001). El 19% había tenido accidentes en el uso del preservativo. La seroprevalencia del VIH en las mujeres fue del 6,1% (intervalo de confianza del 95%, 3,5-10,3%).ConclusionesLa atención a las personas con VIH debe incluir la asistencia a la pareja sexual, ofreciendo información, apoyo psicológico, consejo preventivo y reproductivo, además del diagnóstico del VIH y de otras infecciones de transmisión sexual.ObjectiveTo describe the situations of risk and the prevalence of HIV in women with a heterosexual partner infected by HIV.DesignCross-sectional descriptive study.SettingOut-patient HIV diagnosis centre in Madrid.Patients229 women seen for the first time between 1993 and 2002 because they had a stable heterosexual partner diagnosed with HIV, and who were exposed to no other risk.Main measurementsSocial and personal details, reproduction history, sexual conduct, clinical, and analytic data of both partners.Results66% of couples had maintained sexual relations for over a year.Women were on average younger (29.6 years old) than the men. 29% of the women had children and 5.2% were pregnant. 82% of men had injected drugs, but only 13% still did. 73% had been diagnosed with HIV for over 6 months, 16% had AIDS criteria, and 35% were taking retroviral treatment. 60% of the men who knew of their infection had systematically avoided sex without condoms, against 33% of those who did not know they were infected (P<.001). 19% had had accidents in use of the condom.HIV seroprevalence in the women was 6.1% (95% CI, 3.5%-10.3%).ConclusionsHealth care of people with HIV must include care of their sexual partner, involving information, psychological support, preventive and reproductive advice, as well as diagnosis of HIV or other sexually transmitted diseases

Death, dying and informatics: misrepresenting religion on MedLine

BACKGROUND: The globalization of medical science carries for doctors worldwide a correlative duty to deepen their understanding of patients' cultural contexts and religious backgrounds, in order to satisfy each as a unique individual. To become better informed, practitioners may turn to MedLine, but it is unclear whether the information found there is an accurate representation of culture and religion. To test MedLine's representation of this field, we chose the topic of death and dying in the three major monotheistic religions. METHODS: We searched MedLine using PubMed in order to retrieve and thematically analyze full-length scholarly journal papers or case reports dealing with religious traditions and end-of-life care. Our search consisted of a string of words that included the most common denominations of the three religions, the standard heading terms used by the National Reference Center for Bioethics Literature (NRCBL), and the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) used by the National Library of Medicine. Eligible articles were limited to English-language papers with an abstract. RESULTS: We found that while a bibliographic search in MedLine on this topic produced instant results and some valuable literature, the aggregate reflected a selection bias. American writers were over-represented given the global prevalence of these religious traditions. Denominationally affiliated authors predominated in representing the Christian traditions. The Islamic tradition was under-represented. CONCLUSION: MedLine's capability to identify the most current, reliable and accurate information about purely scientific topics should not be assumed to be the same case when considering the interface of religion, culture and end-of-life care

Effect of Argon on the Properties of Copper Nitride Fabricated by Magnetron Sputtering for the Next Generation of Solar Absorbers

Copper nitride, a metastable semiconductor material with high stability at room temperature, is attracting considerable attention as a potential next-generation earth-abundant thin film solar absorber. Moreover, its non-toxicity makes it an interesting eco-friendly material. In this work, copper nitride films were fabricated using reactive radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering at room temperature, 50 W of RF power, and partial nitrogen pressures of 0.8 and 1.0 on glass and silicon substrates. The role of argon in both the microstructure and the optoelectronic properties of the films was investigated with the aim of achieving a low-cost absorber material with suitable properties to replace the conventional silicon in solar cells. The results showed a change in the preferential orientation from (100) to (111) planes when argon was introduced in the sputtering process. Additionally, no structural changes were observed in the films deposited in a pure nitrogen environment. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy measurements confirmed the presence of Cu–N bonds, regardless of the gas environment used, and XPS indicated that the material was mainly N-rich. Finally, optical properties such as band gap energy and refractive index were assessed to establish the capability of this material as a solar absorber. The direct and indirect band gap energies were evaluated and found to be in the range of 1.70–1.90 eV and 1.05−1.65 eV, respectively, highlighting a slight blue shift when the films were deposited in the mixed gaseous environment as the total pressure increased

Eosinophilic esophagitis, celiac disease, and immunoglobulin E–mediated allergy in a 2-year-old child

This communication was presented at XXVI National Congress of SEAIC, Spanish Society of Allergology and Clinical Immunology, Bilbao, Spain, 2008Celiac disease, eosinophilic esophagitis, and urticaria are 3 manifestations of food allergy with different pathogenic mechanisms. We report the case of a 2-year-old child with digestive symptoms, slow growth, and severe asthma. The results of skin prick tests were positive to several foods. Endoscopy revealed eosinophilic esophagitis and celiac disease. Treatment consisted of a gluten-free diet and a 1-month course of oral corticosteroids. Endoscopy and biopsy fi ndings were normal at 5 years of age. A gluten-free diet is the basis of treatment of celiac disease, but the role of an elimination diet in eosinophilic esophagitis is not well established. Our patient also developed urticaria when exposed to milk and egg. We present, to our knowledge, the fi rst report of a patient with celiac disease, eosinophilic esophagitis, and immediate-type immunoglobulin E–mediated food allergyEnfermedad celíaca, esofagitis eosinofílica y urticaria son tres manifestaciones clínicas de alergia a alimentos con diferente etiopatogénesis. Describimos el caso de una niña de 2 años de edad con síntomas digestivos, retraso del desarrollo póndero-estatural y asma persistente. Las pruebas cutáneas fueron positivas a varios alimentos. La endoscopia digestiva y biopsias mostraron signos de esofagitis eosinofílica y enfermedad celíaca. Realizó dieta exenta de gluten y de los alimentos a los que estaba sensibilizada y siguió tratamiento con corticoides orales un mes. A los 5 años de edad, la endoscopia digestiva alta y biopsias esofágicas fueron normales. Una dieta exenta de gluten es la base del tratamiento de la enfermedad celiaca. Sin embargo, el papel de las dietas de eliminación en la esofagitis eosinofílica no ha sido totalmente establecido. La paciente desarrolló además urticaria tras contacto con leche y huevo. Presentamos el primer caso de enfermedad celiaca, esofagitis eosinofi lica y alergia alimentaria mediada por IgE en el mismo pacient

Accurate long-term air temperature prediction with Machine Learning models and data reduction techniques

In this paper, three customised Artificial Intelligence (AI) frameworks, considering Deep Learning, Machine Learning (ML) algorithms and data reduction techniques, are proposed for a problem of long-term summer air temperature prediction. Specifically, the prediction of the average air temperature in the first and second August fortnights, using input data from previous months, at two different locations (Paris, France) and (Córdoba, Spain), is considered. The target variable, mainly in the first August fortnight, can contain signals of extreme events such as heatwaves, like the heatwave of 2003, which affected France and the Iberian Peninsula. Three different computational frameworks for air temperature prediction are proposed: a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), with video-to-image translation, several ML approaches including Lasso regression, Decision Trees and Random Forest, and finally a CNN with pre-processing step using Recurrence Plots, which convert time series into images. Using these frameworks, a very good prediction skill has been obtained in both Paris and Córdoba regions, showing that the proposed approaches can be an excellent option for seasonal climate prediction problems.This research has been partially supported by the European Union, through H2020 Project “CLIMATE INTELLIGENCE Extreme events detection, attribution and adaptation design using machine learning (CLINT)”, Ref: 101003876-CLINT. This research has also been partially supported by the project PID2020-115454GB-C21 of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN)

Conservación refrigerada de rúcula con películas plásticas : Influencia en la senescencia y capacidad antioxidante

El objetivo de este trabajo fue determinar el efecto de tres películas plásticas comerciales en algunos parámetros relacionados con la capacidad antioxidante y senescencia de rúcula cortada mínimamente procesada. Se trabajó con hojas de rúcula cortadas en tiras de 1 cm e higienizadas con agua clorada, las que se acondicionaron en bandejas plásticas y recubrieron con las siguientes películas plásticas: Policloruro de polivinilo (PVC), Polietileno de baja densidad de 30 μm de espesor (PEBD30) y Polipropileno (PP). Como control se recubrió con PEBD30 perforado. Las bandejas se almacenaron a 6ºC durante 15 días y periódicamente se extrajeron muestras para evaluar los siguientes parámetros: composición gaseosa de las bandejas, características organolépticas (apariencia, marchitamiento y pérdida de color característico), color (L*, a* y b*), acido ascórbico, fenoles totales, clorofila, carotenoides totales y poder antioxidante. El acido ascórbico disminuyó significativamente durante el almacenamiento, al igual que el contenido de fenoles y poder antioxidante. El film que permitió conservar mejor el color y la calidad global del producto al cabo de los 15 días fue el PP, no encontrándose diferencias significativas, en estos parámetros, con los otros films a tiempos de conservación inferiores a los 10 días.Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de Alimento

Maximum Entropy Limit of Small-scale Magnetic Field Fluctuations in the Quiet Sun

The observed magnetic field on the solar surface is characterized by a very complex spatial and temporal behavior. Although feature-tracking algorithms have allowed us to deepen our understanding of this behavior, subjectivity plays an important role in the identification and tracking of such features. In this paper, we continue studies Gorobets, A. Y., Borrero, J. M., & Berdyugina, S. 2016, ApJL, 825, L18 of the temporal stochasticity of the magnetic field on the solar surface without relying either on the concept of magnetic features or on subjective assumptions about their identification and interaction. We propose a data analysis method to quantify fluctuations of the line-of-sight magnetic field by means of reducing the temporal field's evolution to the regular Markov process. We build a representative model of fluctuations converging to the unique stationary (equilibrium) distribution in the long time limit with maximum entropy. We obtained different rates of convergence to the equilibrium at fixed noise cutoff for two sets of data. This indicates a strong influence of the data spatial resolution and mixing-polarity fluctuations on the relaxation process. The analysis is applied to observations of magnetic fields of the relatively quiet areas around an active region carried out during the second flight of the Sunrise/IMaX and quiet Sun areas at the disk center from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory satellite.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series (accepted

Estudio cristalográfico de los cálculos urinarios de cistina

Presentamos las características más importantes de la cistina para su reconocimiento en la litiasis urinaria, mediante las siguientes técnicas rutinarias de análisis de cálculos: Estudio Macroscópico, Análisis Óptico Diferencial, Lámina Delgada, Difracción de Rayos-X y Espectroscopía Infrarroja

Moving Magnetic Features around a Pore

Spectropolarimetric observations from Sunrise II/IMaX obtained in June 2013 are used for a statistical analysis to determine the physical properties of moving magnetic features (MMFs) observed near a pore. MMFs of the same and opposite polarity with respect to the pore are found to stream from its border at an average speed of 1.3 km s$^{-1}$ and 1.2 km s$^{-1}$ respectively, with mainly same-polarity MMFs found further away from the pore. MMFs of both polarities are found to harbor rather weak, inclined magnetic fields. Opposite-polarity MMFs are blue-shifted, while same-polarity MMFs do not show any preference for up- or downflows. Most of the MMFs are found to be of sub-arcsecond size and carry a mean flux of $\sim$ 1.2$\times 10^{17}$ Mx.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ