Histopathological features of post-mortem pituitaries: A retrospective analysis

Objective: As a result of the use of neuroimaging techniques, silent pituitary lesions are diagnosed more and more frequently; however, there are few published post-mortem studies about this gland. Incidence data of pituitary lesions are rare and in Portugal they are outdated or even non-existent. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of normal patterns and incidental post-mortem pituitary pathology at Centro Hospitalar Lisboa Norte, analyzing the associations with clinical data and assessing the clinical relevance of the findings. Method: We reviewed retrospectively and histologically 167 pituitaries of a consecutive series of autopsies from the Department of Pathology of this centre. They were done between 2012 and 2014, and in all cases medical records were reviewed. The morphological patterns observed, were classified into three major groups: 1) Normal histological patterns and variants; 2) Infectious-inflammatory pathology, metabolic and vascular disorders; 3) Incidental primary proliferation and secondary to systemic diseases. Results: The subjects included in this study were of all age groups (from 1 day to 91 years old), 71 were female and 96 male. Fifty-seven of these glands didn't show any alteration; 51 showed colloid cysts arising from Rathke cleft; 44 presented hyperplasia in adenohypophysis and we identified 20 adenomas in 19 glands (immunohistochemically, eight PRL-producing and five ACTH-producing tumors), ten of which associated with obesity, 11 to hypertension and six to diabetes mellitus. There were two cases with metastasis. Conclusion: Subclinical pathology in our country is similar to that seen in other parts of the world, but at older ages

A computational approach to partial least squares model inversion in the framework of the process analytical technology and quality by design initiatives

In the context of the paradigms founding the Quality by Design and Process Analytical Technology initiatives, the work herein presents a computational approach to support the decision-making process, in particular, about the feasibility of a product defined for some a priori given quality characteristics. The approach is based on the computation of the pareto-optimal front when simultaneously minimizing the expected differences between the predicted and the desired characteristics. Thus, the feasibility is tackled as an optimization problem with the novelty of doing so simultaneously for all the characteristics, preserving the correlation structure, but by separately handling each individual characteristic. With data from a low-density polyethylene production process, with fourteen process variables and five measured characteristics of the final polyethylene, solutions are found to define the Design Space for targeted quality characteristics on the product, and without the need of explicitly inverting the PLS (Partial Least Squares) prediction model fitted to the process.Junta de Castilla y León (BU012P17), and also Spanish MINECO and Agencia Estatal de Investigación under research projects CTQ2014-53157-R, and CTQ2017-88894-

Simultaneous class-modelling in chemometrics: A generalization of Partial Least Squares class modelling for more than two classes by using error correcting output code matrices

The paper presents a new methodology within the framework of the so-called compliant class-models, PLS2-CM, designed with the purpose of improving the performance of class-modelling in a setting with more than two classes. The improvement in the class-models is achieved through the use of multi-response PLS models with the classes encoded via Error-Correcting Output Codes (ECOC), instead of the traditional class indicator variables used in chemometrics. The proposed PLS2-CM entails a decomposition of a class-modelling problem into a series of binary learners, based on a family of code matrices with different code length, which are evaluated to obtain simultaneous compliant class-models with the best performance. The methodology develops both a new encoding system, based on multi-criteria optimization to search for optimal coding matrices, and a new decoding system, based on probability thresholds to assign objects to classmodels. The whole procedure implies that the characteristics of the dataset at hand affect the final selection of the coding matrix and therefore of built class-models, thus giving rise to a data-driven strategy. The application of PLS2-CM to a variety of cases (controlled data, experimental data and repository datasets) results in an enhanced class-modelling performance by means of the suggested procedure, as measured by the DMCEN (Diagonal Modified Confusion Entropy) index and by sensitivity-specificity matrices. The predictive ability of the compliant class-models has been evaluated.This work is part of the project with reference BU052P20 financed by Junta de Castilla y Leon, Conserjería de Educacion with the aid of European Regional Development Funds

Impacto socio ambiental de la calidad del agua del río Portoviejo en el período 2014-2017

The present paper evaluates the environmental partner impacts negative caused by the pollution of the Portoviejo river water in the province of Manabí, Ecuador. Several studies developed on this problem indicate that the dumping of wastewater on its channel, the unplanned human settlements on its banks and the dumping of solid waste have caused the gradual deterioration of this important natural effluent. The results obtained show that having a poor quality water has high costs for the treatment of water used for human consumption, which is assumed by the population in the consumption payments for this service, to this is added the agricultural production in the area and the need to implement an environmental management plan for the collection and final disposal of solid waste generated by the population, as well as to evaluate the operation of the wastewater treatment plant of the city of Portoviejo.El presente trabajo evalúa los impactos socio ambientales negativos causados por la contaminación del agua del río Portoviejo en la provincia de Manabí, Ecuador. Varios estudios desarrollados sobre esta problemática indican que el vertimiento de aguas residuales sobre su cauce, los asentamientos humanos no planificados en sus riveras y el vertimiento de desechos sólidos, han provocado el deterioro paulatino de este importante efluente natural. Los resultados obtenidos demuestran que el tener un agua de mala calidad incide en elevados costos para el tratamiento del agua utilizada para consumo humano, el mismo que es asumido por la población en los pagos de consumo por este servicio, a esto se adiciona la no producción agrícola en la zona y la necesidad de poder implementar un plan de manejo ambiental para la recolección y disposición final de los desechos sólidos generados por la población, así como de evaluar el funcionamiento de la planta de tratamiento de aguas residuales de la ciudad de Portoviejo

Method operable design region obtained with a partial least squares model inversion in the determination of ten polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons by liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection

A chromatographic method with the Analytical Quality by Design (AQbD) methodology is developed for the simultaneous determination by HPLC-FLD of ten PAHs (naphthalene, phenanthrene, anthracene, flu- oranthene, pyrene, chrysene, benzo[a]anthracene, perylene, benzo[b]fluoranthene, and benzo[a]pyrene), widely spread in the environment. The construction of the Method Operable Design Region (MODR) is conducted, for the first time, via the inversion of a multiresponse Partial Least Squares (PLS2) model, which is needed to maintain the correlations among the Critical Method Parameters (CMP), among the Critical Quality Attributes (CQA), and the covariance between one another. The five CMP considered were the composition of the mobile phase (water, methanol, acetonitrile), flow rate, and column temperature. The eight CQA were linked to resolution between peaks recorded in the same emission wavelength (greater than 1.4) and the total time (less than 15 minutes). By systematic use of experimental design and parallel coordinates plots to explore the Pareto optimal front obtained with the PLS2 model inversion, the computed MODR is formed by convex combinations of eight specific settings of Critical Method Parameters that have a mobile phase with percentages of water between 37 and 38 %, of methanol from 13 and 22 %, and of acetonitrile between 41 and 49 %, together with a flow rate between 1.47 and 1.50 mL min −1 , and column temperature between 41.9 and 44.0 °C in their adequate combinations. All the chromatographic peaks are well resolved, with total time varying between 12.96 and 15.66 min inside the estimated MODR and the analytical method is accurate with CC βbetween 0.9 and 7.0 μg L −1 with probability of both false positive and false negative equal to 0.05.Research projects CTQ2017-88894-R and BU052P20, financed by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Inno- vación y Universidades (AEI/FEDER, UE) and Consejería de Edu- cación de la Junta de Castilla y León, both co-financed with Eu- ropean Development Funds. M.M. Arce wishes to thank Junta de Castilla y León for her postdoctoral contract through BU052P20 project

A new approach based on inversion of a partial least squares model searching for a preset analytical target profile. Application to the determination of five bisphenols by liquid chromatography with diode array detector

The paper shows a procedure for selecting the control method parameters (factors) to obtain a preset ‘analytical target profile’ when a liquid chromatographic technique is going to be carried out for the simultaneous determination of five bisphenols (bisphenol-A, bisphenol-S, bisphenol-F, bisphenol-Z and bisphenol-AF), some of them regulated by the European Union. The procedure has three steps. The first consists of building a D-optimal combined design (mixture-process design) for the control method parameters, which are the composition of the ternary mobile phase and its flow rate. The second step is to fit a PLS2 model to predict six analytical responses (namely, the resolution between each pair of consecutive peaks, and the initial and final chromatographic time) as a function of the control method parameters. The third final step is the inversion of the PLS2 model to obtain the conditions needed for attaining a preset analytical target profile. The computational inversion of the PLS2 prediction model looking for the Pareto front of these six responses provides a set of experimental conditions to conduct the chromatographic determination, specifically 22% of water, mixed with 58% methanol and 20% of acetonitrile, keeping the flow rate at 0.66 mL min−1. These conditions give a chromatogram with retention times of 2.180, 2.452, 2.764, 3.249 and 3.775 min for BPS, BPF, BPA, BPAF and BPZ, respectively, and excellent resolution among all the chromatographic peaks. Finally, the analytical method is validated under the selected experimental conditions, in terms of trueness and precision. In addition, the detection capability for the five bisphenols were: 596, 334, 424, 458 and 1156 μg L−1, with probabilities of false positive and of false negative equal to 0.05.Spanish MINECO (AEI/FEDER, UE) and Consejería de Educación de la JCyL through projects CTQ2017-88894-R and BU052P20, co-financed with European Regional Development Fund

Computación en la Nube, estudio de herramientas orientadas a la Industria 4.0

La computación en la nube ha transformado la forma en que muchas organizaciones gestionan sus actividades, lo que representa beneficios donde se incluyen: ahorro de costos, agilidad, eficiencia, consolidación de recursos y nuevas oportunidades de negocio; este artículo de revisión tiene como propósito identificar las herramientas en la nube existentes con potencial de uso para la digitalización industrial, como marco de referencia para un programa de investigación enfocado a la consecución de estrategias para el desarrollo de la industria 4.0 en las pequeñas y medianas empresas de Colombia; para cumplir este objetivo se efectúa un estudio del estado del arte de las herramientas y su campo de acción desde el año 2010 (año de aparición del concepto industria 4.0) hasta la fecha

Evaluation of Three Methods for CPR Training to Lifeguards: a Randomised Trial Using Traditional Procedures and New Technologies

[Abstract] Background and objectives: When the drowning timeline evolves and drowning occurs, the lifeguard tries to mitigate the event by applying the last link of the drowning survival chain with the aim of treating hypoxia. Quality CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) and the training of lifeguards are the fundamental axes of drowning survival. Mobile applications and other feedback methods have emerged as strong methods for the learning and training of basic CPR in the last years so, in this study, a randomised clinical trial has been carried out to compare the traditional method as the use of apps or manikins with a feedback system as a method of training to improve the quality of resuscitation. Materials and Methods: The traditional training (TT), mobile phone applications (AP) and feedback manikins (FT) are compared. The three cohorts were subsequently evaluated through a manikin providing feedback, and a data report on the quality of the manoeuvres was obtained. Results: Significant differences were found between the traditional manikin and the manikin with real-time feedback regarding the percentage of compressions with correct depth (30.8% (30.4) vs. 68.2% (32.6); p = 0.042). Hand positioning, percentage correct chest recoil and quality of compressions exceeded 70% of correct performance in all groups with better percentages in the FT (TT vs. FT; p < 0.05). Conclusions: As a conclusion, feedback manikins are better learning tools than traditional models and apps as regards training chest compression. Ventilation values are low in all groups, but improve with the feedback manikin

Evaluation of Three Methods for CPR Training to Lifeguards: A Randomised Trial Using Traditional Procedures and New Technologies

[EN] Background and objectives: When the drowning timeline evolves and drowning occurs, the lifeguard tries to mitigate the event by applying the last link of the drowning survival chain with the aim of treating hypoxia. Quality CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) and the training of lifeguards are the fundamental axes of drowning survival. Mobile applications and other feedback methods have emerged as strong methods for the learning and training of basic CPR in the last years so, in this study, a randomised clinical trial has been carried out to compare the traditional method as the use of apps or manikins with a feedback system as a method of training to improve the quality of resuscitation. Materials and Methods: The traditional training (TT), mobile phone applications (AP) and feedback manikins (FT) are compared. The three cohorts were subsequently evaluated through a manikin providing feedback, and a data report on the quality of the manoeuvres was obtained. Results: Significant differences were found between the traditional manikin and the manikin with real-time feedback regarding the percentage of compressions with correct depth (30.8% (30.4) vs. 68.2% (32.6); p = 0.042). Hand positioning, percentage correct chest recoil and quality of compressions exceeded 70% of correct performance in all groups with better percentages in the FT (TT vs. FT; p < 0.05). Conclusions: As a conclusion, feedback manikins are better learning tools than traditional models and apps as regards training chest compression. Ventilation values are low in all groups, but improve with the feedback manikin.S