Una Nueva Política De Recursos Humanos En I+D: El Programa Ramón y Cajal

Publicado en: Economía Industrial, 343 (1): 149-160, 2000Peer reviewe

Una Nueva Política De Recursos Humanos En I+D: El Programa Ramón y Cajal

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Determinación de mecanismos de deslizamientosa en áreas urbanizadas de la Sierra de las Apretaderas, término de Alcuzcuz, Benahavís, Málaga

La naturaleza intrínseca del material mantiene una estrecha relación con el tipo de inestabilidad. El trabajo recoge la experiencia en la determinación de mecanismo de deslizamientos en el área de la Sierra de Las Apretaderas, término de Alcuzcuz, en Benahavís, Málaga. La intensa urbanización de amplias áreas serranas conlleva la transformación del medio a través de la construcción de infraestructuras de comunicación y extensas áreas residenciales y la interacción de dichas construcciones con el medio provoca a menudo el desencadenamiento de siniestros relacionados con los deslizamientos de ladera en ocasiones poco sospechosos. El trabajo que se presenta recoge la experiencia de un siniestro acaecido bajo estas circunstancias y provocando numerosos daños materiales en edificaciones de lujo e infraestructuras anejas

Malaria Prevention with IPTp during Pregnancy Reduces Neonatal Mortality

In the global context of a reduction of under-five mortality, neonatal mortality is an increasingly relevant component of this mortality. Malaria in pregnancy may affect neonatal survival, though no strong evidence exists to support this association.In the context of a randomised, placebo-controlled trial of intermittent preventive treatment (IPTp) with sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) in 1030 Mozambican pregnant women, 997 newborns were followed up until 12 months of age. There were 500 live borns to women who received placebo and 497 to those who received SP.There were 58 infant deaths; 60.4% occurred in children born to women who received placebo and 39.6% to women who received IPTp (p = 0.136). There were 25 neonatal deaths; 72% occurred in the placebo group and 28% in the IPTp group (p = 0.041). Of the 20 deaths that occurred in the first week of life, 75% were babies born to women in the placebo group and 25% to those in the IPTp group (p = 0.039). IPTp reduced neonatal mortality by 61.3% (95% CI 7.4%, 83.8%); p = 0.024].Malaria prevention with SP in pregnancy can reduce neonatal mortality. Mechanisms associated with increased malaria infection at the end of pregnancy may explain the excess mortality in the malaria less protected group. Alternatively, SP may have reduced the risk of neonatal infections. These findings are of relevance to promote the implementation of IPTp with SP, and provide insights into the understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms through which maternal malaria affects fetal and neonatal health.ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00209781

Performance evaluation for 68Ga and 18F of the ARGUS small-animal PET scanner based on the NEMA NU-4 standard

Proceeding of: 2010 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium, Medical Imaging Conference and 17th Room Temperature Semiconductor Detector Workshop (IEEE), Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, October 30 - November 6, 201068Ga is one of the non-conventional nuclides that are being used in preclinical imaging. One disadvantage of 68Ga versus 18F is its larger positron range, which deteriorates the effective spatial resolution and the overall image quality. In this work we present a performance evaluation of the ARGUS smallanimal positron emission tomography (PET) scanner for two positron emitters, 68Ga and 18F. These experiments followed the procedure based on the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) NU 4-2008 standard. We show how the use of 68Ga may affect the NEMA performance of the system in terms of image quality and spatial resolution. The recovery coefficients (RC) measured in the image-quality phantom ranged from 0.17 to 0.72 for 68Ga and from 0.28 to 0.92 for 18F, using iterative image reconstruction methods and applying all corrections. Under the same conditions the image noise (%STD) in a uniform region was 17.0% for 68Ga and 15.1% for 18F. The respective spillover ratios (SOR) were 0.13 and 0.09 in air, and 0.21 and 0.12 in water. Attenuation correction yielded an improvement of the SOR close to 50% for both radionuclides in the air-filled region. This work evaluates the image reconstruction methods and corrections available in the ARGUS PET for 68Ga and 18F to assess the influence of their physical properties on the NEMA parameters.Publicad

Clinical malaria in African pregnant women

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There is a widespread notion, based on limited information, that in areas of stable malaria transmission most pregnant women with <it>Plasmodium falciparum </it>infection are asymptomatic. This study aim to characterize the clinical presentation of malaria in African pregnant women and to evaluate the adequacy of case management based on clinical complaints.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A hospital-based descriptive study between August 2003 and November 2005 was conducted at the maternity clinic of a rural hospital in Mozambique. All women attending the maternity clinic were invited to participate. A total of 2,330 women made 3,437 eligible visits, 3129 were analysed, the remainder were excluded because diagnostic results were unavailable or they were repeat visits. Women gave a standardized clinical history and had a medical exam. Malaria parasitaemia and haematocrit in capillary blood was determined for all women with signs or symptoms compatible with malaria including: presence and history of fever, arthromyalgias, headache, history of convulsions and pallor. Outcome measure was association of malaria symptoms or signs with positive blood slide for malaria parasitaemia.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In 77.4% of visits pregnant women had symptoms suggestive of malaria; 23% (708/3129) were in the first trimester. Malaria parasitaemia was confirmed in 26.9% (842/3129) of visits. Headache, arthromyalgias and history of fever were the most common symptoms (86.5%, 74.8% and 65.4%) presented, but their positive predictive values for malaria parasitaemia were low [28% (27–30), 29% (28–31), and 33% (31–35), respectively].</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Symptoms suggestive of malaria were very frequent among pregnant women attending a rural maternity clinic in an area of stable malaria transmission. However, less than a third of them were parasitaemic. In the absence of microscopy or rapid diagnostic tests, a large proportion of women, including those in the first trimester of gestation, would be unnecessarily receiving antimalarial drugs, often those with unknown safety profiles for pregnancy. Accessibility to malaria diagnostic tools needs to be improved for pregnant women and drugs with a safety profile in all gestational ages are urgently needed.</p

Volume and bond length dependences of the electronic structure of 6-fold and 8-fold coordinated Co2+ in pressure transformed CoF2

This work reports an optical absorption study on CoF2 under high-pressure conditions in the 0-80 GPa range. A recent structural study1 performed on the pressure-induced phase-transition sequence of CoF2 reveals that this compound undergoes a structural transformation associated with a change of Co2+ coordination from 6 (rutile type) to 8 (fluorite type) at 15 GPa, what implies a profound change in the Co2+ electronic ground state associated with the inversion of d orbitals from (t 2g 5 e g2) to (e g 4 t 2g 3). This allows us to explore the Co2+ electronic structure, and hence 10Dq, as a function of the density and the Co-F bond length in both CoF6 (rutile phase) and CoF8 (fluorite phase) coordinations. The results are compared with those obtained in KCoF3 (perovskite) in a wide range of Co-F distances (from 2.04 to 1.83 Å).Financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Project No. MAT2015-69508-P) and MALTA INGENIO-CONSOLIDER 2010 (Ref. No. CDS2007-0045) is acknowledged. The ALS is supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences of the US Department of Energy, under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231

Impact of Maternal Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection on Birth Outcomes and Infant Survival in Rural Mozambique

Sub-Saharan Africa harbors more than two-thirds of the world’s 33.2 million persons infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and 80% of the world’s HIV-infected women. In parts of southern Africa, more than 30% of pregnant women attending antenatal clinics are infected with HIV, thus making HIV infection one of the most common complications of pregnancy in sub-Saharan Africa. With successful interventions, mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV has been reduced to less than 2% in developed countries. However, in untreated populations, MTCT of HIV during pregnancy, delivery, and breastfeeding still occurs at an approximate overall rate of 25–40%, and accounts for almost 420,000 new HIV infections in children and 270,000–320,000 pediatric deaths annually. Until 2004, single-dose intrapartum and neonatal nevirapine (sd-NVP) was the recommended regimen by the World Health Organization to prevent MTCT of HIV among women without access to antiretroviral therapy. Preventive MTCT programs with an sd-NVP have been shown to decrease perinatal HIV transmission to 8% in controlled clinical trial settings. However, there is great concern about the rapid development of resistance. In addition, in predominantly breastfeeding populations of sub- Saharan Africa, most MTCT of HIV still occurs during the postnatal period. Currently, MTCT prevention programs in sub-Saharan African countries include zidovudine and lamivudine during the final weeks of pregnancy and sd-NVP at delivery. In addition, the newborn receives sd-NVP at birth and zidovudine for seven days. Nevertheless, effectiveness of these strategies relies on the great challenge of availability of the drugs and compliance with them, given that these preventive regimens are prolonged and unsupervised. Several studies from the Africa have reported that HIVinfected pregnant women are at increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes such as spontaneous abortion, stillbirths, and preterm labor. However, this analysis is complicated by many factors associated with HIV infection and poor pregnancy outcomes such as malnutrition, anemia, and other frequent infections such as syphilis or malaria. These factors may contribute to the observation that the association between HIV infection and adverse pregnancy outcomes is stronger in women from developing countries. Maternal HIV infection has also been associated with an increased risk of infant death. It is well documented that up to 35% of HIV-infected infants may die before the first year of age, but HIV-negative children born to HIV-infected mothers are also at high risk of mortality. There have been few studies characterizing the impact of HIV infection during pregnancy on the mother and her infant and even fewer from rural African settings. The main aim of this study was to assess the impact of HIV infection on birth outcomes and infant survival in a rural area of southern Mozambique. Furthermore, the study also evaluated the effect of unsupervised sd-NVP administration for prevention of MTCT of HIV on HIV RNA viral load at delivery and the prevalence of NVP resistance mutations

Unmasking the hidden tuberculosis mortality burden in a large postmortem study in Maputo Central Hospital, Mozambique

Sensitive tools are needed to accurately establish the diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) at death, especially in low-income countries. The objective of this study was to evaluate the burden of TB in a series of patients who died in a tertiary referral hospital in sub-Saharan Africa using an in-house real time PCR (TB-PCR) and the Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra (Xpert Ultra) assay.Complete diagnostic autopsies were performed in a series of 223 deaths (56.5% being HIV-positive), including 54 children, 57 maternal deaths and 112 other adults occurring at the Maputo Central Hospital, Mozambique. TB-PCR was performed in all lung, cerebrospinal fluid and central nervous system samples in HIV-positive patients. All samples positive for TB-PCR or showing histological findings suggestive of TB were analysed with the Xpert Ultra assay.TB was identified as the cause of death in 31 patients: 3/54 (6%) children, 5/57 (9%) maternal deaths and 23/112 (21%) other adults. The sensitivity of the main clinical diagnosis to detect TB as the cause of death was 19.4% (95% CI: 7.5-37.5) and the specificity was 97.4% (94.0-99.1) compared to autopsy findings. Concomitant TB (TB disease in a patient dying of other causes) was found in 31 additional cases. Xpert Ultra helped to identify 15 cases of concomitant TB. In 18 patients, " - " DNA was identified by TB-PCR and Xpert Ultra in the absence of histological TB lesions. Overall, 62 cases (27.8%) had TB disease at death and 80 (35.9%) had TB findings.The use of highly sensitive, easy to perform molecular tests in complete diagnostic autopsies may contribute to identifying TB cases at death that would have otherwise been missed. Routine use of these tools in certain diagnostic algorithms for hospitalised patients needs to be considered. Clinical diagnosis showed poor sensitivity for the diagnosis of TB at death