EVALUACIÓN DE LAS COMPETENCIAS COGNITIVAS Y SOCIALES DE NIÑOS QUE HAN ESTADO EN SITUACIÓN DE CALLE

The following study is an exploratory approach to the population of street children of Montevideo. It involves 27 children of both sexes between 7 and 13 years. Sociodemographic variables were considered and it was evaluated the neuropsychological development, including the use of oral language, the relationship with the writing code, logical-mathematical reasoning skills, cognitive functioning and exploring some psychopathological indicators. The results show that this is a population with high levels of weaknesses and vulnerabilities, and a significant presence of behavioral disorders. In the cognitive aspect, there is some level of effectiveness in the implementation of intellectual nonverbal operations. In the verbal tasks, significant deficits for the low overall development of language were found. This would have a negative impact on school integration as well as on the capacity for self-regulation of behavior.En el siguiente estudio se busca una aproximación exploratoria a la población de los niños y niñas en situación de calle de Montevideo. Se trabajo con 27 niños de ambos sexos de entre 7 y 13 años. Se consideraron las variables sociodemográficas y se evaluó el desarrollo neuropsicológico, incluyendo la utilización del lenguaje oral, la relación con el código escrito, las habilidades de razonamiento lógico-matemático, el funcionamiento cognitivo general y la exploración de algunos indicadores psicopatológicos. Los resultados muestran que se trata de una población con un alto nivel de carencias y vulnerabilidades, y una importante presencia de trastornos comportamentales. En el aspecto cognitivo, se encuentra algún nivel de efectividad en la ejecución intelectual de operaciones no verbales. En las  tareas verbales, se comprobaría un déficit significativo por el escaso desarrollo general del lenguaje. Esto tendría consecuencias negativas en la inserción escolar así como en la capacidad de auto-regulación del comportamiento

A protein functionalization platform based on selective reactions at methionine residues.

Nature has a remarkable ability to carry out site-selective post-translational modification of proteins, therefore enabling a marked increase in their functional diversity1. Inspired by this, chemical tools have been developed for the synthetic manipulation of protein structure and function, and have become essential to the continued advancement of chemical biology, molecular biology and medicine. However, the number of chemical transformations that are suitable for effective protein functionalization is limited, because the stringent demands inherent to biological systems preclude the applicability of many potential processes2. These chemical transformations often need to be selective at a single site on a protein, proceed with very fast reaction rates, operate under biologically ambient conditions and should provide homogeneous products with near-perfect conversion2-7. Although many bioconjugation methods exist at cysteine, lysine and tyrosine, a method targeting a less-explored amino acid would considerably expand the protein functionalization toolbox. Here we report the development of a multifaceted approach to protein functionalization based on chemoselective labelling at methionine residues. By exploiting the electrophilic reactivity of a bespoke hypervalent iodine reagent, the S-Me group in the side chain of methionine can be targeted. The bioconjugation reaction is fast, selective, operates at low-micromolar concentrations and is complementary to existing bioconjugation strategies. Moreover, it produces a protein conjugate that is itself a high-energy intermediate with reactive properties and can serve as a platform for the development of secondary, visible-light-mediated bioorthogonal protein functionalization processes. The merger of these approaches provides a versatile platform for the development of distinct transformations that deliver information-rich protein conjugates directly from the native biomacromolecules

Cannabis use in male and female first episode of non-affective psychosis patients: Long-term clinical, neuropsychological and functional differences

BACKGROUND: Numerous studies show the existence of a high prevalence of cannabis use among patients with psychosis. However, the differences between men and women who debut with a first episode of psychosis (FEP) regarding cannabis use have not been largely explored. The aim of this study was to identify the specific sex factors and differences in clinical evolution associated with cannabis use. METHOD: Sociodemographic characteristics at baseline were considered in our sample of FEP patients to find differences depending on sex and the use of cannabis. Clinical, functional and neurocognitive variables at baseline, 1-year, and 3-years follow-up were also explored. RESULTS: A total of 549 patients, of whom 43% (N = 236) were cannabis users, 79% (N = 186) male and 21% (N = 50) female, were included in the study. There was a clear relationship between being male and being a user of cannabis (OR = 5.6). Cannabis users were younger at illness onset. Longitudinal analysis showed that women significantly improved in all three dimensions of psychotic symptoms, both in the subgroup of cannabis users and in the non-users subgroup. Conversely, subgroups of men did not show improvement in the negative dimension. In cognitive function, only men presented a significant time by group interaction in processing speed, showing a greater improvement in the subgroup of cannabis users. CONCLUSION: Despite knowing that there is a relationship between cannabis use and psychosis, due to the high prevalence of cannabis use among male FEP patients, the results showed that there were very few differences in clinical and neurocognitive outcomes between men and women who used cannabis at the start of treatment compared to those who did not

Evaluation of appendicitis risk prediction models in adults with suspected appendicitis

Background Appendicitis is the most common general surgical emergency worldwide, but its diagnosis remains challenging. The aim of this study was to determine whether existing risk prediction models can reliably identify patients presenting to hospital in the UK with acute right iliac fossa (RIF) pain who are at low risk of appendicitis. Methods A systematic search was completed to identify all existing appendicitis risk prediction models. Models were validated using UK data from an international prospective cohort study that captured consecutive patients aged 16–45 years presenting to hospital with acute RIF in March to June 2017. The main outcome was best achievable model specificity (proportion of patients who did not have appendicitis correctly classified as low risk) whilst maintaining a failure rate below 5 per cent (proportion of patients identified as low risk who actually had appendicitis). Results Some 5345 patients across 154 UK hospitals were identified, of which two‐thirds (3613 of 5345, 67·6 per cent) were women. Women were more than twice as likely to undergo surgery with removal of a histologically normal appendix (272 of 964, 28·2 per cent) than men (120 of 993, 12·1 per cent) (relative risk 2·33, 95 per cent c.i. 1·92 to 2·84; P < 0·001). Of 15 validated risk prediction models, the Adult Appendicitis Score performed best (cut‐off score 8 or less, specificity 63·1 per cent, failure rate 3·7 per cent). The Appendicitis Inflammatory Response Score performed best for men (cut‐off score 2 or less, specificity 24·7 per cent, failure rate 2·4 per cent). Conclusion Women in the UK had a disproportionate risk of admission without surgical intervention and had high rates of normal appendicectomy. Risk prediction models to support shared decision‐making by identifying adults in the UK at low risk of appendicitis were identified

Empirical force field of tribromoethyl molecules

The force field of the tribromoethyl group CCBr3 was investigated from recent spectroscopic data on four molecules in which it is contained: the aldehyde bromal (HOCCBr3), the acid (HOOCCBr3), the alcohol (H2OHCCBr3) and the amide (NH2OCCBr3). Ab initio calculations were performed to obtain the equilibrium structure of these molecules, and an initial value of their corresponding force fields. A procedure was developed to combine all available data in a joint refinement of a choice of common force constants. Keeping fixed the best estimates values of these common force constants, the force field of the functional groups of each individual molecule were also obtained.© 2013 Elsevier B.Vsupport from the Spanish DGICYT, project PB93-0138.Peer Reviewe