Lesiones premalignas y malignas en cirugía menor de un centro de salud. Las apariencias engañan

ObjetivoDescribir las características de las lesiones malignas y premalignas detectadas en las intervenciones de cirugía menor realizadas en un centro de saludDiseñoEstudio descriptivo retrospectivoParticipantesSe analizaron 682 lesiones correspondientes a todas las lesiones extirpadas remitidas a anatomía patológica, exceptuando los quistes epidérmicos y triquilemales, lipomas, molluscum, verrugas vulgares y uñasEmplazamientoCentro de Salud Rochapea (Pamplona)Mediciones principalesAnalizamos los diagnósticos anatomopatológicos y la distribución por sexos, grupos de edad, localización, técnica y afección de bordes en 27 lesiones displásicas y 11 lesiones malignasResultadosEncontramos una mayor frecuencia de lesiones malignas y premalignas en mujeres, entre 15 y 44 años de edad para las displasias y entre 45 y 64 años para las malignas. La localización más frecuente fue la espalda, y la técnica más empleada la escisión fusiforme. Con esta técnica encontramos el mayor porcentaje de bordes sin lesión en las displasias. Las lesiones que tenían afectados los bordes corresponden a muestras de punch y escisión circular. Ninguna de las lesiones malignas presentaba afección de bordesConclusionesLa mayor parte de las lesions malignas no se sospechan, aparecen en muestras que se remiten con un diagnóstico de benignidad. El empleo de ciertas técnicas como la escisión fusiforme en las lesiones en que existe una potencial malignidad, aunque en principio parezcan benignas, nos permite una extirpación con bordes libresObjectiveTo describe the characteristics of the malignant and pre-malignant lesions found in the minor surgical interventions performed at a health centreDesignRetrospective, descriptive studyParticipants682 lesions: all the lesions extirpated and referred to pathology except for epidermal and trichilemmal cysts, lipomas, molluscum, common warts, and nailsSettingRochapea Health Centre, PamplonaMain measurementsWe analysed the anatomical-pathological results and the distribution by sex, age-group, location, technique and edges affected in 27 dysplasias and 11 malignant lesionsResultsWe found that malignant and premalignant lesions were more common in women, aged 15 to 44 for dysplasias and 45- 64 for malignant lesions. The most common location was on the back; the most frequent technique, fusiform excision. This technique had the highest percentage of edges without lesion in dysplasias. The lesions whose edges were affected corresponded to punch and circular excision samples. None of the malignant lesions had their edges affectedConclusionsMost malignant lesions are not suspected. They appear in samples referred with a diagnosis of benign. Employment of techniques such as fusiform excision in lesions which are potentially malign, even though in principle they seem benign, enables them to be extirpated with free edge

Liposome formation with wool lipid extracts rich in ceramides

Internal wool lipids (IWLs) are rich in cholesterol, free fatty acids, cholesteryl sulfate, and, mainly, ceramides. The repairing effect of these lipids structured as liposomes was demonstrated by reinforcing the skin-barrier integrity and increasing the water-holding capacity when applied onto the skin. This work was focused on the formation of liposomes with IWLs rich in ceramides, obtained at pilot plant level with organic solvent extraction by using methanol and acetone. The lipid composition of the two extracts was quantitatively analyzed. IWL extracts containing different amounts of sterol sulfate were used to form liposomes at physiologic pH. Vesicle size distribution, polydispersity index, and zeta potential of all liposomes were determined to characterize them and to study their stability. The results obtained showed that IWL extract composition, which was different depending on the extraction methodologies used, greatly influences the characteristics of the liposomes formed. Vesicular size and polydispersity index liposomes were smaller when the extract composition contained a higher proportion of either free fatty acids or sterol sulfate. Moreover, liposome stability was improved when some amount of sterol sulfate was added to the composition of methanol and acetone extracts. This natural mixture with keratinaceous origin could have a special interest for cosmetic or dermopharmaceutical companies.We acknowledge Mr. G. von Knorring for his expert technical assistance. We are also indebted to the DGICYT Program (PPQ 2002-94136-C02-01 and C02-02) for financial support

Aggregation methods in dynamical systems and applications in population and community dynamics

Approximate aggregation techniques allow one to transform a complex system involving many coupled variables into a simpler reduced model with a lesser number of global variables in such a way that the dynamics of the former can be approximated by that of the latter. In ecology, as a paradigmatic example, we are faced with modelling complex systems involving many variables corresponding to various interacting organization levels. This review is devoted to approximate aggregation methods that are based on the existence of different time scales, which is the case in many real systems as ecological ones where the different organization levels (individual, population, community and ecosystem) possess a different characteristic time scale. Two main goals of variables aggregation are dealt with in this work. The first one is to reduce the dimension of the mathematical model to be handled analytically and the second one is to understand how different organization levels interact and which properties of a given level emerge at other levels. The review is organized in three sections devoted to aggregation methods associated to different mathematical formalisms: ordinary differential equations, infinite-dimensional evolution equations and difference equations

Discrete Models of Disease and Competition

The aim of this work is to analyze the influence of the fast development of a disease on competition dynamics. To this end we present two discrete time ecoepidemic models. The first one corresponds to the case of one parasite affecting demography and intraspecific competition in a single host, whereas the second one contemplates the more complex case of competition between two different species, one of which is infected by the parasite. We carry out a complete mathematical analysis of the asymptotic behavior of the solutions of the corresponding systems of difference equations and derive interesting ecological information about the influence of a disease in competition dynamics. This includes an assessment of the impact of the disease on the equilibrium population of both species as well as some counterintuitive behaviors in which although we would expect the outbreak of the disease to negatively affect the infected species, the contrary happens

Vector Bin Packing with Multiple-Choice

We consider a variant of bin packing called multiple-choice vector bin packing. In this problem we are given a set of items, where each item can be selected in one of several $D$-dimensional incarnations. We are also given $T$ bin types, each with its own cost and $D$-dimensional size. Our goal is to pack the items in a set of bins of minimum overall cost. The problem is motivated by scheduling in networks with guaranteed quality of service (QoS), but due to its general formulation it has many other applications as well. We present an approximation algorithm that is guaranteed to produce a solution whose cost is about $\ln D$ times the optimum. For the running time to be polynomial we require $D=O(1)$ and $T=O(\log n)$. This extends previous results for vector bin packing, in which each item has a single incarnation and there is only one bin type. To obtain our result we also present a PTAS for the multiple-choice version of multidimensional knapsack, where we are given only one bin and the goal is to pack a maximum weight set of (incarnations of) items in that bin

Global Production Increased by Spatial Heterogeneity in a Population Dynamics Model

Spatial and temporal heterogeneity are often described as important factors having a strong impact on biodiversity. The effect of heterogeneity is in most cases analyzed by the response of biotic interactions such as competition of predation. It may also modify intrinsic population properties such as growth rate. Most of the studies are theoretic since it is often difficult to manipulate spatial heterogeneity in practice. Despite the large number of studies dealing with this topics, it is still difficult to understand how the heterogeneity affects populations dynamics. On the basis of a very simple model, this paper aims to explicitly provide a simple mechanism which can explain why spatial heterogeneity may be a favorable factor for production.We consider a two patch model and a logistic growth is assumed on each patch. A general condition on the migration rates and the local subpopulation growth rates is provided under which the total carrying capacity is higher than the sum of the local carrying capacities, which is not intuitive. As we illustrate, this result is robust under stochastic perturbations

A High-Throughput Screening Plattform of Microbial Natural Products for the Discovery of Moleculaes with Antibiofilm Properties against Salmonella

In this report, we describe a High-Throughput Screening (HTS) to identify compounds that inhibit biofilm formation or cause the disintegration of an already formed biofilm using the Salmonella Enteritidis 3934 strain. Initially, we developed a new methodology for growing Salmonella biofilms suitable for HTS platforms. The biomass associated with biofilm at the solid-liquid interface was quantified by staining both with resazurin and crystal violet, to detect living cells and total biofilm mass, respectively. For a pilot project, a subset of 1120 extracts from the Fundación MEDINA's collection was examined to identify molecules with antibiofilm activity. This is the first validated HTS assay of microbial natural product extracts which allows for the detection of four types of activities which are not mutually exclusive: inhibition of biofilm formation, detachment of the preformed biofilm and antimicrobial activity against planktonic cells or biofilm embedded cells. Currently, several extracts have been selected for further fractionation and purification of the active compounds. In one of the natural extracts patulin has been identified as a potent molecule with antimicrobial activity against both, planktonic cells and cells within the biofilm. These findings provide a proof of concept that the developed HTS can lead to the discovery of new natural compounds with antibiofilm activity against Salmonella and its possible use as an alternative to antimicrobial therapies and traditional disinfectants

Brain-Wide Maps of Synaptic Input to Cortical Interneurons

Cortical inhibition is mediated by diverse inhibitory neuron types that can each play distinct roles in information processing by virtue of differences in their input sources, intrinsic properties, and innervation targets. Previous studies in brain slices have demonstrated considerable cell-type specificity in laminar sources of local inputs. In contrast, little is known about possible differences in distant inputs to different cortical interneuron types. We used the monosynaptic rabies virus system, in conjunction with mice expressing Cre recombinase in either parvalbumin-positive, somatostatin-positive (SST+), or vasoactive intestinal peptide-positive (VIP+) neurons, to map the brain-wide input to the three major nonoverlapping classes of interneurons in mouse somatosensory cortex. We discovered that all three classes of interneurons received considerable input from known cortical and thalamic input sources, as well as from probable cholinergic cells in the basal nucleus of Meynert. Despite their common input sources, these classes differed in the proportion of long-distance cortical inputs originating from deep versus superficial layers. Similar to their laminar differences in local input, VIP+ neurons received inputs predominantly from deep layers while SST+ neurons received mostly superficial inputs. These classes also differed in the amount of input they received. Cortical and thalamic inputs were greatest onto VIP+ interneurons and smallest onto SST+ neurons. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: These results indicate that all three major interneuron classes in the barrel cortex integrate both feedforward and feedback information from throughout the brain to modulate the activity of the local cortical circuit. However, differences in laminar sources and magnitude of distant cortical input suggest differential contributions from cortical areas. More input to vasoactive intestinal peptide-positive (VIP+) neurons than to somatostatin-positive (SST+) neurons suggests that disinhibition of the cortex via VIP+ cells, which inhibit SST+ cells, might be a general feature of long-distance corticocortical and thalamocortical circuits

Effectiveness of a cardiovascular risk management program in the reduction of premature mortality associated to cardiovascular events in the Caribbean region of Colombia

Objectives: To establish the effectiveness of a cardiovascular risk management program [“De Todo Corazon (DTC)” program in Mutual SER-EPS] in the reduction of premature mortality associated to cardiovascular events (CVE) (male , 55 years, female , 60 years). Methods: The population eligible for the study were patients over 18 years of age affiliated to Mutual SER insurance company between June 2015 and June 2018 and residents of the Caribbean region of Colombia, enrolled or not to DTC program in which a cardiovascular event (CVE) occurred. The main outcomes considered were age of occurrence of cardiovascular events (AOCVE), age at death due to CVE (ADCVE) and years life lost (YLL). For the evaluation of the effectiveness, differences in AOCVO, ADCVO and the YPLL between the patients enrolled and nonenrolled in the DTC program were estimated using a Simple Linear Regression model. Results: A total of 3.902 CVE occurred in the study period among both groups. The enrolled patients had an average of AOCVE of 4.96 years (95% CI 3.85-6.06) higher than in non-enrolled patients. The ADCVE average was 4.64 years (95% CI 1.47 - 7.81) higher in the enrolled patients compared with the non-enrolled patients. Patients enrolled in the DTC program had on average -3.54 (95% CI -5.62 - -1.46) YLL compared to the non-enrolled patients. Conclusions: The DTC program in Mutual SER-EPS was effective to delay the AOCVE, ADCVE and YPLL. DTC program is an effective strategy to reduce the incidence and premature mortality due to CVE in the Caribbean region of Colombia