Col·leccions singulars a les biblioteques de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Les biblioteques de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona són, com la mateixa institució, entitats amb una història curta; però, malgrat que van començar la seva activitat fa menys de cinquanta anys, els seus fons han assolit una importància considerable i superen en quantitat els de moltes universitats centenàries del nostre context. Les col·leccions de fons antics de les biblioteques de la UAB són, per aquesta mateixa raó, limitades, si bé se n'han anat creant algunes d'especialitzades d'importància i valor singulars. Aquest llibre pretén donar-les a conèixer al món universitari, però també al públic en general. Moltes són col·leccions úniques, fruit del treball persistent del personal bibliotecari, del professorat i de la generositat de moltes persones particulars, que han donat o llegat a la nostra universitat els seus arxius, les seves biblioteques personals o les seves col·leccions especialitzades. Aquestes col·leccions comprenen molts àmbits de les ciències i de les humanitats i, molt sovint, es tracta de col·leccions úniques al nostre país. Hi trobareu també un ampli ventall de tipologies documentals en llengües diverses, des dels mapes fins als audiovisuals, des de les revistes i diaris fins als cartells, des dels fons antics fins als més actuals, arxius personals i fons institucionals. Les biblioteques de la Universitat, a més d'inventariar i catalogar aquests fons documentals, també porten a terme una tasca constant de preservació i difusió, que sovint inclou la digitalització dels documents, que després es posen a l'abast del públic general mitjançant el dipòsit digital institucional (ddd.uab.cat)

Genetic Structure of the Spanish Population

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Genetic admixture is a common caveat for genetic association analysis. Therefore, it is important to characterize the genetic structure of the population under study to control for this kind of potential bias.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this study we have sampled over 800 unrelated individuals from the population of Spain, and have genotyped them with a genome-wide coverage. We have carried out linkage disequilibrium, haplotype, population structure and copy-number variation (CNV) analyses, and have compared these estimates of the Spanish population with existing data from similar efforts.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In general, the Spanish population is similar to the Western and Northern Europeans, but has a more diverse haplotypic structure. Moreover, the Spanish population is also largely homogeneous within itself, although patterns of micro-structure may be able to predict locations of origin from distant regions. Finally, we also present the first characterization of a CNV map of the Spanish population. These results and original data are made available to the scientific community.</p

Impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular testing in the United States versus the rest of the world

Objectives: This study sought to quantify and compare the decline in volumes of cardiovascular procedures between the United States and non-US institutions during the early phase of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the care of many non-COVID-19 illnesses. Reductions in diagnostic cardiovascular testing around the world have led to concerns over the implications of reduced testing for cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Methods: Data were submitted to the INCAPS-COVID (International Atomic Energy Agency Non-Invasive Cardiology Protocols Study of COVID-19), a multinational registry comprising 909 institutions in 108 countries (including 155 facilities in 40 U.S. states), assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volumes of diagnostic cardiovascular procedures. Data were obtained for April 2020 and compared with volumes of baseline procedures from March 2019. We compared laboratory characteristics, practices, and procedure volumes between U.S. and non-U.S. facilities and between U.S. geographic regions and identified factors associated with volume reduction in the United States. Results: Reductions in the volumes of procedures in the United States were similar to those in non-U.S. facilities (68% vs. 63%, respectively; p = 0.237), although U.S. facilities reported greater reductions in invasive coronary angiography (69% vs. 53%, respectively; p < 0.001). Significantly more U.S. facilities reported increased use of telehealth and patient screening measures than non-U.S. facilities, such as temperature checks, symptom screenings, and COVID-19 testing. Reductions in volumes of procedures differed between U.S. regions, with larger declines observed in the Northeast (76%) and Midwest (74%) than in the South (62%) and West (44%). Prevalence of COVID-19, staff redeployments, outpatient centers, and urban centers were associated with greater reductions in volume in U.S. facilities in a multivariable analysis. Conclusions: We observed marked reductions in U.S. cardiovascular testing in the early phase of the pandemic and significant variability between U.S. regions. The association between reductions of volumes and COVID-19 prevalence in the United States highlighted the need for proactive efforts to maintain access to cardiovascular testing in areas most affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 infection

In silico and in vitro analysis of boAP3d1 protein interaction with bovine leukaemia virus gp51

The envelope glycoprotein 51 (gp51) is essential for bovine leukaemia virus (BLV) entry to bovine B-lymphocytes. Although the bovine adaptor protein 3 complex subunit delta-1 (boAP3D1) has been proposed as the potential receptor, the specific ligand-receptor interaction has not yet been completely defined and boAP3D1 receptor and gp51 3D structures have not been determined. This study was thus aimed at a functional annotation of boAP3D1 cellular adaptor protein and BLV gp51 and, proposing a reliable model for gp51-AP3D1 interaction using bioinformatics tools. The boAP3D1 receptor interaction patterns were calculated based on models of boAP3D1 receptor and gp51 complexes’ 3D structures, which were constructed using homology techniques and data-driven docking strategy. The results showed that the participation of 6 key amino acids (aa) on gp51 (Asn170, Trp127, His115, Ala97, Ser98 and Glu128) and 4 aa on AP3D1 (Lys925, Asp807, Asp695 and Arg800) was highly probable in the interaction between gp51 and BLVR domains. Three gp51 recombinant peptides were expressed and purified to validate these results: the complete domain (rgp51), the N-terminal portion (rNgp51) and the C-terminal fragment (rCgp51); and binding assays to Madin-Darby bovine kidney (MDBK) cells were then carried out with each recombinant. It was found that rNgp51 preferentially bound to MDBK cells, suggesting this domain’s functional role during invasion. The rNgp51-MDBK cell interaction was sensitive to trypsin (98% reduction) and chymotrypsin treatment (80% reduction). These results highlighted that the N-terminal portion of gp51 interacted in vitro with the AP3D1 receptor and provides a plausible in silico interaction model. © 2018 Corredor et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Drug survival of systemic and biological treatments for moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis in adults: a multicentre retrospective observational study

Drug survival is a real-life reflection of drug per-formance in routine medical practice and measures thepatient’s persistence under a given treatment. Survival of sys-temic treatment of atopic dermatitis (AD) in routine clinicalpractice has been evaluated in previous analyses.1–3Recently,dupilumab, a fully human monoclonal antibody that targetsthe interleukin-4 receptor a, has been approved for the treat-ment of moderate-to-severe AD. Although its efficacy andeffectiveness have been reported in previous clinical trials4andreal-world evidence publications,5,6the drug survival analysesof dupilumab have, to date, been limite

Development and validation of a questionnaire to measure empowerment in adult patients with atopic dermatitis. The DATEMP questionnaire

[Background and objectives] In recent years, the hypothesis that increasing the empowerment of patients can help to improve health outcomes and rationalize the use of health services has become relevant, especially for chronic diseases. Developing validated measurement tools is necessary to achieve this goal. In the field of dermatology, there are few studies related to empowerment of the patient. The aim of the present research is to develop and validate a self‐administered questionnaire for adult patients diagnosed with atopic dermatitis (AD) in order to measure their level of empowerment.[Methods] After a literature review and the establishment of consulting groups of patients and dermatologists, a large battery of 35 items was generated, based on the dimensions included in previous empowerment descriptions. A multidisciplinary group selected the 20 most suitable items to include in the questionnaire. A cross‐sectional study was carried out with the items included in the questionnaire as well as demographic and clinical characteristics. To reduce the number of items and measure the construct validity, an exploratory factorial analysis (EFA) of the primary components and varimax rotation were used. Cronbach's α was used to measure the reliability of the individual scales and the global questionnaire.[Results] 242 valid questionnaires were included. After completion of the EFA, the final Dermatitis Atópica EMPoderamiento (DATEMP) questionnaire was composed of 17 items that converged on four factors. The four scales had adequate reliability: “Knowledge” (Cronbach's alpha = 0.808), “Abilities” (Cronbach's alpha = 0.744), “Intention to change” (Cronbach's alpha = 0.798) and “Coping skills” (Cronbach's alpha = 0.772). The overall Cronbach's α of the questionnaire was 0.764.[Conclusions] The DATEMP questionnaire is the first specific empowerment measurement instrument developed for patients with AD that has demonstrated adequate levels of reliability and construct validity. It is a self‐administered questionnaire that is simple and quick to answer.Peer reviewe

Revisión de las últimas novedades en el manejo del paciente con urticaria crónica: Consenso multidisciplinar de la comunidad autónoma de Andalucía

[EN]: Chronic urticaria is a difficult-to-treat skin disorder that has a major impact on patient quality of life. The latest update of the European guideline on the management of urticaria was published in 2018. In this consensus statement, produced in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain, we describe a multidisciplinary approach for applying the new treatment algorithm proposed by the European guideline in our region.[ES]: La urticaria crónica es una enfermedad de la piel difícil de tratar que presenta un alto impacto negativo en la calidad de vida de los pacientes. La última actualización de la guía europea para el manejo del paciente con urticaria se publicó en 2018. Con el actual contexto, presentamos un enfoque multidisciplinar para la aplicación del nuevo algoritmo de tratamiento propuesto por la guía en el territorio español, más concretamente, en la comunidad autónoma de Andalucía