This work examines 2486 cooperative arrangement announcements signed by firms that quote in the Spanish stock market during the period 1990-2002. To investigate, its more prominent characteristics are analyzed: sector of activity of the signatory companies; if the agreement is going to carry out in Spain or abroad; number of partners (and their nationality); governmental participation; value chain area in which the agreement is developed; their vertical, competitive or complementary character; alliance typology; legal implementation and if notification to the National Commission of the Stock Market exists. This way, an extensive vision of the reality of the alliances established by the most prominent companies of the Spanish panorama is offered.
11 páginas, 5 figuras, 3 tablas. ; Trophic ecology has beneWtted from the use of stable isotopes for the last three decades. However, during the last 10 years, there has been a growing awareness of the isotopic biases associated with some pre-analytical procedures that can seriously hamper the interpretation of food webs. We have assessed the extent of such biases by: (1) reviewing the literature on the topic, and (2) compiling C and N isotopic values of marine invertebrates reported in the literature with the associated sample preparation protocols. The factors considered were: acid-washing, distilled water rinsing (DWR), sample type (whole individuals or pieces of soft tissues), lipid content, and gut contents. Twolevel ANOVA revealed overall large and highly signiWcant eVects of acidiWcation for both 13 C values (up to 0.9‰ decrease) and 15 N values (up to 2.1‰ decrease in whole individual samples, and up to 1.1‰ increase in tissue samples). DWR showed a weak overall eVect with 13 C increments of 0.6‰ (for the entire data set) or decrements of 0.7‰ in 15 N values (for tissue samples). Gut contents showed no overall signiWcant eVect, whereas lipid extraction resulted in the greatest biases in both isotopic signatures ( 13 C, up to ¡2.0‰ in whole individuals; 15 N, up to +4.3‰ in tissue samples). The study analyzed separately the eVects of the various factors in diVerent taxonomic groups and revealed a very high diversity in the extent and direction of the eVects. Maxillopoda, Gastropoda, and Polychaeta were the classes that showed the largest isotopic shifts associated with sample preparation. Guidelines for the standardization of sample preparation protocols for isotopic analysis are proposed both for large and small marine invertebrates. Broadly, these guidelines recommend: (1) avoiding both acid washing and DWR, and (2) performing lipid extraction and gut evacuation in most cases. ; This study has been Wnanced by the European Union project WADI (INCO: CE reference 015226) and by the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones CientíWcas (CEAB-CSIC). This work complies with the current laws of Spain. ; Peer reviewed
In: Ecotoxicology and environmental safety: EES ; official journal of the International Society of Ecotoxicology and Environmental safety, Band 64, Heft 2, S. 122-127
Proceeding of: 29th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. EMBS 2007, Lyon, France, 22-26 August, 2007. ; Advances in Information and Communication Technologies, ICT, are bringing new opportunities and use cases in the field of systems and Personal Health Devices used for the telemonitoring of citizens in Home or Mobile scenarios. At a time of such challenges, this review arises from the need to identify robust technical telemonitoring solutions that are both open and interoperable. These systems demand standardized solutions to be cost effective and to take advantage of standardized operation and interoperability. Thus, the fundamental challenge is to design plug-&-play devices that, either as individual elements or as components, can be incorporated in a simple way into different Telecare systems, perhaps configuring a personal user network. Moreover, there is an increasing market pressure from companies not traditionally involved in medical markets, asking for a standard for Personal Health Devices, which foresee a vast demand for telemonitoring, wellness, Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) and ehealth applications. However, the newly emerging situations imply very strict requirements for the protocols involved in the communication. The ISO/IEEE 11073 family of standards is adapting and moving in order to face the challenge and might appear the best positioned international standards to reach this goal. This work presents an updated survey of these standards, trying to track the changes that are being fulfilled, and tries to serve as a starting-point for those who want to familiarize themselves with them. ; This research work has been partially supported by projects TSI2005-07068-C02-01 and TSI2004-04940-C02-01 from Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (Spanish Government), and a personal grant to M. Galarraga from Navarre Regional Government.
Proceeding of: European Medical and Biological Engineering and IFMBE Conference (EMBEC 2005). November 20-25, 2005. Prague, Czech Republic. ; This paper reviews the use of ISO11073/ IEEE1073 international standard in patient telemonitoring. The purpose of this family of standards is to allow interoperability between medical instrumentation devices and medical information systems. Its application in the field of telemonitoring can encourage telemedicine services and e-care, preventing failures and problems that are making difficult its spread (use problems, high costs of reconfigurations and actualizations). An application guide for the system engineer that want to apply them is proposed, showing the steps to follow, the benefits and handicaps in the standard implementation for different telemonitoring scenarios. The study also includes the conformity levels that have to be fulfilled, the main application points of the standard. ; This work was supported by projects G03/117 from Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias (Spanish Government) and 41/2003 from Departamento de Salud (Navarra Regional Government), and a personal grant to Miguel Galarraga from Departamento de Salud (Navarra Regional Government). ; No publicado
Molecular epidemiological studies revealed that the epicenter of the HIV pandemic was Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in Central Africa. All known subtypes and numerous complex recombinant strains co-circulate in the DRC. Moreover, high intra-subtype diversity has been also documented. During two previous surveys on HIV-1 antiretroviral drug resistance in the DRC, we identified two divergent subtype C lineages in the protease and partial reverse transcriptase gene regions. We sequenced eight near full-length genomes and classified them using bootscanning and likelihood-based phylogenetic analyses. Four strains are more closely related to subtype C although within the range of inter sub-subtype distances. However, these strains also have small unclassified fragments and thus were named CRF92_C2U. Another strain is a unique recombinant of CRF92_C2U with an additional small unclassified fragment and a small divergent subtype A fragment. The three remaining strains represent a complex mosaic named CRF93_cpx. CRF93_cpx have two fragments of divergent subtype C sequences, which are not conventional subtype C nor the above described C2, and multiple divergent subtype A-like fragments. We then inferred the time-scaled evolutionary history of subtype C following a Bayesian approach and a partitioned analysis using major genomic regions. CRF92_C2U and CRF93_cpx had the most recent common ancestor with conventional subtype C around 1932 and 1928, respectively. A Bayesian demographic reconstruction corroborated that the subtype C transition to a faster phase of exponential growth occurred during the 1950s. Our analysis showed considerable differences between the newly discovered early-divergent strains and the conventional subtype C and therefore suggested that this virus has been diverging in humans for several decades before the HIV/M diversity boom in the 1950s.
There are very limited data on the impact of ART initiation on inflammatory and coagulation biomarkers compared to patients who remain ART naïve [1]. We designed a prospective comparative study to evaluate these changes. Prospective observational cohort study of HIV‐infected patients who start ART and a group of age‐matched controls who remain ART‐naïve. Blood levels of insulin, fibrinogen, D‐dimer, high‐sensitivity PCR, inflammatory (IL‐1β, IL‐6, MCP‐1 and sCD40) and anti‐inflammatory cytokines (IL‐4), were compared at baseline, 24 weeks and 48 weeks. Summary of results: 94 patients included (57 treated, 37 controls). Baseline characteristics were balanced except for (treated/controls): median [IQR], HIV duration (0.9 [0.4–2.4] / 2.7 [0.6–5.5]) years, CD4 nadir (262 [198–317] / 452 [367–553]) cells/µl, viral load (4.4 [4–5.1] / 3.8 [3.1–4.4]) log cop/ml, current CD4 count (283 [213–323] / 525 [449–669]) cells/µl, HDL cholesterol (38 [29–45] / 41 [36–50]) mg/dl and female gender (8.8%/35%). There were no differences between groups in baseline biomarkers levels except that those starting ART had lower median [IQR] IL‐1β (4.1 [3.5–4.7] vs. 4.6 [3.7–6.8] pg/ml; p= 0.019) and lower IL–6 levels (4 [3.4–4.6] vs. 5.2 [4.2–6.6] pg/ml; p< 0.001). No significant correlation was found between biomarkers and baseline viral load. 91% of treated patients achieved viral suppression (<50 c/ml). There were statistically significant differences between groups at week 48 with lower (mean [95% CI]) D‐dimer (−138.2 [−268.0, −8.4] mg/L; p=0.001), IL‐1β (−0.6 [−0.9, −0.4] pg/ml; p<0.001) and higher IL‐4 (0.6 [0.2, 0.9] pg/ml; p=0.004) in those starting ART. In the ART‐naïve group there were significant increases of IL‐1β (1.3 [0.9, 1.6] pg/ml; p<0.001), sCD40 (22.7 [0.8, 44.6] AU; p=0.043), IL‐6 (0.5 [0.0, 0.9] pg/ml; p= 0.049) and a significant decrease of IL‐4 (−0.7 [−1.1, −0.3] pg/ml; p=0.001) levels. After 48 weeks of ART there were statistically significant decreases in pro‐inflammatory and coagulation markers (Figure 1) while levels of anti‐inflammatory cytokines (e.g. IL‐4) were significantly increased. Opposite trends were found in controls.In conclusion, compared to untreated controls, 48 weeks of effective ART significantly reduces pro‐inflammatory (IL‐1β, IL‐6), coagulation (fibrinogen, D‐dimer), and metabolic (insulin) markers and increases levels of an anti‐inflammatory cytokines like IL‐4.Median percentage changes in bio markers from baseline to week 48.image
Within search-on-speech, Spoken Term Detection (STD) aims to retrieve data from a speech repository given a textual representation of a search term. This paper presents an international open evaluation for search-on-speech based on STD in Spanish and an analysis of the results. The evaluation has been designed carefully so that several analyses of the main results can be carried out. The evaluation consists in retrieving the speech files that contain the search terms, providing their start and end times, and a score value that reflects the confidence given to the detection. Two different Spanish speech databases have been employed in the evaluation: MAVIR database, which comprises a set of talks from workshops, and EPIC database, which comprises a set of European Parliament sessions in Spanish. We present the evaluation itself, both databases, the evaluation metric, the systems submitted to the evaluation, the results, and a detailed discussion. Five different research groups took part in the evaluation, and ten different systems were submitted in total. We compare the systems submitted to the evaluation and make a deep analysis based on some search term properties (term length, within-vocabulary/out-of-vocabulary terms, single-word/multi-word terms, and native (Spanish)/foreign terms).
A proof-of-concept design of a patient monitoring solution for intensive care unit environments has been presented. It is end-to-end standard-based, using ISO/IEEE 11073 (X73) in the bedside environment and EN13606 to communicate the information to an electronic healthcare record (EHR) server. At the bedside end, the system is a plug-and-play sensor network communicating with a gateway that collects medical information and sends the data to a monitoring server. The monitoring server transforms this information into an EN13606 extract to be stored on the EHR server. The system has been implemented to comply with the last X73 and EN13606 available versions and tested in a laboratory environment to demonstrate the feasibility of an end-to-end standard-based solution. ; This research work has been financially supported in part by projects PI05-0847, PI05-1416 and G03/117 from Fondo de investigaciones Sanitarias, Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo (Spanish Government); TSI2005-07068-C02-01 and TSI2004-04940-C02-01 from Ministerio de Educatio´n y Ciencia (Spanish Government), and a personal grant to Miguel Galarraga from Departmento de Salud (Navarra Regional Government).
Proceeding of: 29th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS), Cité Internationale, Lyon, France, August 23-26, 2007. ; This paper presents a proof-of-concept design of a patient monitoring solution for Intensive Care Unit (ICU). It is end-to-end standards-based, using ISO/IEEE 11073 (X73) in the bedside environment and EN13606 to communicate the information to an Electronic Healthcare Record (EHR) server. At the bedside end a plug-and-play sensor network is implemented, which communicates with a gateway that collects the medical information and sends it to a monitoring server. At this point the server transforms the data frame into an EN13606 extract, to be stored on the EHR server. The presented system has been tested in a laboratory environment to demonstrate the feasibility of this end-to-end standardsbased solution. ; This research work has been partially supported by projects TSI2005-07068-C02-01 and TSI2004-04940-C02-01 from Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (Spanish Government), and a personal grant to both M.Galarraga and M. Martínez-Espronceda from Navarre Regional Government.
Proceeding of: 29th Annual International Conference of IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, (EMBS 2007), Lyon, France, 23-26th august 2007. ; Remote patient monitoring in e-Health is everyday closer to be a mature technology / service. However, there is still a lack of development in areas such as standardization of the sensor's communication interface, integration into Electronic Healthcare Record systems or incorporation in ambient-intelligent scenarios. This work identifies a set of use cases involved in the personal monitoring scenario and highlights the related features and functionalities, as well as the integration and implementation difficulties found when these are to be implemented in a system based on the ISO/IEEE11073 (X73) standard. It is part of a cooperative research effort devoted to the development of an end-to-end standards-based telemonitoring solution. Standardization committees are working towards adapting the X73 standard to this emerging personal health devices market and use case identification is essential to direct these revisions. ; This research work has been partially supported by projects TSI2005-07068-C02-01 and TSI2004-04940-C02-01 from Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (Spanish Government), and a personal grant to both M.Galarraga and M. Martinez-Espronceda from Navarre Regional Government
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted routine hospital services globally. This study estimated the total number of adult elective operations that would be cancelled worldwide during the 12 weeks of peak disruption due to COVID-19. Methods: A global expert response study was conducted to elicit projections for the proportion of elective surgery that would be cancelled or postponed during the 12 weeks of peak disruption. A Bayesian β-regression model was used to estimate 12-week cancellation rates for 190 countries. Elective surgical case-mix data, stratified by specialty and indication (surgery for cancer versus benign disease), were determined. This case mix was applied to country-level surgical volumes. The 12-week cancellation rates were then applied to these figures to calculate the total number of cancelled operations. Results: The best estimate was that 28 404 603 operations would be cancelled or postponed during the peak 12 weeks of disruption due to COVID-19 (2 367 050 operations per week). Most would be operations for benign disease (90·2 per cent, 25 638 922 of 28 404 603). The overall 12-week cancellation rate would be 72·3 per cent. Globally, 81·7 per cent of operations for benign conditions (25 638 922 of 31 378 062), 37·7 per cent of cancer operations (2 324 070 of 6 162 311) and 25·4 per cent of elective caesarean sections (441 611 of 1 735 483) would be cancelled or postponed. If countries increased their normal surgical volume by 20 per cent after the pandemic, it would take a median of 45 weeks to clear the backlog of operations resulting from COVID-19 disruption. Conclusion: A very large number of operations will be cancelled or postponed owing to disruption caused by COVID-19. Governments should mitigate against this major burden on patients by developing recovery plans and implementing strategies to restore surgical activity safely.