Miguel Garcia

Phylogeography of New World isolates of Anaplasma marginale based on major surface protein sequences

Gene and protein sequences of major surface proteins (MSP) 1a and 4 of Anaplasma marginale (Rickettsiales: Anaplasmataceae) were used to infer phylogenetic relationships between New World isolates from Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and the United States. Seventeen isolates of A. marginale plus two outgroup taxa (A. centrale and A. ovis) were used for maximum-parsimony analysis of MSP4, while 20 isolates were used for phylogenetic analysis of MSP1a. msp4 analysis provided strong bootstrap support for a Latin American clade and, within this clade, support was detected for Mexican and South American clades. Isolates of A. marginale from the United States also grouped into two clades from the southern (isolates from Florida, Mississippi, and Virginia) and west-central (isolates from California, Idaho, Illinois, Oklahoma, and Texas) states. Although little phylogeographic resolution was detected within these higher clades, msp4 sequences appear to be a good genetic marker for inferring phylogeographic patterns of A. marginale isolates. In contrast to the phylogeographic resolution provided by msp4, MSP1a DNA and protein sequence were quite variable and did not provide phylogeographic resolution. Most variation in MSP1a sequences appeared unique to a given isolate and similar DNA sequence variation in msp1alpha was detected within isolates from Idaho and Florida and from Idaho and Argentina. The results of these studies demonstrated that msp4 provided phylogenetic information on the evolution of A. marginale isolates. In contrast MSP1a sequences appeared to be rapidly evolving and these sequences may provide phylogeographic information only when numerous isolate MSP1a sequences are analyzed from a geographic area.

Matrix metalloproteinase‐1 and its inhibitor, TIMP‐1, in systolic heart failure: relation to functional data and prognosis

Background.  Structural remodelling of left ventricle is a common feature in the progression of congestive heart failure (CHF). Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) have been directly implicated as they degrade extracellular proteins. To test the hypothesis that MMP‐and its inhibitor, tissue type inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinases (TIMP‐1), could be related to functional status and prognosis in CHF, we examined the relationship of MMP‐1 and TIMP‐1 to peak oxygen consumption (VO2) and peak minute ventilation/carbon dioxide production relationship (VE/VCO2), and assessed their prognostic value.

Including both static and dynamic typing in the same programming language

Dynamic languages are becoming increasingly popular for different software development scenarios such as Web engineering, rapid prototyping or the construction of applications that require runtime adaptiveness. These languages are built on the idea of supporting reasoning about (and customising) program structure, behaviour and environment at runtime. The dynamism offered by dynamic languages is, however, counteracted by two main limitations: no early type error detection and fewer opportunities for compiler optimisations. To obtain the benefits of both dynamically and statically typed languages, the authors have designed the StaDyn programming language that provides both approaches. StaDyn keeps gathering-type information at compile time, even when dynamic variables are used. This type information is used to offer early type error detection, direct interoperation between static and dynamic codes and better runtime performance. Following the Separation of Concerns principle, it is possible to customise the trade-off between runtime flexibility of dynamic typing and safety, performance and robustness of static typing. A runtime performance assessment is presented to show an estimate of the benefits of combining dynamic and static typing in the same programming language.

Union and intersection types to support both dynamic and static typing

Although static typing provides undeniable benefits for the development of applications, dynamically typed languages have become increasingly popular for specific scenarios. Since each approach offers different benefits, the StaDyn programming language has been designed to support both dynamic and static typing. This paper describes the minimal core of the StaDyn programming language. Its type system performs type reconstruction over both dynamic and static implicitly typed references. A new interpretation of union and intersection types allows statically gathering the type information of dynamic references, which improves runtime performance and robustness. The evaluation of the generated code has shown how our approach offers an important runtime performance benefit.

Light scatter characteristics of blast cells in acute myeloid leukaemia: association with morphology and immunophenotype.

AIMS--To analyse the forward scatter/side scatter (FSC/SSC) distribution of acute myeloblastic leukaemia (AML) blast cells in order to assess whether it correlates with their morphology, immunophenotype, and clinical and biological disease characteristics. METHODS--FSC/SSC patterns were established upon taking into account the localisation of the residual T lymphocytes in the FSC/SSC dot plot as an internal biological standard. One hundred and seventy one newly diagnosed AML patients were analysed and five different FSC/SSC patterns were established. These five patterns could be grouped into two major categories taking into account the FSC/SSC distribution of normal cells in a bone marrow aspirate: immature patterns (1 and 2) and mature patterns (3, 4, and 5). These FSC/SSC patterns were correlated with different clinical and biological characteristics of AML patients. RESULTS--No significant associations were detected in relation to the clinical and haematological disease characteristics and the prognosis of these patients. By contrast there was a significant correlation between the FSC/SSC pattern of the AML blast cells and the FAB classification. An increased reactivity for the antigens associated with myeloid differentiation such as CD13, CD33, CD11b, CD15, CD14, CD4, CD56, and/or CD16 was detected among cases showing a mature FSC/SSC pattern (3, 4, and 5), both in the whole series and even within each of the FAB AML subtypes. By contrast, the reactivity for the CD34 precursor cell associated antigen was higher among those cases displaying an immature FSC/SSC pattern, this being observed even within each FAB subgroup. CONCLUSIONS--The FSC/SSC pattern distribution of AML blast cells not only provides an additional objective and reproductible system for the classification of these leukaemias but it may also represent a connection between the FAB morphological groups and the immunophenotypic classification of AML patients.

Applying dynamic separation of aspects to distributed systems security: A case study

Distributed systems are commonly required to be flexible and scalable, as the number and arrangement of their (potentially mobile) devices may easily change. Security in distributed systems is a complex issue which can produce several problems such as eavesdropping, phishing or denial of service. To overcome these problems, there are various security measures that can be applied. This study proposes the use of dynamic aspect-oriented software development (AOSD) to implement security mechanisms in distributed systems. By applying dynamic separation of concerns using AOSD, it becomes possible to adapt the security measures of distributed systems, even when their sizes and arrangements change, without compromising global security. These changes can be applied when a distributed system is running, without requiring its execution to be stopped or interrupted. Using the dynamic and static aspect weaving AOSD platform, the authors have implemented solutions for two common security problems in distributed systems: (i) access control and data flow and (ii) encryption of transmissions. Moreover, the proposed approach has been tested in a real client-server FTP scenario. Qualitative and quantitative evaluations of both implementations are presented to estimate the pros and cons of using dynamic AOSD in the development of security measures of distributed systems.

On-line Estimation of Fresh Milk Composition by means of VIS-NIR Spectrometry and Partial Least Squares Method (PLS)

Visible and near InfraRed (VIS-NIR) spectrometry from 400 to 1100 nm in addition to partial least squares (PLS) regression is a very interesting method to measure several important parameters of non-homogenised fresh milk such as fat, lactose and total protein content. These parameters can be used to analyze the nutritional properties of milk and, consequently they are very important to determine the economic value of produced milk. The potential of VIS-NIR spectrometry in a spectral region below 1100 nm has been studied in this paper due to working in this region, a low-cost system would be obtain. Several fresh milk samples taken during milking process were analyzed by means of standard measurement procedures and VIS-NIR spectrometry in order to verify the capabilities and precision of proposed method. As will be seen in next sections, this method is very interesting for fat content estimation, but it present some problems for total protein and lactose measurement, probably due to the low value of protein and lactose spans.

Angina en relación con 5-fluorouracilo

El tratamiento con 5-fluorouracilo en pacientes oncologicos es una practica habitual. Son conocidos sus efectos secundarios sobre la medula osea, la piel y las mucosas. Menos predecible es su cardiotoxicidad, que puede llegar a ser letal. Sus manifestaciones incluyen angina, arritmias, infarto, insuficiencia cardiaca y shock cardiogenico. Se ha especulado mucho sobre los mecanismos implicados en esta toxicidad, que aun no han sido definitivamente establecidos. Con los datos actuales, todo apunta a un efecto metabolico comun con el desencadenado en la isquemia cardiaca por enfermedad coronaria. Comentamos, a partir de un caso, la presentacion clinica habitual, el tratamiento y el pronostico. Finalmente, hacemos unas recomendaciones practicas para aplicar en los pacientes que vayan a seguir tratamiento con 5-fluorouracilo.

On the suitability of dynamic languages for hot‐reprogramming a robotics framework: a Python case study

The development of service robots has gained more attention over the last years. Advanced robots have to cope with many different situations emerging at runtime, while executing complex tasks. They should be programmed as dynamically adaptive systems, capable of adapting themselves to the execution environment, including the computing, user, and physical environment. Recently, dynamic languages are becoming widely used because of the high runtime adaptability they offer. Therefore, we have analyzed the suitability of these languages to implement robotic systems with high runtime adaptability requirements, using Python as case study because of its maturity. To evaluate their suitability, we have implemented a reflective robotics framework that can be programmed in both Java and any dynamic language supported by the standard Java Scripting API. An example scenario has been developed using Python to show how its distinguishing meta‐programming features have facilitated the development of runtime‐adaptable robotics services. Copyright

Achieving Multiple Dispatch in Hybrid Statically and Dynamically Typed Languages

Multiple dispatch is a feature provided by some programming languages, in which the actual method to be executed is dynamically determined by the runtime types of its arguments. Although some programming languages such as CLOS, Xtend and Dylan provide this feature, many widespread languages such as Java, C# and C++ only support single dispatch by means of dynamic binding. Therefore, different implementation techniques are commonly used to obtain multiple dispatch from within these single-dispatch languages. We propose a new approach to obtain multiple dispatch in single-dispatch hybrid static and dynamic typing languages. Using C# as an example, the proposed approach is compared with the existing ones, considering factors such as software maintainability and readability, code size, parameter generalization, compile-time type checking, and runtime performance. The example implementation of the hybrid statically and dynamically typed approach in .Net has shown a runtime performance 1.26 times lower than the statically typed approach, and 6.27 times higher than the dynamically type one.