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Interventional idlBNs in DAG-Space
(SpringerNature, 2025) Castelo Valdueza, Robert
Inclusion-driven structure learning of Bayesian networks, or idlBNs, converges to the generative structure as the sample size grows large and as long as that structure is an acyclic digraph (DAG) over the observed random variables. Because Markov equivalence of Bayesian networks organizes the search space of DAGs in equivalence classes, an obvious choice for such an approach is the greedy equivalence search (GES) algorithm, which carefully traverses the space of essential graphs, the canonical elements of those equivalence classes, following an inclusion path. GES is adapted to data produced by multiple intervention experiments in the greedy interventional equivalence search (GIES) algorithm. The algorithmic complexity of both GES and GIES is in the worst case exponential in the number of vertices, but it can be reduced to polynomial by bounding the vertex degree during the search, albeit at the cost of losing the large-sample optimality guarantee. Inclusion-driven structure learning can also be implemented in the search space of DAGs, as in the hill-climber Monte Carlo (HCMC) algorithm, whose stochastic nature confers the advantage of a polynomial-time bounded algorithmic complexity. Here, we introduce the interventional HCMC (iHCMC) algorithm, an inclusion-driven structure learning algorithm for interventional data in DAG-space. Using synthetic Gaussian data, we verify that iHCMC preserves the large-sample optimality for interventional data with polynomial-time complexity independent of the sparsity of the generative structure.
L’origine et l’évolution du langage
(De Gruyter, 2021) Steels, Luc
How can we explain the appearance, the evolution and the diversity of languages in human societies? To address these questions Luc Steels supports the hypothesis of an analogy between the mechanisms of language evolution and those of biological evolution: namely processes of replication / transmission, mutation and selection, to which are added prioritization processes at different levels of organization. After showing examples of the intervention of such processes in languages, Luc Steels explains the methods emerging from Artificial Intelligence and robotics which allow him to test his hypothesis through various experiments. In these experiments he first shows how Artificial Intelligences, interacting with one other, brings out a common vocabulary, and a common meaning given to each word of this vocabulary. And beyond that, still through such interactions, he shows how can emerge and why, there can also be emergence of elementary grammatical structures such as number or gender agreements or even more complex structures such as sentence nests. To conclude, he reasserts the idea that languages are permanently changing cultural systems, under the effect of dynamics of a nature similar to those at work in the evolution of species, while acknowledging that this idea is far from winning unanimous support.
Shaping the transcriptional landscape through MAPK signaling
(IntechOpen, 2019) Nadal Ribelles, Mariona, 1984-; Solé Serra, Carme; Martínez Cebrián, Gerard, 1992-; Posas Garriga, Francesc; Nadal Clanchet, Eulàlia de
A change in the transcriptional landscape is an equilibrium-breaking event important for many biological processes. Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathways are dedicated to sensing extracellular cues and are highly conserved across eukaryotes. Modulation of gene expression in response to the extracellular environment is one of the main mechanisms by which MAPK regulates proteome homeostasis to orchestrate adaptive responses that determine cell fate. A massive body of knowledge generated from population and single-cell analyses has led to an understanding of how MAPK pathways operate. MAPKs have thus emerged as fundamental transcriptome regulators that function through a multi-layered control of gene expression, a process often deregulated in disease, which therefore provides an attractive target for therapeutic strategies. Here, we summarize the current understanding of the mechanisms underlying MAPK-mediated gene expression in organisms ranging from yeast to mammals.
New insights on the evolution of genome content: population dynamics of transposable elements in flies and humans
(Springer, 2019) Guio, Lai; González, Josefa
Understanding the abundance, diversity, and distribution of TEs in genomes is crucial to understand genome structure, function, and evolution. Advances in whole-genome sequencing techniques, as well as in bioinformatics tools, have increased our ability to detect and analyze the transposable element content in genomes. In addition to reference genomes, we now have access to population datasets in which multiple individuals within a species are sequenced. In this chapter, we highlight the recent advances in the study of TE population dynamics focusing on fruit flies and humans, which represent two extremes in terms of TE abundance, diversity, and activity. We review the most recent methodological approaches applied to the study of TE dynamics as well as the new knowledge on host factors involved in the regulation of TE activity. In addition to transposition rates, we also focus on TE deletion rates and on the selective forces that affect the dynamics of TEs in genomes.
Students' perception about transversal skills in university studies
(Integration of Transversal Skills into Health and Social care, Higher Education and the Curriculum (ITSHEC), 2022) Carrió, Mar; Rosa, Nathália
Methods and tools for assessing transversal skills
(Integration of Transversal Skills into Health and Social care, Higher Education and the Curriculum (ITSHEC), 2022) Carrió, Mar
lncluding gender mainstreaming approach into the teaching-learning process
(Integration of Transversal Skills into Health and Social care, Higher Education and the Curriculum (ITSHEC), 2022) Benet, Marta; Valverde Alirangues, Belén
Cooperative learning strategies for developing transversal skills
(Integration of Transversal Skills into Health and Social care, Higher Education and the Curriculum (ITSHEC), 2022) Raatikainen, Eija; Rentala-Nenonen, Katriina
Virtual reality environments for developing transversal skills
(Integration of Transversal Skills into Health and Social care, Higher Education and the Curriculum (ITSHEC), 2022) Villarejo Muñoz, Luis
Gamification for developing transversal skills
(Integration of Transversal Skills into Health and Social care, Higher Education and the Curriculum (ITSHEC), 2022) Codina Rodríguez, Ana C.; Pérez Riart, María
Clinical simulation for developing transversal skills
(Integration of Transversal Skills into Health and Social care, Higher Education and the Curriculum (ITSHEC), 2022) Girvent, Meritxell; Larramona, Maria Pilar; Codina Rodríguez, Ana C.; Pérez Riart, María
Problem-based learning for developing transversal skills
(Integration of Transversal Skills into Health and Social care, Higher Education and the Curriculum (ITSHEC), 2022) Carrió, Mar
Pedagogical framework
(Integration of Transversal Skills into Health and Social care, Higher Education and the Curriculum (ITSHEC), 2022) Raatikainen, Eija; Rentala-Nenonen, Katriina
Learning strategies to promote transversal skills on health and social care studies: a methodological guide
(ITSHEC, 2022-10-20) Carrió, Mar; Rosa, Nathália
This Methodological Guide has been prepared to offer different strategies for the development of transversal skills (TS) of students (including critical and creative thinking, interpersonal/socioemotional and citizen-oriented skills, and learning to learn).
Quality of hospital electronic health record (EHR) data based on the international consortium for health outcomes measurement (ICHOM) in heart failure: pilot data quality assessment study
(JMIR Publications, 2021) Aerts, Hannelore; Kalra, Dipak; Sáez, Carlos; Ramírez Anguita, Juan Manuel; Mayer, Miguel Ángel, 1960-; García-Gómez, Juan M.; Durà-Hernández, Marta; Thienpont, Geert; Coorevits, Pascal
Background: There is increasing recognition that health care providers need to focus attention, and be judged against, the impact they have on the health outcomes experienced by patients. The measurement of health outcomes as a routine part of clinical documentation is probably the only scalable way of collecting outcomes evidence, since secondary data collection is expensive and error-prone. However, there is uncertainty about whether routinely collected clinical data within electronic health record (EHR) systems includes the data most relevant to measuring and comparing outcomes and if those items are collected to a good enough data quality to be relied upon for outcomes assessment, since several studies have pointed out significant issues regarding EHR data availability and quality. Objective: In this paper, we first describe a practical approach to data quality assessment of health outcomes, based on a literature review of existing frameworks for quality assessment of health data and multistakeholder consultation. Adopting this approach, we performed a pilot study on a subset of 21 International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM) outcomes data items from patients with congestive heart failure. Methods: All available registries compatible with the diagnosis of heart failure within an EHR data repository of a general hospital (142,345 visits and 12,503 patients) were extracted and mapped to the ICHOM format. We focused our pilot assessment on 5 commonly used data quality dimensions: completeness, correctness, consistency, uniqueness, and temporal stability. Results: We found high scores (>95%) for the consistency, completeness, and uniqueness dimensions. Temporal stability analyses showed some changes over time in the reported use of medication to treat heart failure, as well as in the recording of past medical conditions. Finally, the investigation of data correctness suggested several issues concerning the characterization of missing data values. Many of these issues appear to be introduced while mapping the IMASIS-2 relational database contents to the ICHOM format, as the latter requires a level of detail that is not explicitly available in the coded data of an EHR. Conclusions: Overall, results of this pilot study revealed good data quality for the subset of heart failure outcomes collected at the Hospital del Mar. Nevertheless, some important data errors were identified that were caused by fundamentally different data collection practices in routine clinical care versus research, for which the ICHOM standard set was originally developed. To truly examine to what extent hospitals today are able to routinely collect the evidence of their success in achieving good health outcomes, future research would benefit from performing more extensive data quality assessments, including all data items from the ICHOM standards set and across multiple hospitals.
RIBRON: el registro español informatizado de bronquiectasias. Caracterización de los primeros 1.912 pacientes
(Elsevier, 2021) Barreiro Portela, Esther; Martínez-García, Miguel Ángel; Villa, Carmen; Dobarganes, Yadira; Girón, Rosa; Maíz, Luis; García-Clemente, Marta; Sibila, Oriol; Golpe, Rafael; Rodríguez, Juan; Barreiro Portela, Esther; Rodriguez, Juan Luis; Menéndez, Rosario; Prados, Concepción; Rosa, David de la; Olveira, Casilda; Grupo Español del Registro de Bronquiectasias (RIBRON)
Introduction: The SEPAR Spanish Bronchiectasis Registry (RIBRON) began as a platform for the collection of longitudinal data on patients with this disease. The objective of this study is to describe its operation and to analyze the characteristics of bronchiectasis patients according to sex. Methods: A total of 1912 adult patients diagnosed with bronchiectasis in 43 centers were included between February 2015 and 2019. All patients had complete data consisting of at least 79 basic required variables, controlled by an external audit. Results: Mean age was 67.6 (15.2) years; 63.9% were women. The most common symptom was productive cough (78.3%) which was mucopurulent-purulent in 45.9% of cases. The most common etiology was post-infectious (40.4%), while 18.5% were idiopathic. Pseudomonas aeruginosa was the most frequently isolated microorganism (40.4%), of which 25.6% were associated with chronic infection. The annual number of mild-to-moderate/severe exacerbations was 1.62 (1.9)/0.59 (1.3). Half of the patients (50%) presented with airflow obstruction (17% severe). The most frequent radiological localization was lower lobes. The average FACED/E-FACED/BSI values were 2.06 (1.7)/2.67 (2.2)/7.8 (4.5), respectively. Overall, 66.7% of patients were taking inhaled corticosteroids, 19.2% macrolides, and 19.5% inhaled antibiotics. Women presented a less severe profile than men in clinical and functional terms, and a similar infectious, radiological and therapeutic profile. Conclusions: RIBRON represents an excellent map of the characteristics of bronchiectasis in our country. Two thirds of patients are women who presented lower disease severity as a specific characteristic.
Trafficking of stretch-regulated TRPV2 and TRPV4 channels inferred through interactomics
(MDPI, 2019) Doñate-Macián, Pau; Enrich-Bengoa, Jennifer; Dégano, Irene R.; Quintana, David G.; Perálvarez Marín, Alex
Transient receptor potential cation channels are emerging as important physiological and therapeutic targets. Within the vanilloid subfamily, transient receptor potential vanilloid 2 (TRPV2) and 4 (TRPV4) are osmo- and mechanosensors becoming critical determinants in cell structure and activity. However, knowledge is scarce regarding how TRPV2 and TRPV4 are trafficked to the plasma membrane or specific organelles to undergo quality controls through processes such as biosynthesis, anterograde/retrograde trafficking, and recycling. This review lists and reviews a subset of protein-protein interactions from the TRPV2 and TRPV4 interactomes, which is related to trafficking processes such as lipid metabolism, phosphoinositide signaling, vesicle-mediated transport, and synaptic-related exocytosis. Identifying the protein and lipid players involved in trafficking will improve the knowledge on how these stretch-related channels reach specific cellular compartments.
Trihalomethanes in drinking water and bladder cancer burden in the European Union
(National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), 2020) Evlampidou, Iro; Font-Ribera, Laia; Kogevinas, Manolis; Villanueva Belmonte, Cristina
Background: Trihalomethanes (THMs) are widespread disinfection by-products (DBPs) in drinking water, and long-term exposure has been consistently associated with increased bladder cancer risk. Objective: We assessed THM levels in drinking water in the European Union as a marker of DBP exposure and estimated the attributable burden of bladder cancer. Methods: We collected recent annual mean THM levels in municipal drinking water in 28 European countries (EU28) from routine monitoring records. We estimated a linear exposure-response function for average residential THM levels and bladder cancer by pooling data from studies included in the largest international pooled analysis published to date in order to estimate odds ratios (ORs) for bladder cancer associated with the mean THM level in each country (relative to no exposure), population-attributable fraction (PAF), and number of attributable bladder cancer cases in different scenarios using incidence rates and population from the Global Burden of Disease study of 2016. Results: We obtained 2005-2018 THM data from EU26, covering 75% of the population. Data coverage and accuracy were heterogeneous among countries. The estimated population-weighted mean THM level was 11.7 μg/L [standard deviation (SD) of 11.2]. The estimated bladder cancer PAF was 4.9% [95% confidence interval (CI): 2.5, 7.1] overall (range: 0-23%), accounting for 6,561 (95% CI: 3,389, 9,537) bladder cancer cases per year. Denmark and the Netherlands had the lowest PAF (0.0% each), while Cyprus (23.2%), Malta (17.9%), and Ireland (17.2%) had the highest among EU26. In the scenario where no country would exceed the current EU mean, 2,868 (95% CI: 1,522, 4,060; 43%) annual attributable bladder cancer cases could potentially be avoided. Discussion: Efforts have been made to reduce THM levels in the European Union. However, assuming a causal association, current levels in certain countries still could lead to a considerable burden of bladder cancer that could potentially be avoided by optimizing water treatment, disinfection, and distribution practices, among other possible measures. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP4495.
Los cambios en el ecosistema de la comunicación y sus implicaciones en la publicidad en salud
(Fundació Víctor Grífols i Lucas, 2018) Revuelta, Gema; Gonzalo Penela, Carlos
En las últimas dos décadas, uno de los principales impactos sociales que ha producido la tecnología es la transformación del ecosistema de la comunicación. Los primeros años de este siglo xxi se caracterizaron por la difusión progresiva en el uso de internet en el ámbito laboral y doméstico. Aparecieron después las redes sociales electrónicas (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.), con sus diferentes usos y modas tribales y generacionales. Las aplicaciones para móviles (entre otras, los servicios de mensajería instantánea tipo WhatsApp y todo tipo de apps), junto con todas las posibilidades de conexión 24 horas y en cualquier lugar que permiten los smartphones, han supuesto también un cambio importante en la comunicación. En los últimos años, se habla más que nunca del internet de las cosas, el Big Data, el blockchain y la cuarta revolución industrial. Todos estos cambios no solo han transformado las vías y modos de acceso a la información, sino también su propia producción y distribución, la percepción que tenemos de la misma y los usos que hacemos de ella (Revuelta y Corchero, 2015, 2017). Las cuestiones que tienen que ver con la salud y la medicina no se escapan ni mucho menos de esta profunda transformación de la comunicación, consecuencia de la evolución continua de las tecnologías y sus usos. El objetivo de este artículo es detenernos en el momento actual para analizar los cambios del ecosistema comunicativo que más pueden haber afectado a la publicidad del sector de la salud y en cómo estos cambios plantean nuevos dilemas éticos que deben ser abordados en profundidad desde una perspectiva multidisciplinar. La literatura académica contiene abundante evidencia sobre el papel de la publicidad en la modificación de actitudes y comportamientos humanos (muchos de ellos con posibles efectos en la salud). Sin embargo, no conocemos con exactitud los efectos de las nuevas formas de publicidad.
Preface
(IOS Press, 2015) Steels, Luc
This book is the third in a sequence of books reflecting on the future of learning, and more specifically, how computers can give support to long-distance education. [1], [2]. This challenge has recently become the focal point of attention with the rise of MOOCs that finally implement the visions that advanced thinkers proposed already decades ago.

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