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Background: The incidence of catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBSIs) has fallen over the last decade, especially in intensive care units (ICUs). Aim: To assess the existence of concomitant trends in outcomes and to analyse the current risk factors for mortality. Methods: A multicentre retrospective cohort study was conducted at 24 Catalan hospitals participating in the Surveillance of healthcare-associated infections in Catalonia (VINCat). All hospital-acquired CRBSI episodes diagnosed from January 2010 to December 2019 were included. A common protocol including epidemiological, clinical, and microbiological data was prospectively completed. Mortality at 30 days after bacteraemia onset was analysed using the Cox regression model. Findings: Over the study period, 4795 episodes of CRBSI were diagnosed. Among them, 75% were acquired in conventional wards and central venous catheters were the most frequently involved (61%). The 30-day mortality rate was 13.8%, presenting a significant downward trend over the study period: from 17.9% in 2010 to 10.6% in 2019 (hazard ratio (HR): 0.95; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.92-0.98). The multivariate analysis identified age (HR: 1.03; 95% CI: 1.02-1.04), femoral catheter (1.78; 1.33-2.38), medical ward acquisition (2.07; 1.62-2.65), ICU acquisition (3.45; 2.7-4.41), S. aureus (1.59; 1.27-1.99) and Candida sp. (2.19; 1.64-2.94) as risk factors for mortality, whereas the mortality rate associated with episodes originating in peripheral catheters was significantly lower (0.69; 0.54-0.88). Conclusion: Mortality associated with CRBSI has fallen in recent years but remains high. Intervention programmes should focus especially on ICUs and medical wards, where incidence and mortality rates are highest. (c) 2022 The Healthcare Infection Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A high degree of vigilance and appropriate diagnostic methods are required to detect Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI). We studied the effectiveness of a multimodal training program for improving CDI surveillance and prevention. Between 2011 and 2016, this program was made available to healthcare staff of acute care hospitals in Catalonia. The program included an online course, two face-to-face workshops and dissemination of recommendations on prevention and diagnosis. Adherence to the recommendations was evaluated through surveys administered to the infection control teams at the 38 participating hospitals. The incidence of CDI increased from 2.20 cases/10 000 patient-days in 2011 to 3.41 in 2016 (P < 0.001). The number of hospitals that applied an optimal diagnostic algorithm rose from 32.0% to 71.1% (P = 0.002). Hospitals that applied an optimal diagnostic algorithm reported a higher overall incidence of CDI (3.62 vs. 1.92, P < 0.001), and hospitals that were more active in searching for cases reported higher rates of hospital-acquired CDI (1.76 vs. 0.84, P < 0.001). The results suggest that the application of a multimodal training strategy was associated with a significant rise in the reporting of CDI, as well as with an increase in the application of the optimal diagnostic algorithm.

The study of probiotic microorganisms is very interesting in the aquaculture field. Administration of live microorganisms in adequate amounts confers some benefits to the host (Kechagia et al. 2013). Even if Shewanella putrafaciens include pathogens and saprophytic strains related to fish spoilage and fish infection (Esteve, Merchán, and Alcaide 2016). The Pdp11 strain of Shewanella putrefaciens has been proved to provide beneficial effects in Sparus aurata (Chabrillón et al. 2005) and Solea senegalensis (Rodrigáñez et al. 2008). Studies focused on Pdp11 could hed light on the origin of this probiotic character. We have designed a bioinformatic workflow to detect transposons in the newly sequenced Pdp11 genome (Tapia-Paniagua et al, in press). Their presence interrupting genes account for a contribution to its probiotic character due to the lost of virulence or the gain of probiotic effect. The workflow was developed in Ruby programming language and provides: the genomic localisation of known transposons, host coding regions disrupted by complete transposons or their repeated insertion sequences, and transposons and coding regions disrupted identifiers, to stablish the putative functions of Pdp11 that could be affect by the transposons disruption. These results would support new possible hypothesis about the Pdp11 probiotic character since 14 coding regions related to S. putrefaciens were disrupted by transposons, 4 of which are directly involved in pathogenic mechanisms. This work was supported by co-funding by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) 2014-2020 "Programa Operativo de Crecimiento Inteligente" together with Spanish AEI "Agencia Estatal de Investigación" to grants RTA2013-00068-C03, AGL2017-83370-C3-3-R and RTA2017-00054-C03-03. Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech.

Background: The Argane tree (Argania spinosa L. Skeels) is an endemic tree of southwestern Morocco that plays an important socioeconomic and ecologic role for a dense human population in an arid zone. Several studies confirmed the importance of this species as a food and feed source and as a resource for both pharmaceutical and cosmetic compounds. Unfortunately, the argane tree ecosystem is facing significant threats from environmental changes (global warming, over-population) and over-exploitation. Limited research has been conducted, however, on argane tree genetics and genomics, which hinders its conservation and genetic improvement. Methods: Here, we present a draft genome assembly of A. spinosa. A reliable reference genome of A. spinosa was created using a hybrid de novo assembly approach combining short and long sequencing reads. Results: In total, 144 Gb Illumina HiSeq reads and 7.2 Gb PacBio reads were produced and assembled. The final draft genome comprises 75 327 scaffolds totaling 671 Mb with an N50 of 49 916 kb. The draft assembly is close to the genome size estimated by k-mers distribution and covers 89% of complete and 4.3% of partial Arabidopsis orthologous groups in BUSCO. Conclusion: The A. spinosa genome will be useful for assessing biodiversity leading to efficient conservation of this endangered endemic tree. Furthermore, the genome may enable genome-assisted cultivar breeding, and provide a better understanding of important metabolic pathways and their underlying genes for both cosmetic and pharmacological purposes., This work was supported by the Iridian Genome Foundation (MD, USA). H.G. is supported by a Grant from the NIH (MD, USA) for H3ABioNet/H3Africa (grant numbers U41HG006941 and U24 HG006941). O.B. and B.C. are Fulbright JSD (USA) grant recipients. This work also benefited from support of Midterm Research Program of INRA-Morocco through the use of its bioinformatics platform.

The N200 and P300 evoked potentials have proved a useful tool in monitoring children with attention deficit disorder (ADD).To assess brain information processing by the N200 and P300 in touch modality in children with ADD.The P300 and N200 components to oddball tactile stimulation paradigm were recorded in an experimental group of 17 children with ADD at the beginning and the end of the daily training tactile stimulation, another 12 children with ADD and 21 control children without ADD who no received tactile stimulation. Three groups aged between 7 and 11 years.Results show a significant decrease in latency of N200 and P300 waves in the experimental group at the study end. N200 significant differences in the experimental group temporal parietal and occipital areas were found, while the differences in the P300 are located in postcentral and parietal areas.Systematic, orderly and organized tactile stimulation in children with ADD can be effective to improve N200-P300 latencies providing greater parietal brain plasticity, associated to perceptive attention.Efecto de la estimulacion tactil pasiva en la actividad cerebral de niños con deficit de atencion.Introduccion. Los potenciales evocados N200 y P300 han demostrado ser una herramienta de gran utilidad en el seguimiento de niños con trastorno por deficit de atencion (TDA). Objetivo. Evaluar el procesamiento cerebral de la informacion mediante los componentes N200 y P300 en modalidad tactil en niños con TDA. Sujetos y metodos. Se registraron los componentes N200 y P300 de los potenciales evocados durante una tarea oddball de estimulacion tactil en un grupo experimental de 17 niños con TDA al principio y al final de un entrenamiento mediante estimulacion tactil diaria, en otro de 12 niños con TDA y en 21 niños control sin TDA que no recibieron estimulacion tactil. Los tres grupos tenian edades comprendidas entre 7 y 11 años. Resultados. Los resultados indican una disminucion significativa de la latencia de las ondas N200 y P300 en el grupo experimental al final del estudio. Se encontraron diferencias significativas en la N200 en el grupo experimental en areas temporales parietales y occipitales, mientras que, en la P300, las diferencias se localizan en areas poscentrales y parietales. Conclusion. La estimulacion tactil de manera sistematica, ordenada y organizada en niños con TDA puede ser efectiva para la mejora de la latencia de los potenciales evocados N200 y P300, asi como para una mayor plasticidad cerebral parietal, asociada a la atencion perceptiva.

El trabajo recoge experimentos realizados en una configuración sonda-prueba haciendo uso de un láser de femtosegundos, con el objetivo de comprender los fenómenos de ablación de materiales sólidos ras irradiación con láseres de pulso ultracorto. Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech.

Trabajo presentado en el XL Congreso de la Sociedad Española de Genética, celebrado en Córdoba del 16 al 18 de septiembre de 2015., Aunque las habas (Vicia faba L.) son un importante cultivo alimentario en todo el mundo y una fuente de proteínas en la dieta de países en vías de desarrollo, su información genética y genómica están aún muy por detrás de las especies modelo. Con el fin de contribuir en su progreso, en este estudio se ha realizado una caracterización exhaustiva del transcriptoma de dos genotipos de haba (29H y Vf136) con reacción diferencial frente a la infección por el hongo Ascochyta fabae utilizando la plataforma de secuenciación Illumina. A partir de la información obtenida tras el ensamblaje del nuevo transcriptoma se han identificado 21.243 unigenes que han sido anotados con diferentes bases de datos. De ellos se ha obtenido un subconjunto de 850 expresados diferencialmente entre el parental resistente (29H) y el susceptible (Vf136) a p < 0.05. Además se han identificado 39.060 SNPs y 3.669 INDELs. De los 850 unigenes se han seleccionado 128 por presentar algún SNP y se utilizaron para genotipar los individuos de esta población mediante los sistemas de genotipado KASPar e iPLEX-Sequenom. Estos unigenes expresados diferencialmente tras la infección del hongo Ascochyta fabae pueden identificar genes candidatos asociados a la resistencia a estreses bióticos en esta leguminosa. La integración de estos genes en el mapa de referencia disponible nos ayudará a actualizar el mapa de ligamiento de la población y a saturar QTLs relacionados con la resistencia a Ascochyta identificados en estudios previos (1, 2, 3). Los resultados serán un importante recurso para futuros estudios básicos y aplicados en leguminosas de importancia económica, proporcionand o información valiosa para comprender mejor las vías involucradas en el mecanismo de resistencia contra A. fabae y para identificar genes de resistencia potenciales para ser utilizado en la selección asistida por marcadores.

Many harvested timber species of tropical forests have not been regenerating sufficiently for future cutting cycles, which can demand the application of post-harvesting silvicultural treatments. This study analyzed the profitability of sawnwood produced through four treatments applied on seedlings and saplings naturally present or planted in logging gaps as follows: (1) the standard procedures of reduced-impact logging or control; (2) the tending of the naturally established regeneration; (3) enrichment planting 1 (EP-1); and (4) enrichment planting 2 (EP-2). In EP-1 commercial species were planted in 2-year-old gaps with no logging residuals removal from the gap while in EP-2 seedlings were planted in 1-year-old gaps with logging residuals removal from the gap. The planted timber species in EP-2 had higher financial value and higher growth rates than the timber species planted in EP-1. The experiment was carried out in a certified managed forest in the Eastern Amazon, Brazil. The growth rates of the treated seedlings and saplings were projected in 30 and 60 years from the treatment establishment to simulate sawnwood production. The simulations indicated that, increases of 25 and 50% in growth rates and increases up to 500% in timber prices under annual interest rates of 4 and 6%, the treatments of tending and enrichment planting can be profitable at year 60. These silvicultural treatments, under technological improvements, tend to become financially more profitable, meaning higher financial returns to forest managers and investors.