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This study discusses the importance of minimal residual disease (MRD) detection in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients using liquid biopsy and next-generation sequencing (NGS). AML prognosis is based on various factors, including genetic alterations. NGS has revealed the molecular complexity of AML and helped refine risk stratification and personalized therapies. The long-term survival rates for AML patients are low, and MRD assessment is crucial in predicting prognosis. Currently, the most common methods for MRD detection are flow cytometry and quantitative PCR, but NGS is being incorporated into clinical practice due to its ability to detect genomic aberrations in the majority of AML patients. Typically, bone marrow samples are used for MRD assessment, but using peripheral blood samples or liquid biopsies would be less invasive. Leukemia originates in the bone marrow, along with the cfDNA obtained from peripheral blood. This study aimed to assess the utility of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) from peripheral blood samples for MRD detection in AML patients. A cohort of 20 AML patients was analyzed using NGS, and a correlation between MRD assessment by cfDNA and circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in paired samples was observed. Furthermore, a higher tumor signal was detected in cfDNA compared to CTCs, indicating greater sensitivity. Challenges for the application of liquid biopsy in MRD assessment were discussed, including the selection of appropriate markers and the sensitivity of certain markers. This study emphasizes the potential of liquid biopsy using cfDNA for MRD detection in AML patients and highlights the need for further research in this area.

It is a generally admitted fact that the optical aligning process of faceted heliostats in a Solar Power Tower Plant (SPTP), also called heliostat canting, introduces an assembly time penalization as well as a potential error in heliostat optics conformation [1, 2]. This double penalization influences both the solar field setup time and the optical quality of the SPTP. Aware of this fact, in 2014 the Plataforma Solar de Almeria (PSA) developed and patented a method to self-align facets and thus avoid the critical canting phase of a heliostat [3]. To experimentally demonstrate the feasibility of the self-aligning facet process, a small reflector composed of six facets and 9m2 of reflecting surface was designed and fabricated. The success of that experience has led to the development of a first 18.5m2 prototype of a self-aligned heliostat, which has been installed at the CESA-1 Heliostat Field (PSA) in 2022.

Abstract Gastric cancer (GC) is the fifth most frequent malignancy worldwide and has a high mortality rate related to late diagnosis. Although the gold standard for the GC diagnosis is endoscopy with biopsy, nonetheless, it is not cost-effective and is invasive for the patient. The Human leukocyte antigen G (HLA-G) molecule is a checkpoint of the immune response. Its overexpression in cancer is associated with immune evasion, metastasis, poor prognosis, and lower overall survival. We evaluate the plasma levels of soluble HLA-G, (sHLA-G) in patients with GC and benign gastric pathologies using an ELISA test. A higher concentration of sHLA-G in patients with GC than in those with benign pathologies, higher levels of plasma sHLA-G in women with GC compared with men and significant differences in the sHLA-G levels between the benign gastric pathologies evaluated, was our main findings. As no significant differences were found between the GC assessed stages in our study population, we suggest that sHLA-G is not an adequate marker for staging GC, but it does have diagnostic potential. In addition to providing information on the potential of sHLA-G as a diagnostic marker for GC, our study demonstrate that HLA-G molecules can be found in the membrane of exosomes, which highlights the need to perform studies with a larger number of samples to explore the functional implications of HLA-G positive exosomes in the context of gastric cancer, and to determine the clinical significance and possible applications of these findings in the development of non-invasive diagnostic methods.

Abstract Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is still one of the main health problems worldwide. It is therefore essential to keep making progress in improving the prognosis and quality of life of affected patients. One way to advance along this pathway is to uncover connections between other disorders associated with HIV/AIDS—so that they can be anticipated and possibly mitigated. We propose to achieve this by using Association Rules (ARs). They allow us to represent the dependencies between a number of diseases and other specific diseases. However, classical techniques systematically generate every AR meeting some minimal conditions on data frequency, hence generating a vast amount of uninteresting ARs, which need to be filtered out. The lack of manually annotated ARs has favored unsupervised filtering, even though they produce limited results. In this paper, we propose a semi-supervised system, able to identify relevant ARs among HIV-related diseases with a minimal amount of annotated training data. Our system has been able to extract a good number of relationships between HIV-related diseases that have been previously detected in the literature but are scattered and are often little known. Furthermore, a number of plausible new relationships have shown up which deserve further investigation by qualified medical experts.

Contexto: dada la importancia de incorporar la calidad de vida durante la atención de los pacientes con enfermedad renal crónica (ERC), es necesario disponer de versiones traducidas y adaptadas transculturalmente de diferentes instrumentos diseñados para la medición de este constructo. Objetivo: traducir y adaptar transculturalmente al español hablado en Colombia el instrumento Kidney Disease Questionnaire (KDQ), para medir la calidad de vida en pacientes con ERC en insuficiencia renal. Metodología: el proceso se llevó a cabo siguiendo la metodología propuesta por la EORTC, que incluye traducciones directas, traducciones inversas y una prueba piloto llevada a cabo en un grupo de pacientes con diagnóstico de ERC en diálisis, atendidos en unidades renales de Baxter Renal Care Services®, en Bogotá, Colombia. Resultados: en el proceso se identificaron (I) casos que requirieron de consenso para seleccionar la traducción que mejor conservaba el significado y la equivalencia semántica del instrumento, (II) diferencias en la sintaxis o uso de paráfrasis, (III) se consideró pertinente realizar algunos cambios mínimos en el uso o la disposición de preposiciones o artículos, con el fin de que los ítems y las opciones de respuesta se leyeran de una manera más natural. Los cambios más notorios fueron en los ítems 18, 19 y 21, en los que para una mejor compresión de la pregunta, se identificó la necesidad de agregar determinadas expresiones o palabras. Conclusiones: se tiene disponible la versión traducida al español y adaptada culturalmente a la población colombiana del KDQ. El siguiente paso a fin de utilizar el instrumento en el país, es disponer de evidencia sobre sus propiedades clinimétricas.

Introduction: Vascular access (VA) remains a major source of morbidity for hemodialysis patients (HD). Few data sources adequately capture longitudinal patency of the VA. This study aimed to evaluate VA failure and its related factors in HD patients. Methods: A retrospective cohort study of 985 incident hemodialysis patients treated in clinics of BRCS in Colombia, from January 1rst ,2016, until December 3 of the same year, was done. The cohort's enrollment was on day 1 of HD, and with follow-up for up to 15 months. Association among a group of independent variables and time to failure of the VA was performed, and adjusted by baseline variables using a Cox regression model. Results: A total of 985 patients were included in the study, requiring 1774 procedures of vascular access during follow-up. The mean age was 61 ± 15.6 years. At day 1, 15% were dialyzing with an arteriovenous fistula (AVF) or AVG; and at day 90, this proportion had increased to 70%. The rate of vascular access procedure was 1.95 per patients-year, 95% CI 1.86-2.04. The rate of vascular access failure was 0.66 per patients-year, 95% CI 0.61–0.72. Risk factors for failure in AVF/AVG were age > 65 (p= 0.008), diabetes (p= 0.019), female sex (p= 0.002) rural housing (p

Abstract Out-of-home audience measurement aims to count and characterize the people exposed to advertising content in the physical world. While audience measurement solutions based on computer vision are of increasing interest, no commonly accepted benchmark exists to evaluate and compare their performance. In this paper, we propose the first benchmark for digital out-of-home audience measurement that evaluates the vision-based tasks of audience localization and counting, and audience demographics. The benchmark is composed of a novel, dataset captured at multiple locations and a set of performance measures. Using the benchmark, we present an in-depth comparison of eight open-source algorithms on four hardware platforms with GPU and CPU-optimized inferences and of two commercial off-the-shelf solutions for localization, count, age, and gender estimation. This benchmark and related open-source codes are available at http://ava.eecs.qmul.ac.uk .

Re-emerging arboviruses represent a serious health problem due to their rapid vector-mediated spread, mainly in urban tropical areas. The 2013–2015 Zika virus (ZIKV) outbreak in South and Central America has been associated with cases of microcephaly in newborns and Guillain–Barret syndrome. We previously showed that the conjugate gallic acid—Hecate (GA-FALALKALKKALKKLKKALKKAL-CONH2)—is an efficient inhibitor of the hepatitis C virus. Here, we show that the Hecate peptide is degraded in human blood serum into three major metabolites. These metabolites conjugated with gallic acid were synthesized and their effect on ZIKV replication in cultured cells was evaluated. The GA-metabolite 5 (GA-FALALKALKKALKKL-COOH) was the most efficient in inhibiting two ZIKV strains of African and Asian lineage at the stage of both virus entry (virucidal and protective) and replication (post-entry). We also demonstrate that GA-metabolite 5 does not affect cell growth after 7 days of continuous treatment. Thus, this study identifies a new synthetic antiviral compound targeting different steps of ZIKV replication in vitro and with the potential for broad reactivity against other flaviviruses. Our work highlights a promising strategy for the development of new antivirals based on peptide metabolism and bioconjugation.

Abstract The assessment of measurable residual disease (MRD) in bone marrow has proven of prognostic relevance in patients with multiple myeloma (MM). Nevertheless, and unlike other hematologic malignancies, the use of MRD results to make clinical decisions in MM has been underexplored to date. In this retrospective study, we present the results from a multinational and multicenter series of 400 patients with MRD monitoring during front-line therapy with the aim of exploring how clinical decisions made based on those MRD results affected outcomes. As expected, achievement of MRD negativity at any point was associated with improved PFS versus persistent MRD positivity (median PFS 104 vs. 45 months, p

Rationale & Objective: This study investigated the effects on patients’ outcomes of using medium cutoff (MCO) versus high-flux (HF) dialysis membranes. Study Design: A retrospective, observational, multicenter, cohort study. Setting & Participants: Patients aged greater than 18 years receiving hemodialysis at the Baxter Renal Care Services dialysis network in Colombia. The inception of the cohort occurred from September 1, 2017, to November 30, 2017, with follow-up to November 30, 2019. Exposure: The patients were divided into 2 cohorts according to the dialyzer used at the inception: (1) MCO membrane or (2) HF membrane. Outcomes: Primary outcomes were the hospitalization rate from any cause and hospitalization days per patient-year. Secondary outcomes were acute cardiovascular events and mortality rates from any cause and secondary to cardiovascular causes. Laboratory parameters were assessed throughout the 2-year follow-up period. Analytical Approach: Descriptive statistics were used to report population characteristics. Inverse probability of treatment weighting was applied to each group before analysis. All categorical variables were compared using Pearson’s χ2 test, and continuous variables were analyzed with the t test. Baseline differences between groups with a value of >10% were considered clinically meaningful. Laboratory variables were measured at 5 consecutive time points. A between-patient effect was analyzed using a split-plot factorial analysis of variance. Results: The analysis included 1,098 patients, of whom 564 (51.3%) were dialyzed with MCO membranes and 534 (48.7%) with HF membranes. Patients receiving hemodialysis with MCO membranes had a lower all-cause hospitalization incidence rate (IR) per patient-year (IR = 0.93; 95% CI, 0.82-1.03) than those receiving hemodialysis with HF membranes (IR = 1.13; 95% CI, 0.96-1.30), corresponding to a significant incident rate ratio (MCO/HF) of 0.82 (95% CI, 0.68-0.99; P = 0.04). The frequency of nonfatal cardiovascular events showed statistical significance, with a lower incidence in the MCO group (incident rate ratio = 0.66; 95% CI, 0.46-0.96; P = 0.03). No statistically significant differences in all-cause time until death were observed (P = 0.48). Albumin levels were similar between the 2 dialyzer cohorts. Limitations: Despite the robust statistical analysis, there remains the possibility that unmeasured variables may still generate residual imbalance and, therefore, skew the results. Conclusions: The incidences of hospitalization and cardiovascular events in patients receiving hemodialysis were lower when dialyzed with MCO membranes than HF membranes. A randomized controlled trial would be desirable to confirm these results. Trial Registration: Clinical Trials.gov, ISRCTN12403265.

Multiple myeloma (MM) remains an incurable plasma cell malignancy. While its origin is enigmatic, an association with infectious pathogens including hepatitis C virus (HCV) has been suggested. Here we report nine patients with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) or MM with previous HCV infection, six of whom received antiviral treatment. We studied the evolution of the gammopathy disease, according to anti-HCV treatment and antigen specificity of purified monoclonal immunoglobulin, determined using the INNO-LIA™ HCV Score assay, dot-blot assays, and a multiplex infectious antigen microarray. The monoclonal immunoglobulin from 6/9 patients reacted against HCV. Four of these patients received antiviral treatment and had a better evolution than untreated patients. Following antiviral treatment, one patient with MM in third relapse achieved complete remission with minimal residual disease negativity. For two patients who did not receive antiviral treatment, disease progressed. For the two patients whose monoclonal immunoglobulin did not react against HCV, antiviral treatment was not effective for MGUS or MM disease. Our results suggest a causal relationship between HCV infection and MGUS and MM progression. When HCV was eliminated, chronic antigen-stimulation disappeared, allowing control of clonal plasma cells. This opens new possibilities of treatment for MGUS and myeloma.

Reactive oxygen species, including RNS, contribute to the control of multiple immune cell functions within the tumor microenvironment (TME). Tumor-infiltrating myeloid cells (TIMs) represent the archetype of tolerogenic cells that actively contribute to dismantle effective immunity against cancer. TIMs inhibit T cell functions and promote tumor progression by several mechanisms including the amplification of the oxidative/nitrosative stress within the TME. In tumors, TIM expansion and differentiation is regulated by the granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), which is produced by cancer and immune cells. Nevertheless, the role of GM-CSF in tumors has not yet been fully elucidated. In this study, we show that GM-CSF activity is significantly affected by RNS-triggered post-translational modifications. The nitration of a single tryptophan residue in the sequence of GM-CSF nourishes the expansion of highly immunosuppressive myeloid subsets in tumor-bearing hosts. Importantly, tumors from colorectal cancer patients express higher levels of nitrated tryptophan compared to non-neoplastic tissues. Collectively, our data identify a novel and selective target that can be exploited to remodel the TME and foster protective immunity against cancer.

Natural hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is restricted to humans, whereas other primates such as rhesus macaques are non-permissive for infection. To identify human and rhesus macaque genes that differ or share the ability to inhibit HCV replication, we conducted a medium-throughput screen of lentivirus-expressed host genes that disrupt replication of HCV subgenomic replicon RNA expressing secreted Gaussia luciferase. A combined total of >800 interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs) were screened. Our findings confirmed established anti-HCV ISGs, such as IRF1, PKR and DDX60. Novel species–specific inhibitors were also identified and independently validated. Using a cell-based system that recapitulates productive HCV infection, we identified that over-expression of the ‘Rho Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factor 3’ gene (ARHGEF3) from both species inhibits full-length virus replication. Additionally, replication of two mosquito-borne flaviviruses, yellow fever virus (YFV) and Zika virus (ZIKV), were also reduced in cell lines over-expressing ARHGEF3 compared to controls. In conclusion, we ascribe novel antiviral activity to the cellular gene ARHGEF3 that inhibits replication of HCV and other important human viral pathogens belonging to the Flaviviridae, and which is conserved between humans and rhesus macaques.

Background. Variability in chronic kidney disease (CKD) progression is a well-known phenomenon that underlines the importance of characterizing the said outcome in specific populations. Our objectives were to evaluate changes in the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) over time and determine the frequency of dialysis admission and factors associated with this outcome, to estimate the rate of program’s loss-to-follow-up and the probability of transition between CKD stages over time. Methods. The study type was an observational analytic retrospective cohort in patients treated in a CKD prevention program in Bogota, Colombia, between January 1, 2009, and December 31, 2013, with follow-up until December 31, 2018. Adult participants of 18 years of age or older with diagnosed CKD stages G3 or G4 were enrolled into a prevention program. For each patient, the rate of progression of CKD in ml/min/1.73 m2/year was estimated using the ordinary least-squares method. Dialysis initiation and program’s loss-to-follow-up rates were calculated. Heat maps were used to present probabilities of transitioning between various CKD stages over time. Survival model with competing risks was used to evaluate factors associated with dialysis initiation. Results. A total of 2752 patients met inclusion criteria and contributed with 14133 patient-years of follow-up and 200 dialysis initiation events, which represents a rate of 1.4 events per 100 patient-years (95% CI 1.2 to 1.6). The median change of the eGFR for the entire cohort was −0.47 ml/min/1.73 m2 per year, and in the diabetic population, it was −1.55 ml/min/1.73 m2 per year. The program’s loss-to-follow-up rate was 2.6 events per 100 patient-years (95% CI 2.3 to 2.9). Probabilities of CKD stage transitions are presented in heat maps. Female sex, older age, baseline eGFR, and serum albumin were associated with lower risk of dialysis initiation while CKD etiology diabetes, cardiovascular disease history, systolic blood pressure, blood urea nitrogen, and LDL cholesterol were associated with a higher likelihood of dialysis initiation. Conclusions. A CKD secondary prevention program’s key indicator is reported here, such as dialysis initiation, progression rate, and program drop-out; CKD progression appears to be correlated with diabetic status and timing of referral into the preventive program.

Zika virus (ZIKV) is an emerging global health issue, but currently no licensed vaccine achieves lasting protective immunity. Here the authors show that a ZIKV vaccine containing the envelop protein without the transmembrane domain and the precursor membrane protein can provide effective protection in mouse models.

We have developed a new distributed computing capability, Digital Forensics Compute Cluster (DFORC2) to speed up the ingestion and processing of digital evidence. DFORC2 parallelizes evidence ingestion and file processing steps. It can be run on a standalone server or in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud. When running in a cloud computing environment, its cluster resources can be dynamically scaled up or down using Kubernetes. DFORC2 is an open source project that uses Autopsy, Apache Spark and Kafka, and other open source software packages. It extends Autopsy's forensics capabilities to compute clusters and cloud architectures, so key digital forensics tasks can be accomplished simultaneously by a scalable array of cluster compute nodes. In this paper we compare the performance of a DFORC2 with a standalone version of Autopsy for evidentiary hard drives of different sizes.

The historical development of relations between Mexico and Philippines since the 16th century represents one of the most significant forms of globalization in the Pacific Rim in contemporary world history. The conquest of the Philippines by Spain and consequently the importance of the trade and goods exchange between Europe and the Asian archipelago through Mexico with the Manila-Acapulco Galleon, carried a strong cultural and religious heritage to the Philippines that remains to this day. Over the years, the transcendence of the Mexican-Filipino contacts has become increasingly relevant due to its geo-strategic location of both nations in the international scene. Mexico, a close neighbor of the United States, is the natural bridge to Europe and also to Latin America and the Caribbean, while the Philippines is a key player in the Asia-Pacific region, based on its leadership in Southeast Asia and its proximity with the People’s Republic of China, in addition to having been a traditional ally of the US in the Pacific basin. The future of the political, economic-trade relations, and the cultural and scientific-technical cooperation between Mexico and the Philippines are projected as an excellent alternative of diversification and strengthening of the presence for Mexican products in Asia, where the Philippines could be an excellent partner not only on a bilateral level, but also as a platform to reposition Mexico with the ASEAN nations, facing the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the ambitious Chinese cooperation initiative "Belt and Road" with all the world, and the need to have new markets for our products.

INTRODUCTION:Active tuberculosis (TB) and latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) are a public health threat in prisons around the world. The objectives of the study were to estimate the prevalence of LTBI and TB as well as to investigate TB transmission inside one prison, in Colombia. METHODS:A Cross-sectional study was conducted in inmates who agreed to participate. Inmates with respiratory symptoms (RS) of any duration underwent to medical evaluation and three sputum samples were taken for smear microscopy and culture for TB diagnosis. Drug susceptibility was analyzed using BACTEC MGIT 960 and GenoType MTBDRplus. Molecular genotyping of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates was performed by 24-Locus MIRU-VNTR and spoligotyping. LTBI was evaluated according to the result of the tuberculin skin test (TST). Close contact investigation was conducted inside the prison for inmates that shared the cell with the index TB case. RESULTS:Among 301/2,020 (15%) inmates with RS of any duration, 8% were diagnosed with active TB. The prevalence of active TB was 1,026 cases/100,000 inmates. We isolated M. tuberculosis in 19/24 (79%) TB cases, 94.7% were susceptible to first line drugs and only one was monoresistant to isoniazid. The most prevalent sub-lineage was Haarlem (68.4%), followed by LAM (26.3%) and T superfamily (5.3%). 24-Locus MIRU-VNTR typing results alone or in combination with spoligotyping identified three clusters containing two isolates each. Two clusters corresponded to inmates that shared the same cell, but each one was located in different blocks of the prison. Inmates from the last cluster were in the same block in nearby cells. TST reading was performed in 95.6% inmates, and 67.6% had a positive reaction. CONCLUSIONS:The prevalence of LTBI and TB was higher in prison than in the general population. Molecular genotyping suggests that TB in this prison is mainly caused by strains imported by inmates or endogenous reactivation.

The most common type of the renal cancers detected in humans is clear cell renal cell carcinomas (ccRCCs). These tumors are usually initiated by biallelic gene inactivation of the Von Hippel–Lindau (VHL) factor in the renal epithelium, which deregulates the hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs) HIF1α and HIF2α, and provokes their constitutive activation irrespective of the cellular oxygen availability. While HIF1α can act as a ccRCC tumor suppressor, HIF2α has emerged as the key HIF isoform that is essential for ccRCC tumor progression. Indeed, preclinical and clinical data have shown that pharmacological inhibitors of HIF2α can efficiently combat ccRCC growth. In this review, we discuss the molecular basis underlying the oncogenic potential of HIF2α in ccRCC by focusing on those pathways primarily controlled by HIF2α that are thought to influence the progression of these tumors.

OBJECTIVES:To fully clarify the role of Mitogen Activated Protein Kinase in the therapeutic response to Sorafenib in Renal Cell Carcinoma as well as the cell death mechanism associated to this kinase inhibitor, we have evaluated the implication of several Mitogen Activated Protein Kinases in Renal Cell Carcinoma-derived cell lines. MATERIALS AND METHODS:An experimental model of Renal Cell Carcinoma-derived cell lines (ACHN and 786-O cells) was evaluated in terms of viability by MTT assay, induction of apoptosis by caspase 3/7 activity, autophagy induction by LC3 lipidation, and p62 degradation and kinase activity using phospho-targeted antibodies. Knock down of ATG5 and ERK5 was performed using lentiviral vector coding specific shRNA. RESULTS:Our data discard Extracellular Regulated Kinase 1/2 and 5 as well as p38 Mitogen Activated Protein Kinase pathways as mediators of Sorafenib toxic effect but instead indicate that the inhibitory effect is exerted through the PI3K/Akt signalling pathway. Furthermore, we demonstrate that inhibition of Akt mediates cell death associated to Sorafenib without caspase activation, and this is consistent with the induction of autophagy, as indicated by the use of pharmacological and genetic approaches. CONCLUSION:The present report demonstrates that Sorafenib exerts its toxic effect through the induction of autophagy in an Akt-dependent fashion without the implication of Mitogen Activated Protein Kinase. Therefore, our data discard the use of inhibitors of the RAF-MEK-ERK1/2 signalling pathway in RCC and support the use of pro-autophagic compounds, opening new therapeutic opportunities for Renal Cell Carcinoma.

Cuando se habla de energas alternativas, los paneles solares son una de las opciones mas estudiadas debido a su excelente rendimiento en condiciones de radiacion solar uniforme. Este artculo muestra las ventajas, simulacion e implementacion del algoritmo de conductancia incremental desarrollada en un procesador digital de señales DSP - por sus siglas en ingles - de gama baja de Texas Instruments TMS320F28069 R, con el n de buscar y extraer la maxima potencia, realizando pruebas en una carga resistiva.

Infection, coinfection and type-specific human papillomavirus (HPV) distribution was evaluated in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive women from paired cervical and urine samples. Paired cervical and urine samples (n = 204) were taken from HIV-positive women for identifying HPV-DNA presence by using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with three generic primer sets (GP5+/6+, MY09/11 and pU1M/2R). HPV-positive samples were typed for six high-risk HPV (HR-HPV) (HPV-16, -18, -31, -33, -45 and -58) and two low-risk (LR-HPV) (HPV-6/11) types. Agreement between paired sample results and diagnostic performance was evaluated. HPV infection prevalence was 70.6% in cervical and 63.2% in urine samples. HPV-16 was the most prevalent HPV type in both types of sample (66.7% in cervical samples and 62.0% in urine) followed by HPV-31(47.2%) in cervical samples and HPV-58 (35.7%) in urine samples. There was 55.4% coinfection (infection by more than one type of HPV) in cervical samples and 40.2% in urine samples. Abnormal Papanicolau smears were observed in 25.3% of the women, presenting significant association with HPV-DNA being identified in urine samples. There was poor agreement of cervical and urine sample results in generic and type-specific detection of HPV. Urine samples provided the best diagnosis when taking cytological findings as reference. In conclusion including urine samples could be a good strategy for ensuring adherence to screening programs aimed at reducing the impact of cervical cancer, since this sample is easy to obtain and showed good diagnostic performance.

BACKGROUND: Infection with multiple types of human papillomavirus (HPV) is one of the main risk factors associated with the development of cervical lesions. In this study, cervical samples collected from 1,810 women with diverse sociocultural backgrounds, who attended to their cervical screening program in different geographical regions of Colombia, were examined for the presence of cervical lesions and HPV by Papanicolau testing and DNA PCR detection, respectively. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The negative binomial distribution model used in this study showed differences between the observed and expected values within some risk factor categories analyzed. Particularly in the case of single infection and coinfection with more than 4 HPV types, observed frequencies were smaller than expected, while the number of women infected with 2 to 4 viral types were higher than expected. Data analysis according to a negative binomial regression showed an increase in the risk of acquiring more HPV types in women who were of indigenous ethnicity (+37.8%), while this risk decreased in women who had given birth more than 4 times (-31.1%), or were of mestizo (-24.6%) or black (-40.9%) ethnicity. CONCLUSIONS: According to a theoretical probability distribution, the observed number of women having either a single infection or more than 4 viral types was smaller than expected, while for those infected with 2-4 HPV types it was larger than expected. Taking into account that this study showed a higher HPV coinfection rate in the indigenous ethnicity, the role of underlying factors should be assessed in detail in future studies.

Es una obra universitaria que debe servir de ejemplo sobre las exigencias y logros del quehacer académico cuando este se adelanta con competencia, disciplina y devoción, este trata sobre la formación de la economía del mundo en algunos de sus rasgos fundamentales: el comercio y la expansión ibérica hacia ultramar: 1450 – 1550.

El libro va estableciendo el contrapuesto entre testimonio del protagonista y contemporáneos, con cotejos y constataciones documentales en archivos de distinto orden lo que permite una combinación de Verosimilitud y objetividad.