Facilitation of non-indigenous ascidian by marine eco-engineering interventions at an urban site.

Marine artificial structures often support lower native species diversity and more non-indigenous species (NIS), but adding complex habitat and using bioreceptive materials have the potential to mitigate these impacts. Here, the interacting effects of structural complexity (flat, complex with pits) and concrete mixture (standard, or with oyster shell or vermiculite aggregate) on recruitment were assessed at two intertidal levels at an urban site. Complex tiles had less green algal cover, oyster shell mixtures had less brown (Ralfsia sp.) algal cover. At a low tidal elevation, the non-indigenous ascidian Styela plicata dominated complex tiles. Additionally, mixtures with oyster shell supported higher total cover of sessile species, and a higher cover of S. plicata. There were no effects of complexity or mixture on biofilm communities and native and NIS richness. Overall, these results suggest that habitat complexity and some bioreceptive materials may facilitate colonisation by a dominant invertebrate invader on artificial structures.

The Digital Twin Paradigm Applied to Soil Quality Assessment: A Systematic Literature Review.

This article presents the results regarding a systematic literature review procedure on digital twins applied to precision agriculture. In particular, research and development activities aimed at the use of digital twins, in the context of predictive control, with the purpose of improving soil quality. This study was carried out through an exhaustive search of scientific literature on five different databases. A total of 158 articles were extracted as a result of this search. After a first screening process, only 11 articles were considered to be aligned with the current topic. Subsequently, these articles were categorised to extract all relevant information, using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses methods. Based on the obtained results, there are two main conclusions to draw: First, when compared with industrial processes, there is only a very slight rising trend regarding the use of digital twins in agriculture. Second, within the time frame in which this work was carried out, it was not possible to find any published paper on the use of digital twins for soil quality improvement within a model predictive control context.

Systematic Literature Review of Realistic Simulators Applied in Educational Robotics Context.

This paper presents a systematic literature review (SLR) about realistic simulators that can be applied in an educational robotics context. These simulators must include the simulation of actuators and sensors, the ability to simulate robots and their environment. During this systematic review of the literature, 559 articles were extracted from six different databases using the Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcomes, Context (PICOC) method. After the selection process, 50 selected articles were included in this review. Several simulators were found and their features were also analyzed. As a result of this process, four realistic simulators were applied in the review's referred context for two main reasons. The first reason is that these simulators have high fidelity in the robots' visual modeling due to the 3D rendering engines and the second reason is because they apply physics engines, allowing the robot's interaction with the environment.

Ecological quality assessement of marinas: An integrative approach combining biological and environmental data.

The importance of marinas as infrastructures for recreational boating is increasing substantially. However, information on their soft-bottom benthic communities, a key tool for managing programmes, is still scarce. We combined environment features with macro- and meiofaunal soft-bottom community information for assessing the ecological status of marinas with an integrative approach. To address this issue, we focused on eight marinas of the Southern Iberian Peninsula. Macro- and meiofauna data revealed high benthic heterogeneity at a spatial scale. The environmental variables which correlated best with macrofauna were mainly phosphorus, granulometry, and total organic carbon, and secondarily important variables were faecal coliforms, the biocide Irgarol, and heavy metals; total hydrocarbon concentration was also significant for meiofauna. Annelida was the dominant phylum in terms of number of species (37%) and abundance (66%) and were better descriptors of the environmental conditions than Arthropoda and Mollusca. Although identification to the species level is desirable and mandatory for assessing biological pollution, significant differences among marinas and correlations between fauna and abiotic variables were already detected at the level of family and order. This implies that biota assessment at higher levels may still be useful in monitoring programmes limited by time and budget constraints. The major novelty of this study lies in the development of an integrative assessment method based on the following selected ecological indicators: Marinas Environmental Pollution Index (MEPI), Biocontamination Index (BCI), macrofaunal biotic indices (AMBI, M-AMBI, BENTIX, MEDOCC and BENFES), macrofaunal taxa richness and Shannon-Wiener's diversity, and nematode:copepod index. This approach was able to discriminate marinas of the Southern Iberian Peninsula based on their ecological status, which ranged from poor to good. The method can be useful to design standards for assigning "sustainable quality seals" to those marinas with better values of ecological indicators.

Patient Summary and medicines reconciliation: application of the ISO/CEN EN 13606 standard in clinical practice.

The comparison of the patient's current medication list with the medication being ordered when admitted to Hospital, identifying omissions, duplications, dosing errors, and potential interactions, constitutes the core process of medicines reconciliation. Access to the medication the patient is taking at home could be unfeasible as this information is frequently stored in various locations and in diverse proprietary formats. The lack of interoperability between those information systems, namely the Primary Care and the Specialized Electronic Health Records (EHRs), facilitates medication errors and endangers patient safety. Thus, the development of a Patient Summary that includes clinical data from different electronic systems will allow doctors access to relevant information enabling a safer and more efficient assistance. Such a collection of data from heterogeneous and distributed systems has been achieved in this Project through the construction of a federated view based on the ISO/CEN EN13606 Standard for architecture and communication of EHRs.

Implementation of SNOMED CT to the medicines database of a general hospital.

A concept-based terminology that covers all features of healthcare is essential for the development of an Electronic Health Record (EHR). Since a significant percentage of the EHR can be drug related information, we decided to implement the controlled drug terminology provided by SNOMED CT to achieve the potential benefit to promote Patient Safety that a fully functional pharmacy system can offer. One of the expected advantages of our Project is to establish a bridge between reference terminology and the drug knowledge databases. There is also an economic advantage of implementing a "clinical drug product", the one defined by the drug name, its strength and dose form, instead of the manufactured drug product. The Pharmacy economic management of stocks and response to the offers from the pharmaceutical companies is another expected asset of the Project. This Project is intended as well to give support to a more widespread objective of interoperability with the Primary Care systems.

Fungal chemoprophylaxis with fluconazole in preterm infants.

INTRODUCTION: To describe the establishment of a fungal chemoprophylaxis protocol in very low birth weight infants (VLBW). To asses safety, tolerability, and effectiveness of fluconazole administration to these patients. METHOD: According to published scientific evidence (search on MEDLINE 1994-2001) inclusion criteria for the protocol were defined: gestational age <28 weeks and birth weight <1500 g. Fluconazole was given intravenously by infusion. A pharmacotherapeutic follow-up of patients included on the protocol was performed for 1 year. RESULTS: Sixteen patients were included on the protocol, two of them died because of causes not related to the drugs given. Significant drug interactions were not observed. Fluconazole side effects were not reported either. None of the patients who finished the chemoprophylaxis showed signs or symptoms of fungal infection. CONCLUSION: Fluconazole chemoprophylaxis in this small number of patients has shown an excellent safety and tolerability profile. The lack of fungal infection points out the possibility of using fluconazole to reduce morbidity and mortality in VLBW.