Low income as a determinant of exercise capacity in COPD.

Exercise capacity (EC) is a critical outcome in chronic obstructive lung disease (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)). It measures the impact of the disease and the effect of specific interventions like pulmonary rehabilitation (PR). EC determines COPD prognosis and is associated with health-care utilization and quality of life. Field walking tests and cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) are two ways to measure EC. The 6-minute walking test (6MWT) is the commonest and easiest field test. CPET has the advantage of assessing maximal aerobic capacity. Determinants of EC include age, gender, breathlessness, and lung function. Previous research suggests that socioeconomic status (SES), a meaningful factor in COPD, may also be associated with EC. However, those findings have not been replicated. We aimed to determine whether SES is an independent factor associated with EC in COPD. For this analysis, we used the National Emphysema Treatment Trial (NETT) database. NETT was a multicenter clinical trial where severe COPD patients were randomized to lung volume reduction surgery or medical therapy. Measures used were taken at baseline, postrehabilitation. Patients self-reported their income and were divided in two groups whether it was less or above US$30,000. Patients with a lower income had worse results in 6MWT ( p < 0.0001). We found an independent association between income and the 6MWT in patients with severe COPD after adjusting for age, gender, lung function, dyspnea, and living conditions ( p < 0.0007). One previous publication stated the relationship between income and EC. Our research confirms and extends previous publications associating EC with income by studying a large and well characterized cohort of severe COPD patients, also addressing EC by two different methods (maximal watts and 6MWT). Our results highlight the importance of addressing social determinants of health such as income when assessing COPD patients

Aprendiendo a ser maestro. Didáctica de la Expresión Musical en Primaria

Departament d'Educació. Codi d’assignatura: MP102

New Treatment Strategies for Alcohol-Induced Heart Damage.

High-dose alcohol misuse induces multiple noxious cardiac effects, including myocyte hypertrophy and necrosis, interstitial fibrosis, decreased ventricular contraction and ventricle enlargement. These effects produce diastolic and systolic ventricular dysfunction leading to congestive heart failure, arrhythmias and an increased death rate. There are multiple, dose-dependent, synchronic and synergistic mechanisms of alcohol-induced cardiac damage. Ethanol alters membrane permeability and composition, interferes with receptors and intracellular transients, induces oxidative, metabolic and energy damage, decreases protein synthesis, excitation-contraction coupling and increases cell apoptosis. In addition, ethanol decreases myocyte protective and repair mechanisms and their regeneration. Although there are diverse different strategies to directly target alcohol-induced heart damage, they are partially effective, and can only be used as support medication in a multidisciplinary approach. Alcohol abstinence is the preferred goal, but control drinking is useful in alcohol-addicted subjects not able to abstain. Correction of nutrition, ionic and vitamin deficiencies and control of alcohol-related systemic organ damage are compulsory. Recently, several growth factors (myostatin, IGF-1, leptin, ghrelin, miRNA, and ROCK inhibitors) and new cardiomyokines such as FGF21 have been described to regulate cardiac plasticity and decrease cardiac damage, improving cardiac repair mechanisms, and they are promising agents in this field. New potential therapeutic targets aim to control oxidative damage, myocyte hypertrophy, interstitial fibrosis and persistent apoptosis In addition, stem-cell therapy may improve myocyte regeneration. However, these strategies are not yet approved for clinical use

Etiquetador automático de Marcadores Discursivos mediante Transformers

We present an automatic discourse particle (DM) tagger developed using manual annotation and machine learning. The tagger has been developed on a dataset of financial letters, where human annotators have reached an 0.897 agreement rate (IAA) on the indications of a specific annotation guide. With the annotated dataset, a prototype has been developed using the pre-trained Transformers, adapting it to the task (fine-tunning), reaching an F1-score of 0.933. An evaluation of the results obtained by the tagger is included.Presentamos un etiquetador automático de partículas discursivas (DM) desarrollado mediante etiquetado manual y aprendizaje automático. El etiquetador se ha desarrollado en un dataset de cartas financieras. Las anotadoras humanas han alcanzado un 0,897 de tasa de acuerdo (IAA) sobre las indicaciones de una guía de anotación específica. Con el dataset anotado se ha desarrollado un prototipo usando modelos de Transformers pre-entrenados adaptándolos a la tarea (fine-tuning) con un F1 de 0,933. Al final se da una evaluación de los resultados obtenidos por el tagger.The research has been carried out within the CLARA-FINT project (PID2020-116001RB-C31), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation

Regeneración y reutilización de aguas residuales depuradas

Els països de la Mediterrània pateixen una manca de recursos hídrics o una desigualtat geográfica i temporal a la seva aportació. És per aquest motiu que els recursos convencionals (aigües superficials i subterrànies) s’han de veure complementats amb altres fonts com poden ser les aigües residuals depurades que poden suplir aquesta manca. L’objecte d’aquest projecte és donar una visió global dels diferents sistemes de tractament terciari per la regeneració d’aquesta aigua, així com comentar casos de reutilització. L’elecció d’un o d’altre sistema de tractament, o bé una combinació d’aquests, és farà en funció de la qualitat que es requereixi en el seu ús posterior

Regeneración y reutilización de aguas residuales depuradas

Els països de la Mediterrània pateixen una manca de recursos hídrics o una desigualtat geográfica i temporal a la seva aportació. És per aquest motiu que els recursos convencionals (aigües superficials i subterrànies) s’han de veure complementats amb altres fonts com poden ser les aigües residuals depurades que poden suplir aquesta manca. L’objecte d’aquest projecte és donar una visió global dels diferents sistemes de tractament terciari per la regeneració d’aquesta aigua, així com comentar casos de reutilització. L’elecció d’un o d’altre sistema de tractament, o bé una combinació d’aquests, és farà en funció de la qualitat que es requereixi en el seu ús posterior

Looking for students' enthusiasm: flipped classroom

The “flipped classroom” is a pedagogical model that consists of putting certain learning processes outside the classroom so that the teacher can devote more class time to students’ acquisition of practical skills, for example. In this way, the teacher is not limited to the transmission of course content, but in addition assumes the role of a mediator in the cognitive process, allowing students to actively construct their own knowledge. In this role, the teacher’s main task is to encourage students to become independent learners. This paper describes the implementation and initial results of the application of the flipped classroom in higher education. This study is part of a larger research project to improve our students’ motivation through the use of the flipped learning. The sample consisted of about 3000 students taking 17 different subjects, in Management and Administration Business, Finance and Accounting, Marketing and Market Research, and Chemistry, at the University of Málaga, and in Accounting and Administration, Business Communication and Marketing at the Polytechnic of Porto. According to our results, students’ motivation and class attendance increased with the application of this model; a comparison of the final exam results from two years with traditional classes and from two years with flipped learning shows that the proportion of students failing the exam decreased, which confirms that the use of this pedagogic model improves student learning.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. This project is financed by Educational Innovation Projects 2017-2019 from Malaga University

Gamificacion in education and active methodologies at Higher education

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in applying Gamification in Education, which can be defined as the application of game design elements to learning activities. Its purpose is to motivate students by creating an engaging learning experience that can keep students focused on the learning task and its application in the classroom, is still in its emergent stages. Gamification is a great challenge for education, particularly in Higher Education Institutions (HEI) in such a traditional context, as is the case with courses like Management and Administration Business, Finance and Accounting, Marketing and Market Research, Chemistry, Accounting and Administration and Business Communication. This paper presents a study, applied in the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 academic years, in which the teaching method focuses on a blended learning approach, through the implementation of a flipped classroom model and also through the introduction of online gamification activities such Kahoot! application. Kahoot is a game-based learning platform, used as educational technology that can easily be used for initial, formative and summative assessment of students’ knowledge using individual or collaborative team work mode, adding vitality, student engagement, and also meta-cognitive supports to higher education classrooms with limited instructor or student training required. The participants, in the study, were about 3 000 students of 17 different subjects from the aforementioned courses, of the Malaga University and Polytechnic of Porto. The results of this study suggest that this model improves student learning and are of relevance to researchers, educators and game-based learning designers.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec