Trends in Tissue Regeneration: Bio-Nanomaterials

Tissue engineering requires functional platforms or scaffolds with specific properties concerning the morphology, chemistry of the surface and interconnectivity to promote cell adhesion and proliferation. These requisites are not only important for cellular migration but also to supply nutrients and expulsion of waste molecules. Cell type must be considered when designing a specific cellular grown system as a scaffold; for instance, if they are autologous, allogeneic or xenogeneic. The challenge in tissue engineering is to develop an organized three-dimensional architecture with functional characteristics that mimic the extracellular matrix. In this regard, with the advent of nanotechnology scaffolds are now being developed that meet most of the aforementioned requisites. In the present chapter, the use of biopolymers based nanostructures is addressed, including biomaterials and stem cells, bio-nanocomposites, and specific clinical cases where these systems were employed. We emphasize the future challenges and perspectives in the design of biocompatible and nontoxic nanocomposites with high efficiency as a promoter for tissue regeneration and many other biomedical applications

Self-medication during pregnancy

  Objetivo: Identificar las implicancias asociadas a la automedicación durante la gestación. Material y métodos: Este artículo de revisión recolectó artículos a través de las bases de datos PubMed, Google Scholar y Scielo utilizando términos como automedicación, gestantes, (self-prescription) AND (pregnancy). Resultados: De los 52 artículos encontrados se incluyeron 32 estudios relacionados con el objetivo del presente artículo. La prevalencia de automedicación en gestantes fue mayor en Etiopía (69%) y menor en Perú (10,5%), el medicamento usado con mayor frecuencia fue el paracetamol, seguido de las plantas medicinales, asimismo, el síntomas que motivó a la automedicación fue el dolor de cabeza y el resfrío fue la principal infección que llevá a la misma acción. La causa más común para automedicarse durante la gestación fue tener una experiencia previa con el fármaco antes de la gestación. Conclusiones: Esta investigación mostró que existe una prevalencia elevada en los países de los que se recogieron los estudios. Las principales causas de esta práctica es por ser considerada más económica y más accesible a comparación de asistir a un establecimiento de salud, y por la experiencia previa a la gestación al tratar síntomas similares presentados desde el inicio del embarazo.Objective: To identify the implications associated with self-medication during pregnancy. Material and methods: This review article collected articles through the PubMed, Google Scholar and Scielo databases using terms such as self-medication, pregnant women, (self-prescription) AND (pregnancy). Results: Of the 52 articles found, 32 studies related to the objective of this article are included. The prevalence of self-medication in pregnant women was higher in Ethiopia (69%) and lower in Peru (10.5%), the most frequently used medication was paracetamol, followed by medicinal plants, different, the symptom that motivated self-medication it was the headache and the cold was the main infection that leads to the same action. The most common reason for self-medication during pregnancy was having previous experience with the drug before pregnancy. Conclusions: This research showed that there is a high prevalence in the countries from which the studies were collected. The main causes of this practice are because it is considered cheaper and more accessible compared to attending a health facility, and because of the experience prior to pregnancy when treating similar symptoms presented from the beginning of pregnancy

Towards airborne laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy: A signal recovery method for LIBS instruments subjected to vibrations

Sample or instrument vibrations can scatter laser impacts across the sample surface, which increases the uncertainty of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) measurements. The common sources of noise associated to mechanical vibration are described and a method for isolating LIBS measurements from artifacts introduced by such fluctuations is presented. The approach circumvents the use of mechanical stabilizers by leveraging simple components common in LIBS systems. A camera was used to capture close-up images of the sample for each laser shot and the laser spot position in the sample surface was measured using common image processing techniques. By associating spectra with spatial coordinates in the sample surface, it was possible to reduce the relative standard deviation of the Cu(I) 427.51 nm signal in a patterned Cu/Al sample from 122.0% to 53.31%, similar to that measured for a pure Cu sample in the same vibration conditions. The spatial resolution of the method was found to depend on the laser spot diameter, the illuminance at the sample, the camera sensitivity and trigger insertion delay, and the speed of the laser beam sweeping the sample surface. The spatial resolution obtained with the setup used was ±0.6 mm at 15 m, i.e., 40 μm per meter of separation between the instrument and the sample with a vibration speed limit of 12 cm·s−1.The authors would like to express their gratitude to Carlos Malagon ´of Astroshop (Málaga, Spain) for donating the telescope used in the stand-off LIBS instrument. This work has been partially supported by the Programa Estatal para la Incorporacion ´ Estable de Doctores (IEDI-2017-00828) and by the I Plan Propio de Investigacion ´ de la Universidad de Malaga ´ (Spain). Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Malaga/CBUA

La motivación y su contribución en el desarrollo del pensamiento crítico en los estudiantes del II ciclo de la carrera de Educación Artística en una escuela nacional de educación superior de Lima, en el periodo 2021-II

La presente investigación tiene como propósito explicar, cómo la motivación contribuye con el desarrollo del pensamiento crítico en los estudiantes de lII ciclo de la carrera de Educación Artística de una escuela nacional de educación superior de Lima. Los participantes fueron 15 estudiantes entre hombres y mujeres de diversas procedencias geográficas dentro del país. La metodología empleada es de enfoque cualitativo, alcance explicativo y de diseño fenomenológico. Los resultados evidenciaron que los estudiantes consideran que la motivación fomenta la habilidad de analizar argumentos, conduciéndolos a la recopilación de información de fuentes confiables y al estudio profundo de estas. Asimismo, se observó que la motivación aporta en la elaboración de inferencias a través del deseo por formular conjeturas más razonadas para debatir y contraargumentar otras posturas. También, se comprobó que la motivación contribuye a la explicación de argumentos mediante la satisfacción interna al momento de construir opiniones más elaboradas, así como para conseguir altas calificaciones. Finalmente, se comprobó que la motivación apoya la autorregulación de los estudiantes al momento de autoevaluar sus aprendizajes o de generar nuevos hábitos de estudio. Se concluye que la motivación fomenta el desarrollo de todas las habilidades del pensamiento crítico a través de diversas actividades y estrategias empleadas por el docente y los estudiantes. Asimismo, el uso del trabajo colaborativo fomenta el interés de estos para generar aprendizajes sólidos y argumentos con sentido crítico.Escuela de Postgrad

Comparación de los índices PROFUND y PALIAR en pacientes pluripatológicos con enfermedad crónica no oncológica en fase avanzada

Background and objective: To compare the discrimination power of PROFUND and PALIAR indexes for predicting mortality in polypathological patients with advanced non-oncologic chronic disease. Material and methods: Prospective multicentre cohort study. We included polypathological patients with advanced non-oncologic chronic disease, who were admitted to internal medicine departments between July 1 st and December 31th, 2014. Data was collected from each patient on age, sex, categories of polypathology, advanced disease, comorbidity, functional and cognitive assessment, terminal illness symptoms, need for caregiver, hospitalisation in the past three and 12 months and number of drugs. We calculated the PROFUND and PALIAR indexes and conducted a 12-month follow-up. We assessed mortality with the Kaplan-Meier survival curves and the discrimination of indexes with the ROC curves. Results: We included 213 patients with a mean (standard deviation) age of 83.0 (7.0) years, 106 (49.8%) of whom were female. Mortality at six months was 40.4% and at 12 months 50.2%. Deceased patients scored higher scores on the PROFUND [11.2(4.2) vs 8.5(3.9); P <.001] and PALIAR [6.7 (4.6) vs 3.6(3.1); p < 0, 001] indexes. The discrimination of PALIAR index at six months (under the curve area 0.734 95%CI 0.665-0.803) was higher than of PROFUND, and there was no difference at 12 months. Conclusions: In polypathological patients with advanced non-oncologic chronic disease, the PALIAR index had better discrimination power than PROFUND index at 66 months and there were no differences at 12 months

Field deployment of a man-portable stand-off laser-induced breakdown spectrometer: A preliminary report on the expedition to the Cumbre Vieja volcano (La Palma, Spain, 2021)

This paper reports on the expedition to the Cumbre Vieja volcano (Canary Islands, Spain) in November 2021 to assess stand-off laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy for real-time measurements of the lava streams from a safe point. The paper provides insight on the analytical approach to the problem, the rationale of the instrument design and construction carried out in three weeks, the experience with the new-born instrument at the volcano and the preliminary results. Despite the subtle spectral differences among the samples and the signal variability induced by the strong wind gusts at site, a statistical approach to data processing such as PCA, made possible to extract sufficient information and provide a robust classification tool.We express our sincere gratitude to the Spanish Unidad Militar de Emergencias (UME) for providing essential support, security, and expertise at the field. We would like to thank Carlos Malag ́on (Astro- shop, M ́alaga, Spain) for donating the telescope used in the stand-off LIBS instrument, to the personnel of the Chemical Analysis Area and the Machine Shop of the Central Facility for Research Support (SCAI-UMA) and to Profs. E.R. Losilla and A. Cabeza (Dept. Química Inorgánica, Cristalografía y Mineralogía, UMA) and D. Marrero (Dept. Física Aplicada I, UMA) for their valuable comments and advice with the surrogate samples. This work has been partially supported by the I Plan Propio de Investigaci ́on de la Universidad de M ́alaga, the Extraordinary Funding (RD 1078/2021, 7th December, Núm. 293 Sec. I. P ́ag. 150,995) and PID2020-113407RB-I00 granted by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN). Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga / CBU

Sedimentation and biomineralization processes in Las Eras Lake (Coca-Olmedo wetland)

La Laguna de Las Eras es uno de los pequeños y someros cuerpos de agua, que forman el humedal de la zona Coca-Olmedo (cuenca del Duero), caracterizado por su elevada alcalinidad, lo que constituye un rasgo singular dentro de Europa. La laguna presenta una salmuera de tipo Na-Mg-Cl- SO4 y su superficie está colonizada por tapices microbianos, donde se desarrollan estructuras sedimentarias inducidas por los microorganismos (MISS). Se reconocen diversos minerales autigénicos asociados a los tapices: thenardita, hidromagnesita, sulfatos y fosfatos magnésicos, azufre y halita. Junto a éstos destacan, por ser carbonatos atípicos en Europa, natrón y trona. El estudio petrográfico de los precipitados revela que éstos guardan una estrecha relación con las estructuras microbianas, sugiriendo cierta influencia de los microorganismos en la precipitación mineral. Los tapices microbianos de la laguna de Las Eras constituyen buenos análogos para comprender los procesos geobiológicos y ahondar en la reconstrucción paleoambiental de los lagos alcalinos que han existido desde el ArcaicoLas Eras Lake is one of the small and shallow bodies of water, which form the highly alkaline Coca-Olmedo wetland (Duero Basin), a unique feature within Europe. The lake brine is a Na-Mg-Cl-SO4 type. The lake hosts benthic microbial mats and its surface shows microbially influenced sedimentary structures (MISS). Associated with the microbial mats, several authigenic minerals are recognized such as thenardite, hydromagnesite, magnesium- bearing sulphate and phosphate, halite and sulphur.Among these we highlight the occurrence of natron and trona because the sodium-bearing carbonates are uncommon in the european region. The scanning electron microscopy study reveals that the minerals are closely related to microbial structures, suggesting some influence of microorganisms in the mineral precipitation. Recent microbial mats as those hosted in Las Eras Lake are good analogues for understanding geobiological processes. Knowledge of these processes provides a model for paleoenvironmental reconstruction of alkaline endorheic lakes that have existed since the Arc

Sedimentation and biomineralization processes in Las Eras Lake (Coca-Olmedo wetland)

La Laguna de Las Eras es uno de los pequeños y someros cuerpos de agua, que forman el humedal de la zona Coca-Olmedo (cuenca del Duero), caracterizado por su elevada alcalinidad, lo que constituye un rasgo singular dentro de Europa. La laguna presenta una salmuera de tipo Na-Mg-ClSO4 y su superficie está colonizada por tapices microbianos, donde se desarrollan estructuras sedimentarias inducidas por los microorganismos (MISS). Se reconocen diversos minerales autigénicos asociados a los tapices: thenardita, hidromagnesita,sulfatos y fosfatos magnésicos, azufre y halita. Junto a éstos destacan, por ser carbonatos atípicos en Europa, natrón y trona. El estudio petrográfico de los precipitados revela que éstos guardan una estrecha relación con las estructuras microbianas, sugiriendo cierta influencia de los microorganismos en la precipitación mineral.Los tapices microbianos de la laguna de Las Eras constituyen buenos análogos para comprender los procesos geobiológicos y ahondar en la reconstrucción paleoambiental de los lagos alcalinos que han existido desde el Arcaico.Las Eras Lake is one of the small and shallow bodies of water, which form the highly alkaline Coca-Olmedo wetland (Duero Basin), a unique feature within Europe. The lake brine is a Na-Mg-Cl-SO4 type. The lake hosts benthic microbial mats and its surface shows microbially influenced sedimentary structures (MISS). Associated with the microbial mats, several authigenic minerals are recognized such as thenardite, hydromagnesite, magnesium-bearing sulphate and phosphate, halite and sulphur.Among these we highlight the occurrence of natron and trona because the sodium-bearing carbonates are uncommon in the european region. The scanning electron microscopy study reveals that the minerals are closely related to microbial structures,suggesting some influence of microorganisms in the mineral precipitation. Recent microbial mats as those hosted in Las Eras Lake are good analogues for understanding geobiological processes. Knowledge of these processes provides a model for paleoenvironmental reconstruction of alkaline endorheic lakes that have existed since the Archean.Depto. de Biodiversidad, Ecología y EvoluciónFac. de Ciencias BiológicasTRUEMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO)pu

Effectiveness of an intervention for improving drug prescription in primary care patients with multimorbidity and polypharmacy:Study protocol of a cluster randomized clinical trial (Multi-PAP project)

This study was funded by the Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias ISCIII (Grant Numbers PI15/00276, PI15/00572, PI15/00996), REDISSEC (Project Numbers RD12/0001/0012, RD16/0001/0005), and the European Regional Development Fund ("A way to build Europe").Background: Multimorbidity is associated with negative effects both on people's health and on healthcare systems. A key problem linked to multimorbidity is polypharmacy, which in turn is associated with increased risk of partly preventable adverse effects, including mortality. The Ariadne principles describe a model of care based on a thorough assessment of diseases, treatments (and potential interactions), clinical status, context and preferences of patients with multimorbidity, with the aim of prioritizing and sharing realistic treatment goals that guide an individualized management. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a complex intervention that implements the Ariadne principles in a population of young-old patients with multimorbidity and polypharmacy. The intervention seeks to improve the appropriateness of prescribing in primary care (PC), as measured by the medication appropriateness index (MAI) score at 6 and 12months, as compared with usual care. Methods/Design: Design:pragmatic cluster randomized clinical trial. Unit of randomization: family physician (FP). Unit of analysis: patient. Scope: PC health centres in three autonomous communities: Aragon, Madrid, and Andalusia (Spain). Population: patients aged 65-74years with multimorbidity (≥3 chronic diseases) and polypharmacy (≥5 drugs prescribed in ≥3months). Sample size: n=400 (200 per study arm). Intervention: complex intervention based on the implementation of the Ariadne principles with two components: (1) FP training and (2) FP-patient interview. Outcomes: MAI score, health services use, quality of life (Euroqol 5D-5L), pharmacotherapy and adherence to treatment (Morisky-Green, Haynes-Sackett), and clinical and socio-demographic variables. Statistical analysis: primary outcome is the difference in MAI score between T0 and T1 and corresponding 95% confidence interval. Adjustment for confounding factors will be performed by multilevel analysis. All analyses will be carried out in accordance with the intention-to-treat principle. Discussion: It is essential to provide evidence concerning interventions on PC patients with polypharmacy and multimorbidity, conducted in the context of routine clinical practice, and involving young-old patients with significant potential for preventing negative health outcomes. Trial registration: Clinicaltrials.gov, NCT02866799Publisher PDFPeer reviewe