Benefits of physical exercise in patients with primary Sjögren´s syndrome : a case study

El Síndrome de Sjögren primario es una enfermedad autoinmune de origen desconocido, caracterizada por la destrucción progresiva de las glándulas exocrinas debido a la infiltración de los linfocitos. Afecta principalmente a mujeres. Entre las manifestaciones clínicas destaca la sequedad de mucosas, fatiga, artralgias y mialgias, insomnio, fenómeno Raynaud y problemas gastrointestinales entre otros. Actualmente no tiene cura ni tratamiento y cursa brotes de diferente intensidad y duración. Muchos pacientes presentan cuadros de depresión y ansiedad, debido a que hay un notable descenso de la calidad de vida. El ejercicio físico dirigido es una excelente forma de afrontar la enfermedad puesto que permite un buen mantenimiento del aparato locomotor y, por tanto, de la tonicidad muscular. En este sentido, el objetivo de este estudio de caso clínico fue mostrar cómo el ejercicio físico dirigido y las sesiones de fisioterapia pueden mejorar la calidad de vida de una paciente. Para ello se diseñó un programa personalizado flexible a fin de conseguir una disminución de la percepción del dolor y la fatiga. A lo largo de 12 semanas se ha trabajado con una paciente con el objetivo de mejorar la calidad de vida y reducir los dolores musculo-esqueléticos. Para ello se partió de los resultados de las pruebas de esfuerzo, a fin de adaptar las rutinas y sesiones de fisioterapia semanales a la condición física de la paciente. Transcurridas estas semanas se puede ver una tendencia a la mejora, medida con la escala EVA (Escala Visual Analógica).Primary Sjögren's syndrome is an autoimmune disease of unknown origin, characterized by the progressive destruction of the exocrine glands due to the infiltration of the lymphocytes. It mainly affects women. Clinical manifestations include dry mucous membranes, fatigue, arthralgias and myalgias, insomnia, Raynaud phenomenon and gastrointestinal problems among others. Currently, there is no cure or treatment and he has outbreaks of different intensity and duration. Many patients present with depression and anxiety, because there is a notable decrease in the quality of life. Directed physical exercise is an excellent way to deal with the disease since it allows a good maintenance of the locomotor system and, therefore, muscle tone. In this sense, the objective of this clinical case study was to show how directed physical exercise and physiotherapy sessions can improve a patient's quality of life. To this end, a flexible personalized program was designed in order to achieve a reduction in the perception of pain and fatigue. Throughout 12 weeks we have worked with a patient with the aim of improving the quality of life and reducing musculoskeletal pain. For this purpose, the results of the stress tests were used to adapt the routines and weekly physiotherapy sessions to the physical condition of the patient. After these weeks you can see a tendency to improvement, measured with the EVA scale (Visual Analogue Scale)

Perception and analysis of the university community in terms of the current system of communication research in Spain

[Resumen]: Introducción. Este artículo explora las prácticas sociales de la investigación en Comunicación en España. Recoge los resultados de una encuesta dirigida al profesorado en activo censado en las universidades españolas con titulación de Grado y Postgrado en Comunicación, a investigadores afiliados a las comunidades científicas y a los doctorandos de Comunicación. Metodología. Se ha invitado a participar a un total de 2418 investigadores con acceso al cuestionario mediante un link, siendo 838 los que respondieron a las preguntas. Resultados. El estudio muestra un cierto desfase entre lo que son las políticas institucionales académicas y la percepción que tienen los investigadores sobre ellas. Discusión. Se advierte la escasa relación que en el campo de la Comunicación existe entre la empresa y la universidad, una relación que debiera implicar un modelo de generación de conocimiento transferible al ámbito social y laboral como forma de obtener valor añadido.[Abstract]: Introduction. This paper explores the social practices of Communication research in Spain. It gathers the results of a questionnaire targeted to actively working professors included in the census of Spanish universities with Graduate and Post-Graduate studies in Communication, researcher’s members of scientific communities and doctorate students in Communication. Methodology. A total of 2,418 researchers were invited to participate and were granted access to the questionnaire by clicking a link, being 838 the number that completed the questions. Results. The study shows a certain mismatch between academic institutional policies and the perception of researchers about them. Discussion. There is noticed the scarce relationship between companies and university in the field of Communication, a relationship that should entail a model of generation of knowledge transferable to the social and labour context as a means for obtaining added value

Unravelling the spin-state of solvated [Fe(bpp)2] 2+ spin-crossover complexes: structure-function relationship

This is the Accepted Manuscript of the following article:M. D. C. Gimenez Lopez, M. Clemente Leon and C. Giménez-Saiz, Dalton Trans., 2018, DOI: 10.1039/C8DT01269EThe authors acknowledge the Royal Society (DH110080 fellowship for M.C.G-L.), the European Research Council (ERC StG-679124 for M.C.G-L.) and the Generalitat Valenciana for funding this workS

Communicative ecology in coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 times. From momentun catastrophicum to virus veritas

La pandemia del coronavirus ha puesto en jaque la estabilidad sanitaria e institucional, así como la veracidad de las instituciones y prensa, en la que puede identificarse, paralelamente a la pandemia sanitaria, la infodemia (OMS). El presente artículo dibuja un panorama de la situación mencionada, prestando atención a los principios de ética periodística, la situación informativa española y el trabajo informativo de la Organización Mundial de la Salud. Se parte de una revisión de casos concretos y bibliometría. Se constata la necesidad que tiene la ciudadanía de recibir una información fiable y veraz, trabajando conjuntamente las instituciones públicas y la ciencia empírica a fin de evitar la infodemia, la saturación informativa y las fake news.The coronavirus disease has put in check the stability of institutions and health organizations, as well as the veracity of such institutions and press. We can identify pandemic and infodemic (WHO) at the same time. This article pretends to describe the panorama of the aforementioned situation, putting attention to the journalistic principles, the Spanish informative environment, and the informative work of the World Health Organization. We conducted this research using concrete case studies and bibliometrics. We conclude that it is necessary to return to the citizen's need for receiving accurate and verified information. Public institutions and science shall work together to avoid infodemic, informative saturation, and fake news

Electrophoretic fingerprinting of benzodiazepine tablets in spike drinks

Over the last few years, there has been an increase in the reports of drug-facilitated crimes. The list of drugs associated with these crimes is extensive and benzodiazepines constitute one of the groups of substances more commonly used. The sedative properties, which characterize benzodiazepines, are enhanced when such drugs are combined with alcohol, being more attractive for committing these types of crimes. In this work, a capillary electrophoresis method was applied to the analysis of 63 different samples of club drinks spiked with benzodiazepine tablets. The resulting electropherograms were processed and analyzed with the chemometric multivariate techniques: principal component analysis (PCA) and soft independent modeling of class analogies (SIMCA) classification. The PCA results allowed a clear differentiation of each drug class in a 3D plot. In addition, the SIMCA classification model (5% significance level) showed that eight out of nine test samples were automatically assigned by software to their proper sample class. The conflicting sample was correctly classified in the Coomans? plot (95% confidence). This novel approach based on the comparison of electrophoretic profiles of spiked drinks by chemometric tools allows determining the benzodiazepine used for drink spiking without the use of drug standards.Moreover, it provides an opportunity for the forensic laboratories to incorporate the identification capability provided by the electrophoretic fingerprinting of benzodiazepine solutions in existing or new databases

Experimental and Numerical Modeling of Aerosol Delivery for Preterm Infants

Respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) represents one of the major causes of mortality among preterm infants, and the best approach to treat it is an open research issue. The use of perfluorocarbons (PFC) along with non-invasive respiratory support techniques has proven the usefulness of PFC as a complementary substance to achieve a more homogeneous surfactant distribution. The aim of this work was to study the inhaled particles generated by means of an intracorporeal inhalation catheter, evaluating the size and mass distribution of different PFC aerosols. In this article, we discuss different experiments with the PFC perfluorodecalin (PFD) and FC75 with a driving pressure of 4-5 bar, evaluating properties such as the aerodynamic diameter (Da), since its value is directly linked to particle deposition in the lung. Furthermore, we develop a numerical model with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques. The computational results showed an accurate prediction of the airflow axial velocity at different downstream positions when compared with the data gathered from the real experiments. The numerical validation of the cumulative mass distribution for PFD particles also confirmed a closer match with the experimental data measured at the optimal distance of 60 mm from the catheter tip. In the case of FC75, the cumulative mass fraction for particles above 10 mu m was considerable higher with a driving pressure of 5 bar. These numerical models could be a helpful tool to assist parametric studies of new non-invasive devices for the treatment of RDS in preterm infants.Consolidated Groups from the Basque Government supported this work. Technical and human support provided by IZO-SGI, SGIker (UPV/EHU) is gratefully acknowledged

Nerve Injury Triggers Time-dependent Activation of the Locus Coeruleus, Influencing Spontaneous Pain-like Behavior in Rats

Background: Dynamic changes in neuronal activity and in noradrenergic locus coeruleus (LC) projections have been proposed during the transition from acute to chronic pain. Thus, the authors explored the cellular cFos activity of the LC and its projections in conjunction with spontaneous pain-like behavior in neuropathic rats. Methods: Tyrosine hydroxylase:Cre and wild-type Long-Evans rats, males and females, were subjected to chronic constriction injury (CCI) for 2 (short-term, CCI-ST) or 30 days (long-term, CCI-LT), evaluating cFos and Fluoro-Gold expression in the LC, and its projections to the spinal cord (SC) and rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC). These tests were carried out under basal conditions (unstimulated) and after noxious mechanical stimulation. LC activity was evaluated through chemogenetic and pharmacologic approaches, as were its projections, in association with spontaneous pain-like behaviors. Results: CCI-ST enhanced basal cFos expression in the LC and in its projection to the SC, which increased further after noxious stimulation. Similar basal activation was found in the neurons projecting to the rACC, although this was not modified by stimulation. Strong basal cFos expression was found in CCI-LT, specifically in the projection to the rACC, which was again not modified by stimulation. No cFos expression was found in the CCI-LT LCipsilateral (ipsi)/contralateral (contra)→SC. Chemogenetics showed that CCI-ST is associated with greater spontaneous pain-like behavior when the LCipsi is blocked, or by selectively blocking the LCipsi→SC projection. Activation of the LCipsi or LCipsi/contra→SC dampened pain-like behavior. Moreover, Designer Receptor Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs (DREADDs)-mediated inactivation of the CCI-ST LCipsi→rACC or CCI-LT LCipsi/contra→rACC pathway, or intra-rACC antagonism of α-adrenoreceptors, also dampens pain-like behavior. Conclusions: In the short term, activation of the LC after CCI attenuates spontaneous pain-like behaviors via projections to the SC while increasing nociception via projections to the rACC. In the long term, only the projections from the LC to the rACC contribute to modulate pain-like behaviors in this model

Experimental Evaluation of Perfluorocarbon Aerosol Generation with Two Novel Nebulizer Prototypes

The potential of non-invasive ventilation procedures and new minimally invasive techniques has resulted in the research of alternative approaches as the aerosolization for the treatment of respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). The aim of this work was to design two nebulizer prototypes and to evaluate them studying the particle size distribution of the inhaled droplets generated with distilled water and two perfluorocarbons (PFCs). Different experiments were performed with driving pressures of 1⁻3 bar for each compound. An Aerodynamic Particle Sizer was used to measure the aerodynamic diameter (Da), the mass median aerodynamic diameter (MMAD) and the geometric standard deviation (GSD). The results showed that both prototypes produced heterodisperse aerosols with Da mean values in all cases below 5 m. The initial experiments with distilled water showed MMAD values lower than 9 m and up to 15 m with prototype 1 and prototype 2, respectively. Regarding the PFCs, relatively uniform MMAD values close to 12 m were achieved. The air delivery with outer lumens of prototype 1 presented more suitable mass distribution for the generation and delivery of a uniform aerosol than the two half-circular ring geometry proposed in the prototype 2.Funding: This work has been supported by Consolidated Groups from the Basque Government and Fundation VITAL Fundazioa