Stress Increases Vulnerability to Inflammation in the Rat Prefrontal Cortex

Inflammation could be involved in some neurodegenerative disorders that accompany signs of inflammation. However, because sensitivity to inflammation is not equal in all brain structures, a direct relationship is not clear. Our aim was to test whether some physiological circumstances, such as stress, could enhance susceptibility to inflammation in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), which shows a relative resistance to inflammation. PFC is important in many brain functions and is a target for some neurodegenerative diseases. We induced an inflammatory process by a single intracortical injection of 2 μg of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a potent proinflammogen, in nonstressed and stressed rats. We evaluated the effect of our treatment on inflammatory markers, neuronal populations, BDNF expression, and behavior of several mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinases and the transcription factor cAMP response element-binding protein. Stress strengthens the changes induced by LPS injection: microglial activation and proliferation with an increase in the levels of the proinflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor-α; loss of cells such as astroglia, seen as loss of glial fibrillary acidic protein immunoreactivity, and neurons, studied by neuronal-specific nuclear protein immunohistochemistry and GAD67 and NMDA receptor 1A mRNAs expression by in situ hybridization. A significant increase in the BDNF mRNA expression and modifications in the levels of MAP kinase phosphorylation were also found. In addition, we observed a protective effect from RU486 [mifepristone (11β-[p-(dimethylamino)phenyl]-17β-hydroxy-17-(1-propynyl)estra-4,9-dien-3-one)], a potent inhibitor of the glucocorticoid receptor activation. All of these data show a synergistic effect between inflammation and stress, which could explain the relationship described between stress and some neurodegenerative pathologies.España,Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia Grants SAF2002-01952 and SAF2004-0660

Smart tourism destinations really make sustainable cities: Benidorm as a case study

Purpose Tourism sustainability is a challenge for 21st-century destinations - this paper aims to analyse smart destinations' sustainability through a case study of Benidorm, the first world destination to be certified under the UNE 178501 standard as smart tourism destination (STD). Design/methodology/approach The methodological component has been divided into developing a framework for measuring sustainability through economic, social and environmental open data. Moreover, studying the plan's contribution "Benidorm, Destino Turistico Inteligente y Sostenible" to the city's sustainability through a time series analysis. Findings The main contribution shows that Benidorm's transformation into an STD leads to more sustainable cities. Thus, the conversion of Benidorm into an STD has a sustained effect in the medium and long term, contributing to the sustainability of the city. Research limitations/implications An open question as a limitation is the subjectivity of the distribution of the relative weight of each indicator. However, statistical analyses are developed to explore the relationship between indicators and global sustainability. Practical implications The debate to contextualise this paper is bridging the gap between sustainability and tourism intelligence, giving an original framework for measuring destination sustainability that provides a reasonable starting point for comparing tourism sustainability in different destinations. Social implications Tourists in the 21st century prefer environmentally friendly tourism. Marketing campaigns based on destination sustainability must be based on data rather than mere slogans. Originality/value To the best of the authors' knowledge, the originality of this paper provides a flexible framework for measuring sustainability from open data sources, being one of the first empirical analyses to study the effects on the sustainability of converting a mature destination into an STD

Documentary Analysis of the Scientific Literature on Autism and Technology in Web of Science

The objective of the study is to track the progression of the scientific literature on autism and the technology applied to this disorder. A bibliometric methodology has been used, based on a co-word analysis. The Web of Science database was chosen to perform the analysis of the literature. A unit of analysis of 1048 publications was configured. SciMAT software was used mainly for document analysis. The results indicate that the first studies appeared in 1992, but it was not until 2009 that the research volume increased considerably. The area of knowledge where these studies were compiled was rehabilitation, which marks the truly therapeutic nature of this type of study. One of the authors with the most studies, as well as the most relevant research, was Sarkar, N. Manuscripts were usually research articles written in English. It could be concluded that research in this field of study focused mainly on interventions carried out through the use of technological resources, with students or young people who present with ASD. This line of research, although not the only one, was the most relevant and the one that had aroused the most interest among the scientific community

A Low-Latency, Low-Power CMOS Sun Sensor for Attitude Calculation Using Photovoltaic Regime and On-Chip Centroid Computation

The demand for sun sensors has skyrocketed in the last years due to the huge expected deployment of satellites associated with the New Space concept. Sun sensors compute the position of the sun relative to the observer and play a crucial role in navigation systems. However, the sensor itself and the associated electronics must be able to operate in harsh environments. Thus, reducing hardware and post-processing resources improves the robustness of the system. Furthermore, reducing power consumption increases the lifetime of microsatellites with a limited power budget. This work describes the design, implementation, and characterization of a proof-of-concept prototype of a low-power, high-speed sun sensor architecture. The proposed sensor uses photodiodes working in the photovoltaic regime and event-driven vision concepts to overcome the limitations of conventional digital sun sensors in terms of latency, data throughput, and power consumption. The temporal resolution of the prototype is in the microsecond range with an average power consumption lower than 100 μW. Experimental results are discussed and compared with the state-of-the-art.Junta de Andalucía AT21_00096Office of Naval Research (ONR) N00014-19-1-2156Ministerio de Industria, Comercio y Turismo AEI-010500- 2022b-

Development and Validation of the Psychotherapeutic Effectiveness Attribution Questionnaire (PEAQ-12) in a Spanish Population

In recent decades, the study of psychotherapy effectiveness has been one of the pillars of clinical research because of its implication for therapeutic cure. However, although many studies have focused their interest on the patient's perception, there are no instruments oriented to the study of psychotherapists' attributions of effectiveness: to what factors psychotherapists attribute responsibility for the cure of the therapies they provide. The present study aimed to develop and validate an instrument for assessing the attribution of the effectiveness of psychotherapy in a population of 69 psychotherapists of different theoretical orientations. After an initial process of inter-judge content validation, 12 items were selected for validation in the targeted population, adequately fulfilling the quality requirements in the validity-reliability tests, and grouped into four factors after principal component analysis. These factors were as follows: (1) therapeutic alliance enhancers; (2) psychotherapist emotional characteristics; (3) therapy-specific variables; and (4) facilitators of patient engagement with therapy. This four-factor structure also showed a good fit for the fit indices checked in confirmatory factor analysis. In summary, we can conclude that the Psychotherapeutic Effectiveness Attribution Questionnaire (PEAQ-12) developed in our research can be helpful if tested on a larger number of individuals. The results can be replicated in other populations of psychotherapist

A negative pressure device for the treatment of diabetic foot.

Background: We studied the use of a negative pressure device designed by one of the authors (JATB) to determine if it shortens healing time and lowers the amputation level in patients with diabetic foot. Methods: Twenty-two patients in two randomized groups were studied. The characteristics of the ulcer according to the Wagner classification, superficial and deep sensitivity, and the status of the pulses were documented. In group 1, the control group, conventional treatment was used. Group 2, the experimental group, was also treated conventionally but a negative pressure device was added. The wounds were treated until healed or for one year. A statistical analysis was carried out with parametric tests that compared the evolution of the ulcer and the amputation level in both groups. Results: The ulcer closed by one year of follow-up in ten patients from each group, representing 90.9% of the patients. A statistically significant difference was not observed between the groups. Conclusions: After one year of evolution, a statistically significant difference in ulcer healing was not found in either group

Political Communication in Pandemic. The use of Twitter by Spanish regional presidents

Es un hecho que las estrategias comunicativas en política pasan por aprovechar las ventajas del medio digital y, más específicamente, de los social media, dando lugar a la política 2.0. Este trabajo analiza la comunicación que una muestra de presidentes de autonomía en España hizo en Twitter durante el Estado de Alarma. A partir de la metodología del análisis de contenido se han analizado 1840 tuits propios con el objetivo de determinar qué tipo de contenido han generado respecto al desarrollo de la crisis sanitaria analizando cómo lo han dicho y que temáticas han tocado.It is a fact that communication strategies in politics involve taking advantage of digital media and, more specifically, of social media, giving rise to politics 2.0. This paper analyses the communication that a sample of presidents of autonomous regions in Spain made on Twitter during the State of Alarm. Based on the meth- odology of content analysis, 1840 of their own tweets were analysed in order to determine what type of content they generated regarding the development of the health crisis, analysing how they said it and what topics they touched on

Medios de comunicación, representaciones y percepciones. El caso de la mujer política.

Este trabajo trata de comparar, por un lado, la representación de la mujer en los medios de comunicación y, por otro, su percepción por parte de la sociedad. En concreto, se analiza, por su relevancia social y mediática, la mujer política, a través de dos métodos de trabajo: un análisis de contenido sobre las noticias de diversos medios de comunicación y una encuesta que tiene como objetivo detectar los discursos sociales referidos a la mujer en el contexto político. Por último, se establece una comparación entre los resultados de ambos aspectos.This study seeks to compare the one hand, women’s representation in the media and, secondly, their perception by society. In particular, it examines, for its social and mediatic relevance, the case of the politic woman, through two working methods: a content analysis of various media and a poll that aims to detect speeches relating to social women in the political context. Finally, it provides a comparison between the results of both aspects

Engineering protein self-assembling in protein-based nanomedicines for drug delivery and gene therapy

Altres ajuts: FISS/PS09-00165Altres ajuts: FISS/PI12-00327Lack of targeting and improper biodistribution are major flaws in current drug-based therapies that prevent reaching high local concentrations of the therapeutic agent. Such weaknesses impose the administration of high drug doses, resulting in undesired side effects, limited efficacy and enhanced production costs. Currently, missing nanosized containers, functionalized for specific cell targeting will be then highly convenient for the controlled delivery of both conventional and innovative drugs. In an attempt to fill this gap, health-focused nanotechnologies have put under screening a growing spectrum of materials as potential components of nanocages, whose properties can be tuned during fabrication. However, most of these materials pose severe biocompatibility concerns. We review in this study how proteins, the most versatile functional macromolecules, can be conveniently exploited and adapted by conventional genetic engineering as efficient building blocks of fully compatible nanoparticles for drug delivery and how selected biological activities can be recruited to mimic viral behavior during infection. Although engineering of protein self-assembling is still excluded from fully rational approaches, the exploitation of protein nano-assemblies occurring in nature and the direct manipulation of protein-protein contacts in bioinspired constructs open intriguing possibilities for further development. These methodologies empower the construction of new and potent vehicles that offer promise as true artificial viruses for efficient and safe nanomedical applications

Estimación de curvas de demanda de consumidores, transformadores de distribución y alimentadores primarios en sistemas de distribución

Este artículo presenta una metodología para la estimación de curvas de demanda de potencia diaria a nivel de consumidor, transformador y alimentador primario. La estimación de las curvas toma como referencia mediciones de demanda de consumidores representativos, suministradas por empresas de distribución. Utilizando las curvas de demanda estimadas, se realiza agregaciones para obtener las curvas estimadas de los transformadores de distribución y del alimentador principal. Las curvas estimadas del alimentador son comparadas con las mediciones realizadas por las empresas obteniéndose un factor de corrección para aplicar a cada curva del consumidor y transformador