Effects of a single session of SMR neurofeedback training on anxiety and cortisol levels

Objectives: According to some studies, a putatively calming effect of EEG neurofeedback training could be useful as a therapeutic tool in psychiatric practice. With the aim of elucidating this possibility, we tested the efficacy of a single session of ¿sensorimotor (SMR)/¿theta neurofeedback training for mood improvement in 32 healthy men, taking into account trainability, independence and interpretability of the results. Methods: A pre-post design, with the following dependent variables, was applied: (i) psychometric measures of mood with regards to anxiety, depression, and anger (Profile of Mood State, POMS, and State Trait Anxiety Inventory, STAI); (ii) biological measures (salivary levels of cortisol); (iii) neurophysiological measures (EEG frequency band power analysis). In accordance with general recommendations for research in neurofeedback, a control group receiving sham neurofeedback was included. Results: Anxiety levels decreased after the real neurofeedback and increased after the sham neurofeedback (P < 0.01, size effect 0.9 for comparison between groups). Cortisol decreased after the experiment in both groups, though with significantly more pronounced effects in the desired direction after the real neurofeedback (P < 0.04; size effect 0.7). The group receiving real neurofeedback significantly enhanced their SMR band (P < 0.004; size effect 0.88), without changes in the theta band. The group receiving sham neurofeedback did not show any EEG changes. Conclusions: The improvement observed in anxiety was greater in the experimental group than in the sham group, confirmed by both subjective (psychometric) measures and objective (biological) measures. This was demonstrated to be associated with the real neurofeedback, though a nonspecific (placebo) effect likely also contributed

Financiación pública y emprendimiento: comportamientos y heterogeneidad regional de las pequeñas y medianas empresas

The existence of restrictions for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to access long-term credit has led governments to establish institutional systems to facilitate such access and reduce the cost of credit, with the condition that its feasibility is justified (and assessed) and there are no distortions as regards competition. Very few empirical in-depth studies exist regarding this field of academic research, and scarce attention has been paid from a regional perspective. Due to the characteristics of the business structures in the different regions, as well as the existence of agglomeration economies and the regional dispersion of the entrepreneurship rate, this paper analyses the effects of the productive financing support model, provided by the Government of Spain, through the Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO) [Official Credit Institute], on the behaviours and performances of the beneficiary companies. In the last decade, this source of financing has assigned 30,000 million euro. The results show the general acceptance of this policy due to its adaptation to the interests of the companies and its contribution to the improvement of the economic-financial efficiency indicators. Regionally, no substantial differences have been observed, but the results of this research show a greater contribution to the dynamism of the more progressive regions.La generalizada aceptación de la existencia de restricciones al acceso al crédito a largo plazo por parte de las pequeñas y medianas empresas (Pyme), ha inducido a los gobiernos al establecimiento de sistemas institucionales que faciliten dicho acceso y abaraten el coste del crédito, siempre que pueda justificarse (y evaluarse) su viabilidad y no introduzcan distorsiones en la competencia. Abundantes estudios han profundizado en esta vía de investigación académica, aunque apenas han particularizado la perspectiva regional. Debido a las distintas características que presenta la estructura empresarial entre las regiones, así como a la existencia de economías de aglomeración y a la dispersión regional de la tasa de empresarialidad, en este trabajo se analiza la incidencia del modelo de apoyo a la financiación productiva, proporcionada por el gobierno de España, a través del Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO), en los comportamientos y desempeños de las empresas beneficiarias. Esta línea de financiación, de intermediación bancaria, ha destinado en la última década casi 30.000 millones de euros. Los resultados arrojan evidencias de la aceptación generalizada de esta política por su adecuación a los intereses de las empresas y por su contribución a la mejora de sus indicadores de eficiencia económico-financiera. Regionalmente, no se observan importantes disimilitudes, pero la investigación detecta una mayor contribución al dinamismo de las regiones más avanzadas

Managing Workflows on top of a Cloud Computing Orchestrator for using heterogeneous environments on e-Science

[EN] Scientific workflows (SWFs) are widely used to model processes in e-Science. SWFs are executed by means of workflow management systems (WMSs), which orchestrate the workload on top of computing infrastructures. The advent of cloud computing infrastructures has opened the door of using on-demand infrastructures to complement or even replace local infrastructures. However, new issues have arisen, such as the integration of hybrid resources or the compromise between infrastructure reutilisation and elasticity. In this article, we present an ad hoc solution for managing workflows exploiting the capabilities of cloud orchestrators to deploy resources on demand according to the workload and to combine heterogeneous cloud providers (such as on-premise clouds and public clouds) and traditional infrastructures (clusters) to minimise costs and response time. The work does not propose yet another WMS but demonstrates the benefits of the integration of cloud orchestration when running complex workflows. The article shows several configuration experiments from a realistic comparative genomics workflow called Orthosearch, to migrate memory-intensive workload to public infrastructures while keeping other blocks of the experiment running locally. The article computes running time and cost suggesting best practices.This paper wants to acknowledge the support of the EUBrazilCC project, funded by the European Commission (STREP 614048) and the Brazilian MCT/CNPq N. 13/2012, for the use of its infrastructure. The authors would like also to thank the Spanish 'Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad' for the project 'Clusters Virtuales Elasticos y Migrables sobre Infraestructuras Cloud Hibridas' with reference TIN2013-44390-R.Carrión Collado, AA.; Caballer Fernández, M.; Blanquer Espert, I.; Kotowski, N.; Jardim, R.; Dávila, AMR. (2017). Managing Workflows on top of a Cloud Computing Orchestrator for using heterogeneous environments on e-Science. International Journal of Web and Grid Services. 13(4):375-402. doi:10.1504/IJWGS.2017.10003225S37540213

Debugging of Web Applications with Web-TLR

Web-TLR is a Web verification engine that is based on the well-established Rewriting Logic--Maude/LTLR tandem for Web system specification and model-checking. In Web-TLR, Web applications are expressed as rewrite theories that can be formally verified by using the Maude built-in LTLR model-checker. Whenever a property is refuted, a counterexample trace is delivered that reveals an undesired, erroneous navigation sequence. Unfortunately, the analysis (or even the simple inspection) of such counterexamples may be unfeasible because of the size and complexity of the traces under examination. In this paper, we endow Web-TLR with a new Web debugging facility that supports the efficient manipulation of counterexample traces. This facility is based on a backward trace-slicing technique for rewriting logic theories that allows the pieces of information that we are interested to be traced back through inverse rewrite sequences. The slicing process drastically simplifies the computation trace by dropping useless data that do not influence the final result. By using this facility, the Web engineer can focus on the relevant fragments of the failing application, which greatly reduces the manual debugging effort and also decreases the number of iterative verifications.Comment: In Proceedings WWV 2011, arXiv:1108.208

Helminth fauna of small mammals (insectivores and rodents) in Doñana (southeastern Iberian Peninsula)

Peer Reviewe

Studying kinetochore kinases

Mitotic kinetochores are signaling network hubs that regulate chromosome movements, attachment error-correction, and the spindle assembly checkpoint. Key switches in these networks are kinases and phosphatases that enable rapid responses to changing conditions. Describing the mechanisms and dynamics of their localized activation and deactivation is therefore instrumental for understanding the spatiotemporal control of chromosome segregation

Jute/polypropylene composites: Effect of enzymatic modification on thermo-mechanical and dynamic mechanical properties

In this study, a high-performance composite was prepared from jute fabrics and polypropylene (PP). In order to improve the compatibility of the polar fibers and the non-polar matrix, alkyl gallates with different hydrophobic groups were enzymatically grafted onto jute fabric by laccase to increase the surface hydrophobicity of the fiber. The grafting products were characterized by FTIR. The results of contact angle and wetting time showed that the hydrophobicity of the jute fabrics was improved after the surface modification. The effect of the enzymatic graft modification on the properties of the jute/PP composites was evaluated. Results showed that after the modification, tensile and dynamic mechanical properties of composites improved, and water absorption and thickness swelling clearly decreased. However, tensile properties drastically decreased after a long period of water immersion. The thermal behavior of the composites was evaluated by TGA/DTG. The fiber-matrix morphology in the modified jute/PP composites was confirmed by SEM analysis of the tensile fractured specimens.This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51173071), the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-12-0883), the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University (IRT1135) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (JUSRP51312B, JUSRP51505)

Butyrophilin-like 2 regulates site-specific adaptations of intestinal γδ intraepithelial lymphocytes

Tissue-resident γδ intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs) orchestrate innate and adaptive immune responses to maintain intestinal epithelial barrier integrity. Epithelia-specific butyrophilin-like (Btnl) molecules induce perinatal development of distinct Vγ TCR+ IELs, however, the mechanisms that control γδ IEL maintenance within discrete intestinal segments are unclear. Here, we show that Btnl2 suppressed homeostatic proliferation of γδ IELs preferentially in the ileum. High throughput transcriptomic characterization of site-specific Btnl2-KO γδ IELs reveals that Btnl2 regulated the antimicrobial response module of ileal γδ IELs. Btnl2 deficiency shapes the TCR specificities and TCRγ/δ repertoire diversity of ileal γδ IELs. During DSS-induced colitis, Btnl2-KO mice exhibit increased inflammation and delayed mucosal repair in the colon. Collectively, these data suggest that Btnl2 fine-tunes γδ IEL frequencies and TCR specificities in response to site-specific homeostatic and inflammatory cues. Hence, Btnl-mediated targeting of γδ IEL development and maintenance may help dissect their immunological functions in intestinal diseases with segment-specific manifestations