Sociotropy, Autonomy and Emotional Symptoms in Patients with Major Depression or Generalized Anxiety: The Mediating Role of Rumination and Immature Defenses

The relationships between dimensions of personality (sociotropy and autonomy), coping strategies (rumination: brooding and reflection subtypes, and immature defenses) and symptoms of depression and anxiety were explored in patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). A total of 279 patients completed questionnaires including measures of personality dimensions, rumination, immature defenses, depression and anxiety. Our findings suggested that sociotropy and autonomy may be associated with both depressive and anxious symptoms in patients with MDD and with GAD. Multiple mediation analyses indicated that brooding always acted as a mediating link between personality vulnerabilities (sociotropy and autonomy) and depressive and anxiety symptoms, independently of the patient group. In addition, in patients with MDD and those with GAD, brooding and immature defenses functioned together by linking sociotropy and autonomy, respectively, with depressive symptoms. Our results also showed that, in patients with GAD, both types of rumination explained the relationship between sociotropy and autonomy and anxiety symptoms. Overall, our findings provided evidence of the transdiagnostic role of the brooding, linking the vulnerability of personality dimensions and emotional symptoms. They also indicated that reflection and immature defenses can operate in conjunction with brooding, depending on the type of vulnerability and emotional contextS

Objective and automated assessment of surgical technical skills with IoT systems: A systematic literature review

The assessment of surgical technical skills to be acquired by novice surgeons has been traditionally done by an expert surgeon and is therefore of a subjective nature. Nevertheless, the recent advances on IoT, the possibility of incorporating sensors into objects and environments in order to collect large amounts of data, and the progress on machine learning are facilitating a more objective and automated assessment of surgical technical skills. This paper presents a systematic literature review of papers published after 2013 discussing the objective and automated assessment of surgical technical skills. 101 out of an initial list of 537 papers were analyzed to identify: 1) the sensors used; 2) the data collected by these sensors and the relationship between these data, surgical technical skills and surgeons' levels of expertise; 3) the statistical methods and algorithms used to process these data; and 4) the feedback provided based on the outputs of these statistical methods and algorithms. Particularly, 1) mechanical and electromagnetic sensors are widely used for tool tracking, while inertial measurement units are widely used for body tracking; 2) path length, number of sub-movements, smoothness, fixation, saccade and total time are the main indicators obtained from raw data and serve to assess surgical technical skills such as economy, efficiency, hand tremor, or mind control, and distinguish between two or three levels of expertise (novice/intermediate/advanced surgeons); 3) SVM (Support Vector Machines) and Neural Networks are the preferred statistical methods and algorithms for processing the data collected, while new opportunities are opened up to combine various algorithms and use deep learning; and 4) feedback is provided by matching performance indicators and a lexicon of words and visualizations, although there is considerable room for research in the context of feedback and visualizations, taking, for example, ideas from learning analytics.This work was supported in part by the FEDER/Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades;Agencia Estatal de Investigación, through the Smartlet Project under Grant TIN2017-85179-C3-1-R, and in part by the Madrid Regional Government through the e-Madrid-CM Project under Grant S2018/TCS-4307, a project which is co-funded by the European Structural Funds (FSE and FEDER). Partial support has also been received from the European Commission through Erasmus + Capacity Building in the Field of Higher Education projects, more specifically through projects LALA (586120-EPP-1-2017-1-ES-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP), InnovaT (598758-EPP-1-2018-1-AT-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP), and PROF-XXI (609767-EPP-1-2019-1-ES-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP)

Whole transcription profile of responders to anti-tnf drugs in pediatric inflammatory bowel disease

Background: Up to 30% of patients with pediatric inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) do not respond to anti-Tumor Necrosis Factor (anti-TNF) therapy. The aim of this study was to identify pharmacogenomic markers that predict early response to anti-TNF drugs in pediatric patients with IBD. Methods: An observational, longitudinal, prospective cohort study was conducted. The study population comprised 38 patients with IBD aged 0.6 or <−0.6 and p value < 0.05). After validation, FCGR1A, FCGR1B, and GBP1 were overexpressed in non-responders two weeks after initiation of anti-TNF treatment (Log2FC 1.05, 1.21, and 1.08, respectively, p value < 0.05). Conclusion: Expression of the FCGR1A, FCGR1B, and GBP1 genes is a pharmacogenomic biomarker of early response to anti-TNF agents in pediatric IBDInstituto de Salud Carlos III número de becas PI16 / 00559 y PI19 / 00792Consejería de Educación y Deporte de la Comunidad de Madrid PEJ16 / MED / AI-1260Instituto de Investigaciones Sanitarias Gregorio Marañón PRE2018-2Fondos Europeos de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) del Comisión Europe

Radiofrequency ablation for Barrett´s esophagus with high-grade dysplasia or intramucosal cancer: a systematic review

En portada aparecen logos de Red Española de Agencias de Evaluación de Tecnologías Sanitarias y Prestaciones del SNS, y Ministeriod e Sanidad, Servicios Sociales e Igualda

Influence of oral health on mucositis in patients undergoing hematopoietic progenitor cell transplantation (HPCT)

Aims: To establish whether or not the state of patient oral health can influence the occurrence and/or severity of oral mucositis during hematopoietic progenitor cell transplantation (HPCT). Materials and Methods: The study included 72 patients awaiting HPCT. Prior to transplantation, clinical explora-exxploration and radiology were carried out and oral photographs were taken. This evaluated the exxtent of caries present, the number of missing teeth and the number of dental fillings in each patient; CAO (Caries and Obturations Index) DMFS (Decayed, Missing, and Filled Surfaces) and Restoration Indices were calculated. Gingival pathology was also examined by means of the Ainamo and Bay Gingival Bleeding Index. O'Leary's Plaque Index was used to evaluate the level of patient oral hygiene. This data was analyzed to see if it exercised any influence on the mucositis grade suffered during HPCT. Results: 96,87% of patients suffered some degree of mucositis during their treatment by the Transplant Unit. The grade of mucositis was seen to be influenced by the number of missing teeth (ANOVA p<0.016) and by the DMFS Index (ANOVA p< 0.038). Although this was not one of the aims of this study, patient age and the administration of colony-stimulating factors were also seen to influence these clinical manifestations. Conclusions: The state of prior oral health can influence decisively the mucositis suffered during transplantation. © Medicina Oral S. L

From software engineering to courseware engineering

Proceedings of: 2016 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON), 10-13 April 2016, Abu Dhabi, United Arab EmiratesThe appearance of MOOCs has contributed to the use of educational technology in new contexts. As a consequence, many teachers face the challenge of creating educational content (courseware) to be offered in MOOCs. Although some best practices exist, it is true that most of the content is being developed without much thought about adequacy, reusability, maintainability, composability, etc. The main thesis at this paper is that we are facing a "courseware crisis" in the same way as there was a "software crisis" 50 years ago, and that the way out is to identify good engineering discipline to aid in the development of courseware. We need Courseware Engineering in the same way as at those times we needed Software Engineering. Therefore, the challenge is now to define and develop fundamentals, tools, and methods of Courseware Engineering, as an analogy to the fundamentals, tools, and methods that were developed in Software Engineering.The eMadrid Excellence Network is being funded by the Madrid Regional Government (Comunidad de Madrid) with grant No. S2013/ICE-2715. This work also received partial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness Project RESET (TIN2014-53199-C3-1-R) and from the European Erasmus+ projects MOOC-Maker (561533-EPP-1-2015-1-ES-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP) and SHEILA (562080-EPP-1-2015-BE-EPPKA3-PI-FORWARD). The first author would like to acknowledge fruitful discussions with Martin Wirsing and his group from LMU München during his research stay at this university with a scholarship from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sport

Glycemic Variability and Its Association With Demographics and Lifestyles in a General Adult Population

Objective: The objective was to investigate glycemic variability indices in relation to demographic factors and common environmental lifestyles in a general adult population. Methods: The A Estrada Glycation and Inflammation Study is a cross-sectional study covering 1516 participants selected by sampling of the population aged 18 years and over. A subsample of 622 individuals participated in the Glycation project, which included continuous glucose monitoring procedures. Five glycemic variability indices were analyzed, that is, SD, MAGE, MAG, CONGA1, and MODD. Results: Participants had a mean age of 48 years, 62% were females, and 12% had been previously diagnosed with diabetes. In the population without diabetes, index distributions were not normal but skewed to the right. Distributional regression models that adjusted for age, gender, BMI, alcohol intake, smoking status, and physical activity confirmed that all indices were positively and independently associated with fasting glucose levels and negatively with heavy drinking. SD, MAGE, and CONGA1 were positively associated with aging, and MAG was negatively associated with BMI. None of the GVI studied were influenced by physical activity. Age-group-specific reference values are given for the indices. Conclusions: This study yielded age-specific reference values for glucose variability indices in a general adult population. Significant increases were observed with aging. Heavy drinking of more than 140 g/week was associated with significant decreases in variability indices. No differences were found between males and females. These normative ranges provide a guide for clinical care, and may offer an alternative treatment target among persons with diabetesThe author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research project was supported by grants from Spain’s Carlos III Institute of Health (Instituto de Salud Carlos III/ISCIII) (PI11/02219 & PI13/02594) and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER). PDV and MAS were supported by ISCIII Preventive Activity & Health Promotion Research Network (Red de Investigación en Actividades Preventivas y de Promoción de Salud/redIAPP) grants RD06/0018/0006 & RD12/0005/0007, respectively. CCS has been partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MTM2015-69068-REDT)S

Validação transcultural e funcionamento diferencial do MBI-GS em professores de três países da América Latina

In Latin-America, burnout syndrome (BS) is a growing issue. However, very little has been explored of its cultural differences in its psychological mechanisms and its measurement efficiency. In particular, the MBI-GS questionnaire has been widely recognized as a satisfactory measure of BS in different sectors and occupational groups, and its validity has been proved in multiple languages and countries, but in Latin-America, research remains scarce. The objective of this study was to carry out a Latin-American translation and cultural adaptation of the MBI-GS, to analyze its internal structure, its reliability, and its measurement invariance (DIF and MGFCA) among genders and samples of teachers from three different Latin-American countries: México, Perú, and Venezuela. The results show that the proposed Latin version of the MBI-GS has satisfactory psychometric properties, including an equivalent item and scale functioning among genders and countries’ sample participants. Semantic issues and future perspectives are discussed.En América Latina, la investigación del síndrome de burnout (SB) es creciente; sin embargo, poco se ha explorado sobre las posibles diferencias culturales en sus mecanismos psicológicos y eficiencia de medición. En particular, el cuestionario MBI-GS ha sido reconocido como una medida satisfactoria del SB para su uso en distintos sectores y grupos ocupacionales, y su validez ha sido probada en múltiples países e idiomas, empero en Latinoamérica se adolece de investigaciones al respecto. El objetivo de este estudio fue realizar una traducción y adaptación cultural del MBI-GS para población latinoamericana, analizar su estructura interna, su fiabilidad y su invarianza (DIF y MGFCA) entre sexos y muestras de tres países latinoamericanos: México, Perú y Venezuela. Los resultados evidencian que la versión latina del MBI-GS propuesta presenta propiedades psicométricas satisfactorias, incluyendo la ausencia del funcionamiento diferencial entre sexos y países participantes. Na América Latina a pesquisa da síndrome de burnout (SB) é crescente, no entanto, pouco se tem explorado sobre as possíveis diferenças culturais em seus mecanismos psicológicos e eficiência de medição. Em particular, o questionário MBI-GS tem sido reconhecido como uma medida satisfatória do sb para uso em diferentes setores e grupos ocupacionais, e sua validade tem sido provada em múltiplos países e línguas, mas na Latino-América escasseiam as pesquisas ao respeito. O objetivo deste estudo foi realizar uma tradução e adaptação cultural do MBI-GS para população latino-americana, analisar sua estrutura interna, sua fiabilidade e sua invariância (DIF y MGFCA) entre sexos e amostras de professores de três países latino-americanos: o México, o Peru e a Venezuela. Os resultados evidenciam que a versão do MBI-GS proposta apresenta propriedades psicométricas satisfatórias incluindo a ausência de funcionamento diferencial entre sexos e países participantes. Discutem-se aspectos semânticos e perspectivas futuras

Cd38 deficiency ameliorates chronic graft versus Host disease murine lupus via a b-cell dependent mechanism

Trabajo presentado en el II Congreso investigación PTS, celebrado en Granada (España) del 09 al 11 de febrero de 2022.Absence of mouse cell surface receptor CD38 in Cd38-/- mice suggests that this receptor acts as positive regulator of inflammatory and autoimmune responses. Here we report that in the setting of a chronic graft versus host disease (cGVHD) lupus model induced by the transfer of B6.C-H2bm12/KhEg (bm12) spleen cells into co-isogenic Cd38-/- B6 mice causes milder lupus-like autoimmunity with lower levels of anti-ssDNA autoantibodies than the transfer of bm12 spleen cells into WT B6 mice. I In addition, significantly lower percentages of Tfh cells, as well as GC B cells, plasma cells and T-bet+CD11chi B cells are observed in Cd38-/- mice than in WT mice, while the expansion of Treg cells, and Tfr cells is normal, suggesting that the ability of Cd38-/- B cells to respond to allogeneic help from bm12 CD4+ T cells is greatly diminished. The frequencies of T-bet+CD11chi B cells, which are considered the precursors of the autoantibody secreting cells, correlate with anti-ssDNA autoantibody serum levels, with IL-27, and sCD40L. Proteomics profiling of spleens from WT cGVHD mice reflects a STAT1-driven type I IFN-signature, which is absent in Cd38-/- cGVHD mice. Kidney, spleen and liver inflammation was mild and resolved faster in Cd38-/- cGVHD mice than in WT cGVHD mice. We conclude that in B cells CD38 functions as a modulator receptor that controls autoimmune responses