Virtual Reality and Anxiety Disorders Treatment: Evolution and Future Perspectives

Virtual reality (VR) is a technology that allows the simulation of different real-life situations on a tridimensional computer-generated environment where the user can interact with the environment as if he/she were the real world. VR has potential as an exposure technique for treating anxiety disorders because VR and real objects have similar characteristics, which creates the illusion that the user is immersed and engaged with objects in the real world. Regarding the efficacy of using virtual reality exposure-based therapy (VR-EBT), for more than two decades, there has been sufficient empirical evidence regarding VR-EBT for treating anxiety disorders. Finally, this chapter ends with some directions and perspectives for future VR-EBT developments and treatments protocols

Tomar la palabra. Intertextualidad e intermedialidad como herramientas pedagógicas para la enseñanza de la literatura y otros discursos

Depto. de Lengua Española y Teoría de la LiteraturaFac. de FilologíaFALSEsubmitte

A phase I randomized therapeutic MVA-B vaccination improves the magnitude and quality of the T cell immune responses in HIV-1-infected subjects on HAART

Trial Design Previous studies suggested that poxvirus-based vaccines might be instrumental in the therapeutic HIV field. A phase I clinical trial was conducted in HIV-1-infected patients on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), with CD4 T cell counts above 450 cells/mm3 and undetectable viremia. Thirty participants were randomized (2:1) to receive either 3 intramuscular injections of MVA-B vaccine (coding for clade B HIV-1 Env, Gag, Pol and Nef antigens) or placebo, followed by interruption of HAART. Methods The magnitude, breadth, quality and phenotype of the HIV-1-specific T cell response were assayed by intracellular cytokine staining (ICS) in 22 volunteers pre- and post-vaccination. Results MVA-B vaccine induced newly detected HIV-1-specific CD4 T cell responses and expanded pre-existing responses (mostly against Gag, Pol and Nef antigens) that were high in magnitude, broadly directed and showed an enhanced polyfunctionality with a T effector memory (TEM) phenotype, while maintaining the magnitude and quality of the pre-existing HIV-1- specific CD8 T cell responses. In addition, vaccination also triggered preferential CD8+ T cell polyfunctional responses to the MVA vector antigens that increase in magnitude after two and three booster doses

The Fourteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey and from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment

The fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) has been in operation since July 2014. This paper describes the second data release from this phase, and the fourteenth from SDSS overall (making this, Data Release Fourteen or DR14). This release makes public data taken by SDSS-IV in its first two years of operation (July 2014-2016). Like all previous SDSS releases, DR14 is cumulative, including the most recent reductions and calibrations of all data taken by SDSS since the first phase began operations in 2000. New in DR14 is the first public release of data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS); the first data from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory (APO) Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE-2), including stellar parameter estimates from an innovative data driven machine learning algorithm known as "The Cannon"; and almost twice as many data cubes from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA) survey as were in the previous release (N = 2812 in total). This paper describes the location and format of the publicly available data from SDSS-IV surveys. We provide references to the important technical papers describing how these data have been taken (both targeting and observation details) and processed for scientific use. The SDSS website (www.sdss.org) has been updated for this release, and provides links to data downloads, as well as tutorials and examples of data use. SDSS-IV is planning to continue to collect astronomical data until 2020, and will be followed by SDSS-V.Comment: SDSS-IV collaboration alphabetical author data release paper. DR14 happened on 31st July 2017. 19 pages, 5 figures. Accepted by ApJS on 28th Nov 2017 (this is the "post-print" and "post-proofs" version; minor corrections only from v1, and most of errors found in proofs corrected

A chemical survey of exoplanets with ARIEL

Thousands of exoplanets have now been discovered with a huge range of masses, sizes and orbits: from rocky Earth-like planets to large gas giants grazing the surface of their host star. However, the essential nature of these exoplanets remains largely mysterious: there is no known, discernible pattern linking the presence, size, or orbital parameters of a planet to the nature of its parent star. We have little idea whether the chemistry of a planet is linked to its formation environment, or whether the type of host star drives the physics and chemistry of the planet’s birth, and evolution. ARIEL was conceived to observe a large number (~1000) of transiting planets for statistical understanding, including gas giants, Neptunes, super-Earths and Earth-size planets around a range of host star types using transit spectroscopy in the 1.25–7.8 μm spectral range and multiple narrow-band photometry in the optical. ARIEL will focus on warm and hot planets to take advantage of their well-mixed atmospheres which should show minimal condensation and sequestration of high-Z materials compared to their colder Solar System siblings. Said warm and hot atmospheres are expected to be more representative of the planetary bulk composition. Observations of these warm/hot exoplanets, and in particular of their elemental composition (especially C, O, N, S, Si), will allow the understanding of the early stages of planetary and atmospheric formation during the nebular phase and the following few million years. ARIEL will thus provide a representative picture of the chemical nature of the exoplanets and relate this directly to the type and chemical environment of the host star. ARIEL is designed as a dedicated survey mission for combined-light spectroscopy, capable of observing a large and well-defined planet sample within its 4-year mission lifetime. Transit, eclipse and phase-curve spectroscopy methods, whereby the signal from the star and planet are differentiated using knowledge of the planetary ephemerides, allow us to measure atmospheric signals from the planet at levels of 10–100 part per million (ppm) relative to the star and, given the bright nature of targets, also allows more sophisticated techniques, such as eclipse mapping, to give a deeper insight into the nature of the atmosphere. These types of observations require a stable payload and satellite platform with broad, instantaneous wavelength coverage to detect many molecular species, probe the thermal structure, identify clouds and monitor the stellar activity. The wavelength range proposed covers all the expected major atmospheric gases from e.g. H2O, CO2, CH4 NH3, HCN, H2S through to the more exotic metallic compounds, such as TiO, VO, and condensed species. Simulations of ARIEL performance in conducting exoplanet surveys have been performed – using conservative estimates of mission performance and a full model of all significant noise sources in the measurement – using a list of potential ARIEL targets that incorporates the latest available exoplanet statistics. The conclusion at the end of the Phase A study, is that ARIEL – in line with the stated mission objectives – will be able to observe about 1000 exoplanets depending on the details of the adopted survey strategy, thus confirming the feasibility of the main science objectives.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Activated mammalian target of rapamycin is a potential therapeutic target in gastric cancer

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) plays a key role in cellular growth and homeostasis. The purpose of our present study is to investigate the expression of activated mTOR (p-mTOR) in gastric cancer patients, their prognostic significance and the inhibition effect of RAD001 on tumor growth and to determine whether targeted inhibition of mTOR could be a potential therapeutic strategy for gastric cancer.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The expression of p-mTOR was detected in specimens of 181 gastric cancers who underwent radical resection (R0) by immunohistochemistry. The correlation of p-mTOR expression to clinicopathologic features and survival of gastric cancer was studied. We also determined the inhibition effect of RAD001 on tumor growth using BGC823 and AGS human gastric cancer cell lines.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Immunostaining for p-mTOR was positive in 93 of 181 (51.4%) gastric cancers, closely correlated with lymph node status and pTNM stage. Patients with p-mTOR positive showed significantly shorter disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) rates than those with p-mTOR-negative tumors in univariable analyses, and there was a trend toward a correlation between p-mTOR expression and survival in multivariable analyses. RAD001 markedly inhibited dose-dependently proliferation of human gastric carcinoma cells by down-regulating expression of p70s6k, p-p70s6k, C-myc, CyclinD1 and Bcl-2, up-regulating expression of P53.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In gastric cancer, p-mTOR is a potential therapeutic target and RAD001 was a promising treatment agent with inducing cell cycle arrest and apoptosis by down-regulating expression of C-myc, CyclinD1 and Bcl-2, up-regulating expression of P53.</p

Tomar la palabra (II). Intertextualidad e intermedialidad como herramientas pedagógicas para la enseñanza de la literatura y otros discursos

Este proyecto explora las relaciones entre obras literarias y literatura y otras artes (música, pintura, fotografía, cine, etc.) como medio para desarrollar la competencia lectora y expresiva y estimular el disfrute literario en ámbito universitario

Prediction of neonatal respiratory morbidity by quantitative ultrasound lung texture analysis: a multicenter study.

BACKGROUND: Prediction of neonatal respiratory morbidity may be useful to plan delivery in complicated pregnancies. The limited predictive performance of the current diagnostic tests together with the risks of an invasive procedure restricts the use of fetal lung maturity assessment. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to evaluate the performance of quantitative ultrasound texture analysis of the fetal lung (quantusFLM) to predict neonatal respiratory morbidity in preterm and early-term (<39.0 weeks) deliveries. STUDY DESIGN: This was a prospective multicenter study conducted in 20 centers worldwide. Fetal lung ultrasound images were obtained at 25.0-38.6 weeks of gestation within 48 hours of delivery, stored in Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine format, and analyzed with quantusFLM. Physicians were blinded to the analysis. At delivery, perinatal outcomes and the occurrence of neonatal respiratory morbidity, defined as either respiratory distress syndrome or transient tachypnea of the newborn, were registered. The performance of the ultrasound texture analysis test to predict neonatal respiratory morbidity was evaluated. RESULTS: A total of 883 images were collected, but 17.3% were discarded because of poor image quality or exclusion criteria, leaving 730 observations for the final analysis. The prevalence of neonatal respiratory morbidity was 13.8% (101 of 730). The quantusFLM predicted neonatal respiratory morbidity with a sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of 74.3% (75 of 101), 88.6% (557 of 629), 51.0% (75 of 147), and 95.5% (557 of 583), respectively. Accuracy was 86.5% (632 of 730) and positive and negative likelihood ratios were 6.5 and 0.3, respectively. CONCLUSION: The quantusFLM predicted neonatal respiratory morbidity with an accuracy similar to that previously reported for other tests with the advantage of being a noninvasive technique

Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV: Mapping the Milky Way, Nearby Galaxies, and the Distant Universe

We describe the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV (SDSS-IV), a project encompassing three major spectroscopic programs. The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment 2 (APOGEE-2) is observing hundreds of thousands of Milky Way stars at high resolution and high signal-to-noise ratios in the near-infrared. The Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey is obtaining spatially resolved spectroscopy for thousands of nearby galaxies (median $z\sim 0.03$). The extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) is mapping the galaxy, quasar, and neutral gas distributions between $z\sim 0.6$ and 3.5 to constrain cosmology using baryon acoustic oscillations, redshift space distortions, and the shape of the power spectrum. Within eBOSS, we are conducting two major subprograms: the SPectroscopic IDentification of eROSITA Sources (SPIDERS), investigating X-ray AGNs and galaxies in X-ray clusters, and the Time Domain Spectroscopic Survey (TDSS), obtaining spectra of variable sources. All programs use the 2.5 m Sloan Foundation Telescope at the Apache Point Observatory; observations there began in Summer 2014. APOGEE-2 also operates a second near-infrared spectrograph at the 2.5 m du Pont Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, with observations beginning in early 2017. Observations at both facilities are scheduled to continue through 2020. In keeping with previous SDSS policy, SDSS-IV provides regularly scheduled public data releases; the first one, Data Release 13, was made available in 2016 July