Adverse effects derived from consumption of anabolic steroids in sport

Los esteroides anabólicos androgénicos son análogos sintéticos químicamente modificados de la testosterona. Desde su descubrimiento, a principios del siglo XX, su uso se ha extendido enormemente en el deporte profesional, y de forma más preocupante, en los adolescentes y adultos jóvenes. Ciertos valores culturales actuales marcan una línea temática que puede desembocar en el consumo de dichas sustancias. El consumo de esteroides anabólicos representa un problema de salud pública. Los efectos secundarios se han documentado extensamente, afectando a multitud de aparatos y sistemas. Dentro de los más relevantes, podemos mencionar los efectos adversos a nivel cardiovascular, psicológico, hepático, reproductivo, neuro-cognitivo, genético y musculo-esquelético. A pesar de los hallazgos evidenciados, muchos de ellos irreversibles, son necesarios nuevos estudios que otorguen mayor conocimiento en la materia

Geocronología de la Terraza Compleja de Arganda en el valle del río Jarama (Madrid, España)

La Terraza Compleja de Arganda (TCA), situada en el tramo bajo del río Jarama (Madrid), está formada por sucesivos apilamientos de secuencias fluviales denominados de abajo a arriba Arganda I, II, III y IV, en los que se han encontrado importantes yacimientos arqueológicos y paleontológicos del Pleistoceno (Áridos 1 y 2, Valdocarros o HAT), y numerosos conjuntos de industria lítica del Paleolítico inferior y medio. Hasta ahora, la única referencia cronológica disponible para la TCA era la proporcionada por el estadio evolutivo de los micromamíferos de los yacimientos Áridos 1 en Arganda I y Valdocarros en Arganda II. En este trabajo, se propone la equivalencia de las distintas unidades de la TCA con terrazas escalonadas y se establece un marco cronológico numérico, obtenido mediante dataciones de termoluminiscencia, luminiscencia ópticamente estimulada y racemización de aminoácidos. Arganda I (≈ T+30-32 m) se situaría hacia el final del MIS 11 o en el inicio del MIS 9, Arganda II (≈T+23-24 m) se correspondería con el inicio del MIS 7, Arganda III (≈T+18-20 m) se situaría entre el MIS 7 y el MIS 5, y Arganda IV comenzaría su deposición en el MIS 5 finalizando su sedimentación en el MIS 1 al sur de Arganda del Rey (Madrid)

The development, description and appraisal of an emergent multimethod research design to study workforce changes in integrated care interventions

In this paper, we provide a detailed and explicit description of the processes and decisions underlying and shaping the emergent multimethod research design of our study on workforce changes in integrated chronic care. The study was originally planned as mixed method research consisting of a pre- liminary literature review and quantitative check of these findings via a Delphi panel. However, when the findings of the literature review were not appropriate for quantitative confirmation, we chose to continue our qualitative exploration of the topic via qualitative questionnaires and secondary analysis of two best practice case reports. The resulting research design is schematically described as an emergent and interactive mul- timethod design with multiphase combination timing. In doing so, we provide other researchers with a set of theory- and experience-based options to develop their own multimethod research and provide an example for more detailed and structured reporting of emergent designs. We argue that the terminology developed for the description of mixed methods designs should also be used for multimethod designs such as the one presented here. Keywords: multimethod research, emergent design, qualitative research, integrated care, workforce change

Barriers and facilitators to workforce changes in integrated care

Introduction: The aim of the study is to investigate the barriers and facilitators to the implementation of workforce changes implemented as part of integrated chronic care interventions. Methods: We used a qualitative multimethod design that combined expert questionnaires, a systematic literature review, and secondary analysis of two case reports. Twenty-five experts, twenty-one studies and two case reports were included in the study. Results: Most barriers related to problematic delivery structures, health professionals’ skills and enthusiasm, IT, funding, culture and cooperation and communication. Most facilitators related to health professionals’ motivation and enthusiasm, good delivery structures, communication and cooperation, IT, patients, leadership and senior management. Overall, similar categories of barriers and facilitators were found. Discussion: We recommend that future research focusses on more complex designs including multiple data sources, as these are better able to capture the complexity of interventions such as integrated care. We recommend that health managers and policy-makers should invest in delivery structures and skills and motivation of health professionals to improve the implementation of workforce changes in integrated chronic care interventions. Conclusion: The added value of the present study lies in its provision of information on which factors might mitigate the success of an intervention, which helps to prevent premature conclusions of ineffectiveness for complex interventions

Sensitivity plots for WIMP modulation searches

Prospects of WIMP searches using the annual modulation signature are discussed on statistical grounds, introducing sensitivity plots for the WIMP-nucleon scalar cross section.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, talk given at TAUP'99, september 199

Variability in disease phenotypes within a single PRNP genotype suggests the existence of multiple natural sheep scarpie strains within Europe

Variability of pathological phenotypes within classical sheep scrapie cases has been reported for some time, but in many instances it has been attributed to differences in the PRNP genotype of the host. To address this issue we have examined by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and Western blotting (WB) for the disease-associated form of the prion protein (PrPd), the brains of 23 sheep from five European countries, all of which were of the same ARQ/ARQ genotype. As a result of IHC examinations, sheep were distributed into five groups with different phenotypes and the groups were the same regardless of the scoring method used, ‘long’ or ‘short’ PrPd profiling. The groups made did not respond to the geographical origin of the cases and did not correlate with the vacuolar lesion profiles, which showed a high individual variability. Discriminatory IHC and WB methods coincided to detect a ‘CH1641-like’ case but otherwise correlated poorly in the classification of disease phenotypes. No other polymorphisms of the PRNP gene were found that could account for the pathological differences, except perhaps for a sheep from Spain with a mutation at codon 103 and a unique pathological phenotype. Preliminary evidence indicates that those different IHC phenotypes correlate with distinct biological properties on bioassay, suggesting that they are indicative of strain diversity. We therefore conclude that natural scrapie strains exist and that they can be revealed by detailed pathological examinations, which can be harmonized between laboratories to produce comparable results

Sensitivity plots for WIMP direct detection using the annual modulation signature

Annual modulation due to the Earth's motion around the Sun is a well known signature of the expected WIMP signal induced in a solid state underground detector. In the present letter we discuss the prospects of this technique on statistical grounds, introducing annual-modulation sensitivity plots for the WIMP-nucleon scalar cross section for different materials and experimental conditions. The highest sensitivity to modulation is found in the WIMP mass interval 10 GeV< m_W < 130 GeV, the actual upper limit depending from the choice of the astrophysical parameters, while the lowest values of the explorable WIMP-nucleon elastic cross-sections fall in most cases within one order of magnitude of the sensitivities of present direct detection WIMP searches.Comment: 24 pages, ReVTeX, 9 figures, submitted to Astroparticle Physic

The fluorination effect: the importance of backbone planarity in achieving high performance ambipolar field effect transistors

We report here the synthesis and physico-chemical characterization of a series of donor–acceptor (D–A) copolymers consisting of 4,7-di(2-thienyl)-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole and isoindigo building blocks, which have been progressively fluorinated with the aim of enhancing intrachain interactions and thus increasing their electrical performances in organic field effect transistors (OFETs). The effect of the polymeric partially locked conformations, upon fluorination, on the material properties has been comprehensively analyzed by means of spectroscopic (UV-vis-NIR and Raman) and electrochemical techniques and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Raman spectroscopy highlights that the impact of gradual fluorination on the molecular and electronic properties is highly dependent on the building blocks into which the fluorine atoms are introduced, being a much more efficient strategy to add them in the isoindigo unit. Electrical characterization of OFETs also shows that fluorination progressively increases the polymer coplanarity and electron affinity, varying the electrical performance from low hole dominated charge transport in the unfluorinated polymer to balanced ambipolar charge transport in the fluorinated ones. The best field-effect mobilities were recorded when fluorine atoms were added to the isoindigo unit, with values of 0.1 cm2 V−1 s−1 for both hole and electron transports.The work at the University of Málaga was supported by the MICINN (project PID2019-110305GB-I00) and by Junta de Andalucía (project P18-FR-4559). S. G.-V. thanks the MINECO for an FPU predoctoral fellowship (FPU17/04908). The authors would like to thank the computer resources, technical expertise and assistance provided by the SCBI (Supercomputing and Bioinformatics) centre of the University of Málaga. The Vibrational spectroscopy (EVI), XRD and AFM labs of the Research Central Services (SCAI) of the University of Málaga are also gratefully acknowledged. Al-Hashimi likes to acknowledge the financial support from the Qatar National Research Fund, Project Number NPRP12S-0304-190227. Notes and references // Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málag