Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet in Pregnancy and Its Benefits on Maternal-Fetal Health: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Introduction: Pregnancy is a transcendent period for the mother and the fetus, characterized by an increase on energy requirements. Mediterranean diet (MD) is considered a healthy eating pattern that can provide the nutritional requirements of pregnancy and protect from the development of obstetric pathologies. Objective: To know the relationship between adherence to the MD and its maternal-fetal benefits. Methodology: A systematic review was conducted by identifying articles in the PubMed and Cochrane databases. The publication date of the studies was between 2010 and 2020, and the inclusion criteria established were that the articles were written in English and Spanish and were accessible in full text. Studies concerning assisted reproduction, gene modulation, conference abstracts, systematic reviews, and pilot studies were excluded. Results: Finally, a total of 14 studies were included in the review. The association between the MD and the reduction of some pathologies of pregnancy, such as gestational diabetes, overweight or obesity, sleep quality, complications of childbirth, urinary tract infections (UTIs), and alterations in fetal growth was demonstrated, as well as perinatal problems, including birth weight, prematurity, gastroschisis, and other childhood problems. Conclusion: The MD is an optimal diet to consume during pregnancy

Therapeutic potential of fetal liver cells transplantation in hemophilia A mice

: Hemophilia A (HA) cell therapy approaches in pediatric individuals require suitable factor (F)VIII-producing cells for stable engraftment. Liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSEC) and hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) have been demonstrated to be suitable for the treatment of adult HA-mice. However, after transplantation in busulfan (BU)-conditioned newborn mice, adult LSEC/HSC cannot efficiently engraft, while murine fetal liver (FL) hemato/vascular cells from embryonic day 11-13 of gestation (E11-E13), strongly engraft the hematopoietic and endothelial compartments while also secreting FVIII. Our aim was to investigate the engraftment of FL cells in newborn HA mice for obtaining a suitable "proof of concept" for the development of a new HA treatment in neonates. Hence, we transplanted FLE11 or E13 cells and adult bone marrow (BM) cells into newborn HA mice with or without BU preconditioning. The engraftment levels and FVIII activity was assessed starting from 6 weeks after transplantation. FLE11-E13+BU-transplanted newborns reached up to 95% engraftment with stable FVIII activity levels observed for 16 months. FLE13 cells showed engraftment ability even in absence of BU preconditioning, while FLE11 cells did not. BM+BU transplanted newborn HA mice showed high levels of engraftment; nevertheless, in contrast to FL cells, BM cells cannot engraft HA newborns in non-conditioning regimen. Finally, none of the transplanted mice developed anti-FVIII antibodies. Overall, this study sheds some light on the therapeutic potential of healthy FL cells in the cure of HA neonatal/pediatric patients

Influence of the Mediterranean diet on seminal quality—a systematic review

Currently, there is a growing interest in the study of fertility because fertility-related problems affect up to 15% of the world’s population. The aim of this study was to determine the influence of the Mediterranean diet on seminal quality in men of reproductive age. For this purpose, a systematic review of the literature was carried out following the PRISMA method. Electronic searches were carried out in the international databases PubMed, Scopus, the Cochrane Library, and Web of Science. In total, 10 articles with 2032 men were included. As inclusion criteria, articles published between 2012 and 2022 were selected, including those that included men aged between 18 and 55 years. Nutritional status was assessed through weight, height, and BMI. Dietary habits were evaluated through different indexes and food frequency questionnaires, and finally, semen quality was evaluated by measuring sperm concentration and motility (progressive and non-progressive). In six (60%) of the included articles, a positive relationship between adherence to the Mediterranean diet and semen quality was demonstrated; in two (20%) of the articles, no association was found; and finally, in two (20%) of the included articles, the relationship between dietary patterns typical of DM and semen quality was evaluated. Dietary habits influence semen quality. Adherence to the Mediterranean diet can improve male reproductive health, as it is a diet with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. This is the first systematic review about the influence of the Mediterranean diet on semen quality, and the results are positive. These findings may allow us to provide better advice to our patients and to establish interventions with the aim of improving the results of assisted reproduction techniques

Active methods in electricity and magnetism courses: Influence of degree, academic level and gender on student performance

[EN] The performance of first-year students in electromagnetism (E&M) courses of different engineering degrees at a Spanish public university was measured using the Brief Electricity and Magnetism Assessment (BEMA), a standard research-based instrument to assess students' understanding after attending introductory courses in electricity and magnetism. In all cases, Flipped classroom (FC) built on information and communications technology was used. The objective of this paper is to analyse if the gain in the BEMA pre and post-test results is influenced by several factors such as the degree, the students' academic grade, and gender. Moreover, as some studies have shown that the students' retention of the concepts was significantly stronger in active learning than in traditional approaches, a third BEMA test was performed by the students to analyse the long-term retention gain dependence on the same factors. Students from different engineering degree programs were asked to complete two BEMA tests during the course and a third one after a few months. ANOVA tests were used to analyse the existence of significant differences in gain between student degree programs, student academic level and student gender. Results have shown no differences in the BEMA performance by degree program, but significant differences were found by academic level and gender. Retention did not depend on the degree course but on the academic level. Mean gain value by academic level, and gender was obtained and concluded that the best students presented the best gain results and that gain depends on the students' gender: males outperformed females in the BEMA tests, although there were no significant differences in the course grades. It is thus necessary to understand these differences and to implement measures in daily teaching work to improve women's performance.Authors would like to thank the Instituto de Ciencias de la Educacion (ICE) in the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia for their help, through the Innovation and Educational Quality Program and for supporting the team of the Innovacion en Metodologias Activas para el Aprendizaje de la Fisica (e-MACAFI) . This work has been supported by the UPV through the Project of Innovation and Educational Improvement Program (Projects PIME/18-19/76, PIME/18-19/88 and PIME/20-21/220 Convocatoria de Proyectos de Innovacion y Convergencia de la UPV) .Serrano, M.; Vidaurre, A.; Meseguer-Dueñas, JM.; Tort-Ausina, I.; Quiles Casado, SDLS.; Sabater I Serra, R.; García-Sanchez, T.... (2023). Active methods in electricity and magnetism courses: Influence of degree, academic level and gender on student performance. Heliyon. 9(10):1-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e2049011591

Making EHRs trustable: A quality analysis of EHR-derived datasets for COVID-19 research

One approach to verifying the quality of research data obtained from EHRs is auditing how complete and correct the data are in comparison with those collected by manual and controlled methods. This study analyzed data quality of an EHR-derived dataset for COVID-19 research, obtained during the pandemic at Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre. Data were extracted from EHRs and a manually collected research database, and then transformed into the ISARIC-WHO COVID-19 CRF model. Subsequently, a data analysis was performed, comparing both sources through this convergence model. More concepts and records were obtained from EHRs, and PPV (95% CI) was above 85% in most sections. In future studies, a more detailed analysis of data quality will be carried out

Exploiting the potential of autophagy in cisplatin therapy: a new strategy to overcome resistance

Resistance to cisplatin is a major challenge in the current cancer therapy. In order to explore new therapeutic strategies to cisplatin resistance, we evaluated, in a model of lung cancer (H1299 and H460 cell lines), the nature of the pathways leading to cell death. We observed that H1299 displayed a natural resistance to cisplatin due to an inability to trigger an apoptotic response that correlates with the induction of autophagy. However, pharmacological and genetic approaches showed how autophagy was a mechanism associated to cell death rather than to resistance. Indeed, pro-autophagic stimuli such as mTOR or Akt inhibition mediate cell death in both cell lines to a similar extent. We next evaluated the response to a novel platinum compound, monoplatin, able to promote cell death in an exclusive autophagy-dependent manner. In this case, no differences were observed between both cell lines. Furthermore, in response to monoplatin, two molecular hallmarks of cisplatin response (p53 and MAPKs) were not implicated, indicating the ability of this pro-autophagic compound to overcome cisplatin resistance. In summary, our data highlight how induction of autophagy could be used in cisplatin resistant tumours and an alternative treatment for p53 mutated patient in a synthetic lethally approach

Evaluación por competencias en asignatura troncal de Mecánica de Fluidos

Este trabajo presenta una propuesta de evaluación por competencias para una asignatura troncal de Mecánica de Fluidos. Se propone eliminar el examen final para la evaluación del aprendizaje por una evaluación continua de cada uno de los objetivos de aprendizaje. La evaluación continua consiste en la resolución de problemas con múltiples respuestas en el aula de informática. Para demostrar la adquisición de la competencia definida en el objetivo de aprendizaje el alumno deberá responder correctamente al menos un 80% de los problemas propuestos para cada uno de ellos, con un mínimo de 10 problemas por objetivo. Este tipo de evaluación asíncrona se puede llevar a cabo en las horas de tutoría y permite la corrección automática de las mismas, consiguiendo simultáneamente un triple objetivo: (i) liberar de carga de trabajo al docente; (ii) asegurar un mínimo de calidad en la evaluación de la adquisición de las habilidades requeridas en una asignatura troncal y (iii) hacer responsable al alumnado de su propio aprendizaje, pudiendo evaluarse en cualquier momento del semestre y repitiendo la evaluación.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Análisis de la acción tutorial en ingeniería y arquitectura. Gestión eficaz del tiempo

En este trabajo expondremos un análisis exhaustivo de como se ha desarrollado la acción tutorial en la Escuela Politécnica Superior de la Universidad de Alicante en el curso 2014/2015. El marcado carácter de voluntariedad de la acción tutorial en nuestro centro por parte de estudiantes y tutores permite que el trabajo se realice más satisfactoriamente tanto por parte de tutores como por parte de los estudiantes, puesto que han decidido seguir el plan por ello mismos y no como una imposición. Además expondremos nuestras experiencias en el desarrollo del Taller de Gestión Eficaz del Tiempo, taller desarrollado en nuestro centro bajo la tutela de la experta Nuria Alberquilla, que tiene entre otros muchos objetivos el aprendizaje y puesta en práctica de técnicas para realizar una gestión eficaz del tiempo, con un mejor equilibrio entre la vida académica y personal y la identificación de los principales factores externos e internos que influyen en los resultados obtenidos, y cómo mejorarlos

Experiencias en la tutorización de enseñanzas técnicas

El PAT en la Escuela Politécnica está abierto a todos aquellos tutores que deseen formar parte del plan y también a todos los alumnos, que, voluntariamente pueden marcar la opción de participar en el plan en la matrícula, y también a aquellos que, a pesar de no marcar la opción en la matrícula, finalmente han decidido seguir el plan de acción tutorial. Esta característica de participación e inscripción voluntaria permite que el trabajo se realice más satisfactoriamente tanto por parte de tutores como por parte de los alumnos, puesto que han decidido seguir el plan por ello mismos y no como una imposición. Con este trabajo nos proponemos presentar nuestras experiencias en el desarrollo de la tutorización de nuestros estudiantes así como la evolución en el desarrollo de la tutorización por pares

Coordinación del Plan de Acción Tutorial en la Escuela Politécnica Superior

Al igual que en cursos anteriores en la Escuela Politécnica se desarrolla, promovido por el Vicerrectorado de Estudios, Formación y Calidad, coordinado desde el Instituto de Ciencias de la Educación, el Plan de Acción Tutorial (PAT) el cual está abierto a todos aquellos tutores que deseen formar parte del plan y también a todos los estudiantes, que, voluntariamente pueden marcar la opción de participar en el plan en la matrícula, y también a aquellos que, a pesar de no marcar la opción en la matrícula, finalmente han decidido seguir el plan de acción tutorial. Esta característica de participación e inscripción voluntaria permite que el trabajo se realice más satisfactoriamente tanto por parte de tutores como por parte de los estudiantes, puesto que han decidido seguir el plan por ello mismos y no como una imposición. Con este resumen nos proponemos presentar nuestras experiencias en el desarrollo del PAT de nuestro centro