Psicología positiva contemplativa: integrando mindfulness en la psicología positiva

A pesar de que mindfulness está integrado en muchos manuales de psicología positiva como una técnica 'positiva', apenas se han desarrollado las implicaciones que tiene su uso ni se ha investigado la relación entre mindfulness y bienestar humano. Analizar las principales potencialidades de los dos ámbitos, las posibilidades de integración, así como las posibles contradicciones entre sus mensajes, es fundamental de cara a establecer puentes. Mindfulness es más que una técnica de meditación, lleva implícitos una serie de valores y condicionantes éticos que se adecuan en buena medida con los presupuestos que se proponen desde la psicología positiva, como el desarrollo de la amabilidad, la compasión, y las emociones positivas. El objetivo de este artículo es presentar por un lado aspectos comunes y similitudes, y por otro lado diferencias entre mindfulness y la psicología positiva. También se presentarán los principales estudios que han investigado el papel que tiene mindfulness y las prácticas contemplativas sobre el bienestar humano. Finalmente se discutirá y plantearán futuras líneas de investigación e intervención para acercar ambas propuesta

Modelización del comportamiento de una tobera para hilatura neumática mediante anemometría laser, comportamiento de las fibras en su interior

Con el fin de tener un conocimiento más amplio y más profundo del funcionamiento interno de las toberas utilizadas para hilatura neumática, se ha realizado el estudio presente, el cual consta de dos partes; el análisis experimental del flujo de aire en el interior de las toberas, y un análisis experimental del comportamiento de las fibras en el proceso de hilatura.In order to get a deeper and wider knowledge of the flow behaviour and fibres movement at the inside of a spin nozzle, the following research was carried on. On the first part, the air velocities were studied using an argon laser anemometer, while at the second part, the way travelled by the textile fibres was taken into consideration.A fin d’observer plus amplement le comportement des fibres textiles, leur movement à l’interieur d’un tuyau de filature pneumatique, a eté realisé l’expérience suivante. D’une part la mesure de la vitese à l’aide d’un anemomètre laser de argon, et d’autre l’analyse experimentale du comportement des fibres dans le porces de filature

Osmolality predictive models of different polymers as tools in parenteral and ophthalmic formulation development.

During the development of parenteral dosage forms, different physicochemical studies are required to ensure stable, effective and safe formulations. The osmolality of this kind of dosage forms should bear a close similarity to the body fluids to prevent local irritation, pain or even more significant side effects like endothelial damage. The osmotic studies performed in Polyethylene glycol 400 (PEG 400), Polyethylene glycol 4000 (PEG 4000), Poloxamer 407 (P407), Sodium Hyaluronate (SH), Chondroitin Sulphate Sodium (CS), Cremophor RH 40 (CRE40) and Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) aqueous solutions, showed that the theoretical determination of the osmolality based on their molecular weight as the only determinant factor did not agree with the values obtained by the measurement of colligative properties such as the freezing point depression. The data obtained from this study and its analysis, provided predictive equations that can be used as tools in the primary development to estimate formulation's osmolality at different concentrations; and its evolution over a period at the hypothetical worst-case scenario of storage temperature

Optimization of the Cohesion Index in the SeDeM Diagram Expert System and application of SeDeM Diagram: an improved methodology to determine the Cohesion Index

In this study, we suggest optimizing the methodology to determine the Cohesion Index (Icd) in order to avoid mistaken characterizations due to powder bulk density. For this purpose, five different excipients, with different bulk densities and of different chemical nature, were compressed at different heights. Their compression and their tablet characterization enable establishing a powder weight for compression in accordance with its bulk density. Therefore, the resulting tablet will have a height within a defined range of heights where it has no critical effects on its hardness. Then, the impact of this optimization is shown in a formula development, one of the main SeDeM's applications. A mathematical equation was used to calculate the theoretical amount of excipient to formulate the API according to both methodologies. The compression results demonstrate that the characterization with the NM-Icd is more accurate than the previous one while preserving its simplicity

A new design for the review and appraisal of semi-solid dosage forms: Semi-solid Control Diagram (SSCD)

The Semi-solid Control Diagram (SSCD) is a new tool designed for the study of different excipients and different semi-solid dosage forms. It can be used to review and evaluate different formulations and/or batches and facilitate the selection of one of them that will present the most suitable galenic characteristics for topical application. It is also useful to track stability studies by comparing the diagrams, which allows to measure the impact of subjecting the formulation to different conditions and times to be examined. In this study, the Semisolid Control Diagram (SSCD) is used as an instrument for studying and evaluating semisolid pharmaceutical dosage forms, by comparing several different semisolid preparations (lipogels). With these results, the tool is validated and the best formulation has been discriminated from the others

Formulation of Sustained Release Hydrophilic Matrix Tablets of Tolcapone with the Application of Sedem Diagram: Influence of Tolcapone's Particle Size on Sustained Release

Hydrophilic matrix tablets are a type of sustained release dosage form characterized by distributing a drug in a matrix that is usually polymeric. Tolcapone is a drug that inhibits the enzyme catechol-O-methyl transferase. In recent years, it has been shown that tolcapone is a potent inhibitor of the amyloid aggregation process of the transthyretin protein, and acts by stabilizing the structure of the protein, reducing the progression of familial amyloid polyneuropathy. The main objective of this study was to obtain a sustained release tablet of tolcapone for oral administration with a preferred dosage regimen of 1 administration every 12 or 24 h and manufactured, preferably, by direct compression. The SeDeM Diagram method has been used for the formulation development of hydrophilic matrix tablets. Given the characteristics of tolcapone, the excipient selected for the formation of the polymeric matrix was a high viscosity hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (Methocel® K100M CR). A decrease in the particle size of tolcapone resulted in a slower dissolution release of the formulation when the concentration of the polymer Methocel® K100M CR was below 29%. These surprising and novel results have given rise to patent number WO/2018/019997

Validation of a titration method to determine chondroitin sulfate loaded to solid lipid nanoparticles in an experimental factorial design

Previous efforts at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences of the University of Barcelona, have achieved to obtain cationic solid lipid nanoparticles (cSLN), with an average size of less than 200 nm, by the hot microemulsion method, which have been tested as a vehicle for pDNA and siRNA, in the transfection of cell lines. It is of scientific interest to evaluate the capacity of SLN transporting different types of biomolecules with pharmacological potential. Chondroitin sulfate (CHON) is a major component of the extracellular matrix of several connective tissues, including skin, bone, ligaments, tendons and cartilage. For that reason, CHON is a potential therapeutical agent in Osteoarthritis (OA), which is characterized by progressive structural and metabolic changes in joint tissues. Studies recommend topical administration in treating OA as first line therapy, and the development of topical systems with nanotechnology may introduce a new perspective for future treatment of OA. An experimental factorial design, to optimize the production of SLN of CHON, was employed. The variables were defined as Concentration (mg/ml), Stirring rate (rpm) and Reaction time (min). Different properties were tested, including entrapment efficiency of CHON, zeta potential and particle size. A titration method was validated to test entrapment efficiency of CHON. A calibration curve was obtained from 0.10 to 1.20 mg mL-1 (r > 0.9994). Withinday % RSD was 0.7 and between-day % RSD was 1.11. Specificity/ selectivity experiments revealed the absence of important interference from excipients, mean recovery from spiked samples for CHON was 93.6 %

Clustering techniques for patients suffering acquired brain injury inneuro personal trainer

The study of the effectiveness of the cognitive rehabilitation processes and the identification of cognitive profiles, in order to define comparable populations, is a controversial area, but concurrently it is strongly needed in order to improve therapies. There is limited evidence about cognitive rehabilitation efficacy. Many of the trials conclude that in spite of an apparent clinical good response, differences do not show statistical significance. The common feature in all these trials is heterogeneity among populations. In this situation, observational studies on very well controlled cohort of studies, together with innovative methods in knowledge extraction, could provide methodological insights for the design of more accurate comparative trials. Some correlation studies between neuropsychological tests and patients capacities have been carried out -1---2- and also correlation between tests and morphological changes in the brain -3-. The procedures efficacy depends on three main factors: the affectation profile, the scheduled tasks and the execution results. The relationship between them makes up the cognitive rehabilitation as a discipline, but its structure is not properly defined. In this work we present a clustering method used in Neuro Personal Trainer (NPT) to group patients into cognitive profiles using data mining techniques. The system uses these clusters to personalize treatments, using the patients assigned cluster to select which tasks are more suitable for its concrete needs, by comparing the results obtained in the past by patients with the same profile

Minería de Datos usando Metaplasticidad Artificial en la Rehabilitación Cognitiva de Pacientes con Daño Cerebral

El propósito principal de esta investigación es la aplicación de la Metaplasticidad Artificial en un Perceptrón Multicapa (AMMLP) como una herramienta de minería de datos para la predicción y extracción explícita de conocimiento del proceso de rehabilitación cognitiva en pacientes con daño cerebral adquirido. Los resultados obtenidos por el AMMLP junto con el posterior análisis de la base de datos ayudarían a los terapeutas a conocer las características de los pacientes que mejoran y los programas de rehabilitación que han seguido. Esto incrementaría el conocimiento del proceso de rehabilitación y facilitaría la elaboración de hipótesis terapéuticas permitiendo la optimización y personalización de las terapias. La evaluación del AMMLP se ha realizado con datos proporcionados por el Institut Guttmann. Los resultados del AMMLP fueron comparados con los obtenidos con una red neuronal de retropropagación y con árboles de decisión. La exactitud en la predicción obtenida por el AMMLP en la subfunción cognitiva memoria verbal-visual fue de 90.71 %, resultado muy superior a los obtenidos por los demás algoritmos

Kernel alignment for identifying objective criteria from brain MEG recordings in schizophrenia

The current wide access to data from different neuroimaging techniques has permitted to obtain data to explore the possibility of finding objective criteria that can be used for diagnostic purposes. In order to decide which features of the data are relevant for the diagnostic task, we present in this paper a simple method for feature selection based on kernel alignment with the ideal kernel in support vector machines (SVM). The method presented shows state-of-the-art performance while being more efficient than other methods for feature selection in SVM. It is also less prone to overfitting due to the properties of the alignment measure. All these abilities are essential in neuroimaging study, where the number of features representing recordings is usually very large compared with the number of recordings. The method has been applied to a dataset in order to determine objective criteria for the diagnosis of schizophrenia. The dataset analyzed has been obtained from multichannel magnetoencephalogram (MEG) recordings, corresponding to the recordings during the performance of a mismatch negativity (MMN) auditory task by a set of schizophrenia patients and a control group. All signal frequency bands are analyzed (from d (1–4 Hz) to high frequency ¿ (60–200 Hz)) and the signal correlations among the different sensors for these frequencies are used as features.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft