Jaume Blancafort y Patricia Reus

Peer Reviewe

Add-on Effect of Postural Instructions to Abdominopelvic Exercise on Urinary Symptoms and Quality of Life in Climacteric Women with Stress Urinary Incontinence : A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

The aim of this study was to investigate the add-on effect of postural instructions to an abdominopelvic exercise program on incontinence urinary symptoms (UI symptoms) and quality of life (QoL) in climacteric women with stress urinary incontinence (SUI). A randomized controlled trial was performed with a total of 40 climacteric women with SUI aged between 46 and 75 years old. Participants were randomly assigned to two groups: a group performing an abdominopelvic exercise program (AEP) (n = 20) and a group performing abdominopelvic exercise with the addition of postural instructions (AEPPI) (n = 20). Primary outcome measures were UI symptoms, UI impact and QoL related to UI (UI-QoL), measured by 48 h Pad Test and International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire Short Form (ICIQ-UI-SF), which were assessed at baseline, post-intervention and 3 months follow-up. Secondary outcome was patient's satisfaction measured by the 100-point Visual Analogic Scale (VAS) only after the intervention. Between-groups differences were observed in terms of UI-QoL immediately after intervention. Within-groups differences were observed between baseline to 3 months follow-up and between post-intervention to 3 months follow-up in AEPPI group (p < 0.05) for UI-QoL and UI impact. UI symptoms were improved in both groups between baseline to 3-months follow-up (p < 0.05). Patient's satisfaction was higher in the AEPPI group (p < 0.05). The addition of postural instructions to an abdominopelvic exercise programimproves UI impact to QoL and patients' satisfaction in women with SUI

Relación entre estilos de enseñanza, estilos de aprendizaje, satisfacción y rendimiento en una muestra de estudiantes de psicología

Catorzenes Jornades de Foment de la Investigació de la FCHS (Any 2008-2009)Basándonos en la teoría del autogobierno mental de Sternberg (1999) en la que fundamentó su propuesta sobre estilos de pensamiento, este estudio persigue un doble objetivo. Por una parte, comparar los estilos de pensamiento, rendimiento y satisfacción entre los tres grupos de la asignatura Psicología de la Instrucción, a partir de una muestra de 105 estudiantes, distribuidos en tres grupos (A, B y C). Al grupo A (mañana) y B(tarde) se impartía docencia con una metodología básicamente tradicional, mientras que a los estudiantes del grupo C (proyecto piloto de convergencia europea) se les impartía docencia con una metodología más innovadora. Por otra parte, analizar la relación entre los estilos de pensamiento del profesor y del estudiante con el rendimiento y la satisfacción de éste. Para estudiar el primer objetivo realizamos un ANOVA de un factor, encontrando diferencias significativas entre el grupo A y B respecto al C, en estilo de pensamiento del profesor, en satisfacción y rendimiento. Para estudiar el segundo objetivo realizamos un anàlisis correlacional, obteniendo relaciones significativas en la dirección esperada entre estilos de pensamiento del profesor y satisfacción del estudiante

Genes encoding conserved hypothetical proteins localized in the conjugative transfer region of plasmid pRet42a from Rhizobium etli CFN42 participate in modulating transfer and affect conjugation from different donors

Among sequenced genomes, it is common to find a high proportion of genes encoding proteins that cannot be assigned a known function. In bacterial genomes, genes related to a similar function are often located in contiguous regions. The presence of genes encoding conserved hypothetical proteins (chp) in such a region may suggest that they are related to that particular function. Plasmid pRet42a from Rhizobium etli CFN42 is a conjugative plasmid containing a segment of approximately 30 Kb encoding genes involved in conjugative transfer. In addition to genes responsible for Dtr (DNA transfer and replication), Mpf (Mating pair formation) and regulation, it has two chp-encoding genes (RHE_PA00163 and RHE_PA00164) and a transcriptional regulator (RHE_PA00165). RHE_PA00163 encodes an uncharacterized protein conserved in bacteria that presents a COG4634 conserved domain, and RHE_PA00164 encodes an uncharacterized conserved protein with a DUF433 domain of unknown function. RHE_PA00165 presents a HTH_XRE domain, characteristic of DNA-binding proteins belonging to the xenobiotic response element family of transcriptional regulators. Interestingly, genes similar to these are also present in transfer regions of plasmids from other bacteria. To determine if these genes participate in conjugative transfer, we mutagenized them and analyzed their conjugative phenotype. A mutant in RHE_PA00163 showed a slight (10 times) but reproducible increase in transfer frequency from Rhizobium donors, while mutants in RHE_PA00164 and RHE_PA00165 lost their ability to transfer the plasmid from some Agrobacterium donors. Our results indicate that the chp-encoding genes located among conjugation genes are indeed related to this function. However, the participation of RHE_PA00164 and RHE_PA00165 is only revealed under very specific circumstances, and is not perceived when the plasmid is transferred from the original host. RHE_PA00163 seems to be a fine-tuning modulator for conjugative transfer.Fil: López Fuentes, Eunice. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; MéxicoFil: Torres Tejerizo, Gonzalo Arturo. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; México. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Cervantes, Laura. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; MéxicoFil: Brom, Susana. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; Méxic

Genes encoding conserved hypothetical proteins localized in the conjugative transfer region of plasmid pRet42a from Rhizobium etli CFN42 participate in modulating transfer and affect conjugation from different donors

Among sequenced genomes, it is common to find a high proportion of genes encoding proteins that cannot be assigned a known function. In bacterial genomes, genes related to a similar function are often located in contiguous regions. The presence of genes encoding conserved hypothetical proteins (chp) in such a region may suggest that they are related to that particular function. Plasmid pRet42a from Rhizobium etli CFN42 is a conjugative plasmid containing a segment of approximately 30 Kb encoding genes involved in conjugative transfer. In addition to genes responsible for Dtr (DNA transfer and replication), Mpf (Mating pair formation) and regulation, it has two chp-encoding genes (RHE_PA00163 and RHE_PA00164) and a transcriptional regulator (RHE_PA00165). RHE_PA00163 encodes an uncharacterized protein conserved in bacteria that presents a COG4634 conserved domain, and RHE_PA00164 encodes an uncharacterized conserved protein with a DUF433 domain of unknown function. RHE_PA00165 presents a HTH_XRE domain, characteristic of DNA-binding proteins belonging to the xenobiotic response element family of transcriptional regulators. Interestingly, genes similar to these are also present in transfer regions of plasmids from other bacteria. To determine if these genes participate in conjugative transfer, we mutagenized them and analyzed their conjugative phenotype. A mutant in RHE_PA00163 showed a slight (10 times) but reproducible increase in transfer frequency from Rhizobium donors, while mutants in RHE_PA00164 and RHE_PA00165 lost their ability to transfer the plasmid from some Agrobacterium donors. Our results indicate that the chp-encoding genes located among conjugation genes are indeed related to this function. However, the participation of RHE_PA00164 and RHE_PA00165 is only revealed under very specific circumstances, and is not perceived when the plasmid is transferred from the original host. RHE_PA00163 seems to be a fine-tuning modulator for conjugative transfer.Facultad de Ciencias ExactasInstituto de Biotecnologia y Biologia Molecula

Genes encoding conserved hypothetical proteins localized in the conjugative transfer region of plasmid pRet42a from Rhizobium etli CFN42 participate in modulating transfer and affect conjugation from different donors

Among sequenced genomes, it is common to find a high proportion of genes encoding proteins that cannot be assigned a known function. In bacterial genomes, genes related to a similar function are often located in contiguous regions. The presence of genes encoding conserved hypothetical proteins (chp) in such a region may suggest that they are related to that particular function. Plasmid pRet42a from Rhizobium etli CFN42 is a conjugative plasmid containing a segment of approximately 30 Kb encoding genes involved in conjugative transfer. In addition to genes responsible for Dtr (DNA transfer and replication), Mpf (Mating pair formation) and regulation, it has two chp-encoding genes (RHE_PA00163 and RHE_PA00164) and a transcriptional regulator (RHE_PA00165). RHE_PA00163 encodes an uncharacterized protein conserved in bacteria that presents a COG4634 conserved domain, and RHE_PA00164 encodes an uncharacterized conserved protein with a DUF433 domain of unknown function. RHE_PA00165 presents a HTH_XRE domain, characteristic of DNA-binding proteins belonging to the xenobiotic response element family of transcriptional regulators. Interestingly, genes similar to these are also present in transfer regions of plasmids from other bacteria. To determine if these genes participate in conjugative transfer, we mutagenized them and analyzed their conjugative phenotype. A mutant in RHE_PA00163 showed a slight (10 times) but reproducible increase in transfer frequency from Rhizobium donors, while mutants in RHE_PA00164 and RHE_PA00165 lost their ability to transfer the plasmid from some Agrobacterium donors. Our results indicate that the chp-encoding genes located among conjugation genes are indeed related to this function. However, the participation of RHE_PA00164 and RHE_PA00165 is only revealed under very specific circumstances, and is not perceived when the plasmid is transferred from the original host. RHE_PA00163 seems to be a fine-tuning modulator for conjugative transfer.Facultad de Ciencias ExactasInstituto de Biotecnologia y Biologia Molecula

Deterioros motores producidos por los antipsicóticos típicos en muestras de ratones adultos jóvenes y viejos: Efecto terapeútico de los antagonistas de adenosina cafeína, teofilina y MSX-3

Catorzenes Jornades de Foment de la Investigació de la FCHS (Any 2008-2009)Uno de los efectos colaterales de la administración de neurolépticos para el tratamiento de los síntomas de la esquizofrenia es la afectación motora. Los antagonistas dopaminérgicos como el haloperidol, ampliamente utilizados con este fin, han demostrado suprimir la locomoción en roedores. En el presente estudio evaluamos un amplio rango de dosis de haloperidol en dos muestras de ratones de diferentes edades: adultos jóvenes y viejos. Las dosis moderadas de haloperidol (0.025-0.1 mg/ kg) suprimieron la locomoción en mayor medida en los animales viejos que en los animales jóvenes. Este efecto es debido a las compensaciones del sistema dopaminérgico estriatal que convierten a los animales viejos en más sensibles al deterioro motor. Sin embargo, las dosis altas de haloperidol (0.25-1.0 mg/kg) no produjeron diferencias significativas entre ambos grupos de edad dado que deterioraron la conducta motora de manera drástica en ambas muestras. La administración de antagonistas de los receptores de adenosina (colocalizados con los receptores de dopamina en el estriado) teofilina y MSX-3 revertió hasta alcanzar niveles normales la conducta motora de los animales jóvenes tratados con dosis moderadas de haloperidol (0.1 mg/kg). Sin embargo, la supresión motora de dosis más altas de haloperidol (0.5 mg/kg) no se vió paliada por el antagonista no selectivo de adenosina; cafeína. Los antagonistas de adenosina pueden tener efectos terapeúticos en el deterioro motor de dosis moderadas de antipsicóticos

Descripción botánica, análisis fitoquímico preliminar y bromatológico de Machaerium riparium y martynia annua conocidas bajo el nombre común de "uña de gato" en El Salvador

Durante un período de 8 meses, se desarrolló en la Universidad de El Salvador, el estudio Botánico, Fitoquímico Preliminar y Bromatológico Machaeriun riparium y Martynia annua, conocidas y utilizadas en El Salvador como "uña de gato". El estudio anatómico se efectuó realizando cortes transversales en los diferentes órganos de ambas especies. Los Análisis Fitoquímico Preliminar se realizaron en extractos etanólico y acuoso, para comprobar la presencia de metabolitos secundarios, resultando positivas los taninos, glicósidos saponínicos y flavonoides en la especie Machaerium riparium y Martynia annua en muestras de corteza y hojas; resultando negativos la presencia de flavonoides en el fruto de M. annu

Vertical asymmetries and inhibition of return: effects of spatial and non-spatial cueing on behavior and visual ERPs

[Abstract] The mechanisms underlying inhibition of return (IOR) are still under debate. Besides the probable implication of several processes in its generation, a reason for this uncertainty may be related to experimental factors affecting the presence, time course, and magnitude of IOR. Two of them may be related to the arrangement of the stimuli in the visual field that could cause possible interactions between IOR and response conflict effects (horizontal arrangements) or between IOR and perceptual asymmetries (vertical arrangement). The purpose of the present study was to explore location and color cueing effects with a vertical arrangement of stimuli, free of S–R compatibility effects. To examine this possibility, a cue-back task with stimuli in the vertical meridian was employed. Targets could randomly and equiprobably appear at cued or uncued locations, or with cued or uncued color. These cueing effects were analyzed on behavior and ERPs separately for upper and lower visual fields (UVF and LVF). Under location cueing, behavioral responses were slower (spatial IOR) in both hemifields. In the ERPs, N1 reductions were observed in both visual fields although with different modulations in their latency and scalp distribution. In the P3 rising beginning, posterior negative deflections in the LVF (Nd) and anterior positive deflections (Pd) in the UVF were observed. Under color cueing, P3 amplitude was reduced in the UVF accompanied by no behavioral effects. These results suggest that different patterns of brain activation can be obtained in upper and lower visual fields under spatial- and non-spatial cueing conditions.Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad; PSI2010-21427Xunta de Galicia; 10PXIB211220P

Multiresolution-based reconstruction for compressive spectral video sensing using a spectral multiplexing sensor

Spectral multiplexing sensors based on compressive sensing attempt to break the Nyquist barrier to acquire high spectral resolution scenes. Particularly, the colored coded aperture-based compressive spectral imager extended to video, or video C-CASSI, is a spectral multiplexing sensor that allows capturing spectral dynamic scenes by projecting each spectral frame onto a bidimensional detector using a 3D coded aperture. Afterwards, the compressed signal reconstruction is performed iteratively by finding a sparse solution to an undetermined linear system of equations. Even though the acquired signal can be recovered from much fewer observations by an &nbsp;− &nbsp;-norm recovery algorithm than using conventional sensors, the reconstruction exhibits diverse challenges originated by the temporal variable or motion. The motion during the reconstruction produces artifacts that damages the entire data. In this work, a multiresolution-based reconstruction method for compressive spectral video sensing is proposed. In this way, it obtains the temporal information from the measurements at a low computational cost. Thereby, the optimization problem to recover the signal is extended by adding temporal information in order to correct the errors originated by the scene motion. Computational experiments performed over four different spectral videos show an improvement up to 4dB in terms of peak-signal to noise ratio (PSNR) in the reconstruction quality using the multiresolution approach applied to the spectral video reconstruction with respect to the traditional inverse problem. &nbsp;Los sensores de multiplexación espectral basados en muestreo compresivo intentan romper la barrera de Nyquist para adquirir escenas de alta resolución espectral. Particularmente, el sistema de imágenes espectrales de única captura basado en aperturas codificadas de color extendido a vídeo, o video – CCASSI, es un sensor de multiplexación espectral que permite la adquisición de imágenes espectrales dinámicas proyectando cada fotograma espectral sobre un detector bidimensional usando un apertura de codificación 3D. Posteriormente, la reconstrucción de la señal comprimida se realiza iterativamente encontrando una solución escasa a un sistema lineal de ecuaciones indeterminado. Si bien la señal adquirida puede ser recuperada desde un algoritmo basado en la norma l_2 − l_1, con&nbsp; muchas menos observaciones en comparación a los sistemas convencionales, dicha reconstrucción presenta diversos desafíos originados por la variable temporal o el movimiento. El movimiento durante la reconstrucción produce artefactos que dañan la totalidad de los datos. En este trabajo, se propone un método de reconstrucción basado en múltiples resoluciones para la adquisición compresiva de video espectral. De este modo, el problema de optimización para recuperar la señal se amplía añadiendo la información temporal como restricción, con el objetivo de corregir los errores originados por el movimiento de la escena. Los experimentos computacionales realizados en cuatro videos espectrales diferentes muestran una mejora de hasta 4dB en términos de relación pico-señal a ruido (PSNR) en la calidad de reconstrucción usando el enfoque multirresolución aplicado a la reconstrucción de video espectral con respecto al problema de optimización que no considera el movimiento