Asthma in Preschool Children

A proper diagnostic and therapeutic approach in children under 5 years who have symptoms of respiratory distress, of varying intensity, more or less continuously or in acute and repeated episodes must observed. In many cases, the dominant symptom is cough, which has been linked to the existence of asthma (‘equivalent asthmatic coughing’). As respiratory symptoms are common to many processes that affect this system, an appropriate differential diagnosis is required before starting treatment, which is often not appropriate.—Concept. Epidemiology—Predisposing factors, risk factors and triggers—Respiratory symptoms addressed from a pathogenic point of view, in order to better understand the possibilities of these symptoms to appear: Pathogenesis of dyspnea, cough, secretion and bronchial breath sounds.—The inflammatory reaction is the pathogenetic basis of asthma, and hence, anti-inflammatories are the most appropriate treatment. But there is no evidence that inflammation is a permanent fact from the start of the disease or that it exists in other respiratory processes. The appropriate methods to assess inflammation in children under 5 years and the evaluation of results in published studies will be presented. The conclusion is that it has been shown that in mild to moderate and sporadic cases, inflammation persists.—Atopy and asthma: onset and evolution—Clinical and allergologic diagnosis—Diagnostic evaluation of the dominant symptoms, relating directly to their pathogenesis.—Exploration of respiratory function, according to age: younger and older than 2 years.—Differential diagnosis based on the dominant symptoms.—Treatment. (a) Etiologic: immunotherapy in <5 years: standards. (b) Pathogenic: anti-inflammatory (corticosteroids). Indications of pre-inflammatory: chromones and anti-leukotriene: montelukast. (c) Treatment regimens: treatment of seizures

Exciting polaritons with quantum light

We discuss the excitation of polaritons---strongly-coupled states of light and matter---by quantum light, instead of the usual laser or thermal excitation. As one illustration of the new horizons thus opened, we introduce Mollow spectroscopy, a theoretical concept for a spectroscopic technique that consists in scanning the output of resonance fluorescence onto an optical target, from which weak nonlinearities can be read with high precision even in strongly dissipative environments.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Acetylcholinesterase: A versatile template to coin potent modulators of multiple therapeutic targets

The enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE) hydrolyzes the neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACh) at cholinergic synapses of the peripheral and central nervous system. Thus, it is a prime therapeutic target for diseases that occur with a cholinergic deficit, prominently Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Working at a rate near the diffusion limit, it is considered one of nature’s most efficient enzymes. This is particularly meritorious considering that its catalytic site is buried at the bottom of a 20-Å-deep cavity, which is preceded by a bottleneck with a diameter shorter than that of the trimethylammonium group of ACh, which has to transit through it. Not only the particular architecture and amino acid composition of its active site gorge enable AChE to largely overcome this potential drawback, but it also offers plenty of possibilities for the design of novel inhibitor drug candidates.In this Account, we summarize our different approaches to colonize the vast territory of the AChE gorge in the pursuit of increased occupancy and hence of inhibitors with increased affinity. We pioneered the use of molecular hybridization to design inhibitors with extended binding at the CAS, reaching affinities among the highest reported so far. Further application of molecular hybridization to grow CAS extended binders by attaching a PAS-binding moiety through suitable linkers led to multisite inhibitors that span the whole length of the gorge, reaching the PAS and even interacting with midgorge residues. We show that multisite AChE inhibitors can also be successfully designed the other way around, by starting with an optimized PAS binder and then colonizing the gorge and CAS. Molecular hybridization from a multicomponent reaction-derived PAS binder afforded a single-digit picomolar multisite AChE inhibitor with more than 1.5 million-fold increased potency relative to the initial hit. This illustrates the powerful alliance between molecular hybridization and gorge occupancy for designing potent AChE inhibitors.Beyond AChE, we show that the stereoelectronic requirements imposed by the AChE gorge for multisite binding have a templating effect that leads to compounds that are active in other key biological targets in AD and other neurological and non-neurological diseases, such as BACE-1 and the aggregation of amyloidogenic proteins (β-amyloid, tau, α-synuclein, prion protein, transthyretin, and human islet amyloid polypeptide). The use of known pharmacophores for other targets as the PAS-binding motif enables the rational design of multitarget agents with multisite binding within AChE and activity against a variety of targets or pathological events, such as oxidative stress and the neuroinflammation-modulating enzyme soluble epoxide hydrolase, among others.We hope that our results can contribute to the development of drug candidates that can modify the course of neurodegeneration and may inspire future works that exploit the power of molecular hybridization in other proteins featuring large cavities

Past, present, and future research on self-service merchandising: A co-word and text mining approach

Purpose This study aims to discern emerging trends and provide a longitudinal perspective on merchandising research by identifying relationships between merchandising-related subdomains/themes. Design/methodology/approach This study sourced 657 merchandising-related articles published since 1960, from the Scopus database and 425 from Web of Science. After processing and normalizing the data, this study performed co-word and thematic network analyses. Taking a text mining approach, this study used topic modeling to identify a set of coherent topics characterized by the keywords of the articles. Findings This study identified the following merchandising-related themes: branding, retail, consumer, behavior, modeling, textile and clothing industry and visual merchandising. Although visual merchandising was the first type of merchandising to be used in-store, only recently has it become an emerging topic in the academic literature. There has been a further trend over the past decade to understand the adoption of simulation technology, such as computer-aided design, particularly in supply chain management in the clothing industry. These and other findings contribute to the discussion of the merchandising concept, approached from an evolutionary perspective. Research limitations/implications The conclusions of this study hold implications at the intersection of merchandising, sectors, new technologies, research methodologies and merchandising-practitioner education. Research trends suggest that, in the future, virtual reality and augmented reality using neuroscientific methods will be applied to the e-merchandising context. Practical implications The different dimensions of merchandising can be used to leverage store managers’ decision-making process toward an integrated store-management strategy. In particular, by adopting loyalty merchandising tactics, the store can generate emotional attachment among consumers, who will perceive its value and services as unique, thanks to merchandising items designed specifically with that aim in mind. The stimulation of unplanned purchases, the strategic location of products and duration of each merchandising activity in the store, the digitalization of merchandising and the application of findings from neuroscience studies are some of the most relevant practical applications. Originality/value This study provides the first-ever longitudinal review of the state of the art in merchandising research, taking a holistic perspective of this field of knowledge spanning a 60-year period. The work makes a valuable contribution to the development of the marketing discipline.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Memory for Object Location in Augmented Reality: The Role of Gender and the Relationship Among Spatial and Anxiety Outcomes

The potential of augmented reality (AR) technology for the study of spatial memory and orientation is a new research field. AR defines systems that attempt to enhance the user's experience with the physical world. In our app, we enhance the sense of sight by adding interactive 3D elements to the real environment. Our app can be used in any real environment so that the experimental conditions during the tasks and the way in which an individual navigates are similar to those used in real life. With AR, the experimenter has a high level of control of the task and can store the participant's responses accurately. The classical factors that influence an individual's performance on virtual spatial tasks are gender and cognitive factors. The influence of emotional factors on spatial performance has been studied more recently. Since AR tasks for the study of spatial memory and spatial orientation are new developments, little is known about the factors that are related to performance on tasks of this type. In our study, we tested 46 young adults (26 women) in an AR object-location task that was performed in a building. The participants had to memorize the position of eight virtual objects while they were walking through the environment. We also assessed the participants' performance on an object-recall task, a map-pointing task, and a paper-and-pencil spatial orientation task. The self-reported importance of different spatial strategies for wayfinding and the levels of trait anxiety and wayfinding anxiety were also evaluated. Our findings indicate that men performed better on the spatial paper-and-pencil test and spent more time completing the learning phase of the AR task. The spatial memory for the location of the objects in AR and on the map correlated positively. Anxiety was related to individual differences in the self-reported use of a spatial orientation strategy, but the association among them was weak. Trait anxiety was positively related to the time employed by the participants during the learning phase of the AR task, whereas wayfinding anxiety correlated negatively with the preference for an orientation strategy. Our results highlight the importance of anxiety in spatial orientation

Últimas tendencias en cirugía protésica de rodilla

En los últimos años hemos asistido a una importante evolución en los diseños protésicos de la artroplastia total de rodilla. Todos ellos tienen como finalidad mejorar los satisfactorios resultados de este procedimiento. La búsqueda del par de fricción ideal en este implante ha dado como resultado las mejoras en el proceso de fabricación del inserto e incluso la incorporación de nuevos materiales empleados con éxito en otras articulaciones, pero cuyos beneficios en la rodilla todavía requieren de experiencia. Los objetivos quirúrgicos de precisión y reproductibilidad de resultados ha dado lugar a la incorporación de la robótica en este proceso. Asimismo, la necesidad de restablecer la cinemática articular ha supuesto la evolución a diseños que preservan el pivot central de la rodilla o cuya constricción es variable entre los dos compartimentos. No obstante, debemos ser cautos a la hora de evaluar los beneficios derivados de estas supuestas mejoras.We have attended to an amazing development in total knee replacement designs for the last years. Everyone grows with the idea of improving the good outcomes of this procedure. The search an ideal friction torque has assumed a better manufacturing of the insert and even the usage of new materials with great success in other joints, but whose profits in the knee must be tested. Accuracy and outcomes reproducibility led to add robotic to this procedure. Likewise the need to recreate joint kinematics provoked the evolution to designs with preservation of cruciate ligaments or with different constriction in each compartment. However, we must be careful when analysing benefits of these improvements

Rethinking the bioethical consequences of monism and dualism: Systemic emergentism as an epistemic perspective that overcomes totalitarianism

La comprensión de la conciencia ha sido durante siglos uno de los caballos de batalla del devenir intelectual, en tanto contexto en el que se han definido y redefinido las diferentes percepciones socioculturales, científicas, filosóficas e ideológicas del ser humano. Lejos de tratarse de un problema superado, se trata de una cuestión que, reformulada una y otra vez, en distintos ámbitos y contextos, retorna sin cesar al epicentro del debate intelectual, dadas sus consecuencias epistémicas y necesariamente éticas. En este trabajo se trata de mostrar cómo tal debate y sus posturas se alimentan de una percepción que se estima “anticuada” del problema, al afrontarlo desde una óptica esencialista (cifrada sobre un modelo de pensamiento basado en esquemas de razón-objeto), a la par que se propone una reformulación de la cuestión en términos procesuales, inspirada en la propuesta del emergentismo sistémico. Con ello, se pretende aportar un enfoque superador de un modelo intelectual que se estima obsoleto, a la par que se propicia una reflexión ética en torno a las consecuencias intelectuales ideológicas y prácticas devenidas de un sostenimiento artificioso del mismo en el ámbito de la ciencia.For centuries, the understanding of conciousness has been one of the topic issues of intellectual development, and a context in which the different sociocultural, scientific, philosophical and ideological perceptions of the human being have been defined and redefined. Far from being a solved problem, it’s a theme that, reformulated again and again in different fields and contexts, returns endlessly to the epicenter of intellectual discussion because it has, necessarily, trascendental epistemic and ethical consequences. This paper tries to show how such confrontation and its positions are fed by an “outdated” perception of the problem, when faced it from an essentialist perspective (encrypted on a model of thought based on reason-object schemes). Therefore is proposed a reformulation of the question in procedural terms inspired by the theory of systemic emergentism. So, it is intended to provide an overcoming approach to an intellectual model that is considered obsolete, while fostering an ethical reflection on the ideological intellectual consequences and practices derived from its artificial support in the field of Science

A History of the Alexithymia Concept and Its Explanatory Models: An Epistemological Perspective

Alexithymia, as a theoretical psychotherapeutic construct, finds its origins in psychosomatic medicine, actually being quite old. However, beyond the specific observations and case studies, their characterization and systematization is relatively recent. However, from an epistemological point of view, it remains the subject of debate and therefore remains outside the conventional diagnostic guidelines. Possibly, its history, closely linked to psychoanalysis, as well as the lack of clear empirical references, has turned the alexithymia construct before into a good descriptive and comprehensive framework than in a precise diagnostic model. In this article it is, following the thread conduits of the historical perspective, to deepen these epistemological aspects

Spontaneous Symmetry Breakdown in non-relativistic Quantum Mechanics

The advantages and disadvantages of some pedagogical non-relativistic quantum-mechanical models, used to illustrate spontaneous symmetry breakdown, are discussed. A simple quantum-mechanical toy model (a spinor on the line, subject to a magnetostatic interaction) is presented, that exhibits the spontaneous breakdown of an internal symmetry.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1111.1213. Equations (30) and (31) have been corrected. Other minor correction

Ethical considerations of the human research: syphilis experiments and denial of drug therapy

Syphilis has historically been considered a special disease as sexually transmitted disease and because no effective treatments were disposable for years. At the end of XV century first cases were reported and until beginning of XX century not scientific advances were made: Schaudinn and Hoffmann discovered the germ which caused disease in 1905 (Treponema pallidum) and few years later serological test for diagnoses were developed. Fleming had discovered penicillin in 1928 but it was not used in medical practice before World War II (WWII). Military physicians from United States used penicillin for treating syphilis in Pacific troops in December 1943 [1]. Treatment was successful and in 1947 penicillin had become the standard treatment for syphilis. Before it, syphilis was a multisystemic, chronic, painful and deadly disease. Due to penicillin, prospects changed radically. The successful was such as in middle 50’s incidence of syphilis was so low that many scientists believed that syphilis would be soon eradicated [2]. Once efficacy of treatment was established, any patient affected from syphilis should be treated with penicillin. However, numerous researches were performed on which, deliberately, patients did not receive any treatment just for studying disease spreads and they were even inoculated with syphilis to determine optimum treatment doses. In other cases treatment was not administered, even when infected patients could transmit the disease to their sexual partners and descendants. We comment three examples that illustrate this unethical approach