Una solución no invasiva y en tiempo real para la detección de la exposición a virus respiratorios altamente contagiosos

This document explains the creation of VAir, a non-invasive reusable wireless device to sense Influenza A in the air. The ambitious aim is to develop a reliable sensor that would be easy to operate and allow rapid detection of even asymptomatic conditions.In nowaday medical diagnostics, virus recognition is performed in laboratories using conventional methods, namely polymerized chain reaction (PCR) amplification and enzyme-linked immunoassays. Being extremely sensitive and selective, these methods are common to employ multiple detection layers for several analytes, which is not quick enough to prevent the spread of the virus both within and between individuals.VAir would detect the viral target via a specific interaction with the nanobodies. The quantification is performed automatically. When integrated in IoT-frameworks, it turns into a source of continuous health data, providing valuable information on the exposure to contagious hazards and contact tracing. The growing prevalence of infectious diseases is increasing the demand for such point-of-care (PoC) diagnostics. The crucial need in remote monitoring and connected healthcare solutions is expected to push the demand for portable devices, boosting the sales of biosensors across both PoC and home diagnostic applications.<br /

About songs as a resource for education

This project consists on the selection of songs as one of the many resources that can be used in the classroom when it comes to teach a foreign language. However, we are not referring to the kind of songs that are found in the text books, but in real songs, the ones that surround us all the time on the media. In order to know whether this kind of songs are beneficial or not in the classroom we will considerate first of all the opinion that some experts have on the matter. After that we will design a class in which its activities are based on a song and we will obtain our own conclusions. Finally, we will evaluate the results and compare them with the theories previously mentioned. As a result we will have an idea about the positive and negative implications of songs in the classroom that will help us as teachers to improve our intervention on the Educative System

Same hours, different time distribution: any difference in EFL?

The effects of the distribution of instructional time on the acquisition of a second or foreign language are still not well known. This paper will analyze the performance of adult students enrolled in three different types of EFL programs in which the distribution of time varies. The first one, called 'extensive', distributes a total of 110 hours in seven months (the students receive four hours of instruction per week during the school year, starting in October and finishing in May). The second program is the 'semi-intensive', which offers the same number of hours distributed in three to four months, where the students receive instruction from eight to ten hours per week (depending on the semester where this course is implemented). Finally, the intensive course offers 110 hours in five weeks during the summer (25 hours of instruction per week). The results from our analyses suggest that concentrating the hours of English instruction in shorter periods of time is more beneficial for the students' learning than distributing them in many months

Caracterización fenotípica de nuevos cultivares de cerezo de maduración muy temprana

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The C form of n-hexadecanoic acid

3 pages, 2 tables, 2 figures.In the crystal structure of the title compound, C16H32O2, the molecules are arranged into dimers through O-HO hydrogen bonds. These dimers are packed in bilayers with terminal methyl groups at both external faces, and these layers are parallel to the crystallographic (100) plane. All C-C bonds of the alkyl chain show an antiperiplanar (trans) conformation, with slight deviations from the ideal value in the C-C bonds close to the intermolecular hydrogen bonds. The similarity between the carboxyl C-O bond distances is consistent with the existence of cis-trans tautomerism.This research was supported through CICYT grant No. MAT2001±3352 and DGICYT grant No. BQU2002±1729.Peer reviewe

The Entropy of Laughter: Discriminative Power of Laughter’s Entropy in the Diagnosis of Depression

Laughter is increasingly present in biomedical literature, both in analytical neurological aspects and in applied therapeutic fields. The present paper, bridging between the analytical and the applied, explores the potential of a relevant variable of laughter’s acoustic signature—entropy—in the detection of a widespread mental disorder, depression, as well as in gauging the severity of its diagnostic. In laughter, the Shannon–Wiener entropy of the distribution of sound frequencies, which is one of the key features distinguishing its acoustic signal from the utterances of spoken language, has not been a specific focus of research yet, although the studies of human language and of animal communication have pointed out that entropy is a very important factor regarding the vocal/acoustic expression of emotions. As the experimental survey of laughter in depression herein undertaken shows, it was possible to discriminate between patients and controls with an 82.1% accuracy just by using laughter’s entropy and by applying the decision tree procedure. These experimental results, discussed in the light of the current research on laughter, point to the relevance of entropy in the spontaneous bona fide extroversion of mental states toward other individuals, as the signal of laughter seems to imply. This is in line with recent theoretical approaches that rely on the optimization of a neuro-informational free energy (and associated entropy) as the main “stuff” of brain processing

Derivados del tamoxifeno, procedimiento de obtención y sus aplicaciones

La invención se refiere a derivados del tamoxifeno, y sus usos como composición farmacéutica en el tratamiento de enfermedades que cursan con activación de la señalización por estrógenos o como herramienta para la identificación dianas moleculares del tamoxifeno o como emisor laser molecular. Además, la presente invención se refiere al procedimiento de obtención de estos compuestos y a composiciones que los comprenden.Peer reviewedUniversidad de la Laguna, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España)A1 Solicitud de patente con informe sobre el estado de la técnic

The ECOS-16 questionnaire for the evaluation of health related quality of life in post-menopausal women with osteoporosis

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study is to validate the questionnaire ECOS-16 (Assessment of health related quality of life in osteoporosis) for the evaluation of health related quality of life (HRQoL) in post-menopausal women with osteoporosis. METHODS: An observational, prospective and multi-centre study was carried out among post-menopausal women with osteoporosis in primary care centres and hospital outpatient clinics. All patients attended 2 visits: at baseline and at 6 months. In addition, the subgroup of outpatients attended another visit a month after the baseline to assess the test-retest reliability. The psychometric properties of the questionnaire were evaluated in terms of feasibility, validity (content validity and construct validity) and internal consistency in baseline, and in terms of test-retest reliability and responsiveness to change in visit at month and visit at 6 months, respectively. In all visits, ECOS-16, EUROQoL-5D (EQ-5D) and four 7-point items about health status (general health status, back pain, limitation in daily activities and emotional status) were administered, whereas only outpatients were given MINI-OQLQ (Mini Osteoporosis Quality of Life Questionnaire), besides all clinical variables; and sociodemographic variables at baseline. RESULTS: 316 women were consecutively included, 212 from primary care centres and 104 from hospital outpatient clinics. Feasibility: 94.3% of patients answered all items of the questionnaire. The mean administration time was 12.3 minutes. Validity: factor analysis suggested that the questionnaire was unidimensional. In the multivariate analysis, patients with vertebral fractures, co-morbidity and a lower education level showed to have worse HRQoL. Moderate to high correlations were found between the ECOS-16 score and the other health status questionnaires (0.47–0.82). Reliability: internal consistency (Cronbach's α) was 0.92 and test-retest reliability (ICC) was 0.80. Responsiveness to change: ECOS-16 scores increased according to change perceived by the patient, as well as the effect size (ranges between 1.35 to 0.43), the greater the perception of change in patients' general health status, the greater the changes in patients' scores. The Minimal Clinically Important Difference (MCID) suggested a change of 0.5 points in the ECOS-16 score, representing the least improvement in general health status due to their osteoporosis: "slightly better". CONCLUSION: ECOS-16 has been proven preliminarily to have good psychometric properties, so that it can be potentially a useful tool to evaluate HRQoL of post-menopausal women with osteoporosis in research and routine clinical practice

La lucha contra la discapacidad visual evitable

La discapacidad visual es una gran problema de salud a nivel mundial. Un 80% de los casos son evitables. Desde la OMS y otras instituciones se trabaja para luchar contra la discapacidad visual evitable a través de diversos planes. Dentro de estos planes, los optometristas tienen una importante misión como agentes de atención visual primaria y dentro de equipos multidisciplinares. Este trabajo estudia la discapacidad visual, sus causas y consecuencias y los programas existentes en la actualidad para luchar contra ella. Tiene como objetivo final analizar la labor que realizan las ONGD españolas dentro de estos programas y, sobre todo, el papel de los optometristas dentro de ellas

Influence of Ca/Si ratio on the microstructure and properties of blended cements elaborated with kaolinite based waste

ICCC 2015, Beijing, China, 13~16 October 2015; http://iccc2015.csp.escience.cn/dct/page/1To reduce the environmental impact of cement industries, cementitious materials are added to the manufacture of eco-efficient cements, focusing in industrial wastes. In this paper metakaolinite (MK) based industrial wastes have been mixed with cement in order to study the effect of the chemical composition of the raw material in both microstructural and mechanical properties of the pastes. Frattini test was also determined. The selected metakaolin based industrial wastes were previously activated for two hours at temperatures around 600ºC to transform the inert waste into a cementing material. The industrial wastes materials used were coal mining and paper sludge. The second one was mixed with fly ash (50/50 w/w) in order to evaluate the performance of ternary blended cements. The mixtures were prepared with OPC and both 6 and 20% of activated industrial waste (coal mining and paper sludge + fly ash). Prismatic samples (1x1x6 cm) were prepared with water/cement ratio of 0.5 and cured 28 days. After this time, mineralogical composition of the samples was determined by XRD as well as mechanical properties (compressive and flexural strength, total porosity, etc). Besides, portlandite and ettringite, both monocarboaluminate and C4AH13 have been formed in the samples after 28 days of hydration. It can be observed that C4AH13 decreases as Ca/Si ratio decreases; with the opposite behaviour for the monocarboaluminate. From the mechanical properties, porosity decreases from 1 to 28 days of curing as compressive strength increases.To the Ministry of Economy and Competiveness by the financial support (MAT2012-37005-C03-01-02-03).Peer Reviewe