Assessment of quality of life in oral cancer

Quality of life (QL) in oral cancer patients has become one of the most important parameters to consider in the diagnosis and post-treatment follow-up. The purpose of this article has been to review the papers published that study the QL in oral cancer patients, the different QL questionnaires used, the clinical results obtained, and the systematic revisions available in the indexed literature for the last 10 years. The term QL appears as a keyword in an increasing number of articles throughout the past 10 years; however, few studies focus on oral cancer. Most of them assess all head and neck cancers, which conform to a heterogeneous group with several different features depending on location (oral cavity, oropharynx, larynx, hypopharynx, nasopharynx and salivary glands). Most studies evaluate QL in short periods of time, normally within the first year after the diagnosis. Series do not discern between different therapeutic options, and they generally center on Northern European or Northern American populations. There are few instruments translated and validated into Spanish that measure QL, a fundamental characteristic to link QL to own patients? socio-cultural parameters. Data related with QL are mostly related to patient (age, sex, co-morbidity), tumour (location, size), and treatment (surgical treatment, radiotherapy association, reconstruction, cervical dissection, and/or feeding tube). Nowadays QL?s assessment is considered an essential component of an oral cancer patient as well as the survival, morbidity and years free of disease. Although many aspects related to QL in oral cancer patients have been published throughout the past 10 years, more systematic research is needed to be able to apply it on a daily basis

The traditional maximal lactate steady state test versus the 5× 2000 m test

Here, we compared the maximal lactate steady state velocity (vMLSS) estimated from a single-visit protocol (v5 × 2000) to the traditional multi-day protocol (vMLSS). Furthermore, we determined whether there was a lactate steady state during the time limits (Tlim) at vMLSS or v5 × 2000. Eight runners completed a half marathon (HM), the traditional protocol to determine the vMLSS and the 5 × 2000 m test in a randomised order, and a Tlim at vMLSS and at v5 × 2000 in a randomised order. The vMLSS (13.56 ± 0.90 km·h − 1 ) was higher than the v5 × 2000 (12.93 ± 0.90 km·h − 1 , p = 0.001) and comparable to the vHM (13.34 ± 0.75 km·h − 1 ). The vMLSS (r = 0.83) and the v5 × 2000 (r = 0.91) were associated with the vHM but were not indicative of the competition pace. The Tlim at vMLSS (64 ± 15 min) was lower than the Tlim at v5 × 2000 (94 ± 21 min) and the HM time (95 ± 5 min). In both Tlim, lactate was lower at 45 min than upon fi nishing the eff ort and was predictive of its duration (p < 0.05). Our results indicate that the 5 × 2000 m test can be equally useful to assess runners as the traditional MLSS protocol and that there is no lactate steady state during the Tlim at vMLSS or at v5 × 200

Four-channel self-compensating single-slope ADC for space environments

A multichannel high-resolution single-slope analogue-to-digital converter (SS ADC) is presented that automatically compensates for process, voltage and temperature variations, as well as for radiation effects, in order to be used in extreme environmental conditions. The design combines an efficient implementation by using a feedback loop that ensures an inherently monotonic and very accurate ramp generation, with high levels of configurability in terms of resolution and conversion rate, as well as input voltage range. The SS ADC was designed in a standard 0.35 μm CMOS technology. Experimental measurements of the performance and stability against radiation and temperature are presented to verify the proposed approach

A Front-End ASIC for a 3-D Magnetometer for Space Applications by Using Anisotropic Magnetoresistors

This paper presents an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) aimed for an alternative design of a digital 3-D magnetometer for space applications, with a significant reduction in mass and volume while maintaining a high sensitivity. The proposed system uses magnetic field sensors based on anisotropic magnetoresistances and a rad-hard mixed-signal ASIC designed in a standard 0.35 μm CMOS technology. The ASIC performs sensor-signal conditioning and analogue-to-digital conversion, and handles calibration tasks, system configuration, and communication with the outside. The proposed system provides high sensitivity to low magnetic fields, down to 3 nT, while offering a small and reliable solution under extreme environmental conditions in terms of radiation and temperature.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación AYA2011-29967-C05-05, AYA2009-14212-C05-04, AYA2008-06420-C04-0

Etología. Introducción a la ciencia del comportamiento

1ª ed., 3ª reimp.El objetivo de este libro es proporcionar una introducción a la Etología. Ésta ciencia responde al interés por profundizar en el conocimiento de las costumbres animales; por comprender la variedad de comportamientos que en diferentes situaciones exhiben los individuos de diferentes especies. Una posible definición de Etología podría ser: el estudio científico del comportamiento de los seres vivos. A lo largo de esta obra se analizan todos los aspectos que tienen que ver con el comportamiento animal, desde las causas y mecanismos de actuación o la adaptación y evolución y el bienestar animal.The purpose of this book is to provide an introduction to Ethology. This science responds to the interest in deepening the knowledge of animal customs; to understand the variety of behaviour that in different situations exhibit individuals of different species. A possible definition of ethology could be: the scientific study of the behavior of living beings. Throughout this book all aspects related to animal behavior, from the causes and mechanisms of action or adaptation and evolution and animal welfare, are analyzed

Diversity, distribution and conservation of the terrestrial reptiles of Oman (Sauropsida, Squamata)

All authors: Salvador Carranza , Meritxell Xipell, Pedro Tarroso, Andrew Gardner, Edwin Nicholas Arnold, Michael D. Robinson, Marc Simó-Riudalbas, Raquel Vasconcelos, Philip de Pous, Fèlix Amat, Jiří Šmíd, Roberto Sindaco, Margarita Metallinou †, Johannes Els, Juan Manuel Pleguezuelos, Luis Machado, David Donaire, Gabriel Martínez, Joan Garcia-Porta, Tomáš Mazuch, Thomas Wilms, Jürgen Gebhart, Javier Aznar, Javier Gallego, Bernd-Michael Zwanzig, Daniel Fernández-Guiberteau, Theodore Papenfuss, Saleh Al Saadi, Ali Alghafri, Sultan Khalifa, Hamed Al Farqani, Salim Bait Bilal, Iman Sulaiman Alazri, Aziza Saud Al Adhoobi, Zeyana Salim Al Omairi, Mohammed Al Shariani, Ali Al Kiyumi, Thuraya Al Sariri, Ahmed Said Al Shukaili, Suleiman Nasser Al Akhzami.In the present work, we use an exceptional database including 5,359 records of 101 species of Oman’s terrestrial reptiles together with spatial tools to infer the spatial patterns of species richness and endemicity, to infer the habitat preference of each species and to better define conservation priorities, with especial focus on the effectiveness of the protected areas in preserving this unique arid fauna. Our results indicate that the sampling effort is not only remarkable from a taxonomic point of view, with multiple observations for most species, but also for the spatial coverage achieved. The observations are distributed almost continuously across the two-dimensional climatic space of Oman defined by the mean annual temperature and the total annual precipitation and across the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of the multivariate climatic space and are well represented within 17 out of the 20 climatic clusters grouping 10% of the explained climatic variance defined by PC1 and PC2. Species richness is highest in the Hajar and Dhofar Mountains, two of the most biodiverse areas of the Arabian Peninsula, and endemic species richness is greatest in the Jebel Akhdar, the highest part of the Hajar Mountains. Oman’s 22 protected areas cover only 3.91% of the country, including within their limits 63.37% of terrestrial reptiles and 50% of all endemics. Our analyses show that large areas of the climatic space of Oman lie outside protected areas and that seven of the 20 climatic clusters are not protected at all. The results of the gap analysis indicate that most of the species are below the conservation target of 17% or even the less restrictive 12% of their total area within a protected area in order to be considered adequately protected. Therefore, an evaluation of the coverage of the current network of protected areas and the identification of priority protected areas for reptiles using reserve design algorithms are urgently needed. Our study also shows that more than half of the species are still pending of a definitive evaluation by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).This work was funded by grants CGL2012-36970, CGL2015-70390-P from the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Spain (cofunded by FEDER) to SC, the project Field study for the conservation of reptiles in Oman, Ministry of Environment and Climate Affairs, Oman (Ref: 22412027) to SC and grant 2014-SGR-1532 from the Secretaria d'Universitats i Recerca del Departament d'Economia i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya to SC. MSR is funded by a FPI grant from the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Spain (BES-2013-064248); RV, PT and LM were funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) through post-doc grants (SFRH/BPD/79913/2011) to RV, (SFRH/BPD/93473/2013) to PT and PhD grant (SFRH/BD/89820/2012) to LM, financed by Programa Operacional Potencial Humano (POPH) – Quadro de Referência Estrategico Nacional (QREN) from the European Social Fund and Portuguese Ministerio da Educação e Ciência