Levetiracetam as an alternative therapy for Tourette syndrome

Tourette syndrome is a common childhood-onset neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by chronic tics and frequent comorbid conditions such as attention deficit disorder. Most currently used tic-suppressing drugs are frequently associated with serious adverse events. Thus, alternative therapeutic agents with more favorable side-effect profiles are being evaluated. New hypotheses and recent studies involving GABAergic system in the pathophysiology of Tourette syndrome suppose a reason for the evaluation of GABAergic drugs. Levetiracetam is a drug with an atypical GABAergic mechanism of action that might be expected to improve tics. Although trials performed to evaluate the efficacy of levetiracetam in the treatment of Tourette syndrome have provided conflicting results, it may be useful in some patients. The established safe profile of levetiracetam makes this drug an alternative for treatment if intolerance to currently used drugs appears, but additional evaluation with larger and longer duration controlled studies are necessary to assess the real efficacy in patients with Tourette syndrome

Introducing fractal dimension algorithms to calculate the Hurst exponent of financial time series

In this paper, three new algorithms are introduced in order to explore long memory in financial time series. They are based on a new concept of fractal dimension of a curve. A mathematical support is provided for each algorithm and its accuracy is tested for different length time series by Monte Carlo simulations. In particular, in the case of short length series, the introduced algorithms perform much better than the classical methods. Finally, an empirical application for some stock market indexes as well as some individual stocks is presented

Contenidos desarrollados mediante las actividades en el medio natural de las clases de Educación Física en Secundaria Obligatoria

En este artículo se presenta un estudio cuyo objetivo es el análisis de los contenidos relativos al bloque de Actividades en el Medio Natural que el profesorado incluye en sus programaciones didácticas y que son abordados en el aula en los distintos niveles de la Educación Secundaria Obligatoria.Para ello se ha utilizado como instrumento un cuestionario que se ha aplicado a 51 profesores de Educación Física de Almería. Estos docentes participaban en una actividad de formación permanente de carácter provincial relacionada con las actividades físico-deportivas en el medio natural. El tratamiento estadístico se ha realizado con el SPSS V.15.Entre las conclusiones, cabe destacar que los contenidos a los que los profesores prestan más atención en sus programaciones son los concernientes a las prácticas de orientación y senderismo. Ello parece ser debido, por un lado, a que dichos contenidos son los más regulados por los Reales Decretos de enseñanza y, por otro, a la existencia de abundantes recursos y materiales bibliográficos sobre esa temática.This article summarizes a study whose aim was the analysis of the content concerning the block of Outdoor Activities in the Natural Environment which is included in the annual syllabus designed by PE teachers and, thus, that tends to be developed during the course at different levels of Compulsory Secondary Education.To do so, the main instrument used has been a questionnaire that has been applied to 51 PE teachers of the Almeria province (Spain). These teachers were taking part on an in service training course around physical and sports outdoor activities in the natural environment. Data obtained has been analyzed using SPSS V.15.Among the findings, we show that teachers pay more attention to the contents related to the practices of hiking, trecking and orienteering. This seems to be due, on the one hand, to the fact that these contents are the most regulated (among the outdoor activities) by the Official Curricula and, on the other, to the existence of many resources and bibliographic materials on this topic

Variación fenotípica y movilidad: papel en la colonización de la rizosfera por pseudomonas fluorescens

Tesis doctoral inédita leída en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Facultad de Ciencias, Departamento de Biológicas. Fecha de lectura: 20-10-200