The Impact of EMG Biofeedback on Evacuation Difficulty Level and Pain Grade During Defecation in Chronically Constipated Elderly Female Patients Due to Dyssynergic Defecation

[Abstract] The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of biofeedback therapy on evacuation diffculty level and the pain grade during defecation of elderly female patients with dyssynergic defecation. With this aim, after one month of initial assessment, 16 chronically constipated female patients with dyssynergic defecation were randomized to either a electromyographic biofeedback group (n = 8) or to a conventional treatment group (n = 8). The results showed a significant decrease in the evacuation diffculty level and pain grade during defecation following behavioral treatment through biofeedback. At the same time, the treatment produced significant improvements in the weekly stool frequency and a decrease in the mean electromyographic (EMG) activity ( V) of the external anal sphincter during straining to defecate. Clinical gains were maintained during the follow-up carried out six months late

Evaluation of cervical posture improvement of children with cerebral palsy after physical therapy based on head movements and serious games

Background: This paper presents the preliminary results of a novel rehabilitation therapy for cervical and trunk control of children with cerebral palsy (CP) based on serious videogames and physical exercise. Materials: The therapy is based on the use of the ENLAZA Interface, a head mouse based on inertial technology that will be used to control a set of serious videogames with movements of the head. Methods: Ten users with CP participated in the study. Whereas the control group (n=5) followed traditional therapies, the experimental group (n=5) complemented these therapies with a series of ten sessions of gaming with ENLAZA to exercise cervical flexion-extensions, rotations and inclinations in a controlled, engaging environment. Results: The ten work sessions yielded improvements in head and trunk control that were higher in the experimental group for Visual Analogue Scale, Goal Attainment Scaling and Trunk Control Measurement Scale (TCMS). Significant differences (27% vs. 2% of percentage improvement) were found between the experimental and control groups for TCMS (p<0.05). The kinematic assessment shows that there were some improvements in the active and the passive range of motion. However, no significant differences were found pre- and post-intervention. Conclusions:Physical therapy that combines serious games with traditional rehabilitation could allow children with CP to achieve larger function improvements in the trunk and cervical regions. However, given the limited scope of this trial (n=10) additional studies are needed to corroborate this hypothesis

Anotación morfosintáctica de la Web en portugués. Variedades nacionales, tipologías textuales y sistemas ortográficos

The great amount of text produced every day in the Web turned it as one of the main sources for obtaining linguistic corpora, that are further analyzed with Natural Language Processing techniques. On a global scale, languages such as Portuguese - official in 9 countries - appear on the Web in several varieties, with lexical, morphological and syntactic (among others) differences. Besides, a unified spelling system for Portuguese has been recently approved, and its implementation process has already started in some countries. However, it will last several years, so different varieties and spelling systems coexist. Since PoS-taggers for Portuguese are specifically built for a particular variety, this work analyzes different training corpora and lexica combinations aimed at building a model with high-precision annotation in several varieties and spelling systems of this language. Moreover, this paper presents different dictionaries of the new orthography (Spelling Agreement) as well as a new freely available testing corpus, containing different varieties and textual typologies.La gran cantidad de texto producido diariamente en la Web ha provocado que ésta sea utilizada como una de las principales fuentes para la obtención de corpus lingüísticos, posteriormente analizados utilizando técnicas de Procesamiento del Lenguaje Natural. En una escala global, idiomas como el portugués – oficial en 9 estados - aparecen en la Web en diferentes variedades, con diferencias léxicas, morfológicas y sintácticas, entre otras. A esto se suma la reciente aprobación de una ortografía unificada para las diferentes variedades del portugués, cuyo proceso de implementación ya ha comenzado en varios países, pero que se prolongará todavía durante varios años, conviviendo por lo tanto también diferentes ortografías. Una vez que los etiquetadores morfosintácticos existentes para el portugués están adaptados específicamente para una variedad nacional concreta, el presente trabajo analiza diferentes combinaciones de corpus de aprendizaje y de léxicos con el fin de obtener un modelo que mantenga una alta precisión de anotación en diferentes variedades y ortografías de esta lengua. Además, se presentan diferentes diccionarios adaptados a la nueva ortografía (Acordo Ortográfico de 1990) y un nuevo corpus de evaluación con diferentes variedades y tipologías textuales, disponibilizado libremente.This work has been supported by the HPCPLN project - Ref: EM13/041 (Galician Government) and by the Celtic - Ref: 2012-CE138 and Plastic - Ref: 2013-CE298 projects (Feder-Interconnecta)

El perfil del alumnado repetidor y no repetidor en una muestra de estudiantes españoles y latinoamericanos: un estudio sobre los determinantes de sus logros académicos

El objetivo de esta investigación es describir como una serie de variables que tienen incidencia directa sobre los resultados académicos, caracterizan al alumnado autóctono o latinoamericano repetidor y no repetidor. Administramos una encuesta cuantitativa a estudiantes de 5º y 6º de Enseñanza Primaria y de 1º y 2º de Enseñanza Secundaria Obligatoria. Además, recabamos información directa de sus familias sobre los componentes de su estatus socioeconómico. Las variables que mejor caracterizan al alumnado repetidor son de carácter “sociocultural” o “estables en el tiempo” y al no repetidor los factores “psicológicos” o “cambiantes en el tiempo”. Se analizan las semejanzas con estudios realizados en otros contextos educativos que han servido para contrastar al modelo teórico de base

Acoustic Bragg Peak Localization in Proton Therapy Treatment: Simulation Studies

[EN] A full chain simulation of the acoustic hadron therapy monitoring for brain tumors is presented in this work. For the study, a proton beam of 100 MeV was considered. In the first stage, Geant4 was used to simulate the energy deposition and to study the behavior of the Bragg peak. The energy deposition in the medium produced local heating that can be considered instantaneous with respect to the hydrodynamic time scale producing a sound pressure wave. The resulting thermoacoustic signal was subsequently obtained by solving the thermoacoustic equation. The acoustic propagation was simulated by the Finite Element Method (FEM) in the brain and the skull, where a set of piezoelectric sensors were placed. Lastly, the final received signals in the sensors were processed in order to reconstruct the position of the thermal source and, thus, to determine the feasibility and accuracy of acoustic beam monitoring in hadron therapy.Otero, J.; Felis, I.; Ardid Ramírez, M.; Herrero Debón, A.; Merchán, JA. (2019). Acoustic Bragg Peak Localization in Proton Therapy Treatment: Simulation Studies. MDPI. 1-7. https://doi.org/10.3390/ecsa-6-06533S1

Bragg Peak Localization with Piezoelectric Sensors for Proton Therapy Treatment

[EN] A full chain simulation of the acoustic hadrontherapy monitoring for brain tumours is presented in this work. For the study, a proton beam of 100 MeV is considered. In the first stage, Geant4 is used to simulate the energy deposition and to study the behaviour of the Bragg peak. The energy deposition in the medium produces local heating that can be considered instantaneous with respect to the hydrodynamic time scale producing a sound pressure wave. The resulting thermoacoustic signal has been subsequently obtained by solving the thermoacoustic equation. The acoustic propagation has been simulated by FEM methods in the brain and the skull, where a set of piezoelectric sensors are placed. Last, the final received signals in the sensors have been processed in order to reconstruct the position of the thermal source and, thus, to determine the feasibility and accuracy of acoustic beam monitoring in hadrontherapy.This research received was funded by the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigacion, grant numbers FPA2015-65150-C3-2-P (MINECO/FEDER) and PGC2018-096663-B-C43 (MCIU/FEDER).Otero-Vega, JE.; Felis-Enguix, I.; Herrero Debón, A.; Merchán, JA.; Ardid Ramírez, M. (2020). Bragg Peak Localization with Piezoelectric Sensors for Proton Therapy Treatment. Sensors. 20(10):1-12. https://doi.org/10.3390/s20102987S1122010A population-based assessment of proton beam therapy utilization in California. (2020). The American Journal of Managed Care, 26(2), e28-e35. doi:10.37765/ajmc.2020.42398Dutz, A., Agolli, L., Bütof, R., Valentini, C., Baumann, M., Lühr, A., … Krause, M. (2020). Neurocognitive function and quality of life after proton beam therapy for brain tumour patients. Radiotherapy and Oncology, 143, 108-116. doi:10.1016/j.radonc.2019.12.024Lesueur, P., Calugaru, V., Nauraye, C., Stefan, D., Cao, K., Emery, E., … Thariat, J. (2019). Proton therapy for treatment of intracranial benign tumors in adults: A systematic review. Cancer Treatment Reviews, 72, 56-64. doi:10.1016/j.ctrv.2018.11.004Amaldi, U., Bonomi, R., Braccini, S., Crescenti, M., Degiovanni, A., Garlasché, M., … Zennaro, R. (2010). Accelerators for hadrontherapy: From Lawrence cyclotrons to linacs. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 620(2-3), 563-577. doi:10.1016/j.nima.2010.03.130Weber, D. C., Abrunhosa-Branquinho, A., Bolsi, A., Kacperek, A., Dendale, R., Geismar, D., … Grau, C. (2017). Profile of European proton and carbon ion therapy centers assessed by the EORTC facility questionnaire. Radiotherapy and Oncology, 124(2), 185-189. doi:10.1016/j.radonc.2017.07.012MIZUMOTO, M., OSHIRO, Y., YAMAMOTO, T., KOHZUKI, H., & SAKURAI, H. (2017). Proton Beam Therapy for Pediatric Brain Tumor. Neurologia medico-chirurgica, 57(7), 343-355. doi:10.2176/nmc.ra.2017-0003Sulak, L., Armstrong, T., Baranger, H., Bregman, M., Levi, M., Mael, D., … Learned, J. (1979). Experimental studies of the acoustic signature of proton beams traversing fluid media. Nuclear Instruments and Methods, 161(2), 203-217. doi:10.1016/0029-554x(79)90386-0Aso, T., Kimura, A., Tanaka, S., Yoshida, H., Kanematsu, N., Sasaki, T., & Akagi, T. (2005). Verification of the dose distributions with GEANT4 simulation for proton therapy. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 52(4), 896-901. doi:10.1109/tns.2005.852697Jones, K. C., Witztum, A., Sehgal, C. M., & Avery, S. (2014). Proton beam characterization by proton-induced acoustic emission: simulation studies. Physics in Medicine and Biology, 59(21), 6549-6563. doi:10.1088/0031-9155/59/21/6549Jones, K. C., Seghal, C. M., & Avery, S. (2016). How proton pulse characteristics influence protoacoustic determination of proton-beam range: simulation studies. Physics in Medicine and Biology, 61(6), 2213-2242. doi:10.1088/0031-9155/61/6/2213Donnelly, B. R., & Medige, J. (1997). Shear Properties of Human Brain Tissue. Journal of Biomechanical Engineering, 119(4), 423-432. doi:10.1115/1.2798289Gu, L., Chafi, M. S., Ganpule, S., & Chandra, N. (2012). The influence of heterogeneous meninges on the brain mechanics under primary blast loading. Composites Part B: Engineering, 43(8), 3160-3166. doi:10.1016/j.compositesb.2012.04.014Peterson, J., & Dechow, P. C. (2003). Material properties of the human cranial vault and zygoma. The Anatomical Record, 274A(1), 785-797. doi:10.1002/ar.a.10096Fellah, Z. E. A., Chapelon, J. Y., Berger, S., Lauriks, W., & Depollier, C. (2004). Ultrasonic wave propagation in human cancellous bone: Application of Biot theory. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 116(1), 61-73. doi:10.1121/1.1755239Raffaele, L. (2016). Advances in hadrontherapy dosimetry. Physica Medica, 32, 187. doi:10.1016/j.ejmp.2016.07.323Dosanjh, M., Amaldi, U., Mayer, R., & Poetter, R. (2018). ENLIGHT: European network for Light ion hadron therapy. Radiotherapy and Oncology, 128(1), 76-82. doi:10.1016/j.radonc.2018.03.014Ahmad, M., Xiang, L., Yousefi, S., & Xing, L. (2015). Theoretical detection threshold of the proton-acoustic range verification technique. Medical Physics, 42(10), 5735-5744. doi:10.1118/1.4929939Smith, A., Gillin, M., Bues, M., Zhu, X. R., Suzuki, K., Mohan, R., … Matsuda, K. (2009). The M. D. Anderson proton therapy system. Medical Physics, 36(9Part1), 4068-4083. doi:10.1118/1.3187229Yock, T. I., & Tarbell, N. J. (2004). Technology Insight: proton beam radiotherapy for treatment in pediatric brain tumors. Nature Clinical Practice Oncology, 1(2), 97-103. doi:10.1038/ncponc0090Riva, M., Vallicelli, E. A., Baschirotto, A., & De Matteis, M. (2018). Acoustic Analog Front End for Proton Range Detection in Hadron Therapy. IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems, 12(4), 954-962. doi:10.1109/tbcas.2018.2828703Acoustics Module User’s Guidehttps://doc.comsol.com/5.4/doc/com.comsol.help.aco/AcousticsModuleUsersGuide.pdfArdid, M., Felis, I., Martínez-Mora, J. A., & Otero, J. (2017). Optimization of Dimensions of Cylindrical Piezoceramics as Radio-Clean Low Frequency Acoustic Sensors. Journal of Sensors, 2017, 1-8. doi:10.1155/2017/8179672Otero, Felis, Ardid, & Herrero. (2019). Acoustic Localization of Bragg Peak Proton Beams for Hadrontherapy Monitoring. Sensors, 19(9), 1971. doi:10.3390/s19091971Levenberg, K. (1944). A method for the solution of certain non-linear problems in least squares. Quarterly of Applied Mathematics, 2(2), 164-168. doi:10.1090/qam/10666Geant4 A Simulation Toolkithttp://geant4-userdoc.web.cern.ch/geant4-userdoc/UsersGuides/ForApplicationDeveloper/BackupVersions/V10.5-2.0/fo/BookForApplicationDevelopers.pdfBarber, T. W., Brockway, J. A., & Higgins, L. S. (1970). THE DENSITY OF TISSUES IN AND ABOUT THE HEAD. Acta Neurologica Scandinavica, 46(1), 85-92. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0404.1970.tb05606.xAdrián-Martínez, S., Bou-Cabo, M., Felis, I., Llorens, C. D., Martínez-Mora, J. A., Saldaña, M., & Ardid, M. (2015). Acoustic Signal Detection Through the Cross-Correlation Method in Experiments with Different Signal to Noise Ratio and Reverberation Conditions. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 66-79. doi:10.1007/978-3-662-46338-3_

Market Orientation: the Impact of Mascomex on the Internationalization of the Galician Economy

The university is not an end in itself, but rather a means of improving the society which it serves. A society is made up of multiple institutions, which must to distinguish between students, their families, the businesses that employ them, and of course, the public authorities which, in the case of Spanish public universities, contribute most of the funds necessary for the university’s financial resources. Trying to satisfy the needs and interests of such a diverse audience is undoubtedly one of the main challenges when trying to introduce a market orientation in universities. There are currently no doubts as to the crucial role played by foreign trade and globalization in growth, profitability and business survival. Consequently, it is also vital for economic development and the welfare of countries. The Master in Foreign Trade Management (MASCOMEX-Master en Dirección y Gestión de Comercio Exterior) of the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) arose with the objective of trainning managers and technicians to be specialized in international trade in order to foster the development and international expansion of Galician companies in foreign markets. After 20 years of successfully achieving this objective, it is a good example of how market orientation gives universities important instruments for improving the quality of teaching and research, and fostering innovation in curricula and all services provided. This is achieved by better adapting the educational programmes to the needs of their multiple customers and society whole. The empirical analysis of the determining factors of Galician exports confirms the positive and statistically significant impact between the growths in the number of graduates in this master and the growth in Galician exports.Udostępnienie publikacji Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego finansowane w ramach projektu „Doskonałość naukowa kluczem do doskonałości kształcenia”. Projekt realizowany jest ze środków Europejskiego Funduszu Społecznego w ramach Programu Operacyjnego Wiedza Edukacja Rozwój; nr umowy: POWER.03.05.00-00-Z092/17-00

Health promoting properties of bee royal jelly: Food of the queens

Royal jelly (RJ) demand is growing every year and so is the market for functional foods in general. RJ is formed by different substances, mainly carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids, but also vitamins, minerals, and phenolic or volatile compounds in lower proportion. Major royal jelly proteins (MRJP) are, together with 10†hydroxy†2†decenoic acid (10†HDA), key substances of RJ due to their different biological properties. In particular, 10†HDA is a unique substance in this product. RJ has been historically employed as health enhancer and is still very relevant in China due to the traditional medicine and the apitherapy. Nowadays, it is mainly consumed as a functional food or is found in supplements and other formulations for its health†beneficial properties. Within these properites, anti†lipidemic, antioxidant, antiproliferative, antimicrobial, neuroprotective, anti†inflammatory, immunomodulatory, antiaging, and estrogenic activities have been reported for RJ or its specific components. This manuscript is aimed at reviewing the current knowledge on RJ components, their assessment in terms of authenticity, their biological activities, and related health applications.The research leading to these results was supported by FEDER under the program Interreg V-A Spain-Portugal (POPTEC) 2014–2020 ref. 0377_IBERPHENOL_6_E and ref. 0181_NANOEATERS_01_E; by Xunta de Galicia supporting with the Axudas Conecta Peme the IN852A 2018/58 NeuroFood Project and the program EXCELENCIA-ED431F 2020/12; by EcoChestnut Project (Erasmus+ KA202); by Ibero-American Program on Science and Technology (CYTED—AQUA-CIBUS, P317RT0003) and by the Bio Based Industries Joint Undertaking (JU) under grant agreement No 888003 UP4HEALTH Project (H2020-BBI-JTI-2019) that supports the work of P. Otero, the JU receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program and the Bio Based Industries Consortium. The research leading to these results was supported by MICINN supporting the Ramón & Cajal grant for M.A. Prieto (RYC-2017-22891) and by University of Vigo for the predoctoral grant for M. Carpena (Uvigo-00VI 131H 6410211).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Fiabilidad de las pruebas de fuerza en salto vertical y velocidad de carrera en escolares de 6 a 8 años

El objetivo del presente estudio fue determinar la fiabilidad de diversas pruebas de salto vertical y de carrera rápida en escolares de 6 a 8 años. Participaron 56 sujetos de ambos sexos (30 niñas y 26 niños), de edades comprendidas entre 6 y 8 años, seleccionados aleatoriamente entre los de un mismo centro escolar, a los que se administró una batería de pruebas de fuerza de salto vertical sobre plataforma de contactos (SJ, CMJ, CMJA y 1RJ) y de carrera rápida (30 m) en dos ocasiones (T1 y T2), con una semana de intervalo entre ambas. Se estudió la reproducibilidad entre repeticiones (variabilidad intraindividual) para cada una de las dos sesiones de valoración (T1, T2) y la variabilidad temporal (entre T1 y T2), mediante el cálculo de diferentes estadísticos (coeficiente de variación, CV; coeficiente de correlación intraclase, CCI; error metódico, EM) y de su significación estadística. La reproducibilidad entre repeticiones de las pruebas de salto vertical CMJ y 1RJ se demostró elevada (CCI 0,95) en ambas sesiones. En la segunda sesión de valoración también lo fue la reproducibilidad de SJ, mientras que CMJA se mantuvo en niveles inaceptables (CCI = 0,69-0,80). La variabilidad entre sujetos se mostró bastante más elevada que en estudiantes de educación física adultos (CV = 8,3-11,8 %). La reproducibilidad temporal (día a día, entre dos sesiones separadas por una semana) de las pruebas puede considerarse cuestionable en términos generales, observándose un elevado error metódico (EM = 9,9-15,1 %) y un empeoramiento significativo de los resultados en la segunda sesión en las pruebas de salto con contramovimiento (CMJ y CMJA) y de carrera rápida de 30 m (p 0,05). En función de los resultados se proponen algunas medidas conducentes a la mejora de la fiabilidad de las pruebas

Secondary aroma: influence of wine microorganisms in their aroma profile

Aroma profile is one of the main features for the acceptance of wine. Yeasts and bacteria are the responsible organisms to carry out both, alcoholic and malolactic fermentation. Alcoholic fermentation is in turn, responsible for transforming grape juice into wine and providing secondary aromas. Secondary aroma can be influenced by different factors; however, the influence of the microorganisms is one of the main agents affecting final wine aroma profile. Saccharomyces cerevisiae has historically been the most used yeast for winemaking process for its specific characteristics: high fermentative metabolism and kinetics, low acetic acid production, resistance to high levels of sugar, ethanol, sulfur dioxide and also, the production of pleasant aromatic compounds. Nevertheless, in the last years, the use of non-saccharomyces yeasts has been progressively growing according to their capacity to enhance aroma complexity and interact with S. cerevisiae, especially in mixed cultures. Hence, this review article is aimed at associating the main secondary aroma compounds present in wine with the microorganisms involved in the spontaneous and guided fermentations, as well as an approach to the strain variability of species, the genetic modifications that can occur and their relevance to wine aroma construction.The research leading to these results was supported by FEDER under the program Interreg V-A Spain-Portugal (POPTEC) 2014–2020 ref. 0377_IBERPHENOL_6_E and ref. 0181_NANOEATERS_ 01_E; by Xunta de Galicia supporting with the Axudas Conecta Peme the IN852A 2018/58 NeuroFood Project and the program EXCELENCIA-ED431F 2020/12; by EcoChestnut Project (Erasmus+ KA202) that supports the work of M. Carpena; by Ibero-American Program on Science and Technology (CYTED—AQUA-CIBUS, P317RT0003) and by the Bio Based Industries Joint Undertaking (JU) under grant agreement No 888003 UP4HEALTH Project (H2020-BBI-JTI-2019), the JU receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program and the Bio Based Industries Consortium. The research leading to these results was supported by MICINN with the Ramón&Cajal grant for M. A. Prieto (RYC-2017-22891) and the Juan de la Cierva_incorporación grant for P. Otero (IJCI-2016-27774); by Xunta de Galicia and University of Vigo supporting the postdoctoral grant of M. Fraga-Corral (ED481B-2019/096) and the pre-doctoral grant for P. García-Oliveira (ED481A-2019/295).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio