Resultados de un proyecto investigativo en matemática para ingeniería

Los profesionales relacionados con el perfil ingenieril, en su ciclo de formación básica constan de la Matemática Superior como una de sus disciplinas, sin embargo, es muy discutido las dificultades que afronta el proceso de enseñanza aprendizaje de esta disciplina. Es por ello, que un conjunto de profesores se motivaron en desarrollar un Proyecto de Investigación para contribuir al “Perfeccionamiento del proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje de la Matemática en carreras de ingeniería”. Es objetivo de este trabajo presentar los resultados del proyecto, con la implementación de una estrategia didáctica centrada en estrategias de aprendizaje para el desarrollo de habilidades matemáticas. Los resultados se manifestaron en las diferencias significativas entre el antes y el después de aplicada la estrategia en cada una de las acciones de las habilidades: calcular límite, demostrar continuidad y representar funciones relacionadas con las habilidades espaciales, lo que condujo a niveles cualitativamente superiores en las mismas

Efectos terapéuticos de la dieta macrobiótica ma-pi4 sobre la mejora en la compensación de los niveles de glucosa, triglicéridos y colesterol en adultos con sobrepeso y obesidad, Octubre-Noviembre 2014

El objetivo general de la presente investigación fue evaluar los efectos terapéuticos de la dieta macrobiótica Ma-Pi4 sobre la mejora en la compensación de los niveles de glucosa, triglicéridos y colesterol en adultos con sobrepeso y obesidad. El estudio es cuasi experimental, descriptivo de corte transversal, monocéntrico. Realizado en 18 adultos que presentaron altas concentraciones de lípidos séricos y glucosa en sangre con sobrepeso y obesidad, los cuales fueron sometidos durante 28 días a la implementación de la dieta macrobiótica Ma-Pi4, se les aplicó una encuesta con el propósito de caracterizar los aspectos sociodemográficos y hábitos alimentarios, fichas para la obtención del estado nutricional y exámenes bioquímicos (perfil lipídico y glicemia) previo y posterior a la implementación de la dieta. El 50% (9) se encontraban en Obesidad I, cifra que posterior a la implementación de la dieta se redujo a 26.66% (3). La glucosa, el colesterol total, el colesterol de LDL y los triglicéridos, mostraron reducciones significativas, el colesterol total paso de ser una media de 223.42 a 178.5, de mismo modo los triglicéridos se redujeron de 191.72 a 138.12; y la glucosa que previo tenía una media de 94.82, posterior fue de 83.81. El colesterol de HDL no obtuvo cambios significativos. El 22.22%(4) de los sujetos padecían de HTA I, la cual luego de los 28 días no se encontró ninguna persona que presentará esta condición, obteniendo que el 88.88%(16) tenían su presión arterial en rangos normales. Como conclusión, el esquema terapéutico con dietas macrobióticas Ma-Pi evaluado, resultó exitoso en promover el control de parámetros clave del metabolismo glucídico y lipídico, y en reducir el riesgo cardiovascular asociado a los niveles lipídicos. Estos resultados apoyan el empleo de la dieta macrobiótica como herramienta efectiva adicional para el tratamiento de las dislipidemias y valores altos de glucosa

On sparse optimal regression trees

In this paper, we model an optimal regression tree through a continuous optimization problem, where a compromise between prediction accuracy and both types of sparsity, namely local and global, is sought. Our approach can accommodate important desirable properties for the regression task, such as cost-sensitivity and fairness. Thanks to the smoothness of the predictions, we can derive local explanations on the continuous predictor variables. The computational experience reported shows the outperformance of our approach in terms of prediction accuracy against standard benchmark regression methods such as CART, OLS and LASSO. Moreover, the scalability of our approach with respect to the size of the training sample is illustrated

Vaccination of rabbits with immunodominant antigens from Sarcoptes scabiei induced high levels of humoral responses and pro-inflammatory cytokines but confers limited protection

© 2016 The Author(s). Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.[EN]Background: Vaccination is an attractive ecological alternative to the use of acaricides for parasite control. However, effective anti-parasite vaccines against sarcoptic mange have not yet been developed. The purpose of this study was first to identify Sarcoptes scabiei immunodominant antigens and second to evaluate them as vaccine candidates in a rabbit/S. scabiei var. cuniculi model. Methods: The S. scabiei Ssλ15 immunodominant antigen was selected by immunoscreening of a S. scabiei var. hominis cDNA. The full-length cDNA was sequenced and cloned into the pGEX vector and the recombinant protein expressed in BL21 (DE3) cells and purified. A vaccination trial was performed consisting of a test group (n = 8) immunised with recAgs (a mix of two recombinant antigens, Ssλ15 and the previously described Ssλ20ΔB3) and a control group (n = 8) immunised with PBS. All analyses were performed with R Statistical Environment with α set at 0.050. Results: The full-length open reading frame of the 1,821 nt cloned cDNA encodes a 64 kDa polypeptide, the sequence of which had 96 % identity with a hypothetical protein of S. scabiei. Ssλ15 was localised by immunostaining of skin sections in the tegument surrounding the mouthparts and the coxa in the legs of mites. Rabbit immunisation with recAgs induced high levels of specific IgG (P < 0.010) and increased levels of total IgEs. However, no significant clinical protection against S. scabiei challenge was detected. Unexpectedly, the group immunised with the recAgs mix had significantly higher lesion scores (P = 0.050) although lower mean mite densities than those observed in the control group. These results might indicate that the lesions in the recAgs group were due not only to the mites density but also to an exacerbated immunological response after challenge, which is in agreement with the specific high levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1 and TNFα) detected after challenge in this group. Conclusions: The selected antigens delivered as recombinant proteins had no clinical protective efficacy against S. scabiei infestation although immunisation reduced mite density. However, these results pave the way for future studies on alternative production systems, adjuvants, delivery methods and combinations of antigens in order to manage stimulation of clinical protective immune responses.SIThis work was partially funded by grant RTA11-00087-00-00 from the Spanish Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA), Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), AGL2010-22200-C02-01 from Spanish Ministry (MINECO) and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) grant BBS/E/I/00002014

Conciliación de la medicación en farmacia comunitaria

Introducción: La conciliación del tratamiento farmacológico consiste en revisar y registrar de forma completa y precisa la medicación habitual de un paciente, con objeto de conseguir la seguridad del mismo en cuanto al uso de los medicamentos. El objetivo principal de este estudio es cuantificar las discrepancias de conciliación producidas como consecuencia de la transición sanitaria del paciente entre los distintos niveles asistenciales.Métodos: Estudio piloto descriptivo multicéntrico desarrollado con 29 pacientes en seis farmacias comunitarias onubenses durante tres meses. Se estudia el tratamiento farmacológico del paciente comparando su tratamiento habitual con el nuevo tratamiento instaurado. Para la toma de decisiones se emplean la Base de Datos de Medicamentos y Productos Sanitarios, el método Dáder en seguimiento farmacoterapéutico y los criterios Stopp-Start en pacientes mayores de 65 años.Resultados: En un 37,9% de los pacientes estudiados se encontraron discrepancias en la medicación, principalmente en pacientes que proceden del hospital (36,4% tras alta hospitalaria y 45,5% tras visita al especialista).Las discrepancias mayoritarias tras la conciliación se detectan en la patología cardiovascular, seguida en menor medida por la patología renal. En un 36,4% de los casos el tipo de error observado ha sido la duplicidad de tratamiento farmacológico para una misma patología y en un 27,3% de los pacientes se detectaron enfermedades que no estaban siendo tratadas. Asimismo, se observaron pautas erróneas en el tratamiento (18,2%) y dosis erróneas de administración (9,1%). Un 81,8 % de los pacientes fue derivado al médico.Conclusión: Las discrepancias en el tratamiento farmacológico de un paciente tras el cambio de nivel asistencial son muy elevadas. Dado que el farmacéutico comunitario es el último profesional sanitario en contacto con el paciente antes de la administración del medicamento, su intervención permite detectar estas discrepancias, disminuyendo la morbilidad asociada a las mismas y contribuyendo a garantizar la continuidad asistencial.

Effect of boron and water-to-cement ratio on the performances of laboratory prepared Belite-Ye'elimite-Ferrite (BYF) cements

The effect of superplasticiser, borax and the water-to-cement ratio on BYF hydration and mechanical strengths has been studied. Two laboratory-scale BYF cements—st-BYF (with -C2S and orthorhombic C4A3 S) and borax-activated B-BYF (with a’H-C2S and pseudo-cubic C4A3s) have been used, and both show similar particle size distribution. The addition of superplasticiser and externally added borax to BYF pastes has been optimised through rheological measurements. Optimised superplasticiser contents (0.3, 0.4 and 0.1 wt%for st-BYF, B-BYF and st-BYF with externally added 0.25 wt % B2O3, respectively) result in low viscosities yielding homogeneous mortars. The calorimetric study revealed that st-BYF is more reactive than B-BYF, as the values of heat released are 300–370 J/g and 190–210 J/g, respectively, after 7 days of hydration; this fact is independent of the water-to-cement ratio. These findings agree with the higher degree of hydration at 28 days of b -C2S in st-BYF (from 45 to 60%) than a’H-C2S in B-BYF (~20 to 30%). The phase assemblage evolution has been determined by LXRPD coupled with the Rietveld method and MAS-NMR. The formation of stratlingite is favoured by increasing the w/c ratio in both systems. Finally, the optimisation of fresh BYF pastes jointly with the reduction of water-to-cement ratio to 0.40 have allowed the achieving of mortars with compressive strengths over 40 MPa at 7 days in all systems. Moreover, the st-BYF mortar, where borax was externally added, achieved more than 70 MPa after 28 days. The main conclusion of this work does not support Lafarge’s approach of adding boron/borax to the raw meal of BYF cements. This procedure stabilises the alpha belite polymorph, but its reactivity, in these systems, is lower and the associated mechanical strengths poorer.UMA18-FEDERJA-095 y P18-RT-720, ambos cofinanciados FEDE

Active commuting is associated with a lower risk of obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome in Chilean adults

Background: There is limited evidence on how active commuting is associated with health benefits in developing countries. The aim of this study therefore was to investigate the associations between active commuting and markers of adiposity and cardiometabolic risk in the Chilean adult population. Methods: In total, 5157 participants from the Chilean National Health Survey 2009–10 were included in this cross-sectional study. Active commuting was measured using the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ v2). Body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) were measured and used to define obesity and central obesity. Type 2 diabetes (T2D) and metabolic syndrome were determined using WHO and updated ATPIII-NCEP criteria, respectively. Results: The main finding of this study is that a 30 min increase in active commuting is associated with lower odds for BMI &gt; 25.0 kg m−2 (0.93 [95% CI: 0.88–0.98, P = 0.010]). Similarly, the odds for central obesity was 0.87 [0.82–0.92, P &lt; 0.0001]. Similar associations were found for T2D (0.81 [0.75–0.88], P &lt; 0.0001) and metabolic syndrome (OR: 0.86 [0.80–0.92], P &lt; 0.0001). Conclusion: Our findings show that active commuting is associated with lower adiposity and a healthier metabolic profile including lower risk for obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome

Does function determine the structure? Changes in flexor hallucis longus muscle and associated performance related to dance modality: A cross-sectional study

Background and Objectives: Flexor hallucis longus pathology is one of the most common conditions of the ankle and foot in dancers, due to the high demand of dance movements performed in an extreme plantar flexion and dorsiflexion range of motion. The objectives of this study were to determine the bilateral differences between the thickness and cross-sectional area of the flexor hallucis longus muscle in dancers, to establish possible differences between dance modalities, and to analyze whether there is a correlation between ultrasonographic parameters or performance variables and the dance modality. Material and Methods: A sample of 50 (29 classical and 21 contemporary) full-time pre-professional female dancers were included in the study. The thickness and cross-sectional area of the flexor hallucis longus muscle were evaluated for both limbs using ultrasound imaging. The range of movement of the first metatarsophalangeal joint was measured using functional extension with maximal ankle plantarflexion, balance was measured in a unilateral stance with the heel raised, endurance was evaluated through a modified heel rise fatigue test, and a counter movement jump to assess the vertical jump performance was measured bilaterally. Results: There were no significant differences recorded between the dominant and non-dominant limbs for each variable, within both groups. Contemporary dancers showed a greater thickness and cross-sectional area of the flexor hallucis longus muscle than classical dancers. However, classical dancers showed an increase of balance, endurance, range of movement of the first metatarsophalangeal joint, and counter movement jump with respect to contemporary dancers. Conclusion: Bilateral symmetry was identified in all variables for both groups. The size and performance of the flexor hallucis longus muscle may be influenced by the specific nature of dance modalit

Mayores niveles de transporte activo se asocian a un menor nivel de adiposidad y menor riesgo de obesidad: resultados de la Encuesta Nacional de Salud 2009-2010 = Association of active commuting with obesity: findings from the Chilean National Health Survey 2009-2010

Background: Active commuting is associated with a lower risk for obesity in developed countries. Aim: To investigate the association between active commuting and obesity risk in Chile. Material and Methods: Active commuting was measured using the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ v2) in 5,293 participants from the Chilean National Health Survey 2009-2010. Body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) were the study outcomes. The association between active commuting and obesity was investigated using linear and logistic regression analysis. Results: Thirty four percent of responders [95% confidence intervals (CI): 32.6-35.1] were passive commuters. Active commuters had a lower BMI and WC than their passive counterparts. Thirty minutes increment in active commuting were associated with a −0.20 kg.m-2 lower BMI [95% CI: −0.33 to −0.07, p &lt; 0.01] and a −076 cm lower WC [95% CI: −1.08 to −0.43, p &lt; 0.01]. The odds of having a BMI &gt; 25 kg.m-2 was 0.93 [95% CI: 0.88 to 0.98, p = 0.01] per every 30 minutes’ increment in active commuting, whereas the odds for central obesity was 0.87 [95% CI: 0.82 to 0.92, p &lt; 0.01]. Conclusions: Active commuting is associated with a lower adiposity and lower risk for obesity in Chilean adults

Factores asociados a inactividad física en Chile: resultados de la Encuesta Nacional de Salud 2009-2010 = Correlates of physical inactivity: Findings from the Chilean National Health Survey 2009-2010

Background: Physical inactivity is an important risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. Aim: To identify factors associated with physical inactivity in Chilean adults. Material and Methods: Participants from the Chilean Health Survey (5,133 individuals) were included in this study. Physical activity was measured using the Global physical activity questionnaire (GPAQ). Physical inactivity was defined as &lt; 600 MET. min.week−1 of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity. Logistic regression was used to identify correlates of physical inactivity. Results: The main finding of this study were that women (odds ratio (OR): 1.51 [95% confidence intervals (CI): 1.32-1.72]) were more likely to be inactive compared to men and that older adults were more likely to be inactive than their younger or middle age counterparts (OR: 3.06 [95% CI: 2.45-3.82]). Other correlates of physical inactivity were individuals with obesity (OR: 1.43 [95% CI: 1.20-1.70]), diabetes (OR: 1.96 [95% CI: 1.61-2.38]), hypertension (OR: 1.72 [95% CI: 1.50-1.97]), metabolic syndrome (OR: 1.42 [95% IC: 1.18-1.70]), a low education level (OR: 1.26 [95% CI: 1.06-1.49]) and higher levels of sedentary behavior (OR: 2.77 [95% CI: 2.36-3.25]). Conclusions: Women, older people and sedentary subjects with chronic non-transmissible conditions are at higher risk of being physically inactive