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

Dissipation of Three Fungicides and Their Effects on Anthocyanins and Color of Monastrell Red Wines

© 2019. The authors This document is made available under the CC-BY 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by /4.0/ This document is the published version of a published work that appeared in final form in International Journal of Molecular Sciences.The effect of fungicides on fermentation is of paramount importance to control the quality and safety of wines. In this work, the quality (enological parameters, color, phenolic content, antioxidant activity, and fungicide residues) of wines from Monastrell grapes fortified with iprovalicarb, mepanipyrim, and tetraconazole fungicides was evaluated. Along the winemaking process, initial residues of mepanipyrim and tetraconazole were removed in more than 90% while the dissipation of iprovalicarb was around 73%. Significant statistical differences were found in the presence of iprovalicarb and mepanipyrim residues, especially at the highest concentration assayed. For both fungicides, increases in the volatile acidity (between 4 and 8.6 times), the lactic acid content (between 8.6 and 20.5 times), the percentage of polymeric anthocyanins (between 1.3 and 1.7 times), and also a slight increase of the total phenolic index and the total anthocyanin content determined by spectrophotometry were observed. On the contrary, the total monomeric anthocyanins content decreased about 16.3% and 28.6% in the presence of iprovalicarb and mepanipyrim, respectively. These results could be related to a higher development of acetic acid or lactic bacteria in the presence of these fungicides. The color of the final wines was also different in comparison with the control, with a higher yellow component, color intensity, tonality, and hue angle because of pH changes in the medium. Tetraconazole fermentations had a more similar trend to the control wine, probably due to the lower concentration of this fungicide in the grape must at the initial time. No effects on the antioxidant activity was observed for any of the target fungicides. A multivariate statistical analysis was done to view the interrelationships between different variables (color and anthocyanins profile). The obtained model allowed the wines to be separated according to the fungicide treatment applied

Psychometric Properties of the Spanish Version of the Caregiver Burden Inventory

[Abstract] Although the Caregiver Burden Inventory (CBI) is the most widely used multidimensional burden instrument for assessing perceived burden of caregivers, there is no data on its psychometric properties in Spanish, nor on caregivers of dependent persons with various diseases. The objective of this study was to translate the CBI into Spanish and validate it in caregivers of dependent persons with various diseases. Trained evaluators administered the CBI and assessed emotional distress and probable mental disorder in 201 caregivers (87.1% women, mean age 56.2 years). The internal consistency of the CBI was 0.89 (0.74–0.83 among the subscales). There was a significant correlation of emotional distress with both the total burden and each subscale (p < 0.001 in all cases). A total score of 39 and scores of 16, 9, 8, 4, and 2 in burden per time dedicated to care, personal life burden, physical burden, social burden, and emotional burden were suitable cut-off points to discriminate caregivers with probable mental disorder (sensitivity = 63.0%–75.6%, specificity = 63.4%–74.4%). To achieve a greater goodness of fit, the model was re-specified, resulting in a shortened (15-item) instrument. The internal consistency reliability coefficients of the 15-item CBI were satisfactory (Cronbach α = 0.83; 0.77–0.86 among the subscales). Within the 15-item CBI, emotional distress was significantly correlated with the total burden, personal life burden, physical burden, social burden (p < 0.001 in all those cases), and emotional burden (p = 0.001). A total score of 25 and scores of 12, 5, 5, 3, and 1, respectively, in the subscales were identified as cut-off points to discriminate caregivers with probable mental disorder (sensitivity = 46.2%–70.6%, specificity = 43.9%–79.3%). Therefore, the 15-item CBI validly measured caregiver burden with better fit and more parsimoniously than the original CBI.Spin-off of the University of Santiago de Compostela “Xuntos. Psychological and Psychiatric Care” (2013-CE081-4)Universidade de Santiago de Compostela; 2013-CE081-

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. 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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