EEG Theta Power Activity Reflects Workload among Army Combat Drivers: An Experimental Study

We thank Héctor Rieiro, Eduardo Bailon, and Jose M. Morales, (University of Granada) for their help in data processing. We also thank Lieutenant Colonel Francisco de Asís Vázquez Prieto (Training and Doctrine Command, Spanish Army) for his help in organizing the study.We aimed to evaluate the effects of mental workload variations, as a function of the road environment, on the brain activity of army drivers performing combat and non-combat scenarios in a light multirole vehicle dynamic simulator. Forty-one non-commissioned officers completed three standardized driving exercises with different terrain complexities (low, medium, and high) while we recorded their electroencephalographic (EEG) activity. We focused on variations in the theta EEG power spectrum, a well-known index of mental workload. We also assessed performance and subjective ratings of task load. The theta EEG power spectrum in the frontal, temporal, and occipital areas were higher during the most complex scenarios. Performance (number of engine stops) and subjective data supported these findings. Our findings strengthen previous results found in civilians on the relationship between driver mental workload and the theta EEG power spectrum. This suggests that EEG activity can give relevant insight into mental workload variations in an objective, unbiased fashion, even during real training and/or operations. The continuous monitoring of the warfighter not only allows instantaneous detection of over/underload but also might provide online feedback to the system (either automated equipment or the crew) to take countermeasures and prevent fatal errors.This work was supported by Santander Bank–CEMIX UGR-MADOC (grant number PINs2018-15 to CDP & LLDS) and the Centro Universitario de la Defensa–Zaragoza (grant numbers 2015-05 and 2017-03 to MVS). Additional support was obtained from the Unit of Excellence on Brain, Behavior, and Health (SC2), funded by the Excellence actions program of the University of Granada. The funding organizations had no role in the design or conduct of this research. Research by LLDS is supported by the Ramón y Cajal fellowship program from the Spanish State Research Agency (RYC-2015-17483)

Developing a practical guide for teaching histology: an evaluation of the didactic components

The Didactic Guide is a valuable tool complementing and making learning more dynamic. It is done using creative didactic strategies that simulate the presence of the tutor and generate a dialogue in order to offer students different possibilities to improve their understanding and self-discovery learning.This way the student is the protagonist of his own learning process. In this context, is highly important to consider the self discovery learning as a goal facilitating significant learning. The use of practical guides enables students to manage their own time, goals, techniques, contents and evaluation. In medical histology teaching several models of didactic guides could be use, and they normally include numerous activities, text, questionnaires, pictures, and drawings that may enhance the effectiveness of this tool in the learning process. In this work we have evaluated the usefulnes of different sections of a histology didactic guide in order to determine the key sections that enhance the learning process in human histology. For this purpose, a practical histology guide was designed with different sections: message text, theoretical text, objectives, drawings, pictures, clinical cases, games, blank spaces for self notes and drawing and final self evaluation questions. First, a simple questionnaire was applied in 90 students enrolled in histology practical seccions to analyze the student´s perceptions and preferences related to the histology guide. Finally, for all questionnaires average results and standard deviations were calculated for each option and all participants, as well for each gender, separately. Comparisons were done for drawings vs drawing blank spaces, teoric content vs notes blank space, drawings vs pictures and for each gender separately using Mann-Whitney non-parametrical test. Our findings revealed that visual strategies such as images and pictures were considered to be more useful for learning histology in the practical session. Similary, the students rated the self evaluation questions and blank spaces for self notes and drawing to be more attractive to the students. However, texts with theoretical information, messages, objectives, and clinical cases revealed to be less useful for the students in the learning process of medical histology. Moreover, statistically significant differences between theoretical content vs notes blank space was observed. All these results point out the importance of including pictures and drawings in the practical guide accompained of blank spaces that allow the development of creativity and autonomy that lead the students into a self discovery learning. Interestingly the students do not appreciate the presence of theoretical background in the practical guide as relevant information for their academic formation in the practical session

Evaluation of the cell viability of human Wharton's jelly stem cells for use in cell therapy

Human umbilical cord Wharton's jelly stem cells (HWJSCs) are gaining attention as a possible clinical source of mesenchymal stem cells for cell therapy and tissue engineering due to their high accessibility, expansion potential, and plasticity. We employed a combination of highly sensitive techniques to determine the average cell viability levels and proliferation capabilities of 10 consecutive cell passages of cultured HWJSCs and then used RNA microarrays to identify genes associated with changes in cell viability levels. We found an initial decrease in cell viability from the first to the third cell passage followed by an increase until the sixth passage and a final decrease from the sixth to tenth cell passages. The highest cell viability levels corresponded to the fifth and sixth passages. The intracellular ionic contents of potassium, sodium, and chlorine suggest that the lower cell viability levels at passages 2, 3, and 8-10 may be associated with apoptotic cell death. In fact, gene expression analysis revealed that the average cell viability was significantly associated with genes with a function in apoptotic cell death, especially pro-apoptotic FASTKD2, BNIP3L genes and anti-apoptotic TNFAIP8 and BCL2L2 genes. This correlation with both pro-apoptotic and anti-apoptotic genes suggests that there may be a complex live-death equilibrium in cultured HWJSCs kept in culture for multiple cell passages. In this study, the highest cell viability levels corresponded to the fifth and sixth HWJSC passages, suggesting that these passages should be preferentially employed in cell therapy or tissue engineering protocols using this cell type

Estudio a fase pre preliminar de la vía Cuenca-Zhud-Cochancay, análisis de tráfico y diseño de variantes en la vía

La vía Cuenca-Zhud-Cochancay, se constituye como una vía principal de interconexión entre el austro ecuatoriano y la zona costera del país, con un importante índice de afluencia y tránsito vehicular que genera un impacto favorable en la economía del sector. Con lo antes expuesto y ante la problemática suscitada por un lado del crecimiento y emplazamiento comercial en la zona de influencia directa a la vía, se determina la necesidad de mejorar las condiciones y generar alternativas que permitan por un lado mejorar los tiempos de viaje y optimizar recursos y generar paralelamente un tránsito con mejores condiciones desde el aspecto de seguridad para los usuarios de la vía. Con este contexto y luego de realizar el respectivo análisis de tránsito y movilidad vial, se determina la conveniencia del diseño e implementación de pasos laterales o derivaciones a fin de mejorar las condiciones actuales de circulación vehicular. Dichas variantes han sido definidas en base a los lineamientos y normativa vial del Ministerio de Transporte y Obras Públicas del Ecuador. Finalmente, y de manera paralela se analizaron varias opciones; y, en algunos tramos realizar dichas mejoras no fue viable ya que la morfología o características físicas de ciertas zonas no lo permitían. Como conclusión del trabajo realizado, se obtuvo un diseño preliminar que considera y abarca los estándares de seguridad y confort que determina las condiciones óptimas para el tránsito vehicular; particular que ha sido además considerado con un presupuesto referencial elemental que permita tener un espectro general de los recursos que podrían requerirse en una fase de factibilidad de ejecución de la propuesta; de este modo se contribuye con una solución a la conflictividad analizada y argumentada en el estudio realizado.Cuenca-Zhud-Cochancay, is considered one of the principal routes between Ecuadorian Austro and the coastal side of the country, it has an important amount of fluence and transit, generating a favorable economic impact. With this said and with a problematic growth of commercials in the zone, we see a necessity to improve the conditions and to generate an alternative to allow a better time of travel and optimizing resources that parallelly would permit the security in the vias. Considering this context, and analyzing transit and road mobility, we determine the suitability of the design and implementation of lateral passages or derivations is determined to improve the current conditions of vehicular circulation. These variants have been defined based on the guidelines and road regulations of the Ministry of Transport and Public Works of Ecuador. Finally, and in parallel, several options were analyzed; and, in some sections, making these improvements was not feasible since the morphology or physical characteristics of certain areas did not allow it. As a conclusion of the work carried out, a preliminary design was obtained that considers and covers the safety and comfort standards that determine the optimal conditions for vehicular traffic; particular that has also been considered with an elementary referential budget that allows to have a general spectrum of the resources that could be required in a feasibility phase of execution of the proposal; In this way, it contributes to a solution to the conflict analyzed and argued in the study.0009-0008-8944-211

Sialolitiasis parotídea del conducto de Stensen

La litiasis salival es una afectación consistente en la obstrucción mecánica de una glándula salival o de su conducto excretor, debido a la formación de concreciones calcáreas o sialolitos, lo que determina una ectasía salival, pudiendo provocar la dilatación posterior de la glándula. La sialolitiasis supone el 30 % de la patología salival y afecta principalmente a las glándulas submaxilares (83 a 94 %), seguida por la glándula parótida (4 a 10 %) y las glándulas sublinguales (1 a 7 %). En este trabajo presentamos el caso de un paciente varón de 45 años que presentaba mal olor y sabor de boca en el momento de las comidas y afecto de un cálculo salival a nivel del conducto de Stensen izquierdo. Tras el diagnóstico de la sintomatología, el sialolito se eliminó quirúrgicamente bajo anestesia local. De igual forma realizamos una actualización de conceptos en relación con la etiología, diagnóstico y tratamiento de esta patología.Salivary duct lithiasis is a condition characterized by the obstruction of a salivary gland or its excretory duct due to the formation of calcareous concretions or sialoliths resulting in salivary ectasia and even provoking the subsequent dilation of the salivary gland. Sialolithiasis accounts for 30% of salivary diseases and most commonly involves the submaxillary gland (83 to 94%) and less frequently the parotid (4 to 10%) and sublingual glands (1 to 7%). The present study reports the case of a 45-year-old male patient complaining of bad breath and foul-tasting mouth at meal times and presenting with a salivary calculus in left Stensen´s duct. Once the patient was diagnosed, the sialolith was surgically removed using local anesthesia. In this paper we have also updated a series of concepts related to the etiology, diagnosis and treatment of sialolithiasis

New teaching era for histology: from glass slides to virtual microscope as an alternative for selfdiscovery learning

Medical histology is a basic science that deals with concepts and facts regarding the microscopic structure of the human body. Histology has traditionally been taught as a lecture and microscopybased practical course using glass slides and microscopes and it is based on reception learning. However, a new era has been implemented using virtual microscope in order to improve the selfdiscovery learning process. Self-discovery learning is a constructive learning method that takes place without systematic external guidance and differs from tutorization and continuous instructions of reception learning method. The use of virtual microscope implies autonomous exploration of the histological images by simply dragging the mouse and changing the file of interest accompanied by the observation at different magnifications with a click. This method increases discussion and collaboration while increasing the speed and efficiency of learning without the need of light microscope. Virtual microscope encourages active learning environment and also places the students at the forefront of their own learning process being an useful tool for self- discovery learning. The knowledge about the students’ perceptions and their preferences is necessary for better design of self-discovery strategies in medical histology. In this study we have investigated male and female student´s preferences for optical (OM) and virtual microscope (VM) in a medical histology practical course. To achieve this, 90 first year medical students enrolled in medical histology course were evaluated. All students received 10 practical histology units (20 hours) where 5 (10 hours) units were taught using OM and 5 units (10 hours) with VM. Each student received both methods during the practical course. Each student completed a questionnaire after the whole practical units were performed in order to evaluate the student´s perceptions and preferences. The questionnaire consisted on four questions regarding OM and four questions related to VM the students have to answer to each question using a Likert scale from 1 to 5. Finally, a statistical test was use to analyze the results on the students perception´s and preferences for OM vs VM. Our results showed that both, OM and VM are adequate for histology learning as revealed by the high scores obtained for both types of methods. OM and VM tools were easy to manage and facilite the localization of histological structures during the visualization for all the students. However, most of the students significantly prefer to use VM to study the histological components of human tissues. The gender analysis revealed differences being statistically significant for men vs women for VM. These results suggest that VM should be included as an important tool for teaching human histology due to promote the self-discovery learning by the students

Suture needles in oral surgery : alterations depending on the type and number of sutures

This study examined whether the number and type of sutures used in oral surgery influence two ad hoc variables (incision plane and displaced area), which are two variables related to whether the suture needle is suitable for the task. Seventy-five TB-15 needles were studied, which were used to suture between zero and three mucosa and/subperiosteal sutures, producing 15 groups with 5 needles in each one. The incision plane and displaced area were measured for each group, which are two variables related to how the needle has worn and altered. Statistical treatment was conducted using the Kruskal-Wallis H test to compare multiple values and the Mann-Whitney U test to compare pairs. A multi-stage regression model was applied with the aim of predicting the changes in the dependent variables based on the number and type of sutures performed. The incision plane ranged from 126.67 to 346.24?m among the different groups. The displaced area was measured as being between 14 524.83?m 2 and 128 311.91?m 2. The best predictive model for the incision plane obtained a coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.149, while it reached 0.249 for the displaced area. Subperiosteal sutures held more weighting among the variables studied. Mucosal sutures did not seem to greatly affect needle wear. Observations reported in this paper indicate that the needle should be changed after having performed two subperiosteal sutures, given the wear and change to the incision plane that is produced, which causes the needle's cutting ability to reduce. © Medicina Oral S. L

Parotid sialolithiasis in Stensen´s duct

Salivary duct lithiasis is a condition characterized by the obstruction of a salivary gland or its excretory duct due to the formation of calcareous concretions or sialoliths resulting in salivary ectasia and even provoking the subsequent dilation of the salivary gland. Sialolithiasis accounts for 30% of salivary diseases and most commonly involves the submaxillary gland (83 to 94%) and less frequently the parotid (4 to 10%) and sublingual glands (1 to 7%). The present study reports the case of a 45-year-old male patient complaining of bad breath and foul-tasting mouth at meal times and presenting with a salivary calculus in left Stensen´s duct. Once the patient was diagnosed, the sialolith was surgically removed using local anesthesia. In this paper we have also updated a series of concepts related to the etiology, diagnosis and treatment of sialolithiasis