Impact of School-Based Interventions on Children’s Healthful Nutritional Outcomes (2009-2013): Implications for Future Research

Objective: The objective was to review the literature on school-based interventions during compulsory education (published in 2009-2013) that may be effective in increasing healthful nutritional outcomes in children. Specific strategies and their limitations will be identified. Methods: A qualitative systematic analysis of seventeen school-based interventions applied to six-eleven year-old children, and published in peer-reviewed journals from 2009-2013 was carried out. Results: These studies taken as a whole used a variety of fourteen strategies, such as provision of nutritional and gardening education; repeated exposure to vegetables (V); peer and adult modelling; chefs going into schools to teach healthy nutritional issues. These studies showed four types of limitations: limitations derived from the experimental designs and experimental procedures used and limitations affecting participant samples and data collection. Fifteen recommendations for overcoming the targeted research limitations were identified, such as applying the intervention during longer time intervals; examining the effectiveness of these interventions in different ethnicities and socioeconomic groups; including larger participant samples; using randomized designs. Finally, six new working hypotheses to guide future studies are proposed here. For example, a small number of V offered might lead to insufficient opportunities to learn to like the flavour of V; schools’ previous experience with these interventions might distort children’s post-intervention data related to their nutritional outcomes; providing children with nutritional and gardening education might increase their fruit (F) selection, consumption and preferences and application of evaluative conditioning under more appropriate experimental conditions might increase child V consumption. Conclusion: seventeen school-based interventions were included. These studies taken as a whole used a variety of strategies (fourteen), and showed four types of limitations. Fifteen recommendations for overcoming the targeted research limitations as well as six new hypotheses are proposed here. Future research in this field should focus on overcoming its research limitations, such as the ones highlighted here, and building new working hypotheses, such as those proposed here

Desarrollo del sistema nervioso humano. Perspectiva general del estadio prenatal hasta 2013

The study the origin and development of the nervous system in humans has gained increasing attention since its understanding is useful in the treatment of developmental disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. We aimed to review its current status, focusing on the prenatal stage. We searched papers from 2003 to 2013 in academic data-bases such as Academic Search Complete, Medline, and Science Direct, including the following keywords: ontogenetic development, human nervous system and prenatal stage. We conclude that a series of perfectly orchestrated ontogenetic events, which take place from fecundation of the ovum to the birth of the individual, are involved in the origin and prenatal development of the human nervous system. These events may occur either successively or in an overlapping manner. These events are the following: transformation of the zygote; primary neurulation; neurogenesis; neuronal migration; neuronal clustering; synaptogenesis; myelination and synaptic pruning. Moreover, we conclude that there are at least two issues that no longer spark scientific debate. The first one refers to the fact that the origin and prenatal development of the human nervous system shows a stereotyped pattern. The second one is about that the combined action of external (environment) and internal (genetics) influences determine the pattern of development. We recommend to focus on neuronal migration and synaptic reorganization after axonal pruning.El estudio del origen y desarrollo del sistema nervioso humano es imprescindible para combatir los trastornos del desarrollo y las enfermedades neurodegenerativas. Por esta razón, la presente monografía tiene como objetivo revisar el estado actual de esta cuestión, centrándose específicamente en la fase prenatal de tal desarrollo. De acuerdo con este objetivo, se llevó a cabo una búsqueda electrónica entre 2003 y 2013 de literatura científica publicada en las bases de datos Academic Search Complete, Medline y Science Direct, incluyendo las siguientes palabras clave: desarrollo ontogenético, sistema nervioso humano y fase prenatal. A la luz de esta revisión, se concluye que en el origen y desarrollo prenatal del sistema nervioso humano están implicados toda una serie de eventos ontogenéticos perfectamente orquestados, que tienen lugar desde la fecundación del óvulo hasta el nacimiento del individuo. Estos eventos se pueden presentar de manera sucesiva, o bien de manera superpuesta. Se trata específicamente de los siguientes eventos: transformación del zigoto; neurulación primaria; neurogénesis; migración neuronal; agrupamiento neuronal; sinaptogénesis, mielinización y poda axónica. Además, se concluye que existen al menos dos cuestiones que ya no suscitan debate científico. El primero es sobre el hecho de que el origen y desarrollo prenatal del sistema nervioso humano muestra un patrón estereotipado. El segundo se refiere a que la acción combinada de la influencia externa (medio ambiente) e interna (genética) determina dicho patrón de desarrollo. Finalmente, se recomienda invertir un mayor esfuerzo investigador en el futuro en dilucidar varias cuestiones relativas a la migración neuronal y a la reorganización sináptica posterior a la poda axónica

Opinion, voluntariness and motivation of university students and faculty to participate in a bilingual education program

El presente trabajo de investigación ha examinado la opinión, la motivación y el grado de voluntad del profesorado y del estudiantado del Grado en Psicología del curso académico 2012/2013 de la Universidad de Huelva, de participar en un hipotético programa de educación bilingüe (español e inglés), conforme al nuevo paradigma de enseñanza-aprendizaje AICLE. Como resultado, se puede concluir que ambos colectivos muestran un grado relativamente alto de voluntad de participar en dicho programa, y están motivados intrínsecamente, mientras que sólo el colectivo de estudiantes está motivado extrínsecamente para participar en dicho programa.The present research has examined the opinion, motivation and the degree of willingness from professors and students of Psychology Bachelor‘s Degree of the University of Huelva during the academic year 2012/2013, to participate in a hypothetical bilingual education (Spanish and English), according to the new teaching and learning CLIL program. As a result, it can be concluded that both groups show a relatively high degree of willingness to participate in this program, and are intrinsically motivated, while only the group of students are extrinsically motivated to participate in this program.peerReviewe

Propuesta de intervención en el ámbito del ocio y tiempo libre de usuarios/as de COCEMFE Cáceres

El ocio y tiempo libre es un derecho de todas las personas, y por tanto, también de las personas con discapacidad, tal y como se defiende en algunos textos como la Constitución Española, la Declaración Universal de los Derechos Humanos o en la Convención sobre los derechos de las personas con discapacidad y su Protocolo Facultativo. Para que el ejercicio de este derecho por parte de las personas con discapacidad sea posible, es imprescindible la adopción de medidas que lo promuevan, en especial por parte de las administraciones públicas y profesionales más cercanos a este colectivo y a sus familiares. Con el presente trabajo, se ha pretendido diseñar una intervención social en el ámbito del ocio y tiempo libre, específicamente pensada para personas con discapacidad física, usuarias de la Confederación Coordinadora Estatal de Minusválidos Físicos de España (CONCEMFE), ubicado en la ciudad de Cáceres. El principal objetivo de este diseño de intervención es mejorar la calidad de vida de las personas con discapacidad física, usuarias de COCEMFE, acercando a estas actividades de ocio y tiempo libre a las que normalmente no accederían de otra manera

Terapia musical en rehabilitación: una revisión narrativa (2004-2014)

During this decade, there has been an increased on research about music therapy interventions as a therapeutic tool.  Narrative reviews that have been published till nowadays show the implications and effectiveness of interventions based on music therapy as a rehabilitative intervention strategy. However, due to their narrowness they lack of a general perspective of the construct. Moreover, these reviews do not include in their criteria the search term “music therapy”, thereby excluding studies that support the effectiveness of music therapy in rehabilitation. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to solve this issue including and reviewing findings of published research that have been excluded from previous reviews over the last ten years. There were two research questions: For which disorders is music therapy more effective? What are the benefits of music therapy in rehabilitation? In order to answer these questions, we conducted a literature review in academic databases, such as Academic Search Complete, Medline, and Science Direct, including the search term "music therapy".   Furthermore, papers fulfilling inclusion criteria, such as empirical studies, written in English, which used music as therapeutic stimulation were reviewed. We found twenty-four studies in which we analyzed the participants (experimental vs. control), the results, and limitations. We conclude, cautiously, that music therapy may help in the rehabilitation of cognitive, motor, and sensory functions of brain damage, the rehabilitation of schizophrenia and primary depression; and amelioration of neurodegenerative disorders, autism spectrum disorders, substance abuse and other pathologies. We recommend overcoming the methodological limitations of these studies and the suitability of cross-cultural studies.Las investigaciones en el campo de la aplicación de la terapia musical como herramienta terapéutica han aumentado en los últimos diez años. Las revisiones narrativas publicadas hasta la fecha muestran los efectos y la eficacia de la terapia musical como estrategia de intervención rehabilitadora. Sin embargo, no tratan la temática desde una perspectiva general y ninguna de ellas ha incluido el término “musical therapy” entre los términos de búsqueda de literatura, quedando excluidos, por tanto, los resultados de toda una serie de estudios que han contribuido a esclarecer la eficacia de la musicoterapia en rehabilitación. Por estas razones, el objetivo de este trabajo es remediar esta laguna y revisar los hallazgos de investigaciones publicadas en los últimos diez años que han quedado excluidas de revisiones anteriores. Específicamente, esta contribución pretende responder a las preguntas de investigación: ¿Qué tipo de trastornos se pueden beneficiar eficazmente de la musicoterapia? y ¿Qué efectos positivos tiene la musicoterapia en rehabilitación? Para responder a estas preguntas, se llevó a cabo una búsqueda electrónica de literatura en las bases de datos Academic Search Complete, Medline y Science Direct. La búsqueda incluyó el término “musical therapy” y ciertos criterios de inclusión, tales como los reportes sobre estudios empíricos redactados en que utilizaran música como estimulación terapéutica. Como resultado, se revisaron en total veinticuatro estudios, de los que se analizaron una serie de elementos, tales como los grupos de participantes (experimental vs. control), los resultados obtenidos y las limitaciones. Como conclusión, afirmamos, con cautela, que la musicoterapia puede contribuir a la rehabilitación de las funciones cognitivas, motoras y sensoriales del daño cerebral; a la rehabilitación de la esquizofrenia y de la depresión primaria; a la mejoría de los trastornos neurodegenerativos, de los trastornos del espectro autista, del abuso de sustancias y de otras patologías. Para el futuro, recomendamos superar las limitaciones metodológicas de estos estudios y la ejecución de estudios transculturales

Providing choice increases children's vegetable intake

This work has been partially supported by the pre-doctoral fellowship of Junta de Andalucía, grant HUM-02763 (Junta de Andalucía, Spain) and PSI2011-23702; PSI2012-31641 (MINECO, Spain).One hundred and fifty children between 4 and 6 years old were studied to examine the effect of providing them with a choice of vegetables on their vegetable consumption. Offering vegetable choice was expected to increase the children’s vegetable intake due to increased personal autonomy. The option for the children to choose the vegetables to ingest was varied across three different conditions. Within the discrete choice condition (DCC), children could choose the target vegetable at the beginning of the meal; within the continued discrete choice plus variety condition (CDCP), children were exposed to a variety of vegetables (zucchini and green beans), so that they could choose the target vegetable whenever they made a bite during the whole meal. Within the no-choice condition (NCC), children were alternately exposed to only one kind of vegetable, so that no choice possibility was provided. The choice conditions (CDCP and DCC) were associated with higher vegetable intake, in comparison to the no-choice control condition (NCC). No significant differences were found between the DCC and the CDCP regarding participants’ total vegetable intake. These results demonstrate the enhancing effect of providing choice to increase vegetable intake in young children. A higher degree of personal control and consequent level of intrinsic motivation is hypothesized to underlie the effect of choice availability.Junta de Andalucía, grant HUM-02763PSI2011-23702; PSI2012-31641 (MINECO, Spain

More than smell - COVID-19 is associated with severe impairment of smell, taste, and chemesthesis

Recent anecdotal and scientific reports have provided evidence of a link between COVID-19 and chemosensory impairments such as anosmia. However, these reports have downplayed or failed to distinguish potential effects on taste, ignored chemesthesis, generally lacked quantitative measurements, were mostly restricted to data from single countries. Here, we report the development, implementation and initial results of a multi-lingual, international questionnaire to assess self-reported quantity and quality of perception in three distinct chemosensory modalities (smell, taste, and chemesthesis) before and during COVID-19. In the first 11 days after questionnaire launch, 4039 participants (2913 women, 1118 men, 8 other, ages 19-79) reported a COVID-19 diagnosis either via laboratory tests or clinical assessment. Importantly, smell, taste and chemesthetic function were each significantly reduced compared to their status before the disease. Difference scores (maximum possible change+/-100) revealed a mean reduction of smell (-79.7+/- 28.7, mean+/- SD), taste (-69.0+/- 32.6), and chemesthetic (-37.3+/- 36.2) function during COVID-19. Qualitative changes in olfactory ability (parosmia and phantosmia) were relatively rare and correlated with smell loss. Importantly, perceived nasal obstruction did not account for smell loss. Furthermore, chemosensory impairments were similar between participants in the laboratory test and clinical assessment groups. These results show that COVID-19-associated chemosensory impairment is not limited to smell, but also affects taste and chemesthesis. The multimodal impact of COVID-19 and lack of perceived nasal obstruction suggest that SARS-CoV-2 infection may disrupt sensory-neural mechanisms.Additional co-authors: Veronica Pereda-Loth, Shannon B Olsson, Richard C Gerkin, Paloma Rohlfs Domínguez, Javier Albayay, Michael C. Farruggia, Surabhi Bhutani, Alexander W Fjaeldstad, Ritesh Kumar, Anna Menini, Moustafa Bensafi, Mari Sandell, Iordanis Konstantinidis, Antonella Di Pizio, Federica Genovese, Lina Öztürk, Thierry Thomas-Danguin, Johannes Frasnelli, Sanne Boesveldt, Özlem Saatci, Luis R. Saraiva, Cailu Lin, Jérôme Golebiowski, Liang-Dar Hwang, Mehmet Hakan Ozdener, Maria Dolors Guàrdia, Christophe Laudamiel, Marina Ritchie, Jan Havlícek, Denis Pierron, Eugeni Roura, Marta Navarro, Alissa A. Nolden, Juyun Lim, KL Whitcroft, Lauren R. Colquitt, Camille Ferdenzi, Evelyn V. Brindha, Aytug Altundag, Alberto Macchi, Alexia Nunez-Parra, Zara M. Patel, Sébastien Fiorucci, Carl M. Philpott, Barry C. Smith, Johan N Lundström, Carla Mucignat, Jane K. Parker, Mirjam van den Brink, Michael Schmuker, Florian Ph.S Fischmeister, Thomas Heinbockel, Vonnie D.C. Shields, Farhoud Faraji, Enrique Enrique Santamaría, William E.A. Fredborg, Gabriella Morini, Jonas K. Olofsson, Maryam Jalessi, Noam Karni, Anna D'Errico, Rafieh Alizadeh, Robert Pellegrino, Pablo Meyer, Caroline Huart, Ben Chen, Graciela M. Soler, Mohammed K. Alwashahi, Olagunju Abdulrahman, Antje Welge-Lüssen, Pamela Dalton, Jessica Freiherr, Carol H. Yan, Jasper H. B. de Groot, Vera V. Voznessenskaya, Hadar Klein, Jingguo Chen, Masako Okamoto, Elizabeth A. Sell, Preet Bano Singh, Julie Walsh-Messinger, Nicholas S. Archer, Sachiko Koyama, Vincent Deary, Hüseyin Yanik, Samet Albayrak, Lenka Martinec Novákov, Ilja Croijmans, Patricia Portillo Mazal, Shima T. Moein, Eitan Margulis, Coralie Mignot, Sajidxa Mariño, Dejan Georgiev, Pavan K. Kaushik, Bettina Malnic, Hong Wang, Shima Seyed-Allaei, Nur Yoluk, Sara Razzaghi, Jeb M. Justice, Diego Restrepo, Julien W Hsieh, Danielle R. Reed, Thomas Hummel, Steven D Munger, John E Haye

Development of the nervous system in humans. Overview of the prenatal stage until 2013

The study the origin and development of the nervous system in humans has gained increasing attention since its understanding is useful in the treatment of developmental disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. We aimed to review its current status, focusing on the prenatal stage. We searched papers from 2003 to 2013 in academic data-bases such as Academic Search Complete, Medline, and Science Direct, including the following keywords: ontogenetic development, human nervous system and prenatal stage. We conclude that a series of perfectly orchestrated ontogenetic events, which take place from fecundation of the ovum to the birth of the individual, are involved in the origin and prenatal development of the human nervous system. These events may occur either successively or in an overlapping manner. These events are the following: transformation of the zygote; primary neurulation; neurogenesis; neuronal migration; neuronal clustering; synaptogenesis; myelination and synaptic pruning. Moreover, we conclude that there are at least two issues that no longer spark scientific debate. The first one refers to the fact that the origin and prenatal development of the human nervous system shows a stereotyped pattern. The second one is about that the combined action of external (environment) and internal (genetics) influences determine the pattern of development. We recommend to focus on neuronal migration and synaptic reorganization after axonal pruning

Determinant factors of child vegetable consumption

Tesis Univ. Granada. Instituto de Neurociencias Federico Olóriz. Leída el 21 de enero del 201

Desarrollo del sistema nervioso humano. Perspectiva general del estadio prenatal hasta 2013

The study the origin and development of the nervous system in humans has gained increasing attention since its understanding is useful in the treatment of developmental disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. We aimed to review its current status, focusing on the prenatal stage. We searched papers from 2003 to 2013 in academic data-bases such as Academic Search Complete, Medline, and Science Direct, including the following keywords: ontogenetic development, human nervous system and prenatal stage. We conclude that a series of perfectly orchestrated ontogenetic events, which take place from fecundation of the ovum to the birth of the individual, are involved in the origin and prenatal development of the human nervous system. These events may occur either successively or in an overlapping manner. These events are the following: transformation of the zygote; primary neurulation; neurogenesis; neuronal migration; neuronal clustering; synaptogenesis; myelination and synaptic pruning. Moreover, we conclude that there are at least two issues that no longer spark scientific debate. The first one refers to the fact that the origin and prenatal development of the human nervous system shows a stereotyped pattern. The second one is about that the combined action of external (environment) and internal (genetics) influences determine the pattern of development. We recommend to focus on neuronal migration and synaptic reorganization after axonal pruning.El estudio del origen y desarrollo del sistema nervioso humano es imprescindible para combatir los trastornos del desarrollo y las enfermedades neurodegenerativas. Por esta razón, la presente monografía tiene como objetivo revisar el estado actual de esta cuestión, centrándose específicamente en la fase prenatal de tal desarrollo. De acuerdo con este objetivo, se llevó a cabo una búsqueda electrónica entre 2003 y 2013 de literatura científica publicada en las bases de datos Academic Search Complete, Medline y Science Direct, incluyendo las siguientes palabras clave: desarrollo ontogenético, sistema nervioso humano y fase prenatal. A la luz de esta revisión, se concluye que en el origen y desarrollo prenatal del sistema nervioso humano están implicados toda una serie de eventos ontogenéticos perfectamente orquestados, que tienen lugar desde la fecundación del óvulo hasta el nacimiento del individuo. Estos eventos se pueden presentar de manera sucesiva, o bien de manera superpuesta. Se trata específicamente de los siguientes eventos: transformación del zigoto; neurulación primaria; neurogénesis; migración neuronal; agrupamiento neuronal; sinaptogénesis, mielinización y poda axónica. Además, se concluye que existen al menos dos cuestiones que ya no suscitan debate científico. El primero es sobre el hecho de que el origen y desarrollo prenatal del sistema nervioso humano muestra un patrón estereotipado. El segundo se refiere a que la acción combinada de la influencia externa (medio ambiente) e interna (genética) determina dicho patrón de desarrollo. Finalmente, se recomienda invertir un mayor esfuerzo investigador en el futuro en dilucidar varias cuestiones relativas a la migración neuronal y a la reorganización sináptica posterior a la poda axónica