1,718 research outputs found

    Soft Skills: A Comparative Analysis Between Online and Classroom Teaching

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    Currently the Spanish universities are making a great effort to effectively incorporate the development and assessment of generic skills in their training programs. Information and communications technologies (ICT) offer a wide range of possibilities but create uncertainty among teachers about the process and results. It is considered of interest to conduct a study to analyze the extent to which social skills like commitment, communication and teamwork are acquired by students and teachers. It seeks to ascertain the influence of the learning context, online or classroom training, in the development of these personal skills among the participants in the sample. For this study two universities have been chosen, Universidad a Distancia de Madrid (UDIMA) offering online training environment, and Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) with classroom training modality. A total of 257 individuals, 230 students and 27 teachers have answered the survey called Evalsoft. This instrument was designed in the project with the same name by a research team from Universidad Complutense of Madrid (UCM). Some interesting conclusions can be highlighted: it is in the online context where there are higher levels of commitment and teamwork than in the classroom modality; teachers have higher social skills that students and these improve with age. Sex and the training program appear to influence these social skills

    This is My Baby Interview: an adaptation to the spanish language and culture

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    INTRODUCTION: Evaluating the emotional state of the parents is important for determining the intervention in the context of a family with a baby with Down syndrome. "This is my baby" is an interview that measures the acceptance, commitment and awareness of influence of parents towards their baby. The Spanish adaptation of this instrument helps to better understand the emotional state of parents of children with developmental disorders. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This is a transcultural adaptation and determination of the reliability, sensitivity to change, and internal consistency of the “This Is My Baby” interview. A cross-cultural adaptation and reliability analysis was carried out. A total of 32 families of babies with Down syndrome participated in this multicenter study. RESULTS: The values obtained for the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) indicated a good level of concordance with a significative level of p < 0.001, and the values of the standard error of measurement (SEM) and of the minimum detectable change (MDC) were reduced. The weighted Kappa coefficient showed values that were moderate to excellent. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that the Spanish version of the This Is My Baby interview is a reliable instrument to measure the levels of acceptance, commitment, and awareness of influence of parents of an infant with Down syndrome.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

    Plasma Rich in Growth Factors (PRGF) in Transepithelial Photorefractive Keratectomy (TPRK)

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    To evaluate the usage of plasma rich in growth factor (PRGF) in transepithelial photorefractive keratectomy (TPRK) in low and moderate myopia, patients who underwent myopic and astigmatism TPRK with PRGF were involved in this retrospective, observational study. Subjects underwent a surgical procedure between February 2019 and June 2019. A three-month follow-up was recorded. Pain score was assessed with a visual analogue scale (0–10) and re-epithelialization time recorded. A total of 48 eyes from 24 patients were recruited. Mean uncorrected distance visual acuity (UDVA) was 20/20.31 (0.00 ± 0.02 LogMAR). A total of 98% of eyes did not change corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA) lines. Two percent of eyes lost one line of CDVA. Preoperative spherical equivalent was −2.67 ± 1.37 D and after three months changed to −0.21 ± 0.34 D, and 2% of eyes changed 0.50 D or more between one and three months. Pain score was 3.29 ± 0.61 (3 to 6) score points at day one and 0.08 ± 0.27 score points at day seven. Finally, re-epithelialization time was 2.50 ± 1.20 days. PRGF addition to conventional refractive treatment such as TPRK seems to alleviate immediate postoperative pain and positively contribute to corneal re-epithelization time.publishersversionPeer reviewe

    Urinary cyclophilin A as marker of tubular cell death and kidney injury

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    Background: Despite the term acute kidney injury (AKI), clinical biomarkers for AKI re-flect function rather than injury and independent markers of injury are needed. Tubular cell death, including necroptotic cell death, is a key feature of AKI. Cyclophilin A (CypA) is an intracellular protein that has been reported to be released during necroptosis. We have now explored CypA as a potential marker for kidney injury in cultured tubular cells and in clinical settings of ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI), characterized by limitations of current diagnostic criteria for AKI. Meth-ods: CypA was analyzed in cultured human and murine proximal tubular epithelial cells exposed to chemical hypoxia, hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) or other cell death (apoptosis, necroptosis, fer-roptosis) inducers. Urinary levels of CypA (uCypA) were analyzed in patients after nephron sparing surgery (NSS) in which the contralateral kidney is not disturbed and kidney grafts with initial function. Results: Intracellular CypA remained unchanged while supernatant CypA increased in parallel to cell death induction. uCypA levels were higher in NSS patients with renal artery clamping (that is, with NSS-IRI) than in no clamping (NSS-no IRI), and in kidney transplantation (KT) recipients (KT-IRI) even in the presence of preserved or improving kidney function, while this was not the case for urinary Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL). Furthermore, higher uCypA levels in NSS patients were associated with longer surgery duration and the incidence of AKI increased from 10% when using serum creatinine (sCr) or urinary output criteria to 36% when using high uCypA levels in NNS clamping patients. Conclusions: CypA is released by kidney tubular cells during different forms of cell death, and uCypA increased during IRI-induced clinical kidney injury independently from kidney function parameters. Thus, uCypA is a potential bi-omarker of kidney injury, which is independent from decreased kidney functionResearch by the authors was funded by FIS/ FEDER funds (PI17/00257, PI18/01386, PI19/00588, PI19/00815, DTS18/00032, ERA-PerMed-JTC2018 (KIDNEY ATTACK AC18/00064 and PERSTIGAN AC18/00071, ISCIII-RETIC REDinREN RD016/0009), Sociedad Española de Nefrología, FRIAT, Comunidad de Madrid en Biomedicina B2017/BMD-3686 CIFRA2-CM. Salary support: ISCIII Miguel Servet to A.B.S., MICIN Ramon y Cajal to M.D.S.-N., REDinREN RD016/0009 to M.F.-B.,SENEFRO to D.M.-S. and Consejería de Educación, Juventud y Deporte (Comunidad de Madrid/FSE) to A.M.L.-

    Influence of graphene nanoplatelets on curing and mechanical properties of graphene/epoxy nanocomposites.

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    The influence of graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) on the curing of an epoxy resin based on diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) and cross-linked with 4,4′ diaminodiphenylmethane (DDM) was studied. Dynamic mechanical properties and tensile properties of the corresponding graphene/epoxy nanocomposites were obtained. Two compositions 1 and 5 mass% of GNPs were studied. The cross-linking reaction of the epoxy resin is accelerated in dispersions with 5 mass% GNPs. In the presence of GNPs, the curing reaction becomes less exothermic, obtaining less perfect epoxy networks compared to neat epoxy (DGEBA–DDM) thermoset. Accordingly, the glass transition temperatures (Tg) of the nanocomposites are lower than that of the neat epoxy thermoset. This effect is not detected for low content of graphene (1 mass%). Protocol of curing having two isothermal steps leads to more perfect networks than the dynamic curing in the DSC. The Tg reduction is minimized in the samples cured through two isothermal steps. The storage moduli of the nanocomposite containing 5 mass% graphene, both in the glassy (T Tg) states, are higher than the ones of neat epoxy thermoset, being most pronounced this effect at T > Tg. Tensile tests confirmed the higher elastic moduli of the nanocomposites; however, a decrease in strain at break and tensile strength was observed for the nanocomposite containing 5 mass% of GNPs. This brittle behavior is consistent with the morphology of the samples studied by scanning electron microscopy

    Cure behavior and mechanical properties of graphene/epoxy nanocomposites

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    In this work we study the curing process of an epoxy resin reinforced with graphene nanoplatelets and the thermal and mechanical properties of the obtained nanocomposites, in order to clarify the effect of GNPs on these properties

    a cross-sectional study

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    Objectives We determined the seroprevalence and correlates of Toxoplasma gondii infection in pregnant women in Aguascalientes City, Mexico. Design A cross-sectional survey. Setting Pregnant women were enrolled in the central Mexican city of Aguascalientes. Participants We studied 338 pregnant women who attended prenatal care in 3 public health centres. Primary and secondary outcome measures Women were examined for IgG/IgM antibodies to T. gondii by using commercially available enzyme immunoassays, and an avidity test. Multiple analyses were used to determine the association of T. gondii seropositivity with the characteristics of the pregnant women. Results Of the 338 pregnant women studied, 21 (6.2%) had IgG antibodies to T. gondii, and 1 (4.8%) of them was also positive for IgM antibodies to T. gondii. Avidity of IgG antibodies to T. gondii was high in the IgM-positive sample. Logistic regression analysis of sociodemographic, behavioural and housing variables showed that T. gondii seropositivity was associated with white ethnicity (OR=149.4; 95% CI 10.8 to 2054.1; p<0.01), not washing hands before eating (OR=6.41; 95% CI 1.73 to 23.6; p=0.005) and use of latrine (OR=37.6; 95% CI 4.63 to 306.31; p=0.001). Conclusions Results demonstrate that pregnant women in Aguascalientes City have a low seroprevalence of T. gondii infection. However, this low prevalence indicates that most pregnant women are at risk for a primary infection. Factors associated with T. gondii exposure found in this study, including food hygiene, may be useful to determine preventive measures against T. gondii infection and its sequelae
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