The Potential of Self-Management mHealth for Pediatric Cystic Fibrosis: Mixed-Methods Study for Health Care and App Assessment

Background: Remote care services and patient empowerment have boosted mobile health (mHealth). A study of user needs related to mHealth for pediatric cystic fibrosis (PCF) identified the set of preferred features mobile apps should support; however, the potential use of PCF apps and their suitability to fit into PCF clinical management remains unexplored. Objective: We examine whether PCF holds potential for the implementation of mHealth care. Methods: The study is based on a literature review and qualitative analysis of content and was conducted in two parts: (1) we reviewed scientific and gray literature to explore how European countries manage PCF and conducted a qualitative study of 6 PCF units and (2) we performed a systematic review of apps available in the myhealthapps.net repository searching for cystic fibrosis (CF) management and nutrition apps, which we analyzed for characteristics, business models, number of downloads, and usability. Results: European CF routine care guidelines are acknowledged in most European countries, and treatments are fully covered in almost all countries. The majority of teams in CF units are interdisciplinary. With respect to the systematic review of apps, we reviewed 12 apps for CF management and 9 for general nutrition management in the myhealthapps.net directory. All analyzed apps provided functionalities for recording aspects related to the disease and nutrition such as medication, meals, measurements, reminders, and educational material. None of the apps reviewed in this study supported pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy. CF apps proved to be less appealing and usable than nutrition apps (2.66 [SD 1.15] vs 4.01 [SD 0.90]; P<.001, z-value: –2.6). User needs detected in previous research are partially matched by current apps for CF management. Conclusions: The health care context for PCF is a unique opportunity for the adoption of mHealth. Well-established clinical guidelines, heterogeneous clinical teams, and coverage by national health care systems provide a suitable scenario for the use of mHealth solutions. However, available apps for CF self-management do not cover essential aspects such as nutrition and education. To increase the adoption of mHealth for CF self-management, new apps should include these features.European Commission / MyCyFAPP H2020–64380

A Real-Time Wireless Sensor Network for Wheelchair Navigation

Today, the availability of inexpensive, low power hardware including CMOS cameras and wireless devices make it possible to deploy a wireless sensor network (WSN) with nodes equipped with cameras for a variety of applications. In this paper, we discuss the use of one of these WSNs as a navigation aid for wheelchairs. Instead of having complicated wheelchairs with lots of on-board sensors, we argue that a viable alternative is to have simpler wheelchairs that are able to interact with an intelligent environment so that the wheelchair bases its navigation on its software intelligence, supported by the information sent by external sensors. Many questions have to be investigated, for instance how sensors should be deployed or whether the wireless links would be able to meet our temporal requirements. We describe some of the solutions we adopted, particularly how to implement with Zigbee devices a polling mechanism that allows us to guarantee a real-time secure navigation.Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia TIN2006-15617- C03-03Junta de Andalucía P06-TIC-229

Los paisajes agrarios de la romanización en el Suroeste peninsular: balance de los últimos trabajos desarrollados desde el Instituto de Arqueología

Trabajo presentado al VI Encuentro de Arqueología del Suroeste Peninsular, celebrado en Villafranca de los Barros (Badajoz) del 4 al 6 de octubre de 2012.[ES]: El propósito de este trabajo es ofrecer una visión de síntesis sobre la labor que ha supuesto en los últimos años desde el Instituto de Arqueología la investigación sobre el fenómeno de los recintos ciclópeos de La Serena (Badajoz) y el impacto de la conquista romana en las formas de ordenación de los espacios agrarios del Suroeste peninsular. Se realiza una breve revisión de las claves de este problema histórico y de los antecedentes del trabajo presente. A continuación se exponen las diferentes líneas metodológicas desarrolladas, ofreciendo una síntesis de los conocimientos obtenidos. Finalmente se proponen algunos temas prioritarios para el desarrollo futuro de la investigación.[EN]: The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the recent activity in the Merida Institute of Archaeology regarding the study of the so called “cyclopean enclosures” of the Serena Region (Badajoz) and the impact of the Roman conquest in the agrarian landscapes of the Peninsular South-West. We make a brief review of some clues of this historical process and provide some background to understand more recent research. We will show the methodological threads we have developed, and a concise account of their main results. Finally, we suggest some key issues for future research.Los resultados mostrados en este trabajo han sido posibles gracias al soporte del Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación a través de los proyectos del Plan Nacional “Paisaje, territorio y cambio social en el suroeste peninsular: De la protohistoria al mundo romano (HAR 20081973)” cuyo investigador responsable es Victorino Mayoral Herrera, y “Entre el Atlántico y el Mediterráneo: contraste de dinámicas en la evolución histórica del paisaje en el occidente peninsular a través de la Arqueología” (HAR 2009-10666) cuyo investigador responsable es Sebastián Celestino Pérez.Peer Reviewe

Mapa de series, geoseries y geopermaseries de vegetación de España (Memoria del mapa de vegetación potencial de España). Parte II

Peer Reviewe

Negative symptoms and sex differences in first episode schizophrenia: What's their role in the functional outcome? A longitudinal study

Introduction: Negative symptoms (NS) include asociality, avolition, anhedonia, alogia, and blunted affect and are linked to poor prognosis. It has been suggested that they reflect two different factors: diminished expression (EXP) (blunted affect and alogia) and amotivation/pleasure (MAP) (anhedonia, avolition, asociality). The aim of this article was to examine potential sex differences among first-episode schizophrenia (FES) patients and analyze sex-related predictors of two NS symptoms factors (EXP and MAP) and functional outcome. Material and methods: Two hundred and twenty-three FES (71 females and 152 males) were included and evaluated at baseline, six-months and one-year. Repeated measures ANOVA was used to examine the effects of time and sex on NS and a multiple linear regression backward elimination was performed to predict NS factors (MAP-EXP) and functioning. Results: Females showed fewer NS (p = 0.031; Cohen's d = −0.312), especially those related to EXP (p = 0.024; Cohen's d = −0.326) rather than MAP (p = 0.086), than males. In both male and female group, worse premorbid adjustment and higher depressive symptoms made a significant contribution to the presence of higher deficits in EXP at one-year follow-up, while positive and depressive symptoms predicted alterations in MAP. Finally, in females, lower deficits in MAP and better premorbid adjustment predicted better functioning at one-year follow-up (R2 = 0.494; p < 0.001), while only higher deficits in MAP predicted worse functioning in males (R2 = 0.088; p = 0.012). Conclusions: Slightly sex differences have been found in this study. Our results lead us to consider that early interventions of NS, especially those focusing on motivation and pleasure symptoms, could improve functional outcomes

Multiancestry analysis of the HLA locus in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases uncovers a shared adaptive immune response mediated by HLA-DRB1*04 subtypes

Across multiancestry groups, we analyzed Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) associations in over 176,000 individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) versus controls. We demonstrate that the two diseases share the same protective association at the HLA locus. HLA-specific fine-mapping showed that hierarchical protective effects of HLA-DRB1*04 subtypes best accounted for the association, strongest with HLA-DRB1*04:04 and HLA-DRB1*04:07, and intermediary with HLA-DRB1*04:01 and HLA-DRB1*04:03. The same signal was associated with decreased neurofibrillary tangles in postmortem brains and was associated with reduced tau levels in cerebrospinal fluid and to a lower extent with increased Aβ42. Protective HLA-DRB1*04 subtypes strongly bound the aggregation-prone tau PHF6 sequence, however only when acetylated at a lysine (K311), a common posttranslational modification central to tau aggregation. An HLA-DRB1*04-mediated adaptive immune response decreases PD and AD risks, potentially by acting against tau, offering the possibility of therapeutic avenues

Working for the development of an experimental database of archaeological survey results: recent experiences from S.W. Iberia

Trabajo presentado al International Mediterranean Survey Workshop, celebrado en Países Bajos el 3 de diciembre de 2011.Peer reviewe

The Potential of Self-Management mHealth for Pediatric Cystic Fibrosis: Mixed-Methods Study for Health Care and App Assessment

Background: Remote care services and patient empowerment have boosted mobile health (mHealth). A study of user needs related to mHealth for pediatric cystic fibrosis (PCF) identified the set of preferred features mobile apps should support; however, the potential use of PCF apps and their suitability to fit into PCF clinical management remains unexplored. Objective: We examine whether PCF holds potential for the implementation of mHealth care. Methods: The study is based on a literature review and qualitative analysis of content and was conducted in two parts: (1) we reviewed scientific and gray literature to explore how European countries manage PCF and conducted a qualitative study of 6 PCF units and (2) we performed a systematic review of apps available in the myhealthapps.net repository searching for cystic fibrosis (CF) management and nutrition apps, which we analyzed for characteristics, business models, number of downloads, and usability. Results: European CF routine care guidelines are acknowledged in most European countries, and treatments are fully covered in almost all countries. The majority of teams in CF units are interdisciplinary. With respect to the systematic review of apps, we reviewed 12 apps for CF management and 9 for general nutrition management in the myhealthapps.net directory. All analyzed apps provided functionalities for recording aspects related to the disease and nutrition such as medication, meals, measurements, reminders, and educational material. None of the apps reviewed in this study supported pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy. CF apps proved to be less appealing and usable than nutrition apps (2.66 [SD 1.15] vs 4.01 [SD 0.90]; P<.001, z-value: –2.6). User needs detected in previous research are partially matched by current apps for CF management. Conclusions: The health care context for PCF is a unique opportunity for the adoption of mHealth. Well-established clinical guidelines, heterogeneous clinical teams, and coverage by national health care systems provide a suitable scenario for the use of mHealth solutions. However, available apps for CF self-management do not cover essential aspects such as nutrition and education. To increase the adoption of mHealth for CF self-management, new apps should include these features.publishedVersio