Photonic Nambu-Goldstone bosons

We predict the existence of a Nambu-Goldstone excitation in the propagation of light in nonlinear periodic lattices. We use methods of condensed matter physics that emphasize the peculiarities stemming from the interplay between the nonlinearity and the lattice periodicity. By means of nonlinear Bloch and Wannier functions we provide an explicit construction of the effective free energy of the system, valid for long-range, or, equivalently, low-energy excitations around Bloch solutions. Using then Landau mean field theory for phase transitions we determine the possible stable ground states of the optical system and their stability conditions. Low energy excitations above a stable ground state are fully controlled by the U(1) phase of the optical field, which appear as a Nambu-Goldstone boson, analogous to those predicted in condenser matter and particle physics systems. We support these results by numerical simulations both for spatially periodic and finite nonlinear Bloch wave solutions. We demonstrate how finite-sized nonlinear Bloch light structures embedded in a linear periodic lattice act as tunable metawaveguides for the phase Nambu-Goldstone waves.Ciencias Experimentale

Suppression Trial through an Integrated Vector Management of Aedes albopictus (Skuse) Based on the Sterile Insect Technique in a Non-Isolated Area in Spain

In recent years, Aedes albopictus (Skuse, 1984) has expanded its distribution globally due to its high ecological plasticity. This expansion has increased the population’s susceptibility to contracting diseases such as dengue, Zika, and chikungunya, among others, which are transmitted by this mosquito species. In the absence of effective control methods, the application of the sterile insect technique (SIT) is proposed as part of an integrated vector management (IVM) program. From 2007 to 2020, this strategy has been tested in a non-isolated mosquito population urban area of 45 ha, representative of the municipalities of the Valencian region (Spain). The population levels of adult females and eggs collected in the traps have been reduced by 70–80% compared to the control area, demonstrating its efficacy in reducing mosquito populations. This work analyzes the impact of the migration of the wild mosquito population from the peri-urban area to the urban core.This research was funded by La Conselleria de Agricultura, Desarrollo Rural, Emergencia Climática of the Valencian region (Spain).Ciencias Experimentale

Tutorización virtual con BigBlueButton para la docencia de la estadística en el ámbito de la prevención de lesiones deportivas

El objetivo de este trabajo es valorar el efecto del uso de la herramienta de comunicación síncrona BigBlueButton como recurso para realizar una revisión de conceptos básicos de Estadística a través de sesiones de tutoría online. De esta manera se pretende evitar dedicar demasiado tiempo al repaso de nociones estudiados en otros cursos y paliar el hecho de disponer de unas horas muy ajustadas para impartir un temario amplio, y con el que no están familiarizados la mayor parte del alumnado.Ciencias Experimentale

Pressure Point Thresholds and ME/CFS Comorbidity as Indicators of Patient’s Response to Manual Physiotherapy in Fibromyalgia

Current pharmacological treatments of Fibromyalgia (FM) are merely symptom palliative, as clinical trials have so far failed to provide overall benefits without associated harms. Polypharmacy often leads to patient’s health deterioration and chronic drug use to an eventual lack of patient’s response. Emerging evidence supports that physiotherapy treatments based on mechanical triggers improve FM symptoms and therefore could be used for therapeutic purposes by themselves or in combination with current pharmacological treatments, as part of integrative medicine programs. However, a paucity of studies rigorously and systematically evaluating this possibility exists. This study uses scores from validated standardized questionnaires, algometer pressure point threshold (PPT) readings and responses from a custom self-developed questionnaire to determine the impact of a pressure-controlled custom manual protocol on FM hyperalgesia/allodynia, fatigue and patient’s quality of life. The results show that patient’s baseline sensitivity to pain inversely correlates with treatment response in FM. Moreover, post-stratification analysis unexpectedly reveals that patients presenting comorbid ME/CFS do not seem to respond to the applied therapy as those presenting FM only. Therefore, pre-treatment PPTs and ME/CFS comorbidity may serve as indicators to predict patient’s response to physiotherapy programs based on mechanical triggers. Further exploration of these findings is granted. In addition, the study of gene expression profiles in the blood collection generated by this study should help unveil the molecular mechanisms behind patient’s differential response to manual therapy.Medicin

Pressure Point Threshold and ME/CFS comorbidity as Indicators of Physiotherapy Response in Fibromyalgia

Current pharmacological treatments of Fibromyalgia (FM) are merely symptom palliative, as clinical trials have so far failed to provide overall benefits without associated harms. Polypharmacy often leads to patient´s health deterioration and chronic drug use to an eventual lack of patient´s response. Emerging evidence support that physiotherapy treatments based on mechanical triggers improve FM symptoms and therefore could be used for therapeutic purposes by themselves, or in combination with current pharmacological treatments, as part of integrative medicine programs. However, a paucity of studies rigorously and systematically evaluating this possibility exists. This study uses scores from validated standardized questionnaires, algometer pressure point threshold (PPT) readings and responses from a custom self-developed questionnaire to determine the impact of a pressure-controlled manual protocol on FM hyperalgesia/allodynia, fatigue and patient´s quality of life. The results show that patient´s baseline sensitivity to pain inversely correlates with treatment response in FM. Moreover, patients presenting comorbid ME/CFS do not seem to respond to the applied therapy as those presenting FM only. Thus, pretreatment PPTs and ME/CFS comorbidity may serve as indicators to predict patient´s response to physiotherapy programs based on mechanical triggers, as the one evaluated here. These unexpected findings grant further explorations including the study of gene expression profiles associating to patient´s treatment response in the blood collection of samples generated by this study.Medicin

Sterile Insect Technique in an Integrated Vector Management Program against Tiger Mosquito Aedes albopictus in the Valencia Region (Spain): Operating Procedures and Quality Control Parameters

The Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus (Skuse, 1894) is an invasive species responsible for the transmission of arboviruses such as dengue, Zika and chikungunya. The rapid expansion of this species globally is the result of a lack of effective control methods. In this context, the sterile insect technique (SIT) is an emerging tool for controlling mosquito populations. The Agriculture Department of the Valencian Region (Spain) is promoting a pilot project to evaluate the efficacy of the sterile insect technique as part of an integrated vector management program against Ae. albopictus. From 2018 to 2020, sterile male releases were carried out in two pilot sites, releasing more than 15 million sterile males over 80 ha. The present work describes the laboratory studies carried out to evaluate the performance of irradiated males to assess the feasibility of the SIT before release in the field, as well as the production and quality control parameters obtained in rearing activities. The obtained values in terms of production and quality control and the proposed rearing methodology can be useful for designing a medium-scale mosquito-rearing pipeline.Ciencias Experimentale

Exploring the potential of computer vision analysis of pupae size dimorphism for adaptive sex sorting systems of various vector mosquito species

Several mosquito population suppression strategies based on the rearing and release of sterile males have provided promising results. However, the lack of an efficient male selection method has hampered the expansion of these approaches into large-scale operational programmes. Currently, most of these programmes targeting Aedes mosquitoes rely on sorting methods based on the sexual size dimorphism (SSD) at the pupal stage. The currently available sorting methods have not been developed based on biometric analysis, and there is therefore potential for improvement. We applied an automated pupal size estimator developed by Grupo Tragsa with laboratory samples of Anopheles arabiensis, Aedes albopictus, Ae. polynesiensis, and three strains of Ae. aegypti. The frequency distribution of the pupal size was analyzed. We propose a general model for the analysis of the frequency distribution of mosquito pupae in the context of SSD-sorting methods, which is based on a Gaussian mixture distribution functions, thus making possible the analysis of performance (% males recovery) and purity (% males on the sorted sample).Veterinari

Modelado de ondas no lineales en fotónica, plasmónica y átomos fríos

We review the present status of the different lines of research in the area of Photonics at the Interdisciplinary Modeling Group, InterTech (www.intertech.upv.es) paying special attention to new topics that we have recently incorporated to our research interests: temporal solitons and design of supercontinuum generation, plasmon-soliton interaction, nonlinear effects of the quantum electrodynamics vacuum, and, finally, cold atoms in the mean-field and quantum regimes.En este artículo presentamos el estado actual de las diferentes líneas de investigación desarrolladas en el área de Fotónica del Grupo de Modelización Interdisciplinar, InterTech (www.intertech.upv.es) prestando especial atención a aquellas que han sido incorporadas recientemente: solitones temporales y diseño de la generación de supercontínuo, interacción plasmón-solitón, efectos no lineales del vacío en electrodinámica cuántica y, finalmente, átomos fríos en el régimen de campo medio y en el régimen cuántico.Ciencias Experimentale

Disposición del alumnado al uso de herramientas de comunicación síncrona en la docencia universitaria

En los últimos años han sido numerosas las iniciativas de innovación educativa que han propuesto el uso de las herramientas de comunicación síncrona como recurso tecnológico de soporte a la docencia universitaria. Dichas propuestas han demostrado sus beneficios en contextos de aplicación concretos como por ejemplo: la tutorización virtual o la internacionalización y movilidad en másteres y doctorados. Sin embargo, su alcance limitado dificulta a menudo la extrapolación de resultados a otros ámbitos docentes y, por tanto, la transformación de actividades que se pueden catalogar como piloto en soluciones de implantación consolidada. Con el trasfondo de la declaración del año 2015 como Año Internacional de la Evaluación, en este trabajo presentamos los resultados de un estudio dirigido a conocer la opinión del alumnado sobre el uso de herramientas de comunicación por Internet en la docencia universitaria. El estudio ha involucrado a 436 estudiantes matriculados en asignaturas de cursos diversos en titulaciones de ingeniería, magisterio, criminología y ciencias del deporte, en universidades públicas y privadas. Los resultados muestran una caracterización del interés, las expectativas y las preferencias de los alumnos con respecto a la incorporación de las herramientas informáticas de comunicación síncronas como mecanismo de apoyo y mejora del proceso de aprendizaje.In recent years there have been numerous innovative educational initiatives that have proposed the use of synchronous communication tools to support university teaching. These proposals have proven their worth in specific application contexts such as: virtual tutoring, internationalization and mobility in masters and doctorates. However, their sometimes limited scope often makes it difficult to generalize results to other contexts and, thus, to pass from pilots to consolidated solutions. Within the framework of 2015 being declared as the International Year of Evaluation, this paper presents the results of a survey aimed to obtain the opinion of students regarding the use of synchronous communication tools for university teaching. The survey involved 436 students enrolled in subjects of various grade levels in degrees sucha as engineering, teaching, criminology and sports science, both in public and private universities. The results show a characterization of the interest, expectations and preferences of students with respect to the incorporation of computer communication tools as a mechanism to improve the learning process.Educació

Effect of the Mediterranean diet supplemented with nicotinamide riboside and pterostilbene and/or coconut oil on anthropometric variables in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. A pilot study

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a chronic and progressive neurodegenerative disease that causes the death of motor neurons and alters patients’ body composition. Supplementation with the antioxidants nicotinamide riboside (NR) and pterostilbene (PTER) can combat associated oxidative stress. Additionally, coconut oil is an alternative energy substrate that can address mitochondrial dysfunction. The aim of the present study is to assess the impact of a Mediterranean Diet supplemented with NR and PTER and/or with coconut oil on the anthropometric variables of patients with ALS. A prospective, mixed, randomized, analytical and experimental pilot study in humans was performed through a clinical trial (registered with ClinicalTrials.gov under number NCT03489200) with pre- and post-intervention assessments. The sample was made up of 40 subjects categorized into four study groups (Control, Antioxidants, Coconut oil, and Antioxidants + Coconut oil). Pre- and post-intervention anthropometric assessments were carried out to determine the following data: weight, percentage of fat and muscle mass, skinfolds, body perimeters, Body Mass Index (BMI), Waste-to-Hip Index (WHI) and Waist-Height Ratio (WHR). Compared to the Control group, GAx significantly increased muscle mass percentage and decreased fat mass percentage, triceps, iliac crest, and abdominal skinfolds. GCoco significantly increased muscle mass percentage and decreased fat mass percentage, subscapular skinfolds, and abdominal skinfolds. GAx + coco significantly increased muscle mass percentage and decreased abdominal skinfolds. Therefore, our results suggest that the Mediterranean Diet supplemented with NR and PTER and the Mediterranean Diet supplemented with coconut oil (ketogenic diet) are the two nutritional interventions that have reported the greatest benefits, at anthropometric level.This research study was funded by the Catholic University of Valencia San Vicente Mártir (grant number 2017–216-001)University of Valencia (grant number OTR2017-18255INVES)The antioxidant compounds (NR and PTER) tested in the study were provided by Elysium Health. Inc. New York (United States)The supply of coconut oil was supplied through a collaboration between the Catholic University of Valencia San Vicente Mártir and the Fundación José Navarro, Fomento Alimentación Inteligente, Valencia (Spain)Nutrición humana y dietétic