The topical 5% lidocaine medicated plaster in localized neuropathic pain: a reappraisal of the clinical evidence

Topical 5% lidocaine medicated plasters represent a well-established first-line option for the treatment of peripheral localized neuropathic pain (LNP). This review provides an updated overview of the clinical evidence (randomized, controlled, and open-label clinical studies, real-life daily clinical practice, and case series). The 5% lidocaine medicated plaster effectively provides pain relief in postherpetic neuralgia, and data from a large open-label controlled study indicate that the 5% lidocaine medicated plaster is as effective as systemic pregabalin in postherpetic neuralgia and painful diabetic polyneuropathy but with an improved tolerability profile. Additionally, improved analgesia and fewer side effects were experienced by patients treated synchronously with the 5% lidocaine medicated plaster, further demonstrating the value of multimodal analgesia in LNP. The 5% lidocaine medicated plaster provides continued benefit after long-term (<= 7 years) use and is also effective in various other LNP conditions. Minor application-site reactions are the most common adverse events associated with the 5% lidocaine medicated plaster; there is minimal risk of systemic adverse events and drug-drug interactions. Although further well-controlled studies are warranted, the 5% lidocaine medicated plaster is efficacious and safe in LNP and may have particular clinical benefit in elderly and/or medically compromised patients because of the low incidence of adverse events

Evaluation of potential Spanish text markers on social posts asfeatures for polarity classification

This work describes the identification and evaluation process of potential text markers for sen-timent analysis. Evaluation of the markers and its use as part of the feature extraction processfrom plain text that is needed for sentiment analysis is presented. Evaluation of text markerobtained as a result of systematic analysis from a corpus over a second one allowed us to iden-tify that emphasized positive words are strong indicators for positive text. The second corpusallowed us to evaluate the relation between the polarity of emphasized words and the text theyappear in. Evaluation of the markers for polarity detection task in combination with a polarizeddictionary produced polarity classification average precision of 56% using only three markers.This are promising results compared to the top 69% obtained using more features and specializeddictionaries for the same taskUniversidad de Costa Rica/[]/UCR/Costa RicaMinisterio de Ciencia, Tecnología y Telecomunicaciones/[]/MICITT/Costa RicaUCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Ingeniería::Facultad de Ingeniería::Escuela de Ciencias de la Computación e InformáticaUCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ingeniería::Centro de Investigaciones en Tecnologías de Información y Comunicación (CITIC)UCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Artes y Letras::Facultad de Letras::Escuela de Filología, Lingüística y Literatur

Patterns for marking ingredients and order of processes in Costa Rican gastronomic texts

En este artículo, se presentará una síntesis de los procedimientos y resultados relativos a la primera etapa, o etapa precomputacional, del proyecto “Análisis de contextos definicionales en corpus de gastronomía tradicional en Costa Rica (CODEGAT)”, en el que se estudian los recursos de marcación de informaciones gastronómicas presentes en corpus textuales en español en Costa Rica. Concretamente, se expondrán las tareas para la identificación de patrones asociados con dos tipos de rasgos necesarios para la configuración de una receta, que son “ingredientes” y “orden de procesos”, para, finalmente, ofrecer una propuesta de categorización de los marcadores que aparecen en tales patrones, con ejemplos típicos de cada clase y de sus posibles contextos de aparición.In this paper, a synthesis of the procedures and results related to the first stage or pre-computational stage of the research project “Análisis de contextos definicionales en corpus de gastronomía tradicional en Costa Rica (CODEGAT)” [“Analysis of definitional contexts in corpora of traditional gastronomy in Costa Rica (CODEGAT)”] will be presented; in that stage, the linguistic resources for marking conceptual relations in gastronomic textual corpora in Costa Rican Spanish are studied. Specifically, the tasks for the identification of patterns associated with two types of features that were found as necessary in the formulation of a recipe (“ingredients” and “processes order”) will be explained, to finally propose a categorization of the markers that appear in such patterns, with typical examples of each class and of its possible contexts of appearance.UCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Artes y Letras::Facultad de Letras::Escuela de Filología, Lingüística y LiteraturaUCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Ingeniería::Facultad de Ingeniería::Escuela de Ciencias de la Computación e InformáticaUCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Artes y Letras::Instituto de Investigaciones Lingüísticas (INIL

Trending Topic Extraction using Topic Models and Biterm Discrimination

Mining and exploitation of data in social networks has been the focus of many efforts, but despite the resources and energy invested, still remains a lot for doing given its complexity, which requires the adoption of a multidisciplinary approach . Specifically, on what concerns to this research, the content of the texts published regularly, and at a very rapid pace, at sites of microblogs (eg Twitter.com) can be used to analyze global and local trends. These trends are marked by microblogs emerging topics that are distinguished from others by a sudden and accelerated rate of posts related to the same topic; in other words, by an increment of popularity in relatively short periods, a day or a few hours, for example Wanner et al. . The problem, then, is twofold, first to extract the topics, then to identify which of those topics are trending. A recent solution, known as Bursty Biterm Topic Model (BBTM) is an algorithm for identifying trending topics, with a good level of performance in Twitter, but it requires great amount of computer processing. Hence, this research aims to determine if it is possible to reduce the amount of processing required and getting equally good results. This reduction carry out by a discrimination of co-occurrences of words (biterms) used by BBTM to model trending topics. In contrast to our previous work, in this research, we carry on a more complete and exhaustive set of experiments.Universidad de Costa Rica/[745-B4-048]UCR/Costa RicaUniversidad de Costa Rica/[745-B6-175]UCR/Costa RicaUCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Ingeniería::Facultad de Ingeniería::Escuela de Ciencias de la Computación e InformáticaUCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Artes y Letras::Facultad de Letras::Escuela de Filología, Lingüística y Literatur

Flora en playas y dunas costeras de México

Background and Aims: The first updated floristic checklist, supported with herbarium specimens, is presented for beaches and coastal sand dunes of Mexico.Methods: The analysis is based on the revision of 14 national and foreign herbaria. A 2 × 2 km grid was placed over a map of the coastal sand dunes of Mexico to reference the herbarium records, corresponding to the 2180 sites and 12,419 examples of plants documented. Indices of diversity, similarity, taxonomic diversity, and redundancy were calculated.Key results: The flora of the beaches and coastal sand dunes of Mexico consists of 153 families, 897 genera, and 2075 species of vascular plants. These represent 9.5% of the vascular flora of Mexico. The herbaria with high indices of redundancy (IR≥0.7) are the herbarium of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (IR=0.9), the Centro de Investigación Científica de Yucatán (CICY, IR=0.8), the Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas del Noroeste (HCIB), the Instituto de Ecología, A.C. (XAL) and the Natural Museum in San Diego (SD), each with an IR of 0.7. Five floristic regions are clearly recognized, which correspond to the seas of Mexico. The North Pacific has the highest taxonomic diversity and the South Pacific has the least. The Gulf of California, Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea have very similar taxonomic diversity. The species with the most recorded occurrences are Trianthema portulacastrum (165), Croton punctatus (107), Echites umbellatus (106) and Ipomoea pes-caprae (90). Considering the ecotonal nature of the ecosystem, most dune plants are shared with neighboring vegetation (forests, scrubs, wetlands, such as marshes or mangrove swamps).Conclusions: This first checklist of the flora of beaches and coastal dunes is the baseline for multiple future studies: floristic, biogeographic, and ecological. Moreover, this list will be important if used in environmental assessments and coastal zone plans.Antecedentes y Objetivos: Se presenta el primer listado florístico de las playas y dunas costeras de México, actualizado y respaldado por ejemplares de herbario.Métodos: Se revisaron 14 herbarios nacionales y extranjeros. Se sobrepuso una retícula de 2 × 2 km al mapa de la costa y de las dunas costeras de México para referir todos los registros que corresponden a 2180 sitios con 12,419 ejemplares de plantas. Se calcularon índices de diversidad, similitud, diversidad taxonómica y redundancia.Resultados clave: La flora registrada consta de 153 familias, 897 géneros y 2075 especies de plantas vasculares, las cuales representan 9.5% de la flora vascular de México. Las cinco colecciones con índices de redundancia altos IR≥0.7 son los herbarios de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (MEXU, IR=0.9), del Centro de Investigación Científicas de Yucatán (CICY, IR=0.8), y los del Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas del Noroeste (HCIB), el Instituto de Ecología, A.C. (XAL) y el del Museo de Historia Natural de San Diego (SD), cada uno con un IR de 0.7. Se reconocen cinco regiones florísticas que corresponden a los mares de México. El Pacífico Norte tiene mayor diversidad taxonómica y el Pacífico Sur menor diversidad taxonómica. El Golfo de California, Golfo de México y Mar Caribe tienen diversidades taxonómicas similares. Las especies con más registros son Trianthema portulacastrum (165), Croton punctatus (107), Echites umbelllatus (106) e Ipomoea pes-caprae (90). Por el carácter de ecotono de las dunas costeras, la mayoría de las especies se comparten con los tipos de vegetación vecinos (selvas, matorrales, y humedales como las marismas y manglares).Conclusiones: Esta primera lista de la flora en playas y dunas de México es la base para múltiples estudios florísticos regionales y locales, biogeográficos, y ecológicos; además, que será importante para su uso en temas de impacto ambiental y manejo costero

Oral l-menthol reduces thermal sensation, increases work-rate and extends time to exhaustion, in the heat at a fixed rating of perceived exertion

PurposeThe study investigated the effect of a non-thermal cooling agent, l-menthol, on exercise at a fixed subjective rating of perceived exertion (RPE) in a hot environment.MethodEight male participants completed two trials at an exercise intensity between ‘hard’ and ‘very hard’, equating to 16 on the RPE scale at ~35 °C. Participants were instructed to continually adjust their power output to maintain an RPE of 16 throughout the exercise trial, stopping once power output had fallen by 30%. In a randomized crossover design, either l-menthol or placebo mouthwash was administered prior to exercise and at 10 min intervals. Power output, VO2, heart rate, core and skin temperature was monitored, alongside thermal sensation and thermal comfort. Isokinetic peak power sprints were conducted prior to and immediately after the fixed RPE trial.ResultsExercise time was greater (23:23 ± 3:36 vs. 21:44 ± 2:32 min; P = 0.049) and average power output increased (173 ± 24 vs. 167 ± 24 W; P = 0.044) in the l-menthol condition. Peak isokinetic sprint power declined from pre-post trial in the l-menthol l (9.0%; P = 0.015) but not in the placebo condition (3.4%; P = 0.275). Thermal sensation was lower in the l-menthol condition (P = 0.036), despite no changes in skin or core temperature (P > 0.05).Conclusion These results indicate that a non-thermal cooling mouth rinse lowered thermal sensation, resulting in an elevated work rate, which extended exercise time in the heat at a fixed RPE

re-habitar El Carmen : Un proyecto sobre patrimonio contemporáneo

El proyecto _re-HABITAR suponía para el propio proceder de la institución un avance más allá del reconocimiento, registro, inventario o protección patrimonial de la arquitectura del siglo XX y del Movimiento Moderno para posicionarse en la acción preventiva y conservativa de ese legado contemporáneo. Para ello, la praxis patrimonial se aferraba a un modelo: el de la vivienda social en España en la segunda mitad del siglo XX; a un caso concreto: el de la barriada de Nuestra Señora del Carmen (Recasens Méndez-Queipo de Llano, 1958); y a un requisito fundamental: analizar un objeto vivo y en uso, aún con la presencia de quienes lo vivieron y usaron desde su origen

Intrathecal therapy for cancer pain management

Acute and chronic pain is highly prevalent in cancer patients. Inadequate assessment and treatment of pain and other distressing symptoms may interfere with antitumor therapy and markedly affect the quality of life. While a strong focus on pain control is important regardless of disease stage, it is a special priority in patients with advanced disease who are no longer candidates for potentially curative therapy. Although rarely eliminated, pain can be controlled in the vast majority of patients, with the implementation of aggressive comprehensive medical management. In the small but significant proportion of patients whose pain is not readily controlled with non-invasive analgesics, a variety of alternative invasive and non-invasive measures, when selected carefully, are also associated with a high degree of success. To this end, it is very reassuring to conclude that at this point, we have the appropriate tools to adequately treat cancer related pain in close to 100% of the patients.Tanto el dolor agudo como el crónico tienen gran prevalencia en los pacientes con cáncer. La evaluación y el tratamiento inadecuados del dolor y de otros síntomas penosos pueden interferir con el tratamiento antitumoral y disminuyen en gran medida la calidad de vida. Pese a la importancia de prestar gran atención al control del dolor en cualquier etapa de la enfermedad, se convierte en una prioridad especial en los pacientes con una enfermedad avanzada que ya no son candidatos a un tratamiento potencialmente curativo. Aunque raras veces se elimine, el dolor puede controlarse en la inmensa mayoría de los pacientes instaurando un tratamiento médico enérgico e integral. En la pequeña, pero significativa proporción de pacientes cuyo dolor no puede controlarse rápidamente con analgésicos no invasivos, una serie de medidas alternativas, invasivas y no invasivas, meticulosamente seleccionadas, también se asocian con una gran tasa de éxito. En este sentido, es muy reconfortante concluir que actualmente contamos con las medidas oportunas para tratar adecuadamente el dolor relacionado con el cáncer en casi el 100% de los pacientes

The topical 5% lidocaine medicated plaster in localized neuropathic pain: a reappraisal of the clinical evidence

Oscar A de Le&oacute;n-Casasola,1,2 Victor Mayoral3 1Department of Anesthesiology, Division of Pain Medicine, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, 2University at Buffalo, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. NY, USA; 3Anesthesiology Department, Pain Management Unit, University Hospital of Bellvitge, L&#39;Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain Abstract: Topical 5% lidocaine medicated plasters represent a well-established first-line option for the treatment of peripheral localized neuropathic pain (LNP). This review provides an updated overview of the clinical evidence (randomized, controlled, and open-label clinical studies, real-life daily clinical practice, and case series). The 5% lidocaine medicated plaster effectively provides pain relief in postherpetic neuralgia, and data from a large open-label controlled study indicate that the 5% lidocaine medicated plaster is as effective as systemic pregabalin in postherpetic neuralgia and painful diabetic polyneuropathy but with an improved tolerability profile. Additionally, improved analgesia and fewer side effects were experienced by patients treated synchronously with the 5% lidocaine medicated plaster, further demonstrating the value of multimodal analgesia in LNP. The 5% lidocaine medicated plaster provides continued benefit after long-term (&le;7 years) use and is also effective in various other LNP conditions. Minor application-site reactions are the most common adverse events associated with the 5% lidocaine medicated plaster; there is minimal risk of systemic adverse events and drug&ndash;drug interactions. Although further well-controlled studies are warranted, the 5% lidocaine medicated plaster is efficacious and safe in LNP and may have particular clinical benefit in elderly and/or medically compromised patients because of the low incidence of adverse events. Keywords: 5% lidocaine medicated plaster, clinical evidence, localized neuropathic pain, postherpetic neuralgia, revie