66 research outputs found
Integral strategy to supportive care in breast cancer survivors through occupational therapy and a m-health system: design of a randomized clinical trial
Background: Technological support using e-health mobile applications (m-health) is a promising strategy to improve
the adherence to healthy lifestyles in breast cancer survivors (excess in energy intake or low physical activity are
determinants of the risk of recurrence, second cancers and cancer mortality). Moreover, cancer rehabilitation
programs supervised by health professionals are needed due to the inherent characteristics of these breast cancer
patients. Our main objective is to compare the clinical efficacy of a m-health lifestyle intervention system alone versus
an integral strategy to improve Quality of Life in breast cancer survivors.
Methods: This therapeutic superiority study will use a two-arm, assessor blinded parallel RCT design. Women will be
eligible if: they are diagnosed of stage I, II or III-A breast cancer; are between 25 and 75 years old; have a Body Mass
Index > 25 kg/m2; they have basic ability to use mobile apps; they had completed adjuvant therapy except for
hormone therapy; and they have some functional shoulder limitations. Participants will be randomized to one of
the following groups: integral group will use a mobile application (BENECA APP) and will receive a face-to-face
rehabilitation (8-weeks); m-health group will use the BENECA app for 2-months and will received usual care
information. Study endpoints will be assessed after 8 weeks and 6 months. The primary outcome will be Quality
of Life measured by The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Core
and breast module. The secondary outcomes: body composition; upper-body functionality (handgrip, Disability of the
Arm, Shoulder and Hand questionnaire, goniometry); cognitive function (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Trail Making
Test); anxiety and depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale); physical fitness (Short version of the Minnesota
Leisure Time Physical Activity Questionnaire, Self-Efficacy Scale for Physical Activity); accelerometry and lymphedema.
Discussion: This study has been designed to seek to address the new needs for support and treatment of breast cancer
survivors, reflecting the emerging need to merge new low cost treatment options with much-needed involvement of
health professionals in this type of patients.
Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02817724 (date of registration: 22/06/2016).The study was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness
(Plan Estatal de I + D + I 2013-2016), Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria del Instituto
de Salud Carlos III (PI14/01627), Fondos Estructurales de la Unión Europea (FEDER)
and by the Spanish Ministry of Education (FPU14/01069). This is part of a Ph.D.
Thesis conducted in the Clinical Medicine and Public Health Doctoral Studies of
the University of Granada, Spain
Recording behaviour of indoor-housed farm animals automatically using machine vision technology: a systematic review
Large-scale phenotyping of animal behaviour traits is time consuming and has led to increased demand for technologies that can automate these procedures. Automated tracking of animals has been successful in controlled laboratory settings, but recording from animals in large groups in highly variable farm settings presents challenges. The aim of this review is to provide a systematic overview of the advances that have occurred in automated, high throughput image detection of farm animal behavioural traits with welfare and production implications. Peer-reviewed publications written in English were reviewed systematically following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. After identification, screening, and assessment for eligibility, 108 publications met these specifications and were included for qualitative synthesis. Data collected from the papers included camera specifications, housing conditions, group size, algorithm details, procedures, and results. Most studies utilized standard digital colour video cameras for data collection, with increasing use of 3D cameras in papers published after 2013. Papers including pigs (across production stages) were the most common (n = 63). The most common behaviours recorded included activity level, area occupancy, aggression, gait scores, resource use, and posture. Our review revealed many overlaps in methods applied to analysing behaviour, and most studies started from scratch instead of building upon previous work. Training and validation sample sizes were generally small (mean±s.d. groups = 3.8±5.8) and in data collection and testing took place in relatively controlled environments. To advance our ability to automatically phenotype behaviour, future research should build upon existing knowledge and validate technology under commercial settings and publications should explicitly describe recording conditions in detail to allow studies to be reproduced
Iron Behaving Badly: Inappropriate Iron Chelation as a Major Contributor to the Aetiology of Vascular and Other Progressive Inflammatory and Degenerative Diseases
The production of peroxide and superoxide is an inevitable consequence of
aerobic metabolism, and while these particular "reactive oxygen species" (ROSs)
can exhibit a number of biological effects, they are not of themselves
excessively reactive and thus they are not especially damaging at physiological
concentrations. However, their reactions with poorly liganded iron species can
lead to the catalytic production of the very reactive and dangerous hydroxyl
radical, which is exceptionally damaging, and a major cause of chronic
inflammation. We review the considerable and wide-ranging evidence for the
involvement of this combination of (su)peroxide and poorly liganded iron in a
large number of physiological and indeed pathological processes and
inflammatory disorders, especially those involving the progressive degradation
of cellular and organismal performance. These diseases share a great many
similarities and thus might be considered to have a common cause (i.e.
iron-catalysed free radical and especially hydroxyl radical generation). The
studies reviewed include those focused on a series of cardiovascular, metabolic
and neurological diseases, where iron can be found at the sites of plaques and
lesions, as well as studies showing the significance of iron to aging and
longevity. The effective chelation of iron by natural or synthetic ligands is
thus of major physiological (and potentially therapeutic) importance. As
systems properties, we need to recognise that physiological observables have
multiple molecular causes, and studying them in isolation leads to inconsistent
patterns of apparent causality when it is the simultaneous combination of
multiple factors that is responsible. This explains, for instance, the
decidedly mixed effects of antioxidants that have been observed, etc...Comment: 159 pages, including 9 Figs and 2184 reference
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Proteome profile of the endomembrane of developing coleoptiles from switchgrass (Panicum virgatum).
The cost-effective production of biofuels from lignocellulosic material will likely require manipulation of plant biomass, specifically cell walls. The North American native prairie grass Panicum virgatum (switchgrass) is seen as a potential biofuel crop with an array of genetic resources currently being developed. We have characterized the endomembrane proteome of switchgrass coleoptiles to provide additional information to the switchgrass community. In total, we identified 1750 unique proteins from two biological replicates. These data have been deposited in the ProteomeXchange with the identifier PXD001351 (http://proteomecentral.proteomexchange.org/dataset/PXD001351)
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