Instabilities in Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids

[spa] Durante la tesis se realizó un estudio experimental de inestabilidades hidrodinámicas en dos sistemas muy diferentes. Estudiamos inestabilidades laterales en dedos de Saffaman-Taylor sujetos a dos tipos de perturbación (desorden estático y perturbación periódica). Observamos una inestabilidad con una longitud de onda seleccionada del orden del ancho del canal. También estudiamos el flujo oscilatorio de un fluido de Maxwell en un tubo, comparándolo con uno Newtoniano. Observados grandes diferencias entre ambos casos. El flujo Maxweliano se hace inestable a números de Reynolds mayor 1

La complexitat de l'aprenentatge dels temps verbals

Aquesta tesi doctoral, llegida a la Facultat de Ciències de l'Educació, en el Departament de Didàctica de la llengua i la literatura, ha aprofundit en el coneixement sobre la temporalitat lingüística i els temps verbals en els alumnes de quart i sisè curs de primària. A l'estudi s'analitzen tres tipus de dades diferents: els llibres de text, el treball dels alumnes dins l'àmbit escolar i diverses entrevistes a aquests alumnes. La tesi de Mireia Torralba mostra la complexitat de l'aprenentatge dels temps verbals i les dificultats dels alumnes en la integració dels diferents elements de la temporalitat lingüística. Aquesta recerca s'emmarca dins de la línia de recerca que el Grup Greal està duent a terme sobre l'ensenyament reflexiu de la gramàtica.Esta tesis doctoral, leída en la Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación, en el Departamento de Didáctica de la Lengua y la Literatura y las Ciencias Sociales, ha profundizado en el conocimiento sobre la temporalidad lingüística y los tiempos verbales en los alumnos de cuarto y sexto curso de primaria. En el estudio se analizan tres tipos de datos diferentes: los libros de texto, el trabajo de los alumnos dentro del ámbito escolar y varias entrevistas a estos alumnos. La tesis de Mireia Torralba muestra la complejidad del aprendizaje de los tiempos verbales y las dificultades de los alumnos en la integración de los diferentes elementos de la temporalidad lingüística. Esta investigación se enmarca dentro de la línea de investigación que el Grupo Greal está llevando a cabo sobre la enseñanza reflexiva de la gramática

Long-Range a-Synchronization as Control Signal for BCI: A Feasibility Study

First published February 7, 2023Shifts in spatial attention are associated with variations in α band (α, 8–14 Hz) activity, specifically in interhemispheric imbalance. The underlying mechanism is attributed to local α-synchronization, which regulates local inhibition of neural excitability, and frontoparietal synchronization reflecting long-range communication. The direction-specific nature of this neural correlate brings forward its potential as a control signal in brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). In the present study, we explored whether long-range α-synchronization presents lateralized patterns dependent on voluntary attention orienting and whether these neural patterns can be picked up at a single-trial level to provide a control signal for active BCI. We collected electroencephalography (EEG) data from a cohort of healthy adults (n = 10) while performing a covert visuospatial attention (CVSA) task. The data show a lateralized pattern of α-band phase coupling between frontal and parieto-occipital regions after target presentation, replicating previous findings. This pattern, however, was not evident during the cue-to-target orienting interval, the ideal time window for BCI. Furthermore, decoding the direction of attention trial-by-trial from cue-locked synchronization with support vector machines (SVMs) was at chance level. The present findings suggest EEG may not be capable of detecting long-range α-synchronization in attentional orienting on a single-trial basis and, thus, highlight the limitations of this metric as a reliable signal for BCI control.This research was supported by the Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca Generalitat de Catalunya Grant 2017 SGR 1545. This project has been co-funded with 50% by the European Regional Development Fund under the framework of the FEDER Operative Programme for Catalunya 2014-2020 Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Ref: PID2019-108531GB-I00 AEI/FEDER)

Les competències transversals a l'escola de ciències de la salut de Manresa

Un dels pilars del nou marc d'ensenyament superior és l'aprenentatge basat en competències. Yáriz i Villardón defineixen una competència com el conjunt de coneixements, habilitats i actituds necessaris per a desenvolupar una ocupació donada i la capacitat de mobilitzar i aplicar aquests recursos en un entorn determinat, per a produir un resultat definit. En el projecte Tuning, treball de consens europeu sobre competències a la universitat, es distingeix entre dos tipus de competències: les genèriques anomenades també transversals i les específiques. Les competències específiques són pròpies de cada perfil de titulat determinat i s'expressen generalment a través de coneixements relacionats amb les disciplines o habilitats específiques de les pràctiques professionals més comunes en el perfil definit. Les competències genèriques o transversals són aquelles que constitueixen una part fonamental del perfil professional i del perfil formatiu de totes o la majoria de les titulacions. Inclouen un conjunt d'habilitats cognitives i metacognitives, coneixements instrumentals i actituds valuoses en la societat del coneixement. Alhora es poden classificar en tres grups: instrumentals, interpersonals i sistèmiques. A l'Escola de Ciències de la Salut de Manresa, on s'imparteixen les titulacions d'Infermeria, Fisioteràpia, Podologia i Logopèdia, es va portar a terme l'any 2007 un treball de definició de les competències transversals per a les quatre titulacions del centre. De cada competència seleccionada se'n va donar una definició i els indicadors de nivell bàsic i avançat. En aquest treball hi van participar una trentena de professors/es de l'Escola i va ser tutoritzat per l'IDES de la UAB i el professor Jesús Berruezo. La present comunicació exposa el procés portat a terme per l'equip de professorat que va participar en aquest projecte, els objectius del treball, la metodologia emprada i el resultat.One of the pillars of the new framework for higher education is learning based on competences. Yáriz and Villardon define one competence as knowledge, skills and attitudes, all of them needed to develop an activity, and the capacity to apply these resources on a specific environment, to produce a defined result. In the Tuning's project, work of European consensus of the university competences, there are two different types of them: the generic ones called transversals and the specific ones. The specific competences are own of every profile of certain graduate and they are generally expressed across knowledge related to the disciplines or specific skills of the most common professional practices in the defined profile. The generic or transverse competences are those that constitute a fundamental part of the professional profile and of the training profile of all or the majority of the degrees. They include a set of cognitive and metacognitive skills, instrumental knowledge and valuable attitudes in the society of knowledge. In turn, they can be classified in three groups: instrumental, interpersonal and systemic. In the School of Health Sciences of Manresa, there are given the degrees of Nursing, Physical therapy, Chiropody and Speech therapy. A work definition of the transverse competence was realized in 2007 for four degrees of our School. Of every selected competence was given a definition and the indicators of basic and advanced level. A group of thirty teachers of the School participated on this project and it was overseeing for the IDES of the UAB and the teacher Jesus Berruezo. The present communication exposes the process carried out by the team of teachers that participated in this project, the aims of the work, the used methodology and the result

Conflict monitoring and attentional adjustment during binocular rivalry

First published: 06 December 2021To make sense of ambiguous and, at times, fragmentary sensory input, the brain must rely on a process of active interpretation. At any given moment, only one of several possible perceptual representations prevails in our conscious experience. Our hypothesis is that the competition between alternative representations induces a pattern of neural activation resembling cognitive conflict, eventually leading to fluctuations between different perceptual outcomes in the case of steep competition. To test this hypothesis, we probed changes in perceptual awareness between competing images using binocular rivalry. We drew our predictions from the conflict monitoring theory, which holds that cognitive control is invoked by the detection of conflict during information processing. Our results show that fronto-medial theta oscillations (5–7 Hz), an established electroencephalography (EEG) marker of conflict, increases right before perceptual alternations and decreases thereafter, suggesting that conflict monitoring occurs during perceptual competition. Furthermore, to investigate conflict resolution via attentional engagement, we looked for a neural marker of perceptual switches as by parieto-occipital alpha oscillations (8–12 Hz). The power of parieto-occipital alpha displayed an inverse pattern to that of fronto-medial theta, reflecting periods of high interocular inhibition during stable perception, and low inhibition around moments of perceptual change. Our findings aim to elucidate the relationship between conflict monitoring mechanisms and perceptual awareness.H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, Grant/Award Number: 794649; Universitat Pompeu Fabra; FEDER Operative Programme for Catalunya 2014–2020; IkerBasque Research Fellowships; Ramon y Cajal, Grant/Award Number: RYC2019-027538-I; University Pompeu Fabra; AGAUR Generalitat de Catalunya, Grant/Award Numbers: 2017 SGR 1545, FI-DGR 2019; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovaci on, Grant/Award Number: PID2019-108531GB-I00 AEI/FEDE

La Comprensió dels temps verbals a primària : estudi descriptiu dels coneixements dels alumnes de quart i sisè sobre el verb com a codificador temporal

Aquest estudi se centra en l'exploració dels coneixements sobre el verb i els temps verbals d'alumnes de segona i tercera etapa de primària. Es parteix de cinc supòsits: a) els alumnes tenen un coneixement interioritzat dels elements lingüístics i del seu funcionament en l'ús, fruit de la seva experiència lingüística i de la representació que se'n fan; b) l'aprenentatge significatiu de la gramàtica es produeix quan l'alumne estableix relacions entre els coneixements que ja ha adquirit i els que li són nous; c) l'ensenyament de la gramàtica ha de ser vinculat a l'ús lingüístic; c) la reflexió metalingüística és l'instrument metodològic privilegiat per explorar el coneixement construït, i d) la incidència de la instrucció és fonamental en la construcció del coneixement. La primera part del treball, on s'exposa el marc teòric de la recerca, s'organitza en quatre apartats: la temporalitat lingüística, els elements lingüístics per codificar el temps, els conceptes gramaticals dels escolars i la transposició didàctica. En els dos primers apartats es descriuen les característiques del temps lingüístic i els diferents elements amb què s'expressa en l'enunciat: temps, aspecte, modalitat de l'acció i modificadors temporals tot ressaltant la rellevància de la forma verbal per ser on conflueixen més elements de codificació temporal (temps, aspecte i modalitat de l'acció) i es mostren les dificultats que pot suposar per als alumnes la descodificació temporal dels temps dels enunciats. En el capítol 3, s'exposen els punts de vista a partir dels quals es descriu el coneixement gramatical dels alumnes. S'inicia amb la descripció de les unitats lingüístiques objecte de coneixement (les categories gramaticals), després s'aprofundeix en la situació d'aprenentatge de les categories gramaticals en el context escolar, fent referència en primer lloc a la conceptualització com a procés de construcció del coneixement i, en segon lloc, a la rellevància de la reflexió metalingüística com un camí cap a la conceptualització dels elements lingüístics. En el capítol 4, es prenen com a referència diferents fonts d'informació (el currículum de primària, llibres de text, gramàtiques pedagògiques) per arribar a una impressió general de com es du a terme l'ensenyament de les nocions de verb i de temps verbals a les aules de primària. En el capítol 5 es plantegen els objectius i les preguntes de recerca i es finalitza la primera part amb l'explicació de la metodologia seguida. L'objectiu general és conèixer les característiques del coneixement construït sobre el verb i els temps verbals i com l'alumne hi pot reflexionar a quart i sisè de primària. S'inscriu en la recerca interpretativa de l'àmbit de les ciències socials a partir de dos tipus de dades (textos elaborats per a la instrucció i activitats dels alumnes). A la segona part es presenta la part empírica del treball (presentació i anàlisi de les dades). Es divideix en tres apartats: L'ànalisi dels llibres de text usats pels alumnes, l'anàlisi dels exercicis escrits realitzats a tot el grup classe a quart i sisè curs de primària i l'anàlisi de les entrevistes semiestructurades a alguns dels alumnes de cada curs. A l'última part del treball es relacionen les conclusions amb cada un dels objectius principals. Les conclusions es presenten agrupades en tres subapartats: els coneixements dels alumnes sobre la temporalitat de l'enunciat, el verb i els temps verbals i les confluències i divergències en les dues edats proposades; les relacions entre les característiques dels continguts i les activitats dels llibres de text amb les característiques dels coneixements construïts pels alumnes, i en darrer lloc les característiques del metallenguatge usat pels alumnes .This study aims to assess students' knowledge and awareness of verbs and verb tenses in the second and third stages of Primary education in the Spanish school system. It is based on five assumptions: a) students have an interiorised knowledge of linguistic elements and their usage as a result of their linguistic experience and their own representation of this experience; b) the significant learning of grammar takes places when the student establishes relationships between existing and new knowledge; c) the teaching of grammar has to be linked to the linguistic usage; c) metalinguistic reflection is the preferential methodological tool to explore constructed knowledge; and d) the influence of instruction is key in the construction of knowledge. The first part of the study, containing the theoretical framework of the research, is organized in four sections: linguistic temporality; linguistic elements to codify time, grammatical concepts in students; and didactic transposition. The first and second sections describe the characteristics of linguistic time and the different elements used to express it in statements: time, aspect, action modality and time modifiers, stressing the relevance of the verb form as the one combining the most elements of time coding (time, aspect and action modality) as well as pinpointing the difficulties students encounter when it comes to decoding time in tenses within statements. Chapter 3 presents the points of view from which the students' grammatical knowledge is described. It begins with a description of the linguistic units which are the object of knowledge (grammatical categories), followed by an in-depth assessment of the learning situation towards grammatical categories within the school context, with particular reference to conceptualization as a knowledge construction process and also to the relevance of metalinguistic reflection as a path towards conceptualization of the linguistic elements. Chapter 4 analyses different sources of information (the Primary curriculum, textbooks, pedagogical grammars) to establish a general impression of how the notions of verb and verb tense are taught in Primary classrooms. Chapter 5 presents the project aims and research questions, and the first part finishes with an explanation of the methodology used. The main aim is to identify the characteristics of constructed knowledge on the verb and verb tenses, and how students are able to reflect on them in fourth and sixth form. The study falls within the interpretative research paradigm in the field of Social Sciences. The second part presents the empirical side of the research (presentation and data analysis). It consists of three sections: analysis of textbooks used by students; analysis of written exercises completed by the whole class in fourth and sixth forms; analysis of semi-structured interviews to some of the students in each form. The last part of the project establishes links between the conclusions and each of the main objectives. Conclusions are presented grouped in three subsections: firstly, the students' knowledge on the temporality of the statement, the verb and verb tenses and the confluences and divergences between the two age groups; secondly, the relations between the characteristics of content and activities in textbooks and the characteristics of the knowledge constructed by the students; and thirdly, the characteristics of the metalanguage used by students

Fatigue, emotional distress, and illness uncertainty in patients with metastatic cancer: results from the prospective NEOETIC_SEOM study

A cancer diagnosis can have a substantial impact on a patient's mental health and quality of life. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of fatigue, emotional distress, and uncertainty and examine the predictive value they have on the quality of life of advanced cancer patients. A prospective, multicenter study was conducted between February 2020 and May 2021 of individuals diagnosed with an advanced, unresectable neoplasm prior to initiating systemic antineoplastic treatment. Participants completed questionnaires to quantify fatigue, emotional distress, disease uncertainty, and quality of life. A linear regression analysis was performed to study the predictive QoL variables. The study population comprised 508 patients, 53.7% of whom were male and had a mean age of 54.9 years. The most common cancers were digestive (40.6%), bronchopulmonary (29.1%), and breast (8.5%); the most frequent histology was adenocarcinoma (63%); and most were stage IV (79.7%). More than half (55.7%) suffered fatigue, and 47.7% exhibited emotional distress; both were more prevalent among women. Fatigue, emotional distress, and disease uncertainty all correlate with diminished quality of life. Similarly, ECOG performance status and the demographic variables of age, sex, and comorbidities impacted quality of life. This patient sample displayed a high prevalence of fatigue and emotional distress, together with illness uncertainty, which are clearly linked to waning quality of life. To decrease the experience of fatigue and improve mental health treatment in cancer patients, interventions based on a biopsychosocial model must be intensified

Exploring sensory sensitivity, cortical excitability, and habituation in episodic migraine, as a function of age and disease severity, using the pattern-reversal task

Cortical excitability; Migraine; Visual sensitivityExcitabilitat cortical; Migranya; Sensibilitat visualExcitabilidad cortical; Migraña; Sensibilidad visualBackground Migraine is a cyclic, neurosensory disorder characterized by recurrent headaches and altered sensory processing. The latter is manifested in hypersensitivity to visual stimuli, measured with questionnaires and sensory thresholds, as well as in abnormal cortical excitability and a lack of habituation, assessed with visual evoked potentials elicited by pattern-reversal stimulation. Here, the goal was to determine whether factors such as age and/or disease severity may exert a modulatory influence on sensory sensitivity, cortical excitability, and habituation. Methods Two similar experiments were carried out, the first comparing 24 young, episodic migraine patients and 28 healthy age- and gender-matched controls and the second 36 middle-aged, episodic migraine patients and 30 healthy age- and gender-matched controls. A neurologist confirmed the diagnoses. Migraine phases were obtained using eDiaries. Sensory sensitivity was assessed with the Sensory Perception Quotient and group comparisons were carried out. We obtained pattern-reversal visual evoked potentials and calculated the N1-P1 Peak-to-Peak amplitude. Two linear mixed-effects models were fitted to these data. The first model had Block (first block, last block) and Group (patients, controls) as fixed factors, whereas the second model had Trial (all trials) and Group as fixed factors. Participant was included as a random factor in both. N1-P1 first block amplitude was used to assess cortical excitability and habituation was defined as a decrease of N1-P1 amplitude across Blocks/Trials. Both experiments were performed interictally. Results The final samples consisted of 18 patients with episodic migraine and 27 headache-free controls (first experiment) and 19 patients and 29 controls (second experiment). In both experiments, patients reported increased visual hypersensitivity on the Sensory Perception Quotient as compared to controls. Regarding N1-P1 peak-to-peak data, there was no main effect of Group, indicating no differences in cortical excitability between groups. Finally, significant main effects of both Block and Trial were found indicating habituation in both groups, regardless of age and headache frequency. Conclusions The results of this study yielded evidence for significant hypersensitivity in patients but no significant differences in either habituation or cortical excitability, as compared to headache-free controls. Although the alterations in patients may be less pronounced than originally anticipated they demonstrate the need for the definition and standardization of optimal methodological parameters.The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: AMM salary has been partially financed by a predoctoral grant from the “Fundacio Institut de Recerca Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron” (VHIR/BEQUESPREDOC/2020/MARTI). AVB salary has been partially financed by a Juan de la Cierva-Formacion grant (FJC2018-036804-I) and a Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación grant (IJC2020-043139-I) from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. XCC salary has been co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (001-P-001682) under the framework of the FEDER Operative Programme for Catalunya 2014–2020, with 1,527,637.88 euros. EC salary has been funded by Rıo Hortega grant Accion Estrategica en Salud 2017–2020, Instituto de Salud Carlos III (CM20/00217). SSF has been supported by grants from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (PID2019-108531 GB-I00 AEI/FEDER) and AGAUR Generalitat de Catalunya (2021 SGR 00911). The project leading to these results has received funding from “la Caixa” Foundation under the project code “LCF/PR/PR16/51110005”