The COVID-19 disease has caused thousands of deaths worldwide and required the rapid and drastic adoption of various protective measures as main resources in the fight to reduce the spread of the disease. In the present study we aimed to identify socio cognitive factors that may influence adherence to protective measures toward COVID-19 in a Spanish sample. This longitudinal study analyzes the predictive value of perceived severity and vulnerability of infection, self-efficacy, direct exposure to the virus, and instrumental focused coping (...) style for adhering to infection protection behaviors during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also tests sex and age differences in these factors and changes over time. A two-wave longitudinal study was conducted in March and April 2020 starting the day after a strict national lockdown was decreed in Spain. A path analysis was used to test direct and indirect effects between vulnerability and the adherence to protective behaviors. Results suggest that individuals' perceived severity and vulnerability to COVID-19 and instrumental coping strategies are related to the use of more protective behaviors. This coping strategy mediates the effect of perceived vulnerability on engaging in protective behaviors, and this effect depends on direct exposure to COVID-19 and perceived self-efficacy moderators. Results suggest that recognizing one's own abilities to engage in instrumental actions may facilitate adherence to protective measures in people who had not been directly exposed to COVID-19. Therefore, adopting instrumental coping strategies to manage an individual's perceived vulnerability to infection may positively impact the adherence to protective behaviors, especially during the onset of an unexpected threat and when there is no prior direct experience with the situation. (shrink)

The certainty that natural phenomena and processes could be represented in a physical space ruled by Euclidean geometry was a fundamental epistemological assumption of theoretical creation in classical science. The possibility of a mathematical analysis of the continuum ensured an intuitive, pictorial description of mobile trajectories as studied in dynamics, as well as a precise determination of the effects generated within causal relations. These convictions and assumptions had to be reviewed when the Plank action quantum forced the development of a (...) new physics of atomic systems. Consequences, nevertheless, transcended the scope of Physics and extended to all regions of natural science, including Biology, which had to be built under the conceptual coverage of the nascent mechanics. The present work is a reflection on the philosophical problems posed by the encounter of physics of atoms and chemistry of molecules. (shrink)

La convicción de que los fenómenos y procesos naturales podían ser representados en un espacio físico regido por la geometría euclídea actuó en la ciencia clásica como supuesto epistemológico fundamental de la creación teórica. La posibilidad de un análisis matemático del continuo garantizaba, en efecto, una descripción intuitiva y pictórica de las trayectorias de los móviles estudiadas por la dinámica, así como una determinación precisa de los efectos producidos en el seno de las relaciones causales. Fueron convicciones y supuestos que (...) tuvieron que ser revisados en el momento en que el cuanto de acción de Planck obligó a desarrollar una nueva... física de los sistemas atómicos. Las consecuencias, no obstante, se dejarían sentir no sólo en el ámbito de la Física sino en todas aquellas regiones de la ciencia natural, como la Biología, que tenían que construirse bajo la cobertura conceptual de la naciente mecánica. El presente trabajo es una reflexión sobre los problemas filosóficos planteados en el encuentro entre la física del átomo y la química de las moléculas. The certainty that natural phenomena and processes could be represented in a physical space ruled by Euclidean geometry was a fundamental epistemological assumption of theoretical creation in classical science. The possibility of a mathematical analysis of the continuum ensured an intuitive, pictorial description of mobile trajectories as studied in dynamics, as well as a precise determination of the effects generated within causal relations. These convictions and assumptions had to be reviewed when the Plank action quantum forced the development of a new physics of atomic systems. Consequences, nevertheless, transcended the scope of Physics and... extended to all regions of natural science, including Biology, which had to be built under the conceptual coverage of the nascent mechanics. The present work is a reflection on the philosophical problems posed by the encounter of physics of atoms and chemistry of molecules. (shrink)

For several decades, tourism has mainly been identified as an activity that helps people escape their everyday routines, contributes to understanding between cultures, and promotes economic wellbeing. These assumptions have been questioned in both the public sphere and academic research, however. In this context, tourism research is increasingly drawing on ethical frameworks to support its criticism of tourism. Some of the most outstanding research on this issue is by Dean MacCannell, Emeritus Professor at the University of California at Davis and (...) author of one of the seminal works of the social theory of tourism: The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class (1976). MacCannell examines the moral and ethical aspects of tourism in all his writing, but they are the focal point of his book The Ethics of Sightseeing (2011), in which he identifies the tourists’ responsibility to mediate between their understanding of their own pleasure and the ethical repercussions of the late modern imperative, “Enjoy!”. During the Touriscape congress in Malaga, Spain, in February 2018, MacCannell talked about ethics and tourism with José Luis López, who prepared this interview for Recerca. (shrink)

Neuroscience research has shown that meditation practices have effects on brain structure and function. However, few studies have combined information on the effects on structure and function in the same sample. Long-term daily meditation practice produces repeated activity of specific brain networks over years of practice, which may induce lasting structural and functional connectivity changes within relevant circuits. The aim of our study was therefore to identify differences in FC during the resting state between 23 Sahaja Yoga Meditation experts and (...) 23 healthy participants without meditation experience. Seed-based FC analysis was performed departing from voxels that had shown structural differences between these same participants. The contrast of connectivity maps yielded that meditators showed increased FC between the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex but reduced FC between the left insula and the bilateral mid-cingulate as well as between the right angular gyrus and the bilateral precuneus/cuneus cortices. It thus appears that long-term meditation practice increases direct FC between ventral and dorsal frontal regions within brain networks related to attention and cognitive control and decreases FC between regions of these networks and areas of the default mode network. (shrink)

Aprender de los griegos es posible, pero solo si partimos de dos bases necesarias: la primera, que nuestro mundo es profundamente distinto al suyo; la segunda, que el pensamiento libre requiere no quedar prisionero de ningún dogma. La forma primitiva de pensar de los griegos es una escuela que nos puede ayudar a desnudar la enorme cantidad de supuestos en los que se apoya la mentalidad contemporánea.

ObjectiveThis study aimed to analyze the influence and measurement of the relationship and interaction between the elderly lifestyles after the appearance of the SARS-CoV-2 variant and the factors analyzed comprised life satisfaction levels, social relationships, and daily-life activities.MethodsThe study population was ≥ 65 in Castile-La Mancha. The research design was quantitative and arose from primary data collected via an ad hoc survey carried out through the Computer Assisted Telephone Interview system by randomly stratified sampling. The sample size was made up (...) of 1,065 cases, and the participants were selected through a random sampling stratified by gender quotas, age, province, and habitat size.ResultsThe results obtained revealed two main lifestyles, from which a notable behavioral change in personal relationships led to infer toward alternative lifestyles.ConclusionNotwithstanding the variation in lifestyles of the elderly after the pandemic, certain relationships remained unaltered. Thus, from the analyzed variables, relatives and friends relationships were scarcely influenced by the supervened incident. (shrink)

Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain syndrome characterized by dysfunctional processing of nociceptive stimulation. Neuroimaging studies have pointed out that pain-related network functioning seems to be altered in these patients. It is thought that this clinical symptomatology may be maintained or even strengthened because of an enhanced expectancy for painful stimuli or its forthcoming appearance. However, neural electrophysiological correlates associated with such attentional mechanisms have been scarcely explored. In the current study, expectancy processes of upcoming laser stimulation (painful and non-painful) and (...) its further processing were explored by event-related potentials (ERPs). Nineteen fibromyalgia patients and twenty healthy control volunteers took part in the experiment. Behavioral measures (reaction times and subjective pain perception) were also collected. We manipulated the pain/no pain expectancy through an S1–S2 paradigm (cue-target). S1 (image: triangle or square) predicted the S2 appearance (laser stimulation: warmth or pinprick sensation). Laser stimuli were delivered using a CO2 laser device. Temporal and spatial principal component analyses were employed to define and quantify the ERP component reliability. Statistical analyses revealed the existence of an abnormal pattern of pain expectancy in patients with fibromyalgia. Specifically, our results showed attenuated amplitudes at posterior lCNV component in anticipation of painful stimulation that was not found in healthy participants. In contrast, although larger P2 amplitudes to painful compared to innocuous events were shown, patients did not show any amplitude change in this laser-evoked response as a function of pain predictive cues (as occurred in the healthy control group). Additionally, analyses of the subjective perception of pain and reaction time indicated that laser stimuli preceded by pain cues were rated as more painful than those signaling non-pain expectancy and were associated with faster responses. Differences between groups were not found. The present findings suggest the presence of dysfunction in pain expectation mechanisms in fibromyalgia that eventually may make it difficult for patients to correctly interpret signs that prevent pain symptoms. Furthermore, the abnormal pattern in pain expectancy displayed by fibromyalgia patients could result in ineffective pain coping strategies. Understanding the neural correlates of pain processing and its modulatory factors is crucial to identify treatments for chronic pain syndromes. (shrink)

La presente investigación con diseño metodológico experimental, de tipo cualitativa con un aprendizaje basado en método de observación a 15 estudiantes en cada grupo, como propuesta didáctica extracurricular, realizada dentro de la asignatura de Química General del tronco común en Ingeniería, implantada en tres semestres consecutivos 2018-1, 2018-2 y 2019-1, en el Laboratorio de Química, de la Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Campus Guadalupe Victoria del Valle de Mexicali, en Baja California, México. La materia de Química General, es de carácter (...) obligatorio y está ubicado en el segundo semestre del tronco común de las ciencias de la ingeniería. (shrink)

Automatic control of physiological variables is one of the most active areas in biomedical engineering. This paper is centered in the prediction of the analgesic variables evolution in patients undergoing surgery. The proposal is based on the use of hybrid intelligent modelling methods. The study considers the Analgesia Nociception Index to assess the pain in the patient and remifentanil as intravenous analgesic. The model proposed is able to make a one-step-ahead prediction of the remifentanil dose corresponding to the current state (...) of the patient. The input information is the previous remifentanil dose, the ANI variable and the electromyogram signal. Modelling techniques used are Artificial Neural Networks and Support Vector machines for Regression combined with clustering methods. Both training and validation were done with a real dataset from different patients. Results obtained show the potential of this methodology to calculate the drug dose corresponding to a given analgesic state of the patient. (shrink)

Closed-loop administration of propofol for the control of hypnosis in anesthesia has evidenced an outperformance when comparing it with manual administration in terms of drug consumption and post-operative recovery of patients. Unlike other systems, the success of this strategy lies on the availability of a feedback variable capable of quantifying the current hypnotic state of the patient. However, the appearance of anomalies during the anesthetic process may result in inaccurate actions of the automatic controller. These anomalies may come from the (...) monitors, the syringe pumps, the actions of the surgeon or even from alterations in patients. This could produce adverse side effects that can affect the patient postoperative and reduce the safety of the patient in the operating room. Then, the use of anomaly detection techniques plays a significant role to avoid this undesirable situations. This work assesses different one-class intelligent techniques to detect anomalies in patients undergoing general anesthesia. Due to the difficulty of obtaining real data from anomaly situations, artificial outliers are generated to check the performance of each classifier. The final model presents successful performance. (shrink)

The neural basis of developmental changes in transitive reasoning in parietal regions was examined, using voxel-based morphometry. Young adolescents and adults performed a transitive reasoning task, subsequent to undergoing anatomical magnetic resonance imaging brain scans. Behaviorally, adults reasoned more accurately than did the young adolescents. Neural results showed less grey matter density in superior parietal cortex in the adults than in the young adolescents, possibly due to a developmental period of synaptic pruning; improved performance in the reasoning task was negatively (...) correlated with grey matter density in superior parietal cortex in the adolescents, but not in the adult group; and the latter results were driven by the more difficult trials, requiring greater spatial manipulation. Taken together, the results support the idea that during development, regions in superior parietal cortex are fine-tuned, to support more robust spatial manipulation, resulting in gre... (shrink)

One of the main challenges in medicine is to guarantee an appropriate drug supply according to the real needs of patients. Closed-loop strategies have been widely used to develop automatic solutions based on feedback variables. However, when the variable of interest cannot be directly measured or there is a lack of knowledge behind the process, it turns into a difficult issue to solve. In this research, a novel algorithm to approach this problem is presented. The main objective of this study (...) is to provide a new general algorithm capable of determining the influence of a certain clinical variable in the decision making process for drug supply and then defining an automatic system able to guide the process considering this information. Thus, this new technique will provide a way to validate a given physiological signal as a feedback variable for drug titration. In addition, the result of the algorithm in terms of fuzzy rules and membership functions will define a fuzzy-based decision system for the drug delivery process. The method proposed is based on a Fuzzy Inference System whose structure is obtained through a decision tree algorithm. A four-step methodology is then developed: data collection, preprocessing, Fuzzy Inference System generation, and the validation of results. To test this methodology, the analgesia control scenario was analysed. Specifically, the viability of the Analgesia Nociception Index as a guiding variable for the analgesic process during surgical interventions was studied. Real data was obtained from fifteen patients undergoing cholecystectomy surgery. (shrink)

RESUMEN El presente trabajo está dirigido a exponer elementos inherentes al modelo de superación profesional del tecnólogo de la salud en laboratorio clínico desde la integración ciencias básicas biomédicas-laboratorio. Entre los métodos teóricos empleados, el analítico-sintético permitió la determinación de los fundamentos epistemológicos y praxiológicos del proceso de superación, el inductivo-deductivo posibilitó la determinación de las categorías que surgen en el proceso investigativo, el sistémico estructural funcional para fundamentar el carácter de sistema del modelo y la modelación con la finalidad (...) de construirlo. Se concluye que se establecen como subsistemas del modelo, la proyección profesional de las ciencias básicas biomédicas, la contextualización profesional de la integración ciencias básicas biomédicas-laboratorio y la valoración contextual de la integración en el proceso de superación, lo que explica el proceso de superación del tecnólogo de la salud en laboratorio clínico. ABSTRACT This paper aims at setting out elements inherent to the health technologist in clinical laboratory’s professional training model from the integration of basic biomedical-laboratory sciences. Among the theoretical methods used, analysis-synthesis allowed establishing the epistemological and praxeological basis of the training process; the inductive-deductive method made it possible to determine the categories that result from the research process and the systemic-structural-functional method was used to support the system-like nature of the model and modelling with the end of building it. In conclusion, subsystems of the model are established: basic biomedical sciences professionals’ aims, professional conceptualization of the integration of basic biomedical-laboratory sciences and the contextual assessment of integration in the training process, which expounds the training process of the health technologist in clinical laboratory. (shrink)

El perfeccionamiento del desempeño profesional del laboratorista clínico constituye una necesidad, por lo que el objetivo de la investigación fue elaborar una estrategia para la superación profesional del tecnólogo de la salud en laboratorio clínico a partir de la integración con las ciencias básicas biomédicas. La estrategia se efectuó en la Facultad de Tecnología de la Salud de Camagüey. Su factibilidad fue valorada por expertos y la validación se llevó a cabo con un pre experimento pedagógico que se desarrolló en (...) el curso 2014- 2015. Los resultados corroboran su efectividad. The improvement in professional performance of clinical lab technicians is a continuous necessity. As such, the aim of the research was to develop a strategy for achieving improved professional development for health technologists specialized in clinical laboratory practices through integration with basic biomedical sciences. The study was conducted at the School of Health Technology in Camagüey. Its feasibility was assessed by experts and validation was performed with a pre-pedagogical experiment that developed during the 2014- 2015 academic year. Results confirm the effectiveness of the strategy as developed within the scope of the study. (shrink)

In the current digital era, the borders amongst firms are getting blurred when it comes to value creation. Therefore, the traditional configuration of the value chain is frequently replaced by other ones which include the collaborative participation of different agents. Within this context, global value chains, where the value activities are located in different countries, and industrial clusters, which combine competition and cooperation, are attracting a growing attention of both business leaders and scholars in the recent years. Through a bibliometric (...) analysis, this paper disentangles the intellectual and conceptual structure of the research topic of industrial clusters and global value chains. Results show the multidisciplinary character of the topic, including papers published in different areas, such as business, regional studies and world development, as well as its close link with aspects like innovation, regional development, governance or organization. Finally, this study remarks the research lines that could attract more attention in the immediate future. (shrink)

Aberrations introduced by the atmospheric turbulence in large telescopes are compensated using adaptive optics systems, where the use of deformable mirrors and multiple sensors relies on complex control systems. Recently, the development of larger scales of telescopes as the E-ELT or TMT has created a computational challenge due to the increasing complexity of the new adaptive optics systems. The Complex Atmospheric Reconstructor based on Machine Learning is an algorithm based on artificial neural networks, designed to compensate the atmospheric turbulence. During (...) recent years, the use of GPUs has been proved to be a great solution to speed up the learning process of neural networks, and different frameworks have been created to ease their development. The implementation of CARMEN in different Multi-GPU frameworks is presented in this paper, along with its development in a language originally developed for GPU, like CUDA. This implementation offers the best response for all the presented cases, although its advantage of using more than one GPU occurs only in large networks. (shrink)