Alberto Sols Biomedical Research Institute
Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAMNot a member yet
65432 research outputs found
Sort by
A new tool to quantify biodiversity change under landscape transformation
Get PDFIdentifying how species richness or diversity changes with different proportions of natural and anthropized environments in the landscape is important for landscape management for conservation. Here, we propose a new method to assess biodiversity changes in landscapes with varying proportions of habitat types. The algorithm is based on the resampling of individuals recorded in different habitats considering both the proportion occupied by each habitat in the landscape and the number of individuals recorded in each habitat. The diversity is assessed based on the sampled individuals. If a functional/phylogenetic tree or distance matrix is provided, the function returns the functional or phylogenetic richness values. This procedure is replicated a number of times with different proportions of each of the habitats in the landscape. Our method copes with two or more habitat types in the landscape and works with taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversities. We tested our method using 10 different simulated scenarios and one empirical dataset with bats (Chiroptera) to assess whether they behaved as expected. Our method performed as expected in all scenarios and in the empirical dataset (considering also the functional and phylogenetic diversities in this latter case). The possibility of working with more than two habitat types and with different dimensions of diversity (i.e., functional and phylogenetic diversity) is a major advantage of the new method. We show that this is a valuable tool to assess biodiversity changes in the context of landscape planning, helping to promote more sustainable landscapes often composed of multiple habitat types with mixed biodiversity compositio
Digital trans-pacific silk road and phases of China-Latin American connectivity: From silver to AI
No full textThis is an Accepted Manuscript version of the following article, accepted for publication in The Chinese Economy. Fung, K. C., Lin, Yue; Xia, Le. “Digital trans-pacific silk road and phases of China-Latin American connectivity: From silver to AI”. The Chinese Economy 57.4 (2024): 340-358. It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly citedIn this paper, we aim to document and analyze the long arc of connectivity between China and Latin America. First, using analytical international trade and economic tools, we provide a new economic perspective of the First Globalization–-the Ming and early Qing China’s economic and business links with Latin America and Europe. Second, due to U.S. government trade policies toward China in the 1990s, the Second China’s Globalization was ushered in with its entry to the World Trade Organization (WTO). During this second phase, China exchanged manufactured goods with minerals and resources from Latin America. Finally, the tough technology and trade stance by the Trump and Biden Administrations prompted China to intensify the third phase of China interaction with Latin America. For the 2020s and beyond, one important pillar of the Third China-Latin America-Europe Globalization is heightened efforts for China to increase its digital-AI, telecommunication and platform business presence and access into the Latin American markets. To enrich our analysis, we will provide Chinese-style digital-AI business and economic models to help illustrate our discussions. Throughout our paper, we want to point out that government policies were instrumental in bringing forth these Three Globalizations that involve China-Latin America-Europ
Enhancing navigation and obstacle avoidance with a vibrotactile device as secondary electronic travel aid
Get PDFPeople with visual impairments commonly rely on the use of a white cane to navigate and avoid obstacles. Although this analog tool is highly reliable and easy to use, its drawback is the impossibility to anticipate obstacles beyond reach and routes, as well as obstacles above waist level. Electronic travel aids (ETAs) and sensory substitution devices (SSDs) are new technological solutions designed to enhance the tactile and/or auditory capabilities to access the information needed to overcome those drawbacks. In the present study, 25 individuals with visual impairments used the T-Sight, a vibrotactile SSD, and/or the white cane in a navigation task involving obstacle avoidance. While the performance achieved with the device, measured by the number of collisions and walking speed, did not surpass the white cane, the SSD did have a positive impact on ambulation. Participants reduced the number of white cane touches towards environmental obstacles and performed obstacle avoidance maneuvers earlier. These results demonstrate the potential of vibrotactile devices to address the limitations of the white caneThis work was supported by the ONCE under Grant “Análisis postural y Orientación especial en estudiantes de fisioterapia con discapacidad visual,” awarded to Juan Antonio Huertas; INDRA under Grant project SSD-MOVE awarded to Jorge Ibáñez-Gijón; and FPI-UAM under Grant PSI2013-43742-P awarded to Carlos de Paz, under the supervision of David Travies
Editorial: Students as agents of school change for inclusive education: international approaches and methodological pluralism
No full textControversy in the initial nodal staging of rectal cancer (MRI or PET/CT?)
No full textObjective: To compare the usefulness of MRI and PET/CT in nodal staging (N) of patients with locally
advanced rectal cancer (LARC).
Material and methods: Retrospective study of patients with LARC, who completed their initial staging with PET/CT, between January-20 and March-23. Regional nodes were assessed, and N was determined using both techniques according to TNM criteria. Concordance between MRI and PET/CT was analyzed. The accuracy of both techniques was calculated for those patients who underwent direct surgery. Nonregional pelvic lymph nodes were evaluated by both modalities.
Results: Among the 73 patients, 48 were ultimately diagnosed with a locally advanced stage. Of these, 39
underwent neoadjuvant treatment (chemoradiotherapy) followed by surgery, and 9 direct surgery. In 25,
the PET/CT extension study revealed distant disease, leading to systemic treatment. Weak concordance
was observed between MRI and PET/CT in determining N (k = 0.286; p < 0.005). Out of 73 patients, 31(42%) exhibited concordance, and 42(58%) showed discordance. In 83% of the discordant cases, MRI overstaged comparedto PET/CT, with17 cases indicatingnodalinvolvement(N+) byMRI andN0 by PET/CT. Diagnostic accuracy was 78% for both techniques. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were 80%, 75%, 80%, and 75% for MRI, and 60%, 100%, 100%, and 67%, for PET/CT. PET/CT identified pelvic metastatic adenopathies in 8 patients that were not visible/doubtful by MRI.
Conclusions: In the initial nodal staging of rectal cancer MRI overstages relative to PET/CT. Both modalities are complementary, PET/CT offers higher specificity and MRI higher sensitivit
Implicaciones de la regulación de la Unión Europea en los sistemas de supervisión de la profesión de auditoría
Get PDFAudit oversight plays a crucial role in ensuring audit quality. Despite recent progress in strengthening public audit oversight systems in Europe, in this paper we address the issues where little harmonisation has been achieved. Based on the content of the European Directives, we show how significant differences still exist and affect the EU system of public audit oversight. We examine the supervisory and disciplinary functions, organisational structure, funding and transparency mechanisms of the main public oversight bodies in the EU, Australia, the UK and the EEUU. The analysis suggests that despite the common framework set out in EU directives and regulations, the current system of public oversight in Europe is still far from achieving a reasonable degree of harmonisation, which hampers the effectiveness of audit oversight bodies. We contribute by providing an institutional framework that allows to identify the impact of the most adopted features on the independence and competence of each oversight bodyLa supervisión de las auditorías desempeña un papel crucial a la hora de garantizar su calidad. A pesar de los últimos avances para reforzar los sistemas de supervisión de la auditoría pública en Europa, en este artículo abordamos las cuestiones en las que la armonización solo se ha logrado ligeramente. Basándonos en el contenido de las directivas europeas, mostramos cómo siguen surgiendo diferencias significativas que perjudican al sistema de supervisión de la auditoría pública de la UE. En él se estudian las obligaciones de supervisión y disciplina, la estructura organizativa, la financiación y los mecanismos de transparencia de los organismos públicos de supervisión más relevantes de la UE, Australia, el Reino Unido y EE. UU. El análisis sugiere que, a pesar del marco común establecido en las directivas y reglamentos de la UE, el actual sistema de supervisión pública en Europa está aún lejos de alcanzar un grado razonable de armonización, lo que dificulta la eficacia de los órganos de supervisión fiscal. Contribuimos a ello proporcionando un marco institucional que permite identificar el impacto de las características más adoptadas sobre la independencia y la competencia de cada órgano de supervisiónWe acknowledge the financial contribution of ASEPUC and ICAC, within the 2020 annual agreement to fund researchprojects, the Cátedra UAM-Auditores Madrid and the Madrid Government (within the framework of the multi-year agree-ment with the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid on Line 3:Excellence for University Staff - PRICIT
Is death included in international education guidelines? Towards education for a more conscious life
No full textThe awareness of death and finitude define an educational field that is crucial yet absent from national curricula. Here we enquire into its presence in the guidelines of the international bodies that are most influential in educational and curricular change: Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the World Bank. The objective was to determine whether death was included in the educational guidelines of these bodies in recent years. The study design was documentary, with analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data. We explored the presence of 24 chosen terms in documents having an influence on objectives and proposals for educational change and development. Our results showed that in the documents studied there were no educational guidelines or approaches that included death. We may conclude, then, that the pedagogical approaches of these organisations do not address the need for education for a more conscious life, embracing the educational dimension of deathThis work was supported by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) (Spain) and the EuropeanRegional Development Fund (FEDER) under Grant EDU2017-85296-
Pseudo-Symeon on the beginning of history: Christian commentary as a source for Byzantine historiography
Get PDFThe historiographical work attributed to the Pseudo-Symeon, preserved in a single manuscript (Parisinus Gr. 1712) has hardly been the subject of independent study in recent decades and has only been edited in its final part (from 813 to 963). Although the work of Symeon Logothetes, which is partially preserved in Par. Gr. 1712, is its main source for the account of the edited part of the text, many questions about the sources of the Pseudo-Symeon and its relation to the work of the Logothetes remain unanswered. This article provides a transcription of ff. 18v-23v of Par. Gr. 1712 and analyses this early part of the Pseudo-Symeon’s account with the aim of strengthening the characterisation of his work as an independent work and clarifying the nature of his sources and method of composition, based on compilatory sources belonging to the genre of biblical commentar
Cross-sectional and prospective associations of sleep, sedentary and active behaviors with mental health in older people: a compositional data analysis from the Seniors-ENRICA-2 study
Get PDFBackground Most studies on the effects of sleep, sedentary behavior (SB), and physical activity (PA) on mental health did not account for the intrinsically compositional nature of the time spent in several behaviors. Thus, we examined the cross-sectional and prospective associations of device-measured compositional time in sleep, SB, light PA (LPA) and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) with depression symptoms, loneliness, happiness, and global mental health in older people (>= 65 years). Methods Data were taken from the Seniors-ENRICA-2 study, with assessments in 2015-2017 (wave 0) and 2018-2019 (wave 1). Time spent in sleep, SB, LPA and MVPA was assessed by wrist-worn accelerometers. Depression symptoms, loneliness, happiness, and global mental health were self-reported using validated questionnaires. Analyses were performed using a compositional data analysis (CoDA) paradigm and adjusted for potential confounders. Results In cross-sectional analyses at wave 0 (n = 2489), time-use composition as a whole was associated with depression and happiness (all p < 0.01). The time spent in MVPA relative to other behaviors was beneficially associated with depression (gamma = -0.397, p < 0.001), loneliness (gamma = -0.124, p = 0.017) and happiness (gamma = 0.243, p < 0.001). Hypothetically, replacing 30-min of Sleep, SB or LPA with MVPA was beneficially cross-sectionally related with depression (effect size [ES] ranged -0.326 to -0.246), loneliness (ES ranged -0.118 to -0.073), and happiness (ES ranged 0.152 to 0.172). In prospective analyses (n = 1679), MVPA relative to other behaviors at baseline, was associated with favorable changes in global mental health (gamma = 0.892, p = 0.049). We observed a beneficial prospective effect on global mental health when 30-min of sleep (ES = 0.521), SB (ES = 0.479) or LPA (ES = 0.755) were theoretically replaced for MVPA. Conclusions MVPA was cross-sectionally related with reduced depression symptoms and loneliness and elevated level of happiness, and prospectively related with enhanced global mental health. Compositional isotemporal analyses showed that hypothetically replacing sleep, SB or LPA with MVPA could result in modest but significantly improvements on mental health indicators. Our findings add evidence to the emerging body of research on 24-h time-use and health using CoDA and suggest an integrated role of daily behaviors on mental health in older peopleThis work was supported by FIS grants 16/609 and 19/319 (State Secretary of R+D+I and FEDER/FSE), MINECO R+D+I grant (DEP201347786R), the SALAMANDER project (PCIN 2016–145), Biomedical Research Networking Center on Frailty and Healthy Aging (CIBERFES) and FEDER funds from the European Union (CB16/10/00477). VCS is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (IJC2018038008I). IEC is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (RTI2018095284J100). DMG is supported by a’Ramon y Cajal’ contract (RYC2016–20546). The funders played no role in the study design, the data collection or analysis, the decision to publish, or the preparation of the manuscrip