Alberto Sols Biomedical Research Institute
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Resilience in motion: emerging perspectives on stress, substance use and youth
No full textAdolescence and young adulthood are developmental stages characterized by heightened stress sensitivity and limited cognitive control. The identification of the risk factors of alcohol consumption in these stages is crucial for early interventions focused on reducing harmful alcohol use. This review examines how exercise can modulate stress responses, reduce cravings, and preserve cognitive and emotional functioning. In animal models, it has been well described that exercise is able to reduce craving and protect cognitive and affective domains. Translational studies in young people with risky alcohol use (RAU) revealed comparable benefits. Acute aerobic exercise improved executive functions, such as verbal fluency, whereas stretching induced distinct neural oscillatory changes related to emotion regulation. These findings underscore the heterogeneous yet complementary effects of different exercise modalities, suggesting that tailored interventions may optimize outcomes. Future work will incorporate interoceptive measures to clarify the mechanisms linking stress dysregulation and RAU vulnerability, with particular attention to gender-related differences. Collectively, the evidence suggests that aerobic exercise may constitute a promising, feasible, and transdiagnostic intervention that strengthens stress-response systems, reduces craving, and fosters resilience in young people at risk of alcohol misuse, with women showing interoceptive deficits emerging as a particularly vulnerable subgroupThis study was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Health (Government Delegation for the National Plan on Drugs, code 2022I004 to P.S.-P.) and FEDER/Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the National Research Agency (AEI) (MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/FEDER, UE, code PID2022-137601OA-I00 to P.S.-P.
Are the SDGs embedded in university strategies and reporting practices? Analysing influencing factors
No full textThis article highlights the importance of embedding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into university strategic plans, evidencing that a transversal or cross-cutting policy to integrate SDGs facilitates SDG reporting. Other factors that promote SDG reporting are institutional transparency and the financial structure. The article will be of interest to managers, academics, students and other university stakeholders who may be aware that including the SDGs with a cross-cutting strategy can lead to a higher level of reporting of the SDGs and the legitimization of the entity. The results will also be of interest to regulators and governments to encourage universities to include SDGs through a cross-cutting strategy and to improve transparency in this fiel
Genomic analysis of a novel isolate Vreelandella Titanicae sp. Zn11_249 from the chaotropic environment Salar de Uyuni (Bolivia)
No full textBackground: This article describes the isolation of Vreelandella titanicae Zn11_249 from the Salar de Uyuni (Bolivia). The genome of the bacterium is described and new information about the species Vreelandella titanicae is added to the database. However, the aim is not only to present this information, but also to provide the ecological approach of the isolate to the extreme ecosystem in which it develops and genes sequences that could improve the biotechnological capacities around this strain.
Results: Vreelandella titanicae Zn11_249 was isolated from samples of a whirlpool from the Salar de Uyuni. The nucleotide sequence of the genome has been determined and analysed. The genome contains 5,575,580 bp and has a G + C content of 54.61%. This analysis identified 4,995 coding sequences, 62 tRNA genes, 1 tmRNA gene, 12 rRNA, 1 CRSPR region and 1 repeat region. Annotation of the Vreelandella titanicae Zn11_249 genome found the metabolic genes necessary for the correct functioning of the bacterium in the niche it inhabits. On the one hand, the metabolic pathways found are related to the assimilation of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulphur. The assimilation of these compounds for an adequate development of the bacteria was related to the ecological role of Vreelandella titanicae Zn11_249 to understand its possible function and importance in the Salar de Uyuni. On the other hand, sequences encoding resistance genes were identified, possibly due to the stresses the bacteria are subjected to in this ecosystem. The sequences found included heavy metal resistance genes, genes related to oxidative stress response or to osmotic stress among others.
Conclusions: The genes involved in the metabolism of Vreelandella titanicae Zn11_249 enable it to live on in the extreme conditions of Salar de Uyuni. This bacterium plays a crucial role in the biogeochemical cycles of carbon, nitrogen, and sulphur. Its metabolic adaptability allows them to thrive under high salinity and harsh conditions, making it a key player in the transformation and mobility of essential elements. Although based on a single genome, this primally study provides a solid foundational framework for future transcriptomic, proteomic, and experimental investigations into the ecological role and biotechnological potential of Vreelandella titanicae Zn11_249. The authors confirm all supporting data, code, and protocols have been provided within the article or through Supporting Information data filesThis research was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation
and University projects CGL2015-66242-R and PID2022-136607NB-I00. The
authors would like to thank the Gerencia Nacional de Recursos Evaporíticos,
COMIBOL, Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia, for facilitating the acquisition of the
sample
Análisis de los cambios en la actitud de los estudiantes frente al aprendizaje basado en la presencialidad tras el COVID-19
No full textEsta investigación analiza la evolución del proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje en la asignatura de Dirección Estratégica dentro del Grado en Administración y Dirección de Empresas. A través de un enfoque metodológico mixto que combina el análisis cuantitativo de indicadores académicos con entrevistas en profundidad a docentes y alumnos, se examina cómo la ruptura de las dinámicas de aula tradicionales ha afectado al rendimiento estudiantil. Los resultados demuestran que el éxito académico está estrechamente vinculado a la interacción dialógica y al debate derivado del uso del método del caso. Asimismo, se identifica que el debilitamiento del hábito de asistencia post-pandemia no solo ha incidido en una disminución de las calificaciones de excelencia, sino que también ha mermado la capacidad de socialización y la adquisición de competencias transversales. El estudio concluye que el diseño de una evaluación continua rigurosa y la implementación del aula invertida son factores críticos para fomentar la responsabilidad del estudiante y garantizar un aprendizaje incremental y durader
Requesting Relatives’ Consent for Intensive Care for Organ Donation: An Empirical Analysis of Spanish Transplant Coordinators’ Practices
No full textBackground. Intensive care to facilitate organ donation (ICOD) involves the initiation or continuation of intensive care for patients with devastating brain injury for donation purposes. In the Spanish system, relatives undergo an early interview to request consent for this procedure. If they consent, a waiting time is agreed upon in the expectation that death by neurological criteria occurs and donation after brain death takes place. Otherwise, relatives can decide on donation after circulatory determination of death or withdrawal of life support. This study analyzes how Spanish transplant coordinators interact with relatives in early interviews and follow-ups on potential donation pathways.
Methods. Semistructured interviews were conducted with a random stratified sample of 23 Spanish transplant coordination teams to explore strategies, practices, and perceptions of ICOD consent requests. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using content analysis.
Results. Previous coordination with other units and information retrieval regarding patient and relatives’ situations is crucial. The development of early interviews includes an introduction to the family, identification of decision makers, empathizing with relatives and offering condolences, reaffirming the fatal prognosis, explaining the possibility of donating based on the patient’s will, confirming the family’s understanding and resolving doubts, and ensuring comfort and assessing family needs.
Conclusions. Approaching families to obtain ICOD consent is a regular practice for Spanish coordination teams. It involves a highly professional and diversified set of strategies based on establishing a support relationship for relatives. Our study provides strategies that serve as a reference for obtaining ICOD consent from families in other setting
Odd-frequency pairing in josephson junctions coupled by magnetic textures
No full textJosephson junctions (JJs) coupled through magnetic textures provide a controllable platform for odd-frequency superconductivityand Majorana physics. Within a tight-binding Green function framework, induced pair correlations and spectral propertiesare analyzed under various magnetic and geometric conditions. When the junction is in the topologically trivial regime, even-frequency singlet pairing is dominant, whereas the topological phase is characterized by the coexistence of Majorana bound statesand robust odd-frequency equal-spin triplet pairing at the interface edges. The odd-frequency polarized triplets reveal a divergent1=ω behavior when the Majorana states are decoupled, which is intrinsically connected to their self-conjugation property. Thezero-frequency divergence evolves into shifted resonances and linear low-frequency behavior once hybridization occurs. A non-magnetic interruption in the texture separates the topological superconductor into two topological segments and generates addi-tional inner Majorana modes. When the nonmagnetic barrier is comparable to the inner Majorana states localization length, theyhybridize and modify their associated odd-frequency triplet pairing, while the outer edge modes preserve their self-conjugatednature. Tuning the superconducting phase difference further controls the onset of the topological regime and the stability oflocalized Majorana states. The results highlight the central role of odd-frequency triplet correlations as a probe of topologicalsuperconductivity in magnetically engineered JJsThis study was supported by Comunidad de Madrid (2019-T1/IND-14088,2023-5A/IND-28927, and 2022-T1/IND-24070), Agencia Estatal deInvestigación (PID2020-117992GA-I00, PID2024-157821NB-I00, CNS2022-135950, and PID2022-140552NA-I00), Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación(CEX2023-001316-M, CEX2024-001445-S), and Vetenskapsrådet (2021-0412
Open-Vocabulary Attention Maps with Token Optimization for Semantic Segmentation in Diffusion Models
No full textDiffusion models represent a new paradigm in text-to-image generation. Beyond generating high-quality images from text prompts, models such as Stable Diffusion have been successfully extended to the joint generation of se-mantic segmentation pseudo-masks. However, current ex-tensions primarily rely on extracting attentions linked to prompt words used for image synthesis. This approach limits the generation of segmentation masks derived from word tokens not contained in the text prompt. In this work, we introduce Open- Vocabulary Attention Maps (OVAM)-a training-free method for text-to-image diffusion models that enables the generation of attention maps for any word. In addition, we propose a lightweight optimization process based on OVAM for finding tokens that generate accurate attention maps for an object class with a single annotation. We evaluate these tokens within existing state-of-the-art Stable Diffusion extensions. The best-performing model im-proves its mIoU from 52.1 to 86.6 for the synthetic images' pseudo-masks, demonstrating that our optimized tokens are an efficient way to improve the performance of existing methods without architectural changes or retraining. The implementation is available at github.com/vpulablovamThis work has been partially supported by the SEGA-CV (TED2021-131643A-I00) and the HVD (PID2021-125051OB-I00) projects of the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion of the Spanish Government
How SAM Perceives Different mp-MRI Brain Tumor Domains?
No full text“© 2024 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works”Gliomas, among the deadliest forms of cancer, are brain tumors that present a significant challenge due to their rapid progression and resistance to treatment. Effective and early diagnosis is critical for improving patient prognosis. Deep learning, particularly through large-scale vision models like Segment Anything Model (SAM), offers a new pathway for tumor segmentation. This study seeks to address the primary challenge of adapting SAM for mpMRI brain scans, which typically encompass multiple imaging modalities not fully utilized by standard three-channel vision models. We demonstrate that leveraging all available MRI modalities achieves superior performance compared to the standard mechanism of repeating a MRI scan to fit the input embedding. Our research also focuses on parameter-efficient tuning of SAM to effectively train the model while minimizing resource usage, showcasing significant improvements when evaluated across multiple datasets. Finally, we expose how SAM perceives differences across varied brain tumor domains by visually analyzing the features extracted on each of them. Our code and models are available at github.com/vpulab/med-sam-brainGliomas, among the deadliest forms of cancer, are brain tumors that present a significant challenge due to their rapid progression and resistance to treatment. Effective and early diagnosis is critical for improving patient prognosis. Deep learning, particularly through large-scale vision models like Segment Anything Model (SAM), offers a new pathway for tumor segmentation. This study seeks to address the primary challenge of adapting SAM for mpMRI brain scans, which typically encompass multiple imaging modalities not fully utilized by standard three-channel vision models. We demonstrate that leveraging all available MRI modalities achieves superior performance compared to the standard mechanism of repeating a MRI scan to fit the input embedding. Our research also focuses on parameter-efficient tuning of SAM to effectively train the model while minimizing resource usage, showcasing significant improvements when evaluated across multiple datasets. Finally, we expose how SAM perceives differences across varied brain tumor domains by visually analyzing the features extracted on each of them. Our code and models are available at github.com/vpulab/med-sam-brai
Mercury levels and trends in fish (2011–2021): A Bayesian approach with multi-group Gaussian processes and hierarchical imputation
No full textBackground: Mercury (Hg) is a toxic metal, with fish consumption being the primary source of exposure in humans. This study aimed to describe Hg concentrations in fish species consumed in the Valencian Community (Spain) and their trends during the period 2011–2021. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted on Hg levels in fish meat between 2011 and 2021, using data from the Food Safety Monitoring Program of the Valencian Regional Government. Descriptive analyses and temporal trends were inferred for total Hg (THg) (n = 799) and methylmercury (MeHg) (n = 271) levels by fish species and f ishery origin. Gaussian processes (GPs) with a novel multi-group covariance function were applied, enabling the use of correlations across categories to improve inference on temporal trends in unbalanced groups, with species that have smaller samples borrowing information from correlated species. Results: Swordfish exhibited the highest Hg concentrations (median THg: 0.76 mg/kg; IQR: 0.47–1.17), with 30 % of samples exceeding European limit values, followed by fresh tuna (0.46 mg/kg) and canned tuna (0.22 mg/ kg). THg and MeHg levels in swordfish tended to decrease by around 0.5 mg/kg from 2011 to 2016, but then increased again to near their initial levels. Fresh and canned tuna showed decreasing trends in the first half of the study period. Data from the second half of the period were limited, except for swordfish; thus, results from this time should be interpreted with caution. Conclusions: Most fish groups showed declining trends between 2011 and 2016. Our findings on Hg levels in commercially sold fish species could be useful for guiding local fish consumption recommendationsThis work was supported by the Spanish Institute of Health Carlos III (Sara Borrell-FSE: CD21/0186) and the Spanish Ministry of Universities (Margarita Salas Grant MS21- 133; PID2023-148081NB-I00) and co- funded by the European Union (NextGeneration EU
El sector público local
No full textEste estudio se ha realizado en el marco del Proyecto I+D «Políticas y servicios públicos contra la despoblación» (PID2019-105799RB-I00), financiado por el Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, y dirigido por Francisco Velasco Caballero y Carmen Navarro Gómez; y del Proyecto LoGov (Local Government and the Changing Urban-Rural Interplay), de la convocatoria Horizon 2020, Marie Slodowska-Curie Action, European Commission, Number 82396