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Sequential physical and cognitive training disrupts cocaine-context associations via multi-level stimulation of adult hippocampal neurogenesis
Get PDFCocaine-related contextual cues are a recurrent source of craving and relapse. Extinction of cue-driven cocaine seeking remains a clinical challenge, and the search for adjuvants is ongoing. In this regard, combining physical and cognitive training is emerging as a promising strategy that has shown synergistic benefits on brain structure and function, including enhancement of adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AHN), which has been recently linked to reduced maintenance of maladaptive drug seeking. Here, we examined whether this behavioral approach disrupts cocaine-context associations via improved AHN. To this aim, C57BL/6J mice (N = 37) developed a cocaine-induced conditioned place preference (CPP) and underwent interventions consisting of exercise and/or spatial working memory training. Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) was administered during early running sessions to tag a subset of new dentate granule cells (DGCs) reaching a critical window of survival during spatial learning. Once these DGCs became functionally mature (∼ 6 weeks-old), mice received extinction training before testing CPP extinction and reinstatement. We found that single and combined treatments accelerated CPP extinction and prevented reinstatement induced by a low cocaine priming (2 mg/kg). Remarkably, the dual-intervention mice showed a significant decrease of CPP after extinction relative to untreated animals. Moreover, combining the two strategies led to increased number and functional integration of BrdU+ DGCs, which in turn maximized the effect of spatial training (but not exercise) to reduce CPP persistence. Together, our findings suggests that sequencing physical and cognitive training may redound to decreased maintenance of cocaine-context associations, with multi-level stimulation of AHN as a potential underlying mechanism.Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga / CBU
High-order well-balanced methods for the Euler equations of gas dynamics with gravitational forces and the Ripa model
Get PDFDifferent well-balanced high-order finite-volume numerical methods for the one-dimensional compressible Euler equations of gas dynamics with gravitational force and for the Ripa model have been proposed in the literature. Most of them preserve either a given family of hydrostatic stationary solutions exactly or all of them approximately. The goal of this paper is to design a general methodology to obtain high-order finite-volume numerical methods for a class of one-dimensional hyperbolic systems of balance laws that preserve approximately all the hydrostatic equilibria and exactly a given family of them. Many fluid models for which the velocity is an eigenvalue of the system belong to this class, the Euler equations and the Ripa model among them. The methods proposed here are based on the design of well-balanced reconstruction operators that require the exact or the approximate computation of local hydrostatic equilibria. To check the efficiency and the well-balancedness of the methods, a number of numerical tests have been performed: the numerical results confirm the theoretical ones.Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga/CBUA.
This research has been partially supported by Spanish projects RTI2018-096064-B-C1 and PID2022-137637NB-C21 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and FSE+. I. Gómez-Bueno was also supported by a Grant from “El Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades”, Spain (FPU2019/01541) funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/ 501100011033 and “ESF Investing in your future”
Automatic Analysis of Ultrasound Images to Estimate Subcutaneous and Visceral Fat and Muscle Tissue in Patients with Suspected Malnutrition.
Get PDFBackground: Malnutrition is a prevalent condition associated with adverse
health outcomes, requiring the accurate assessment of muscle composition and fat distribution.
Methods: This study presents a novel method for the automatic analysis of
ultrasound images to estimate subcutaneous and visceral fat, as well as muscle, in patients
with suspected malnutrition. The proposed system utilizes computer vision techniques to
segment regions of interest (ROIs), calculate relevant variables, and store data for clinical
evaluation. Unlike traditional segmentation methods that rely solely on thresholding or
pre-defined masks, our method employs an iterative hierarchical approach to refine contour
detection and improve localization accuracy. A dataset of abdominal and leg ultrasound
images, captured in both longitudinal and transversal planes, was analyzed.
Results: Results showed higher precision for longitudinal scans compared to transversal scans,
particularly for length-related variables, with the Y-axis Vastus intermediate achieving a
precision of 92.87%. However, area-based measurements demonstrated lower precision
due to differences between manual adjustments by experts and automatic geometric approximations.
Conclusions: These findings highlight the system’s potential for clinical use
while emphasizing the need for further algorithmic refinements to improve precision in
area calculations
A Lightweight Mechanism for Dynamic Secret Sharing of Private Data by Constrained Devices
Get PDFOutsourced computations are essential for IoT devices, but they can raise privacy issues. Privacy-preserving technologies, such as Secure Multi-Party Computation, can be used to delegate computations on private data from multiple devices while disclosing nothing but the output, but they may come at a prohibitive cost. In particular, Secret Sharing-based Secure Multi-Party Computation requires the device to establish n independent confidential channels for each shared message, one channel per holder. This work proposes a new approach for IoT devices to secretly share private data with a committee of holders by broadcasting a single ciphertext. A straightforward solution is Homomorphic Encryption with Decryption to Shares from Chillotti et al., 2022, but it requires Fully Homomorphic Encryption and is not dynamic. Additionally, we propose Oblivious Sharing Re-Encryption, which is a new family of protocols that achieve this lightweight private data sharing without requiring Fully Homomorphic Encryption, and which is also more dynamic. We provide a concrete implementation based on NTRU encryption, together with a security proof and performance analysis. The analysis shows that OSRE outperforms the standard setting with n confidential channels when the device sends more than one message.Funding for open access publishing: Universidad de Málaga/CBUA
Autoevaluación Inicial para alumnado de las asignaturas de Antropología de la Alimentación y de Etnogastronomía del Grado de Ciencias Gastronómicas y Gestión Hotelera.
Get PDFAutoevaluación Inicial para alumnado de las asignaturas de Antropología de la Alimentación y de Etnogastronomí
Estrategias discursivas y comunicacionales de startups en redes sociales.
Get PDFLas redes sociales se han transformado en instrumentos clave para que las startups destaquen en entornos altamente competitivos. Este estudio examina las estrategias de comunicación digital empleadas por 181 startups andaluzas con el objetivo de identificar tanto patrones efectivos como posibles áreas de mejora en su uso de estas plataformas.
A través de la herramienta de análisis Fanpage Karma, se recopilaron datos a lo largo de seis meses durante el año 2024. Entre los aspectos evaluados se incluyen el nivel de engagement, la regularidad en las publicaciones, la interacción con los usuarios y la eficacia de los distintos formatos de contenido.
Los resultados del análisis permiten identificar tendencias en el uso de contenidos visuales y textuales, la consistencia en la línea comunicativa y las tácticas empleadas para fomentar la participación del público. Esta información resulta especialmente valiosa para investigadores y emprendedores que deseen optimizar su presencia e impacto en redes sociales.MCIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/FEDER,UE (Proyectos de Generación de Conocimiento 2022). Número de proyecto: PID2022-139037OB-I00 (Gestión de la comunicación en startups lideradas por mujeres. Estrategias competitivas para la diferenciación y la innovació
Cluster sets and traditional sets elicit similar muscular hypertrophy: a volume and effort‑matched study in resistance‑trained individuals
Get PDFBackground and Objective Previous studies examining the effects of cluster sets (CS) compared to traditional sets (TS)
protocols on muscle hypertrophy have primarily equated to volume load. This inevitably has resulted in a lower number of
repetitions performed in TS compared to CS, thereby leading to a suboptimal hypertrophic stimulus. The present study aimed
to compare the impact of CS and TS protocols, both performed with the same number of sets and repetitions, but with loads
adjusted to the same range of repetitions in reserve (RIR) on muscle hypertrophy.
Methods Ten resistance-trained volunteers (7 men and 3 women, 21.0 ± 1.5 years, 64.3 ± 6.9 kg, and 169.3 ± 6.2 cm) partici-
pated in this study. Participants performed two training protocols over an 8-week period, with two weekly sessions consisting
of 5 sets of 12 repetitions of the leg press and leg extension exercises. The study employed a within-participant, unilateral
design where one limb performed a TS protocol and the contralateral limb performed 3 clusters of 4 repetitions with a 20-s
intra-set rest period of the same exercises (CS). Muscle thickness was assessed via ultrasound and thigh lean tissue mass
was assessed by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry pre- and post-study.
Results Results showed similar increases in muscle thickness (p < 0.001, ES = 0.56, and p = 0.012, ES = 0.42, respectively)
and lean tissue mass (p = 0.002, ES = 0.11, and p < 0.001, ES = 0.13, respectively) in both CS and TS conditions.
Conclusion In conclusion, when sets, repetitions, and load adjustments were equalized based on RIR, a CS protocol elicits
similar increases in muscle thickness and lean mass compared to a TS protocolFunding Funding for open access publishing: Universidad de Málaga/ CBUA
Acknowledgements Supported by Universidad de Málaga (Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech). M.M. is supported
by Miguel Servet II program (CPII22-00013) and by the project "PI19/00507" by Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) and co-funded
by the European Union. Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga / CBUA. The research protocol was approved by the Ethics
Committee of the University of Malaga (code: 38-2019-H
De maridos, políticos y cuernos: versatilidad de un tópico literario en Plutarco.
Get PDFEl tema del cornudo consentido o consentidor es un tópico recurrente en la literatura occidental de todas las épocas. Se refiere a la figura del marido que es consciente de la infidelidad de su mujer y la acepta o incluso la propicia. El tipo social que refleja este tópico, sobre todo en su variante del leno maritus que fomenta las infidelidades de su esposa con vistas a obtener algún beneficio por parte de los amantes de esta, fue criticado a menudo por el teatro y la poesía de Grecia y Roma (a veces asociándolo a la metáfora del Cuerno de la abundancia aplicado a la mujer adúltera con respecto a su marido consentidor), y debió ser bastante real y estar relativamente extendido, pues algunas leyes romanas, al menos desde la época augústea, proscribieron dicha práctica al entenderla como una perniciosa prostitución encubierta. En la obra de Plutarco se detecta el uso de este tópico al menos en cuatro ocasiones, como veremos, y en dos de ellas se relaciona con personajes romanos de alta relevancia política. Nuestro trabajo consistirá en analizar esos pasajes y resaltar cómo el Queronense explota el tópico (y su metáfora asociada) no solo para la crítica social, como se empleaba originalmente en la comedia y el epigrama, sino también para la crítica literaria y filosófica.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech
Expressive movement & creative danza practice effects on health parameters on high school students in the physical education context
No full textLa Expresión Corporal (EC) es una disciplina en la que la persona utiliza su cuerpo de forma consciente para crear, expresar, y comunicar su mundo interior (Lara-Aparicio et al., 2019b). Diversas revisiones sistemáticas y metaanálisis muestran que la práctica de la EC se asocia a beneficios en la salud (Fong-Yan et al., 2018). Debido a ello, la EC es un contenido presente en el currículo de la Educación Física (EF) escolar en la mayoría de países, y es considerada importante por parte del profesorado (Hardman et al., 2014). Sin embargo, la EF suele presentar un sesgo en su programación (Rojo-Ramos et al., 2023). Numerosos estudios revelan que,
generalmente, el profesorado considera la EC difícil de enseñar por no sentirse lo suficientemente formados al
respecto (Conesa & Angosto, 2017). Este hecho limita el potencial de la EC y de la EF (Milgram, 2003). Hecho de gran relevancia debido a que, la inactividad física, donde la población adolescente es la más vulnerable, es uno de los desafíos sanitarios y socioeconómicos más importantes a nivel mundial (Guthold et al., 2020). Por tanto, el objetivo general de la presente Tesis Doctoral fue examinar el efecto de programas de EC, desarrollados en el contexto de la EF escolar, en diferentes parámetros de salud física, cognitiva, y social de estudiantes de Educación Secundaria. Dicho objetivo general se compuso de ocho objetivos específicos independientes.
Mediante un análisis bibliométrico en la base de datos Web of ScienceTM, se buscó esclarecer el entramado terminológico respecto a los términos utilizados en inglés para referirse a la EC como disciplina, y se examinó la evolución de la investigación sobre EC en el contexto de la EF. Los resultados mostraron la necesidad de llegar a un consenso sobre la terminología utilizada en inglés, recomendándose utilizar la combinación de dos o más términos de los analizados a la hora de publicar un nuevo documento
Influence of CO2 presence on propane conversion routes over Cr- and Ga-doped PtCe/Al2O3 catalysts
Get PDFA set of catalysts containing Cr- or Ga-doped Pt-CeO2 supported on alumina (PCA, Cr-PCA and Ga-PCA) were synthesized by incipient wetness impregnation and tested in propane conversion processes. The catalysts were studied in the propane conversion process with or without CO2 in the feed. In all cases, an enhancement in stability was found when CO2 was present in the reaction medium despite the lower catalytic activity. As well, all catalysts presented a higher propylene selectivity in the absence of CO2, indicating that the direct dehydrogenation of propane is the main reaction route. Moreover, CO2-assisted propane cracking to ethylene is favoured over propane reforming or direct cracking, given the minimal selectivity to other products like methane. With regards to the catalyst composition, Cr-PCA catalyst was the most active catalyst both in the absence and presence of CO2, due to the presence of weak acidity and coexistence of Cr3 + and Cr6+ redox species, as evidenced by XPS analysis. Ga-PCA catalyst was more selective to propylene, indicating that higher acidity of weak-to-medium nature along with formation of low coordinated Ga3+ species is beneficial for the CO2-ODH process. Raman, DTG and XPS analyses after reaction with CO2 showed that the deactivation of the catalysts was mainly due to carbon deposits of amorphous and graphitic nature on the surface of the catalysts.Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga / CBU