Background: Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is a multidimensional chronic disorder characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, sleep disturbances, cognitive dysfunction, depressive episodes, and anxiety [1]. Management of FMS remains challenging and treatment strategies are required to be multidisciplinary. Among nonpharmacological therapies, nutrition is a promising tool, since oxidative stress and/or an imbalance of nutritional components have demonstrated to play a critical role in the pathophysiology of FMS [2,3]. Objectives: We conducted a pilot study (FATMIA Study) to investigate the efficacy and tolerability of a dietary supplementation (NSC) containing coenzyme Q10, magnesium and tryptophan in FMS patients. Methods: This was a prospective, double-blind, placebo-controlled, two-period pilot study conducted between March 2017-October 2017. All patients underwent two 3-month treatments with NSC and placebo, with a 1-month washout period in between. To evaluate the most prevalent clinical manifestations of FMS, the Combined Index of Severity of Fibromyalgia questionnaire (ICAF) [4] was used. A sample of 23 patients aged from 18 to 80 years, with a formal diagnosis of fibromyalgia of at least two years, was included in the study. Results: Twenty patients completed the study, while three (13.0%) dropped out because they failed to attend all clinical visits (n=2) or presented an adverse event (n=1). Participant demographics are presented in Table 1. All participants were female with a mean age of 51.9 (7.2) years. Depression and anxiety were reported in 65.0% (13/20) and 30.0% (6/20) of cases, respectively. All patients were under pharmacological treatment for FMS symptoms. The most commonly reported medications were paracetamol (60.0%, 12/20), selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (45.0%, 9/20), and tramadol (40.0%, 8/20). Physical symptoms such as fatigue, functional capacity, pain and sleep quality improved at the end of the study treatment, whereas they mainly declined after placebo treatment. However, no statistically significant differences were found among the studied variables. Total ICAF score improved after NSC treatment, and declined after placebo treatment. NSC treatment was well tolerated, with a low incidence of adverse events (5.0%, 1/20). Table 1. Patient demographics Parameter Value Age, years [mean (SD] 51.9 (7.2) Sex (F/M) 20/0 Weight, kg [mean (SD] 69.3 (13.1) Height, cm [mean (SD] 160.4 (6.5) Years since first FMS diagnosis [mean (SD)] 7.7 (6.3) Occupational status, n (%) Working full-time/part-time 10 (50.0) At home 3 (15.0) Not working/receiving pension 5 (25.0) Retired or unemployed 2 (10.0) Smoking patients, n (%) 8 (40.0) Patients on alcohol consumption, n (%) 0 (0.0) Patients on physical activity, n (%) 2 (10.0) F/M: female/male Conclusion: The results of this study constitute the first investigation of the effect of a nutritional supplement containing CoQ10, magnesium and tryptophan on FMS. Although the results should be confirmed in larger studies, they suggest that NSC treatment for 3 months, in addition to pharmacological therapy, may be of interest in the management of FMS. This treatment appeared to primarily improve physical symptoms, such as fatigue and pain, with low risk of adverse events. References: [1]Macfarlane GJ, Kronisch C, Dean L, Atzeni F, Häuser W, Fluss E. EULAR revised recommendations for the management of fibromyalgia. Ann Rheum Dis. 2016;76:1–11. [2]Cordero MD. Estrés oxidativo en la fibromialgia: fisiopatología e implicaciones clínicas. Reumatol Clin. 2011;7:281-3. [3]Bjørklund G, Dadar M, Chirumbolo S, Aaseth J. Fibromyalgia and nutrition: Therapeutic possibilities? Biomed Pharmacother. 2018;103:531-538. [4]Vallejo MA, Rivera J, Esteve-Vives J. ICAF Group. Development of a self-reporting tool to obtain a Combined Index of Severity of Fibromyalgia (ICAF). Health Qual Life Outcomes. 2010;8:2. Disclosure of Interests: None declared

Introduction - In the subtropics, pineapple [Anonas comosus (L.) Merr.] can be grown in plastic green-houses to avoid low temperature, which is the main limiting factor to production outside of the tropics. Foliar water application and subsequent evaporative cooling can help avoid excessive leaf temperatures in greenhouses during the hot seasons. The effects of foliar versus soil irrigation on ecophysiology, leaf anatomy and leaf temperature of pineapple in protected culture were tested to determine if the crop could receive sufficient irrigation to avoid plant stress solely from misting the foliage. Materials and methods - Relative water content, relative chlorophyll content, normalized difference vegetation index, membrane stability, and cross sectional leaf anatomy were measured at periodic intervals. Pineapple plants were subjected to soil irrigation, misting and drought. At the beginning and at the end of the experiment, total leaf area, plant biomass and assimilate partitioning to leaves, stems and roots were measured. Results and discussion - The normalized difference vegetation index revealed differences among treatments after fifteen days without irrigation. Pineapple plants endured thirty days of water stress without membrane damage. Plants irrigated by applying water only to the leaves did not receive adequate water amounts and showed similar signs of drought stress as those of the non-irrigated treatment. Conclusion - Based on ecophysiological, anatomical and growth responses, soil water application alone is sufficient for avoiding water stress and excessively high leaf temperatures of pineapple plants grown in protected culture in the subtropics, whereas only misting the leaves does not provide adequate water supply to prevent water stress.

In this work, synthesis of copper/reduced graphene oxide composites to increase the electrical conductivity of copper matrix has been carried out. Pure copper particles were mixed with 0.28 wt%, 1.1 wt% and 2.5 wt% graphene oxide (GO) contents. Different reduction methods were chosen to synthetize the Cu/rGO composite material: chemical reduction with hydrazine, thermal treatment at 815 degrees C in argon atmosphere. Characterization of the Cu/rGO composite disks was carried out by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. Vickers Hardness and the electrical conductivity measured by Van der Pauw method of the Cu/rGO composites were analyzed. All the Cu/rGO disks showed lower hardness values than the Cu matrix. Microstructure of Cu/rGO composites is dominated by the presence of pores where GO agglomerates are accumulated and whose distribution and magnitude depends on the weight percentage of GO and the reduction process. Porosity percentage and pore size of Cu/rGO disks increase with GO content. Combination of chemical reduction with thermal treatment provides the most homogeneous microstructures with the smallest pore size and porosity percentage. Combination of both reduction treatments promotes more pathways for carrier transport within the reduced graphene oxide network structure, expanding areas of long-range conjugated structures and, consequently, increasing the electrical conductivity in the rGO/copper composites. Our research evidences that the Cu/rGO composites after chemical and thermal reduction increases the electrical conductivity, independently on the GO content, with respect to the pure copper matrix. (C) 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Rationale: Muscle strength (Ms) is associated with sarcopenia, function, and ultimately, with frailty. The objetive of this study is to describe dietary factors -food groups (FG), nutrients (N) and energy (E)- related to Ms in a sample of elderly patients with metabolic syndrome before starting a nutritional intervention.

Little is known about the community structure of bacteria in the rhizosphere of canola during growth. This study was conducted to characterize the community structure of soil bacteria in relation to soluble-C dynamics in a Podzol during the growth of canola. Next generation sequencing of 16S rDNA characterized the main bacterial communities in a Podzol that was unplanted (soil alone), and planted to canola (Brassica napus) with and without N-fertilizer addition. PERMANOVA and ANOVA analysis showed that the number of operational taxonomic units and the relative abundance of bacteria were higher in canola rhizosphere than in soil alone for phyla, classes, orders and families. In soil alone and at the family level, communities of Acidobacteriaceae, Micrococcaceae, Nocardioidaceae, Intrasporangiaceae and Nitrosomonadaceae had the highest relative abundances (sequence reads ranged from 1,000 to 3,000). In the rhizosphere, communities of Sphingomonadaceae, Bacillaceae, Gaiellaceae, Micrococcaceae and Intrasporangiaceae presented the highest relative abundance (sequence reads ranged from ~8,000 to 23,000). The addition of N-fertilizer increased the relative abundance of bacteria in 5 families, decreased those in 39 and did not affect the communities in 56 other families. A two-way ANOVA showed that management, inclusive of canola and N-fertilizer, had the largest (87%) effect on the total relative abundance of soil bacteria and soluble-C content. Polynomial regression models of second order showed a close relation between the relative abundance of bacteria and soluble-C content during crop growth. We suggest that diffusional constraints depleted soluble-C in the vicinity of microbial communities to a growth limiting concentration more frequently in the soil alone than in canola rhizosphere.

A mixture of nickel (Ni) and silicon carbide (SiC) powder with increasing Ni content (30%, 50%, 70% and 80%) was processed with a planetary mill to obtain a composite material capable of reducing wear and corrosion by thermal spraying. The obtained material was analyzed using scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM/EDS) to determine its morphology, particle size and elemental composition. Additionally, X-ray diffraction (XRD) was employed for crystallographic analysis, and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were used to determine whether new phases were formed during the milling process. It was found that samples with a high nickel percentage (i.e., 70% and 80%) possessed spherical particle morphology, which is ideal for improving the fluidity of the material for use in thermal spraying.

Fundamento : la tarea docente constituye la celula fundamental del proceso docente educativo, por lo que su confeccion y utilizacion constituyen premisas para el buen desempeno escolar. Objetivo : determinar el estado actual de la preparacion metodologica del profesor para desarrollar tareas docentes integradoras en la disciplina Morfofisiologia. Metodos: se realizo una investigacion descriptiva transversal, la poblacion de estudio estuvo conformada por los profesores que imparten la disciplina Morfofisiologia en el area sur de la Universidad de Ciencias Medicas de Ciego de Avila. Se aplicaron metodos teoricos: historico-logico, analitico-sintetico e inductivo-deductivo; empiricos: analisis documental, observacion a clases y encuesta en forma de cuestionario a docentes y de entrevista a informantes clave. Resultados: la tarea docente integradora no ha constituido un elemento de prioridad en la preparacion del profesor, algunos no tienen en cuenta el algoritmo a seguir durante sus etapas de diseno, orientacion, ejecucion y control; existe insuficiente continuidad de temas afines y algunas insuficiencias en el dominio de contenidos, sobre todo de aquellos que no se relacionan directamente con las especialidades de los docentes. Conclusiones: las limitaciones identificadas para el desarrollo de tareas docentes afectan la integracion que deben tener las asignaturas dentro de la propia disciplina Morfofisiologia y con la disciplina rectora Medicina General Integral, para lograr un enfoque interdisciplinario en la formacion del estudiante de las ciencias medicas.

Any (measurable) function K from ℝ^n to ℝ defines an operator 𝐊 acting on random variables X by 𝐊(X)=K(X_1, …, X_n), where the X_j are independent copies of X. The main result of this paper concerns selectors H, continuous functions defined in ℝ^n and such that H(x_1, x_2, …, x_n) ∈{x_1,x_2, …, x_n}. For each such selector H (except for projections onto a single coordinate) there is a unique point ω_H in the interval (0,1) so that for any random variable X the iterates 𝐇^(N) acting on X converge in distribution as N →∞ to the ω_H-quantile of X.

This paper presents the electrochemical evaluation from polarization curves of a microfluidic fuel cell that uses formic acid as fuel and different oxidants (dissolved oxygen, air and hydrogen peroxide), concentrations of fuel and flow rates.The micro-device was constructed by UV-lithography technique and the electrocatalysts consisted in commercial Pd/XC-72 and Pt/C for anode and cathode respectively.The maximum power density achieved was 6.7 mW cm(-2) at 0.5 V using 0.5 M HCOOH and dissolved oxygen at 600 mu Lmin(-1). (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

El objetivo de este documento es exponer la forma en que los llamados Atlas en Salud se han de convertir en instrumentos para el fomento, la democratizacion y el derecho a la informacion publica en salud gracias a la aplicacion de las nuevas Tecnologias de la Informacion y la Comunicacion. Creemos que al igual que ha sido en epocas anteriores, esta herramienta apoya una toma de decisiones mejor contextualizada y focalizada, no solo del sector de la salud publica sino tambien en sectores afines. Con ello se pretende responder a las crecientes peticiones sobre informacion generadas por varios organismos publicos y privados, pero principalmente, por la Secretaria de Salud de Jalisco, Mexico, la cual es la institucion que norma y dirige las decisiones en el ramo. Se trata de vincular, en un solo espacio comunicativo, datos e informacion relevantes por medio de una plataforma de acceso a traves de Internet. Para ello se esta realizando el proyecto titulado Atlas de Salud del Estado de Jalisco, que ha sido financiado por el Consejo Estatal de Ciencia y Tecnologia de Jalisco, a traves del Centro Universitario de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, dependencia de la Universidad de Guadalajara.

Today it shows the importance of communication has taken as a management tool and change within organizations of all types, application deployment and crystallizes within the daily activities of running the organizations and their structural changes and organizational, which impose a volatile economy and society. The essay in question, to demonstrate the importance of a specific type of communication in organizations, called internal communication as a key factor for success and effective to undertake the organizational changes that require such businesses: its structure and develop concepts : communication from the point of view of human action, organization understood as coordination of resources to achieve common objectives designed organizational communication as the flow of information in the business environment, associated with the concept of organizational change, the forces that influence and promote change, the key factors for achieving development objectives, and finally concludes with the relationship between effective communication and organizational change. The essay outlines and interrelated, concepts and elements to be taken into account when implementing a process of internal communication in a context of organizational change, demonstrating that there is no change without effective communication, and that internal communication is not applicable short-sighted within organizations.

Introduction: Blood pressure is a risk factor for stroke, coronary heart disease, heart failure, peripheral arterial disease and renal failure. Blood pressure (BP) has a circadian pattern, the measure of continuous ambulatory blood pressure for 24 h should be an indispensable method on clinical practice. Objective: To study demographic data and the results of the ABPM, conducted in our environment, as well as the pattern of ABPM, BP control and the treatment received by the patients. Material and methods: We analyzed 154 studies of ABPM, conducted in the La Mancha Centro Hospital service area, between June 2009 and November 2011. The results were analyzed using SPSS computer system 18. Results: We have measured the age and sex of patients, the reason for requesting the test, the pattern of BP, if target BP figures were achieved, and the number of drugs patients were being treated with. The average age was 61.13 years (standard deviation 13.061, minimum 20 years, maximum 84). 58.4% of the patients were female and 41.6% male. The reasons why the test was requested were: suspected untreated hypertension (3.2% of cases), suspected white coat BP (5.8%), study the circadian pattern (27.3%), high-risk hypertension (7.1%), refractory hypertension (1.3%) and efficacy of treatment (51.9%). The most frequent reason why the test was requested, was to evaluate the efficacy of treatment. Regarding the circadian pattern of blood pressure, the most common pattern was the Dipper (40.9% of cases), followed in order of frequency by the non-dipper pattern (36.4%), Riser (12.3%) and extreme dippers (10.4%). Regarding the treatment that followed our patients: 26% had any treatment, 26% followed treatment with two drugs, 21.4% with three drugs, 16% followed monotherapy and 10.4% of patients were being treated with 4 or more drugs. We also analyzed the mean BP figures: 44.2% of the patients had BP within the control objective, 30.5% had not achieved this goal, 20.1% of the patients were not hypertensive and 5.2% were confirmed to be. We studied patients who were not treated (40/154), and in 33 of them we observed that they were hypertensive and 8 were diagnosed with hypertension. As for patients that required three or more drugs (46/154), 26 had poor control, and despite the therapy they did not reach target values. Conclusions: The patients with ABPM in our area had an average age of 61.13 years, 58.4% were female and 41.6% male. The most common reason why the test was requested was the efficacy of treatment (51.9% of cases). The most frequent pattern presented was Dipper (49.9%). 44.2% of the patients had BP values well controlled. Only 16% of the patients followed monotherapy. There were 25% of untreated patients, 8 of them was confirmed to have hypertension. With ambulatory blood pressure monitoring for 24 h, we can obtain data regarding average values of BP and circadian pattern that clinical measurement of BP cannot demonstrate.