Prediction of sports talent in young throwers using machine learning / Predicción del talento deportivo en jóvenes lanzadores utilizando machine learning

The objective of this study is to detect any performance factors in athletics throws between 1997 and 2015 in 662 throwers (15.67 ± 1.01 years of the National Program for Sports Technification of the Royal Spanish Athletics Federation using Machine Learning methods by means of algorithms (Logistic Regression, Random Forest and XG Boost). When examining the importance of the variables with reference to performance, the triple jump (0.20) stands out over the rest of the variables: backward overhead shot throw (0.14), arm span (0.11), vertical jump (0.10), body mass (0.20), height (0.07) and flexibility (0.03). In each discipline the triple jump takes the lead in shot put (0.20), discus (0.21) and hammer (0.29) throws, while backward overhead shot throw does in javelin, the variables rearranging themselves in a particular way depending on the discipline. These findings enable the early detection of potential talents as well as their subsequent sport specialization (AU)

El estudio aborda la detección de factores de rendimiento en los lanzamientos atléticos utilizando técnicas de Machine Learning, en 662 lanzadores (15,67 ± 1,01 años) del Programa Nacional de Tecnificación Deportiva de la Real Federación Española de Atletismo entre 1997 y 2015, mediante diferentes algoritmos (Logistic Regression, Random Forest y XGBoost). Al medir la importancia de las variables en función del rendimiento, el triple salto (0,20) destaca sobre el resto de variables: lanzamiento dorsal (0,14), envergadura (0,11), salto vertical (0,10), masa corporal, estatura (0,07) y flexibilidad (0,03). En cada disciplina, el triple salto encabeza la importancia en los lanzamientos de peso (0,20), disco (0,21) y martillo (0,29), mientras que el lanzamiento dorsal lo hace en la jabalina (0,20). Las variables se reordenande forma particular modificando su importancia para cada disciplina. Estos hallazgos permiten mejorar la detección inicial de posibles talentos, así como su posterior especialización deportiva (AU)

Relación entre consumo de alcohol, uso de Internet y teléfono móvil, sintomatología prefrontal y mindfulnes disposicional en estudiantes universitarios / Alcohol use in relation to Internet and mobile phone use, prefrontal symptomology and dispositional mindfulness in university students

and mobile phone use, prefrontal symptomology and dispositional mindfulness in university students. This study analyzes the relationship between the type of alcohol use and parameters associated with addictive behaviors, such as abnormal use of the Internet and mobile devices, prefrontal symptoms and dispositional mindfulness in 509 university students from Madrid (Spain). The present study was multivariate, inferential, descriptive and nonexperimental, using discriminant analysis to study the predictive nature of the variables considered in weekend alcohol use, with participants classified into three groups (low, medium and high use). The results indicate that high alcohol use was related to greater Internet and mobile phone use, greater irritability and under executive control, as well as a lower mindfulness level. Longitudinal studies are needed to analyze, among other aspects, the mediating role of dispositional mindfulness in alcohol use, use of technologies and executive functioning (AU)

T-cell intracellular antigens function as tumor suppressor genes.

Knockdown of T-cell intracellular antigens TIA1 and TIAR in transformed cells triggers cell proliferation and tumor growth. Using a tetracycline-inducible system, we report here that an increased expression of TIA1 or TIAR in 293 cells results in reduced rates of cell proliferation. Ectopic expression of these proteins abolish endogenous TIA1 and TIAR levels via the regulation of splicing of their pre-mRNAs, and partially represses global translation in a phospho-eukaryotic initiation factor 2 alpha-dependent manner. This is accompanied by cell cycle arrest at G1/S and cell death through caspase-dependent apoptosis and autophagy. Genome-wide profiling illustrates a selective upregulation of p53 signaling pathway-related genes. Nude mice injected with doxycycline-inducible cells expressing TIA1 or TIAR retard, or even inhibit, growth of xenotumors. Remarkably, low expressions of TIA1 and TIAR correlate with poor prognosis in patients with lung squamous cell carcinoma. These findings strongly support the concept that TIA proteins act as tumor suppressor genes.

Revisión de evidencias sobre la influencia de la dieta en la evolución de la EPOC / Review of evidence on the influence of the diet on the evolution of COPD

La Enfermedad Pulmonar Obstructiva Crónica (EPOC) ocasiona una importante morbimortalidad, con un gran consumo de recursos sanitarios. La causa principal es el consumo de tabaco. La EPOC es evitable y aunque no es curable, sí es susceptible de mejoría en términos de calidad de vida y aumento de la supervivencia, utilizando los recursos terapéuticos disponibles entre los que se encuentra la rehabilitación y la educación sanitaria. La rehabilitación incluye programas de entrenamiento cuyo fin es mejorar la disnea, el cansancio y la tolerancia al ejercicio. Se compone de programas de entrenamiento físico, educación sanitaria, intervención psicológica, intervención sobre el comportamiento y educación sobre dieta y nutrición. En el presente trabajo se realizó una recopilación bibliográfica de los artículos publicados en los últimos cinco años sobre la educación dietética a los pacientes con EPOC. Se usó la herramienta de lectura crítica CASPE, para seleccionar los de mayor calidad metodológica, con el objetivo de revisar los estudios existentes sobre la influencia de la dieta en los pacientes diagnosticados de EPOC, evaluar las evidencias existentes e incorporarlos a la pauta de actuación ante este tipo de pacientes. La conclusión de esta revisión es que los pacientes con EPOC podrían beneficiarse de una dieta rica en hortalizas, frutas y verduras, soja, fibra y aceite de oliva; mientras que las dietas ricas en azúcares y carnes curadas podrían empeorar su enfermedad. Aunque se recomienda realizar estudios complementarios que corroboren dichas afirmaciones (AU)

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) causes significant morbidity and mortality, with a large consumption of health resources. The main cause is smoking. Despite the fact there is no cure for COPD, it can be avoided resulting in an improvement in the quality of life and an increase the survival rate, through available therapeutic resources, among which are the rehabilitation and health education. Rehabilitation includes training programs designed to improve dyspnoea, fatigue and exercise tolerance. It consists of physical training programs, health education, psychological intervention, conduct intervention and education on diet and nutrition. This study has been performed on an extensive bibliographic compilation of published articles on dietary education patients with COPD in the last five years. In order to get the highest methodological quality articles and perform a review of the existing studies on the influence of diet in patients diagnosed with COPD and evaluate the evidence of those patients, it was necessary to implement a critical reading tool (CASPE), to incorporate them into the pattern of performance against these patients. The conclusion of this review is that patients with COPD may profit from a diet rich in fruit, vegetables, soy, fiber and olive oil, while a diet rich of sugars and cured meat may worsen your condition. However additional studies to corroborate these claims are recommende (AU)

Survival after lung metastasectomy for colorectal cancer: importance of previous liver metastasis as a prognostic factor.

AIMS: To analyse patient survival after the resection of lung metastases from colorectal carcinoma and specifically to verify whether presence of liver metastasis prior to lung metastasectomy affects survival. METHODS: All patients who, between 1998 and 2008, underwent lung metastasectomy due to colorectal cancer were included in the study. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was performed with the log-rank test and Cox regression multivariate analysis. RESULTS: During this period, 101 metastasectomies were performed on 84 patients. The median age of patients was 65.4 years, and 60% of patients were male. The 30-day mortality rate was 2%, and incidence of complications was 7%. The overall survival was 72 months, with 3-and 5-year survival rates of 70% and 54%, respectively. A total of 17 patients (20%) had previously undergone resection of liver metastasis. No significant differences were found in the distribution of what were supposed to be the main variables between patients with and without previous hepatic metastases. Multivariate analysis identified the following statistically significant factors affecting survival: previous liver metastasectomy (p = 0.03), tumour-infiltrated pulmonary lymph nodes (p = 0.04), disease-free interval ≥ 48 months (p = 0.03), and presence of more than one lung metastasis (p < 0.01). In patients with previous liver metastasis, the shorter the time between primary colorectal surgery and the hepatectomy, the lower the survival rate after pulmonary metastasectomy (p = 0.048). CONCLUSIONS: A previous history of liver metastasis shortens survival after lung metastasectomy. The time between hepatic resection and lung metastasectomy does not affect survival; however, patients with synchronous liver metastasis and colorectal neoplasia have poorer survival rates than those with metachronous disease.

Publishing science in the digital age. The case of Neurocirugía.

Neurocirugía publishes a printed edition for subscribers, and also an electronic edition which is available online free of charge. The coexistence of these two formats raises some issues regarding their justification and their future evolution, e.g. why does a subscription- based journal offer free online access? Would it be wise to charge for -or somewhat limit- the electronic access to the Journal? How is the Internet changing the benefits to society that the Journal provides? Will the printed and the electronic edition of the Journal continue to coexist? This paper provides some answers and reflections on these questions. Many of our considerations are based on ideas that have been presented and discussed in a series of editorials in Neurocirugía (see Neurocirugía 17 (2), 2006); in this paper we reconsider, complement, and rearrange previous arguments to address the issues mentioned above. Based on an analysis of economic costs and of all the stakeholders involved (authors, readers, the Journal, the Spanish Society of Neurosurgery, and society as a whole), we justify the present coexistence of the two publishing formats, defend free online access, and provide our view on the expected evolution of the Journal. While we focus primarily on Neurocirugía, most of our reflections can be carried over to other scientific journals.

Tramadol, una puesta al día tras 28 años de uso / Tramadol, an update after 28 years

Tramadol es un fármaco analgésico con un doble mecanismo de acción, que actúa sobre los receptores opioides e inhibe la recaptación de monoaminas. Se ha demostrado su eficacia por diversas vías de administración y es ampliamente utilizado. Sus principales vías metabólicas son la O-desmetilación que da lugar a un metabolito activo M1 y la N-desmetilación. Debido a que en su metabolismo están implicadas varias isoformas del citocromo P-450, tramadol está sometido a una serie de interacciones farmacológicas con fármacos de uso corriente como ondansetrón o metoclopramida. Está indicado en el tratamiento del dolor agudo. Se ha administrado también en el manejo de diversoso tipos de dolor crónica, en anestesia y en otras indicaciones poco conocidas (patología neurológica, psiquiétrica, etc.). Está indicado en el tratamiento del dolor agudo postoperatorio en adultos y en otras formas de dolor agudo. Se ha administrado también en el manejo de diversos tipos de dolor crónico, en anestesia y en otras indicaciones poco conocidas (patología neurológica, psiquiétrica, etc.). La utilización de tramadol se acompaña de una serie de efectos adversos siendo los más frecuentes las naúseas, los vómitos y la sensación de mareo. Aunque hay algún caso de dependencia, se trata de un fármaco muy seguro. No se ha descrito ninguna muerte atribuible a tramadol

Tramadol is an analgesic with a double-action mechanisms. It act on µ opioid receptors and inhibits noradrenalina and serotonine re-uptake. Its efficiency has been demonstrated with different methods of administration. Its principal metabolic pathways are O-desmethylation which produces an active metabolite called M1 and N-desmethylation. Because various P-450 cytochrome isoforms are implicated in its metabolism, tramadol undergoes a series of pharmacological interactions with current drugs as ondasetron or metoclopramide. Tramadol is indicated in the treatment of acute postoperative pain in adults and also other forms of acute pain. It has also been used in the management of different types of chronic pain, in anaesthesia and other lesser known indications (neurological pathology, psychiatric, etc). Tramadol has several side-effects such as nausea, vomiting and dizzines. Although there have been some reports about dependency on the drug, it is believe to be quite safe. No death have been attribuded to tramadol use

[Cervical myelopathy: retrospective analysis of surgical results in 53 cases treated by anterior cervical discectomy and interbody fusion]. / Mielopatía cervical: análisis retrospectivo de los resultados quirúrgicos de 54 pacientes tratados mediante descectomía y fusión intersomática por vía anterior.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: We perform a retrospective analysis of clinical results in 53 consecutive patients surgically treated for cervical myelopathy or myelo-radiculopathy with anterior cervical discectomy and interbody fusion by means of the Cloward procedure. RESULTS: 64.2% of the patients had good outcome as measured by the improvement in one or more grades in the Nurick's scale. No mortality related to the surgical procedure was noted, although 9.4% of the cases suffered neurological deterioration. Correct fusion was achieved in 92.5% of the patients, with a rate of post-surgical kyphosis of 9.4%. Multivariate analysis identified as factors related to the clinical outcome: age (p = 0.008), vascular risk factors (p = 0.031), duration of symptoms (p = 0.002), pre-surgical neurological status (p < 0.001), neuroradiological diagnosis (p = 0.014), intra-medullary high signal intensity changes in T2-weighted images (p = 0.008), prolongation of the central somato-sensory or motor conduction times (p = 0.004) and neurologic complications (p = 0.012) CONCLUSIONS: Treatment optimisation of the patient suffering cervical spondylotic myelopathy requires individualised evaluation. Prospective randomised studies are needed to answer the questions when and how to operate.

[Anterior cervical diskectomy and interbody arthrodesis using Cloward technique: retrospective study of complications and radiological results of 167 cases]. / Discectomía cervical y artrodesis intersomática mediante técnica de Cloward: análisis retrospectivo de las complicaciones y los resultados radiológicos en 167 casos.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of complications and radiological results in 167 patients surgically treated, for discal or spondylotic disease of the cervical spine, with Cloward procedure. Using uni and multivariate analysis, we tried to identify risk factors that might be correlated with surgical complications or radiological results. RESULTS: Surgical treatment was indicated for cervical radiculopathy in 68% of the patients and for myelopathy or radiculomyelopathy in the remaining 32%. The pathologic disease responsible of the symptomatology was soft disk herniation in 59% of the cases and spondylotic changes in 41%. The patients that underwent surgery because of myelopathy were one decade older, had a longer symptomatic period and presented multi-segmentary spondylotic disease with higher frequency than patients affected of radiculopathy. The most common segments operated were CS-C6 (44.3%) and C6-C7 (30.5%). Surgical mortality was 0.6% and morbidity 29.3%. Most of the complications were transient, although 4.8% of the patients developed permanent neurological deterioration. CONCLUSIONS: Complications were most commonly seen in the group of the patients undergoing surgery because of long-lasting myelopathy with multi-segmentary spondylotic disease, in those with vascular risk factors and in those operated of more than one segment. Surgeon anatomic knowledge and experience are critical for diminishing such complications. Non-union rate was 9.6%, and another 9.6% of the patients developed post-surgical kyphosis. Both factors correlated with the need of re-operation.

muARTMAP: use of mutual information for category reduction in Fuzzy ARTMAP.

A new architecture called muARTMAP is proposed to impact a category proliferation problem present in Fuzzy ARTMAP. Under a probabilistic setting, it seeks a partition of the input space that optimizes the mutual information with the output space, but allowing some training error, thus avoiding overfitting. It implements an inter-ART reset mechanism that permits handling exceptions correctly, thus using few categories, especially in high dimensionality problems. It compares favorably to Fuzzy ARTMAP and Boosted ARTMAP in several synthetic benchmarks, being more robust to noise than Fuzzy ARTMAP and degrading less as dimensionality increases. Evaluated on a real-world task, the recognition of handwritten characters, it performs comparably to Fuzzy ARTMAP, while generating a much more compact rule set.

BPS states in M theory and twistorial constituents.

We provide a complete algebraic description of Bogomol'nyi-Prasad-Sommerfield (BPS) states in M theory in terms of primary constituents that we call BPS preons. We argue that any BPS state preserving k of the 32 supersymmetries is a composite of (32-k) BPS preons. In particular, the BPS states corresponding to the basic M2 and M5 branes are composed of 16 BPS preons. By extending the M algebra to a generalized D = 11 conformal superalgebra osp(1/64) we relate the BPS preons with its fundamental representation, the D = 11 supertwistors.

Learning from noisy information in FasArt and FasBack neuro-fuzzy systems.

Neuro-fuzzy systems have been in the focus of recent research as a solution to jointly exploit the main features of fuzzy logic systems and neural networks. Within the application literature, neuro-fuzzy systems can be found as methods for function identification. This approach is supported by theorems that guarantee the possibility of representing arbitrary functions by fuzzy systems. However, due to the fact that real data are often noisy, generation of accurate identifiers is presented as an important problem. Within the Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART), PROBART architecture has been proposed as a solution to this problem. After a detailed comparison of these architectures based on their design principles, the FasArt and FasBack models are proposed. They are neuro-fuzzy identifiers that offer a dual interpretation, as fuzzy logic systems or neural networks. FasArt and FasBack can be trained on noisy data without need of change in their structure or data preprocessing. In the simulation work, a comparative study is carried out on the performances of Fuzzy ARTMAP, PROBART, FasArt and FasBack, focusing on prediction error and network complexity. Results show that FasArt and FasBack clearly enhance the performance of other models in this important problem.

3'-untranslated regions of oxidative phosphorylation mRNAs function in vivo as enhancers of translation.

Recent findings have indicated that the 3'-untranslated region (3'-UTR) of the mRNA encoding the beta-catalytic subunit of the mitochondrial H(+)-ATP synthase has an in vitro translation-enhancing activity (TEA) [Izquierdo and Cuezva, Mol. Cell. Biol. (1997) 17, 5255-5268; Izquierdo and Cuezva, Biochem. J. (2000) 346, 849-855]. In the present work, we have expressed chimaeric plasmids that encode mRNA variants of green fluorescent protein in normal rat kidney and liver clone 9 cells to determine whether the 3'-UTRs of nuclear-encoded mRNAs involved in the biogenesis of mitochondria have an intrinsic TEA. TEA is found in the 3'-UTR of the mRNAs encoding the alpha- and beta-subunits of the rat H(+)-ATP synthase complex, as well as in subunit IV of cytochrome c oxidase. No TEA is present in the 3'-UTR of the somatic mRNA encoding rat mitochondrial transcription factor A. Interestingly, the TEA of the 3'-UTR of mRNAs of oxidative phosphorylation is different, depending upon the cell type analysed. These data provide the first in vivo evidence of a novel cell-specific mechanism for the control of the translation of mRNAs required in mitochondrial function.

[Elective cesarean section with epidural anesthesia in a pregnant woman with obstructive hypertrophic myocardiopathy]. / Cesárea electiva con anestesia epidural a una gestante con miocardiopatía hipertrófica obstructiva.

Hypertrophic obstructive myocardiopathy (HOM) is characterised by left ventricular hypertrophy, which causes dynamic obstruction at the exit of the chamber and diastolic dysfunction of the myocardium. The use of epidural anesthesia in patients with HOM is controversial due to the hemodynamic repercussions of reduced preloading and postloading that occur. A 28-year-old woman with HOM was scheduled for cesarean delivery at 36.5 weeks because of delayed intrauterine growth. Satisfactory epidural anesthesia was provided with 0.5% bupivacaine with prior invasive hemodynamic monitoring. Analgesic and anesthetic management of a full-term parturient with HOM is a major challenge for the anesthesiologist. Although elective cesarean under general anesthesia is traditionally suggested for such patients, vaginal delivery with epidural analgesia is currently also being used. However, experience in using epidural anesthesia for cesarean delivery is scarce. For our patient, epidural anesthesia with appropriate hemodynamic monitoring allowed surgery to take place without complications. We therefore believe that the technique might be useful for such patients.

Cesárea electiva con anestesia epidural a una gestante con miocardiopatía hipertrófica obstructiva / Elective cesarean section with epidural anesthesia in a parturient with myocardiopathy

La miocardiopatía hipertrófica obstructiva se caracteriza por una hipertrofia del ventrículo izquierdo que ocasiona una obstrucción dinámica a la salida del mismo y una disfunción diastólica del miocardio. La utilización de la anestesia epidural en pacientes afectados de miocardiopatía hipertrófica obstructiva es un tema de controversia debido a las repercusiones hemodinámicas ocasionadas por la reducción de la precarga y de la poscarga que produce.Paciente de 28 años, gestante de 36 semanas y media afectada de miocardiopatía hipertrófica obstructiva a la que se decide practicar una cesárea debido a un retraso de crecimiento intrauterino. Se realizó anestesia epidural con bupivacaína al 0,5 por ciento previa monitorización hemodinámica invasiva con resultados satisfactorios.El manejo analgésico y anestésico de una paciente gestante a término con miocardiopatía hipertrófica obstructiva constituye uno de los mayores retos para el anestesiólogo. Aunque clásicamente se proponía la cesárea electiva para este tipo de pacientes bajo anestesia general, hoy día también se acepta la progresión del parto vaginal con analgesia por vía epidural. Sin embargo la experiencia en la utilización de la anestesia epidural para la cesárea es escasa. En nuestro caso la anestesia epidural junto con una monitorización hemodinámica adecuada permitió llevar a cabo la intervención sin complicaciones, por lo que creemos que puede ser una técnica útil para este tipo de pacientes (AU)

A conserved mechanism for controlling the translation of beta-F1-ATPase mRNA between the fetal liver and cancer cells.

To characterize the mechanisms governing the biogenesis of mitochondria in cancer, we studied the mitochondrial phenotype and the mechanisms controlling the expression of the beta subunit of the mitochondrial H(+)-ATP synthase (beta-F1-ATPase) gene in the rat FAO and AS30D hepatomas. When compared with normal adult rat liver, the relative cellular content of the mitochondrial beta-F1-ATPase and glutamate dehydrogenase, as well as of mitochondrial DNA, was severely reduced in both cell lines. A paradoxical increase in the cellular abundance of beta-F1-ATPase mRNA was observed in cancer cells. Run-on transcription assays and the estimation of mRNA half-lives revealed that the increased abundance of beta-F1-ATPase mRNA results from the stabilization of the transcript in cancer. In vitro translation assays revealed a specific inhibition of the synthesis of the beta-precursor when translation reactions were carried out in the presence of extracts derived from cancer cells. The inhibitory effect was recapitulated using an RNA chimera that contained the 3'-untranslated region of beta-F1-ATPase mRNA. Hepatoma extracts also contained an increased activity of the developmentally regulated translation-inhibitory proteins that bind the 3'-untranslated region of beta-F1-ATPase mRNA. The results indicate that the expression of this gene in hepatoma cells is controlled by the same mechanisms that regulate its expression in the liver during fetal development.