Search

Reseña del libro Gobeo de Vitoria, P. Naufragio y peregrinación. Edición y actualización del texto a cargo de Miguel Zugasti. Prólogo de Luis Gorrochategui. Barcelona: Editorial Crítica, 2023, 264 pp, ISBN 978-84-9199-527-2.

This paper analyzes students' perceptions of how teaching-learning methods influence the promotion of higher education students' social innovation competencies based on a sustainability framework. We focus our analysis on Spain using 'Spanish Universities Involvement in Social Innovation Activities' (SUISIA) data, collected in 2021. For the long list of 19 competencies available in our sample of 349 students, we identify those competencies associated with social innovation and categorize them as organizational, entrepreneurial and collaborative. We then employ different statistical models to identify which teaching-learning methods facilitate the development of social innovation competencies. We also consider variables such as student characteristics and field of study program. Our results suggest a lack of implementation of active teaching-learning approaches which leads to poor development of organizational, entrepreneurial and collaborative competencies, particularly in engineering studies in comparison to other disciplines. This suggests a gap between higher education and society's demands in students' preparation for and engagement in a complex and dynamic future aimed at achieving the sustainable development goals outlined in Agenda 2030.

Background & Aims: Systemic inflammation is a driver of decompensation in cirrhosis with unclear relevance in the compensated stage. We evaluated inflammation and bacterial translocation markers in compensated cirrhosis and their dynamics in relation to the first decompensation. Methods: This study is nested within the PREDESCI trial, which investigated non-selective beta-blockers for preventing decompensation in compensated cirrhosis and clinically significant portal hypertension (CSPH: hepatic venous pressure gradient ≥10 mmHg). Blood biomarkers were measured at baseline and at 1 and 2 years in patients who remained compensated and had available samples (n = 164). Values of patients with CSPH were split at each time point by decompensation development in the next time interval after sampling. We also included 54 patients with cirrhosis and subclinical portal hypertension (PH) and 35 controls. We assessed markers of inflammation (interleukin-6 [IL-6], tumor necrosis factor-alpha, von Willebrand factor [vWF], C-reactive protein), macrophage activation (CD14, CD163), intestinal barrier integrity (fatty acid-binding protein [FABP], haptoglobin), and bacterial translocation (lipopolysaccharide [LPS]). Results: IL-6, CD163, and vWF were higher (p

El Nuevo Mundo descubierto por Cristóbal Colón es una obra clave para entender la vinculación de Lope de Vega con América. Por un lado, su posible fecha de composición (entre 1598 y 1603) nos sitúa en un período en el que el Fénix empezaba a difundir su producción dramática en los virreinatos. Por otro lado, es una de sus tres comedias conocidas con asunto americano; en este caso, centrado en la hazaña colombina como proyecto imperial de evangelización del nuevo continente. La copia de un breve monólogo de esta comedia por parte del anónimo autor del Coloquio de los cuatro reyes de Tlaxcala (1619) invita a reflexionar sobre el modo en que Lope plasmó en su obra la conversión del indígena a la fe cristiana, y también sobre los matices que pudieron adquirir los versos del dramaturgo español en ese nuevo contexto novohispano.

La Tregua de Niza, firmada entre Carlos V y el rey de Francia en mayo de 1538, fue celebrada en Nueva España meses más tarde con fastos que incluyeron representaciones de “moros y cristianos”, entre las que destacan La conquista de Rodas (en la ciudad de México) y La conquista de Jerusalén (en Tlaxcala). La elección de los temas de ambas obras (justificada por el contexto de nueva cruzada contra el turco) y el desarrollo de sus puestas en escena fueron una demostración de poder y de fidelidad al imperio por parte de las élites novohispanas. Pero tanto esas obras como los festejos que las albergaron reflejaron asimismo los conflictos surgidos entre las dos máximas figuras del virreinato: el conquistador Hernán Cortés y el representante del poder real, Antonio de Mendoza.

While it is common to consider Beguine spirituality as predominantly, if not exclusively, feminine, several literary texts written in the oïl language during the 13th century offer the possibility of a different perspective, designating members of Beguinages using the masculine forms beguins or the inclusive doublet beguins et beguines. Given that the grammatical masculine can hardly, in the latter case, be read as anything other than a specific masculine, this article aims to show that, in 13th-century northern France, the assimilation of Beguine productions to texts reserved for women is not always as self-evident as one might think. By successively analyzing sermons intended for Beguine communities, pious poetry directly from these communities, and an epideictic text firmly opposed to them, this article aims, on the one hand, to highlight the possibility of a masculine reading of this spirituality, and to show, on the other hand, that the gender stereotypes conveyed by certain clerics in the 13th century have contributed, from the Middle Ages to the present day, to rendering invisible the possible presence of men within Beguine communities.

El presente trabajo aborda un breve ensayo de la actriz y escritora alemana Hilde Krüger titulado Malinche o El Adiós a los Mitos (1944). En una época en la que el mito de la Malinche traidora convive con una reivindicación del papel histórico de la traductora de Cortés, Krüger, al igual que otras escritoras contemporáneas, defiende abiertamente a su protagonista, pero además reinterpreta el término “Malinche” recuperando el sentido que los indígenas dieron al mismo en el siglo XVI. Para nuestra autora, Marina y Cortés conforman un ser mítico, “Malinche”, que anuncia a los aztecas el fin de su mundo.

Sweet cherry producers annually confront climatic challenges such as spring frost and fruit cracking. This vulnerability arises primarily from spring frost during bloom or cracking at critical maturity stages during persistent rainfall. With changing climate patterns, innovative strategies are essential to mitigate these adversities. Foliar applications of melatonin (MT) at 0, 0.01, 0.05 and 0.1 mM were tested on the ‘Prime Giant’ and ‘Sweetheart’ cultivars over four different production cycles (2020–2023) to evaluate the effect on frost resilience on flower buds and fruit cracking reduction. MT-treated flower buds showed reduced malondialdehyde content and increased fruit set in most seasons, reducing their vulnerability to extreme weather events. In addition, MT consistently decreased sweet cherry cracking incidence across all studied seasons, indicating a strong effect between the fruit ripening stage and susceptibility to fruit cracking, which was cultivar dependent. Quality parameters at harvest, including fruit firmness, and colour at harvest, were either delayed or unaffected in MT-treated fruits compared with controls. However, other ripening parameters were stimulated by pre-harvest MT applications in several growing cycles, such as total soluble solids, which slightly reduced total acidity in MT-treated fruits. In summary, pre-harvest MT treatments can be a promising strategy for climate change adaptation and stress mitigation, potentially increasing sweet cherry production under extreme weather conditions.

Superado hasta cierto punto el debate crítico en torno a la existencia o no del género novelesco en la América virreinal, en las últimas décadas hemos asistido sobre todo a la edición y análisis de un corpus heterogéneo de textos de este período que podemos definir como «prosa de ficción». Uno de esos textos es Historia del Huérfano, manuscrito preparado para la imprenta en 1621 que quedó inédito entonces y ha sido publicado por primera vez en 2017. El presente trabajo pretende contribuir a una caracterización de la prosa de ficción producida en los virreinatos americanos a partir del análisis de ciertos rasgos presentes en este curioso libro de fray Martín de León ubicables asimismo en otras obras (virreinales y peninsulares) de la época, como la continua interrelación entre realidad y ficción o el entrecruzamiento de géneros, que otorga al texto un carácter híbrido.

Objective To evaluate the impact of coadministering statins with direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) on the risk of major bleeding events in patients with venous thromboembolism (VTE).Design Observational cohort analysis based on a multicentre international registry.Setting Data were extracted from the Registro Informatizado de Enfermedad TromboEmbolica Registry, which involves 205 centres across 27 countries.Participants A total of 73 659 patients diagnosed with VTE were classified based on their anticoagulant therapy (DOACs) versus low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH) or vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) and concurrent use of statins.Methods Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models adjusted for confounding variables to assess the risk of major bleeding events stratified by the type of anticoagulant use and statin use.Results From October 2013 to February 2023, 73 659 patients were recruited: 2573 were statin users on DOACs, 14 090 were statin users on LMWH or VKA therapy, 10 088 were non-statin users on DOACs and 46 908 were non-statin users on LMWH or VKA therapy. Statin users were 10 years older and more likely to have hypertension, diabetes, renal failure or prior artery disease. During anticoagulation (median, 187 days), 1917 patients (2.6%) suffered major bleeding. Rates of major bleeding per 100 patient-years were 2.33 (95% CI 1.72 to 3.09), 3.75 (95% CI 3.43 to 4.10), 1.39 (95% CI 1.13 to 1.69) and 3.10 (95% CI 2.93 to 3.27), respectively. On multivariable analysis, patients treated with DOACs had a significantly lower risk of major bleeding compared with those on LMWH or VKA therapy (adjusted HR 0.59; 95% CI 0.48 to 0.74). The adjusted HR in statin users versus non-users was 1.03 (95% CI 0.92 to 1.14), while in statin users on DOACs versus the rest of patients, it was 1.18 (95% CI 0.79 to 1.76).Conclusions In patients with VTE receiving statins, long-term anticoagulation with DOACs was associated with a reduced risk of major bleeding, regardless of the statin use. These findings support the safety profile of DOACs over VKAs or LMWH in the management of VTE in patients requiring statins.

This paper proposes two hybrid approaches based on Autoencoders (AEs) for long-term temperature prediction. The first algorithm comprises an AE trained to learn temperature patterns, which is then linked to a second AE, used to detect possible anomalies and provide a final temperature prediction. The second proposed approach involves training an AE and then using the resulting latent space as input of a neural network, which will provide the final prediction output. Both approaches are tested in long-term air temperature prediction in European cities: seven European locations where major heat waves occurred have been considered. The long-term temperature prediction for the entire year of the heatwave events has been analysed. Results show that the proposed approaches can obtain accurate long-term (up to 4 weeks) temperature prediction, improving Persistence and Climatology in the benchmark models compared. In heatwave periods, where the persistence of the temperature is extremely high, our approach beat the persistence operator in three locations and works similarly in the rest of the cases, showing the potential of this AE-based method for long-term temperature prediction.

Background and Objectives: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) can be the first manifestation of an underlying cancer. This study aimed to develop a predictive model to assess the risk of occult cancer between 30 days and 24 months after a venous thrombotic event using machine learning (ML). Materials and Methods: We designed a case–control study nested in a cohort of patients with VTE included in a prospective registry from two Spanish hospitals between 2005 and 2021. Both clinically and ML-driven feature selection were performed to identify predictors for occult cancer. XGBoost, LightGBM, and CatBoost algorithms were used to train different prediction models, which were subsequently validated in a hold-out dataset. Results: A total of 815 patients with VTE were included (51.5% male and median age of 59). During follow-up, 56 patients (6.9%) were diagnosed with cancer. One hundred and twenty-one variables were explored for the predictive analysis. CatBoost obtained better performance metrics among the ML models analyzed. The final CatBoost model included, among the top 15 variables to predict hidden malignancy, age, gender, systolic blood pressure, heart rate, weight, chronic lung disease, D-dimer, alanine aminotransferase, hemoglobin, serum creatinine, cholesterol, platelets, triglycerides, leukocyte count and previous VTE. The model had an ROC-AUC of 0.86 (95% CI, 0.83–0.87) in the test set. Sensitivity, specificity, and negative and positive predictive values were 62%, 94%, 93% and 75%, respectively. Conclusions: This is the first risk score developed for identifying patients with VTE who are at increased risk of occult cancer using ML tools, obtaining a remarkably high diagnostic accuracy. This study’s limitations include potential information bias from electronic health records and a small cancer sample size. In addition, variability in detection protocols and evolving clinical practices may affect model accuracy. Our score needs external validation.

Recent advancements in patient rehabilitation integrate both traditional and modern techniques to enhance treatment efficacy and accessibility. Hydrotherapy, leveraging water’s physical properties, is crucial for reducing joint stress, alleviating pain, and improving circulation. The rehabilitation of upper limbs benefits from technologies like virtual reality and robotics which, when combined with hydrotherapy, can accelerate recovery. Exoskeletons, which support and enhance movement, have shown promise for patients with neurological conditions or injuries. This study focused on implementing and comparing proportional–integral–derivative (PID) and fuzzy logic controllers (FLCs) in a lower limb exoskeleton. Initial PID control tests revealed instability, leading to a switch to a PI controller for better stability and the development of a fuzzy control system. A hybrid strategy was then applied, using FLC for smooth initial movements and PID for precise tracking, with optimized weighting to improve performance. The combination of PID and fuzzy controllers, with tailored weighting (70% for moderate angles and 100% for extensive movements), enhanced the exoskeleton’s stability and precision. This study also explored quantum computing techniques, such as the quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) and the quantum Fourier transform (QFT), to optimize controller tuning and improve real-time control, highlighting the potential of these advanced tools in refining rehabilitation devices.

This paper explores the employability of young Higher Education (HE) graduates in Belarus, from the point of view of employers. Graduate employability can be defined by six items: starting a job; learning at work; performing work tasks; improving professional prospects; improving personal development; and developing entrepreneurial capacity. The FOSTERC database contains representative information on 261 employers in 2018 derived from an employer questionnaire. The questionnaire includes a specific section, which asked about 24 competencies associated with obtaining a job after graduation, and the competency levels required by employers. The responses to these questions allow analysis of employability based on HE achievements and subsequent workplace learning. The 24 competencies are grouped into five categories: entrepreneurial, leadership, interdisciplinary, cognitive and adaptability. The findings provide strong support for the assumption that the match between individual human capital competencies and the characteristics of the firms and organisations matters.