publications
#pag. 13
Cognitive reserve and working memory in cognitive performance of adults with subjective cognitive complaints: longitudinal structural equation modelling
Lojo-Seoane, C., Facal, D., Guàrdia-Olmos, J., Pereiro, A. X., Campos-Magdaleno, M., Mallo, S. C., & Juncos-Rabadán, O.
International Psychogeriatrics
1 10
(2019)
To study the influence of cognitive reserve (CR) on cognitive performance of individuals with subjective cognitive complaints (SCCs) within a period of 36 months.
Development and initial validation of a theory of planned behaviour questionnaire to assess critical care nurses’ intention to use physical restraints
Via-Clavero, G., Guàrdia-Olmos, J., Gallart-Vivé, E., Arias-Rivera, S., Castanera-Duro, A., & Delgado-Hito, P.
Journal of Advanced Nursing
75
9
(2019)
To develop and psychometrically test a Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) questionnaire to assess nurses’ intention to use physical restraints (PRs) in intubated patients.
DISCOver: DIStributional approach based on syntactic dependencies for discovering COnstructions
Martí, M. A., Taulé, M., Kovatchev, V., & Salamó, M.
Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory
(2019)
One of the goals in Cognitive Linguistics is the automatic identification and analysis of constructions, since they are fundamental linguistic units for understanding language. This article presents DISCOver, an unsupervised methodology for the automatic discovery of lexico-syntactic patterns that can be considered as candidates for constructions. This methodology follows a distributional semantic approach. Concretely, it is based on our proposed pattern-construction hypothesis: those contexts that are relevant to the definition of a cluster of semantically related words tend to be (part of) lexico-syntactic constructions. Our proposal uses Distributional Semantic Models for modelling the context taking into account syntactic dependencies. After a clustering process, we linked all those clusters with strong relationships and we use them as a source of information for deriving lexico-syntactic patterns, obtaining a total number of 220,732 candidates from a 100 million token corpus of Spanish. We evaluated the patterns obtained intrinsically, applying statistical association measures and they were also evaluated qualitatively by experts. Our results were superior to the baseline in both quality and quantity in all cases. While our experiments have been carried out using a Spanish corpus, this methodology is language independent and only requires a large corpus annotated with the parts of speech and dependencies to be applied.
Dosage analysis of the 7q1123 Williams region identifies BAZ1B as a major human gene patterning the modern human face and underlying self-domestication
Zanella, M., Vitriolo, A., Andirko, A., Martins, P. T., Sturm, S., O’Rourke, T., ... & Germain, P. L.
Science Advances
5
12
(2019)
We undertook a functional dissection of chromatin remodeler BAZ1B in neural crest (NC) stem cells (NCSCs) from a uniquely informative cohort of typical and atypical patients harboring 7q11.23 copy number variants. Our results reveal a key contribution of BAZ1B to NCSC in vitro induction and migration, coupled with a crucial involvement in NC-specific transcriptional circuits and distal regulation. By intersecting our experimental data with new paleogenetic analyses comparing modern and archaic humans, we found a modern-specific enrichment for regulatory changes both in BAZ1B and its experimentally defined downstream targets, thereby providing the first empirical validation of the human self-domestication hypothesis and positioning BAZ1B as a master regulator of the modern human face. In so doing, we provide experimental evidence that the craniofacial and cognitive/behavioral phenotypes caused by alterations of the Williams-Beuren syndrome critical region can serve as a powerful entry point into the evolution of the modern human face and prosociality
Ethical conflicts and their characteristics among critical care nurses
Lluch-Canut, T., Sequeira, C., Falcó-Pegueroles, A., Pinho, J. A., Rodrigues-Ferreira, A., Olmos, J. G., & Roldan-Merino, J.
Nursing Ethics
27
2
(2019)
Ethical conflict is a phenomenon that has been under study over the last three decades, especially the types moral dilemma and moral distress in the field of nursing care. However, ethical problems and their idiosyncrasies need to be further explored.
Food Storage among the Iberians of the Late Iron Age Northwest Mediterranean (ca 225-50 bc)
González Vázquez, M.
Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology
32
2
(2019)
Storage pits are one of the most common archaeological features of an area that comprises the Catalancoastal region and western Languedoc. Although some of these pits are found in the region from as earlyas the Neolithic period, it is not until the late Iron Age-early Roman period (ca. 225-50 bc) that theybecome pervasive in the archaeological record, and as such the prevailing tendency is to take these foodreserves as an indicator of increased social complexity, as evidence of the ability of the peasantry to producesurplus and as marking the completion of a diachronic process of sedentarisation, all three of which are traditionallylinked more generally to the practice of storage. Consequently, for the most part, this explanationgives a pivotal role to storage, but fails to address storage as an economic process in itself. With these scholarlymisconceptions in mind, I adopt a cross-cultural perspective in order to reconsider the role of storageas a crucial form of evidence for understanding economic structures, localised responses and the landscape.In connection with this, I suggest that the storage pits' function-to protect production from human (e.g.thieving) and natural threats-is an aspect of fundamental importance for any attempt to explain socialand cultural changes in Iberia from the beginning of Roman colonisation.
Formal modelling approaches to complexity science in Roman Studies: a manifesto
Brughmans, T., Hanson, J. W., Mandich, M. J., Romanowska, I., Rubio-Campillo, X., Carrignon, S., & Haas, T. D.
Theoretical Roman Archaeology Journal
2
1 19
(2019)
Complexity science refers to the theoretical research perspectives and the formal modelling tools designed to study complex systems. A complex system consists of separate entities interacting following a set of (often simple) rules that collectively give rise to unexpected patterns featuring vastly different properties than the entities that produced them. In recent years a number of case studies have shown that such approaches have great potential for furthering our understanding of the past phenomena explored in Roman Studies. We argue complexity science and formal modelling have great potential for Roman Studies by offering four key advantages: (1) the ability to deal with emergent properties in complex Roman systems; (2) the means to formally specify theories about past Roman phenomena; (3) the power to test aspects of these theories as hypotheses using formal modelling approaches; and (4) the capacity to do all of this in a transparent, reproducible, and cumulative scientific framework. We present a ten-point manifesto that articulates arguments for the more common use in Roman Studies of perspectives, concepts and tools from the broader field of complexity science, which are complementary to empirical inductive approaches. There will be a need for constant constructive collaboration between Romanists with diverse fields of expertise in order to usefully embed complexity science and formal modelling in Roman Studies.
Impact of supports and partnership on family quality of life
Balcells-Balcells, A., Giné, C., Guàrdia-Olmos, J., Summers, J. A., & Mas, J. M.
Research in Developmental Disabilities
85
50 60
(2019)
In recent decades, Family Quality of Life (FQOL) has emerged as a decisive construct, both to improve the living conditions of the families of people with disabilities and to assess the results on the services and supports that they receive.
The aim of this research is to determine the perception of the families regarding their support needs, the quality of their partnerships with professionals, and their FQOL and then identify to what extent the supports of early childhood intervention centers have a positive impact on the families’ FQOL while exploring whether the family–professional partnership has become a fundamental intervening factor of FQOL.
Impact of the intellectual disability severity in the Spanish Personal Outcomes Scale
Carbó-Carreté, M., Guàrdia-Olmos, J., Peró- Cebollero, M., & Giné, C.
Journal of Intellectual Disability Research
63
10
(2019)
The interest in measuring quality of life (QoL) in persons with intellectual disability (ID) has brought about a number of QoL measurements for this population. These measurements need to address two issues that have contributed to enhancing the current instruments. First, the necessity to develop measures with adequate psychometric properties, which has been discussed in recent studies, and second, the agreement between experts in analysing objective and subjective perspectives, as well as the use of self‐report to include the participation of the person with ID. The question that we set out to investigate in this paper is whether the measurements function properly for the person with ID, independent of their level of severity. We used the Spanish version of the Personal Outcomes Scale, as it is a psychometrically sound instrument and includes three sources of information (the person with ID, a professional and a family member).
Interrater agreement on behavioral executive function measures in adolescents with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Krieger, V., Amador-Campos, J. A., & Peró- Cebollero, M.
International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology
19
2
(2019)
Though most children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) show difficulties in behavioral measures of executive functions (EF), few studies have examined interrater agreement in these measures.Objective: To analyze the agreement between parents, teachers and self-reports of behavioral EF in adolescents with ADHD and controls. Method: A sample of 118 adolescents (75 with ADHD and 43 controls) was rated by parents, teachers and the adolescents themselves using the Comprehensive Executive Function Inventory. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and Bland and Altman methods were used to evaluate agreement. Results: The ICC between parents, teachers and self-report was poor or moderate in the group with ADHD; in the control group the agreement was fair to good. The Bland and Altman graphs show that, in the control group, most of the scores are below to the clinical cut-off point, while in the group with ADHD they are above. Conclusions: Agreement between all raters was low. Parents, teachers and adolescents agreed on the absence of deficits in behavioral EF in the control group, and on the presence of deficits in the group with ADHD, although they did not agree on the frequency of these deficits.
Las causas del absentismo de los estudiantes de Derecho según su propia opinión
Rubinat, M. T., Acedo, B. R., Chueca, P. A., i Ivern, X. M. T., Olmos, J. G., Presas, P., & Yarza, I. M.
Revista de educación y derecho. Education and law review
19
8
(2019)
El absentismo en las aulas de los estudiantes de Derecho se ha convertido recientemente en un lugar común de las preocupaciones del profesorado y de la administración universitaria. El objetivo del presente estudio, que cuenta con precedentes en los cursos 2007-2008 y 2009-2010, es identificar los motivos esgrimidos por los estudiantes del grado de Derecho de la UB para explicar las causas del fenómeno absentista. El trabajo, más allá de su vertiente científica, pretende convertirse en un instrumento para poder diseñar políticas, sobre todo docentes y académicas, para reducir el absentismo en aquellos ámbitos en que sea posible. El estudio se ha realizado a partir de la opinión recogida a una muestra de 577 estudiantes del grado durante la primavera del 2017, mediante un muestreo aleatorio simple y a través de un cuestionario con 18 preguntas cerradas sobre los motivos que llevan a los estudiantes a no asistir a clase, 5 variables sociodemográficas y una pregunta abierta final. Se ha realizado un análisis estadístico cuantitativo, un análisis factorial y un análisis cualitativo de las respuestas abiertas. Los resultados indican que los posibles factores vinculados con el absentismo tienen que ver, en un sentido amplio, con la metodología docente –en muchos casos todavía únicamente de tipo magistral– utilizada por los profesores; no son irrelevantes las causas debidas a la organización logística del estudiante, pero en todo caso son causas secundarias. Que los profesores dispongan de otros recursos metodológicos además de la clase magistral y saber otorgar valor añadido a las clases –desarrollando por tanto políticas docentes y formación del profesorado– se antojan como algunas de las soluciones a un fenómeno complejo y multicausal.
Lithic refits as a tool to reinforce postdepositional analysis
López-Ortega, E., Rodríguez-Álvarez, X. P., Ollé, A., & Lozano, S.
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences
11
9
(2019)
Studies of archaeological assemblages recovered from palimpsests encounter difficulties related not only to their nature (the preservation of the remains), but also to the formation of the accumulation itself: the evidence of the different human occupations that the accumulation contains and its temporal resolution. Layer TD10.1 of Gran Dolina (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain) is a 1-m-thick palimpsest from which 48,000 faunal remains and more than 21,000 lithic artefacts have been recovered. Several interdisciplinary studies have shown that TD10.1 is not the result of an intense and long-term occupation of the cavity, but rather the consequence of several repeated occupation events. Additionally, micro-morphological analyses demonstrate that there were only minimal postdepositional disturbances of the sedimentary context containing the artefacts. This paper presents results obtained from the study of lithic refits in a sample from the TD10.1 assemblage, posing the hypothesis that the position and relative distance separating the refitted elements show that they were in fact found in primary position. While in other cases, “raw material units” have been used as a tool to distinguish activity areas and occupational episodes, in this study we use refits to learn about the possible movement—or lack thereof—of the artefacts within the area of the site due to postdepositional factors. The use of refits is proposed as a support or supplement to other kinds of analyses of the postdepositional processes that affect the formation of archaeological layers.
Los negocios de Caius Iuventius Albinus en la Bética
Remesal Rodríguez, J., & Díaz, J. M.
Journal of Roman Archaeology
32
224 249
(2019)
A orillas de los ríos Guadalquivir (Baetis) y Genil (Singilis), en el triángulo formado por las capitales de tres conventus de la Bética, Hispalis, Corduba y Astigi, se extienden los restos arqueológicos de casi un centenar de alfarerías productoras de ánforas del tipo Dressel 20 (fig. 1). Durante los tres primeros siglos d.C., el aceite de oliva producido en el interior de la Bética se comercializaba con estas ánforas globulares que fueron exportadas masivamente a todo el Imperio romano, siendo particularmente abundantes en Roma y en el limes germano/británico.
Neurofunctional activation patterns reflect differences in cognitive control associated with spelling skills in Spanish
Martínez-Ramos, A., Gómez-Velázquez, F. R., Peró-Cebollero, M., González-Garrido, A. A., Guàrdia-Olmos, J., Gudayol-Ferré, E., & Gallardo-Moreno, G. B.
Rev Mex Neuroci,
20
5
(2019)
On the Relationship between Subjective and Objective measures of VR experiences: a Case Study of a Serious Game for Museums International Symposium on Gamification and Games for Learning
I. Rodríguez, A. Puig, J.A. Rodríguez-Aguilar, JL. Arcos, S. Cebrián, A. Bogdanovych, N. Morera, R. Piqué, & A. Palomo.
CEUR-WS.org
2497
(2019)
In this paper we present a Virtual Reality game related to Cultural Heritage. We contribute with an analysis of subjective measures taken from questionnaires filled by users after the VR experience, and objective measures taken from logs during the VR game. Specifically, we were interested on study data globally and in groups of user behaviour. Analysing data globally we see a high value of users’ subjective perceptions. Nevertheless, we found differences of subjective measures when splitting the Novice group. Specifically, the subjective perception of Strugglers is considerably lower than the rest of groups, and this difference is significant. Then, we propose strategies to provide a better experience to Strugglers. We also found correlations between objective and subjective data when they were analysed globally (i.e. without using groups), but these measures did not correlate when they were analysed using behaviour groups
Palaeodemographic modelling supports a population bottleneck during the Pleistocene- Holocene transition in Iberia
de Pablo, J. F. L., Gutiérrez-Roig, M., Gómez- Puche, M., McLaughlin, R., Silva, F., & Lozano, S.
Nature Communications,
10
1
(2019)
Demographic change lies at the core of debates on genetic inheritance and resilience to climate change of prehistoric hunter-gatherers. Here we analyze the radiocarbon record of Iberia to reconstruct long-term changes in population levels and test different models of demographic growth during the Last Glacial-Interglacial transition. Our best fitting demographic model is composed of three phases. First, we document a regime of exponential population increase during the Late Glacial warming period (c.16.6-12.9 kya). Second, we identify a phase of sustained population contraction and stagnation, beginning with the cold episode of the Younger Dryas and continuing through the first half of the Early Holocene (12.9-10.2 kya). Finally, we report a third phase of density-dependent logistic growth (10.2-8 kya), with rapid population increase followed by stabilization. Our results support a population bottleneck hypothesis during the Last Glacial-Interglacial transition, providing a demographic context to interpret major shifts of prehistoric genetic groups in south-west Europe.
Qualitative Evaluation Framework for Paraphrase Identification
Kovatchev, V., Martí, M. A., Salamó, M. & Beltran, J.
Proceedings of the 12th Recent Advances in Natural Language Processing conference.
(2019)
In this paper, we present a new approach for the evaluation, error analysis, and interpretation of supervised and unsupervised Paraphrase Identification (PI) systems. Our evaluation framework makes use of a PI corpus annotated with linguistic phenomena to provide a better understanding and interpretation of the performance of various PI systems. Our approach allows for a qualitative evaluation and comparison of the PI models using human interpretable categories. It does not require modification of the training objective of the systems and does not place additional burden on the developers. We replicate several popular supervised and unsupervised PI systems. Using our evaluation framework we show that: 1) Each system performs differently with respect to a set of linguistic phenomena and makes qualitatively different kinds of errors; 2) Some linguistic phenomena are more challenging than others across all systems.
Sobre un esgrafiado cononomástica ibérica del Tossal de Cal Montblanc (Albesa, Lleida)
Revilla Calvo, V., & Velaza Frías, J.
Palaeohispanica. Revista Sobre Lenguas Y Culturas De La Hispania Antigua
19
189 195
(2019)
La excavación de un asentamiento rural cercano a Lleida ha permitido recuperar un importante contexto cerámico datado entre finales del siglo I e inicios del II d.C. El depósito incluye una amplia representación de terra sigillata y vajillas de uso culinario del periodo, generalmente con pocas señales de uso. Con todo, el interés del repertorio reside en la diversidad y cantidad de los esgrafiados conservados. Los textos se escribieron casi exclusivamente en latín, pero incluyen algún ejemplo en griego. Su contenido se limita a representaciones onomásticas (en latín, griego y autóctonas), aunque también se identifican indicaciones de propiedad y expresiones insultantes o jocosas. En este artículo se analiza uno de los fragmentos, perteneciente a una jarra en cerámica engobada (una producción característica del Alto Imperio en el territorio), que parece conservar una indicación onomástica ibérica y tal vez un teónimo. Esta hipótesis conferiría un carácter votivo a la inscripción. La composición y cronología del conjunto, procedente de un asentamiento situado en la periferia de un municipium romano, permite hacer algunas consideraciones sobre la evolución de la onomástica autóctona en época imperial, así como sobre el contexto cultural y religioso en el que se inserta esta onomástica.
The Animal Cancer Cachexia Score (ACASCO)
Betancourt, A., Busquets, S., Ponce, M., Toledo, M., Guàrdia-Olmos, J., Peró-Cebollero, M., & Argilés, J. M.
Animal models and experimental medicine
2
3
(2019)
None of the published studies involving cancer cachexia experimental models have included a measure of the severity of the syndrome like the scoring system previously developed for human subjects. The aim of the present investigation was to define and validate a cachexia score usable in both rat and mouse tumor models.
The Economy of Laetanian Wine: A Conceptual Framework to Analyse an Intensive/Specialized Winegrowing Production System and Trade (First Century BC to Third Century AD)
Martín Oliveras, A., & Revilla Calvo, V.
In Finding the Limits of the Limes
129 164
(2019)
The Roman economy has been defined as an agrarian regime, where wheat was mainly cultivated combined with livestock farming and intensive cash crops such as wine and olive oil. Possibilities for economic growth in a winegrowing area such as the Laetanian region in Hispania Citerior depended upon changes in agrarian productivity but were subject to agro-ecological and agroeconomic endowments that could affect the settlement patterns, the fluctuations in population, the forms of production related to the vineyard crop capacities, the spread of new techniques of cultivation and processing and the adoption of new technological advances. The combination of these factors explains how comparative advantages arose from other winegrowing territories, achieved through intensification and specialization processes that generated an increase of winemaking production surplus capable of being traded in different overseas markets.
The development of dynamicity in the acquisition of Spanish by Chinese learners
Sun, Y., Díaz, L., & Taulé, M.
ITL-International Journal of Applied Linguistics
170
1
(2019)
The acquisition of aspect in L2 is influenced by the properties of the lexical-aspectual class, coercion at the syntactic-pragmatic interface and grounding information (foreground and background) in discourse. This paper addresses how these linguistic functions influence the acquisition of Spanish aspectual past tenses (pretérito indefinido and pretérito imperfecto) by Mandarin Chinese learners. The results show that activities and accomplishments are more problematic for learners to acquire and that dynamicity, rather than telicity, plays a determinant role for Chinese learners. Moreover, factors concerning coercion – a pragmatic and discourse mechanismremain difficult to master at C1. Our results also support the Discourse Hypothesis, though showing different patterns of association (lexical and grammatical aspect) across levels. We conclude that an integrative perspective gives a better account of the acquisition process of Spanish aspectual tenses
A Sizer model for cell differentiation in Arabidopsis thaliana root growth
Pavelescu, Irina; Vilarrasa-Blasi, Josep; Planas-Riverola, Ainoa; Gonzalez-Garcia, Mary-Paz; Cano-Delgado, Ana I; Ibañes, Marta
MOLECULAR SYSTEMS BIOLOGY
14
e7687
(2018)
Plant roots grow due to cell division in the meristem and subsequent cell elongation and differentiation, a tightly coordinated process that ensures growth and adaptation to the changing environment. How the newly formed cells decide to stop elongating becoming fully differentiated is not yet understood. To address this question, we established a novel approach that combines the quantitative phenotypic variability of wild-type Arabidopsis roots with computational data from mathematical models. Our analyses reveal that primary root growth is consistent with a Sizer mechanism, in which cells sense their length and stop elongating when reaching a threshold value. The local expression of brassinosteroid receptors only in the meristem is sufficient to set this value. Analysis of roots insensitive to BR signaling and of roots with gibberellin biosynthesis inhibited suggests distinct roles of these hormones on cell expansion termination. Overall, our study underscores the value of using computational modeling together with quantitative data to understand root growth.
Redundancy and cooperation in Notch intercellular signaling
Luna-Escalante, Juan C; Formosa-Jordan, Pau; Ibañes, Marta
DEVELOPMENT
145
UNSP dev154807
(2018)
During metazoan development, Notch signaling drives spatially coordinated differentiation by establishing communication between adjacent cells. This occurs through either lateral inhibition, in which adjacent cells acquire distinct fates, or lateral induction, in which all cells become equivalent. Notch signaling is commonly activated by several distinct ligands, each of which drives signaling with a different efficiency upon binding to the Notch receptor of adjacent cells. Moreover, these ligands can also be distinctly regulated by Notch signaling. Under such complex circumstances, the overall spatial coordination becomes elusive. Here, we address this issue through both mathematical and computational analyses. Our results show that when two ligands have distinct efficiencies and compete for the same Notch receptor, they cooperate to drive new signaling states, thereby conferring additional robustness and evolvability to Notch signaling. Counterintuitively, whereas antagonistically regulated ligands cooperate to drive and enhance the response that is expected from the more efficient ligand, equivalently regulated ligands coordinate emergent spatial responses that are dependent on both ligands. Our study highlights the importance of ligand efficiency in multi-ligand scenarios, and can explain previously reported complex phenotypes.
Physical properties of voltage gated pores
Ramirez-Piscina, Laureano; Sancho, Jose M
EUROPEAN PHYSICAL JOURNAL B
91
(2018)
Experiments on single ionic channels have contributed to a large extent to our current view on the function of cell membrane. In these experiments the main observables are the physical quantities: ionic concentration, membrane electrostatic potential and ionic fluxes, all of them presenting large fluctuations. The classical theory of Goldman-Hodking-Katz assumes that an open channel can be well described by a physical pore where ions follow statistical physics. Nevertheless real molecular channels are active pores with open and close dynamical states. By skipping the molecular complexity of real channels, here we present the internal structure and calibration of two active pore models. These models present a minimum set of degrees of freedom, specifically ion positions and gate states, which follow Langevin equations constructed from a unique potential energy functional and by using standard rules of statistical physics. Numerical simulations of both models are implemented and the results show that they have dynamical properties very close to those observed in experiments of Na and K molecular channels. In particular a significant effect of the external ion concentration on gating dynamics is predicted, which is consistent with previous experimental observations. This approach can be extended to other channel types with more specific phenomenology.
A unified description of colloidal thermophoresis
Burelbach, Jerome; Frenkel, Daan; Pagonabarraga, Ignacio; Eiser, Erika
EUROPEAN PHYSICAL JOURNAL E
41
7
(2018)
We use the dynamic length and time scale separation in suspensions to formulate a general description of colloidal thermophoresis. Our approach allows an unambiguous definition of separate contributions to the colloidal flux and clarifies the physical mechanisms behind non-equilibrium motion of colloids. In particular, we derive an expression for the interfacial force density that drives single-particle thermophoresis in non-ideal fluids. The issuing relations for the transport coefficients explicitly show that interfacial thermophoresis has a hydrodynamic character that cannot be explained by a purely thermodynamic consideration. Our treatment generalises the results from other existing approaches, giving them a clear interpretation within the framework of non-equilibrium thermodynamics.