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| 2. |
- Cadenas-Sanchez, Cristina, et al.
(författare)
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Physical fitness reference standards for preschool children : The PREFIT project.
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport. - : Elsevier. - 1440-2440 .- 1878-1861. ; 22:4, s. 430-437
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- OBJECTIVES: Reference values are necessary for classifying children, for health screening, and for early prevention as many non-communicable diseases aggravate during growth and development. While physical fitness reference standards are available in children aged 6 and older, such information is lacking in preschool children. Therefore, the purposes of this study were (1) to provide sex-and age-specific physical fitness reference standards for Spanish preschool children; and (2) to study sex differences across this age period and to characterise fitness performance throughout the preschool period.DESIGN: Cross-sectional.METHODS: A total of 3179 preschool children (1678 boys) aged 2.8-6.4 years old from Spain were included in the present study. Physical fitness was measured using the PREFIT battery.RESULTS: Age- and sex-specific percentiles for the physical fitness components are provided. Boys performed better than girls in the cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength, and speed-agility tests over the whole preschool period studied and for the different percentiles. In contrast, girls performed slightly better than boys in the balance test. Older children had better performance in all fitness tests than their younger counterparts.CONCLUSIONS: Our study provides age- and sex-specific physical fitness reference standards in preschool children allowing interpretation of fitness assessment. Sexual dimorphism in fitness tests exists already at preschool age, and these differences become larger with age. These findings will help health, sport, and school professionals to identify preschool children with a high/very low fitness level, to examine changes in fitness over time, and to analyse those changes obtained due to intervention effects.
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| 3. |
- Carpio, Antonio J., et al.
(författare)
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Hunting as a source of alien species : a European review
- 2017
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Ingår i: Biological Invasions. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1387-3547 .- 1573-1464. ; 19:4, s. 1197-1211
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Hunting activities are responsible for the translocation and restocking of millions of animals throughout Europe, including the introduction of alien species. In a context of the growing use of game translocations and of increasing concern about the impact of biological invasions, our goal is to review the role of alien species introduced primarily for hunting purposes on the European scale. In particular, we explore: (1) the relative importance of game species in the context of alien species introductions; (2) the temporal evolution of the number of species introduced for hunting purposes; (3) the contribution of different taxa; (4) the pattern of introduced game species composition across countries (in terms of similarity), and (5) the underlying human demographic factors driving the diversity of introduced game species per country. According to our results, 24.3% of the mammals and 30.2% of the birds introduced into Europe during the last century were released primarily for hunting purposes, in total, 93 species (63 birds and 36 mammals), the most important taxa being Artiodactyls, Anseriformes and Galliformes. The species composition differed among countries, with a higher diversity of introduced game species in larger countries and in those with a higher human population density and proportion of hunters. This review stresses that hunting was a significant pathway for the introduction of invasive species into Europe in the last century. Since some of the game species introduced have had severe environmental impacts on many European regions, and introductions of non-native game species are still occurring, it is essential to improve regulations and increase public awareness regarding invasive game animals. This will help to preserve biodiversity and improve the sustainability of current hunting schemes in increasingly managed European ecosystems.
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| 4. |
- de Jesus Beleno-Saenz, Kelvin, et al.
(författare)
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Non-Invasive Method to Detect Infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex in Wild Boar by Measurement of Volatile Organic Compounds Obtained from Feces with an Electronic Nose System
- 2021
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Ingår i: Sensors. - : MDPI. - 1424-8220. ; 21:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- More effective methods to detect bovine tuberculosis, caused by Mycobacterium bovis, in wildlife, is of paramount importance for preventing disease spread to other wild animals, livestock, and human beings. In this study, we analyzed the volatile organic compounds emitted by fecal samples collected from free-ranging wild boar captured in Donana National Park, Spain, with an electronic nose system based on organically-functionalized gold nanoparticles. The animals were separated by the age group for performing the analysis. Adult (>24 months) and sub-adult (12-24 months) animals were anesthetized before sample collection, whereas the juvenile (<12 months) animals were manually restrained while collecting the sample. Good accuracy was obtained for the adult and sub-adult classification models: 100% during the training phase and 88.9% during the testing phase for the adult animals, and 100% during both the training and testing phase for the sub-adult animals, respectively. The results obtained could be important for the further development of a non-invasive and less expensive detection method of bovine tuberculosis in wildlife populations.
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| 6. |
- Matabuena, Marcos, et al.
(författare)
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Identification of Asthma Phenotypes in the Spanish MEGA Cohort Study Using Cluster Analysis
- 2023
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Ingår i: Archivos de Bronconeumologia. - : Elsevier BV. - 0300-2896. ; 59:4, s. 223-231
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Introduction: The definition of asthma phenotypes has not been fully established, neither there are cluster studies showing homogeneous results to solidly establish clear phenotypes. The purpose of this study was to develop a classification algorithm based on unsupervised cluster analysis, identifying clusters that represent clinically relevant asthma phenotypes that may share asthma-related outcomes. Methods: We performed a multicentre prospective cohort study, including adult patients with asthma (N = 512) from the MEGA study (Mechanisms underlying the Genesis and evolution of Asthma). A standardised clinical history was completed for each patient. Cluster analysis was performed using the kernel k-groups algorithm. Results: Four clusters were identified. Cluster 1 (31.5% of subjects) includes adult-onset atopic patients with better lung function, lower BMI, good asthma control, low ICS dose, and few exacerbations. Cluster 2 (23.6%) is made of adolescent-onset atopic asthma patients with normal lung function, but low adherence to treatment (59% well-controlled) and smokers (48%). Cluster 3 (17.1%) includes adult-onset patients, mostly severe non-atopic, with overweight, the worse lung function and asthma control, and receiving combination of treatments. Cluster 4 (26.7%) consists of the elderly-onset patients, mostly female, atopic (64%), with high BMI and normal lung function, prevalence of smokers and comorbidities. Conclusion: We defined four phenotypes of asthma using unsupervised cluster analysis. These clusters are clinically relevant and differ from each other as regards FEV1, age of onset, age, BMI, atopy, asthma severity, exacerbations, control, social class, smoking and nasal polyps.
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| 7. |
- Nol, Pauline, et al.
(författare)
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Evaluation of Volatile Organic Compounds Obtained from Breath and Feces to Detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex in Wild Boar (Sus scrofa) in Donana National Park, Spain
- 2020
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Ingår i: Pathogens. - : MDPI AG. - 2076-0817. ; 9:5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The presence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) in wild swine, such as in wild boar (Sus scrofa) in Eurasia, is cause for serious concern. Development of accurate, efficient, and noninvasive methods to detect MTBC in wild swine would be highly beneficial to surveillance and disease management efforts in affected populations. Here, we describe the first report of identification of volatile organic compounds (VOC) obtained from the breath and feces of wild boar to distinguish between MTBC-positive and MTBC-negative boar. We analyzed breath and fecal VOC collected from 15 MTBC-positive and 18 MTBC-negative wild boar in Donana National Park in Southeast Spain. Analyses were divided into three age classes, namely, adults (>2 years), sub-adults (12-24 months), and juveniles (<12 months). We identified significant compounds by applying the two-tailed statistical t-test for two samples assuming unequal variance, with an alpha value of 0.05. One statistically significant VOC was identified in breath samples from adult wild boar and 14 were identified in breath samples from juvenile wild boar. One statistically significant VOC was identified in fecal samples collected from sub-adult wild boar and three were identified in fecal samples from juvenile wild boar. In addition, discriminant function analysis (DFA) was used to build classification models for MTBC prediction in juvenile animals. Using DFA, we were able to distinguish between MTBC-positive juvenile wild boar and MTBC-negative juvenile wild boar using breath VOC or fecal VOC. Based on our results, further research is warranted and should be performed using larger sample sizes, as well as wild boar from various geographic locations, to verify these compounds as biomarkers for MTBC infection in this species. This new approach to detect MTBC infection in free-ranging wild boar potentially comprises a reliable and efficient screening tool for surveillance in animal populations.
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| 8. |
- Salomone, Erica, et al.
(författare)
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Use of early intervention for young children with autism spectrum disorder across Europe
- 2016
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Ingår i: Autism. - : SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD. - 1362-3613 .- 1461-7005. ; 20:2, s. 233-249
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Little is known about use of early interventions for autism spectrum disorder in Europe. Parents of children with autism spectrum disorder aged 7 years or younger (N = 1680) were recruited through parent organisations in 18 European countries and completed an online survey about the interventions their child received. There was considerable variation in use of interventions, and in some countries more than 20% of children received no intervention at all. The most frequently reported interventions were speech and language therapy (64%) and behavioural, developmental and relationship-based interventions (55%). In some parts of Europe, use of behavioural, developmental and relationship-based interventions was associated with higher parental educational level and time passed since diagnosis, rather than with child characteristics. These findings highlight the need to monitor use of intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder in Europe in order to contrast inequalities.
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| 9. |
- Taverner, Joaquin, et al.
(författare)
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Computational affective knowledge representation foragents located in a multicultural environment
- 2024
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Ingår i: Human-centric Computing and Information Sciences. - : Korea Computer Industry Association (KCIA). - 2192-1962. ; 14
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper, we propose a new computational model for affective knowledge representation that will be used for affective agents located in a multicultural environment. To this end, we present the results of two experiments, the first of which determines the most appropriate labels to define the pleasure-arousal dimensions in the culture and language of the agent’s location. As an example, we use the Portuguese and Swedish languages. The second experiment identifies the most suitable values of pleasure-arousal dimensions for each emotion expressed in these example languages. The results obtained are compared with a previous model developed for agents interacting with European Spanish-speaking people. Results show significant differences in the values of pleasure and arousal associated with emotions across languages and cultures. The results also show no significant differences in gender or age when associating levels of pleasure-arousal to emotions. We propose two applications of these representation models, such as a model of an agent capable of adapting its affective behavior to different cultural environments and a human-aware planning scenario in which the agent uses this dimensional representation to recognize the user’s affective state and select the best strategy to redirect that affective state to the target state.
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