Substitution of soybean meal for yellow mealworm meal in the diet of slow-growing chickens provides comparable carcass traits and meat quality.

1. This study investigated the effects of incorporating yellow mealworm (Tenebrio molitor) larval meal as a partial and/or complete substitute for soybean meal on carcass and meat quality in slow-growing chickens.2. A total of 256 one-day-old male broilers were randomly allocated to 1 of 32 experimental units distributed among four treatments (n = 8): the control treatment (C), where soybean (SB) meal was the protein source, and three experimental treatments, in which SB meal was replaced by Tenebrio molitor (TM) larval meal at levels of 50% (T1), 75% (T2) and 100% (T3), respectively. Three different feed phases (1-29; 29-57 and 57-92 d of age) were used for each treatment. All chickens were slaughtered at 92 d of age, with eight animals per treatment randomly selected to assess carcass and meat quality. Near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIR) was used to classify meat quality.3. Carcass traits were not significantly different between treatments, except for head and thigh weight, which were higher in the control group (p < 0.01). In terms of physicochemical characteristics, treatment T2 showed less yellowness (p < 0.05), while water and cooking losses were lower in treatments T1 and T2 (p < 0.01). Meat from both T1 and T2 groups had lower shear forces (p < 0.01), higher moisture content (p < 0.01) and less protein (p < 0.05) compared to treatments C andT3. Birds fed T3 had the highest meat ash content (p < 0.01). Chickens consuming TM had higher monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) levels and lower polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) and n-6 acidsPUFA (p < 0.01).4. Substitution of SB with TM is a protein alternative for slow-growing chickens that supports carcass and meat quality comparable to those fed a conventional diet.

A Self-Administered Multicomponent Web-Based Mental Health Intervention for the Mexican Population During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has become a public health emergency of international concern; it has not only threatened people's physical health but has also affected their mental health and psychological well-being. It is necessary to develop and offer strategies to reduce the psychological impact of the outbreak and promote adaptive coping. OBJECTIVE: This study protocol aims to describe a self-administered web-based intervention (Mental Health COVID-19) based on the principles of positive psychology supported by elements of cognitive behavioral therapy and behavioral activation therapy to reduce the symptoms of anxiety and depression and increase positive emotions and sleep quality during and after the COVID-19 outbreak through a telepsychology system. METHODS: A randomized controlled clinical superiority trial with two independent groups will be performed, with intrasubject measures at four evaluation periods: pretest, posttest, 3-month follow-up, and 6-month follow-up. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of two groups: self-administered intervention with assistance via chat or self-administered intervention without assistance via chat. The total required sample size will be 166 participants (83 per group). RESULTS: The clinical trial is ongoing. This protocol was approved by the Research Ethics Board of the Free School of Psychology-University of Behavioral Sciences (Escuela libre de Psicología-Universidad de Ciencias del Comportamiento). The aim is to publish the preliminary results in December 2020. A conservative approach will be adopted, and the size effect will be estimated using the Cohen d index with a significance level (α) of .05 (95% reliability) and a conventional 80% power statistic. CONCLUSIONS: The central mechanism of action will be to investigate the effectiveness of an intervention based on positive psychology through a web platform that can be delivered through computers and tablets, with content that has been rigorously contextualized to the Mexican culture to provide functional strategies to help the target users cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04468893; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04468893. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/23117.

Eficacia de un programa terapéutico para pacientes con psicosis (ATIICO) en la mejora de la adherencia al tratamiento / Efficacy of a therapeutic program for patients with psychosis (ATIICO) for the improvement in treatment adherence

OBJETIVO: evaluar la eficacia de este programa terapéutico para pacientes con psicosis (ATIICO) en la mejora de la adherencia al tratamiento, la actitud hacia la enfermedad, la impresión clínica, los síntomas negativos y positivos, el nivel de insight, el grado de discapacidad y el nivel de calidad de vida. MÉTODO: se realizó un estudio cuasi experimental antes-después sin grupo control. La población de estudio estuvo formada por todos los pacientes incorporados al programa ATIICO. Dichos pacientes fueron evaluados al entrar en el programa y al año, con escalas de adherencia (CRS, DAI-10); psicopatología(PANSS); clínica (ICG, GAF); discapacidad (DAS/WHO); insight (Birchwood)y calidad de vida (EuroQol5D).La intervención consistió en un programa terapéutico desarrollado por un equipo multidisciplinar responsable de elaborar un tratamiento individualizado y adaptado a las necesidades de cada paciente y basado en criterios de: accesibilidad, inmediatez y continuidad, intervención en crisis, intervención integral, atención específica a las familias y atención a la cronicidad. Para el análisis de los datos se utilizó la prueba de los rangos consigno de Wilcoxon para comparar medias de muestras relacionadas y el Test de McNemar para variables cualitativas. RESULTADOS: se encontraron mejorías significativas en la adherencia medida, a nivel psicopatológico y clínico en las subescalas de síntomas positivos y psicopatología general en la discapacidad total y todas sus subescalas. No se encontraron mejorías en la actitudal tratamiento medida ni en la subescala de síntomas negativos, ni en el insight, ni en la calidad de vida. CONCLUSIONES: las intervenciones intensivas e integradoras pueden ser eficaces incluso en aquellos pacientes con psicosis másreacios al tratamiento

OBJECTIVE: to evaluate the efficacy of this therapeutic program for patients with psychosis (ATIICO) in the improvement of: adherence to treatment, attitude towards the disease, clinical impression, negative and positive symptoms, level of insight, degree of disability, and level of quality of life. METHOD: a quasi-experimental before-and-after study was conducted, without any control arm. The population of this study was formed by all patients included in the ATIICO program. Said patients were evaluated when entering the program and atone year, with scales for adherence (CRS, DAI-10); psychopathology(PANSS); clinical scales (ICG, GAF); disability (DAS/WHO); insight(Birchwood) and quality of life (EuroQol5D).The intervention consisted in a therapeutic program conducted by a multidisciplinary team who was in charge of preparing an individualized treatment, adapted to the needs of each patient, and based on the following criteria: accessibility, immediacy and continuity, intervention in a crisis, comprehensive intervention, specific care for families, and chronic care. For data analysis, Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used in order to compare medians between the associated samples, and McNemar Test was used for qualitative variables. RESULTS: significant improvements were found in the adherence measured, at psychopathological and clinical level, in the subscales for positive symptoms and overall psychopathology, in total disability and all its sub-scales. No improvements were found in the attitude towards treatment measured, or in the sub-scale for negative symptoms, insight or quality of life. CONCLUSIONS: intensive and integrating interventions can be effective even in those patients with psychosis who are more reluctant to treatment

Incidence and importance of de novo diabetes mellitus after heart transplantation.

INTRODUCTION: Diabetes mellitus is one of the main metabolic complications after heart transplantation. The aims of our study were to determine the incidence and factors that determine the appearance of posttransplantation diabetes mellitus (PTDM) and its prognostic value. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a retrospective study of all heart transplant recipients in our hospital from January 1993 to December 2005, including 116 patients with prolonged monitoring with 59-month median follow-up. We divided the patients into two groups, according to whether they had de novo diabetes (group 1) or no diabetes (group 2). RESULTS: Patients with PTDM were significantly older, with a median difference (MD) of 5.4 years (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.53-9.28) and a greater body mass index (MD, 3.37 kg/m(2); 95% CI, 1.68-5.06). Moreover, a greater percentage of patients in group 1 had ischemia compared to other etiologies. However, no significant differences were observed regarding other cardiovascular risk factors. PTDM was associated with a greater incidence of posttransplant hypertension (51.6% in group 1 vs 48.4% in group 2, P = .08) and posttransplant renal failure (59.5% in group 1 vs 40.5% in group 2, P = .001). However, no differences were observed in overall survival. CONCLUSIONS: Age, overweight, and ischemic origin of cardiopathy were the main risk factors for the development of PTDM in our population. Although no differences were observed in survival rates, PTDM was associated with a greater incidence of hypertension and renal insufficiency, which may have long-term influences on patient survival.

Theory of microphase separation on side-chain liquid-crystalline polymers with flexible spacers.

We model a melt of monodisperse side-chain liquid-crystalline polymers as a melt of comb copolymers in which the side groups are rod-coil diblock copolymers. We consider both excluded-volume and Maier-Saupe interactions. The first acts among any pair of segments while the latter acts only between rods. Using a free-energy functional calculated from this microscopic model, we study the spinodal stability of the isotropic phase against density and orientational fluctuations. The phase diagram obtained in this way predicts nematic and smectic instabilities as well as the existence of microphases or phases with modulated wave vector but without nematic ordering. Such microphases are the result of the competition between the incompatibility among the blocks and the connectivity constraints imposed by the spacer and the backbone. Also the effects of the polymerization degree and structural conformation of the monomeric units on the phase behavior of the side-chain liquid-crystalline polymers are studied.