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© 2024 The authors. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY)., The high prevalence of burnout in resident physicians is expected to have increased as a result of the expansion of the pandemic. We conducted a systematic review with a meta-analysis of studies conducted during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic on burnout in residents and potential associated risk factors. Methods: The search was done in the Web of Science, MEDLINE, Scopus, and Lillac databases (April 2020–October 2021) using a priori protocol based on the PRISMA guidelines. The Newcastle Ottawa Scale was used to assess the risk of bias in the included studies. We estimated the pooled prevalence (95% CI) of burnout and the prevalence ratio (95% CI) of each risk factor associated. Results: We included 23 studies from 451 potential initial articles and those written in the English language; all of the collected studies were cross-sectional with anonymous online surveys, involving 4,998 responders (34%), of which 53.2% were female responders, 51% were R1-2, and 71% were in direct contact with COVID-19 patients. Eighty-seven percent presented a low-to-moderate risk of bias. Publication bias was not shown. The estimated pooled prevalence of burnout was 40% (95% CI = 0.26 – 0.57). Burnout was associated with psychiatry history (PR = 4.60, 95% CI = 1.06 – 20.06). There were no differences by gender, civil status, children in-charge, year of residency, or time exposure to COVID-19. Discussion: The overall prevalence of burnout in residents during the first wave of the pandemic was in line with the results described in this collective before the pandemic. The presence of a psychiatry history was a potential burnout risk factor, suggesting a high vulnerability during the peak of the stress period and the need to implement mental health surveillance for this subgroup., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

Objectives: Identifying profiles of hospitalized COVID-19 patients and explore their association with different degrees of severity of COVID-19 outcomes (i.e. in-hospital mortality, ICU assistance, and invasive mechanical ventilation). The findings of this study could inform the development of multiple care intervention strategies to improve patient outcomes. Methods: Prospective multicentre cohort study during four different waves of COVID-19 from March 1st, 2020 to August 31st, 2021 in four health consortiums within the southern Barcelona metropolitan region. From a starting point of over 292 demographic characteristics, comorbidities, vital signs, severity scores, and clinical analytics at hospital admission, we used both clinical judgment and supervised statistical methods to reduce to the 36 most informative completed covariates according to the disease outcomes for each wave. Patients were then grouped using an unsupervised semiparametric method (KAMILA). Results were interpreted by clinical and statistician team consensus to identify clinically-meaningful patient profiles. Results: The analysis included nw1 = 1657, nw2 = 697, nw3 = 677, and nw4 = 787 hospitalized-COVID-19 patients for each of the four waves. Clustering analysis identified 2 patient profiles for waves 1 and 3, while 3 profiles were determined for waves 2 and 4. Patients allocated in those groups showed a different percentage of disease outcomes (e.g., wave 1: 15.9% (Cluster 1) vs. 31.8% (Cluster 2) for in-hospital mortality rate). The main factors to determine groups were the patient’s age and number of obese patients, number of comorbidities, oxygen support requirement, and various severity scores. The last wave is also influenced by the massive incorporation of COVID-19 vaccines. Conclusion: Our study suggests that a single care model at hospital admission may not meet the needs of hospitalized-COVID-19 adults. A clustering approach appears to be appropriate for helping physicians to differe, "DF, NP, and GM have been supported by l’Agència de Gestio ´ d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR) de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain) [2020PANDE00148] (https://agaur.gencat. cat/en/inici/index.html). DF and NP have been supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacio ´n (Spain) [PID2019-104830RB-I00/ DOI (AEI): 10.13039/501100011033] (https://www.aei. gob.es/en/announcements/announcements-finder/ proyectos-idi-2019-modalidades-retosinvestigacion-generacion) and by grant 2021 SGR 01421 (GRBIO, https://agaur.gencat.cat/web/ shared/OVT/Departaments/REU/A_Universitats/ AGAUR/Documents/RECERCA/SGR/Resolucio_ definitiva_SGR-Cat_2021.pdf) administrated by the Departament de Recerca i Universitats de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain).", Peer Reviewed, Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::3 - Salut i Benestar, Postprint (published version)

Data Availability Statement: https://github.com/mariapalau/tennis-retirements. © 2024 Palau et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited., The demands of professional tennis, including physical and psychological aspects, contribute to the frequency of retirements at elite levels of the sport. The aim of this study was to analyze epidemiological patterns and risk factors associated with retirements in previous ATP and WTA Tour tournaments. A retrospective cohort study was conducted. This study focused on previous ATP and WTA Tour tournaments. The ATP database encompassed 584,806 matches, while the WTA database included 267,380 matches. To assess retirements, potential risk factors such as playing surface, tournament category, match round, and player age were analyzed. Incidence rates were calculated for the period between 1978–2019 for men and 1994–2018 for women. The overall incidence rate was 1.56 (95%CI: 1.54, 1.59) and 1.36 (95%CI: 1.33, 1.39) retirements per 1000 games played in male and female competitions, respectively. Retirements increased over the years. Higher incidence rates were observed on hard (1.59 [95%CI: 1.56, 1.63] and 1.39 [95%CI: 1.34, 1.44]) and clay (1.60 [95%CI: 1.57, 1.63] and 1.36 [95%CI: 1.32, 1.41]) compared to grass courts (0.79 [95%CI: 0.65, 0.94] and 1.06 [95%CI: 0.88, 1.27]). Risk factors differed by gender, with tournament category significant in males (IRR: 1.23 [95%CI: 1.19, 1.28] in ITF vs ATP) and match round in females (IRR: 0.92 [95%CI: 0.88, 0.98] in preliminary vs final). This study provides valuable insights for coaches, players, support teams, and epidemiologists regarding retirements and associated risk factors in previous ATP and WTA Tour tournaments, contributing to injury prevention strategies., This research was funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain) (PID2019- 104830RB-I00) and the Departament de Recerca i Universitats de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain) [2021 SGR 01421 (GRBIO)]. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

Background Therapeutic ceiling of care is the maximum level of care deemed appropiate to offer to a patient based on their clinical profile and therefore their potential to derive benefit, within the context of the availability of resources. To our knowledge, there are no models to predict ceiling of care decisions in COVID-19 patients or other acute illnesses. We aimed to develop and validate a clinical prediction model to predict ceiling of care decisions using information readily available at the point of hospital admission. Methods We studied a cohort of adult COVID-19 patients who were hospitalized in 5 centres of Catalonia between 2020 and 2021. All patients had microbiologically proven SARS-CoV-2 infection at the time of hospitalization. Their therapeutic ceiling of care was assessed at hospital admission. Comorbidities collected at hospital admission, age and sex were considered as potential factors for predicting ceiling of care. A logistic regression model was used to predict the ceiling of care. The final model was validated internally and externally using a cohort obtained from the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. The TRIPOD Checklist for Prediction Model Development and Validation from the EQUATOR Network has been followed to report the model. Results A total of 5813 patients were included in the development cohort, of whom 31.5% were assigned a ceiling of care at the point of hospital admission. A model including age, COVID-19 wave, chronic kidney disease, dementia, dyslipidaemia, heart failure, metastasis, peripheral vascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and stroke or transient ischaemic attack had excellent discrimination and calibration. Subgroup analysis by sex, age group, and relevant comorbidities showed excellent figures for calibration and discrimination. External validation on the Leeds Teaching Hospitals cohort also showed good performance. Conclusions Ceiling of care can be predicted with great accuracy from a patient’s, This study was partially funded by Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca del Departament d’Empresa i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya (2020PANDE00148). The funding was used to collect data from the 4th wave in the MetroSud cohort. This work has also been supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain) [PID2019-104830RB-I00/ DOI (AEI): https://doi.org/10.13039/501100011033, and by grant 2021 SGR 01421 (GRBIO) administrated by the Departament de Recerca i Universitats de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain)., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

This study delves into the intricate dynamics of urban mobility, a pivotal aspect for policymakers, businesses, and communities alike. By deciphering patterns of movement within a city, stakeholders can craft targeted interventions to mitigate traffic congestion peaks, optimizing both resource allocation and individual travel routes. Focused on Barcelona, Spain, this paper draws on data sourced from the city council’s open data service. Through a blend of exploratory analysis, visualization techniques, and modeling methodologies—including time series analysis and the eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) algorithm—the research endeavors to forecast traffic conditions. Additionally, a study of variable importance is carried out, and Shapley Additive Explanations are applied to enhance the interpretability of model outputs. Findings underscore the limitations of traditional forecasting methods in capturing the nuanced spatial and temporal dependencies present in traffic flows, particularly over medium- to long-term horizons. However, the XGBoost model demonstrates robust performance, with the area under ROC curves consistently exceeding 80%, indicating its efficacy in handling non-linear traffic data variables., This work has been partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science (PID2019-111100RBC21-C22/AEI/10.13039/501100011033), as well as by the Barcelona City Council and Fundació “la Caixa” under the framework of the Barcelona Science Plan 2020–2023 (grant 21S09355-001). The authors appreciate the support received from the research group GRBIO under the grant 2021 SGR 01421 from the Departament de Recerca i Universitats de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain)., Peer Reviewed, Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::11 - Ciutats i Comunitats Sostenibles, Postprint (published version)

Background: It has been suggested that a relevant proportion of patients do not respond to nonselective beta-blockers (NSBB)s, which raises questions regarding the need for individualized therapy. The existence of potential heterogeneity in the treatment response can be assessed using the variability ratio (VR) of the outcome measurement (in this case, HVPG) between the treated and placebo groups. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials to assess the potential heterogeneity in the portal pressure response to NSBBs. Methods: After a systematic search, we quantified the heterogeneity of treatment response with the VR between the treatment and control groups, with VR > 1 indicating potential heterogeneity. We used a similar approach to compare carvedilol with propranolol and statins with placebo. Results: We identified 18 studies that included 965 patients. A comparison between beta-blockers and placebo showed a pooled VR of 0.99 (95% CI:0.87–1.14), which suggests a homogeneous HVPG response to NSBB at the individual patient level (ie, no evidence to support that some patients responded to beta-blockers and others did not). For the comparison between carvedilol and propranolol, pooled VR was 0.97 (95% CI 0.82–1.14), suggesting that carvedilol achieves a greater average response (rather than an increase in the proportion of responders). There was no evidence of a heterogeneous response to statins. Conclusion: Our analysis did not support the existence of a heterogeneous patient-by-patient response to NSBBs in cirrhosis. These findings challenge the concept of personalized therapy based on portal pressure response and indicate that routine portal pressure measurement may not be necessary to guide NSBB therapy., The authors JC and EC acknowledge the support of the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain) [PID2019- 104830RB-I00/ DOI (AEI): 10.13039/501100011033] and the Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain) (2021SGR01421)., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), A key assumption for the application of methods concerning censored data is that the random nature of the censoring mechanism should be ignorable when making likelihood-based inferences. The constant-sum property is an ignorability assumption that is critical for the correct use of a simplified version of the likelihood function and for the identifiability of the survival function [Oller R, Gómez G, Calle ML. Interval censoring: identifiability and the constant-sum property. Biometrika. 2007;94(1):61–70]. It has been proven to be weaker than the assumption of independence between the lifetime variable and the assessment process that leads to censored data. An important caveat is that the theoretical framework established in the class of constant-sum censoring models requires full knowledge of the support of the lifetime variable. In the present work we investigate the consequences of a wrong specification of the support. One might naively expect that this information is not necessary and that, for instance, the estimation of the survival function would assign null or almost null probabilities to regions outside the support. We reveal via examples that this premise is generally true but there are also several exceptions. To shed light on this issue, we introduce a new ignorability condition that extends the constant-sum property and removes the knowledge of the support from the equation. We also show that the independence assumption is stronger than the new extended constant-sum condition., This research was funded in whole, or in part, by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain) [PID2019-104830RBI00/ DOI (AEI): 10.13039/501100011033] and by the Generalitat de Catalunya [01421 SGR-Cat 2021 and 00402 SGR-Cat 2021]., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

Swimming pools are characterized by high humidity, high temperature, an aggressive environment caused by disinfection processes, high energy consumption, and extensive technical infrastructure. As a result, these facilities are at high risk of damage, including structural damage, which can have catastrophic consequences in extreme cases. Adequate ventilation plays a critical role in natatoria. The technical condition of swimming pool facilities should be regularly inspected to ensure that they are safe for the public. Various techniques can be used for this purpose. In the present study, a numerical analysis of ventilation performance and an assessment of the risks associated with design and construction errors in the ventilation system were conducted in a swimming pool building with a volume of 116,280.7 m3 and a surface area of 20,188.6 m2 in north-eastern Poland. Two scenarios were analyzed: the performance of the originally designed ventilation system and the performance of the ventilation system installed in the examined facility. The analyses were conducted with the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools in the FloVent program. Air distribution was determined by measuring ventilation parameters and conducting smoke tests in analyzed natatorium, and the obtained data were consistent with the results of the numerical analysis. The analyzed scenarios were compared to identify the risks associated with inadequate ventilation in swimming pools. A significant decrease in air supply led to local increases in air velocity and worsened thermal comfort parameters in the real-world facility. In addition, the decrease in air supply induced changes in air distribution and prevented air streams from reaching all parts of the natatorium. Some areas were inadequately ventilated, and condensed water vapor settled on the building’s glass facade and the roof, posing a direct threat to structural elements. The results of the numerical analysis were congruent with on-site, Peer Reviewed, Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::11 - Ciutats i Comunitats Sostenibles, Preprint

Reverse engineering is a method of obtaining information about the geometry of an existing object. To obtain such information, among others: 3D laser scanning is used. The result of measurements using this method is a point cloud. The research examined the possibilities of using scanning data to analyze the technical condition of a historical building. Based on the inventoried point cloud, the deflections of beams and ceilings were determined. The course and width of scratches, cracks and defects were determined. It was found that the basic factor increasing the usefulness of the point cloud for various analyzes is its density, which depends on the accuracy of the scan performed. Thanks to a detailed point cloud, a digital three-dimensional model (digital twin) of the existing object was created and analyzed using computer methods. The aim of the presented research was to evaluate the use of reverse engineering to analyze the condition of a historic water tower. Moreover, the real possibilities and advantages of a relatively new measurement method were checked. The thesis was put forward that laser scanning and reverse engineering are effective methods supporting the assessment of the building condition. Based on the available literature and in situ tests, the problem was described and analyzes were carried out to assess the condition of the historic water tower building. Measurements with a 3D laser scanner and a tachymeter were also carried out in the field. Then, the digital model was used to measure the deflection and possible buckling of beams and ceilings on individual floors. The correctness of the formulated method for solving the problem was verified on the basis of tests of sample structural elements. It has been shown that it is possible to directly identify the elevations of the bottom of the ceiling elements and verify whether the existing deflections do not exceed the standard limits. As research has shown, a point cloud resulting from reverse engineer, This research was partially supported by the Departament de Recerca i Universitats de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain) (2021 SGR 01421 (GRBIO)). The authors also appreciate the fruitful discussions with members of the IEMAE and LABEDI for their contributions to this work. The research was carried out within the scope of works no. WZ/WB-IIL/4/2023 in Bialystok University of Technology and financed from the resources for science of Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Poland., Peer Reviewed, Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::11 - Ciutats i Comunitats Sostenibles, Postprint (author's final draft)

The version of record of this article, first published in AAPS journal, is available online at Publisher’s website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1208/s12248-024-00921-x, Comparative bioavailability studies often involve multiple groups of subjects for a variety of reasons, such as clinical capacity limitations. This raises questions about the validity of pooling data from these groups in the statistical analysis and whether a group-by-treatment interaction should be evaluated. We investigated the presence or absence of group-by-treatment interactions through both simulation techniques and a meta-study of well-controlled trials. Our findings reveal that the test falsely detects an interaction when no true group-by-treatment interaction exists. Conversely, when a true group-by-treatment interaction does exist, it often goes undetected. In our meta-study, the detected group-by-treatment interactions were observed at approximately the level of the test and, thus, can be considered false positives. Testing for a group-by-treatment interaction is both misleading and uninformative. It often falsely identifies an interaction when none exists and fails to detect a real one. This occurs because the test is performed between subjects in crossover designs, and studies are powered to compare treatments within subjects. This work demonstrates a lack of utility for including a group-by-treatment interaction in the model when assessing single-site comparative bioavailability studies, and the clinical trial study structure is divided into groups., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

Existing methods can perform likelihood-based clustering on a multivariate data matrix of ordinal responses, using finite mixtures to cluster the rows and columns of the matrix. Those models can incorporate the main effects of individual rows and columns and the cluster effects to model the matrix of responses. However, many real-world applications also include available covariates. In this study, we have extended mixture-based models to include covariates and test what effect this has on the resulting clustering structures. We focus on clustering the rows of the data matrix, using the proportional odds cumulative logit model for ordinal data. We fit the models using the Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm and assess their performance. Finally, we also illustrate an application of the models to the well-known arthritis clinical trial data set, Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

Existing methods can perform likelihood-based clustering on a multivariate data matrix of ordinal responses, using finite mixtures to cluster the rows and columns of the matrix. Those models can incorporate the main effects of individual rows and columns and the cluster effects to model the matrix of responses. However, many real-world applications also include available covariates. In this study, we have extended mixture-based models to include covariates and test what effect this has on the resulting clustering structures. We focus on clustering the rows of the data matrix, using the proportional odds cumulative logit model for ordinal data. We fit the models using the Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm and assess their performance. Finally, we also illustrate an application of the models to the well-known arthritis clinical trial data set., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

The main aim of this Research-to-Practice Workin-Progress paper is to analyze, discuss and share with the academic community the application of the outputs of research and innovation projects to the real teaching practice with students at the engineering schools. In particular we will focus on the results of the innovation project EngiMath in which the authors were participating. Some EngiMath@UPC figures show the project relevance and impact: 20 faculty members belonging to 3 departments collaborating in, teaching at 9 technical schools located in 7 campuses, involving 15 bachelor degrees and 13 math subjects, and potentially impacting on almost 2000 students in the course 2021-2022. Details on the project implementation, students’ follow-up methodology, qualitative and quantitative analysis of the longitudinal student-specific profiles and performance of the course, pros and cons discussion, main conclusions and recommended actions to be taken into account when using this open online educational resource will be introduced and discussed along the paper., This work has been partially funded by the Departament de Recerca i Universitats de la Generalitat de Catalunya - 2021 SGR 01412 and the 2021 call for teaching innovation projects of the Institute of Education Sciences at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya-BarcelonaTECH., Peer Reviewed, Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::4 - Educació de Qualitat, Postprint (published version)

In the long-term performance analysis of the built environment, classification systems are seen as a key consideration. When classifying residential building objects, characteristics such as accuracy, exhaustivity, and consistency are required. It is noticeable that while organizations around the world are working to develop an internationally agreed standard classifier, the use of national classification systems remains widespread. Therefore, this paper focuses on reviewing the most popular classification systems such as CoClass, Uniclass 2015 and OmniClass®, among others, and discusses their strengths and weaknesses, in order to be useful both to the research and technical communities. Based on this, two main contributions are derived. On the one hand, the paper points out that there is no international consensus to use a common classification system. On the other hand, some recommendations are given and illustrated to meet the challenges of classifying existing buildings, in particular under a functional assessment approach., This research has been partially funded by the Polish National Centre for Research and Development under the Innoglobo framework, grant number DWM/INNOGLOBO/1/88/2022, the GREiP UPC research group, and supported by Departament de Recerca i Universitats de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain) (2021 SGR 01421 (GRBIO)). The authors would like to express their great appreciation to Klas Eckerberg, Mikael Malmkvist, Sarah Delany, Ronald Geren, Jaan Saar and Raido Puust, as experts in the area of the classification systems studied in this paper, for their valuable comments. The authors also thank the members of the groups IEMAE and LABEDI for their suggestions in the development of the work, Peer Reviewed, Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::11 - Ciutats i Comunitats Sostenibles, Postprint (published version)

Reverse engineering is a method of obtaining information about the geometry of an existing object. To obtain such information is used e.g. 3D laser scanning. The result of the measurements is a cloud of points (Fig. 1a). The paper presents the possibilities of using the cloud of points to analyze the technical condition of a historic building. Thanks to the cloud, it is possible to determine the deformations of structural elements, e.g. deformations of beams or ceilings. In tests over a long period of time, information about changes in deformation values can be obtained, and knowing the changes in loads (e.g. as a result of applying a test load), it is possible to measure the values of structure deflections resulting from these changes. The basic factor that increases the usefulness of a cloud of points for various measurements is its density, which depends on the accuracy of the scan. Thanks to the detailed cloud of points, it can be created a digital 3D model that will reflect the shape of an existing object. The results obtained during the measurement of the width and the depth of cracks are burdened with an error that is difficult to identify. However, the recorded accurate information about the location, number and course of cracks can be the basis for concluding the causes of their formation and the processes occurring in the structure. Over a long period of time, the recording of changes in the crack state allows conclusions about the stabilization or progress of the occurring damage. The main advantages of the method are speed, comprehensiveness, automatic measurement and high detail of the mapping of the structure geometry along with its damages., Peer Reviewed, Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::11 - Ciutats i Comunitats Sostenibles, Postprint (published version)

In the reperfusion era, a new paradigm of treating patients with endovascular treatment (EVT) and neuroprotective drugs is emerging as a promising therapeutic option for patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS). In this context, ApTOLL, a Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) antagonist with proven neuroprotective effect in preclinical models of stroke and a very good pharmacokinetic and safety profile in healthy volunteers, is a promising first-in-class aptamer with the potential to address this huge unmet need. This protocol establishes the clinical trial procedures to conduct a Phase Ib/IIa clinical study (APRIL) to assess ApTOLL tolerability, safety, pharmacokinetics, and biological effect in patients with AIS who are eligible for EVT. This will be a multicenter, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, Phase Ib/IIa clinical study to evaluate the administration of ApTOLL together with EVT in patients with AIS. The study population will be composed of men and non-pregnant women with confirmed AIS with a <6h window from symptoms onset to ApTOLL/placebo administration. The trial is currently being conducted and is divided into two parts: Phase Ib and Phase IIa. In Phase Ib, 32 patients will be allocated to four dose ascending levels to select, based on safety criteria, the best two doses to be administered in the following Phase IIa in which 119 patients will be randomized to three arms of treatment (dose A, dose B, and placebo)., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) are a fundamental component of intelligent transportation systems in smart cities. With the support of open and real-time data, these networks of inter-connected vehicles constitute an ‘Internet of vehicles’ with the potential to significantly enhance citizens’ mobility and last-mile delivery in urban, peri-urban, and metropolitan areas. However, the proper coordination and logistics of VANETs raise a number of optimization challenges that need to be solved. After reviewing the state of the art on the concepts of VANET optimization and open data in smart cities, this paper discusses some of the most relevant optimization challenges in this area. Since most of the optimization problems are related to the need for real-time solutions or to the consideration of uncertainty and dynamic environments, the paper also discusses how some VANET challenges can be addressed with the use of agile optimization algorithms and the combination of metaheuristics with simulation and machine learning methods. The paper also offers a numerical analysis that measures the impact of using these optimization techniques in some related problems. Our numerical analysis, based on real data from Open Data Barcelona, demonstrates that the constructive heuristic outperforms the random scenario in the CDP combined with vehicular networks, resulting in maximizing the minimum distance between facilities while meeting capacity requirements with the fewest facilities., Funding: This work has been partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science (PID2019-111100RB-C21 /AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033), as well as by the Barcelona City Council and Fundació “la Caixa” under the framework of the Barcelona Science Plan 2020-2023 (grant 21S09355-001)., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

In this paper, we present a novel framework for enriching time series data in smart cities by supplementing it with information from external sources via semantic data enrichment. Our methodology effectively merges multiple data sources into a uniform time series, while addressing difficulties such as data quality, contextual information, and time lapses. We demonstrate the efficacy of our method through a case study in Barcelona, which permitted the use of advanced analysis methods such as windowed cross-correlation and peak picking. The resulting time series data can be used to determine traffic patterns and has potential uses in other smart city sectors, such as air quality, energy efficiency, and public safety. Interactive dashboards enable stakeholders to visualize and summarize key insights and patterns., Funding: This work was partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science (PID2019-111100RB-C21 /AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033), as well as by the Barcelona City Council and Fundació “la Caixa” under the framework of the Barcelona Science Plan 2020-2023 (grant 21S09355-001)., This research was supported by Departament de Recerca i Universitats de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain) (2021 SGR 01421 (GRBIO))., Postprint (published version)

Research into the organisation of building project information began to bear fruit in the 1950s when the first classification system for the construction industry was introduced. Driven by the growing use of digital tools and technologies and by the first publication of ISO 12006-2 in 2001, this research topic has become incredibly popular in recent years. However, the absence of accurate historical traceability in the literature makes it difficult to understand the origin and evolution of the most prominent classification systems. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of selected commonly used classification systems published in the last seven decades, delving into those developed in Sweden, the UK and the USA/Canada. Furthermore, the latest classification system launched by each of these countries (CoClass, Uniclass 2015 and OmniClass®, respectively) has been chosen to analyse, compare and discuss its strengths and weaknesses. The results of this research show that there is no consensus on the use of a common international classification system for the built environment. Although organisations worldwide are working diligently towards an internationally accepted standard classifier, the use of national classification systems still prevails. The main gaps to be bridged in this area are discussed in the paper and can be summarised as follows: (i) barriers are found to classify construction elements of residential buildings in a consistent, unambiguous and standardised manner, (ii) commonly used classification systems are designed so that the information required is acquired during the design and construction stages, and (iii) further work is needed to address the challenges of properly classifying construction elements at the operation and maintenance stage., Peer Reviewed, Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::11 - Ciutats i Comunitats Sostenibles, Postprint (published version)

This work was partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science (PID2019-111100RB-C21 /AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033), aswell as by the Barcelona City Council and Fundació “la Caixa” under the framework of the Barcelona Science Plan 2020-2023 (grant 21S09355-001), and it was supported by the Departament de Recerca i Universitats de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain) (2021 SGR 01421 (GRBIO))., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

Introduction: Second-generation integrase strand transfer inhibitors (INSTIs) are preferred treatment options worldwide, and dolutegravir (DTG) is the treatment of choice in resource-limited settings. Nevertheless, in some resource-limited settings, these drugs are not always available. An analysis of the experience with the use of INSTIs in unselected adults living with HIV may be of help to make therapeutic decisions when second-generation INSTIs are not available. This study aimed to evaluate the real-life effectiveness and safety of dolutegravir (DTG), elvitegravir/cobicistat (EVG/c), and raltegravir (RAL) in a large Spanish cohort of HIV-1-infected patients. Methods: Real-world study of adults living with HIV who initiated integrase INSTIs DTG, EVG/c, and RAL-based regimens in three settings (ART-naïve patients, ART-switching, and ART-salvage patients). The primary endpoint was the median time to treatment discontinuation after INSTI-based regimen initiation. Proportion of patients experiencing virological failure (VF) (defined as two consecutive viral loads (VL) =200 copies/mL at 24 weeks or as a single determination of VL =1,000 copies/mL while receiving DTG, EVG/c or RAL, and at least 3 months after INSTI initiation) and time to VF were also evaluated. Results: Virological effectiveness of EVG/c- and RAL-based regimens was similar to that of DTG when given as first-line and salvage therapy. Treatment switching for reasons other than virological failure was more frequent in subjects receiving EVG/c and, in particular, RAL. Naïve patients with CD4+ nadir <100 cells/µL were more likely to develop VF, particularly if they initiated RAL or EVG/c. In the ART switching population, initiation of RAL and EVG/c was associated with both VF and INSTI discontinuation. There were no differences in the time to VF and INSTI discontinuation between DTG, EVG/c and RAL. Immunological parameters improved in the three groups and for the three drugs assessed. Safety and tolerabil, Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

Importance ApTOLL is a TLR4 antagonist with proven preclinical neuroprotective effect and a safe profile in healthy volunteers. Objective To assess the safety and efficacy of ApTOLL in combination with endovascular treatment (EVT) for patients with ischemic stroke. Design, Setting, and Participants This phase 1b/2a, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study was conducted at 15 sites in Spain and France from 2020 to 2022. Participants included patients aged 18 to 90 years who had ischemic stroke due to large vessel occlusion and were seen within 6 hours after stroke onset; other criteria were an Alberta Stroke Program Early CT Score of 6 to 10, estimated infarct core volume on baseline computed tomography perfusion of 5 to 70 mL, and the intention to undergo EVT. During the study period, 4174 patients underwent EVT. Interventions In phase 1b, 0.025, 0.05, 0.1, or 0.2 mg/kg of ApTOLL or placebo; in phase 2a, 0.05 or 0.2 mg/kg of ApTOLL or placebo; and in both phases, treatment with EVT and intravenous thrombolysis if indicated. Main Outcomes and Measures The primary end point was the safety of ApTOLL based on death, symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (sICH), malignant stroke, and recurrent stroke. Secondary efficacy end points included final infarct volume (via MRI at 72 hours), NIHSS score at 72 hours, and disability at 90 days (modified Rankin Scale [mRS] score). Results In phase Ib, 32 patients were allocated evenly to the 4 dose groups. After phase 1b was completed with no safety concerns, 2 doses were selected for phase 2a; these 119 patients were randomized to receive ApTOLL, 0.05 mg/kg (n¿=¿36); ApTOLL, 0.2 mg/kg (n¿=¿36), or placebo (n¿=¿47) in a 1:1:v2 ratio. The pooled population of 139 patients had a mean (SD) age of 70 (12) years, 81 patients (58%) were male, and 58 (42%) were female. The primary end point occurred in 16 of 55 patients (29%) receiving placebo (10 deaths [18.2%], 4 sICH [7.3%], 4 malignant strokes [7.3%], and 2 recurrent strokes [, Peer Reviewed, Postprint (author's final draft)

Interval-censored time-to-event data are common whenever the event of interest is a silent event that cannot be observed directly. Here, we present an estimation method for generalized linear models with interval-censored covariates that is applied to data from a metabolomic study., This work was funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovaci´on (Spain) [PID2019-104830RB-I00/ DOI (AEI): 10.13039/501100011033] and by the Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca of the Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain) [2021 SGR 01421]., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

Existing methods can perform likelihood-based clustering on a multivariate data matrix of ordinal data, using finite mixtures to cluster the rows (observations) of the matrix. These models can incorporate the main effects of individual rows and columns, as well as cluster effects, to model the matrix of responses. However, many real-world applications also include available covariates, which provide insights into the main characteristics of the clusters and determine clustering structures based on both the individuals’ similar patterns of responses and the effects of the covariates on the individuals' responses. In our research we have extended the mixture-based models to include covariates and test what effect this has on the resulting clustering structures. We focus on clustering the rows of the data matrix, using the proportional odds cumulative logit model for ordinal data. We fit the models using the Expectation-Maximization algorithm and assess performance using a simulation study. We also illustrate an application of the models to the well-known arthritis clinical trial data set, "This work has been supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain) [PID2019-104830RB-I00/ DOI (AEI): 10.13039/501100011033], and by Grant 2021 SGR 01421 (GRBIO) administrated by the Departament de Recerca i Universitats de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain). Daniel Fernández is member of the Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental, Instituto de Salud Carlos III (CIBERSAM). Daniel Fernández is a Serra Húnter Fellow", Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

Background Somatosensory evoked potentials (SEP) may add substantial prognostic value in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) and contribute to the selection of patients that may benefit from revascularization therapies beyond the accepted therapeutic time windows. We aimed to study the prognostic accuracy of N20 SEP component of the ischemic hemisphere in patients with anterior large vessel occlusion undergoing endovascular thrombectomy (EVT). Methods: Presence and amplitude of the N20 response were recorded before and after EVT. Its adjusted predictive value for functional independence (modified Rankin scale score, =2) at day 7 was analysed by binary logistic regression adjusting by age, mean arterial blood pressure, NIHSS, ASPECTS score and serum glucose. N20 predictive power was compared with that of clinical and imaging models by using Receiving Operating Characteristics Curve (ROC) analysis. Results: 223 consecutive patients were studied (mean age, 70y; median NIHSS, 18). SEP recordings identified presence of N20 in 110 (49.3%), absence in 58 (26%) and not assessable in 55 patients due to radiofrequency interferences in the angiography room. Prior to EVT, N20 predicted functional independence with a sensitivity of 93% (95%CI, 78-98%) and negative predictive value of 93% (80-98%). The adjusted odds ratio for functional independence was 9.9 (95%CI, 3.1-44.6). In ROC analysis, N20 amplitude showed a higher area under the curve than models using pre-hospital or in-hospital variables, including advanced imaging. Sensitivity increased to 100% (95% CI, 0.85-1) at the end of EVT. Conclusions: SEP monitoring is a non-invasive and bedside technique that could help eligibility of AIS patients for EVT and predict functional recovery., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

Background: Modelling the course of a disease regarding severe events and identifying prognostic factors is of great clinical relevance. Multistate models (MSM) can be used to describe diseases or processes that change over time using different states and the transitions between them. Specifically, they are useful to analyse a disease with an increasing degree of severity, that may precede death. The complexity of these models changes depending on the number of states and transitions taken into account. Due to that, a web tool has been developed making it easier to work with those models. Results: MSMpred is a web tool created with the shiny R package that has two main features: 1) to allow fitting an MSM from specific data; 2) to predict the clinical evolution for a given subject. To fit the model, the data to be analysed must be uploaded in a prespecified format. Then, the user has to define the states and transitions as well as the covariates (e.g., age or gender) involved in each transition. From this information, the app returns histograms or barplots, as appropriate, to represent the distributions of the selected covariates and boxplots to show the patient’s length of stay (for uncensored data) in each state. To make predictions, the values of selected covariates from a new subject at baseline has to be provided. From these inputs, the app provides some indicators of the subject’s evolution, such as the probability of 30-day death or the most likely state at a fixed time. Furthermore, visual representations (e.g., the stacked transition probabilities plot) are given to make predictions more understandable. Conclusions: MSMpred is an intuitive and visual app that eases the work of biostatisticians and facilitates to the medical personnel the interpretation of MSMs., This research was funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain) [PID2019-104830RB-I00/ DOI (AEI): 10.13039/501100011033] and by Generalitat de Catalunya (2020PANDE00148)., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

Background: The overarching aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness over time of government interventions and policy restrictions and the impact of determinants on spread and mortality during the first-wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, globally, regionally and by country-income level, up to 18 May 2020. Methods: We created a global database merging World Health Organization daily case reports (from 218 countries/territories) with other socio-demographic and population health measures from 21 January to 18 May 2020. A four-level government policy interventions score (low to very high) was created based on the Oxford Stringency Index. Results: Our results support the use of very high government interventions to suppress both COVID-19 spread and mortality effectively during wave one globally compared to other policy levels of control. Similar trends in virus propagation and mortality were observed in all country-income levels and specific regions. Conclusions: Rapid implementation of government interventions was needed to contain the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak and to reduce COVID-19-related mortality., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (author's final draft)

© The Author(s) 2022, The sports statistics community is rapidly evolving. R is an open-source software in constant development that has gained a lot of popularity within statistical communities and sports analytics. This work presents a systematic review of the available R CRAN sport packages following PRISMA guidelines. We consider all packages active as of 18 February 2021. A total of 81 sport R packages created since 2006 were detected. Of these, 35.9% were authored by an American national, 69.1% include a dataset, 43.2% provide vignettes, and 65.4% have been updated at least once. The sport with the highest representation is basketball (n¿=¿14, 17.3%), followed by soccer (n¿=¿12, 14.8%) and packages related to physical activity (n¿=¿11, 13.6%). There are no sports packages directed solely for the female gender, while 59.3% of packages are focused on professional athletes. Fifty packages (61.7%) are related to the sports performance analysis category, and web scraping (n¿=¿43, 53.1%) was the main functionality in the collected packages. The creation of new R packages in the area of sports could help solve questions and tasks that still remain a challenge in this field, while continuing to help to improve the level of statistical education and computational thinking skills., The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain) (PID2019-104830RB-I00) and the Departament d’Economia i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain) (2017 SGR 622 (GRBIO))., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (author's final draft)

Aims: Our study aimed to (1) identify trajectories on different mental health components during a two-year follow-up of the COVID-19 pandemic and contextualise them according to pandemic periods; (2) investigate the associations between mental health trajectories and several exposures, and determine whether there were differences among the different mental health outcomes regarding these associations. Methods: We included 5535 healthy individuals, aged 40–65 years old, from the Barcelona Brain Health Initiative (BBHI). Growth mixture models (GMM) were fitted to classify individuals into different trajectories for three mental health-related outcomes (psychological distress, personal growth and loneliness). Moreover, we fitted a multinomial regression model for each outcome considering class membership as the independent variable to assess the association with the predictors. Results: For the outcomes studied we identified three latent trajectories, differentiating two major trends, a large proportion of participants was classified into ‘resilient’ trajectories, and a smaller proportion into ‘chronic-worsening’ trajectories. For the former, we observed a lower susceptibility to the changes, whereas, for the latter, we noticed greater heterogeneity and susceptibility to different periods of the pandemic. From the multinomial regression models, we found global and cognitive health, and coping strategies as common protective factors among the studied mental health components. Nevertheless, some differences were found regarding the risk factors. Living alone was only significant for those classified into ‘chronic’ trajectories of loneliness, but not for the other outcomes. Similarly, secondary or higher education was only a risk factor for the ‘worsening’ trajectory of personal growth. Finally, smoking and sleeping problems were risk factors which were associated with the ‘chronic’ trajectory of psychological distress. Conclusions: Our results support heterogeneity in re, "This work was supported by a grant from the Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR) ‘PANDÈMIES 2020’ (ref. 2020PANDE00043) and a grant from ‘La Marató de TV3’ MARATÓ 2020 COVID-19 (ref. 202129–31). Supported in part by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MICIU/FEDER; grant number RTI2018-095181-B-C21) and an ICREA Academia 2019 grant award to D. B-F. Partially, this research has received funding from ‘La Caixa’ Foundation (grant number LCF/PR/PR16/11110004), and from Institut Guttmann and Fundació Abertis. I.B-M. was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship related to ‘PANDÈMIES 2020’ (AGAUR; 2020PANDE00043). D.F. has been supported by grant 2021 SGR 01421 (GRBIO) administrated by the Departament de Recerca I Universitats de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain) and by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain) [PID2019-104830RB-I00/ DOI (AEI): 10.13039/501100011033].. J.M.T. was partly supported by AGAUR (2018 PROD 00172), Fundació Joan Ribas Araquistain and ‘La Marató de TV3’ Fundation (201735.10). This research was furthermore supported by the Government of Catalonia (2017SGR748). We also acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and State Research Agency through the ‘Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa 2019-2023’ Program (CEX2018-000806-S), and support from the Generalitat de Catalunya through the CERCA Program", Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

The Mantel–Haenszel estimator is one of the most popular techniques for measuring differential item functioning (DIF). A generalization of this estimator is applied to the context of DIF to compare items by taking the covariance of odds ratio estimators between dependent items into account. Unlike the Item Response Theory, the method does not rely on the local item independence assumption which is likely to be violated when one item provides clues about the answer of another item. Furthermore, we use these (co)variance estimators to construct a hypothesis test to assess DIF for multiple items simultaneously. A simulation study is presented to assess the performance of several tests. Finally, the use of these DIF tests is illustrated via application to two real data sets, Peer Reviewed, Postprint (author's final draft)

Background: The Launay–Slade Hallucination Scale – Extended (LSHS-E) is one of the most used self-reported questionnaires to explore the multidimensionality of hallucinatory-like experiences (HLEs). This scale is defined as a 5-level Likert scale, which goes from 0-“certainly does not apply to me” to 4-“certainly applies to me.” Like any Likert scale, the LSHS-E scale assumes that the ordinal categories are equally spaced among them, which might not be true, giving rise to possible issues in offering a valid interpretation of the responses.Method: This study introduces a parametric model: the ordered stereotype model. This model determines the uneven spacing among ordinal responses, dictated by the studied data.Results: This work shows that the ordinal categories of the LSHS-E scale are determined both by unequal spacing and by the spacing among the last three adjacent categories, which makes them indistinguishable. Subsequent analysis showed good internal reliability, and also a four-factor structure was maintained.Conclusions: The current study’s findings suggest that people who suffer from HLEs might not easily disclose their experiences and so give neutral responses for fear of being stigmatized. Further, neutral responses might identify people at risk of psychosis, and individuals during the prodromal stage may not be aware of their transient or fleeting HLEs. Future research should determine the distance among the categories on a Likert scale as a first step before analyzing and understanding the data., "Daniel Fernández was supported by the grant 2017 SGR 622 (GRBIO) administrated by the Departament d’Economia iConeixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain). Daniel Fernández and Ivy Liu were supported by the Marsden Grant E2987-3648 administrated by the Royal Society of New Zealand.", Peer Reviewed, Postprint (author's final draft)

The proper performance of swimming pool halls depends on many factors. An extremely important one is the ventilation system, which is supposed to provide, among other things, the prevention of high temperatures, excessive moisture, chlorine vapors, and problems resulting from the impact of these factors on the entire building. Proper design of the ventilation system of the pool hall is an extremely demanding task, which has a key impact on the correct operation of the facility, the thermal comfort of users, energy efficiency and economy, and above all on the safety of the construction. In the presented article, the condition of the object in operation was analyzed. Using a computational program based on the assumptions of computational fluid dynamics (CFD), an analysis of the distribution of air velocity (Figure 1), temperature, and thermal comfort parameters was carried out, which made it possible to conclude the correctness of the proposed ventilation solutions., Award-winning, Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::11 - Ciutats i Comunitats Sostenibles, Postprint (published version)

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes., Introduction: PROMISE trial has shown high predictive accuracy of the N20 somatosensory evoked potential (SEP) response on functional recovery in patients with AIS undergoing endovascular thrombectomy (EVT). This secondary study aims to describe the association between the N20 response and imaging biomarkers of ischemic penumbra, infarct volume and collateral flow., Jordi Cortés received financial support for the research from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain) [PID2019‐104830RB‐I00/ DOI (AEI): 10.13039/501100011033]., Postprint (published version)

© The Author(s) 2021, We propose a class of two-sample statistics for testing the equality of proportions and the equality of survival functions. We build our proposal on a weighted combination of a score test for the difference in proportions and a Weighted Kaplan-Meier statistic-based test for the difference of survival functions. The proposed statistics are fully non-parametric and do not rely on the proportional hazards assumption for the survival outcome. We present the asymptotic distribution of these statistics, propose a variance estimator and show their asymptotic properties under fixed and local alternatives. We discuss different choices of weights including those that control the relative relevance of each outcome and emphasize the type of difference to be detected in the survival outcome. We evaluate the performance of these statistics with a simulation study, and illustrate their use with a randomized phase III cancer vaccine trial. We have implemented the proposed statistics in the R package SurvBin, available on GitHub (this https URL)., This work was supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain) under Grants PID2019-104830RB-I00; the Departament d’Empresa i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain) under Grant 2017 SGR 622 (GRBIO); and the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Spain), through the María de Maeztu Programme for Units of Excellence in R&D under Grant MDM-2014-0445 to M. Bofill Roig., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

Fruit juices are one of the most adulterated beverages, usually because of the addition of water, sugars, or less expensive fruit juices. This study presents a method based on Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), in combination with machine learning methods, for the correct identification and quantification of adulterants in juices. Thus, three types of 100% squeezed juices (pineapple, orange, and apple) were evaluated and adulterated with grape juice at different percentages (5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50%). The results of the exploratory data analysis revealed a clear clustering trend of the samples according to the type of juice analyzed. The supervised learning analysis, based on the development of models for the detection of adulteration, obtained significant results for all tested methods (i.e., support-vector machines or SVM), random forest or RF, and linear discriminant analysis or LDA) with an accuracy above 97% on the test set. Regarding quantification, the best results are obtained with the support vector regression and with partial least square regression showing an R2 greater than 0.99 and a root mean square error (RMSE) less than 1.4 for the test set, Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

Measurement of external load in players provides objective information to optimise the weekly balance between training and recovery to improve performance and prevent injuries. Our aim was to evaluate the incidence of sports-related muscle injuries of the lower limb in relation to external load, measured by global positioning system (GPS), in football players. A descriptive study was carried out. Data were collected from 71 professional male football players (30 professionals and 41 youth players) from an elite football club competing in the Spanish and European League in the 2017–2018 season. As external load variables, we measured High Metabolic Load Distance (HMLD), High Speed Running (HSR), Player Load (PL), and Total Distance (TD) through GPS. Injury rate (IR) was calculated both in relation to such GPS load metrics and to load exposure time. We considered categories (youth and professional), playing positions (centre back, full back, midfielder, and forward), and training day with respect to match-day (-4MD, -3MD, -2MD, -1MD, MD, +1MD, +2MD). The GPS load metrics HMLD, HSR, PL, and TD showed very similar patterns across categories and positions, but varied according to training session or MD. The highest loads were observed on MD and three days prior to the match (-3MD). Similarly, the overall IR, both calculated per load exposure time and per GPS load metrics, was highest on MD and -3MD. Again, no differences were observed between youth and professional players. Midfielders demonstrated the highest IR in all metrics, followed by the forwards. In conclusion, this study suggests that external load and incidence of muscle injuries are directly proportional. Therefore, the measurement of more external load variables other than load exposure time, such as the GPS metrics HMLD, HSR, PL, and TD may help to describe the pattern and magnitude of injuries. Future studies based on ours may help to further improve the understanding of the incidence of muscle injuries on, JC and MC acknowledge the financial support from Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación y Ministerio de Universidades (Ref: PID2019-104830RB-I00 / AEI DOI: 10.13039/501100011033)., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

According to the New UNESCO global survey studying the effect of Covid-19 on higher education (2021) the pandemic has had an impact on higher education systems in terms of access and quality of teaching and learning. Covid-19 has caused the suspension and cancellation of teaching activities and its major impact on teaching and learning is the increase in online education. The Engimath - Mathematics on-line learning model in engineering education - was successfully carried out at the very right moment, as in recent two years there has been a significant increase in demand for a 100% online mathematics course with interactive learning materials and largescale practicing opportunities as well as for a mathematics online assessment model. This project has successfully developed a high-level online course as a basis for offering output-oriented education in engineering mathematics. Some of development stages, that led this project – EngiMath - to an outstanding successful end, will be presented in this paper. These go from the educational needs’ analysis to its implementation and use, even allowing an open and live test., Peer Reviewed, Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::4 - Educació de Qualitat, Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::4 - Educació de Qualitat::4.3 - Per a 2030, assegurar l’accés en condicions d’igualtat per a tots els homes i dones a una formació tècnica, professional i superior de qualitat, inclòs l’ensenyament universitari, Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::4 - Educació de Qualitat::4.4 - Per a 2030, augmentar substancialment el nombre de joves i persones adultes que tenen les competències necessàries, en particular tècniques i professionals, per a accedir a l’ocupació, el treball digne i l’emprenedoria, Postprint (published version)

Introduction The profiles of patients with COVID-19 have been widely studied, but little is known about differences in baseline characteristics and in outcomes between subjects with a ceiling of care assigned at hospital admission and subjects without a ceiling of care. The aim of this study is to compare, by ceiling of care, clinical features and outcomes of hospitalized subjects during four waves of COVID-19 in a metropolitan area in Catalonia. Methods Observational study conducted during the first (March–April 2020), second (October–November 2020), third (January–February 2021), and fourth wave (July–August 2021) of COVID-19 in five centers of Catalonia. All subjects were adults (>¿18 years old) hospitalized with a proven SARS-CoV-2 infection and with therapeutic ceiling of care assessed by the attending physician at hospital admission. Results A total of 5813 subjects were analyzed. Subjects with a ceiling of care were mainly older (difference in median age of 20 years), with more comorbidities (Charlson index 3 points higher) and with fewer clinical signs at baseline than patients without a ceiling of care. Some features of their clinical profiles changed among waves. There were differences in treatments received during hospital admission across waves, but not between subjects with and without a ceiling of care. Subjects with a ceiling of care had a death incidence more than four times the death incidence of subjects a without a ceiling of care (risk ratio (RR) ranging from 3.5 in the first wave to almost 6 in the third and fourth). Incidence of severe pneumonia and complications for subjects with a ceiling of care was around 1.5 times the incidence in subjects without a ceiling of care. Discussion Analysis of hospitalized subjects with SARS-CoV-2 infection should be stratified according to therapeutic ceiling of care to avoid bias and outcome misestimation., This study was partially funded by Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca del Departament d’Empresa i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya (2020PANDE00148)., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

© 2022 Marhuenda-Muñoz, Domínguez-López, Langohr, Tresserra Rimbau, Martínez González, Salas-Salvadó, Corella, Zomeño, Martínez, Alonso-Gómez, Wärnberg, Vioque, Romaguera, López-Miranda, Estruch, Tinahones, Lapetra, Serra-Majem, Bueno-Cavanillas, Tur, MartínSánchez, Pintó, Delgado-Rodríguez, Matía-Martín, Vidal, Vázquez, Daimiel, Ros, Toledo, Fernández de la Puente Cervera, Barragán, Fitó, Tojal-Sierra, Gómez-Gracia, Zazo, Morey, García-Ríos, Casas, GómezPérez, Santos-Lozano, Vázquez-Ruiz, Atzeni, Asensio, Gili-Riu, Bullon, Moreno-Rodriguez, Lecea, Babio, Peñas Lopez, Gómez Melis and Lamuela-Raventós. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY)., Carotenoid intake has been reported to be associated with improved cardiovascular health, but there is little information on actual plasma concentrations of these compounds as biomarkers of cardiometabolic risk. The objective was to investigate the association between circulating plasma carotenoids and different cardiometabolic risk factors and the plasma fatty acid profile. This is a cross-sectional evaluation of baseline data conducted in a subcohort (106 women and 124 men) of an ongoing multi-factorial lifestyle trial for primary cardiovascular prevention. Plasma concentrations of carotenoids were quantified by liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. The associations between carotenoid concentrations and cardiometabolic risk factors were assessed using regression models adapted for interval-censored variables. Carotenoid concentrations were cross-sectionally inversely associated with serum triglyceride concentrations [-2.79 mg/dl (95% CI: -4.25, -1.34) and -5.15 mg/dl (95% CI: -7.38, -2.93), p-values = 0.0002 and <0.00001 in women and men, respectively], lower levels of plasma saturated fatty acids [-0.09% (95% CI: -0.14, -0.03) and -0.15 % (95% CI: -0.23, -0.08), p-values = 0.001 and 0.0001 in women and men, respectively], and higher levels of plasma polyunsaturated fatty acids [(0.12 % (95% CI: -0.01, 0.25) and 0.39 % (95% CI: 0.19, 0.59), p-values = 0.065 and 0.0001 in women and men, respectively] in the whole population. Plasma carotenoid concentrations were also associated with higher plasma HDL-cholesterol in women [0.47 mg/dl (95% CI: 0.23, 0.72), p-value: 0.0002], and lower fasting plasma glucose in men [-1.35 mg/dl (95% CI: -2.12, -0.59), p-value: 0.001]., Peer Reviewed, Article signat per 51 autors/es: María Marhuenda-Muñoz, Inés Domínguez-López, Klaus Langohr, Anna Tresserra-Rimbau, Miguel Ángel Martínez González1,4, Jordi Salas-Salvadó, Dolores Corella, María Dolores Zomeño, J. Alfredo Martínez, Angel M. Alonso-Gómez, Julia Wärnberg, Jesús Vioque, Dora Romaguera, José López-Miranda, Ramón Estruch, Francisco J. Tinahones, José Lapetra, Ll. Serra-Majem, Aurora Bueno-Cavanillas, Josep A. Tur, Vicente Martín-Sánchez, Xavier Pintó, Miguel Delgado-Rodríguez, Pilar Matía-Martín, Josep Vidal, Clotilde Vázquez, Lidia Daimiel, Emilio Ros, Estefanía Toledo, María Fernández de la Puente Cervera, Rocío Barragán, Montse Fitó, Lucas Tojal-Sierra, Enrique Gómez-Gracia, Juan Manuel Zazo, Marga Morey, Antonio García-Ríos, Rosa Casas, Ana M. Gómez-Pérez, José Manuel Santos-Lozano, Zenaida Vázquez-Ruiz, Alessandro Atzeni, Eva M. Asensio, M. Mar Gili-Riu, Vanessa Bullon, Anai Moreno-Rodriguez, Oscar Lecea, Nancy Babio, Francesca Peñas Lopez, Guadalupe Gómez Melis and Rosa M. Lamuela-Raventós., Postprint (published version)

Six Higher Education Institutions (HEI), from different European countries (Estonia, Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and Spain) joined forces in 2018 to launch a shared Erasmus+ Project under the Key Action - Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices. The project's “heart and soul” was to provide an online course on fundamental mathematical themes that would serve as a base for the specialized domain of engineering mathematics. Upon its approval and funding, partner institutions have developed a common platform for students and professors interested in Fundamentals of Linear Algebra and engineering applications. A mathematics on-line learning model was developed from the scratch and is now available in seven different languages. As presented in the project proposal, the student competition activity was introduced as a Learning/Teaching/Training activity (LTT) and it was established inside the online course setting and framework to add an international dimension to the studies of the enrolled students. The students’ competition in EngiMath project, connected learners from different countries through common tasks. It has settled an open international space, where students could deal with assessment “stresses” in an indirect and ludic manner, promoting, in a gamification way, their self-confidence when dealing with on-line tasks, tight schedules or even “against the clock”, motivating them to complete the course and to avoid drop out behaviour. Despite all of the pandemic limitations that all partner members had to cope with, the students' competition can be considered one of the Project's main triumphs., Peer Reviewed, Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::4 - Educació de Qualitat, Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::4 - Educació de Qualitat::4.3 - Per a 2030, assegurar l’accés en condicions d’igualtat per a tots els homes i dones a una formació tècnica, professional i superior de qualitat, inclòs l’ensenyament universitari, Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::4 - Educació de Qualitat::4.4 - Per a 2030, augmentar substancialment el nombre de joves i persones adultes que tenen les competències necessàries, en particular tècniques i professionals, per a accedir a l’ocupació, el treball digne i l’emprenedoria, Postprint (published version)

Background A high proportion of health professionals in training suffer from work-related stress and may develop a burnout syndrome. Objectives To study the incidence of burnout after the first year of residency in a teaching hospital and to identify baseline psychological, psychosocial work conditions, and biological risk factors. Methodology We assessed the following in a prospective cohort of residents at baseline (first month residence) and after 1 year: background factors (socio-demographics, psychiatric history), perceived stress score (Perceived Stress Scale), Maslach Burnout Inventory score, and psychosocial factors (Job Content Questionnaire). Blood samples were obtained to study serum cortisol, IL-6, and TNF-a concentrations. The cumulative incidence was modelled by multivariate log-binomial regression analysis. Results We included 71 participants with a female majority (64.8%), age 26.4 (2.65) years, psychiatric history in 20%, and burnout in 13%. Among those without burnout initially (N = 59), it had developed by 1 year in 22% of residents. Increased job demand (RR = 1.259, 95%CI = 1.019–1.556, p = 0.033) and decreased cortisol levels (RR = 0.877, 95%CI = 0.778–0.989, p = 0.032) predicted burnout after 1 year of residency among medical trainees. Conclusion Burnout syndrome develops in 22% of residents by 1 year of training and can be predicted by increased work demands and decreased cortisol levels., This research was carried out, in part, thanks to grants from PREVENT XI (DN040611; VO and RN), Peer Reviewed, Postprint (author's final draft)

Copyright © 2022 Fonseca, Mestre-Pinto, Rodríguez-Minguela, Papaseit, PérezMañá, Langohr, Barbuti, Farré, Torrens andNEURODEP GROUP. This is an openaccess article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms., Major depressive disorder (MDD) and cocaine use disorder (CUD) are related with disability and high mortality rates. The assessment and treatment of psychiatric comorbidity is challenging due to its high prevalence and its clinical severity, mostly due to suicide rates and the presence of medical comorbidities. The aim of this study is to investigate differences in brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and cortisol plasmatic levels in patients diagnosed with CUD-primary-MDD and CUD-induced-MDD and also to compare them to a sample of MDD patients (without cocaine use), a sample of CUD (without MDD), and a group of healthy controls (HC) after a stress challenge., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

Background: There is limited research examining the impact of risk and protective factors on late-life depression using large population-based datasets, particularly those examining differences among older migrants and non-migrants in Europe countries. Thus, the first aim was to analyze differences between migrants and non-migrants regarding socioeconomic status, depression, multimorbidity, healthy aging, and lifestyle behaviors. The second aim was to examine the impact of healthy aging on late-life depression in older migrants compared to their counterparts without a history of international migration in extensive and harmonized data from different population-based cohort studies. Materials and methods: We analyzed cross-sectional, predominantly nationally representative, community-based data from European participants in the Aging Trajectories of Health: Longitudinal Opportunities and Synergies (ATHLOS) cohort. The descriptive analyses included sociodemographic variables, somatic comorbidities, multimorbidity, healthy aging, and lifestyle behaviors according to migration status. The effects of these variables on late-life depression were examined in a multivariate logistic regression model, including migration status and years since migration as predictors. Results: Data of 122,571 individuals aged = 50 years were analyzed, of which 11,799 (9.60%) were migrants. The descriptive analyses indicated that compared to non-migrants, migrants showed a higher prevalence of diabetes (25.6%), hypertension (38.0%), coronary artery disease (49.4%), stroke (4.9%), and depression (31.1%). Healthy aging was also better in non-migrants (51.7; SD = 9.7) than in migrants (39.6; SD = 18.2). The results of the logistic regression showed that migration status [OR = 1.231 (CIs: 0.914–1.547)] and increased number of years since migration in the host country [OR = 0.003 (CIs: 0.001–0.005)] were associated with greater levels of depressive symptoms. Concerning health variables, multimorbi, DF’s work was supported by grant 2017 SGR 622 (GRBIO) administrated by the Departament d’Economia i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain), by Marsden grant E2987-3648 administrated by the Royal Society of New Zealand, and by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain) [PID2019-104830RB-I00/DOI (AEI): 10.13039/501100011033], Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

Composite endpoints are widely used as primary endpoints in clinical trials. Designing trials with time-to-event endpoints can be particularly challenging because the proportional hazard assumption usually does not hold when using a composite endpoint, even when the premise remains true for their components. Consequently, the conventional formulae for sample size calculation do not longer apply. We present the R package CompAREdesign by means of which the key elements of trial designs, such as the sample size and effect sizes, can be computed based on the information on the composite endpoint components. CompAREdesign provides the functions to assess the sensitivity and robustness of design calculations to variations in initial values and assumptions. Furthermore, we describe other features of the package, such as functions for the design of trials with binary composite endpoints, and functions to simulate trials with composite endpoints under a wide range of scenarios., This work was supported by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Spain) under Grant PID2019- 104830RB-I00 and the Departament d’Empresa i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain) under Grant 2017 SGR 622 (GRBIO). Marta Bofill Roig is a member of the EU Patient Centric Clinical Trial Platforms (EU-PEARL). This Joint Undertaking receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program and EFPIA and Children’s Tumor Foundation, Global Alliance for TB Drug Development nonprofit organization, Springworks Therapeutics Inc. This publication reflects the authors’ views. Neither IMI nor the European Union, EFPIA, nor any Associated Partners are responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained herein., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (author's final draft)

Metacognitive training (MCT) is an effective treatment for psychosis. Longitudinal trajectories of treatment response are unknown but could point to strategies to maximize treatment efficacy during the first episodes. This work aims to explore the possible benefit of using latent class mixed models (LCMMs) to understand how treatment response differs between metacognitive training and psychoeducation. We conducted LCMMs in 28 patients that received MCT and 34 patients that received psychoeducation. We found that MCT is effective in improving cognitive insight in all patients but that these effects wane at follow-up. In contrast, psychoeducation does not improve cognitive insight, and may increase self-certainty in a group of patients. These results suggest that LCMMs are valuable tools that can aid in treatment prescription and in predicting response to specific treatments., Daniel Fernández has been supported by grant 2017 SGR 622 (GRBIO) administrated by the Departament d’Economia i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain) and by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain) [PID2019-104830RB-I00/ DOI (AEI): 10.13039/501100011033]; and CIBER, Consorcio Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Postprint (published version)

Background: Data with ordinal categories occur in many diverse areas, but methodologies for modeling ordinal data lag severely behind equivalent methodologies for continuous data. There are advantages to using a model specifically developed for ordinal data, such as making fewer assumptions and having greater power for inference. Methods: The ordered stereotype model (OSM) is an ordinal regression model that is more flexible than the popular proportional odds ordinal model. The primary benefit of the OSM is that it uses numeric encoding of the ordinal response categories without assuming the categories are equally-spaced. Results: This article summarizes two recent advances in the OSM: (1) three novel tests to assess goodness-of-fit; (2) a new Generalized Estimating Equations approach to estimate the model for longitudinal studies. These methods use the new spacing of the ordinal categories indicated by the estimated score parameters of the OSM. Conclusions: The recent advances presented can be applied to several fields. We illustrate their use with the well-known arthritis clinical trial dataset. These advances fill a gap in methodologies available for ordinal responses and may be useful for practitioners in many applied fields, This research has been supported by Marsden grant E2987-3648 administrated by the Royal Society of New Zealand, by grant 2017 SGR 622 (GRBIO) administrated by the Departament d’Economia i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain) and by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain) [PID2019-104830RB-I00/ DOI (AEI): 10.13039/501100011033]., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

Background The potential role of the gut microbiome as a predictor of immune-mediated HIV-1 control in the absence of antiretroviral therapy (ART) is still unknown. In the BCN02 clinical trial, which combined the MVA.HIVconsv immunogen with the latency-reversing agent romidepsin in early-ART treated HIV-1 infected individuals, 23% (3/13) of participants showed sustained low-levels of plasma viremia during 32 weeks of a monitored ART pause (MAP). Here, we present a multi-omics analysis to identify compositional and functional gut microbiome patterns associated with HIV-1 control in the BCN02 trial. Results Viremic controllers during the MAP (controllers) exhibited higher Bacteroidales/Clostridiales ratio and lower microbial gene richness before vaccination and throughout the study intervention when compared to non-controllers. Longitudinal assessment indicated that the gut microbiome of controllers was enriched in pro-inflammatory bacteria and depleted in butyrate-producing bacteria and methanogenic archaea. Functional profiling also showed that metabolic pathways related to fatty acid and lipid biosynthesis were significantly increased in controllers. Fecal metaproteome analyses confirmed that baseline functional differences were mainly driven by Clostridiales. Participants with high baseline Bacteroidales/Clostridiales ratio had increased pre-existing immune activation-related transcripts. The Bacteroidales/Clostridiales ratio as well as host immune-activation signatures inversely correlated with HIV-1 reservoir size. Conclusions The present proof-of-concept study suggests the Bacteroidales/Clostridiales ratio as a novel gut microbiome signature associated with HIV-1 reservoir size and immune-mediated viral control after ART interruption., Peer Reviewed, Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::3 - Salut i Benestar, Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::10 - Reducció de les Desigualtats, Postprint (published version)

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Bonjoch, A. [et al.]. Prevalence, progression, and management of advanced chronic kidney disease in a cohort of people living with HIV. "HIV Medicine", 26 Abril 2022, vol. 23, núm. 10, p. 1078-1084, which has been published in final form at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hiv.13317. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited, Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

Objetivo: Determinar los factores de riesgo de patologías lumbares en pacientes empleados y afiliados al sistema de salud, a partir de la exploración física, hábitos, antecedentes personales y factores de riesgo laborales. Métodos: El diseño del estudio es retrospectivo, transversal. En una muestra de 668 adultos trabajadores del Ecuador, se aplicó y evaluó el modelo predictivo de respuesta binaria logit para identificar factores de riesgo y se usaron métodos de aprendizaje supervisado (árboles de clasificación) para clasificar a los pacientes según el grado de patología lumbar. Resultados: El modelo predictivo logístico presentó una sensibilidad del 62,5%, una especificidad del 63,7%, el área bajo la curva ROC fue 0,63 y se determinó una precisión del 63,4%. Conclusión: Los factores que aumentan el riesgo de la patología de columna lumbar más frecuente (lumbalgia) y en orden de importancia en los pacientes son: menor edad, sexo femenino, tienden a exponerse a factores de riesgo psicosocial en su trabajo, Daniel Fernández ha sido apoyado por la beca del Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain) [PID2019-104830RB-I00/ DOI (AEI): 10.13039/501100011033] y la beca 2021 SGR 01421 (GRBIO) administrada por el Departament d'Economia i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya (España), Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

In the context of the existing buildings, in recent years the concept of maintenance has changed from corrective maintenance to preventive maintenance, which is based in part on periodic inspections. There is ample evidence that preventive maintenance is more efficient than corrective maintenance, since severe deteriorations that may represent danger to people are avoided, and also money is saved. To make periodic inspections of the buildings is useful to quantify the extent to which deteriorations are severe or not, in order to facilitate decision making and prioritise therapeutic interventions. To this purpose, many scales have been used and are used to assess the degree of severity of the deteriorations in constructive elements. But it is important to say that there is no common consensus and these scales are different between them according to the study to which they belong. Thus, the main goal of this article is to propose a methodology for calculating the degree of severity of damages in buildings, which is of widespread use. This calculation method, based on one hand in a distribution of values and on the other hand in a single value (scalar), lets to calculate the severity index of systems and of the entire building, and it is easy to use and flexible., Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::11 - Ciutats i Comunitats Sostenibles, Postprint (published version)