Diego Pastor

Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche | UMH · Department of Health Psychology

Considering any graph technical inefficiency measure, we show that the so-called standard or traditional approach for decomposing profit inefficiency relying on Fenchel-Mahler inequalities obtained from duality theory, establishes that profit inefficiency is greater than or equal to the product of technical inefficiency times a positive factor expr...

Heart rate variability (HRV) has allowed the implementation of a methodology for daily decision making called day-to-day training, which allows data to be recorded by anyone with a smartphone. The purpose of the present work was to evaluate the validity and reliability of HRV measurements with a new mobile app (Selftraining UMH) in two resting cond...

Introduction There is evidence in the literature that acute exercise can modify cognitive function after the effort. However, there is still some controversy concerning the most effective exercise modality to improve cognitive function in acute interventions. Regarding these different exercise modalities, the dose–response relationship between exer...

Twenty-eight active older people (67.19 ± 4.91 years) who engaged in physical exercise activity twice a week were recruited to participate in a counterbalanced experimental protocol. The participants performed three different exercise sessions on three different days, one based on aerobic activities, one based on strength exercises with elastic ban...

Cognitive skills are relevant predictors of academic achievement, employability, socioeconomic success, health, and longevity [...]

Physical exercise can improve cognitive functioning and wellbeing; however, the degree of change in either of these two variables seems to be related to the exercise intensity or type. Therefore, new physical training (PT) programs have been developed to increase exercise efficiency. One such example is high-intensity functional training (HIFT), wh...

LIS1 (PAFAH1B1) plays a major role in the developing cerebral cortex, and haploinsufficient mutations cause human lissencephaly type 1. We have studied morphological and functional properties of the cerebral cortex of mutant mice harboring a deletion in the first exon of the mouse Lis1 (Pafah1b1) gene, which encodes for the LisH domain. The Lis1/sL...

Cognitive function and psychological well-being are two variables related to mental health. Several studies have shown that these variables are sensitive to acute physical exercise, but it is not known which doses of exercise are the most adaptive. To explore this issue, 35 adolescents performed three sessions of physical education with different i...

This study aimed to explore if the acute variations in plasma concentration of α-calcitonin gene-related peptide (αCGRP) induced by a single maximal exercise bout may be associated to cardiorespiratory fitness and carbohydrate oxidation in humans. Twelve young adult Caucasian men (24.3 ± 0.9 years-old; 179.2 ± 1.9 cm of height; 23.9 ± 0.6 kg·m−2 bo...

Our work aimed to study the relationships between different dimensions of school climate, moral disengagement, empathy, and bullying behaviors (perpetration and victimization). The study sample consisted of 629 students (304 boys and 325 girls) aged 12–14 years (M = 12.55, SD = 0.67). Results showed how different dimensions of school climate predic...

Introduction Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a complex pathology with thousands of patients worldwide. During the acute early phase, neural tissue shows some regenerative properties that disappear at the chronic phase. Shock Waves and Stem Cells have been proposed as a possible therapy. Methods Here, we analyse Shock Waves’ immediate effect over spina...

Aging is associated with sarcopenia. The loss of strength results in decreased muscle mass and motor function. This process accelerates the progressive muscle deterioration observed in older adults, favoring the presence of debilitating pathologies. In addition, sarcopenia leads to a decrease in quality of life, significantly affecting self-suffici...

Aging is increasing worldwide; hence, aging-related health is also more relevant. Well-programmed physical exercise is now an indispensable tool to achieve active aging and preserve older people’s health. Such “well-programmed” exercise requires efficient and useful tools to measure the activity. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effec...

Background: The simultaneous contribution of several etiopathogenic disturbances makes amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) a fatal and challenging disease. Here, we studied two different cell therapy protocols to protect both central and peripheral nervous system in a murine model of ALS. Methods: Since ALS begins with a distal axonopathy, in a...

Background Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) have potent immunomodulatory and neuroprotective properties, and have been tested in neurodegenerative diseases resulting in meaningful clinical improvements. Regulatory guidelines specify the need to perform preclinical studies prior any clinical trial, including biodistribution assays and tumourigenesis...

Bariatric surgery (BS) is considered the most effective treatment for morbid obesity. Preoperative body weight is directly associated with a higher surgical morbimortality and physical activity could be effective in the preparation of patients. The aim of this study is to determine the effects of a six-month exercise training program (ETP), combini...

Classification is a defining feature of Para-sport, and sports-specific classification systems determined through multidisciplinary scientific research are required, i.e., evidence-based and focused on the relationship between the impairment and the key performance determinants. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) was applied as a classification tool u...

Bounded additive models in Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) under the assumption of Constant Returns to Scale (CRS) were recently introduced in the literature (Cooper et al., 2011, Pastor et al., 2013 and 2015). In this paper, we propose to extend the so far generated knowledge about bounded additive models to the family of Directional Distance Func...

Aims: To analyse performance across the menstrual cycle using optimal load and a velocity-based training, and to check the impact of dysmenorrhea in this type of training. Methods: Five eumenorrheic women with a normal menstrual cycle participated in four performance tests: 20-meter linear sprint, counter-movement jump, bench-press and half-squat....

Background: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive muscle weakness, paralysis and death. There is no effective treatment for ALS and stem cell therapy has arisen as a potential therapeutic approach. Methods: SOD1 mutant mice were used to study the potential neurotrophic effect of bone mar...

Adolescence is an important stage for brain maturation. There are many studies of exercise-cognition relations, but there is still a lack of knowledge about the impact of combining different intensities of exercise on adolescents’ cognitive responses. The main objective of this study was to analyze the effect of three physical education sessions (b...

The aim of any Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) inefficiency model is to calculate the efficient projection of each unit belonging to a certain finite sample. The reverse directional distance function (RDDF) is a new tool developed in this chapter that allows us to express any known DEA inefficiency model as a directional distance function (DDF). He...

The Bounded Adjusted Measure (BAM), initially defined for the additive model, which is a variable returns to scale (VRS) model, was extended to the constant returns to scale (CRS) case [7]. The added range-bounds, which maintain unaltered the production possibility set (PPS) under VRS, showed an influential effect under CRS, reducing the correspond...

Spinal cord injury is a debilitating condition that affects thousands of people every year, with a percentage of them becoming permanently disabled. Unfortunately, there is very little treatment for this condition, and no proven therapeutic approach for neurological recovery, although early treatment has been shown to have a positive effect on the...

Spain is the world’s leading olive oil producer and exporter; representing more than half of the EU’s production and around the 40% of the worldwide production. In markets where increasingly become more important the aspects related to the geographical origin of the products, the Protected Designations of Origin (PDO) are an essential tool for impr...

Spain is the world's leading olive oil producer and exporter; representing more than half of the EU's production and around the 40% of the worldwide production. In markets where increasingly become more important the aspects related to the geographical origin of the products, the Protected Designations of Origin (PDO) are an essential tool for impr...

Espana es el principal productor y exportador mundial de aceite de oliva, con mas de la mitad de la produccion de la Union Europea y entorno al 40% de la mundial. En unos mercados en los que cada vez cobran mas importancia los aspectos relacionados con el origen geografico del producto, las Denominaciones de Origen son una herramienta esencial para...

A key element of competitiveness in the tourism industry is the use of new information and communications technology (ICT). To analyse the efficiency in attracting tourists via the Web for a set of 16 Mediterranean countries, the authors use non-parametric bounded adjusted measure (BAM) models. Two models are proposed: the first analyses the influe...

A key element of competitiveness in the tourism industry is the use of new information and communications technology (ICT). To analyse the efficiency in attracting tourists via the Web for a set of 16 Mediterranean countries, the authors use non-parametric bounded adjusted measure (BAM) models. Two models are proposed: the first analyses the influe...

Obesity has become one of the major health problems of today’s society, being considered as an epidemic. For people with morbid obesity (Body Mass Index (BMI) ≥ 40 kg·m-2) who don’t lose weight using conventional weight reduction methods we must resort to bariatric surgery. There is controversy in the relationship between physical activity and weig...

This article aims to establish a methodology for comparing golf-tourism efficiency of a set of 14 Mediterranean countries easily using three Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models. We have compared three DEA models. The first model resorts only to physical variables, while the latter two also consider cybermetric variables. Approximately one-third...

Dealing with weighted additive models in Data Envelopment Analysis guarantees that any projection of an inefficient unit belongs to the strong efficient frontier, among other interesting properties. Recently, constant returns to scale (CRS) range-bounded models have been introduced for defining a new additive-type efficiency measure (see Cooper et...

Demyelinating disorders such as leukodystrophies and multiple sclerosis are neurodegenerative diseases characterized by the progressive loss of myelin that may lead toward a chronic demyelination of the brain's white matter, impairing normal axonal conduction velocity and ultimately causing neurodegeneration. Current treatments modifying the pathol...

The wine Common Market Organisation has established two concepts for recognizing the quality of wines in the European Union (EU). The first corresponds to the so-called Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), and the second to the Protected Geographical Indication (PGI). The set of Spanish PDOs includes the subset of Spanish DOs (Designation of Orig...

Bone marrow has proven to be an adequate source of stem cells for the treatment of numerous disorders, including neurodegenerative diseases. Bone marrow can be easily and relatively painlessly extracted from a patient or allogenic donor and then transplanted into the degenerative area. Here, the grafted cells will activate a number of mechanisms in...

Motorneuron degenerative diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), are characterized by the progressive and rapid loss of motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord, leading to paralysis and death. GDNF (glial cell line derived neurotrophic factor) has been previously shown to be capable of protecting motor-neurons in ALS animal models...

The authors assess the performance of professional tennis players from the perspective of the efficiency of their game using data envelopment analysis (DEA). This research can complement the information provided by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ranking, which is concerned with their competitive performance. The DEA provides an index...

A decade ago the Range Adjusted Measure (RAM) was introduced for use with Additive Models. The empirical experience gained since then recommends developing a new measure with similar characteristics but with more discriminatory power. This task is accomplished in this paper by introducing the Bounded Adjusted Measure (BAM) in connection with a new...

Mesenchymal stem cells have been proven to be potentially effective in the treatment of a large variety of diseases, including neurodegenerative disorders. Of these, cerebellar ataxia is a group of disorders characterized by the degeneration of the cerebellum, particularly the Purkinje cells, responsible for motor coordination and control of the mo...