ahead

We are getting closer to ahead of the arrival of Alzheimer’s. Knowing it can reassure us, but maybe too much

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Get ahead of the arrival of degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s is today a chimera, but achieving it would be key when looking for treatments that manage to go beyond containing symptoms and are able to reverse the disease. What is already in our hand is to estimate our risk of suffering. The question is to what extent is a good idea. Pros and cons. This type of evidence that allows us to know our chances of suffering from Alzheimer’s impact on our psychological well -being and our motivation. A new study He has investigated In these effects and has observed that, although this knowledge does not have an effect on our emotional stress can reduce our motivation to maintain a healthy life. Even among people with a high risk of suffering from this disorder. Win the career to the disease. Get ahead of Alzheimer’s arrival It is key For professionals who treat it: the sooner the diagnosis is the greater the margin of maneuver to design the ideal therapeutic strategy that allows to slow down the appearance of symptoms and their progressive worsening. It also helps patients and their environment adapt to the arrival of the disease, psychologically but also more practical. Count plates. Although we do not know the mechanisms that operate after Alzheimer’s, we know that beta-amyloid plaques play a fundamental role. These clusters that are formed in the brain appear in people with this disease and are therefore an important diagnostic tool. The scanners Positron emission tomography offer a non -invasive technique that allows you to detect these clusters in the brain. From the identification of these clusters it is possible to estimate the risk that the disease begins to unleash a patient and allows health personnel and affected people to take the necessary preventive measures. 199 participants. The new study had 199 participantsall healthy adults who would go through this process to determine the presence or absence of plates in the brain. Before completing the scanner, the group completed surveys to find symptoms of anxiety, depression, memory and motivation problems; Surveys that repeated six months after the test. The details of the study were published In an article In the magazine Alzheimer’s & Dementia. Lights and shadows. As explained by the team responsible for the study, participants who did not present plaques experienced “emotional improvements”: lower depression, anxiety and even less memory problems. However, the team also observed a lower degree of motivation when taking measures to improve their lifestyle to make it healthier. Among the participants there were also cases in which plaques were detected. They also did not see an increase in depressive symptoms a memory problems, but their anxiety level was reduced. The problem is that, as in the case of the first group, its motivation to introduce changes in their day to day was also reduced. “The findings suggest that revealing the presence of amyloids does not negatively affect the participants, and simply knowing the results seems to decrease the negative feelings globally,” explained in a press release Schnaider Beeri, Ocautora of the study. The role of the psychological. Physiological diseases can affect our mental well -being, but our psychology can also play a determining role when facing body diseases. Motivation when introducing changes in our life is, in this sense, of difficult importance to estimate. In Xataka | If the question is how to hunt the Alzheimer Image | Daria Obymaha

The magic number that puts Mercadona very much ahead of its competition and that has a hidden cost

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Mercadona has achieved something that seemed impossible in the saturated food distribution sector: A net margin of 3.88% in 2024. Well above not only Spanish or European rivals, but even world giants such as Costco (2.95%), Walmart (2.88%) or Tesco (2.87%). The figure, a trifle compared to other sectors, is stratospheric if we compare it with rivals such as Carrefour, with just 0.93%. Others, such as Dia, Casino or Auchan directly record losses. The supermarket business Historically operates with megic margins (1-2%) compensated for its high volume and cash flow. Mercadona, touching 4%, It is an anomaly. And he has achieved it mainly in the last five years, in which it has gone from 2.7% of 2019 to 3.88% of 2024. In addition, its net benefit has shot 37%, to 1,384 million euros. The 6 keys to unprecedented profitability “Total Efficiency” Model. The figures obey a polished strategy for decades. Juan Roig described the results of 2024 as “from ‘very good’ to ‘spectacular’” during his presentation at the central offices in Paterna. He attributed them to “the good progress of the economy, a great business model and brave decision making,” according to Castellón Plaza. One of Mercadona’s distinctive elements is its commitment to an “efficient assortment.” In other words: a short catalog. Other chains offer between 15,000 and 20,000 references, Mercadona has a rather lower number, prioritizing high -rotation products. It is one of the points that highlights the analysis of Food retaila strategy that “allows you to be more efficient, reach economies of scale and boost the quality of your own brand, all this while offering low prices.” That goes in the next point … Own brand domain. The weight of the distributor brand in Mercadona is overwhelming: its landowner brands, green or deliplus forest represent 58.2% of its sales, according to data from Actuality distribution About 2018. The chain then controlled approximately 44%of the total Spanish market of white brands, far ahead of competitors such as day (16%) or Lidl (11%). This strategy eliminates marketing costs and intermediaries associated with commercial brands. And allows you to set competitive prices without sacrificing margin. Mercadona has constantly invested in improving the quality of these products, developing them together with specialized suppliers to match or overcome the quality of leading brands. A unique relationship with suppliers. The Valencian chain has changed the distributor-professional relationship since the late nineties, when Roig promoted the “interproved” model. As it details INFORETAIL MAGAZINEMercadona “selected a manufacturer by category and granted long -term exclusivity to produce its brands”, working in “open book”: the chain knew the costs of the supplier and jointly set objectives of productivity improvement. Although this model has evolved since 2018 to a broader base of 1,400 “Totaler suppliers“, The philosophy of vertical integration and joint optimization remains. Mercadona negotiates block for all its stores, and that allows you to get conditions that other distributors do not get. The success of this symbiosis is such that, according to The economist“Mercadona suppliers are made of gold”, with growth of more than 10% in their sales during the last year. Logistics and automation. Mercadona operates one of the most sophisticated logistics networks in Europe, with 16 large highly automated blocks that supply their 1,674 supermarkets daily. In 2024, it allocated 276 million euros (26% of its total investment) to strengthen this infrastructure, according to Digital economy. The company has implemented advanced technologies such as the system Figa bridge picking (PPG) In its fresh warehouses, which speeds up the preparation of orders: it allows you to carry fresh products from the field to the store in 24 hours. Less losses and better perceived quality. This obsession with efficiency has raised productivity per employee at 313,545 euros per year, the highest in the sector. Almost null expense and marketing control. Unlike other chains with a lotHere is an example in this house) and not so much to announce products. Trust more on the mouth-a-or and the repetition of purchase. This savings in marketing, which for competitors can mean 1-2% of sales, is direct to the net margin. The company also maintains a relatively simple directive structure. In 2024, he even reduced his management committee to only six members, in front of the sixteen he came to have, according to reports Castellón Plaza. The six members of the Management Committee with Juan Roig in the presentation of results of exercise 2024. That committee came to have sixteen members. Image: Mercadona. No promotions or discounts. Mercadona has no loyalty program, points, coupons or specific discounts. Instead, opt for stable and competitive prices throughout the year. He no longer entrusts his motto ‘Always low prices‘which started at the end of the nineties, and in fact He has explicitly said that it is not his goal to be cheapbut the idea of ​​SPB remains in a certain way: fixed prices instead of specific offers. This saves you promotional marketing costs and constant price changes. In 2024 He reduced 2,000 pricesbut permanently and without this affecting its profitability, according to the company itself. In fact, its gross commercial margin remained stable at 24.7%, confirming that the increase in net profit (37%) compared to sales (9%) is mainly due to internal efficiency improvements, not to make products more expensive. Internationalization problems Mercadona has a 28% market share in Spain and is a baggy leader, but it is having difficulties when leaving other markets. In Portugal he has been for five years but “only” has sixty stores. Although the Portuguese is a market that has begun to give benefits (7 million euros in 2024), Roig has admitted that “it costs a lot” to grow there. As collected The avant -garde“after being forty years in Spain” it is not easy to adapt the model, and international expansion requires “generating managers in the country through internal promotion, which is a long process.” Mercadona has had to adapt its assortment to Portuguese taste and develop a local supplier network. According to Merca2although store sales in Portugal … Read more

Ahead of Alzheimer’s is vital when it comes to stopping its advance. Some of the most important clues are in language

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Alzheimer’s is one of several disorders causing dementia in the third age. It is also the most frequent: in Spain it is estimated that in 2019 there were about 800,000 people suffer from the disease, according to data Spanish Society of Neurology. Globally Estimates They suggest that more than 30 million people live with it. One of the challenges with which patients, family and health professionals have to face is Alzheimer’s diagnosis. Of a Early diagnosis It depends a lot on our reaction capacity to face the symptoms of this disease for now incurable. We have advanced a lot in the diagnosis of this disorder. So much that one of Our main tools Diagnosis is discard, that is, rule out that cognitive deterioration detected in one person is caused by other forms of dementia, such as Parkinson’s. Fortunately, it is not the only tool at our disposal. Another diagnosis pillar are capacities. Specialists can resort to evidence that allows them Evaluate our cognitive abilities And our memory. In this context, interviews can also be conducted to the relatives who help evaluate the patient. The images by scanner, both magnetic resonances, as computerized tomographies or by positron emission, can also give clues. On the one hand they can help in the work of discarding other pathologies, but also They can help To detect the presence of amyloid plates linked to the disease. Until relatively a short time, the confirmation of Alzheimer’s diagnosis could only be done after the patient’s death, examining his brain. Conremps diagnostic techniques can already offer us a comparable degree of certainty. Partly thanks to the last of the tools available to experts, biomarkers. Collecting clues The diagnosis of this disease can only be performed by experts in the field, but sometimes it is important to be attentive to the clues They tell us that in family or relative may be developing the disease. Tracks that can notify us that the time has come to request help from health professionals. In a Recent article in The conversationSarah Curtis, a language expert at Nottingham Trent, listed some perceptible clues through Speech changes of the people who are developing this disease. The first of these indications is the appearance of pauses and doubts in speech, accompanied by a certain vagueness when expressing. That is, the person may have difficulty finding the word you want to use and just trying to overcome this obstacle by resorting to trunk words as “thing” or describing the object vaguely. Another early indication of Alzheimer’s is in confusion when using words. These confusion can be almost imperceptible at the beginning since they can start with words that allude to more general categories, such as using “animal” instead of “dog.” They are more noticeable if the substitution is for another concept in the semantic field, such as using “cat”. Another track listed by Curtis It is the passage of facts to words. People with Alzheimer may have difficulties when completing certain activities, which will result in this person talking about the activity, the emotions that arouses them or even expressing doubts or longing regarding their ability to complete the action. Memory loss can be primed with the lexical variety of the person suffering from Alzheimer’s. That is why this disease can begin by manifesting with An increasingly reduced vocabulary and a greater tendency to repeat words. The fifth and last of the indications mentioned by Curtis on his list, has to do with precision when choosing the words. A person who develops Alzheimer’s can have difficulty listing diverse words in the same category, such as different animals, food or words that begin with a specific letter. This is why the tests used in their diagnosis often ask people who perform this type of enumerations. Many people can read some of these indications and think “this happens to me too.” And it is that confusion of this type are normal. It is common for us to be tongue in countless contexts. That is why it is important to attend to changes in speech and not simply to the existence of confusion or difficulties. Alzheimer’s is a disease that does not appear out of nowhere but is gradually aggravated and is generally not detectable in its early stages. That is why it is often of vital importance attend to your first symptoms. Even more if we consider that some of the treatments are only effective delaying the disease in these early stages. In Xataka | We have a new “theory of all” to understand Alzheimer’s. Your key is in small granules Image | Jiun-Je Lin

has shown a secret project ahead of time

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A few days ago, Apple published in his research blog A video showing Elecnt, an experimental robot-lamina, thus breaking its traditional policy of absolute secrecy on developing products. Why is it important. It is the first time in the recent history that Apple publicly reveals a project before its commercial launch. This change speaks for itself and suggests a new strategy of the company in the race for AI and domestic robotics: a somewhat more public and open. Not without reasons. Between bambalins. The robot shown is an articulated lamp, speaker and integrated projector that responds to gestures and voice commands, reminds a lot of the famous pixar lamp. The device makes expressive movements that emulate human emotions: It moves “curious” when exploring its surroundings. Simulates sadness crouching his head when he receives a “no.” Dance when music sounds. Adjust your position to better illuminate user work. And above all, not only moves, but does it in human, emotional form. In perspective. This movement comes after Bloomberg will reveal that Apple is developing domestic robots With an estimated price of $ 1,000 by 2026-2027, thus entering direct competition with Amazon and Google in the market for intelligent domestic attendees. He also anticipated a somewhat early arrival of domestic devices whose screen would be located on an articulated and motorized arm that “follows” the user in the room. Already common technologies, such as Center Stage or Cented Framego right in that direction. What is happening. Apple seems to be testing the public’s reaction to more “human” and expressive robotic interfaces, moving away from minimalism that has characterized its products in the last decade. On the other hand, this opening and the fact that it has been shown in your blog about Machine Learning They leave another possibility open: that Apple is looking to position themselves in the AI ​​and robotics market to attract talent. A way to proclaim the world that she also has plans in those fields. Deepen. The academic publication that accompanies the video explains that users interact more and better with robots that show expressiveness than with those purely functional, especially in social tasks. And there it seems to be a clear proposal: towards the expressiveness of the robot and not only to cold and functional movements. Outstanding image | Apple In Xataka | The AI ​​already understands the physics of the real world: Nvidia Cosmos is the first step for smart robots

I wanted to be one of the great science fiction sagas, but the box office failure took ahead to the book saga

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‘Twilight’ and ‘The hunger games’, like or not, marked an era. His aesthetics, his arguments and even his industrial logic (successfully female literary saga, and that adapts in a film with aspiration to open a saga) sowed A series of seeds that set in a good amount of sagas As the semi -infallid ‘divergent’, although few achieved the fame of the two most successful franchises. In fact, Stephanie Meyer herself, author of ‘Twilight’, launched to experiment with science fiction. The result was’The host‘, a new editorial success that was quickly adapted to the cinema. And the film, directed by Andrew Niccol (signatory of ‘Gattaca’ and screenwriter of ‘The Truman show’), was not bad at all. However, the failure was considerable, with only 63,3 million dollars collected around the world compared to 40 budget, insufficient for the saga to have continuity. The film tells how the earth has been invaded by beings that are housed in human bodies and control their minds. The creature that inhabits the body of a young land has to live fight against the memories of this, who strives to not losing the control. To do this, rConstantly recue the man who is in lovewhich makes the creature, Wanderer, also ends up in love with that human. Both will end up allying to reunite with him. As you can see, high doses of youth romanticism in a film that, despite its dishes with the teenage fashions of that time, has a good amount of powerful ideas: visually it is attractive, the cast (Saosear Ronan, Diane Kruger, Emily Browning) It is more interesting than usual and has good doses of violence that distance it from the white approach of ‘twilight’. A pity, since Meyers also abandoned the continuation of the literary series, and there is no way of knowing (for the moment) how the story ends. In Xataka | Between ‘Body snatchers’ and ‘are alive’: 11 films about ultra -corps and other silent extraterrestrial invasions

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