Purpose Early detection of cognitive decline is essential for timely diagnosis and treatment. This study aimed to evaluate whether upper-limb movement dynamics derived from wrist-mounted inertial sensors during a fine motor task can accurately differentiate among healthy aging, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and dementia (DEM). Methods The study recruited young and older participants. Cognitive status was established through clinical evaluation together with concordance across three standardized neurocognitive assessments (MMSE, MoCA, and NEUROPSI). Upper-limb dynamics during the Grooved Pegboard Test (GPT) were recorded using a wrist-mounted triaxial BioHarness accelerometer. Time- and frequency-domain features were extracted from the accelerometry signals, and uncorrelated linear discriminant analysis (ULDA) was applied for supervised dimensionality reduction. Classification performance was evaluated using support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), and k-nearest neighbors (KNN) classifiers using accuracy and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC-ROC). Results The study included 109 participants distributed into four groups: 30 young healthy subjects (YNG), 22 cognitively intact older adults (CIO), 27 participants with MCI, and 30 with DEM. Prior to dimensionality reduction, the SVM classifier achieved the strongest performance, reaching a macro accuracy of 0.88 ± 0.013, demonstrating meaningful discrimination using the original feature representation. ULDA-based projection further improved class separability across all evaluated models. RF + ULDA and SVM + ULDA achieved macro accuracies of 0.97, whereas KNN + ULDA achieved 0.94. Conclusion Fine motor dynamics measured during the GPT contain discriminative information associated with progressive cognitive decline and may support objective, wearable-sensor-based cognitive screening. Trial registration The Local Ethics Committee of the General Hospital of Mexico approved the study, “Dr. Eduardo Liceaga” (protocol code DI/23/110-B/03/12).

El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) modulates tropical South American rainfall, but its Colombian expression is filtered by terrain, rainfall regime, moisture pathways, and atmospheric state. We quantify ENSO-related sensitivity of standardized precipitation anomalies in the Colombian Andes and Orinoquia using Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS v2.0; 1981–February 2026), station records from Colombia’s Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM), ERA5 predictors, and 1981–2010 climatologies. CHIRPS reproduced station-derived standardized anomalies (r=0.94 in the Andes; r=0.91 in Orinoquia), supporting regional anomaly analysis while retaining cautious comparison framing. Lagged associations with the Oceanic Niño Index (ONI) were evaluated for lags 0–6 months using effective degrees of freedom, block-bootstrap confidence intervals, and maximum-lag tests. ENSO sensitivity was stronger and more coherent in the Andes: annual lag-1 ONI–precipitation correlation was −0.374, with marked December–February and June–August responses. Orinoquia showed weaker annual sensitivity and a season-specific September–November response. Diagnostic models showed modest, temporally cautious skill gains from physically interpretable climate-index and reanalysis predictors in the Andes. ENSO-related Colombian precipitation sensitivity is heterogeneous, lagged, and physically mediated rather than spatially uniform.

La clasificación automatizada de señales electrocardiográficas (ECG) puede constituirse en una herramienta de apoyo para la identificación de alteraciones cardiovasculares. No obstante, la naturaleza no lineal y no estacionaria de estas señales puede limitar el uso de métodos paramétricos convencionales. Este estudio evalúa descriptores de Teoría de la Información (TI) como alternativa no paramétrica para caracterizar segmentos de latidos cardíacos. Se analizaron 14 552 segmentos del ECG Heartbeat Categorization Dataset, cada uno representado por 187 posiciones temporales, y se cuantificó la interdependencia entre las categorías diagnósticas y las amplitudes mediante entropía e información mutua. Además, se implementó un procedimiento de agrupamiento basado en TI. La matriz de confusión para el modelo de clasificación mostró una sensibilidad de 94,38 % y una especificidad de 70,53 %; la exactitud balanceada fue 82,46 %. La pureza de los clústeres fue cercana a 0,877. Los resultados muestran una separación parcial entre segmentos normales y anormales y deben interpretarse considerando el desbalance de clases, el preprocesamiento y el efecto del zero-padding.

El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) modulates tropical South American rainfall, but its Colombian expression is filtered by terrain, rainfall regime, moisture pathways, and atmospheric state. We quantify ENSO-related sensitivity of standardized precipitation anomalies in the Colombian Andes and Orinoquia using Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS v2.0; 1981–February 2026), station records from Colombia’s Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology, and Environmental Studies (IDEAM), ERA5 atmospheric fields, and 1981–2010 climatologies. CHIRPS reproduced station-derived standardized anomalies ($r=0.94$ in the Andes; $r=0.91$ in Orinoquia), supporting regional anomaly analysis while retaining cautious comparison framing. Lagged associations with the Oceanic Niño Index (ONI) were evaluated for lags 0–6 months using effective sample size, block-bootstrap confidence intervals, and maximum-lag tests. ENSO sensitivity was stronger and more coherent in the Andes: annual lag-1 ONI–precipitation correlation was $-0.374$, with marked December–February and June–August responses. El Niño minus La Niña composites of column water vapor, 850-hPa moisture-flux convergence, 500-hPa vertical velocity, and Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE) revealed seasonally heterogeneous moisture and convergence responses, but coherent positive $\omega$ anomalies over the Andes in DJF and JJA, consistent with reduced ascent. CAPE was significantly higher in MAM–SON, whereas the positive DJF difference was not statistically significant, showing that thermodynamic instability alone did not determine rainfall. Orinoquia did not exhibit a comparably consistent four-variable atmospheric signature. An elevation-stratified analysis showed a modest lowland-to-upland strengthening that plateaued above approximately 1000 m. A strictly antecedent ONI-lag model retained modest fixed-split skill in the Andes ($R^2=0.138$) but negligible skill in Orinoquia ($R^2=0.003$). The results support regional diagnosis, not causal or operational claims.

Purpose Minimally invasive interventions of the spine (MISP) involve high-risk procedures. Lack of accuracy in infiltrations or poor screw placement can lead to severe neurological, vascular, and visceral injuries. This requires better training methods for residents, including surgical simulation, to reduce patient risk and lead to more efficient surgeries with lower error rates and improved clinical outcomes. Methods A mixed-reality simulator for training in MISP procedures was evaluated. The simulator combines two navigation modalities: (1) virtual reality fluoroscopy simulation and (2) mixed reality with augmented and virtual reality scenes. Two interventions were selected for simulation: pure facet infiltration and transpedicular screw placement. A pilot training program was designed and implemented, comparing the two navigation modalities: fluoroscopy simulation vs. mixed-reality navigation. Ten orthopedic residents participated in the study. Their performance was evaluated by using simulator metrics. Their perceived experience was assessed through a specifically designed questionnaire. Results Residents improved overall execution times during mixed reality navigation. In particular, greater success in screw placements with shorter execution times during mixed reality navigation compared to fluoroscopy simulation. Similarly, they also achieved greater accuracy in the infiltration procedure. The questionnaire reveals that residents have a positive evaluation of the simulator and find it valuable for training purposes. Conclusion Compared to fluoroscopy simulation, residents found it easier to perform tasks with the mixed reality guide in perceiving and understanding anatomy, safe pathways, and correct target locations. Overall, the simulator was deemed valuable for training. This motivates further research on stratified programs and their benefits, possibly starting with mixed reality, followed by fluoroscopy simulation. Also provides useful information for improving the simulation, including better visual feedback and patient-specific cases.