B-LEARNING AND VIRTUAL EDUCATION STRATEGIES IN LATIN AMERICA

In order to develop this article, a documentary review of the elaboration and production of research works related to the study of B-Learning and Virtual Education Strategies in Latin America was carried out to know, through a bibliometric study, the main characteristics of 16 publications registered in the Scopus database. The results obtained from this database were organized in tables and figures, categorizing the information by variables such as Year of Publication, Country of Origin and Area of Knowledge, which allowed to identify, through qualitative analysis, the position of different authors regarding the proposed topic. The main findings of this research were that Colombia stood out for having the highest scientific production, leading the list with four publications. Likewise, the area of knowledge that made the greatest contribution to the construction of bibliographic material related to the study of variables was computer science, with seven published documents

Caracterización Clínico Epidemiológica del Dengue en Cooperantes Cubanos Estado Trujillo. Diciembre 2008-Diciembre2009.

Se realizó un estudio observacional descriptivo transversal con todos los  cooperantes cubanos egresados  con el diagnóstico confirmado de dengue en los Centros Médicos de Diagnóstico Integral del estado Trujillo en Venezuela, en el período comprendido entre diciembre 2008  a diciembre  2009 ,según criterios de inclusión y exclusión :clínicos, epidemiológicos  y  de laboratorio, los cuales constituyeron el universo del estudio. Sé evaluaron niveles de variables demográficas, clínicas, de laboratorio, epidemiológicas con la finalidad de identificar factores que ayuden a disminuir morbilidad y mortalidad por dicha entidad. Hubo predominio del sexo femenino, grupo etáreo de 40 a 49 años, la raza mestiza, así como la procedencia de zona urbana, los principales hallazgos clínicos fueron, fiebre, dolor retro orbitario y artromialgias.Palabras clave: dengue, morbilidad, mortalidad

Deglución post extubación de pacientes críticos con y sin diagnóstico de COVID-19 durante el lapso pandémico

El nuevo coronavirus del síndrome respiratorio agudo severo (SARS-CoV-2), es la causa de una enfermedad de rápida propagación, que afecta a miles de personas en todo el mundo. Estudios previos han caracterizado la deglución en pacientes críticos hospitalizados que requieren intubación y ventilación mecánica invasiva. En este estudio se analizó las características deglutorias de pacientes críticos extubados con y sin diagnóstico de COVID-19. Se llevó a cabo un estudio de análisis mediante la revisión sistematica de la literatura, obteniendo como resultado, que la deglución post extubación en pacientes criticos con y sin diagnóstico de covid-19, el 22% padecieron de COVID-19 quienes estuvieron significativamente más días intubados que aquellos sin la patología, inmediatamente posterior a la extubación orotraqueal, más del 99% presentó disfagia. No hubo diferencia significativa, ni asociación significativa en el grado de severidad de la disfagia entre sujetos con y sin COVID-19. De tal forma se concluye que es necesaria la incorporación del fonoaudiólogo dentro de los equipos de Unidades de Pacientes Críticos para el manejo de los pacientes con COVID-19 y disfagia. Además, se recomienda continuar con más estudios en el área.  El nuevo coronavirus del síndrome respiratorio agudo severo (SARS-CoV-2), es la causa de una enfermedad de rápida propagación, que afecta a miles de personas en todo el mundo. Estudios previos han caracterizado la deglución en pacientes críticos hospitalizados que requieren intubación y ventilación mecánica invasiva. En este estudio se analizó las características deglutorias de pacientes críticos extubados con y sin diagnóstico de COVID-19. Se llevó a cabo un estudio de análisis mediante la revisión sistematica de la literatura, obteniendo como resultado, que la deglución post extubación en pacientes criticos con y sin diagnóstico de covid-19, el 22% padecieron de COVID-19 quienes estuvieron significativamente más días intubados que aquellos sin la patología, inmediatamente posterior a la extubación orotraqueal, más del 99% presentó disfagia. No hubo diferencia significativa, ni asociación significativa en el grado de severidad de la disfagia entre sujetos con y sin COVID-19. De tal forma se concluye que es necesaria la incorporación del fonoaudiólogo dentro de los equipos de Unidades de Pacientes Críticos para el manejo de los pacientes con COVID-19 y disfagia. Además, se recomienda continuar con más estudios en el área. &nbsp

Adipose energy stores, physical work, and the metabolic syndrome: lessons from hummingbirds

Hummingbirds and other nectar-feeding, migratory birds possess unusual adaptive traits that offer important lessons concerning obesity, diabetes and the metabolic syndrome. Hummingbirds consume a high sugar diet and have fasting glucose levels that would be severely hyperglycemic in humans, yet these nectar-fed birds recover most glucose that is filtered into the urine. Hummingbirds accumulate over 40% body fat shortly before migrations in the spring and autumn. Despite hyperglycemia and seasonally elevated body fat, the birds are not known to become diabetic in the sense of developing polyuria (glucosuria), polydipsia and polyphagia. The tiny (3–4 g) Ruby-throated hummingbird has among the highest mass-specific metabolic rates known, and loses most of its stored fat in 20 h by flying up to 600 miles across the Gulf of Mexico. During the breeding season, it becomes lean and maintains an extremely accurate energy balance. In addition, hummingbirds can quickly enter torpor and reduce resting metabolic rates by 10-fold. Thus, hummingbirds are wonderful examples of the adaptive nature of fat tissue, and may offer lessons concerning prevention of metabolic syndrome in humans

The Genomic Ancestry of Individuals from Different Geographical Regions of Brazil Is More Uniform Than Expected

Based on pre-DNA racial/color methodology, clinical and pharmacological trials have traditionally considered the different geographical regions of Brazil as being very heterogeneous. We wished to ascertain how such diversity of regional color categories correlated with ancestry. Using a panel of 40 validated ancestry-informative insertion-deletion DNA polymorphisms we estimated individually the European, African and Amerindian ancestry components of 934 self-categorized White, Brown or Black Brazilians from the four most populous regions of the Country. We unraveled great ancestral diversity between and within the different regions. Especially, color categories in the northern part of Brazil diverged significantly in their ancestry proportions from their counterparts in the southern part of the Country, indicating that diverse regional semantics were being used in the self-classification as White, Brown or Black. To circumvent these regional subjective differences in color perception, we estimated the general ancestry proportions of each of the four regions in a form independent of color considerations. For that, we multiplied the proportions of a given ancestry in a given color category by the official census information about the proportion of that color category in the specific region, to arrive at a “total ancestry” estimate. Once such a calculation was performed, there emerged a much higher level of uniformity than previously expected. In all regions studied, the European ancestry was predominant, with proportions ranging from 60.6% in the Northeast to 77.7% in the South. We propose that the immigration of six million Europeans to Brazil in the 19th and 20th centuries - a phenomenon described and intended as the “whitening of Brazil” - is in large part responsible for dissipating previous ancestry dissimilarities that reflected region-specific population histories. These findings, of both clinical and sociological importance for Brazil, should also be relevant to other countries with ancestrally admixed populations

Tropical Stratospheric Circulation and Ozone Coupled to Pacific Multi-Decadal Variability

Observational and modeling evidence suggest a recent acceleration of the stratospheric Brewer-Dobson circulation (BDC), driven by climate change and stratospheric ozone depletion. However, slowly varying natural variability can compromise our ability to detect such forced changes over the relatively short observational record. Using observations and chemistry-climate model simulations, we demonstrate a link between multi-decadal variability in the strength of the BDC and the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO), with knock-on impacts for composition in the stratosphere. After accounting for the IPO-like variability in the BDC, the modeled trend is approximately 7%–10% dec−1 over 1979–2010. Furthermore, we find that sea surface temperatures explain up to 50% of the simulated decadal variability in tropical mid-stratospheric ozone. Our findings demonstrate strong links between low-frequency variability in the oceans, troposphere and stratosphere, as well as their potential importance in detecting structural changes in the BDC and future ozone recovery

Anti-cyanobacterial activity of Moringa oleifera seeds

Filtrates from crushed Moringa oleifera seeds were tested for their effects on growth and Photosystem II efficiency of the common bloom-forming cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa. M. aeruginosa populations exhibited good growth in controls and treatments with 4- and 8-mg crushed Moringa seeds per liter, having similar growth rates of 0.50 (±0.01) per day. In exposures of 20- to 160-mg crushed Moringa seeds L−1, growth rates were negative and on average −0.23 (±0.05) .day−1. Presumably, in the higher doses of 20- to 160-mg crushed seeds per liter, the cyanobacteria died, which was supported by a rapid drop in the Photosystem II efficiency (ΦPSII), while the ΦPSII was high and unaffected in 0, 4, and 8 mg L−1. High-density populations of M. aeruginosa (chlorophyll-a concentrations of ∼270 µg L−1) were reduced to very low levels within 2 weeks of exposure to ≥80-mg crushed seeds per liter. At the highest dosage of 160 mg L−1, the ΦPSII dropped to zero rapidly and remained nil during the course of the experiment (14 days). Hence, under laboratory conditions, a complete wipeout of the bloom could be achieved. This is the first study that yielded evidence for cyanobactericidal activity of filtrate from crushed Moringa seeds, suggesting that Moringa seed extracts might have a potential as an effect-oriented measure lessening cyanobacterial nuisance

Quantum dynamics in strong fluctuating fields

A large number of multifaceted quantum transport processes in molecular systems and physical nanosystems can be treated in terms of quantum relaxation processes which couple to one or several fluctuating environments. A thermal equilibrium environment can conveniently be modelled by a thermal bath of harmonic oscillators. An archetype situation provides a two-state dissipative quantum dynamics, commonly known under the label of a spin-boson dynamics. An interesting and nontrivial physical situation emerges, however, when the quantum dynamics evolves far away from thermal equilibrium. This occurs, for example, when a charge transferring medium possesses nonequilibrium degrees of freedom, or when a strong time-dependent control field is applied externally. Accordingly, certain parameters of underlying quantum subsystem acquire stochastic character. Herein, we review the general theoretical framework which is based on the method of projector operators, yielding the quantum master equations for systems that are exposed to strong external fields. This allows one to investigate on a common basis the influence of nonequilibrium fluctuations and periodic electrical fields on quantum transport processes. Most importantly, such strong fluctuating fields induce a whole variety of nonlinear and nonequilibrium phenomena. A characteristic feature of such dynamics is the absence of thermal (quantum) detailed balance.Comment: review article, Advances in Physics (2005), in pres

The effect of perceived discrimination on the health of immigrant workers in Spain

Background: Discrimination is an important determinant of health inequalities, and immigrants may be more vulnerable to certain types of discrimination than the native-born. This study analyses the relationship between immigrants' perceived discrimination and various self-reported health indicators. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted (2008) amongst a non-random sample of 2434 immigrants from Ecuador, Morocco, Romania and Colombia in four Spanish cities: Barcelona, Huelva, Madrid and Valencia. A factorial analysis of variables revealed three dimensions of perceived discrimination (due to immigrant status, due to physical appearance, and workplace-related). The association of these dimensions with self-rated health, mental health (GHQ-12), change in self-rated health between origin and host country, and other self-reported health outcomes was analysed. Logistic regression was used adjusting for potential confounders (aOR-95%CI). Subjects with worsening self-reported health status potentially attributable to perceived discrimination was estimated (population attributable proportion, PAP %). Results: 73.3% of men and 69.3% of women immigrants reported discrimination due to immigrant status. Moroccans showed the highest prevalence of perceived discrimination. Immigrants reporting discrimination were at significantly higher risk of reporting health problems than those not reporting discrimination. Workplace-related discrimination was associated with poor mental health (aOR 2.97 95%CI 2.45-3.60), and the worsening of self-rated health (aOR 2.20 95%CI 1.73- 2.80). 40% (95% CI 24-53) PAP of those reporting worse self-rated health could be attributable to discrimination due to immigrant status. Conclusions: Discrimination may constitute a risk factor for health in immigrant workers in Spain and could explain some health inequalities among immigrant populations in Spanish society.This work was supported by the following sources: Carolina Foundation (Spain), Healthcare Research Fund of the Spanish Ministry of Health and Consumption (references PI050497, PI052202, PI052334, PI061701, and PI0790470

Association between insulin resistance and c-reactive protein among Peruvian adults

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Objective</p> <p>Insulin resistance (IR), a reduced physiological response of peripheral tissues to the action of insulin, is one of the major causes of type 2 diabetes. We sought to evaluate the relationship between serum C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker of systemic inflammation, and prevalence of IR among Peruvian adults.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This population based study of 1,525 individuals (569 men and 956 women; mean age 39 years old) was conducted among residents in Lima and Callao, Peru. Fasting plasma glucose, insulin, and CRP concentrations were measured using standard approaches. Insulin resistance was assessed using the homeostasis model (HOMA-IR). Categories of CRP were defined by the following tertiles: <0.81 mg/l, 0.81-2.53 mg/l, and >2.53 mg/l. Logistic regression procedures were employed to estimate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Elevated CRP were significantly associated with increased mean fasting insulin and mean HOMA-IR concentrations (p < 0.001). Women with CRP concentration >2.53 mg/l (upper tertile) had a 2.18-fold increased risk of IR (OR = 2.18 95% CI 1.51-3.16) as compared with those in the lowest tertile (<0.81 mg/l). Among men, those in the upper tertile had a 2.54-fold increased risk of IR (OR = 2.54 95% CI 1.54-4.20) as compared with those in the lowest tertile.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our observations among Peruvians suggest that chronic systemic inflammation, as evidenced by elevated CRP, may be of etiologic importance in insulin resistance and diabetes.</p