La comunicación de la ciencia en América Latina: esfuerzos de evaluación en la diversidad

Este libro presenta una compilación de 11 artículos que se inscriben en diferentes líneas temáticas dentro de la Comunicación de la ciencia, pero que tienen como hilo común la presentación de resultados de evaluación, en diferentes enfoques y niveles, y que son una breve muestra del quehacer en el campo.UCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias Sociales::Centro de Investigación en Comunicación (CICOM

Impacts of the Tropical Pacific/Indian Oceans on the Seasonal Cycle of the West African Monsoon

The current consensus is that drought has developed in the Sahel during the second half of the twentieth century as a result of remote effects of oceanic anomalies amplified by local land–atmosphere interactions. This paper focuses on the impacts of oceanic anomalies upon West African climate and specifically aims to identify those from SST anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Oceans during spring and summer seasons, when they were significant. Idealized sensitivity experiments are performed with four atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs). The prescribed SST patterns used in the AGCMs are based on the leading mode of covariability between SST anomalies over the Pacific/Indian Oceans and summer rainfall over West Africa. The results show that such oceanic anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Ocean lead to a northward shift of an anomalous dry belt from the Gulf of Guinea to the Sahel as the season advances. In the Sahel, the magnitude of rainfall anomalies is comparable to that obtained by other authors using SST anomalies confined to the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean. The mechanism connecting the Pacific/Indian SST anomalies with West African rainfall has a strong seasonal cycle. In spring (May and June), anomalous subsidence develops over both the Maritime Continent and the equatorial Atlantic in response to the enhanced equatorial heating. Precipitation increases over continental West Africa in association with stronger zonal convergence of moisture. In addition, precipitation decreases over the Gulf of Guinea. During the monsoon peak (July and August), the SST anomalies move westward over the equatorial Pacific and the two regions where subsidence occurred earlier in the seasons merge over West Africa. The monsoon weakens and rainfall decreases over the Sahel, especially in August.Peer reviewe

Canagliflozin and renal outcomes in type 2 diabetes and nephropathy

BACKGROUND Type 2 diabetes mellitus is the leading cause of kidney failure worldwide, but few effective long-term treatments are available. In cardiovascular trials of inhibitors of sodium–glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2), exploratory results have suggested that such drugs may improve renal outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes. METHODS In this double-blind, randomized trial, we assigned patients with type 2 diabetes and albuminuric chronic kidney disease to receive canagliflozin, an oral SGLT2 inhibitor, at a dose of 100 mg daily or placebo. All the patients had an estimated glomerular filtration rate (GFR) of 30 to <90 ml per minute per 1.73 m2 of body-surface area and albuminuria (ratio of albumin [mg] to creatinine [g], >300 to 5000) and were treated with renin–angiotensin system blockade. The primary outcome was a composite of end-stage kidney disease (dialysis, transplantation, or a sustained estimated GFR of <15 ml per minute per 1.73 m2), a doubling of the serum creatinine level, or death from renal or cardiovascular causes. Prespecified secondary outcomes were tested hierarchically. RESULTS The trial was stopped early after a planned interim analysis on the recommendation of the data and safety monitoring committee. At that time, 4401 patients had undergone randomization, with a median follow-up of 2.62 years. The relative risk of the primary outcome was 30% lower in the canagliflozin group than in the placebo group, with event rates of 43.2 and 61.2 per 1000 patient-years, respectively (hazard ratio, 0.70; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.59 to 0.82; P=0.00001). The relative risk of the renal-specific composite of end-stage kidney disease, a doubling of the creatinine level, or death from renal causes was lower by 34% (hazard ratio, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.53 to 0.81; P<0.001), and the relative risk of end-stage kidney disease was lower by 32% (hazard ratio, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.54 to 0.86; P=0.002). The canagliflozin group also had a lower risk of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke (hazard ratio, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.67 to 0.95; P=0.01) and hospitalization for heart failure (hazard ratio, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.47 to 0.80; P<0.001). There were no significant differences in rates of amputation or fracture. CONCLUSIONS In patients with type 2 diabetes and kidney disease, the risk of kidney failure and cardiovascular events was lower in the canagliflozin group than in the placebo group at a median follow-up of 2.62 years

Outcomes from elective colorectal cancer surgery during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

This study aimed to describe the change in surgical practice and the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on mortality after surgical resection of colorectal cancer during the initial phases of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

Evaluation of appendicitis risk prediction models in adults with suspected appendicitis

Background Appendicitis is the most common general surgical emergency worldwide, but its diagnosis remains challenging. The aim of this study was to determine whether existing risk prediction models can reliably identify patients presenting to hospital in the UK with acute right iliac fossa (RIF) pain who are at low risk of appendicitis. Methods A systematic search was completed to identify all existing appendicitis risk prediction models. Models were validated using UK data from an international prospective cohort study that captured consecutive patients aged 16–45 years presenting to hospital with acute RIF in March to June 2017. The main outcome was best achievable model specificity (proportion of patients who did not have appendicitis correctly classified as low risk) whilst maintaining a failure rate below 5 per cent (proportion of patients identified as low risk who actually had appendicitis). Results Some 5345 patients across 154 UK hospitals were identified, of which two‐thirds (3613 of 5345, 67·6 per cent) were women. Women were more than twice as likely to undergo surgery with removal of a histologically normal appendix (272 of 964, 28·2 per cent) than men (120 of 993, 12·1 per cent) (relative risk 2·33, 95 per cent c.i. 1·92 to 2·84; P < 0·001). Of 15 validated risk prediction models, the Adult Appendicitis Score performed best (cut‐off score 8 or less, specificity 63·1 per cent, failure rate 3·7 per cent). The Appendicitis Inflammatory Response Score performed best for men (cut‐off score 2 or less, specificity 24·7 per cent, failure rate 2·4 per cent). Conclusion Women in the UK had a disproportionate risk of admission without surgical intervention and had high rates of normal appendicectomy. Risk prediction models to support shared decision‐making by identifying adults in the UK at low risk of appendicitis were identified

A new substrate for the detection of antimitochondrial antibodies in human serum Un nuevo sustrato para la deteccion de anticuerpos antimitocondriales en suero humano.

This work describes a new method to detect antimitochondrial antibodies using indirect immunofluorescence on mouse sperm as substrate. As controls conventional substrates and mitochondrial protein immunoblots were used. An intense fluorescent reaction was visualized in the mitochondrial sheet of mouse sperms allowing a straightforward diagnosis of positive sera. Sera coming from 10 patients with progressive systemic sclerosis, 12 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and 17 patients with primary biliary cirrhosis were tested with this method, confirming results obtained with conventional tests that use indirect immunofluorescence and rat frozen kidney slices as substrate. The new method is simpler, more accurate and has a lower margin of error

Life Satisfaction among Indigenous People from Chile: Evaluation of Measurement Invariance

Abstract Although the Life Satisfaction Scale (SWLS) has been used to establish comparisons among nations/cultures, the measurement invariance of this scale has not always been demonstrated. The forced acculturative experience of indigenous minorities and its differentiation of gender roles could impact how people respond to this scale. The purpose of this study was to examine the measurement invariance of the SWLS when it is applied to a Chilean indigenous group, considering gender and their most frequent acculturative types (i.e., acculturated and bicultural). Eight hundred adults of Mapuche origin answered a Spanish version of the SWLS and the Mapuche Acculturation Scale. The results supported the SWLS strict invariance between acculturated and bicultural and also between acculturated men and women. Partial strict invariance was found between bicultural men and women; specifically, the residual variance of Item 3 was higher in women than in men. Since Spanish is a gendered language, a linguistic explanation is proposed for the non-invariance of this item. The importance of careful wording of the items, when administered in multilanguage acculturation contexts, is discussed.Resumen Aunque la Escala de Satisfacción con la Vida (SWLS) se ha usado para comparar personas de distintas naciones/culturas, no siempre su invarianza de medición ha sido demostrada. La aculturación forzada de las minorías indígenas y sus particulares roles de género podrían afectar las respuestas de esas personas a esta escala. Este estudio tuvo por objetivo examinar la invarianza de la SWLS en un grupo indígena chileno, considerando el género y los tipos aculturativos más frecuentes (i.e., aculturados y biculturales). Ochocientos adultos mapuches respondieron, en castellano, la SWLS y la Escala de Aculturación Mapuche. Se encontró apoyo para invarianza estricta entre aculturados y biculturales y, además, entre hombres y mujeres aculturados. Se encontró invarianza estricta parcial entre hombres y mujeres biculturales; específicamente, la varianza residual del ítem 3 fue mayor en mujeres que en hombres. Siendo el castellano un idioma con distinción de géneros, se propuso una explicación lingüística para la falta de invarianza de ese ítem. Se discute la importancia de redactar cuidadosamente los ítems cuando son administrados en contextos aculturativos multilingües

Materials

Included are scales, measures, and other materials utilized in the data collection process

Development and External Validity of a Short-Form Version of the INICIARE Scale to Classify Nursing Care Dependency Level in Acute Hospitals

This article belongs to the Special Issue Instruments for Measuring Health.[Background] The increasing dependence care in patients hospitalized in acute hospitals around the world entails classification systems heeding the wide range of care dependency levels generated by the many different types of dependent patients. This article is a report of a study assessing the validity and reliability of a short-from version of the instrument (Inventario del NIvel de Cuidados mediante Indicadores de Resultados de Enfermería (INICIARE)) used to classify inpatients according to their care dependency level.[Methods] The validation, carried out in a multicenter longitudinal study, included three different samples: the first sample of 1800 patients to evaluate the reliability and validity, a second of 762 patients for confirmatory factor analysis, and a third of 762 to test the short-form version. Patients over 16 years of age, admitted to medical or surgical units at 11 public hospitals, were included.[Results] The final sample included 3605 patients. Patients had a mean age of 64.5 years, 60% were admitted to medical units, with severe dependency. The validation process yielded two versions of the instrument: a 40-item version, with eight factors with 83.6% of total variance explained and Cronbach’s alpha values between 0.98 and 0.92, and a short-form with 26 items, with five factors and Cronbach’s alpha values between 0.96 and 0.90. The Confirmatory Factor Analysis yielded a good fit model to the 40-item version (Chi Square on Degrees of Freedom CMIN/DF) = 1.335; Normed Fit Index (NFI); Tucker–Lewis Index (TLI); Comparative Fit Index (CFI) > 0.90; Standardized Residual Root Mean Square (RMSEA) = 0.02; and Standardized Residual Root Mean Square (SRMR) = 0.027) and 26-item version (Chi Square on Degrees of Freedom CMIN/DF = 1.385; NFI = 0.998; CFI = 0.999; RMSEA = 0.02; and SRMR 0.02). Both INICIARE versions obtained a high correlation between them (r = 0.96; p < 0.001).[Conclusion] INICIARE has proved to be a valid and reliable instrument for the assessment of the level of care dependency of acutely hospitalized patients.This research was funded by Health Ministry of the Andalusian Regional Government, grant number (PI-0045/2016)

Material Translations

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